Daimon's eyes glowed behind his mask as he carefully observed the corpse of the mermaid dissolving into light blue particles, even after her whole body dispersed, Daimon didn't hear a notification, until he heard Evangeline's saying.
'Humph, you think you can just discard your incarnation and call it even after trying to cajole my host, leave something behind for being a presumptuous bitch!'.
Daimon then felt a strange sensation coming from him, it was hard to pinpoint the origin, but it felt as if his existence had become a black hole, different yet slightly similar to when his lazy ass magic core decided to do something.
Followed by that, a scream that only Freya and Daimon could heard, echoed through the whole area.
"Aghhh, Freya you fucking psycho, I'll get you for thissss!!!", to Daimon's displease the mermaid seemed to have survived, but as if to contempt him, the good old system gave him a reward.
[Ding]
[You have obtained "Siren's Black Heart (fragment)", the host isn't compatible with the obtained item, processing…]
[Ding]
[Do you wish to trade the item through the System for a skill of equal value (the skill will have a similar effect as the item used to exchange it for) Y/N]
'Eve, what is this?', asked Daimon, this is the first time the System offers him a deal, also he got to know that the monstrous mermaid was actually a Siren, apparently the pretty ones with melodious voices were mermaids, and the ones that tricked and ate humans were called Sirens.
Despite being from Neptune where races that had characteristics from sea magic beasts, or even cases of sea magic beasts taking human form existed, neither Jasmine nor Sarah have seen or heard of a race with the characteristics Karla had, in her two forms.
On the other hand, they weren't from the Mermen Sea, so probably Annete or Vincent might have information about the legendary race which are the mermaids, but that could be left for later.
'Well, you needed something else besides that bolt to truly kill her, but you managed to destroy her incarnation and a part of her existence, I just helped you clam what you damaged from her as a punishment for insulting the System, since she tried to snatch my host…'.
'Hey Eve, isn't this what humans call "jealousy", I could tell you got really angry when she tried to convince Daimon to become her host~', Narasha's words made Evangeline change the subject.
'Ahem, don't worry about the trade that the System is offering you, you have no use to it, unless you are first of all, a woman, second an administrator and third, someone with a water oriented attribute, so this will be more beneficial to you, also it will be good for the System, she said.
Daimon nodded, getting the message between lines that Evangeline gave him, if he got something from the System and also benefitted the System, he would be gaining twice, of course there is a chance that she was lying, but he trusted her not as the administrator of the System, but his friend Eve.
Also, getting a useful skill is not easy, in part because he himself set the bar too high when he killed the manticore back then, on the other hand, the skills he got from that, were worth it.
Overlord's Pride, Sixth Sense, Mythic Vitality, those three skills laid the bases of what Daimon has achieved nowadays, the first was the base for his Terror Contractor skill, the second helped the creation of the infinity eyes and the last one helped his Demon Light become what it is, since vitality is the main ingredient of Battle Aura, besides one's life spark, not to mention his insane vitality is also the reason as to why his body is able to endure a crazy technique such as Core Synchrony without him exploding.
Daimon accepted the deal and the sweet sound of a notification ringed in his mind, on the spot.
[A new skill has been created due to a specific action <!>]
[Mythical Regeneration (Incomplete) (Passive): Any wounds caused by beings on an equal or lower level of existence than the host won't be fatal, healing will require a source of energy (stamina, vitality, mana or battle aura, if the host can't supply for it after one minute, the effect will be nullified)]
As Daimon read the skill, he felt the urge to curse, that skill was a partial immortality, and that also explained why that woman didn't die though she had zero vitality left, she still had mana, but she used most of it when she helped Adam make his hero comeback, so then she couldn't supply for the energy needed to recover from being beheaded.
'Level of existence, is that one's realm?', wondered Daimon for a moment, before he put the thought at the back of his head for now, that skill went along with him amazingly well, he already has "Mystic Vitality" and while the effect is more noticeable for his soulmates, his vitality is strong enough to heal wounds and increase his recovery ratio, but he would die if his vitality reached zero or if his body was destroyed, like others.
Well, maybe his System could interfere, like Adam's did for him, but he wasn't stupid nor arrogant enough like the light idiot as to let his life or death be decided by "fate", he has experienced the result of that once, and it will never happen again.
