On the other hand, the enemy commander was a notch more powerful than that, almost equalling Tier-9 powers, which caused the human commander to be always pushed down and forced to use multiple cards and moves to keep up.

Thanks to that, even after the major weakening of demon commanders took place all over the domain, the human commander was in a tattered state that didn't allow him to decisively take care of the demon commander, as he was finally cut some slack after the battle that was full of tensions and close brushes with death.

However, just as he was starting to gain the upper hand with hopes to end the battle once and for all, a flaming crescent slash came out of nowhere and pushed the weakened demon back, causing his to be pierced by an earth spike that had evolved out of the ground, eventually letting out his last breath.

Normally, a kill steal like this that stole the honor of causing the last strike would be frowned upon, but the human commander who has been pressured this far and only had hope to end the battle 'soon' didn't regard it as such, especially as he saw the honest expressions that were all over the faces of the two polar looking siblings who have come to his aid… Or so the human commander wrote in his report.

I had initially looked through the reports handed by the human commanders about the demon nests through the permission of Blade in order to make sure nothing unexpected happened as well as catch anything suspicious and that was indeed the case…

Though I didn't find anything that brought with it the possibility of demons surviving, the main target of my search, which was of course a good thing, I managed to get the major clue that allowed me to confirm the ident.i.ty of the players of the Nature Domain. Naturally, this was also one of the major targets of my search. After all, no player would stay behind and miss the opportunity to show their abilities unless they were just planning on doing nothing during the whole game period...

So far, it seemed like players would be distributed in pairs to each domain judging from the numbers of the players and domain, which indeed turned out to be the case in the Light Domain and also fit the bill for the peculiar siblings, but whether this guess was accurate or not remained unconfirmed considering that attributes were the main way of deciding the distribution. That was of course unless the company already knew our attributes even before we entered the game…

"So you are already jumping into the conclusion before asking why I came to believe so strongly that you are my 'colleagues'?"

The weird perception ability of Clara seemed to have the ability to 'sense', the conclusion that I came to thinking how she reacted that way and didn't bother concealing much was because she did 'sense' I was convinced they were players and wouldn't be discouraged by simple acting.

"There is no use to knowing that, not all mistakes can be evaded if the cause is known… all that matters now is what that would lead us to."

As a person who hardly spoke most of the time, Clara's words, who probably wasn't named Clara to begin with, seemed to have a strange deepness to it. It almost felt like the words I heard her speak before when I was peeking were spoken by a different person, it wouldn't be strange to me if they said that they had staged an act that time.

Though in truth, everything so far pointed that it was unlikely to be…

"Indeed, there is only a certain limit to how far a person can hide without restricting his own goals. It's true that I revealed all of this to seek cooperation… I take it that you agree to that since you didn't leave?"

The reason they revealed their abilities that surpa.s.sed what I saw during the tournament to take down the demon commander couldn't possibly be just the greed for EP, it was more likely to be that they also had their own quest that taking down a commander was critical to its fulfillment. Looking back at their words back then, I could see little hints to that in their words.

"You don't seem like a deviant who wants to kill us for fun and you even didn't plan to hide your own status as a player either. It's already obvious that survival within this 'game' would only get harder without the help of others. So naturally, it's our intent as well."

Taking a quick look at 'Sean' who stayed silent since his sister started talking, I nodded at 'Clara' before asking Long to remove his 'Illusion' and 'Perception Evasion' and come out from my sleeve now that it was time for business.

"Oh, your AI is quite similar to ours. Is that a sign that we can get along, I wonder? Come out Yamata…"

The bag that 'Clara' was holding vibrated as something climbed out of it into the table, revealing a…

'Don't tell me…'

Looking at the small eight-legged, two-headed lizard looking at me in a 'cute' and childish manner, I almost let out a laugh, but stopped myself considering the supposedly certain serious situation…

"Is his full name Yamata no Orochi or something like that…?"

"Oh, you seem to be quite knowledgeable, that is indeed the case."

To think that such a 'cute' lizard could be a.s.sociated with the fearsome legend of 'Yamata no Orochi'...

"There is no need to stop yourself from laughing if you want it that badly, I still think that Yamata is a cute name that suits it. Go on, Yamata…"

[ 'Communication System (Player to Player) has been activated. ]

[ 'Communication System (Player to Player) has been activated. ]

[ Player #000 is now connected to Player #002 ]

[ Player #000 is now connected to Player #003 ]

'Hmmm?'