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Chapter 224 - 223 - A New Threat

Point-of-View: Misen Ragiu

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Tch, why do I have to be a part of this? Today was the 27st of January, 1676, and I was currently being assigned to an S-Ranked Quest, in a team that included eleven others. And I couldn\'t turn it down, because...my father was the one who had selected me for it, and he was also the one assigning the Quest to us.

"I thank you all for coming...this Quest is a rather important one," He greeted, as the twelfth person arrived.

We were all in a meeting room in the Adventurer Guild, waiting to find out exactly what this Quest would entail. Excluding me, the others here included Rion Xester, Rex Archer, Azeria Folix, Siert, Siela Larwas and Yuur Ganroh, along with some of the former Academy students who had graduated and become full-fledged Adventurers just under a month ago, Lusk Cotuid, Prato Cichudde, Ida Rowmaet, Kusu Omack and Zubu Abook.

"Excuse me, sir, but it\'s my understanding that this is supposed to be an S-Ranked Quest, yes?" Spoke up Yuur, "These young Adventurers may be talented, but they are highly inexperienced."

He made a good point there...

"Yeah, shouldn\'t you have included people like Kuro, Persia, Azyl, Fuo or Ekai?" Added Rex with a raised eyebrow.

"Kuro Black is still comatose, Persia Gerit and Azyl Roake have been inactive and lacking in motivation since then, and Ekai Zabel and Fuo Wesroh are currently away on another Quest away from the Rustlands right now."

"What about Gela? She\'s crazy, but she is strong," Pointed out Rex.

"Her skill is certainly apparent, but...she is too much of a loose cannon to entrust with a Quest like this."

"Fair enough."

"What\'s this Quest all about, anyway?" Inquired Azeria curiously.

"Yes, I will get to the specifics now...for the past two weeks, the routes that we use to trade with Bronztan and the Goldlands have been compromised...several carriages and carts have gone missing, even though many of them had traveled using teleport spells...in all likelihood, whoever is responsible has placed a barrier spell or something that is intercepting the merchants using teleportation. I want you all to find out what is going on and eliminate the threat," He explained straightforwardly.

"Huh, that seems easy enough, they\'re probably just bandits or something, right? Why so many of us?" Inquired Rion with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, it is two locations, so two teams of six, you may decide amongst yourselves how to divide the two teams. As for the inexperienced Adventurers, I am including them because working with high-ranking and more experienced Adventurers will be a good experience for them. Ah, Misen, you were their instructor, yes? Then you should have a decent idea of their skills and abilities."

Tch, more work for me...I had managed to convince him to let me quit working as an instructor after the end of last year, having to work almost everyday was a nightmare. Anyway, the meeting was soon wrapped up after my father gave us a few more details regarding the Quest. He then left, leaving us to strategize amongst ourselves.

"So, like...how should we do this, guys?" Inquired Rion, looking around at everyone.

"To start, let us decide how to divide the two teams, one to investigate the route to the Goldlands and one to investigate the route to Bronztan," Suggested Yuur, who was easily the most experienced of us, "We should group the teams in a way that maximizes the potential teamwork...in other words, those that work well together should ideally be in the same team."

"And we should also balance the teams in terms of experience," Pointed out Azeria.

"True, if we don\'t think it through, the teams could end up being dysfunctional," Agreed Lusk Cotuid, adjusting his glasses with a frown.

As everyone began joining in on the discussion one by one, I looked around at them one by one...

"Ahem...," I cleared my throat, getting their attention and adding, "I have a suggestion...we should avoid including too many Fire Magic users in the team that will investigate the route to Bronztan...since the area is full of trees and other plants, the use of fire, and lightning too, will be dangerous."

"Hey, good point, Instructor Ragiu, you\'re smarter than you let on, aren\'t you?" Remarked Ida with a grin.

"Don\'t call me that, you\'re no longer a student and I\'m not an instructor anymore anyway," I replied with a sigh.

"Aw, did I hurt your feelings, instructor?" She teased, nudging me with her elbow.

"That\'s enough...let\'s just decide on the teams already."

It took a while, and we went through a lot of arguing and made several indecisive changes, but eventually, we finally managed to settle on the two teams. The team going to investigate the route to Bronztan consisted of Rex, Siert, Ida, Prato, Yuur and Zubu, and the team that would investigate the route to the Goldlands consisted of Rion, Azeria, Siela, Lusk, Kusu and myself.

We decided to assign Prato to the former team because the latter team already had two Fire Magic users...Prato\'s compressed beams of fire don\'t burn much after being fired, it just melts through the target and disappears.

Anyway, with the teams decided, we agreed to take about a day to ready our equipment and prepare to leave for the Quest sometime tomorrow...all I want is for this to go smoothly, it won\'t be too much to ask for to have nothing go wrong...right...?

