A few moments earlier, though everything went blank for Daimon in the sense that he couldn't see what was happening, he still had sixth sense and his instincts which combined allowed him to realize what was happening.
With his eyes closed, Daimon focused all his other senses and a mental image of his surroundings was formed, first of all he noticed that his body was surrounded by the same white ray that transported Jasmine earlier.
It was that white ray what was preventing him from seeing, as it covered his body including his eyes, unfortunately for whoever set things to be this way, the senses of an Apex Predator aren't that easy to block.
What surrounded Daimon was a dimensional tunnel, one which was different than the normal ones, because unlike any other dimensional tunnel in which Daimon has been so far, there was more than space here.
There was debris floating everywhere, some were simple pieces of broken rock, but there were also some pieces of metal here and there, why would that draw Daimon's attention you might wonder.
The answer is simple, that metal looked rather familiar, as in the material from which the Flying Citadel appears to be completely made off.
Which is surprising by itself, but when you add the fact that this white ray was configurated to blind him, it becomes more than a coincidence.
"What the…", Daimon who was paying too much attention to what was outside of the white light covering him, suddenly felt a strange sensation on his lower body.
He changed his focus to his waist and legs, and to his surprise, there, tightly holding onto him was the crazy girl Sarah, despite the fact that she shouldn't be able to see a thing right now, she had such an expression of delight on her face that it was hard to believe.
Luckily, though they were isolated from the outside, she was holding onto him so they could at least talk to each other.
"What the hell are you doing here?", asked Daimon, to which Sarah giggled as she tightened her grip on him.
"You seemed distracted to I tried and was finally able to caught you~", she said.
Daimon was speechless for a moment, certainly back then he put all his focus on Jasmine, he was one step late and though he activated Core Synchrony, is the milliseconds he has he only managed to look at Aisha and send her a message.
'I can't believe she actually came here by accident just because she jumped onto me…', thought Daimon, seeing her proud smiling expression made Daimon feel the urge to throw her to the outer space of the dimensional tunnel, but as if the universe itself was helping her, he caught a glimpse of the exit of the tunnel, meaning they were reaching their destination.
Against all his wishes, Daimon could only say.
"Hang on, we are about to leave this place", naturally Sarah didn't need to hear it twice, both her arms and legs were wrapped around Daimon's lower body, with her full strength as a middle stage Knight Lord.
Daimon stopped paying her attention, and a few seconds later they were finally out of the dimensional tunnel, as if it was planned to be like this, the white ray dissipated and vision returned to Daimon and Sarah's eyes.
What appeared in front of Daimon was… sky, the dimensional tunnel actually threw them out around three hundred meters into the air.
"Oh, come on, what kind of flawed transport is this", mumbled Daimon as he started descending along with Sarah, at a high speed.
A fall from this height might not be too much for him, even if he is unable to slow down his fall his body is tough enough to endure the impact, but any other star ranked or even an early-stage Lord rank will end up as meat paste, as for a middle stage Lord rank, without the capacity to slow down its fall, some broken bones will be expected.
'You could always use that girl to as a cushion, her physique is not far from yours', said Evangeline as she shrugged.
An idea that Daimon found rather tempting, until he saw Sarah licking her lips as she gazed at him, she somehow seemed to have guessed what Daimon was thinking, and there was… expectancy in her eyes?
'Nah, I'm sure she is crazy enough to actually enjoy it…', answered Daimon, he then used blink three times in a row to directly land on the ground.
Naturally that didn't diminish the momentum that Daimon and Sarah's bodies falling, had already built, so they caused a small explosion and a curtain of dust to raise due to the impact, the ground cracked and small pieces of rocks flew all over the place, just to clash against an invisible barrier that was lying ahead of them.
With a wave of Daimon's hand, the dust was dispersed to reveal a five-meter deep, crater in which he was standing, it's worth mentioning that Sarah was still holding onto his legs.
"You already had your fun, care to let go so that we can go look for Jasmine?", said Daimon.
Surprisingly, the crazy girl who a moment ago was all smiles, put on a serious expression for a change, still she didn't let g of Daimon yet though.
"What happened to Jas?", she asked.
Even Aurora couldn't react to Jasmine being taken away, Sarah was the same, especially because when the white ray was transporting her away, she had already jumped towards Daimon, in a sense her timing was perfect, as she jumped on the small fraction of second in which Daimon had stopped paying her attention, otherwise she wouldn't be here now.
As much as Daimon wanted her to be as far as possible from him personally, her fighting capacities weren't up to be doubted about, even before the first round of treatment she was strong enough to defend against Adam, of course it wasn't a fight or death battle, but still, according to Jasmine, that guy had already become an eight-star ranked knight,
Adam and Marcus are older than Daimon, they are the leaders of the elite classes of the second year of their own academies, and they were five star ranked knight and mage respectively when the exploration started, but had already advanced with some lucky encounters.
