The visual illusion spell of Aurora didn't dispel, despite the fact that right now her mind wasn't in the best state.
"Bell, what are you trying to play here!", exclaimed Aurora, which made the purple haired mother look at the ground as if she didn't dare to see Aurora to the eyes.
When Daimon used his infinity eyes to see through their masks, he looking at the physical layer, after that little accident in which he saw through Arianna's clothes back at the tournament, he had learned how to tone it up or down depending on what he needed.
And one of the first things one should worry about, when catching a professional assassin is… a suicidal method to avoid interrogation, but surprisingly the purple haired pair of mother and daughter had nothing like that, at least not in their mouths, like a capsule of poison under their tongue or a fake tooth as it is normally the case.
Still, Aurora wasn't completely restraining them with her mana pressure, and there seemed to be something wrong with her, so he was about to ask Thea to do it in her stead, when the purple haired girl that offered him a toast, actually turned to see in their direction.
"Gran… no I guess that now that things have come to this, I won't ever be allowed to call you that, lady Ivory, before we answer to you, could you please tell Jasmine's boyfriend to come out, he should hear this too", said Sarah.
Bell turned to see her daughter and tried to ask her to not talk, but Daimon's sudden appearance interrupted her.
Aurora saw Daimon calmly appearing and she actually blocked his way, because she thought he was going to kill those two on the spot.
Daimon didn't blame her, obviously there is some backstory between them, also he wasn't going to kill them… yet, because first of all, he was interested in how did a Lord ranked girl managed to see him when he has activated the effect of the Hollow Suit.
But that is only one of his questions, because a couple of seconds ago, Rita informed him of something incredible, and he wanted to hear their story before taking a decision.
"Calm down, I'm not going to kill them, and I know you don't want to do that either", said Daimon, making Aurora whose breathing was irregular let out a sigh of relief, it is unknown what methods does the silver haired youth in front of hers have after all.
Daimon took out a pair of chairs from his inventory, one for him and another one for Thea who also came out, so now there were three people in one side of the table and two at the other one.
Aurora's gaze could pierce a hole through someone right now, and she was still glaring at the pair of mother and daughter that didn't even try to resist the moment they saw Aurora.
"What do you have to say for yourself, you two?", asked Aurora.
This time the mother was the one who talked.
"First of all, I never wanted you to see us like this, second and I know it might sound like an excuse but there is a reason for me to be impersonating the leader of this club of assassins", she said.
The word "impersonating", made Aurora frown, but she didn't immediately buy it, Olivia previously told them everything she knew about the leader of this branch of Black Wave, it has always been a disguised couple, since ever, so this isn't a recent thing, though Sarah should be relatively new considering she is just a few years older than Jasmine.
"Everything started a few days before Jessica's death, me and Sylvie were present when Jasmine was born, and we accompanied Jessica all the time through it, she was rather worn out after that, but everything was fine".
"I left for a mission that was assigned to me by Byron while Sylvie stayed behind to watch over Jessica, when I returned, I was told she… died, so of course I was devastated, but I couldn't believe that they were just randomly killed by a magic beast from the Maelstrom Sea, since we are really far from it".
"When I started investigating, I accidentally happened to find an assassin from Black Wave, that's when I came to know about this organization, the most obvious conclusion is that these guys were the ones who killed Jessica".
"Naturally I told Sylvie and she… well she didn't take it well, I'm the leader of the intelligence department of the Elemental Sea after all, so it was my job to know about their existence if would have paid attention Jessica would have been with us up to this day".
Bell stopped talking for a moment, she was gritting her teeth really hard while her daughter placed her hand on top of hers, Aurora frowned, she never really got to know why Sylvie and Bell who were as close as sisters along with her daughter, ended up fighting, she supposed it was due to Jessica's death, so she never asked them about it, only now she got to know the truth.
"So, I looked for a way to join Black Wave in secret, and after disguising myself and passing their tests, I ended up joining, then climbed up until I was able to take missions with the leaders, in one of those missions I took them by surprise and captured the two of them… someone issued a mission to kill Jessica a couple of weeks before she gave birth, but it was cancelled the very moment the fact that her child was a girl was revealed to the public".
"No matter how much I interrogated those two, they only knew that the one who issued the mission and the one who cancelled weren't the same person, they were using masks or some other things to cover their bodies".
"After that I was lost for some time, until Reed returned from his mission, one day after one of our usual fights, I looked into his storage ring and found this", said Sarah as she took out a white gold pendant from within her disguise.
Aurora's eyes got watery all of a sudden, how could she not recognize the gift she gave her daughter to congratulate her for Jasmine's birth, though it was broken, it was one of the things that have been passed down in her family, from one Matriarch to another.
The thing had no function, it was merely symbolic and yet, for some reason they were always able to feel it, it was this what surprised Aurora earlier making her leave the illusion.
"That was lost the day she and Byron's life scrolls broke, are you saying Reed had it on him?", asked Aurora, she didn't know it was Sarah behind the mask, but she felt the pendant and for a second she thought it was her daughter and her husband the ones who were playing to be Black Wave's leaders, but to her surprise that wasn't the case.
"Yeah, and that's not all…", after a couple of seconds, Sarah took out a piece of paper with a portrait drawn on it.
"I tricked Reed to take him to a faraway island and then fought him, he should have been a major realm weaker than me and yet, he went from being a peak Half Step Stellar rank to a middle one in a moment, luckily I was still able to win but, he had done something to me and also to Sarah".
"When I killed him, he turned into the thing that is drawn in that paper, also his body decomposed into a black mist and I saw a black thing disappearing from the battlefield, not without telling me that… he was the one who killed Jessica".
