A blushed Jasmine who was munching on the snack Daimon gave her, could be seen moving through the volcanic zone.
Why is she blushing you ask, well, that's because is carrying her like a princess as he runs through the area, with the crazy girl moving next to him while she gives him intense expecting gazes.
Daimon inwardly sighed, this whole situation started because they had to reach the meeting point, they accorded with Reyne and the others.
Daimon had just recovered some stamina and could at most use Switch a couple more of times, before he would be forced to either receive Jasmine's recovery spell, or use the effect of Sanctuary.
But since those had a cooldown of a day, he didn't want to waste them just for comfort, since they could grant him a second chance to use Core Synchrony without any drawback.
Which resulted in him carrying Jasmine, whose body was a bit worn out after being deprived of food, water and sleep, though she already took some potions and was eating small snacks to slowly calm down her hunger, her body needed some time to absorb the properties of the medicine.
So, Daimon was acting as her legs right now, as you can imagine the crazy girl asked to be the next, arguing that she used a "lot" of battle aura and felt tired, just to be ignored by Daimon who started running towards the meeting point.
"I-I was wondering, why is Sarah looking like that?", Jasmine tried to divert her mind to something else to calm her racing heart down.
The crazy girl proudly smiled as she showed off the bracelet that was just becoming visible on her wrist.
"Because I wanted to use my betrothal gift as much as possible~", she said, making Jasmine gaze at Daimon whose right eyebrow was twitching right now.
"Rita felt "something" searching for us, so I lent it to her, I originally thought it was the one who had captured you, but after seeing it in person, turns out that wasn't the case", said Daimon.
Not only that, Daimon had thought that the one behind Jasmine's capture, wanted Adam to be the winner, but now… things turned out to be more complicated than that.
…
Back at the ruin, the room was rumbling as the black mantled figure cursed and broke things, in the meantime the girl from the church helped Adam heal faster, while the Ghoul Archbald sat next to Adam.
"What happened boss, did you know those guys?", asked the Ghoul, to which Adam gritted his teeth, his face and his balls were still hurting due to what happened earlier.
"The bitch that was in the cage, is someone which I saved and stabbed me on the back, just to escape, but I got back at her, which is why I'm surprised she is alive, as for the other two I don't remember having seen them, but if they are with her, then they have to be eliminated", he said with a hatred filled voice.
Adam saw the black mantled figure approached them, and then said with a disdainful voice.
"I can't believe that the current hero candidate is weak enough to have the legacy of the previous hero, stolen right under his eyes".
"Ah, you say that but you couldn't stop them either, so don't lecture me you fucking npc!", yelled Adam, to which the black mantled figure snorted.
"I see, you are at such a low level, in that case, let me put you to a better use", the black figure snapped its fingers and Adam suddenly felt danger coming his way.
"Ariel, use the esca…", Adam suddenly froze, red lines appeared all over his body and he was deprived from his freedom.
He glared at Archbald and the girl from the church, but he was weirded at the fact that they were calm, the girl stopped healing him, and Archbald lost that dumb honest expression it always had, and a dead serious face replaced it.
"Finally, I was getting tired of this stupid brat", said the Ghoul as he stood up, the black armored knight that had turned into black dust, suddenly recovered and then became a black flash that entered Archbald's body.
The Ghoul's realm, abruptly skyrocketed, all the way from the Lord realm to the peak of the Arch rank, making Adam's eyes widen in shock.
Now imagine his face, when he saw the girl from the church hugging the Ghoul with a feverish expression.
"Ah, my Lord, I have missed you so much, that trash kept looking at me with such obvious intentions, that it was hard to not poison him", said Ness.
Archbald wrapped his arm around the girl from the church, and then turned to see the black mantled figure.
"So, what now, we needed him to use the trident, but he went and lost it like a retard?", he asked.
"Don't worry, only a "hero" can use it, and none of them are, we just have to retrieve it…", the black mantled figure was interrupted by Archbald, who just got a message.
"Your highness, we need your help!", it was a short message, that came from Dilan's ancestor.
"Can't we just kill him and get what he has, I had to give him one of my future brides so she could curse him the way you told me to?", asked Archbald clearly annoyed at the situation.
Adam who was still frozen on the ground, due to the red lines that appeared on his body, remembered how Paula fell into his arms way easily than normal, and only now he realized he was played, the Ghouls, the rebels from the church and the owner of the ruin were working together, in other words they caught him with his pants down.
