Leaving aside the surprise Olander got after listening about the Global Raid, the Oarfish general turned to see Thea before saying.
"So, what now lass?".
With the purge that was ongoing right now, the forces of the Ryner clan are in need of reorganization, new leaders for the ones that were led by the traitors had to be appointed, not to mention that due to the same reason, Thea lost two Stellar ranks, there was also Ulkrear who was still on the run.
So the Ryner clan was short staffed right now, at least on what leaders for the different armies respected, luckily, Daimon had already thought about it before, because for his plan to work, Thea's presence was required in the Clear Water kingdom later, so she wasn't going to be able to stay behind at her clan.
Daimon observed his surroundings and after a quick calculation he nodded and then waved his hand, a giant black cocoon of a few hundreds of meters appeared on the cave, taking Olander by surprise.
"What is that, kid?", he asked, the sensation coming from that cocoon made him frown, it was the aura of a magic beast indeed, but it didn't resemble to any race he has met before.
And that is a lot to say considering that though Olander isn't a Maximum Stellar rank, he has lived more than some of them, with Armando and maybe the White's ancestor's exceptions.
That's why Thea wanted him to check on Liman, if someone could recognize a beast race that she couldn't, that was Olander.
"This guy is Blacktooth, a Devil Goblin Shark, or at least he used to be one before, in three days at most he'll be out of this thing, so I'll leave him behind to work here, as a magic beast native from this sea he won't look out of place, besides that the Eel guy will also cooperate with you, just put him a mask or something of course".
Olander raised an eyebrow, Devil Goblin Sharks are a strong race indeed, but they are subordinated to one of the other rulers, it might not be an open enemy like the Chauliodus ruler, but it didn't change the fact that they weren't allies.
And then we have Liman, a member of a race that was exterminated by one of Thea's ancestors, in other words they were enemies no matter how you looked at it, not to mention Olander didn't exactly trusted Daimon to begin with.
"They are unable to go against me, so you don't have to worry about them betraying the alliance", confidently affirmed Daimon, Blacktooth was contracted through the Ruler of the Sea, while Liman will soon be under a Terror Contract, well, that is if what he recently discovered was right or not, but Daimon was 90% sure it will.
"Sigh, forget it, I can make use of them, I would be glad if you also leave Jina behind, you can control those Nethereal guys too, right?", said Olander, to which Daimon shook his head.
"I can, but that is a secret, there is no problem in that eel guy disguising himself to fight alongside you, because ultimately he is a magic beast, there might be more like him here and there, so he won't outstand too much".
"But Nethereals are different, there is still too much we don't know about them, so the best way to deal with the ones I capture is making them be publicly death, I won't leave them appear unless it is really necessary", he said.
Daimon was sure he could deal with Marcus and Adam, he has somewhat understood their goals in Neptune too, so it won't be hard to predict their moves for when the Global Raid starts.
But the scheming guy is different, his goals are unknown, besides the fact that it is obviously targeting possible threats for the Nethereals, such as Aurora, so it is better for the fact that he can also control Nethereals to be kept a secret as much as possible.
"How about that masked guy, he doesn't give off the feeling of a Nethereal?", asked Olander, he of course wanted to make sure that the Ryner clan could survive the incoming battle.
But Daimon refused once again.
"No, he has another place he needs to be, don't be greedy old man, you got a third high stage Stellar rank to be on your side, and Blacktooth won't be weaker than a middle stage one, at least in his own words, ah right Karmandi will also surprise you once he is back", he said as he snapped his fingers and a few wooden tubs appeared on the ground next to him.
Olander's eyes widened a bit, he didn't know what was inside of the wooden tubs but every cell of his body was screaming him to drink it, and with a good reason, those tubs were filled with three-colored water.
"What treasure is this?", asked Olander as he removed the lid of one of the tubs, just to be amazed at the concentration of mana in the liquid that the tub contained.
"That is three-colored water of the highest quality, give it to anyone that has been stuck in a bottle neck and they will most likely advance, that cocoon formed around Blacktooth after he drank that same thing, take it as a sign of goodwill", said Daimon.
Olander looked at Thea, to seek a response, this treasure was too much to be casually accepted.
"It's a gift from a friend, just take it and go distribute among those who you consider worthy of using it".
It's not like Daimon was just giving away such a valuable thing, for nothing, Thea had told him she had a spatial type resource which was apt for him to use, and she was giving it to him as a gift, so he had to respond in kind too, materials with space properties that aren't storage, are extremely hard to come by, such is the case of that poisonous flower, but Daimon has no way to use it in the nearby future.
"I will take my leave then… there is a long list of decent subordinates that need this", said Olander, he gave Daimon a troubled gaze and then disappeared using a portal.
Thea sighed and then gave Daimon an apologetic smile.
"Don't take it against him, he is annoying but I will trust my life to him", she said.
Daimon shook his head, he heard the history of Olander's clan, so he didn't really blame him for being wary towards him, in fact he was interested in the black pages, because so far, he has only gotten to know about the hero and the other three that arrived with him.
But now, it turns out there have been others coming from outside of Neptune, the question here is, if they were also system users or not, judging by the fact that they had fast growth according to the record, there is a decent chance they were, but if that was the case, they could have used another method than just try to convince Olander's ancestor to rebel with them.
Thea noticed Daimon's curiosity and she softly laughed, as she handed the giant black book to him.
"Give it a try, you also have an eye type innate ability right, maybe you can see discover something", she said.
The moment Daimon touched the book, which had yet to leave Thea's hands, the thing opened by itself, specifically showing the first page, but then the next moment Daimon got a notification.
