A few seconds before the pillars that descended from the sky, disappeared, as Daimon expected he found himself isolated from the others, but at least he could still feel their overall positions as the pillars make them ascend into the sky, before everything turned into darkness.
Or at least that was supposed to be the case, but Daimon's eyes glowed behind his mask and the darkness faded away allowing him to see what was going on.
The light pillar that was surrounding him, was actually protecting him from a sea of chaotic mana mixed with something he recognized quite easily, nether, it was the first time Daimon has seen so much mana in a free state gathered in one place, it was to the point that the clash became visible.
Normally, though the atmosphere of a habitable planet contains practically all the elements needed for life to bloom, be it at a small or large quantity depending on each planet, only the basic ones are visually noticeable by default.
For example, wood mana can be seen in places with large forests, earth mana on mountain ranges, water mana at open sea and so on, but there are other types of mana which aren't visually noticeable though they are present, like space mana, only inside of dimensional tunnels it becomes slightly noticeable by innate.
There has only been one occasion in which Daimon has seen nether mana be innately present and visible before, and that was when Thea opened that portal which was created due to the spatial breach that her family has been guarding for countless generations.
Until now, in this seemingly endless sea of mana, there was nether and that wasn't all, other hard to come by types of mana were in the mix, things like magma, space, storm and other variations or highly volatile types of mana that only appear rarely during a natural phenomenon, were clashing and retorting within this mass of mana.
'Well, that explains why the space at certain parts of Neptune is fragile enough to collapse if Maximum Stellars fight nearby it, if the whole sky of this planet is covered by this mass of mana, I'm more surprised by it not having collapsed before', thought Daimon.
Apparently, this chaotic place was another layer of Neptune, which was only accessible through the limit on the sky, or when the space teared apart naturally like the breaches that were sealed at the Maelstrom Sea and guarded by the four rulers.
Another thing Daimon was able to see was the pillars of light being sent in different directions, many that were near him had disappeared before his infinity eyes could adapt to see in the sea of chaotic mana, but there were some not that far from him, among whom there was Daphne as well some guys with the emblems of the royal guard.
"Heh, so the old bastard did have incomplete emblems in his power and distributed them to his secret lackeys", disdainfully said Daimon, he couldn't recognize a single of those guys though they all belonged to the young generation, so they were probably part of the army Arlion has cultivated in the shadows for when it came to this.
Daimon suddenly felt a slight pull coming from his right pocket, his black Sea Emblem finally reacted, unlike others whose emblems were floating in front of them since earlier, his took its sweet time.
"Finally, I guess I'll meet whatever might be at the other side of you little thing", said Daimon as he grabbed the emblem.
"Oh, so you come with a little privilege, I guess it's to be expected since you are supposedly the highest ranked even among the raid team leaders", mumbled Daimon as he moved the emblem in a certain direction.
…
"Crack!", the space suddenly cracked before a loud impact could be heard as an object as high speed crashed against the ground.
"…", Daphne found herself in a large crater, unlike what she expected the pillar of light exhausted itself the moment the space of wherever she was now, was pierced through by it, the remnants of it slowed down her fall but she was still forced to use a spell to break the momentum.
Luckily though her physical body wasn't strong despite she descending from a sea magic beast, like Mellie, her efficiency in wind and water spells was top notch, so she just created a cushion of wind around her and avoided the impact.
Daphne jumped out of the crater and observed her surroundings, or that's what she was about to do when she dodged to the left avoiding an arrow that was aiming at her chest.
"Here, I found one!", a young man's voice came from east, Daphne who just avoided the attack, took cover behind a white rock formation which was not too far from her arrival point.
She did so, because the one who attacked her wasn't alone, she could tell there were another two at least coming from the remaining two directions, meaning she could only retreat in that direction or face those three enemies.
Not even a few seconds later, the three enemies revealed themselves, two guys and a girl, all wearing a similar uniform to that of the royal guard which Daphne knew quite well, as she is the first princess, but she who has seen all the members of the royal guard as she grew up, couldn't recognize those three.
Not to mention they were all early Lord ranks and members of the same youngest generation, which put them at the same level as people like Lance, Walford and the like, so there is no way they wouldn't have been known… unless they were hidden on purpose.
"First princess, we know you are here, if you willingly surrender, we won't attack you, our Lord tasked us with bringing you safe to where he is, so stop wasting time and… aghhh!", a blue stream suddenly came from behind the rock where Daphne was hiding and severed the hand of the guy that was shouting at her, that was an attack type water spell "extreme rupture", as expected of the Valas princess, whose innate ability reinforced the mana circuits on her hands, shooting type spells casted by her were many times stronger than those of other people, she just severed the hand of a knight on the same realm as her after all.
