67 Chapter 67

According to Briar's information, the dark castle of the cult is now garrisoned by foot soldiers who are not magicians, but they have been upgraded using Dark Magic, which made them much stronger than ordinary people, turning them into an analogue of magical super-soldiers.

Each such soldier has the strength of a D-Rank Mage only due to their physical characteristics, which is actually a very impressive result. Also, such Dark Soldiers have in their arsenal a variety of melee and firearms with magical effects, which further increase their overall strength, so that in the end, they make good cannon fodder and support for the elite members of the cult.

By the way, creating such soldiers is one of the duties of the Avatar. Thanks to the fact that they invite gullible people into their cult, they have the opportunity to find talented people who are sent to training centers in order to later pervert them, making them faithful followers of Zeref.

The same people who do not shine with talents or are not magicians (this is the majority of the population) after a little sorting are used as a useful resource. Some are turned into Dark Soldiers, brainwashed, some are used for various experiments and dark rituals that the Dark Mages are so famous for, and others are used as free labor.

Previously, banal kidnapping was used to recruit slaves, but since this attracts the attention of the government, the Avatar began to act smarter.

In the Avatar headquarter leaves only two hundred soldiers, which form the garrison, with which I have yet to deal. As well as, several servants who take care of the needs of the elite members of the cult, because it is unsuitable for 'great mages' to do such servile work (the last one, a direct quote from Briar's notes), and also deal with the bureaucracy and it is they who work in the official building of the cult, as the main recruiters of new victims religion of Zeref.

Others, the Avatar sends to the friendly Dark Guilds, who also believe in Zeref and wish to change the world to suit his plans. In fact, if the Dark Guilds or Mages need either new magicians, or slaves, or victims, then they all turn to the Avatar and they send them without question those who once turned to them for help.

Hades, Guild master of Grimoire Heart, gathered half of his guild from children raised in Avatar's training centers.

And the mages who tried to build the Tower of Heaven before Jellal took over the project, come together, thanks to the Avatar. In addition, it was the cult who helped them with the resources needed to build the tower. And there are many such examples in the history of Fairy Tail.

Of course, not all dark mages became such because of the processing of the Avatar, but about 80% of all dark mages, just weaker and nothing of themselves, usually being subordinates of stronger magicians, owe their life path, namely to the Avatar.

And it's not that these people regret it, because the Avatar knows how to do his job and targets precisely those people who want strength / wealth / power, and the Avatar only helps the worst qualities of such people to open up and throw off all the shackles of morality in order to turn into monsters who will stop at nothing to get what they want.

Even without the Avatar, such people are more likely to would be on a slippery slope, but the cult has learned to use such people to their advantage.

A structure like this has been around for quite some time, and they've been doing this since the formation of the 'Cult of Zeref', so it's these people who should be thanked for the existence of so many Dark Mages, who, in fact, as I said, are only a resource for truly crazy and dangerous mages like Hades or Brain from the Oración Seis.

Now this organization acts under the guise of a cult of goodness and enlightenment, but it used to be called differently and was under the control of another person until the Magic Council destroyed the previous incarnation of this organization of evil, but their goal has never changed.

From what Briar knows, it looks like the organization was founded by Zeref's early fans, so as not to engage in the search and recruitment of useful henchmen and servants, because this is, firstly, a chore, and secondly, it is dangerous and you can accidentally expose yourself to a government that will not tolerate this.

In fact, the Avatar is the connection of all dark mages with the ordinary world, thanks to which they can receive help and resources, in the form of various materials, and in the form of people. And all of this is sponsored by various dark guilds who are only too happy to produce more bad guys, for the sake of even more chaos, which they love and a good way to distract the Magic Council from the dark affairs of these guilds themselves.

At least that's what's happening now. And if I never appeared in this story and the Balam Alliance was defeated by Fairy Tail, then in ten years, The Avatar would try to rise and take the vacant place of the main union of the dark guilds, which both controls all the dark magicians of the continent and contributes to the work of the Avatar himself.

Led by the head priest of the cult, Alok, who, according to Briar, always wanted more power and did not want to be just someone who recruits and creates dark mages, the Avatar decided to implement some kind of purification ritual that would kill all magicians who did not worship Zeref would have attracted the attention of the Dark Mage himself, which certainly would not have ended in anything good for them, but now it doesn't matter, because today the Avatar will end.

I was originally going to end the existence of the cult before it grew even more, as it would in X792, when they had over 2000 members and several headquarters, but I did not suspect that everything was so serious.

