Extra's Perfect Ending

Chapter 132: Plan

Here is your revised passage with improvements in grammar, clarity, and sentence flow:

Reeva sat in the chair, staring off into the distance. He hadn’t expected things to escalate this far. When he first escaped to Tumidus, all he wanted was to build his business, make his money, and live happily as he always had. But now, it felt like it would be a disservice to himself and the world to let the white demon roam freely.

In the original story, nothing like this happened. Since he gained [Foreight], the white demon’s existence had puzzled him. Why was there such a creature here when, in the original, it would have been a major plot hole not to mention it?

The only big difference Reeva could identify was his own presence. But that didn’t explain why all of this was happening. If there was no white demon in the original, then something must have stopped it.

Reeva had no idea what had changed. Maybe I’m the real problem after all, he thought. But that wasn’t what mattered most at the moment.

"So, you’re saying that a picture is causing all of this?" Holen asked.

"Right. If we can destroy it, the people will likely be freed from its spell," Reeva explained, using his knowledge from the novel. The void being could only interact with the world through a medium; if they cut off that medium, its influence would cease.

The void entity might not disappear completely, but it would be enough to prevent it from descending further. That way, Tumidus would be safe.

"Then how do we destroy such a painting? You said your artifact didn’t work," Holen asked, referring to Reeva’s earlier story about how his gun had no effect on the painting.

"We could overload it with mystic force," Reeva suggested.

It was the easiest way to destroy a mystic artifact. Some artifacts might only require a light tap to be destroyed, but those impervious to physical attacks usually succumbed when injected with mystic power of a different kind.

Unlike normal objects, mystic artifacts could hold onto mystic force because they were often created from the corpses of mystics. Usually, they were items that the mystic had bonded with at the start of their journey and held unique effects.

When a mystic died, there was a chance they would leave an artifact behind, imbued with their original mystic force and some of their powers. A mystic user could interact with an artifact by using their coldness to touch and activate it.

Sending an unknown mystic force into an artifact was like a death sentence for it; without a body to stabilize it, two conflicting mystic forces would tear it apart.

"Then how are we going to get to it?" Holen asked. "From what I hear, the building is quite hard to get through."

According to Leon, the building was connected to a series of underground tunnels built by the cult, linking many different locations and places. Most of the cult members were concentrated in the main underground complex. The entrances to the place were kept secret, requiring one to go out of their way to find them, often hidden within buildings rented by cult members.

Because of this, the cult didn’t need guards at the entrances; they only needed people working inside the main building.

Leon also shared some intel about a deal the cult had made with the church. Only higher-ups like Landlong knew the full details, but Leon had overheard something about the church having the ability to suppress mystic forces.

This confirmed one of Reeva’s theories.

"We could just walk in and destroy the thing since they still believe we’re with the cult," Reeva suggested, proposing a straightforward approach.

"That won’t work," Leon replied. "The cult won’t let us get near the painting without a good reason."

"Then what if Hilda and I act as bait?" Theia suggested. "We could pretend we want to join the cult. Every new member needs to be converted by the painting, right?"

"That could work," Leon agreed, "but… we might not be welcome back in the cult. When we left, there was already one person who had become hollow at the place where Penu was ’converted.’"

Reeva thought it best to keep his real name secret from Leon, so he nodded in agreement.

"That sounds like a big problem... What do we do then?" Reeva asked. "If we can’t just walk in."

"Maybe they don’t care?" Theia proposed. "Most cults don’t mind losing a few people here and there. They might just ignore it."

"Bet on their ruthlessness?" Reeva mused. The entity behind the cult might not care much about who’s in charge but it definitely cares about who dies. "It’s a losing bet in my opinion."

They continued to debate various plans, from disguising themselves as low-ranking cult members to sending a fake message to test the cult’s reaction to Reeva and Leon bringing in new recruits.

Eventually, they decided it would be best to sneak inside under the guise of being cult members. If that plan failed, Reeva would call in Hinly’s forces to swarm the place. Even if the cult had mystics, there would likely be no more than five who could put up a fight against an army.

Most of the cult members would be ordinary humans, easily dispatched. With the plan decided Reeva and others split to prepare their infiltration, this included talking to HInly and pulling his force together to raid the building.

Truthfully it would be way easier if Hinly force could force their way in from the beginning but if they were to do that the cult would likely start a ritual early. Cutting Reeva’s time. They don’t know how ready the ritual is to summon The void being but from the time frame, Reeva knew it was pretty dam close.

The visit with Hinly also goes smoothly since the sailor association wants to help from the beginning. They also did a little digging into Landlong’s activity and found it alarming that the guy hadn’t been himself lately. They agree to dispatch group of mercenaries to help in Reeva’s plan.