Looking at the elite soldiers surrounding them, and recalling what had happened the night before, the serfs trembled and knelt on the ground, begging for mercy. But they gradually fell silent under the shouts of the surrounding soldiers.
As the camp search was completed, the soldiers took their places one by one. Astaire came up to Lind, carrying a bag in his hand.
"Sir, as you predicted, I caught one. This is the evidence I found on him."
As he spoke, Aster opened the bag, revealing a pair of evil sacrificial items bound and woven by human hands.
Linde looked at the object, which exuded an evil aura, and suddenly understood.
Who were the people arrested?
"He was a soldier who joined the team two years ago, an ordinary soldier. After I gave the order, he tried to leave the team under the pretext of convenience. When he tried to escape, his teammates discovered him. He was caught by me when he injured a soldier and tried to escape. I broke his limbs and tied him up."
"Alright, follow my instructions to divide the crowd, and kill anyone who shows any unusual behavior on the spot."
"Yes, sir."
After making the arrangements, Linde cleared his throat and addressed the serfs below.
"Fellow citizens, I am your lord, Lind Truk. I believe you are already aware of the attack last night. Some cultists from the End Society have infiltrated your ranks."
As Lind finished speaking, a fierce reaction erupted among the serfs.
The crowd quieted down again after being shouted at and threatened with weapons by the surrounding soldiers.
“They are hiding among you, and we will now bring these cultists to justice on the spot.”
"Therefore, from now on, anyone who wants to leave the team will be killed without exception."
Astaire gestured toward Lind:
"The soldiers are ready, sir. We may begin."
It's clear that Astaire trusts Lind completely and has never questioned Lind's orders. Although he may not be loyal to Lind, he is very loyal to the Truk name.
"Sigh, I hope there aren't any cultists among the soldiers," Lind thought to himself.
Seeing that they were ready, they began to reduce the range of the activation halo.
As the activation halo continued to shrink, Linde's perception of the activity of surrounding organisms became increasingly clear.
If we compare them by light, based on the activity level of his own bronze warrior strength, the ordinary soldiers around him appear somewhat dim, while the brightest one nearby is Aster, who shines like a high-powered light bulb.
Looking at Alice again, the active light emanating from her was only of normal size, but its color was somewhat different. It was a normal white mixed with some cyan light, probably because she had learned magic.
Linde then looked at the serfs trembling in the middle, most of whom were glowing with a faint, gentle white light; they were ordinary serfs.
Among these white lights, a few clusters of blackish-red spots stood out as particularly glaring.
The few black and red dots of light exuded a dark aura, and the lingering fishy smell was nauseating. Just one glance made Lind feel uncomfortable. This aura seemed to be linked to something extremely dark, and it emitted a series of enticing whispers.
As I expected, the activation halo could not only activate the core within the cult members' bodies, but could also be directly identified through perception, which greatly surprised Lind.
The reason why cults have never been completely eradicated is that they can hide in the crowd and are difficult to identify.
Linde breathed a sigh of relief, relieved that there were no hidden cultists among the soldiers.
Under Lind's command, the soldiers quickly separated the groups of people where the lights were located and began to gradually separate the crowd.
As the number of people around them dwindled, some cultists began to realize that this seemingly young lord might possess a way of identifying them, and they gradually became restless.
The leader whispered to the two lower-ranking cult members around him:
“Oh no, this Truk family member seems to be able to recognize us. We can’t let him live. You… and you, start ‘sacrificing’ to cover for me and get rid of him, otherwise he will be the biggest threat to the church in the future.”
"M-Sir, our core is getting out of control," one of the lower-ranking cultists said in a terrified voice.
"Sir, I...me too! What...what's going on?"
The person in charge was shocked upon hearing this, not because of the loss of control of other lower-level cult members, but because his own core was also starting to become somewhat out of control.
As the lower-ranking cultists began to spiral out of control, the surrounding soldiers began to disperse the normal serfs and surround the lower-ranking cultists who were undergoing transformation.
One of the low-level cultists, who was undergoing a transformation, grabbed a serf who had collapsed to the ground in fear. In just one exchange, he drained the serf of his life force, leaving only a skin and bones.
It then let out a chilling scream and transformed into a bizarre-looking monster with several strong, slender, flesh-colored limbs growing from its back.
Teeth are gradually replaced by newly grown sharp teeth, and the facial muscles gradually become distorted. What was originally the nose is pushed aside by a newly grown red eyeball, making it uncomfortable to look at.
As the monster appeared, the surrounding soldiers no longer hesitated and thrust out the spears they were holding tightly.
The sharp spear pierced the monster's flesh. The seemingly smooth, pink flesh was actually very tough. The spear got stuck after it pierced the flesh, and the soldier could not pull it out no matter how hard he tried.
The monster, in pain, flung out two strong limbs from its back like the wind, easily snapping the nearly wrist-thick gun barrel, and charged towards the surrounding soldiers.
At this moment, several bronze warriors wielding large shields and heavy axes stepped forward, catching the monster's powerful blow. They then swung their heavy axes, nearly severing the giant hand's wrist with a single strike.
With the combined efforts of two heavily armored bronze soldiers and several ordinary soldiers, the monsters were quickly killed one by one.
As Linde watched the battle around him gradually come to an end, he was just about to say that these cultists, apart from looking creepy, were not very strong in combat and should not be so weak, when a terrible howl broke out from one of the battle groups.
A bronze warrior was suddenly knocked away by something and landed next to Lind, his fate unknown.
Linde looked closely and saw two half-crippled monsters following a man dressed as a serf, breaking out of the soldiers' encirclement and rushing towards him.
"Hmph, I knew it wouldn't be that simple. As expected, there's a leader." Linde said, taking out his enchanted javelin and throwing it.
With a flash of silver light, a weakened monster next to the leader was shot through the skull and pinned to the ground.
But this did not slow down the leader's speed in the slightest; in just the next instant, he arrived in front of Lind.
The leader held a strange dagger that gleamed with a blood-red light and exuded a chilling, bloody aura, and thrust it straight at Lind.
"Die!" The person in charge had a twisted smile on his face.
"clang!"
With a loud thud, the seemingly fatal blow was blocked by a shield that shone with a silvery-white light.
The smile on the person in charge's face vanished abruptly.
But what met the shocked gaze of the person in charge was Astaire's resolute gaze.
"Heretics, do not harm my lord!"
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