The Cult Pt. 6

The rupture in spacetime dumped us straight into the school. The butler and Linsley were the last ones to step through before it sealed shut. A tomb-like silence spread over the entire training field.

Zero and Rush exchanged glances — they realized where they were. It had been a few days since any of us had shown up here.

“I—I should have taken us to my house. For some reason this place just popped into my head,” Rush stammered.

“It’s fine. You already saved us a lot of trouble,” Tadashi replied.

They both took a deep breath. At first it looked like they were about to huff in annoyance, but actually they were loading their lungs for a single, massive shout.

“Did you know he was an angel?” Tadashi screamed.

“Did you pull the sword?” Rush shouted back, still in disbelief.

“Hey, quiet now!” Master Zyg said, folding his arms. “This is a delicate moment. Lucky for us none of the enemies know the portal spell, but it’s an easily traceable spell. We need information, a plan, and pronto!”

Master Zyg briefly removed his pipe from his mouth — not to puff smoke, but to exhale knowledge and wisdom.

“It’s a disgrace to admit, but he’s right,” my aunt said. “You two know the most about the enemey. Tell everything — leave no detail out. I bet half an hour and they’ll be here.”

Rush and I looked at each other; she was right.

Tadashi stepped forward and decided to speak first.

“The Oracle is an angel. It was created by death’s sis…The legend says the Goddess of Life made angels to be her minions. An angel doesn’t really have anatomy, organs, or even a proper soul; angels are walking clusters of energy. They depend on other people’s mana, but overall they’re like weird immortal marshmallows. Nothing can extinguish them unless their energy source stops.”

Seeing that I’d opened up, Rush added what she knew.

“I don’t know about angel talk… but if it’s true, he siphons energy from people through contracts. He always asks for energy in exchange, but I never understood how or why he needed it. There aren’t many talented mages in the Order — I was the only one. Most are low-level magic users… but he has tons of them.”

Master Zyg sat on the ground, his hand going to his chin as he thought.

“Let me see if I’ve got this. So our enemy is a mystical, immortal being with a massive army and practically infinite energy drawn from his soldiers,” the master said, exhaling smoke. “I don’t like our odds.”

“Not to mention they have the ExE sword, a formidable weapon—” my aunt was cut off.

“You talking about this sword?” Linsley asked. “I was in the shadows, it fell beside me, and I kinda… picked it up… to sell—”

Everyone, without exception, swarmed Linsley in a group hug.

“LINLIN, YOU SAVED US ALL!” the Master shouted.

“I ALWAYS KNEW YOU HAD POTENTIAL!” my aunt cried.

“MY SWORD THAT I WORKED SO HARD TO GET… THANK YOU!” Rush yelled.

“Sorry, for a few chapters I thought you were a background character! Thank you, cousin,” Zero said.

The butler joined the hug a little later, clearly confused. To be honest… I hadn’t even noticed he was there.

“We have the sword! The power is in our hands! The Oracle only has numbers… so many numbers…” Tadashi said, brandishing the sword he’d filched.

“Hey, be careful with that, honey! It’s an ancient artifact,” Rush warned.

The group reassembled, now energized by the plan.

“So what’s the plan? If we need to end all the contracts, we just—”

“—kill all the members of the Order,” my gothic cousin said, as lightning struck in the background outside the window.

“Wait! There are a lot of good people in the Order. Many are only in it because the city has been consumed by its members. They would not follow these orders given by the Oracle if it weren't for the…fine print in the contracts.

Rush suddenly realized something and turned to Zero.

“Why am I not being controlled?” she asked.

“Well… it’s complicated. I kinda made a contract with the Oracle and—”

“NO, NO, NO! NO DRAMA, WE’RE ON THE RIGHT TRACK HERE!” the Master interrupted, steering the conversation back. “So we kill them all, right?”

“NO!” Rush begged.

“It wouldn’t be the first time two retired magical knights committed genocide on a city… just saying,” my aunt said, a dark look crossing her face. “I never liked this city anyway.”

Between Rush’s loud pleading and our master and aunt’s strange murder talk, Tadashi was staring out into the night — not at the rain or the lightning, but at something high above.

