Is this really a Game?!

As the group regrouped and tended to their wounds, they discussed their next steps. They knew they needed to find out more about the mysterious enemy and their plans. With the captured enemy member now under Aethion's watchful eye, they hoped to extract valuable information.

They had nothing to do except go back and wait for Aethion and his interrogation to bring them news. And with that, they set out, keeping a wary eye out for any further threats as they couldn't be completely certain that no other enemy was nearby. Along the way, they discussed what they had learned from the encounter.

The enemy was more powerful than they thought.

Just tonight, they had come across 3 regular Tier VI combatants, and although those three were not as powerful as they were from what they noticed, they were still a threat.

The fake Tier VI combatants, however, were something else.

The mere fact that the enemy could turn a Tier V combatant into one that has a body as powerful as a Tier VI was worrying.

Even though multiple of them were needed in order to fight against one regular Tier VI, it was nothing to scoff at.

A Tier VI being is one that has stepped into the peak of the Warrior realm, and even a fake one was not something a Tier V could deal with, perhaps only those that had a mark and powerful transformation skills and boosts could fight evenly and win against one.

There were a total of 11 fake Tier VI combatants that had appeared tonight, and Reign and the others didn't doubt for a second that the enemy had more of them.

The question, however, was how many were there in total, and how many real Tier VI combatants were there as well.

"Do you think the tall guy was the one that used those phantoms and planted the fragments inside the fake Tier VIs?" Wolf asked Reign who shook his head with conviction.

"Not good enough, his control over souls isn't bad, but what he showed was not enough to do such things, removing a small fragment of your soul and then placing it inside another person is something that requires immense precision and focus, to be honest, even though I could do it, I would never do so."

"Why not?" Shadow asked before thinking for a bit.

"Because you find it immoral, or … "

"Because once you remove a piece of a soul, no matter how small, it is incredibly difficult to make the soul whole again, if the enemy leader has used his own soul and fragmented it to put it into all the fakes, then he should be suffering plenty, but for some reason, I don't think that's the case."

"True, a person that is good at manipulating souls knows just how dangerous such a thing is, if the fragments were just there to monitor them and nothing else, showing that the one planting it was planning on getting them back, then perhaps there would be a chance that it is the leader, but to make them self-destruct is just too much," Aethion said with a calm voice.

"He would feel the pain as well, from the fragments being destroyed?" Reign asked Aethion who shook his head.

"Not necessarily, but if he had somehow used fragments of another person's soul if he somehow managed to turn them into his own, or control them in some way, then there would be no risk for the person planting the fragments."

"Or, the person might have a special soul, one that can heal itself much faster than other souls, there are some like that, beings that can devour the soul of another to make their own soul bigger, not to mention that there are many different powers in the universe, many legacies that are connected to soul manipulation, so we can never be fully certain of what the enemy leader has done exactly," Aethion said as the others nodded in understanding.

He was talking to all of them, not just Reign.

"So, we still know nothing of the enemy leader, he's still as mysterious as ever, huh?" Mia asked as Reign sighed.

"At least we know about the fragments, the way they had boosted those combatants with corruption, I wouldn't be surprised if that was something their leader had done as well, or perhaps something he had learned and then taught to someone else in their faction."

"I told you about the tree that we found, what do you think of that?" Wolf suddenly asked as Aethion spoke before the others.

"They are probably trying to get it to make birth to a spawn, just in a different way compared to how it was done in the jungle."

"What makes you think that?" Wolf asked Aethion who chuckled.

"Time, because the creation of a spawn takes a lot of time, and the right location, I doubt they have either of those, they're probably heavily pressed because of you guys."

"Instead of allowing the corruption to find a location with a mana surge, they are trying to gather life force and corruption itself before infusing it inside a tree that might be located beneath a small mana surge, that way, they can create a spawn almost anywhere, and it probably takes less time."

"The fact the tree and the surroundings were seemingly coming back to life is proof that they had brought life force with them, and the fact that the inside of the tree was making the runes so quickly is proof that things are progressing much faster than usual, after all, the runes should take longer according to both the queen and Drayce."

"That is why I am fairly certain that they are doing it all in order to artificially create a spawn and use it to attack the jungle."

"Don't forget, there was something about the spawn that made even the Behemoth afraid of fighting it, which could very well mean that the spawns have something that is deadly to the Behemoth, as well as Gabriel, but not to you guys."

Reign's eyes suddenly widened by a bit.

"If the spawn was created outside of the jungle, without us knowing about it, it will be able to grow stronger, to perhaps even adapt to other powers and learn from those that created it."

"That spawn might be many times stronger than the one we fought."

Shadow and the others shared looks of concern upon hearing Reign's words.

They were true.

"After Aethion gets the information out of that guy, we can't wait for too long before taking action, otherwise the enemy might grow much more powerful quickly, perhaps powerful enough to overwhelm us all," Wolf said with a serious expression.

"The guy I fought against, the blonde guy, he was good, he wasn't a threat to me, but he was able to hold his ground, even if I had used the chaos flames from the start, he would have been able to hold them off for a while."

"And from what I managed to learn, he isn't even one of the stronger Tier VI combatants, he might even be the weakest one they got, we need to be careful this time, we haven't faced this kind of opponent before."

Wolf's words made them all nod their heads apprehensively. After all, they all knew just how strong and skilled Wolf was, and if the enemy truly was that skilled, then they would have their hands full for certain.

Shadow and Laura already knew that, they had both noticed the battle between Wolf and the hooded leader that had come after them, and the fact that it took Wolf so long to gain an advantage was more than a surprise for both of them.

"Aethion, how long do you think it will take you?" Reign asked Aethion who shook his head.

"I'm just starting, let me first get a gauge of how tough this nut is to crack, and then I'll give you an estimate."

"Sure." Reign said as they all entered the tunnel before walking back toward the jungle while talking to Gabriel the entire time and telling him what had happened.

The fact that the enemy was trying to artificially create a spawn in such a way made Gabriel incredibly nervous and frightened.

Even he wasn't sure what kind of power the spawn had that made him and the Behemoth so afraid of it, but whatever it was, it was bad news and they couldn't allow one to be born outside of the jungle where they wouldn't be able to even learn of its existence.

"Reign, the problem won't only be me and the Behemoth, you know very well what a spawn is capable of, if it is allowed to-" Continue the journey with m-vl-em-py-r

"I know, don't worry, as soon as we get some info, probably in a couple of hours, we are going to make a plan on how to proceed further, how to deal with the enemy."