"Its the mistdevils, they are suspected to be supernatural ent.i.ties born form negative emotions of the battlefield. They are extremely erratic in nature, come and go as they please and they are said to feed on blood." a thug conspiratorially whispered

"They just said surrender or die. Why would they bother if they just want to kill us either way." Marcus pondered.

"YO mistdevils! it seems like you are smart creatures. How about YOU surrender and we will let you live."

Their surroundings seemed to suddenly drop a few more degrees. The silence grew even more oppressive. Then was suddenly broken by the bone-chilling laughter of the abominations.

The mist grew thicker and the silhouettes seemed to turn an even darker shade of black. They could hardly even see each other.

"Enough already! Let me just end these circus performers." Freya raised her hands and blew away most of the mist with a whirlwind.

The devils seemed prepared and suddenly started to phase around them forming multiple mirages.

They immediately killed multiple thugs

Martin smirked and immediately struck the ground turning his surroundings into a frozen tundra. "You attacked to kill first. Which means I can now kill you all!" His smile seemed to be as devilish as their hidden attackers.

He immediately started to attack the mistdevils. His speed was akin to instant teleportation. Unfortunately it was difficult to change directions repeatedly when speeding. He immediately started firing at them with railgun pistol bullets.

Both the a.s.sailants and Martin seemed as if they were on another realm of existence. All the rest of them could see were blurs and afterimages.

Soon the mist cleared away and martin blew away the imaginary smoke from his pistols.

Lying around them were six corpses belonging to.... regular beastmen. It seems they had just run into a bunch of imitators.

"Most of the hired guides were already dead. The rest looked at Martin in horror, but the leader soon recovered.

"Hmm, looks like you were serious when you said you wanted to join the thunderous hawk legion."

He looked at the corpses and muttered. "b.l.o.o.d.y illusions. Its been quite a time since illusionists have walked the land. They are somehow always a.s.sociated with devils."

"Well it seems that show"s over. The rifts up ahead you can probably go the rest of the way on your own." saying as much their guides ran away without wasting a second.

"You shouldn"t have shown off that much! See you scared them off!" Marcus pouted in mock discontent.

"More would have died if I hadn"t"

"Besides, if you hadn"t opened your big mouth we would have pa.s.ses through easily."

Martin searched the corpses, he didn"t find anything interesting except a badge with the symbol of a winged eye. He showed it to Freya.

"Do you recognize this symbol?"

Freya looked over and her countenance instantly paled.

"The winged order." she replied while sucking in a breath.

"Who are they?"

"They are said to be remnant worshipers of the so-called fallen angels from demon mythology."

"They are a secret organization that aim to overthrow the current empire to welcome the arrival of the fallen angels."

"It seems that attack wasn"t as simple as it seems. They were perhaps trying to a.s.sess the abilities of the hero."

"That means we have been exposed?"

"Not necessarily. They could just be aware of our plan but no one knows our current ident.i.ties."

Marcus immediately went over and incinerated the bodies with a light beam. "If we leave quickly we might be able to avoid notice."

Nodding in approval they quickly moved and crossed over the rift to the other side.

----

The borderlands existed on both sides of the rifts. The mercenary camp head quarters existed near the capital but to reach there, they would have to first reach the recruitment centers in the borderlands, no one could enter official territory without identification or someone vouching for you.

The humans unlike the demons didn"t hire any beastmen mercenaries to work for them. Instead they were directly recruited into the army. The demons on the other hand belonged to a different realm. So open recruitment wasn"t really possible for them. Hiring mercenaries was an easy solution.

Following the map they were able to reach their destination without many obstacles this time.

They entered the tent. A beastmen of well-the hawk clan was sitting behind the desk. He looked over from above his horn-rimmed gla.s.ses. He slowly removed a crystal and placed it in front of them.

"No this is not the legendary talent testing crystal?" he declared loudly.

"n.o.body asked smarty pants!" Martin grumbled inwardly.

"Did you take a good look at it?"

"Find a crystal each that looks just like this within the next 5 days and we will send you to the headquarters"

Freya slowly removed three identical crystals from her bag and placed it in front of the man.

"..."

"Well that was the fastest test I have ever conducted."

The situation slowly turned awkward.

It turns out that it was just a high grade elemental crystal that could be obtained from the nearby monsters. It was attribute-less, meaning it could be used to store mana. It was extremely rare and difficult to find these beasts, that"s why they were expensive too.

"Looks like you had good information sources."

"If you can come this far, then you would surely have some talent. I will stand by my word and directly send you to the Headquarters."

"Thank you!"

The man then helped provide them with a validity letter and forged IDs. Directly head for the capital. With these doc.u.ments in hand no one would give you any trouble.

And thud Martin and friends set out directly for the capital of the Demon nation, unwittingly skipping over an entire entrance test arc.

-----

Meanwhile Vincent wasn"t having such an easy time at the borderlands. Unlike the royals with money and connections. He was just a transmigrator stuck in the body of a washed up mercenary with little fame to count.

He found himself frozen from below the neck in ice while a voice demanded from behind him-"Give me all your valuables or DIE and I will take them from your corpse!"

For the hundredth time Vincent couldn"t help but complain-Just what is it with the people of this world and death threats? Do they really enjoy yelling the word DIE so much?