Daimon observed the woman who seemed to be leading the attack towards the angelfish clan, unlike Marlene, she had only a color of hair which was a luster-lacking green, her eyes were of the same color.
Besides her appearance which could be considered appealing to the eye, the woman had no other special characteristic, despite being an early-stage Arch rank, Daimon judged her to be weaker than Lance when he went all out, so battle wasn't her strong point obviously.
What confused Daimon was that he expected the members of Marlene's clan to either have blond or blue hair, since she had a mix of both, but that question was solved by Marlene herself in a second.
"That woman is the elder of the Marine branch, my angelfish clan has many branches besides the royal one to which I belong… but nowadays only four remain, Marine, Coral, Altum and Bellus, besides the royal branch who according to the Bellus elder who is the oldest of us all, is called Queen".
Daimon nodded, while Thea handed her mirror plate to Marlene, since the Black Empress used to be the sole friend of Marlene, she was the only "outsider" that had the contact of not only Marlene but the four elders.
Naturally Marlene wasn't going to contact the one that betrayed her, but the one in whom she trusted the most, which was the one that raised her as her daughter, when her mother died, the elder of the Bellus branch of the clan.
After a few seconds that seemed like years for Marlene, the tired voice of a woman came from the mirror plate.
"What is the name of your father?", Marlene smiled as she heard that question, because only she and that elder knew the truth, her mother never told her who was her father.
"No one knows it", she answered, only then the voice of the woman on the other side of the call, relaxed a bit, they were betrayed not too long ago, so it was hard to trust on a sudden call, even if it came from the sole friend of Marlene.
"Little girl it's good to know that you are alive, don't return to the hideout, that piece of trash Lora betrayed us and with the excuse of going to the mobile islands to look for news about you, brought back strong enemies".
"We were caught by surprise as no one besides you should have been able to bring outsiders along, what's worse is that one of the enemies that is accompanying her just ordered us to not resist and we were unable to move!".
"Luckily one of the guards managed to activate the barrier manually and then destroy the control, so we were freed from whatever spell that was, but they attacked us out of anger… Tara died on the spot but Laura and me were protected by the barrier on time".
"The crystal your mother left, broke, so I know you have used your last resort and right now you haven't even reached the middle stage of the Mortal realm, so don't come… all the little girls and us have decided to destroy the hideout along with ourselves, Lora won't get the satisfaction to win", said the woman with a determined voice.
Marlene sighed, she was sad that one of the remaining three elders died before she arrived, but on the other hand she was relieved that they arrived on time to prevent her clan from disappearing.
"I'm already here and I brought reinforces so don't do anything stupid, just stay behind the barrier", she said as she clenched her fist.
"It won't work, I know this is the mirror plate of Lady Thea, but the enemies have two high stage Stellars, so just leave and live your life…".
"I have a maximum Stellar on my side, stop being a stubborn old woman and just wait to be rescued obediently!", said Marlene with a serious voice, which Daimon has never heard her making since they met.
"…"
"Why the hell didn't you mention that from the very beginning you little punk, here we were all about to say goodbye to everyone before self-destroying the hideout!", the voice of the woman became energetic all of a sudden.
"Ahh, why is it my fault that you don't listen, do you think I'm stupid enough to come without a backup plan!".
Listening to the previous emotional moment, becoming more of the arguing between a mother and a rebellious teenager daughter, Daimon chuckled.
"Leave the mother-daughter discussion for later, those guys are making their moves", he said.
Marlene nodded and after giving some instructions to her clan members she ended the call, now that she knew that most of them were alright, it was as if a heavy weight was lifted from her chest.
…
Oblivious to the fact that they were being eyed by a dangerous predator, the two different groups that had surrounded the hideout of the angelfish clan were now discussing between each other.
"You already have one of the four elders on your side, so why should we have to make do with just receiving one of the remaining two, are you looking down on Lord Garrius!", said a tall middle-aged man that exuded the pressure of the early-stage Stellar rank, as well as a strange ominous black mist.
"It was you the one who killed the Flame elder, it's your fault for being stupid, besides Lora isn't included in the count, because she willingly signed a contract with our Lord and was given to me, she is one of us and not a future slave like those two, not to mention we don't care about that Garrius or whatever, if you have the guts let's fight and see who dies!", answered a man with an interesting hair color, as it had a mix of black and orange hair.
The atmosphere tensed up, though those two were only early-stage Stellar ranks, behind them, standing still like statues there were to figures that were exuding the aura of high stage Stellar ranks.
One was fully covered from head to toe, wearing a mask, while the other had black robes and pale skin, both were glaring at the other keeping each other in check, besides that, both had some Mortal realm members that were silent like little children in meeting between adults.
Ultimately both sides weren't willing to go all out against each other, and since it was the mistake on the side of the tall middle-aged man, then they accepted to only receive one of the remaining three elders as a war trophy and both forces came out of the flagship in which the meeting was taking place.
The woman called Lora saw the group to which she joined returning, and she happily flew towards the man with black and orange hair, to grab his arm.
"So, how did negotiations go, my king?", she temptingly said.
