Chapter 42: A Strange Cult and Assassination Attempt

Chapter 42: A Strange Cult and Assassination Attempt

__________ POV Jashinist __________

And as we knelt and prayed, we watched the woman's body before as it burn. I believe she was one of pure heart and body as well. A great offering to our lord and one of our most important rituals.

Offering a heretic to our lord in hopes that we will finally be noticed like our leader was.

Thankfully, there's no shortage of offerings.

We are able to easily lure in more and more people to provide as offerings to their lord, some were kidnapped from far-away villages, some were coerced into coming there on their own, and then drugged into submission.

Most of our offerings are comprised of women and children. However, children sometimes get the opportunity to join us as well. The children were akin to a blank slate, still pure enough to be converted to our beliefs.

Our church is ever-growing, unbeknownst to anyone else. Some of us had tried to spread the word of Lord Jashin to some villages, but they never did manage to receive many recruits from that.

Blasphemous pagans that lived without any purpose. Just thinking about their filthy existence makes me mad.

I can barely wait for the day when we would finally be able to grow strong enough. Strong enough to spread chaos and death to this dirty world and its residents.

Thankfully, we receive strength directly from their lord, should he notice our efforts.

Varying degrees and ranks within our religion receive different gifts from Lord Jashin. It is said that our leader has even achieved a state of semi-immortality.

Lord Jashin only grants that gift to one person each generation, he truly is fit to be our respected leader.

Ah, how wonderful it is to see our efforts be rewarded in such a way. Alas, we recruits have yet to receive our Lord's blessing.

More blood must be spilt, patience is something we must have, but not something we must ask of our lord. We must shower him in offerings as is customary.

Oh, there he is! Our esteemed leader! Master Kyumuro, the shepherd to our damaged souls.

Wearing nothing more than a black coat, showing off his tattoos and the symbols that adorn his body.

He even painted his hair white, to match the depictions of our Lord Jashin. He has even appeared in the dreams of former leaders...

A great man that has truly earned the right to wear the symbol of Lord Jashin on all of his limbs, and even on his tongue.

"Oh! Devout Followers of Lord Jashin! Tonight, he has spoken to me!" Master Kyumuro spoke out to us, calling us devout, such high praise for us unworthy followers!

"Hail Lord Jashin! Hail Master Kyumuro!" Our voices resounded throughout the praying ground.

Our Master nodded his head with a warm smile on his face. However, his smile soon turned upside down.

A frown?! Have we, unworthy followers, done something to displease our lord?!

"Our Lord has spoken!" Master Kyumuro repeated himself as all of us quieted down, waiting for his words.

"Today's sacrifice was nothing more than a pathetic contribution! He has grown bored of such boring ways!"

Oh, a pathetic contribution?!? Lord, we apologize for all of the displeasure we've caused!

"We must atone for our sins! We must atone for our sins!"

All of us moved in a trained manner, already knowing our customs.

We unsheathed our knives, placing a palm on the ground, we all stabbed into that palm, impaling it on the ground. The ground started turning red, as all of my brothers bled for our collective sins.

It is necessary to pay in earnest when displeasing our Lord, for he has given us so much, yet we can only provide him with so little...

"Such a way of praying for forgiveness! My devout followers, I commend you for your readiness and praise you for your unwavering faith!" Master Kyumuro's words rang like a song to our ears, as we bore through the pain.

"However!" Master's next words immediately dampened our spirits..."Lord Jashin will not be pleased with just this tonight!"

"We have received his direct orders! To repent, we must slaughter a village of blasphemous pagans in his name!"

Master Kyumuro spread out his hands, opening up his palms and smiling warmly at all of us.

Yes! Lord Jashin is giving us a way out! A way to repent for our sins!

"It shall be done! It shall be done!"

Our shouts echoed throughout the forest, as we all got up and started bandaging our bleeding palms.

Tonight we shall lead many wayward souls to our Lord Jashin! Praise be!

__________ POV Ken__________

... Crazed cultists, the lot of them.

Seeing them burn up a woman was crazy enough. Seeing them all plunge a blade into their own hands is something else entirely.

People are always much more open to causing pain to others than to themselves. These people are too far gone...

And that man leading them... 'Master Kyumuro'...

I don't know what his deal is, but it almost feels like he is dead... For some strange reason. It's almost as if Nature Energy just doesn't stick to him for some reason.

All living organisms must have Nature Energy inside of them, but for him, it seems to be constantly spilling out.

One thing's for sure, he feels dangerous. He gives me a strange feeling of uncertainty, I'm not sure if I can fight him on my own even...

Maybe I should've brought Saburo with me... Hmm... Too late for regrets.

But do I even need to fight this weirdo?

The Blind Swordsman wasn't taken by surprise at all, he simply leaned to the side and batted the weapon away using his blade.

