"What?" Liara asked Reign with a confused expression as Reign nodded his head.
"They were looking for you, to be more specific, the Tier V demon had made some sort of device that can lead them to the key which should not only show them the way to the artifact but seems to be important when it comes to obtaining it as well."
"But how could it be me, why would it be me?!" Liara asked Reign who shook his head.
"I don't know, the demons didn't know either, the leader of the demons might or might not know that information either." Reign said with a sigh.
"He had somehow managed to learn that there is a key, but I doubt he expected it to be a person, much less a human, the reason he only sent the two groups was because he didn't want to alert us all and wished to get the key silently and without us noticing."
"But still, for Liara to be the 'key', I just don't know how something like that is possible," Siggurd said from the side as Reign nodded his head.
"I'm confused by that as well."
"Could it be … the vortex?" Liara suddenly asked Reign, making everybody look at them weirdly.
"The … vortex?" Basred asked the two while looking at Reign.
"Yeah, she … she has a vortex in her soul." Reign said before looking at Liara.
"I'm still not sure that that's connected, are you sure you want me to tell them everything?" Reign asked as he lied through his teeth.
He was pretty sure this was connected to the vortex, as well as himself, he just didn't want to tell everybody right now.
"Well, not everything," Liara said in a low voice, which Reign understood perfectly.
"It would be weird if she wanted you to tell them how you two spent the night together, as well as the shower incident."
'Yeah, I got that, thanks.' Reign told the perverted old man who was snickering.
"First of all, Liara reminds me a lot of an old friend of mine, a friend who has died, her soul being shattered by a demon that took over her body on another planet."
"She not only resembles her physically so much that I truly thought it was her the first day I saw her, and it's not only her physical appearance, her mannerism, her voice, it's all very similar, at least it was the first time we spoke, it seems the vortex had changed her character completely that night, which I only found the next day when Liara acted differently."
Liara blinked and looked away for a bit upon hearing his words.
"It was then that the vortex started working again, changing Liara and making her behave differently again, so I used my soul manipulation to peek into her soul, which was when I found the vortex, I used my soul power to create a barrier that blocks the vortex, not allowing it to use its powers on Liara, but I have to do that every day as the vortex will destroy it."
Reign's short story made everybody's eyes widen as they looked at the two of them.
"Why didn't you say anything sooner, we might have been able to help, to notice-"
"You wouldn't have, none of you can do what I do, and even I am completely confused at the entire thing, and unlike now, there was nothing that connected Liara with the artifact, it only connected her with me, so there was no need for anybody else to know this." Reign said as he sat down on a chair that was nearby.
"Unfortunately, we have no idea how Liara functions as the 'key', we don't know how she can find the artifact, and whether or not something needs to happen for the 'key' to function."
"The demons had no idea what would be done with the 'key' either, as their leader had only told them to bring it to him, nothing else."
"So, even when knowing all of this, we are all still unable to gain an advantage over the demons?" Siggurd asked, to which Reign smirked.
"No, not at all, remember, the demons have no idea what the key is, they don't know it's Liara, and most importantly, they have no idea that we know that either, so we are currently at an advantage."
"We can use this to our benefit, with the two groups they had sent out to find the key dead and their souls taken by me, the enemy will not be able to get any information about what happened, which means they will probably send out more groups, and we can use it to our advantage and slowly whittle down their numbers." Reign said with a dangerous smile on his face.
"I recommend we all move together, there is no need for us to continue searching for the artifact right now as the demons can't get it without Liara, and neither can the monsters, so we hold the absolute advantage over them in that regard, we just need to be careful and look out for the two Tier V demons, if they decide to make a move, it could end disastrously for us."
Everybody nodded at Reign's words as they all agreed to the. Without knowing that they knew that Liara was the 'key', the demons would undoubtedly send more powerful demons to search for it, which would lead them to Liara, which would, in turn, mean that they would meet all ten groups at once, which was more than what they could go up against.
Reign alone was powerful enough to decimate an entire group of Ethereon Demons, and he had done it after running at full speed for 2 miles and killing multiple Tier IV demons by himself. With him with them, everybody was certain that unless the enemy had over 12 peak Tier IV demons, they would be able to go up against them and win.
It wasn't just Reign who was powerful, however, as Liara with her weapon unleashed was more than a match for a peak Tier IV demon, and then there was Laura, with her demon hunter class, she was also able to deal incredible damage to demons, as was Alistair, the second-in-command of the Lumon region who was also a demon hunter.
Most demon hunters died young unfortunately as demons would often target them and do anything they could to kill them, and thanks to the boost in power when fighting against demons, most hunters get overconfident, and that would spell their doom.
Even though the demon hunter class was one of the most popular in this world, over the years, fewer people choose it because of how fervent the demons would get when noticing them. Demon hunters were the bane of demons in most cases, and their attacks could injure their souls, which would lead to them being revived with little to no memory and most of their power gone.
There were still plenty of people who were demon hunters, but they now fought differently, instead of charging ahead and fighting at the very front, most of them would fight from the back and do their best to support their comrades and dish out damage to the demons.
The meeting ended shortly after that. They had spoken a bit about what to do, whether or not they should tell their monster allies ( they decided not to ) and then they all went to rest. The 8 teams didn't really need to rest, but Reign desperately needed it, as did Liara and her entire team.
Reign talked with Laura as well, and he told her more about what happened. He had omitted the details, but he did tell her that the two had slept together and that the next day, she was hostile to him and had no recollection of the previous night, as well as that later, she suddenly changed and started flirting with him, which was when he used his soul manipulation and noticed the vortex.
"That's … concerning," Laura said in a low voice as she glanced at Reign.
"You have a mission connected to her, don't you?" Laura asked Reign who nodded his head.
"How did you know?"
"I guessed, not that it was hard, after all, you already said how she is connected to you, how to vortex draws her toward you, so I believed the system had definitely given you a mission that is connected to the entire thing, it would be too big of a coincidence otherwise."
"Yeah, it's fucked up, to be honest, I didn't think that I would ever see Lieara again, I'm still keeping the fragments of her soul with me, and they're also being drawn over to the vortex."
"Do you think they are what you need to use to activate the 'key'?" Laura suddenly asked Reign who sighed.
"I have thought about it, but I don't know, and I don't want to simply use them and risk the last fragments of her soul being destroyed if that isn't the case."
"I understand," Laura said as she placed her hand on Reign's shoulder and nodded at him.
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