Freya was taken back at the sight of Daimon suddenly disappearing a moment ago, but then the source of her surprise changed to the fact that she felt as if a knot in her chest has been undone.
"T-The curse is gone", she exclaimed in disbelief at the sensation of relief that was invading her.
She was surprised because she knew what this meant, the incarnation of Karla that was trapped in Kerrol was destroyed.
'That woman was too sly, how did he find her so easily?', she wondered, in Freya's mind, besides Daimon's group and herself, there was no one else capable of facing Karla, even in her weakened state, so it was natural to connect the fact that Daimon suddenly left through a portal and Karla's demise.
As if to answer her questions, a black shadow portal opened at the wall and Daimon came out of it with a relaxed smile on his face.
Once the portal closed, Daimon took off his mask and then turned to see Freya, who felt curious about what made the usually stern silver haired youth smirk like that.
But since he didn't say anything about it, she didn't ask either, everyone has their secrets after all, that being said there was a subject in which she can pry without any problem.
"Did you kill Karla?", confirming it was the best, who knows, the Siren might be trying to pull something by feigning her death, luckily Daimon's next words put her at ease.
"Yes, she tried to get a new pawn and was unlucky enough to choose a "loose end" that I had purposedly left for observation, perhaps just like Adam, she finally exhausted that hero luck bullshit she had, or she was too excited to have found a compatible host even if she was just going to use her, so she rushed things, whatever the case this half of her is now dead", he said.
Freya nodded, each administrator knew if it was compatible with someone or not, normally the receiving end wouldn't know unless the administrator itself mentioned it, otherwise Archbald wouldn't have been played like that.
Among the information Karla was forced to spit out, there was the deal between the Blood King and Karla, apparently, she gave the Ghoul a taste of the dark energy she had and then offered him to become a "chosen one", the Blood King naturally accepted unaware of the fact he wasn't compatible with Karla to begin with, in other words he was just a disposable pawn.
That's why she casually discarded him for Adam when she was forced to, and then when Adam turned out to be a disappointment, she tried to trick Daimon who of course could tell she was lying which resulted in a rather painful death, not to mention she angered Evangeline on the process.
"She was either desperate and that "loose end" was probably unusually highly compatible with her", mumbled Freya, which caught Daimon's attention.
"Oh, so there are levels in what "compatibility" regard?", he asked.
The silver armored woman remained silent, before she softly snorted.
"I'm not going to fall for that… again, also don't take it too far, I'm not your administrator, if I purposedly confirm things you are supposed to discover by yourself, you might lose opportunities".
"Oh, so that works the same", said Daimon making Freya speechless for a second.
"…", he tricked her to speak more than what she should again, but then it was as if she was hit by bolt out of the blue.
"Wait a second, how come you don't know the basics of the basics, unless you…", Freya stopped for a moment before saying.
"Just how hard were the conditions of your awakening and what was the rank of your result?".
Before Daimon could even consider whether to answer that or not, Evangeline actually spoke out loud.
"Now, you shouldn't ask that to other people's hosts so casually, unless a contract is involved of course", she said with a suggestive voice.
"It was just curiosity, I will hang around while the enemies that caused my companion's deaths are the targets, but I'm not thinking on taking a new host", answered Freya as she shook her head.
"Oh really, and what do you think you can do with the miserable reserves of "origin" you have, if you are trying to have my host do the fighting without a payment, I'd rather steal something from you, we have a couple of especially metal affinity skilled people in our team, so we'd gain more even if you leave than just having you freeloading~", Evangeline's playful voice didn't match the dangerous words that she said.
Freya gazed at Daimon and didn't see hostility, but certainly their previous agreement only included information, not support in battle, which she couldn't provide as of current.
'Damn Karla if it wasn't for her torture, I would have at least kept the Stellar rank, as a peak Arch rank my bargaining chips are too limited to be of any use in an event of this magnitude…', thought Freya.
On the other hand, she could tell that the administrator of the silver haired masked youth, was guiding her to a "trap", the problem is that she had no option but to fall in it, she didn't even have a way to repay Daimon for getting rid of the curse for her by destroying the last part of Karla's existence, besides information of course, especially if there were "Star Lords" involved in this conflict.