[Ding]
[An external entity is trying to absorb the mana of the host without permission… nothing can prey on an Apex Predator; do you wish to retaliate Y/N]
Daimon shook his head, what if the system screwed the record of Thea's family, he could not explain, still the moment whatever process the black book was trying to do, was blocked by the ability of the Apex Predator body, the book closed itself once again.
Thea's pretty eyes gazed at Daimon with surprise, she tried to interrupt whatever was happening, from her side, because she didn't want Daimon to think it was her doing, but she soon realized she couldn't.
Though the amount of mana that the book took from her wasn't that much, it was the fact that she couldn't refuse what troubled her, but she then saw Daimon casually standing up to something she couldn't so easily, so of course she was positively surprised.
'I guess I should have expected it from the first being ever that was able to block Marlene's innate ability', she thought.
Thea then grabbed the book which had fell to the ground, but nothing happened, it didn't absorb her mana either, and the first black pages had nothing written on them.
Daimon saw Thea gazing at him and he chuckled, it was obvious she wanted him to cooperate, so that she can see what's written in them.
"I doubt it was specifically designed for me to be the only one to produce this effect, unless that ancestor of yours could see the future or something similar", mumbled Daimon, which made Thea giggle.
"I can help you open it, but I don't think this is the right place to do so, the portal is not exactly stable, let's go to a safe place and then we'll open it", he said.
"Mm", Thea nodded, Daimon then retrieved the cocoon in which Blacktooth was going through its evolution, and they left this underground area.
…
A moment late, a black portal appeared in the conference room where the Risha sisters and the other girls were chatting as they waited for Daimon and the others to return, with Remi acting as their bodyguard.
"So how was it, did the fish headed guy went crazy or something?", asked Sarah when she saw her mother returning, none of them seemed to be worried about Daimon, even when Sarah and Jasmine already told them that Olander suddenly got fired up.
Everyone gazed at Sarah while thinking.
'You are the least indicated to call someone crazy'.
"It was a little misunderstanding, everything is good now, we'll stay here for a bit, you can return to the Flying Citadel or stretch your legs in the meantime", said Daimon.
"That's right, feel free to wander around the castle, or you can visit the treasury to see if you find something useful for you", added Thea.
The girl's eyes glowed, Thea handed her token of authority to Bell and they then left, whatever they needed they were allowed to take it, since there is a chance that the Ryner clan doesn't survive enough to use those treasures that have been accumulating dust over the years anyway.
Naturally Aisha stayed behind, she saw the strange reaction of the Thea's family records earlier, so she was curious about it, surprisingly Marlene also stayed behind, though she sent the two elders who were accompanying her, to the treasury telling them to get something they could use.
Realistically, only the two elders might be able to get a decent strength in a short period of time, because the young girls weren't used to battle unlike them.
"My room has the best defenses in the castle, so we can try it out there", said Thea.
Daimon nodded and then using a portal Thea made the group left the room, the scenery changed from the plain conference room, to a more personalized place.
Marlene has already been here before, so she quickly took a seat, Thea's room was pretty large, it would be more accurate to call it a one story house, she had a living room, a dining area, a training room, a dormitory and of course a little bar, which was empty because Lina confiscated all her drinks, prior to the discovery that three-colored water allowed her who gets drunk even by just smelling alcohol, to drink to her heart's content.
"Let's get right to it, if I see that there is something wrong from any side, I'll forcefully interrupt it, okay?", said Daimon.
"Mm", Thea nodded, she couldn't stop the book from taking her mana earlier, but Daimon could so trusted him.
Thea then took out the black book from her ring, and then grabbed the thing as she offered it to Daimon, imitating what happened earlier.
This time Daimon was prepared, his ability states that he can't be preyed upon nor deprived in any sense, but if it was an absolute thing wouldn't Aisha be unable to drink his blood, as long as he is willing then there is no problem.
If not imagine, he wouldn't have been able to use anything that required him to power it up with mana, and almost everything in this world works with mana, it would have been a headache.
Daimon touched the book, with the intention of accepting to let it take his mana, though the notification of deny didn't appear, if this was detrimental to him, another notification would have been triggered, so that wasn't the case.
The moment, Daimon's hand touched the book, the thing opened by itself once again and then started leafing until it reached the first black page at the beginning, only then Daimon felt a slight tug as his mana was absorbed by the book, with his infinity eyes he could see Thea's mana also leaving her hand, both then mixed and then words started appearing on the previously empty page.
"Thalia Neris first entry, if you are reading this, I have good and bad news for you, first of all, congratulations on finding someone compatible in whom you can trust enough to hand over the records of the family, ah right, you shouldn't know it too, our family's surname is Neris".
"Now, onto the bad news, the other person that is holding the record, unless you are willing to trust your life and everything you hold dear, kill it in this instant, it should be way weaker than you after all~".
"…"
After a moment of silence, Daimon who also read the entry from this woman called Thalia, who should be the founder of the Ryner clan, said.
"Your ancestor sure had a bad taste humor sense".
Thea's clear pretty eyes gazed at Daimon, she didn't detect the slightest sign of doubt on him, which made her inwardly smile as she injected more mana into the book.
"Woah, are you serious, there have been others who reached the previous point and either killed the other party, or had it killed by the book draining them out of all their mana because they didn't really mean it, before their memories about this were modified, good job!".
Aisha and Marlene also saw the words on the book, and they frowned, certainly it's not what one would expect from someone who founded Thea's clan.
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