Chapter 675: Unexpected results (part 3)
Seeing their companion being crushed to death, the remaining gray skinned guys changed their expressions from excitement to anger in a fraction of a second.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing, I get that you need a sacrifice to complete the ritual in order to break out from the seal, but that’s what the woman inside that red giant wolf is here for!", exclaimed one of the remaining guys, the one who carried the corpse last and is now missing an arm to be more accurate.
"Mick is right, you should now have enough mobility to maneuver within this cave at least, so focus on your target damn it", added the team leader.
It’s not like they were angry due to the death of their companion, there was no real camaraderie between them, but if they returned with loses, they could be punished by Ereth.
That being said, the team leader was jumping to his insides, because the nethereal they had recruited had such strength while still being sealed, so they should be able to make up for the losses they had incurred.
Or at least that’s what he thought, before a voice coming from within the large sphere of chains, said.
"That’s what I’m doing, my target from the very beginning has been you", with those words, the sphere of chains moved from its previous position, appearing above those gray skinned guys a second later.
This time the gray skinned guys managed to react in time though, their bodies were suddenly covered in that black solution as they slipped away from the area where the large arms of the sealed nethereal, were about to land.
"Booom!", the island trembled due to the impact and pieces of debris flew in every direction, due to the six fists that landed on the ground.
"What is the meaning of this, you were having such a fierce fight with that giant red wolf when we arrived, your arms were covered in wounds and we helped you!", screamed the team leader, to which the nethereal retorted.
"It seems like you got to know about me from a random nethereal, instead of those three Lord bastards, because if that wasn’t the case you would have known that I wouldn’t attack someone related to my benefactor".
’A defector, damn our luck!’, cursed the team leader to his insides, now everything made sense, this nethereal was kept underground, in a place where the red sun couldn’t originally reach.
The clean water that could be found at the border where the tunnel ended, it’s because the three Lords didn’t want that nethereal to escape, they were depriving him from nether to nurture himself.
"It’s a trap, let’s get out of...", the team leader’s words were interrupted by a pair of flashing streams of light, one yellow and the other one sky-blue, which landed on two of the remaining five gray skinned guys, killing them on the spot.
"Booom!", another two were crushed to death by the giant red wolf, leaving only the team leader who immediately turned around to escape, but his way of retreat was blocked by a standing figure who had a silver stream of light orbiting it.
"Get out of the way!", the team leader extended his right hand which was cladded in black fluid energy to then claw at the one who was blocking his path, only for his attack to... bounce off its target.
Well, to be more accurate the black fluid energy covering the hand of the team leader faded before reaching its target, and then the bare hand of the team leader landed, the result was the sound of bones shattering.
"Crack!", which were followed by a miserable scream being forced out of the mouth of the team leader, for two reasons, first, his hand was destroyed due to the previous and second, six large hands grabbed his body and dragged him back to the island, where his body was crushed to death.
"Aghhhh!", only the remaining echo of his dying scream remained in the cave for a second, before disappearing.
But things didn’t end there yet, the sphere of chains positioned itself in front of both the giant red wolf, and the figures that came out from those yellow and sky-blue flashes from earlier.
"Miss Lyndis, please stay behind of me, that bastard somehow escaped his prison and followed you here!", said the nethereal sealed inside the sphere of chains, before a familiar voice coming from the giant red golf which turned into a lot of red particles, that then were absorbed by a tall girl with light brown hair, and wolf ears and tail, could be heard saying.
"Wait a moment mister Bardr, that’s not an enemy", naturally that was Arianna, as the little tiger girl who rushed to her side to then enthusiastically greet her, suggested.
"Sister Arianna, it’s good to see you!", exclaimed Dana to which Arianna smiled as she patted the little tiger girl’s head in response.
"And here I was worried about you, but it looks like you found the "masked brother" we looked for during months, right", jokingly said Arianna as she gazed in Daimon’s direction.
"She is right old man, he is not an enemy, I more or less know why you feel hostile to him, but after listening to the explanation, you’ll be smiling in your sleep, so calm down for a second", said Lyn.
"...", realizing that there was probably a misunderstanding from his part, the nethereal raised his six hands as a sign of cooperation.
The source of the previous tense situation could be easily explained by turning back in time, a couple of minutes, when Lyndis mocked those gray skinned guys for having outdated information.
"I know that miss Ophelia probably killed a lot of nethereals, but the one who comes to mind, is that greedy idiot, Agrak", said Daimon to which Lyn nodded.
"Yeah, you see, there was one nethereal with the strength to occupy a position similar to mine who always appeared on the battlefield when a fight was about to end, he never killed anyone from our side and exclusively focused in stopping our troops from chasing and hunting the nethereal forces, when they lost".
"And yet, that towering figure who only wore a helmet and armor to cover his vitals, with no weapons and could receive my punches head on, without turning into meat paste, always had new scars whenever he made another appearance".
"Later on, we learned that the six-armed nethereal in question, was a "battle slave" bought by the Belliel family to protect the young master they had sent for this mission, in other words Agrak, luckily his main mission was to protect Agrak and so if the orders given to him put his priority at risk, he could ignore them to a certain extent".
