Words 9,693
"Hahahahahaha!"
I blinked.
"What is it with mad cultists and the desire to cackle like a Saturday cartoon villain?" I mused to myself, as the laughter of the man in charge of this castle echoed in the wide open room we were in.
"I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the mad part of mad cultist, sir." helpfully replied Jane, as she, along with the rest of my bodyguards, tensed at the sound.
"I mean, sure, but we're butchering his troops. I'd expect him to be pissed, not laughing…"
I paused, then let out a sigh.
"Let me guess, we're going to get a speech about how we are all doomed?"
"Most likely, sir." continued Jane, amusement clear in her voice.
I grunted. "Back in my days, madmen just went straight at the killing part, they didn't bother gloating." I said with disgust.
Then I frowned, lips pursed in thought. "Well, except for one annoying bastard, I suppose, but I don't want to talk about him. Seriously, mad scholars shouldn't be able to run so fast… Cosmos-damned Micolash…"
I kept grumbling under my breath while we kept walking forward, before pausing again when the mad laughter cut itself off, as two red-robed elite cultists stood by the sides of a very short man on top of a balcony above us.
"I was wondering when you would notice us." the man, who had to be Ramon Salazar, declared with the kind of underlying pride that only those who truly believe themselves better than everyone around them can possess.
Needless to say, I wasn't impressed.
"Sorry, you seemed in such a good mood that we decided to take a break for tea, since you were obviously too busy taking drugs or whatever it is you cultists people do in your free time and it seemed rude to interrupt you." I snarked.
I heard a few restrained snorts behind me, but to Salazar's credit he barely reacted to the sarcasm thrown his way.
"My, my, we've got a feisty one." he replied, a mocking smile on his lips. "If you value your well-being, I suggest you surrender and willingly become our hostages. Or you can just fight and die, your choice."
"How about no." I deadpanned.
Salazar shrugged. "Oh well. Death it is, then!"
And then a wall came up and blocked our way, alongside our view of Salazar.
"Oh, look, the bad guy is refusing to fight us and leaving us to his underlings. How shocking… Not!" I snarked again, before rolling my eyes.
"Right, you know the deal. We move on, kill anything in our path, and force the bastard to fight us so that we can kill him. Let's move."
"Yes, sir!" my bodyguards shouted as one, though I could tell that Jane had a question.
I turned towards her "Problem?"
She shifted slightly. "No, sir. Just wondering why you didn't kill him where he stood. I'm certain you could have done it if you had wanted him dead."
I nodded. "I could have. But for all I know we're going to need his eye or something later on to open a secret path or something stupid like that, so I figure it's better to wait until after we've done an inspection of this place and found out any secret paths before we start turning him into a very fine red mist."
There was a collective blink at my words, before John sighed deeply.
"The worst part is that it's a genuine probability…" he grumbled.
Jane patted him on the back.
I rolled my eyes. "Hey, at least we don't have to fight something crazy to unlock some secret chalices or something! And I'm pretty sure they don't have giant dogs on fire secreted away inside of this place, so we should be good!"
"How does giant dogs on fire even work?" wondered John.
"Well it involved them being able to glide on lava-"
"Sir, with respect, even by our standards that sounds like bullshit."
I paused, then turned towards him.
The other three of my bodyguards tensed in rising dread at the sight of the smirk on my face, while John foolishly just blinked in incomprehension at the sight.
"Oh, it does, does it? Well that's just not right! Fear not soldier, when this op is done I know exactly what kind of simulations I'll create for training!" I cheerfully declared.
All four of them slumped in horror at the very thought of me getting ideas for training, and Jane smacked John upside the head.
"I'm telling everybody who was the idiot stupid enough to challenge the boss when he's reminiscing about his past once this mess is over with!" she growled.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't think!" cried out John, pleading for mercy.
He found none, obviously.
One does not cross The List (of survival guidelines) of ISIS without consequences.
Especially not the line about "Do not, for the love of all the gods, give the Boss ideas for training."
I couldn't help but look at them with amusement. Charge inside a castle full of mutated cultists? Walk in the park!
Go into one of my simulations for training purposes? The entirety of ISIS pretty much updated their Last Will before going in!
Obviously, it was proof that I was a great teacher! How else would you explain the utter seriousness with which they took each and everyone one of these simulations?!
I still felt it was a bit much for them to have collectively begged for a 30-minute prayer time before each one, to "Properly prepare ourselves" as they put it, but oh well, to each their customs before going into battle I suppose.
I still had that old Lunar Tear Oedon gave me so very long ago on me, after all…
In any case, after I passed a moment to mentally pat myself on the back for a job obviously well done in teaching my soldiers, I turned serious.
"Alright, you can go pray to whatever gods you believe in later! For now, let's keep going!"
And as I turned away, I decided to ignore the muttering of "But what's the point of praying for mercy when it's our god who's sending us into hell?" I heard from one of them.
I blinked as we entered the prison area of the castle, finding a single dude with no upper body clothes and long steel claws bound to his hands staring back.
"Someone watched too much X-men." I muttered, before shooting at the torso of the pitiful Wolverine look-alike with my plasma gun, the shot turning both the torso and a parasite clinging to the man's back to ashes.
"I don't think they even have tv." pointed John.
"Maybe not the grunts, but you really expect the leaders to not have every comfort they can get their hands on?" I replied.
Jane grunted. "Guess some things never change, no matter the cult."
"To be fair, it's always the same with every organization you care to name, not just religious ones." I pointed out.
"Well, sure, but some of them have people in charge who earned those things, and keep working hard to keep being worthy of them."
