Amalas, Andrius, Misa and Hilbert sneak into a large church at night. It's a church to the god of light and life, beautifully decorated with gold and white marmer surfaces everywhere. Expertly crafted statues of angelic beings are prominent. Easily the most beautiful building any of them has ever been inside.

They're not here to appreciate the scenery however. The church is attached to many underground temples. They arrive at a stairwell and drink their potions before opening the door. Hilbert fights 2 guards to the left on his own, Andrius blinds a guard by shooting an arrow in his eye while Misa and Amalas approach a different guard from 2 sides before stabbing him to death. The whole thing is quite messy. There's a long hallway with small chapels to every major god. There's a blood altar, water altar, and of course one to the god of death.

Misa feels compelled to make a blood sacrifice, even though the rest of them disapprove of it. They decide not to press the issue, perhaps reasoning that they have more important things to worry about right now.

They continue walking past the various temples, and enter into a massive underground cavern, filled with pyramid like structures, devoted to different gods. They enter one of the closest ones, dedicated to the god of life.

Once inside a man runs at them, he is nearly naked, and covered in strange glowing, circular, orange tattoos.

Please help me! Get it off me! The glowing tattoos start to shine and the largest tattoo on his back forms a small portal, which sucks in part of his back and spine, leaving the man in agonising pain as his body folds in half now that it can no longer support its own weight. An insect-like creature crawls out of the portal, roughly the size of a dog. Andrius rapidly shoots arrows at the creature, but its thick carapace deflects the arrows. Hilbert closes in on it and cuts off its head. The rest of its body walking aimlessly for a few seconds, then collapsing.

I have no idea what the fuck this is, Hilbert explains. What happens in these temple areas is unknown to me. Andrius drinks a health potion to calm his nerves.

Andrius nervously looks around again and keeps his legs close together.

Andrius has to take a leak, Amalas says.

We don't have much time, so hurry up. You know if you wouldn't constantly drink those potions perhaps you could make it for an hour without having to go, Hilbert says, somewhat frustrated.

Come on now, it's just health potions, he could be addicted to far worse things than that, Amalas says.

It's not an addiction! Andrius yells from the other side of the room as he is taking a leak. I just like how they taste.

Whatever Andrius, just hurry up with your temple desecration, Hilbert says, whilst already starting to move away.

I feel so useless in this, Amalas tells Hilbert. As an assassin my talents are wasted here.

It's true, our squad's composition is not very good. Would've been nice if Luka was still with us, may he rest in peace, Hilbert says. His spells would've been ideal for a mission like this.

Who is Luka? Misa asks.

He was our battle mage, knew fire magic and some basic healing spells. Amalas replies.

Very talented guy he was, Hilbert says. Entered the magical combat tournament in Zococ. He made it all the way to the semi-finals before he got killed by a blood mage, a half-demon. He looks over angrily at Misa for a few seconds, before looking back to the hallways.

The security should've never allowed her to enter, she was clearly insane, Amalas says, angered.

I heard she was a noble so her family pulled some strings to let her in. She's banned now I believe, Hilbert says calmly.

Still, they didn't even prosecute her. If any non-noble person did such a thing they'd be sentenced to death for murder, or into slavery. Amalas continues.

Well that's why we do these things Amalas, to get rid of this corrupt system once and for all. Let this anger motivate you. We must avenge our friend and many others like him who have fallen.

They continue on, walking through the narrow passageways, which frequently diverge to medium-large open rooms with altars inside them. Several more of these slaves with portals on their backs appear, but this time they kill them and cut the bodies into pieces so the portals don't activate. Hilbert does most of the fighting with Andrius providing additional assistance with his arrows. Hilbert doesn't seem bothered by this however, he enjoys the carnage and bloodshed.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

They continue to make progress and enter a room where a priest is kneeling, performing prayers. It's the first somewhat normal looking person they've encountered.

Under the threat of violence he gives them directions to the holding area where they prepare sacrifices. Then they tie him up and gag him so he can't inform anyone else about their presence. Somewhat to the surprise of Misa, when they infiltrated the prison cell they seemed to just kill the guards mercilessly, but now that they're in a temple they're suddenly okay with sparing lives.

