Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

"We will move within a few days. You are welcome to stay here till then."

Eren replied casually as he gestured to Reen to stop messaging him. He then got up from his bed and stretched his limbs as he added further.

"As for your compensation, you will naturally get it when we complete the raid," he said before looking at Naya.

"I hope you have brought a new batch of prisoners for me. I would like to conduct a final round of experiments before we attack sea god Raashim's domain," he said.

"Altair Argas indeed sent us a good number of prisoners. I will transport them directly to your "special" place," Naya said before gesturing at Ashton and Hilda who stood behind her.

The pair of fiends nodded at Naya and Eren before taking their leave. Soon, they would transport the new batch of prisoners to Siren's Sanctuary's underground facility.

"They've grown stronger, and even closer together than they were in Anfang," Eren thought to himself, smiling as he watched Ashton and Hilda's backs. He had resurrected them and turned them into fiends on a whim, but it turned out they had a natural talent for accepting their demonic nature.

'I have about a month before Vasco and Horen arrive in Sunhave. Should be enough time for me to take over this god's faith.'

Eren had given himself one month to wrap up the raid on the sea god Raashim. After that, he needed to address the undercover mission from the Demon Slayer Corps that supposedly involved his father.

'Is it really him? If they don't know what the Chessblade Knight looks like, the chances are it's definitely him. After all, the rulebook he gave me– I'm sure he'd follow his own set of advice,' Eren thought to himself.

The butcher couldn't help getting excited over the fact that he would get to meet his father. He had a lot to tell him.

It turned out his father had stepped into S-Rank as well, earning the honor of being a Kaiser with the title of the Chessblade Knight. Eren was surprised to learn this, but his surprise didn't last long once he considered how his father operated.

Elijah Idril would never undertake something unless he was certain of achieving success. Unlike Eren, his talent as a Ranker was evident from the early stages of his Ranking Journey.

The Chessblade Knight. That's what Eren's father called himself whenever they played chess in Anfang.

He once told Eren that he liked the Knight's piece the most because it represented him – someone who sidestepped problems while staying within self-imposed rules. Someone who was not as strong as the strongest piece nor as weak as the weakest piece. Someone who could transcend his mediocrity with one right move.

Eren found his father's thoughts inspiring. He pondered his own preferred chess piece.

However, Eren couldn't come up with a solid answer. Taking pleasure out of his son's misery born out of indecision, Elijah had suggested Eren could become the chessboard itself with his talent – something that hosts pieces and lets them fight among each other, something that exists outside the game session, and something that outlasts any game.

Eren was deeply inspired by his father's words. Even though he didn't fully understand what it meant for him, the idea of becoming the chessboard resonated with him deeply.

"If push comes to shove, I'll fucking destroy the entire Demon Slayers Corps for him if it becomes a hindrance to his path," Eren thought to himself, narrowing his eyes.

"But first, I need to meet him and see what he's up to. If there's anything I can help him with, I'll gladly do so," he nodded to himself as he walked back inside Siren's Sanctuary.

Unlike most kids, Eren wasn't saddened by his father's absence in his childhood, even when it happened. He saw things pragmatically and understood that his father must have had a very good reason to make that move. After all, Elijah, the Chessblade Knight, didn't make any wasteful moves.

Eren had searched for information related to the Chessblade Knight in the Arcane Archives of the Demon Slayers Corps but found little apart from random demonic incidents that occurred one after the other.

Throughout these mysterious incidents, the term "Chessblade Knight" remained an enigma for the Demon Slayers Corps.

Recently, orders came from the upper echelons of the Corps that the Chessblade Knight needed to be apprehended at all costs. A wide net had been cast across Labh Salem for this purpose, meaning Eren was not the only one undercover, acting as part of the invisible net cast to trap Elijah.

This net had been set up for more than five years to catch a single Kaiser. That too by a well-established organization within Labh Salem that had the backings of various gods. And yet, it couldn't catch Elijah.

