Chapter Eighty-One - Turning to Ashes

"Holy sh*t, what a bunch of boring people you are!" Locke commented. "Am I not going to take a single step in this f*cking place without bumping into another bunch of you, assholes?"

The group of 'Golden Knights' ran towards him brandishing their weapons with violence as they shouted, various types of magic were hurled towards him in addition to other projectile attacks such as arrows and bolts.

Locke sighed and disappeared from his position, creating a shock wave with the movement, he tore through the cultists like a bowling ball through a cluster of pins, sending them flying in various directions.

"Stop him! We can't let him pass us!" One cultist screamed, unlike the others, his golden armor was adorned with beautiful precious jewels, which made Locke suspect that he was the leader of this group.

Locke appeared in front of the man and landed a powerful punch on the ornate helmet, the fist left a huge dent in the cultist's face and knocked him to the ground with violence, blood running down the sides of the golden helmet.

The fall of their apparent leader didn't make the other cultists lose moral, instead they took a drastic step, all raised their hands at the same time and touched the chests of the golden armor.

The golden armor began to glow, words in a strange and incandescent language ascended over them and the knights screamed, Locke could feel a strange strength surge in each of the armored men and women, they leapt at Locke like they were mad beasts, the pattern of their attacks has completely changed and they have become much more violent.

Although the strength of each of them wasn't even close enough to face Locke, the group attack showed some margin of success, the 'Golden Knights' cultists were like an endless human wave, although Locke was holding on not to tear these people apart with his jabs he still are hitting hard enough to send people flying with every move and leave deep dents in they golden armor, but still the cultists rose and continued their incessant attacks.

Every time one of the golden armored cultists fell, their armor started to make loud noises as if the metal are cracking, they broken bones and the twisted limbs would turn horribly and the bodies would rise again, these people would run back to the battle despite the deplorable state of their bodies.

"Whattaf*ck?" Locke commented uncomprehendingly, even the fallen leader was standing, a thing that would have been impossible given the angle his neck had rotated earlier, Locke launched a powerful kick that sent the man flying, the leader's body curved awkwardly and Locke felt that the force of that blow was enough to cripple this person or even kill him, but once again he heard the snap of the armor and the leader's body began to twist in a strange way and the cultist got up and went back to attack.

'Interesting...' Locke thought, he disappeared from his place and appeared behind the leader who had just stood up, he immobilized him with shackles made of shadows and disappeared again, appearing in a corner of the room, he created a multidirectional shield that isolated him from the angry mob while analyzing the immobilized enemy's body.

Focusing on his senses, Locke began to analyze the entire structure of the armor and the man inside it, although he didn't know the language that formed the runes on the armor he could more or less understand the purpose of half of the magic circuits. they are some basic sh*t like he had expected, some body booster, mana booster and things alike, but part of the circuit was still a total mystery to him, he suspected that part was responsible for the 'miraculous' recovery of these cultists.

Locke then turned his attention to the state of the leader cultist and his armor, to his surprise he was still alive, Locke suspected that the rest of the circuit was turning the fallen cultist into some kind of zombie, but the reality was more bizarre, the leader cultist was alive but far from what could be considered in good condition, his consciousness was gone but his eyes were wide like a madman's, there was blood leaking from his mouth, nose, ears and eyes and the color of his face it was strange, red as if his skin was on fire, Locke could also feel that the man's spine had been broken in two places, in the neck and waist, but the body continued to function as if the spine were unnecessary, it should have been impossible for him to keep moving, but still the man kept kicking violently trying to get free of the shadows shackles.

The man frothed as he struggled, trying to free himself from the bonds Locke had trapped him in, his teeth under his helmet are chattering violently, so hard that some began to splinter, he screamed and moaned as he tried to attack Locke.

Outside the group of mad cultists continued to attack the shield with violence, but Locke ignored it, he continued to investigate the leader's body in his hands, he grabbed the chest plate of the golden armor and pulled, his claws sank into the golden metal without difficulty and he ripped the entire plate off, to his surprise a bunch of brown strands plucked together with the chest plate, turning the man's chest into a bloody mess in the process.

"Errr...sorry about that..." Locke was being honest, he wouldn't kill a defeated enemy unless there was a need, but he didn't feel bad either, after all this was one of the people willing to destroy the world in favor of their own interests.

