I didn't react to Hypno coming into the room other than to give the highly ornate sword the same looks literally everyone else gave the sword.

So when he went off to the side of the room with his three milfy harem members, I continued waiting for Esdeath to get here in supposedly the next five minutes or something. But as I waited I decided to check out Hypno and his harem members.

[Hypno, Son of Somnus, Lvl 19] As I read his own status, my face went utterly fucking flat at reading his complete garbage stats, lack of skills, and just generally being exceedingly weak. But with an Excalibur fragment, he was still dangerous with the sword boosting his mind control apparently.

[Mamako Oosuki, Mother of Butchery, Lvl 58] [Wields the Sacred Gear, Death and Decay- Forged of hundreds of reaper scythes that God collected from the Greek Reapers after he sealed part of Thantos into a sacred gear. This Sacred Gear allows the user to summon a two spectral swords that allow the user to attack the enemy's very souls and steal their lifespan.] The brown-haired almost plain-looking housewife of a woman looked so warm... But with a title like that, I knew blood had flown through her hands like a river as my system didn't typically give titles like that.

Looking away from the scary housewife I looked at the almost albino woman who was wearing an ornate dress with a headpiece that looked similar to the popes but clearly magical and with a quick inspection I learned the crown thing was actually another Sacred Gear. [Irisveil Einz, Alchemical Wonder, Lvl 62] [Wields the Sacred Gear, Heavens Light- The crown weaved from the crown of thorns that Jesus wore, gives the user a Holy Light affinity that matches any arch angel and boosts all Abhramic-based magic and rituals by five hundred percent.]

My lips twitched as I realized all too easily that a lot of alchemy was based on hebrew lore which fell under that umbrella so any ritual or alchemical process she did was boosted by five times. For myself who was also doing golem work, which was also based in Alchemy... 'That was bullshit!' I mentally screamed before I almost angrily looked at the last one and seeing how bullshit she was as well. I wanted to throw my hands up and go back home.

The woman was in one word 'dainty' she was wearing a long dress that went down to her ankles and she had rather a nice crimson long hair... But her status fucking terrified me. [Grimm Grimmoire. Ascendant of Evil, Lvl ? 15-150+] [Daughter of the Zoroastrian God of Evil Angra Mainyu, born of torture, and terrible things, she carries the seed of every curse known to existence. Can curse targets at will, via her godly parent's infinite curses by acting as a conduit for the god. Warning! Designated Immortal, will resurrect after being tortured by Angra Mainyu for one day with every curse and agony in his realm.]

'So... What happens should I remove Excalibur Blessing away from him and his mind control falters?' I thought and I knew every one of those girls could easily kill the little bastard.

With that final thought the door to the meeting room was shoved open and the sounds of heels rang out as Esdeath confidently strode into the meeting room. And without any kind of greeting, she stared out at the assembly of soldiers of Secretus and the freelancers like myself, Hypno, and some others before she spoke crisply. "We have the location of the Starborn, and its already surrounded by Eldritch beings as they seek to absorb the excess energy during its coming failed ascension as its a defect." She explained before stating coldly. "We can be out in the deep zone as you all know for at most five days before our own souls are corrupted and our bodies are mutated. So our goal is to return within the next three days so there are no mistakes..." 

With that said Esdeath waved her hands with her soldiers standing at attention and then marching out along with the freelancers following suit but rather than leaving, I felt Esdeath's eyes on me. And as I met her eyes, I saw her shake her head telling me clearly to stay for a bit.

Once everyone was gone, I walked over to Esdeath and she said simply. "Good, now follow me to the storage area. We will load up the supplies upon you now if it doesn't strain you having the load inside your magical storage?' She spoke framing it as a question so I shook my head to indicate it wasn't an issue and she smiled at the confirmation and thus lead me off towards the supposed storage area.

After leaving the central citadel we went into the back and I raised an eyebrow seeing a large concrete cube help up off the ground a couple of meters by large stilts. "It keeps monsters from breaking into the bottom of our storage area from below." She said before I even asked.

"Does that kind of stuff happen often?" I asked wryly and as she inputted a password she paused before saying softly.

"Not much before... But nowadays they are acting more clever and ruthless so we have to be careful." She said forbodingly and with that the large steel door opened. I followed her into the massive cube that acted as the apparent storage shed and as I came in, I saw a lot of food in one section. Being mostly MRE's and canned goods that would probably last a small army for a good long while.

Then in the back, I saw a pile of stuff that I knew was our mission supplies with the way everything was sorted to be rationed to individual members of our team.

Esdeath's face when I stuffed everything into my inventory with my a wave of my hand was however very funny as her normal cool if not proud expression faltered in baffled confusion as she looked between me and where the pile of stuff was supposed to be. "There wasn't any magical energy used?" She asked in utter confusion and I played dumb as I tilted my head and responded innocently.

"Huh what magical energy? I just put everything into my pocket see." I said and then I could see her face twitch as I slowly pulled a tent bag out of my jacket pocket that obviously couldn't fit just to fuck with her.

