I upgraded and added points in the Holy Inquisition

"It looks like there shouldn't be any problem. The intruders are the refugees outside. They are a bunch of damned fellows. They made me unable to even finish my cigar and coffee."

After checking his surroundings with inspiration, one of the cultists relaxed, put away the evil ritual dagger in his hand, sat back in front of the cup of coffee and cigar, and continued to enjoy it.

Another cultist was infected by this sense of relaxation and sat down on the other side of the sofa. He then took out a collection of poetry from his pocket and started reading in a quite artistic manner.

Only the one who seemed to be the leader of the trio said helplessly:

"You two really are... The higher-ups have told us to find the bodies of the dead alive."

Although he said this, his body actually walked obediently to the gramophone in the other corner, selected a vinyl record he liked and put it on, then took out a bottle of red wine from the wine cabinet on the other side, preparing to relax in this way.

Then I found a reasonable reason to convince myself to slack off:

"But who cares? This place is full of traps and troubles. We can't expect you to go to the stomach of a demon to find someone, right?"

As he spoke, he took a sip of the red wine, with an intoxicated expression on his face.

It seems that the quality of this wine can't be too bad...

"These bastards really know how to enjoy themselves?"

Someone in the 'Team Channel' couldn't help but curse.

The cultists naturally couldn't hear anyone scolding them, and they were still chatting casually:

"By the way, are all those refugees outside just low-level creatures without brains? They know that this place is an absolute life-forbidden zone for them, but some people always want to take risks? And every two or three days, someone comes in to die. Isn't it better to live?"

"Ha~ Don't be so arrogant, my friend. Those people outside live like maggots in the sewer. To them, there is not much essential difference between being alive or dead. So they are naturally willing to come in and try their luck. There is nothing wrong with that. We should allow others to retain the right to fantasize."

"Yes, if I were to switch identities with them, I would probably also want to come in and try my luck, right? It's a pity that this is just a fantasy after all. There is no room for them to survive here."

"Hehe~ They don't know that we will continue to expand outward until we occupy the entire underground city. They don't have much time left to survive."

"It's a pity that we didn't catch it alive today, otherwise we could have some fun like last time."

"Forget it, your fun is so disgusting that even I can't accept it."

"That's because you haven't tried it. Next time you have the opportunity to have fun, I suggest you give it a try. Of course, it's best to pick a young child. Their screams before death are my favorite dessert."

"Damn it, you're such a pervert! Wait! You didn't go outside and catch those kids, did you? This is strictly prohibited!"

"Haha, no no! Absolutely not, you should believe me."

"Really? But I remember that those little ghosts outside usually don't come to such a deep place."

"It's not important, my friend. Children are lively by nature. They ran around everywhere and broke into here. Isn't this a common thing? It's no big deal..."

Lloyd's fists stiffened after hearing the exchange between the three people.

Because of his wandering childhood, he couldn't say he had much sympathy for the people living in the abandoned city, but he wasn't so arrogant as to treat them as non-human beings.

What's more, there are many ordinary people like the guide today, who are doing hard work in the mines and trying to save money to move to a normal urban area. Why should others die?

Even Old York was filled with righteous indignation and cursed in the 'Squad Channel':

"I can't even imagine how bloody and cruel the 'fun' that guy mentioned is. Moreover, he specifically targeted children. What a bunch of beasts!"

Lloyd nodded slowly and said in a low voice:

"This group of people should no longer be considered human."

In fact, when these three cultists just showed up, Lloyd threw the [Detection] over there, and then a strange thing happened. The [Detection] actually failed?

It's not that these people are so powerful that [Detection] cannot show the correct results, but that they failed to activate it correctly, as if they had thrown this skill on a monster.

So he had to take the risk of opening his spiritual vision and take a quick look at the physical conditions of these people.

The internal organs of these people seem to be not much different from those of humans, except that the heart, liver and other parts appear to be a little swollen, as if they have some kind of disease.

However, Lloyd heard a panel prompt that said [Madness value +1+1+1]?

