Though at this point Ender knew it was too late to do anything about it, the more he interacted with Daimon, the more he doubted if it was correct from him to bring them here.
'Well, considering their killing methods don't even leave a corpse behind, I highly doubt they are human hunters sent by the flesh eating demons… though looting seems to be quite of their liking'.
In this place, the loser often ended up turning into food for the winner, not in a figurative but in a literal meaning, there are even some who sold the corpses of their enemies to certain people, who were said to work with or for flesh eating demons.
For a change, something that the crazy girl did, ended up giving Ender a better impression of Daimon, because killing with poison is a way to make 100% sure that the corpse won't be edible, either for other humans or flesh eating demons.
As for Daimon, well, the fact that there was nothing left of Ismael, who would have been a "delicacy", for those who ate human meat, spoke by itself, at the very least they weren't a threat in that sense.
On the other hand, seeing Sarah happily loot from those horribly damaged corpses, without any care in the world, made both Ender and Tila wary, even in a world where people eat each other, the vast majority won't be able to hand death in such a carefree way, not to mention she looked too young, it was simply abnormal.
The only thing that Ender could think of, was that Daimon and Sarah were born in a place with a much worse life quality for humans, than the towns that surrounded the wasteland, and there was only one place that fitted that description in his mind.
'Human farm… could it be that they managed to escape from that hell of a place', he wondered.
Unaware of the fact that he chose someone that by no means can be considered normal, even for Nethereal standards, Ender helped his subordinates get up, only to suddenly feel his body much lighter as Daimon finally managed to restrain his aura like before.
Not only it was hard for him to suppress his Overlord's Pride here, but it was harder to retrieve it once he let it out, and this was the smallest amount he could use, he couldn't even imagine what will happen if he let it rampage.
"I can move again, boss I told you we needed to hunt more to buy those Ignition Armors like those guys", said one of Ender's subordinates, making Ender chuckle.
"Forget about it, you all know the kind of things he had to do to get enough money to buy that equipment from the black market", said Ernest as he shook his head.
"Speaking of that, did you retrieve the armors of those guys?", asked Daimon to Sarah, only to see the crazy girl shrugging.
"Nah, they tried to force more strength out of them in a try to not be dissolved by my battle aura, but the cores were destroyed and along with that, their armors self-destroyed, and here I was restraining myself to let those things unscathed", she said.
Daimon didn't blame her, this was a run-down town, and Ismael was a piece trash, even if he had obtained the natural increase in physical strength that a peak Knight Lord would get, he couldn't make the most out of it.
In a rough calculation, Ismael was around the level of an average middle stage Lord rank, the only moment in which he reached the battle prowess of a peak Lord rank, was when he used those two Arch rank magic treasures.
So, it's only normal that these treasures he had weren't of a relatively good quality, that being said, the things sold in the stores didn't have cores embedded into them, nor they had a compartment for that.
Which probably means they aren't that easy to obtain, at least not in this area, as even that short merchant who is the one that supposedly has travelled to more towns than anyone here, didn't have that type of equipment for sale.
"Leave them behind to secure this place, only you two and us will be doing", said Daimon to Ender and Tila.
If their subordinates came, they will only end up powerless when he used Overlord's Pride, so there was no reason for them to tag along, also a big number of people moving in group will be easier to notice than just four of them and with Ismael being such a cliche third rate villain, Daimon wanted to avoid a certain situation from happening.
Ender nodded, that ability Daimon had to suppress enemies would be more useful in this situation than a large group.
"Okay, you all stay here, there should be some star rank members of the Sand Wolf army left in the mansion, go and capture them, Gilles you know what to do", he said.
As the strongest hunting team of the town, Ismael could afford to use star rank mages or knights as servants, so the mansion still needed to be secured, as for Gilles he was Ender's most trusted subordinate, his right hand.
Seeing Daimon walking towards the exit of the mansion, Ender waited until there was some distance before saying in a low voice.
"Be sure to not let anyone take anything, he killed Ismael easily an that woman is terrifying… there is a chance they are survivors from a human farm, those guys are even scarier than the flesh eating demons themselves, I don't want to die because of some idiot's greed, understood?".
"O-Okay boss, I'll beat anyone who tries to play some tricks to a pulp", answered Gilles, a human farm is hell on the land of the living, the horrors that can be found in there can make even veterans have nightmares, and those who survive in that kind of environment are monsters among monsters, it is said that the founder of the strongest city ruled by humans, a long time ago, was such a person, someone that walked out of hell with its own feet.