She rolled her eyes once she got over the sight and said flatly. "Alright, now come on. The others are waiting for us at the city gates so lets get going." 

-

The walk to the end of the city walls was a quiet one as Esdeath was clearly not a woman to waste time on pleasantries when in mission mode. This was fine, as it allowed me to observe more of the city and collect information on shops and some people of note that I thought either buy or trade for some materials from.

Once we reconvened with the rest of the group at the city gate, Esdeath simply called out. "Fall in! And march in a line with a couple of meters between each person or group!" She ordered and the soldiers did so without any prompting while the rest of the Freelancers had to get into position and I realized this marching pattern was to prevent any ambush from killing multiple people at once.

No one else had anything to say about Esdeath's orders so we set off then., but there was one small issue, which was that Esdeath obviously was leading from the front of the procession as obviously the strongest one in the group. So I had no choice but to be put into the limelight which made dealing with Hypno in any way... Difficult to say the least.

I threw a glance behind me, taking in the procession as we walked into the alien rocky grounds surrounding the city, and my eyes landed on Hypno and his group for a second as I made sure my will was firm. I wasn't going to hurt any innocents in my pursuit of gaining power... But some jackass clearly using mind control? Yeah, he was no different to me than any Vampire or Gumiho monster who preyed upon others.

-

Not but, five minutes into our walk though, we got our wakeup call as one of the backline soldiers fell directly through a camouflaged hole, and even as he screamed, his screams didn't last but a couple seconds as a loud crunching noise rang out. "Continue on!" Esdeath called out coldly, and without hesitation.

Not a single soldier went forward to help the one who fell into the hole, and neither did any of the freelancers... And I realized the moment the crunching noise rang out, there wasn't even but a whimper from the lost dude I didn't even know the name of.

So without a word, I continued to follow Esdeath until with a snapping noise, a series of endless small worms shot out of the ground towards us like a river of blades, and without blinking Esdeath swung her long sword through the air and from the sword swing, came a biting cold stream of air that made me shiver, even with my Yuki-Onna blessing.

And when the stream of air hit the worms that were flying towards us with lethal intent... They stopped in the middle of the air, completely frozen in place in defiance of gravity.

'Temporal freezing? Well, that's interesting.' I heard Kusanagi whisper into my ears as Esdeath didn't even blink at the eldritch lesser monsters that were frozen in the air as she continued leading the march.

Though from Kusanagi's words, I got that she meant, that Esdeath somehow froze the monsters through time somehow... But how does a demi-goddess of Khione freeze time when Khione herself is a spiteful bitch of a lesser goddess in the Greek Pantheon?

And more importantly... How the hell was she able to use magic so easily while in this area?

But my questions and doubts received no answer as the longer we walked, the more we got attacked. By the time we reached about three-quarters of the way to the target, while we made our way through the massive seemingly endless cavern. We had lost five more people via ambushes from some eldritch monster that always perfectly attacked our blind spots.

Esdeath finally called an end to the march for today after the fifth person got snatched by an almost invisible noose of webbing when she walked into it. It snapped tight around her neck and she was dragged so hard and jerked around so fast, that before she even bounced off the ground to be dragged into the inky darkness of one of the crags, we heard her neck violently breaking.

"We are getting picked off," I muttered as I dumped large pallets of bricks on the ground that I got back in the Gumiho realm to cover up the corrupted ground and to get myself off the floor.

But in response to my muttering, Esdeath said coldly. "No. This is about the norm, sometimes many more die... Sometimes only one person dies. But we always lose people on these starborn missions as the Eldritch kin can read our intents to harm, and will thus lash out at us with greater fervor than usual."

She then looked at the brick platform form I used to get the large tent off the ground and after giving everyone their rations and their own tents. "Getting off the ground is a decent idea... But they have many other abilities to kill you." She stated bluntly and I just shrugged.

"Regardless... I don't wanna be on the ground when I try to get any sleep at all." I retorted as I put up the tent and after a long stressful day of monsters attacking us, I very quickly fell asleep.

[Warning!] My system blared into my mind with a harsh screech making my body twitch before my awareness went to the max level and I looked and listened for anything. But the temporary wards Esdeath and the others put up were holding fast despite deep shadows burning themselves upon the foreign magic that the stars above seemed to despise so greatly.

But before I could try to find out the issue, my system blared again. [Warning! User's subconscious and conscious are being targeted with the skill 'Dream Manipulation']

'Fucking little shit!' I wanted to curse as I shifted in bed naturally like I was rolling over and through lidded eyes I stared at Hypno's tent and I saw the little shit was in deep meditation with his harem members looking at him with abject worship as he held the glowing Excalibur Blessing in his lap.

I kept quiet as I thought about what I could do. I couldn't release proof of the dumbass being a child of Somnus as I didn't have any proof besides my word. With a frown I felt a tinge in my mind and with a another blare from my system I realized beyond anything else... I couldn't just fucking lay here as got his way and messed with all our heads.

