I was busy with putting items that were stored in the cage room into Item Bags, that the cultists had so courteously left in the very same room.

"You were knocked out from behind when you were wandering around the noble quarters in the middle of the night? That's too..." - Garami

"I know, so please, spare me the sermons..." - Carion

And the one helping me is the elf from before, Carion Verde. To be precise, he's a forest elf, one of the elf species, and the closest to the typical elves from the stories on Earth.

Their trademarks are their blonde hairs, green-colored eyes, and their racial skill, [Natures Blessings]. This bad boy allows the forest elves to get bonus EXP in skills related to the Earth-, Water-, and Life attributes, meaning all the components for the Nature attribute. FYI, the only other species with this skill are the dryads, which can be considered Life attribute sprites. I've read about them in the Kigal-Note.

Carion doesn't look like the elves in the movies and books, with his messy, dirty-blonde hair, and his deep emerald green eyes. For equipment, he wears a dark green robe, that looks more like a lab coat with a hood, over a desert sand-colored shirt, and brown pants. Then there are the large, round glasses he's wearing, making him look more of someone cosplaying a magician elf, than the real deal.

"Even so, do you have any plan to save those hostages you were talking about?" - Carion

"Nope." - Garami

"So easily-?!" - Carion

"Not telling you not to talk, but don't stop your hands." - Garami

"Ugh, fine. But I'm feeling like some burglar." - Carion

He's got a point there. I did kill one of the residences in this temple and are now swooping all the stuff in his room. Eh, who cares? They're criminals anyway, so why should I show mercy?

"Anyway, we need to find out where they keep the hostages before we can make a plan, so keep on loading the goods." - Garami

"Can you refrain from calling it goods? This isn't helping my good conscience! But I'm surprised." - Carion

"Of what?" - Garami

"That some random demon with that can assassinate someone that easily would care about the wellbeing of some strangers to them." - Carion

Neither demons nor assassins have honorable reputations, I guess.

"If this cult needs them for some ritual, then it's gonna be bad news for anyone. I'm just removing the weed before it sprouts." - Garami

"I-I see. Coldblooded as an Ice Dragon, huh..." - Carion

"If you understand, then pick up the pace with the goods. We don't know when someone can come to check up on the jailer." - Garami

"And can't you understand that my conscience is at the breaking point here?!" - Carion

---

Sometime later, we had stored all the good-, stolen items into Item Bags, which again was placed in my storage. I even put some of my stuff into bags. Stuff that I won't be needing in a hurry, like the remaining monster corpses.

"Okay, that's done. Let's get out of here." - Garami

"Wait, we're just walking out? Don't you have a better plan than that? Do you even know where we shall?" - Carion

Hmm, I could transform into the jailer and ask some guards about where the control room is. Even better, I could take Carion with me, and tell them that I (the jailer) got the orders of putting him with the other hostages, and needed directions towards the jail. 

Nah, probably won't work. Sure, their memories have more holes than swiss cheese, so I could simply say that I forgot where the places were if the jailer should know about that, but there's one problem: I don't know how the jailer's voice sounds like. And there's the possibility that the cult members are using some codeword to find fakes.

Then there's the massive bloodstain on the jailer's clothes. I can't explain those without looking suspicious. Whoops.

"I have nothing on that. But I have the [Stealth] and [Silence] skills, so we should-" - Garami

"Even with hiding skills, if we don't know where we shall be going, we're bound to be found at one point. Also, these guys are supposed to be the Aptergangar cult, right?" - Carion

"Yeah..." - Garami

"Then there's a good chance for them having undeads amongst their ranks. The Aptergangar cult is a cult that revolves around the idea of a life without fearing death, so them not having undeads, is as strange as demons having positive karma." - Carion

He must mean there's a high chance for it, but not impossible, I think. Undeads, always in the way, grr...

"Hey, since you said you detected that trap over there, did you see any Magic Sensors in the corridors?" said Carion, while pointing on the anvil trap over the entrance.

