The room fell silent. The plan was ambitious-to replace all the countries' leaders. This was going to reduce severely the hold the blackguards had over the Mannard continent. The whole of humanity would turn against them. But this would not be a simple task; on the contrary, it was going to be complicated, and most importantly, it would require time.
Erik didn't doubt his Chimaeric Demons' ability to replace key figures, even if they were the leaders of foreign countries. In the past, things like this happened frequently, and if the ancient humans, devoid of power, could do that for the Chimaeric Demons, who could shapeshift and assume the identity of multiple people at the same time, it was bound to be even more possible.
The only problem was the Veritas Lenses, but even that had a limited scope of use, especially considering they had a limited range of use. If the Chimaeric Demons played it well, no one would be able to find out they replaced these people.
"How much do you think it will take?" Mira asked.
"It depends on how fast you can get those brain crystal powers." Erik paused.
"Invisibility will be needed by the Chimaeric Demons to get as close as possible to their targets, to allow them to replace them. Of course, this doesn't mean they won't need to do their research, and this is exactly the problem."
Erik stopped to think for a second. "Assuming we get them in a week, if you do it fast, after having merged them and made something suitable, the first 500 should be ready in three months, maturity included. But then, I will say at least four months to find enough information on their target, study them enough so that they would arouse no one's suspicions when turned, then actually replace them," the young man said.
This was a challenge for Erik's plan. He would need to wait before he could attack the blackguards. However, taking seven months to replace world leaders and control the human continent wasn't actually that long. Usually, such big changes would take years. In comparison, seven months was a very short time.
Hin was going to get conquered much sooner, and anyway, he wanted to send the Chimaeric Demons around, at least for the information gathering purpose.
Even if they couldn't immediately replace the world leaders, they would at least prepare the ground for that to happen and allow Frant to resist the blackguards, likely new helpers.Erik had no doubt the fuckers asked for the other countries' help, now that the Chimaeric Demons made it impossible even for them to conquer it easily as they expected.
The problem was that aside from Frant's remaining troops, which were not much to begin with, only 70000 Chimaeric Demons were on the Mannard continent, and soon, they would not be enough to stop their enemies.
The virus Erik planted in Hin's, Etrium's, and the blackguards' communication systems would not help for much longer, given how frantic their migration to analogical ways of sharing information had been here on Hin.
Emily, Mira, and Amber exchanged glances. "We're with you, Erik," Emily said. "Whatever you need us to do, we will."
Mira and Amber nodded in agreement. The Chimaeric Demons, too, stood tall, ready to grant their master's wish.
...
...
As the meeting came to a close, Erik pulled Emily, Mira, and Amber aside. He reached into his bag and pulled out the armor and weapons he had brought for them.
"I want you three to have these," he said, handing each of them a set. "This equipment will help protect you, and since you often said you wanted to be more useful, this will help you achieve the goal."
"Are these...?"
"Brain crystal equipment," Erik said, not without a tint of pride in his voice.
"There is a set of armor with various defensive brain crystal powers for each of you. The weapons have one too. I tried to pick the ones that would suit you the most, but I didn't have that much time to see what the fortress' armory had, so I might have missed the really good stuff."
Amber got two daggers, a weapon, the same ones she got taught back at the Red Palace. One of them could create flames, the other Ice. They were powerful weapons. That much was clear to both her and Erik.
The woman accepted the daggers from her lover with excitement. As she grabbed the handles, she was struck by their unexpected lightness. They did look very solid, so the lightness surprised her.
However, their appearance belied the strength she could sense within them, or better, the mana that the mana clusters in their handles had.
Amber turned the weapons over in her hands, her fingers tracing the designs etched into the metal.
"These are beautiful," she said.
For a second, the blades gleamed when the woman moved her wrist, then her eyes went to their edges. They promised deadly efficiency.
She was amazed by how well the daggers were made. The designs on the handles flowed smoothly into the carvings on the blades. This made the daggers look beautiful, more ornamental than meant to be used to fight.
"Etrium sure knows how to craft stuff," she said.
"It is what they are famous for, after all... I've lived there for some time, as you know, and this is just the tip of the iceberg."
The blades were much better made than any daggers she had used before.
Amber tried spinning the daggers around. They moved easily, almost like they were part of her arms.
"They're so much better than my old ones. I just need to figure out how to use their brain crystals."
"Try calling forth your mana. It should work. These weapons are made to be simple to use."
The woman did as Erik said. Focusing on the first dagger, a small flame appeared on its edge. She made it disappear just by thinking about it.
"It's easier than it looks like."
Then she looked at the other and did the same. A thin layer of ice coated it, increasing its slicing power but also increasing its length. Amber smiled. "Yeah, pretty easy."
She gave Erik a look.
"Thank you."
The others, too, received their gifts. Mira got a bow. Its power was simple, as it increased the user's strength, making it possible for him or her to knock more powerful arrows. She tested the weapon using mana. Immediately, pulling the string became much easier. But the string itself was much harder to pull than any other bow Mira ever used.
That was because it was entirely made from thaids' body parts, and the string looked like it was made from tendons.
"It works. I can already see it will increase my strength a lot."
As for Emily, instead, she got a sniper rifle. The brain crystal wasn't particularly powerful, but allowed the user to create mana bullets by using pure mana. That meant never running out of ammo and making bullets able to pierce the natural mana shields thaids had. Besides, their strength and piercing power depended on how much mana was used.
"Don't try it here. It will make a lot of noise, and that is the last thing we want."
"Yes," she said.
In her hands, Erik had no doubt the weapon would be catastrophic. The women accepted the gifts with grateful eyes. These were powerful weapons, and for sure, they were costly. Not that Erik spent money on it, but that wasn't the point.
Erik smiled. "Now... I need to finish some stuff, and then, finally, I will go to rest a little."
"All right," Amber said. "We will go back to the Chimaeric Demons. I hope we will be able to rest tonight. They can be quite mischievous and grow stronger each day, which makes keeping an eye on them complicated."
June approached Erik. "I'll head out too. You've got that other task to handle, and I could use some shut-eye myself after this much time of traveling."
Erik gave a grateful nod to his clone. "Thanks, June. We'll catch up tomorrow."
One by one, they filed out of the room. Amber, Mira, and Emily headed towards the Chimaeric Demons' quarters. June stretched as he walked towards the exit.
The door closed behind the last person, and Erik found himself alone in the now-silent room. He took a deep breath, mentally preparing for the discussion he was going to have.
<System.>
<Yes?>
<Can you make another neural link training technique?>
<I can.>
<...>
<You can? Just that?>
<Well... I mean, you asked. What should I have said? Graghahhgegaga? That would make no
sense.>
The young man sighed, deliberately ignoring the system's weird antics and wondering if the woman that was used to make this thing was like this.
<Can you make it so I can create neural links more quickly?>
<I can, but improving this part isn't as simple as increasing the number of brain crystals' neural links you can train simultaneously. It will require a lot of DNA points.>
<Yes, but I remember you saying that the technique you made could be improved further. Can't you simply make it more efficient?>
<That...> The system said. <Depends... The technique I made was thought to train multiple
brain crystal powers rather than one. It works well with single powers but is not thought to increase speed that much. You saw a difference between the technique taught at school and yours, just because the first was awful. The one I made is a piece of art.>
<Well, that piece of art needs to be improved again, or a new technique needs to be made,>
Erik said.
<Let's see what I can do then...>
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