Aurora observed the whole process from afar, needless to say but she was surprised that Daimon could order someone under a contract to die, which is certainly a terrifying ability.
There is a reason as to why the slave market doesn't focus on battle type but either on workforce or the luxurious type, which includes races that are appealing to the eye or are rare, such as Marlene's angelfish clan which falls in both of the categories.
Anyway, is better to nurture guards, like the White's royal family does with the royal guards, than to buy slaves to act as guards, because a guard must be stronger than the one who is protecting.
So as small as it might be, there is a chance that the slave finds a chance to escape the contract, and kill its previous master in retribution, in comparison slaves meant for pleasure don't need to be strong, so they are easy to control, as for those used for physical labor, a single designated strong mage acting as foreman, can control them.
Of course it's not like there aren't people who use slave as guards, slave merchants do it, but that is because they have something to threat the slaves with, their families for example and while nobles aren't beyond doing the same, why would they, when they have their subordinates who have been serving them for countless generations.
But Daimon's ability solves that problem, as there is no room for rebellion nor disobedience, the order given is absolute.
"Senior Aurora, can you please patch this guy up, it's better if we leave as soon a possible after all", asked Daimon.
Aurora nodded and her body lit up in white light as she casted a healing spell on Liman, not before Daimon retrieved the white flames that were previously burning Liman's chest, revealing the hole that was burned into it.
Aurora's eyes glowed, the wound was rejecting her light mana, certainly giving her more troubles to heal than what a Mortal realm should give, which made sense, Demon Light is an element created by the combination of darkness, fire, lightning, light, mana and battle aura.
Healing a wound caused by that requires more than six times the amount of healing than a normal wound, of course that is because Demon Light isn't using the six elements at the same time, but a mixed version of it, which results in an exponential increase instead of a lineal one.
After putting a bit more effort, the burn on Liman's chest disappeared and the flesh grew again, leaving a slightly paler patch of new skin behind.
"It's done, here is the antidote to the mana sealing potion", said Aurora as she handed Daimon a small bottle filled with a light green liquid, all the prisoners were deprived of their powers with the potion mentioned by Aurora, luckily Underwood's wife is a skilled potion master and so before they left the Light Palace, and with the growing trend of Daimon capturing enemies which started with the old assassin Tadeus, Aurora asked her to give them some reinforced mana sealing potions, which came really handy.
Daimon nodded, he threw the bottle at Liman whose previous discontent with Daimon was nowhere to be seen now.
"Take it and go meet Thea, her orders are only second to mine, if she isn't around next is Blacktooth if not that old Oarfish, your identity must be kept a secret you know what to do", he said.
Liman nodded, he drank the contents of the bottle and some color returned to his face as his mana started circulating once again, that being said, as a safety method used in the mana sealing potion, even with the antidote, the recover was gradual, so right now Liman only had around 40% of his capacities as a high stage Stellar rank.
"I listen an obey!", he exclaimed and then left the Flying Citadel, with Aurora opening a path for him.
"I'll return in a second, I have to set the coordinates to the Elemental Sea", said Aurora as she left the prison, Remi stood next to the black core which was restrained by Aurora's light barrier.
Daimon walked towards a bench at the corner of the cell to sit down for a moment and look at the log of the system, since he earlier heard a notification but ignored it.
[The mission "Stealing from the devil", has been updated <!>]
Daimon clicked the notification symbol and the change that happened was displayed below of it.
[Objectives:
[Steal the legacy left to help the Devil Ruler 0% à 20% (0/1)]
Daimon raised an eyebrow, the notification was triggered after he tore off the three black pages from the records of the Ryner clan, to be honest he thought he had gotten a hidden gem.
So far what he understood is that the hidden gems are things which hold an important significance for the ones that are included in the missions, for example the necklace which Annete gave him, that used to belong to her mother.
The hidden gems probably had a function, like the necklace Annete gave him which was used to stablish a contract between the two sisters and him, they could also mean that he has gained the trust of those involved in the mission, it's not 100% clear, since so far he has only gotten one of the four hidden gems.
Still he thought that the black pages were another of the gems, they were really important for Thea after all, if not the black fang also had a big chance of being a hidden gem, being the bone of the first ancestor.
But the pages turned out to be part of the legacy left to help Marcus, which confused Daimon, why would something related to the Ryner clan, be supposed to help that guy, when he was supposedly following the steps of the one who scammed the White Walker race, impersonating a follower of their deity, he couldn't see the relation.
The Hydra guy was for sure not aligned with the scammer guy, each had their own enemy according to the notes of the Light Palace's ancestor that Aurora showed Daimon.
The hero was fighting with the Hydra guy, while the ancestor of the Light Palace was fighting against the scammer guy, those were the sides in the war of foundation, sure the hero offered help to Aurora's ancestor, but he didn't directly interfered in their fight, until the last fight, which's story is unknown to anyone, besides the result which was the hero and the Light Palace's ancestor, winning, only to die not too much later.
