"Yes, a farm. As you might have expected, he was not farming potatoes under the river. He was farming demons."
"How do you know that?"
"Consider it as an anonymous informant tipping me off. So, how about it? Should we go see what's happening down below?"
"I don't like swimming."
"Don't worry. If I can fly, I can most likely sink too." Alex replied to Thomas.
"Well, those words aren't exactly reassuring." Thomas chided.
"Hahaha… I have prepared everything. I even rented two diving suits with my girlfriend's money. And it was costly. Look how loyal I am to our department. You should buy me food after this."
"If alive, yes. I will buy you all the food you can eat. But before that, shouldn't we call back up?"
"Do you want to die even before we begin? I didn't even bring the newbie to keep this under tight wraps. Do not let anyone know of this until we are sure. Or else, we might be the next unidentified corpse fished out from this river."
Alex was sure.
He knew for a fact that down below the river existed a demon farm. Yet he had enough reasons to not tell the law enforcement agencies. After all, He doesn't know yet how many people are in cahoots with demons.
"Okay, Okay! I understand. Let's dive." Thomas anxiously replied while shaking his head.
He too knew of the gravity of the situation. If Alex's words are true, a shit show would ensue soon. And it was enough reason to trust him.
Putting on the diving suit, both Alex and Thomas prepared to dive.
"Before we begin, make sure that the oxygen metre is full and there are no defects to the suit. The suit has the latest stealth tech. So, if you see a mana beast. Try to blend in instead of thrashing around like a crazy person. I will take care of the rest." Alex cautioned.
Diving was dangerous, that too in Azha. It was also one of the reasons that no one discovered the secrets that lie below. If not, demons would have already been exposed by fishermen.
Plugging their ears with communication devices, Alex and Thomas stood in front of the river bank.
The river, like a mirror, reflected the cityscape. It was beautiful. Even Thomas felt so. Before a hand-pushed from behind him, dropping him down to the river.
"What are you looking at? Get to work fast. I don't have much time today." Alex jumped just after him while carrying a mysterious box.
—----POV ALEX-------------
"What are we looking for? Any landmarks or signs of the demons?" Thomas asked me.
He was curious to know what we will see down below. But even I don't exactly know it. It was the truth. In the novel, the demon farm was said to be a vast network of distributed nodes each holding one or multiple demons of rank C or higher.
Each node was connected to a central hub with a tree root.
It was hard to get to the central hub undetected. So, we were aiming to discover one of the edge nodes that stored demons.
And I have a pretty good idea where to look to find one.
Any lifeform, rank D or higher will have a mana signature that can be detected by sensors. So, imagine a river full of demons like that. It would be hard to be unnoticed in that situation.
So, demons deployed a trick. They camouflage themselves under a large underwater plant. In the novel, it was said that the demon that will be forged into the new demonic commander with S rank strength had a wonderful superpower.
The superhuman that was used to make that demon was a plant type ability user. She was forcefully kidnapped during the demonic war for her ability to control plants and merge with them.
She was almost an S rank if not for her low offensive power. Yet she was used as a guinea pig by the demon king.
Through her powers, the demon king expanded his army under the river. The roots that linked each node were also the ones that hid the demon farm below.
So, I need to find the root of the plant grown by the demon.
The same roots that span across the river. And the easiest way to find it is by using a parasite that feeds on those roots.
Taking out the box that I held in my arm, I looked inside. Inside it was a bug that looked like a roach. It was a disgusting little insect type pest. It was worthless if not for its ability to detect high mana density plants. And most importantly it avoids dangers instinctively.
I want to find the plant that it avoids instinctively. The dangerous kind.
Thomas was holding tightly to my legs while we both swiftly descended. It only took a minute to descend to a depth of a hundred metres. We have yet to reach the bottom but we are already near an underwater forest.
Switching on the night vision function of the diving suits, we could see in the dark depths of the river. The water was murky green. Large plants that almost looked like trees spanned across the river bed.
This was the perfect time to release the roach.
I slowly unblocked the box. From inside it, a small coin-sized head peeked out. I had to pay a hefty amount to buy this bug. Let's hope this will work.
As expected, the bug was thrilled to escape from the box. It swiftly exited the box and swam around.
I could not differentiate the plants in the river. But the roach quickly swam to a nearby tree to hide from me. The first tree we saw was a good one.
Grabbing the quickly swimming roach with my gravitational pull. I left it on top of another tree, it too was a normal one. The roach was ready to dig in.
Thomas, who was holding my waist, was looking at me with a shocked expression. I could see the confusion in his eyes.
Explanation in a situation like this was bothersome. Avoiding his eyes was a better option.
Grabbing the roach again, I released it near another underwater tree. This time, the roach quickly swam away from it.
"This is it!"
I was thrilled.
"So, you found the demon hideout?"
"Not a hideout, but the path to it. We have to be very careful from here on out. You see the tree-like water plant below us, we have to follow it to the bottom. At the bottom, we can see it."
I focused on my superpower and slowly increased the gravitational pull between me and the earth. I was descending much slower now.
Only ten more metres to reach the bottom.
The light from above was completely blocked by the underwater plants. The visibility was very low even with night vision turned on. The water was dense and murky.
We finally reached the bottom.
Instead of a giant tree that we expected to see at the bottom. What we saw was a giant fruiting body. At a glance, it looked like a closed lotus flower with roots covering all around it, but I knew what it was.
It was a twenty feet high node which carries a demon. Inside it was a living breathing demon temporarily hidden, growing in strength to attack the city.
The cyan heart was activated again. I was feeling the tension.
As usual, I could hear the cyan ball too. Sirius was screaming inside my mind for using its power.
"This is it. The proof that I said. Inside this node is a living demon hidden by the tree roots."
Thomas could not sense any demonic mana radiating from the tree. It looked like any normal tree with a normal mana signature. The bulging fruiting body seemed special, but it was not worth looking into.
After the earth was exposed to mana, many such plants were sighted. It may seem large, but it was a worthless plant with nothing but the tasteless slimy liquid inside it.
"Don't mistake it, this tree is mimicking other plants. Each node was connected by roots that give the required sustenance for the hibernation of demons. The central hub and the tree root are much more special than they seem. If you want to, we can take a sample for testing." Grabbing an object similar to a nail clipper, I began peeling sample tissues.
Analysing the tissue will help us identify if it was a demon or not.
Normally, plant life cannot be turned into a demon. When demon blood is injected into a plant, it usually dies from the inside. Demon cells were synonymous with cancer for plants.
But for this tree, it was different. It had demon DNA inside it.
It was a tree merged with a demon with the ability to control and merge with plants.
Demons might not be able to directly control plant life, but the demon king found an ingenious workaround for that too.
—------
To not waste time, as soon as they collected the sample, Alex and Thomas swam up around before ascending to the top. Seeing the innumerable nodes littered across the river bed, Thomas was already convinced, even before the test was completed.