Inside the heart of Jean’s fortress at Iron Hills, Jean and Demon were sitting. Two G-1 units stood at the door. Their red runes shined.

Blink walked in and dropped the hunter on the ground. Demon obviously frowned. Jean looked at the Blink, the hunter, and then at Blink again.

“You need to upgrade your security,” Blink commented as she sat down on the third chair in the room. She pointed at the hunter. “I found him inside your manufacturing lines, glancing around.”

Demon frowned. His power reached inside the hunter and checked him inside out.

“He doesn’t look special. In fact, I would say he’s just an ordinary local.”

He glanced at Jean, waiting for an explanation. He knew Jean wasn’t the type who would let her overconfidence ruin her day. In front of the various powers of the Voyagers, Jean’s defenses weren’t completely impregnable, but if a random native could stroll his way inside...then maybe they should find a new ally.

Jean frowned. She knelt down beside the hunter. Four sci-fi looking scanners appeared around her and examined the hunter from top to bottom. The result was clear.

He was an average human being from this world. Stronger than most civilians, sure, but a single soldier from this world could take him down.

It was as if the man simply wandered into the fortress. That’s it. Pure luck that he wasn’t found.

Demon and Blink shrugged. Their nature as Voyagers convinced them that a single hunter whose CAS wouldn’t be over 25 was by no means a threat to them. Only armies of natives or other Voyagers posed a threat. This incident left a bad taste in their mouth, but that was it.

They were ready to slit the hunter’s throat and dump his body and get this mess over with.

But not Jean.

She was physically incapable of being overconfident.

“Wardens.”

She demanded. The G-1s at the door walked up.

“Creator.”

“Take him out for a full scan. I want every piece of his skin and every inch of his belonging checked.”

“Affirmative.”

As the two G-1s dragged the hunter away, Jean returned to her seat.

“Your army is growing.” Blink commented. She was no longer caring about the hunter. No Voyager could be blamed for being too careful. She wisely changed the topic.

“Indeed.” Jean nodded. “My underlings have found a way to inject crystal energy into the metal shells of my machines.”

“How much are they enhanced?” Demon rose his eyebrows. His power to revise corpses gave him an army as well, making him slightly interested of the topic.

“G-1 units, the ones at the door, had a CAS of 50 before being upgraded.” Jean replied. “Now, they are at 80. A single red crystal can upgrade 10 G-1s.”

“Ah.” Demon’s interest immediately died. To the Voyagers his level, red crystals weren’t completely useless. Spending them on enhancing himself was better than wasting them to build up an expendable army of cannon fodder.

Jean didn't bother explaining. Neither Demon nor Blink knew that she got six watches from Violet, not three. In other words, she kept four watches for herself. There were 50 red crystals and ten orange crystals inside in total, adding to Jean’s previously depressing red crystal count of 6.

This allowed Jean to upgrade all of her 30 G-1s. 3 red crystals was just a fragment of her overall wealth.

Jean also kept something about the G-1s quiet. When she said they had a CAS of 80, she wasn’t lying, but she did alter the truth slightly. CAS was a calculation of an entity’s total combat powers. In the case of the G-1s, their survivability on the battlefield was far lower than 80. A squad of Emperor or Empress Guards could take them down in a fair fight. But their ability to stay covert and assassinate targets was way over 80. Even those like General Flores or Commander Eric might be sniped by their gauss rifles before they could put up a fight or enable their runes.

No need to tell them that. The runed G-1s were one of Jean’s ace cards.

The Voyagers quickly changed their topic again. They weren’t here to talk about Jean’s side project. They had other things to worry about. Jean tapped her watch a few times and sent a file to her two comrades.

As the Voyagers read, she explained.

“As you know, before Demon used Benedictine to lure out his followers, I downloaded his conscious and started manipulating it for information. I found something very interesting.”

Jean has had a habit of downloading the conscious of those that might be useful to her into the Purifier network. She did that to multiple scientists back in the Starcraft world, forcing them to work for her without them even knowing it. She did that to the rune crafters. As far as the rune crafters knew, they were still inside the Empire of the Moon, and were put under a special order by the emperor to do researches on runes in an alternate direction than before.

