"We'll continue later when Jas is with us, for now what will we be taking from that old bastard~", said the crazy girl as she let go of Daimon.
"Continue with what… you know what, I don't even want to know, also we won't be stealing but "claiming" instead", said Daimon as his sclerae painted pitch black.
Thanks to the Terror Contract he had with Rita, he didn't have to speak if he wanted her assistance, the undead head maid could feel when Daimon wanted something and she happily obliged
Of course, since Rita and Horals aren't slaves but Daimon's most trusted subordinates, he usually voiced his requests instead of silently ordering them, but that only applied to large commands, in this case, it was counterproductive to say out loud "share your senses with me".
So, he just thought about it and Rita shared her vision with him, Daimon couldn't help but be marveled at the extremely wide and detailed field of vision that the undead head maid had.
Rita's mana sense is already incredibly developed, to the point that she can best even middle stage Stellar ranks like Thea, and yet not even Maximum Stellars can detect her, as long as she stays in Daimon's shadow.
She has grown after accompanying Daimon to Kerrol, not only she gained the ability to use her own version of Space Shift, but she has become more skilled in what darkness laws regard, as a proof of it, in this underground prison which was covered in darkness mana crystal to suppress anyone with light oriented affinities, the range of her field of vision was enhanced.
Allowing Daimon to have the incredible sensation of being able to see "everything" in full detail.
'Well, to begin with this place was supposed to be a paradise for those with darkness-oriented affinities, what a shame it has been in useless hands for quite some time', thought Daimon as he looked for a certain specific something.
This ability to share senses that Rita gained was amazing, normally such an incredible sight capacity will come with its respective requirements, like a certain realm, an amount of mana and also tension in the mana circuits that are located in the eyes, but nothing of the previous applied to Rita's new ability.
It was as simple as turning up a switch, Daimon obtained all the benefits of Rita's senses and there was no burden for him, as for Rita she just used the almost unnoticeable amount of mana needed to spread her mana sense, which was basically nothing.
'I wonder what would happen if I added the effect of the infinity eyes to this, I guess it's something worth trying later, for now…', thought Daimon as he looked through the countless floors and rooms that existed underground of Abaris's castle.
He saw all the strategic points, such as Abaris's throne room, the treasury, the main bedroom, training room, the guest area where that female disciple of his was meditating and other facilities, but that wasn't at what he was aiming, no, what he wanted to find was placed way deeper into the ground, at the level where the darkness mana crystal mine that turned this piece of continental mass a sacred land for darkness affinity mages and knights.
"I found you", mumbled Daimon, he turned to see Sarah who "understood" the message and held onto his arm, as they both were transported through a silent shadow portal that appeared below of them.
While Daimon and Sarah were moving through the underground area of Abaris's castle, a place that hadn't been visited for who knows how many years, up at the sky a few thousands of kilometers from there, the clouds were dispersed and the air trembled as a white flash and dark haze fiercely clashed.
"Booom!", both light and darkness by default are mass-less elements, their natural forms are ethereal, as they are more focused to energy type spells instead of physical affecting ones and yet, each time the white rays of light radiated by Aurora met the dark haze exuded by Abaris, a thunder-like explosion was produced.
"Why are you being so stubborn for a brat you met not too long ago, we are Jasmine's last remaining family, do you really wish her to see us fighting like this!", exclaimed Abaris as he blocked a white ray that was aimed at his face.
"Humph, don't you dare try to use little Jas for your petty revenge on that kid, you know as well as me that he didn't take anything from the treasuries of those two, you are just angry that Purplecloud's son was utterly defeated by that kid and that little Jas doesn't want to be paired with your "brightest" disciple", said Aurora as she increased the output of her mana, forcing Abaris to now block with both of his hands instead of one.
Before Abaris could answer, Aurora raised her hand and light mana gathered from all over the atmosphere, increasing the pressure on Abaris as she said.
