[TWS] Chapter 306 – Pest Control

After setting aside the bodies, Silvia burned them efficiently, cleaning up the control room just a little bit. Of course, they had checked all the pockets and clothes of the deceased before doing that, just in case someone they had killed turned out to be an essential person in the cult. But, save for the traitorous Elder, the rest of the group present in the chamber didn’t amount to anything crucial.

With the scene finally turning much less revolting and horrible, they took a closer look at the control room. It was just a decently spacious square chamber made of the same emerald mineral. Two out of three walls were covered with complex patterns, carvings, and arrays carved on the surface of the stone. They led down onto big, thick, angled slabs which gleamed like polished crystal. Sigils and symbols decorated their entirety.

“Well, then. If you would allow me.” Althea gave them a soft smile and stepped towards the central slab.

Everyone else followed and observed the Dragon lady curiously. She dragged her slender finger over a bunch of sigils, which lit up with bright green light and finished over a black half-sphere poking out of the slab. Taking a deep breath, she pushed some of her mana into it and the carved trenches started glowing too, completing various patterns over the wall.

“It looks like my signature is still properly recognized.” Althea hummed. “I have no idea how they figured out the way to register more of them, but they at least weren’t knowledgeable enough to remove mine.”

“What can you do with this?” Asterios asked.

“Reactivate the slabs on the sides, bring the barrier back up, and most importantly, add your signatures so that no traps or other defensive mechanisms react to any of us,” she answered.

“But they will still be triggered by everyone else?” Tina wondered out loud.

“Naturally.” The Dragon lady smirked gently. “Give me just a moment. Let’s register your signatures first just in case.”

They waited for Althea to finish whatever she was doing, even though it didn’t look like she was doing anything. She just stood there with her hand on the protrusion with her eyes closed. Then, after about a minute, she stepped aside, moved her hand to one of the glowing runes, and turned to them.

“Drip a bit of your blood onto the black sphere and push your mana into it,” she instructed.

Civienne obliged first, joined by Asterios and the girls after. With everyone done, Althea returned her palm to the black protrusion and wrapped things up. Some more sigils lit up as a faint pulse of mana rushed outwards the slab. The ones on the sides came to life too.

“The barrier is slowly returning to its proper place. Now, let us see what we can do about the traps.” The Dragon lady walked up to one of the other walls.

Just like the last time, she trailed her finger over specific sigils and activated whatever she was aiming for. It took a few more minutes for Althea to take care of both slabs, finally leaving them glowing with a delicate sigh rolling off her lips.

“I think we are done here.” She nodded at the others. “Besides activating whatever surprise there is waiting for the intruders, I got a better grasp of the temple’s layout and confirmed where the labs are. There are only a few places with the traps completely removed, and that includes the main chamber where the Tree’s stump is.”

“We should hurry, then,” Grea suggested. “Before the true chaos begins. I’m sure it won’t take long for people to panic with all kinds of deadly devices springing out of the walls at random. But, this is as good of a diversion as we can get too.”

“What about the surface?” Selene glanced at Asterios.

“I signaled Umbra shortly before Althea went to work with the barrier. They have started their own movements up there. So far so good. We can still talk, though I can feel the interference,” he replied. “Can we leave this room unguarded?”

“I removed the other signature from the registry and locked the arrays behind an additional combination so we shouldn’t have anything to worry about here,” Althea replied. “Let’s go.”

After unsealing the entrance to the room, they peeked into the corridor. Even if they didn’t see anyone in either direction, the panicked and painful screams softly echoed in the distant hallways. The traps were clearly doing their job well at clearing the house out of pests.

Without further ado, they began to run towards the nearest laboratory, with Althea guiding them. There was no need to act sneaky anymore with the cultists busy repelling the incoming attacks, running away, or just losing their composure amidst all the chaos and slaughter.

Ast’s party stumbled on many bodies on their path, defeated in a multitude of ways. Some had arrows sticking out of them; some were cut in half by giant blades; some were burned, eroded, melted, frozen, or torn apart; while some looked more or less intact, but just as much lifeless.