The two moons.

“I think I have an idea… it’s kind of crazy, and it depends on a bunch of steps being completed, but it will save everyone,” he said.

We told our stupid plan, and everyone ended with mixed expressions.

“I—I… YOU KNOW WHAT, I LIKE IT!” the Master declared. “I’m in!”

“Well, as long as it doesn’t depend too much on me, meaning if it fails it won’t be my fault,” Linsley said.

“Oh God… am I really going to accept this plan?” my aunt sighed.

“Does my vote count for anything here?” the butler asked, everyone nodding eagerly. “Oh heavens, thank you. I didn’t hear any of that, I’m just here for all of you!” he cried.

“I just don’t know how you’ll trap him… or who’s going to cast that spell, but as long as it's someone skilled, I know it will work out,” said Rush.

I walked over and handed her the sword.

“The person who knows the sword and the spell best is you… so I think this falls to your hands. Now, trapping him and kicking his butt? Leave that to me. I know exactly how to do it.”

Are we insane for trying this?

Yes…

Rush looked at the sword… and nodded.

“Rush and I will take care of him, the rest of you have to protect us. The Oracle is the only good magic user. We’ll lure him here with the sword; you’ll deal with as many of his soldiers as you can, taking the pressure off us.”

Everyone nods.

They accepted the mission… even the butler?

Well, there was nothing else to do: it was victory or die trying!

We started preparations with the few minutes we had left as the cultists’ army slowly approached the school.

— — —

“All the barriers are up around my perimeter. I’m ready,” Master Zyg said over our communicator. He had piled chairs and tables high, forming a barricade.

We were very lucky to find those walkie-talkies in the equipment room…

“Okay, Master Zyg. Do the others confirm they’re ready?”

“Yes,” everyone confirmed.

Linsley had filled her corridor with phantom traps. My aunt didn’t bother preparing anything — she just waited with her sleeves rolled up.

Wearing a pot on his head and another as a weapon, Sleeve had shoved chairs from classrooms into the hallway… not that they’d stop anyone.

Speaking of which… how did it come to this guy being alone in a corridor?

With everything set, we waited for the enemy.

“Rush… I—”

He put a finger to my lips, silencing me.

Tadashi accidentally stuck his tongue out.

Her finger had a little drool on it.

“Ew…”

“Sorry, I didn’t react well to that…”

“It’s fine… What I wanted to say is: don’t worry about anything. At first I was a little angry, but now I’m calm…” Her hands, clenched like she wanted to punch me, said the opposite.I could see in your eyes that you weren't hiding anything from me, just waiting a little longer to tell me...”

“And…Is that less bad?

“Yes, it is.”

She hugged us.

“Thank you for doing that for me. Pulling that sword.”

“It’s okay.”

The hug tightened.

“Although I only wanted to taint my own soul by giving those cultists the sword, now the guilt is shared between me and you. So I’m indirectly guilty of you doing it too. You dirtied my soul twice.”

“That’s one way to look at it… but how about you find, I don’t know, it’s kind of cute that I sacrificed my morals to—”

“Cute? Nothing cute about it…” she nearly choked us before suddenly letting go. “But even so, thank you very much for being my friend."

…

Her hand trembled.

“I’m going to go up against the master who taught me everything… even to read and write… and he was so kind years ago… the purest and most generous person I knew…”

Tadashi stepped closer, going off-script.

“Want to run away?”

“Huh..?”

“If we talk to the others, I’m sure they’ll understand and accept. We could all just run away and disappear into the world.”

She looked at me, sincerity blooming in her eyes.

“No… For a long time I ran. I took the easy path. He supported me... loved me... helped me... adopted me... all of these actions are in the past. But precisely because of that past I decided to stay. The cult grew like this because of me. I will save those people,” she said, the ExE sword gleaming in her hand.

Suddenly, a massive wave of people arrived in front of the school.

All the screens in the tech training yard lit up, showing the crowd outside.

“Damn, they hacked the screens inside just to show what you can already see through the window,” I said, looking at Tadashi.

“Zero… I’ve arrived…”

An army knocked on our door, and we decided to answer them.