Alex closed his eyes for a brief second, syncing his senses with the mental link of the demonic serpent he sent scouting ahead.
Combined with his own heightened spirit sense and the rhythmic, trembling vibrations traveling up through the soles of his shoes, a clear map formed in his mind.
"This way," Alex said, taking a sharp turn past a broken archway, the narrow corridor suddenly opened up into a massive, cavernous underground space.
A wave of suffocating heat hit Alex and Leo in the face, carrying the heavy, metallic stench of copper, sulfur, and burning flesh.
"Alas, we're too late..." Alex muttered, his eyes narrowing as his fists clenched tightly at his sides. "That damn bitch!!"
In the very center of the underground cave was a large stone altar, rising like a dark island out of a bubbling, boiling lake of crimson blood.
The thick liquid popped and hissed, releasing clouds of red steam that clung to the wet ceiling.
Hanging directly above the boiling pool were dozens of heavy iron cages suspended by thick, rusted chains anchored into the rock above.
Inside the cages were dozens of people, men and women, slumped over, unconscious and sweating heavily from the unbearable heat rising from the blood pool below.
Alex quickly scanned the hanging cages and the dark corners of the cavern. His heart sank slightly.
There was no sign of Liria or her sister.
However, the altar itself was a scene of absolute slaughter.
Dozens of corpses wearing black cultist robes were strewn across the stone steps.
Some were torn to pieces, while others looked like they had been drained of every drop of fluid, their faces frozen in expressions of pure terror.
Among the human dead were piles of monster carcasses, grotesque, multi-limbed beasts with slashed throats and crushed skulls, their dark blood pooling and flowing down the steps into the crimson lake below.
At the very top of the altar stood a large, half-broken lifelike statue of a demon.
It had glowing ruby eyes that seemed to watch the room, a pair of cracked, spiraling horns, and huge stone wings folded over its back.
Yet, what shocked Alex the most wasn't the mountain of corpses or the creepy demon statue.
Right above the statue's head, the space over there was fractured.
It looked like a jagged, glowing crack in a giant mirror, overflowing with violent strands of purple and silver lightning that whipped out and lashed at the empty air.
The crack was expanding inch by inch as time passed. Every time the lightning surged, a deep, heavy tremor shook the cavern floor, the true origin of the violent earthquakes that's been rocking the surface above.
"We need to get over there and see what happened," Alex said quietly, taking his first step onto the narrow stone bridge that connected their edge to the central altar.
Behind him, Leo swallowed hard.
His legs were shaking so violently that his knees audibly knocked together, his face pale as paper.
He was just a low-ranking spy; this was his first time witnessing a literal slaughterhouse of this scale.
The smell of rotting blood, the piles of torn-apart bodies, and the terrifying spatial crack above made his stomach upset.
"B-Boss..." Leo stammered, his voice trembling as he wiped a bead of cold sweat from his forehead. "This... this place is insane. It looks like a literal demon's den..."
Alex glanced back over his shoulder, and gave Leo a reassuring look. "I know it's terrifying, buddy, can you use your ability to check what happened here?"
Leo took a deep, ragged breath, holding his stomach as he forced himself to stand taller.
Even though he was terrified out of his mind and wanted nothing more than to turn around and run back up the stairs, he gripped his fists and nodded.
He didn't want to be a useless burden. He wanted to prove his worth to Alex.
"I'm right behind you, Boss," Leo said through chattering teeth. "Let's go."
Without another word of complaint, Leo followed Alex across the narrow stone bridge and stepped onto the main altar.
The moment their boots touched the center platform, Alex stepped aside to give Leo room. "Do it, Leo. Show me everything that happened here."
"Right!" Leo closed his eyes, extending his hands out toward the center of the altar, activating his S-Rank Professional Talent: Mana Echoes.
A soft, silvery-blue light erupted from Leo's body.
Particles of residual mana lingering in the air and soaked into the bloodstains began to vibrate, rising up from the stone like glowing dust mites.
As each second passed, the shimmering particles began to wove together, turning into lifelike, three-dimensional holographic projections.
The ghostly blue figures began to move and speak, recreating the scene that had happened on this very altar just minutes prior.
Because the cavern was so massive and the ambient energy so chaotic, Leo strained his mental energy to the absolute limit, pulling back the maximum time frame his talent allowed, ten minutes into the past.
In the shimmering blue light, Alex watched the projections take form.
He saw the tall, imposing figure of the cult's High Priest standing near the demon statue, surrounded by chanting men in black robes.
