Chapter 611: You’re Not Going To Kill Us?

The place they had descended into was nothing short of a labyrinth.

The air was heavy and damp, the walls carved crudely from stone and covered in centuries-old moss.

Each passageway seemed to stretch endlessly, splitting into three or four more, each leading deeper and deeper into darkness.

Their footsteps echoed faintly as they advanced, and even though Joy’s orb of light illuminated their path, the shadows beyond the reach of its glow seemed alive—breathing, watching.

Carmela’s eyes darted to the side every now and then.

Some of the rooms they passed were filled with strange remnants of the past: rusted cages, thick chains bolted into the walls, and in some, piles of bones—human and animal alike.

It looked like a forgotten dungeon, a place where people were once dragged to and never seen again.

But the two women exploring it were not ordinary.

Joy and Carmela—both seasoned, battle-hardened, and more accustomed to staring death in the face than fearing it moved forward without hesitation.

“This place…” Carmela murmured after a while, her voice low. “It’s like a maze. So many paths, so many doors. You could lose yourself here in minutes, even if you thought you knew the way.”

Joy nodded, brushing her fingers along a wall as if feeling for hidden symbols.

“Which makes it the perfect place for someone to hide something.” She replied. “Whatever this is, it’s meant to be found by no one.”

Carmela exhaled slowly. “Would’ve been nice if that glowing guide from earlier had stuck around. At least then we’d know where to go.”

Just as she said that, both of them turned another corner—and froze.

At the far end of the corridor, a faint glow shimmered in the darkness.

It flickered like a lantern flame, soft but steady.

Joy narrowed her eyes. “I guess we found what we came for.” Then, after a pause, she exhaled and muttered, half to herself. “Though I’m not sure if I want to see it.”

Carmela raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

Joy gave a small, ironic smile.

“When the goddess leads someone to a hidden place, it’s usually to uncover something of value—a treasure, a relic. But down here?”

She gestured around at the crumbling walls and bones.

“This doesn’t feel like the setting for treasure. It feels like the setting for a curse.”

Carmela smirked faintly. “So, you’re suggesting we turn back?”

Joy shook her head, her expression resolute.

“No. It’s my duty to see this through—to know the truth, no matter what it is. Even if it kills me.”

Carmela sighed and muttered, “You and your martyr complex…” but followed nonetheless.

The further they walked, the brighter it became—

—until finally, the corridor opened up into a vast room.

The moment they entered, both of them recoiled.

The smell hit first.

It was thick, rotten, suffocating—the scent of old blood, decay, and death.

It crawled up their noses and clung to their throats, making breathing itself painful.

Carmela gagged and covered her mouth.

“What in the name of—? It smells like a battlefield…or a damn graveyard.”

But when her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she was horrified as she realized it wasn’t far from the truth.

The chamber was large, larger than any they’d passed through so far.

It was dimly lit by hanging oil lamps and a single roaring furnace built into the far wall.

And everywhere—hanging from thick ropes from the ceiling knotted around wrists—were bodies!

At least a dozen. Maybe more.

Men. All men. Naked. Handcuffed at the wrists before being strung up like slaughtered livestock.

Some still dripped slowly onto the stained stone floor. Others had gone slack and gray.

But none had been granted quick deaths.

Eyes gouged out.

Ears sliced away.

Noses hacked off.

Bellies split from navel to sternum, intestines spilling in glossy loops.

Limbs missing—arms, legs, hands—severed with crude, brutal precision.

A few had been scalped, the pale bone of skull gleaming under the lamplight.

Guts lay in steaming piles beneath the corpses.

Blood had dried in wide, black lakes across the floor.

The air was heavy with iron and decay.

It wasn’t just murder.

It was torture.

It was a massacre.

Even Joy and Carmela, women who had lived through brutality felt something primal twist in their stomachs.

Joy’s voice came out like frost.

“…What…”

Carmela’s lips parted.

For once, she couldn’t speak.

But then—

Beyond the hanging corpses…

At the far end of the room…

They saw him.

Cassius.

He was standing calmly in front of a metal table that has a corpse lying on it.

