Unaware of the intense gaze of the empress aimed at his direction, Daimon was moving at high speed inside a grim-looking dimensional tunnel, along with the others.
"What's up with this dimensional tunnel, it doesn't look like anything I have seen before?", the younger Lamia princess couldn't help but ask as she touched the floating black mist that lingered within the dimensional tunnel.
Ferris on the other hand had other questions, like how were they going to ignore the detection arrays nearby their destination, which were specially made to not let any spatial distortion slip by.
According to Zia, while there was only one array on the source of water located at that place, to not raise suspicions on the surface by letting it too unguarded for an assault from the Melliun kingdom, that didn't mean Thalia only relied on that to safeguard a place that she valued more than her own headquarters.
She had spatial detection arrays all over the place, which would normally be ignored by the Lamia and Naga race, as they covered the aerial space which is the territory of the Dark Berserker army, in other words, Thalia's sworn enemy, while the dimensional tunnels that the Melliun kingdom used, had to connect with a water source.
In that way, Thalia created the illusion that she didn't care too much about her lab when it came to the Melliun kingdom, but was wary of the Dark Berserker clan, which was the same for all her properties.
Listening to Naomi and seeing Ferris's curiosity filled eyes, Daimon explained.
"This is a special dimensional tunnel created by Rita, just like the ones you employ for spatial movement, it has special characteristics as it doesn't only contain spatial mana".
"W-Wait a second, I thought the spatial gate we used was created using runes and earlier you told us that the woman living in your shadow is a recently ascended half Stellar rank, so how is it possible for she to create a dimensional tunnel?", exclaimed the younger Lamia princess.
Before leaving Mirellia of course asked him the strength of the group he was bringing along, and that included Rita, imagine her surprise when Daimon told her that the undead head maid whose status was clearly above that of Zia's, wasn't even a proper Stellar rank.
Not to mention she managed to take middle and even high rank Stellar powerhouses by surprise earlier at the meeting.
Unlike the four galaxies or Neptune, in Draim some peak Arch ranks have the chance to learn a spatial movement technique, but in truth they are only moving into the already discovered dimensional tunnels, to then use them as transportation, Ferris confirmed it as she is the sole middle stage Arch rank who can do so, something she shares with her mother who was the previous one to hold such an achievement.
However, it was obvious for both Lamia princesses that this tunnel wasn't one of the natural existing ones, but was created and only Stellar ranks can do that, no one in the history of Draim had been able to bypass this rule and now Daimon casually said that a half step Stellar did it.
Before Daimon could answer, a soft snort came from within Daimon's shadow, accompanied by Rita's voice.
"Humph, as the one who holds the honorable status of being Daimon's head maid, I can't allow myself to be grouped with trash, since my duty is to fulfill each and every of my young master's needs, this much is nothing", she said.
"What, who are you calling trash you...ouch!", the fiery younger Lamia princess of course didn't wait to stand up for herself, but with a sigh, Ferris softly hit her with her right hand, making her stop midway.
"That's enough Naomi, miss Rita wasn't referring to you specifically, you should have noticed by now, that her way of speaking is a bit different, the same seems to apply to miss Zia, isn't that right, Daimon?", said the older Lamia princess to which Daimon nodded in approbation.
"Yes, her speech when regarding others is a bit... strange but I assure you she means no harm", said Daimon.
Naomi mumbled a couple of things while she gave her sister an aggrieved gaze, but ultimately calmed down.
"So, what if she has the ability to create her own dimensional tunnels below the Stellar rank, I bet everyone in that guy's galaxy can do it anyway", she said only to see Daimon shaking his head at her.
"Nope, even by the standards of my galaxy of origin and its surroundings, Rita is a special case, for starters she obtained this ability before setting foot in the Stellar realm and like I said, her dimensional tunnels have a special extra property, they are completely undetectable under certain conditions and incredibly stealthy at worst", he said, earning a full-face blush from the undead head maid who was floating inside his shadow.
Daimon wasn't lying there, Rita is now a half Stellar but at the four galaxies only Half Emperors can create their own dimensional tunnels by using space shift, Rita might be a half Stellar rank, but Daimon is sure that she is no match for Erin or Aura, which reinforced his belief that advancing outside of the four galaxies might be easier, but a higher realm of the outside doesn't mean being equally strong.
In a rough calculation, Rita should be around the same level as Liz at her maximum power, which is nothing to laugh about, since Liz as one of Daimon's soulmates has her own grimoire.
Ignoring all of that, Rita fluttered here and there in the limitless dark void with a happy smile on her face.
'I am special~', she thought, while she triumphantly glared at Naomi, who only now reacted, remembering the sensation of being gazed down by Rita.
"This feeling, you were the one who set up that barrier that blocked me out of sister Thea's room", she said.
"Of course, I couldn't let an annoyance disturb Daimon's private time", casually answered Rita, which led to the two of them to bicker among themselves, while Daimon washed his hands from the conflict.
