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To the west of the Darknar forest, three figures entered the forest and proceeded in a very specific direction with great familiarity. As they moved, they kept an eye out for monsters and any strange auras in the forest.
Zomatsu however, sensed the changes that had occurred in the Darknar forest almost immediately. He already had a mental map of the entire eastern section of the forest in his head based on his prior investigations.
He had a perfect memory and his brain worked like a machine, whatever he stores within would never be forgotten and he could access that information almost instantly. He processed all the information in his mind and used his ability to sense everything within his range of 200 meters and it didn't match his file. Not only were there a lot more weaker monsters around but there were also a lot stronger ones than the last time he was here.
Having every single scouting report he had ever sent stored in his brain, he instantly figured out the most likely cause of this anomaly. The demon noble they had sensed before, they must've battled and somehow managed to kill one of the four kings of the darknar forest, and judging by the location he had sensed the fight in, the oldest of the four kings, the ancient Rykir was most likely dead.
To be honest, he found this hard to believe, a creature like the ancient Rykir was hard to deal with and he didn't think an ordinary demon noble could do such a thing. Perhaps a demon lord might be able to, but none of the current demon lords could make such a move without being noticed.
'Unless there were more than one noble, or maybe it wasn't an ordinary demon noble.' The ancient Rykir was the most cunning and intelligent monster amongst the four kings. It had also lived the longest and possessed speeds beyond all the others. It was also on the verge of breaking through to the ranks of a legendary beast or a King Class monster.
The only other possibilities were if it wasn't just one demon noble, but a fight like that would've attracted too much attention, so maybe. "A behemoth?" That was the most accurate assumption he could make with the information he had to work with, but according to his information, none of the Seven known behemoths should be capable of this but there were a lot of them still keeping their abilities hidden. 'That means none of the Great Five had a hand in this, but that is not 100% accurate.'
'If I consider all the variables, the possibility of it being a behemoth is 63.85% and the possibility of this person being under one of the Great Five is 19.66% while there are still factors that are unknown to me, this is most likely a hidden power. Perhaps this is also a blessing in disguise and I finally have a way out of this mess. For a hidden existence of that level, my value to them based on the information I can provide should be around 71 percent, I don't like rough estimates but that would have to do, there is still a 29% chance of being killed though.'
Zomatsu continued his observations as he leads the two ogre brothers towards their previously occupied safe zone. His ability was extremely useful for things like this so he was able to stay several steps ahead of all the monsters in the area and they had managed to reach their destination without encountering any monster ambush. Zomatsu raised his senses to the limit as they entered the safe zone.
At this point he was more than 98% sure that Hach and Evans had died from the attack of that behemoth, otherwise, he would have already sensed them when they entered the forest, and if they had made it out of the forest as he did, they would have met each other in the winged city, or on their way there. He just needed to confirm it by finding their bodies and if they were eaten by monsters he would still find some traces of them before getting around to tracking down the behemoth.
He estimated based on their usual response time, that they would have made it only a few feet from the safe zone before being consumed by negative energy. Unless they had stayed to try and defend themselves which would've been stupid of them. 'Right, I should increase the possibility of the latter, those guys are surprisingly more stupid than you'll think.'
Zomatsu sent the two brothers out to search the perimeter for signs of Evans and Hach, he could handle the safe zone himself. Even without his ability, he was a skilled enough scout to notice the abnormalities in the snow. He soon found signs of digging, something had been dug out of the snow recently and moved. He didn't notice the thing being dragged but he imagined they were placed in a storage box.
Judging by the shape and size of the disturbed snow, he could surmise that, it must've been the Corpses of his previous comrades that had been buried in the snow.
Looking around he could tell, whoever had dug out the bodies of Hach and Evans were quite skilled and they had almost perfectly erased their tracks. Zomatsu smiled under his cloak, it didn't matter how skilled they were, no one in this world could hide from him. He soon picked up a trail quite easily, it was headed southeast, the same direction as the demon king's castle.
"This can't be right. Did someone actually manage to break the barrier?" This was quite the discovery as he could potentially exchange this information to one of the other Great Five for his freedom. He sighed as he soon realized that, it was a far fetch idea. Still, Zomatsu continued his investigation as he called back the ogre brothers and lead them through the forest following the trail he was tracking.
With the use of his ability, he was able to tell the group was taking roundabout routes to avoid almost all the monster's nests and even the stronger monsters. He could accurately predict their exact location so he took the quickest and safest route. It was easy enough to catch up to the group and even from the vast distance, he could tell how many they were.