"I have put up with your bad temperament quite a few times in the past for the sake of that little girl, but this is something in which neither you nor me have anything to say, she has found something precious, a person with whom she is happy just by being at his side and I'm not going to let an old fool like you get in her way!".
'How will I be able to face Jessica straight if I allow the same mistake to happen again', she thought to herself.
Abaris clicked his tongue, realizing he wasn't going to be able to convince Aurora with just words, the problem is that unless he declared an all-out war against the Light Palace, he couldn't really do much to her, especially with the Flying Citadel ready to support her whenever is needed.
'Tsk, if only… whatever tomorrow is the royal ball, we'll both have to attend, I'll tell those two to apply more pressure on Sylvie', thought the Shaman as he also increased the amount of mana he was using to clash against Aurora.
Abaris confused the sudden increase in Aurora's fierceness on the fact that he tried to use Jasmine to persuade her, well, in part that was the case, but she also received sound transmission from Akim which contained Aisha's message, explaining to her that Jasmine and Daimon had returned and that there was a big "surprise" waiting for her, but first she had to entertain Abaris for at least half an hour.
Of course, Aisha didn't forget to mention that they will be leaving to the Mermen Sea, meaning that whatever Daimon was up to wasn't something good, but Aurora trusted the one who Jasmine has chosen to follow, so she played along.
If only she knew that… she will have a reason to be really angry at Abaris, on the other hand she had an even stronger reason to be happy, but that will have to wait for late, right now Daimon and the crazy girl finally reached their destination, an underground sealed space with a huge crystal door preventing anyone from continuing ahead.
The moment they arrived it became obvious that unlike the previous areas where there was no trace of anyone passing by in a long time, this area was frequently visited.
"Heh, so the old man had a secret passage just to come here", said Daimon with a disdainful voice.
Though different in principle, Rita's Space Shift had the property to ignore restrictions, unlike Thea who had the ability to pierce through space, Rita could open a free portal wherever there was even the slightest shadow.
The area in which they appeared was undeveloped, it was basically a cave with walls were covered in some kind of dark material that Daimon couldn't recognize, it wasn't mana crystal nor any metal he hard heard, read or seen before.
That being said, not having intel on something can also be valuable information, depending on one's perspective, this is something Erin taught Daimon, in this case the fact that he couldn't recognize the material covering the walls, was similar to how he couldn't recognize the material of which… the flying citadel was made off.
Another interesting thing is that there were signs of large amounts of mana being discharged regularly, and there was also a faint smell of blood lingering in the air, it wasn't fresh though, but more of something that has accumulated through the years.
And since there were no signs of anyone being killed nor the ominous sensation that naturally forms in places where battles take part often, the blood wasn't spilled but brought here.
Which made sense for him, thanks to what could be considered the biggest "gift" he obtained from when he interrogated Karla before destroying that part of her existence.
Daimon walked towards the giant black door, more accurately to the exact spot where the foot marks stopped which was also the spot where the traces of large amounts of mana being discharged, was.
He then turned to see Sarah before saying.
"I need some of your blood…", Daimon hadn't even finished speaking when the crazy girl had already started smiling from ear to ear, as she took out one of her needles and pinched the tip of her finger.
Daimon inwardly sighed at her expectation filled expression and just grabbed her hand, which only made the wild imagination of the crazy girl increase even more.
Daimon then condensed a large amount of light mana on his free hand, which he placed at a certain specific spot on the giant door, the decorative lines of the door lit up as they absorbed Daimon's light mana.
A few seconds later the sound of gears moving could be heard coming from within the door as a small compartment with a dark crystal was expulsed from the door.
"Now for the finishing touch", mumbled Daimon as he slightly applied pressure on Sarah's finger to make a drop of her blood fall on the crystal.
"Harder~", of course the crazy girl was as wild as always, but Daimon ignored her and just kept making her finger bleed on the crystal, until the thing completely dyed red.
