There is a big chance that black beard guy is either the master mind or at least related to his mission, so he is in target's list anyway, they are meant to be enemies and Daimon couldn't care less about him being angry at him, in any case while the badge is in his inventory, no one can track it down.
"I couldn't notice it…", mumbled Mellie from the sides, she was still in shock over the fact that she couldn't notice Charles was nothing but a corpse possessed by a Skelefiend.
"It's not your fault, they learned to trick your naturally high analizing capacity, I'm pretty sure that even if you used that ability of yours, you wouldn't have noticed because this method is not from Neptune and it was modified too".
Daimon wasn't lying to make Mellie feel good with herself, even he was nearly tricked, unfortunately the method used to make this Skelefiend disguise, was similar to the one Ereman the skin tailor who is subordinated to Daimon uses.
Essentially, they are like parasites who meld with the original owner, so from the outside and through a mana sense scan, they look like part of the body and nothing else, even getting the memories of the prior owner of the body.
But his infinity eyes can see a lot of layers of the visual spectrum, and now that he has seen Ereman's process, he could tell there was something off about Charles, the rest of the decision was taken based on the fake afraid expression the Skelefiend put, he who is used to cause fear in others could easily recognize a fake when he sees it.
"Speaking of that… tell me Mellie do you trust me?", asked Daimon with a serious expression on his face.
Mellie knew this was to be expected, since she was genuinely confused when he stabbed "Charles", though it wasn't to the point of becoming hostile, she had to admit that it made her feel her heart clench a bit over the thought of Daimon being an enemy and she being played with.
Daimon saw her slightly ashamed and conflictive expression and he sighed, he knew it wasn't her fault, in her position he would have doubted too, the only ones whom he would blindly follow were his soulmates and those who he considers more than friends, and the list is pretty small, also he isn't even a native of Neptune and both she and the queen know he is holding a lot of secrets.
For example, the Risha sisters only recently managed to dug a way into that circle through their actions, Michael and Calvin did too in a different way of course, they are his brothers in arms, just like Arianna is his junior sister thanks to her being taught magic by Aura.
The others are his friends like Loren, Haylee and Aleah though the latter is a bit closer to him due to their similitudes, their friend's relatives like Calvin's aunt Mireya and the old Solomon, those who have a contract with him like Leena, Lydia, Stella and those involved with him thanks to that like Dana, lastly his subordinates who are actually one of his most trusted people, simply because when it comes to him their loyalty is absolute.
Surprisingly not even a second later, Mellie's eyes became determined as she looked at Daimon directly into his eyes.
"I do, if you wanted to harm me you have had a thousand chances already, not to mention I owe you my life", she said with her mellow and gentle voice.
Daimon nodded.
"Very well, because from now and onwards, everyone but the ones right here are enemies until proven wrong, no matter what you see we can only trust each other, any objections?".
"Okay", the girls didn't complain at the decision, especially Yvonne since even with her special eyes she couldn't notice anything because the mana flow of Charles was pretty much "normal", as unlike the known possession process of the Skelefiends which would show two mana completely different mana flows in one body, in a way that Yvonne would have easily spotted it.
The process now was like the integration and flesh melding of the skin tailors, so there was nothing "strange" about it.
"Also, we won't go out of our way to help anyone, until we can secure a way to contact those outside… you have seen what that idiot from the Blackfin family did to save himself, and I'm pretty sure that will repeat itself given the current situation", said Daimon to Mellie.
"Mm, finding a way to contact uncle Vincent is the priority, with a simple gesture of his hand he can put an end to this", mumbled Mellie.
Daimon chuckled.
"Don't make that face, those who were captured here are in our way so we can lend them a hand, but they won't join us, we need more information anyway".
Mellie's eyes sparkled, there was difference between ignoring someone in a bad spot and knowing and deliberately nor helping, while Daimon didn't care about people not related to him, Mellie is too inexperienced in that aspect.
"Let's go", having said that Daimon casted dark curtain and they all used a boosting spell to move faster than normal, towards the direction the Skelefiend gave them.
…
While Daimon and the girls moved as silent shadows, there was a ruckus ongoing about one hundred kilometers ahead of them.
"Boooom!", a large shockwave made the ground tremble while countless of figures were sent flying.
"Damn it, who are these guys, they don't die unless I directly attack them!", Adam whose face was covered in sweat cursed as he tried to catch up his breath, but then he was bathed in a dim white light which made him recover faster.
From the corner of his eyes, he saw Jasmin casting buff spells on him, which is one of the reasons as to why he has been able to hold this much without collapsing, and he had a hatred filled expression as he remembered how things got like this.
For some reason the water body in which he dived took a strange turn making him separate from the rest of his group, only Jasmin reacted on time since she was the closest to him, so she managed to hold onto his arm, and was dragged by the same water current along him.
Then the next thing he knew was that they were expelled by a geyser, and not only that but a strange magic beast, seemed to be waiting for him and tried to ambush him.
So of course, he vented all his anger into that stupid magic beast, which turned out to be stronger than it looked, after a drawn-out battle in which he didn't suffer even a wound thanks to Jasmin who is the best support mage in the younger generation of the Elemental Sea, casting buffs on him the whole time.
After inflicting the thing a lot of sword wounds it finally collapsed, the beast still had a lot of mana, but it bled to death, which was a first for Adam.
Then feeling thirsty and a bit tired he wanted to buy a recovery potion from the shop of his system, just to realize he had no access to anything that implied space law, including inventory, shop, his storage ring and even the plate given by the Trident Marshal.