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Point-of-View: Shiro Blanc

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"Ah, you\'re back...er, what are those black clouds?" Inquired Hacte, as we returned.

"Oh, these are Demons," Replied Belia with a grin.

After she broke the barrier, the Demons came flooding out, but suddenly froze...apparently, she\'d addressed them telepathically and informed them that she was the one who created them, and it seemed like she had somehow convinced them of that...she then hid them all using her Dimensional Magic...normally, only she could enter into her dimension, though she could teleport other people through it.

Anyway, she was able to take the Demons into her dimension and store them there because they don\'t have physical forms. As for why...she didn\'t want people to know that the Demons were free yet, to maintain the element of surprise for as long as possible, because that would be...\'more chaotic\', her words, not mine. Still, I agreed with maintaining the element of surprise for as long as possible, that wasn\'t a bad move at all.

And now, two Demons were about to possess Hacte and myself. According to Belia, most of the Demons had been unwilling to try to possess me, but a few of the stronger ones were willing to give it a shot. Of course, she didn\'t tell them that she\'d be helping us and making sure that they don\'t take over our minds.

"Come on, let\'s hurry up and start already," I urged her impatiently.

"Alright, alright, don\'t rush me, sheesh. Demons, do your thing."

One of the dark clouds then flew down towards me and enveloped me, before entering my body. Everything then went dark, and I could feel my consciousness being pushed...it\'s a strong force, but...I can resist it, I can push back...I knew how to do so from Kuro\'s memories, this was about the same level of difficulty as Lazarus was, no, it was a bit easier...

Hm, but it\'s a lot more persistent, though that\'s only delaying the inevitable, I will resist this Demon and claim its power...and I don\'t even need Belia\'s help. Alright, just a little more...almost there...I did it! And almost instantly, I could feel it...power surging through my body. This is amazing...

I then slowly opened my eyes and stood up...I felt so much stronger, even in my base form...wait, what\'s going on...something\'s wrong with my Mana circuits, it feels like they\'re being moved around towards my forehead. Damn it, I can\'t stop it, even with my Healing Factor...what is this!?

"Oh, you\'re done already?" Remarked Belia with a look of surprise.

"Yeah, but...something\'s going on with my Mana circuits!" I exclaimed with a frown.

"Hm? Oh, right, in order to use Demonic Magic, that\'s necessary, don\'t worry."

"Don\'t worry? But my Mana circuits aren\'t evenly spread out anymore, won\'t that cause any problems!?" I inquired skeptically.

"Well, techniques that require channeling Mana throughout your body, like Lightning Boost, can\'t be used anymore."

What? But that was one of the techniques I relied on the most in my base form! It wasn\'t usable in Vampire Mode, but still...

"Tch, this Demon better have powered me up enough to make up for that," I muttered to myself, as I scanned my body.

My fingernails were black and had extended out into curved claws...hm, I\'m pretty sure Kuro\'s nails had been the same before he transformed during that last fight. He\'d also had a tail though, but I didn\'t have one.

"The whites of your eyes are black now, and there\'s a tinge of red around your yellow irises," Observed Belia, looking at my face closely, "By the way, I\'m impressed, you didn\'t need my help in resisting the Demon."

My eyes, huh...pretty sure Kuro\'s eyes had also shown similar changes back then, looks like the only difference between his and my current base forms, visually-speaking anyway, was that I don\'t have a tail.

"So, where\'s the kissass?" I inquired, looking around.

Oh, there he is...he looks like he\'s struggling. He was clutching his head and writhing about...but his eyes were shut...he must be inside his consciousness like I was...so, the body still moves even then, huh?

"He\'s definitely losing ground," Remarked Belia with a laugh.

"Sure looks that way...so, uh...aren\'t you gonna help him?"

"Nah, not yet...I\'ll step it when it looks like he\'s about to lose. That was my plan anyway, I\'d sit back and watch you two struggle to resist, and then step in right before you succumb...of course, you ended up resisting successfully."

...this divine bitch...

"Not that I care if he succumbs, in fact, I welcome it...but it\'s looking like he\'s running out of time," I nodded at him, as he began thrashing around violently.

"Yeah, I suppose I should step in now...," She sighed reluctantly, walking towards him and placing a hand on top of his head.

His body stopped writhing and thrashing about, his arms slumping down, when suddenly, his eyes opened and he stood up with a gasp, stumbling back shakily, as some Demonic features appeared on his body.

"Wh-what...I thought I was about to die...why did you take so long...?" He asked indignantly, his body trembling slightly.

"Huh? What are you talking about? It\'s been no more than, like, ten seconds since the Demon possessed you. Right, Shiro?" Responded Belia innocently.

"Yeah, that was really easy, it was over so quickly," I replied with a shrug, playing along with her.

"What, were you having trouble, Hacte?" Inquired Belia, continuing to act innocent to the situation.