Naturally, finding a live cultist, they didn’t waste the opportunities presented by all the distractions sneaking out of the walls and took down all the noctis with ease, launching their own surprise attacks. The fewer enemies they had to worry about, the better. Their biggest worry was the mentioned Matriarch, and all the unknown things they weren’t yet aware about.

Soon, they reached the first laboratory, spotting someone standing in the doorway and looking around to see what the hell was going on outside of the disarmed chamber. Miria rushed ahead and took the male noctis hostage, showing up behind him and holding her blade to his throat. She shoved the man inside while the others followed, closing the door behind them.

“Nobody move!” the panthergirl yelled as the researchers all turned to the commotion.

The girls activated their binding abilities, and in just a moment, the seven people present in the lab were locked in place by golden tendrils, blue spiritual energy, manacles of water, and thick roots. Grea glared at them with her massive crossbow moving between the stationary targets.

“Do you have an antidote that cleanses all the poisons you created?” the queen demanded firmly. “Consider your answer deeply as your lives depend on it.”

Asterios was pretty surprised to hear that, assuming that Civienne would want nothing more than to eradicate the entire organization. But, maybe she was still going to. It wasn’t like she’d said that they would be spared. She would still be true to her words if she decided that even a useful answer warranted their death.

“I don’t think so…” one of the female researchers muttered shakily. “We have antitoxins for every single toxin we have used in our projects…”

Civienne clicked her tongue, turning to Asterios. “They can’t go through your portals unless they are dead, right?”

He nodded. “I can ask Umbra if he is able to transfer them.”

“Let’s leave your friend outside unless completely necessary in case he has trouble getting out,” she replied. “I want to keep them alive. If they worked on the poisons, they might be of use in figuring out the full cure.”

“A wise decision,” Althea chimed in with a gentle smile. “I’m glad to see that your rightful anger hasn’t yet consumed your mind, Little Levander.”

She then made a few delicate gestures with her hand and more thin roots emerged from the ground, coiling around the researchers. Tiny, beautiful tulips of brown color bloomed on them and puffed out bronze mist as they unfurled, causing the restrained noctis to quickly lose consciousness. With another gesture, they were moved to the corner of the lab and the roots grew in size, covering them entirely, creating a protective cocoon with the elves inside.

“We’ll come back for them later. They won’t wake up by themselves and I don’t think anyone will be interested in checking what is behind the roots while the entire complex is under attack,” Althea added, receiving nods of confirmation from everyone.

“To the other labs, then. We should capture as many of these eggheads as possible.” Grea grinned. “My baby is very eager to nail a person or two but I’ll try to keep it under wraps for a little while.”

“You’ve shot over a dozen enemies already.” Tina groaned.

“You should know me well enough already to be aware that I will never miss a chance to see a long, thick shaft impale soft, tender flesh, even if it’s not mine.”

The blue-haired girl rolled her eyes with an even louder groan and decided not to talk back any further. Asterios chuckled at them and rubbed Tina’s shoulder as they began moving around and collecting all the samples and documents they could find without wasting too much time. The girls stacked everything at their homes, using multiple portals, leaving sorting things for a later date.

With the chamber pretty much emptied, they moved out. To sate Grea’s excitement a little, they let the eager demon woman impale as many targets as she wanted during their tour to the next location.

They didn’t meet any serious resistance and barged into the second lab without an issue. It was fortified from the inside, but Aura slipped through the thin gaps and nonchalantly removed all the obstructions while the dumbfounded chemists continued to pointlessly throw things and vials at her. None of them hit, of course, as she skilfully manipulated her own consistency to avoid getting injured.

Quickly restraining the second batch of poison-brewing noctis, they stole the materials and ran in the direction of the last known laboratory, save for the main chamber where they were sure some experiments also took place. Unfortunately, this one was empty. No people remained inside. They must have wandered out and most likely were dead somewhere in the hallways. So, Ast’s team collected the leftover materials and returned to the corridor.

