Chapter 677: How to deal with enemies from all sides (part 1)
Listening to Badr’s calculations, Daimon couldn’t help but say.
"Well, that could be a problem too, all the peak Stellar ranks I have seen so far won’t amount to ten, though there are indeed some more who I think should be their equals in terms of battle prowess, the number won’t grow that much", which made the former six-armed nethereal frown.
"I don’t want to doubt your judgment, specially considering the talent you and miss Arianna had shown, meaning that there must be some amazing powerhouses for each respective level in your galaxies of origin, however the gap between the Stellar and Star Lord realm is not that easy to cross".
"Even if at its starting point, the Star Lord realm is where magic knights and battle mages are born and just because of that, tens of mages or knights are needed to deal with a single of those two", said the nethereal, which made Daimon raise an eyebrow behind his mask.
He extended his hands in front of him and then darkness mana gathered above his right hand, while light battle aura shone around his left hand, the previous caused three different kinds of reactions.
First and formal, the black sea emblem inside Daimon’s pocket complained, but returned to calm when it noticed that Daimon wasn’t using neither mana nor battle aura for anything, he was just showing to have the capacity to use both, which is a legal loophole in the rules of the challenge.
Then we have, Badr’s reaction which was him nearly choking with the water he was drinking and last but not least, there is Lyn’s reaction which was she approaching Daimon in a fraction of a second to then observe his mana and battle aura a bit too close.
"That means that in your Stellar Kingdoms, before the Star Lord realm, you can do something like this, on a minor scale of course, since I’m not neither a magic knight nor a battle mage, but both a mage and a knight at the same time", said Daimon to then dispel his mana and battle aura, making Lyn pout she was so interested in Daimon’s capacity to use mana and battle aura and wanted to make countless of questions, though she has been told about it beforehand.
"Cough... not only in the Nethereal or Northern Sea’s Stellar Kingdoms, in any Stellar Kingdom that I have known or heard about, the norm is that magic knights and battle mages only appear at the Star Lord realm or above and those that become one at the Star Lord realm are only capable of doing so because they quite literally have been prepared for it during their whole lives until that point".
"It’s very much a stablished truth at this point, leaving that aside, a mage and a knight at the same time is that a thing in your galaxy of origin?", said the nethereal as he cleared his throat, to which Daimon answered.
"That’s interesting, I’m actually the only one that is both a mage and a knight, but I have some people close to me that have the capacity to properly use some aspects of the two paths and are below the Star Lord realm as of current", said Daimon.
Without taking the soulmates into account, there are members of the group that have shown the capacity to fight with aspects of the path they didn’t take as their main, either at the early realms like the Risha and nethereal sisters or at the later realms like Annete, Thea or the lamia queen for example.
They and a lot others can use aspects of the other path without having taken a step into it, and then there is Aura who actually has lit up her life spark while being a mage and of course Aisha, who though hasn’t managed to do it, has the guide to do so thanks to her grimoire.
"I see, in that case I take my previous affirmation back, I would have to see them in action to give you an exact number, but if "irregularities" as they are called in the Nethereal Stellar Kingdom are that common in your inner circle, then a group of three to four at the Stellar realm regardless of their stage, might be able to kill a Star Lord or at least fight on equal standing with it", said Badr after a moment of contemplation.
"Hoh, really how come the number went down from many dozens of peak Stellars to less than five and without putting much weight to their stage?", asked Daimon to which the nethereal slightly rubbed his temples before answering.
"Because the Stellar realm is a major transformation point, the increase in battle prowess that comes with having aspects of the two paths integrated in one’s fighting style, it’s not only accumulative but also exponential until it, and the more time a person in question passes practicing aspects of both paths while below the Star Lord realm, the gap between he or she when compared with others will further increase...", Badr stopped for a moment before he gazed at Daimon to then add.