The very moment Bell finished her sentence, Aurora's body trembled, her mana pressure exploded out of her body, but before she could crush Bell into meat paste, Thea blocked with it and their pressures cancelled each other.
"So that's why you and that girl have the same feeling of those creatures, your husband and her father was a Nethereal, also he cursed you both without you noticing right?", mumbled Daimon, which made Aurora wake up from her attack of rage.
"What!", she exclaimed, her supposition was that the creature impersonated Bell's husband to take her daughter by surprise, but if what Daimon said was true then, things were much more complicated than that.
Bell took a deep breath and then focused on the silver haired youth who prevented her from dying a second ago, she then raised both her black robe and the blouse she had below of it.
"Yes", besides the pretty pale skin that laid below the clothes, she had purple strange marks covering all her back and a part of her side, Sarah who also showed part of her body was the same, but she was in much less advanced state.
"This thing should have killed me on the spot but, both me and Sarah were somehow able to endure it, though it has been spreading since back then".
Daimon nodded, the feeling he got from those purple marks was similar to the curse that killed the creature he managed to force into a terror contract, which explained why they were still alive.
"You and that girl probably got used to that guy's mana nature, in your case because of your pregnancy and for her, it is because she is part Nethereal, that's also why she is in a better state despite her low realm", concluded Daimon.
Bell's eyes glowed as she nodded, it was exactly as Daimon said, after her daughter was born, she felt her body different, but she just shrugged it off by thinking it was because she was now a mother.
Her daughter also manifested an incredibly strong poison affinity even when she was a baby, but it was just thought to be a good talent, Daimon earlier noticed that Sarah was actually stronger than Purplehaze.
He also has poison affinity thanks to the manticore after all, so he is able to sense how deadly a poison is, and he was amazed at her poison element, surprisingly Rita wasn't able to feel they were affected by a Nethereal, but it's normal, since none of them are one, but just a part of them became like that.
"Wait a second, if I remember correctly the one who introduced Reed to your father was Byron!", said Aurora with an outraged voice.
Bell clenched her fists as she answered.
"Yes… my supposition is that Byron was involved in Jessica's death, and that's also why me and Sarah started impersonating the leaders of Black Wave, because the second person, probably the one who issued the mission to kill Jessica was Byron".
Daimon could see Aurora's fierce expression, and he understood why, Jasmine's father, the guy who was chosen by Abaris to marry her daughter, was the one who issued a mission to kill her, how could she not be furious right now.
"I didn't think that Byron was really dead, since Reed wasn't wounded at all, Byron was as strong as me back then, so if those two fought, even if Reed won, he would have suffered, but that wasn't the case, they were together, and so I have been waiting for the day Byron comes to Black Wave again so I could kill him".
"As to why I didn't say anything until now… it's because how could I explain this without revealing what me and Sarah are now, also it was my husband and my cousin the ones who killed Jessica, I didn't have the face to even be near little Jasmine, so I decided that after I killed Byron, I will die and leave you a proper explanation".
"Unfortunately, unlike Sarah my body is about to give in to the curse, since my affectation is much less than hers, but then I saw the leader from the Maelstrom Sea using that black mist, so I finally got a new hint, but in this weakened state let alone capture him, I couldn't fight back alone, so I wanted Olivia's help to go capture that bastard", she said.
Needless to say, but Aurora was in shock, Byron was Purplecloud and Bell's cousin, and also an orphan, Abaris chose him because he had a really good talent in darkness element, in fact he was better than Purplecloud who only has poison affinity, but Byron didn't want to be the Patriarch of the Purple Haze sect, he was the perfect candidate, as he will be fully loyal to the Black Fortress.
"The scheming guy, I guess", said Daimon, Aurora reached the same conclusion, their personal weaknesses were included in this scheme, in her case, her daughter, as for Abaris, the fact that he desperately wanted to bring new talented blood to his Black Fortress.
And they were both played by those things, if Reed was a Nethereal, then she was sure Byron was one too, and this is where a new problem appears, if Jasmine's father was a Nethereal then wouldn't she be one too, like Sarah.
"I'm curious, how come you were able to notice I was here?", asked Daimon, Aurora was having a mental battle right now, so he might as well solve the mystery, Sarah was the one who answered him.
Her purple eyes glowed in a strange light and her body shivered as she said.
"It's because only you have made me feel this intense dreading sensation, it feels as if I will die just by approaching you, it's… amazingly intoxicating~".
Bell sighed as she listened to her daughter, at the same time Thea frowned, Daimon on the other hand was speechless.
'What the hell is wrong with this girl', they all thought.
Daimon shook his head, reasoning what that strange answer meant could wait, right now they had to decide what to do with these two, or more accurately Aurora had to decide, depending on that he will act as well, so the atmosphere tensed up.
That being said, the pair of purple haired mother and daughter were relaxed, they probably had accepted that their death a long time ago, Daimon could tell this whole place was filled to the brim with self-destruction arrays and that Bell could have activated them if she wanted to, but they weren't prepared for them, bur for that Byron guy, since she apparently has weakened over the years, in other words from the very beginning she has only stayed alive to avenge her friend who was betrayed and killed.
As for Sarah, who knows what's in the mind of that girl, but if there is a thing Daimon is certain of, is that she cared for Jasmine, Cassy told him that she saw her attacking Adam, back then she thought Sarah was just causing troubles to Jasmine like always, but now Cassy didn't know what to believe, she didn't tell Jasmine because Sarah told her, she will poison both Jasmine and her if she mentioned it, but now it was obvious that was just an excuse, to make her look like crazy… well maybe she is a bit crazy indeed, considering how she was looking at Daimon right now.
