Damned Healer-Chapter 99: Many Weirdos

All ten of them felt a sudden change in the atmosphere. Raon pulled something out from his spatial ring, and at the same time, the other four all gestured together.

By the time the ten tried to react, it was already too late—they were trapped, surrounded by a strange distortion in the air. It was like the space around them rippled like turbulent water, creating an invisible prison.

"Raon! What the hell are you doing?!" Gregor snapped.

No one could see anything around them, it was like they were all cut off from each other and locked away. But through the group crystals, they could still hear each other's voices and sense everyone's position clearly.

It was obviously the support girl from Raon's group doing this, but she was using artifacts to boost her effect and power.

"You bastards, I was just waiting for a chance to do this without drawing attention to the target. But now I'll do it the worst way possible," Raon's voice rang out, full of hatred.

"My father gave me an artifact to sense it. The Demonic Veil will completely cover this place in less than two hours. We're on the main planet of this universe, where our target is located. I'll have some fun first, then take care of everything right after."

"Fuck you! I'm the mission leader! You ignored my orders and now you wanna kill us? You think you'll get away with it when we go back?!" Gregor roared.

"I don't take orders from someone that pathetic. My clan prepared me to complete the mission easily, and in the safest way possible," Raon replied, and as he pulled something out, everyone felt the space around them shift. Suddenly, it turned completely stable, blending perfectly into the surroundings.

"Feel that? Recognize it? This artifact's pretty famous, huh?"

"Your dad's insane?! Is that the Red Pact Artifact?!" Leander asked in shock.

Darian had no idea what it was. After all, he only had forty days to train and study what he could. He didn't have time to read much about known artifacts or other clans. But considering Raon's clan was called Red River Pact, it was pretty easy to guess what was going on.

The answer came with laughter: "Hahaha, of course not, idiot. This is just one of the cores of our Supreme Artifact. But it's enough to use a third of its full power."

"What the hell are you planning?" Gregor asked sharply.

"Your dumb plans would probably end in mission failure. I'm gonna finish this in under a day—perfectly," Raon said, then laughed out loud.

"You figured out this mission's universe is different from the others, didn't you? My clan and the Empire have been waiting for a chance to come to this place for years. Once I'm done, they'll have seven days here without interruption. Even if someone finds out what happened, you guys are just worthless High Humans. At worst, I'll get a major warning."

"You son of a—!" Gregor growled.

Raon cut her off without caring: "I'm activating this core, and you know what that means. This sealed temple should keep me from drawing the target's attention."

"Your clan planned to sacrifice us from the beginning?!" Leander shouted, furious.

"Obviously. Blood's needed to use my clan's artifact core. Sure, we usually use it on enemies, but for a sneak attack, sometimes you gotta make exceptions," Raon answered casually.

"This mission's rewards and difficulty are more than enough reason. Once my blessing's fully active, I'll launch a surprise strike and use the core to get even more power. This'll all be over in just a few hours."

"Don't be stupid! You don't know the target's power. Mission intel is never accurate, and we always have to act carefully—even if it's risky for us too," Gregor shot back.

"In the face of absolute power, no surprise matters," Raon mocked and laughed.

Gregor spoke seriously, "You think the Amazon Sentinels clan will just let this slide? Did you forget the vice leader now holds a Supreme Artifact above all others?"

"Who gives a shit what your little clan thinks? That bow's gonna be ours soon anyway," Raon spat and gestured.

No one could see anyone else—only voices could be heard. But everyone felt the movement. Suddenly, everything around them closed in.

They tried to use the group crystal to locate each other, but it was useless. They were completely blind now.

"Fuck! That bastard!" Leander roared, furious.

He and all his allies were clearly freaking out, like rats trapped in a cage. There was no way out—they were just going to die without even having a chance to fight back.

Leander remembered back in the clan's conference room. His brother had brought up the possibility of Freon handing over the clan's artifact power to his son. But their mother, who was really experienced and had seen the complete artifact before, shot the idea down.

That artifact was twisted—something that demanded blood and bodies. The Red River Pact clan had to burn through a lot of their members' points so the Empire could bring in high-quality blood and nutrients from other universes to power it up.

Only the elite squad from that clan, during S-rank missions, carried a core. That was the clan's ultimate weapon to complete missions—only two other groups in the Empire had something on the same level.

Using the core cost them decades' worth of stored energy. S-rank missions only came up every few years. So why the hell would they give that to Raon? novelbuddy.cσ๓

He was just some troublemaking idiot. Sure, he was the vice leader's son, but he wasn't even remotely important.

And yet... he really had a core with him.

And now, listening to Raon talk to Gregor, Leander finally realized the problem. They came from a small clan. Even if they could buy some intel, not everything was up for sale. The really top-secret stuff just didn't circulate—it couldn't be bought.

'There's something in this mission that wasn't disclosed. Something here is just as valuable as in an S-rank mission...' Leander thought quickly, tense. 'What would the Empire gain by hiding that and only telling their biggest clan?'

There were too many questions—but all Leander could feel was despair. He couldn't save himself, and his mother and brother would never recover from this new wound.

And Darian...

In front of him, the space split open. Just a few meters ahead, a figure appeared, eyes full of malice. He walked toward him slowly, his face twisted in a dark kind of joy.

He stopped three meters away from Darian and stared at him.

"Feeling scared? Desperate?"

"Oh?" Darian looked at him with total indifference. His face only changed when he heard the question.

First, he let out a soft sigh, like he was relieved.

Then, he smiled.

"Scared? I'd be scared if you were smart enough to wait patiently for the right chance. Then yeah, I'd probably feel tense and on edge. But now... I'm honestly worried... Did I hit you and you liked it? Or did that elixir really blow your mind?"

"You bastard!"

Darian snorted. "Man, it's like you did enjoy it... pfft, I've been dealing with so many weirdos lately... but hey... you showed up at a good time. I wanted to test something new."