While Horals and Bell directed the interrogation at the next room, Daimon focused his attention on Malkim, the leader of this branch of Black Wave, who right now had an ash dead expression.

His last chance to survive was taken away from him, and he could recognize Armando as one of the only two Maximum Stellar ranked of the Bone Sea, so his death was practically guaranteed at this point.

At least until Daimon’s voice made him notice, that there was another well-known person in this room.

“Senior Aurora, can you cure this guy?”, asked Daimon.

Malking heard the name “Aurora” and his eyes glowed with the desire of survival, as he turned to see the elegant old lady that was calmly standing at the other side of the room.

Aurora’s eyes glowed in a white light, she frowned for a second but ultimately, she nodded before saying.

“His body is in a horrible state, for a wound that has just a couple of days, but I can heal it, a few hundreds of years of lifespan have been devoured by that black mist though”.

Daimon smirked as he talked to Malkim.

“You heard it, we can cure you but you’ll have to sign a contract to become my subordinate, the other option is naturally death”.

Malkim felt bitter right now, he didn’t understand why suddenly all these dangerous groups wanted to capture Black Wave, but he saw Olivia who didn’t seem to have been mistreated and he realized it was better to serve this group, than the one to whom Roger belonged.

“I accept”, he limited to say.

Daimon nodded and then he sent a message to Thea, who previously had confirmed Malkim was clean of any important contracts, the Empress didn’t have to be in the same room for her ability to activate and so, Malkim was subordinated to Daimon.

The leader could have resisted if he wanted to but the result would have been death, so he didn’t dare to do so, the moment the contract was stablished the sweet sound of a notification rang in Daimon’s ears.

[Ding]

[A new mission has been added to the Mission Temple due to a specific action <!>]

Daimon felt the urge to laugh, his supposition was right, making this branch of Black Wave submit was part of Marcus’s mission for some reason, so now that he “stole” them from him, a mission was triggered, similar to what happened when he got into Adam’s way to meet Mellie.

[Stealing from the devil (Skalia continent): the Devil Ruler Marcus was tasked to eliminate the most prominent group from the underworld of the Skalia continent and take their place, but was blocked by the host at a critical point of the event (the mission has been adjusted to match the preferences of the host)].

[Objectives:

[Weaken the beliefs of the White Walker race à Discover the truth about the sword of Snakele (1/1)]

[Assassinate the current representative of the White Walker race à Obtain the gratitude of the current representative of the White Walker race (1/1)]

[Kill the leader of Black Wave à Make the leader of Black Wave submit (1/1)]

[Spread your influence over at least half of the territory of the Skalia continent (70/100) (territories owned by official allies count as territories conquered by the host)]

[Kill the hidden gem to prevent them from getting on your way à Get the hidden gem to join your side (0/2)]

[Steal the legacy left to help the Devil Ruler (0/1)]

Daimon read the objectives of the mission and he chuckled, originally it was basically the contrary to what he had to do after stealing an opportunity from Adam, which made sense as those two were the opposite of the other.

While Adam had to get others to join his side, Marcus had to kill others to prevent them from getting in his way, that being said there was also a legacy left behind for him.

‘Another two hidden gems… I haven’t even completed that requirement from the other mission’, thought Daimon.

One of the “hidden gem” requirement was met when he gained the trust of Mellie and Annete, the notification was triggered when he received the necklace that the mother of the queen left for her, which he now wore in his neck, that made think Daimon that maybe the word gem meant those requirements will be met after receiving a material possession that held a strong meaning to the ones involved in the missions, but now he wasn’t so sure about it.

Considering Jasmine was Adam’s next target, after entering into both Abaris and Aurora’s treasuries, he didn’t get any notification, for a moment he thought the Flying Citadel might have been it, but even after putting into his inventory there was no notification, and it’s not like the necklace the queen gave him was his, she just lent it to him as a sign of their original contract, which currently wasn’t needed as Mellie was no longer just a girl he had to act as a bodyguard for, but his friend.