And as then as if the fate favored him, they saw a small group of people mostly girls, who were near them, so he approached them to get information from them, his heroic handsome appearance along with his naturally charming aura, should have put him in the good books of the female members of the group… if they were humans, light oriented and if they weren't explicitly ordered to eliminate him and capture Jasmin.
That group was conformed of all Skelefiends possessing the bodies of some people of the Mermen Sea, mostly subordinates who separated from their master's groups, and the Deep Bottom Shredder which Adam killed was theirs.
And so, a second fight started, but this time he didn't want to draw out the battle too much, so he used his battle aura to the max, making his light element burn the Skelefiends as he illuminated the whole area.
While at first, he noticed those Skelefiends weren't dying as easily as the ones he faced at the first level of Neptune, they still succumbed under his sword and its holy light.
But as if the world was playing with him, his light spectacle attracted the attention of at least five more groups of Skelefiends though some didn't have a flesh body, as well as three Deep Bottom Shredders, and then the hero of light was left with only one possible way of action… flee.
Chased by about forty-five Skelefiends on the early Lord realm, five of the middle Lord realms and though weakened three peak lord realm magic beasts, he had to keep moving for the past three hours trying to lose them, but for some reason they kept finding them, and the he had to resort to use one of the life saving items he had on himself, a "Holy Crucifix", an explosive which stored a great amount of corrosive light.
The first one took the Skelefiends by surprise and he was able to take at least ten of them out with that as well as badly wound one of the Shredders, but then a scene which will probably haunt him for a while developed in front of him.
The wounded Bottom Shredder ate the corpses of the burned corpses of the skelefiends, and then his whole body was suddenly covered in black impossible to understand runes.
And that's when the nightmare started, since then whenever he used a Holy Crucifix, he, the runs engraved on the skin of the enhanced shedder shone in black light, and the effect of his explosive was lessened, then the other two shredders took the impact for the skelefiends, resulting in basically just a few burn patches of skin here and there.
That being said, his personal attacks weren't completely affected by the runes of the enhanced shredder, so with some slashes he was able to take out some of the Skelefiends.
And for the past one hour or so, he has been fighting in guerrilla style, hiding and attacking when they approached before he and Jasmin ran again.
'Ariel, a hero shouldn't have to fight like this, come on lent me a hand here!', he shouted to the angel girl, which was expressionlessly floating behind him, invisible for anyone but Adam.
'You know the rules, you discarded long term benefits for girl partners when you let your dick think for you and started sleeping around with all the women that smiled at you back then, a light hero should be demure and celibate, but no you just had to fuck everything that moved, so normal items from the system won't work on girls for you".
'You have a special teleportation scroll in stock, but this area is under a harsh restriction, the space is so constricted that it's an incredible headache to manipulate it, so while you can use it as it is a special reward, the girl won't be able to come with you'.
'A damn it, the scroll will take me to a place which align with my interests within a certain range, right?', asked Adam as he slashed at the Skelefiends forcing them back, while he threw his last Holy Crucifix at them, making them retreat behind the Deep Bottom Shredders.
'Yeah, but you can forget about the "Light Blessing" on this girl and the mission related to her'.
Adam inwardly sighed.
'What a shame, she is quite cute and I didn't get to taste her… never mind, I guess I can tell her grandmother she got separated from me and when I found her the skelefiends had killed her, I cans till get her support to fight against the idiot of Marcus'.
"…", the angel girl didn't say anything and then Adam turned to see Jasmin with his usual bright smiling expression.
"Jasmin, cast all your buff spells on me, I'll get rid of them all at the same time with my best attack, you'll have to look for me after that though", he said with a gallant voice.
"Yes, brother Adam~", said Jasmin with a slightly tired but gentle voice, then rolled her spear-like staff and her light mana leaked out of her body as she casted the spell which was innately passed down to women in the Ivory family.
"Silver Citadel", with Jasmin words the image of a silver-white city, which by its size was more like a small fortress appeared behind of her, then it shrank and entered Adam's body.
Adam's eyes widened a bit as all his wounds recovered, half of his mana reserves were recharged and a third of his stamina was replenished too, there was a dim silver light covering his body increasing his physical defense too.
'Damn, I'm going to miss this support spell', he thought as he ordered Ariel to use the only special reward item with space nature he had in stock, to escape from this precarious situation.
For others, the situation was more or less like this, the Skelefiends trembled upon seeing Adam becoming a miniature white sun, while Jasmin's eyes sparkled waiting to see an incredible martial art… but the result was completely different to their expectations.
The Skelefiends laughed as they noticed Adam wasn't here anymore the second the light went out, while Jasmin was in shock, it took her a couple of seconds to realize she was abandoned and her eyes got teary.
"My heart is hurting for the poor light princess who was discarded like trash… or that would be the case if I had one kekeke".
The Skelefiends who found the situation rather amusing, laughed at Jasmin as they made sure to surround her.
"Capture her, Lord Horrorclaw wants her alive, but a few missing limbs is within the acceptable, as he can sbe healed later!".
Jasmin whose lips were shaking due to being insulted, clenched her little fists as she used what was left of her mana, to cast one last spell.
"Light Fortress!", her usually sweet voice had a tinge of fierceness as she used her best defensive spell, a light cube covered her whole body while at the same time her eyes closed as she passed out due to exhaustion, but as she fell to the ground, she managed to see a few blurred figures from afar.
'What a pretty silver color', she thought to herself as she fell into the darkness.
