I finished my contemplating with a bit more light-hearted and much light-headed, my mentality seemed to grow a bit more, i found my whole body filled with untamed confidence, i looked one last time at the ashes of my defeated opponent then without wasting any more time i jumped high in the air to got out of the massive crate we caused .
I don't know why, but i wondered about one thought that i had completely disregarded thinking about before, what if the attributes in my current power system was never capped in the first place, would i still try to look for another power system to change to .
But i felt my heart and brain both for once had come to agreement that the answer to this question, would have still being yes .
The problem isn't with the capped ceiling of strength, i felt it more and more clearly in the last few fights i kept on having, a feel of disorientation, i was skeptical at those strange feelings at first, but i was faced with the ugly truth in my fight was Gluttony then with my skirmish with that team leader .
That weird feeling was my intuition telling me that something is wrong with my current power system, even though i am strong, if i left this place and got away from under the influence of the system that the Shard operated, i might find that all my strength was merely a created illusion and nothing of it was really belong to me, nothing of it was real, not even an ounce of it was truly belonging to me .
But both the Battle Aura system and the system which those Demons used was different, they looked like they were depending on something entirely and completely different, something that was much more effective, so their is no doubt that i would have still chosen to forsake all of what i currently had to have a chance of consolidate my strength, to make it become truly and completely mine .
I might even seek that Shard myself to learn some hidden information about it, like what it was and what can it exactly do, these kinds of information, after all i couldn't help but wonder about the true nature of the something that was pursued by that many people, then that can only mean that it must be something precious beyond measure .
Hopefully, i would get some of the answers i wanted from the mouth of that guy Ludo, i have a hunch that thanks to the information i may be able to get from him, i would be very much exposed to some dangerous and traumatic and overwhelming secrets .
The truck was safe i made sure of that, the guys inside it were crying and causing a lot of ruckus, but that was somewhat normal, i reached out to it to check on its state and other than a few dents here and there, the truck was still doing fine, now with that out of the way and that guy Ludo injured, there would be no problem if i were to allow it to be brought back to the surface, perhaps, wasting no more time i willed it and the truck were brought back up on the surface, even before i come out of the crater i was in .
The moment i rose back up, i saw that the dark curtains that previously engulfed the whole area in it had completely vanished, the crimson color once again shone on the land giving the current depressed atmosphere a more eerie feeling to it .
I got back up with just a one jump and then saw the clear traces of how powerful impact my last attack had on my surroundings, a few small yet deep crates were created in my line of sight some of those craters had even magma coming out of them, there might be an active volcano nearby, but the flying bunch of demons were no where to be seen, i thought that they fled the place in a hurry, since i couldn't see any trace of them, did they vanish or they maybe were able to successfully retreat while i wasn't paying attention, no that can't be true, they were still here .
My Obsidian Armor skill cognitive effect restarted to work, i paid it no mind before as it kept sending a lot of feedback signaling the devastating state of the surrounding area as a result of my last attack, so i guessed that it was better to turn that effect off for some time, but now most of the shaking and trembling must have passed, i turned it back on once again .
So that's where they took shelter, i was somewhat relieved to see them staying alive for now at least, that Ludo seemed to have already lost conscious though, did destroying that beam really did this much damage to him, or was there some other things involved, i began to took hurried steps towards the crater which they took shelter in .
As i reached there, i saw that two people stood on guard outside the entrance of the crater, i was able to at least confirm that they did have a weird shaped eyes but the different wasn't that big their eyes varried between being fully black eyes with colored pupil or like the second guy who had red eyes with a purple colored pupil, so that was more or less a relief .
How were you here,where had the team leader...
The moment they noticed me heading towards them, they showed quite the disbelief at the fact that i was here looking quite we'll, yet their team leader wasn't no where in sight and that had quite the shocking effect on them, they were about to rain me with questions, but i did what i came here for without wasting no more time .
I foolishly swung my sword two times and the headless bodies of the two demons in front of me directly fell to the ground, dead .
