Daimon looked at the ring that appeared on his hand with interest, he could feel the presence from Ophelia coming from the small blue gem that was embedded on it.
"The two things I mentioned will be ready in a minute, then I'll go to sleep, the process won't take that long a couple of hours at most but it will have to start right away, don't worry my remaining presence will keep this place from crumbling apart and no one will be able to enter, I trust we'll see each other again soon, until then, take care of me, little brother Daimon~", said Ophelia before her presence attenuated until it practically disappeared.
The ring which a second ago could rival with any Stellar ranked magic treasure in terms of aura, Daimon has seen before, turned into a lifeless object, one that no one would give a second gaze to.
The moment the ring became lifeless, the coin finished its transformation too, the original red ominous color it used to have, was changed to a pretty royal blue tone, besides it was brimming with a sensation that was similar to "vitality", which made sense, considering Ophelia created a copy of the information codified in her bloodline and saved it up into the coin.
Unlike humanoid beings, magic beasts aren't normally born with rationality, their actions are instead dictated by their instincts which puts them at disadvantage in comparison with those that cultivate their wisdom, also known as mages.
But the world gives every race a chance, and so magic beasts also have a way to overcome their lack of wisdom at their early stages, and that is through the information codified in their blood.
Not much is known about it, since the information that the four galaxies have is based on the few strong families and forces from the White Fang galaxy, whose bloodlines aren't diluted enough for them to not have any records of the innate abilities granted to them thanks to their lineages, and even then, not all the members of those families can begin to decodify said information.
'I guess, I'll have to discuss about bloodlines with those two once I get back', thought Daimon as he sent the now blue coin to the inventory, as for the handbell it took it a bit more time to finish its change.
Daphne who was observing the handbell floating and shining, was taken by surprise when she heard a message being send directly to her mind.
'I left a little gift behind for you little girl, don't let others snatch that little brother away from you~'.
"…", Daphne whose face blushed, returned to reality when the handbell became a flash of blue light that shot towards her, entering her body through her chest, the next thing that happened was that the room was illuminated by a bright blue light, which forced Daimon to close his eyes for a split of a second before the light dimmed.
Daimon didn't worry about Daphne, since Ophelia told him that the process would start right away, however the result wasn't what he expected, so he couldn't help but be surprised at the result.
In front of him, stood a pretty girl that appeared to be in her early twenties, she was rather tall being around 1.8 meters of height, had long hair which not only cascaded down all the way to her lower back, but was now also painted in two different blue tones, dark blue for the surface and a pretty royal blue color for the reverse, as well as bright sky-blue eyes, all in all she had gained a bit more of resemblance to Ophelia.
However, that wasn't all, her clothes which originally consisted on a long dress as well as light metal armor to protect her vitals, the standard for mages, had changed into a beautiful blue knee length dress with metal ornaments, it seemed to be based on what Ophelia was wearing.
But Daphne's was of a much brighter blue tone, also she was now using accessories that perfectly matched with her dress, such as earrings, bracelets, a pretty necklace and to top it off, a crown-like tiara that added a certain charm to her.
"…", Daphne reacted a bit late, apparently, she didn't realize the changes on her outfit, until she was met with Daimon's curious gaze, which made her look at her reflect on the marble like floor of the room.
Her pretty face exploded in red, her dress was a bit short compared to what she normally wears, which let a part of her thighs exposed to the viewer, in this case Daimon, as she was going to ask him not to stare too much, her eyes contracted like needles as she placed her hand on the accessory that was decorating her pretty pale neck.
Daimon who was chuckling at her amusing reaction, noticed the change on her expression and approached her.
"Is there something wrong?", he asked, just to see the Valas princess giving him a sweet happy smile.
"D-Daimon~", a soft melodious voice reached Daimon's ears, very much to his surprise, he observed the origin of such a pretty sound, just to see Daphne's soft lips opening once again.
"Daimon, Daimon, Daimon!", she said with a slightly excited and happy tone, this time Daimon managed to see the gem on her necklace shining for a split of a second, unfortunately the next second not only her clothes returned to normal, but Daphne was covered by a dazzling blue light, resulting in her being enveloped by a blue crystal cocoon.
"I guess that's what she meant with the process taking a few hours…", mumbled Daimon, Ophelia probably did a little trick to show him what the result of Daphne's restored lineage will be, probably the dress was included, into that.
Daimon saw Daphne smiling at him from the other side of the crystal cocoon, her eyes transmitted the message "I'm fine", before she closed her eyes to focus on the restoration process, at the same time Daimon heard the unmistakable sound of a notification ringing on his ears.
