The city came into sight in the distance. We had crossed over into a level 1 zone. Lots of white rabbits. I could easily kick one and it would die, turning to dust and dropping a crystal in the air. There had been no sign of the Ritualist or any kind of response.

There were no people outside the city either, which wasn’t a good sign in the middle of the day. I noted there were towers above the gate and an actual door that was open. There was no movement. I listened, and there was no sound.

I looked at Naran who shook his head. I decided against going over the wall. I went straight through the tunnel, checking for traps and ambushes. There was nothing. We entered the city, and it was completely deserted. We went into the towers and there was a communication stone.

I put both hands on the large stone, but there was no one on the other end. I let go and shook my head at Naran. We left the tower and made our way to the top of the wall. There was nothing in sight except an Airship Port in the center of the city. After that we made our way to the plaza. I noted that the buildings had been cleared and the street was straight.

We eventually reached the plaza and there was nothing. We each got restorations, supplies, and Naran got a new sword. No monsters, no people, no traps, and no Ritualist. “This is weird, I was expecting something, not this,” Naran said.

“I agree. Unless the Ritualist is moving to surround the city after we entered, it makes no sense. Let’s go up the Airship Port,” I said. We went up the elevator and it was identical to the one in Purgatory. Looking out from the platform, there was no sign. We sat up there and had a late breakfast or an early lunch.

“I don’t like this, first that fake Ajani, and now this. I don’t see the trap, unless the Ritualist ran away to hide in the wilderness?” I speculated.

“Maybe. Hard to say,” Naran replied.

“Well the arrival was two days ago. Clearly the Ritualist was here then, since there are no people left in the city. The city had people before, since it has city buildings, not just the Airship Port. So the people were wiped out,” I said.

“Don’t city buildings have to be owned by a person?” Naran asked.

“But they don’t disappear if that person dies, unlike regular buildings. Ownership just passes on and that can then be adjust by the Rod of Control,” I replied.

“So everyone was wiped out and was wiped out again. That assumes that the arrival is the same for all cities,” Naran said.

“Since there are already so many similarities and we have seen five cities with the same concept, I don’t think it is much of a stretch,” I replied and we were silent. That was when I heard a muffled sound. “Hear that?” I asked Naran who shook his head.

We went back down the Airship Port and began to check the nearby buildings. It was the Meeting Chamber that we walked into what could only be called a horror scene. There were tables with people chained down to them, missing their hands and feet.

There were bits of flesh scattered about. Several of the people were moaning in pain and delirious. There was a clear progression of people based on the age of their wounds. It took my brain about a minute to fully comprehend what was happening here.

“It is a hybrid production facility using consumption,” I whispered. Naran’s head snapped towards me. “This is the Ritualist’s production factory for hybrids. He probably heads out with his army to grind, comes back for arrivals. And makes new level 3 hybrids and fills up the earlier stages. In ten to twenty days, he will be chugging along with large amounts of hybrids.”

“There has to be four to five hundred people here. His army, it has to be…massive,” Naran said.

“I…I don’t know what we should do,” I muttered, looking at all the people. “I guess we should kill them, but that is going to take a while.”

“The Ritualist will know we are here, and will respond,” Naran replied.

“Well this proves Ajani was not real beyond any doubt. If she came into the city she would have found or heard this…this…whatever this is.” Words were failing me right now.

“But the Ritualist would have to know we were coming, why leave his production undefended?” Naran asked. I quickly raced outside, but there was nothing. I frowned. All this felt off and I just didn’t understand the Ritualist’s trap. There was a trap for sure and it was annoying me I hadn’t spotted it yet.

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I pulled a sword from the sheathe at my side. “I am going to kill them all. I…keep watch for me, won’t you?” I asked Naran. He gave me a long look and then nodded. I let out a sigh and went into the building.

I couldn’t let the Ritualist build up even more of an army. I paused considering making hybrids of my own. But I couldn’t fight personally and control a monster at the same time. It was like trying to play a strategy game while doing intense exercise. You could do both, but neither one really well while doing the other.

I walked down the row of tables, stabbing each person in their head, one after another. Corpses couldn’t be used for hybridization. It was gruesome and tiring work. I had killed people before. Even people who were defenseless. I had even killed people to conduct total war against the Ritualist outside of Heaven.

But there was something disturbing about killing the suffering people over and over. No tears were shed, but I felt sad and depressed to engage in such butchery. This was true evil. Not the human experimentation, or torture, but reducing people to an assembly line of death to produce monsters.

