Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

'Guys, I'll let you handle the situation here. You know what to do.'

Eren said to his subordinates via his private communication channel.

He then disappeared from his position before Marina could take action against him.

However, Marina knew that Eren merely wanted to change their battlefield.

With her draconic senses, it was very easy to follow Eren's movements despite the fact that he ran like the wind itself.

A lot of things happened at the same time as soon as Eren made a move and disappeared from the platform. Eren's forces moved toward the island, initiating combat with the sea monsters that were still in god Raashim's faction.

Some of Eren's subordinates landed on the island and were immediately confronted by sea god Raashim's forces. Even though the element of surprise was with Eren and his forces, Baga Island was still the temple's stronghold. It wasn't something Eren could conquer with a flick of his fingers.

As long as Shir managed to stabilize the seal-strengthening ritual, the brewing chaos on the island would die down like it never existed. All the temple needed to do was make sure Shir didn't get disturbed until the disrupted seal-strengthening ritual reached its expected conclusion.

Meanwhile, Eren's force that had barged into the temple's stronghold needed to ensure that Eren managed to get his hands on the faith-based God Spark currently in Shir's possession. As long as Eren had that, the game would change, and their objective of coming here at such a crucial time would be achieved.

As such, Baga Island, the skies above it, as well as the seas surrounding it, became battlegrounds for various individuals who belonged to two opposing sides. The battle between these individuals started right away, adding to the chaos and mayhem already unfolding on the island.

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Osha Daman, for example, was confronted by the enemy S-Rank merman half-blood. Since both were S-Ranked entities, a tacit understanding was passed between the two to leave their subordinates alone. They both took to the skies above the island, turning it into a battlefield between the two S-Ranked entities, which couldn't be interfered with by A-Ranked individuals or lower.

The four Demon Earls from Shadowed Grove who had answered Eren's summons didn't directly involve themselves in the battle. Instead, they stayed on the ships and maintained order, creating a strong resistance flank against the enemy.

It was the A-Ranked demon beasts who were most active on the battlefield, carrying out Eren's orders. Sifrona, Nyxus, and others personally made their move. Shir deployed the sea wyverns to deal with demon beasts of such a caliber.

With such a volatile situation unfolding on the island, Eren decided not to break the stalemate by attacking Shir directly. He knew that Shir would completely give up on the seal-strengthening ritual if he made the process fail by interrupting him midway. He didn't want that just yet.

What Eren had achieved was already the best-case scenario for him. He wanted Shir busy with the ritual so he could neutralize other threats.

Eren didn't want the sea monster released from its cage either. Not really. However, the possibility of its release created an ideal environment for his intervention.

As for what happens if and when the sea monster is released from its shackles? Eren hadn't planned that far. He hadn't come here with much planning anyway. He only wanted to see if he could conquer Labh Salem's seas by defeating the sea god Raashim's temple just before his official mission as a Demon Slayer came to an end.

Eren didn't have much of a following as one of the sea deities even before he attacked the sea god Raashim's temple. As such, he had nothing to lose and everything to gain. He didn't care how much of a headache the sea monster was because that was not his headache to bear.

If the seal on the sea monster remained intact by the time he robbed Shir of his faith-based God Spark, Eren had decided that he would follow up on sea god Raashim's temple and keep the monster sealed by arranging the annual seal-strengthening ritual to take place.

Conversely, if the sea monster got released because of Eren's intervention and was too strong to be controlled by him, Eren had decided to give up on conquering the seas, letting the sea god Raashim's temple handle the mess he had created. In the worst-case scenario, Eren wouldn't be able to make a comeback in the seas, and his faith-based Divine Spark conquest plan would be ruined.

No matter what happened, Eren would be able to come out on top as long as he played his cards right. With the might he had summoned in the seas, the option of retreating was always open to him. As such, he distanced himself from the platform and let his sea dragon opponent follow him.

Eren led Marina away from the chaos as he flew using his Wind-Fire Wings. Since a deadlock was being observed between the two forces, there was nobody to stop him from leaving the island's vicinity. At the same time, nobody from Eren's team dared to stop Marina from following Eren either.

'There's something different about him,' Marina thought as she followed right behind Eren. She had dealt with many threats from other cults and temples that had challenged the authority of the sea god Raashim's temple in their domain in the past.

Of course, Marina had dealt with the temple's enemies for her own reasons. She didn't want the sea monster released under any circumstances. Plus, associating herself with the temple brought her a lot of benefits.

However, she had never dealt with someone like Eren who could shapeshift like he had been reborn into the skin of the person he wanted to play as. She had never seen a berserker Ranker interfere with the seal-strengthening ritual with the expertise of an Array Expert. And lastly, she had never seen the same person use a movement-type skill with the proficiency of a Ranger profession Ranker.

'What... What kind of creature is he? Is... is he related to that sea monster?' Marina had a random thought as she followed Eren and looked at his back. She too wanted to see what Eren had in store for her and wanted to test the guy's limits.

No matter what kind of traps he had set for her, she believed that Eren would not be able to do anything against her.

After all, not only was Marina a sea dragon in the middle of the sea, but she was also a rank above Eren. She believed that the higher-rank suppression alone would be something that Eren could not surpass on his own.

'Hm. This seems like a good place,' Eren looked at a barren island in the middle of nowhere and thought to himself. He quickly approached the island before landing on its shore and dispersing the Wind-Fire Wings behind his back. He then turned around and offered a slight bow to Marina before introducing himself.

"Hello there, miss sea dragon. Name's Eren. It's nice to meet you," he said before straightening himself up. His emerald green eyes sparkled with excitement and trepidation as he faced off with a genuine sea dragon who was a whole rank above him.

Eren knew that this was the strongest opponent he had faced so far. He was ready to test the limits of the seven-fold mana core as well as Reen's capabilities on her. He couldn't help but look at Marina with a certain longing as a result of his excitement.

'This man... he is the biggest omen for the temple yet.'

Marina suddenly thought as she looked at Eren's pleasant-looking smile.

For some reason, she found his smile to be the most unsettling view in the ongoing chaos.