Ashley had been sleeping soundly in her bed before she opened her eyes. The aura around Andrew was unexpectedly getting weaker and weaker.
She knew the more she would postpone it, the weaker it would grow till it was nonexistent. She had to track it quickly and fast.
Looking around her, she was in a fine room which was well lavished.
"The best in there is!!" As advertised. Right now, she was in a small town far off from Sablestone.
It was moderately huge with a lot of people running about, going about their own business. It was known as the Eldermere.
As for the room, thanks to Sevyn, she had more than enough to cover the accommodations of the room along with her servants.
She paused momentarily before summoning a letter with her will before placing it on her bed and disappearing from sight.
At first, she had tried to instantly teleport to where she felt the aura but lacking a proper target as it appeared as a blur, she had to manually search it till she came close to it and identified it.
Her figure manifested itself outside of the hotel. A dark robe like figure which blended well into the night not to mention, the glamour and attention around her was gone.
The eerily abysmal otherworldly presence was replaced with banality as she traversed through the streets.
Despite being dark, the streets were still filled with people who engaged in various activities of trade. Some selling hides, corpses of beasts, others selling potions and vials and many more.
She however tried to keep a cool facade and went for some carriages which were present. Her tier was present standing at tier three on the third array.
Taking the normal ones instead of the higher and more privileged ones as it would take too much time, not to mention that now she had no imposing figure of a noble or a person of the higher echelon.
There were risks of taking such means of transportation. Both were prone to attacks from both bandits and wild beasts while at times, they could be traps which demons could have orchestrated and those present would be subjugated to death through horrible ends.
Either feasted upon, hunted as sport or violated physically, have their races swapped to demons and become monsters themselves. However this was more common to the regular journeys.
She went to a large tavern where it was filled to the brim with people carrying out their businesses. She went up front to the counter.
"I'd like a carriage route that is set to Aurorise." She asked calmly looking at the person she was addressing. A man who seemed to be in his forties, smug face and cocky demeanor.
He was on the third tier whilst on the fourth array and his name was Percival. He glanced at the lady in front of him. She had deep and dark black eyes which went well with her hair.
As for her figure, it was cloaked but it was safe to assume that she was a beauty beneath that cloak. Her facials were a gem to look at but that was masked in the shadowy aura that devoured her presence.
"It's quite dangerous for such a beautiful girl like you to travel at such a time. I could arrange for much safer carriage to transport you-"
Ashley cut him off as her shining black eyes pierced through her cloak. "It would be better for your sake to keep this conversation short."
Percival who was taken aback by her rude remark shot back. "Lady! Don't you dare raise your tone with me? I can decide whether you get a coach or not!"
Ashley revealed a small smile as she whispered back to him. "I'm rather surprised that a demon is working here?! I wonder how these people would react if they knew?"
She taunted with a hint of playfulness in her voice. Percival instantly fell silent as he looked back at Ashley. At first he had thought that she was just a regular human but to be able to decipher that he was a demon was an astounding feat.
"Just get me my ride." She said flatly as she handed over fifteen bronze quartz. Percival froze briefly before a snapping back as he gave her a small sheet of paper.
She looked at it before placing in her pocket and left. Percival was skeptical about her figure as he noticed something peculiar about her.
Despite her mode of dressing which was common but conspicuous nonetheless, she gained no form of attention whatsoever from the world around her.
'She must be secretly a high tier expert masking herself as weak. Judging from her demeanor, she is quite rude and uncaring. The way the world seems to ignore her, it's evident that she has a talisman to help her do so.'
He thought as he looked at her figure which escaped his sight after she walked out if the tavern.
'But how did she know that I am not human?' He contemplated about this. He was surrounded by numerous experts in tier three and some in tier four but neither could decipher his actual race.
'She could prove troublesome.' He thought as numerous possibilities ran through his mind before resuming back to his work.
Ashley made her way towards her carriage, it was mundane which paled in comparison to the one she had ridden on earlier. It has rudimentary basics of contraptions and designs.
It seemed to have a layout of two benches on each side of the cart which were then covered up by a tarp.
As she claimed on board with assistance of her tier three forming platforms to stand upon and take a seat. It was already filled thus after a few more minutes, the carriage set off.
She looked back at Eldermere as a thought manifested in her head. 'I can't believe that he had the guts to do such a thing.'
She was referring to Percival as she looked at those riding along with her. Most of them were greatly lying between tier one while some were still unawakened yet.
There were three tier two experts and she was the only tier three present. However concealing it, it seemed that she was just a regular human who had yet to be awakened.
