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The scenery changed, from the meeting room where the clan leaders and Thea normally gathered to discuss important matters of the Ryner clan's territory, to a grim underground place.
The moment they appeared here, Daimon was amazed at the number of arrays that were engraved on the walls, roof and floor of this place.
"Dispel, detoxification, impact reduction, solidification, cleansing and the list goes on… just how many arrays have been engraved here", mumbled Daimon, his eyes glowed behind his mask as he saw the countless runes that floated here and there.
"A total of 88 different defensive type arrays that activate depending on the situation, this place has been in my family, even before the earliest records that there are in the private library of the clan head…", said Thea.
Unlike the outer and middle areas of the Maelstrom Sea, the inner area is only accessible through a limited number of places, one would believe that is bad, since that means only a few people will have access to the strongest resources and the like.
But there is a reason as to why no one has even tried to overthrown the four ruler families, though the title of ruler has been taken away by a member of another branch, in the case of the Three-Legged Toad King, because the previous one was Thea's father's friend, and the current who is the cousin of the previous one killed it to steal its position.
Anyway, the reason as to why no magic beast has tried to overthrown the clans, and at most they have gotten higher positions among them, is the giant portal that is covered by chains which is floating in front of Daimon right now.
"In the whole Maelstrom Sea, there are only four permanent points that connect to the inner area, each one of those is supervised a by a ruler clan and it is our duty to keep the portals sealed… so that the things on the other side can't come here".
"Through the years there has only ever been one irregular portal appearing in Neptune, and what came out of it was the gray fog that now surrounds the entrance to the middle area of the Maelstrom Sea".
"At first the magic beasts thought that was a good thing, since the people from the other seas won't be able to come and go as they please, to steal the resources from the Maelstrom Sea, but their happiness was quite short lasting, when the Mist Horrors appeared".
"Those things appear, slaughter and the vanish into the gray fog, and no matter how much we try to dispel the fog, the thing keeps returning, luckily there are no Stellar ranked Mist Horrors, so we just ended up putting a bandage by ordering the nearby beasts to kill the Mist Horrors at sight", said Thea.
Daimon nodded, previously he thought that the Mist Horrors were just strange magic beasts, whose appearances and overall auras were eerie because they belonged to the Maelstrom Sea, this believe was reinforced when he met the Devil Goblin Shark, Blacktooth, being completely honest, Blacktooth isn't exactly appealing to the eye, and its affinity is called corrosion which derivates from darkness giving Blacktooth an even more menacing set up.
But it was the same Devil Goblin Shark the one who told Daimon that the Mist Horrors aren't considered magic beasts, they are in fact enemies of the magic beasts and whoever that allies with them is an enemy too, it is something engraved in the memories that flow through their blood, a primal instinct so to speak.
And as if to confirm that, Daimon had already tried to use Ruler of the Sea on the Mist Horror which was captured back then, and not only it didn't work, but the thing tried to attack him, despite meaning that the chains that were put on it were strangling and punishing it for doing so.
The creature went against one of the principles of every sentient being, it ignored its life in a try to kill Daimon, but was easily suppressed as it was restrained, also now Daimon knew things he didn't back then.
For example, how effective was his Demon Light against Nether, and curiously Mist Horrors were also incredibly weak towards Demon Light, to the point that unlike Nethereals, the beasts didn't even dare to harbor any ill intent towards him, when Daimon used Demon Light, the Mist Horrors frost and cowered in fear.
And now, Thea affirmed that those same things came from a portal that led to the inner area of the Maelstrom Sea, which made Daimon wonder what was that place like, naturally that curiosity didn't go unnoticed by Thea who then said.
"Many people believe that these portals lead to a land of riches, while others think they lead to hell, the truth is that there is nothing at the other side, my father once showed me what lies after the portal, which is just a dark void".
She then snapped her fingers and one of the chains, the smallest one was removed from the portal, the atmosphere suddenly took a 180° change as currents of dark wind were exuded by the portal.
Daimon frowned, his body radiated white flames which covered, Aisha, Jasmine and even Bell, protecting them from the dangerous thing that escaped from the portal, while he didn't do the same for the crazy girl Sarah, who just stood there and received the currents of dark energy directly.
Thea was about to interfere when she saw Daimon shaking his head at her, Sarah didn't even try to dodge, and the currents of black wind landed on her, Bell had her doubts, but she knew that despite the… strange relationship her daughter has with Daimon, he won't harm her, otherwise why would have him being practicing and refining his skills to cure the two of them.
And Bell was in the right, that black current didn't harm Sarah at all, in fact judging by her body which was shivering and the expression of delight she had on her face, it was beneficial for her.
In a matter of seconds, the black current was absorbed by her, and then Sarah who was all smiles looked at Daimon with a predacious gaze.
"As expected of my destined one, you even allowed such a dangerous energy come to me~", she said as she slowly approached Daimon in a try to hug him, only for Daimon to dodge her.