They make their way to the holding area, which is unguarded. Surprising for such an important area. After looking around for a bit they find a set of keys hanging near the entrance and they make way to the cells.

There's about 8 individual cells, all of them are empty except one. It's hot and the area is heated and illuminated by a bowl of fire on a mid-sized pillar in the center. The floor and walls are formed from red clay.

They walk to the cell, where a young man sits, he's quite happy to see them. He's wearing similar robes to the priest. White covered with gold.

Good to see you guys! He says. Hilbert greets him, it's been a long time, Luther.

They open the cell door and Luther steps out. Then Hilbert and Andrius grab Misa's arms. What are you doing? Let go of me! Misa yells. Her heart starts pounding faster. She can feel that this is going to end badly.

Luther removes the daggers from her hands and takes her bag.

Amalas apologises. Sorry Misa. We agreed to exchange you for Luther. We blamed you for stealing the medical supplies, and in return we'd get Luther back. It wasn't my decision, he says. His eyes seem watery but he does not cry. Andrius doesn't even look at her, whilst Hilbert is hiding a smirk behind his bandana.

No. Why are you doing this to me, I helped you guys! You promised you would help me! Misa says. Tears start rolling down her cheeks. They throw her into the cell and lock the door.

Don't worry, it will all be over soon, Amalas says.

Don't do this to me! Please! She yells. But they walk away to the exit without even looking back. Except Hilbert who waits near the exit as the rest of them leave. I despise you Misa, I wish I could kill you myself. I will personally see to it that every demon I come across will be killed, you're despicable, all of you should be removed from existence. If you weren't an orphan I'd slaughter your family as well.

Before Misa gets a chance to reply he closes the door.

Misa feels hopeless and betrayed. She trusted them. Why was I so stupid to ever trust anyone. You can't depend on people. You can't rely on anyone but yourself. Those fucking assholes used me.

But now is not the time for pity.

How in the hell am I going to escape from here.

I'm going to need to kill myself so I revive outside of here. But I can't risk them taking my amulet.

She removes her amulet and hides it inside her body. Then she tries to commit suicide by tying the bandages that she uses as a bra around her neck and the prison bars. But it is difficult. It's thick, elastic material and she can't tie it tightly enough to choke herself.

Not long afterwards her suicide attempt is interrupted as four men arrive, wearing the same white with gold robes.

Please, let me go, they helped me steal those medical supplies, she explains. I can tell you where their hideout is! But the men don't say a word.

They open the door. One man holds her legs and a different one restrains her arms. They wear what little clothing she is wearing and wash her with cold water. Then they dress her in pure white robes and take her away from the cell.

Please stop, I didn't do anything, she pleads. But the men don't respond. They haven't said a single word to her, they completely ignore her no matter what she does.

They arrive at the top of the temple where there is a blood covered altar and a group of followers, chanting prayers. The altar is on a raised platform about 5 steps high. Around the altar are several pillars with bowls of fire. At the bottom of the steps lie 7 bodies with their organs removed.

Several priests are around the altar.

Misa is placed on the altar on her back. Two of the priests restrain her arms and legs to keep her from moving.

Stop, please don't hurt me! A third priest places his hand over Misa's mouth to silence her.

The head priest starts reciting a prayer from a book as he stands next to Misa on the altar.

The followers chant several prayers in a language she does not comprehend.

The head priest reveals a golden, decorated dagger and a complete silence occurs.

They push Misa's head forward so she is facing her stomach.

The head priest slowly places the tip of the dagger on Misa's stomach. She closes her eyes, but the priest that is covering her mouth uses his other hand to force her eyes open.

The knife is forced into her stomach and they cut a large X, but not very deeply. Misa is in immense pain, she can feel everything.

Then the head priest starts pulling out her intestines. He throws pieces of it into the bowls of a fire. Following that he removes her liver, stomach, all while Misa is still alive and forced to watch.

Finally he rips out her heart and all the followers cheer. Misa is still conscious for another 20 seconds before she dies. The moment she dies, her body instantly vanishes. The priests are puzzled by this, but they see it as a divine acceptance of their sacrifice, and continue the ceremony.