I said nothing, though I didn't miss the way that all four of my bodyguards glanced at me when Jane said that, Jane included.
Eventually, I smirked. "Maybe some of those leaders should be sent to hunt giant, bloodthirsty rats in the sewers of the big cities. That certainly builds character pretty fast, in my experience."
Then I frowned. "Though I'm genuinely not sure how much of what I had to waddle through was water, and how much of it was blood, considering the city in question…"
My bodyguards, for some reason, had no words to add to that.
*Thunk*
I turned to glance at Frederick, the second man of my bodyguard detail, currently looking down at the arrow which had just bounced off his armour.
"Reminds me again why this cult, which has enough funds and influence to get a fucking warship, yet they keep supplying their soldiers with bows and arrows?" wondered Jessica, the second woman of my bodyguards and wife of Frederick, even as she gunned down the cultist who had just shot her husband.
These two were usually pretty silent during missions, certainly far less outgoing than John and Jane (who despite not being related, certainly acted like siblings all the time, teasing and arguing included) but apparently watching an arrow literally bounce off her husband's armour was enough to get her talking.
"Because shockingly enough, willingly putting parasites inside yourself does not equal a large amount of intelligence, wisdom, or capable decision-making?" Jane snarked back.
Jessica snorted. "It's a wonder we even have a job, if these kinds of idiots are the ones threatening the world."
"Well no one has ever accused evil of being smart, just cruel." I pointed out, gunning down another wave of cultists charging at us with shields.
Wooden shields, mind you, against plasma guns wielding elite soldiers.
Needless to say, it was a pretty brutal slaughter.
"How the hell has Redfield not taken out that damn warship already if they are this incompetent?" wondered John.
"Better defensive ground, lines of fire, equipment, oh and you know, actual artillery barrages from the warship's guns, for starters." I pointed out, killing the last of the cultists.
John grunted. "Fair."
"Also, you guys have me, so obviously you're on the winning team." I joked.
Four snorts echoed at the same time.
"Whatever you say, Boss." replied Jessica, and I could hear the smirk in her voice.
I pouted. "I give you the best weapons, armors and training in the world, and this is how you repay me? I'm hurt, truly."
Jane patted me in the back. "There, there, Boss. We all love you, you know that." she said, snickering slightly.
"Bah! You just want to play with the coolest toys in the world! I see through your lies!" I say dramatically.
"Well to be fair they are really good t-" began John, before shutting up when Jane put her hand over his helmet.
"What he meant to say is that you're awesome and we all follow you because we trust you with our lives, obviously." interrupted Jane, a cheerful smile clear in her voice.
I sniffed emotionally. "Thank you, Jane. I knew there was a good reason I put you as one of my bodyguards."
"Besides the fact that I look damn good and you enjoy the eye candy?" the red-haired, green-eyed woman flirted, grinning widely, and I laughed.
"Besides that, yes."
We kept moving, bantering along the way, with Frederick and Jessica occasionally joining in.
Honestly, it felt like we were an adventuring team fighting our way through a castle of an evil lord to slay him in glorious battle or something, made even better by the fact that this was literally what we were essentially doing.
Still, I genuinely couldn't help but smile at those four at my back.
Despite her words being meant as a joke, I felt how much truth her words held, not only for herself but for all four of them.
They, and the rest of ISIS, truly fought by my side because they believed not only in what we were doing and the righteousness of it, but because they believed in me.
It was certainly humbling, to feel the sheer trust, and indeed faith, that these hardened warriors held for me.
It was certainly very different from Yharnam, where I was essentially alone, with only a handful of people who I came to trust and vice-versa.
Still, it was also satisfying, to know these people believed in me and that I had the power and knowledge required to make sure their faith was well-deserved.
I wasn't much for pride, but the satisfaction I felt at knowing that what I went through was enough to ensure I could give these people the happy ending they deserved was something I didn't bother to hold back.
Or at least, for all but a few seconds, before I focused once more at the task at hand, my senses carefully ensuring no traps or enemies would be able to surprise us despite the numerous traps and hidden passages existing in this castle.
… Actually, that was a thought. Maybe I should have ISIS train in a simulation of the Chalice Dungeons at some point, the sheer numbers of traps and hidden enemies would certainly help to keep their reflexes and instincts sharp…
Maybe I could even make them even more deadly, add Resident Evil monsters on top of everything else!
Yeah, that sounds great!
"Jane, is it me or the Boss has a disturbing grin on his face? I'm pretty sure I saw a cultist take one look at him and then start running in the other direction… I didn't even know these mindless bastards had a functioning survival instinct!" softly hissed John by her side.
"For the love of the gods, shut up he might hear you! You doomed us once already, do you want to give him more ideas?! Just keep shooting, keep joking, and try to not make him think of training!" hissed Jane back.
Both went back to shooting cultists.
It was much easier to face those ugly bastards than the kinds of stuff the Boss considered "good training."
Jane shivered as she remembered what happened in training a week after Laura, from Gamma team, decided to have Alien as their next movie for movie night with the rest of ISIS.
The only one who enjoyed the training that ensued was Laura, and she was a masochist!
Jane shivered at the memories of that facehugger's tail around her neck and-
Well. Let's just say that no one slept well the night after that simulation.
It still wasn't as bad as the one following the second Harry Potter movie.
Gods, so, so many spiders…
Give her a bunch of parasite-infested freaks any day of the week instead!
The fact that once inside said simulations, some kind of mental effect ensured that everyone in it genuinely believed they were dealing with an actual mission made the experience of each one all the more… memorable.
Of course, no one was going to refuse to go through said training.
Not when the simulations that their Boss used for "training" were publicly available.
