It was a quiet ride. All the prisoners were too scared or downtrodden even to speak. As we continued, I painted a mental map of everywhere we traveled.
Soon enough, we were at the slavers' camp. They put us in cages around the caravan camp. I only briefly saw the leader, a sixth-ranked warrior. He was the strongest person there. The guards talked, but it was nothing important.
I did learn that we were in the heartlands. It is in the north of the Forbidden Continent, where the daemons had gone all those years ago.
The heartlands were places even the strongest daemons didn't dare go. They were filled with monsters, traps, and dense mana. The area produced some of the strongest beings in the world, and it was infamous even in human countries.
The heartlands were not only dangerous but also massive. We were at their southernmost edge, in the Acies forest. Beyond this forest to the north lay the heartlands' center and most dangerous part. To the south was the Daitya Empire of the daemons.
The Forbidden Continent was the second-biggest continent on the planet. Half of it was covered by the heartland, the most significant singular natural region. The slavers only dared use the well-trodden paths in the Acies forest.
Most people the slavers captured came from shipwrecks or were kidnapped. The slavers used the Acies forest as hideouts while transporting goods. While slavery was legal, kidnapping wasn't. The "normal" way for people to become enslaved was as punishment for a crime. Or from contracts to become indentured servants.
The Daitya Empire is heavily isolated from other races. While there was trade, the Daitya empires restricted merchants to port cities. As such, the demand for slaves of different races is high. Enslaved people were especially popular with the high-ranking nobles of the interior.
The slavers are high-ranked because of the competition. They are kidnappers, so they have to run from the law in the cities where they commit crimes. They also have to fight off other groups that might attack them. Their normal operation is to kidnap in a town. Then, routes through the Acies forest are used to get to the other side of the nation. The slaves are then processed there.
Eavesdropping on their conversation taught me much about the slavers' business. Strangely enough, they didn't discuss daemons going to the central continent.
A high-ranking daemon attacked the Aeulus Empire, which could have ignited a war, but there was no news. They razed a whole city to the ground. A daemon had left the Forbidden Continent for the first time in 200 years.
I grew tired of waiting in the cage and listening to the guards as night fell. There were 25 guards scattered around the camp, including the 3 I'd seen before. They were all fourth or fifth-ranked warriors.
It was night, so five guards stood watch outside. The rest went to sleep in tents around the camp. The boss was inside the big carriage, like what a traveling merchant would have. The group had gone to a city to sell some slaves when I met them on their way back. The boss and carriage had gone with them, so I'd seen it.
There were three other cages, all filled with people. They were all fourth rank or below, and the stronger ones wore mana-restricting cuffs.
In addition to the people, the group had 15 war horses and a pack of hunting dogs. The animals were all magical beasts of third rank or higher.
The strongest person here was the sixth-ranked boss. I would have no problem dealing with everybody. Most people were sleeping, so I quietly sneaked out of the cage. My body was flexible with the nanomachines, so I didn't need to use magic. The bars fit my head so I could squeeze through.
Continuing with my non-magic, I dispatched the five watchmen. By now, the captured people were roused and wondering what I was doing. I made some barriers around the cages and animals.
I didn't want to harm them if it was unnecessary. The barrier removed any noise to stop them from alerting the enemy.
After confirming the remaining guards were inside the tents, I burned them to a crisp. Columns of red-hot fire crackled in the night sky.
"Who the hell is making all that racket out here?" The leader, a bull-horned daemon, emerged from his coach with a bang.
He turned to see all his guards dead and me standing in the middle of the camp.
"So it was you, huh?" He wasn't even fazed.
A bit surprised, I replied, "Are you not scared?"
"Scared? Why should I be? These idiots were weaklings. I'd like to see you try the same with me."
I was conflicted. As much as I wanted to end the man here, he might have some helpful information. I stood staring down the daemon as I decided on my choice.
Seemingly having had enough, the boss charged at me, swinging his great sword at his side.
"[Annihilation]."
The guy immediately fell. Everything past his hips was gone. He didn't even feel pain, but over half his body was just gone.
"AAAHHHHHHHHH—" the guy screamed as he realized what had happened, but I cut off his scream with a barrier.
I approached the man on the ground, the fear evident in his eyes as he saw me coming. He tried speaking, but no noise got past my barriers.