The same applied to Jasmine, so he was missing something here, but at least he now knew that Marcus hasn’t gotten the main thing that was legated to him, and now he won’t, since Daimon had stole that chance, if what he theorized was right, then there were more than one gift prepared for those two, and his system stole the best one, but the others were available for them, that way their systems won’t notice the disappearance of the reward that, the opportunity stolen would have given, since not even administrators know what the rewards will be, according to Evangeline.

“I don’t know where the hell did Adam ended up, but Marcus went to the Maelstrom Sea, while his job in the Skalia continent isn’t over, so there must be something there that is quite important to him”, mumbled Daimon, he was going to travel to the Maelstrom Sea anyway, so he might as well take a look into what Marcus is looking for, there.

There is also another urgent matter to discuss, which was related to Marlene, the girl from the Angel Fish clan raised an eyebrow, Daimon doesn’t really pay her any attention normally, besides the usual greeting or the times when he also plays board games with the girls, so being suddenly stared at by him made her wonder if the sun raised from the west today or something like that.

“The Nethereal faction led by the leader of Black Wave in the Bone Sea is… targeting your clan”.

As expected, Marlene was temporarily at a loss after Daimon dropped a bomb on her so suddenly, Marlene might be pretty free spirited personally, to the point that she can be a bit of an airhead sometimes like when she tried to unconsciously steal some luck out of Daimon and was hit with the consequence of failing to do so which nearly made her choke, but she knows when to take things seriously.

And she as the last member of the royal family of her clan, has the duty to protect his fellow clanmates, especially since they would be enslaved on the spot if discovered by anyone that recognized them, over that superstition.

Getting a glimpse of the rare-to-see worried expression on Marlene’s face, Daimon said.

“We’ll be going to the Maelstrom Sea next, so we can pick them on the way, just tell senior Aurora the coordinates of the place where they are hiding… I would suggest that you don’t contact them, because their location was leaked by the leader of that branch of Black Wave, so they might be being surveilled”, added Daimon.

Marlene’s eyes glowed as she nodded, she as going to ask Daimon for her clansmen to join, but then she realized that they will be practically baggage, since besides her whose talent was incredibly high as she was part of the royal lineage of the Angel Fish clan, the others were mostly Lord ranked mages, with a couple early-stage Arch ranks, they had nothing to contribute to the alliance.

And she hasn’t recovered either, so even that can be used as a token of negotiation, she even lost all the treasures and resources as her ring was lost, when she used her last resort to escape from Sting and Blackbeard, Daimon had already helped her once, due to her friendship with Thea, sure he was technically one of Thea’s general, but it’s not like the Empress could order Daimon to do something, in fact she would refuse to do something like that, as she treats her generals as her family, otherwise she wouldn’t respect Karmandi and Lina enough to even allow them to scold her, considering she is way stronger than them.

“Thanks…”, she limited to mumble a few words, and then smiled at Daimon before she left to the next room, because she had some things to discuss with Thea.

Or at least she tried to do so, but before she could, Thea as well as the Bone General who was smiling as he leafed through his treasured notebook, returned to the room, this time Horals properly cleaned and made himself look decent in front of his young master’s mistresses, being sure that they didn’t get to see his blood-stained appearance.

Thea also seemed to be in a good mood, so she probably got the results she expected, Bell was the same, she had a few papers on which there were some draws, that caught Daimon’s interest.

“That guy isn’t like the previous creatures, maybe because he doesn’t have that black sphere, but he does feel pain, pretty easily I must add, even if you don’t use light element spells, also he was under a curse yes, but while it was as aggressive as the ones we have seen, it was way weaker, so the next time I should be able to see it!”, said the Empress with a slightly enthusiastic voice.

The fact that her innate ability which resided in her eyes couldn’t discern the loyalty curse on the Nethereals, gave Thea’s pride a blow, but she couldn’t be blamed, curses are already an uncommon thing, not only in Neptune but even at the four galaxies, Daimon has only heard that the Arashiel noble clan from the Black Marsh galaxy, is prominent in that.