"Now it's time to see if I was right…", mumbled Daimon as he helped Sarah retrieve her finger from the dark crystal, the compartment returned to be a part of the door and then the lines in which the light mana that was taken from Daimon was running, slowly but surely dyed black.
The moment the last part of those lines turned black, the giant door rumbled for a couple of seconds as it slowly opened.
'Crap!', Daimon felt the surge of mana coming from the other side of the door, and he immediately initiated Core Synchrony and then poured everything into radiating light mana to cover Sarah and himself at the same time.
Naturally Rita was going to act to protect her young master, but Daimon immediately ordered her to not do so.
"Don't, we are still aren't on the safe side yet…", said Daimon, the sudden surge or mana that came from the other side of the door wasn't an attack, it's just the last part of the process to successfully open the giant door.
That being said, and with Daimon giving his all, his light mana was being blown away by the black mana surging from the other side of the door.
Only after Daimon was forced to use Sanctuary to fully replenish his mana, which is saying a lot as in Core Synchrony state, his reserves of mana equaled those of a middle stage Archmage, the surge of mana finally stopped.
"So that's why there were foot marks on the ground", said Daimon as he deactivated Core Synchrony, he knew that all the previous was just to show, the real last requirement to access what lied at the other side of the giant door, was what happened right now.
A sensation of being observed came from the lightless space at the other side of the door, and only after focusing on Sarah for a few seconds, it stopped.
Daimon let out a sigh of relief, it would have been a pain in the ass if after all that, things didn't work out.
The crazy girl felt a strange pulling sensation coming from the door, which made her frown and then hold onto Daimon's arm.
"Don't worry, what's inside there is both yours and Jasmine's", said Daimon, it was weird to see the crazy girl acting wary, but it was not bad for a change.
"Mm", Sarah nodded and her tensed body relaxed, as they both crossed the door to enter the space that was sealed by that giant door.
"I know on mustn't judge a book by its cover, but that's not what I expected", said the crazy girl as she saw the sole object in the previously sealed space.
There floating in the middle of the air was a black hand sized cube, the thing wasn't radiating energy or anything, in fact the mana in the air inside of this sealed space was really thin but it was for a good reason.
Time for a basic lesson, what happens when you sum positive plus negative energies, answer, both neutralize each other, as long as they are equal to the other of course.
And that is what was happening right now, Daimon had some major questions for Karla, unfortunately similar to how it happened to Jessica, who became Jeanne and Emily, the Karla that was trapped in Kerrol didn't have all her memories, she kept her personality as that's what Freya's first host cut from the hero guy.
But she lacked practically all her memories prior to that, as they stayed attached to the system, she also didn't know anything about what happened to her host as they were separated until the hero returned to Kerrol accompanied by Freya's second host.
However, before they could catch up, a fight broke out and both the hero and Freya's second host both killed each other, still during the battle the hero had a small opportunity to exchange words with Karla and gave her a task.
She was supposed to retrieve the best treasure in possession of the hero, which he couldn't take to Kerrol, something that was supposedly destroyed along with a treasure of equal value during a tough battle, but which the hero hid for later usage.
"It's my turn now, stay behind me", said Daimon to Sarah who nodded and then did as he said.
Vertical yellow lines appeared on Daimon's pupils, and then he placed his hand on the cube, which then stuck to his palm, ripping his skin off to absorb his blood.
'It better be freaking worth it', thought Daimon, this amount of pain was nothing, but he didn't appreciate the long process, luckily it didn't last long after a couple of seconds, he was free to retrieve his hand, his recently acquired Mythical Regeneration immediately healed the wound and even replenished the blood he lost.
But while the previous was quite an amazing scene, it paled in comparison with what was happening in front of both Daimon and Sarah, the cube started rotating and expanding until it reached around fifty meters of size, to then open revealing that it contained a white spherical object, which radiated a really faint light.
"There you go", said Daimon to which Sarah nodded, she approached the giant sphere and then touched it while Daimon was touching the cube, making the two objects separate and then shrink.