"Sorry, Naomi is still too young and has been practically confined to live in the castle, this is the first time she has gone out of the capital city, so she is nervous, I was similar back then, only after I reached the Arch rank mom allowed me to wander around with Nea as my bodyguard", said Ferris as she gave Daimon an apologetic gaze.
"Sis, you promised not to tell him!", exclaimed the younger Lamia princess, stopping her quarrel with Rita.
"Heh, turns out you are more inexperienced than what I thought", jokingly said Daimon to Naomi whose snake-like pupils gazed at Daimon, anything related to being told that she is a "little girl" touched a nerve for her.
"Later don't lose it and don't separate from the group, Thea would be angered if something happens to you, so behave, okay?", he added.
"Mm", with a soft sound, the younger Lamia princess nodded and then remained silent, on the other hand Ferris's eyes shone for a second, as she wondered.
'When we met, I was sure he wouldn't have hesitated to kill us, but now, despite not showing it on the outside, he does care about or safety, perhaps because he is the one leading us...'.
Leaving that little episode aside, the travel through the dimensional tunnel which lasted around an hour finally reached its end, as the exit became visible.
'Rita, cover us with an isolation barrier, then drink some mana recovery potions and focus on absorbing them, I'll borrow your sight for a bit', said Daimon to the undead head maid.
'Mm, I'll watch your back Daimon~', said Rita, while it will be faster for her to fully focus on recovering the around 30% of her mana reserves which were used to arrive to their current location, Daimon's safety was her top priority and a couple of extra minutes of work were nothing in comparison, of course she could have this luxury since unlike when they arrived at Draim, Daimon now had some proper "watchdogs" to guard him or be sacrificed shall the need arise.
Daimon's sclerae painted black behind his mask and his sight was enhanced beyond his limits, he scanned the surroundings of their exit point to make sure there were no nearby guardians stationed there.
"We are about to leave, Rita's mana barrier will hide us, Zia it's your turn to guide us", said Daimon as the whole group was enveloped in a black sphere of mana essentially hiding them from the outside world.
And so, Zia walked through the stairs, that led to the upper area of the lab, as strange as it might sound, the inventory and the monitoring room which would normally be placed at the basement, here were at the roof, which only served as proof that whatever was hidden at the lower floors was really important.
After walking for around ten minutes, they reached a single corridor with three doors on its walls, each one with a guard in front of it, the first one led to the dormitories of the guards, the second one was the monitoring room and lastly the inventory.
Zia calmly approached the third door and without even looking at the guard used her wrist band to open the door, and then entered, closing it behind, she took a potion from one of the many shelves while Daimon scanned the whole place, since nothing that used spatial magic was allowed here, the whole inventory was filled with things displayed on the walls.
However, this inventory was a façade, it only had potions, magic treasures and armors, which were basically meant to be used by the guards, only two people out of the couple of dozens that worked here, knew what happened in this lab, Kria and the one in charge.
The difference is that Kria who was considered the "savior" of her race, liked to brag in front of her juniors, especially in front of Zia who was the newest prospect of their race with potential to surpass her.
Of course she wouldn't speak about anything serious normally, until the day when Zia was personally ascended by Thalia, she was angry and her tongue slipped about her real status, which led to how easy it was for them to reach this far without any trouble, Zia perfectly interpreted her, just like she said, her information gathering skills are top notch.
'Nothing really important here, we'll take it if possible before leaving, let's go to the monitoring room', said Daimon to which Zia secretly nodded.
"How are you communicating with her, she is out of this strange barrier?", asked Naomi, with curiosity filled eyes, both sound and image were isolated by Rita's mana, so those outside of it couldn't see, hear or even feel those inside.
"It's thanks to the contract", said Daimon, not explaining further, he could both talk with the terror contracted directly to their heads and Rita as well as Horals developed an advanced version of that, as they could tell what Daimon wanted without him saying anything.
Zia drank the potion knowing that there were arrays in the inventory, kept the empty bottle in her pocket and walked out of the room, to then walk towards the second door, just like she said she used her wrist band to enter the monitoring room.
Now, when she said that she had subordinates, it was true, the ones monitoring the arrays in the lab all worked for her, but they didn't know it, she made herself pass as their assistant who brought them food and other necessities so they didn't need to leave the room, using that as an excuse to supervise them, this was the last bit of information that Zia had about Kria, so after this they would be in the dark, but it was enough for Daimon.
"Hey miss Kria, there are still a few hours before breakfast, I wouldn't mind an extra meal though", said one of the girls who supervised the arrays on the first level of the lab.
To Daimon's surprise, the ones monitoring the arrays were... weak, since they had to be in the dark about the reality of this place, like practically everyone else besides Kria and the chief investigator, they were only early stage Stellars and quite carefree at that.