Daimon immediately tested out his new skill, the slight cuts and burns that Adam's all out attack, before he was knocked out the first time, were still there, his monstrous body was healing them, but the process was slowed down, probably a part of the abilities of that sword, but now…
Daimon just guided some mana towards the wounds, and not even a second later, they disappeared without a trace, and he just used a small amount of vitality, it was perfect for him, whose insane vitality recovery rate was the cause of him healing overtime, he could now use that excess for instant-healing, without any side effects.
He then noticed Freya suddenly getting wary of him, she probably felt a similar sensation from him, as to when Karla used the effect of her Siren's heart, since those two obviously had some history together.
"I didn't accept her offer, so take it easy", he said to which the silver armored woman nodded.
"It's not like Karla's race is the only one with strong regenerative skills, but hers is one of the most troublesome ones, now that I look more closely, that ability of yours is not the same… now, what are you going to do with him?", she asked as she pointed at the miserable looking light hero.
Daimon sent the both the trident of the storm as well Adam's sword to the inventory, the sword was tied to the light idiot, so in order to truly obtain it, Adam had to either renounce to it, or die for the sword to be free, but thanks to Karla messing up with the sword, as well as Adam being utterly crushed, the sword had no strength left to resist.
Naturally he could tell that the silver armored woman had a lot of questions in her mind, like how was he able to steal a part of Karla's existence, apparently even now, Freya couldn't notice that he was also a System user, which is worth investigating later.
With a snap of her fingers, the giant metal sphere-like space crumbled apart, Freya's body slightly trembled but she recovered after the fragments of her metal space were absorbed by her.
The scenery changed from the isolated silver space, to the chaotic battlefield outside, despite Karla being out of the picture, she wasn't really dead, and so the things she created using that dark energy and the Ghouls, were now going berserk, attacking both allies and enemies.
The first thing Daimon noticed was that the whole nearby area had become a disaster zone, unlike previously, the Ghouls that were consumed by that dark energy all developed a domain, or more accurately they were creating a diluted version of that dark energy as they rampaged through the battlefield killing both Ghouls and humans.
Which made sense, Karla wanted the two races to be exterminated, so that she could escape, after all.
Daimon wasn't interested in the war that was taking place in Kerrol, but if what the message that Rita just sent him, was true, then it was within his interests to kill take care of those things Karla created.
Freya did seem to want to interfere, but from Daimon's point of view, she was at the end of her energy reserves, so though she wasn't defenseless by any means, she couldn't use too much energy, well, she could still enter hand to hand combat, but to repel that dark energy she would end up using her own energy, since it was like a degraded version of Karla's one.
Without saying anything, Daimon flew towards east and the silver armored Freya followed him after a moment of hesitation, not too long after Daimon arrived at his destination.
Since things went wild the moment Karla transformed those poor bastards into abominations, Daimon asked Rita to stay outside of the metal isolated space, so she could watch over Jasmine, the crazy girl and Reyne too, since Jeanne and Emily were busy at the moment.
While Daimon was beating the crap out of Adam and the Siren, things were relatively smooth, at least for Daimon's group, but after Karla's incarnation was destroyed and a part of her existence was damaged by Daimon, to then be stolen with Evangeline and the System's help, the human side was once again pushed back.
Still, since Rita's orders were just to keep an eye on those three, she just acted when the Ghouls tried to attack them, needless to say but the result was a one-side massacre, which created a "safe zone" among the land of death that this place has become.
"So, what happened here?", Daimon who descended on the giant volcanic rock where Rita and those three should be waiting for his return, asked as he saw the strange black crystal cocoon that was next to Jasmine.
Since only one of the three girls was missing, it was easy to know who was inside of it, but the process was what was important here.
"Some of those bizarre abominations suddenly rushed towards us, but were easily killed by Rita, after that, the corpses dried up and their blood released wisps of black mist which then tried to fly away but then Sarah laughed and then she used it… that Manifestation Phenomenon you mentioned to us, those wisps were then dragged towards her and solidified into that crystal", said Jasmine with an apologetic voice.
Daimon's eyes glowed behind his mask, he used the infinity eyes to see through the black crystal, the crazy girl was inside with a happy expression on her face, sound couldn't leave the inside of the crystal, but Daimon could read her lips.