"Fine, I'll agree to a temporary contract, but not because of your threats, but because he has given me a chance to take revenge for a past grievance… my only request is to see and help the family that inherited the will of my late comrades, what do you say, you seem to be in a good relationship with them anyway", said the silver armored woman with expectancy.
Daimon always paid attention to every single word Evangeline said, because she gives him hints every time she can, so when she mentions something new if he notices it and makes the correct questions, he can obtain new information.
Naturally it didn't escape him that Eve interrupted Freya earlier, but there must be a good reason for it, it was her way to say "Don't ask about it yet", instead she got him another piece of information, Daimon decided to listen to her message, after all she has never done anything that could hinder his growth.
"I guess the "origin" you mentioned is that silver energy for you and for that Siren it was that strange nether, right, but her reserves weren't that big for sure but she could recover so why can't you do the same?", asked Daimon.
Freya doubted for a moment but ultimately, she sighed and then answered the question.
"Origin is the energy we as administrators need and produce as long as we have a companion, as for your second question, that is because once we take certain decisions, they will remain forever, I told you that the type of link I had with my first host was a life and death one, since that was something I willingly did, from that point onwards if I wanted to make a "contract" whether it be temporary or permanent, it will be a life and death one, after all I wasn't supposed to… live after my host died, which is why my second companion didn't accept to sign a contract with me no matter how much I asked her to", she said with a slightly sad voice to then add.
"Unlike previously when I was assigned to the younger sister of my first host, this time I was able to stay behind, since I met the requirements for it, but not only I couldn't produce origin anymore, but if I made a contract it will be a life and death one whether I like it or not, and Karla would have found out and killed my temporary host which would have been a dead end for me, not to mention I never saw anyone remotely close to be as compatible as those two, so the risk wasn't worth it".
"In any case, even after Freya selected a few Ghouls through the years, the amount of origin she was able to amass was a joke, because her originally assigned host was way more compatible with her, but she had no choice because she couldn't return to zero and be re-assigned as she was incomplete
"I on the other hand could have escaped if I decided to leave everything behind, the problem is that no one knows to whom I might have ended up being assigned, it was a miracle that my second host was related to the first one, and I simply refused to leave until I at least killed Karla".
Daimon nodded understanding the basics of how it worked, administrators needed a host to be able to "progress" whether they made them system users or not, which explained why though Karla gave Archbald some powers, he didn't become a system user, that Siren never made a meaningful contract unlike Freya, even the hero guy she was assigned to before was not a "keep" for her.
"So how compatible am I for you, also will I get a second system if we make a contract even if it is temporary?", asked Daimon just to see Freya shaking her head.
"You are actually compatible with me, despite not having metal affinity, something similar happened with my second host, that being said you won't be able to get the system I administrate, because of your gender, but that's fine, I just need a bit of origin from you and in exchange I'll help you as much as I can…".
Before Freya could finish her sentence, Daimon's vibe changed, his body radiated both metal element mana and battle aura, making the silver armored woman be in awe for a second.
"W-Weren't your affinities light and fire, I could understand if you also had lightning considering how much of a monster you appear to be, but metal is completely unrelated to those!", she exclaimed, in her excitement, she actually approached Daimon and grabbed his arm to touch his skin directly as if to confirm something.
'No way, his compatibility surpasses that of Lynnete, how the hell is he not a metal type system user!', she inwardly screamed.
Daimon chuckled and then hid his metal affinity with the Hollow Suit and the bracelet of the god of mischief once again, to then say.
"I was born with metal affinity to begin with, but I'm not limited by such things".
Freya was speechless, while Evangeline laughed out loud.
"As long as you around Daimon even if you want to be useless, things won't go your way~", she said.
"I'll be out while the contract is formalized, since you have metal affinity, I'll add teaching you how to properly use metal mana as part of the benefits of the contract… I don't have a promise item to offer but I won't be a burden", with those words and Daimon nodding to accept the "link" she was trying to stablish, Freya turned into a silver light that covered Daimon, the next second, she had turned into an ethereal silver armor that protected his vitals, similar to the protection she casted on him earlier.
Apparently, this was the form of her existence, it was similar as to how the angel girl Ariel became a pendant with a crystal and a white feather inside of it, she also made a contract with Daimon, but it wasn't a life and death one, since she put a condition before even considering that, which was to kill Marcus and obtain his administrator too.
