The Other Side of the Mask

"This is a cult," XiaoLong suddenly deducts, covering his mouth in shock.

"A cult?"

"They're all wearing the same collar, and they all look like they're in a trance..."

"... and the statue must be what they worship," I finish.

I glance in fear as all the millions of common citizens kneel down to a tall man in a black cloak.

"Some power…" I shudder.

How did someone even get control of all these citizens? What are they even worshipping?

XiaoLong holds my hand tight, and we listen to the man speak.

"All of our loyal worshippers of the Freedom God. It is time for us to return to the side of our god, free and righteously. Although our dogs in the south have been captured, they never were shed the light bestowed upon us. We will proceed as planned. Once we retake the holy land of our god, we will be showered what we have all desired…"

I glance in horror of the greedy faces from the expressionless townspeople from before. The man on stage gives a big, nasty smile.

"The foolish dogs have not been chosen and captured by the dirty mortals. Well… no matter, we have always addressed ourselves as a group of bandits and were going to take over the rest of the two kingdoms anyways…"

He gives an evil cackle and the worshippers applaud. XiaoLong pulls me back, and we quickly hurry away to our hotel room.

We enter the hotel sneakily. Only after returning to our room did we let out our breath and pant.

"T-that was really m-messed up…" I comment almost scared out of my wits.

"Cults are the most dangerous… they'd even throw away their lives if their beliefs are strong enough…" XiaoLong speaks, "... to think we'd have such a big one targeted at us…"

I assist him down, and we sit side by side on the bed.

"How are your injuries still?"

"Fine, I think they'll heal soon enough."

"Good."

���... you're not going to check?" he teases.

My face burns up, and I look away, "O-of course n-not!"

"I'm just teasing you~"

I glare at him, still red-faced.

We report the cult back to Commander Yang in person in the morning.

"Don't bring the three troops. Protect the capital. The best way is to ambush and attack. I'm afraid this will be quite a bloody war," XiaoLong ponders fearfully, "Definitely report this to the royal families of both nations. They are both at risk."

I nod vehemently.

"Yes, your majesty," Commander Yang loyally salutes.

I clench my fist in anger. With so many people brainwashed into their cult, they'll definitely do damage to our side, and when that happens, we will be most vulnerable and other kingdoms may attack! This will put us in quite a predicament. We may be wiped out. Battle after battle is the hardest, and we can't even estimate the damage; maybe all those people from the mine cave are not it's full strength! We also don't know how far they'll go risking their lives in this!

I bite my finger nail, irately thinking.

XiaoLong pulls my hand away from my mouth and frowns, "Don't do that."

I come back to my senses, "O-oh… sorry."

"I'm thinking of investigating more to get a gist of their full power. If they're going to follow through with the plan the same, it'll be in the evening in two days."

"Sounds good, we'll infiltrate tonight," I conclude.