"No, but don't worry, it's not like we are completely empty handed", said the black mantled figure as it grabbed Adam's sword.
The hilt of the sword released some electricity as it refused to be used by anyone but its owner, to which the black mantled figure snorted.
"Obey", it said, the sword trembled and tried to attack the black mantled figure, but then received a discharge of black energy, making the previously bright silver blade stain black.
"Here, it's an initial level currently, but it's not that bad, the most important thing is that you'll be able to hurt "them" with it, without interferences", said the black mantled figure as it threw the now lusterless sword at Archbald, who grabbed it.
"Oh, what a nice weapon, no wonder Paula kept saying it was fit to be mine, speaking of that, you "stabbed" one of my slaves, so it's only fair that I do the same to you, sorry for that "boss", I'll have to let out some steam", said Archbald as he stabbed Adam's thigh with the sword.
"Amnngghh!", Adam tried to scream, but his voice was restrained, Archbald was about to so it again, when the black mantled figure stopped him.
"Enough, we need him, also I suggest you to heed your brethren's call, they are being chased away right now".
"What!", Archbald shouted, he became a black gust of wind and left the ruin along with Ness, leaving only Adam alone with the black mantled figure.
"Now, I know we can't kill you right now, since you probably have a lot of ways to escape, but I can make you suffer a living hell, or you can cooperate and then we'll let you leave, what do you say, little hero?", it asked.
Adam immediately nodded, which made the black mantle laugh as it snapped its fingers, which made the red lines on Adam's body gather on his neck, returning him his freedom.
Just as he was about to talk with the angel girl, to break this curse and then escape from this stupid place, to plan how to get back at these guys, he heard the cold voice of the black mantled figure.
"By the way, if you even try to ask your administrator for help, you'll lose one of your heads, and since I can't kill you, you can imagine which will be, the curse won't let you re-grow it for the next 50 years, so I suggest you obediently cooperate, ah, and next time watch out in whom you are sticking it".
Adam's words stuck in his throat, they have him by the balls, both literally and figuratively, but that was not the only surprising thing, it was the first time he has met someone other than Marcus who knew about systems, in other words, the one below those black mantles, wasn't an "npc" as he thought.
Unfortunately, he didn't have the right to demand answers, if he risked everything, he might be able to escape, but the curse would trigger and since his life isn't in danger, he won't be saved.
"I'll lend you a hand, but I have a condition… that woman who you planned to give me, I want her", he said with a hatred filled expression.
"Well, you sullied one of the women reserved for the recovery of the Blood King, so you have some balls, I'll give you a chance, if you fulfill your mission, you can take one of them as your trophy", said the black mantled figure, to which Adam nodded.
…
Outside of the ruin, Archbald appeared floating on the sky, just to see the disastrous zone that this place had become, what's worse is that he could smell the blood from his descendants filling the air.
His eyes got bloodshot, as he became a flash of black light, the scenery suddenly changed to the area where the soldiers were previously clashing, all those Ghouls were abandoned and were being massacred by the high echelon of the human side.
"You fucking cattle!", he yelled, the air trembled as his voice echoed through the whole area, making the sky darken, all the human soldiers on the ground vomited blood.
Old Ben, and his friend joined hands to fight against the pressure that Archbald was radiating and managed to balance things out, the elder couple joined them and made Archbald click his tongue.
"Count yourselves lucky cattle, now that this King is here, your race will be erased from the face of Kerrol!", having said Archbald turned into countless black wisps of smoke and all the ghoul soldiers, that were still able to move also disappeared.
"Hahaha, I can't believe those two were hiding so much strength, we took those bastards by surprise with their pants down this time!", shouted old Ben, he was feeling quite happy right now.
The reason is simple, Jeanne and Emily defeated an Archduke together, and then they each could fight on part with one, meaning they had one old monster free, so naturally they ganged up on the remaining Archdukes, killed one for good which made the others flee, leaving their subordinates behind.
Those Dukes and other nobles, were like lambs delivered at the door od hungry wolves, the old monsters slaughtered them, they even wiped more than half of the army of the ghouls, before Archbald appeared, it was a crushing victory for the human side.
"Let's go back at the headquarters, to regroup", said old Ben, the others agreed and while the elder couple stayed behind to secure the safety of the soldiers and other lower ranked people, old Ben and his friend as well as Oliver and Dorothy returned to the headquarters, to guard the fort.
On the way, Oliver could feel Dorothy's accusatory gaze and he sighed.