The man smirked, happy to have followed the last words of his father, which led to the current situation, as he said.
"Of course, thanks to your help, those guys were on the losing side to begin with, so we will get the bigger share as they don't dare to go against Lord Envoy".
"Don't forget we have to get the Miriam, she is the one that raised that bitch, so we can lure her out by using her", added Lora with a twisted expression, lately she came to know a few secrets regarding the angelfish clan, and that combined with the jealousy she already had towards Marlene, made the hatred she hid in her heart for so many years explode.
"Sure, I got to choose between the two first in exchange for leaving them have one even, in any case they will all end up serving me as Lord Envoy promised", said the man, the conversation came to an end as the other group approached them.
"That barrier was made by the guy that equals Blackbeard, is going to be hell annoying to destroy it if we both don't go all out, send your strongest member and we'll do the same, as the contract states, besides the elders whose distribution was altered we'll get 50% of the others".
The black and orange haired man turned to see the black robed figure who nodded at him, the tall middle-aged man did the same but this time to the fully covered figure, which also nodded, the agreement was made and they then prepared to launch an all-out attack, but first Lora was given a moment to try something.
Per Marlene's instructions, the remaining two elders as well as all the other members of the angelfish clan, which weren't even fifty people, all girls with different hair colors and appearances that went from 16 to 20-something, looked at the enemies that were trying to enslave them frontwards.
The lack-luster green haired Lora saw it and she was delighted, as she amplified her voice with the help of the black and orange haired man.
"Miriam and Laura, this is your last chance, surrender voluntarily and you'll get a better treatment, you should know that the woman you are waiting for won't come, as she was chased and killed by the pirates, so hand over the members of my clan and all the others, then maybe I can ask for some mercy for you two", she shouted.
The two oldest looking women of the bunch, who seemed to be in their thirties both coldly glared at Lora, as they said in unison.
"Go to hell traitor bitch!", the younger girls couldn't help but laugh, despite the precarious situation in which they were, because the elders acted as the mothers and tutors of all of them, and this is the first time they heard them speaking in such a way, strangely there weren't any other women that looked past their twenties, besides those two, and Lora who was now demanding their surrender.
"Humph, so be it, my king, capture them and turn them all into slaves since they wish to follow that woman to hell", said Lora as she returned to the side of the black and orange hair man.
Or at least that's what she wanted to do, but a huge pressure that descended from above, forced not only her but the two high stage Stellar figures and all the mortal realm soldiers, downwards.
"Aghhh!", pained screams echoed through the whole area, the mortal realm people, including Lora all vomited blood and were forced into the water below them, as for the two high stage Stellar ranks, they both released their mana and fought together against the suppression, the black robed man was doing it better compared to the masked guy, but they both were still losing.
"The one that will be going to hell will be you, Lora", the green haired Lora which was forced to drink water, paled as she heard the last voice she wanted to hear right now, along with a pressure that surpassed anything she had experienced or heard off before.
Marlene's body became visible all of a sudden, which made the young members of the angelfish clan cheer, naturally that pressure didn't belong to Marlene who in this moment isn't even an Arch ranked.
But to Aurora who was descending from the sky along with Thea, while Marlene was standing next to Daimon and the others that were covered by the optic illusion, Bell and also a barrier created by Aurora, not to mention Daimon's hidden tricks.
"I'll take care of those two, I leave the others to you… remember don't kill them, but you can incapacitate them", said Aurora to Thea who right now had murderous cold light flashing in her eyes.
She who treasures her subordinates, treasures her friends even more, and not only Marlene but her whole clan nearly suffered a disaster on the hands of the pirates and now these guys too, she was naturally angry.
"Mm, they will still be breathing when I finish", softly answered Thea, as she also released her pressure, she targeted the black and orange haired man as we as the tall middle-aged man, who according to Daimon were valuable "information sources".
Why did Daimon called them that you might ask, well, the middle-aged man was marked by Rita as someone infected by the Nethereals without having transformed into one yet, in other words someone in the black mist stage as Daimon named it.
And the other one was marked by Daimon himself, as the guy gave off a known aura to him, the aura of a system, and more accurately the aura of Marcus's system, so apparently both Marcus and also the scheming guy sent their lackeys to get the angelfish clan.
Daimon gazed at Marlene while he was lost in his thoughts, her clan was in the list that Roger spat out after being interrogated, there were others that had already been dealt with, but he couldn't find a connection between them all, of course it could be that Roger's status was too low to know all the targets, in fact he only knew about Marlene's clan being one, because he heard the so-called Lord Garrius mentioning it.
But Marcus's actions were almost 100% related to his mission, especially because he didn't "fancy" women but men, so for him targeting the angelfish clan was surely a requirement from his mission.
And that made Daimon wonder if him meeting Marlene was only caused by her luck, or if he also got in Marcus's way, because he intercepted Adam's opportunity as those two seemed to be tied together due to their systems.
Ultimately Daimon shrugged, whatever the case, his goal didn't change, he just had to crush any obstacle that stood in his way and cause a crippling fear on others, so that no one would even dare to think on trying anything against him or his close ones.
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