Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

Zach squinted as he looked at the tunnel for a few moments before his gaze wandered. He could feel the gazes of everyone rest on him. His companions and the followers of gods from Kuros were looking at him, curious about what he was going to do.

Eventually, he glanced at Vera.

His eyes narrowed. He thought about asking her for advice, but reconsidered. In the end, he turned to Frida.

"Is magic popular here on Kuros?" He asked as straightforward as an arrow.

She was tempted to shoot back that it should be obvious, but after seeing him fight—no, fight wasn't the right word for what he did to Vera. After seeing what Zach did to Vera, Frida held back.

"No…" She gave a simple answer before turning away from Zach. She glanced at Violina and her familiars. She wanted to return to the Order's headquarters as soon as possible.

Zach turned to Mandra.

"Can you put up something to hide the tunnel?" He asked.

Mandra nodded.

"Of course, Master." It was a simple matter. But if she wanted to do something that would fool the eyes of powerful followers, she would have to put in some effort. She also got an opportunity to test some of the branching theories she had developed recently. She was happy to do it.

Zach had everyone else step back while Mandra stepped forward. As she did so, she slowly rose into the air with magic energy surging through her body like a mighty river.

With a soft blue light like sprinkles of starlight, that river of magic energy started flowing out of Mandra's hands and into the surroundings. The magic light flowed outward, twisting and bending in a seemingly random mess.

It looked like chaos in the eyes of those incapable of understanding. Only Mandra saw the order within the streams of magic. Zach saw something that was neither chaos nor order with his Eyes of Truth.

His eyes revealed the paths and different flows of Mandra's magic, but he could not decipher them. He only knew what he was seeing because his knowledge of Mandra's intentions supplemented his Eyes.

However, that alone wasn't enough to explain why he could see something more.

Zach didn't know what he was looking at. But it wasn't Mandra's magic. Not directly, at least.

Something was responding to her magic. That was what it looked like to him.

It looked like Mandra was making the surroundings themselves embrace her magic and take the illusion she weaved into consideration when crafting reality.

Zach stared at it in a daze until he suddenly realized that he was looking at a bunch of trees no different from the ones around them.

The tunnel into the ground that had been there moments ago was completely gone.

Zach wasn't the only one flabbergasted. The same shock ran through everyone who had just seen what had transpired.

Mandra had made the tunnel disappear.

Of course, the more perceptive ones in the crowd could tell that something was up. Nessa and her fourth familiar. Anerias and his fourth familiar. Violina. Frida. Just like Violina and Frida, Vera could sense the temperature. Yan surprised himself by sensing an inconsistency. Rienne's spirits told her about someone trying to trick nature.

It wasn't perfect. But it didn't need to be.

Besides, the spell wasn't done just like that. Over time, it would infiltrate and infect the surroundings deeper and make the illusion even more believable. The tiny differences that those already aware of the tunnel and the reality beneath the illusion noticed would be chiseled away before long.

"Woah…" Yubo let out a gasp of admiration. As a priest of the God of Yellow Flowers, he could appreciate beauty. That was what Mandra's magic was.

It was enough to make most of his resentment dissipate.

It was almost a shame that they had sworn on their gods not to spread the tunnel's existence. He wanted to show this plot of forest land to his friends and acquaintances just to reveal that it was fake. Alas, a bet was a bet, and a loss was a loss.

He could at least share in the experience with the others under the same oath.

It was just…

He wasn't on the best of terms with any of the other followers. He looked at them, and none of them seemed interested in talking to him.

The priestess from the Order of Vatar was also getting ready to pull apart the blue-haired lady and the dark-haired man and haul off the lady to their headquarters.

It was a shame that they wouldn't be able to go to the other continent and amass followers and believers for their gods. But looking at what Zach and Nessa had shown so far, maybe it wasn't as much of as a loss as it had first seemed.

Yubo withdrew from the gathering, wondering how to report this to his superiors.

Laro, the Priest of Dark Rain from the Order of Ulra, tagged along with Frida and left.

Anerias looked at Violina parting figure with an expression of heartache. When even the silhouette of her Yeti King disappeared behind the trees, determination and resolve replaced that tragic expression.

Nessa looked at Zach, Anerias, and Dukiel. She glanced at Mort. She hesitated.

Zach looked at Vera with a nefarious glint in his eyes. Vera felt a chill run down her spine all of a sudden. She turned to Zach. It was like she could read his mind.

They hadn't specified much of anything.

She had agreed to give him information when he won. That was it. There was no upper limit on the amount or limitations on what kind of information.

A decent person would ask what they wanted to know and dig a little in that topic.

Zach was many things and known for more. Strangely enough, he was not known for being decent.

***

In a dark room somewhere on Kuros, four figures completely covered in grey robes sat crosslegged. Suddenly, one of them spoke.

"I sense Him. He has finally set foot on this land."

"Do we take action already?" Another asked.

"Not yet."

"There are others…We can't let them…"

"Patience, Sisters. We have waited eons. What is a year or two, if even that much is needed for the seed to take root and bloom?"