"So Agrak couldn’t order him to kill, unless his life was being directly threatened by the other person in question, but nothing prevented Agrak from venting his frustration on the slave, which was the origin of the scars that kept appearing on someone that had a body strong enough to take on my attacks".
"And when Pheli destroyed Agrak’s physical body, the slave seal lost a part of its effectiveness, allowing the slave to act with some degree of freedom, I got to know that his name was Badr and he fought on our side during the final battle, the last thing I saw was him, he was squashing the head of one of the seconds in command from the Balax family, before the chains sealed him".
"So, he is an ally, that could be a problem", said Daimon which made Lyn raise an eyebrow in confusion.
"Why, it’s not like we actually had a long conversation, since we were in the middle of a fight and just got to tell each other our names, the other information I just told you was obtained from prisoners we captured, but I can assure you his hate for Agrak and the Lords is real, in fact he is only half nethereal", she said, to which Daimon shook his head.
"I’m not doubting your judgement, it’s just that there might be a misunderstanding since I have something that could make that guy think I’m on Agrak’s side, I obtained it by ripping a part of that guy’s existence after all", he said as he shrugged.
"Mmm, yeah that might be a problem, that old man really hated Agrak’s guts with all his might, still he also respected Pheli, so there shouldn’t be a problem if I vouch for you, so let me handle things on that side", said Lyn, to which the little tiger girl added.
"I’ll also go", there were yellow arcs of electricity coming from her tiger ears and tail, as a sign that she was ready for a fight.
And what happened after that is what you saw earlier, Lyn and Dana entered the scene by killing those two guys, followed by Arianna and lastly the nethereal, which takes us back to the present.
Daimon jumped from where he was standing, landing at the island where the others were, a second later, luckily despite the slightly resemblance that the nethereal inside the sphere of chains could feel between Daimon and Agrak’s aura, caused by the ability he got, there were no other coincidences, so the hostility ended there.
"Miss Lyndis was right, after a closer look I can tell that he isn’t let alone someone from that bastard’s family, but a nethereal even, sorry for the troubles, I’m still not used to the aggressiveness of this lineage of mine", calmly said the nethereal.
Though the rest of his body couldn’t be seen, one could easily imagine him bowing his head as he apologized, which made Daimon raise an eyebrow behind his mask, that guy sounded way too polite and peaceful for a nethereal.
One must know that Jasmine who managed to reverse her nether from violence to protection is an exception among exceptions, nether at its base is based in a negative emotion, which though doesn’t necessarily mean their owner is inherently an evil person, does still cause certain aspects to appear in their user’s personality.
A great example of the previous is the nelapsi girl, Reyne is a calm and composed girl, totally not what you would expect from someone that was born due to both Byron and Aslan’s nether, however she is also incredibly fierce in battle, which is the effect of her war and death nether inheritance.
But that guy, despite the amazing strength he showed and the clear violence related aura he was radiating, didn’t feel like a warrior at all.
"It’s good to see you "junior sister", I wonder how come you ended in this place though?", said Daimon to Arianna, he was of course getting back at her for calling him "masked brother" earlier.
"And more importantly, didn’t you say she was a werewolf, so what’s up with that appearance?", added Lyn, which earned her a confused gaze from both Arianna and Daimon.
"I am a werewolf... but before that, who are you?", said Arianna, to which Daimon answered.
"She is a new ally, you have a sea emblem right, well, those are linked to people from the same affiliation as her, not all of them are allies though, since there were traitors in the mix".
"Hey, so that’s why those weird black blood specters had been pestering me since the morning, it’s because the sea emblem is making me look like one of them, well I guess I can’t complain since it’s also the sea emblem what allowed me to communicate with mister, instead of directly trying to kill each other", said Arianna as she took out her sea emblem.
"Speaking of that, why were you fighting, judging by the traces of destruction in this cave, you have been fighting way before those guys arrived?", asked Lyn, to which Arianna nodded as she said.
"Yeah, we have been fighting daily for more than a week I would say, I was transported to the entrance of a cave far from this plateau and travelled underground to avoid the blood specters, surfacing only to hunt from time to time, before I knew I had reached this area and got to meet mister".
"Back then practically all the water in this area was clean, but thanks to our daily fights, a part of it was dyed black, those black blood specters also contributed to increasing the nether in the water and the recovery of mister, then those guys arrived and I got the idea to feign we were fighting seriously, so that they would lower their guards".
"The idea was to ambush them at the first given chance, but they had a way to weaken the seal, which in cooperation with the increased nether in the water, we thought would be enough to break the sphere of chains, so we extended the play a bit more", concluded Arianna.
"That was too cunning for a werewolf, could it be that you are a mix between a fox race descendant and a werewolf, that would explain the ears and tail", said Lyn, which made Arianna frown.
"All werewolves have wolf ears and tail and no both of my parents are werewolves, as for the cunningness, well, my master has a friend who is known for her strategies so I simply tried to think the way she would", she said, obviously referring to Erin.