"That energy reacted against my Demon Light, so I expected it to give you a nice zap to see if it could fix you… but it seems you are beyond salvation", said Daimon as he sighed, while Aisha giggled and Jasmine bitterly smiled.
Obviously, Daimon knew Sarah wouldn't be harmed by that energy, but the crazy girl simply took him out of his mind.
Thea had a surprised expression rarely seen on her pretty face, well, rarely seen before she met Daimon, because after that she has been seeing many impossibilities happening in front of her.
Like that dangerous radiation from the portal, which has killed quite a few people, be beneficial for someone.
"The last guard that was hit by that, melted into a puddle of black liquid you know", she mumbled, which only made Sarah put on a delighted expression once again as she hugged herself and tried to catch Daimon by surprise.
'Maybe I should throw her into the portal, since she seems to like it that much', thought Daimon as he dodged her.
"That black thing is similar to the Nether used by Nethereals, but unlike their black mist element, that can be considered "natural" while theirs isn't", said Daimon.
During his last experiments, he has been trying to find out what Nether is, originally it seemed to be a derivation of darkness element, now that he got to see that high stage Stellar ranked "original" Nethereal, he noticed that wasn't the case, it's more similar to his Demon Light.
Which means is an element that doesn't exist in the nature by itself, because is an unnatural combination of elements, the difference is that his Demon Light isn't rejected by other elements, maybe because he has all the affinities, which makes his compatibility with the "world" as high as possible within his realm.
But the Nether isn't like that, as it seems to be rejected by everything, its power isn't corrosion, but it causes an effect of corrosion whenever it clashes with mana, and since in this world there is mana everywhere, well, it takes that incorporeal black mist form.
And that black current that Sarah happily allowed to hit her, seems to be related to Nether, but it isn't rejected, meaning it has a natural property.
"Show me those curse marks on your back", said Daimon, to which Sarah smiled as she turned around to undo the buttons on one of the sides of her blouse, making Daimon shake his head.
Bell on the other hand was in awe, her eyes showed her excitement a second later, because she saw that one of the marks had started to fade.
"I think I know how to cure you two now", said Daimon.
'And I also now know why my Terror Contracts do work on the Nethereals, even if Neptune Natives are supposed to not be eligible for it', he thought to himself.
But his theory could be left for later, right now Thea once again sealed the portal, which as she stated had nothing at the other side, there was just a black void there, which disappeared the moment that last chain was restored.
A brown portal suddenly appeared near Daimon and the others, the oarfish general Olander came out of it in a rush, but when he saw Thea and everyone were fine, he sighed.
"Lass, you nearly made me have a heart attack, I thought that the seals had broken from the other side and rushed back here", said the fish-headed general.
One of the chains is linked to him, so that he is able to tell if there is any anomaly, Thea didn't mention she was going to demonstrate how the portal worked, so he thought there was a break.
"I guess this is fine too, I had already finished making guard for the strong ones to be put under the new contracts, the small fries can be dealt by those guys since Eleazar is with them".
"Ah, right, what did you wanted to talk with me?", asked Olander, there were some benches for the guards that were on duty, they were sent away by Thea early, so they could take a seat to have a conversation, which they did.
This place is not normally one you would choose for that, but since the conversation was going to involve that portal, things were different.
"I have some questions regarding father's death", said Thea, which made an uncomfortable silence fall in the room, but it didn't last long before Olander sighed.
The moment he saw that black mist coming from Jina, he knew this subject will come to light once again, if Thea didn't mention it, he was going to do it, how could he not, then that black mist radiated the same kind of feeling that the wounds that killed his sworn brother, in other words Thea's father.
"That black mist you saw Jina use earlier… the wounds of father had a similar sensation to it, right?", she asked.
"Yes, brother Liam also mentioned that the Chauliodus clan ruler, had gotten a new comprehension of darkness element, which took him by surprise, but the wound in his chest which was the one that couldn't be healed and caused his demise, it didn't look like something darkness mana can do, especially because brother was a strong darkness user himself, his resistance towards corrosion was really high, and that is shy the Chauliodus ruler was afraid of him", said Olander.
"I see…", mumbled Thea before she turned to see Daimon.
"I want to make the Chauliodus clan one of the targets of alliance, they are definitely working with the Nethereals and so they should be completely annihilated", she calmly said.
Though she indeed wanted to avenge her father, the previous Emperor passed away as a hero, he had a glorious fight where he alone eliminated practically all the army of the enemy, forcing it to retreat, avenging his generals which were ambushed and killed by the enemy's ruler.
He fulfilled his duties as the clan head, and was a model for the Thea of back then, she cried his death, yes, but that became motivation for Thea to finally become able to control her spatial affinity, which caused her troubles, prior to that she sometimes ended up summoning a portal by accident here and there, or simply passing through things.
But that ended the same day she was appointed as the next ruler, when she gained the title of "Black Empress".
"Sure, they, the White's ancestor, Sting, Blackbeard, Horrorclaw and the Blackfin Duke as well as some other guys, will all be considered as prior targets", answered Daimon, which made Thea smile.
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