Needless to say, Laura was the only one crazy enough to keep going through those once the rest of ISIS discovered what they entailed.
Point was, it was hard to say the training simulations were too much when you saw your Boss go through so much worse time and time again.
And don't get her started on that one simulation created after Laura asked their Boss what he considered an actual challenge.
Still, for all the horrors their Boss kept sending them straight into… None of them wanted it any other way.
Not when he was there to act as an example. Not when he went with them in battles after battles. Not when all of them had been personally trained by him, fought by his side, and often had their lives saved by him at one point or another.
Not when they could see for themselves why the world needed them. Not when they could see all the good they did, battle after battle.
Hell, even now they were fighting to take down a cult dangerous enough to kidnap the daughter of the US president!
To be part of ISIS was to fight for something greater, by the side of one who shone like the heroes straight out of stories.
Human history was full of those singular individuals with the will to change the world.
Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, and so many more who left their mark on history…
Their Boss wasn't the ruler of a nation, and yet no one in ISIS doubted that he could be if he had wanted to. That he could become a great ruler given the chance.
But instead, he'd chosen the path of the protector. Charging into battle for the sake of the world and Humanity as a whole, whether or not it knew of what he did for it.
It was humbling, to see someone with so much conviction and belief in humanity despite the horrors he had witnessed.
It was even more humbling to see him fight for it, time and time again, without a shred of fear or doubt in his eyes, no matter what stood against him.
What battles has he fought in the past, that he had become someone so immune to fear? What horrors had he killed, to be so confident that nothing couldn't be overcome with time, effort and cunning?
She didn't know. What she did know was that he wouldn't fight alone any longer.
No one in ISIS would allow that to happen if they could help it. Because none of them had any doubt that no matter what, their Boss would keep fighting against those who wish to harm the world, whether he was alone or with an army at his back.
All of Humanity could turn against him, and yet they had unshakable faith that, somehow, someway, their Boss would keep fighting for what he believed, for what he considered right and just.
And he would do it with a smile on his face.
Because that was just the kind of person their Boss was.
And that was the kind of person worthy to keep following into the depths of Hell and back if he ordered it.
So Jane kept fighting, kept killing, and despite her words she knew that she would go into the next simulation their Boss came up with without regret.
And she knew that John and everybody else in ISIS would do the same, time and time again.
I looked down at the hole before my feet.
The rest of my team did the same.
There was a long moment of silence, before Jane began loudly cursing.
"Sewers! Why did it have to be sewers?! Why do our missions always involve sewers?!"
"Because evil cares not about hygiene?" I dryly replied, not really any more enthusiastic about this than the rest of my team.
Jane grunted. "And it's going to be full of horrors down there, isn't it?"
"Oh, absolutely!" I replied with false cheerfulness.
Then I sighed, and went down. Every other path forwards were blocked, so it was the sewers or backtracking to try to find another way onwards.
Might as well just keep on pushing, then.
So I went down, the rest of my team following with scowls on their faces.
Naturally, not five minutes later, some kind of humanoid insect tried to jump on me.
The return fire from four unamused ISIS and one exasperated Good Hunter all but disintegrated the ugly bastard.
"Eww." commented Jane while looking at what was left of the corpse. "I haven't seen anything this ugly since Raccoon City."
"As long as you don't allow it to french kiss you, it should be good." I joked.
Jane visibly shuddered in her armour as the very thought.
"Respectfully, sir, I'd prefer to kiss that bastard Spencer. At least that would mean I would be in the shooting range of the bastard."
"Well, in that case you don't have anything to worry about! Just make sure they don't get in range, and your brain juices will stay right where they are!" I cheerfully replied.
"Wait, those things actually want to suck brain juices? Really?" exclaimed John.
"Sort of." I said, shrugging.
"Huh." muttered John. "These people really watched too much tv… Which is impressive, since I have yet to see a single one."
"I'd say great minds think alike, but there's nothing great about this cult and their pet monsters." I replied, before sighing.
"In any case, let's keep going. Might as well purge this place while we go through it."
"Sir, speaking of, what are we going to do about this castle once we've taken it and this whole mess is over? Trying to find every secret room could take months." asked John.
I shrugged. "We'll blow the place up. Raze it to the ground, napalm the ground too for good measure, then triple-check nothing dangerous remains. If so, we keep digging and purging."
"Huh. Damn shame we don't have air support, could have just bombed the place up." he mused.
I shook my head. "We are also here to get intel, remember? We wouldn't have been able to just straight-up bomb the place up, as satisfying as that would have been."
Then I focused on the way forward, frowning slightly. "In any case, cut the chatter and get ready to proceed. I'm hearing a lot of movement up ahead…"
"Sir, yes sir." John said softly, tightening his hold on his plasma rifle.
We moved on, occasionally hearing the faint scraping sounds from the insectoid monsters running around, until we arrived at a pretty open room.
And dozens of the damn things promptly charged at us from everywhere, including the ceiling.
"Form a circle and don't stop firing until they're all dead!" I shouted, blasting two of the charging monsters with my plasma guns.
The ISIS soldiers didn't waste a moment to do as ordered, and soon the entire underground room we were in dissolved into controlled chaos as dozens of monsters started running or jumping all over the place and all five members of ISIS began shooting all over the place.
"Ah, fuck! I can't see shit!"
With my 360-degree vision it was easy to see Jane stagger as one of those monsters spat some kind of green goo over her face, thankfully covered by her helmet.
I turned, the world slowing down as I considered the situation.
There were still 6 of the monsters before me, though two were badly wounded, and around 8 to ten were charging each of the others, some of them on the ground, some of them on the ceiling.