Ender nodded and after listening to Tila give the exact same warning to her subordinates, they both walked towards the entrance, unaware of the fact that Daimon's sharp ears heard that conversation.
'Human farms huh… was this place really set up by the hero, or was it just visited by him, but if that was the case, then why would he not solve these problems?', he wondered.
As far as he understood, the missions assigned to a system user were adapted to the type of system they owned, hero type had to do "good" things or some flashy feats, while those like Marcus had to act in the shadows and cause chaos, if the hero came to this place before, then his mission would have for sure involved solving these situations or at least helping some.
'Wait, could it be that he failed and that's why this place was chosen by him to leave his inheritance', thought Daimon, his eyes glowed behind his mask, if that was the case then this place was for sure not simple as it seems.
Surprisingly a mission hasn't been triggered yet, but that could be because this place is already part of a mission, that or he hasn't met the requirements needed, ultimately Daimon shrugged, he just needed to get someone that knew how to move around to save time and advance in the shortest time possible, so that he can get to where Jasmine is, everything could come after that.
"Don't be left behind", said Daimon as he flashed, disappearing from where he was, Sarah slightly bent her knees and then jumped, her figure mingled in the darkness that covered most of the town as she followed Daimon, who was purposedly letting her as well as Ender and Sarah feel his presence.
Those two stared at each other and then used their own movement spells and martial arts to follow.
…
At the east side of Brown Wind town, there was a relatively better complex of buildings which had a better construction than others, the best being a light brown and green three-story building, which was the headquarters of Ender's hunting group, the nearby buildings were also better than average.
Which normally brought peace to the area as a whole, but right now that wasn't the case, Tila had taken preventive measures prior to going to Ismael's mansion, her remaining subordinates as well as all the families that depended on her Fire Dune hunting team, took refuge in Ender's headquarters, so that they could flee as a whole and have bigger chances of survival, in case Ismael sent his subordinates to attack them.
Unfortunately, they didn't expect that arrogant muscle head to actually shell out a small fortune, to hire the guards of one of two out of the top three stores and the guy who managed the best brothel at the same time.
So their group of ten early stage Lord ranks and a bunch of star ranks, paled in comparison with the around fifty or so early stage Lord ranks, even if they were more experienced, they were simply outnumbered not to mention they had to protect others, and there were even a couple of middle stage Lord ranks among the enemies, since the captains of the hired guards, were the ones that took the task representing their masters.
"Captain, can't we break in at once and slaughter them, this is the first night of the damn blood moon week, we should be in the quarters having some fun with those bitches", complained one of the guards.
"We were paid a lot just to stand here and don't let those guys run, it's more profitable if we don't have to fight at all", answered the captain, a tall guy with a patch on his left eye.
"Yo, Jake, it seems that your subordinates want some fun, why don't ya'll pay a visit to Wild Night, I'll give you a discount if you give us have all the women in the building, once we break in, you don't have to worry about their food this way and you get to play with the trained and well-maintained "goods" instead of those malnourished women", said a lanky man as he played with a knife.
"Add a third part of the profit you'll get of butchering them and we have a deal, no bargaining, that is my master's offer, otherwise forget about it, Smith", said the patch-eyed Jake to the lanky man Smith.
"Heh, so you were waiting for this from the very beginning, make it a fourth part and it's a deal, we still have to pay some fees to Alan and Hal to keep them silent, but don't worry, everyone wants to get as much rations as possible for the blood week, so even low-quality products sell like hot bread, not to mention we have some special "orders" kekeke", said Smith as he coldly laughed.
Jake found the lanky man disgusting, but more money was always welcomed and they didn't have to do anything, but leave those degenerates do their job and the merchants for who he work, will get a nice profit, which means more resources for him, so he put his personal opinion of Smith aside.
"Mm?", Jake suddenly felt an insane bloodlust coming from above, he looked upwards just to see Ender who had a murderous expression, he heard the previous conversation, his aunt and cousin as well as some other relatives of his were in the headquarters.
If he would have fell against Ismael earlier, they would have met such a horrible end, so he of course was furious, and Daimon now knew why Wild Night was considered the worst of the worst.
Not only the people working in the brothel of course had miserable lives, but even in their death their corpses were butchered, that included both men and women, but for some reason this time they were specifically targeting women.
