Luckily the situation was really dire, Daimon was planning to return to the surface of the island as soon as he got an overall explanation of the situation from Thea, so he left a couple of markers behind to use “Switch”.

With a small smirk, Daimon’s sclerae turned dark making his already unique purple amethyst eyes gain a mysterious charm, he could also feel the undead head maid’s happy mood as he was borrowing her sight and senses to a certain extent.

Having access to Rita’s extraordinary sensory range and sight doesn’t mean he can use it at the same level as the undead head maid, for example Rita’s perfect detection range is of a whooping three thousand kilometers, within that distance it is nearly impossible for something to escape her scope, as long as the target isn’t more than one major realm above her.

Which meant that the formation engraved in the water by Thalia even if barely, had still surpassed the Stellar realm, but even then, when she got closer, she was able to see through it.

Daimon’s mana sense in Core Synchrony state has a one thousand detection range, in comparison when he borrows Rita’s sight that number is doubled and the layer of the spectrum which Daimon has decided to call the “Shadow World” is added to the infinity eyes.

Thanks to that Daimon can now see the strange vast space that exists within in his shadow, instead of only seeing Rita and her nearby surroundings within a lightless void.

Anyway, thanks to that he doesn’t need to enter Core Synchrony to fully take advantage of Switch, since the maximum distance he can travel with it, is linked to his mana sense, since it’s not teleportation unlike Blink but a fixed position exchange, which requires him to be able to feel the markers for it to activate.

Knowing what will come next, Thea happily placed her hand on Daimon’s shoulder and they both disappeared from the water filled tunnel, replaced by a small stone which was covered in Rita’s mana to prevent the array from detecting it.

Back at the surface behind a large rock a random pebble on the ground disappeared and in exchange Daimon and Thea appeared.

The empress’s eyes sparkled, marveled at Daimon’s flawless usage of space but she returned to the real world a second later upon seeing the ruckus that was ongoing a few kilometers away.

Unlike Rita whose mana sense could escape the detection arrays, meaning that during all the time she has been looking at the situation unfold to then inform Daimon about it, Thea was unaware of what was happening, so imagine her surprise when she saw an open bloody conflict between one of the armies of snakes and lizards that have caused her quite a few headaches but who now were indiscriminately biting each other in frenzy.

“As I thought, these peak Arch rank reptile magic beasts seem to be rather primitive, normally even those with the poorest lineages who are unable to speak should be intelligent enough to equal a human teen and yet they don’t seem weak nor incomplete”, said Daimon, Rita had created a barrier to isolate them so they were free to watch the show and talk in the meantime.

“Mm, I also thought it was weird before, back at the Maelstrom Sea even those who aren’t born with human form like me, or are incapable of communication since their early years unlike talented fellows like Olander, Karmandi or Lina, can rely on instincts to rival intelligence, so let alone Arch rank, when they become Lord ranks, they should be able to give and receive instructions like a child, but those guys aren’t like that, they are basically dogs on a leash at the service of that woman”, said the empress to then add.

“The natives of this place told me that it was caused by Thalia, after Travis broke from her rule, she placed some restrictions on the species under her rule, so that she can decide whether they are able to develop intelligence or not, but it comes with a price”.

“First of all, it’s a one-time thing, after she gives them permission, she can’t revoke it and yet she still has to do so because otherwise her subordinates can’t advance to the Stellar realm nor gain human form, but in exchange the “guardians” in other words those Stellar ranks we are seeing are under a strict slave contract”.

“I see…”, mumbled Daimon as he planned their next movements, so far, besides his own terror contracts, none other slaving contract is absolute, when the master gives an order that cuts off the possibilities of survival of the slave below a certain threshold, there is a chance for the slave to break off the contract, which is why the owner can’t directly order a slave to die, but can still kill it one way or another.

“According to Rita those two have been arguing since earlier, once things get too heated, we’ll step in, to make it as clean as possible the weaker one has to die and we’ll capture the other”, he said.

“Mm”, with a soft sound and a small nod, the empress’s bright amber eyes posed on the two guardians at the distance as she sharpened her sight and earing to wait for Daimon’s signal.

…

A few kilometers away from Daimon and Thea, there were two floating figures facing each other, they both looked at the ruckus below of them where the snakes and lizards were biting and threatening each other before exchanging gazes.

“Orm, stop your damn subordinates and take them to the punishment pit!”, exclaimed one of the two figures, a slender woman with brown hair and blue eyes that seemed to be in her late twenties, she wore a light brown skirt with a white blouse adorned by light silver armor, she was a mage.

