Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

Eren had the rich resources and accumulation of Labh Salem to thank. Reen would have surely suffered due to her hunger if she was made to stay there.

Reen herself felt that she had no upper limit, and the more she devoured, the stronger she became as an Artifact Spirit. Eren could already feel that she had become as strong as an S-Ranked Sage who had just attained their rank.

"Besides, what the guy says is actually kinda true," Reen chuckled as she walked towards Eren's study desk.

"You… or rather we as a whole have indeed been acting like turtles these last few years. The fiends act in a low-key manner. Their deeds haven't been publicized on the Mesh, and we have a complete background history of our targets and the forces who are supposed to back them.

I don't think we have ever targeted someone who belongs to House Ouroboros. The personal vendetta this guy has towards you must have been fueled by someone else," Reen said as she made her conjecture.

"I guess. I am not lacking in terms of enemies anyway. What's wrong with being a turtle though?" Eren asked as he reclined on the desk.

"This animal's name is misused for no reason. It doesn't bother anybody and only bites when irritated by someone else. This is actually a good quality to have.

So I don't take this whole 'turtle-shaming' as an insult to me at all," Eren shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.

Reen's cheerful laughter sounded like a clear bell when she heard Eren's response.

"In any case, I must assimilate with the artifact spirit I devoured just now and remove all the residual thoughts and experiences it had gathered. Unless there's something important, I would not come out."

After receiving Eren's nod, she headed to the underground facility, disappearing from the scene. Eren had already created a special Array Formation that would assist her.

This had been more or less Reen's routine ever since she had started to devour the artifact spirits. Obviously, Eren supported her growth by ensuring that she didn't get disturbed.

"Syl Ouroboros. Syl Ouroboros. Syl Ouroboros," Eren mumbled his new enemy's name as he narrowed his eyes.

"Careful what you wish for, fucker. Someday I might just grant your wish and come to meet you. At that time, I might end up raising your entire clan to the ground," he said in a dark tone before heading out of Siren's Sanctuary.

***

The last day of the Festival of Intoxication.

Roza Thaglas returned to the city of Sunhaven.

She had completed the assignment Eren had given her. She wiped out the demonic cult which belonged to the original Lemaar Saaya. Through a bunch of capable fiends she was given the charge of, she also made sure to target the members of the same demonic cult who were absent from the site for their own reasons.

By the time Nira Nightshade's subordinates found out who Lemaar Saaya was and tracked down the demonic cult he was in charge of, it had already been destroyed, and all of its covert and overt cult members were dead.

Of course, Nira Nightshade was not happy when she received this news from her subordinates. She ordered them to track the people who had destroyed Lemaar's home ground instead.

Roza had done a thorough job of erasing the traces of her activities after the job was done. She was the incarnation of one of the 72 Ars Goetia Demons after all and had many strange and unique powers at her disposal. Plus, the tools and tricks Eren had provided her also helped.

Eren was quite satisfied with Roza's performance. With Kayara on his left and Roza on his right, Eren explored the streets of Sunhaven and took part in various activities inside the city. After all, this was the last day of the Festival of Intoxication. He used this day to relax before he resumed his core projects.

"Here, drink this, Lord Rook," a plump stall owner offered three glasses to Eren, Kayara, and Roza with hearty laughter as he said, "This is the Purple Peach Rum of my shop that my family has been serving to the people of Sunhaven for almost 200 years. It's mellow in taste and strong in its effects," he claimed while beating his chest in confidence.

"Let's try it then," Eren said and smiled before lifting the glass. Kayara and Roza also followed Eren's lead and decided to taste-

test the rum. In the next moment, all three of them looked surprised by the delectable flavor and tantalizing aroma of the rum. Even though their status as Practitioners was quite high, the rum had managed to have some effects on them, which spoke volumes about its potency.

Eren laughed and chatted with the stall owner. The festival was also a way for the shops to publicize their best products to the masses. Sometimes the established shop owners needed to remind their patrons by making their presence known in the festival.

Kayara and Roza were also having fun participating in various activities as they followed Eren. As the evening came, most of the stalls started closing up. Eren and his company, along with the rest of the citizens of Sunhaven, including the stall owners and their customers alike, were about to head to the central square of the city to watch a final singing and dancing performance organized by Sunhaven's city administration.

"Eren, why don't we—" Kayara was about to say something to Eren when she suddenly noticed that there was something different about Eren's gaze. He had stopped in his tracks and was staring blankly into the void as if he was given very troubling news by his Spectral news.

"My liege, what happened?" Roza asked with stress on her face. Eren looked at both of them before turning around. "Something has happened to one of my pseudo-avatars. Let's get back to Siren's Sanctuary. I need to check up on something," saying that he disappeared.

Kayara and Roza looked at each other before following Eren's lead. They too disappeared from their positions without alerting any mortals who surrounded them.

As Eren started his way back to his base, he stared at a new prompt that had popped up on his Spectral Screen. He wondered why his luck was peculiarly bad these days.

[ One of your pseudo-avatars is about to lose his Ranking Status as a Grandmaster Ranker. Long-distance remote monitoring is not possible due to external interference on the other side. Manual intervention is required.

Proceed to take over Jolly Jalen's consciousness? ]