"Don't look at me like that, I didn't know it either, but you can't hold it against them, they even helped us avenge her, though we couldn't get those two, at least we killed one Archduke, is the major victory we have ever had, since the days of the first king", said Oliver.
"I don't want to hear from you ever again, I'll be taking Elliot with me, if that bitch is one of them, that means her daughter is the same, he was deceived and seduced by that little…".
"Enough Dorothy", Old Ben's friend put an end to Dorothy's complains, because he could see the dangerous expression she had.
Oliver's wife was his daughter, so he hated the flesh eating demons of course, but Jeanne and Emily had proven to be allies, or more accurately they were enemies of their enemies, so cooperation was possible.
Also, compared to his grandson, he actually found Reyne a better child, so much that it was a shame that she wasn't her granddaughter.
Oliver didn't have mind for this drama right now, earlier he saw that only Reyne and Claudia left the ruin, and he had a bad premonition ever since that, though he saw that guy appearing along with one of the girls from the traitor branch of the church, he still felt something bad happened.
The group soon arrived at the headquarters, where they saw Daimon and the others were resting and having a meal, there was a new face among them, but that's not what caught their attention but the fact that… Elliot was missing.
Oliver and the others descended in front of them, old Ben and his friend stood aside, while Oliver approached Daimon to say with a shaky voice.
"Did my son…", his voice was cut by a projection appearing on the air in front of them, naturally the clip showed what happened inside of the ruin, all the things that Elliot said and what tried to do.
But there was a difference, in this version, Reyne didn't kill him, it was the ogre the one who sneaked behind of him and killed him, while Reyne was just blocking him from attacking Daimon.
"They are lying, they killed him!", shouted Dorothy, but as she was about to grab her weapon, a huge pressure fell on the area, making her fall to the ground, Oliver was about to help her, but old Ben stopped him from doing so, with a dead serious expression.
Daimon stood up from his seat and walked towards Dorothy, he glared at her from above as he slowly said.
"I don't have to give you explanations, I'm only doing this for Reyne, if you even think on doing something I will know it, and you'll be dead before you realize it".
Oliver who seemed to have aged a few dozens of years in a couple of seconds, bowed towards Daimon before saying.
"I'm sorry for her behavior, please overlook it… I have lost too much today already", he stole a gaze at Reyne as he spoke.
Which made her inwardly sigh, Daimon was secretly taking the suspicions on himself, because in Oliver and the others minds, he was the one that could easily kill Elliot, that being said the projection was flawless, so they couldn't argue against that either.
It was already good that the Reyne in the projection wasn't aiming for the kill, but just fending off against Elliot.
"Oliver, take Dorothy to her tent, and watch over her, take a rest too, we have to discuss the next steps", said old Ben.
Oliver nodded and then took Dorothy who was in shock after being directly hit by Daimon's Overlord's Pride directly.
As soon as old Ben confirmed they were gone and weren't spying on them, he asked in a low voice.
"Was it true what he said in that projection?".
"Yes", answered Aster.
"I see, did he… suffer?".
This time it was Reyne the one who took the initiative to answer.
"No, it was instant and painless".
Old ben sighed, he had lost a lot of people in his life, to be as affected as Oliver at this point, so he managed to keep his cool, not to mention that for the things Elliot was trying to do, unless he or his friend interfered, he would have been executed.
The code of the Adjudicators is strict, they exist to protect humankind not for their own selfish reasons, that was the wish of the founder.
"Thanks, little girl", he limited to say and then changed the topic.
"So, what happened in the ruin, did you happen to meet that guy?", he asked as he stole a gaze at Jasmine.
Judging by how that girl was closely sitting next to Daimon, and how familiar the dark green haired girl was acting towards her, they should have joined the exploration of the ruin for her sake.
Daimon smirked as he dropped a bomb on old Ben by saying.
"That was the Blood King, apparently they tricked he was working with those guys from the church, they tricked the idiot who had the key, and you were lucky, he is in a weakened state".
"What!", as expected, old Ben and his friend were in awe at Daimon's words, the Blood King was a legendary figure who supposedly fought against the first king, and was killed by him.
As for why Daimon said it was in a weakened state, that's because the guy is actually a Stellar ranked, or used to be one to be more accurate.
But he wasn't worried about him, but about the black mantled figure, because neither his infinity eyes or Rita's senses could see what was below those mantles, so it was an enemy on par with Nethereals, it might even be a Nethereal.
This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om