'The Hydra guy represented the Maelstrom Sea, her legacy might have been assigned to Marcus, because his starting point was the Bone Sea', thought Daimon.
The Mermen Sea was the closest to the Elemental Sea, while the Bone Sea was the closest to the Maelstrom Sea, in a sense Neptune was divided even for those two's convenience, what changed is that Adam ended up in the Elemental Sea due to Daimon's interference.
Ultimately, Daimon could only shrug, even if he gave Thea the black pages, the percentage of completion of the mission advanced, one thing is sure, if he were to try and accompany Thea, things will only complicate because Thalia for sure left traps to prevent those with an energy firm were even in the slightest similar to the Hydra guy, she managed to detect it in the records, so it wouldn't be a surprise if the same happened into that place where she hid her beast body.
Apparently for the system, Thea getting the legacy was the same as him getting it, could be because Marcus was supposed to antagonize her too, since he was aiming at Marlene's clan.
Daimon saw Aurora returning and he got up of his seat, she wasn't alone though, the pair of purple haired mother and daughter were accompanying her, naturally Sarah's eyes illuminated the moment she saw Daimon, but this time her mother kept her in check, because this wasn't the time for that.
Aurora brought them here, because Daimon wanted to give it a try to what he discovered back when the spatial gate was opened, so he needed Sarah to be here.
"Has this guy answered anything yet?", asked Daimon to which Aurora shook her head in response.
"No, unfortunately it seems like in this form I still lack training on how to use my light to harm them, the effect was reduced around 80%", she said.
Daimon nodded, Aurora could easily destroy any Nethereal up to the high stage Stellar rank, as long as they had a physical body, whether they have a black core or not, but when they are in this form, she still finds it hard to inflict pain to them, she could have destroyed the core though, but that's not what she was aiming for, this was the first high stage Stellar Nethereal they could capture, and it will be hard to repeat this feat before the war breaks out.
The previous ones which Daimon captured were early or middle stage ones, that or weren't originally Nethreals as they didn't have that black core, with the disappearance of this guy, the Representative of the Lord, in other words Garrius will be more careful, of course Daimon had prepared for this by putting all the blame on Marcus, so at most they will be wary of him, without noticing that there is a third party watching from the shadows.
"No problem, I'll soften him and then I leave the rest in your hands since I'll have to do other things", said Daimon.
He then directly used Core Synchrony and bombarded the black core with Demon Light, causing a sudden increase in the illumination, as the white flames clashed against the black core.
"Aghhhhhhh!!!", as expected, a lung-tearing scream came from the black core the moment it was bombarded with Demon Light, especially because Daimon wasn't restraining the output.
Aurora had expanded the barrier around the black core, which made the latter try to get away from the while flames, unfortunately for the Nethereal, she only did so, because Daimon wanted to double the amount of Demon Light he was using.
The wild white flames twirled inside the barrier, while they dragged the black core into them, making the scream intensify, the process continued for around ten minutes, just when Daimon's reserves were about to hit rock bottom, what he has been waiting for finally happened.
"Crack!", a thin crack appeared on the black core, Daimon immediately retrieved whatever was left of the white flames to recover a bit, but he still used the effect of Sanctuary and chose to recover mana and battle aura, since he didn't use any skill, spell or was moving, his stamina just decreased a tiny bit, as he was manipulating Demon Light.
Daimon nodded at Aurora and she continued the assault, light mana gathered on her hand and then she shot a concentrated thin ray of white light towards the barrier, the ray bounced all over the barrier and then ended up hitting the black core from many angles.
"No stop, I'll answer your questions… aghhhh!", the Nethereal screamed, though it didn't know what was happening, it could feel this was bad for him.
And it was a really accurate feeling, because after five minutes of constant assault from the light rays, other cracks appeared on the black core, and then to Aurora's surprise a small black piece fell from it.
"That's enough for now", said Daimon, which made Aurora stop her attack, Daimon then approached the barrier and casually asked Aurora to open a breach from which he took that small black piece of material.
Daimon's eyes glowed behind his mask, many things had sense for him now, observing the core, the place from which this black piece fell, showed a different tone and size in general.
Below the black exterior, there was a pale gray interior, in other words their cores were covered in a layer of this black material, it wasn't a whole but a layer over the real core.
This was just a theory Daimon had, because according to both Aisha and with Evangeline's confirmation, there is no black magic cores, or there wasn't until they saw his, even those whose affinity is darkness had at most a dark grey magic core, whose tone gets darker the higher the talent of the owner.
So, he originally thought that maybe using Nether instead of mana turned their cores black, so it was a mutation instead of a natural thing, in other words they were altered beings, which was backed by the fact that Daimon didn't get any skill after killing them, similar to what happened with the chimera back then.
