Chapter 682 You got lost...
[Eon's POV: ]
[[ So, master, I can feel the sinister energy from this room the most. However, this isn't the only place with that bad energy. There are twelve places! And all of these places have at least two people in them! This one has six people and they are strong! ]]
Celes was showing us the current view of one some of her clones and just as she was saying, there were people using disguise artifacts and skills in these places.
Someone as experanced with these kind of items and artifacts as us could tell at a glance what kind of those items and skills were without even needing to check them with our appraisal skills.
[[ "Celes, don't make any unnecessary movements and just keep them have acting naturally. These people... they aren't as weak as we had been thinking." ]]
There were a total of twenty seven people currently present in this auction that had the kind of aura that only ones related to the demons possessed. Some of them were perhaps high ranking officials secretly present in the government sectors that we cannot do anything about for now, however, some of them were definetly part of the group of people were looking for.
[[ "Eon is right... even I don't think we will be able to take on all of them at once in a fight. They are different from the normal demonic cult bastards that we usually face. They are... trained." ]]
President Zodic could tell many things about the demonic humans just by looking at them since he had years of exoperance hunting these people.
He had been hunting them even before he joined the academy, and after being chosen by the headmaster one day, his activities had only increased further.
He must be an importetnt target for these demonic humans by this point, however, we did not know about their community much.
They were scattered all over the world and since we have yet to found ou just how the hell many of them are connected with each others, we do not know many things about them.
However, all demonic humans have one singular objective they work towards: descent of demons on this earth and damage to the nature.
[[ "Tsk. We can take them on if we go there one room at a time. It's not like they can cross over all the way to the other rooms and retaliate agaist the four of us." ]]
[[ "That's quite a dumb statement coming from an expert like you vice present." ]]
[[ "Right? What happen vice president? Is something wrong with you?" ]]
[[ "Hey Cradle, if you aren't feeling well, you can just rest here and continue with the auction, we can deal with this on our own." ]]
[[ "What the hell are you guys saying?! I am perfectly fine! Don't you fucking say those kind of things!" ]]
[[ "Then open your eyes and look at the current situation, miss vice president. We aren't up against twenty seven normal human experts. Those are demonic humans. n.-o/.v)-e-)l/)B-)I//n
There is a good chance all of them are contracted with a single demon so, they all are practically connected with each other.
Just attacking one of them will alert all the others and since there are more rooms than our numbers, there is no way we will be able to contented against all of them in here.
Harming them here is out of question, and besides... most of them at at least (tier-6) dark mage or [Rank-4] knight. Just four of us might have a chance if we fight them together when they are in a single place, however, with them spread out evenly like that, there is no way we are going to win agaist them." ]]
Perhaps she was still thinking they were nothing but normal human trash that she faces everyday, however, if that were the case, President Zodiac wouldn't have that kind of angry expression.
'She is clearly distracted right now.'
We can tell, and we knew the reason for that as well, but since this was not the field, we could take care of her. And she was untouchable on field anyway so, there was nothing for us to worry about her there.
[[ "Alright, planning time." ]]
I disconnected my (: Vision sharing) and we all got back to our bidding room with the large screen before our eyes.
"Look, everyone. We have-... hmm? Everyone?"
Their eyes were still closed as if they had not returned from the vision sharing spell, however, it only lasted for a moment and they all opened their eyes together like normal.
"So, I was saying... is everyone alright?"
They looked kind of pale for some reason. Did something happen to them?
[[ *Master... looks like there was a delay and they were lost in the middle... or something similar. My guess is their minds were lost in the realm of boundary of unconsciousness and consciousness. It shouldn't be worrisome however, I will look into the situation.* ]]
What the hell?
"Darling... hmmm? Did something happen?"
"I... feel weak for some reason."
"Ptssssssssssssssssssss! Ptsssssss!"
Rein just looked a little dizzy while vice president was also pretty normal, however, even though President Zod looked well, San-San started crying for him, and even used his special healing powers without waiting for anyone.
"Hmmm...? What is... happening?"
President came to his senses a moment after the two of them and saw the worried look on San-San.
