novelraw Chapter 1462 - 1461 - Dead Ends
Chapter 1462 - 1461 - Dead Ends
Evie felt like drinking an entire bar into the ground. In the few weeks since Shoti joined them, things had gone south in a bad way.
They had thought that the deaths in the first raid were only tied to breaking that one weaving but dead bodies were found everywhere! Some in places they had never suspected agents being too!
The mass death event was limited to the single city but the manner of death was identical. Further, evidence of involvement with Fiends was all over the place.
Some, like the depository, were hip deep in with the Fiends but there were far more that might not even have known who they were working for!
Those near innocents were the problem. Other than connections to some business or possible agents, there was nothing else marking the individual as a Fiend collaborator.
Most were rogues or other isolated people but more than enough were from wealthy families that they were demanding answers. The fact it was tied to Fiends seemed to be brushed aside as they wanted someone to blame for the dishonor to their names rather than avenging the dead.
Evie hated that type the most but she understood them. Cultivators lived a long time and stains like that were not forgotten in a century or 2 as it was with mortals. Even Sky Realms, for all their influence in the lower worlds, barely lived more than a few thousand years.
The demoness was currently shrouded by bright pink hair and her eyes were a burnt orange. She still found she liked to look different occasionally and Annabelle had a lot of fun creating a formation plate that could shift what it showed.
It had no battle aid but for disguising it was perfect. It even felt real if someone touched it but a cultivator's aura would sense the difference from true flesh.
She ignored such random thoughts as a knock came to the door of her current room. It was a simple bed, basin, and table. Hardly even a room but it was enough.
She opened the door to see a kneeling young demon in one of those spirit blessed cloaks from the Frey Clan. Evie truly loved the toys that Clan made up and her group was one of the 'test parties' used to get reliable data.
The fact her group got to keep them afterward was just silently overlooked by both parties! Her competitors would be incensed if they knew she got powerful artifacts at almost no cost.
Still, they came in far too handy to not put up with the mountain of reports the Frey Clan demanded from them.
[Mistress, we have got a final tally.] He spoke only with his mind as he passed a sealed scroll to her. Jade slips were more efficient but could be 'hacked' as Lind put it. Scrolls were not perfect but with a seal, it could be made to self destruct before information could be taken.
She scanned him before accepting the scroll. Fiends made a person very paranoid but Kal had shown her some tricks of her repaired physique. Chief among them was the ability to tell if demons had been compromised no matter what artifacts or methods were used to deceive others.
It was very convenient but limited to demons alone. Even a human carrying demon blood was not enough.
Still, she had quite a few other tricks to work on others. Elementals were the only race beyond her in that regard but faking their existence was next to impossible.
"Get out and go back to your damned wife! I already told you no!" The look of shock on the young man's face followed by a sigh of resignation almost made her smile but she kept up her angered looks.
She snatched the scroll with a clear intent to destroy it as the few people in the hall looked shocked and amused. It was a simple play but effective.
Once she was alone, she changed her features to a lithe little thing with green hair so dark it was almost black. Her eyes were a dull shade of red as her robes shifted to something less valuable.
It may seem odd, but spies and cultivators trying to pierce the tavern would now overlook her even if she was in the same room as she registered in. They would just assume she took another one and waste time while she went over the scroll.
It was not much but it was enough.
She broke the seal with her blood and scanned the contents. Her frown deepened before sigils lit up at the bottom. She let it go as it evaporated into nothing.
Neat and tidy with nothing left to put together.
"Sigh, so almost 15,000 people were killed in an instant when Shoti broke the weaving. Only an Oath should be able to do that but the Fiends must have a way to impose it on people. Something they say, maybe? Something they take?" She tried to guess the source of the trigger as what could do it seemed impossible.
Cultivators did not go around making Oaths lightly but neither would they take objects they did not trust. A simple artifact would not do it either.
Something innocuous but that could be abused just did not occur to her. She was now irritated.
First was the loss of all possible information. Next, while many resources of Fiend alignment were found, no records existed. It was all kept in the now destroyed brains or souls of the dead.
Third, and the most irritating for her, was that while the method of killing was brutal, it was easy enough to replicate no power was accepting their members were actually taken in by the Fiends.
It was one thing if actual physical proof existed, but many of the dead were found far inside their spheres of power. Any evidence was likely destroyed to save face.
She had to admit, it was an effective means to cut off all connection to the wider plans. Fiends did not mind inconvenience.
There were trillions of lives across all 4 layers of the Celestial Fields with new prospects rising up all the time.
Even thousands of lives meant nothing to them if they could succeed.
The last thing was their ultimate target. At a strong suggestion, the weaving guild had broken into the seclusion chamber to find Lir's master now dead. Just like the others.
In his case, however, he was clearly using Fiend techniques and there were too many witnesses to bury that fact. Evie had made sure of it.
Lir's and other deaths were now suspected under his care but that was all. The other masters were in seclusion so they may not know what happened but she doubted they cut off all communication.
If they moved now, they would give themselves away but she would eat Kal's cooking before she believed they would not suddenly re-emerge on some invented issue to leave their respective powers.
There was no proof of connection between any of them aside from their actions so there was nothing she could do about it.
"Effective and boxes us in. We got complacent." Fighting Fiends had never been overly difficult. Resist, kill, and move on was the standard once they were discovered. The Cataclysm the Fiends caused that broke apart the Celestial Fields destroyed long held alliances and powers.
It was not intended to be a long period but merely a prelude to the end. If not for some people switching sides at the end, even Lind Frey would not have been born to save them from it.
The commodity of time works both ways, however. Now that the Fiends knew of their weakness, they had changed tactics. The method was a mystery but the results could not be denied.
The tournament was ongoing so it was still their best chance to corner them but the wall the Fiends put up meant they knew it too.
They had EXPECTED to be found out. Lind Frey and his Clan's long resistance to them made them wary. It made things much harder.
Dead ends left them nowhere to go and powers that honestly had no idea what was going on would only aid them.
She sighed as she donned her own black cloak. The instant she infused her demonic Qi into it, she essentially vanished from the world.
As if waiting for that moment, the door swung open and a human woman was being dragged in by a demon that had muscles to spare. He was quite handsome but anyone that assumed he was a muscle head would die without knowing how.
His cobalt eyes scanned the room before the smile turned to his companion.
"You are with me till dawn now!" It was a simple code phrase. It meant no one was outside that they suspected for at least sunrise.
She slipped out of the tavern and quickly blended into the crowds. The deaths had caused chaos, but she could deal with chaos.
Darker thoughts came as she thought of the future. If the Fiends allocated the loss of an entire city's worth of agents into all their plans, fighting back would become much harder. Not least because people wouldn't know!
No one could know who was touched by the Fiends or not if they did not figure out the mechanism they were using to kill so many so effectively!
She looked up and actually sent a mental prayer to the spirits. It was all she could do as they continued to investigate the known agents and all they came in contact with.