"Can you remind me why we are currently in the middle of a cemetery?" The calm voice paused for a second, before adding something else.

"In the middle of the night?" Davion was quite perplexed by this action. Because of the size of Archet and the fact that not a lot of people liked to live close to the dead, the cemetery was outside of the walls. If it was during the day, when the sun was up, some could easily see it from afar. Maybe not distinguished precisely a silhouette from a tomb, but if someone dared to move, that silhouette would be seen.

"Because .. bad guys often come in those type of places? No?" The succubus was a little bit exasperated because they were already waiting for quite a long time and they saw nothing. Well, a few owls were roaming in the night, seeking for a prey, but except that, nothing interesting. As she felt that the stare of Davion was quite more and more intense, she turned around and faced the ratman barely visible in the dark.

"Hey, you! Why did you tell us that shady business was conducted here? No one is here! NO ONE" She screamed the last part, and a part of her voice was even slightly heard in the ramparts of the city. The few unlucky guards shuddered at that sound and got closer to the torches. But that changed nothing in the face of the brainwashed ratman.

"Because it is true, mistress." His dumb smile was angering Meridiana but she felt that she probably missed something. Because of what she has done to this humanoid, he would only respond directly to her questions, without adding any information. Scratching a bit her forehead, she thought about a more appropriate question.

"And how often did those things happen?"

"Oh, a few days .. each month." The orodil put his hand on the shoulder of the succubus, before she torn apart her servant. It was also his fault for not asking the questions, before the departure, he trusted her to extract any chunks of information she could. Shaking his head, it seemed that from now on, he will take the lead. Otherwise, they will never progress.

"Besides the cemetery, where can we find those people?"

"The sewers, more specifically the northern one, slightly outside the poor area. There is a hidden room where they sometimes accomplish a ritual or attend a meeting. The poor area in general, we are unsure about which precise house is used for the gathering. And of course, where they usually are during the day, at the city hall, in an inn, in the garrison, on the ramparts, in their houses .."

"In Archet, we get it. No need to precise it anymore." He had to stop the unusually chatty ratman because he realized his question was too vague. That was the main issue when controlling the mind of other beings. It was very hard to not make them lose their own identity, and they had neither the time or the mana to waste for preventing that right now. On the other hand, for the moment, erasing all trace of resistance was more than enough, even if it caused those inconveniences.

"So, I guess we go to that secret room. With a bit of luck, we can even encounter one cultis.. Meridiana, you did ask for that?" Because he had his helmet on, the succubus couldn't see the face of Davion. But she easily understood the underlying tone in his sentence, not calming her at all.

"Yes, of course. I asked where they met the most and when I thought of this, it seemed obvious that it will be the best place to start. I just didn't realize that the word most meant 3 times a month. But it's his fault too, he knows nearly nothing and hides everything from me. Why are you blaming me?"

Not even responding, he just left the mindless ratman and the angry succubus behind and started walking toward Archet. Not willing to be left behind like that, she immediately ran after him, with a little rodent following obediently. Because their little companion was still relatively despised by even the open-minded population of the Republic of Avenio, they didn't head toward any gates.

Instead, they relied on the brainwashed prisoner to open a path toward the sewers, without damaging too much the infrastructure. Without even destroying the rusty iron grid that blocked the numerous obstacles in the river of garbage, they found a hole nearby. Descending through a disturbingly well-maintained iron ladder, they ended up in the dark.

No one was truly bothered by it since everyone had an extremely good sight in dark environments. For the first time of his life, it was the ratman that was having the hardest time moving inside the treacherous corridors of the sewers. Because of him being slightly slower, Meridiana reluctantly created a small magical light, to help them navigate in the maze that was this underground place. Soon after, their guide stopped in the middle of nowhere.

Looking at him puzzled for a brief moment, they saw him pushing a few stone blocks, but nothing happened. Waiting for the door to be opened, the ratman was still touching more and more blocks, trying to find which one was the right one. Feeling bored, Meridiana knocked a few junks laying around, when she saw on the ground under her a few traces. Following them, she turned her sight toward the wall that was behind her previously and found a very thin fissure in it.

Using the tip of her finger, she easily moved the supposedly heavy stone door and opened the secret lair. Maybe not even feeling any shame because of his brainwashing, the ratman only moved near Meridiana, not feeling bothered by the fact that he messed up the location. At this point, Davion was already regretting getting himself inside this giant mess.