My frown deepened as one of the monsters jumped, the world still moving slowly allowing me to easily see that it was trying to use Jane's disorientation to successfully jump on her, and it was most likely to succeed.
The rest of the team had reacted to Jane's shout with appropriate professionalism, but they had still wasted a moment or two glancing towards their teammate to assess the situation. Except, of course, that they didn't have a moment or two to spare, and I could easily see the slight tensing of several of the monster's limbs, no doubt indicating that they were about to jump too.
All three non-hit soldiers had turned back to shoot at the incoming monsters a moment after seeing that Jane was hit, but not otherwise wounded, except for John who had taken a second or two further to confirm that she was truly not wounded.
Conclusion: One soldier about to be pushed to the ground, three potentials including one highly likely, and myself remaining, with a total of 42 active hostiles, two of which were badly wounded and currently staggering backwards from two shots of my guns.
Time to move, then.
I kept turning, one of my guns shooting to kill another of the remaining six hostiles charging me, while another hit the closest hostile about to jump on Frederick to my right, the shot not killing it but staggering backwards.
Good, two urgent targets dealt with, now the others.
I kept turning, the gun pointing towards Frederick's kill zone, firing once at every hostile which I could see ready to jump from the way their muscles tensed, while my other gunshot another of the one about to jump me, the shot passing through his brain and killing it instantly, before continuing on its way, the second shot hitting the staggering hostile I had previously wounded and slaying it.
I kept turning, now facing Jane who was previously at my back. As expected, one of the monsters had jumped and was now successfully pushing down Jane to the ground, the beginning of a startled shout echoing across the radio.
My right boot came up, knocking the monster up underneath its misshapen head and sending it flying upwards and back, while my guns kept firing, one shot hitting the monster straight through its defenseless underbelly, before my guns kept moving, two shots catching up two more monsters who had jumped half a second before I fired and were still mid-air, sending them flying backwards, one of them dead, the other badly wounded.
I put my raised foot down, starting to turn on my heels, while continuing to turn, my right hand going up to hit John in the side, using my inhuman strength to forcibly push him to the side.
I ignored the beginning of his own startled shout, my attention focusing first on the monster about to hit him, my right gun shooting once more, the shot sending the monster flying back.
My left gun came up, firing once, twice, three times and hitting the targets I noticed were about to jump on that side, before I kept turning on my heels.
Having down a full circle, I gunned down the last remaining hostiles focusing on me, before bowing down slightly, allowing one of the monster from Frederick's side which was previously on the ceiling to miss his jump towards me, before passing by an inch away from John's moving body, my forceful push to his side allowing him to avoid the jumping monster, which roughly crashed on the ground instead, his body skidding on the floor before hitting another one of his kind.
Mentally removing both from my urgent list of threats, I noted that Frederick had killed two more since I began moving, and his wife three.
The world rushed back to normal speed, and I heard John and Jane's startled shouts finally end, the room noticeably less full of hostiles than seconds before.
Should I- No, no need, I decided, seeing no real point to using magic when a good chunk of the hostiles had already been dealt with.
With my side of things dealt with, I focused on Jane and John's, since there were still trying to get their bearing straight.
I extended my arms, one gun towards each new kill zone, and began firing.
Five seconds later, and the room fell silent, as Jessica finished killing the last remaining hostile.
There were a few seconds of mostly silence, broken only by Jane and John's muttered cursing, before I looked down at the former and smiled sheepishly.
"Sorry, Jane, it seemed my words turned more prophetic than I thought, considering how eager they were to get to you."
Jane grunted, waving my apology away as she took off her helmet and grimaced at the sight of the green goo on it.
"Don't worry Boss, I'm pretty sure you just saved my pretty little head anyway."
"And mine too… I think." muttered John, staring at where the monster which had missed him by an inch had crashed into another.
I shrugged. "All in a day's job."
I looked down at Jane's helmet, waved my hand and sent the goo flying away from it, before giving her a nod.
"Right, c'mon then, put your helmet back on Jane and let's get moving, we're still far from done."
"Yes sir!"
I stopped and stared.
The four soldiers behind me boggled at the sight before us.
"Is that narrow path… seriously full of swinging giant axes?!" shouted Jane, voice full of incredulity.
To be fair, it wasn't every day that you actually came face to face with a narrow path with half a dozen giant swinging axes over it.
"Yep." I confirmed.
"... How the hell are we supposed to go through those things without losing a limb?" she wondered.
I looked at the swinging axes.
Then down at my guns.
Back at the swinging axes.
And smiled.
"Hey, Jane?"
"Yes, sir?"
"Can you remove your helmet for a second?"
"... Why?"
"Because I want to see the look on your face when I show you all my plan for walking towards the other side of this room without any danger."
Jane glanced at me, before shrugging and removing her helmet.
"Okay, so what's your grand plan-"
She fell silent when I shot the wooden haft of the nearest axe, which promptly fell down the chasms surrounding the narrow path and disappeared in the darkness.
Then I did it again until not a single one remained.
"It's called using your brain." I said smugly.
I looked down.
Nope, the cultists were still praying over some kind of blood altar, having completely missed the arrival of several heavily armed soldiers on the balcony overlooking them all.
I shrugged, then dropped two grenades down in the middle of the group of cultists.
They exploded seconds later, incinerating the foul altar and everybody praying over it.
"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why always keeping an eye on your surroundings is important. And no, being religious does not excuse you, if your entire castle is under attack during prayer time." I dryly declared.
"Noted, your holiness." replied John, sounding amused.
I rolled my eyes at the smartass.