"How weird, the werewolves I know about look exactly like humans with pointy ears, they only show beast traits when they transform, but they don’t just grow ears and a tail, they have fur covering their bodies, their head changes to look like the one of a wolf, they are basically humanoid wolves who stand on their hind legs", mumbled Lyn with curiosity.
"Well, we had people like that in our Argent clan... hundreds of thousands of years ago", said Arianna.
Changing the subject a bit, the nethereal sealed in the sphere of chains couldn’t help but ask.
"What happened to that bastard, is he...", he stopped before finishing his sentence, but the answer he got was a bit different than what he expected.
"I fought against him, but no, he didn’t die, that being said I don’t think he will give you troubles in the future, if he even managed to keep any memories about you in the first place", said Daimon.
Unfortunately, Agrak had managed to escape back then, but the price he paid was huge, he basically lost everything he owned, if he made it back to the nethereal’s Stellar Kingdom, he would return not even as let alone a royal but a noble.
"I see... though it’s a shame that I can’t get rid of the damn slave mark, I sincerely thank you for getting rid of that scum", said the six-armed nethereal, to which Daimon answered.
"I might be able to help you with that as well, you see, I obtained an interesting ability thanks to what I stole from Agrak, and said ability is telling me that you have what’s needed to make it advance, and the only thing I can think about is that Agrak’s blood and nether was infused into the slave mark you mentioned".
"Yeah, a different method than usual was used on me, because the older and stronger members of that guy’s family weren’t coming to this mission, and they were worried that the huge distance would affect the suppressing effect of the slave mark".
"So, Agrak’s blood and nether was used for it, that’s what allowed me to keep a certain degree of freedom, because he was too inexpert so the commands were limited", said the nethereal.
"Perfect, hey you didn’t help earlier so no complaining now", said Daimon to his black sea emblem, which didn’t react, technically he was going to use something outside of the lineage energy he had obtained for the challenge, because he was going to drain the nether and blood that Agrak had left in the slave mark on that nethereal.
Well, he wasn’t going to do it perse, the "Corrupted Treasure Trove" was going to do it, on the other hand, Daimon could already confirm that Ereth and most likely, Marcus and Arlion weren’t following the rules.
That "Breaching Seal" mentioned by those gray skinned guys was a treasure for sure, so Ereth was using external means for the challenge, while Daimon wasn’t, he was restraining himself as much as he could out of consideration towards the black sea emblem.
With the black sea emblem not showing any negative reaction, Daimon placed his hand on the sphere of chains and his lazy magic core decided to cooperate for a change, not even a second later, black-red streams of energy could be seen coming from the sphere, accompanied by the sound of gritted teeth.
Obviously, the process wasn’t painless for the six-armed nethereal, the slave mask was embedded on his body after all, that being said, he could also be heard laughing inside the sphere of chains a second later.
"I’m free, I’m finally free!", he exclaimed the very moment Daimon finished the job, of course it was a metaphor, since he was still trapped inside the sphere of chains.
[Ding]
[The Corrupted Treasure Trove has been partially filled 5/100 à 45/100]
In a matter of seconds, the gauge of the treasure trove almost reached half of its capacity, there was that much greed nether stored inside of it.
"You can help the old man get rid of those chains, right, I think it’s better not to use the ritual for the process, I still don’t know what the hell are those gray-skinned guys after all", said Lyn to which Daimon nodded.
"Sure, I don’t know if the silver light will have a negative effect on him though", said Daimon, to which Lyn shook his head.
"The old man is only half nethereal, and his power didn’t come from his nethereal part, after all he didn’t have great attack power like the one he showed, so as you said, it’s his weaker aspects the ones that are given priority here in the Blood Prison realm", she said.
"Miss Lyndis is right, my mother was from the six armed sentry race and though my father was from the Violence faction, he only fought when needed and really loved my mother... that’s why my family was chased and killed by the damn nobles of the Greed faction, only I survived and was sold to the Belliel, I have resistance against positive oriented energies, so I should be fine", said the nethereal.
Listening to the determined voice of the six-armed nethereal, Daimon didn’t hesitate, it would have been an insult for him, so with a snap of his fingers streams of silver light came out of his hands and were shot at the sphere of chains.
It’s worth mentioning that the chains that were imprisoning Bardr, were the corroded ones, result of the nether of the Lords, instead of the ones created by the megalodon, also they only contained Aslan and Reed’s nether.
There was no violence related nether in the mix, since that could have been counterproductive, as his intentional fights with Arianna in order to recover and weaken the seal, suggested.
Speaking of which, the seal which has been weakened thanks to Arianna sparring with the nethereal, and then the ritual used by those guys, couldn’t endure being exposed to Daimon’s silver light, and crumbled apart the next second.
"Crack!", with a loud shattering sound, the chains started breaking one after another, which made the rune shark make its appearance to have a feast by the way, but more importantly the one sealed inside the sphere of chains was revealed for everyone to see.
Contrary to what the six arms would suggest, the one inside the seal looked basically like a taller human, a man at his late forties with dark gray hair to be more accurate, the scars that could be seen from the areas of his clothes which had been worn out due to the time he has been imprisoned, gave him a fierce aspect, but the aura he radiated was that of a kind next-door uncle.