'As expected, cockroaches don't die that easily...'

Ken then swung his blade in front of him with a lot of force, causing a large gale that blew Kyumuro away and revealed the area to everyone that was still to the side.

There were dozens of burnt corpses, cultists turned to charcoal. Still, just as many had survived, not being close enough to the explosion.

Kyumuro already had his scythe back, having used it to slow himself down. Now he was standing right where he had been when the attack had started.

"Tsk! You dare kill my devout followers?! Lord Jashin will not forgive such transgression!" Kyumuro shouted in anger, as the cultists that should've been cowering in fear, were only emboldened, all rushing towards Ken with their weapons out.

'As expected... You can't scare away madmen...' Ken thought to himself as he parried a few knives, before swinging his blade and cutting into their wielders with ease, bisecting them as he dodged a red scythe from the side.

The scythe lodged itself into the heads of one of the cultists, but no one seemed to care, they all continued rushing Ken with crazed expressions.

"Stop moving around you pest!" Kyumuro shouted as he tried to pull back his weapon from the head of the cultists.

"..." Ken just scowled underneath his mask, before he turned and made a quick hand sign.

The ground underneath Kyumuro shifted as the cult leader had just managed to pull back his weapon, grasping the handle in his hand.

Alas, he only had time to look down before a clone of Ken impaled him through the chest with a chakra blade, pushing his heart out of his body and onto the dirt in front of him.

The clone then exploded into a burst of lighting, further frying the cult leader as he was dying.

The windmill shuriken that Ken had thrown earlier had just been a lightning clone, the fireball had been nothing more than a distraction, to take Kyumuro's thoughts away from the shuriken... And it seemed to have worked.

'I guess he wasn't much after all...' The Blind Assassin thought to himself as he jumped up and dodged a few slashes from the fanatical cultists.

The 40 or so cultists that were left didn't even notice that their leader had his heart gouged out. They simply continued attacking Ken with fervour, waiting for him to land.

Ken, while in midair, started spinning more and more. As soon as he landed, the cultists tried attacking him, but it was too late.

He had already gathered enough momentum, and a violent tornado quickly formed around him as he continued spinning.

'Dragon Twister...'

The tornado grew in size, as it lifted all of the cultists off their feet and threw them into the sky.

Ken continued spinning more and more, some of the collapsed trees also being pulled into the tornado and thrown into the sky.

From a distance, it just looked like a small natural disaster.

Then, Ken stopped spinning abruptly, he stood still in the eye of the tornado for a bit before slashing down his blade, breaking the wind stream apart and the tornado at the same time.

All of the cultists that had been thrown into the sky forcefully hit the ground, dying on impact as Ken dodged a few of their bodies and trees.

And just like that... The Cult of Jashin was exterminated.

Ken proceeded to walk over to the leader's body, sensing it from up close as he tried to figure out just what about him had managed to creep him out.

'... Even after his heart was gouged out, it still feels the same... Though he is certainly dead, there's no trace of his wounds healing in any way.'

Ken reached his hand down, wanting to feel the wound himself.

Just as he did, the body moved, the red scythe slashing towards him at insane speeds.

Ken managed to block it, raising his blade just in time, but Kyumuro's other hand also moved, pulling a steel rod from his sleeve and thrusting it towards his chest.

The Blind Swordsman managed to slightly bend his body, but the steel rod still stabbed into his shoulder.

Ken rolled away as he narrowly avoided getting cut by the red scythe on his way out.

'What the hell?... How can he survive something like that? Even I'm not sure if I could...'

"Hahaha! Curse Technique: Death Controlling Possessed Blood!" Kyumuro burst out laughing as he licked Ken's blood from the steel rod in his hand.

The blood from his chest seemed to fall and form into a strange symbol on the ground.

Just like that, Ken sensed a strange energy creating a connection between the two of them.

Ken scowled at that, he prepared to dash forward, but the madman seemed to be just as fast as he was.

"Lord Jashin! I offer this heathen's blood to you! May it satiate your hunger!" Kyumuro raised his scythe, and plunged it into his own stomach, smiling sadistically as he did so.

Ken was shocked when he sensed that... But what shocked him more was the fact that he was forced to stop his advance, clutching at his stomach with a scowl on his face.

He was so shocked in fact, that he fell to one knee.

'W-what?...'

"Hahahaha! You fool! To think you would try to face Lord Jashin's brilliance on your own! Foolish!"

The man then looked at the ground, at his feet was his heart. He smiled sadistically as he kneeled and looked Ken in the 'eye', before stabbing into it with his steel rod.

"Sleep tight!" The mad cult leader said as he watched Ken's body go limp.

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Hope you liked the chapter! Bit of a cliff hanger, eh? :))

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