The guy who was the one leading and the one that shot that arrow at Daphne, held his maimed to apply pressure, only now he realized that his storage ring wasn't working, luckily, he had a first aid kit in his pocket so while he bandaged his wound, he screamed at the other two.
"Fuck it, crush that bitch's limbs, well drag her through the ground all the way to where the Lord is, she is no longer a princess anyway!!!".
The other two nodded and then grabbed their weapons, which they had on them since that was obligatory for them, the remaining male had an axe while the girl used a spear, their team had a balanced composition, one long range, one middle range and one close range, two knights and one mage.
Or so they thought, the two who were slowly approaching Daphne suddenly felt their danger senses ringing, they both jumped backwards avoiding by the skin of their teeth, being sliced by a blue stream of water and an invisible current of wind coming from above.
"What the hell, she can cast two spells of different elements at the same time, was she not useless without her servant?", the guy managed to not suffer a wound, but half of his hair was cleanly shaved by the stream of water which aimed at his head a second earlier.
"That wasn't on the data that the Lord gave us, wasn't she a damn mute glass cannon!", cursed the girl whose hair and clothes were all ragged due to the explosion caused by the high-pressure current of wind.
Daphne was similar to Mellie in the sense that she rarely appeared in public, though she was more known than the Delphini princess, the public only knew her for the famous Storm Stream innate ability that she inherited from the Duchess, since she was said to have been born with a weak body.
Sure, her talent was still way above average, but she supposedly couldn't compete against Terry, Lance or Ezequiel, even those guys that were supposedly her teammates were surprised to see her constantly bombarding the pirates back at the magic beast hunt.
Back then Daimon met a dead end on who those guys were working for, but now it's safe to assume they worked for Arlion, or at least to one of his close lackeys, since they all came from relatively high ranked noble families.
Luckily, Daimon left no survivors, and dead men tell no tales, so besides Chris and the others, no one knew what Daphne was truly capable off, certainly her stamina wasn't the best, but she was a tough one, having the guts to push herself over the limit to use her innate ability one more time even if that took a toll on her body, for the sake of her subordinates and friend.
Add to that the fact that the Valas princess has been training in the main residence of the Flying Citadel, and while none of the girls that were at the Lord realm managed to advance, their comprehension on their respective affinities increased by bounds and leaps, to the point that Daimon was able to confirm that they will be able to obtain a Manifestation Phenomenon if they go the four galaxies or if they keep training in the main residence for some time.
So now the three members of the royal guard were in a predicament, they couldn't go all out because their orders stated that Daphne had to be alive, but if they didn't, they would not even be able to go through the barrage of fierce attacks that will be shot at them.
"Screw it, you two use "that", I'll assume the responsibility!", shouted the guy who was trying to find his severed hand.
The other two stared at each other and then a maniac smile appeared on their faces, their eyes got bloodshot and their bodies grew larger, their hair lost some color and withered as if they had aged on the spot, in exchange, their bodies surged with power, the knight who was an axe user jumped and using a movement martial art was able to dodge Daphne's attack.
"Hahaha, I go die!", shouted the guy as he swinged his axe downwards, making the rock formation where Daphne was taking cover, explode.
Daphne who was forced to retreat, saw from the corner of her eye the tip of a spear coming at her from within the curtain of dust that was raised a moment ago, a small whirlwind appeared on her hand, which she threw her right.
The whirlwind enlarged on the spot, redirecting the spear that was aiming at nailing her through her shoulder.
"I got you now, you…", the handless guy who just appeared above Daphne aimed his bow at her, but as he was about to let go of the string, a giant pillar of light came from above and engulfed him.
"Boooom!".
The impact blew away the two enemies, while Daphne who held onto a rock to not suffer the same destiny, sweetly smiled in response, not because the handless guy was crushed by that pillar of light, she had noticed him earlier so the "sneak" attack wasn't going to hurt her, what made a smile flourish on that pretty face of hers, was the silver haired masked youth that was dusting his clothes off as he came out of the giant crater caused by his arrival.
"Sorry, it seems I took the long route by accident", said Daimon, he looked downwards just to see the pieces of broken bones and flesh that were spread at the outer part of the crater, that's what was left of the handless guy, a result of Daimon not even caring about slowing down his fall, the pillar didn't disappear anyway, which is why the impact turned that guy along with his armor and all, into minced meat.
"Another target, this time one of the killing list, the contribution is mine!", the axe knight who recovered from the shockwave before the spear user mage, flashed towards Daimon with his axe ready to behead him.
"Oh, that's an interesting state you got there, it resembles what Terry did previously, burning his lineage in exchange for a bigger boost than what his body could handle, but for you it's even worse, you are burning away your lifespan, here let me help you reach your goal faster", said Daimon, his image blinked and next he was shoving the axe guy's head against the ground.