The lights of the bustling town of Eldermere dimmed as they went deeper and deeper into the forest with their only source of light being the torches perched onto the carriage.
As she looked around, she realized that there were demons in human clothing.
'The coachman and some of these passengers are demons. It's pretty obvious that this is a setup.' She concluded as they went deeper and deeper.
As the sounds of crazed beasts rang through the night, the atmosphere was dead silent till one of those aboard noticed something and spoke up.
"Excuse me, sir but it would seem that this isn't the way to Aurorise!" Numerous eyes landed on his figure with the demons casting contempt and resentment while those unaware of their soon to be fated were perplexed.
"The main path has some wild beasts roaming all over. Most beasts around here usually hunt at night thus I'll have to take another way around it but it won't take that much time before we get back to the main road."
The coachman said as his blue eyes gleamed in the dark.
'You insignificant mortal. Do you have any idea as to what fate you are about to face?! Hahaha! I can only imagine the looks of terror and shock appearing on your faces.'
As Ashley read through his thoughts, she sneered herself but suppressed it as they made their way.
They had branched off the main path and now they seemed to be heading up a rugged terrain, possibly a mountain of some kind.
Suddenly the carriage came to a surprising halt on the beaten path.
*Whoosh*
A sudden ghast of wind blew which sniffed out the lights of the carriage. Those present expressed shock and surprise.
Before they could voce out there concerns, they seemed to fall unconscious before the carriage resumed its journey.
Ashley was still awake as she realized that a tier two sleeping spell had been casted. It was able to ensnare everyone that was present as most of them were extremely low tier considering that they were on the second tier.
Most of them had just barely set into the tier with two on the first array and the other on the second tier.
"We were lucky that there weren't any high tier experts with this bunch!" The coachman demon said as they went on. It had deep blue eyes, a somewhat passive expression and a calm demeanor.
His name was Gyles. A tier three on the fourth array.
"And what a fine bunch as well." Another spoke up. The demons remained unaffected as the attack was strictly detrimental to humans. He surveyed the people who had fallen unconscious before retracting his gaze.
"We will have to wait and first get to the hideout before we choose what to do with them." Gyles spoke once more as a cave appeared in the distance.
Judging from its exterior, it seemed natural and as they got closer to it. They went inside which was large enough to accommodate the size of the carriage but it quickly came to a dead end.
Gyles go off the carriage and interacted with it by making a small cut from his finger and the wall seemed hazy and wither before completely disappearing.
He went back onto the carriages and upon entry, a huge cavern was revealed. It seemed huge with numerous carriages present which were all filled with people.
Ashley had been playing unconscious as she surveyed the place. It was massive in size as she concluded that it was all dug out by artificial hands, not a natural occurrence.
The walls seemed to smooth and the layout was way too flat for it to be natural not to mention the absence of stalactites.
"Another batch, this is great news for us." She heard another voice which seemed to discuss with Gyles. The demons that were present in her carriage got off and a barrier activated enclosing the carriage within it.
Gyles along with others brought out small gems which they shattered and upon doing so, the people in the carriages seemed to wake up.
'Omnidirectional Magical Frequencies that alter the brainwaves of the human mind disrupting them and subjugating them to fall unconscious. They seemed to be powered by those gems and the source of the waves being the candles.'
'No wonder they fell unconscious the moment the candles went out.' She concluded as she analyzed this. It was remarkable to have such a tool.
'The demon queen made this?' As she peered into their minds, she was stunned to realize this.
'How did the queen make such revolutionary advancements such as these? It seems that I'll have to visit her sometime.'
The tarps had been removed and all the carriages had all been compiled into a corner with barriers preventing any form of escape to them.
As the people woke up clutching their heads due to pain that they were experiencing, a voice boomed through the entire cave.
"Humans!! I'm sure that all of you have questions as to why you are all here and that will be answered in due time. But for now, try to get comfortable as it may be the last time you insignificant worthless worms draw air from your lungs."
The source of the voice was unidentifiable from which direction it came from as the barrier seemed to cut off any senses outside.
The shocks and reactions from those present were comprised of fear and terror. Ashley hopped out of the carriage as she looked around. A measly tier three barrier was nothing she couldn't handle and her omnipotent eyes looked all over.
The source of the voice was feminine despite the rest hearing it as masculine.
'A tier three on the second array.' She wasn't all that interested as she planned on shattering this barrier and taking her leave.
She had places to be and this only served as a distraction that she didn't have the time to deal with.