"I can’t honestly begin to imagine how strong someone like you who is both a mage and a knight would be once you reach the Stellar rank, you’ll be a monster, no, a monster among monsters, I think that you might even surpass the maximum threat level that has been recorded in the Nethereal Stellar Kingdom, and we are talking about the Arcanist which according to a story an ancestor of my father told him, was the reason the kingdom used its last resort to change its location".
"What!", exclaimed both Daimon and Lyn in surprise, though for different reasons, in Daimon’s case it was because the term "Arcanist" came from Badr’s mouth, as for Lyn it was because the nethereal apparently knew about why the nethereals suddenly appeared in their territory.
"Hey old man, why are you only mentioning this now, maybe we didn’t have that much time to speak back then, but it sure would have been nice if you helped fill in one of the biggest gaps in our intel about nethereals", said the sky-blue haired girl to which Badr’s shrugged in response.
"It’s not like I didn’t want to, but more like I couldn’t speak about it, the slave seal might have been weakened enough for me to rebel back then, but it still existed and speaking about anything regarding the Nethereal Stellar Kingdom was prohibited, I was a battle slave remember, if I was captured the idea was that the enemy couldn’t get any information from me".
"Also, to be honest I used to believe that the whole Arcanist thing was just a bed tale my father told me to make me behave as a child, as in if I didn’t, the Arcanists would come for me, after all it’s hard to believe that a single person without any external assistance could have the strength to threat the existence of a whole bunch of Stellar Kingdoms allied together... or at least that’s what I used to believe", he said as he gazed at Daimon, who couldn’t help but chuckle behind his mask.
’So basically, I’m the bogeyman for nethereals, that’s flattering from them I guess’, he thought.
"Mmm, yeah that goes even beyond what the hints I gathered about the sealed records in our history, would suggest about those dangerous existences, after all the calamity it’s supposed to only affect our Northern Sea Kingdom", mumbled Lyn to then also gaze at Daimon.
"I told you that while I’m also one, I’m not in the same category as the other two guys we’ll be facing later, on the other hand it’s amusing that those three bastards thought of me as the monster in a horror story to scare high ranked noble children, just because I can do things they think are not possible, the situation that originated the term "Arcanist" must have been really traumatic for the nethereals of back then", jokingly said Daimon, to which Lyn nodded a she said.
"Again, I thank Pheli for bringing you to our side".
Even within system users there definitely exist categories, for example Ereth is for sure higher up the ladder when it comes to hero type users when compared to Adam, even as of current he is still a pain the ass to deal with.
"Ahem, unfortunately I have no more information about it, my father only got to hear it because while he was born in a secondary branch of the Sallios family, his ancestor was not much weaker than the patriarch of the family back then, to only one that might know more about it should be Byron", added Badr with an apologetic voice.
’Well, at least now it’s easy to guess that the term "Arcanist" is used for someone they believe can threat a greater territory than that of a Stellar Kingdom, instead of it being just another way to call a system user, I don’t know if I should feel flattered, considering they don’t see Ereth as a future possible enemy of that caliber, unlike me though’, thought Daimon.
"I assume you don’t know what the target of the nethereals was, when they decided to follow our group then?", asked Lyn, which resulted in another negative answer.
"Nope, but before parting, I heard Agrak’s older brother in other words the heir to the Belliel family curse as he said that it was a mistake to send his idiot young brother to a mission whose success could bring a "golden age" to the nethereal kingdom, so I guess whatever you guys were looking for, was incredibly valuable".
Apparently, Badr didn’t lose his memories, probably because he wasn’t targeted by neither the Megalodon nor the Lords who only got to know about his betrayal after the final battle, when they made a headcount of their remaining forces.
Unfortunately, Badr had no access to any important information about the mission, because he was Agrak’s subordinate and Agrak himself was disdained by the three Lords, who were only following orders without knowing much about the reason to begin with.
"Tsk, damn secrecy, it would have been easier to deal with the enemies if we knew what the hell, we were doing so far from the Northern Sea kingdom to begin with", mumbled Lyn while clicking her tongue, she was in a noticeably bad mood because she only got half-baked intel for one reason or another.
