The Skelefiend who still had a horrified expression remembering the pain caused by Demon Light, started telling Daimon what he knew.
“First of all, let me tell you I don’t know too much, I might not be under any kind of contract or restriction because of some blood connections with Lord Horrowclaw… but I’m not even close to the top of the food chain”.
“So, I haven’t seen that person even once, only Lord Horrorclaw and the captain of the Devil Stingray pirates had reunited with him”.
Daimon nodded, his expectations weren’t that high, whoever was behind all this wasn’t stupid enough to let some nobodies see him, but it didn’t matter as he was sure whoever the pirates and Skelefiends leaders knew, was probably still a disguise.
The identity wasn’t what he was aiming for here, he wanted more context about the whole situation so he could start planning a counterattack.
“Okay, let’s start with the basics, how may of you are here and who’s the strongest?”, he asked.
“About 800 of us entered this place, the weakest are in the middle stage of the early Mortal level, as for the strongest, two of Lord Horrowclaw’s generals who are Half Stelar ranks are leading the whole army half and a half, their strengths are suppressed though so that the Trident Marshal wouldn’t notice them”.
Miserius answer was quite detailed and Daimon would have left it at that… if he couldn’t notice the signs of the Skelefiend omitting information, like his heartbeat accelerating and his eyes unconsciously showing some distress.
Daimon snapped his fingers and a whisp of white flames lit up above his right hand.
“Didn’t I tell you to not play any tricks, the pirates barely dared to bring around 400 people, since they didn’t want to raise suspicions, so now you are telling me you doubled their numbers without any extra preparation?”.
Miserius felt a shiver running down his spine upon being looked by those violet amethyst eyes, he saw those terrifying flames approaching him and he immediately shouted.
“W-We found an alternative route that led us to certain spaces in the Wild Tide Reef, also that Lord sold us a process that allowed our race to hide in other creature’s corpses, with it we were able to sneak in the bodies of weak magic beasts that wouldn’t arise any surprise, unfortunately due to the promptness of the situation, we were only able to double our numbers”.
‘If not you all would have died by now’, mentally added Miserius.
Daimon skillfully played with the white flame giving it different forms and making it swirl around his hand, as he said.
“Speaking of that, how is that method called and also tell me everything you know about that enhancing you used earlier, did both of them came from that “Lord” you keep mentioning, what are its pros and cons?”.
Miserius was trying to divulgate as less information as possible, but due to his fear he had of those white flames he ended up shooting at his own foot, so now he had to answer.
“Yeah both methods were given to us by that Lord… as I stated I don’t know too much, but heard from one of the higher-ups that the enhancement method was given to us as a “sign of goodwill”, in exchange for us to ally with the pirates, that’s why they also have it”.
“As you previously saw it improves our bodies by using the properties of some magic beasts, giving us a boost in physical aspects and our mage’s realms too, depending on the race we are compatible with, also as a side benefit, we become more resistant to light element attacks… or at least that should be the case”, said Miserius as he resentfully looked at the white flames in Daimon’s hand.
“The same process is used for the magic beasts that have joined us, but they get properties from non-beast races, like us, mermen or the mixed races to which the pirates belong”.
Daimon frowned, it was a really strong enhancement, those who descend from magic beast often have some advantages over humans, the Risha sisters for example, the Revy family and the like, one of the pillars of their families are the race-exclusive talents they have.
On the other hand, now that Daimon had fought head on with Lucas, he could tell that enhancement couldn’t compare to a real descendant of a human and a magic beast, or magic bests who had become able to take human form before they produced offspring.
Ultimately they were imitations and integrating other people’s lineages isn’t easy at all, the artificial undead back at the Wonder Myriad Stellar Chart are proof of that, among them “abominations” exist, which are basically failed products result of the try of combining different races to create a stronger one, or a variant.
But so far, they haven’t been able to do it, all the products were deformed corpses with genetic damage, and incredibly short lifespans, though they ended up being re-categorized as abominations becoming one of the many different artificial undead races.
“How much time had passed since you idiots were put through that enhancing process?”, asked Daimon, as a realization hit him like a truck.
Miserius gritted his teeth upon being insulted but he still answered.
“It’s been two weeks, the method was given to us just recently, and we divided our attention into getting used to the other process we bought from that Lord, one that only our Skelefiend race can use to disguise within the corpse of other creatures, you should all give in, without noticing our spies will surround you both mermen and idiots from the Elemental Sea”.
Daimon snorted, he grabbed one of Miserius’s bones and teared it apart from his body, making the Skelefiend complain with a pained expression, but he still didn’t dare to provoke the silver haired youth, and just kept silent.
Daimon looked at the bone which came from Miserius’s shoulder, when he fought with Lucas he memorized the distribution of those ominous black symbols, they had different sizes and some of the bigger were on key points like shoulders, knees, chest and the like.
But now that he looked into it, he realized that first there was nothing in the bone, the marks and any other evidence of the process had disappeared without a trace.
Daimon glared at Miserius and the Skelefiend had no choice but to say.
