"You win."With that the high ranking cultist collapsed to the side while foaming at the mouth. Kyle looked at this man with disdain as unlike the lower level cultists who were forced or manipulated; this man knew precisely what was happening.
"d.a.m.n right in the plums."
Luke had come forward and seeing the cultist lying on the ground could only comment while covering his crotch with both hands. Any man could understand this instinctive reaction even though Kyle hadn"t even looked in his direction yet.
"Oh you"re already here."
While they were observing the disabled cultist Dylan and his team had made their way through from their side and had entered the packing room.
"Hi Dylan any problems on your side?"
"No problems sir we did have to use some magic when they started pus.h.i.+ng hard but nothing to special and we took no injuries."
Dylan reported his success with a prideful look on his face, he had commanded several missions on his own but he was always happy when he completed them to his satisfaction.
Luke on seeing Dylan looking smug wanted to take him down a couple of pegs responded to him with a smirk on his face.
"Oh you had to use magic, we didn"t have to use any and we got through without any injuries."
"Maybe but you had Lord Kyle with you. Let me guess he did some crazy moves and took out the main before they could do anything and you just cleaned up after him."
Dylan responded with ease as he had been in that situation himself, Luke hearing Dylan"s response shut his mouth as this was pretty much what had happened. Kyle had leapt into the fray drawing all attention to himself while Luke and his men supported him.
"Enough we have work to do. The leader of this cabal wasn"t amongst his people so he must be somewhere upstairs so keep your eyes open. Luke deal with that."
Kyle indicated with his hand the cultist on the ground while he began moving to a stairway at the back of the room. Luke took out his blade and beheaded the cultist. No one amongst Kyle"s people would show any hesitation to the cultists and even less to their leaders.
Kyle began to move up the stairs while looking around for the boss of this little gathering of degenerates. As he was halfway up the staircase a man appeared from behind a wall in front of him.
"My my it looks like you"ve destroyed my toys, why did you do that hum?"
The man was looking at Kyle with a vindictive light in his eyes as though he had the world in his hand and only needed to close it to claim it. Kyle had seen this arrogance in the other cult leaders he had destroyed before and could see what was coming.
"Your people are corrupted and are a cancer to be removed for the safety of the civilians."
Kyle responded in such a way so that the enemy leader would be able to monologue while Kyle was busy working on something.
"Hha you think you"re saving the people? Let me tell you those weak members you killed outside were your own civilians."
The man was looking at Kyle and his men expecting some kind of reaction from them. All he received however was a look seeming to ask if he was stupid while Kyle continued what he was doing unseen by the man.
"Yes we know and now you"re going to accuse us of being monsters and blah blah. I take it no one deemed you important enough to know that we have already annihilated several cabals of yours? We have even managed to heal the people you"ve forced into serving you but with what they were forced to do and endure all of them killed themselves when they recovered."
Kyle was looking at the man straight in the eye and the man swallowed while taking a step back. While Kyle"s face was expressionless his eyes burned with a radiance that scared the man. He was prepared to die but something in Kyle"s stare put fear into him at a basic and primal level.
"You can"t do anything; if you try to attack me you"ll fail after all I have the high ground!"
When he said this the man also held out his hand and a fireball appeared in front of it. It looked like this man was a mage of the fire element. Dylan, Luke and their men were watching this man without doing anything and merely waited for Kyle"s signal.
"So a fire mage interesting thank you for confirming something for me but now time for a fall."
When Kyle said that he blasted a wind wave out without using his hands or any other medium to direct it. This isn"t something the mages of the empire could do as at the minimum they would use their hands to direct their magic.
As the wind wave blasted out several posts and joists behind the staircase collapsed. Kyle had weakened them with undetectable wind blades while he had been speaking to the idiot at the top of the stairs.
With a groan and a splintering sound the entire suspended floor fell along with the cultist"s leader who was still partially obscured by the part.i.tion wall he was hiding behind. As the man hit the floor he was followed by a large pile of debris that fell over him pinning him to the ground.
Once the cacophony was over Kyle strolled over to see the cult leader who was struggling to get free but had a large piece of wood sticking into his leg so he couldn"t pull himself free.
"So much for high ground."
Kyle said with as much disdain as possible in his voice. The cult leader looked up at him with a hateful gaze before he began focusing on his magic in an attempt to strike out at Kyle.
Before he was able to bring his magic into focus Dylan kicked the splinter that was sticking in his leg, to his merit the man didn"t scream and just sucked in a deep breath but lost control of his magic letting the mana dissipate into the atmosphere.
"So you have imperial training as a mage, thanks for confirming the connection between the imperial family and the cultists for me."
Kyle was already suspicious of these cultists and how they remained free and that the only members who were caught before were the lower levels while the leaders remained free and this wasn"t just an issue in the northern territories but throughout the entirety of the empire.
Seeing this small boss was a mage and the method he was using was far to advanced for civilians to have access to Kyle deduced that there must be some connection between them. He didn"t know what the connection was and for what purpose but the sooner they were cut off from the empire the better.
Kyle didn"t want to sully his hands so he pulled one of his throwing blades and cast it into the enemy"s eye with a simple toss killing him instantly.
"We"re done here let"s get back."
Kyle said and led the way out of the tannery followed by Dylan and Luke with their teams. On exiting the building Kyle looked around and saw some new bodies on the ground and some of Ash"s men were moving the bodies of the civilians into one place and the bodies of the cultists to another.
"We"re moving back Ash get your men together."
With that Kyle began moving back to his bastion while Ash and his men continued with their corpse duty before returning as well.
The city was more chaotic now than when he had ridden through but Kyle wasn"t bothered by anyone as he made his way back. Throwing an occasional knife or spell as he pa.s.sed Kyle reached the bastion in short order.
When he entered the main entrance he was immediately surrounded by members of "steel lotus" who had just come back from their own mission. Elena, Clara and Miranda were also present as they had also been on the mission.
"Hi Kyle you good?"
Clara asked while giving him a quick look over.
"Yes nothing but the usual stuff with these d.a.m.n cultists."
Kyle responded while Clara nodded her head before looking at Miranda in a strange way. Kyle noticed this look and saw there were other strange gazes directed her way from the other members.
"Why"s everyone looking at Miranda like that?"
Kyle asked with some confusion as there was some fear in their eyes when they looked her way.
"Um well someone may have said something about you and Miranda may have got a little angry."
Clara responded awkwardly while Miranda"s smile grew slightly wider before she spoke.
"They shouldn"t have insulted you Kyle."
"Oh is this what yandere means?"