Humming.

Singing, almost cheerfully, under his breath.

And in his hand…

A butcher’s knife.

He brought it down with a sickening smack.

Pachuk!

A leg came clean off.

He brought it down again.

Pachuk!

Another chunk of flesh separated.

And he didn’t look disgusted.

He didn’t look disturbed.

He looked…

Casual.

Almost like he was cooking.

Almost like this was normal.

Then, as if it was the simplest thing in the world, Cassius picked up the bloody pieces and opened a latch in the wall—

A furnace.

Blazing hot.

And he tossed the limbs inside.

The fire roared.

And seeing this, Joy’s blood turned ice.

Carmela’s instincts screamed danger.

And just as they were about to take a step back from this sight—

Cassius stopped.

The humming cut off instantly.

The knife froze midair.

Slowly…

He turned his head and his gaze landed on them.

His was emotionless.

Still.

Unreadable.

And the moment his crimson eyes locked onto theirs…

Both Joy and Carmela shivered.

Goosebumps erupted along their skin.

The carefree man from earlier was gone.

In his place was something else.

Something predatory.

Something ancient.

For a moment…

They genuinely felt like prey.

Like one wrong move…

And they would be the next bodies hanging from those ropes.

Carmela’s fingers trembled near her dagger.

Joy’s holy aura flickered instinctively.

Their minds screamed the same thought:

This is it.

This is what he was hiding.

This is the Devil beneath the Saint.

And if he needed to cover it up…

He would slaughter them.

Burn them.

Erase them.

They couldn’t move.

They couldn’t breathe.

The fear was primal.

But to their utter shock that did not happen at all.

They expected him to lunge at them with that clever and slice their heads off—but instead his was twisted in frustration and he groaned.

“Goddamn it!” He muttered, rubbing his temple. “God fucking damn it!”

Both women were caught off guard, as he sighed, exasperated, and then gestured around him.

“How the hell did you two even get here?!”

He demanded, sounding more irritated than threatening.

“I went out of my way to hide this place, far from the mansion and below a dam well…”

“…and yet somehow, here you are!”

He dropped the clever onto a nearby table with a metallic clatter and went on to vent his frustration of his hideout being found.

“You two, do you know how long it took me to set this up?! Do you know how long I had scour through the archives to find a place like this?!”

“I even had to put in a lot of effort to renovate this place and add a furnace that doesn’t kill me from all the smoke!”

“I especially put in so much effort since last time Skadi sniffed me out! Because of that I picked the most remote, untraceable spot possible!”

He pointed toward them and whined saying,

“And yet somehow, you two still managed to show up! Unbelievable! All that effort, gone!”

While Cassius looked like he was about to cry after having his hideout ratted out, Joy and Carmela just stood there, utterly stunned.

Not because of the gruesome scene before them.

But because Cassius was complaining like a man whose secret stash of sweets had been discovered, not a killer caught red-handed.

Neither of them could make sense of what was happening.

A moment ago, they had been certain they were about to die—convinced he would silence them for discovering his monstrous secret.

Yet now he looked perfectly normal again, the same silly, casually charming Cassius they’d known all along.

Carmela finally broke the silence, her voice shaking slightly as she asked,

“Cassius…are you not going to kill us right now?”

Cassius blinked and tilted his head, looking genuinely puzzled.

“What?” He said slowly. “Why in the world would I kill you right now?”

Joy’s mouth fell open.

“Why?” She repeated, pointing at the gruesome display around them. “Just look at this place!”

She waved both hands around, her voice rising incredulously.

“You’re standing in the middle of what looks like a torture chamber, surrounded by corpses hanging from the ceiling, and you’re dismembering people like you’re making stew!”

“What else are we supposed to think?”

She threw her hands up.

“Not to mention that you looked right at us with that murderous gaze, and we thought for sure you were about to make us suffer before burning our bodies and pretending we never existed!”

“As absurd as that sounds…” Carmela muttered grimly. “…that’s exactly what I thought too.”

Cassius stared at them blankly for a moment—then sighed, rubbing his temples.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” He groaned. “No, seriously, what the hell are you talking about? Why would I do something like that?”