"Welcome back, I need more of those black wisps, I'll be out in a moment and then you can have me as a payment~", ignoring he fact, that Daimon had no idea how the hell, she knew he was looking at her, since the crystal should be isolating her considering she didn't react to the fainted half dead light idiot he was grabbing by his neck, it was good to see she was perfectly fine, or at least she was as normal as her crazy self, allowed her to.
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to use my mana sense on it, since I didn't know if it would be detrimental for young master's companion", said Rita to which Daimon shook his head.
"Don't worry, even if something went wrong, I bet she would enjoy it… in any case this align with the last goal we had in this planet, bring all the abominations here and then kill them, remember to not destroy their bodies too much, please", he said.
"Mm, understood!", answered Rita in an unusual enthusiastic voice, her body then turned into countless threads of black light that shot towards the battlefield, eager to fulfill her young master's petition.
Daimon then tossed Adam like a piece of garbage, making him land in front of Jasmine, who only now paid him attention, as she was worried about Sarah, and also happy that Daimon has safely returned.
Despite Jasmine now being able to keep her cool, since she has gotten back at Adam earlier with the trident of the storm, the tinge of hatred that flashed in her pretty eyes which had those white halos appearing in them, didn't go unnoticed by Daimon.
"Here, you deserve to land the killing attack on this idiot", he said as he stepped on Adam's neck, in case he tried to do some hero bullshit once again.
Jasmine's pretty eyes glowed as she smiled at Daimon.
"I want Sarah to do it too, she risked her life to prevent to make this trash hesitate, otherwise I would have been…", Jasmine stopped in the middle of her sentence, she was right considering how Adam had tricked everyone to be in their good books, Sarah attacking him might have resulted in the crazy girl being imprisoned or worse.
And yet, she didn't hesitate to confront the light idiot, essentially making him doubt that his tricks weren't enough to gain the full support of the two strongest forces of the Elemental Sea, which is why he postponed doing anything to Jasmine, until his "triumphal return" as the champion of the first ever Inter-Sea Beast Hunt event.
In other words, she played a big role in Jasmine meeting Daimon and escaping Adam's grasp, and so she also deserved to cut Adam's head along with Jasmine.
Daimon thought about it for a second, he really didn't want to keep Adam alive for too long, so he then said.
"If she doesn't come out of that crystal after Rita brings all those things, then you'll have to do it without her, okay?", as Daimon finished speaking, he took out the trident of the storm and handed to Jasmine, though he didn't stop stepping on Adam's neck.
"Mm, thanks Daimon~", she said with her mellow voice, as she accepted the trident from Daimon, to kill him properly they still needed a System weapon after all.
Daimon nodded and then gazed at Freya before saying.
"We'll leave out conversation for when we leave this battlefield, until then you are free to do as you please", the silver armored woman had made a soul contract that bound her to answer his questions to the best of her capacities, so she couldn't leave until that, though she didn't seem to be in a hurry to part ways with Daimon.
Surprisingly, against Daimon's predictions, Freya didn't leave, instead of that she sat down cross legged on the ground and placed the white cross bow next to her.
"If you don't mind, can I keep this cross bow… until you leave Kerrol?", she asked, to which Daimon nodded, it's not like the cross bow triggered anything from the System, nor it really had any use to him since it is currently broken, but it seemed to have personal value for Freya.
"Sure", with a single word, the silver armored woman seemed to cheer up, as she observed Kerrol while lost in her thoughts.
Leaving that aside, turned around just in time to see Rita returning with a giant black cube floating behind of her, the walls of the cubes waved a bit from time to time, due to the ones trapped inside trying to escape, but nothing else happened, Rita's shadow element could be both ethereal and dense, even the bone general couldn't escape from Rita's restraints in a short period of time after all.
"Hold your hand!!!", as Rita returned to Daimon's side, an angered scream came from above the clouds, as they were blown away.
"Booom!", a few kilometers away, Antonio who was missing an arm as well as the male elder from the church whose previously white hair was now stained black, landed on the ground, they were coughing and trembling as they tried to recompose.
Then a pillar of black and red light came down to crush them, but old Ben appeared in front of it and deployed his domain in rush, managing to barely block the attack preventing the other two from being turned into meat paste.