'To think he convinced that metal woman to accept a though temporary, life and death contract, maybe if it's him…', thought Ariel from within her pendant.
"Well, that's one thing solved…", mumbled Daimon as he saw the door of his room opening, meaning those five had finished their conversation for the time being at least, the one that came out was actually Reyne.
"I can believe that Jasmine is my sister, but is that crazy girl actually related to me?", she jokingly asked, to which Daimon softly laughed.
"If you only took into account the current relations, she'll be your cousin, but if we are serious about it, she is as much as Jasmine's sister as you so… good luck", he said, making Reyne sigh.
Daimon's amusement was interrupted by old Ben who stopped at a respectable distance, of Jeanne and Emily's assigned area, he didn't even say anything as he was sure that Daimon was observing everything, and he was right, courtesy of Rita of course.
That being said, Jeanne and Emily also noticed his presence, so they came out of the room accompanied by Jasmine and Sarah who were in a really good mood currently.
"It's time to get our payment, are you ready, we'll be leaving after that?", said Daimon to those two.
"Mm, since Reyne had already expressed her desire to leave, we had already packed our stuff before", said Jeanne to which Reyne cleared her throat.
"Mom, a simple "yes" would have sufficed", she said.
Daimon nodded at them and then he walked towards where old Ben was, followed by those girls of course.
Old Ben saw the masked youth approach him with a calm relaxed expression, and he inwardly sighed.
'I guess neither Dorothy's death of which he should already be aware of, nor the fortune he is about to receive means too much for him, what a loss for the humanity', he thought.
"Here is the payment we agreed on, those two asked me to inquire about the price to remove that dark energy from them", said old Ben as he handed Daimon a couple of spatial rings.
Daimon received the rings and naturally inspected their contents, as he handed the information that old Ben wanted, once he was sure that till the last mana crystal was there, he turned to see Sarah to then say.
"You'll be the one taking care of it, so the price is up to you".
"I was going to ask for the head of that crazy woman, but that no longer holds any mean, so I want a poison that I don't know about, every big force must have a secret mix or two, especially those guys from the church, and you have five minutes because we are leaving", casually said the crazy girl, making old Ben take in a breath of cold air, he knew that Sarah was merciless, but to think she would have asked old Antonio for the head of his daughter to cure him, that was way above what he expected.
Not even three minutes later, Antonio and the elder from the church arrived at the scene, both holding a small chest with a seal on them.
"These are secret poisons that were yet to be tested, they are ninth generation beast technology, known only for the leaders of the two sides, will it be enough?", asked old Ben as those two opened their chest to show the contents.
Sarah's eyes sparkled as she took the chests from those two and put them in her ring, to then snap her fingers.
A purple mist gathered around the crazy girl, forcing wisps of dark smoke to come out of Antonion and the elder's bodies, the thing actually tried to escape but was intercepted and engulfed by Sarah's purple mist.
"It's done, bye", said the crazy girl as she dispelled the purple mist, those two confirmed that they were now cured and then left.
Old Ben on the other hand did say goodbye, before stealing one last gaze at Reyne before leaving, knowing that there was a big chance this was the last time he saw that extraordinary group.
Daimon nodded at him but didn't think too much about it, he instead looked at the log of the system where the message he wanted to see was.
[The mission has been properly accomplished, the portal to return is available, do you wish to leave Y/N]
Those five girls held onto him, without him saying anything, which meant they were ready to leave.
Daimon accepted and then the space on the roof of the room cracked, dragging them into a dimensional tunnel, marking the end of their visit to Kerrol.
…
Inside of the dimensional tunnel, Daimon observed their surroundings, this was the smoothest dimensional tunnel in which he has been, but it made sense since this was created using the system as a medium.
"We'll be here for at least a couple of hours, so take a rest, we'll soon be back at Neptune", said Daimon.
The last time they appeared outside of Kerrol, in the part to which the passage connected, this time they were inside of Kerrol, so they needed more time to return to Neptune.
While Jasmine and the others talked to each other, Daimon who was curious about something, inwardly said.
'Back then, when you said that if I died you died…', Daimon couldn't finish his sentence before Evangeline interrupted him.
'I told you right, you are my first and last host, most administrators don't dare to take such a risk, so you better treasure me', said Eve to which Daimon limited to chuckle.
