Time passed while Daimon meditated to ease up his mind after pushing himself to the limit with the Comet Sword earlier, as more than an hour went on in silence, the younger Lamia princess who was sitting not to far from him, stole some glances at both Daimon and Thalia who was focused on writing page after page of information.
Naomi felt curious towards Thalia, because the aura around her reminded her of Thea whom she idolized, but she was also interested on her because she has been in Draim for quite some time, meaning she probably got to hear about some of the ancestors of the Lamia royalty.
Ferris on the other hand was trying to remember all the "missing" important people from both the Naga and Lamia races, since it was obvious that some of them probably ended here.
"If you want to ask something, feel free to do so, though I have been "alive" for way more time than what you think, my growth halted since the moment I was dragged away from my home, so technically our ages aren't that far from each other", said Thalia without stopping her hands from writing in the notebook that Daimon handed her.
The first one to speak was Naomi.
"If I understand correctly, you and sister Thea come from different places though you are both from the same race, so... are there Lamias in your place of origin?", she asked.
It was a valid question, with the knowledge from the galaxy of origin of the Lamia and Naga races, having been lost, it would be reasonable to think that Thalia whose race lived in galaxy with snake-related races, might have seen other Lamias or Nagas, Naomi asked Thea the same question before, unfortunately the answer remained the same, though for different reasons this time.
"Sorry, as the younger princess who had yet to become strong enough to be allowed to travel outside of my family's main sphere of influence, I don't know too much about the "outside" world, however I can at least confirm that within the Snake Scale Stellar Kingdom, a race like yours doesn't exist, having a state in between our beast and human forms would be considered a sign of a poor lineage there", she said.
"I see... thanks for answering", mumbled Naomi, to which Thalia added.
"That being said, I think that would be just prejudice, your race seems to be supposed to develop in that way, I heard that demi-human kingdom existed in the vicinity, there might be a similar race to yours there".
Naomi visibly cheered up with that, as for Ferris just as she was about to ask her question, Celia returned after finishing her task, Thalia finally put down her pen and the communication device which Ferris was holding in her hand, broke, just in time for Daimon to open his eyes.
"Sorry for the lateness, young master", she said to which Daimon raised his hand to stop her from continuing, the underground lab was not only immense but it had a really solid structure, so the "things" he brought had to be placed everywhere, it was normal that the preparations would take some time.
"It seems everything was completed in time, we have to catch up with the others, so let's get going".
'Everyone follow the plan', said Daimon to the terror contracted, basically Rita covered Zia and the Naga/Nethereal guys, so that they would be able to come down here without being detected, as for Narasha, she damaged the main array so that it would remain nonoperational for at least another three hours.
Thanks to Thalia possessing the woman from the Black Spirit clan, Daimon now knew the exact routine of the receptionist who was the only other person that mattered in this facility, she was really free to roam through the lab and actually came down to visit her colleague during her daily experiment, since it was her duty to report about the results since she could use "Flash Cast" for faster delivery of information.
A few minutes later, all the enslaved Nagas and Zia had arrived at the last level of the hidden lab where Daimon and the others were, in case you wonder why they didn't go to the entrance like before, that's because the anti-spatial array at the last level was deactivated by them now, so Rita could "smuggle" them out without any worries in the world.
"Everything is ready young master, "we" exchanged shift with another two guards at the entrance, so no one would notice that those two are missing for a couple of hours at least", said the guy who replaced that guard at the entrance.
Daimon nodded, it was indeed hard to infiltrate this place and keep complete silence, but the whole concept had a major flaw, the one who designed it counted on the greed of those who will try to infiltrate it.
Since the research and experiments in this lab would be considered revolutionary and ahead of their time let alone here in Draim, but even at Neptune and the four galaxies, then those who infiltrated the lab wouldn't try their utmost to obtain it.
Of course, it's not like the fake Thalia expected others to sacrifice their life just to steal the lab's investigation, but it was enough for them to be slowed down so that one of the many hidden mechanisms alerted the headquarters.
Unfortunately, she never expected someone to not only be able to infiltrate and be interested in stealing the results of the thousands of years of hard work, but also be crazy enough to not hesitate at the moment of placing alchemic explosives in each and every support of the whole facility, all in a couple of hours.
With a nod, Rita covered everyone in a barrier made out of her mana, before a black spatial gate sucked them in, not before two things happened, first, Thalia looked back at the gloomy walls that had kept her prisoner here for such a long time, before her eyes glowed with gratitude towards Daimon, knowing that they'll be demolished this very day.
And second, Daimon gazing at Zia and telling her a few phrases, making the newly contracted girl's eyes to sparkle in response.
...
While Daimon's group travelled in the dimensional tunnel, at a different one, the Lamia and Naga army which had been on standing until now, changed their stance.
"Attention, we are about to cross the non-detection boundary, be prepared to fight as soon as you leave the dimensional tunnel!", shouted Nea who was floating outside of the royal carriage, wearing a combination of a light green mage's robe with some light metal armor to protect her vitals.
Facing the appearance of the multiple armor colored army of the fake Thalia, Thea and Mirellia actually smiled, which didn't go unnoticed by the person inside the palanquin.
"To think you'd manage to bring the elusive Lamia queen outside of the safety of that hidden royal capital of hers, I must say I am impressed, child", a condescending voice could be heard coming out of the palanquin, ignoring the chaos and destruction that spread all over the outer ring of her own headquarters.
