The Meyers estate had one purpose—to entertain guests. Baron Arthur Meyers rarely left his barony. This was somewhat of a family custom and altogether not too unexpected of the baron. Those few times the Meyers family came to Barton, it was to use Barton as a midpoint of sorts to meet with guests coming from Flynnette proper. The estate would host the family, the guests, and parties would be thrown.

  While these parties were not of the same size as those Baron Sorenson threw in his expansive castle, they did require a suitable ball room in the estate. Where most noble estates chose to put storage in the basement or, sometimes, live-in servant quarters, the Meyers family carved out a sizable underground system of rooms dominated by a single grand dining and celebration hall.

  Brivaria had learned most of this from Carter. If he had to clean all three floors of the estate on the same day then the estate had to be his first stop of the day to ensure he had enough mana to do the job. Even if he was able to conserve mana by pre-cleaning the rooms normally before using his skills, there were a lot of rooms to do. Also it just took a lot of time.

  This was why the way down was carpeted nicely and in a direct path from the front entrance of the estate, minus a few doors that could be opened or closed. It was the fancy carpet that allowed the angel and catfolk to move down the stairs silently. There were no creaks of metal nor groans of wood as the two girls moved quietly down the steps and into the basement.

  The landing at the foot of the stairs was thankfully empty. To the right was a counter behind where servants would normally stand. Those servants would then take the guests’ things, depositing said things in either the large, walk-in closet or the magical safe room behind them. To the left was an entrance to the adjoining network of rooms which servants would mostly travel through. Straight ahead was a pair of large double-doors which lead to the main room. It was from that room that Brivaria and Nyx heard voices.

  Brivaria’s large cat ears twitched as she heard the sounds. Even without a high awareness, the extra perceptive ears were a boon to simply hearing more. Once assured that this first room was empty, the two girls crept toward the opposite wall and a pair of double doors. Light poured from the opening as the two doors were already cracked open. They were open just far enough for the two adventurers to listen and, more importantly, see.

  “…and that is why tonight we must awaken our allies!” The man’s voice was booming and full of vigor as he shouted across the kneeling group. This was more like the various fanatical leaders Brivaria had seen across her many interventions on Zlithia.

  “Some still resist the call. They refuse to be a part of the future. We must help them onto their path and show them the way forward. After we awaken tonight, it will be their turn. By this time tomorrow, we shall all be ready to bring judgment to this land.”

  The speech was far from over but Brivaria didn’t need to hear more. This was exactly what she feared. To make matters worse, there was a monster from the Between in the room. It resembled a long-legged spider but its legs were the size of people and the abdomen possessed a needle-like stinger. It very slowly moved between the kneeling supplicants and stabbed the stinger into their bodies causing them to convulse briefly and then become still.

  There were beings across the multiverse with the ability to infest others. Some corrupted their victims directly, twisting their minds and souls into whatever form their corrupter desired. Some injected something into their victim to change them. She was personally familiar with this process thanks to her own Infernal Seed. Others injected their own offspring who would eventually grow within the victim either taking them over or simply using them as a host until they ate their way out. There were many others and the angel was far from an expert in the subject but she could recognize an infestor when she saw one.

  As Keller and the others had the ability to transform while still retaining something of their original personality, Brivaria felt fairly confident the infestor was not wholesale replacing the people. Whatever it was injecting them with was changing them. Worse, Talver had shared with the team that no clergy within Barton could purify the cultists meaning everyone who was injected and whose transformation completed was lost. They had to do something about this. Moreover, they had to find the people who were “resisting the call” as the cultist leader put it. Those people could be saved for certain.

  “We need the others,” Nyx said in a hushed whisper. The angel nodded.

  “Let’s tell Carter to go get them and then look around for those people who have yet to change,” Brivaria suggested.

  “Sounds like a plan.” Nyx gave a thumbs up and they scurried back upstairs to fill Carter in.

  The cleaner was still dutifully performing his role though Brivaria suspected there was no one on the main or second floor of the house for the facade to fool. In fact, if not for the cleaner’s prior appointment, Brivaria doubted the doorman would have been present to answer the door.

