"Did we suffer any casualties?" Reign asked Alistair who arrived with Laura.
"No, the demons weren't that strong, it seems the cloaking ability they all shared was what they excelled at, their fighting ability just wasn't on par with us, nor other demons," Alistair said with a smirk as he sat down next to me.
"Still, those are some dangerous opponents, without you and your ability to sense their souls, I'm uncertain whether I or Laura, who are both demon hunters and very sensitive to demons, would have noticed them before it was too late."
"I don't know, they stopped just slightly over 100 meters away from us, I wonder if that was because they feared you would notice them if they were closer?" Reign asked as he gazed at the many corpses of the demons.
"That could be the case," Laura said as she looked to the side.
"But even so, with only 100 meters between us, they would have been able to take us by surprise, and since they all seem to be assassins, their first attack would be the deadliest, we would have definitely suffered lots of casualties, not to mention the chaos that would ensue after the initial clash."
"Yes, those bastards would have been able to kill many of us, they might have planned to send a large portion of their group first so that they can take advantage of the chaos that ensued, and potentially wipe us all out." Alistair nodded at Laura as he agreed with what she said.
"Yeah, today, we were able to get rid of such a large group of them, I doubt this was all of them, a couple are probably with the other demons, at least that's my guess, and I hope I am right as dealing with them whilst fighting other demons would be much more difficult." Reign said as he continued looking at the device before releasing a sigh.
"You guys take a crack at it, this was made for demons since you can wield demonic energy, you two might be the only ones amongst us that can actually use this damn thing." Alistair took the device as Laura stared at it intently.
Alistair had been fighting his entire life here, and this wasn't the first time he held a demonic item in his hands, if anyone was able to activate it and find out how it worked, it was him.
"Hmmm, it's a weird one, different from the ones I know, I wonder if this was made for this tribe of demons?"
"By the way, is this your first time coming across these guys?" Reign asked as he glanced at the corpses.
"Yes, I don't know if any of the older fighters in the region have ever seen them, or maybe the leader, but I've never fought against these demons, they're either a tribe that arrived later than the others, back when they had already conquered a good portion of the world, or they were simply far away from this place and only arrived to help out with locating the artifact."
"But why would they need help from a fourth tribe, I mean, in a head-on confrontation, the demons would win against us, they have triple the number of combatants we have, and that should be more than enough for them to be confident in dealing with us." Reign said as he placed his hand over his chin.
"I agree, they don't know about you and your power, so there should be no need for them to ask for any help." Liara suddenly said as she walked over to them.
"So what do you think?" Reign asked her with a calm voice.
"Well, we never really knew who it was that found out about the artifact being here, since it was found here, we believed that it was the demons that control the region that found out about it, but what if it was these guys that actually found out?"
"You think they merely told the three leaders of the three regions here because they didn't think they could get it themselves?" Reign asked, to which Liara nodded.
"I don't think they would have asked immediately, they probably sent a team to try and find it, but were not successful, so they decided to get help from those that have been living here for the last couple of years."
"That could very well be true, unfortunately for us, we have no idea just what is going on with the demons, who knows, maybe these guys aren't even on the planet, after all, didn't you guys say that the demons have started creating portals in their strongholds so they can summon more demons?" Reign asked, to which the rest all nodded as they started pondering.
"So, you think they summoned these guys as mercenaries?"
"That seems to be quite possible to me, which means we no longer know just how many Tier IV combatants they have, this group, for example, was one whose existence was hidden until we fought, who knows whether they have more of them?"
"So instead of them having triple our numbers, they have even more?" Liara asked, to which Reign nodded solemnly.
"It's a strong possibility."
"I got it!" Alistair suddenly exclaimed as the device in his hand suddenly activated.
The device looked like a tablet that one could find back on Earth. It was slightly different, however.
It was about 40cm ( 16 inches ) wide and 20 cm ( 8 inches ) in length. The screen was not as large, as the frame was about 5cm ( 2 inches ) wide. It wasn't a normal plastic or metallic frame, no, it was made up of what seemed to be flesh that was slightly moving and some rocks, it could even be the bones of some unknown monster.
The device didn't do much, it only showed a map of the area some 400 meters around them, as well as a small arrow. The arrow was pointing at Liara, and she, just like the rest of them, was visible on the map in the form of a dot.
Now, unlike all of them, who were gray in color, Liara was a gold dot, which was probably because she was their target, so the device differentiated her from the rest.
"So it's just a device that helps them locate you, I thought it would have some other options as well, but hey, having a map that shows the area 400 meters around us isn't bad at all." Reign said as he glanced at the map.
"Yeah, and I think it might even show us demons on it, but I don't really want to use it, man, I mean, this is just so weird and disgusting," Alistair said as he grimaced while holding the fleshy frame of the tablet.
Reign and the others chuckled before starting to clean up the area.
They had killed all the demons, and now they were going to bury them so that it will be much harder for the other demons to know what happened here.
The peak Tier IV combatant that had previously aided Reign, Nigel, was a mage who had the earth element as his ability. He was able to control soil and rocks, and with his help, they were able to create a large hole in which they dumped the bodies before he covered it. The entire cleanup took only a short couple of minutes, after which they moved away from the area.
"Interesting." Aethion suddenly spoke in Reign's head.
'What is it?'
"Well, the device."
"It shows Liara, and since we both know she is connected to Lieara and the soul fragments, the device should be using the soul fragments as the target, right?"
'Yeah, they don't know what the key is, so they are trying to locate it, I don't know how the demons did it, but somehow, they are able to follow the signature of the soul fragments.'
"So, why aren't you a key as well, and why isn't the device showing you as well, after all, the souls said that the soul fragments are what will help with finding and using the artifact, so shouldn't you also be able to do that, and shouldn't the demons also be able to track you since you have the fragments?"
Reign's eyes widened upon hearing Aethion's words.
'That's right, how did I forget such an obvious thing?'
"Alistair, please use the device again." Reign suddenly said, which made them all look at him with some confusion, but Alistair merely nodded before activating the device again.
"All of us are grey, even though I'm not completely human, I'm gray as well, only Liara is a gold dot." Reign said as he stared at the device.
"Yeah, but isn't that because she's the key, they probably didn't make the device to show different races."
"Yes, but remember what I told you, about the soul fragments and how they are connected to the artifact?" Everybody nodded at Reign, some even widening their eyes as they quickly realized what Reign was trying to say.
"I have the fragments too, so shouldn't I also be a key, or is it only those that have them fused with their soul that are found on the device?"
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