Two weeks had passed in the blink of an eye. Souta stayed inside Saya's inner consciousness. All he did was trained the manual he received from Athena.
It was called [Hidden Concealing Method].
It was a high-level skill and its only purpose was to hide the unique presence of Cosmic Body. It took him a total of forty days inside Saya's inner consciousness before he managed to learn it.
Now that he learned this skill, it was safe to say that he could escape the perception of Zodiacs to some extent. Of course, the perception of Zodiacs was unimaginable so he better not get close to them as there's a chance that they would discover him.
Just like what Athena said this skill was not perfect. After all, Zodiacs were all high level gods and who knows what sort of trick they were hiding.
"As long as I don't encounter Zodiacs..."
He used forty days to learn this skill. The remaining time was for him to familiarize himself with his new skill set. The combination of his [Blood Reign] and [Element Drive] gave him a new height in his combat prowess.
Using blood as a medium to create a combo skill was indeed terrifying.
Souta glanced at Yenxa.
"Can you do it?"
Yenxa shook her head with a disappointed look.
"I'm sorry, My Lord. I think that it would still take a lot of time."
Souta smiled and he ruffled her hair.
"Don't worry. Just move at your own pace."
He thought that he could promote Yenxa to third stage but it seems that seventy days of intense training weren't enough. At the very least, Souta felt that she reached the limit. She would hit her third evolution soon.
Yenxa should be able to reach third stage. She just needed some stimulation just like what happened to Yuko back then. Yuko unexpectedly evolve when they were battling in the Blue Lawless City.
Life and death battle was really effective.
"Seventy days had passed inside Saya's inner consciousness but only two weeks here. I wonder what they are doing."
Souta stretched his hand as he left his room with Yenxa. He found that Isabella was the only one inside their base.
"Where are they?"
"Umm... They are on a mission. They left four days ago."
"Oh," Souta understood. It seems that they couldn't wait for him so they took some missions for themselves.
Nevertheless, four days ago...? Maybe, the difficulty was quite high. He understood as it took him almost two weeks to complete the mission in Halbun Dukedom.
Souta sat down on the sofa and looked at the ceiling.
He had nothing to do.
He just finished training so he wanted to go out after burying himself inside Saya's inner consciousness for a long time.
He turned his head to the side, looking at the banner with Athen's Champion symbol encrypted on it.
Second Class Yellow Squadron.
It's still the same.
The rank of their circle haven't changed but he guessed that they were close to their promotion.
First Class Yellow Squadron and next is Third Class Blue Squadron.
Two promotions and he would be able to take one visit to any sub-world under Athena's control.
"I'll make it faster."
Souta narrowed his eyes. He recalled that Athena said that she will arrange a territory for himself outside the Champion's Den. It's a good choice considering Alice's identity as a demon.
It would be bad if other gods discovered Alice. It would be fine if only Hermes, Artemis, Hestia, or Persephone but as for the others... Souta didn't trust them.
He stood up and took out the transmission talisman that he hid in the drawer.
"What is it, Souta?" Torkez's voice echoed.
Souta inquired about the things that happened there. Torkez answered all of his questions without hiding anything.
In short, the Astros grew larger as they slowly began to absorb the nearby smaller villages.
He told Torkez about the territory that Athena will arrange for him. He said that he wanted some capable people to send here.
Torkez answered that he will dispatch Amanda along with some of Eilish's original subordinates. All of them were peak S-rank and would greatly help him.
Also, Torkez told him that Lydia contacted him five days ago. She just asked about their situation here and she also gave him the blueprint of Floating Fortress.
After settling everything, Souta put down the transmission talisman.
He turned his head and said, "Isabella, can you prepare me a cup of coffee?"
"Okay!" Isabella replied.
Four hours later...
A knock sounded, followed by a voice of a man.
"Souta! Grain Leader Carmel is summoning you to his office!"
Souta turned his head to look at the door and found that after announcing those words, the man hurriedly left.
It seems that something happens...
'Ufufu... What a timing.' Saya chuckled.
'Yep, since I don't have anything to do might as well see what happened.' Souta stood up.
"Isabella, Yenxa, take care of the base for me... I have something to do."
"Okay."
"Yes, My Lord."
...
Inside Carmel's office.
Carmel was sitting on a chair with his chin resting on his hands. His eyebrows were knitted together as he glanced at the people in front of him.
There were a total of sixteen people and Souta was among them. He was standing in the back row, observing the other people.
He found that these people were all Shackled Realm experts. And they were all leaders of a squadron like him.
'Something serious happened since only people at Shackled Realm were called here.' Saya said.
'Surely.' Souta narrowed his eyes.
Carmel slowly opened his mouth and said, "I called you here because of some important matter."
He stretched out his right hand.
"Several weeks ago, the leader of Astros Squadron, Souta, captured a person in his mission. That person's name is Rufus, and he is connected to Red Matter Association."
'So that old man's name is Rufus... It seems that they are successful.' Souta said inwardly.
The other people in the office didn't utter any words. They just listen to their Grain Leader. The matter about Red Matter Association was serious and everyone in the Third Set knew about it.
"We interrogate Rufus and we extracted information about the Red Matter. We launched a secret mission and some of you received it..." Carmel eyed some of the people in front of him. "We destroyed a total of seven small bases of Red Matter. A week ago, we managed to locate the main headquarters of the Red Matter Association."
Souta and the other leaders were surprised. Locate the main headquarters of the Red Matter Association? If it comes to this, then the next thing that will happen was...
"Just now, we received information from the people that we dispatched there. It's been confirmed that place is the main headquarters of the Red Matter."
Carmel paused and looked at them one by one.
"The Third Set of Pallas Division will have a large-scale operation at this moment. Several Grains will be mobilized and squadrons that have Shackled Realms in their circle are included in this operation."
The leaders of squadrons knew that this would be a big battle.
"Chief Captain Vandal already summoned some of the available Grain Leaders. Since some of the Grain Leaders aren't available as they couldn't leave the city they were stationed in, we decided to request help from Fourth Set. This was already approved by higher-ups so prepare yourself. We'll have a war."
After a series of questions and answers, Souta and the other squadron leaders left Carmel's office. They were going to prepare for this large-scale operation.
'Finally, something interesting...' Saya laughed.
'It's getting worse...'
Souta said as he glanced at the paper files in his hand. He clicked his tongue and entered the base of Astros.
He threw the paper files on the table before he slumped on the sofa. He started at the ceiling and sighed.
"What's wrong, Souta? Did something bad happen?" Isabella asked after she heard him sigh.
"Nothing..." He said before he closed his eyes.
Isabella curiously picked the paper files on the table. She read it and her face slowly turned into shock.
In the files, several organizations started moving and confronting various gods' legions. Red Matter Association wasn't the only one that was moving. There were more than thirty organizations as big as Red Matter that moved without care. They already burned and ravaged dozens of villages, towns, and cities.
It seems that bigger organizations were sponsoring them. Organization like...
'Wingless Crow, Burial Face, Tyrant Grim...' Souta muttered.
Big organizations like the three that he mentioned were almost comparable to a god's legion. The big bosses of these organizations were all gods.
Big organizations like these three were helping smaller organizations like Red Matter. That's the reason why there's a lot of movement from smaller organizations and they were slowly chipping the forces of each sacred land this way.
It's the start...
Giant terrorist organizations wouldn't be able to cooperate because each one of them had ambition and strength. The big bosses were all gods. Their strength was almost similar to each other.
There's one reason why they were conspiring.
"Gluttony..." Souta muttered under his breath.