Well, in Adam's case, he was given some high ranked potions and resources after he saved Jasmine, but prior to that he was who knows where doing who knows what, and had already reached the seventh star rank, after having that last advance it was when Sarah found him and she probably could tell he was up to no good, because she directly confronted him, making him postpone his plans for Jasmine, as she made him doubt if his ability was being resisted, who knows if Aurora might have ended up noticing something was off, which would not be good for him.
"Seriously you were forcefully transported, blinded, floated in a dimensional tunnel where we could have ended up being crushed by debris, to then be thrown around high into the air, and only now you are showing some seriousness", mumbled Daimon, to which Sarah giggled.
"I'm with you anyway, there is no bigger danger than that~", she said as she licked her lips, making Daimon sigh.
"Forget it, it's my bad for treating you like a normal person… she was taken away by whoever set this place up, I can feel her general direction, so we'll go reunite with her and then either look for the legacy or leave depending on the situation, it's just an assumption but there is a chance we meet Adam here", he said.
Sarah's eyes glowed as she thought.
'So, Jas comes first, good', she then let go of Daimon's legs and stood up before saying.
"Very well, I'm hoping to see that piece of trash so I can crush his balls for what he did to Jas", something the pair of purple haired mother and daughter shares is that they were merciless with their enemies, could be because they were exposed to Nether, or maybe they were like that to begin with, and their fierceness was just amplified.
Daimon chuckled, and then he looked at the barrier which previously tried to prevent him from looking at was what at its other side, unfortunately in front of his infinity eyes, it was futile.
At the other side of the barrier which was cracking right now, there lied a vast wasteland that extended far from Daimon's range, what was more shocking is the fact that outside of the barrier there was nothing on the sky, but inside there was a "sun".
"So, this place is like the one in which old Vincent had to pass the test to obtain his complete emblem, a space with its own rules", said Daimon.
If that was the case then it made sense that the landscape was a wasteland, the lineage that the hero owned was the Black Armored Shark's one, in other words it was the one of an aquatic magic beast.
In other words, this place was created to challenge whoever had inherited the Black Armored Shark's lineage, which if Daimon hadn't stepped in, ultimately stealing the origin of it, from the Blackfin Duke, would have been Adam.
Daimon smirked, this little trick would have worked if he was limited to use one lineage at the time, like the Hydra Guy, who besides when using that eight-snake headed form, had to use his lineages separately according to Thalia's notes.
But that didn't work against him, because all the lineages he possess are part of his own, he doesn't need to change them to use them, and can access to all their abilities and properties without doing anything.
A fundamental impossibility since that would mean, his main lineage is strong enough to contain all the others, and yet that was his case, because that unknown lineage which stood at the top of the list in the screen of the Lineage Temple, was positioned even above the Apex Predator one.
Also, he has both fire and also water affinities at the same time, so even if he was brought to a desertic zone like this, he won't be at disadvantage.
After a couple of seconds, a large piece of the barrier shattered revealing an entrance to that wasteland ahead of them.
'I'll make a transportation mean in a moment', said Rita directly to Daimon, that's right, she managed to come by hiding in Daimon's shadow.
'No need, I didn't feel anything outside of that barrier, but I'm pretty sure we'll be observed once we are inside, your presence is one of my trump cards, so I'll play along with the challenge, keep your mana for emergencies, but you can use your mana sense to look ahead for me, limit it to the point where you are sure you won't be noticed even by Maximum Stellar ranks', said Daimon.
Leaving aside the fact that Rita was now smiling from ear to ear over the words, "you are on of my trump cards", she understood Daimon's reasoning, unlike him who had some ways to recover to full, she would have to take mana potions and their efficiency isn't enough to bring her to her best condition and who knows what is waiting for them after all.
'Leave it to me', she answered.
"Jasmine should be in that direction, don't be left behind", said Daimon as he entered the barrier, and then started running towards northeast.
"Heh, I could chase you around for days without getting tired, but first we have to find Jas", jokingly said Sarah, with a single jump she arrived at where Daimon was and then they both rushed in the same direction, she is a half Nethereal after all, her body is innately strong to begin with, and as a knight that is amplified even more.
Inside of the barrier, not only the landscape changed, the moment Daimon set a foot inside of it, the temperature went up like crazy, even for a desertic area in a rough calculation it should be around 120° C, which is crazy for a place that has no abundance in fire mana.
It means that it's the natural temperature of this place, if the base is that high, then when mana gets involved, the effect will be stronger, that's how thing worked in the nature of this world of magic, mana acts as an amplifier, which means that cold places get colder and hot places get hotter.
'Young master three kilometers ahead, I see a small town and I can sense some signs of life coming from it, there is also a large number of magic beasts in the vicinity which seem to be coming towards us on purpose, their ranks go from the eight star to the mid Lord rank, around a hundred of them, there is also some people that seem to be running away from them', said Rita.
Daimon nodded and then turned to see Sarah.
"Enemies ahead, prepare for a battle".
"Mm~", Sarah's eyes glowed, she has been doing nothing but playing and meditating lately, so her fists were aching, knights do tend to enjoy battle more than mages, and Nethereals are also fierce by nature, now add up a bit of craziness and you have Sarah's current mood.
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