The insides were, as expected by at least one of the three, totally empty, void of any life. Not even a small rat was visible. The room was quite large, or at least could contain more or less twenty humans without any problem. Searching the ground, some strange marks and traces were quite visible, but in a weird shape.Most of the time, it would be a geometrical figure, like a circle or even a square. But what they were seeing were multiple lines, a bit disorganized.

"So, just an empty room, without even a chair or something like that? That's it? That's your secret lair?" Meridiana was grabbing the ratman by the throat this time, and Davion was way past the point of caring about it. The barely struggling creature was trying to answer, but only some guttural noises were produced. For someone capable of destroying the entire door in one punch if she wished, doing this to a frail ratman was nothing.

"Hum? Not answering? So what are you good for?" She threw her prisoner to the ground and turned around to find something. But even after a few minutes, even after removing some titles, they had to realize it was as clean as possible. They knew those cultists were trying their best to not being find out, but couldn't they just drop a few hints here and there? Sitting on the ground, the succubus was exasperated.

"I guess we should just wait for her for them. I just hope Leilade won't be displeased by the fact we took too long to even deal with the most basic thing ever. I am absolutely certain that she thinks it is truly easy. But stuff like heretics and cultists don't just grow on trees."

"And you want to tell that to her?" The moment he said that Meridiaian shuddered and stopped complaining. They could say those things when she was not there, but the moment they were close, no one would dare to contradict her.Since she was declared to be the Empress of the Underworld, it became clear how dangerous that little girl was.

"No of course, not. The fact that we are still alive is a blessing that I won't waste. Each time those tentacles appear, ehhhh, they send shivers all over my body.Anyway, we just need to obey her and everything will be fine. Just look at what happen to Kardel. Faced something unknown, that a duvodiad wasn't even able to face, captured in a second. If we don't disturb that Saksa, it's going to be good. I hope. But, should we wait here?"

Sensing the pure sincerity inside the voice of the succubus, Davion was slightly surprised. It was not in the habit of anyone of their level to truly share anything. But to her small confidence, he had nothing else to say. Instead of sitting like his companion, he began to aim at the exit.

"You can stay here for the moment, while I will search for something to eat. I would say that we could have let this ratman stand here as a sentry but .."

He didn't have to end his sentence to get the feeling. No one will ever trust that ratman to stand still, so to warn them if someone came was just a faint hope. Taking his time to be as discreet as a huge walking armor could, Davion stealthily exited the sewers inside the poor area of the city. He noticed quite easily that a few dozens of meters away, some planks of woods were quite burned.

Thinking about the last time they came and the fact that they unleashed a small fire, it was probably their doing. Based on this, he scouted a little the area and confirmed that it was the shady inn where they stayed for some times, waiting for thugs to harass them. Because of this, he randomly chose a house and just crushed the door with his hand. The sound that resonated was so unnatural that it immediately warned the people that were sleeping in it.

Everyone here was used to a lot of sounds. Bottles being broken, thieves trying to unlock something, knocks on a door, brawl, insults, threats. But the sound of wood being destroyed and a door being dislocated into multiple parts was a first. The man and the woman immediately picked a sharp sword and a kitchen knife. The house was merely a single big room, only separated by a thin layer of fabric to form a bedroom.

The light of only one moon was not enough for the humans to see anything, but for Davion, it was no issue. Even if he was in front of them, they couldn't have seen him yet. Not waiting for those humans to begin screaming or doing something stupid like that, the orodil extended his two hands through the curtain and grabbed the necks of those two.

He only slightly pressured the throat of the male, preventing him to produce any sound while totally snapping the spine of the female. The few slashes of the sword did nothing on the armor created by master Agnil, what could be expected of a poor quality weapon. Tears were falling on the cheeks of the male, while he was desperately trying to kill the thing that murdered his spouse in the middle of the night.

Sensing the prey in his hand falling unconscious, Davion was beginning to leave when he saw something in the corner of the room. On the bed, there was still something else. Grabbing the crude sheet and pulling it away, this revealed a small body under it. The little boy was still sleeping, not even realizing what happened around him. Putting the corpse of the woman on his shoulder, Davion used his now free man to grab the defenseless child.

Verifying that he was not followed or seen, the orodil arrived at the hidden room without any problem. Meridiana thanked him for the meal while he dropped the boy in front of the ratman. This race of humanoid rodent was able to eat nearly everything, including human flesh. Because they were still using him and that they didn't have any other type of food, he would have to settle for this. Fortunately, the brainwashed ratman didn't even hesitate at all before planting his sharp teeth in the tender flesh. Their worries gone, no additional words were needed for the moment.