"Watch out kid, he suddenly got stronger!", shouted old Ben at Daimon, what happened earlier cooled down the good impression the old man had of Daimon, his grandson died after all, but what they were facing right now was a possible extinction as a race, and he as an Adjudicator had the duty to prevent that from happening.
Not like Daimon really needed it, he was aware of what was coming from above the clouds, according to Rita, not all the ones who received that dark energy from Karla went mad, there were a few who were actually able to keep their rationality to a certain extent, namely the remaining Archdukes, who were fighting against Jeanne and Emily at the other side of the battlefield, Paula who was guiding the Ghoul army while clashing against the female elder from the church and of course Archbald.
Though the Blood King got Adam's sword confiscated by Karla earlier, he received Karla's dark energy to make up for it, and now that the Siren couldn't control him, he was finally able to fight at his strongest state.
He took old Ben and the others by surprise, wounding Antonio who was in charge of defense, and also poisoned the male elder from the church, as for old Ben he was forced to defend his teammates, so Archbald was now unrestrained.
That being said, Daimon didn't blame them, because Archbald had surpassed the level of Kerrol, judging by the size of the Battle Avatar that was coming down from the sky as well as the pressure radiated by it.
A little lesson regarding Battle Avatars, their size varies depending on how strong it is, in a ratio of a hundred meters per minor stage of the Arch rank, from early to peak, there are nine stages, that means a nine hundred meter Battle Avatar, after that, there is no guideline, since the half Stellar realm and above varies from each person, which is why someone can't guide another person to breakthrough, also there is no need to reach the maximum size of Battle Avatar to advance, nor it is easy to do so.
As a proof of he previous, Horal's Battle Avatar, the last time Daimon saw it, was still five hundred meters size, but it is worth mentioning that the bone general was a middle stage Archknight until not too long ago.
The previous is knowledge from the four galaxies, in Neptune they don't know about it, because not only just a few manage to obtain either a Domain or a Battle Avatar, but they tend to manifest it for the first time, at the middle or peak Arch rank or even until the half Stellar rank, only people with really high talents like Vincent, Aurora and the others, obtained the trait of the Ach rank at the early stage and still, their limit is around half of what it is recorded back at the four galaxies.
Well, in Kerrol they were even worse, despite having knowledge of even the traits of both the Lord and Arch rank, not only most weren't able to get them, but their limit was around a third of the one of the four galaxies.
And so, Antonio's Battle Avatar who barely reached 350 meters of height with the help of his beast equipment, was overpowered by Archbald's Battle Avatar who has surpassed the five-hundred-meter mark thanks to the dark energy he got from Karla.
Seeing the giant black knight shaped Battle Avatar of the Blood King coming their way, Daimon nodded at Rita who snapped her fingers.
Countless of spikes and thorns appeared on the cube, which were then absorbed into it, making screams come out of it, Daimon chuckled, that spell Rita used looked quite a bit like his dual element spell "Demon Coffin" the one with which he one-shot Alexander back then, with the difference that she adapted it to her own element instead of using lightning as she didn't have that affinity.
The result was also quite similar, the cube broke and a few dozens of hundreds of corpses of Ghouls who were turned into irrational abominations, fell from it, just as Jasmine said, their corpses dried as black wisps of energy flowed out of them, just to be forcefully dragged towards Sarah, making the crystal's black tone darken even more.
The other result was the Blood King going mad at the sight of his subordinates being massacred, despite him ordering the masked youth to stop, it's not like he cared about them, but he was going to sacrifice them to advance to the next level, now that he had a taste of this power, he of course wanted more.
"Aghhhhhh!", Archbald whose eyes were bloodshot, used the right arm of his Battle Avatar to punch at the volcanic rock where Daimon and the others were, just to be stopped when everything within his frontal field of vision was covered in darkness.
Luckily for Archbald, or not, he didn't have to look too much to find out what was happening, as he heard a woman's voice coming from within the veil of shadows that was blocking his attack.
"A mere pawn dares to bare its fangs against my young master, know your place!", the giant mass of darkness then changed its form, until a familiar black armored figure appeared in front of the Blood King, it was… a perfectly detailed Daimon shaped shadow puppet of a kilometer of size.
Now imagine Archbald's expression when that giant "Daimon" extended its right arm, and grabbed his Battle Avatar to then smack it against the ground, making it sink into the ground, until the magma that laid below the surface, erupted, burning the Battle Avatar too.
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