When I was just one foot away, I knelt and looked him in the eyes. I had never used this magic before, so I needed to get it right.
"You know, some people call the eyes the 'window to the soul'. Is that correct?" It was almost a whisper, but the sound got through to the corpse on the ground.
"Souls never lie. Eyes are barriers."
"Give me. Tell me everything."
"[Read]."
The boss's eye shattered, blood coming out of empty sockets. I didn't blink an eye.
'Ironic.'
This was mind-and-soul combination magic to read all his memories. It wasn't perfect, but it got all his memories stretching back 11 years. It was alright; I didn't need any of his older memories.
I ran all the memories through a sorting algorithm to separate the useful ones. Creating magic that detected keywords and sorted the memories was simple enough.
After getting all the information I needed, I burned the man alive. I had no more use for him. As I got ready to put down my barriers, a voice resounded.
"Hey, you're pretty powerful."
I looked toward the source of the voice. A young boy around my age was standing against one of the cages. I immediately conjured barriers to restrict the boy's movement.
To get so close to me without notice meant he was powerful. As I looked at his mana, I saw a seventh-ranked warrior. He was powerful, but that didn't explain how he evaded me.
I perfected my mana sense during my journey through the dungeon. Yet this boy, whom I knew was at the seventh rank, still evaded me. I could detect even an eighth-rank's camouflage.
I didn't know who or what the boy was, but there was no way to fake or confuse your mana. My magic sense and soul magic would see through any barrier or illusion. My guess was a powerful artifact, or he used a secret technique.
"Whoa, isn't this a little much for just a boy." said the mysterious person.
"Not when that boy is a seventh-ranked warrior with a Green core." I replied.
"True, but I mean no harm. I wouldn't have alerted you if I wanted to attack you."
"You could very well be trying to trick me. I'm stronger than you; a sneak attack wouldn't have worked."
"Let's not get hasty, girl. Look, I'm just here because you caught my interest. I'll be on my way if you answer my question." The boy didn't look too concerned about his current predicament.
Still on guard, I replied, "Sure, what do you want to know."
"What do you plan to do with these people?" He gestured at the people in the cages. I immediately placed more barriers on top of him.
He had broken through my barriers just to gesture, and how easily he did it was infuriating.
Ignoring my building frustration, I answered. "I'll let them go, do whatever they want."
"Then what'll happen to them? They either get captured by different slavers or killed in the forest."
"Not my problem." I shrugged.
"This became your problem when you killed the slavers."
"I hold no responsibility for what happens to them. If anything, they now have a chance to live." This conversation was starting to infuriate me now. I just wanted to get a move on.
"I have a proposal for you."
"No." I had no time for this.
"Just hear me out."
I considered killing him, but he hadn't done anything but annoy me, so I decided against it. I didn't want to become one of those edgy isekai protagonist.
'What the hell is isekai?" Another memory flashed through my mind and was just as quickly forgotten.
"Make it quick." I snapped.
"Okay, okay. Look, I'm someone who was once part of an influential family. I ran away to get some freedom." He started explaining.
"I don't need your life story. What is the proposal?"
"I'm getting to it. I escaped to have some fun. As the two strongest people here, how about we take in these people. We go into the forest and start our own civilization? It might be interesting." The boy grinned slyly.
'Playing around with people like toys. This boy is even more messed up than me.'
"This place is too dangerous, even for me. Besides, I'm not in a position to be responsible for others." I said.
"Look, these people have nowhere to go. They can't go home and they can't head into the empire either. I know a relatively peaceful spot around here." He responded.
I sat contemplating. I needed somewhere to go. Going to the kingdom of daemons as a human was a bad idea. I couldn't get back home either. The deep oceans between the continents were full of ranks nine and ten monsters.
I wasn't even sure I wanted to go home. The daemon who invaded the Duchy mentioned that he was only out as a scout. He was probably finished scouting by now. He'd only stopped to take care of an anomaly.
That anomaly is me. The daemons had somehow learned that a unique soul had been reborn and were to look for it. The advance party saw the danger in me and decided to kill me before I got any more impactful on their plans.
My showing off had caused the daemons to attack. If I were to go back now, and the daemons learned that I was not only dead, a full-out war might break out. As an anomaly, I knew the daemons wouldn't tolerate my existence. As the prophecy grew closer, the more on edge they would be.