"Magic Sensor? What's that" - Garami

"So, you didn't. They're large magi-tech contraptions that sense the use of magic spells and releases a loud siren when they do so. No one is even close to minimizing them yet, and they look so funny that you would be blind or stupid not to take notice of them." - Carion

"I see, but what's so important about those?" - Garami

I mean, the only reason for using magic at this point, is if we get caught, and need to fight our way out.

"It easier to show than to explain. Do you have some paper?" - Carion

I gave him sone of the paper sheets that were in the jailer's desk. Carion laid the sheet on the floor and laid some dirt on top of it.

"Ground Search." - Carion

A small, yellow-green ripple of light appeared from his hands that were held against the floor, before disappearing after a short while. Nothing was happening for a little while, but just as I was gonna ask him what he was doing, the dirt on the paper started to move, creating what looked like a map.

"Hey, what the heck's that?!" - Garami

"Ground Search is an Earth Magic spell, that allows one to search for an object underground. I'm somewhat of an expert with this spell, as I've used it many times to locate veins of good soil to create statues of, but this time, I used it to locate the connection between those alarm traps you mentioned outside, and their control unit that's inside the temple. It's written right here, so now we know where at least one of our objectives are." - Carion

Okay, that was plainly impressive. He didn't use another spell to make the map, he simply altered the already running 'Ground Search' to do it for him. He may not look like it, but maybe he's actually talented? In Earth Magic, if anything.

---

"Why must we make these rounds all the time? Doesn't the high priest know that nobody can't come here?" - Cult member #5

"Be quiet. If he hears you say that, he's gonna make you the next sacrifice." - Cult member #6

After the two loudmouthed cult members had passed, I and Carion came out of the shadow of the pillar.

"Now I've never... They didn't notice us at all." - Carion

"Don't rely too much on that. My skills may reduce our presence and noise, but they can't negate them." - Garami

Carion nodded as to prove he understood my piece of advice, and we continued. Thanks to Carion locating the connection of the alarms, we could use that to navigate ourselves through the temple. The only difficult part was when the connection ran up to the second floor, so we used a little time to locate the stairs, but nothing too difficult. Until we finally reached the room with the control unit.

"It's locked." - Garami

"It sure is." - Carion

I was lucky before with the cage room's door, but they had a trap ready there to compensate. I tried to look through the keyhole and saw three, four guards in the room, maybe even more. Too many to take on after breaking the door and assaulting them, at least without tripping an alarm of any kind.

"Don't you have some spells that can collapse the room there?" - Garami

"I do have Earth Fang-" - Carion

Oh, sounds strong.

"But it would crush the control unit we're looking for, and all potential clues to where the hostages are hidden." - Carion

Ugh, sounds bad. Just as we were thinking over our options, we heard a new patrol coming around the corner. And then...,

"H-HEEAAARRGHHH!!" - ???

Surprised by the scream, we moved away from the control room door, and hid behind a pillar, that had just the right position to allow us to look around the corner, and..., wha-..., why is that here?!

---

Carion's side

Just when the two of us were struggling with how we should open the locked door to the control unit for the alarms, we heard a spine-shivering scream from the next corridor, just around the corner. 

In fear of the guards in the room were going to storm out of the room to see what the scream was for, we hid behind one of the many pillars in the corridor. Thanks to Garami's hiding skills, and the size of the pillars here in this temple, there was low odds that we would be discovered. The pillar gave us the perfect hiding place, while also allowing us to see what was happening in the other corridor.

I couldn't call the being I saw there anything else than... rotten. It was some sort of undead, over 2 and a half meter high, with a tar-black body and an ashen human skull, that had small horns like those on a lamb. The undead's body was rotten to the point of being fluid, but it still kept its form without falling apart.

The undead hybrid between a Skeleton and a zombie had attacked the patrolling guards, biting off one of their arms, no, it ate it off? Despite not being able to swallow the arm, or even keeping it in its mouth, the hybrid undead kept on chewing the remains that it could, creating a messy, and terrifying sight.

The guard that was unharmed looked like it tried to calm down the undead, while his partner was rolling around on the floor in pain of losing his arm. Then, the door to the control room opened up, and six guards ran out, only to find the attacked guards and the undead. 

