Time passed while Daimon meditated to ease up his mind after pushing himself to the limit with the Comet Sword earlier, as more than an hour went on in silence, the younger Lamia princess who was sitting not to far from him, stole some nces at both Daimon and Thalia who was focused on writing page after page of information.
Naomi felt curious towards Thalia, because the aura around her reminded her of Thea whom she idolized, but she was also interested on her because she has been in Draim for quite some time, meaning she probably got to hear about some of the ancestors of the Lamia royalty.
Ferris on the other hand was trying to remember all the "missing" important people from both the Naga and Lamia races, since it was obvious that some of them probably ended here.
"If you want to ask something, feel free to do so, though I have been "alive" for way more time than what you think, my growth halted since the moment I was dragged away from my home, so technically our ages aren''t that far from each other", said Thalia without stopping her hands from writing in the notebook that Daimon handed her.
The first one to speak was Naomi.
"If I understand correctly, you and sister Theae from different ces though you are both from the same race, so… are there Lamias in your ce of origin?", she asked.
It was a valid question, with the knowledge from the gxy of origin of the Lamia and Naga races, having been lost, it would be reasonable to think that Thalia whose race lived in gxy with snake-rted races, might have seen other Lamias or Nagas, Naomi asked Thea the same question before, unfortunately the answer remained the same, though for different reasons this time.
"Sorry, as the younger princess who had yet to be strong enough to be allowed to travel outside of my family''s main sphere of influence, I don''t know too much about the "outside" world, however I can at least confirm that within the Snake Scale Ster Kingdom, a race like yours doesn''t exist, having a state in between our beast and human forms would be considered a sign of a poor lineage there", she said.
"I see… thanks for answering", mumbled Naomi, to which Thalia added.
"That being said, I think that would be just prejudice, your race seems to be supposed to develop in that way, I heard that demi-human kingdom existed in the vicinity, there might be a simr race to yours there".
Naomi visibly cheered up with that, as for Ferris just as she was about to ask her question, Celia returned after finishing her task, Thalia finally put down her pen and themunication device which Ferris was holding in her hand, broke, just in time for Daimon to open his eyes.
"Sorry for theteness, young master", she said to which Daimon raised his hand to stop her from continuing, the undergroundb was not only immense but it had a really solid structure, so the "things" he brought had to be ced everywhere, it was normal that the preparations would take some time.
"It seems everything waspleted in time, we have to catch up with the others, so let''s get going".
''Everyone follow the n'', said Daimon to the terror contracted, basically Rita covered Zia and the Naga/Nethereal guys, so that they would be able toe down here without being detected, as for Narasha, she damaged the main array so that it would remain nonoperational for at least another three hours.
Thanks to Thalia possessing the woman from the ck Spirit n, Daimon now knew the exact routine of the receptionist who was the only other person that mattered in this facility, she was really free to roam through theb and actually came down to visit her colleague during her daily experiment, since it was her duty to report about the results since she could use "sh Cast" for faster delivery of information.
A few minutester, all the enved Nagas and Zia had arrived at thest level of the hiddenb where Daimon and the others were, in case you wonder why they didn''t go to the entrance like before, that''s because the anti-spatial array at thest level was deactivated by them now, so Rita could "smuggle" them out without any worries in the world.
"Everything is ready young master, "we" exchanged shift with another two guards at the entrance, so no one would notice that those two are missing for a couple of hours at least", said the guy who reced that guard at the entrance.
Daimon nodded, it was indeed hard to infiltrate this ce and keepplete silence, but the whole concept had a major w, the one who designed it counted on the greed of those who will try to infiltrate it.
Since the research and experiments in thisb would be considered revolutionary and ahead of their time let alone here in Draim, but even at Neptune and the four gxies, then those who infiltrated theb wouldn''t try their utmost to obtain it.
Of course, it''s not like the fake Thalia expected others to sacrifice their life just to steal theb''s investigation, but it was enough for them to be slowed down so that one of the many hidden mechanisms alerted the headquarters.