"Careful, or I might just actually write a holy book, and we'll see who's laughing then when I make it's reading mandatory. Rule number 1 of it? Don't be an idiot. Naturally, I expect most of Mankind to become sinners on the spot."
"And what happens if we keep failing said rule?" he asked, sounding curious.
"A hundred years in Hell passed as the main character of a slapstick cartoon." I deadpanned.
The four behind me shivered as one.
I chuckled darkly before smiling. "In any case, let's keep going. This castle isn't going to cleanse itself."
I opened the next door, having just finished killing a bunch of cultists, including one with red robes maning a heavy turret.
Unfortunately for the guy, I was quicker at shooting his head off than he had been pressing the trigger.
I took a few steps into the room before pausing, my bodyguards doing the same.
"What a pleasant surprise…" Declared Salazar, once again standing on a balcony overlooking my position.
Someone has issues about his height… or lack thereof. I thought with amusement.
"... But I'm afraid that it isn't you I am tasked with capturing, mister Muradasilova. You wouldn't happen to know where young Ashley Grahams is, would you?" he asked.
I looked at him with amusement. "Even if I knew the answer to that, why would I say anything?" I replied.
"Oh, we have… ways… of making the most stubborn of people talk, mister Muradasilova. But I suppose that you are right, it would be easier to just keep on searching for her. From what I know, the Americans were headed straight towards my castle, so they can't be far. So with that in mind, I must regretfully bid you adieu, mister Muradasilova." declared Salazr, a moment before several secret paths opened, disgorging cultist after cultist.
Salazar gave me one last look, before walking away.
I held up a fist, silently telling my bodyguards to remain where they were, as the cultists made their way towards us.
I glanced at them, before snorting.
"Scythes? Really? The only one who can make that work was my teacher, and you guys aren't him."
I stepped forward, the first cultist trying to cut me down only for me to punch him in the face, take his scythe from him while he flinched back, and then decapitate him and another cultist too close for his own good.
Then I decapitated the others, who just kept swinging their scythes wildly, without any real skill.
I shook my head at them.
"Gerhman would be rolling in his grave at the sight of such utter incompetence at wielding a scythe."
I stabbed the last in the heart, before pulling back the scythe-
Only for it to remain stuck in the body.
I frowned, tugging at it, first with human strength then with inhuman strength when it refused to budge-
The wood of the haft cracked, then broke, leaving me with a worthless broken wooden haft in my hands.
I blinked at the sight, blinked again, then threw it away with a look of disgust. "Shoddy scythes, too. Fucking cultists, I swear…"
"Yes, sir, we should kill them all because they can't create a scythe worth a damn. Obviously, sir." declared Jane with amusement at the sight of my scowl towards the dead cultists.
"Obviously." I agreed with a wise nod. "At least back in the day, our weapons never broke! It didn't matter if we were fighting madmen or monstrous beasts several times our size, they were almost as good as new with a bit of polish, no matter what! It's not enough that these bastards have to be evil, no they have to be bloody shoddy at it too! I swear, Evil isn't what it used to be…" I grumbled, shaking my head as I walked away, four amused bodyguards at my back.
I stared at the garden before me.
Then I grunted. "Well, I see where the manpower went, they were obviously too busy making sure this garden was perfect to actually create weapons worth a damn."
"They didn't have any garden like those back in your day, sir?" asked John, voice amused.
I sniffed. "Of course not, everybody was too busy trying to kill everybody else to waste time with that."
I paused, thinking of a certain part of the Nightmare…
"Well, with maybe one or two exceptions, I guess." I grudgingly admitted.
"So, what's the plan? The whole's thing is like a maze." Jane pointed out.
And it was.
I glanced around, but saw no cameras.
I smiled.
"Hu-ho, I remember that smile…" muttered Jane.
I raised my left hand, a fireball suddenly floating over the palm of my hand.
"Isn't it obvious? Fire, my friends! FIRE IS ALWAYS THE ANSWER!"
And then I burnt down the entire garden.
Obviously.
Finding out the garden was home to a dozen bloodthirsty dogs by the sudden sounds of their screams of agony made the whole thing even more satisfying!
I put the stone tablet in the indentation for it in the door, whistling happily while behind me the garden kept on burning, well what was left of it at least.
The door opened, and I and the rest of the team entered-
Before I paused.
Then I moved, my right hand taking a knife and my left hand coming up on Ada Wong's right wrist, pushing the gun she held to the side towards the nearest wall while my knife went to rest on her throat.
For a moment, we both froze, her eyes wide as she could have sworn she was a second from getting the drop on me, while I looked into her eyes with calm amusement.
Which wasn't shared by my scrambling bodyguards, who reacted to the sudden appearance from Ada Wong from her hiding spot with a great deal of angry cursing.
"Hello there!" I said cheerfully. "Sorry love, but if you were hoping for a one-on-one with Leon, I'm afraid he isn't here right now."
"Aeon. Long time no see." she said calmly, as I took a step back, taking her gun from her as I did.
She took out her sunglasses, sending them on the ground, though her eyes never left mines.
I raised an amused eyebrow at her. "Flashbang sunglasses? Whoever supplies you your stuff deserves a job in the next James Bond movie."
Ada pursed her lips slightly at my words, while my bodyguards promptly double-checked if their helmet protection against flashbangs still worked- and of course they did, I helped create the stuff!
"I did warn Leon that you were working with Wesker, you know. Even if you distrust Wesker, rightfully so, might I recommend that you just change employers? I can't imagine there would be much use for someone like you once Wesker's done destroying the world." I pointed out.
"I see you've been doing your homework."
I smile, throwing her back her gun, much to her visible surprise. "Wasn't that hard to find out. Now get out of here, your boyfriend will need your help before this entire mess is over with."