“Humph, don’t think that just because you got some achievements you can give me orders Zia, in case you forgot I’m your superior, leave behind that snake that caused this fight and ten Arch rank units as compensation and then return to your duties”, casually answered the other figure, a tall bulky man with short gray hair and brown eyes, wearing a much complete and heavy armor, he was clearly a knight.

The girl gritted her teeth, the other part was indeed stronger being a peak middle stage Stellar rank, while she was a recently advanced middle stage one, she was appointed to guard the sole water source near the hatching nest, because she had performed perfectly during a battle that broke lose with the dark berserker clan, which Thalia happened to be watching from afar, so she was despised by the other guardians with similar authority.

“My subordinate didn’t start the fight, that lizard from your side which was being eaten after being hunted by it, had swallowed something strange, the smell from was it was strangely similar “their” blood”, threatening said Zia.

“Y-You what the hell do you mean with that!”, yelled Orm with a slightly pale face, their queen has strictly forbidden anyone under her rule to consume blood and flesh of the dark berserker clan as that would allow the enemy’s leader to influence them, anyone who broke this rule will be executed without a trial and their direct superior will be severely punished as well, since it happened under their watch.

‘Damn this bitch, I’m stronger so why is she not obeying me, she wants my position for sure, no I can’t let her get away with this, who knows if she was the one that set this up!’, Orm’s thoughts became erratic for a second before he reached a conclusion, he took a deep breath and then calmly said.

“Fine if that was the case then indeed my subordinate’s fault, all of you stop and go to the punishment pit”, while the lizards were clearly unhappy about it, red necklaces appeared on their necks and they had no option but to obey and leave, once all of them were gone Orm turned to see Zia.

“There you go, now I need an assurance that this little incident will be written off from the report, so let me see it and we’ll be done here”, he said.

Zia inwardly sighed, she finally got one over the bastard that constantly ordered her around, the report Orm referred to was the a daily inform they had to deliver to the royal city, ever since this outpost was created, she had to take care of it, it was too much of a hassle for Orm, so she was forced to do it herself.

“Fine, it needs both of our signatures anyway, so take a look”, she said as she approached Orm to hand him a crystal orb of some kind, but then a sensation of dread weighted on her chest, her pupils shrank like needles as she dashed towards the ground, dodging by the skin of her teeth a flaming fist which was then shot on the original direction where she was floating.

“Booom!”, the giant flaming punch impacted the ground, immediately obliterating all the snakes which were Zia’s subordinates into burning pieces of meat and bones, Zia was in shock for a second before she released her mana pressure as she ascended to be floating afar from Orm.

“What is the meaning of this!”, she screamed, her subordinates being killed isn’t what angered her right now, but the fact that the attack was aimed at her originally, if that martial art hit her directly with her guard down, she would have died!

“Tsk annoying as ever, you can’t even go die correctly, whatever I guess that signs of a battle between Stellar ranks would make it easier to prove that we were “ambushed” by our enemies and that our subordinates were all killed”, as his words ended another explosion came from afar.

“Booom!”, Zia looked at the direction from which the explosion came, that was the punishment pit, in other words each and every one of Orm’s subordinates was also dead now, silenced forever.

“You fear the punishment that much that you would rather kill all the witnesses, are you out of your mind!”, exclaimed Zia only be rendered speechless by Orm’s answer.

“Ha, what are you talking about, I’m simply tired of your crap, how dares a weakling like you disobey me”, poisonously said Orm, his eyes were bloodshot at this point, which made Zia understand that there was something wrong with him.

The Orm she knows and already hates, is indeed arrogant and haughty, but he wasn’t crazy nor her was fearless, otherwise he would have forced her to serve him like he has done to other weaker female guardians, who weren’t strong and smart enough to stand up to him by using the queen’s name as a protection charm, since she was recognized by Thalia she just confidently mentioned it every time he tried to order her around and it made Orm give up any ideas about her, but now he was like a completely different person.

“The others will arrive soon, so let’s end it soon!”, with those words, Orm’s clothes expanded and started to shred as he attempted to change to beast form, one must know that magic beasts who had taken human form can’t casually change between states like nothing, the transformation drains a lot of stamina and mana or battle aura respectively so it is usually reserved as a trump card to be used when there are no other options left.

Fortunately, or not, before Orm could complete his transformation which might taken long to describe but would have been finished in less than a second before Zia could cast a spell strong enough to damage him, like a specter a black spear pierced the back of Orm’s head and came out of his forehead, making his body freeze.

