"How many casualties did you suffer, now that we have managed to get some people back," Siggurd asked Basred who placed his right hand over his chin.
"About 90, all of them Tier II and Tier III combatants."
"That's not good," Siggurd said as he looked at the giant map of the region.
"The demons have been sending out patrols constantly since last week, we have managed to find out that the reason the demons had stopped attacking Timen, as well as Lucretius is that three Tier V demons, all leaders of their own regions, have banded together to find something and that something is in the region here, at least that is what the demons are thinking."
"We have noticed nothing weird prior to the demons sending out the patrols, so we have no idea what it might be, but the number of demons is overwhelming, which is why the scouting team was lost, I was too hasty to send them out, I had done it before learning that the other two regions had sent out their men as well."
The region of Lumon was next to the region of Lucrecius, and the region of Timen was right next to Lucrecius. Behind them, as well as next to them, were some of the regions that were controlled by monsters, and in the front were the demons.
In the past, these three regions were deemed to be the most dangerous ones as they were fighting against the monsters and demons all the time, but upon allying with the monsters, the three regions were doing much better.
The three demon regions had banded together and sent out patrols to find something, and they had done it in secret, being careful to not alert the three human regions, nor the ones controlled by monsters.
They had been doing well until the monsters noticed them, in fact, it was the ruler of one of the monster regions that managed to notice their actions, and he was the one that alerted Siggurd, who in turn quickly alerted the others.
Siggurd had come here only after the ruler of the monster region next to his region had promised to help if the demons attacked, so he had come here with some of his strongest fighters to help out. Even though there were only 15 people, 3 of them were peak Tier IV combatants, second only to Siggurd and his right-hand man in power.
The right-hand man was left in Timen to stand guard with the rest while the others joined Siggurd in helping out Basred and the people of the Lumon region.
"The ruler of the demonic forest, Sezmek, has promised to send his monsters to snoop around the region and help us locate what it is that the demons are looking for, but I don't fully trust him," Basred said with vigilance.
"He has been a valuable ally so far, but he is also a greedy one, any time he can get his hands on some valuable items and artifacts, he will do almost anything to get them, we have had some minor disputes over that in the past, but nothing had managed to rile up the demons like this, so whatever has appeared here has to be incredibly valuable, we just don't know what it is."
"What about the other ones?" Siggurd asked, but Basred shook his head.
"Just like before, they have pledged to help out if we get attacked, but they won't be helping us out in the search."
"That might be for the best, Alvia will be sending her people over here soon as well, so with the two of us, as well as multiple Tier IV combatants, we have a good chance of finding whatever it is before Sezmek or the demons."
"I just don't like this, all three are riled up because of this item, and yet the leader of the region that has been fighting with Lucretius has stayed there, prompting Alvia to stay as well, but why not go and help out during the search, why not go after the item as well?" Basred asked, to which Siggurd shrugged his shoulders.
"You know that that bastard is quite different from the other demons present nearby, maybe the item doesn't interest him, he is a completely different race of demon after all, his race doesn't have any similarities with the races nearby."
"Oh, what kind of demon is he?" Reign suddenly asked as everybody glanced at him.
"He is an Ethereon Demon, they are ghostly bastards that are ethereal and can suck out the souls of their enemies during battle, they're tough bastards to deal with, luckily, they are few in numbers compared to the rest, but even other demon races avoid them," Basred said, to which Reign nodded.
"Interesting, I've never come across such a demon race before."
"You have been fighting against demons back on your planet as well, right?" Riela asked Reign who nodded his head.
"Yeah, Blood Demons, Ash Demons, Flame Demons, we've fought them and some other races, but this one is completely different from them."
"Yes, if you come face to face with any of them, keep a distance and attack them from afar, normal attacks barely have any effect on them, even Demon Hunters do little damage, only soul-based attacks work," Siggurd said with a serious expression.
"Perfect." Reign said as he smiled wryly, his fighting spirit had been ignited as this was the first time he had heard of demons that can do such things.
"It seems the one that had possessed me in the past is from that race," Laura told Reign from the side, making him open his eyes wide.
"Have you fought any of them before?"
"Yes, and just like Sir Siggurd said, they're hard to deal with, but with your powers, I don't think you'll have any issues."
Both Siggurd and Basred glanced at Laura and Reign with confused expressions. As the leader of the Timen region, Siggurd had heard of the stories that Laura had told of Reign and the other members of their team, he had even seen her in action back when she was doing her challenge mission for her Tier IV evolution, so he knew how strong she was, but he didn't expect her to be so confident in Reign's ability to fight against the Ethereon Demons.
He knew she fought them before, so her confidence in Reign must be because she was certain of it, but that only made Siggurd more interested in the man.
"Sir Reign, right?" Siggurd asked, to which Reign smiled.
"Please drop the 'sir', sir, it does feel a bit off for you to call me as such."
"Hahahahaha, alright then Reign."
"The badge shone white when you used it, so you aren't human, at least not completely, am I right?"
"Yes, I'm a Nephilim."
"A Nephil?"
"Nephilim, a half-angel, right?" Another person asked from the side, to which Reign chuckled.
"I actually don't know about that, but that shouldn't be the case, we do have wings, but I don't know if we are connected to angels, after all, I have been human before managing to unlock my true powers."
"Since we will be fighting side-by-side, I guess you should know about my powers." Reign said as he raised both of his hands.
Lightning suddenly appeared around him, covering his hands before dissipating. Then darkness came, covering his left arm, while light covered his right arm. Then that disappeared as well, and Reign's eyes turned purple as the people in the hall all felt a weird sensation in the air.
"That's … soul power." Siggurd suddenly said as he stared at Reign.
"Correct, those four are my abilities."
"Four abilities, how the hell did you learn so many?" One of the men that was staying in the hall asked Reign, to which the latter chuckled.
"I didn't learn any of them."
"What, wait … so you mean … all of them are innate abilities?!"
"Impossible, I've only heard of people having 2 innate abilities in the past, and even that is rare!"
"What do you know, there have been people in the past that had 3 innate abilities, but usually only 1 or 2 are useful, so they end up rarely using all of them!"
"I see now why Laura praised you so much," Siggurd said as he sighed, even Basred nodded his head.
Both of them had fought against Ethereon Demons in the past, so they were familiar with the sensation of soul power being used, which was why both recognized it when Reign used his last ability.
Still, they never expected to actually meet a person that had four innate abilities. After all, Siggurd only had one innate ability, as well as two that he had learned, while Basred had one innate ability and one that he had learned.
They knew very well how large the difference between an innate ability, and a learned one was. Furthermore, Reign could use soul power, which means one of his abilities allows him to attack the souls of his enemies at the very least, which is incredibly useful when battling Ethreon Demons.
'Seems like she wasn't merely boasting about him after all.' Siggurd thought as he glanced at Reign and Laura.
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