A second later the sunglasses' flashbang went up, and Ada promptly ran and jumped out of the window.
"You sure it's wise to let her leave, sir?" asked Jane.
I smiled. "I've got plans, Jane, and she has her uses. Don't worry, she won't be a problem for us."
"If you say so, sir." she replied, visibly doubtful but trusting me to know what I was doing.
I turned away, ready to move on, before pausing slightly at what suddenly appeared to my senses, then continuing as if I hadn't noticed anything.
Well, that was one side-objective I no longer needed to worry about… mostly because *I* already took care of it.
From a certain point of view…
In a hidden lab, unseen by anyone the air flickered, warped and suddenly broke, revealing a tall man clothed in black robes standing right where reality broke.
If anyone had looked at him, they might have noticed the way distant starlight flickered across his robes, or the bright glow of his right eye, contrasted by the utter darkness of the left.
His eyes quickly fell on a nearby syringe, and the man took it, holding it in the palm of his right hand and staring at it closely, as if he was closely examining its content.
Then the syringe began glowing, power pouring into the syringe's content to change it, modify it, and introduce a new variable into it.
Once the glow faded, the man examined the result before nodding once, putting back the syringe exactly where it stood before and then disappearing without another word, his work done.
Less than 5 minutes later, the scientist who once worked in that lab before he discovered the true cruelty of the cult arrived, smiling when he saw the syringe still where he had thought it to be.
To almost everyone in the world, the dominant strain of the parasite in the syringe was no different from any other.
To the select few in the know of the changes made, a new weakness had been introduced.
How tragic for the masterminds seeking said syringe that the new weakness will be revealed only when it will be most inconvenient for them…
As we kept walking through the castle, my eyes widened when I saw the slumped figure of Seras in the middle of the corridor up ahead.
"Sera!" I shouted, running forward with the rest of my team behind me.
I knelt by his side, the man jerking slightly at the sound of my voice before smiling through bloodied lips.
"Hey, Aeon. Saddler… got me… He got… the sample…"
"Shh. Give me a sec." I interrupted him, pursing my lips at the sight of the gaping, see-through hole in his chest. He was damn lucky to not have died on the spot after a wound like that, but that also meant fixing him up with medi-gel wasn't going to cut it…
Then again…
I applied a good amount of medi-gel and, unseen by him, used my magic in concert to boost his healing.
Not enough to outright fix him up, but enough to keep him alive.
He gasped at the cool sensation of the medi-gel getting to work, and the stranger sensation of feeling his flesh knit itself back together, before staring with awe at his much smaller wound, that I quickly bandaged.
"Right, that should do the trick. Though I'm warning you, you're in no condition to do anything anymore. I'll call in an extraction team, they'll escort you to where we set up our camp and the medical facilities there."
He poked and probed at his still wounded chest, a look of naked awe on his face. "Holy shit, I heard that the medi-gel you guys created at Insight Corp. was the good stuff, but I didn't think it was that good!"
It wasn't, of course, but no need to tell him that. "Yeah, well you're still aren't in any condition to run around, so be careful not to strain yourself. Anyway, let me guess, Saddler got the sample, and those meds in your right hand are for Ashley?"
He blinked, then grinned. "Yeah, those meds should slow down the growth of the parasite. Make sure that Ashley takes one of those every so often, and she should remain herself. Make sure you give them to her, okay?" he said, giving me the meds in question.
I put them in one of my long coat's pocket and nodded. "I will."
I stood up, then turned towards my bodyguards, who had taken defensive positions around me as I worked.
"Right, Jessica, Frederick, help him out. We're taking a detour, we need to get Sera out of this castle and into a medical team's hands, and the sooner the better."
"Yes, sir!" shouted the two soldiers, helping him get up and then letting him put his arms arounds their shoulders to make it easier to walk.
I took my radio. Normally there would be no way a regular radio would make it to the teams outside with the cult scrambling comms inside the castle, but-
My right eye glowed, unseen by anyone.
"Captain Noxus, do you copy? This is Alpha-one, over."
"Sir! You broke through the comms scrambling?" the captain exclaimed, surprised.
"Only for a little while. How goes the assault, Captain?"
"It goes well, sir. We've made it through the outer layers of the castle, and several squads are pushing forwards as we speak. The trails of dead cultists your team left behind certainly helped us know where you went through." replied the captain, a note of amusement in his voice at the last part.
"Good. Unfortunately, we came across a badly wounded Luis Sera. We've stabilized him, but he's going to need a look at by the medics. We're going to try to make our way out of the castle, either to the outside or at least to the rooftops and walls. Preps a medical team and be ready to receive him, understood?"
"Copy that, sir. I'll give the order right away."
"Perfect. I'll mark our location with green smoke once we're outside. Copy that?"
"Hard copy, sir. Green smoke is you."
"Then we're on the move. Alpha-one, over and out."
I turn towards the four bodyguards and one wounded Luis Sera.
"Alright, follow me, we're getting you out of here, Sera."
"Are you sure? Shouldn't you focus on Saddler-"
I cut Luis off. "We'll get him sooner or later, the bastard can't escape us forever. You, on the other hand, need to get seen by a medical team. So stow your complaint and get moving."
Luis smirked at me and gave me a weak salute. "Sir, yes sir."
I rolled my eyes at him and moved to take point. "Right, onward! John, cover our rear. Let's get our V.I.P out of here."
I did take a moment to give a hard look towards where Ada Wong was hiding. She wasn't after Sera, she just needed the sample, but if she tried anything it wouldn't end well for her anyway, and I wanted to make that very clear.