It spoke volumes about the man's ability to predict his enemy's moves, like a chess grandmaster who played games against a newbie player with bare minimum experience. One could say that Elijah had been winning every single day ever since the game between him and Corps started more than five years ago.

Of course, Eren didn't immediately rebel upon learning that his father stood in opposition to the Corps. He was sure that his father would be the first to criticize him for his rash move if he ever came to know about it.

Furthermore, Elijah didn't consider the Demon Slayer Corps his enemy; he acted against a specific group of people, and the Corps was just getting in the way of his business. Why take things personally when you can ignore the hindrance and focus on goals?

Just like the knight piece on the chessboard, Elijah always sidestepped at the last moment, preventing the Corps or his enemies from ever catching a whiff of him. He stayed many moves ahead of his enemies, allowing him to evade many "surefire" traps.

***

'I… I don't know how many of his subordinates I have killed during the last five years,' Eren mused to himself as he got inside the underground facility.

Eren realized he might unwittingly have become a hindrance to his father. He might have killed or neutralized some of his allies during the last five years undercover on the same mission. His official demon-slaying count was already in the thousands.

However, Eren didn't think his father would mind.

As far as he knew Elijah, he might have already considered his "pieces" getting sacrificed and still played the game decisively.

This was his father's rulebook. Eren had merely adopted its rules.

"One way or another, I'll get my answer after a month. Meanwhile, I can get some work done. I need to finish my sevenfold mana core experiments within a few days. Only then can I confidently face the sea god Raashim," Eren thought to himself as he waited for Ashton and Hilda to bring him a batch of prisoners inside the underground facility.

Even though Eren had acted tough in front of Naya, he was quite wary of the sea god Raashim and the power of his faith. The only reason he had still decided to carry on his plan was that he had seen promising results with his sevenfold mana core experiments.

Eren also believed that his elemental God Spark, forged by Anfang's World Will itself, was superior to the faith-based God Spark wielded by his enemy, sea god Raashim's incarnation. At least, that's how he had interpreted the information related to the types of the God Sparks, which he had obtained from the Goddess Great Mother.

If the faith-based God Spark was forged inside god Raashim's Immortal Plane, then it came with some form of "malfunctions" that would reveal themselves in the mortal plane. Labh Salem's World Will might not be completely accepting of the faith-

based God Spark as well.

To be honest, Eren didn't know much about the subject of the God Spark because, frankly, he hadn't dwelled on the matter. He already had his hands full with pseudo-avatar creation and the experiments related to the sevenfold mana core.

Eren had basically increased his productivity sevenfold after all seven of his pseudo-avatars were sent to do his bidding for him. However, there was a limit to how much he could do.

However, the butcher knew that there were a few lessons in the world that could only be learned the hard way? If he didn't know or understand the God Spark, the quickest way to get familiarized with them was through battle.

Eren had seldom used his divine powers even since the end of the Great Shattering. After all, his mortal body had to take the brunt of his divine powers every time he wielded them.

As far as Eren could tell, sea god Rashim's incarnation would also be subjected to the same impositions as him. Eren therefore wanted to know how his enemy could get around it.

The butcher didn't mind copying his enemy's style as long as it benefitted him.

Step. Step. Step.

Eren's chain of thoughts was broken when he heard a bunch of footsteps echoing in the underground facility. He turned around to see a fresh batch of magically shackled prisoners coming towards him, with Ashton and Hilda leading them.

"Great job, you two," Eren didn't hold back his praise as he greeted the fiendish pair, a light smile gracing his lips. "I'll offer you two Elder Ichor Blessings as a reward. I hope it is to your liking. You can certainly ask me for more, and I'll see what I can do," he assured.

Ashton and Hilda were both glad that Eren had praised them. "The blessings are enough, my liege," the pair replied in unison, almost as if they had rehearsed it.

"Kekeke," Eren chuckled before clapping his hands.

"Alright, I don't have much time. This time, you two will help me throughout the rounds of the experiment," Eren said as he sidestepped and pointed at an Array Formation behind him.

"Get them inside. We'll start right away," he said, even without sparing a glance at the shackled prisoners.