These guys, of course, can be praised for their organization, yet what they do is really impressive, but after learning all the details, I'm not going to remain silent. I may not be able to destroy the entire recruitment organization, but at least I will deal a very serious blow to the entire structure and I hope the Magic Council does its job and there will be less dark magicians in the world.

And I'll start with the very core of the cult, which leads all this disgrace. And at the same time, I will get even more information about the work of other recruiting and training centers.

Usually, people who fit the purpose of the Avatar do not stay long here and are transported to other places, where their future fate is determined. According to Briar, the last batch of victims was sent away only a couple of days ago, so there should be no extra witnesses.

Apart from the servants who do not pose a danger to me, and the two hundred dark soldiers that I have already mentioned, there are now five elite mages in the headquarters, which are the center of the current cult.

Although, in fact, they are only engaged in the protection of Alok, who manages all the work of the cult and maintains contact with the Dark Guilds and training centers. Their duty is to prevent the Avatar's true purpose from becoming known to the government. Which they did pretty well, until today.

Briar also belongs to this group, now sleeping on the shoulder of the Virgo, and she is the strongest in the group. Although, they also have one trump card, which even Briar does not know about, but which I remember from the anime, but in fact, he does not particularly threaten me, like other magicians.

However, that doesn't mean I should relax. I repeat, but should expect anything from the Dark Mages, and you never know what they will throw out. I'm not in vain, I interrogated Briar, because among the Avatar elite there is one lady who may well be dangerous even to me, because of her magic, so I will prepare in advance and put on my armor that will protect me if something unforeseen happens.

Taking out the armor dummy from my dimensional pocket, I put on the armor itself, and then cast several spells on myself and the Virgo that would protect us in case of unforeseen traps and other troubles prepared by enemies.

I think the dark mages have already sensed something was wrong, because Briar left for more than four hours ago and still has not returned. Most likely, they are now on guard, so we can't go ahead and you should act covertly. And thankfully, thanks to Briar, I know a way to infiltrate the Avatar's headquarters without being seen.

- All right, Virgo, I'm ready so we can move out. Follow me. - After jumping around a bit to get used to the armor that I hadn't worn in over two months, I said as I looked at the spirit girl.

- As you wish, Master. - bowing a little, the Maiden said, already changing her maid outfit into a leather suit more suitable for battle.

After confirming that the Virgo was ready, I headed into the dark forest, trying to find the landmarks that Briar had described. These markers should help me find a hidden underground tunnel that will lead me, straight into the basement of the cult's headquarters.

It turns out that a network of tunnels has been laid throughout the Mikage Forest, which helps the cult members to operate covertly and leave no traces of their activities. It is through them that the newcomers of the cult are transported.

It is up to the Dark Soldier garrison to defend these tunnels. Which was confirmed shortly after we found the tunnel, and the Virgo told me that there were two people in it, saturated with dark magic, which is clearly a consequence of the rituals that turned them into super-soldiers.

- Can you disarm from here and do it quietly? - I asked my expert of Earth Magic.

- No problem, master. - said the Virgo, after which she slammed her foot on the ground, and then added: - Done.

- Well done. - I said, feeling only a slight tremor in the ground.

- Glad to try, Master. - Virgo said with a smile.

- Then let's get down. You first. - I said, removing the large stone, which masked the entrance to the tunnel.

The maiden nodded and jumped into the dark hole that led to the tunnel, which was four meters deep and was apparently created with the help of earth magic. After following the Virgo, I landed quietly on the ground without any problems and immediately noticed two unconscious soldiers, in dark armor, who were partially walled up, but still able to breathe.

- Great job, Virgo. - I sincerely praised the girl, and then looking into the deep tunnel leading to the base of magicians, I said: - Most likely, no one expects us to penetrate the base through the tunnel, but still stay alert, there are still many enemies ahead.

- All right, Master. - as always obediently, said the Virgo.

- You can leave Briar here, she won't run away anywhere. And she won't get hurt. - I said, starting to slowly walk into the depths of the movement.

The maiden threw the dark sorceress to the ground rather rudely and immediately followed me, staying two steps behind me and using her seismic sensitivity to determine where the next enemies were.

Just rolling my eyes at her behavior, I accelerated and ran forward, also using my supernatural senses to find the enemy in advance. I need to finish this assignment as soon as possible, otherwise my head hurts from all these revelations.

I have everything, as always, nothing is easy. It seems that he took the usual task of searching for information, but came across a whole network of recruiters and creators of dark mages, who were the cause of headaches for all the countries of Ishgar.

And it seems that I himself knew that everything was much worse than the government suspects, but it turned out that I myself underestimated the complexity of the situation. Eh, nothing else to expect...