If the sudden spike of discomfort and slight fear I felt coming from her at my look was anything to go by, I thankfully had nothing to fear on that level.
Well, that or it was just the fact I once again made it clear I knew exactly where she was. For someone like her, consistently failing to spy on someone had to be rather discomforting and concerning in equal measure.
I stared at the wide underground room before me.
"Why is there lava here? Like no, seriously, why the hell is there lava underneath a Spanish castle?!"
I glanced around suspiciously, half-expecting to be attacked by a giant dog on fire spitting lava, but thankfully there was only a bunch of platforms leading up to a treasure chest holding the item we needed to keep going.
I grunted, then shrugged. I left my team behind to guard Luis while I went to find the required item, so all things considered…
A step, and I was on the other side of the room, opening the treasure chest and taking its content.
Another step, and I was back where I previously stood.
For a moment, I looked at the various platforms and felt the hidden cultists still waiting for me to try and make my way through like a normal human being would have been forced to.
Then I looked down at the lava river beneath our feet.
Well, if they want a surprise, I might as well give them one, I thought with dark amusement.
I raised my right hand.
And the entire chamber was suddenly flooded by lava up to the ceiling.
Hmm, note to self: lava baths are very soothing, I thought with a smile while making my way through the sudden lava filling the room, taking care to ensure nothing of mine was reduced to ashes.
It'd be awkward if I had to explain why I was suddenly naked… Or why the item I went to get had become molten slag, after all!
Finally, we found ourselves on a balcony overlooking the outside of the castle, and I wasted no time taking one of my bodyguards' smoke grenade meant to signal a position and launching it to a corner of the balcony, green smoke quickly pouring out of it.
Then I proceeded to do the same thing everybody else was doing, which was to say: staring at the clear marks of war showing from our current position.
Parts of the castle was visibly burning, others were outright gone, distant and not-so-distant gunfire echoed in the air alongside explosions, a rather impressively big part of the woods surrounding the castle had become a series of smoking craters and were riddled with cultists corpses from dead reinforcements trying to relieve the siege, and just as I put a hand on the railing of the balcony a nearby tower suddenly half-collapsed from a rocket impacting one side of it.
"Fucking hell… It really looks like a warzone." muttered Luis with wide eyes.
"That's because it is." I replied calmly.
My radio beeped, and I put it to my ears. "Captain Noxus, do you copy? This is Alpha-one, over."
"I hear you, Alpha-one. We've got visual on the green smoke on your position. Medical team is on its way. ETA: 3 minutes."
"Copy that, Captain. Alpha team will hold position until the medic team arrives to evac V.I.P. How goes the assault, Captain? I can see what looks like fierce fighting from my position."
"The cultists are throwing everything they've got at us, sir. We're holding ground, but we had to hold and fortify our position in the face of the renewed assault. Very little to no progress has been made since last contact when it comes to territory gains." replied the captain, sounding a bit apologetic about the last part.
I frown. "They are attacking? As in, trying to push our soldiers back from the ground we've taken from the castle?"
"Yes, sir."
I blinked. "Why? This castle is a death trap. It would be far wiser to try and use their knowledge of the castle and the traps it holds to try and fight us within it. All they are doing right now is wasting manpower."
"Unknown, sir. Whatever the reason, they're charging our defensive lines with their usual casual disregard for their own lives, seeking to kill us at any cost."
I frowned. The way I saw it, there could be two reasons. Either Salazar knew that Ashley and Leon weren't in the castle and he was trying to sally forth to try and find their location, or…
Or pride was costing him dearly. This castle was his family's ancestral home, after all. It had to burn at him something fierce to see it crumble like this. Combined with the fact that Salazar had no military training and a complete disregard for his soldiers' lives…
I shook my head. Even if that was true, it was better to be cautious.
"Copy that, Captain. Let them break over our lines, if they are so eager to die like fools. I suggest keeping an eye out for our Americans V. , however. I don't want this to turn out to be a distraction, with Salazar attacking Leon and Ashley while the rest of ISIS is holding the line, or counter-attacking once this assault is spent."
"Understood, sir, but the squad I assigned to them reported a fairly smooth escort mission so far, with little combat required as of yet."
"But not none. Either way, you have your orders. Hold the line, then counterattack once their current assault is spent. Hold a squad or two in reserve however, in the case that we need to quickly scramble a rescue mission for our escort squad. My team will keep pushing to find the central strongpoint of this castle, and then we'll kill Salazar there."
"Copy that."
I glanced downward, seeing the medical team coming closer.
"The medical team is here. If there's nothing else to report, I'll focus on letting them evacuate the V.I.P and then go back to our original mission."
"Nothing to report sir, the other battles are progressing without issue… well, beyond those already known, like the warship still in the bay giving troubles to Redfield and his people."
I nodded. "Any casualties?"
"Some wounded, a few of which required Chamber and her medical skills to stabilize, but so far no deaths, sir."
I raised an eyebrow. Considering how tough the armour ISIS soldiers had, to be wounded that badly that Rebecca was required to fix them up was impressive.
"What happened?"
"From what I heard, the cultists collapsed an entire part of the cave network on top of our soldiers' heads, uncaring of the fact they killed a good amount of their own by doing so." came the dry reply from the captain.
I grunted. Yeah, that would be enough to grievously wound even an ISIS soldier. Hell, all things considered I suspected they were alive solely because Rebecca could use magic to get them out of the buried tunnels easily.
My True Self probably ensured that she would be nearby when the collapse happened too, to react more quickly and be there still in time to save everyone…
Well. If nothing else, it was a good reminder that just because you had the best gear and training in the world, it didn't mean that you could easily survive getting part of a mountain dropped on your head.