Naturally a Stellar rank knight didn’t die just by having its brain stabbed, so Orm managed to look backwards before the spear ripped through his body splitting it in half, at the same time just when Zia had started to fly away with all her might, giant black chains came out of nowhere and restrained her.

“Ahhh!”, with a loud shout her mana exploded in all directions making the chains tremble and crack, unfortunately that gave enough time to the owner of the spear that just casually killed a middle stage Stellar ranked knight, in other words to Thea the chance to arrive at her position relying just on flying speed and catch her by her neck.

Zia’s vision blurred a bit as she felt the vice-like grip around her neck, fear filled her mind, she a middle stage Stellar rank was completely unable to react before she was captured, when even earlier when Orm tried to surprise her was unable to, not to mention she saw someone killing the latter like it was nothing, the number of existences in this planet that could do something like that could be counted with the fingers of a hand and only death awaited her if she crossed paths with any of them.

Still, while she was frankly thinking on a way to survive, she knew she had not much to offer thanks to the contract she had signed with Thalia, she was not to reveal anything and if she fell on the hands of an enemy for more than 24 hours she will be forced to try and escape through all means possible, which would result on her death, it was then when a calm voice reached her ears.

“Originally, the one that should have lied there in pieces would be the weaker one between you two, either by the previous confrontation or us, but luckily you are better informed than him, right?”.

Zia’s eyes moved trying to find out from where was the voice coming, she was sure it wasn’t the same person that was holding her neck, because the hand was soft and thin clearly belonging to a woman, while the voice was that of a young man, still she limited to nod with her eyes as she was unable to let alone speak, even gather any strength for some reason she couldn’t understand.

Which was actually quite easy, fear, the fear that Thea caused her combined with Overlord’s Pride aura was enough to render her defenseless as a kitten.

“Very well, surrender or die you have five seconds”, the following words made Zia’s mind tremble, she didn’t know what the voice was talking about, until she felt some kind of decision appearing in her mind, well it was a decision in a figurative way as there was just a possible answer for her which was “Yes” and with that the sweet sound of a notification rang in Daimon’s ears.

[Ding]

[Amber Asper Snake Guardian “Zia” has offered her loyalty, do you wish to accept it Y/N]

With a single thought Daimon accepted and a black bone ethereal collar formed around Zia’s neck, signaling the success of the terror contract.

“It’s done, let’s leave now”, said Daimon, Thea’s hand let go of Zia’s neck and the next thing the poor snake guardian knew was that she was now floating surrounded by a tunnel filled with water, on their stead the same stone that was used before was exchanged for them through switch, the thing wasn’t even wet thanks to Rita’s mana, it was just another pebble in this rocky wasteland environment.

Fortunately for her, she had no ill intentions towards her captors for a couple of simple reasons, first and formal in a direct confrontation with so small distance between her and Orm, in the best-case scenario she would be able to escape with important wounds which would for sure be used by Orm to declare her a deserter to hunt her down and kill her, or she would die in the fight, both paths lead to death whether at the present or in the nearby future so her capturers were also her saviors, if they wanted her death there was not much she could do about it anyway.

Second and probably more important than first, the moment that strange necklace formed around her neck, she felt the connection between her and the queen being completely severed to be replaced by respect towards a person the silver haired masked youth that was standing not too far from her.

‘How strange, I don’t feel the dread I felt when I was in presence of the quee… that despicable woman but respect as if I was in the presence of the noblest being’, she thought, oblivious to her, there was an integral change happening within her body and mind. seaʀᴄh thё novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

The terror contract had two possible outcomes, according to what Daimon has learned about it, one was a terrified extremely subservient slave without any possibility of betrayal which is the most common outcome and then there is the much smoother loyal follower attitude which Rita and Horals had exhibited, the reasons that caused the second result were unknown to Daimon as of current as well, especially since none other of the terror contracted had become like that, until now.

‘Mm?’, from within Daimon’s shadow, Rita frowned, she felt a similar aura to hers and for a second thought that the bone general had somehow arrived to this place, which infuriated her as he hasn’t contacted Daimon since a long time ago, which is an insult to their young master in her eyes, but then she realized Horals wasn’t here and the familiar aura was coming from the woman who had just been captured by Daimon.

Leaving aside the undead head maid, Daimon raised an eyebrow at the calm behavior that Zia was displaying, normally the terror contracted all do the same thing first, try to escape just to be reprimanded by the black bone necklace, the terror contract though allowing absolute control similar to the relationship between artificial undead and their owner, doesn’t turn them into mindless puppets, which also makes the recently contracted think they can escape just to be hit by reality a second later, as they are now unable to even harbor any ill intention towards Daimon and if they purposely try to even think in that direction a punishment will follow through.