Unfortunately, she never expected someone to not only be able to infiltrate and be interested in stealing the results of the thousands of years of hard work, but also be crazy enough to not hesitate at the moment of cing alchemic explosives in each and every support of the whole facility, all in a couple of hours.
With a nod, Rita covered everyone in a barrier made out of her mana, before a ck spatial gate sucked them in, not before two things happened, first, Thalia looked back at the gloomy walls that had kept her prisoner here for such a long time, before her eyes glowed with gratitude towards Daimon, knowing that they''ll be demolished this very day.
And second, Daimon gazing at Zia and telling her a few phrases, making the newly contracted girl''s eyes to sparkle in response.
…
While Daimon''s group travelled in the dimensional tunnel, at a different one, the Lamia and Naga army which had been on standing until now, changed their stance.
"Attention, we are about to cross the non-detection boundary, be prepared to fight as soon as you leave the dimensional tunnel!", shouted Nea who was floating outside of the royal carriage, wearing abination of a light green mage''s robe with some light metal armor to protect her vitals.
The previously dormant army, immediately tensed up, since this was the first time they had taken the initiative tounch an attack on the enemy''s headquarters, normally the Melliun kingdom focused on defending themselves without interfering in the all-out war between those two.
But not this time, inside the royal carriage, Mirellia who was standing next to Thea, nodded at the empress before taking out a finger sized blue crystal with a vertical slit on its center, which made it look like the eye of a snake, out of her pocket, if Daimon would have been here, he would have been amazed at thebination of water and spacews that resided within the crystal.
That being said, Thea could act as his representative, since she could also perceive spacews by innate, so she felt the power contained within the crystal, which has been used to conceal their tracks so far.
That crystal is one of the three royal treasures of the Melliun kingdom, that were created by the first Lamia queen, the "Snake Saphire", basically it was a mana crystal created by the Lamia queen after she reached the Maximum Ster rank, she nurtured it until the end of her days.
So far it has only been used a few times, but said asions were really important for the Melliun kingdom, the main dimensional tunnels they used, were found thanks to the help of this treasure.
Mirellia pointed the crystal at the exit of the dimensional tunnel, and the whole army was immediately expulsed from it, appearing at the border of the Snake Tyrant''s headquarters.
"Attack!", with a fierce roar from Nea and before the arrays were able to inform the guards of their appearance, the mages of the army all casted wide area spells, raining down destruction on the nearby outposts.
"Boooom!", despite the multipleyers of arrays and the thick physical defenses of the guard''s stations, they were immediately blown away when a thousand Ster ranked mages as well as around five thousand peak Archmages casted their spells in unison.
"Knights, lead the charge!", giving the followingmand, Nea floated above the army, overseeing the whole battlefield, the knights went on a rampage using their Battle Avatars to crush everything on sight.
At least until a loud rm rang at the distance and portals started appearing, cutting their advance and bringing the fake Thalia''s royal guards to stop the invasion.
"Charge for our queen!", the neers were a bunch of those obsessed guys mentioned by Zia, they were all wearing white armors and they were all knights, a whole three hundred Ster ranked knights who rushed at the first sign of trouble for their queen.
Now, normally what would have followed up would be a bitter battle, between fanatics who don''t care about their lives at all, as long as they eliminate threats for their queen and the Naga and Lamia knights who can''t just blow themselves up without any care in the world.
Normally, any battle in which the Melliun kingdom took the upper hand, those fanatics would rush in and make sure to tilt the scale in the fake Thalia''s favor, even at the cost of their lives, dying alongside their enemies, self-destroying their cores, using a teammate as a meat shield tond a fatal attack, you name it.
However, this time there was a huge difference and that is the fact that two people way above their level were present in this battlefield.
"Dimensional Chasing Hydra".
"Acid Dawn".
Two cold yet pleasing to the ear, voices could be heard throughout the battlefield before everything at the right side of the fanatic''s army was flooded by a fierce-looking giant snake made out of ck mana, some horrified screams could be hearding from within the snake for a couple of seconds, before silence reigned once again.
