Noticing the movements next to her, Aisha's pretty amethyst eyes slowly opened, she then brightly smiled as she saw Daimon had woken up already.
"And here I was thinking you were going to keep sleeping until tomorrow", she jokingly said, to which Daimon chuckled.
"I had another of those dreams", he mumbled, Daimon suddenly remembered that the past dream came to him only after his black Sea Emblem devoured other emblems, but he hasn't given it any others, and to prevent the little thing from trying to snatch them away, he kept the incomplete emblems in the inventory.
'Don't tell me…', Daimon opened the inventory just to see that as he expected, the incomplete Devil Emblem he recently got was gone.
Daimon sighed, his Sea Emblem acted on its own, but so far it has helped him when it was needed, to be honest he was going to give the Devil Emblem to it anyway, because his instincts told him they were trouble.
Also, it is worth mentioning, that after his black emblem had eaten enough mana crystals, it didn't try to go after the other emblems, but immediately reacted to the Devil One.
"Whatever I guess the result would have been the same, it's hard to believe this little thing managed to snatch the emblem away from another slot of the inventory though", mumbled Daimon as he took out his black emblem.
The rune shark was still there like always, but the had gotten for vivid, it was still unclear whether his was a complete emblem or not, because not only he can't use it to make contracts like others, but he can't see or use its ability like Vincent or Aurora who own a complete one too.
But at the same time, it doesn't look like an incomplete one, as it has manifested some abilities, like acting as a compass or protecting Daimon and the others back at the dimensional tunnel that brought them to the second layer of Neptune.
Daimon knew things will be solved at the Global Raid, otherwise an emblem wouldn't be needed to participate on it, so he put the matter at the back of his head for the time being.
He looked at the room, the lights were dimmed down and the girls were all having a nice rest, well, almost all of them, as he could see a pair of purple eyes glowing in the dark, which of course belonged to Sarah, who was observing him, from the bed she was sharing with her mother.
The door of the room suddenly opened and Aurora came from outside.
"We arrived, I asked Underwood to make sure there wasn't anyone in the nearby area, he'll let us know if someone comes this way", she said.
Daimon nodded, their destination was the area at the border of the continental mass of the Elemental Sea, near the territory of the Bamboo Forest sect, where the map that the ring which Aurora handed Daimon, supposedly located something left behind by the hero.
Luckily Aurora was skilled enough to use an optical illusion spell to cover the whole Flying Citadel, otherwise a silver metallic floating large object would of course stand out, especially at night.
So right now, they were floating above the border of the continent, without being noticed, Daimon got up from his bed and so did Aisha and the others.
Now that Akim who was what was making Aurora stay in the Citadel, has been dealt with, she could also accompany them, so the others could go explore together with Daimon.
Speaking of Akim, the Nethereal had finished shedding the pieces of the black material, which Remi was now respectfully handing over to Daimon in a ring, not only that but Akim had already gotten back his body.
There was a difference though, while his powers didn't diminish, the bizarre characteristics he had were gone, he was now in the black mist stage like Roger or Fabio, despite the fact that his existence is still linked to his core, instead of his body like those two, and his new appearance was that of a middle-aged man in his forties with short brown hair and beard, an average look that won't stand out.
Also, he was properly interrogated in the past hours by Remi and Aurora, unfortunately he didn't know much about the scheming guy, supposedly, only Garrius has gotten to directly speak with it.
But he did have some valuable information, worth of his strength as a high stage Stellar rank, which is the fact that he could recognize the draw Bell made of Reed's appearance, or more accurately a part of it.
The crown face to be more exact, apparently it was slightly similar to the symbol which is engraved on Garrius mask, but it wasn't the same, according to Garrius that mask was given to him by the Lord, so it could be said that it is the scheming guy's banner, or something like that.
That solved the mystery of why it took a piece of the black material used to cover the core of a high stage Stellar Nethereal, to heal only a fraction of the curse on Sarah's body, her father is a Lord too… which means so is Jasmine's one.
Daimon expected to get to know more about the origin of Nethereals, but to his surprise, Akim said that not only him but any other Nethereal he knows off, besides Garrius has no memories prior to suddenly appear in Neptune, in one of the many hideouts of the scheming guy.