Although I haven't used my inspiration to examine it carefully yet, these signs are enough to show that their life forms are evolving in the direction of monsters.

If this continues, I will probably end up being transformed into the half-human, half-ghost appearance of the ancient survivors?

From this, it seems that the ancient survivors still have this kind of technology to change life forms? And it is very likely related to the topic these three guys are talking about?

“I wonder how many gifts our group can receive this week?”

"That's hard to say. Wasn't the last ceremony suddenly cancelled? There was no explanation as to why. If there's no ceremony this week, I won't be able to survive."

"Okay, you two, stop talking about this topic... I just asked the deacon yesterday, and the answer I got... is not very optimistic..."

"Ah??? Are there no gifts this week? This isn't fair. We are the most hardworking team, guarding the largest area and doing the hardest work. You can't treat us like this!"

"Don't worry, boss, what did the steward say?"

"No reply, just a fierce look at me and then told me to do my own thing."

"This... could it be that the gift that originally belonged to us was taken away and fed to those charlatans?"

"Be careful with how you address them! They are missionaries! Their status is far more noble and important than ours!"

"Haha~ Forget it. I know these people's backgrounds well. They are just a bunch of talking fertilizers. For example, several of them have lost their lives in serving the envoy of God this time. I even sent their bodies to the cemetery... Tsk tsk, the miserable state of the bodies is unbearable even for me..."

"Even you find it disgusting? Then they are..."

"Shut up! How dare you discuss such a topic? Do you also want to serve the messenger of God?"

They were discussing the crucial part but were interrupted by the leader, which made Lloyd very unhappy.

Damn it, I’m going to kill you in a moment!

Because the key question was interrupted, the three cultists started talking about all kinds of irrelevant love and romance, and there was not much information left.

All we know is that they actually go out frequently, have ample funds and extensive channels. Not only can they enter all kinds of extravagant places, but they can also have affairs with some celebrities and socialites in the upper circle.

Obviously, this group of people should have a decent identity outside and an umbrella to protect them.

Seeing that he could not get much useful information and it was getting late, Lloyd prepared to take action.

However, this group of people probably still have some tricks up their sleeves, so they have to choose a suitable method.

So Lloyd informed the others in the "Team Channel" and then activated the [Consciousness Tentacles].

"Huh? What is this? Why do I have long hair?"

One of the cultists was stunned for a moment, then quickly reached out and scratched his head.

As a result, the next second, a bunch of messy things poured into his brain like a flood, causing him to lose his thinking consciousness instantly. His eyes rolled back, his limbs twitched, and he fell straight down.

Before his two companions realized what was happening, they felt a strand of hair on their heads...

About half a minute later, the three cultists who had fallen to the ground began to wriggle and change their limbs, rapidly mutating towards the direction of the monsters and were on the verge of depravity.

It was at this most 'perfect' moment that Lloyd's [Realm of Distortion] enveloped the three people at the same time, and then launched a simple and crude physical distortion.

Accompanied by a series of crisp sounds of bones breaking, three more corpses appeared on the ground, like rags...

Lloyd also obtained several memory fragments as he wished, and briefly greeted them in the "Team Channel":

"Okay, wait a moment. I'll try to get more information with the help of 'psychic communication'."

After saying that, he began to carefully review the fragments of memory in his mind.

The remaining four members of the temporary team were stunned, and they didn't even understand the situation...

"This...did Teacher Lloyd do something? Why did these people suddenly die?"

"It seems like... He exuded a wave of power that I had never encountered before, and then these three guys became like this. The whole process was so fast that I didn't even have time to react..."

Old York also said with astonishment on his face.

"Is this a story about the materialization? I noticed that those three bastards were distracted for a moment."

"It's possible, but [Story] doesn't have a physical killing effect. What force killed these three people? Also, they seem to have some symptoms of losing control and falling. What's going on?"

"I don't know. Maybe this is also some kind of secret technique of Mitzkatok?"

