Sacrifices Have To Be Made

“Okay… this is straight up a cult,” Kaito stated, seemingly oriented upright, but he, in fact, was tied and hanging upside down alongside everyone else in the party.

A cloaked figure from the cult that captured Kaito’s party lit a fire underneath the hanging group to discourage them from escaping. Rina squirmed to face the cloaked figure who lit the fire.

“What do you want from us!?” Rina asked, but she quickly followed with a demand. “Just let us go already!”

The cloaked figure looked at Rina briefly before walking away from them, leaving them alone in the area. Rina was very annoyed.

“We really seem to have the knack for getting captured, huh?” Khrom joked as the tied group slowly rotated from Rina’s previous squirming.

“I swear, the blood rushing to my head is going to kill me before these flames do,” Kaito complained.

“MRPHMMR!!” Evona said something, but her voice was muffled. Unlike the rest of the party, her face was, for some reason, completely tied up.

“Are they gone yet?” Rina asked.

“I think so?” Khrom answered. “Why do you ask?”

Instead of answering, Rina used her Cutting Edge skill to release the group from their bindings. Showing great control, she didn’t harm anyone in the bindings and extinguished the flames that had yet to grow into a great blaze.

Everyone fell to the ground and briefly took the time to recover from their various aches.

“Everyone, check your inventories and any weird effects,” Rina ordered, having recovered the quickest. “Who knows what abilities they have, or what they’ve done to us while we were unconscious.”

Everyone checked themselves and examined their inventory, except Evona, for some reason. She seemed contemptuous about nothing being wrong, so Rina didn’t question it.

“Wait a second? They’re gone!” Kaito shouted.

“What’s gone!?” Rina, alarmed, asked for clarification.

“The two relics! I think they took them!” Kaito explained.

“So that’s their game,” Rina deduced. “Let’s go, we need to get them back ASAP!”

The group ran through the abandoned hideout in search of their stolen relics. From what the group knew, the other two relics were already occupied by the Dragon Generals. If this cult gave them the relics, the Dragon Generals could get their wish.

As the group ran through the hideout’s halls, they passed by one of their cult members. The cult member, alarmed, tried to signal their escape to the rest of the cult. Before the cult member could do so, Evona jumped the figure, revealing it was a regular human underneath the cloak.

With the man pinned down by Evona, the group questioned him.

“Where are the relics?” Rina demanded.

“And what do you want with them?” Kaito added.

After a bit of flailing, the man knew he couldn’t escape.

“All for the Demon Lord!” the man began to chant. “The demon Lord’s reign is nigh! We of the Demon Cult will serve under him for all eternity!”

“Damn it!” Rina yelled in frustration. “They’re with the Dragon Generals.”

Suddenly, a bunch of cloaked figures, part of the Demon Cult, could all be seen running in the same direction. The pinned cult member succeeded in alarming everyone. While everyone was shocked, the pinned man got free and ran to join them.

“They’re planning to do something! We need to stop them!” Rina announced.

The group began following the cult members through the halls, but occasionally, cult members would stall their advancement by attacking them with magic.

“All for the Demon Lord!” they’d chant as they attacked.

Kaito’s party needed to move fast, and these mages were not helping.

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In the room where all the cult members were gathering, the Demon Cult surrounded a magic circle. In the center of the magic circle stood an altar where all four relics resided.

The cult was going to activate them.

As they chanted around the magic circle’s perimeter, it started glowing. The louder their chants, the brighter it glowed. When the magic circle absorbed enough energy, some cult members entered it. The cult members were willing to sacrifice themselves to revive the Demon Lord then and there.

One step was all it took for the approaching cult members to burst into mystical purple flames, dying on the spot. Dead bodies started dropping to the ground, scattering blood all over the place. The blood from the bodies started collecting towards the relics on the altar.

The cult’s numbers thinned, but enough blood had been compiled. A ball of blood hovered above the altar and slowly descended onto the four relics as the alive cult members continued their chants.

After mere seconds of the relics being encapsulated in the ball of blood, it dispersed in a wet explosion. As it rained blood, the Demon Cult stared in awe.

The completed relic had been assembled. A wish was to be made.

A Demon Cult member, who was in a cloak, slightly more fancy than the others, slowly approached the compiled relic. Standing before the relic, he caressed his hands around it, yet to actually pick up the compiled relic.

“Yes…” he started his soliloquy in his old, raspy-sounding voice. “This relic shall be the heart that revives our King!”

“ALL FOR THE DEMON LORD!” the rest of the Demon Cult members chanted.

“Great Relic of Taelesta,” the cult member in the fancy cloak chanted, causing the relic to rise. “You graciously give those who are worthy a wish; a wish to change the world! Our father, our KING, has perished by the hands of human blood, but now through our blood, I wish… WE WISH FOR—”

The compiled relic suddenly jerked upward unnaturally, causing it to stop glowing.

“YOU GUYS ARE ALL FREAKS!!!” Kaito ridiculed the Demon Cult as he materialized out of nowhere from his Phase skill.

Standing upon the altar, Kaito kicked the fancy-cloaked man backwards to the rest of the Demon Cult. While the kicked man slowly stood up, the rest of Evona, Rina, and Khrom barged through the few alive cult members to join Kaito.

“We’re claiming this back, thank you very much,” Kaito announced atop the altar.

“You will be taking nothing,” the fancy-cloaked man, now standing up, rebutted Kaito.

As he announced his displeasure with Kaito’s party, more, much more cult members started appearing in the courtyard. From the lower entrances the party entered from, to the upper level the party fell through. The Demon Cult was not going to let them escape.

“Kaito…” Rina quietly got Kaito’s attention. “Activate the relic and make a wish. Escape looks grim right now, so if we can at least drain the relic’s power, they can’t revive the Demon Lord.”

“But—”

“DO IT, KAITO! We've got your back!” Rina ordered Kaito, interrupting his wishes to do something else.

Kaito felt the pressure, but he did as Rina ordered. He closed his eyes and held out his arms as he started to make a wish. He didn’t know if he was doing it right, but as the relic started glowing, he knew he was doing something right.

The Demon Cult was alarmed. Their mages started launching spells. Even those without powers ran towards the altar in a mob to stop Kaito.

Khrom, Rina, and Evona did everything they could to stop the mob: Khrom used his defensive skills, Evona targeted the mages with her agility, and Rina repelled anyone else who got close. They just needed to stall for Kaito.

The relic grew brighter and brighter, rising into the air, until it reached its peak. Enough time had been stalled.

“I wish…” Kaito muttered, not entirely speaking what he wished out loud.

After Kaito made his wish, the relic exploded. Everyone but Kaito felt the recoil. The deed was done, or at least everyone looked towards Kaito to confirm this fact.

“Did you make the wish, Kaito!?” Rina asked, hoping for the silver lining of the situation.

“I-I think so… WHOA!” Kaito answered, but was immediately caught off guard by the girl he held in his arms. “It actually worked!”

Kaito was in a happy disbelief, staring at the girl in his arms.

“WHAT DID YOU JUST WISH FOR!?” Rina shouted in an egregious rage.