He didn't care about the problems of others to be honest, but he was interested in the "orders" mentioned by the lanky man, it is also true that he despised those who trashed the powerless just for fun, since he was once in such a situation in his previous life.
As for the guys mentioned by him, Alan and Hal, they were already on the list, Hal was the current manager of the chief's store, and Alan was the one in charge of the granary and the storage of the town, and also the only other peak Lord rank that lived here, though that will change soon.
"Kill everyone but that one", said Daimon, which made Ender grit his teeth, but he didn't dare to disobey, his aim changed from Smith's neck to his chest as he pushed his spear towards it.
"Clang!", in the last second, Smith managed to react and block the spear with his knife, but the tip still slightly pierced his leather armor getting some blood out of him.
"Shit, that idiot didn't say he will let these guys go if his brother returned!", shouted Smith, in his mind the only way for Ismael to let Ender and Tila leave is that his brother returned safe and sound.
It didn't even occur to him that they would have killed him to then appear here, at least that was the case until he heard miserable screams coming from the group conformed by his and Jake's subordinates.
"Aghhhh no, help!", Smith's eyes widened a bit when he saw some guys melting into mountains of corrupted meat before ending as black puddles, one after each other the same scene repeated and no one knew why, so of course chaos unleashed on the group.
"Don't break the formation you bastards, regroup and…", Jake was actually used to lead others in battle, and Daimon noticed that, which is why a black sword was piercing his head from side to side right now.
Under the terrified eyes of the remaining twenty-five or so early-stage Lord rank enemies, Jake turned into a dry mummy before his body crumbled into ashes that were dispersed by the wind a second later.
Daimon suddenly pointed his index finger at Smith and before the lanky man could react, white line of light pierced his right leg, burning it to ashes, without its support, his body collapsed.
Normally a wound by fire would be better than a wound by sword, because the fire will cauterize it and prevent bleeding, but when the fire is Demon Light, the pain inflicted to the flesh of the target will make them wish that they were attacked by anything but it.
"Aghhhh my leg!!!", Ender who ceased his attack to Smith, the moment Daimon said he wanted to capture him, and was now killing some of the early-stage Lord ranks along with Tila, turned his head around just to see Smith retorting on the ground.
His face was twisted and he had a horrified expression, hell, he was crying, a psycho who felt no regret over killing and turning other humans into cheap meat to sell at other places, was crying like a little kid.
Now imagine his reaction when his other leg was blown away by another white ray of flames, he peed himself and foam came out of his mouth he fainted, not before letting out a lung-tearing scream.
Daimon grabbed Smith by his neck and tossed his legless body towards the entrance of Ender's headquarters, like a piece of trash.
Daimon isn't a good person, he wouldn't hesitate to burn a planet and all its habitants regardless of their age or gender, if they were int the way of his family, but killing the powerless without any reason isn't up to his liking, that is one of the principles which Aisha and the other soulmates helped him to develop, of course for the sake of his family, anything could be put in second place, but unless he has to, that's a line he won't cross.
Of course, that doesn't mean he is going to help random people that doesn't benefit him, but making the world a slightly less horrible place by killing the scum that appears in front of him is within his scope.
Hypocritical, maybe, but so what, isn't that why he is pursuing the seat of the strongest, so that he can be the one to make the rules, it is the universe the one that should bend according to his desires, not the other way around.
Daimon suddenly frowned, he felt a bit heated up, his blood flow was a bit faster than normal too, but it didn't last long.
'Could it be the influence of this place?', he thought.
"Tell them to chain him up, I have some questions to make him", said Daimon to Ender as he flashed towards some of the very few remaining enemies, to end the battle fast.
Ender nodded and then killed his opponent, Tila had finished her fight too, in combination they killed around eight enemies, while there were thirty puddles of black liquid, courtesy of the crazy girl Sarah, while Daimon got rid of the remaining twelve with a few slashes of his sword.
"Two middle stages were defeated so easily… they are too strong", said Tila, as she saw the result of a battle that didn't even take five minutes to finish, it was a one-sided massacre.
Ender walked towards the gates of the headquarter and after giving some instructions to his subordinates, who took away Smith to a cell, and seeing his relatives to assure them everything was fine, he returned.
"Who will we attack next?", he asked.
"The brothel", said Daimon, which made Ender nod in response.
The group of four then started advancing towards the inner part of the west area of the town, their figures flashed through the almost lightless sky.
