Those two Adept rankers had both fallen victim to the illusion caused by that vial break. It was the same D-Rank illusion bomb a certain someone had received as their reward. The last of them.
The cause of their current state was watching them from far in the sky, right over their battlefield.
Eren was standing at the edge of a long wooden broomstick that had been suspended still in the air. It had runic symbols on it that had been lit up due to the artefact being imbued with mana.
This was Layla's artefact and she was sitting carelessly on the other end of the broom, reading her book. Her legs were swinging as she kept on flipping pages. The young girl didn't even look down when the potion was detonated.
Eren had only requested Layla to give him a ride on her artefact and fly over the Adept rankers' battlefield. He wanted her to stabilize the artefact so that he could watch the battle from afar while maintaining a safe distance.
Tai and Jerry both weren't expecting any aerial intrusion so they hadn't spread their mana sense in that direction much. Eren had expected that to be the case, that's why he was up there.
********************
Eren had a long chat with Eliza and Layla regarding their plan. During that talk, he had found out that Layla could fly using the broomstick artefact. So he included that in his plan after having the opportunity to do so.
Layla was very angry when Eren referred to her artefact as the broomstick. She had named it Hexen Bee and made Eren repeat it a few times to make him remember the name. Eren figured the artefact was named as such because of the bee-like low noise it would produce while it was active.
Eren wasn't acting out of empty spite for Jerry, Arizihana, or Marie for that matter. This was not revenge or a result of his disturbed mental state. He was certainly not in his optimal mental state. But that didn't stop him from thinking ahead-- thinking of what is right for him in the long run.
Killing an Adept ranker wasn't easy. The higher one's rank is, the more trump cards they would have for all kinds of situations. Had Eren not intervened, the Adept rankers would not have entered the battle. They would have let their subordinates settle scores instead of fighting till death with each other.
Their respective organizations would also prefer it this way. They could afford to lose Novice rankers. They would only frown upon losing Ace rankers. But the Adept rankers' deaths would be treated very differently than the rest.
Eren knew that Jerry would most likely survive the battle even if he set him to fight against the Beast Bloods. He didn't want any Adept ranker on his tail. Plus, Arizihana and Marie had also focused on him because of the blackmail.
Eren needed a breather from his enemies so that he could plan his next steps without having to watch over his back. For that, he needed to give his enemies different targets to latch onto or kill them from the roots.
So the butcher hatched a plan right after he saw the condition of the battlefield. He realized that Jerry and the Adept rankers from the Beast Bloods would have their separate showdown away from the main battlefield. This was a makeshift plan. But one that he needed to do anyway.
******************
A few minutes after the potion getting detonated right in the middle of two Adept rankers.
"I think, in about a minute, it will be safe for you to pluck their heads. Provided you take necessary precautions. But do it fast.
Because as the potion-released D-Rank mana starts to subside, the Adepts' defensive mana layer will start to come back to normalcy. You wouldn't be able to hurt even their hair when that happens."
Layla said as she flipped another page. Eren nodded before responding:
"Bring this broom… Errr… I mean bring the Hexen Bee down. I don't want to jump from here."
Layla frowned and berated Eren:
"You… You are an idiot, Eren Idril. You can never become the protagonist like this. I allowed you to jump from here and make that cool landing pose like a true protagonist.
And this is what you reply to me with? You don't want to jump from this height? Tch tch tch.
What are you scared of? A few strained joints! We can fix them. Do the jump already."
Eren had double the amount of creases he'd normally have on his forehead. He keeps his eyes fixated on two idiot-looking Adept rankers battling with each other in fear while talking with Layla:
"You have a very twisted and unrealistic sense of how a protagonist should be. Where did you get these ideas from anyway?"
Layla scratched her nose like she had been complimented for her knowledge and said proudly:
"Books. Those years in the separate dimension were very lonely. I had a huge stock of novels and I read them all many many times over these years, hehe."
Eren had a suspicion in his eyes when he heard Layla's response. He looked back at her. Then at her book. And said in a grim voice:
"You said you were brushing up on your skills because of your master's plan. Don't tell me you were reading a novel this whole time?"
Layla's facial expressions froze and her eyes opened wide. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, she had a mild cough.
"Cough cough cough. I think the minute is up. I'll bring Hexen Bee down. Get rid of those idiots in the Elemental Condensation Stage before they get snapped back to reality."
Layla moved the Hexen Bee down before Eren could comment on her reading addiction anymore. The latter just sighed and started missing Reen more than before. Had she been here, he wouldn't have had to be so careful in offering two Adeps.
What happened next was very predictive. Eren jumped down from a relatively safe distance above the ground and did a safe landing, minus the pose. He then used his full force to kill both almost-defenceless Adepts.
Just as Layla had said, the butcher chopped their heads off for quick deaths. Then he stored their bodies in his storage space before jumping on the Hexen Bee again.
With these two kills, Eren had ensured that Beast Bloods and Illuminatis would go at each other's throats. They would both keep him on the backburner if not entirely forget about him. Plus, there would be no personal revenge-seeking from Jerry anymore. He wasn't sure about Arizihana. But he figured with the death of an Adept in their hand, Beast Bloods would hit pause on using her for the time being and do some introspection.
The historians would only find that someone had dropped a D-Rank potion and suspect it would be Jerry. Because the peculiarity of the illusion potion would indicate the existence of separate dimensions that might have old-gen concoctions like these.
Eren's presence and his signature as an Ace ranker weren't prominent enough to leave a mark on the battlefield of two Adepts. Plus, he had arrived and departed on a flying artefact. That meant tracing his retreat would be even more difficult.
Either way, Ronny's alias won't be hunted anymore. That would ensure his safety.
Layla took off in the direction set by Eren as soon as he got up on Hexen Bee. The latter looked at the open sky that was revealing more of itself as they travelled across at high speed. This was his first open-air flying experience that was closer to flying. And he had to say it was rejuvenating.
Eren looked at his red hands that were soaked in Adepts' blood. He smiled mildly and looked at the stars that were shining over his head before saying something only he could hear:
"Protagonist? Heh! I'm no protagonist…."
