A while ago:
Oleg called his eight captains and convened a meeting.
"The Strike Team from the duchy is arriving in a few hours. This is the last chance we have to get any merit before we lose all chance."
His words didn't have the effect he intended.
"S-Sir," The oldest captain called out.
An unnamed fury pulsed through Oleg along with an equal amount of frustration.
'This old dog, he called me Prince everytime and got this post. Xoler is about to arrive, he isn't even here yet, but this bastard is already acting.'
"Speak," Oleg's voice was much colder and bitter than he'd have expected.
The oldest captain flinched and stepped back. He quickly pulled himself together and said. "But the Pala princes have activated their fortresses. If we make even the slightest of mistakes, those damn things will find us!
Not to mention, their subordinates could also be clearing this area. If the corpses of those prisoners in those secret realms are found, it'll lead to unnecessary complications."
Oleg paused for a moment.
He honestly didn't know what the princes were doing around the space crack.
They—the Zion scouts—came here from a hidden crack significantly farther from the space crack that the pala members were building a portal around.
Oleg wondered for a brief moment, if that crack also led to Zion duchy. But that thought was quickly thrown out of his mind.
Zions were masters of gravity and a space crack like that was bound to create a lot of disturbance.
Unless someone very proficient in not just space, but also gravity helped covered the space crack long before this expedition, there's no way it wouldn't go unnoticied.
If it really happened, then Oleg would've gotten a hundred emergency messages already.
None of that happened. It's very rational to assume that the space portal the Palarians were dealing with had nothing to do with Zion.
Did they know about the Black Rose? He had no idea. If they did know, then why were they not searching for those bastards frantically and instead working on the space portal?
"You're right. The corpses must be retrieved. If they realize we're lurking here, we'll be in big trouble. We'll move in full stealth and retrieve the corpses. Remove our traces as much as possible." Oleg said.
As for his final attempt to claim merit by some achievement? It was thrown out of the window in the face of death threat.
Following his words, the scouts upped their stealth and sneaked into the secret realms.
Since these secret realms were placed significantly farther than the location where the envoys were stationed at, it wasn't surprising that they weren't found, yet.
But once the princes arrived, maids began a comprehensive clearing.
Oleg was lucky. He led his team into all but one secret realm, retrieved the corpses and destroyed as much evidence as possible.
There was only a secret realm left.
Even though the three maids had started a sweeping search for any hidden dangers, they hadn't come this far.
Oleg and the group let down their guards when they entered the final secret realm they had to clear up.
The minced flesh and broken bones were quickly gathered. Special sprays filled the air and removed almost all traces of blood and death.
Oleg wiped the invisible sweat off his forehead, "Phew, let's g—"
The world seemed to slow down.
In the slow-motioned world, a silhouette covered in darkness soundlessly landed in front of them out of nowhere.
Oleg's pupils dilated and his heart constricted. Whatever next words he was about to say were swallowed and his survival instincts kicked in.
"Die!"
The sky was split into two by a huge black crack.
The darkness oozing out of the silhouette fluctuated briefly for a moment but its aura, at the edge of rank 6, just a tad lower than rank 7, flared up.
"Escape!"
Oleg ran before the order left his mouth.
The corpses were dropped and the captains rushed out of the secret realm. The silhouette in black flames reached the exit of the realm and pointed its hands toward them.
Two spheres of darkness condensed in its palms before contracting. Then two more, two more, and two more until there were hundreds of tiny but potent darkness spheres.
Oleg felt the threat of death and knew once the attack hit, he'd die for good. The only way was to escape.
He desperately wished he had a chance to escape instantly using his racial talent but the attack wouldn't give him that long.
If he had to escape, he'd need to at least block the attack for a brief moment.
"Attack!" Oleg urged his team but didn't attack himself. Instead, he activated his racial talent.
Even without his contribution, their attacks were apocalyptic.
The aura in the million miles radius fluctuated violently and a storm was stirred up.
The gravity distorted and the secret realm began to twist. It was as if reality was happening on a water lake and suddenly ripples disturbed everything.
Boom!
The tremendous gravity was launched by the seven zions. The silhouette, however, didn't launch the attack as they expected.
Instead, it let in the beam of gravity which was ripping apart space-time in its path.
The tiny dark spheres fused into one giant net and enveloped the beam of gravity.
The world seemed to freeze for a moment before the secret realm shut down and disappeared. Not a single fluctuation leaked out.
"W-What?!"
A creepy feeling crept up Oleg and he halted his racial talent at the last moment.
'It's all a trap to draw their attention to us!'
The moment that realization struck, three powerful rank 7 auras were already stirring up space-time and reaching their location at an unbelievable speed.
Oleg activated his racial talent again. The captains also tried but their lineage wasn't as noble as his, so they wouldn't be able to escape as quickly.
'They can't get captured!' Oleg's eyes flashed with a cold glint and the poison he secretly administered them activated.
Woosh!
The space around Oleg and a location far away was forcibly bent under Oleg's racial talent and a tunnel was formed.
When the three maids reached the location, Oleg disappeared and the captains died a sudden death.
