Lord Evolution: Starting With SS-rank Skills - Chapter 266

Chapter 266: The Cult (36)
D’andre stepped into the portal. He felt the common sensation, and in the very next split second, he found himself in a broad, rocky passageway where the spy knights were clashing fiercely against a small group of weak cultists.

The cultists were dressed in their usual hooded dark magic robes, and a few of them clutched wands tightly in their hands.

More weak cultists poured out from within and clashed with the spy knights. Their numbers were ten times greater than those of the spy knights.

“Black whip!”

“Poison blast!”

“Poison blast!”

“Dark ball!”

Numerous dark magic spells darted in the direction of the spy knights, yet they deftly evaded the attacks, deflected many with their weapons, and fought back with relentless determination.

The scene was utterly chaotic.

D’andre observed the strength of the cultists, there were apprentice-rank mages on the verge of breaking through and a few Tier-1 mages present, yet not a single Tier-2 mage was in sight.

“I expected more, but this much is good. The spy knights are strong enough to take care of these foes—even a Tier-2 mage is no problem for them,” he remarked coolly.

On the ground, D’andre could see countless burnt dents left by the Inferno Barrage spell he had used from outside. On closer inspection, some of the cultists bore charred wounds.

D’andre grinned.

“So, this is the hideout, huh?”

Saying that, he began strolling forward, deducing from this broad passageway just how vast and wide the structure of the hideout truly was.

“Ahhh…”

As he strolled, two cultists spotted him and began dashing in his direction while rapidly chanting dark magic incantations.

D’andre fixed them with a cold stare and released a subtle surge of his aura.

Instantly, the two cultists halted abruptly and fell flat onto their backs before scrambling away in fearful retreat.

They turned to flee, but a nearby spy knight charged after them and, with a swift stroke of his sword, decapitated them both.

D’andre offered the knight an impressed look before proceeding onward, walking past the passageway until he reached a junction of branching paths leading into even larger areas.

A large number of cultists poured out from these branching paths. They appeared just as weak as the ones holding back the spy knights, leaving D’andre momentarily confused—were they all this feeble?

But he did not dwell on that thought for more than a few seconds.

He activated his Inferno Barrages, which continuously fired powerful fireballs at various locations.

“Where are the captives?” D’andre wondered aloud.

The overall view inside the confinement was quite confusing.

It appeared as though the place were both expansive and vast, yet simultaneously, the hideout seemed to end abruptly at the limits of his sight.

“I might have to ask one of these goonies.”

D’andre teleported from his current location and materialized behind two cultists at the rear, who were struggling to deflect the incoming Inferno Barrages that obstructed their path.

He seized their necks and hoisted them several inches off the ground.

The two cultists were utterly baffled.

“Tell me where you are keeping the people you kidnapped.”

D’andre’s cold voice emanated from behind them, imbued with a sinister tone that made them shiver uncontrollably. They could feel the power behind the voice and it filled them with a great sense of dread.

Yet they remained silent.

“Didn’t I ask a question?”

D’andre tightened his grip on their necks even further as they emitted desperate, struggling groans.

Seconds passed, yet they still offered no response, as if they had not even heard his question.

In a fit of fury, he hurled them against the rocky wall.

Before they even struck the wall, he launched two fireballs, intensifying their force as they raced toward the surface.

BOOM! BOOM!!

Both of them collided lethally with the wall, drawing the attention of their colleagues who were still desperately trying to avoid the relentless barrages of flame.

“What!!”

D’andre’s speed was such that none of the cultists even noticed his assault on their comrades at the rear.

They braced themselves for the unseen force, but it was too late, D’andre darted through their midst wielding a glowing sword forged from condensed light magic, and in one swift, brutal motion, he slaughtered dozens of them.

The two cultists lying on the ground watched with wide, horrified eyes as dozens of their comrades collapsed into pools of their own blood.

A deep sense of terror gripped them as D’andre stood only a few feet away, clutching his glowing white sword—a blade that shone brilliantly without a single stain of blood despite the carnage he had just wrought.

“I asked you two a question.”

The two cultists shivered and attempted to crawl away from him, only to be halted by an unyielding, immovable wall.

Realizing there was nowhere to escape, their entire beings trembled in fear and they locked eyes dreadfully with D’andre.

D’andre strolled closer and squatted down, bringing his face mere inches from theirs, which caused them to recoil even further.

Yet he soon noticed something odd—their faces were beginning to lose their natural color, gradually turning a pale, sickly green.

D’andre frowned, questioning whether his eyes were deceiving him.

Then he observed their eyes twitching uncontrollably, their eyeballs bouncing up and down for several seconds until that liveliness vanished, replaced by soulless orbs that stared at him devoid of any emotion.

Their mouths gaped open, revealing a strange purple liquid coating their tongues.

“Poison.”

In that moment, D’andre immediately comprehended what was unfolding.

“To think they would really commit suicide in order to not divulge emotions.”

Before he could finish his thought, the bodies of the two cultists had already begun to rot, and the familiar, unbearable stench started to permeate the air.

D’andre wrinkled his nose before igniting the bodies in flames.

At that moment, the spy knights arrived, drawing D’andre’s attention to the corpses strewn across the rocky floor of the hideout, evidence that they had finished dealing with the cultists on sight.

“So fast,” D’andre remarked.

“They were strangely weak compared to what we expected, they died off rather easily,” the spy knights responded.

D’andre nodded and inquired, “Were you able to find any clues about the whereabouts of the captives?”

Their response was negative.

D’andre then ordered them to spread out and search the branching paths.

D’andre proceeded to search a different path.

Along this path, he discovered several rocky compartments that housed mana-rich swimming pools, laboratories, and one compartment containing weapons, used mana stones, and other items.

After wandering through the path, he found nothing that revealed the location of the captives making him even more worried.

The pattern and layout of this hideout was so confusing to understand. At this point, he even began to wonder if Rowan and the other captives are really within this space.

Meanwhile, One of the spy knights, exploring a different route, emerged before a tiny cell in which an unconscious, middle-aged captive dressed in rags could be seen.

The spy knight had been at Winterseed when the cultists had come to abduct their victims, so he recognized Dragun immediately.

Without wasting time, he called for the attention of the other spy knights right away.