“Where to now?” Miria asked, brushing her cheek against Ast’s.

“The Tree’s seal,” Civienne stated. “We shouldn’t wander around for any longer. If they figure out that this isn’t just some kind of malfunction in the defense system, they might feel like their research is in danger and hurt the Tree as much as they can before getting taken down.”

“I agree.” Althea stood by her side. “I appreciate your efforts to help me, but saving the Tree comes first. Its death would affect way more people than mine. It’s the highest priority.”

The queen glanced at the Dragon lady with an even more tense and cold expression than usual, clearly thinking otherwise. But, as the nation’s queen and the protector of her race, she definitely was burdened with immense obligation and responsibility, knowing better than to speak against her teacher and mother figure regarding the very lessons she’d been taught from a young age.

“Let’s hurry.” Asterios nodded at them. “Thankfully, we haven’t spent too much energy up till now so we can head straight there without any breaks to recover.”

“Bummer…” Miria whispered under her nose, causing him to smirk softly.

He playfully twirled her tail, causing the sweet panthergirl to jump from the intimate touch, and winked at his lovely mate. She had to fight down quite a visible blush as they sprinted toward the location of the Tree, running with their fingers intertwined.

The closer they got to their destination, the more bodies they found on the floor. At the same time, the number of living cultists rose too. People were clearly moving out of the central area to either see what was going on or to flee to one of the sanctum’s exits after some traps had cut off their path to safety.

Having to dodge the blades, sprays of acid, arrows, spikes, fire, and other attacks a bit more often with the crowded corridors, Ast’s group dealt with the fleeing cultists as quickly as they could. They had already lost count of how many noctis they had downed by now.

Well, except for Grea and Tina. The two Summoner ladies seemed to track their kills very attentively. It was obvious that some kind of a bet was going on between them, definitely brought up by the cunning demon woman, somehow roping the timid human girl into agreeing. Asterios had only reminded them to be careful at all times.

Soon, they saw a massive gate, equal to the one they had seen blocking the entry to the temple. Running towards it, they watched as the heavy wings opened just enough for a few people to slip through, and quickly locked back up. The arriving noctis were shocked to see all the bodies and blood in front of the gate, and even more to see a group of strangers rushing their way. They didn’t get to do a lot before they too wound up joining their comrades.

After finishing the last cultist, Asterios and the girls stood in front of the entrance.

“How does it work?” Bryn asked the Dragon lady.

“The inner sanctum is surrounded by the same barrier as the outer one. The gate opens from the inside, but the outside access is removed,” Althea explained. “Save for those who have their signatures registered in the control room.”

She made a small cut on her finger and flicked her hand hard enough to send a drop of blood onto the gate. As the giant doors began opening outwards, everyone got ready to tackle anything that might suddenly come their way. When the gap grew wide enough to fit them, they slowly walked through, not wanting to leave the entrance fully open. As soon as they crossed to the other side, the doors started closing behind their backs.

But, barely anyone paid any attention to them. Something else stole it completely.

They stood at the edge of a massive, round chamber with a high, spherical ceiling. While the floor was still made of emerald mineral, everything else was just hardened earth, carved masterfully to depict flowing roots that reach the very top. Between all the decorative patterns, plenty of magical arrays and sigils were woven into the room’s structure.

Yet, the most eye-catching part of the chamber was the humongous tree stump poking out of the floor, looking like the ring of emerald stone was choking it to death, holding it in place. Its close vicinity was lit with a greenish-white aura illuminating the entire place. As for the stump itself, it stuck out much higher than they had expected, reaching the height of a three or four-story building.

This would have been an enchanting sight if not for the plethora of weird contraptions and devices made of iron, wood, glass, and some kind of elastic material. The stump was surrounded by moving towers wielding see-through containers with those flexible tubes coming out of them. Each also had a long, pointy tip just like an oversized syringe. People wandered all over the rafters surrounding those contraptions, observing the liquids of various colors stored in the glass tanks.