In other words, if they truly submitted without hidden thoughts, there wouldn’t be any threat or negative aspect about it, but who can assure they would be fine with obeying others, when one of the most basic instincts of living beings is seeking superiority above others.

“After such a large discharge of battle aura by Orm, the other guardians stationed would come to investigate, we aren’t allowed to use any form of communication directly with others without going through the headquarters at the royal city, I would suggest we leave before they arrive as the first place, they would look at would be the well”, said Zia.

Daimon nodded at Thea who was still wary of Zia, she trusted Daimon but it was hard to accept that he could force a middle stage Stellar into complete submission in a matter of seconds, when even she would have to use a few hours to contract one, she has seen Daimon forcing the Nethereals into submission but the key point is that they had to suffer a lot before it worked and Zia didn’t, so her wariness was justified.

With a wave of her hand, the empress opened a portal, they had appeared at a distance where Rita could prevent the array from detecting them, so they jumped into the portal and cleanly left the vicinity of the island on the pot.

Inside of the dimensional tunnel which just as Daimon expected was filled with a mix of space and water mana, Zia looked at the two of them before she approached Daimon, while keeping a respectful stance she proceeded to ask.

“May I know how to refer to you?”, her strange way of speaking reminded Daimon of how Rita spoke with him before, speaking of the undead head maid, Daimon talked to her on the spot.

‘Rita, is there something wrong with her?’, he asked.

‘She feels like that bonehead… or me, I can’t pinpoint why but I somehow know it’, mumbled Rita, there was bittersweet sensation filling her chest, on one side she was happy that Daimon had possibly gained a talented follower on the other hand she didn’t want a female follower threaten her position.

Leaving Rita’s inner turmoil, Daimon’s interest in Zia increased, up to this day he had no clue on why Rita and Horals were different to the other terror contracted, the only theory he had was that it was because they were undead who probably had something special about them, as when he tried to replicate the result with other undead it didn’t succeed, but now there seemed to be a third success and it was a normal living being on top, so he might be able to learn something new and even be able to level up his Terror Contractor skill!

“Ahem, you can call me D… young master for the time being, she is my friend Thea and you must show her the same respect you have for me”, said Daimon, for a second, he was going to tell Zia to call him by his name since he doesn’t really care much about formalities, but he could feel Rita’s gaze on him from within his shadow.

Informal speech with him was a reward that the undead head maid had earned, so it wouldn’t be fair for Rita to give Zia such treatment without having contributed at all, Rita and Horals were on a different level compared to the other terror contracted, Daimon considered them his trusted aides and friends, so there was a natural order to follow.

‘She isn’t a knight so I hope she doesn’t follow up Horals’s steps and ask for normal speech right like Rita soon’, thought Daimon, he came out of his daze as he saw the exit of the dimensional tunnel appearing in front of them.

Now that Zia’s loyalty was secured, he could obtain information from her without any problem, so that could be put in hold for the time being, meeting the natives of this planet who would play a major role in Thea’s challenge was more important now.

As soon as they left the portal, Daimon found himself a few hundreds of meters away from an underwater dome which was covering a large city, well he was in front of “nothing” actually, he was only able to see the dome because of the infinity eyes and the fact that he was still in Core Synchrony state, or that’s what he originally thought unaware of the fact that a pair of yellow lines forming a “+” sign flashed on his pupils for a second.

“You can see it too, right~”, said Thea, according to the natives only those with highly pure and strong sea magic beast lineages, were able to see through the camouflage of their underwater cities, without having been given authority tokens, Thea could and she was sure Daimon could as well, so she was happy to confirm her theory.

But then her happy moment was interrupted by a plethora of strong auras that enclosed onto them from all directions, Daimon stole a gaze at Thea who was calm so he remained quiet, despite the fact that there were being surrounded by around twenty middle stage Stellar ranks, not to mention he could feel the lingering aura of a slightly stronger one hiding in the shadows.

Since Thea didn’t stop advancing towards the Daimon, neither did Daimon, until one of the many approaching figures shouted.

“Halt, we are the border patrol of the Meliun kingdom under the direct supervision of his excellence Duke Nascenti, identify yourselves and be prepared for interrogation”.

Daimon raised an eyebrow, not only at the unique appearance of the figures that approached them but at their clearly unwelcoming attitude, but before he could say anything, Thea’s pressure spread like a tsunami forcing each and every one of the ones that approached them to bow at almost 90°.

“I had already discussed this with the royal family and got an authority token of the highest grade, so what’s the meaning of this?”, demanded the empress with a cold voice.

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