Apparently a "Representative" is much more important than what Daimon thought, because while Akim is now an early level high stage Stellar rank, he was an early stage when he came to existence, but Garrius was a high stage from the very beginning, and now he has reached the peak of the high stage, which is the current peak of power in Neptune as no one is able to become a Maximum rank nowadays.
Still, he now had a much clearer image of how Nethereals worked, sadly it wasn't realistic to aim at Garrius right now, because he is always surrounded by all the other high stage Stellar Nethereals, but he is also busy dealing with Marcus, so it is tit for tat.
"You will come with us, Remi you stay back to guard the fort", ordered Daimon.
"We listen and obey", those two answered, besides Remi, the two elders and the four guard of the angelfish clan as well as the young girls won't be coming, but Marlene tagged along.
Daimon and the others then walked all the way to the border of the Flying Citadel, before they jumped down, with Aurora creating a barrier to take them to land safely.
Just as Jasmine said, the trees and other vegetation in the area had a much darker green tone, not only that, but the trees were taller as well, giving it a primal forest kind of appearance.
Daimon looked at the map and he was glad that Jasmine happened to come to this place before, because with how tall the trees where the hills which were the only thing that matched with the landscape of the area, were barely visible even from above.
"Here we are", for safety reasons, Daion had previously told Aurora to take them at the entrance of the forest, instead of directly to the hills or into it, the legacy left to Marcus belonged to Thalia a being who battled and wounded the Hydra Guy, who was at least a Stellar ranked system user.
Naturally, the whatever was left behind for Adam shouldn't be any worse, considering those two are supposed to be the players of this little game, which involved the destruction of many civilizations.
Daimon observed the forest with his infinity eyes and he even spread his mana sense, trying to see if there was something fishy here.
But besides the fact that the trees had both nature and darkness elements, which was confirmed by Tessa, whose affinities are the same, certainly it's not common to see plants with more than one element, but these trees weren't treasures, besides being tall, they had no valuable properties, just regular trees that had lived for a long time, something common in the area of the Bamboo Forest sect, where nature, water and wood mana is abundant.
With Daimon's greenlight the group entered the forest and calmly advanced through it, with Aurora and Akim protecting all the flanks, they didn't take long to reach their destination, which were those small hills.
Daimon took out the map, the mark was located into the hills, but Daimon didn't know if it meant below them, or inside of them, there were many caves in them, and his infinity eyes couldn't see through the physical layer, past a certain distance.
"Can you feel anything from there?", asked Daimon to the others, but they all shook their heads, even Aurora, Akim and Bell, in other words the Stellar ranks of the group, couldn't sense anything, which meant the only option was to go into the hills, maybe the legacy will show up to him as he possesses the map, it could also be a spatial gate, because the one that was supposed to go to Marcus was in another location accessible through one.
Aurora created platform with her mana and took the group the closest hill, there was a relatively large breach on its ladder, from where three people could enter walking side to side.
With Aurora taking the lead and Akim watching the rear, the group dived into the hill, at first the place didn't look different from any other cave one could find into a mountain area, the passage was rather stretch and it was quite humid as this place is near the border which means it is surrounded by sea.
But after the first kilometer, in which Daimon and the others didn't find anything, the passage suddenly widened into a much open area, and that is not all, it soon became obvious that there was more to this place than what meets the eye, and that it hasn't been visited by anyone in a really long time.
The reason is pretty simple, there were small mana crystals growing on the roof of the cave, with the exploration teams of the sects sweeping through the Elemental Sea all the time, using special devices to detect mines of mana crystals, this place should have been found already.
Since the surrounding landscape is pretty eye-catching and yet it wasn't noticed, what's more, Aurora and the others didn't notice those crystals before, and Daimon didn't either, though his mana sense wasn't as reliable as his infinity eyes, whose current range to see through physical objects was of five hundred meters, explaining why he couldn't notice them from afar, his instincts should have worked, unless…
As if to answer Daimon's question, the map which he kept in his pocket started shining, then those mana crystals answered by releasing light as runes that were engraved on them, were revealed, in other words, those mana crystals weren't here previously but appeared due to Daimon's map.
