"I already know this isn't your real body. It's a puppet, isn't it?"
Adrien's brilliant smile broadened and a twinkle flashed in his blue eyes as Rey said those words.
It seemed he was waiting to hear them.
"Your real body is most likely somewhere safe, far away from this location." Rey added, his tone teetering the point between curiosity and disinterest.
Once again, Adrien shrugged.
"Far away, yes. Safe… I'm not very sure."
Upon hearing this, Rey narrowed his gaze and found himself smiling.
"Why don't you tell me where you are? I'll go right there and kill you, just like you asked me to."
"Haha! I don't think I want to die just yet." Adrien chuckled, shaking his head slightly.
"Besides, what's the fun in giving you the answers just like that? It's a puzzle, so figure it out yourself."
Rey already knew he was going to get that kind of answer, so he never put much stock into his question. If he had some sort of Skill that would allow him to track Adrien's real body, that would have probably worked, but he currently had no such luck.
All he had was a marionette whose death would be inconsequential.
'I can't use [Absolute Mental Control] or [Compulsion] on a target that isn't in my immediate vicinity, so it's not possible for me to force him to spill the beans. None of my Skills can allow me to reach him in any way either.'
Rey gritted his teeth, realizing he was stuck.
… Just as Adrien desired.
"You did well, you know? Killing these people, I mean."
Adrien's voice spurred Rey from his maelstrom of thoughts.
It caused Rey to suspend his mind from going over as many possible alternatives to the situation at hand, instead gazing into Adrien's azure eyes.
"If you consider me vile, then I wonder how you'll react once you see…"
"See what?" Rey asked in a bit of frustration.
"Underground. Check it out for yourself."
'The Secret Underground area? Isn't that where Esme went?'
"I don't see your partner with you. The weakling who was hiding behind that armor."
Rey's eyes slightly twitched the moment he heard those words. [Dead Calm] was active, so he hardly reacted to anything Adrien said to him.
'Does he know Esme's true identity, or is he just trying to pry information from me? I'm not sure…'
Either way, he decided not to say anything.
"Your priorities are misplaced. I don't think you should be wasting any more time with me downstairs when your partner is down there."
Rey flinched a little more.
'I definitely didn't sense anything dangerous down there. Nothing too dangerous for my Grand Elementals.'
Sure, there were a lot of people that occupied the spaces underneath, some of which were most likely hostile, but they wouldn't be too dangerous for his Elemental Summons to handle.
'He's just trying to mess with me, isn't h—?!'
Before Rey could finalize his thoughts, he felt something instantly die out within him—like a connection which was suddenly severed.
It was the link between himself and his two Summons.
Despite the effects of [Dead Calm], Rey felt a surge of panic for about a second, before finally regaining his composure.
'Impossible…!'
There was no way the connection between himself and his Grand Elementals would be cut off given the circumstances he had calculated.
Only two things could cause such a development.
One would be the appearance of some Skill or Magic which could hijack his control over the two Elemental Summons.
As for the other option… it was the death of the Grand Elementals.
Both options were equally terrible because they essentially pointed at the existence of a much more powerful foe than he anticipated.
An S-Tier threat, at the very least!
'Damnit! I should have left a replica with her, after all!'
The reason he didn't do so was because he wanted to be prepared when facing Adrien—or at least, his puppet.
He had no way of telling if the actual Adrien was going to show up, and given the fact that he had an SSS-Tier Skill, just like Rey, the latter knew that he couldn't be too careful.
As a result of that, he ended up leaving Esme in a vulnerable state.
"Hahaha! I suppose this is farewell, Re—"
~SQUISH!~
Before Adrien could conclude his message, Rey crushed the throat of the puppet, instantly turning the entire thing into dust through corrosion.
"I'll deal with you later…" He whispered under his breath, a bright crimson hue radiating from his slightly frustrated eyes.
Despite the effects of [Dead Calm], Rey found himself growing increasingly desperate.
'I should hurry!'
~WHOOSH!~
In a swift blur, he teleported away from where he was and instantly made his way to the very bloodied hall where he slaughtered his enemies.
He didn't care to look at the dismembered corpses and quickly rushed inside the gaping entrance that was yet to close.
'I hope I'm not too late…' His thought trailed as winds brushed past his face as he combined his use of teleportation and swift flight, rushing as quickly as he possibly could in such an enclosed space.
If he was too fast, he could compromise the entire structure and cause everything to collapse.
That would further ruin his plan.
He couldn't allow that—especially after all the meticulous planning that went into the entire event that was the Dark Gathering.
Rey was sure that this was due to the influence of [Dead Calm], but he found himself unwilling to risk his plans for a chance of arriving earlier to save Esme.
It felt… disgusting.
And soon as he made that connection, Rey turned off his [Dead Calm], which just coincidentally turned out to be the perfect time when he closed in on Esme's location.
Then…
~BOOOM!~
… He burst through the walls, turning everything into dust and entered an incredibly large room—far more spacious than the hall used for the Dark Gathering.
'Esme!'
He was thankful to see her still alive, though a second later, his joy transformed into something else.
—Something awry.
'W-what… what in the world is this?!'