Seriously though, these damn cultists weren't good for shit when it came to leading troops, but by the Cosmos I really wanted to know who was the crazy, genius bastard that taught them how to create traps all over the place, that I may shake their hand a second before blowing their head off!
Seriously, elite soldiers would be less crazy with the traps than these guys!
"I see. Well, keep me informed if you can of any important development on the other fronts. For now, I have a V.I.P evac to oversee."
"Understood, sir. Good hunting."
I chuckled. "It will be, Captain. Alpha-one, over and out."
I glanced at Luis, who was being helped down towards the medical team by Jan and John while Frederick and his wife kept overwatch on the area.
I considered the weight of the medicine in my pocket, before deciding to keep them.
I had a feeling I was going to meet back up with Leon and Ashley sooner rather than later…
Once Luis was safely with the medical team, I and the rest of Alpha team returned to what we were originally doing: that is to say, trying to fight our way to the deepest part of this place and kill Salazar there.
Of course, said man wasn't going to make it easy.
As proven when the next room we stepped in had its heavy doors suddenly shut themselves off and the ceiling began dropping down to squash us.
Oh, and said ceiling grew spikes too, because why not.
"Sir?" asked Jane, staring at the descending ceiling nervously. "Please tell me you have a plan, because as much as I enjoy pancakes, I have no intention of becoming one!"
I rolled my eyes. "The plan is simple: If it doesn't work, you aren't using enough Dakka! In other words-"
I took out a plasma grenade and threw it at the opposite door, which promptly half-exploded, half-melted by the sudden release of plasma.
"- blowing up traps created long before the invention of explosives works great!"
"... Well when you put it that way…"
We stepped into the next room.
And then I barely caught Jane before part of the ground collapsed into a hole full of spikes that looked uncomfortably sharp.
"That being said," I continued in the ensuing silence as we all stared at said hole, "I highly recommend watching out for any actually dangerous traps." I dryly remarked.
Jane visibly swallowed.
"Hard copy on that, sir. And sorry you had to save me, I really should have been more careful after the last room."
"Don't be sorry, be better. You'll live longer that way. Now come on, let's keep going. And watch your steps!"
I carefully stepped into the next room, rather paranoid after the last few rooms held not a single trap-
Only for the doorway to suddenly be closed by several steel spikes.
I turned around, me and my bodyguards staring at the pikes separating us before we all went to look at the opposite end of the corridor my bodyguards were in, whose wall suddenly collapsed to show-
A drilling machine just large enough to fit in the corridor, slowly moving towards my bodyguards, controlled by two cultists visible on top of their machine?
What?
For a moment, I was thankful it wasn't something actually dangerous, like a gatling gun or something like that which would have easily shot at my bodyguards, but the greater part of me just couldn't help but boggle at the sight before me.
Just… What kind of madman thought of creating a trap by closing a corridor with spikes on one side and a drilling machine on the other?
How the hell did they even build that drilling machine and put it right in the middle of the castle in the first place?
Just… What the fuck, people?
John took out a grenade and threw it at the drilling machine, which promptly blew up and killed the two cultists manning it.
Then I shook my head and used my greater strength to tear the spikes out of the way of the door.
I swear, Yharnamites people sometimes made more sense than humans from this Earth.
I wasn't sure what that said about RE Earth, but it couldn't be anything good.
Maybe I ought to check the waters of this world, after all if the countless viruses that could be found on it was anything to go by I had to wonder if human evolution had been partially messed with in the past…
It certainly would explain a great deal about why so many people seemed to believe that injecting yourselves with disturbing mutagenics viruses and parasites was a good idea!
I paused before entering the room in front of us.
Wide, open round room? Check.
Richly decorated room? Check.
Obviously important object currently resting on a table smack dab in the middle of the room, all but screaming "It's a trap!"? Check!
I glanced around the room-
Before pausing, blinking, and then double-checking that no, my (Insight) skill wasn't bullshitting me.
"Huh. That's actually pretty smart of them." I muttered.
"Sir?" asked John, sounding confused.
"You see those various suits of armour around the room?" I asked.
"Yes, sir. Pretty fancy-looking ones, too."
"Yeah, well each of them is holding a parasite that will use them as puppet bodies to try and kill us with the moment we grab that important-looking gold goblet in the middle of the room."
There was a moment of silence as each of my bodyguards glanced from one heavy-looking suit of armour in the room to the next.
And to the very sharp-looking sword they all held.
"Sir? Permission to shoot at the possessed suits of armours while we are still outside the trapped room? Because I don't fancy my chances in close-quarter against a literal suit of armour with a very sharp sword. I like my armour, I really do, but I really don't want to test it against their swords." Jane asked, staring with concern at the nearest of the suit of armour and the sword it held high in its gauntlets.
"Granted, Jane." I said with amusement.
Seconds later, the sounds of plasma fire echoed in the room, followed by curses as several walls opened up to reveal more and more suits of armour, each of them moving towards the team with deadly intent.
"Hey, Brads?"
"Yes, Corporal Briggs?"
"Is it just me, or is there some sort of buzzing sound all around us?"
Leon blinked. A buzzing-
"Aaaaaaaah!"
Oh, shit! He thought with wide eyes as a flying… thing bigger than Ashley suddenly picked her up and flew off with her.
He tried to line up a shot while the ISIS team began shouting in shock-
Wham!
"Gah!"
Only to be interrupted as the cause of the sudden panic from the ISIS team revealed itself while Leon rolled on the ground after being bowled over.
There wasn't just one such flying bug, there were dozens.
And they were all about to swarm their position