Ding!
[ Find and eliminate the one behind the demon invasion ]
As Reign stared ahead, he was stunned and kept silent.
There were three people sitting down and talking near some kind of a stone slab that was put in the middle of the forest.
The stone slab had a weird aura coming from it, and the mist that had covered the whole camp was coming out from the slab as well.
Reign had never seen two out of the three people that were currently sitting near the stone slab, but he did recognize one, and how could he not?
"So, your majesty, how long do you think that guy will last inside the array?" One of the two men spoke with a smile on his face as the person he spoke to shrugged his shoulders.
"I think a day will be enough."
"A day, that's quite something, for someone with his wounds and low amount of mana, I thought 10 hours would be more than enough to weaken him to the point of him not being able to move at all, what makes you so sure that he can last a day, prince Ian?" The third person spoke from the side as he leaned against a tree and looked at Ian.
"He's strong, underestimating him is one thing that we can never do, mother repeatedly told me so, and I wholeheartedly agree with her." The crown prince of the kingdom of Riplas, Ian said as he leaned back against a nearby rock.
"Anyway, with the mist working and his inability to sense anything, he will probably wander in circles around the camp, but there is a possibility that he might get in the forest."
"Relax, we have put up three arrays in the forest, one is to keep people out, the second one is to alarm us, while the final one is another defensive array that won't allow anyone to get 15 meters to us."
"Plus, we have managed to kill that person as well, he was the only one that could have helped him out, but thanks to him being in a different layer, just like that Reign guy, he was unable to defend himself against my attack and died in one hit, it's a shame though, he had great potential, had he joined us, he could have become quite an influential figure."
"Yes, he certainly could have, but he decided to go against us, killing him was a must." The prince spoke before getting up. He stretched a bit before going to the stone slab and admired it while Reign stared at his back with hatred.
'This bastard!'
'Who else is with them, he mentioned his mother, so she is also a part of this, are the others with them too, the king, Lios, Raigon, Eisenhorn, are they all together in this?'
"Calm down boy, you don't have a lot of mana left, and the three of them are all low-grade Tier III, you have to make sure that you are calm and collected before attacking and dealing with the three of them fast."
'I know, sorry.'
"It's alright, now, let's see, these three mentioned that there are 3 arrays, but you managed to pass through without setting off any one of the three."
'Yeah, I thought that was weird as well, is it because we are in different layers because it doesn't seem so?'
"No, you are in the same layer, that much is certain, and also, it seems that we had this wrong the whole time, it was you who was transported to a different layer, that is what the array had done, these three have also come to this layer in order to make sure you can't destroy this stone slab."
'Their strength is also weird, the prince was Tier II, I know that much, and these two, I have never seen them before, if they were members of the kingdom, why didn't they use them in order to combat the enemy?'
"You're not thinking straight, remember what the system just told you, about the second step of your mission?"
'Right, find those responsible for the demon invasion, so it was them that summoned them, but how?'
"It doesn't matter, we know that it was them, and we know that they are out to kill you, which means that we must get rid of them first, we can't wait for too long for a perfect opportunity either as from what they have said, you will get weaker and weaker thanks to the array and the mist, and we are now at the very source of it, which means the effect should be stronger as well."
"You must act quickly, whilst you still have enough mana."
Reign nodded to Aethion as he stared at the three men. They were currently spread out, and he could at most hit two of them at the same time, but he needed to be able to get all three at the same time as he only had enough mana for one powerful skill.
Reign bent down and assumed a low stance as he stared at them. He knew that he had to be patient, but he also could not take too long as his mana would diminish and he would no longer have enough for the attack.
Reign stared at the area where the three were, trying to come up with a way to grab their attention and get all three close to each other.
Suddenly, something from the other side of the forest moved.
The three all got their weapon up and stared at them, only for a small rabbit to come out.
The three all stared at the rabbit as it came closer to them before getting to the center of the area and simply sitting down. The rabbit seemed to not bother itself with the three and simply looked around the area.
"A rabbit, how did this guy get here?" The prince suddenly asked as he got closer to the rabbit.
"It seems normal, I can't feel anything from it." One of the two men said as he also got close to inspect the rabbit, leaving only the third one away as he stared at the two.
"I wouldn't get close to it, there should be no living beings in this layer." The third person spoke and stared at the rabbit before taking out two daggers from the sides of his waist.
"There's a chance we weren't careful enough when we came here and this guy got dragged in." The prince said as the third man came close to them.
"Maybe, but I don't like it." The man said before throwing his dagger down, killing the rabbit instantly.
"It died." The other man said as the third one nodded his head and took out his dagger.
"It seems it really got dragged in with us."
"Yeah, it really does."
Suddenly, the three all widened their eyes in shock as they turned to the side. A powerful wave of mana was suddenly released from that direction and the three could see lightning flickering between the trees.
"Lightning, how is that possible, how is he here?!" The prince shouted out before a blur suddenly passed through them all. The two men suddenly collapsed as their heads were cleanly cut off while the prince fell down as his legs were severed from his body.
Reign panted heavily as he could feel that his mana was now dangerously low, the [ Lightning Slash ] he had just done was the best skill he could use to deal with them quickly, but it also used up most of his mana.
As he turned around, he could see the prince staring at him in disbelief.
"Hi there, your majesty." Reign spoke in a cold voice as the prince simply stared at him.
"Take the souls of those two, quickly!" Aethion spoke out as Reign nodded and went to take their souls, only to have a confused expression on his face when doing so.
'There's nothing, they don't have a soul, neither one of them.'
"Then take him, we need to find out what's happening, and we need to find out quickly!"
Reign nodded at Aethion's words, clearly hearing the panic and hurry in his voice. It seems the old man had thought of something and was currently panicking over it. Reign didn't know what made Aethion panic so much, but he knew it was nothing good.
"This place is not good for a conversation, we should talk elsewhere," Reign told the prince as he grabbed his head and attempted to pull out his soul, only to fail.
"What?"
"Hahahahaahah, did you really think you could simply play with my soul as you wish?!" The prince laughed out loud as he stared at Reign with contempt.
"Sorry to burst your bubble, but the likes of you can't touch my soul."
Reign once again attempted to grab the prince's soul, this time with Aethion's help, but once again, they failed.
The soul of the prince was like a slippery eel that could not be caught.
"Boy, I think I know what they are."
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