Standing just a few yards away were several noble-looking men wearing the crest of the Windrake family, accompanied by the unmistakable, alluring figure of Lady Clara.
In the background, tied to stone pillars near the edge of the altar, were the faint, struggling shadows of Liria and her sister.
Everything in the projection seemed to be proceeding smoothly at first.
The High Priest stopped his chanting and turned toward Lady Clara and the Windrake nobles, his voice echoing with a ghostly resonance through Leo's mana.
"Remember our agreement," the High Priest warned, his tone cold and authoritative. "Once the ritual is complete and the rift is stabilized, with the help of the holy artifact we are going to…"
Before the High Priest could finish his sentence, the air not far from them violently distorted.
Without any warning, a spatial teleportation array flashed with blinding light, and a person in torn black robes was forcefully thrown out of the vortex.
The man came crashing out, skidding across the stone floor and slamming hard into the group of priests who were still chanting, breaking their formation.
"Ahhh! Help... help me!" the wounded cultist gasped.
He had a deep, nasty knife wound in his gut, with a broken dagger still stuck deep inside his stomach.
Even so, he desperately clawed at the stone floor, fighting through the pain to get to his knees as he looked up at the High Priest.
"High Priest! It's a trap, please save us!" the man screamed, coughing up ghostly blood.
"Ahaa… a group of masked men secretly infiltrated our base!"
"They killed all our brothers and elders guarding the holy grounds to steal the holy artifact!"
"I was barely lucky enough to activate the emergency teleportation array and get back here to inform you!"
The cultist reached out a trembling hand, crying out desperately, "High Priest, we need to hurry! We must provide immediate support before they escape with the holy artifact!"
The High Priest froze in shock, his eyes widening in disbelief.
"You... What did you say? How is this possible?!" he roared. "The whereabouts of our secret headquarters are only known to a handful of core members!"
Suddenly, a realization hit the High Priest like a bolt of lightning.
His head turned around, his eyes locking onto Lady Clara and the men from the Windrake family with pure, uncontrollable rage.
"You bastard dogs!" the High Priest roared. "Damn you people from the Windrake family... I should have never trusted you!"
In that instant, violent, terrifying mana fluctuations erupted from the High Priest's body.
Even though it was just a holographic projection created by Leo's talent, the pressure centered on the priest was so intense that the air in the cavern felt heavy.
The invisible shockwave of power made Leo stumble backward with a gasp, while Alex braced his feet, feeling the power of a True Master Level professional.
The High Priest raised his hands, preparing to unleash his spell to annihilate the traitors on the spot.
However, someone on the altar was even faster than him.
Just as the High Priest turned his body to cast his spell, a crimson shadow flickered across the stone platform.
The movement was so blindingly fast that the High Priest couldn't even track it.
Before he could utter a single word of his incantation, a clawed hand slammed straight through his defenses, plunging deep into his chest cavity!
SQUELCH!
The ghostly sound of tearing flesh and shattering ribs echoed through the cavern.
"Ahaa...! " The High Priest let out a gurgling cry of pain.
His eyes bulged out of their sockets as he desperately stumbled backward, pulling himself a few steps away from his attacker while forcing his remaining mana toward his chest to seal his rapidly leaking life energy.
Standing right where the priest stood a second ago was a woman dressed in bright, flowing red and white silk.
It was Lady Clara. But she no longer looked like a normal human woman.
Most of her body had already shifted and transformed into her terrifying Evil Spirit form.
Her skin was pale and flawless, her crimson hair flowing around her shoulders like a living cape of blood.
Her ears had tapered into sharp, demonic points, and her glowing crimson eyes were filled with an intoxicating, sadistic pleasure.
As her lips parted in a wicked smile, sharp, predatory fangs gleamed in the dim light.
She looked absolutely breathtaking, mesmerizingly beautiful, and utterly, mercilessly cruel.
In her right hand, her long, demonic nails were covered in thick, dripping blood.
And in the palm of her clawed hand was a dark, still-beating human heart, pulsing violently as she squeezed her fingers around it, ready to crush it into meat paste at the slightest whim.
The High Priest dropped to one knee, blood pouring from his lips and the gaping hole in his chest as he stared up at her in terror and hatred. "How... how could you...!!"
Lady Clara tilted her head back, her sharp fangs glinting as her wicked smile widened into a dark, mocking grin.
She stared down at the dying priest with a look of playful contempt.
"You bitch," the High Priest choked out, his voice fading. "How dare you double-cross us...??"