They were flawed incomplete beings, which made the extraction of skills impossible, as they would bring harm to Daimon, also according to Evangeline, the Apex Predator body disdained such low-quality things, so Daimon couldn't get anything from them that way either.
But if that was the case then why was he able to put the Nethereals under a Terror Contract, the one who was killed by the loyalty curse had a black core, and while Roger or Fabio didn't the three were put under a Terror Contract, so Daimon knew he was missing something.
And the last piece of the puzzle came to him, thanks to the black current of energy that escaped from the space gate under Thea's castle.
For his infinity eyes, that black current had a similar appearance than the black mist of the Nethereals, with the difference that one was natural and the other was made, which not only decreased its quality, but changed its composition.
Daimon left that black current land on Sarah, because he could see that the purple marks on her back stopped radiating any kind of energy, when that black current appeared, as if they were afraid of it.
And turns out that black current didn't disappoint, after it was absorbed by Sarah, one of the purple marks faded.
Daimon turned to see Sarah and noticing her expectant expression he sighed.
"Turn around and raise your blouse a bit", he said.
Of course, Sarah was delighted to hear that, and when she saw Daimon's hand exploding in white flames, her smile widened a lot, which made Daimon's eyebrow twitch.
"You are really beyond any treatment", he said as he pressed his hand on Sarah's back, despite how it looked, Demon Light wasn't attacking her, but the small piece of black mineral that fell from the core of the Nethereal, which turned to be just a magic core wrapped in this black thing, whatever it is.
That being said, it was like being separated from an incredibly dangerous animal by a thin layer of plastic, the dreading sensation of Demon Light was still noticeable, the problem is that Sarah was loving it as her expression of delight suggested.
Daimon could feel her body shivering and he felt the urge to threw her out of the Flying Citadel, but he ignored it and continued with what he had to do.
After using around 50% of his reserves of both mana and battle aura, the small piece of black mineral decomposed in his hand, and was turned into a black mist which was immediately absorbed by Sarah's body.
"Nnnn~", Sarah let out a comfortable sound, that nearly destroyed Daimon's focus, but he shook his head and concentrated in his task, which was guiding that black to as most of the purple marks on Sarah's back as possible.
From the original nine or so marks that had started to fade, Daimon managed to increase it to sixteen before all the black mist disappeared.
Daimon immediately cancelled Core Synchrony and he felt a bit dizzy, luckily after so much training using half of his reserves when in Core Synchrony state, was manageable, he won't end up powerless unless he uses more than 80% of his reserves and stamina.
Still, Rita took a page from Horals's book and created a seat for Daimon using her shadows, it was throne but with a much more refined design than what Horals creates every time.
Daimon sat on the throne and then he observed the result of his effort, sixteen marks on Sarah's back had faded away, revealing the smooth and pale skin below them, that wasn't all, Daimon could see the battle aura in Sarah's body boiling, she literally got stronger right now.
"Once all the marks disappear, she is going to get Will Manipulation…the real one unlike that fake imitation of a Manifestation Phenomenon that idiot created", said Daimon, referring to Purplehaze.
Sarah could feel the changes on her body, she didn't know what Daimon did, but she could tell she was feeling much better now, as if a weight was lifted from her chest.
So, she immediately turned around and ignoring the fact that her clothes were messy enough for quite a bit of her upper body to be in plain view, she threw herself at Daimon, only to clash against a thin black wall that Rita created between Daimon and her.
Unfortunately, she took advantage of that, to hold onto Daimon's leg, because Rita didn't believe she was going to do something like that, but apparently, she underestimated her craziness.
Daimon moved his leg trying to get rid of Sarah, only to notice she wouldn't budge, in fact the more he tried the happier she seemed to get.
"I have to thank you for curing me, so you either leave me, or I can be your pillow later tonight~", she said, making Daimon sigh, who knows what this crazy woman will try to do when he is sleeping.
"You can jump from the Flying Citadel and we are even", said Daimon with a defeated voice, which only made Sarah giggle and tighten her grip.
Aurora was speechless at the current scene, while Bell had learned to accept this weird daughter of hers.
"She is just too thankful… don't worry I'll keep an eye on her later", said the purple haired mother.
Ignoring Sarah, Daimon focused on resting, he just used a lot of mana and battle aura, but now that he cracked the exterior of the black core, Aurora could peel it with her light mana.
If his knight realm was higher, he could have done it alone, but while he had the intensity, he lacked the in quantity, Aurora in exchange had the quantity but her mana lacked the intensity of Demon Light.
So Daimon focused his all in creating an opening so that Aurora could do the rest, and that wasn't all, once a breach was opened on the black exterior of the core, Daimon immediately got a notification, but that could wait for later.
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