"Mm?", Daimon felt a strange sensation in his body, at first, he thought it was caused because Sarah was intensely staring at him, in this dark place, but then his pupils widened a bit as the vertical yellow lines, sign of his Drakolevia lineage, appeared in his eyes, he turned to see Jasmine, only to see those white halos appearing in her eyes.
Without a second of delay, Daimon used blink to appear next to Jasmine, but he was a millisecond too late, as she was taken away by a sudden ray of light that appeared out of nowhere.
For Daimon it was as if the world slowed down, he activated Core Synchrony and his mind accelerated thanks to the increase in his realm, at least enough for him turn to see Aisha and manage to send her a message before another ray of light transported him too.
'We'll be fine, stay calm and follow the previously stablished plan, if I can't get the legacy I'll return in exactly 24 hours, otherwise it means I'm working to get it, you'll know if I'm in trouble', he said.
'Mm, I'll take care of everything darling~', Aisha's confident answer, along with her pretty smiling face were the last things Daimon managed to hear and see, before everything went blank for him.
Those rays of light were actually only visible for Daimon, even Aurora couldn't react in time before they had already disappeared, so of course when she saw realized they were gone, she frowned, but then calmed down after listening to Aisha say.
"She and Daimon were transported, don't worry they will be fine, if the legacy isn't obtainable, they'll be back in a day, if not it might take more, I can tell if there are troubles in which case… we'll tear down this place to the ground if needed".
Aurora nodded, with Daimon going along with Jasmine, she felt at ease.
"Mm?", everyone turned to see Bell who had a confused expression on her face as she said.
"Where is Sarah?", she asked, which made the girls look around only to notice the crazy girl was gone as well, Aisha couldn't see what happened earlier, she only heard Daimon's message before she couldn't feel his presence here anymore, so she didn't know if Sarah was taken with them too.
'Could it be…', she thought.
…
While Aurora and the others looked for Sarah and stablished a small camp, since some will be staying behind to watch over this place, at an unknown location there was a large magnificent white tent settled in the middle of nowhere.
The peace of the place was suddenly interrupted by the angered voice of a man in his teenage years.
"Ahhh damn it, this is so boring, Ariel can't you at least bring one of them while I'm stuck here, I'm sick and tired of only training all the time!", shouted a blond-haired man who was laying down on a large bed, which was obviously not meant to accommodate a single person.
"Not my problem, play with your hand if you are that bored", the uninterested voice of a girl came from an empty space near the roof of the tent, before the figure of a young girl wearing white and golden clothes with a small pair of light wings on her back was revealed.
These two were none other than the Light Hero Adam, and the administrator of his system, that angel girl called Ariel, who Daimon managed to see before.
The angel girl ignored the angered and dangerous eyes of Adam, and then pointed outside of the tent.
"It's finally starting, so if you still want this, then start moving, it seems more than one people came here, but I can't track nor see who they are, probably a limitation due to the mission", said the angel girl before her figure faded away.
"Finally, God damn it, I was about to drop this "gift" and leave, what kind of stupid legacy is worth being trapped here without any company for seven damn weeks, I hope there is a decent girl among them to save, so that I can let out some steam, ah that makes me remember I couldn't get a taste of that princess, and Jenna is dead because you didn't tell me about the entrance method killing others, Ariel!", he said, only to be met with silence from the angel girl.
Apparently after Adam escaped leaving Jasmine behind, using one of his safety measures, which was supposed to bring him to a place where he could get some benefits, he ended in this unknown place.
Besides a large open area, there was nothing but a barrier that prevented him from advancing, no matter what he tried he couldn't get in, but he could leave whenever he wanted, the only problem is that he won't be able to return.
So, he just stayed here to wait, in any case he made some preparations before all this happened, so he just needed to focus in increasing his strength and everything will work like always.
Adam came out of the tent, and saw that cracks had started to appear on the barrier, which made him smirk, he could already feel some magic beasts nearby, which weren't there previously, as there was no one but him.
"I wonder what the scenery will be this time, bandits attacking the carriage, or maybe a kidnapping try", he mumbled with an excited expression.
Little did he know that the scenery that awaited him this time was altered, because of a few people's intereference.
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