So I took a bullet from my inventory that I still had from my attempts in using mundane guns versus the supernatural, and I flicked the bullet through the opening in the tent into Esdeath's quarters and the moment the brass shell made a tinking noise I felt a chill cover my form and in one smooth motion Esdeath rolled to her feet standing up with her sword in hand as she took in her surroundings.

I didn't bother pretending to sleep I also sat up and as Esdeath frowned at me being awake, I spoke frankly. "Does your head feel foggy as well?" I asked with an honest frown and Esdeath froze and glared at me for a moment, before her eyes snapped to the slight glow of Excalibur Blessing as Hypno tried to put it away without notice.

"Hypno why do you have your sword out?" Esdeath stated with zero humor in her voice and for a moment Hypno went pale but as the brown-haired motherly woman held his knee he rallied and spoke righteously.

"I was using it to fortify the wards around the camp!" 

Esdeath looked at him like he was a bug beneath her feet as she drawled. "Lie to me again... And I will tear your tongue out of your throat, I don't care if you are cleaning the holy sword after doing nothing with it all day, jerking off on it, or even doing something otherwise stupid or inane. But do not lie to me Hypno." 

There was no threatening in her voice. She was simply stating the law. Her law.

You fuck around, and you are going to find out really quick basically.

Esdeath looked around and more her gaze landed on me for a long moment before she spoke out cooly to everyone. "Go back to sleep, We move in four more hours." She stated bending over to reenter the tent and she said nothing as she climbed into the tent and with a soft thumping noise her form hit the thin foam mattress she used as a bed.

-

'What happened Jake?' Kusanagi whispered to me mentally and I told her I could feel the child of Somnus who was literally fucking named Hypno was touching my dreams and mind. After a moment I heard a snort and Kusanagi almost spoke with a growl as she said. "Very well Jake, relax your mind. I shall take your consciousness within my body so that it may rest safely and I will watch over your surroundings." She said and I felt her form in utter silence lean against mine, with the silence being due to her being some kind of a ghost.

As her human form leaned against me, I felt my mind being dragged into her sword, like the time I took her divine trails for her ownership so I didn't resist her as I accepted the soul pull into her sword. My vision went oddly both dark and bright, as my consciousness dulled with Kusanagi's powerful soul encircled around my own.

I was awoken later by Kusanagi whispering into my soul. "Jake awaken!" She ordered and my eyes snapped open as Kusanagi spoke gently as she knew I typically woke up groggy as hell and was a deep sleeper. "There is great movement beneath your feet." She warned and after a moment I spoke up.

"Esdeath." I called out softly and I felt Esdeath's cold blue eyes snap to mine so I quietly said. "There is a lot of movement beneath us." Esdeath closed her eyes and I saw her relaxing utterly as she seemingly molded into the mat holding up our tent and then her eyes snapped open as she called out loudly. 

"Form up now! We march now!" She ordered as she rolled out of bed and like everyone else we all went to bed in our uniforms or battle outfits... Especially wearing our shoes for just this reason, as the moment we all started moving quickly. The ground shuddered and Esdeath grimaced. "Everyone, get ready." 

And naught but moments later I shivered as a fell presence fell over us all. A pool of shadows filled the ground beneath our feet obscuring the craggy and uneven ground beneath ourselves.

And then from the pool of shadows came uncountable eyes opening within the pool of darkness. Eyes that were slitted red with bloodlust, eyes with multiple pupils within that tracked our every movement, and eyes that were clearly stricken blind but could see beyond the world and into our very souls.

[Warning, Eldritch alien logic detected... Shielding host's consciousness from madness.] My system spoke as the soldiers howled and began scratching their faces to shut out the maddening sight of too many eyes staring into us. I could hear as the shadows beneath us seemingly began absorbing and reflecting the sounds of the mentally broken soldiers and freelancers. The worst part was even with my own mind shielded by the alien logic, I knew with utter certainty that as a couple of moments passed and each of Esdeath's soldiers and a half the freelancers mentally broke and they clawed their own eyes out of their skulls.

I would never fucking forget the horror, of the very distinct sound, of the eyes popping like grapes as they plucked them out.

And then from the pool of shadows came the cry of a baby. A long wailing cry of blood-curdling pain and loss reached and tore at my heart with the guttural scream that vibrated in my ears.

A splashing noise rang out as from within the pool of shadows a large misshapen hand pulled itself through the shadows and even as Esdeath swung her long sword through one of the massive fingers attached to the hand. I wanted to puke as rising through the seemingly infinite pools of shadows came eight legs that had stubby hands on the ends of each long leg with the legs being pale shaking stubby legs.

And in the middle of the legs which connected to a large arachnid-like central body, was an oversized humanoid figure with its eyes snapping open to look at us with pure black eyes and the wailing increased to a terrible volume with its arms waving wildly from its torso mounted form atop the spider-like body.

[Starborn of Atlach-Nacha, Lvl ?] [The aborted demi-god of the spider god of stellar webs. Warning, mortal logic only partly applies to the being.]

 

 

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