Is this really a Game?!



Two more days passed, and just like before, no demons were seen during the search for the artifact.

"Tch, seeing no demons should be a great thing, and yet, this is only making us more and more tense," Alistair said as he sat down and glanced over at the other members of the group.

"Correct, we know that something is going to happen but we have no idea what it will be, any danger that lurks in the shadows can be fatal to us," Laura said from the side as Reign and Alistair nodded.

"Without knowing what the demons are up to, we can only speculate, which will make those with wilder imagination speculate things that are worse than what might happen, the more time passes, the worse their fears would become, and no matter what the demons end up doing in the end, the damage would have already been done." Reign said as he sighed.

"This might be a part of their plan, making us stress about what they are planning, If it really is a part of their plan, I have to admit, whoever is in charge of planning, is definitely a person I wouldn't like to go up against." Reign said with a solemn expression.

He had already fought side-by-side with a person who was considered a genius strategist in the past, a man who hid his strength so deeply and only showed off his great intellect for years, which was enough to make him one of the most important people in the kingdom of Riplas.

What was going on made Reign briefly think of Raigon, the head strategist of the Riplas kingdom, and the only person other than Eisenhorn who shocked Reign back when he was doing his challenges.

'That guy, what would he do in such a situation, well, he would have been the one that created this entire thing if he was the enemy, but in order to make everyone ease up, is there anything that I or the others can do?' Reign thought for a long time about what they might be able to do in order to make them all ease up, but there was simply nothing that could be done.

They had been searching for 5 days now, and even now, they hadn't managed to finish searching even a fourth of the entire region, which meant that they would need over 15 days to search everything, and that was only if things continued this way, and no demons came to attack them.

"What are the chances that the demons know what we're up to, and where we are?" Alistair suddenly asked, making Reign raise an eyebrow.

"Well, I was thinking, the demons not showing up is weird, but is this really to their benefit?"

"I mean, they don't know where the artifact is and they know that they can't get it without Liara, what are they gaining by not showing themselves and trying to locate us?"

"Isn't the best course of action for them to go all out right away and send everything they have at us in order to defeat us all and take Liara, that way, there would be nothing we can do, right?" 

Reign nodded his head as he listened to Alistair's words. The others who were nearby also nodded and started thinking.

"Without any demon appearing, the demons won't know where we are, nor what we are doing, if we somehow manage to find the artifact, they won't be able to do a thing as it will be too late, so we are left with three possibilities." Reign suddenly said.

"First one, the demons are idiots and have no idea how to do things, which I highly doubt is the case, but I am hoping for it." Reign's words made everybody present laugh as they completely agreed with him.

The demons weren't idiots, that much was certain, but they all truly did hope that some are, would make their mission, as well as the future battles, much easier.

"Number two, the demons have already found the artifact and are merely waiting for us to get to where it is, they don't need to send anyone to get Liara as she will come by herself, that would mean that they don't need to lose more combatants and can make a trap for us."

"Number three, the demons somehow know where we are, this is, in my opinion, the worst one out of the three as that would mean that the demons are tracking us without us knowing about it, and since I can sense any demon from about 500 meters around us, that means they have a way to observe us from a large distance."

"No matter what we do, no matter where we go, they know about it, and they will appear once we locate the artifact."

Reign's words made the skin of the others crawl as they felt cold from the very thought of that being possible. Wouldn't that mean that the demons were simply resting and relaxing while they were doing the heavy lifting and trying to locate the artifact?

"Now, I have no idea how the demons found out about the artifact's existence, but since they were so focused on getting Liara, that should mean that she is crucial for getting it, which means they don't have any fragments, and they can't use the artifact, no matter what."

"But if they truly do know where we are, how do they know, just what are they using in order to locate us?" Alistair asked from the side as Reign sighed.

"Give me the device?"

"Huh?"

"The device, give it to me." Reign said as Alistair took the demonic device out and gave it to Reign.

"You don't think that-"

"That's exactly what I'm thinking." Reign said with a cold smile as he stared at the device.

"It's a terrifying thought, that the demons had expected us to defeat those sneaky bastards and take the device with us, which acts as a tracking device, maybe it even allows them to listen in to our conversations."

"You placed it in the spatial ring, and it might still be functioning as a beacon that allows the demons to know where we are."

"The theory is a bit far-fetched, but we don't really need the device, so why risk it?" Reign asked as lightning appeared on his hand, frying the flesh that was around the device and slowly destroying it.

"And in case they are listening." Reign suddenly smirked as he lifted the device close to his mouth.

"You can do whatever you want, plan however you want, but in the end, I will kill every single one of you disgusting bastards, no matter how long it takes." Reign's chilling words coupled with his cold smile made the others gulp as he suddenly threw the device away and flicked his finger, sending a lightning bullet at it and destroying it.

"That's one hell of an explosion for something so small," Alistair said as the device exploded about 20 meters away from them, the explosion was more powerful than a grenade's, which was not what any of them expected to happen.

"Maybe it's because something really was wrong with the device, huh?" Reign said as the others nodded.

'Whether the device really was something they used to track our movement or not, at the very least, this was enough to lift the spirits of the others.' Reign commented in his head as Aethion nodded at him.

"None of us were able to find anything suspicious in the device, but as you said, it's nearly useless for you, so instead of risking things and taking it with you, destroying it was the better option, especially since it will lift their spirits up."

Reign and the others continued their search for the artifact, while deeper inside the demon territory, inside their stronghold which was actually a large castle, one demon clenched his hands into fists as a dangerous smile appeared on his face.

"You'll kill us all, huh?"

"Big words for a human, no, I almost forgot that he is not human but something else." The demon who was sitting down said as he got up.

"You have already given us more than enough information, a Tier IV being that can become as powerful as a Tier V being for a short period of time and can use soul power, you're a dangerous little bastard, extinguishing your life as soon as possible is definitely one of the goals we now have."

The demon walked out of the room he was in and made his way up the castle. He passed by numerous demons, who all bowed to him, before entering the highest point of the castle. Upon entering, a large hall was present, in which almost a hundred demons were currently waiting for him to arrive.

"Alszenom, what has happened?" One of the two demons who were sitting at the very end of the hall, each one sitting on a throne, asked.

"The humans have destroyed the device during a battle against monsters, we are no longer able to track them." The demon said as he bowed down, a slight smirk visible on his face.