Reason being the Variable that was Abigail Lowe, someone the Demonic Hand viewed as so much of a threat that they sent Ten out of the available twenty after her.
Abigail and her red-haired companion had defeated nine of them with the help of some of the Elven Emperor's Knights.
As for the tenth?
**KABOOOMMM!!!!!!
A deafening detonation reverberated through the air, shaking the ground beneath their feet.
The explosive force unleashed a torrent of flaming energy, engulfing its unfortunate target and the booming eruption sent shockwaves rippling through the surroundings.
"Looks like Zestari is done."
Right after Abigail said that, a fairly tall dark-haired elf wearing a grey-themed maid uniform suddenly appeared in front of her while dragging the charred body of the tenth Fake hero, the Legendary Level one.
Abigail glanced sideways at the mushroom cloud that billowed up into the sky, reminiscent of the scene when an atomic bomb was detonated before turning her gaze back to the golden-eyed elf in front of her.
"You didn't kill him?"
"Mhmm.
I plan to take him back so we can study him. If they are really 'Fake Heroes' as you say they are, then the Demonic Hand is up to some very dangerous experiments that we can't let succeed."
Zestari replied as she dropped the half-dead Fake Hero on the ground and rearranged her hair that had scattered mid-battle.
"Would have been better to take a weaker one, if that guy gets remotely detonated, it's not gonna be pretty."
"Worry not, I've already considered that possibility."
The Elven 'Living Legend' addressed Abigail's concern while retying her hair back into a ponytail before pulling out a Spatial Magic Artifact and continuing.
"Now then, shall we return?"
"As much as I don't want to, I guess I have no choice at this point, huh?"
"You do realise you wouldn't be in trouble if you had just obediently informed your father before you left, right? Rather than making one of the 'Sovereigns' sneak you out."
The redhead woman spoke to Abigail as she got up and dusted her clothes, yawning lightly before turning to Zestari and continuing.
"You guys better investigate that imposter hero fast; for if my suspicions are correct, the Demonic Hand seeks to unleash a calamity upon all who bear the title of 'Hero'."
Leaving those words, the woman stepped into the spatial magic portal while Abigail followed suit.
Left behind, Zestari surveyed the terrain around her, her gaze settling on a mountain in the distance as she narrowed her eyes lightly before muttering to herself.
"That aura, it's most likely an executive. Dealing with the Fake Hero took a bit out of me, and I don't want to face them when I'm not at 100%."
With those thoughts, she pivoted on her heel and strode into the shimmering spatial portal that closed up behind her right after.
? ?
Looking at the high elf that just disappeared beyond the spatial portal, the 'Third Finger' of the Demonic Hand clicked his tongue and cursed.
"Fucking monster.
How the heck did she sense me all the way over here, and I was actively concealing myself too."
The man frowned as he noticed that Zestari had not killed the Legendary Level Fake Hero, leading him to infer that she probably had intentions of studying it.
"That's pointless though, as they would not be able to find anything even if they cut it open."
A storm cloud slowly glided across the mountain as he spoke, and by the time it had drifted past, his visage had disappeared completely.
? ? ?
Cheart Suburbs
Great Western Empire
Alpha Continent
February 3rd
Year 1053
"Wow, this is more complex than I thought.
Guess I'd have to at least unlock Stage Three if I want to completely understand the inner workings of this."
The 'Hero of Truth', remarked to herself as she stared at the bodies of one of the Fake Heroes with her pretty blue eyes.
However, the golden glow of the crest within her irises, showed that she wasn't looking at the Fake Hero himself, but at the 'true essence' of what the 'Fake Hero' entailed.
While Evan understood how the Demonic Hand had made the Fake Heroes due to his knowledge from the game, Laurene only needed to study them with her Mystic Eyes of Truth to unravel their true essence, albeit partially.
|Mystic Eye of Truth;
Type: Unique Skill (Mystic Series)
The wielder of these eyes possesses a connection to the essence of truth, granting them an uncanny insight into the world around them, enabling them to perceive hidden truths and unravel the mysteries that lie beneath the surface.