I searched their bodies in a hurry and took out two bracelet from their hands and removed the cloaks they were wearing, since the equipment looked quite special, i felt it firsthand just now, the cloaks tried to actually parry my attack by engulfing the Demons in them like cocoons, but that wasn't an effective defense at all, after i looted their bodies, like before they too were decaying in a blink of an eye and were cremated and engulfed in black flames .
I was shocked by the defensive mechanism in both of the two cloaks, probably something akin to a last mean to keep unauthorized hands away, but i was still able to survive the shocks and get my hands on both of the cloaks, i heard a few movements from inside the crater, someone from those who were inside must probably be wondering, what was stirring troubles over here, so he may have come to check .
I met him halfway through and directly blasted his head with a full force punch, that was enough to shoke the walls of the crater as that guy was plastered on its wall .
The other two guys shouted " who " , that was the last question those guys raised, also their last words, with two swings of my sword, the life of the two were already finished, i again hurriedly fiddled with their bodies to get anything useful in a hurry, i got two more bracelets and two more cloaks, rounding all i have got to 4 bracelets and 4 cloaks, i remembered that i didn't loot the guy hanged on the wall, so i hurriedly went to check, but his was all that was left of him .
Now all that was left was the guy who was currently unconscious, Ludo, i stripped him of most of his belongings, he didn't have a bracelet like those guys, but i did found something similar to a strange flickering belt, so out of caution i took that as well, i thought that this was still not enough, i restricted his movements using a huge amount of earth restrictions, that will hold him in place for quite some time, at least until my business with him is all finished .
I don't know how long was he going to take, so i had to improvised someway to force him to regain consciousness by forcing his body to react to a sudden shock .
I adjusted my hand strength, then i slapped his right cheek with what i thought to be enough shock to force his body to react, but i guess i might have been going easy on him or he was just a heavy sleeper, but i still won't give up, but first let's change our location a bit, i grabbed the red cheek Ludo and moved to the truck, then i used the cognitive effect of Obsidian Armor to shift the earth and teleport us and the truck to a more suitable place .
A few seconds later we appeared in a cave a bit far away from where we once were and i once again willed the earth to restrict and confine that guy once again, i parked the truck outside the cave and waited a few seconds to see if he would wake up on his own, but his head was still icy cold and he was completely out of it .
~ Slap ~
This time the slap i gave him was a deafening one, he jolted a bit and winced from the pain that he was currently feeling from his left cheek, then he opened his eyes and what faced him was me who held an amused smile on my face, the moment he saw me like this he gritted his teeth and tried to attack me, but he found that all his limbs was currently being restricted, his head and back was fixed in place, even his limb joints were bound by numerous numbers of restrictions, it didn't took him much time to understand what was going on, he gave me a few death stares as his eyes darted around from me to the unfamiliar cave that we were currently in, his resentment and killing intent which were aimed at me were unmasked, but it is no wonder that he would react that way, even though i'm holding him like this, he didn't seem to look even a little troubled by this, could he not be thinking clearly or did he still have something up his sleeves, no matter what i can literally kill him now and then, but what with this uneasy feeling in the air, it is as if some calamity might befell me any moment, is that his doing, no, at least i don't think so .
But let's continue being on guard for a bit more, i looked at the glaring green haired guy and was able to see that he was quite weakened, his eyes lost the weird shaped pupil they had previously and his eyes were a bit unfocused, his head was beginning to be dranched with sweat, so he really might be putting a front and he was actually scared or he might have gotten severely injured .
Either way, i don't like this tensed kind atmosphere one bit, so i must wrapp things here up quickly and leave this place .
What do you want ? .
Surprisingly, my captive was the one that initiated the conversation, asking me with a cold voice about my target, so i decided to play with him a little and answered :
I want your life, i thought that it would make him a bit nervous but he just looked at me sternly and said :
You have already killed my guards, so if you really intended to kill me, you would have already done it by now, so once again, what do you want, this isn't how negotiation work, you are here to negotiate right, what is your goal, what do you want from me .
I was busted right from the start, huh, well there's no point in dwelling over it, but i want to try and gauge something first.
I said : so what i want to ask you is that you took your fellow demons and return to the Real World, that's where y'all came from, right .