Having “informed” her discoveries to Daimon she walked towards Marlene who clearly had something to say, judging by the expression her face.

While those two went to a corner of the room to have a small private talk, it was Horals’s turn to read the newly added lines to the notebook, which he used to record the triumphs of his young master over a variety of enemies.

For Horals the fact that his young master’s defeated enemies, were forced to spill the beans was a delight, besides death, the best consequence for anyone that dared to get into his young master’s conquest is humiliation, and obediently answering to the questions of an enemy is a huge humiliation, so those words were worth being recorded for the future history books of his young master’s conquered galaxies.

“Reporting to the young master, that guy is called Roger Hendric, a native of the Maelstrom Sea, from one of the many nomadic tribes, that are result of the mixing races from the other three seas, due to the outcasts, criminals and people who seek refuge in the mysterious waters of the Maelstrom Sea, he was a pirate from Blackbeard’s crew before entering Black Wave, and apparently that Blackbeard guy has been always colluding with these creatures”.

“That’s what he supposed, because he got to once see a masked guy that radiated a similar but stronger sensation to the one Roger gives off right now, casually ordering Blackbeard who is know to be tyrannic, around like an errand boy”.

Daimon’s eyes glowed behind his mask.

‘The scheming guy, of course the best place to raise a secret force would be the Maelstrom Sea, where no one dares to look too much into’, thought Daimon before saying.

“That masked guy, has that guy seen him recently?”.

Unfortunately, Horals shook his head, before answering with a disappointed voice.

“No, that was a few years ago, since then no one has seen anyone wearing that same mask, but there are others who give off a similar sensation, which I believe is caused by that black mist young master mentioned, and one of them is in the Maelstrom Sea, acting as the pirate called Sting’s adviser”.

Daimon nodded, the pirates he met during the beast hunt, who surrendered, already mentioned that there was someone that was always seen with Sting, his right hand, which always wore a mask.

Horals bowed and then returned to his rightful place, which is standing behind his young master.

The last one that had something to say was Bell, who had a couple of papers with some familiar draws on them.

“You were right, there are many types of Nethereals, that guy didn’t resemble the crown faced I know about, nor the multi-eyed or the large mouth ones you mentioned, this one grew feathers on its neck, and a beak on its chest”, said Bell as she showed Daimon a portrait she drew of Roger’s real appearance.

“I also got the description of another type of Nethereal which he has seen, the guy called Garrius to whom he referred as Lord is this one”, added Bell, as she pointed at the second portrait that looked like a man with a forty centimeters neck and an arm longer than the other one.

“As always the appearances of the Nethereals are rather bizarre, unfortunately this Roger guy doesn’t know about the crown faced Nethereal…”, mumbled Bell, which made Daimon chuckle.

“If that he is alive, he’ll have to come out sooner or later, the same applies to that Byron guy, we’ll take care of them at the respective time, for now let’s see what will the effect of my flames will be on a recently changed Nethereal who lacks that black sphere, it should be slightly similar to Sarah’s case for the time being”, he said.

“Mm”, Bell cheered up a bit, she went to her daughter’s side while Daimon contemplated what the next steps will be.

Originally, they were going to pay a visit to the best informant of the Maelstrom Sea, since he needed to make sure if the underwater space where Arianna and the others were trapped, was in the Maelstrom Sea or not.

He also wanted to know where did Calvin’s group and Scarlet’s group ended, because he has visited three seas, and the intelligence departments of the Annete, Aurora and the recently joined Armando, haven’t found anything regarding people with their characteristics, or even fighting styles.

But now they needed to make a little stop to pick Marlene’s clansmen, and there was also a need to investigate what was Marcus looking for, as well to capture the leader of that branch of Black Wave who was in the black mist stage still, meaning he was the best test subject to find out how to safely cure Bell.

‘Luckily there is a scapegoat already waiting to take the blame for that Romel guy’s future disappearance’, thought Daimon as he smirked.