Chapter 80 Well, at least he tried...
"Huhuhu, you are all baddies!" Asteria could only sob in in the background as she glared at both Alex and Alina angrily. "Do you really have to shake me that hard?"
"Well, we had to use every bit of Fairy Dust that we can use so that our disguise will be impeccable." Alex said as he inspected his hair, which looked blond and long now. "D**n, this Teresa really has a rocking body."
Alex then placed his hands on his hips, as if he was about to make them travel all over his body.
"Don"t try to even think about that." Alina growled behind Alex, looking displeased after hearing what Alex just said. "I will be watching…"
"Ok…" That effectively shut Alex up, with him hastily raising his hands in defeat.
"Good." Alina nodded, with her body currently looking like it was made up of shadows.
Alex looked at Alina"s overall appearance and then back to himself, and he saw that their disguise was perfect.
Right now, Alex looked every bit like Teresa, while Alina looked every bit like Carlie.
All the tentacles around Alex seemed to have disappeared, as only Teresa"s appearance and aura could be seen.
The same could also be said for Alina, as it was only Carlie"s appearance and her aura that is visible.
"Ok, now that we have this disguise, we can start the infiltration operation already." Alex muttered to himself, as he realized that what they are doing right now was actually the best thing that they can do.
From the looks of it, if Alex and Alina just stayed here in the forest interrogating random people, they would not be able to get information about the cure.
The only way that they can get the cure is by looking for it in the camp of the Monster Faction.
Human Faction should be infiltrated too, as they seem to know something too about the cure.
With Alex"s quick thinking, he was able to cook up a fairly simple way to infiltrate both the Factions in one fell swoop.
"So, how should we do this operation?" Alina asked as she gave Alex a curious look. "This disguise can help us out a lot, but we need something more vital than that."
"Well, its just simple." Alex replied as he shrugged his shoulders. "We wait in this place for a week, then I will let myself be taken away by the Divine Knight that is supposed to meet us at that time. Once that happens, I will be able to infiltrate the Human Faction smoothly. Not only that, but I will also get closer to the person that can give me the info about the cure."
Alex then pointed at Alina as he said, "As for you Alina, you will be going to the Monster Faction, with you wearing the disguise of Carlie. With how good the Fairy Dust is, n.o.body can easily see through our disguises…"
"That plan of yours might sound good, but you should know that there are a lot of things that can go wrong with this." Alina replied grimly as she shook her head.
She pointed at her body and at Alex"s body as she said,
"First of all, even if we have the appearances of Teresa and Carlie, we do not have any knowledge about their life and how they move. One wrong move from us, and we will easily get unmasked!"
"Oh, don"t worry about that, I already have a plan for that." Alex quickly replied as he gave an appraising look at Alina.
"First of all, you can use your Dark Magic to read Carlie"s thoughts, right?" Alex said as he glanced at the still unconscious Carlie. "Once you read her mind, you can easily act like her…"
"...."
From what Alex knew, one of Alina"s Dark Magic was called Mind Scour, which allows Alina to read everything that was inside a person"s mind.
Of course there is one prerequisite for this to work.
The target of the spell must be mentally strained, so that he/she could not resist getting mindscoured.
This could be somewhat difficult, but right now, Carlie had been beaten up badly that her mind surely is susceptible to Mind Scour.
"Wait, how about you, Alex?" Alina inquired as she observed Alex"s feminine body. "How will you act out as Teresa?"
"Easy. Just use your Mind Scour on Teresa too, then transfer those memories to me using another one of your Dark Magic." Alex replied confidently. "Your spells can do that, right?"
"Yes, I can do them all, but still…" Alina seemed to be hesitant on saying something as she glanced at Alex.
"But?"
"Even if we can act like Carlie and Teresa, how will we be able to copy their abilities?" Alina asked as she looked at Carlie. "There is no way right now that I can use Carlie"s abilities, and there is no way for you to use Teresa"s abilities. How can you solve that problem?"
Alex smiled upon hearing this question, as he felt more and more impressed with Alina"s pursuit of perfection.
Alex liked the fact that Alina was worried enough for their operation that she was willing to look and scrutinize every part of their plan.
Not only did this made Alex feel better, it also made him feel relieved, as he knew that what Alina was doing was how a Companion should act.
"Don"t worry, I already have a way to fix that problem too." Alex replied serenely, as if he already got that part solved. "Just… leave it to me, ok?"
"Ok then…"
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Same time, at the Human Faction.
"Sigh..." Divine Knight Sylvester Glaivewood could only sigh in exasperation and exhaustion as he looked down at his hands.
Both of hands were slightly clenched perfectly showing the conflicting emotions that he is feeling right now.
"Sigh.." Sylvester could have gone on sighing more, but his sad thoughts were interrupted by a loud sound.
"Thud!" The sound was deep and full, as if there was something hard that struck another hard object.
"..." Sylvester took this as a cue to look up, forcing him to look at 5 other armored Knights staring at him warily.
"Are you feeling okay, bro?" One of the 5 Knights hesitantly asked Sylvester.
This Knight was wearing a simple chainmail armor, with a lance strapped on his back.
This mentioned Knight had a simple face, something that can be seen on the common ma.s.ses. But hidden behind that face was a fearsome power that Sylvester had already experienced before.
