CHAPTER 73: SECRET CULT

Aaron arrived at the forested cliffs before noon. The last scout transmission had come from this region four days ago

It was a short, panicked message fragmented by interference.

Two other operatives had been dispatched to follow up. Both failed to report back.

The final briefing listed weak mana fluctuations, rising predator activity, and something labeled only as "chanting, inconsistent, low-frequency," and it wasn’t enough for a large-scale deployment; it was enough for him.

A trail was barely visible with only faint scorch marks on the stone. There were boot indentations but they were distorted by returning moss.

It led toward a shrine built into the cliff face. Its age was unclear, but the weathering on the pillars suggested centuries. Roots curled through the cracks like veins.

At the center of the shrine lay a circular altar, sunken slightly into the ground.

Etched into the stone was a strange sigil: a serpent with three eyes, its eyes vertical and sharp, coiled around an orb surrounded by lines of runes he didn’t recognize. He crouched and pressed his hand to it.

His mana touched the carving and pulled back immediately.

It rejected his mana immediately.

The stone shifted beneath him. Dust escaped from ancient seams as the central slab groaned open, revealing a spiral staircase descending into darkness.

Aaron straightened, adjusted his windbreaker, and stepped down without hesitation.

________

Heat met him halfway down. The stairs led into a passage shaped unnaturally smooth, as though something or someone had bored through the rock with precision.

The deeper he went, the more muted his senses became. The usual ambient mana that clung to the world felt like it had been siphoned out. Even the air was too thick and humid.

The corridor ended in a wide antechamber. It was circular, lined with obsidian tiles and lit by a ring of torches that burned without smoke.

’Mana torches?’ Aaron pondered.

Their flames flickered in perfect unison. The only sound was a slow, rhythmic heartbeat echoing from the room’s center.

Twelve cloaked figures stood around a tall spire carved from the same black stone, its surface etched with the same serpent-eye symbol. They held their arms out, palms toward the spire, whispering in a cadence that pressed against his skull.

He stepped into view and they reacted instantly.

Mana snapped into the air like wires pulled taut. In one breath, the chanting stopped. In the next, they cast a barrage of spells.

Arc-shaped pressure blasts, blades of condensed wind, a barrage of glowing steel bolts, every angle was accounted for in their attack.

They didn’t speak or even call out commands, instead moving like a machine built for response.

Aaron advanced as a wide flare of solar fire spiraled around him, deflecting the initial barrage.

One hand stayed raised, channeling the outer layers of his core, while the other moved to intercept physical threats. A thin rope of golden flame lanced out and severed two incoming spells mid-flight.

He reached them before they could reset.

His strikes weren’t for show. Each movement had a purpose.

They shattered ribs, collapsed joints, and burned skin where necessary. They kept coming, adapting quickly. One tried to pierce his back with a silent spear of magnetized stone, but Aaron ducked under it and redirected the shaft into another cultist’s throat.

Their formation broke.

Three moved to retreat, forming a defensive triangle around the spire but Aaron didn’t let them.

A second spell flared. He stepped forward and whispered the ignition phrase.

"Solar Grind."

A spiraling cone of focused heat tunneled through the air. The shield spell the cultists summoned disintegrated before the impact and all three dropped before they could scream.

Eleven bodies now lay scorched across the chamber. Only one figure remained between Aaron and the spire.

This one didn’t retreat. He stepped forward and removed his hood.

His features were sharp, almost delicate. Gold-tinged eyes blinked slowly as he studied Aaron, and a long scar curved just beneath his jaw. His presence was unnatural - not loud or overwhelming, but contained, as though his mana had been coiled inward over years of practice.

He didn’t attack first but waited.

"You weren’t supposed to find this place yet," the man said his voice was even.

"But I suppose it was bound to happen. The Eye is not ready to be seen."

Aaron didn’t respond.

The moment his mana spiked, the man moved.

Dozens of serpentine figures bloomed into existence. Each one was a construct formed from layered mana threads, venom-based toxins woven with illusion arrays.

