The seconds passed without no one saying anything, besides Daimon feeling the weird and intense gaze of Sarah on him, which made him feel somewhat strange, Aurora and Thea were lost in their own thoughts.
The same could be said of Daimon though, he grabbed the piece of paper on which the portrait of how Sarah's father truly looked was drawn.
The best way to describe it was, a human with long arms and the pattern of a crown drawn in what should have been its face.
'Every time I discover something new, more damn questions surge as well', he thought.
This Nethereal was different than the ones he has met so far, in a sense it wasn't as bizarre as the others, as it looked more human, but Daimon thought he looked way more dangerous, despite the fact that according to Bell, it was only a middle stage Stellar rank back then.
It was able to freely move under the noses of Aurora and Abaris, two Maximum Stellar ranked, while feigning to be a half step Stellar, there was also the fact that this guy had a daughter with a human or more accurately a member of the Elemental races, which also applied to Byron.
While at first Daimon thought the thing was just playing with Bell, when the same thing repeated with Jasmine's mother, then it stopped being a coincidence.
Daimon suddenly frowned as he turned to see Bell.
"How strong was Jasmine's father the last time you saw him?", he asked.
The purple haired mother made memory for a couple of seconds before saying.
"He was an early stage Stellar ranked, but not too long after the announcement of Jessica's pregnancy, he suffered a small accident during meditation and his real regressed to a half step, then he recovered and advanced to the middle stage a bit before Jasmine's birth".
Daimon nodded, that confirmed his theory, it's not like those two managed to hide their realms from Aurora and Abaris, they purposedly became weaker using some method, and then slowly recovered making it pass as "advance", that Reed guy probably was forced to recover in a rushed way because Bell discovered what he was.
In other words, they were way stronger than what they showed and if they two of them survived, right now they should be at least High stage Stellar ranks or even higher.
'These new variants are getting troublesome, thought Daimon.
Aurora seemed to finally have taken her decision, judging by her determined expression, she turned to see Bell and her eyes wandered through the still exposed skin of her side, where the purple marks were.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtShe then stood up and approached those two, her mana was leaking from her body, which made Daimon doubt if he should interfere, Bell had important information regarding the Nethereals, and Sarah was able to see through Adam's tricks while she isn't a system user, something even Aurora partially failed to do.
But then Aurora's next course of action truly took him by surprise, she stopped a couple of centimeters away of the pair of mother and daughter and leaned down to hug them both at the same time.
Let alone Daimon, Bell and Sarah were also surprised, Bell was about to beg for her daughter's life to be spared at least until the curse started to cause her pain, like it was happening to her, never in a million years she imagined Aurora will hug them instead.
"L-Lady Aurora…", Bell tried to ask what was happening, but Aurora just tightened her hug on them, as she said.
"I remember you used to call me aunt, so why are you acting all distant now… Jessica would have never blamed you for what happened, she loved you and Sylvie like sisters and you are little Jas's godmother as a proof of it", Aurora's voice was calm and much softer, as if a heavy weight had been lifted from her chest.
Bell's body trembled, she knew how much Aurora loved her daughter, while she didn't actively participate on Jessica's death, her husband and her cousin were the ones who did it, also she failed to discover the plot while it was her job to be informed about everything that was happening in the Elemental Sea, now she realized that Byron sent her away so that they could kill Jasmine's mother, in other words she was thoroughly played with.
Both mother and daughter broke in tears, while Aurora comforted them and patted their heads, as if they were her own daughter and granddaughter.
Daimon's eyes behind his mask glowed, how could he not understand the deep burning hatred felt towards someone that caused the death of a loved one, when he has experienced it himself, even those who weren't directly related to it aren't exempt from it, he originally wished to fully erase the Naktis, whether they were guilty or not after all.
Aurora then slowly let go of those two who wiped their tears, she looked at the purple marks that didn't even budge under her light mana and then she turned to see Daimon, with a pleading expression on her face.
"You always have a way right… can you sure them, I don't want to lose anymore members of my family".
Daimon chuckled, it's not like the system is almighty though Evangeline often likes to say that there is nothing she can't do, the truth is that system users die too, the hero of the Mermen Sea is a perfect example of that.
Still in this case, Daimon stood up and white flames covered him as he approached Sarah.
"How do you feel right now?", he asked.
Sarah's body trembled, her purple eyes which were focusing on Daimon, glowed with… desire, she actually jumped in a try to tackle him, but Daimon already expected this to happen, so Daimon simply used blink to appear a few meters.
What did take Daimon by surprise is that her speed suddenly increased and appeared behind him, just to be held in place by Aurora's mana.
Speaking of Aurora she gave Daimon an interrogative gaze, as if she was saying "What did you do to her", which made Daimon bitterly smile as he absorbed the white flames into his body.
Sarah who now had a disappointed expression on her face said.
"Why didn't you burn me with those flames", her voice was sad as if Daimon had done something horrible to her.
"…"
"I don't know if she has a few screws lose, or if that's the effect caused by my battle aura on her Nethereal lineage", said Daimon.
Bell sighed as she saw her daughter before saying.
"As much as I would love to say it is the second, she has always liked to put herself in dangerous situation even before I discovered the truth about Reed… but I must say that this is the first time I see her like that", her voice was the one of a mother who worries about her daughter.