Luckily, Daimon knew the solution to that, they had their meal and enjoyed a nice rest, so it was time to go on their way, which would lead them to enemies Lyn could beat to a pulp, that for sure would make her forget about the previous.
"Let’s get going, we still have many hours of daylight, so we should be able to make it to where our target is before night.
"Mm, beating the hell out of a traitor will for sure give a good night of sleep", said Lyn as she got up to then guide the way, luckily the next few kilometers of terrain consisted in flat land which could be crossed by the group in less than a third of the time it would have taken for them if it was a mountainous area.
So, while taking a small break to recover here and there, the group arrived at the start of a different type of environment, well, it still consisted in a black colored place like before, but it wasn’t made out of just black soil, because there were pieces of a darker colored black solid substance which radiated a cold sensation, covering some parts of the ground here and there.
Yeah, it was ice and what lied ahead was a frozen rocky wasteland area, there wasn’t any snow though, only solid ice covering the rocks and ground, probably because the red sun would have melted it.
"The influence of those three is quite strong here, it’s not too far from where I was sealed, but the sensation is different, instead of restraining is more like it’s nurturing the one who is sealed here", said Badr as he looked around while the group moved through the frozen wasteland.
"That’s because the one sealed here is that damn woman from the Wave Splitting Narwhal race, in other words the Kener family, knowing her she for sure made a deal with those three guys and instead of fighting against nether has been supporting its creation, which would explain why there is black water spread all over the place in the form of ice, instead of it being concentrated in a limited area", said Lyn with an obviously not so happy voice.
"Narwhal huh, there was a narwhal race family at Neptune and Arlion, in other words the descendant from the White Disaster shark race from back then, had some offspring from their race", said Daimon.
"It’s understandable, that traitor bastard of Dian had two seconds in command, one was his brother which was killed by me at the final battle and the other was his "lover" though from my point of view she was more of a trophy, no, worse because she had willingly joined those white shark bastards... despite the Kner family being a distant branch of Pheli’s Vallmery family", said Lyn to then add.
"That being said, the offspring you mention must have been from the Shooting Narwhal race probably, since they weren’t Dian’s children, but his descendant’s ones, right".
"Yeah, they were from the Shooting Narwhal race, interestingly enough they were related to Daphne, the girl I told you inherited Ophelia’s lineage and also targeted her, maybe under Arlion’s orders but one of them truly seemed to had something against Daphne".
"It doesn’t surprise me, the Kener who was originally a branch subordinated to the Vallmery had a conflict with them, because my Alabaster Horned Dolphin race was recognized as their equal, even though we also haven’t had a Throne appearing in our family like them and when Pheli became a confirmed future Throne and I became a candidate they forcefully broke away from the Vallmery family and joined the White family".
"The interesting part is that the daughter of the Kener patriarch became a candidate not too long after that, and so she was sent alongside Dian to be a thorn on the side for Pheli and myself".
’Enmity that was inherited through lineage, perhaps, well those twins both were trash regardless of that’, thought Daimon.
"Someone that survived a real fight with miss Lyndis is not an easy opponent to deal with for sure", said Badr as he frowned, he doesn’t remember having clashed with someone from the Northern Sea’s army that could be on equal standing as Lyn, she was the strongest of the attack type knights seconds in command.
And as if knowing what the nethereal was thinking, Lyn softly snorted as she mumbled.
"Humph, it wasn’t that she survived a fight against me, but more like she survived because she didn’t fight against me", to then add with a mocking voice.
"That woman was doing "recognition" when Pheli caught Dian and Agrak in our camp, she was probably making sure that none of us was in the perimeter for Dian, unfortunately, Throne candidate or not, she was never an opponent for Pheli, I bet Dian for sure blame her for having been caught red handed that day~".
