Page 4185

Well, at least he wasn't one of those poor saps who'd been tasked with infiltrating Andeyal. That job had been so obviously a shitshow waiting to happen that Desmond had quietly made his exit when they started handing those assignments out.

Thankfully, there'd been plenty of eager volunteers to ensure that his presence was not missed.

These followers of Jercash were something else. Thus far, Desmond had operated in sects under Dunhouser, Ivan, Vanderberk, and even briefly Dozer--and none of them compared to what he was seeing here under the Devil's Knife.

Which was really saying something. He hadn't expected anyone's fanaticism to ever match that of the feverish cult that followed Dozer around, but here we were.

Man, that had been a fun time, though, hadn't it? In its own way. Desmond always loved finding a new cult to join. He'd grown up in one, after all. They always felt like home--even when they were completely batshit crazy. Hell, especially when they were.

And this one following Jercash was definitely up there. They weren't yet deifying him like Dozer's were, but he could see the beginnings of it. Probably just a matter of time, assuming the Knife managed to hold everything together long enough.

They did have their rituals, though. Different sects had different ones, but some were quite exotic, he'd found. The Venerators liked to drink blood and draw all over each other's bodies. The Harvesters liked to gather organs from their victims in order to eat them in ceremonial banquets, even making utensils out of their bones.

And the Gatherers liked to chant Jercash's name while playing in leaves. Big piles of leaves. Like little kids.

Desmond felt like he was still missing something with that group. They were far too nice and docile for an Abolish sect. It was actually quite unsettling. He wanted to learn more, but something deep in his gut kept telling him to stay away from them. Especially that guy they called Lucky. Sure, Desmond had met plenty of other smiling maniacs during his time with Abolish, but there was just something different about him.

Something that made Desmond's skin crawl.

Regardless, the thing that really set Jercash's cult apart was just how enthusiastic everyone was. Whenever one of the higher-ups needed something, countless people were chomping at the bit to take care of it.