Since the rumors of what happened earlier had started to spread like wildfire, it was better to leave the Bone Sea as soon as possible, because an open conflict was about to start.
Besides Remi, there was another high stage Stellar rank who was left behind by Marcus to guard his group of fanatics that believed he was sent by Snakele, naturally the high stage Stellars probably knew it was a farse.
But for them, Marcus promised to help them advance to the Maximum stage, according to Remi, the black robed guy that always followed Marcus acted as the living proof of that, as it was a high stage previous to consuming what Marcus called a "Devil Blessing Potion".
Then in front of the outlaws and dissidents that Marcus had gathered, the aura from the guy that drank the potion sky-rocketed, to the point that all the other high stage Stellars, Remi included felt suppressed by him.
That being said the black robed person didn't advance on the spot, because in Marcus's words he still needed time and battles to refine its effect, and with that public demonstration he got the loyalty of those guys, as they wanted to obtain such a magical potion.
One must know that there are no alchemic products that can improve the realm of a high stage Stellar ranked, even if the incredibly rare peak Stellar ranked resources, like the poisonous flower which Daimon obtained from Purplecloud's treasury, are used to make a pill or a potion, they can't help increase one's realm like it would happen at lower stages.
No one knows how to reach the Maximum rank, including Vincent and the others that already entered that realm, for them it happened naturally, could be that something changed in Neptune, or they met an unknown requirement, there were countless theories.
And now a new one had appeared as Marcus apparently had the ability get rid of that obstruction.
'That should be an item from the store of Marcus's store… no, it sounds too strong to be available for buying, maybe a reward from a previous mission', thought Daimon.
The rewards from the system were quite better than what was available on the store, in his case he got a few things from his achievements, because he unlocked the mission temple recently.
There was another thing that Daimon didn't understand, if Marcus had a follower waiting for him here, as part of the help from his system, Adam should have had one too, but that wasn't the case, he was relying on Aurora who he tricked with whatever he used to brainwash others, to be his back up, that's why he escaped to save his ass when he abandoned Jasmine to die.
Probably he realized that his trick was going to be seen through, because Jasmine was too important for Aurora.
Ultimately Daimon shrugged, it was futile to try and guess what other cheats the systems of those two had, what he could do was learn their patterns and so far, he was doing great in that aspect.
Adam's system forced him to act like a "hero" at least on the surface, below that he could be as much of a trash as he wanted, but appearances and public opinion seemed to matter for his rewards, missions and the like.
Marcus was the contrary he had to act in the shadows, but in exchange he could run as wild as he wanted.
After giving Armando instructions on what to do while they are gone, the old White Walker took Daimon and the others away from Porter city, into the Bone Sea so that they could leave without drawing anyone's attention.
"Young master I…", the bone general was unwilling to leave his young master's side, though he knew that staying here to train will be beneficial for him.
Daimon shook his head, he knew this was going to happen, and he had already prepared for it.
"Wouldn't you be more helpful to me if you are stronger", with a single sentence, Horals's eyes burned with determination, in fact they were literally burning in his green flame-like battle aura, behind his black helmet.
With that solved, Daimon waves his hand and took out the Flying Citadel from the inventory, even if Armando hasn't been participating on anything for the last thousands of years, anyone who was someone knew about the greatest magic treasure of the Elemental Sea.
So let alone the fact that the Matriarch of the Light Palace trusted in the silver haired youth, enough to hand him the Flying Citadel, he was in awe realizing that such a thing was now able to be stored away in a spatial treasure.
"I'll leave Bandor at your command, you just have to improve your public image and keep those two fighting, while Remi is "disappeared", that will cover our existence for the time being", said Daimon to Armando.
Armando nodded, the story they fabricated was that Remi escaped with the criminals, but only after receiving a lethal wound, the reason of this is that Marcus could feel if his subordinates were alive thanks to his curse, so the moment Thea erased the curse, for Marcus it was as if Remi had died.
That's what he used to create hatred between Marcus and Horrorclaw, at the same time since Remi kidnapped the guys from Black Wave that the scheming guy ordered both Horrorclaw and the pirates to capture, then Horrorclaw will be hating Marcus's guts right now, the stage was completed and the two participants of this war which was orchestrated by Daimon, will now be actively aiming at each other's throats.
Naturally Remi was alive, he was forced to disguise himself and now he will be acting as part of the army of the alliance, since his previous identity was officially death for others, Aurora created a barrier around everyone and they then flew towards the citadel, being allowed to enter into its barrier not too long after.
While Armano, Horals and Bandor returned to Porter city, Daimon and the others went straight into the inner ring of the citadel, Aurora threw the battered Roger into the prison of the citadel, while Remi was ordered to keep an eye on him.
Daimon followed Remi to the prison because he had some "tests" to do, the travel to the Maelstrom Sea was going to take the rest of the day, previously they were going to leave the Bone Sea at night, but Daimon's pending matters there were solved pretty fast.
Though in exchange more things needed to be personally checked on by him at the Maelstrom Sea, they will be arriving at night which is when the Maelstrom Sea is more dangerous, but with the defense of the citadel and Aurora, not to mention Remi whose life was at Daimon's disposition there shouldn't be any problem.
