Chapter 49 - 7 The Sixth

It had been several hours now and I was still travelling through the seemingly endless tunnel system as I made my way towards the Junkyard, with Mika's guidance of course. I was a little suspicious when I noticed that I had not yet come across any monsters, however after asking Mika about it I found out that most of them had been killed or chased off by the cult so that they didn't get in the way of their activities.

"So how much further?" I asked as I continued to walk down the tunnel that we were currently in.

'It should only take a little bit longer now before we get there' she said as she pointed to another tunnel that split off from the one we were travelling.

I had some what gotten used to the fact that I seemed to be able to sense what she was doing even though I couldn't actually see her. Unfortunately I still hadn't been able to figure out how she was able to see almost everything around me with out having any eyes.

"Great, once we get there I can finally get started with my plan, also I will be one step closer to finishing this little mission of mine" I said with a stretch.

(I have to admit I'm getting a little home sick.... I wonder what everyone is up to now a days?) I thought to myself.

(Well at least I will have one hell of a story to tell when I get back, I mean if this all ends up going the way that I think it will then I'm going to be a war veteran by the time I get back to town)

'Hey errrm, now that we are not under the threat of imminent attack do you mind if I asked something'

"Sure"

'Why are you here exactly, I mean really this place isn't really an island paradise so what made you want to look for an invisible island in the middle of a vast and dangerous sea?' Mika asked with curiosity.

"Oh, well I'm here looking for a guy called Haruko. I don't know much about him, however apparently he has answers to some very important questions that I need answering"

'Okay... will while were talking, would you mind telling me your plan now? I still have no idea why you want to go there, shore the cultist bȧrėly guard it but that's only because there is literally nothing worth protecting in that area' Mika asked as I still hadn't told her what I was planning to do once we got there.

"The reason I'm not telling you is because I have no idea if this plan is actually going to work or not, after all I'm going to need to get a whole new skill that will probably be very annoying to obtain and to make things even more difficult, I have no idea if said skill even exists in the first place"

'Please tell me, please' I could tell that Mika was doing her best attempt at puppy dog eyes but sadly for her I had built somewhat of an immunity to them, after all Milim loved to try and use the same trick on me... most of the time it worked.

"No"

'Please'

"No"

'Please'

"No"

'Please'

========Several minutes later========

"No"

'Please'

"No"

'Please'

"......"

'Come on, just tell me' Mika complained.

"Sigh, fine just stop asking already"

'Yay' Mika cheered as she pointed to the next tunnel that we had to go through.

"Okay, you see I have a skill that let's me do a couple of different things, one of which is being able to turn non living things such as plants, rocks, skeletons or even food into monsters" I explained.

'Wait really! That's incredible'

"Yeah well, there's a downside to it. You see if I transform a non living thing with out providing it with a soul first bad things tend to happen, like the fact that the monster created will abruptly go on a mindless rampage attacking anything close to it" I said remembering back to Abomination.

'Bu-"

"And before you ask, "why don't you just take the souls that are in side the puppets and use them instead?" I won't do that, not only because of the fact that several things could go terribly wrong but also I have no Idea if that would even work"

'What do you mean things could go wrong?'

"Sigh, well here are some examples. First, if I fuċk up and the soul ends up getting away and enters another puppet it could tell every cultist that I'm still alive, then we would probably be hunted down with out any time to prepare. Second, I don't know if they would still be under the cultist's mind control after I transformed them and that's if I could even transform them in the first place. And finally, I have no idea how that would effect them, I don't want to be responsible for driving an innocent person insane or something like that"

In all honesty I wouldn't mind using the souls trapped inside of the puppets if I knew just what the hell would happen to them. Although I wouldn't feel right turning some random human into a monster with out their consent, I could probably guess that they would much rather become a monster then stay a prisoner in their own souls.

'So just what exactly are you planning to do then?' She asked after a moment of silence so that she could understand want I had said.

"Well if the cultist can mind control and manipulate souls, which I'm guessing they do by using a skill of some kind. If that is indeed all correct then doesn't that mean there could be similar skills that could let you do the same?" I asked trying to get her to understand.

'Well yeah, I guess'

"Okay, if there is a skill that lets you manipulate and control souls then couldn't there also be the possibility of a skill that allows you to create them instead" I smiled as I felt her finally realized what I was getting at.

'If you had a skill like that then you wouldn't need to use the souls of others.... but does a skill like that even exist in the first place and is it even possible for you to obtain?'