That being said as vain as the previous words sounded, there was a clear reason behind of it, seed distrust, the previous was especially accentuated when the palanquin opened and a tall woman with a face that was around 30% similar to Thea, but with a much more mature feeling and also white hair, instead of black one, became visible for everyone.
If placed next to each other, one would definitely think they are related, maybe not directly, but an aunt-niece relationship would be definitely possible.
Unfortunately, and for the fake Thalia's displease, her words didn't cause a single ripple to emerge, let alone between the two beautiful generals that stood on the air above their army, side to side with relaxed expressions on their pretty faces, but not even one of the "soldiers" under their command, seemed to care about her words, which was a first and of course made her frown.
"I see, after enduring being treated like persecuted dogs, you finally decided to bite back and this is a battle for survival, I'll happily play along since I have a lot of extra blood to spare, just know that this will only benefit that mad bastard's side", she limited to say before she descended into her palanquin, intending to watch the show in a relaxed manner, or at least that was the idea, until a blast of mana and one of battle aura, poured down in that direction, forcing the nearby four personal guards as well as a couple of extra high Stellar ranks to deploy their defenses in order to block those attacks.
Just for their hearts to sink, when a couple of familiar figures appeared in front of their queen, a black spear pierced towards the fake Thalia's chest, while at the same time a green emerald gauntlet punched at her face.
The face of the woman who was being attacked, contorted before a full body silver armor covered her, a heavy shield and a one-handed spear which were used to block the punch and the spear coming aiming at her vitals.
"Boooooom!", the result was a horrendous clash of mana, battle aura and a strange unknown energy, which blasted away the nearby bystanders who were still blocking those two attacks from earlier.
The atmosphere trembled and the ground below the clash was reduced to dust which raised into the air, producing a giant dust that swallowed both armies, just to be dispersed on the spot by the ones in change of them respectively.
The result was then revealed to the world, Thea and Mirellia were standing side to side, in the exact same spot where they appeared earlier, the fake Thalia however was sent a whole meter backwards due to the clash.
Speaking of the fake Thalia, she removed her helmet and her anger-distorted face became visible for everyone, her eyes had the word "kill" written all over them as she glared at those two.
"You two bitches want to die to eagerly, fine, activate the array, massacre them all!", she shouted, the black armored group which stayed at the back of the army, far from the palanquin, all suddenly came to life, they took out their weapons which were "staffs", and threw them on the ground.
What happened next is that those "staffs" expanded, turning into pillars and revealing their real appearance, the whole things had runes engraved on them and the very moment they expanded, a black translucent barrier extended with them as their center, at least until Mirellia's right hand shone in a pretty light blue light.
More accurately, the thing which she was holding, released that light, but the pretty light showcase isn't what caught everyone's attention, but the fact that said light clashed against the barrier being deployed by those pillars, producing sparks for a second before the black barrier was completely overwhelmed and the pillars were swallowed by that blue light, making the crumble the next second.
"Arghhhhhh!", the black armored group that deployed the barrier all vomited blood and fell from the sky, as they were hit by the backslash.
Mirellia gave a condescending gaze at the fake Thalia whose eyes were spitting fire as of current, before saying.
"Why do you look at me like that, don't tell me that you expected me to care about any treasures or resources in a battle for survival, this time you'll be the one chased like dog by my Melliun kingdom".
"Roaaaaaar!", with Mirellia's words, each and every one of the members of her army suddenly changed their simple or low-quality equipment when compared to the ones of the enemies they were facing, for the shiny and practically new sets of Stellar grade armor and magic weapons of all kind that Daimon "kindly" provided to them, all this while making the whole battlefield rumble with the echo of their voices.
Disbelief was written all over the fake Thalia's face as she saw the whole enemy army, suddenly equipping magic treasures that equaled those used by the upper echelon of her forces, at the very least, a third of the enemy's army was using armors that didn't lose when compared to the ones of the four captains of her personal guard.
'Where the hell did, they get such high ranked treasures in such quantity!', she inwardly screamed, Draim isn't a poor planet, but for some reason while mana mines and other energetic resources are more than plentiful, good smithing materials are really scarce.
So, the fake Thalia had to rely mostly on materials harvested from magic beasts to make equipment for her army, in that aspect she was the same as the Melliun kingdom, the difference being that she had a wider variety to use, since she kept summoning magic beasts from other places, resulting in the colorful composition of her army.
All her subordinates wore armor that suited their affinities, which was one of the strong points she had above her enemies, giving that her forces had a similar level of rune mastering when it came to smithing.
But now that advantage was gone, what's more, a second ago she realized that her local handicap of having tons of arrays to her disposition, since this was her territory was as good as nothing, due to that crystal which the Mirellia was holding.
'Damn it, to think that stupid snake girl would have so much treasures in her spatial ring, I should have killed her regardless of the damage to her body when I first saw her, instead of trying to convince her...', inwardly cursed the fake Thalia, thinking that those treasures came from Thea.
It was easy to notice that they weren't armor and weapons made by the magic smiths of Draim, since the style and runes engraved on them were completely different, not to mention she recognized the aura of Neptune on them.
The three leaders of the two armies exchanged gazes, before they all flashed to clash, becoming a giant sphere of different energies and raising into the sky, letting their trusted seconds in command to take over the lead of their armies.