"That's because I never felt such danger from anything else, he is like a walking disaster, no, a living threat to all life and the feeling intensifies when those flames are out~", said Sarah as she licked her lips, making Aurora rub her temples feeling a headache coming her way.
Daimon nodded in response.
'Yup, she is crazy', he concluded.
There were two reasons as to why he did this test, first, the Nethereal who he managed to force into submission called him "Esteemed Lord" the moment before the notification of his Terror Contractor skill was triggered, and it just happened after he burned it with his Demon Light for quite some time, something he couldn't do with the first Nethereal.
Second, when he met Sarah for the first time, she acted rather neutral towards him, her attention was focused on Jasmine, but after the fights he had against Purplehaze and Skyflame, she then offered him a toast and smiled at him, which can be confused as just her being friendly, but considering she attacked Adam, it was weird that she didn't give him the cold shoulder, when his situation is quite similar, he also appeared out of nowhere, saved Jasmine and was in the good books of Aurora.
The major difference besides the fact that he wasn't manipulating Jasmine and that they were closer in the sense that they have even shared a room, is that Abaris hated his guts.
Daimon then walked towards Bell and he once again lit up in white flames before saying.
"And you, how does these flames make you feel?", he asked.
Bell thought about it for a second, contrary to her daughter her expression was calm and comfortable.
"I want to be near them", she answered with all honesty.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmDaimon nodded, there was a fundamental between the mother and the daughter, one was part Nethereal while the other had just been affected by the mana of one, well that and one was crazy too, the other Nethereal was horrified by being exposed to Demon Light, while Sarah wanted to be touched by them, so even for Nethereal standards she wasn't normal.
Aurora more or less understood what Daimon was trying to confirm, she was there when he tortured the Nethereal with those strange flames of his, her light mana could only cause small amounts of pain the moment she attacked the creature, but Daimon's flames made it scream, beg and bleed, as to why she didn't have a clue about it, but Daimon was the same.
His battle aura indeed has a horrible destruction capacity, but besides that it had no other properties, it didn't even increase his physical strength unlike other knight's battle aura, on the other hand he didn't know what was the name of his Life Spark, but the rank of the achievement he got after creating it was "SS Divinity", which was lower than when he killed the manticore but still the second highest achievement he has gotten.
"My battle aura can probably erase the curse, but first and formal they have to join the alliance through a contract and second, even if I increase the light part to the most I can without making my aura crumble apart, it's going to hurt quite a bit, my element it's not healing light but destructive one after all", said Daimon to Aurora.
Daimon theorized that his battle aura somehow screwed over the black mist element of the Nethereal, could be because his Demon Light contains almost all the elements that counter darkness, in other words, light, lightning and fire, nature and water could work too, but they are softer compared to the ones Daimon chose.
Ignoring Sarah who was delighted over the thought of being covered in Daimon's flames, Bell turned to see Aurora before saying.
"Let him try it with me aunt, I will die in a year anyway, this way at least we can get to know whether this can be used to cure Sarah…".
"No", three different voices denied Bell's request, Aurora, Sarah who had woken up from whatever imaginary situation she was dreaming of and Daimon who retrieved his flames.
"All the Nethereals so far have been different, but they all shared the same thing, which is that they are afraid of my flames…", Daimon saw Sarah who has been released by Aurora, sneakily approaching him trying to close the distance and he used blink to return to his seat.
'Except her', he mentally added before continuing.
"But you aren't a Nethereal, luckily we have a knowledge about someone who is in a similar situation as you, wasn't the leader of Black Wave in the Maelstrom Sea previously a normal mixed race, but now can use that black mist", he said with a smirk.
Aurora's eyes glowed as she heard Daimon, why should they play with Bell's safety, when there is a perfect test subject prepared for them, in a place where they were going to visit originally anyway, it was basically a cake that fell from the sky right in front of them.
"As for her… the leader of the Bone Sea was injured, the scheming guy is going to send a creature to make them submit, so that is another true Nethereal test subject, maybe I can get something out of it", said Daimon.
This time he will be prepared, the curse won't take him by surprise a second time, and he needs to learn more about the Nethereal, the best way to learn how to kill something is knowing everything about it, that's something Aura taught him, she has fought against each and all the strong magic beasts and races that are known in at least two out of the four galaxies, that's the origin of her battle maniac reputation.
"We'll do that, for now, bring the register of all the members of this branch of Black Wave, all of them will have a use in the army we are forming", said Aurora with a happy voice, this day she recovered a daughter and a granddaughter, there is no way she will let anyone take them away again.
"Mm, I'll call them", answered Bell, just to hear Daimon saying.
"Before that, can you tell your crazy daughter to stop?", Sarah was trying to stick to Daimon, but he was using blink to avoid her, unfortunately that didn't discourage her as she kept trying to hold onto him, he even threatened her, just to see Sarah smile at him and increase the fierceness of her chase.
Bell softly laughed, while Aurora sighed as she wondered how was she going to explain what happened here to Jasmine, the only calm one was Thea who was enjoying of a drink.
By the way, Evangeline has been laughing her ass off at Daimon for around five minutes straight.
Despite all that, Aurora had a sensation of peace in her heart, one which was lost the moment her daughter died, for the first time since that tragic day she wanted to continue living, not only for Jasmine and Sylvie's sake, but because she wanted to see what the future had in store for her.