The crazy girl curiously observed the core which was now orbiting her, while the cube had fallen to the ground.
"What is this, I do feel a faint link between it and me but there is nothing else, is it just for decoration?", she asked to which Daimon chuckled.
"It has been fighting against an equal "enemy" for a really long time, just feed it some mana crystals and see", he said.
Sarah's eyes glowed, she had a fortune in her ring after extorting… obtaining, all those crystals from the adjudicators and the church as well, so she just took out a bunch of them and the white sphere dragged them into it, like a man who has been starving for weeks.
Daimon on the other hand observed the cube and then grabbed it to see a notification appearing in front of him.
'Now, that's what I'm talking about', he thought as he walked towards the wall of the previously sealed space, to then smack the cube against the wall, inserting it into it, one of the faces of the cube opened and then Daimon followed the steps of the crazy girl by taking out a ton of high-grade mana crystals which were devoured by the cube.
…
Back at the skies, the battle between Aurora and Abaris had started to become serious, their exchange stopped being just streams of their respective mana to slowly turn into an exchange of spells.
Abaris frowned as he deflected the incoming spell that was aimed at his chest with an angered expression, the Shaman had a short temper to begin with, so there was so much he could take from others, before getting furious.
"Enough Aurora, I want you to bring that kid to me right now, otherwise don't blame me for disciplining your disciples in your stead!", he said as his mana overflowed out of his body, Abaris actually took out his weapon, a black ore scimitar that seemed to be made of obsidian.
Normally those who saw that ancient weapon that has been legated since the age of the hero and the first Matriarch of the Light Palace, would be horrified by its presence, but Aurora remained pretty calm, while she didn't have an ancient weapon passed down to her, she had the silver citadel that was floating behind of her, which though lacked offensive properties, it had a lot of practical uses, she could always retreat into it if it was needed for example.
But right now, not only she didn't feel threatened, but she was actually smiling as she said.
"You should be careful with what you wish for, who knows it could come true".
Abaris suddenly had a bad premonition assaulting his heart, but as he was about to demand Aurora to explain what she meant, a loud explosion followed by a wave of energy that hit the army brought by Abaris on their backs, sending them flying all over the area, got his attention.
"What the hell was that!", exclaimed the Shaman, only to see that Aurora was already inside the citadel, which only increased the bad premonition in his heart.
"You all keep an eye on them, I'll return in a moment", shouted Abaris as he became a black flash that short towards the origin of the previous phenomenon, which was the direction where the main territory of the Light Palace and the Black Fortress, was located.
By the time Abaris arrived, he saw something that he will never forget, in fact this will probably haunt him for the rest of his life, the sound of water, the screams as well as the seemingly bottomless crater that was being filled by the surrounding water, all the previous caused by the same thing.
Which was a huge part of continental mass being stripped apart from the ground and raised onto the sky.
"Boooom!", big pieces of earth and rocks fell from the sky, landing on the water causing giant waves and hitting the some of the flying figures that were trying to contain the destruction caused by a piece of the continental mass being ripped off the surface of Neptune.
Abaris stood there in shock for a second, after thousands of years of living and defending a certain place, how could he not recognize it, even if its surroundings had changed.
What was floating on the sky was the whole island where the sacred land of both the Light Palace and the Black Fortress was located, he could even see the base of the giant mountain-like deposits of dark and light mana crystal mines, the mines actually came off along with the whole island!
And then it was as if a bolt had hit him out of the blue, he looked downwards and recognized the poor bastards who were dealing with the destruction caused, all their clothes had something in common, they all belonged to the Black Fortress or the other forces subordinated to them, but there wasn't a single person from the Light Palace.
Abaris took out his communication talisman and immediately tried to send a message to two different contacts, and his face blackened as he didn't receive an answer from neither of them.
"What the hell is going on!", he roared to the sky as he flew towards the giant floating island.
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