[Ding]
[The mission "Stealing from the devil" (Skalia continent) has been updated <!>]
[Get the hidden gem to join your side (0/2) à (1/2)]
'Was the requirement helping her recover her voice, or perhaps she saying my name…', wondered Daimon, ever since the crazy girl drinking his poison triggered the notification of the legacy from Adam's mission being fulfilled, he has wondered what do the "gems" and "legacies" represent on the missions, but until now there is no direct correlation between them, each one seems to be completely different from the other.
'I slowed down the notification, but it was triggered when she said your name, that's all I can say, you'll be able to see the details of the mission on the log once you complete it', mumbled Evangeline, to which Daimon inwardly smiled.
'Thanks Eve', he said, he was indeed marveled by Daphne's mellow voice and listening to a notification would have indeed soured the moment, especially since the Valas princess was so happy finally being able to hear her own voice.
'I-I just didn't want you to nag at me, that's all!', exclaimed Evangeline before she returned to silence.
Also, now that the restoration process started, Daimon felt a similar sensation of familiarity with Daphne as the one he felt towards Ophelia after she kissed his forehead, probably because the damages made to the Valas princess's bloodline were being patched up using the lineage of the ancient root of the magic beast that was related to the Valas, similar to his case with the Black Armored Shark and the Dracolevia lineages.
Daimon softly smiled before he returned to reality as he felt a little tug coming from his pocket, his black Sea Emblem flew out of it, the rune shark was manifested and then made a turn around the crystal cocoon that was covering Daphne.
A couple of runes flew out of the snout of the rune shark, one landed on the cocoon while the other stuck to the backside of Daimon's left hand, the rune shark then swam through the air, to bite a piece of the space, ripping a hole to create a portal, as the dimensional tunnel that could be seen inside of it, suggested.
The rune shark then returned to the emblem which returned to Daimon's pocket a second later, as its task here was completed.
"You better explain me everything later…", mumbled Daimon, the moment the rune landed on his hand, he understood its function, basically it was a "coordinate", he could feel Daphne's location through it, also it had a one-time use instant portal, in other words the emblem was telling him "Go on".
Daimon shook his head and then walked towards the portal, Ophelia sealed the place so no one could enter now, so he could go ahead while Daphne finished the process to then catch up with him later.
Though he didn't mind to wait here until she was done, with how things have now escalated past his previous supposition, since the "Star Lord" realm which supposedly far surpasses the Stellar realm, was just the bottom of the barrel, based on Ophelia's words, not to mention the fact that Ophelia herself still "existed", increased the dangers of the Global Raid, she was worst case scenario neutral towards the participants, as she didn't try to kill those two but just wanted to kick them out of the challenge when they lost.
She only attacked him when he killed those two, as he interfered probably confirming her supposition of him being a system user who was also hanging around with her descendant,
But the ones who might be supervising the other challenges, will probably not be as nice as her, especially on the challenges that are on the land ruled by the other three major forces.
After stealing one last gaze at Daphne, Daimon jumped into the dimensional tunnel, disappearing into it, before the thing closed, leaving only Daphne who was smiling inside that crystal cocoon as she felt the connection that was established between herself and Daimon.
…
Inside of the dimensional tunnel, Daimon observed his surroundings, unlike the tunnel that brought them to Ophelia's place, to which he accessed through the entrance of the challenge, this one didn't only water mana floating inside of it, instead there was space, nether and a lot of other elements lingering inside and for a good reason, since there appeared to be different "stops" along the dimensional tunnel.
'What kind of dimensional tunnel is this?', wondered Daimon, the knowledge of space that whoever made this tunnel had, was on a whole different level, a single portal could connect to many tunnels that was normal back at the four galaxies, however the rule was one tunnel per one destination.
Even the dimensional tunnel that brought them to Neptune which was supposedly made by the Black Prison Megalodon, considering the fact that they needed the emblems to enter, might have been a single tunnel at first but then it split in different ones that separated everyone.
Daimon returned to reality as he felt one of the many different entrances dragging him towards it, the next second he left the dimensional tunnel and landed directly at the foot of a hill.
The first thing he noticed was that it was night in this place, also the temperature was rather low, but nothing too extreme, the place felt gloomy, also there was a lingering bloody stench on the air.
"Well, at least I wasn't dropped from the sky…", he mumbled, he had activated the Hollow Suit before leaving the tunnel, it might not physically hide him from beings on par with Ophelia, but such beings should be limited to a certain part of the space of the challenge just like her.
Daimon used blink to climb up the mountain as quietly as possible, reaching its top a minute later.
Daimon frowned upon the discovery of a castle that was built at the other side of the hill, the continental mass ended at the other side of the hill and then where was a bridge that led to the castle that was placed on top of what appeared to be an artificial platform.
Surrounding the castle there was… nothing, a seemingly bottomless pit, surrounded the castle in all directions besides the one that connected with the bridge.
