"Break's over. Shall we get going?" I said.

"Let's go," Mera replied with an affirmative nod.

With demon minions dying left and right, the demons who they contracted with would eventually find it strange that soul energy was quickly gathering towards them through contracts. Now, as much as I would like to sever all the energy links, I couldn't. Capturing the souls wasn't an option either because they were mortal souls. It would just burden Mera unnecessarily.

I knew why the rules were there but I couldn't come to like those rules.

Whenever a demon behaved strangely on my radar, it would be captured.

As we proceeded, I figured that my tactical sight range would be sooner or later deduced by the enemy and my location pinpointed.

That feeling of unease stuck to me.

Since my presence couldn't be detected otherwise and that I was often covering Mera, we were no different than invisible chess pieces moving across the board. Invisible or not, we were following set rules.

This might be a tactic devised by the mastermind to track my presence. To counter that, I suggested to Mera that we should randomize our targets. Thankfully, she readily agreed. Perhaps I was overthinking things but I thought it was better to be more cautious.

Personally, I preferred if we could launch a simultaneous attack on all their locations but we unfortunately lacked the personnel.

Minions one group after another were being mercilessly eliminated. Then, using the contract energy links, I tracked the demons' locations and seal them away with my void barriers to be processed later.

I did slightly feel bad about trapping them since they didn't do anything wrong yet to my knowledge. Though, I did spot one that I had let go earlier at the Abyssal Gate so that demon was just out of luck to be captured this time.

Tough luck, troublemaker.

About half an hour passed, we breached into one of their strongholds.

"Wait..."

"What is it?"

It would seem that our enemies had reacted appropriately this time. Somehow they were able to notice the difference between how minions and demons were being disposed of. Yet, because I had been carefully tracking demons visible to my tactical sight, I was not able to see what all the devils and minions were up to.

"Something doesn't feel right..." I said. While we remained undetectable within my void barrier, the scene before us was undoubtedly a countermeasure against us.

"Perhaps we should go to a different venue."

"Why is that? I can see the devils here are stronger but you've seen me in combat. This much shouldn't be a problem. The contract hasn't taken much of my soul yet."

"It's not that. The enemies are testing for our response just as we are testing theirs. They've sent out their shadow devils and specialized clones that instantaneously gather information around them. The statuses you're seeing are likely completely fake and many of them are invisible to the unaided eyes."

"You're not pulling my leg, are you?" She raised an eyebrow at me.

"Of course not! There are hundreds of those shadow clones just waiting to catch a glimpse of us and force me to reveal myself."

Currently, we were in an indoor arboretum setting. To Mera, she could probably see several minions and devils serving two demons at a table with snacks and drinks. If that was all it was, I would have eliminated the demons on the spot while leaving Mera with the rest.

However, things weren't so simple this time. There was only one demon as a bait here while the other was a specialized clone sent from several unseen, likely, demons outside of my reach. The clones here were unlike the time with the snake guardian where they were I could easily determine the real body following the energy links. These specialized clones were all interconnected to at least three others where majority of these links were outside of my immediate reach. It was even possible that several demons with unique traits were cooperating.

Needless to say, anyone with |devious| trait were likely already all under mind control or at least thought guidance.

Here, there were no real minions. Countless shadow clones hid under shades small and large.

I explained the circumstances to Mera.

"Berry, if we leave now, wouldn't that mean they found a way to effectively stop us?"

"You have a point but the moment I make a move, protecting you might become extremely difficult if they lock onto you." Although having her dragged into a shadow realm would be a concern, I trusted that she could use medium level light magic even in that state.

"Lock onto me?"

Whoever the admin was wasn't omniscient in this subspace. They had to rely on eyes to see.

"When the administrator lock onto you, they could constantly shift you around or even shift the rooms around. Demons can't necessarily harm you directly but if the admin can transfer you into places with lots of minions and devils. Then, every time you summon me, it'd drain a little bit of your soul energy, right?"

"I see... But we can't stop now. We haven't even found him yet."

Letting out a faint sigh at the expected response, I said, "Alright then, let's go to other spots to see if other demons had been notified or linked up. In the worst case, we'll tackle the weakest link."

"Alright, sounds good to me."

As a precaution, I began tracking the directions of these energy links. Sadly, it was messier than a spider's nest. If I could trace them back to the masterminds, that would obviously be ideal. But, thinking about it, I couldn't be too optimistic. Now I could only hope these energy links wouldn't get scrambled later on.

Using the coordinates I had already recorded, I teleported the two of us within the maze.

I wish I had a holographic map of some sort... I wonder if I can't create one and match it to the coordinates? Hmm... User friendliness... |Creator|, make yourself useful!

Normally, I didn't use |creator|. It was a trait that was a bit clunky to use outside of my own subspace. Right now, I had recorded countless coordinates in various parts of the world but they weren't associated with a map. If I could add them to a map, it would make my life so much easier instead of relying on notes.

"Mera, do you want to look for your fiancée?"

To my abrupt question, she answered, "That would be nice if he's still alive. Why? We're in the middle of something."

"Yeah, I'm thinking of mapping this area and all the teleport gates. I don't think they've been tampered with just yet so we could find out where they all lead to. We're travelling around anyway, so we might as well build the foundation for a search and rescue mission down the road."

"I'll leave that to you."

Let's see...

Using |creator| to generate functions and build simple programs was a first for me. It was surprising I had never thought of using it that way. This was supposed to be intuitive because no manual was ever downloaded to me.

Such a hassle... Let's what command to give it...

Generate world map, 2D, layered.

Plot available coordinates on world map.

Generate subspace map, 3D, layered.

[Unable to generate entire subspace map. Partial subspace map read from memories.]

That's fine. Any bit of visual is welcomed.

Plot available coordinates and teleportation gates on subspace map and world map.

[Unable to plot all coordinates in unexplored regions.]

Then, please derive the expected coordinates of any unexplored regions based on available coordinates on the current maps.

[Derivation completed.]

Link coordinates from subspace map to world map.

Display basic parameters on both maps.

Display energy signatures and their strengths from ascendant radar on both maps.

Commands were done verbally and the details could be read from my thoughts which I was grateful for. I hadn't delved into programming so it was nice that the system understood what I wished for as long as basic commands were given.

Displayed before me were two main sets of maps. They weren't exactly as I had hoped for. However, these visuals were vital to me for understanding our situation.

First of all, the world map, it displayed everything I had asked for it to display. Any unexplored regions were covered in black with a grid system running through them due to one of my commands for coordinate derivation. It was important that this was done to allow me to have an understanding where the teleport gates were all linked to. In the future, I planned to open up the entire map by visiting those places physically. Otherwise, if I simply used derived coordinates, I might end up getting stuck inside a mountain or something.

"Alright, Mera, I have good news. I know where a good portion of the teleportation gates are connected to. We can check out all those places later."

"Well, if I'm still alive by then."

"Hey, have some faith in yourself!"

"I'm dealing with the devils here. Can't be too optimistic." She said sarcastically while staring at me.

Why look at me like that? I'm just being cautious... Or could it be?

"I'm not a devil."

She retorted rather quickly, "Who said you were?"

blanksphere