Squad One, a squad without much of a special name. It was composed of the weakest members who were sent on the mission, and their target was equally weak.
Their weakness wasn't a bad thing, of course. It was just a matter of time.
Plus, they were still Demigods.
This squad was composed of Hershel from the recruitment test, along with three others who passed with him.
One of them was also a man once called talentless who was discovered by Damien, Elijah Lester.
One was a woman who had talent her entire life, but didn't realize how wide the world was until she joined Void Palace, Rebecca Silver.
Another was a woman unlike the rest who'd trained as a mercenary for many years before the recruitment test, Helga Rowe.
And the last was a boy who didn't look older than 15. He stood out from the rest, but none of them underestimated him because of his appearance.
He was the same age as them and had come from the same group. Nobody really noticed him during the recruitment test, but as they spent years training together, he slowly showed everyone his worth.
His name was Butcher. No last name.
His origins were unknown, and so was the reason for his appearance.
He was usually silent, but for a mission like this, he was perfect.
The rest were just his support.
Squad One's target wasn't just one man. Rather, it was a group of people.
There was a village on the outskirts of the Mairia Principality in the most southern part of the Southwestern Region.
It was home to only 35 inhabitants, and as it was quite far from society, nobody really noticed its existence.
If there was one peculiarity about this village, it was that there were no men among them.
Yet, for hundreds of years, they'd been able to maintain their number of 35 inhabitants without any change.
Their mystery had never been revealed to the outside world. Even if it was, it likely wouldn't have become anything big.
To put it briefly, they were succubi.
Every ten years, they'd leave the village and infiltrate the nearest cities, taking life essence from hundreds of men before returning to their homes.
However, they were more than just that.
They were accidents.
The reason for this village's continued and unknown existence was that they were being protected by the Divine Order.
They wanted to know how their test subjects acted in the wild.
Those 35 women were a product of fusion experiments between humans and members of the Foreign Races, similar to what Richter was trying to accomplish but with a much higher rate of success.
Damien was curious about why people obsessed over the transmutation.
Whether it was here or in the lower universe, people were always trying to take the traits of the Foreign Races and use them to enhance their own.
But why?
There had to be something about their bodies that these people desired. Damien had never noticed it before, but now that the problem had become bigger, he wanted to find out their reasoning.
Squad One was being sent to that village for two reasons.
Firstly, they were going to kill the succubi and mark the start of Damien's plan.
And secondly, they were going to bring back one of their bodies for Damien to examine.
With those goals in mind, they approached the village.
It had been over half a year since they left the main palace. They had to travel through many teleportation arrays and cross several hundreds of thousands of kilometers on foot, but they eventually arrived.
They didn't need to do too much planning.
Elijah was particularly skilled in controlling his awareness. His perception spread far wider than a normal Demigod, so even from a distance of several hundreds of millions of kilometers, they could see the village's situation.
When night fell, they'd strike. By the time day came, they'd be gone.
Damien made sure none of his people went in blind. They had more than enough information about the given targets to form a proper plan of approach.
As for the task given to the weakest group, naturally it was just as easy.
This place wasn't constantly surveilled by the order. There was no need for them to actively watch over these women, since instruments to monitor them were in place all around the village and the surroundings.
With Rebecca here, they didn't need to worry about the monitoring technology, and since the time for those women to feed wasn't any time soon, they didn't need to worry about stronger people coming after them.
And even if they did…
Nonetheless, with the plan set, they waited at a safe distance under a veil that made them invisible to the surrounding technology.
When the sun was replaced by a moon, they used the shadows to progress towards the village.
They split up from there.
Rebecca and Elijah stayed at the entrance, maintaining everyone else's cover.
Helga followed Hershel. The two of them had similar abilities, so they worked well together.
As for Butcher, he went alone.
The second they arrived in the village, he took a single step and disappeared.
Not even his own teammates could discover his location when he vanished.
A knife appeared in his hand. His other hand remained open in a relaxed position.
Whoosh!
The wind blew lightly.
He appeared inside a house. It was as if he phased through everything material to reach his goal.
He approached the sleeping succubus with such lightness that his steps didn't even raise dust off the ground.
She didn't realize his presence at all, despite being a Demigod herself.
His knife went in the air and came back down in the same instant.
Blood spurted from the succubus' throat.
Her eyes widened in shock. She grabbed his arms, baring her fangs.
Butcher twisted his knife.
Blood spurted again.
The succubus' eyes rolled back into her head.
It wasn't just a knife. There was something else on it, something that killed her instantly.
She couldn't determine its presence, nor did it show itself in her body at all.
But she died without a fight.
Along with twelve others in the twelve closest houses.
It was a power Butcher mastered after learning the method from Damien.
He only had to kill one with his own hands, the rest would die because they were unfortunate enough to be in his range.
Almost half of the thirty-five total residents of the village died that easily. The rest didn't last much longer.
Hershel snapped their necks like he was breaking pencils. Helga's axe wasn't something a mere succubus could handle.
With all three of them acting together, thirty-five succubus who had no idea they were being attacked wasn't a task at all.
They may have been the weakest of the Void Palace groups, but they were by no means weak.
They were finished with their task. Butcher already took several bodies into his spatial ring, and according to Elijah and Rebecca, an unexpected factor was approaching.
They could feel the aura of strong people on the horizon, but the atmosphere around them wasn't negative at all.
In fact, they were grinning fiercely.
Those who approached stood no chance.
Because as they stood together in a circle and gave the command they'd been given to memorize, they vanished.
Nobody could ever be able to discover their presence here no matter how much time passed.
But the corpses of those who remained were enough.
This was the first gift Damien prepared for the Divine Order.
And, of course, it was the first of many.
If there was one thing people needed to know about Damien, it was this.
He certainly wasn't a stingy person.