Sure, it was odd, but they still worked their hardest. If they knew they were building an army that would be used to slaughter their people and exterminate their country, they would be much less cooperative.

It was likewise with Benedictine. Jean doubted any form of torture could break the former emperor, but when Benedictine’s conscious, his mind, was transformed into data, willpower no longer mattered. Jean had Purifier AIs extract his memories and go through them piece by piece. There was no secrets whatsoever. Eventually, she found what she was looking for.

Almost doubling the combat ability of her Warden units was good. Tripling it or even quadrupling it would be better. Right now, the enhancement of the Warden units was limited by how much crystal energy the Warden units could take before the energy goes out of control. If that technology could inject rune energy into human beings safely, then what could it do for metal machines?

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Jean continued.

“The runing technology from Benedictine, the one that engraved runes onto his skin, wasn’t from the Empire of the Moon. It’s from a sect known as the Shieldbearers. Benedictine seemed to have located them inside the mountain chain between the two empires.”

A chain of mountains, hundreds of kilometers long, formed a natural barrier between the Empire of the Sun and the Empire of the Moon. It was filled with beasts, insects, pythons, and poisonous plants that could swallow up a whole army. Just transporting the supplies needed to keep an army fed would be a nightmare. Neither empire wasted time or manpower trying to navigate through it.

It was a death trap for the natives, but all three Voyagers knew if they wanted to, going into the mountains shouldn’t be a problem. Their watches could load enough supply to last them a lifetime.

“You want to attack these Shieldbearers?” Blink quickly understood what Jean was getting at. “Do you have an estimation on their power scale?”

“They are powerful. According to Benedictine’s memories, the technology used on him was widespread among the Shieldbearers. This means an unidentified amount of hostiles with a CAS of around 200 or higher.” Jean replied with a nod.

The three paused for a couple of seconds. These Shieldbearers must be exterminated. After all, the Voyagers’ job here was to destroy this world. But the question was when.

“We should take care of the two empires first.” Blink suggested, carefully looking at Jean to see her response. “And then focus the power of all the Voyagers on these Shieldbearers.”

Once again, it was self-preservation in play. There was no need for the three of them to take on an entire sect when there could be dozens of Voyagers working together to get that done, after the two empires were doomed, but unfortunately, Jean wasn’t going with that.

The natives of this world might be under their thumb, but her fellow Voyagers were as deadly as the crossbows and lances of the natives. She had a rough idea on what Violet was planning, and she knew things would get very rough very soon. If she wanted to get a piece of the cake, she needed a powerful army, and a handful of G-1s with CAS of 100 wouldn’t be enough.

Before she could rebut, Demon, who has been going down the file, looked up at Blink and did Jean’s job for her.

“That is unlikely. Here, on page 23,” He waited as Blink flipped to that page. He spoke as Blink read. “Benedictine’s memory showed that the Shieldbearers actively went to him and offered him the enhancement, as well as a warning. Check the date.”

Blink’s eyebrows almost formed a knot.

“Is that...that is the day we descended!”

“Exactly. The Shieldbearers gave Benedictine the runes the day we entered this universe. This can’t be a coincidence. There is only one explanation.”

Demon stopped, trusting Blink could get what he meant.

“They know we’re here, and they know why we are here!” Even a Voyager like Blink was surprised. “How? Doesn’t matter. We need to exterminate them quickly.”

At this stage, the Voyagers were able to tip the locals against each other. As proud as they were, the notion of taking on hundreds of thousands of professional soldiers with supernatural powers wasn’t that appealing. Just by the 80 Voyagers, even hundreds of thousands of pigs could be quite an issue.

If these Shieldbearers spread the knowledge of what they know, then it would just be a matter of time before the entirety of this world unites against them. When that happens, even if they won, it would be a costly one.

None of the Voyagers were ready to risk a lifetime of wealth and power and throw away their lives fighting pathetic locals.