His facial expression was that of shock, he was stunned by the absurd request to the point of stopping glaring and gritting his teeth at me as he directly fell into a weird state of contemplation, i wondered what he was thinking about, but the suspense didn't continue to build up as he said while stuttering :
You... How did you get to know of this ? .
I had my resources .
He looked at me up and down suspiciously as if trying to confirm something as well, i could have told him the truth about me encountering that Bloodlord from before, but another brilliant thought came to my mind now that i was reminded of what happened before, i did get that idiot Bloodlord from before to mistook me as a Demon from the same world as his, that was how was i able to get that much of information, without even having to do anything, if i played my cards well, this case might end up being the same too .
You can't possibly be from there, after all no human there is that strong, otherwise their situation might have already gotten at least a bit better, you also don't have an inner core and i felt your connection to this land power system, i already checked that you are a human from this side so you can't possibly know anything about that place, that can only mean that you are merely bluffing and don't know anything about where we came from....
"The Domain Of Blood, Section Of Chaotic Spheres " , was all i said after seeing clearly that he was still doubtful about me knowing about that place, i only know about this piece of information from hearing that Bloodlord from before mentioning it, i didn't expect that such a useless piece of information could come in handy in this kind of situation .
Now that i mentioned that Bloodlord, i couldn't help but wonder about what happened to that strange item i took after killing him, was it destroyed together with the storatge ring or did it survive, my mind have become a bit sluggish even though it should have become more brilliant, i only remembered about it just now, but i guess the actual reason for this was having a lot on my mind since i woke up in this land, that item should be able to survive the destruction of storatge ring, but its current whereabouts that will be quite difficult to determine, i haven't even had the chance to inspect it, how lame, anyway back to the matters at hand .
Even though it was a little piece of information, but it was already more than enough to have him become perplexed , he raised his head once more and gazed intently and piercingly into my eyes, as if he was trying to discern what true and what was false, when i stared at him back i felt as if something shuddered in my brain, i felt as if he was using something physical to dig deeper into my hidden secrets, so out of instinct i tried to push that feeling of away, i don't know how, but it was actually quite easy to do, it was as if i want an unpleasant memory the suddenly appeared in my mind away and it did
The moment i tried to do that, the face of the guy bound from head to toe in front of me face become a bit ashen, but the moment i did succeed, he directly coughed a lot of blood and his aura became even weaker than before with his complexion getting even paler .
I already have a vague guess in mind on what just occurred and what was the catalyst of all that happened to him, after all the creepy feeling that i just felt was a bit more or less a feeling familiar to me .
Curses, how did you do it, it worked previously just fine, how can your state of mind be stronger than mine, hooow .
He literally howled dejectedly the last part of his question, but that pretty much confirm the theory i had in mind, he tried to use that weird technique of his, but this time not only was i able to perceive him trying to do this, no, i was even able to completely block his intrusion on my mind, deepening his injuries even more in the process, i don't know exactly what that state of mind he mentioned nor really any of the things he previously said about inner core and the rest, but i believe i currently have a chance to find out about all of this, don't i ? .
I was about to calm his agitated mood a bit mainly because if i did agitate him some more, he might refuse to cooperate with me, that kind of scenario was what i wanted to avoid the most, after all i still have some uses for the knowledge he have, especially the way to use the spatial storing devices that i confiscated, as it turned out that these storing devices were not working nothing alike the stortage rings i was adapt in using, so i must get the correct way to be able to use it out of him, or these items in hand will be nothing more than a good accessories, i would really have nowhere to cry if that were to really happen, but luckily things didn't turn that way .
Just as i was about to appease to him a little, his tone suddenly turned grave as he said something in a dead serious way :
So that's how it is, you have already achieved your target, so their is no need for you to pretend anymore, right ? .
Now i was the one that was getting a bit confused here, was he talking about my plot against the team leader from before or was he talking about something else entirely, but as if he took my silence as a confirmation, he continued and looked at me with a " i know what you pulled off " kinda look, this gesture of his which i presumed he made as indication of getting everything cleared up, only deepened my current confusion even more, what did he understood .
What was exactly going on here !!! .