As for the left, a green wave of battle aura swallowed the remaining fanatics, unlike the dark mana snake, what happened within that acid realm was fully visible for everyone, the previously gant white armor wore by the fanatics became brittle and rusted on the spot, allowing those inside of it to have a glimmer of hope of escaping in exchange for their prized magic equipment.
Just for them to see how their hair fell from their heads, followed by the flesh on their limbs turning into a goop that slid between the empty spaces of their bones, before their bodies melted into puddles of blood that were then reduced to nothing.
Also, in both cases it''s not like the fanatics didn''t try to self-destroy to dispel those terrifying spell and martial art, respectively, however within the body of that snake made out of ck mana, no matter how much battle aura they expelled, all of it was "sent" somewhere else, in fact a couple of them did implode their bodies, but the resulting explosion was transported to another ce, causing no damage to Thea''s spell.
In Mirellia martial art''s case, the dynamic was simpler but the result was equally despair-inspiring, the battle aura of those trapped within her attack melted before their defensive, offensive or movement martial arts could be activated, reducing them to brittle "mortals" with stronger bodies that only prolonged their suffering for a few extra seconds.
In other words, for those fanatics, being trapped by those attacks was the same as immediately relinquishing the control of their lives to Thea and Mirellia.
"Her majesty is invincible, long live her majesty!", Nea followed the script and eximed, making the whole army roar due to the overwhelming victory from a second ago.
That being said, the two beauties thatnded a devastating blow on the response forces of the Snake Tyrant''s army, with just one of their offensive techniques each, without the use of their magic treasures, weren''t openly celebrating like their army which went on a rampage, practically wiping out the rest of the enemies in front of them.
That is until they both felt a familiar energy firm, followed by arge portal opening on the sky a few hundreds of meters away from them, from which an armyposed of different squads all wearing armors of distinctive colors, emerged.
And at the back of all that, there was a ck pnquin being pulled by four peak middle stage Ster knights, wearing white armor like the fanatics of earlier, but with a major difference, they all had an extra red cape as well as ck snake emblem engraved on their chest tes, meaning that they were the personal guardians of the fake Thalia and the captains of the white snake army which was utterly destroyed a second ago.
Despite that, instead of anger or disappointment after their whole army was reduced to nothing, they were instead anxiously trying to sneak a peek at the person inside the pnquin as if nothing else existed in their eyes, it was pathetic to say the least.
Facing the appearance of the multiple armor colored army of the fake Thalia, Thea and Mirellia actually smiled, which didn''t go unnoticed by the person inside the pnquin.
"To think you''d manage to bring the elusive Lamia queen outside of the safety of that hidden royal capital of hers, I must say I am impressed, child", a condescending voice could be hearding out of the pnquin, ignoring the chaos and destruction that spread all over the outer ring of her own headquarters.
That being said as vain as the previous words sounded, there was a clear reason behind of it, seed distrust, the previous was especially entuated when the pnquin opened and a tall woman with a face that was around 30% simr to Thea, but with a much more mature feeling and also white hair, instead of ck one, became visible for everyone.
If ced next to each other, one would definitely think they are rted, maybe not directly, but an aunt-niece rtionship would be definitely possible.
Unfortunately, and for the fake Thalia''s displease, her words didn''t cause a single ripple to emerge, let alone between the two beautiful generals that stood on the air above their army, side to side with rxed expressions on their pretty faces, but not even one of the "soldiers" under theirmand, seemed to care about her words, which was a first and of course made her frown.
"I see, after enduring being treated like persecuted dogs, you finally decided to bite back and this is a battle for survival, I''ll happily y along since I have a lot of extra blood to spare, just know that this will only benefit that mad bastard''s side", she limited to say before she descended into her pnquin, intending to watch the show in a rxed manner, or at least that was the idea, until a st of mana and one of battle aura, poured down in that direction, forcing the nearby four personal guards as well as a couple of extra high Ster ranks to deploy their defenses in order to block those attacks.
Just for their hearts to sink, when a couple of familiar figures appeared in front of their queen, a ck spear pierced towards the fake Thalia''s chest, while at the same time a green emerald gauntlet punched at her face.