Effect;
Allows one to see through the 'Truth' behind all things within their field of vision.
Stage 1
Enhanced Visual Prowess
Ability to see Incorporeal Entities and the flow of energy.
The user can 'see' the difference between lies and truths.
The user can see through Illusions.
The user can see the weak points of their opponents.
Stage 2
The user can grasp the structures of energy-based techniques, barriers, spells and spell circles.
The user can see through the weak points of magic spells and circles.
The user can see invisible objects and hidden items
The user can 'lock on' to weak points of their opponents, making the next attack to that weak point 100% guaranteed to hit.
Restrictions;
Besides the passive abilities of the mystic eyes such as enhanced vision, lie detection, Illusion Awareness, etc, seeing the 'Truth' of more than one aspect at a time requires the Mystic eyes' stage to be higher.
The Ability to see through the underlying mechanics of spells is dependent on the user's maximum Magic Tier.
Some of the Mystic eyes' abilities are sealed and would only be unlocked when the Mystic eyes have reached the appropriate stage. |
While she was doing this, the Knights around her were silently piling up the rest of the Demonic Hand member's corpses with the intention of cremating them all.
Like Evan and Abigail, Laurene had also been attacked by a squad with Fake Heroes, and like Abigail's squad, hers contained multiple Epic Level Demonic Hand Members and demons, and all the Fake Heroes sent after her were also in the Epic Level too!
As for the reason why her attacking force was greater, it was simply because the Demonic Hand had judged that Laurene would have more security with her as she was a princess, hence they allocated more powerful members to deal with her.
The same applied to Abigail, as sending that Legendary Level Fake Hero wasn't only because of how much they viewed her as a threat, but also because they knew that Zestari, the Elven Living Legend was going to be nearby.
Hence, the Legendary Level Fake Hero's job was to hold Zestari off long enough for the others to finish Abigail off.
Sadly, for them, Abigail was also a nonstandard existence like Evan, and she had her redhead companion's help, along with a few other Elven Knights who had initially come over with Zestari.
The ones sent to attack Laurene were also very unfortunate, as although the timing they had picked, happened to be when she was away from the Capital Gerfast, it happened to also be when she was investigating one of the Tenth Division's former bases, with Luke Bowthe.
The 'Second Sword' of the 'Ten Great Swordsmen' and the Alpha continent's 'Sword Saint'.
With him present, Laurene did not even need to lift a finger as the Fake Heroes died faster than their brains could compute.
It was an instant death for four of them, and the last one had become Laurene's guinea pig.
The Demonic Hand members and their contracted Demons who numbered around 150, were quickly made short work off by the grandmaster-level knights in her guard detail.
If Laurene was alone, then they could have succeeded in dealing with her as her guards could not hold off over a hundred grandmasters and 5 Epics while protecting her at the same time.
But sadly, she was with Luke.
The leader of this squad had tried to call for a retreat after sensing Luke's presence, but the Sword Saint was alerted the moment he felt the leader's gaze.
What transpired after, led to the current scene with the four dead Fake Heroes and the captured attack squad leader.
Laurene paid the tied-up squealing man no attention as she squatted down and fiddled with strange holograms and projections that hovered in the air around her.
The Knights and even the Captured Demonic Hand member were all staring at her silently as she used light magic to generate multiple translucent circuit boards, interconnecting magic circles, floating screens with lines of codes and strange conjuring circles.
Her hands moved as she tapped some of them, shifted some of them around and re-arranged some others.
Naturally, it stood to reason that all the spectators were spectacularly confused about what she was doing.
"Is that so…"
The girl muttered to herself with a strange expression on her face as she looked at the things floating in the air, placing her hand on her chin and nodding slightly.
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