The snakes didn’t strike at once; they circled and surrounded Aaron in shifting rings that bled light and blurred depth perception.

He tried to burn through them, but each construct that died released a pulse of suppressive gas, and the rest adapted, scattering into mirrored projections.

His limbs slowed down and his balance shifted.

The mage moved in with palm forward and snapped his fingers. Aaron’s senses twisted.

The chamber folded sideways, the floor stretched, and the torches flickered out of sync.

The gases and mana were affecting his senses.

He dropped to a knee and grounded himself.

With one breath, he gathered mana directly from his core and pulsed it outward through his bloodstream.

The fire wasn’t shaped or controlled. It was raw, uncontrolled pressure that forced its way through his own flesh. The pain hit immediately, but so did the clarity.

The distortion shattered.

Aaron surged forward. The serpent constructs reformed mid-air and snapped toward him. He ducked low and raised both hands.

"Promethean Wall."

A wave of dense, compressed heat exploded outward, stripping the mana from every object it touched. The constructs evaporated.

The enemy mage blinked once, stunned by the force, then rolled to the side and launched a whip of liquified energy, green and shimmering with static.

It sliced across Aaron’s arm. His flesh hissed.

It was a fast-acting poison.

Aaron grimaced, forcing heat into his bloodstream again. The toxin boiled inside his veins, and his vision blurred briefly before stabilizing.

He adjusted his stance.

The man struck again. This time with a full-body enchantment layered around his limbs.

Serpent coils of glowing mana wrapped around his torso and legs, amplifying his speed. He closed the gap quickly, striking with precise, trained movement and Aaron met him head-on.

The exchange was clean and brutal.

Fist met forearm, knee collided with rib. For every serpentine feint, Aaron countered with raw efficiency. He wasn’t graceful. He wasn’t improvising. He was just faster, stronger, and more experienced.

Aaron was hesitant to use more fire magic because of the limited oxygen underground.

The moment the enemy mage misjudged a parry, Aaron seized his arm, pulled forward, and drove his knee into the man’s chest cracking his ribs.

The man tried to cast again, but Aaron placed a hand over his heart and released a short-range ignition pulse.

The explosion lifted him off the ground and hurled him against the far wall. His body didn’t move after impact.

Aaron approached.

The mage was still conscious. Barely.

Blood pooled at the corner of his mouth, and cracks ran down the sigil embedded in his chest plate.

He didn’t look afraid. He looked satisfied.

"The Eye sees you now," he rasped. "We’ve waited long enough."

Aaron knelt and gripped the man’s collar.

"What is it watching for?" His usually calm tone had a hint of worry.

The mage coughed once, a rattle slipping through his throat.

"When the gods forget their shapes... the serpents remember."

His body began to dissolve. Not from magic, but from a chemical reaction in his blood. A failsafe. Aaron stepped back and watched him break apart.

Bone, skin, and muscle collapsed into sludge and nothing remained but a pendant.

He picked it up.

The same sigil stared back at him: a coiled serpent with three vertical eyes.

The spire that previously had a golden glow slowly lost it. Almost as though the mages that had been killed were its power source.

Later, as he left the collapsed shrine, the silence didn’t feel empty.

It felt like something had been unsealed.

He replayed the encounter in his head. The coordinated defenses, the specialized training, the last words of the dying mage. This wasn’t just a cell of rogue mages. It was a faction.

One he had never seen, never heard about. One thing that the kingdom hadn’t named or classified.

Even the leader of the base was an unregistered and unknown S-rank mage.

They hadn’t tried to run. They hadn’t even tried to win. They had revealed themselves with purpose.

He didn’t know what they wanted. Didn’t know how many more of them existed.

"Just who are they?" Aaron asked aloud.

But the moment the spire stopped glowing, the mana in the entire region had shifted as if something had blinked open underground.

He tucked the pendant away and started walking, unaware that a pair of eyes were fixated on him.

Unbeknownst to him and the Kingdom, this was merely the tip of the iceberg.