Still, I didn’t feel like the good guy as I killed these helpless and suffering people. It wasn’t even worth trying to talk to them. They would know nothing. They were just things for the Ritualist to use to build up his power. I didn’t think it was possible to hate the man any more than I already did, but he found a way.

That cold rage that burned in my chest with my vow to kill him, grew a bit hot once more. I wasn’t a good person, but I at least tried dammit! Killing people got harder as I got to the higher stat individuals. I had to put my back into the killing strikes now.

Was this the future of the Systemic Lands? Armies of hybrids sent to battle each other. Using people as an assembly line of horror. Ritualists rampaging about, using a city as a charnel house of misery and suffering to fuel their army.

I was really having to put in effort now to kill the last remaining people as I hacked into them. At least these people were mostly comatose, but the occasional one would scream and thrash about.

I finally finished killing them all. No more moans of pain. No more screaming. No more mumbled prayers. It was over. I dropped my sword on the floor of the building and just walked out. Naran was outside keeping watch. He glanced over at me as I walked to the store pillars.

I purchased a flask and some water. I began washing off my hands and pouring the water over my face. The flask quickly ran out and I purchased more water and repeated the process a couple more times. I then tossed the flask to the side and purchased another sword.

“You alright?” Naran came over and asked me.

“Yeah, I am fine. Don’t want to talk about it right now. That was horrible. I didn’t think I could hate the Ritualist any more than I currently hate him, but by the Almighty System he finds a way,” I answered.

“You could have asked me,” Naran said.

“I condemned the people and the war with the Ritualist is mine, not yours. I should be the one to do the dirty work. If I am not willing to do it, then who is?” I shook my head. Also, Naran had his own issues, and I didn’t want to add to them. “Well, I think we learned about all we can here. Unless you can think of anything else?”

“We could wreck the pillars and buildings?” Naran suggested and I considered that.

“Not a bad idea. Let’s find the crafting buildings and wreck them. He can spend points to fix it all up. Should slow him down,” I replied and we got to work. We went around the plaza and found the crafting buildings. A well place Acid Shot would melt the tables. Naran would smash the pillars inside the buildings.

When I checked the main store outside, once the pillar inside of the buildings were destroyed, then they would need someone in them, so they didn’t reset until they were repaired at full cost. No half price from the store.

We found the City Shield building with no points remaining. That was concerning that the people had a shield here but didn’t make it. They probably didn’t realize they could trap the Ritualist inside the city and wipe out most of his army all at once, since the city shield disrupted tethers.

That meant the Ritualist probably knew about the effect as well and wouldn’t fall into a trap of entering Purgatory, where we could cut his control and then kill him. It would have been quite enjoyable to trap the man, just like he had used traps on me, but apparently that wasn’t going to happen.

I smashed up this building as well. With all the points the Ritualist had stolen from me, it was only right to make him pay through the nose to get these buildings back. Once we finished wrecking the buildings we set off to the West. Time to head back to Purgatory and let the Ritualist wonder who had wrecked his little fiefdom and butcher shop.

I didn’t hold out much hope for it setting him back too much, it would still be a setback. More than enough to consider it a poke in the eye and enraging him. I could just picture him shouting and raging, but no one to hear him except his monsters. He could listen to his own screams of rage. A more than fitting punishment, for just one percent of all the grief he had given me.

“Above,” Naran pointed out. There was a monster circling above. Well, the Ritualist had finally returned from wherever he was hiding or grinding a bit too late. Naran and I were refreshed and had wrecked his city. Now we just needed to get away.

I wasn’t that worried. In a fight, that would be tricky, but escaping, that was easy. Even if the Ritualist had consumption, I could fight and run with the best of them. Easily matching level 4 monsters. The Ritualist would struggle rushing full speed to catch me.

Even if a monster did catch up, I could run and gun using Acid Shot. My regeneration would help me out here, since he couldn’t send everything in a straight line at me. His monsters would have to take curved routes and would struggle to catch up.

Once we reached the stonelands, it would get even worse for the Ritualist to process all the uneven footing across whatever horde he had assembled. While I had little confidence in winning, I was confident he couldn’t pin me down. Naran, with his higher Body stat would easily be able to outpace the Ritualist and his forces.

The real question was if he had managed to make a level 4 hybrid. That could be a game changer if he had multiple of them. Well, what was done, was done. Time to go deal with the consequences.