"Anyway, the point is that she is adept at manipulating the situation so that she is out of danger, Dian’s brother cursed her for not appearing on the battlefield when I killed him after all".
"A scheming type, she is dead then, my senior brother’s other master is considered the most cunning woman in our galaxy of origin, and considering the stories my master has told me, that’s just because there hadn’t been a competition to grade strategists, she is the sole person that has managed to trick the smartest person in all the galaxies from our Stellar Chart after all", said Arianna obviously referring to Erin.
"Is she from a fox type race?", asked Lyn to Daimon who nodded in response.
"Yeah", he limited to say.
"Ughh, those fellows are hard to deal with, especially the female members of their races, I remember when the ambassador of the Northern Mountain kingdom came, that witch from the Winter Fox race was...", Lyn’s sentence was interrupted by Daimon who was more interested in the name "Northern Mountain kingdom".
"Wait a second, you already mentioned the Eastern Sky kingdom and you are from the Northern Sea kingdom, and now there is a Northern Mountain kingdom, what’s the relation between you all?", he asked.
"Oh that, it’s the agreed name given to the strongest non-human kingdom located in each cardinal point of the openly known and connected kingdoms, as for the sea, mountain and sky part, that’s to differentiate our origins, those with the term "sea" descend from races related to water, the term "mountain" is for descendants of races that live on the ground and well you can imagine what the "sky" is used for at this point".
"Of course, that’s just for races registered within the non-human alliance, there are human kingdoms where only humans and their variations live and also night race kingdoms, where the races with extreme negative orientation live, the nethereals should have gone there, they would have probably earned a spot for their kingdom if that was the case, but I guess they wrongly believed we were easier to deal with", said Lyn.
Unfortunately, the conversation had to be interrupted because the temperature suddenly plummeted, the reason was simple, black clouds started appearing in the vicinity half covering the red sun, but only within the frozen wasteland area, as Daimon discovered when he looked back from where they came.
"So that’s the three bastard’s plan, they are preparing the stage to free that woman tonight, they must be really angry because they haven’t been able to find me and probably the backslash they suffered when the old man escaped from his prison was the drop that broke the camel’s back", said Lyn as she looked upwards to then add.
"So, we can expect some annoying black blood beasts appearing in the vicinity to guard that woman while the seal is being released".
"Speaking of enemies, I can smell guys like the ones at the cave towards east and there are also sounds of steps coming from west", said Arianna whose wolf ears moved for a second.
"The ones coming from west are from Marcus’s side", said Daimon, which made Arianna raise an eyebrow as she asked.
"How do you know it?".
"Because there are also people coming from the front, and they are Arlion’s minions, so if Ereth’s guys are coming from east, then Marcus’s subordinates should be coming from west".
"They are small fry, but it will be annoying if all of them are brought together by that woman, so why don’t you give us a little show of that fox race wisdom?", said Lyn to Daimon who nodded in response.
"It’s not particularly a challenge, but fine, we’ll do as it follows...".
...
A couple of minutes after Daimon told the rest of the group about his plan, east from their previous position a group of four people with a strange lifeless gray skin tone were walking with difficulty due to the rough rocky cold ground while cursing.
"Damn weather, we are resistant against the black water not this freaking cold!", said the one who was guarding the back, to which the one leading said.
"Will it kill you to not complain for a change you bastard, no matter how bad the weather is, would you dare to go back to Lady Karla empty handed?".
"...", seeing that his question remained unanswered the leader turned backwards to scold his subordinate, alongside the other two who wanted to enjoy the show, only for them to frown on the spot as they saw their companion whose had stopped moving.
"Hey Dean what the hell are you...".
"Crack!", before the leader could finish his sentence, shattering sounds came from the body of the subordinate called Dean before he... exploded.
"Booom!", bloody pieces of flesh spread all over the area the next second, staining those three who were taken by surprise, but that’s not what caught their attention, but the figure wearing a dark blue jacket with a hood that was standing not too far from them with its right fist pointing at where their now dead companion was.