But that wasn't all, unlike the previous place where besides the participants of the challenge, there were no signs of other "living" beings, here there were, though based on their appearances they might not be alive…
The things that were walking towards and through the bridge to reach the castle, were basically walking body parts, connected through bones that were majorly exposed, some had arms, others had legs, others had heads, there were even some that were basically bones with just one finger and so on.
'Skelefiends, no, they are Nethereals', thought Daimon as he used his infinity eyes to inspect those creatures, another thing that got his attention is that he couldn't feel any energy from most of them, nether included.
Only those with at least three limbs, radiated nether, meaning that the vast majority were harmless, quite a strange thing, considering even the weakest artificial Nethereal has been a Lord rank so far.
As from where all they came, there were doors at the base of the hill on which Daimon was standing, and there was a continuous flow of Nethereals coming from them, the hill was the border of this place as there was nothing on the other side besides a small extension of land, before ending in a black abysm just like the one that surrounded the castle.
Daimon didn't think it twice, while still being invisible he descended from the top of the hill, there was nothing else besides the castle and he felt the presence from one of his teammates coming from it, so he was supposed to enter.
Along the way he tried to spy on the conversations those Nethereals were having, but unlike the ones he had met so fat who talked in the common language of the four galaxies, these ones were using different kinds of strange languages.
Still, even not having information is a useful piece of intel for Daimon as he was taught to think out of the box by a certain cunning fox girl.
'There are Nethereals from the different factions, gathering here', he concluded, though they all looked the same, since their severed limbs were those of humans, which they were probably just using as temporary vessels, like the Nethereals that disguised as people they killed back at Neptune, they separating in different groups and talking different languages allowed Daimon to confirm their different aggrupation, the problem is that different to what he knew there wasn't just three or four groups… but around fifteen.
Which meant that there might be potentially fifteen "top dogs" as well, which made sense, since Ophelia mentioned the Nethereals had the quantity, though she just remembered a few major races from her side, Daimon supposed there should have been around five or six beings on par with her, and the Nethereals should have had more.
Daimon put the matter on the back of his head for now, in any case, since he is here, there might be a chance to fill in some missing information, he simply walked through the bridge, avoiding the many Nethereals to then arrive at the entrance of the castle, where he met the first "strong" Nethereals.
There was a couple of tall armored figures, their bodies were strange, because their legs and arms had different sizes, but that wasn't what caught Daimon's attention, not even the fact that they were only early-stage Lord ranks, no, what got his attention was that they presented some sort of metal basket to anyone who wanted to enter the castle, the other party then had to drop something into it, before they opened the gate.
That "something" was actually a body part, well more accurately it was a piece of flesh of any sort, but the size appeared to be regularized as they all had the same exact volume, weirded out by the "payment" required to enter the castle, Daimon simply waited until the guard opened the gate for the next Netheral to then use blink, successfully bypassing them.
What welcomed him at the other side of the door, was a long corridor, decorated to look like the one from a wealthy family, based on the paintings and other things handed on the walls.
"Ahh damn, I lost an arm last time I came!".
"Hahaha, that's what you deserve for, betting against me
Daimon turned around to see a couple of Nethereals passing by, he recognized them, or more accurately their specific limbs from the ones he observed before entering the castle, now he could understand what they were saying, he then looked at the walls and roof of the corridor, just to see quite a few arrays engraved on them.
'A translation array and did that guy said "bet", don't tell me…', while lost in his thoughts, Daimon arrived at the end of the corridor, where an open large area welcomed him.
"Nice, I won a leg!".
"God damn it, my eye!".
And similar heated comments could be heard coming from all over the place, Daimon raised an eyebrow at the unusual sight of Nethereals sitting on tables playing cards, or other kinds of gambling, that's right, this place was a casino of some sort.
Daimon looked at his surroundings, searching for a way to go to where he felt the presence of his teammate, until he saw a crowd gathered in front of a set of stairs.
"Did you hear about, they said that new fresh meat arrived at the castle earlier".
"Damn, the prince will obtain new vessels for his guards again for sure, what a shame we can't even compete for them since not all his personal guards had obtained one yet".
Listening to the conversation of a couple of Nethereals, Daimon used blink to appear on the stairs, ignoring the guards, the space was quite wide so more than ten people could walk side to side.
Daimon went upstairs and was welcomed by the sight of stands surrounding a giant table, where a lot of people was sitting, among which Daimon recognized the very unique bi-colored hair of one of his teammates.
"Okay, time to pay", the cruel voice of the Nethereal that seemed to be supervising whatever was happening on the table, echoed through the room, followed by wails and pained screams.
"Ahhh no!".
"My ear!".
A few of the "participants", screamed in pain as parts of their bodies disappeared, others whose expressions paled, watched from the side, some were bleeding while others had bandages, only a few were seemingly unscathed, among which there was Daimon's teammate, in other words the princess from the Angelfish clan, Marlene.