Of course, they were members of the race that Thalia designed for rune mastering, the Rune Scale race, so their expertise on it was the best among the Tyrant Snake Army, unfortunately for them, a few punches on the head and a couple of seconds later, they were all knocked out, while facing their respective devices.
'Young master, I don't know the distribution and functions of the devices here...', said Zia, Daimon looked around, his pupils moving really fast trying to find the array that controlled everything.
'There, the one supervised by the youngest one', thought Daimon, he walked towards it and then took out Disaster from the inventory.
'Nasha, don't destroy the array just absorb some of the mana that it's being constantly channeled into it, that will be enough for me to freely move', he said as he stabbed Disaster into the device.
'Mm, leave it to me', said Narasha, of course this meant that Disaster and thus Narasha had to stay here, but in exchange with the power given to the array reduced, he could now move out of Rita's mana barrier simply relying on the Hollow Suit.
Speaking of which, luckily, he didn't give one of that to the Risha sisters, because Ferris, Naomi, Zia and the Celia were wearing the remaining four now, for those who weren't wearing one, they became invisible all of a sudden, the younger Lamia princess was marveled by such a treasure, unfortunately for her before she could even fantasize on keeping it, Daimon brought her back to reality.
"Don't get any ideas, this is an extremely precious treasure, so I am only lending it to you for now".
"Humph, cheapskate you gave away all those things just to impress mom but won't give a single one", mumbled Naomi to which Daimon raised an eyebrow.
"That was to help Thea, a general needs a strong army, also there is a world of difference between those mass-produced things and a treasure of which there are only ten in existence", casually said Daimon.
"Ahem, I have to say it, magic blacksmithing is indeed way more advanced at your galaxy of origin, Daimon", added Ferris while glaring at her sister for saying such a strange thing, the whole marriage stuff was supposed to be a trick to agitate the nethereal converted people, forcing them to act as they are prompt to be emotionally unstable and it worked, with the difference that Mirellia added herself to the deal.
'That reminds me... I forgot to ask mother about that subject', thought Ferris as she gazed at Daimon for a second before shaking her head, right now they were in a dangerous and quite hidden kept place in the enemy's territory, it wasn't the time for such subjects.
"You four take their places, no one besides the receptionist and the four girls who monitor the arrays can enter, so there should be no problem, just make sure to keep them asleep and be my eyes and ears", said Daimon to the remaining four enslaved nethereals, the devices in front of them were practically surveillance cameras of ultimate generation, but now they worked in Daimon's favor.
"Understood young master", they said in unison, with everyone being invisible thanks to the Hollow Suit, besides Zia who had to open the door, which wouldn't be registered thanks to the main control array being messed with by Daimon, the four of them left the room.
The guards only saw Zia leaving and didn't pay her any attention, it was normal for the receptionist to come and go to the monitoring room, quite a few times every day, they were informed about it, so nothing suspicious happened for them.
'I know that there is a hidden part of the lab that isn't under any surveillance, only the chief investigator of the technology branch works there and there are no records of anything, that's as far as my information reaches', said Zia to Daimon, she became invisible the moment they left the sight of the guards.
Thanks to them taking control of the monitoring room and having the Hollow Suits, they were basically ghosts, they could open doors and wander around everything that was under the surveillance of the arrays, to begin with there are not many people here, basically only guards who think this is just another outpost, Daimon didn't want to take the monitoring room just to hide his tracks.
Just like back then, Rita informed him that to be perfectly undetectable, he had to reduce his range of sight even when borrowing her senses, so he could now only have perfect sight at a hundred meters around himself.
'You four, look for a place that though doesn't have guards stationed, is surrounded by them', said Daimon to the four guys he left at the monitoring room.
Thalia has proven to be quite cautious, but when it comes to deceiving others, Daimon has only fell in the traps of a single person so far and that is Erin.
'We found a place that fulfills that description young master, the trash disposing room is flanked in all directions by guards but has none stationed on it, also the investigator in chief who was supposed to be in her office, disappeared the moment Lady Narasha interrupted the mana source of the main array', informed one of the enslaved nethereals.
'I see, that means that woman was invisible as long as the array functioned properly, she should be in the secret part of the lab...', Daimon's thoughts were interrupted by a weak and almost impossible to understand whisper that reached his ears.
'H...e..lp', the origin was impossible to detect, but Daimon was sure he heard it, he approached one of the walls and knocked on it a couple of times, for others, Celia included it was perfectly normal, but that only confirmed Daimon's suspicions.
No matter how good a building is made, when it comes to underground facilities, there should always be a lingering echo when a wall is stuck against the ground, arrays or not, it takes a really sharp hearing, but there should be and there wasn't one earlier, in other words, behind this wall which should face directly the ground, there was something else.
As to why he didn't notice it with his eyes, the limit was a hundred meters and the wall was thicker than that, he could see through it but there was just more and more metal filling his field of vision.
'Lead us to that place', said Daimon to the nethereals in the monitoring room.