"No idea but all I can do is try right? And if it ends up not working out then we will just have to try something else. In the end as long as they think that I am dead we have time to prepare and find a way to get this done" I said as I continued down the tunnels with a determined yet thoughtful expression.

=======Somewhere else pov========

"So, let me get this straight"

Currently far away from Suu's location in what look to be a large throne room that was decorated with several large black flags hanging from the ceiling, with each flag having the red symbol of the cult on them. At the end of the room was the kneeling form of a person who seemed to be missing their left arm, it of course was the Bishop that had managed to killed Suu. In front of the Bishop sitting on a gold and red throne was a person who was releasing a very ominous aura.

They are wearing a very magical looking red and black robe with some gold mixed in, also the robe seemed to be covered in glowing letters of some unknown language. They were also wearing what looked like clawed obsidian and metal gauntlets that were covered in the same glowing letters. They're face was covered by a hood and the same moving darkness that covered all of the cultist's faces.

"You not only lost one of the souls that we had captured but you also some how managed to lose your arm when trying to capture the soul of some unknown intruder, which you absolutely failed to do I might add. So tell me is there more to this or is that all you have to report" the figure asked as their cold and almost bored sounding voice that was clearly male in gender echoed out from all over the throne room.

Something of note was that unlike the other cultists the person on the throne had a somewhat normal voice even if it did sound slightly emotionless. He didn't have a robotic voice that made it hard to figure out his gender like the other cultist that seemed to serve under him.

"Yes..... that is a perfect summery of this one's terreble failure in capturing the unknown intruder lord Sixth"

"......Leave" Sixth said after a moment's pause.

The Bishop didn't say anything else as they got to their feet before turning to leave the room, however as soon as the Bishop reached the door their body seem to erupt. In an instant dark crimson spikes seem to rip out from within the Bishop's own body, this caused them to no longer look human in the slightest as they now appear to only be a mass of ripped flesh and crimson spikes. They then collapsed to the floor dead but surprisingly absolutely no blood came out of their body as if it had all vanished.

"We can't afford for any more mishaps, especially now that the summoning ritual is so close to completion" the Sixth said even though there was seemingly no one in the room to hear him.

"Send someone to clean that mess up and once you've done that go investigate that intruder they were talking about, if my suspicions are correct then they're probably still alive"

"Understood" a disturbing sounding voice came out from within the Sixth's shadow as two glowing blue eyes appeared in it.

============Suu pov===========

"I'm.....I'm... I'M SO FUCKING BORED!"

'Oh come on, stop complaining we are almost there'

"You've been saying that for the past three and a half hours, are you sure we're not lost?" I honestly thought that we had been walking around in circles this whole time.

'For the last time we are not lost, we just got turned around a little so please just be quiet for a minute'

"Fine" I said giving up.

.

.

.

.

.

.

"You know I can't believe that I'm going to say this but I think that I actually want something to show up and try and kill me for once, honestly it would be better then just walking through this seemingly endless labyrinth of tunnels for the next couple of hou-"

'We're here!' Mika said cutting me off.

"Oh for fuċk sake, you just love screwing with me don't you world" I yelled while a depressing aura surrounded me.

(A/N. Hehehehe, yes, yes I do)

"If I knew that all I had to do was complain a little I would have done it several hours ago" I let myself slump down as I ġrȯȧnėd out in annoyance.

'.....Are you okay?' Mika asked after a moment of me just moping to myself.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine.... anyway how exactly do we get out of here then?" I asked as I looked around.

'Over there' she said as she pointed towards a tunnel that had some bȧrėly visible sun light coming from deeper inside of it.

"Finally we can get out of these bloody caves... but sadly we are going to have to be sneaky about this" I let out a tired sigh while rubbing the back of my head.

'Yeah that is probably for the best as they may have some guards around the area, thankfully the cultist don't really come down here often as there is nothing really here anymore'

"So any idea on what I should be looking out for before I leave these tunnels?"

'Well just be on the look out, I doubt you will have much trouble because like I said there is not much to really protect in the Junkyard. Also the cultist should have only left a hand full of guards to protect the place and they probably won't be paying much attention' Mika said thoughtfully.

"Well we should get going then, after all we have an army to build, a barrier to destroy, several thousands souls to save and an army of cultist to defeat. Wow, there's so much to do" I said with a smile as I walked forward.

(Let's get started shall we)