Four of them tried to persuade the undead like the non-attacked guard, while the remaining two tried to help the one-armed one on the floor. 

While I couldn't comprehend why the guards tried to stop the undead with words, Garami pulled my hand towards the now, opened control room. Good idea. Even if there are some guards left there, we could take them out while the ones outside are getting taken out by the undead. 

That is what I believed was her idea, but a look on her face showed me that she was terrified for her life. I understand that the undead is grotesque to a fault, but Garami is someone who could easily cut the throat of someone, or hide out of view from criminals just with the cover of a single pillar, without lifting an eyelid. Why does she react that much towards this undead?

Before I noticed, Garami had suddenly entered into the room with a speed that left an afterimage behind. Hey, I know that we're outside the guards' point of view from here, but don't leave me behind like that!

Inside the room, I could see many desks and shelves filled with documents and papers. This must be what Garami was looking for. Speaking of the albino demon, I saw her dragging one of the two guards that had remained in the room, now with their throats cut open. She used that acceleration ability to take them out when they had their guards down. 

"Hide them", she said, pointing towards the freshly-made corpses. I dragged them underneath some desks in the room, while Garami took up position behind the door. Catching her drift, I hid behind a large crate, while making sure I could aim at the entrance with my Stone Bullet spell. 

After some time, we heard the guards coming back to the room.

"Why do we even have to keep those strange undeads here again?" - Guard #1

"They are the kin of our god, so no complains." - Guard #2

Ugh, what kind of god has those things as a family. Wait a sec, gods don't have kin at all! Garami did say that all the cult members were afflicted with Mental Pollution, so is that related to it?

"Just be glad it went the other way. Damn, now some of us probably need to take over for those guys that went to the infirmary." - Guard #3

"Hey, Grawn. Jean. Where are you?" - Guard #2

Just as the last guard entered the room, the door was closed behind them on its own. Before they could even ask what was happening, Garami had dashed out of her hiding place and used her dagger-sized katana to cut the throat of one of the guards, while using a magic that looked like an arrow of light to impale the throat of another one.

"What the-!" - Guard #3

Before they could say anything else, I made my move.

"Stone Bullet!" - Carim

The spell transmuted my mana into a fist-sized rock and propelled it towards one of the guards. The rock hit him right in the face, killing him in that one blow.

The guards, now surprised over the unexpected attack from my side, switched their attention from Garami to me, only to lose another one of their members when Garami stabbed one of them in their chest. Wasn't that the Dagger Art, Backstab? I saw a Theif using it once, and it's a stabbing attack that strikes the opponent, for then quickly withdrawing the dagger. 

The two remaining guards where unsure which one they should be focusing on now, me or Garami, and before they could decide, Garami took what appears to be two swords from her [Demonic Vault], and... what?! The swords floated in the air by itself and attacked the remaining guards!

Despite the surprise, the guards managed to block the attacks of the swords, but only to be kicked in the face by Garami, for then being impaled by the two flying swords.

"You sonnova-!" - Guard #6

That was all he could say before Garami jumped above him in a backflip, and land right behind him. The guard tried to turn around, but his neck was slashed by something that looks like a wire, that Garami was holding in both her hands. The jump from before must have been so that she could wrap the wire around the guard's neck. The guard tried to remove the wire, but it was too thin and too close for him to remove it.

And done. I was barely needed, but we succeeded in taking over the control room. While I was cheering inside myself, Garami ran over to the door and checked if anyone outside had noticed the brawl that had taken place here.

After a little while, Garami removed her ear from the door, and slowly looked outside. Only after that, she closed the door and breathed out in relief. Was she looking for reinforcements? Maybe she's worried about that undead from before, but personally, I think that she is the scariest being in the temple right now.

"Is there something wrong? You looked freaked out by that undead from before." - Carion

I couldn't help myself from asking, which made Garami's flinch in surprise. While looking a little pale, paler than normal, she looked like she was troubled whenever to answer me or not. Whether she trusted me or was simply exhausted by the appearance of the undead, she answered my question.

"... I was told about a prophecy where I was killed by something like that." - Garami

......That's enough to freak out alright.