Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

Deep within an unknown forest.

The evening sky was painted red as if some Immortal was bleeding above. The restless air rustled the leaves and created a mysterious atmosphere thick with the stench of blood and killing.

At this point, Lemaar Saaya found himself entangled in a precarious situation.

As Eren's pseudo-avatar, he had been entrusted with a crucial mission—to approach a specific location based on Leesha's memories.

Leesha was one of the witches from the Helenbora coven.

Leesha had acquired her Greater Skill, the "Blessing of Asmodeus—Enslaving Cocoon of Lust," from this mysterious place, and it held various other precious items that she sought to claim for starting her own coven.

Eren, after assimilating the Wrath Flames from Leesha, discovered the existence of this location. However, due to its distance from him and his evolving understanding of Labh Salem's intricacies, Eren couldn't personally visit the place.

As such, he delegated this task to his first fully independent and functional pseudo-avatar, Lemaar Saaya.

Lemaar's mission required a discrete approach, avoiding interference with local organizations or powerhouses. Although the area surrounding Leesha's remembered location posed significant dangers, Lemaar adeptly formed a team of Practitioners over the past few years.

He meticulously followed protocol, learning and improving with each raid, with the ultimate goal of claiming the valuable items stored within the peculiar place.

As Lemaar Saaya was only weeks away from executing his plan, an unforeseen and unknown force suddenly attacked him without apparent reason, throwing a wrench into his carefully laid-out preparations.

***

Lemaar, appearing to be in his early 30s by mortal standards, presented a gruesome spectacle—bloody and battered.

His umber-colored shoulder-length hair clung to both sides of his face, drenched in blood flowing from wounds on his forehead and under his eyes.

Indeed, Lemaar's face bore the brunt of a volley of arrows, strategically avoiding vital spots. It was evident that the archer sought not a swift death but prolonged suffering.

Once-handsome features now bore the marks of agony and torment, portraying a grim situation for him.

The brutality extended beyond his face. Lemaar's entire body was impaled with arrows, bleeding profusely from multiple wounds. His once pristine white robe now bore the scarlet hues of his own blood, leaking through severe yet non-fatal injuries.

The spear clutched in Lemaar's hands lay shattered, his A-Rank mana significantly depleted, and the surrounding region lay in ruin. It was clear that he tried to fight. But it seemed all was in vain.

Notch. Release. Hiss.

"Aaaaargh!"

A fresh arrow sliced through the air with a serpent's hiss, embedding itself in Lemaar's right thigh. The arrow, infused with potent Spiritual Force and Elemental Attainments, traversed space with such speed that evasion was impossible.

The Practitioners accompanying Lemaar brought together through financial influence, succumbed to the spectral arrows, victims of this sudden onslaught.

Now surrounded by the enemy Practitioners, led by the arrow-wielding assailant, Lemaar, gripped by pain and anger, questioned their motives.

"Why? Why attack us? What... aaargh... have we ever done to you?" he demanded, suppressing a scream of pain as he glared at the distant enemy leader.

Lemaar's inner self had already identified the foe as Nira Nightshade, prompting a distress signal to Eren via the Mesh. Despite this, he feigned ignorance about the origin of Nira's hostility, expressing genuine confusion and frustration, making even himself believe that he played no role in the matters involving Eren and Nira.

***

Nira Nightshade carried a quiver on her back, laden with a cluster of arrows. In her left hand, she held a bow that would seamlessly vanish, only to reappear in the same position the next moment.

Her long ears protruded from beneath a raised cape draped over her head. She exuded both allure and mystery, casting her gaze upon Lemaar as if he were nothing more than an ant. With a well-defined bust, slender waist, and gracefully contoured posterior, she boasted an hourglass figure.

Beneath her captivating exterior, Nira emanated a certain elegance, seamlessly blending with a lethal edge only someone who had gone past the Ranking Status of Sagehood could wield. Her gaze held a commanding presence, deterring anyone from dwelling too long on her physical attributes when met eye to eye.

Just like Eren, Nira also wasn't present in her real body to confront Lemaar. This was an alchemy doll that she was using while her real self was busy doing something else.

The creation of the alchemy doll was clearly taught to her by Sansara Sage. It was an advanced form of Mana Body Creation that Lin Lehan had invented for himself and his pals from Anfang after he exited his homeworld.

One could say that operating an alchemy doll was a downgraded version of the pseudo-avatar with limited functionalities. In this way, it could be said that Lin Lehan's legacy holder, Eren, had surpassed him by combining two fields together even with less experience than the former.

Even though Nira was using an alchemy doll to fight with Lemaar, the alchemy doll itself was of the S-Rank. Using an S-

Ranked alchemy doll also meant that Nira had already achieved the Saint Class after her departure from Anfang.

As such, even with limited functionalities, she had all the power she needed to get rid of Lemaar and his teammates who had died without knowing about anything.

***

"Stop acting like you don't know anything," Nira Nightshade responded coldly as she looked at Lemaar.

"Drop your weapon and get captured quietly. You need to answer a few of my questions before I let you go."

She said as she notched another arrow on her bow and aimed at Lemaar, the spectral arrow condensing more of the Spiritual Force that she poured into it, waiting to be released from her grip so that it could fly and injure Lemaar some more.

"Hahahaha," Lemaar laughed in disdain at Nira Nightshade.

"Let's not kid ourselves with useless bullshittery like this. You'll let me go? After killing all my teammates? I'd sooner believe the sky is falling than that absurd claim of yours."

"Well, believe what you may, but I'm not letting you go, regardless of your choice," Nira shrugged, smiling ruthlessly at Lemaar.

"How about this? I'll offer you an easy death if you answer my questions honestly. Does that sound like a believable proposition to you now?" She gestured to her subordinates, signaling them to stay vigilant with her gaze. The alchemy doll let her express the power of a Sage. Yet, she still had her limitations. She could only rely on her subordinates to help her in trapping the guy in while she interrogated him.

"What if I told you that you had the wrong guy?" Lemaar spoke with difficulty, spitting out some blood clots.

"You have clearly made a big mistake in identifying your enemy. Because I have never seen you in all my life," he said with conviction and half-truth mixed in his grim yet confident voice, his gaze unflinching.

"Hehehe," Nira Nightshade chuckled upon hearing Lemaar's words.

"Well, my eyes can deceive me, my Mana Sense can deceive me, but my nose can't. Don't lie to me, brat. You have the same smell as someone who destroyed my Soul Fragment in Anfang.

Now, answer me honestly: Who are you, and when did you land in Anfang? What were you hiding back then?" She asked and released the arrow from her bow in the next moment.

As the arrow approached Lemaar, his expression went blank for a fraction of a moment before turning unfettered all of a sudden.

'I get it now. So it was that damn nose of hers. Then… that means the cover is not blown. I… I don't need to leave Labh Salem as long as I can settle this mess.'

A part vicious and part joyous smile was plastered on Lemaar's face all of a sudden.

Eren took over Lemaar's half-beaten body and cursed Nira's seemingly unreal olfactory senses as he prepared himself for the attack.

===

AN: The place from which Leesha unlocked the Greater Skill was briefly mentioned in chapter 1671. Nira Nightshade's soul-

related smelling senses were mentioned in chapter 1069.

The Mana Body Creation using the use of the Arrays was mentioned in chapter 1101.