Alex, Omori, and his team gathered at the edge of a wide blue lake with crystal clear water shimmering with an unsettling iridescence under the shadow of the looming dark dome.
The waters carried an eerie quality, and the surrounding towering trees that formed a silent canopy overhead only deepened the sense of foreboding that hung heavily in the air.
"Aeon, are you ready?" Omori turned to Alex and said with a solemn tone, and received a head nod, he continued.
Omori swiftly retrieved three vials, each containing a potion with a different shimmering hue, and started, introducing them one by one.
"All these potions are best of best available to me with my connections, and this one is 'Aqua Lung. ' It grants you the ability to breathe underwater for six hours."
"This one is 'Veil of Shadows.' It shrouds you in an aura of concealment, removing your presence completely, and it would even mask the effects of other potions, making it impossible for even a peak elementalist to detect you without physically seeing you,"
"This one is 'Ethereal Veil.' giving you complete invisibility, and similarly to the last, it is good enough to hide you from the eyes of even a peak elementalist."
"Lastly, a Sixth Rank intangibility potion makes you capable of passing through solid material and magic barriers with ease,"
"After you drink these potions, you'll have sixty minutes before two effects from the two of the potions wear off, which means that all you have to do is complete the search and get out," Omori said and handed Alex all four of the potions.
"Now, let me tell you about the plan,"
"Once you are ready, drink the potions and then dive in the water, swim to the depths of the lake, and then keep going forward for about twenty kilometers in a straight line."
"You will eventually reach an area with multiple underwater spires, and then you need to find the area where the spires are broken diagonally."
"You then need to swim twenty meters ahead to the two o'clock position. There, you'll find a large rock. Remove it, and beneath it, you'll see a thin crack just wide enough for a person to squeeze through."
"Once you crawl through that narrow crack, you'll reach an underground chamber," Omori said, and his words grew somber as he continued.
"I won't sugarcoat it, Aeon, as the mission depends on you not making any mistakes. The champer is a place that's anything but humane. You'll find humans chained in cages, some tortured and barely clinging to life, and other horrors I can't even describe," Omori paused for a moment to let the gravity of the situation sink in.
'If I remember correctly, there was a hideout in that mountain range, and it wasn't a small one,' Alex thought, his expression staying emotionless but his mind going through various possibilities.
"I don't know what lies beyond that chamber, but this is our only chance to uncover how large of a demon hideout it is and if it is the true army hideout," Omori said and went silent.
'What is he trying to achieve,' Alex thought as he tried to unravel the true intentions of Omori.
Alex had expected Omori to use a small demon hideout to get close to him and then slowly win his trust and then introduce him to the cult, but sacrificing a big demon hideout with hundreds of thousands of demons just to build a connection with him didn't make any sense to him.
'Either the cult values me too much, or there is something entirely else going on here,' Alex thought as he looked at the tense faces of Omori's teammates.
"Sir, I told you. Aeon, even though he is exceptionally talented at what he can do, has yet to live a life and hasn't experienced many dangers, so if he is hesitant to go, then I am willing to risk my life and go," Taner, an assassin said after seconds of silence.
"If Aeon is hesitant and doesn't think he can do it, then we will abandon the mission and submit the info to the authorities because I am happy with less money, but I can't risk one of you dying," Omori said, shaking his head.
'These bastards, they are trying to ignite my ego,' Alex thought, his mind staying clear as he scanned every movement of the six individuals around him.
'I can see the stress in their faces, something I had noticed earlier, but now the anxiety in their eyes is far from ordinary, and the ways Taner is eyeing me, it's like he is ready to plunge a dagger into me and he is even struggling to suppress his killing intent,'
'All of their heart rates are increasing by the moment, and the unease on their faces is growing,' Alex thought, feeling the tension growing with his silence, which would feel abnormal even if he didn't already know that the whole team worked for the cult.
'It's like they would all die if I didn't go to this demon hideout,' Alex thought, his thoughts being a complete mess as he analyzed a plethora of possibilities.
'Their expression tells me this would not be as simple as just me going in and out of the demon hideout, which leaves a few possible outcomes, with the most logical being that either the demons know about me being the domain Ruler, which is farfetched according to my guardians but still a possibility and they have some agenda,'
'Then there is the possibility that the cult plans to force me to join the cult as they do not have any control over my movement and no way to stop me from vanishing for days on end.'
'The first possibility is feasible but is also very highly unlikely as I barely made any appearance as Aeon from the day I created this avatar, and even Elder Darrien said that there is no sure way to confirm that I am the domain Ruler.'
'So the second possibility is the one that makes the most sense,' Alex thought, coming to the best conclusion.
Alex did not even consider that the Human Emporer or the Taweret clan leader and his people who knew about his identity leaked it because they would be dead before they could reveal it.
"Aeon, if you don't want to do it, I won't blame you, but we should get going because This place is not very safe," Omori stated, his tone edged with a hint of urgency.
'I can use the Law Isolation Potion given by the emperor and get caught by the demons and then easily join the cult, and if they are planning something else, I can simply escape,' Alex thought, after making a plan of how he would proceed.
"Nah, I will do it. I was just thinking of a plan of what I should do if I get caught," Alex affirmed, and immediately, a wave of joy swept across Omori and his entire team, their eyes sparkling with happiness.
"I knew it. You won't let me down," Omori said, with a smile on his usually cold face.
"Wish Me Luck," Alex said as he drank all four potions and, after giving the team a smile, jumped into the lake.
"Taner, you fucking bastard need to control your killing intent. If he had sensed it and ran away, we all would have died," The only female member of the team lashed out moments after Alex dived into the lake.
"If he had declined to go, I was ordered to plunge a dagger into him, and I was doing my job," Taner replied, playing with a dagger that appeared out of thin air in his hand.
"Both of you shut your bickering," Omori said, holding a communication slip.
"Sir, He is on his way," Omori reported in a tone of respect.
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