After the floor split apart Daimon's vision blacked out for a second but then everything became clear, he was inside of some kind of hollow space with walls made of ice and he was falling at a strangely slow speed.
Seeing that the others weren't at his sides anymore he immediately tried to contact Aisha and Liz, thanks to core synchrony they could communicate using their minds which maintained a slight connection even when the skill wasn't active due to the secondary core in their bodies.
"Mom, Liz!!!", he shouted on his mind.
"I'm ok darling, I'm falling but the speed is actually slow so there won't be any problems to safely land".
"Me too, I can't see the end of this tunnel though… and I can't fly nor use a movement spell for some reason".
Daimon heard Aisha and Liz's answering in his mind and he let out a sigh of relief, core synchrony proved to be his best skill one more time, he shook his head and then tried to use blink only to clash against the ice wall.
He dusted off his clothes and used the truth seeker eyes, there were some kind of silver particles integrated in the ice which somehow reminded him what he saw back then, the first time Erin used space shift to take to the Argent family.
"The ice is blocking teleportation, no flying or movement spell… what the hell is going on?", he thought.
"Evangeline how come the communication with core synchrony isn't blocked but I can't get out of this place?".
"If I use core synchrony, can I force my way out?".
…
After a moment Evangeline answered in a doubtful voice.
"Core synchrony is an anomaly even for the system, but blink is the lowest form of teleportation, whoever created this ice added a spatial lock so you can't teleport… it's not a matter of strength, unless your comprehension in the law of space is higher than the creator of this ice tunnel you won't be able to teleport".
"Now if you really want to leave this place then, you know what to do".
Daimon frowned his brows, comprehending laws isn't simple, it's been eight years since that day he got inspiration due to Erin's space shift, and although he got affinity with the space his progress hasn't gone up, the proof is that the skill hasn't leveled at all.
He has realized that the system is a great cheat indeed, but it is too square in some aspects, getting a skill of an element doesn't mean he gets the mastery of said element, so he hasn't lacked off in any sense when it comes to his studies in magic or the knight path.
That's why his battle prowess outclasses those on his same level, even as a five star knight his body can easily outpower that of an eight-star knight, and using his battle aura he isn't afraid of no one below the lord realms.
Do not underestimate the strength gap between one star, an eight-star ranked knight has a strength of about 12 tons using his battle aura while a ninth star knight doubles that amount reaching an incredible number of 25 tons when using battle aura of course.
Daimon doubted, he had a way to flee but only he and his soulmates will come, the others had no relation to him in the terms of the system so they would be left behind.
"Wait a second, sixth sense didn't activate, truth seeker eyes could see through the space law particles in the ice, so the only reason for sixth sense to not work is…".
"There is no threat, as expected of my host, you managed to notice that little but quite important detail, so as a reward I can confirm that there is no malice in what happened, the floor gave in as a result of Liz trying to break a hole in the domain", said Evangeline in a melodious voice.
Daimon sighed, there was no guarantee that sixth sense was fail proof, someone way stronger than him might be able to trick him, as it is bases in Daimon's instincts after all, but Evangeline on the other hand couldn't be deceived.
The only problem is that the system prohibited her from giving him all the answers, he had to put some effort and only then she could give him a hint, ultimately Evangeline was there to help him, not to solve his problems for him, or he would just depend on the system for everything and that wasn't the goal.
There were exceptions though, if his life was imminent danger for example, but he hasn't been in that kind of situation… since that day when he fought against the manticore of course.
Daimon shook his head,
"That restriction is a bit annoying if you ask me, but I guess I can't rely on the system for everything, whatever I guess I will have to go and see, why were we brought here instead of being attacked by the domain".
"Mom, Liz, follow the ice tunnel to the end, I will se you there… if something happens don't worry the thing, I gave you will keep you safe, okay?".
"Mm".
"Got it"
"Now I can just hope the others are okay too, don't die yet I'm starting to enjoy hanging around with you all", he thought.
Although Daimon couldn't use blink to get out of the ice tunnel, nothing prevented him from using it to fall faster, so his image repeatedly flashed downwards, the tunnel was quite large as it took him about twenty times of using blink to reach the end of it, if you take into account that he advanced 100 meters per use… then that was 2 kilometers below the surface of the planet.
"Damn, the highest skyscraper back on earth wasn't even half of the distance of this stupid tunnel".
Once he reached the bottom of the tunnel, just as he expected there was a path already set for him to follow, the floor was made of ice too, and there was a "convenient" breach in one of the ice walls that led to another place.
After inspecting it with truth seeker eyes he didn't see any traps hidden, so he walked into it, on the other side there was a spacious cave which led to another and that kept repeating, it was basically a system of caves connected to each other.
But no matter how much he advanced, he didn't see another path opened for the others to encounter with him, also the caves seemed to have a specific same size, which led Daimon to think this was some kind of illusion, until he reached a different space.
"What the hell is this", in front of him there was a huge gate made of ice with an inscription on a language he couldn't understand, even using truth seeker eyes, the words just blurred as if something prevented him from reading it.
Apparently, it wasn't on purpose, because he took out a camera from his storage and the photo properly captured the weird inscription without any blur.
"Mom is for sure going to love investigating this", he thought.
"Are you two still in the tunnel?".
"I reached the bottom darling; I'm following the only path available for me".
"I'm still falling, in fact I can't see the end of this thing".
Daimon contemplated things for a moment, he only reached the end of the tunnel so fast because he could use blink, but his mother is already walking in the cave system without having accelerated her fall.
"Mom, how long was the tunnel approximately?".
Aisha doubted for a moment and then gave him her answer.
"About eight hundred meters or one kilometer at most I would say".
"It could be that the tunnels were designed according to our realms, besides Liz I have the highest realm if we consider I'm a five-star ranked knight, mom I will wait here, please tell me when you reach the end of the path".
"Okay".
After saying that, they stopped the communications, Daimon sat down on a rock and simply waited, Aisha is a peak two-star mage, so if the same applied to the others, they should arrive at the gate almost at the same time, the only exception was Liz.
After nearly ten minutes a breach opened in the ice and Aisha's lovely figure appeared from it, the first thing she did was hug Daimon.
"It's good to see you darling ♥".
Daimon frowned his brows; he then spoke in a loud indifferent tone.
"I don't consider you an enemy since this doll of yours didn't harbor any bad intention, but if you try to trick me again, I will personally melt this whole place down"
…
Silence, sepulchral silence remained the "Aisha" which was hugging Daimon disappeared leaving behind just a little doll made out of ice which broke after the illusion ended, then a hoarse but calm voice echoed through the cave.
"I noticed you had a strangely strong soul, but to think you easily saw through my mirage spell, remarkable indeed, who are you kid?".
Daimon shrugged.
"Shouldn't you present yourself first, before asking another their name?".
The voice laughed out loud.
"Sorry, it's been some time since spoke with someone, also that is a human custom, and in case you doubt it I'm not human, but you aren't also… how weird I can't pinpoint to which race to belong to, are you a hybrid perhaps".
"Ahh I nearly forgot, you can call me Dimas, also now that I confirmed you aren't part of those guys, your friends will be arriving soon… even the woman with that scary fire".
Treat others like they treat you, it's a good philosophy.
"My name is Daimon; we'll continue this once they are here".