They were a group of six humanoid beings and judging by their diverse auras, he knew they were a group of different demi-human races, most likely ogres and beastkins with one being either a goblin or a kobold.
They maintained a massive distance between the group and followed them for a few minutes purely on Zomatsu's ability. The group soon headed out of the forest which prompted Zomatsu and the ogre brothers to come to a halt.
Zomatsu and the brothers walked across the perimeter of the forest to maintain visuals of the group until they reached their destination while avoiding being noticed by them or anyone else. They waited at the edge of the forest as they watch the group of six stops in front of the barrier that enclosed the demon king's castle.
They stood there for a few minutes and Zomatsu was wondering why, when suddenly one of the six people fell right through the barrier face first. Zomatsu jaws went loose and so did Bam and Bor, they could barely believe their eyes yet what happened next, struck them dumb. They stood rooted to their spots as all six figures went through the barrier like it didn't exist.
Zomatsu took off his hood in public for the first time, revealing his extremely handsome features, he knew it was ludicrous but, he felt like they were part of the reason his eyes were playing tricks on him.
Breaking the barrier would've been more acceptable than this, it didn't feel natural for something that had given the entire continent that much trouble, would be so easily under the control of a bunch of ogress and beastmen. Zomatsu shook his head and forced himself not to care about such matters, all he needed to find out was if the one in charge here could be of use to him or not.
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Zomatsu and the brothers decided to camp in the outskirts of the forest as close to the castle as they could without getting noticed. This was quite dangerous because monsters usually roamed out to the perimeters often and they couldn't spare a moment to rest. He needed to keep his ability active the entire time, which was quite draining, but as a Zorak, he had a lot of mana potions with him.
It had only been about an hour when he suddenly sensed something, it was faint and he wasn't really sure what it was, so Zomatsu increased the range and potency of his ability and it even penetrated the Five-layer barrier.
This, however, turned out to be the biggest mistake he had ever made in his life.
A deathly shriek that sent a chill down his spine and gave him a similar feeling to death, penetrated his entire body to the point that, he felt like his skin pores were being torn to shreds.
He received a sudden jolt of pain so excruciating that even someone like him that had been trained to have a high threshold for pain fell to his knees screaming in agony.
The shriek was loud and terrifying but the brothers were only mildly disturbed by it. They were distant away from the castle and the only reason they heard it was because they had activated spells that enhanced their hearing and eyesight to keep watch of their surroundings while Zomatsu focused on the castle.
At most their ears were bleeding as they had little resistance to this type of attack but what was happening to their boss was beyond their comprehension. He should have better resistance than they did, so this shouldn't be a problem for him, yet the opposite was true.
Zomatsu on the other hand knew he was at fault, increasing the range and potency of his ability, Superior Sense, without knowing the exact situation of the castle was a bad idea, his eagerness from being shocked earlier had lead to a miscalculation. His ability had magnified the mental and physical attack of the °Death Wail° by several folds, and it had ignored his resistance.
His head felt like there was a large drum being bang on the inside of it and his brain couldn't function properly.
His ears and nose bled, and his eyes felt like they would bust out of their sockets. The brothers gained control of themselves and moved in to help their boss. They had a couple of Tier 3 healing scrolls and some protection against negative effects scrolls on hand so they could at least help him enough so he could regain his senses. This was the Darknar forest, and they were nowhere close to a safe zone, it was very dangerous to leave their boss in such a state here.
Especially since they were close to the perimeter and may be spotted or heard by the people they were spying on. Although, Bam and Bor thought the ones inside should also be feeling the same discomfort as they did, so they would have some time to help Zomatsu recover. Bam hurriedly brought out a scroll from his bag and rushed towards the screaming Zomatsu to activate it while Bor hurriedly did the same only a hair slower.
However...
A sudden saturation in the space around them made them freeze. The temperature hadn't changed, but the brothers felt hot, they were now sweating and their backs were soaked.
In the midst of their trembling hands and watery eyes, a figure slowly appeared out of nowhere. It was a young girl around the age of 12 or 13, she wore a Black mask that covered the lower parts of her face and a similar colored dress with white linings, she had Amber-colored eyes and green hair with a french twist.
She had on greenish-black greaves and the same colored gloves with metal knuckles.
Seeing the young girl stand next to the pained Zomatsu made the brother shudder in fear. She turned her emotionless gaze upon them and their faces changed drastically, tears ran down their eyes as a single word escaped their mouths at the same time.
"Ghost."
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