The brown threads on the chest plate moved as if they had a life of their own, they moved towards Locke's arm and tried to pass through his scales without success, Locke looked at the inner surface of the armor and noticed that beneath the metal plate was something Alien-looking and abnormal, a strange flesh-colored mass that pulsed as if it were alive, Locke studied the thing with his dragon eyes and felt that the creature's mana had been masked by the circuitry in the golden plate.

'EWWWWWWW!!!!' Tia commented through the mental link. 'Do these people let these things touch they skin??' the fairy made a sound like someone retching.

"What the f*ck is this?" Locke questioned as he watched the creature, the tentacles desperately tried to break through its defenses as the fleshy surface grew darker, the creature's attempt are more like a desperate effort than an violence attempt and soon Locke could see why, once separated from its host the creature began to darken and dry up, and soon its tentacles lost strength and became withered and brittle, and soon the whole creature was completely turned to dust.

"So it's some kind of a parasite thing... It seems to combine with the armor's mana circuitry and works to keep the host working even with his body all screwed up... I doubt the host will live for long once this thing wakes up. …" Locke commented, pleased to quench his curiosity. "Hey Tia, do you know what this thing is? Is there any information about this in my father's files?"

'No, I've never seen anything like this before and we don't have any information about it in the files we've opened so far either, but these guys seem to be experts at altering monsters so maybe this is something they created themselves...' The fairy replied seriously. "Anyway, as you've already noticed, I believe using these things has been a death sentence for everyone here, so you know what that means, right?'

"It means I don't need to hold back!" Locke replied.

In fact, it wasn't like he cared whether or not to kill these cultists in the first place, Locke believed in a very simple principle, if someone is ready to kill they must be ready to die, some of these people were more than ready to kill, they are willing to kill innocent people who didn't even know about the supernatural world, so they had no right to complain.

Of course he knew that one or other could actually are just being used or had their free will taken away, when he investigated the memories of the cultists he faced previously he can see that everyone who was part of that group went through at least one 'rite' of mental conditioning, so it wouldn't be a surprise if one or another of this group were being controlled or brainwashed, but by the time they made the decision to activate this power at the cost of their own lives it was too late for them and Locke didn't feel bad at all and put them out of their misery.

"Let's get this over with!" Locke exclaimed, he opened both hands and began to force them together in the air, his telekinetic power created two counter shock waves that swept the cultists towards the middle of the room, the cultists tried to withstand the pressure of Locke's attack, but their strength was insufficient and they were soon sent flying.

The cultists thrashed as their bodies bumped and compacted, trapped by the invisible force that held them together, Locke continued to exert his telekinesis to the fullest while squeezing as hard as he could, the cultists armors finally began to give up as the cultists were crushed against each others, some screamed like furious beasts while others continued to struggle and try to escape Locke's invisible hand.

Locke increased the pressure of the telekinetic force and the bodies began to be crushed even faster, the cultists could no longer resist and their bodies gave way, turning into a mass of metal and flesh, yet they were still alive.

"To all those of you who didn't have a real choice I offer my sincere apologies... Fortunately it seems that the parasite has taken away your abilities to feel pain, so allow me to at least give you a proper funeral..." Locke held the telekinetic prison over the group of cultists with one hand, he reached out with the other and a black flame erupted in his palm, he aimed the flame at the mass of metal and shapeless bodies and released a torrent of black flames.

Locke's idea was to burn these people to ashes, freeing them from the abominations attached to their bodies and give them a clean death, the flames engulfed the cultists as they spread with extreme speed, covering the bodies and dyeing everything black, Locke soon cut off the mana supply and let the flame spread on its own, the black flame was violent and vicious and consumed the bodies with an intense speed, even the golden armor was destroyed by the flames as well as the aberrations that existed beneath it.

Locke maintained the telekinetic prison, even as the cultists died they continued to struggle in an attempt to get back into the fight, he let them burn trapped by his telekinesis until he felt they were no longer moving, where he finally broke the force on the bodies, which fell on each other as they continued to burn, soon there were only ashes left.

He took a deep breath, regaining the mana he had used, he then proceeded through the tunnel the cultists were guarding.