They had to destroy the Shieldbearers as soon as possible. Exterminate anyone who knows their true identities and bury that information beneath all the corpses.

“Indeed.” Jean nodded again. She looked at her comrades slowly. “I suggest we tell Commander Eric to mobilize the Moon forces. I will take my Warden forces, and Demon will build up an undead army as large as possible. We will storm the mountains and destroy the Shieldbearer sect.”

The Shieldbearers might be powerful, but if even Voyagers could be killed by armies, why couldn’t the Shieldbearers. With enough bodies, alive, dead, or metal, Jean was sure she could crush that sect. The hostiles were mighty, and they have spent god knows how long in the mountains. Finding them on their home turf would be a nightmare.

There would be a lot of casualties, but Jean was certain she could limit that to an acceptable amount.

Suddenly, the two G-1s walked back in while the hunter dragging behind. One of them handed a weird looking stone to Jean.

“Creator, we discovered this on him. Scanners detect a type of unidentified energy signature.”

Jean took the stone over and looked at it top to bottom. Suddenly, Blink reached out. A curious look on her face.

“Can I see it.”

Jean handed the stone over. Blink closed her eyes, holding the stone, before opening her eyes again and looking at Jean.

“It’s from one of us. You see these carvings? They form an array of energy that brings the user into a mirror dimension. The user can still see and hear everything, but he himself can be completely hidden from outside views.”

As he heard the words, Demon’s expression changed despite his best attempts to hide it. He was a summoner. His Voyager set, while deadly against locals, would be extremely vulnerable facing fellow Voyagers. If someone used this piece of gadget to get by all his underlings and get close to him...it would just be a matter of swinging the blade.

Blink saw Demon’s worry.

“Don’t worry. We Voyagers have keen senses. I was able to sniff him out with a single glance. It shouldn’t be too tough for you two either.”

Jean, who has been quiet the entire time, suddenly spoke up.

“I’m not worried about this gadget. I’m concerned about the one who sent him.” Jean suddenly drew a dagger from her watch and jammed it into the man’s thigh. The hunter woke up, screaming.

Jean grabbed onto his neck and lifted him into the air. The other two Voyagers watched coldly.

“Who are you?”

Jean’s words were as cold as ice. She could play a sweet, trustworthy girl when she needed to, and when she needed to, she could be the most brutal, merciless interrogator.

“I...I am nobody! I’m just a huntsman!” The poor soul looked around, seeking help. Unfortunately for him, neither Voyagers moved. Blink was an assassin. Good luck getting sympathy from her. As for Demon...the name itself provides sufficient explanation.

Both of them have hurt and killed countless people in their past missions. What was going on was merely childsplay.

Jean landed another slash on the huntsman’s arm. Once again, it wasn’t anywhere fatal, but the pain of losing another part of his body still made the unintentional spy scream.

Until Jean covered his mouth.

“You know...in ancient China, there’s an execution method called death by a thousand cuts. Basically, the victim is to be kept alive until he has lost a thousand pieces of flesh. The process could take hours. Whoever it is on the wrong side of the blade will be screaming the entire time.” Jean tilted her head. Her face was stone cold. “How long can you live?”

The hunter was literally begging for his life.

“Please! I will keep quiet about this! I swear! I have a family!”

Another cut landed on his left index finger.

Normal people don’t wander into a heavily defended fortress using a magic cloak.

“I have a daughter! If I die here, she dies too! Show some mercy!”

Jean suddenly frowned.

“Your daughter. What’s her name?”

The huntsman suddenly paused. A trace of confusion raced through his eyes. What was her daughter’s name? What did she look like? What color was her hair? Blonde? Brunette?

It suddenly occurred to him that while he was always thinking about his daughter, he couldn’t actually remember anything about her. This sudden change generated enough fear to overcome the fear of Jean.

“What is going on? Someone tell me what’s going on!”

Jean turned and glanced at the other two Voyagers before suddenly digging both of her hands into the man’s eyes.