Away from the planet Reign was currently on, atop a huge mountain, Raziel was sitting and looking at the mirror that showed what Reign was currently doing.
"To dare and mock a god, you really have a death wish, huh?" Raziel chuckled before shaking his head.
"It doesn't matter, a measly peak god is not qualified to attack one of my men, so I shall count this as a favor that you will need to repay me."
"Now, I wonder how long it will take you to realize what is truly going on with the challenge you have been given, Reign," Raziel said in a soft voice as he took a cup and drank some wine while looking at Reign and the rest of the group who were staring at him.
"Only those that have them fused with their soul?" Liara asked as Reign nodded.
"I think that might be the reason why the soul fragments I have are the same as those in the pillar of light inside the prison of darkness, your soul is very different compared to theirs, so that has to be a reason, or at the very least, one of the reasons." Reign said as he sighed.
"Of course, this is nothing more than speculation from my end, there's a chance that something else is going on as well, after all, I don't trust the souls that I spoke with, they were definitely hiding something from me."
"Hey, maybe it's because we have chained the fragments, making it hard for them to be noticed inside your soul, after all, as Nephilim, your soul is a lot stronger than average," Aethion said as Reign nodded.
'I have thought about it, and it definitely is a possibility, but I don't know why, I just don't think that's the case.'
"Hmmm, don't forget, Lieara's soul was like this even when she was alive, so I don't think Liara's soul is different just because the fragments have fused with her."
"Dammit, I forgot about that!" Reign suddenly yelled out, making everybody stare at him apprehensively.
"The soul of my friend was the same before she was taken over by the demon and her soul fragmented, so the reason your soul is different is definitely not because it has fused with the fragments." Reign said with a sigh as everybody nodded.
"This … this is all so confusing, each time I think I finally have an answer for something, I realize I don't have an answer at all." Reign said as he got up.
"So, what do you guys think, should we continue searching?"
"Yes, the previous battle wasn't that tough, so none of us have really used up a lot of mana, nor did we get tired." One of the members of the group said as the others all nodded.
Reign nodded back at them before glancing at Alistair and Liara, who both nodded as well.
'How long will this mission take, the region is huge, and for us to search the whole region will take weeks, not to mention that we can't search the deepest areas as that is where the stronghold of the demons is located.' Reign thought as they all moved forward.
'None of us fear any demons of the same realm, but their leaders are not something we can fight against, even if we bring both Siggurd and Basred with us, we won't be able to deal with the incredibly high number of demons that are present.'
"I guess you need to hope that the artifact is not there then," Aethion said, to which both Reign and he chuckled.
'Knowing the system and how it gives difficult challenges, why am I certain that the artifact is there?' Reign asked, to which Aethion simply shrugged his shoulders.
"No idea, but I think so too, otherwise this mission will truly be easy, much easier compared to the ones you had to finish before."
'Thankfully, my transformation will soon be available, and with it, I can go up even against a Tier V being for a short period of time.'
"Why not take the two Tier V humans who are back in the region and attack the demons then?" Aethion asked, to which Reign simply scoffed.
'Are you insane, their stronghold definitely has arrays placed that will make it difficult to fight against them, not to mention that if I truly do that, the incredible number of Tier IV demons is enough to tip the scales, even a Tier V being can't go up against hundreds of Tier IV beings.'
Aethion simply chuckled as Reign and the others made their way across the region, searching for any traces of the artifact and doing their best to stay alert in case another demon group attacked them.
This went on for the next 3 days, during which, no demon had been seen, nor had they managed to find any trace of the artifact.
"This truly is troubling, for the demons to stay idle for days is not normal at all," Siggurd said as everybody was in the meeting hall.
"You have killed many demons, usually, the demons would send out most of their combatants to deal with whatever was happening, for them not to retaliate after you guys killed two smaller groups of demons, and a group of 40 Tier IV demons is simply too suspicious," Basred added from the side, to which everybody nodded.
"Are you certain that no demon came close to you guys, maybe they sent a scouting party or one stronger demon to observe you?"
"As long as they are 500 meters away from me, I can sense their souls, even the last group, which had abilities that allowed them to hide themselves and even hide their souls slightly, was only able to come up to 400 meters before I noticed them." Reign said as he stood to the side and stared at the giant map with a serious expression.
"We have already searched the entire area that is 13 kilometers away from the region, we now need to go deeper into the demon region, which will make it more difficult for us, if we get attacked by a large group and some of us get injured or exhausted, we will need to travel for quite a long time to get back." Reign said as the two leaders nodded.
"The demons might be waiting for that, the deeper you are in their territory, the denser the demonic energy, and the less mana that is present in the air, which means that every single meter deeper in their territory places you in a more disadvantageous position," Siggurd said with a sigh.
"I and Basred were thinking about joining your group from now on."
"No, it is still too early for that." Reign said in an instant as he stared at the two.
"If the demons sense you somehow, they will definitely not stay idle, they will send both of their leaders who are present and attack, we have no idea if there are more of them there as well, as we have previously told you, we believe the brown demons we have faced were mercenaries that the demons summoned, we can't be certain they don't have more of them, and one might even be a Tier V being." Reign said with a serious expression on his face.
"The deeper we go, the bigger the disadvantage we place ourselves in, the same is true for you two, even though I have a skill that will allow me to become as powerful as a Tier V being for a short period of time, if a third one is present, we will only waste time and will have to retreat, and there is no saying what might happen at that point."
Everybody nodded at Reign's words as they knew he was right. If one Tier V demon attacked them, with his transformation, Reign could hold him off and do his best to buy time for the others to get back, but if more appeared, then things would certainly get messy.
"I truly hope to catch the demons off guard, and for that, my power needs to stay hidden, you two should join only after we are forced to explore the second half of the region, and since the region is over 100 kilometers long, that means we still have a long way to go before that."
"Not to mention, these will definitely keep us safe." Reign said as he grasped a talisman that every member of the group had.
It was a teleportation talisman that Siggurd and Basred had bought for them the day they were attacked by the Stalker Demons.
Upon hearing about it, both of them decided that they needed to have some life-saving measures as they had no idea just how powerful the demons were, nor how many of them were present in the region.
Reign and the others had continued exploring, and ever since they dealt with the demons, no enemy had appeared. They all understood that the demons were definitely planning something, they just had no idea what they were planning, and none of them had the slightest idea of what was going on right now.
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