Quite a few of the syringes were stuck in the bark of the Tree of Life, pumping different solutions into its system as the researchers examined any signs of a reaction from the subject. This was definitely the place where they tested their sub-poisons on the Tree itself to figure out the best combination to kill it. And Ast’s two temporary companions were perfectly aware of it, showing their displeasure and anger clearly on their faces. It was a miracle Civienne hadn’t rushed forward to throw herself at the cultists.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, before that could happen, their arrival was noticed by the enemy. Contrary to their previous interactions with the noctis who fought for their lives amongst the deadly traps, the noctis inside the chamber immediately raised an alarm and began focusing their efforts on dealing with the unidentified and most likely uninvited guests. A rain of spells and attacks descended on Ast’s party and Bryn joined hands with Selene to hastily cover them with a few barriers.

“We need a plan! Quick!” Tina shouted at Asterios.

“Kill them all and destroy their contraptions!” Civienne practically growled.

“Pretty much that but a bit more organized.” He agreed with a wry chuckle. “Miria, use your speed to go after the mages. Focus on removing as many people from the battle as you can. I’ll support you as much as possible.”

The panthergirl nodded resolutely, bounced towards him to peck his cheek, and dashed out of the barrier with a loud thump of air as she’d already finished bringing forth all of her bloodline powers.

“Tina and Selene, you try destroying as many towers as you can, but be careful with the stored poisons. Dump it somewhere to the side or something. I’m sure you can figure it out somehow.” He turned to the mentioned duo and they got to work instantly too, with the fox lady covering her human sister-mate’s advance.

Asterios was pretty sure they wielded enough power to easily topple the contraptions and he moved his gaze to Bryn and Grea.

“Grea, just go crazy on other enemies with your crossbow. Bryn, protect her and keep your eyes peeled for any injuries on our side if you can. You two will mostly support the other teams whenever and wherever needed. Got it?” he asked with a raised brow.

“I can’t get enough of you taking the reins.” The mischievous demon woman nibbled on her bottom lip. “I shall impale our enemies in your name!”

With that vigorous cry, Grea joined the fray too. Bryn flashed him a warm smile and dove after her. Since both shields were gone, Asterios activated one of the tokens in his new Spellslinger that created a much smaller bubble of protection, which still served its purpose.

“Now, do the two of you have any suggestions for your own roles?” he asked Civienne and Althea. “Considering your abilities, Cini, I would say joining the efforts to reduce enemy numbers fits you best, but I’ll understand if you want to deal with the towers. As for Althea, I don’t know that much about you yet, but I assume that as an ancient Lesser Dragon, you are equipped better than well to cause havoc and destruction amongst the structures.”

“Let’s go with your plan.” The Dragon lady nodded softly while placing a hand on the queen’s shoulder. “Your assessment is quite accurate.”

If Civienne had any objections, she didn’t raise them, moving out of the bubble alongside her friend and teacher. Silvia, the last person remaining by Ast’s side, glanced at him with slight confusion.

“What about me?” She stepped closer to his side.

“You are with me. We need to be careful. Causing a huge fire in this enclosed chamber with the Tree in the middle might not be the best idea. Especially since lots of these toxins could be easily flammable too. We’ll just have to work together with much more care than the others,” he explained with an apologetic smile.

She chuckled gently. “Alright. I’ll do my best to protect you while you focus on supporting others. I can see why you wouldn’t want to immediately go full Dragon in here. Your Fire breath would be out of the game and smashing into the towers with your big body could get you splashed with the poisons. Even someone as old and powerful as Althea has trouble with them.”

“Thanks.” He leaned in to steal a quick peck from the princess. “May I have this dance, Your Highness?”

“With pleasure.” She curtsied nobly and took his hand.

Asterios deactivated the barrier and they rushed to the side as explosions echoed all around them.

The days of the cult were already numbered. Possibly even hours.