The face of the woman who was being attacked, contorted before a full body silver armor covered her, a heavy shield and a one-handed spear which were used to block the punch and the spearing aiming at her vitals.
"Boooooom!", the result was a horrendous sh of mana, battle aura and a strange unknown energy, which sted away the nearby bystanders who were still blocking those two attacks from earlier.
The atmosphere trembled and the ground below the sh was reduced to dust which raised into the air, producing a giant dust that swallowed both armies, just to be dispersed on the spot by the ones in change of them respectively.
The result was then revealed to the world, Thea and Mirellia were standing side to side, in the exact same spot where they appeared earlier, the fake Thalia however was sent a whole meter backwards due to the sh.
Speaking of the fake Thalia, she removed her helmet and her anger-distorted face became visible for everyone, her eyes had the word "kill" written all over them as she red at those two.
"You two bitches want to die to eagerly, fine, activate the array, massacre them all!", she shouted, the ck armored group which stayed at the back of the army, far from the pnquin, all suddenly came to life, they took out their weapons which were "staffs", and threw them on the ground.
What happened next is that those "staffs" expanded, turning into pirs and revealing their real appearance, the whole things had runes engraved on them and the very moment they expanded, a ck translucent barrier extended with them as their center, at least until Mirellia''s right hand shone in a pretty light blue light.
More urately, the thing which she was holding, released that light, but the pretty light showcase isn''t what caught everyone''s attention, but the fact that said light shed against the barrier being deployed by those pirs, producing sparks for a second before the ck barrier waspletely overwhelmed and the pirs were swallowed by that blue light, making the crumble the next second.
"Arghhhhhh!", the ck armored group that deployed the barrier all vomited blood and fell from the sky, as they were hit by the backsh.
Mirellia gave a condescending gaze at the fake Thalia whose eyes were spitting fire as of current, before saying.
"Why do you look at me like that, don''t tell me that you expected me to care about any treasures or resources in a battle for survival, this time you''ll be the one chased like dog by my Melliun kingdom".
"Roaaaaaar!", with Mirellia''s words, each and every one of the members of her army suddenly changed their simple or low-quality equipment whenpared to the ones of the enemies they were facing, for the shiny and practically new sets of Ster grade armor and magic weapons of all kind that Daimon "kindly" provided to them, all this while making the whole battlefield rumble with the echo of their voices.
Disbelief was written all over the fake Thalia''s face as she saw the whole enemy army, suddenly equipping magic treasures that equaled those used by the upper echelon of her forces, at the very least, a third of the enemy''s army was using armors that didn''t lose whenpared to the ones of the four captains of her personal guard.
''Where the hell did, they get such high ranked treasures in such quantity!'', she inwardly screamed, Draim isn''t a poor, but for some reason while mana mines and other energetic resources are more than plentiful, good smithing materials are really scarce.
So, the fake Thalia had to rely mostly on materials harvested from magic beasts to make equipment for her army, in that aspect she was the same as the Melliun kingdom, the difference being that she had a wider variety to use, since she kept summoning magic beasts from other ces, resulting in the colorfulposition of her army.
All her subordinates wore armor that suited their affinities, which was one of the strong points she had above her enemies, giving that her forces had a simr level of rune mastering when it came to smithing.
But now that advantage was gone, what''s more, a second ago she realized that her local handicap of having tons of arrays to her disposition, since this was her territory was as good as nothing, due to that crystal which the Mirellia was holding.
''Damn it, to think that stupid snake girl would have so much treasures in her spatial ring, I should have killed her regardless of the damage to her body when I first saw her, instead of trying to convince her…'', inwardly cursed the fake Thalia, thinking that those treasures came from Thea.
It was easy to notice that they weren''t armor and weapons made by the magic smiths of Draim, since the style and runes engraved on them werepletely different, not to mention she recognized the aura of Neptune on them.
The three leaders of the two armies exchanged gazes, before they all shed to sh, bing a giant sphere of different energies and raising into the sky, letting their trusted seconds inmand to take over the lead of their armies.