“We can only use the enhancement once per each “charge”, and for that single use we are given a small bottle with the “fuel”, don’t ask me what’s in there because I don’t know anything, besides the fact that a lot of blood and flesh from the respective magic beast is needed to produce it”.
Daimon frowned, the whole process were forbidden practices, things that are banned in every place, magic beasts often don’t care if some low ranks are hunted for food, that’s the cycle of life and they respect it, but when their peers are massively captured and used for experiments, they will bite back.
Back at his Stellar Chart, there is an agreement between the forces and the Half Emperor magic beasts, unless a race is causing troubles to a strong force, they are not to be exterminated, for preservation purposes.
In exchange to avoid overpopulation the forces are allowed to hunt some magic beasts, by missions assigned by their respective academies, families and the like, for example the Keratos that reproduce too much and are too volatile when they approach populated zones, fall in that category.
As the say goes, “There are no eternal enemies only eternal benefits”, both the rulers of the four galaxies and the magic beasts had to reach an agreement, for the sake of both parties, o course there are exceptions which are not to be touched, just like how descendants of Half Emperors have “guardian angels” backing them, at the end everything is the same.
Miserius could tell Daimon wasn’t pleased with the fact that he couldn’t investigate the enhancement process and he inwardly laughed at his disgrace, unfortunately for him, Daimon could read him like a book and his next words were like a bucket of cold water right to his face.
“Do you really believe that such a convenient power comes without any restriction, that you can just integrate other’s lineages without any side effects, you idiots were fooled, or perhaps your bosses know it but you are the guinea pigs”, said Daimon.𝑜𝔳𝑙xt.𝚌𝞸𝓶
The boosting that pirate used back then when he met Mellie, and the one used by Lucas and Miserius is on par with those that can be considered highly talented in the Clear Water kingdom, like Mellie or him, in other words those who have managed to reach a concentration of about ten percent, thus allowing them to display a race trait.
Daimon has the system and according to Evangeline he already had some kind of thing ongoing even prior to that, which the energy that powers the system and some of his strongest skills, what is responsible of his magic core originally to being able to process mana, prior to the system’s awakening.
And one of the things his Apex Predator constitution grants him is always being at the top of the food chain, as such he can predate on others but nothing can predate on him, so consuming other lineages and integrating them is including on that, even then he needs to meet some requirements for it to work.
As for Mellie she was born with that latent lineage and developed it as the years went by, so her body doesn’t reject it, and she is able to endure the tension of stimulating it, which boosts her strength and other aspects.
But the pirates and Skelefiends just gained an although inferior, similar capacity from overnight, and originally even Daimon wasn’t able to notice anything fishy, but that is because he wasn’t looking at the correct layer of the visual spectrum.
From the outside, structural wise, vitality wise and mana wise the bone was perfectly fine, though Aisha’s attack weakened it by exposition to lightning, it wasn’t irreparable and thus the damage wasn’t permanent.
But with his infinity eyes he could see that some of the thinnest and almost unnoticeable mana circuits, were completely thorned apart, they were beyond reparation, in fact Daimon was sure just one usage of that enhancement method took away a few hundreds of years of lifespan from whoever used it, the higher the realm the higher the price.
These guys weren’t even Arch ranks, unless they had special eyes, they had no way to notice it, and even if they reached the Arch ranks, unless the reached the peak stage and had strong mana senses, they would not be able to see even the most external mana circuits let alone these ones who were really hard to notice.
Daimon laughed at Miserius, the Skelefiend used to believe he will be compensated if he gave his life in this battle, but what could you expect from a someone who uses its allies as guinea pigs, it was obvious they were mere subjects in the eyes of whoever is behind all this.
‘Whatever, your corpse will be given a decent purpose at least’, thought Daimon as he continued interrogating the Skelefiend.
Most of the information Miserius had wasn’t too useful, but he managed to get some dates, and other rumors as well as the location of the alternative exit to this place, and the general distribution of the Skelefiend army from him.
“If you want more detailed information you’ll have to capture one of the two generals, but I assure you, you will die trying!”, said Miserius in a try to make Daimon angry, which was worthless, the Skeefiend didn’t know he also had Half Emperor with him right now, not to mention Rita and Horals were able to at least stall one for a certain period of time if they cooperated.
“Before I leave you to answer for the deaths of the magic beasts, tell me, is that Black Beard guy also cooperating with you… and why were you looking for this?”, asked Daimon as he took out the badge he got from the corpse of that pirate who was supposedly an spy from the Skelefiends according to the pirates that he captured.
“D-Devil emblem, how in the name of Snakele did you get it!”, shouted Miserius, the Skelefiend who already knew was going to die lost his cool once again, a reaction which Daimon found interesting.
“Oh, so you do know about it, the last Skelefiend didn’t say anything, and I left nothing of him in exchange, so how is it going to be”, said Daimon with a smirk as white flames lit up in half of his body.
Miserius wanted to cry but tears won’t come out, as he once again was forced to give probably the last piece of important intel he had.
Daimon’s eyes glowed as he listened to Miserius’s answer, and at the same time he frowned as he thought about the his own black badge with the rune shark engraved into it.
‘What the hell is happening in this magic ruin’, he thought.