“After all…”

He gestured lazily toward the corpses.

“…I’m not doing anything wrong here.”

Both women gawked at him in disbelief.

Cassius continued nonchalantly.

“The only reason I do this in a place like this is because I don’t want the rest of my family finding out about my little hobby. They don’t exactly approve.”

He gave them a crooked smile.

“Hobby!?” Carmela snapped, eyes wide. “You call this a hobby!? Cassius, even the most deranged killers in history wouldn’t call something like this a hobby!”

Joy crossed her arms, eyes narrowing.

“Do you realize who you’re talking to right now? I’m the Church’s Judge—I execute people for committing half of what I see here. And she…”

She pointed at Carmela.

“…hates anyone who hides evil behind a clean face and kind words. You expect us to just stand here and nod while you talk about your hobby!?”

Hearing this, Cassius held up his hands defensively, stepping away from the table.

“Alright, alright—sorry. You’re right. From your perspective, this probably looks…bad.” He gave a weak laugh. “But I promise you, it’s not what it seems.”

Carmela’s eyes narrowed even more.

“Then what is it supposed to be? Because to me, it looks like you’ve been spending your nights cutting people into pieces.”

“That’s technically true.” Cassius admitted. “But it’s not random. I’m not doing this because I enjoy hurting people—well, not too much anyway.”

He gave an awkward grin before continuing,

“It’s…actually helping others.”

“Helping others.” Joy repeated flatly. “By brutally murdering people?”

“Exactly!” Cassius said brightly, as if she had just solved a riddle.

Both women just stared at him.

He sighed and walked closer, wiping his bloody hands with a rag as he spoke.

“Look, these people aren’t good. Not even close. Every single one of them here is a criminal—killers, bandits, slavers, human traffickers, cultists. The kind of filth that somehow slips through the system no matter how tight you make it.”

“You can improve society all you want—create jobs, establish better laws, give people purpose—but some people are just rotten to the core. Evil for the sake of it.”

“So…every once in a while, I do a little cleansing myself.”

He patted one of the corpses casually.

“Take this guy, for example. Member of a bandit group. His group was recently attacking trade routes near the southern border. Nasty business—kidnappings, ransoms, a few burned villages.”

“And after I nabbed him, I had to…persuade him a bit.”

He gestured vaguely toward the missing organs.

“Because of that he told me where his camp is and I’ll be paying them a visit tonight.”

He walked past another hanging body and gestured toward it casually.

“This one here’s even worse. He was part of a ring that murdered people to sell their bodies to black-market alchemists and necromancers.”

“Real charming fellow.”

“And after I relieved him of a couple limbs, he decided to tell me where his buyers operate.”

He gave a satisfied sigh. “Now I know their base, their routes, their clients. I’ll deal with them next.”

He then looked back at them and said in a completely matter-of-fact manner,

“So, yeah. Every person here is scum. After a little bit of questioning, I get what I need, then I spend the rest of the night cleaning up the rest of their kind.”

Joy and Carmela were both speechless.

Cassius smirked faintly, sensing their disbelief.

“If you don’t believe me, check that folder over there.” He pointed to a thick, blood-spattered file sitting on a nearby crate. “Those are their wanted posters. Crimes, bounties, everything. You’ll find their faces match perfectly. So technically…”

He grinned.

“I’m not doing anything wrong. Just a bit of personal community service. I’m just…cutting out the rot, piece by piece.”

“Think of it as charity work. Very messy charity work.”

Joy was torn between shock and exasperation.

“So you’re telling me…” She squinted her eyes. “…that these aren’t innocent people, and you’re extracting information from them?”

Cassius nodded proudly. “Exactly.”

Carmela crossed her arms tightly.

“And once you’ve got the information, you’re going to…go out and kill more people?”

“Right again.” He said, flashing a confident smile. “That’s the plan.”

The two women exchanged a long, silent look—somewhere between disbelief, confusion, and a dawning realization that the goddess’s ’divine revelation’ had led them not to a monster—

—but to the most dangerously casual vigilante they’d ever met.

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