"Our challenges have been fulfilled, the two of us can evolve whenever we wish," Reign told Basred who nodded at him.
"Will you help us take over the regions?"
"Of course, as long as we are allowed to stay here after the evolution, we will gladly help you destroy the demon scum and take back some territory," Reign told Basred with a serious expression which made Basred smile.
"We will start preparing for the funeral of Siggurd and the other right after arriving, the evolutions of you two will probably take a couple of hours, if you wish, we can wait until you are finished before we start with the funeral."
"I would appreciate that, even if we have only known one another for a short period of time, I considered all of them comrades, we have fought side-by-side and broke bread together, being there when they are put to rest is the least I can do for them." Reign said as he sighed.
The demon had taken the souls of Siggurd and the others, but after being killed by Elyndor, all the souls were released. Unfortunately, the immense power of Elyndor made it impossible for Reign to grab the souls and he had to let them go.
He wished to take their souls and talk to them, to inform them of what had happened and that humanity would not perish here, but in hindsight, they probably knew that.
"I don't think they died thinking humanity is doomed, Basred."
"Their souls were with that demon, and upon his death, they were released, they definitely saw what was going on, they knew that everything would be fine." Reign grabbed Basred's shoulder and nodded at him, prompting the man to smile sadly and nod his head back.
The giant gate of the region opened, and with it opening, the people gathered to see what had happened the guards on top of it noticed Basred leading the group with Reign and the others, as well as a large stretcher with many bodies placed on top of it.
As they entered the region, people stared at the stretcher, and the familiar faces that were on it.
"Oh no, that …. That's lord Siggurd!" One panicked voice from the crowd yelled out with fear as the crowd stared in shock.
"Alistair, isn't that Alistair?" Another voice weakly said, his voice trembling as some people fell down on their knees.
The soldiers of the region all kneeled down, paying respects to the fallen as the rest of the crowd slowly did the same, each one showing a face full of shock and disbelief.
One of the leaders had fallen in battle.
A Tier V being, one of humanity's powerhouses, had fallen just like that.
Almost a third of the entire party had been killed.
"How is this possible, why were lord Basred and Siggurd with them, didn't the exploration party leave by themselves?"
"I don't know, I am certain they weren't with them when they left."
"They probably left without anybody noticing them leave, they probably found something important and had to make sure no spies would notice their departure."
"Did they succeed in what they were doing then, or did they fail?"
"Does it even matter, we lost Lord Siggurd, no matter what they were doing, losing someone like him is too big of a price to be paid."
Whispers could be heard all around the crowd as Reign and the others walked forward before they stopped.
Basred suddenly jumped on top of a nearby stage before staring at the crowd that was made up of hundreds of people who were present.
"You all have many questions to ask, I am well aware of it." Basred spoke with a solemn voice as he stared at everybody.
"Over 60 of us left this morning, and only about 40 returned, my deputy, the second-in-command of the region, Alistair, fell in battle, as did Siggurd, a comrade that had been a leader of his region for many years now."
"We have paid a heavy price, one that is too large for most, but this is not the time to despair, nor is this the time to be afraid."
"In return for losing Siggurd, Alistair, and the other heroes that had been with us, we have made the demons pay a heavy price, 40 demons were slain, the weakest of them Tier V demons, and the most powerful were 2 Tier VII demons!"
The entire crowd suddenly went quiet.
Nobody said a single word, nobody dared even breathe too loudly.
Tier VII.
That was a realm that none of them had heard of before as no being on the planet had reached it.
And the demons had two of them, and they were killed?!
"As many of you know, the demons were searching for an artifact, and we have managed to locate it, and to take control of it."
"It is with the help of the artifact that we managed to defeat the demons, and now, the regions close to us are left with no leaders, they are vulnerable, and we shall take the regions back!"
"We are first going to rest up, the funeral arrangements shall be made during this time, and after the funeral, we shall go forward and attack, we shall get rid of the demons!"
Basred's voice reverberated through the region as the people all stared at him before they suddenly clenched their fists and roared together with him.
"Our counterattack starts today!"
Reign and Laura glanced from afar before leaving the area and following after one of the Tier IVs who was with the group.
They made their way a couple of hundred meters away from the gate before Tier IV opened a special door that led further below.
That was one of the places where people would go in order to evolve without being noticed by others.
It was usually used for Tier III and Tier IV combatants, but it should also be fine for Tier Vs as well.
There was one place where a person going through the Tier V evolution would go to, but that place was far away and it would take them some time to get there, time that Reign and Laura didn't wish to waste.
Their previous battles in the dungeon and the close call with the demons had left them, as well as the rest of the group, exhausted and low on mana. They had even thought of going to the demon stronghold and attacking them right away, but it would be too risky with them in such a state, which is why they decided to come back and rest while the funeral arrangements were made.
Reign and Laura would evolve, which would give them two new Tier V combatants during the battle, and Basred would have enough time to notify the other leaders of the nearby regions of what had happened.
With Liara controlling the artifact and having the guardians with her, they would be able to easily attack and take over several regions that were nearby. That alone should suffice to allow the world to recuperate enough to allow for multiple more people to advance to Tier V, and with the artifact slowly recuperating, and Liara being able to take the souls of the demons with it, she would be able to slowly create an army of monsters that would fight for her.
Reign had previously used his soul manipulation in order to sense if any person present in the crowd that had previously formed had any trace of demonic influence in them, and he found 2 people who had.
He had told the Tier IVs about it and told them to capture them as quickly as possible so that word of what happened wouldn't spread to the demons.
With how quickly the demons had been slain, Reign was certain that nobody knew what was going on back at their base.
After all, this was something that was connected to a powerful artifact, spending an entire day or two fighting and searching around would not be out of the ordinary, which meant that after the evolution, they would still be the ones with an advantage as the demons would mostly likely not know that their leaders were dead.
Reign and Laura arrived in the underground hall which was made for people who were going to advance. The Tier IV nodded at him and Laura before closing the door and making his way back up.
A Tier V evolution was not something that a Tier IV should be close to as it could easily get dangerous to him.
The large hall was more than spacious enough for both Reign and Laura, the two went on opposite sides before sitting down and staring at system notifications.
[ The player has successfully found and taken the artifact, both the challenge, the bonus mission, and the personal mission have been completed. ]
[ The player will receive the system's blessing and defense during the evolution, no being below Tier IX will be able to disrupt the evolution and deal damage to the player, and with the blessing, the evolution will go more smoothly. ]
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