"O-of course not, I had the situation under control!" He snapped, not very convincingly.

"I\'m sure you did. Now, then, you\'ve both gotten powered up, so naturally, the next step is..."

"Attacking the Rustlands?" I suggested hopefully.

"What? Of course not, who in their right mind jumps straight to the main course before any foreplay!?" She exclaimed incredulously, her tone making it sound like I\'d said something really stupid.

"Wow...that\'s an awful way of putting it, but I get what you mean."

"Well, then what is our next step?" Inquired Hacte impatiently.

"We need a makeover! I mean, look at you two...you\'re practically dressed in rags. And my outfit is so...boring. So, let\'s get some new clothes! Let\'s go to Silvland, it\'s got less Vampires than Platinberg does."

Wait, what? I\'m questioning everything she just said...

"I suppose I could use some new clothing," Said Hacte, poking at the several holes and rips in his outfit.

Fine, I guess I wouldn\'t mind some better clothes too...

"Back up a sec, what did you say about the Vampires? I thought Kuro trapped them in Platinberg?" I inquired in confusion.

"Yeah, I don\'t know...I\'ve been seeing a number of Vampires in Silvland and outside Platinberg over the past month or so, using my Observation Magic."

"Okay...and why exactly didn\'t you say anything about that?"

"Well, uh...you never asked."

Unbelievable...

"Have you seen anything about Kuro?" I asked with a grimace.

"Actually, no, I haven\'t...and believe me, I\'ve tried. I can\'t seem to find him. When it comes to my Observation Magic, I have two ways of searching for things to observe...the first, is by looking for important occurrences. When I use that way, I can visualize a list of things that are happening at that moment in the world, in order of importance, most important first, followed by the next most important and so on. And the second way, is by looking for a specific person...I just need to picture the person and their name, and then I\'ll be able to see what they\'re doing, unless..."

"Unless...?" I prompted curiously.

"Unless they\'re dead or unconscious, which includes being asleep. I\'ve tried spying on him multiple times, but it\'s no use, and he hasn\'t been present for any of the important occurrences in the Rustlands for the last few days."

"Have you tried spying on Persia or one of his other close friends and seeing if they\'re around him?" I suggested, after mulling it over.

"Oh...no, that never occurred to me. You\'re pretty smart, aren\'t you, Shiro?" She replied with a grin.

"Huh? I, uh-."

"Well, anyway! How about we get some new outfits now?" She remarked with a clap of her hands.

"Sure, why not?" I replied with a shrug, before giving her body a scan and adding, "You could use something more revealing, this current outfit barely shows any skin."

"...well, at least you\'re honest. Alright, you two, grab my shoulders, we\'re going to Silvland!"

...

...

About an hour later, we had all gotten new outfits. And Belia had been right, there really were Vampires in Silvland...not many, and few enough that there were some people on the streets, though they were really on edge and jittery. Most of the shops were unoccupied though, so we were able to pick and choose what we wanted to wear with ease, along with spare outfits.

When Belia saved me from Samsara, I was naked when I re-materialized, I\'d initially covered myself up with leaves and stuff, before we ran into some bandits and I took their clothes after killing them...those were pretty tattered though, so I felt a lot better now that I was wearing some proper clothes.

I\'d swapped out those tattered rags for a white long-sleeved lightly armored leather top with a hood and matching white lightly-armored leather trousers. I decided against carrying a main weapon, since I could just make some out of bones, but I did carry smaller weapons like wire, needles and poison. I also cut my hair, because why not...I shaved off the sides and back, and then combed the rest backwards.

Hacte had been wearing the same outfits he\'d worn as a Retribution Tier member, which were really worn out by now, and he\'d replaced them with...pretty much the same outfit. A black shirt under a white coat that went past the back of his knees, and white trousers. Oh, and he also had black claw fingernails like I did, the whites of his eyes had turned black too.

And finally, Belia...she\'d previously worn a knee-length white dress with short sleeves, over black trousers, with holes in the back for her wings. She\'d swapped that out for a dark blue shoulderless top that showed off her midriff, along with a low back so that she wouldn\'t have to cut holes for her wings, a darker blue short skirt over tight black shorts that stopped just above her knees, dark purple boots that went up to her knees, and matching dark purple gloves that went up past her elbows.

Way better than her previous outfit, it showed off a lot more skin, for one thing. Not to mention the slight thigh gap between her shorts and boots, her exposed shoulders and back, and of course, her ample cleavage...great eye candy.

"Um, Shiro...could you stop staring at my legs? And at the rest of my body too?"

"I thought you said you wouldn\'t stop me from doing what I want?" I retorted objectively.

"...I\'ll just ignore you. Alright, now that we look to part, it\'s time for us, Chaos, to get the ball rolling...let the chaos begin!"

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