  They gave Carter the rundown and asked him to go get the rest of the team. The angel also gave instructions for them to go left after coming downstairs. Based on what she knew of the building from Carter’s earlier description, she assumed the captives—those still uninfected—would be in one of the side rooms while the main group was undergoing their metamorphosis or whatever was going on. The best case scenario was that they could rescue those people before dealing with the rest.

  Carter left and the two girls went back downstairs to begin navigating the halls of the basement. There were a couple luxurious sitting rooms for entertaining guests of the family and then they got to the staff-focused areas. The angel was starting to wonder just how many rooms a place like this needed when they entered a T-shaped junction and nearly collided with a man coming from the side door.

  “Who’re you?” he asked reflexively. Brivaria and Nyx didn’t even have time to make up a story before they saw realization flicker across his face. He drew a breath to shout but Nyx was faster.

  Nyx had been leveling up over the last couple weeks. She’d been getting stronger at a rate that was almost as insane as Brivaria’s own. Unlike Kseniya, Nyx loved talking about her skills and showing off her new ones. Despite all of her recent progress, Nyx hadn’t been able to show off since the party so what happened next took Brivaria completely off-guard.

  Nyx swung one of her claws, swiping at the man’s chest, and Brivaria saw something else appear. It was like a phantom claw overlaid on Nyx’s own but twice as large. Not only that but a second claw strike followed the first and it was equally large. The man’s shout never came as Nyx removed the entire front half of his body. Blood and internal organs splattered against the nearby wall. He was dead before his body even hit the ground. Nyx looked on in horror at her own hand.

  “He surprised me, I didn’t mean to…” Nyx began to say but Brivaria cut her off.

  “Good job. That’s one down. They’ll realize he’s missing soon and we need to find the people before that happens,” Brivaria said quickly and grabbed Nyx’s hand, pulling the cat girl along toward the other door.

  Brivaria had been the one to kill Jeffrey Keller as well as the other man. She’d killed dozens if not hundreds of men and women during interventions. She was well past the point of those things haunting her conscience but Nyx wasn’t. Nyx had fought monsters up to this point. As Brivaria saw Nyx’s reaction, she realized that the cat girl had never killed another person before; not with her own two hands anyway.

  The angel had to get Nyx away from the body and refocused on the mission. There were at least twelve people in the large room and Brivaria needed Nyx capable of doing what she’d just done and more to their enemies. The angel-turned-cat pulled Nyx into the next room.

  “Can you do that again?” Brivaria asked while peering into the next room to ensure it was empty before fully entering.

  “I… um… need momentum for Kinetic Discharge,” Nyx stammered. She was moving and speaking. That was good.

  “Good. Get as much as you can. The other cultists aren’t going to make it easy for you. They’re transforming even now and they’ll kill us if they find us. Strike hard and strike fast if you see another one. We don’t know how many people are trapped down here but they’re all depending on us to help them,” Brivaria whispered.

  “Right,” Nyx whispered back.

  That was the best the angel could hope for. She couldn’t let Nyx freeze up or go into shock. They had to keep moving, keep acting, and keep putting distance between them and the dead man. There would be time for Nyx to come to terms with things later but only if the two of them survived.

  Two rooms later, they found the captives. There were 9 people awaiting their time to be forcefully infested and transformed. These unwilling subjects would have their minds subjugated by whatever the infestor did and become little more than living soldiers for the Between and their captors. Unlike those in the main room, they’d be unlikely to retain any semblance of their former selves as the forceful conversion would be a destructive one. Brivaria wasn’t going to let that happen.

  A pair of guards watched over the bound men and women. They were probably house guards as they wore the Meyers family heraldry over their armor and carried swords at their belts. There was no way to stealthily enter the room without skills so Nyx and Brivaria the next best thing—they barged right in. Brivaria didn’t even try to reason with the two guards. It would be pointless. She charged the nearest one, trusting the faster cat girl to do the same to the one on the opposite side of the room.