"This... can kill people silently without anyone noticing. Is Mitzkatok's secret technique really that terrifying? I can't even imagine what would happen if I offended them..."

"Fortunately, Instructor Lloyd is on our side, otherwise..."

Lloyd didn't pay much attention to what they were talking about, otherwise he might have needed to explain a little.

In fact, there is no complicated principle, nor any magical secret technique. It is simply to use the two skills of [Consciousness Tentacles] and [Offensive Words] in combination to force the messy fragments of taboo knowledge in the "recycle bin" of the brain to the three cultists.

Finally, use [Distorted Realm] to simply wrap it up.

Anyway, it was a very simple and plain method, without any visual effects, so that his teammates around him didn't know what he had done.

The reason for using this method is to save as many of the memory fragments that Lloyd is browsing as possible.

This could be considered as the experience he had accumulated through various practices when he was an executioner.

You won't get any fragments by just killing people, you have to kill monsters; and it's best to kill monsters that haven't completely fallen, so that you can get the most memory fragments, the freshest, and most complete, and can provide the most information.

This is much more efficient and safer than traditional "clairvoyance". After all, browsing other people's memories can be considered one of the most dangerous things in the world.

However, memory fragments are fragments after all, and cannot be too complete. They may miss a lot of things. That's why Lloyd was patient and listened to what these people talked about first. Only after he knew that their conversation was meaningless did he choose to take action.

In this way, with the memory fragments of the three people and what they revealed in their previous chat, Lloyd roughly figured out what was deep in the ruins.

In the memories of the three cultists, the deepest part of the ruins is a filthy and evil altar. Is this an expected result?

However, the altar did not have the eerie and terrifying elements of the stereotyped image, with numerous bones and blood on the ground...

Instead, it is decorated in an extremely luxurious manner, with all kinds of expensive furniture and decorations piled up crazily. Even deep underground, all kinds of lighting fixtures are used to forcibly create a magnificent style, making it look like a nouveau riche's showroom, which is quite counter-intuitive.

If it weren't for the strange sculpture in the middle, Lloyd would have almost thought that the God of Wealth was enshrined here...

This strangely shaped sculpture gave Lloyd the feeling that it was somewhat similar to the ones he had seen on the top floor of the museum.

Although they were very different in appearance, the ones in the museum were still proper human figures, rather than a bunch of incomprehensible styles like this, but Lloyd felt that there was some kind of similarity between the two that was difficult to describe.

Maybe they were made using the same process?

The 'gift' mentioned by the three cultists earlier was bestowed through this sculpture. Because it was only a fragment of memory, Lloyd could not intuitively understand the specific experience and effect of the 'gift', but judging from the behavior of these people after accepting the 'gift', there must be something wrong.

After receiving the "gift", they will show some symptoms of mental disorder in a short period of time and endure a period of "pain", which requires various means to digest and vent.

For example, he would go out to play with women; or secretly capture some people from outside and torture them cruelly and bloodily...

After digesting it in this way, they can gain quite extraordinary powers.

For example, the leader among them committed a murder in the City of Tranquility about two months ago. Then, under the siege of more than a dozen Holy Grace Hunters, he easily killed several people and finally escaped, demonstrating a combat capability that was at least as good as the sixth level.

The one among them who enjoys killing and torturing ordinary people has a record of attacking the Holy Inquisition’s headquarters several times. He can still stand after being shot dozens of times, showing an extremely exaggerated physical strength.

Therefore, these three people are considered to be powerful fighters in the cult organization and belong to the class of "knights protecting the cult".

No wonder they were the three who were responsible for handling the situation after noticing the intrusion.

But fortunately, there are not many "knights protecting the church" like them in this relic, only about ten people in total, which is obviously not enough to fight against the entire Radiant Order.

That's why their immediate superior, the 'Sir Steward', asks them not to act recklessly and to learn to be low-key and restrained.

However, these dozen people are not the focus. The real trump card that this evil cult relies on is the five demons imprisoned in the experimental area, and the mysterious "God's Messenger"...