He couldn't understand what was happening so he asked him, however, the little snake was crying as if he had almost lost his parent.
"Everyone? What just happened?"
They were confused. Even I was confused right now. However, different from them, I had an idea of what was happening right now.
"Looks like there was some complicated when I ended the spell. Your minds wondered off into the boundary between the realm of conscious and subconscious, or something along the lines.
Simply put, you were all disconnected from this realm for a moment, however, you weren't in your astral form so, you were, how should I put this... well, you were nowhere?
So, perhaps, since you and San-San have a special connection, he thought you were gone.
I apologise. Looks like I am the one that caused this..."
"I don't think it was your mistake, Eon."
A sudden serious expression covered vice president's face... and she looked towards the door of this room.
"I think someone was trying to interfere."
"What?"
[[ No! That can't be! I did not let anyone notice me! ]]
"I am not saying someone was trying to interfere with your connection, dear. I am saying someone tried to interfere with 'us' in this room when we were looking at them. Their attempt must have failed since we weren't here in the first place, however, since the consciousness was unpresent from the body... it affected the bodies and the moment we were about to return, we could not."
There was a sudden expression of rage on her face, as if she had remembered something she never wanted to remember again.
But still, her hypothesis-
[[ *Master, I believe what Miss Cradle said is the case here. There was no problem with the spell, the interference was external. And, I have created a way to reverse trace who attempted to do this.* ]]
'You even discovered them?'
[[ *Yes master. Since they tried to target you first, they left a data marking. After analysing it, I have concluded it was a (Holy Skill). Besides, it was very powerful, so the person who must have used it might not have expected for this situation to occur.
Still, this could have been dangerous for your companions.* ]]
'Then why wasn't I affected Lucy? Because of you?'
[[ *No master. The skill couldn't understand your body structure and was perhaps absorbed into your body by your innate skill.* ]]
'So... [Energy circulation] protected me in a way? Damn, I didn't know it could do such a thing.'
[[ *It's just that the skill that was used was counterable by your specific skill. It was perhaps a coincidence. However, i will have to run some analysis to confirm that.
However, before that, should I track the one that used teh skill?* ]]
'Not now. Wait for a while. Check the data and see if it matches anything in our database. Tell me if you find anything.'
[[ *Yes master.* ]]
Someone was trying to something else, and a Holy skill on top of that...
'There aren't many who can do such a thing, but, as Lucy said, it's could have been dangerous.'
Thankfully though, we were fine.
"I think we need to talk about this everyone."
"Of course we do!"
"Wait for a minute, though. Let me calm San-San down."
"I also have something to tell everyone."
An unexpected complication arose so we had to take our focus off of the ongoing auction, and since there weren't any items that particularly caught our attention, vice president and I didn't have any reason to fight among ourselves.
The items we purchased were delivered directly to our rooms after the transaction was confirmed. And, since we now knew about the demonic humans present in this auction house, we needed to get as many of them as we could before they caught onto our plans... not that there were any great chances of them discovering us, but we had to remain cautious.
'Our focus was shifted to making a plan based on the new intel we had and now that we had the targets, all we had to do was find out their intentions.'
The demonic humans did not purchase anything at all until the auction was halfway done. We were going to go after them after the auction was half done, however, after finding out their numbers and scale, we changed all of that.
'We decided to wait until they make their move, and on a side note, vice president seemed to know what had happened with them and who was the one that did it, but she declined telling us who that was by saying she had made a 'promise' she would never tell anyone.'
We didn't press her too much since it looked personal, and it wasn't like we weren't going to find out the culprit.
Lucy knew how to do it, and she would do it even if I told her there was no need to.
She was just that kind of being. Doing whatever she wanted while keeping me in the centre of all her actions.
[ "Now then! After the short break, we are back with another amazing item everyone~!" ]
"This..."
"Is that what I think it is?"
"But how is that..."
"They will make a move now. If not this, I don't know what might attract that kind of group in a place like this."
A unique item was up for auction this time.
And after seeing all their reactions through Celes' vision, I have no doubt they are here for this thing...