"Booom!", the impact not only made the ground break, but the guy's head exploded like a watermelon.
The spear mage girl saw her companion being destroyed in a single movement and the immediately turned around to escape, but she lost her balance the next second, because her legs were cut clean by Daphne's wind spell,
"Aghhhh!", the woman who was bleeding like crazy, screamed in pain, surely losing one's legs should be painful, but not to the point that a trained member of the royal guard would be screaming like that.
"It smells a lot like anesthesia, I guess a cocktail of potions is needed for disposable pawns that are using the innate ability of a lineage with which they weren't born with", concluded Daimon.
With the anesthesia leaving her body through the large amount of blood she was losing as of current, whatever she was doing was interrupted and she returned to be a regular early-stage Lord rank, not to mention she was feeling the backslash of the technique she used.
Her scream was interrupted by Daimon who grabbed her by her neck and dragged her to then toss her at Daphne's feet.
"You wanted to capture Daphne, why?", he was on the killing list of Arlion due to what happened earlier, so he wasn't surprised that those three tried to get rid of him on the spot, but since Grace was clearly against Arlion, the same should have applied to Daphne and yet she was a target that must be captured instead.
"As if I would betray my… aghhh", listening to her negative answer, Daimon casually stomped on her left hand destroying her fingers and forcing a blood-curling scream out of that girl.
"You screamed quite a bit earlier, don't you know that raising your voice when in hostile territory is practically asking to be killed, in a couple of minute wild hungry magic beasts will come and rip you to shreds".
Seeing that the girl didn't speak, Daimon released a bit of aura as he added.
"Did you know that magic beasts most of the times start with the "soft" parts, where there are no bones, like your stomach from which they can access your organs and other similar tissue".
As expected, the girl's face paled on the spot, in part because of what Daimon said and in part because of his Overlord's Pride aura, which instilled fear into her heart, even if his Terror Contractor wasn't reacting, a simple interrogation wasn't that hard to pull off.
"I-I don't know, the Lord only ordered to capture and bring him certain amount of people, among which there were the two princesses and there are also targets that are meant to be eliminated on sight, like you!", screamed the girl.
Daimon clicked his tongue, he didn't expect a random member of the royal guards to know anything, but it was still disappointing to hear that.
"Watever, tell me, who the hell are you guys…" before Daimon could finish his sentence, he suddenly kicked the girl whose body exploded on the air a couple of seconds later.
"A loyalty curse, this looks awfully familiar", said Daimon, he couldn't see the curse until it was triggered, it was different than the one used by Nethereals but so only now he learned how to detect it, luckily his instincts never failed him, so at the slightest sign of danger he acted.
And he wasn't the only one, a black thread which came from within his shadow, handed Daimon a storage ring, which he gladly accepted, it was sealed by the laws of this place yes, but he recently learned a little trick.
With a single thought, the rig disappeared from Daimon's hand and appeared in the inventory, unlike before he was able to see into the ring as it was inside his inventory, which couldn't be restrained.
Besides a few potions and other medicine bottles, the only thing Daimon could find was a list, written not in the letter of Arlion but in the letter of someone else.
"For someone that has been plotting in the shadows for a dozen of generations, that old man didn't take into account something as simple like your companions being lazy bastards", said Daimon, which made Daphne curiously look at him.
"Ahem, I'm referring to someone else", said Daimon in response, he was referring to Calvin, though Sarah was kind of crazy she was pretty smart to be honest.
If someone was to be lazy enough to write a list of targets instead of memorizing it, that would have been Calvin for sure, and apparently that girl was on the same category, since she had a couple of papers with a list of names and different tittles, like capture, kill or follow.
She probably could have guided the way to Arlion, but the damn curse activated, and since Thea wasn't here, Daimon wouldn't have been able to get rid of it, Rita could have tried but Daimon wasn't willing to expose her over something so little, since she is one of his trump cards.
In any case, he is sure that all the participants of the global raid are supposed to meet at some point, speaking of which it, Daimon could feel some kind of presence coming this way, meaning it was time for them to leave.
"Let's go find a higher ground to look at our surroundings", said Daimon, the pillar of light moved him quite fast, so he wasn't able to see at this place from above earlier, his Sea Emblem allowed him to change his direction, it was hard to navigate but he managed to come out in the nearby area where he saw Daphne leaving that mass of chaotic mana.
"Mm", with a low soft sound Daphne nodded and they then ran into the direction that led to a tall mountain, by the way the white "rock" formation of earlier were bones of some kind of magic beast that had been exposed for quite some time, the nearby area looked like a rocky mountain landscape, but there was a large wall ahead which blocked the sight, so it was safe to assume they appeared at some kind of isolated area, probably it was set up like that as a starting point for the participants of the global raid.
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