"I… am just worried about my daughter." Sylvester replied to the simple-faced Knight. "You know that I do not like leaving Teresa in their hands, or tentacles."
"Well, we cannot just acquiesce to the demands of that tentacle monster." The simple-faced Knight replied nonchalantly as he tapped the lance on his back. "We cannot let him know about the cure."
"Yes, I know that, but still.." Sylvester gritted his teeth, as he forced himself to not shout. "I do not want my daughter to stay with them for any longer!"
"Well, at least you can still save your daughter a week from now." This time, the one who spoke was a red-haired woman.
Just like her hair, her armor was also red in color, with the symbol of the moon engraved on it.
Combined with her beautiful armor, the red-haired woman"s elegant face only served to make her look both ephemeral and graceful.
"....."
But no matter how optimistic the sentence uttered by the woman was, it seems like Sylvester did not kindly take what the red-haired woman said.
"F**k those monsters. They really threatened to kill my daughter if I don"t" give them the cure!" Sylvester roared out in anger. "What gall they both have! Tsk, how devious of those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!"
"You know that you cannot tell those two monsters anything about the cure." The red-haired woman said as she gave Sylvester a soft and pleading look. "There is no way that we can let those two know…"
"I know." Sylvester replied heavily, as he moved his hand to avoid the red-haired woman"s attempt to touch his hands. "But… this really just makes me so frustrated!"
The other Knights nearby went silent as they listened to Sylvester"s rants.
"I already lost Teresa"s mother before... I do not want to lose Teresa too…" Sylvester croaked out as he hung his head in sadness.
"Don"t worry bro, we are all here to help you." The simple-faced Knight said as he pointed his fingers to the other Knights. "That is why we have this meeting now, right? We have this meeting so that we can create a strategy to take those two monsters down while saving your daughter!"
"And for that, I thank you all." Sylvester replied with a grateful expression on his face as he looked at the Knights present in the meeting. "You have my greatest thanks for this."
"Well, you can go out with me for a date if you really feel that grateful." The red-haired woman said as she gave Sylvester a burning look. "Just one date is fine already."
"Hey, hands off my bro!" The simple-faced Knight said as he glared at the red-haired woman. "You know that my sister is currently very close to my bro… Don"t try on meddling upon them!"
"Tsk, you just want to ask me out again, right?" The red-haired woman hotly replied as she gave the simple-faced Knight a cold look. "Let me say this to you now, but I will not go out with you!"
"Ugh!" The simple-faced Knight clutched his heart, as if he was in great pain. He gave Sylvester a pleading look, as if he was saying, "Bro, help me out here!".
Sylvester"s only reply to that was a light shrug as he rapped his knuckles on the table.
"We can talk about your complicated relations.h.i.+ps later… But for now, we should talk about our plans to save my daughter."
"Right…"
Both the squabbling Knights went quiet as they and the other Knights started to talk.
*****************
Same time at the Monster Faction.
Inside a wide room, a certain frightening being could be seen lounging on the floor.
There are no apt descriptions for the being, as its whole body was seemingly created from the combination of other creatures.
Limbs of dragon, goblins, wyrms and many other Monsters could be seen dangling from the being"s body.
Its head too was seemingly created from many heads that are forced to st.i.tch together, creating a bizarre sight.
Even the eyes alone were already creepy enough.
"Rustle…"
Right now, this frightening being was busy on reading a book, with its ma.s.sive torso in contact with the floor.
The reading session did not last long however, as another monster entered the room.
"General Chimera, the Queen Mother sent me to say something to you." General Chimera looked up from the book that he was reading, only to see an eye gazing at him.
"Oh, its you again." General Chimera replied as he flapped his wings behind him. "Is Queen Mother bored again? Does she want me to go at her place?"
"Nope. Nothing like that." The eye replied as it spun on its place. "Queen Mother said that she has a special mission that she wants you to do, and you are the only one that she trusts that can do it."
"I"m all ears." General Chimera said as all of the ears hanging at his body started to flap. "Get it? ALL ears."
"Ugh…" The eyes could barely suppress its groan as it heard the horrible pun.
Nonetheless, the eye was able to recover as it said,
"Basically, you are tasked to bring Teresa, the Shadow Monster, towards Queen Mother"s dwelling." The eye said as it stopped spinning. "Do it properly, and Queen Mother will give you more bodies to fuse with."
"Got it." General Chimera said as he tried to recall who Teresa was. His multiple brains started to work as they processed the name Teresa.
"...…"
The information about Teresa that appeared inside General Chimera"s mind made him frown a little.
"Wait... from what I know, this Teresa will be away from the Monster Faction for some time because of a mission that she is doing right now." General Chimera muttered to himself with a frown. "In that case, then I should just order her retreat."
"Oh, you don"t need to do that." The eye said as it turned its back on the general. "According to Queen Mother, Teresa will come back. So, just wait for her to arrive."
"Ok, ok." General Chimera said as he nodded. "I can wait, since my patience is as many as my legs."
"You know, that is the worst pun that you ever gave me, and even I am pretty sure that what you said was not a pun." The eye drily replied as it left the room.
"Oh come on, I saved the best for the last!" General Chimera complained as the door closed.
The eye was already long gone at this time, so General Chimera did not receive any reply.