Aisha saw Sarah trying to sneak to follow Daimon to the prison, and she giggled before saying.
"Let's all go to Jasmine's room so that we can continue our training, every little improvement counts for the Global Raid after all".
Jasmine's eyes sparkled, after everything that she has been through, she has felt a minor advance approaching her, she is currently a recently ascended early-stage Lord ranked, so she will be reaching the middle level of the early stage, since each realm is divided in three parts, by the way Mellie who is the strongest among the early-stage Lord ranks of the girls, is at the peak level, just a bit more and she'll reach the middle stage, though Sarah is still stronger than her, being at the middle level.
Sarah's eyes glowed as she gazed at Aisha, who smiled at her, naturally Aisha already realized how to restrain the crazy girl to a certain extent, she didn't mind her chasing Daimon when they were free, but when her darling wanted to train or do something serious, she will of course stop her from bothering him.
After a silent exchange of gazes between the two strongest girls on the group, they all went to Jasmine's room.
…
The hours passed quite fast and before Daimon noticed the sun had already left the sky and was replaced by the moon.
"Ah, I'm damn tired, trying to control such a destructive element as Demon Light to not spread and destroy the body of a Nethereal is quite hard", he mumbled.
In front of Daimon, there was a battered figure with different grades of burns on its body, there were parts that completely disappeared, but as one followed the path drawn by the burns, they became less horrible.
Daimon managed to correct one of his assumptions, thanks to Roger, turns out, not all the Nethereals react the same to his Demon Light.
When he burned the previous Nethereal, the wound wasn't as bad as the ones Roger received, but the Nethereal was horrified because something changed for it, after being burned it could be wounded by something as simple as a hammer, as the queen proved a moment later.
But Roger didn't have that strange immunity to pain that Nethereals with that black sphere had, in his case, his body crumbled apart upon contact with his Demon Light, of course that was the case under the presumption that Roger couldn't defend himself, like right now.
What confused Daimon was that he has exposed Sarah to his white flames, and the crazy girl seemed to enjoy being near them, leaving aside the fact that she might have a few screws lose, her body should have been wounded if Demon Light was detrimental to her.
"Exposition generates first degree burn marks, accidental direct contact produces second degree and aggressive direct contact on purpose produce third degree burn marks…", Daimon knew he was missing something, he needed to do some tests on the guy in the black mist stage.
For now, he could confirm that his Demon Light won't kill the purple haired pair of mother and daughter by default, he would need to attack them with the intention of killing, like with anyone else, besides Nethereals so far.
Daimon snapped his fingers and the left-over white flames that were burning on Roger's body returned to him.
"We'll stop here for today", said Daimon, Aurora who came to the prison by Daimon's petition earlier, nodded and then she casted a healing spell on Roger.
Another interesting thing, is that he could be healed by light element spells, while anything that was light oriented was detrimental to the previous Nethereals they met, Bell and Sarah were similar in that aspect, light element by itself didn't harm them.
Remi who kept guarding the entrance of the prison, was pale behind his mask right now, no matter how much Roger screamed or begged, the silver haired youth didn't even flinch as he continued with his tests.
It's not as if Remi is innocent nor he is kind-hearted, but he has never seen someone from the young generation have the guts to cause so much pain to anyone, enemy or not, develop such indifference towards other people's lives required quit a few years on the battlefield.
Just imagining him ending up in a similar position as Roger made his body shiver, compared to his new master, Marcus who claimed to be the worst devil when he threatened a few of his subordinates to cause them fear, looked like a little kid playing around.
'I-I wasn't imagining things, he is a damn monster!', thought Remi, earlier he was able to catch a glimpse of Daimon's Overlord's Aura which is about to level up, and he felt his legs lose strength when he was glared at by the pair of cold eyes that floated there in the infinite shadow that stood behind Daimon.
Daimon's body covered in white flames as he cleaned himself before he left the prison accompanied by Aurora, the Matriarch of the Light Palace had already understood the type of person that Daimon is, so she didn't leave the previous session of torture surprise her.
For Aurora, this made her be able to rest assured knowing that she could trust Jasmine's safety to Daimon, because he won't hesitate cut the head of anyone that threatened him or those that stood at his side.
While Aurora left to the captain's cabin, Daimon returned alone to the main residence, he took of his mask on the way and once he arrived, he changed into more comfortable clothes.
The lights of Jasmine's room were still on and soft laughs and giggles could be heard coming from it, so it was obvious they were still up.
Daimon opened the almost closed door of the room and was welcomed with the beautiful sight, of the girls playing and chatting with each other, even Marlene who was worried earlier seemed to have relaxed a bit.
The girls saw Daimon finally returning and they smiled at him, as they invited him to join them, of course he accepted but after a couple of rounds, Daimon felt his eyes closing, he has been using Demon Light in short intervals but for a long period of time, and he was tired, so after saying goodnight to Aisha and the others he laid down on his bed.
The girls all stared at each other and after softly laughing they continued playing, since they meditated for a few hours and were well-rested right now, the night at the Maelstrom Sea lasts more than on the rest of Neptune, where there were only around six hours of day and eighteen of night.
Without realizing, they had reached the water of the most mysterious sea in Neptune, where horrors and treasures hide below the waves of the dark blue sea.
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m