Blood Assimilation

There was a young girl who looked to be about 15 years old among the four figures, who stood silently after confirming their location to her team members.

These four figures were obviously the team that was sent by the Society Leader to deal with the demons.

The young girl suddenly spoke up about her conjecture: "I don't think it was infighting. If you look closely, you can tell that there appear to be two separate battlefields. The one here, with demonic flames, and the other battlefield, on the other side. That meant that there were at least two demons and two people who apprehended them."

The handsome blonde-haired young man called Vairon also realized the truth and said: "Oh, you're right. Judging by the temperature of the heat coming from the flames around here, the battles concluded not long ago. In other words, whoever fought the two demons might still be nearby."

"What?!" The other two members were shocked.

Tiana, who couldn't believe that such a thing was possible, readily refuted:

"You guys think someone fought those demons? And two people at that? Excuse me to say this, but would there even be a single person like that still in this backward city? Wouldn't they go to the capital after reaching level 50?"

And she continued: "Based on the energy residues, I don't think those demons were weak. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been such deep craters created just from their fight. They had to be at least level 60, which no one in this city has been able to reach using the dungeons here."

Vairon also agreed: "I know I said that but the only other person beyond level 60 was the Society Leader, and he shouldn't be the one who dealt with these demons since he was the one who sent us here in the first place."

And he continued: "But what if there was someone else besides the Society Leader?"

"…"

Hearing his words, they all started pondering who could be this mysterious expert that managed to stay hidden within Alpheotus City all this time. Furthermore, there was also a possibility that they might've been staying somewhere else and not in the city, which was why they hadn't been discovered yet.

"Enough with this talking and thinking about everything! What you meant was that we missed our prey, right?! What a waste of time! And here I thought I'd finally get to beat some demon bastards after so long. We need to look for them right now. I personally want to fight someone like that if they exist!"

"…"

Everyone slowly turned to look at him.

"What? Am I wrong to say that too?"

"No." Tiana shook her head.

"Right… I knew it made sense."

"No, you're wrong. I think you just don't have the brains to understand the current situation." Tiana bluntly told him.

"What did you just say Lustiana?! Do you want to fight me that badly?! Do you think I won't fight you just because you're a healer?!"

"Who wants to fight a blockhead like you?"

"Enough, you guys! Have you forgotten that we're on a mission here?! You two are the oldest among us and yet you always act like kids. Can't you just get along with each other?"

"Hmph! With a blockhead like him, who never uses his brains but his muscles? No way! But I don't mind getting along with you, though, Leader."

"Tch! I'd rather die than get along with an exhibitionist of a healer like her!"

"You guys… Whatever… Anyway, we need to investigate this properly before reporting back to the Society Leader with as many details as possible. In the meantime, we should split up. Some of you should check out the other side of the battlefield for any clue on who the people who fought the demons were."

Receiving their instructions, the group of four splits into two. The young girl left with Tiana to check the other battlefield as she had already finished analyzing the situation on the first battlefield with her magic.

Meanwhile, the belligerent Gutz stuck with their Leader, Vairon to further search for any clues they might've missed. Surprisingly, they found some broken scales after a few runs through an enormous crater that had no flames emanating from it, unlike the other craters.

The broken scales aside, they were left dumbfounded and speechless when they discovered that this specific crater might've not been the work of the flame demon but someone else.

They wondered whether it was the work of the one that apprehended the flame demon. If so, how strong were they?

After all, to be able to unleash such destructive power that seemed to contain less mana residue according to their analysis of the crater, they should either be strong physically or possess some destructive skill that relied mostly on their physical strength.

This discovery made Gutz's blood boil with antsy and anticipation of encountering the other party. Since he was a warrior himself, he had always craved opponents who relied on their fists to fight like him. He had always secretly despised people like Vairon who only relied on their sharp weapons.

Afterward, the two men stashed away the broken scales for evidence and proceeded to look around some more.

…

Meanwhile, on the other battlefield.

The two maidens searched this battlefield which did not have as many craters as compared to the other battlefield. But there were traces of pure mana, holy mana, dark mana, and even demonic energy mixed in. There was also a unique smell of blood in the air. This was the smell of blood corrupted by demonic energy.

'Were they affected by demonic energy? If so, did they succumb to the energy and become one of them, or have they died after the corruption?' The young girl, Eliana frowned as she thought to herself.

She then walked around some more and used her search spell to quickly scrutinize the area of about 2 miles around herself before she shook her head lightly.

'No, if they had died, there should've been a corpse lying around here. Unless strictly told by their superiors, those demons don't bother to clear evidence of their crime.'

'Then were they sent by someone higher-up to this place to complete some secret mission and were thwarted by whoever fought them?'

She continued using her magic to analyze the traces of mana fluctuations as she pondered to herself.

At this moment, Tiana's screaming voice sounded behind her, causing her to snap out of her thoughts: "Ellie, come look at this!"

Eliana sighed helplessly and walked toward the excited Tiana.

At this moment, she was squatting down and playing with something on the ground with her naked thighs on full display for all to see.

Noticing this small detail, Eliana frowned slightly but still walked over to check out why her team member had such an exciting voice despite their current situation.

After all, despite Tiana's coquettish behavior, she was always diligent when it came to missions, unlike Gutz who was always impatient.

When she approached her, she bent over and saw a black substance on the ground. This substance appeared to be blood that had nearly been corrupted but seemed to have been expelled by whoever was corrupted.

Tiana spoke when she noticed her presence: "Do you see this? The demonic energy, which was said to be impossible to cleanse using the high-level Holy Cleanse magic spell was easily cleansed using my holy attribute mid-level purification spell. Can you believe that?"

Eliana's expression changed slightly, as she was taken by surprise.

But she held back her curiosity and calmly asked: "What happened? Is that the blood of the corrupted?"

"Che. Your reaction is as weak as always. This is supposed to be exciting news!" Tiana complained, pouting playfully.

A moment later, she gave up and began her explanation: "Well, anyway, originally, this partially black blood seemed to belong to a human or a creature with red blood. However, some kind of mysterious power had nearly purified all the demonic energy's corruption within this blood. And now, as you can see, even my holy attribute mana could cleanse the remaining demonic energy."

"Do you know how amazing this discovery is? If we could find the one who fought against the demons, we might be able to figure out the method on how to resist the demons' corruption ability!'

Eliana attentively observed Tiana as she used her purification magic on the dark-red blood on the ground.

As soon as the energy from the spell came into contact with the impurities within the dark-red blood, some of the black substances, which were the impurities within the blood, began to disappear, gradually revealing the original color of the blood.

"It actually works...?" Eliana murmured blankly in disbelief.

"I told you so! You thought I was lying?!"

"No, I was just thinking that... Hm? This is..."

As the full red color of the blood was revealed after Tiana fully cleanse the blood of its remaining impurities, Eliana suddenly sensed a familiar aura exuding from the blood.

In fact, she had been sensing this aura ever since a while ago, but she thought it was just her imagination. After all, this aura reminded her of the aura of someone she recently met. It was the young man she met in the Society Leader's room the other day.