  The man saw the dark-haired catfolk running at him and had a moment of hesitation before reaching for his sword. That moment was all it took for the angel-turned-cat to reach him. She wasn’t in her demon or hell gaunt form but catfolk claws worked just as well for her Natural Weapons skill. A deadly combination of decaying and unholy magic flowed into the angel’s claws giving them each a black glow as she bore down on the man.

  The man was unlucky enough to be wearing a gorget, armor around his neck, but not a helmet. Brivaria’s first swing took him across the face and her second ended the man’s life. It was a gruesome way to die with wounds not even the System could heal in a reasonable time. She willed away Meridian Fang’s attempt to give her his memories and let Energy Drain take his soul. He’d been a young man and his level had been somewhere in the thirties. His soul added three points to Brivaria’s physique. Her ears twitched as she heard a grunt and looked over toward Nyx.

  Nyx hadn’t reached the man before he could draw his blade but she’d gotten there before he could brace for impact. Her foot hit his armored stomach and discharged what little momentum the catfolk girl had regained. The man flew back and the only reason he remained upright was that he hit the wall behind him.

  The captives were kneeling with their hands and legs bound by rope. The furniture was pushed up against the walls to make a large open space for the prisoners. Doubtless there were a few with a high enough physique to break the ropes or skills to free themselves but weren’t yet desperate enough to take their chances against two armed guards. Brivaria made the choice for them as she ran toward Nyx. Her claws flickered out, slicing through bindings here and there as she moved among them toward her teammate.

  The cult guard recovered quickly and moved even faster. He used some kind of flank step ability against Nyx because one moment he was against the wall and the next he was right next to the cat girl and bringing his sword down on her. Nyx didn’t react in time. The sword came down and cut into the cat girl. No, it cut through her, simply moving through her shoulder and continuing down as though she weren’t even there. Suddenly she wasn’t. Nyx appeared a short distance to the side and drove her fist straight into the guard’s nose.

  The blow didn’t stagger the man and he rallied immediately. His sword swung at Nyx a second time and now she had to jump back to avoid it. Upon creating space, he turned to meet Brivaria’s charge. He was definitely more experienced than the dead guard. That didn’t help him as one of Brivaria’s claws bathed the room in Bleak Radiance and she hurled a Bolt of Decay at him with the other. Whatever attribute advantage the man had over his two attackers was immediately undone as decay weakened him.

  At that moment, he still could have surrendered but chose not to. He underestimated the two women and paid for it with his life. The man’s sword couldn’t even touch Brivaria. The warrior angel had experience with many weapons. Claws were not one of them but she learned quickly and a great deal of her battle experience aided her, regardless of what weapon she wielded. Ultimately her claws took his life and she experienced the ecstasy of adding another soul to her collection. The dead man’s soul added four points to her arcane attribute.

  “New skill?” Brivaria asked, way too casually for Nyx’s mind to comprehend.

  “Yes, is he…?” Nyx trailed off while looking down at the dead man.

  “Very much so. Now let’s get the rest of these people free,” the angel turned to find the people she freed looking at her with confusion. Well, all but one of them was. One man, a lean fellow with a black, pencil-thin mustache and neatly cropped hair, had produced a small knife, freed his feet, and then begun to free all the others.

  “I’m Brivaria and this is Nyx. We’re adventurers and we’re getting you out of here. Our companions should be arriving shortly. There’s a whole bunch of cultists in the big room who are transforming into monsters. We need to get you all out of here fast,” she explained to the group. The man with the mustache nodded.

  “You heard her. The adventurers have some monsters to slay and we need to be out here,” he said with a surprisingly calm and resonant voice. “Are the back hallways safe?” Brivaria and Nyx were already moving to help free the others. The angel replied while she worked.

  “If you mean the ones through the door we came from then yes though we’ll walk you to the stairway first.” They’d freed just about everyone when the side door opened. It was the door to the main room. A cultist stood looking into the room. His gaze looked from the newly freed captive to the two cat girls working to free the rest. Either they’d made too much noise or this was just lousy timing.

  “Nyx, get them out. I’ll distract our friends,” Brivaria said while throwing herself at the man in the doorway. She pushed him into the main room and used Current Control to shut the door behind her. Twelve pairs of glowing eyes looked at her and the spider-like infestor extended its long stinger.