Sophia was stunned for a moment.
Kuro was going to kill Tsukasa?
Wait a minute, if she wasn't mistaken, the person her master had explicitly said to protect back then should be Tsukasa, right? She wasn't an idiot; she could certainly see that much by now.
When her master said that, she said it right in front of the Demon Lord and Kuro. In other words, even though Kuro knew the master wanted to protect Tsukasa, he still planned to launch a sneak attack while the master was asleep?
Sophia did not doubt Tsukasa's intuition.
Because at their level, perception-type skills were basically a necessity and might even be at max level. So if Tsukasa felt Harris was there to kill her, then it was definitely true.
And Harris's true form was Kuro, so Harris wanting to kill Tsukasa was the same as Kuro wanting to kill Tsukasa.
But why?
Although Kuro was an arrogant and difficult guy, he wasn't someone who killed indiscriminately.
Furthermore, this was someone the master wanted to protect. How could he, how would he dare to do this?
"If it comes to a fight later, leave Kuro—no, Harris—to me." Sophia wanted to figure out what on earth this guy was thinking.
Tsukasa could already be considered one of their own. Why kill her? If he didn't give a reasonable explanation, she would have to cut down this avatar of Kuro's today.
Tsukasa didn't speak; she didn't even know if she should trust Sophia right now.
And Sophia had picked Harris.
Even though Harris's true form was incredibly powerful, Harris himself was truly weak.
Clearly, Harris intended to use the Hero's Holy Sword to kill her, otherwise, how would they dare to come for her with just their own strength? At a time like this, Sophia specifically choosing Harris as her opponent made it hard for her not to suspect they were in cahoots.
But even if she had suspicions, there was no need to voice them now. Sophia didn't know about her preparations. Since they wanted to kill with a borrowed blade, she would just break that blade!
Tsukasa planned not to return after finishing off the Hero.
The villa, the Night Sky Pavilion—she would treat it as an expensive lesson and just leave it to them.
As long as she was still alive, she would find a place to cultivate until she was strong enough to come out again. When that time came, she would make them pay back a hundredfold!
"They're coming in. I told you your Illusion wouldn't work; it was seen through so easily."
Sophia was talking nonsense.
Neither Tsukasa nor Eidor liked hearing Sophia say that. For one, the Illusion's power had been deliberately weakened to let Sophia in, making her think she'd discovered it and feel all smug.
And for another...
They knew Sophia was essentially a surveillance camera.
The reason that guy could see through the Illusion was entirely because he already knew they were hiding inside.
Outside.
The Hero was unable to see through Eidor's Illusion.
"Why did you bring me back here? There's nothing special about this place, is there?"
From Julius's perspective, this place had clearly been abandoned for some time.
It was.
It gave one no desire to go in and explore, as it was obvious at a glance that nothing of value could be left inside.
"No, if you observe closely, you'll find the environment here is extremely unnatural. Furthermore, don't you feel it? When we stand here, we naturally feel like we don't want to go in and explore. Isn't that strange? We're here to investigate clues. Even if it's abandoned, this was once the residence where the owner of the Night Sky Pavilion lived. Normally, one would at least think about going in to take a look."
Harris's words successfully enlightened Julius.
That was the nature of Illusions; once you knew there was a flaw, flaws were everywhere.
But the hard part was often how to find the first flaw. Eidor's Illusion was of a very high level; even if the Dragon God's Main Body came in person, he wouldn't have been able to see through it if he didn't know about the setup beforehand.
But unfortunately, Harris was using a wall-hack; he knew they were hiding inside, so the Illusion was ineffective against him.
"Now that you mention it, you're right. Could someone have set up magic here?"
"It's just a bit of Illusion and psychological suggestion. Not worth mentioning, it doesn't even reach the level of magic."
Harris belittled Eidor's Illusion as worthless. If Eidor weren't currently unable to fight, she would have struck down this Dragon God today to make soup!
As the two broke the suggestion, they felt more and more that something was wrong. Harris reached his hand forward, and something magical happened: his arm actually passed through the scenery before him, which seemed to be nothing more than a reflection in water.
"Ding-dong, looks like we've found the right place." Harris was still acting.
He had been acting since childhood, and Julius had grown up with him as his childhood playmate.
Naturally, Julius didn't find it strange.
Otherwise, if the other members of the Hero Squad were here, they would certainly find Harris's behavior a bit odd.
Moreover, for an Illusion that multiple people together couldn't see through, if he were able to discover it, it would be inconsistent with his current persona.
Especially if Yana were here; if even Yana, who had the most experience in this area, couldn't find it, then him bringing it up would definitely be very strange.
But now that the others weren't around, Julius wouldn't doubt his best friend.
So next, he just had to let that girl attack him. Harris must die today, and then he would save this world!
"Now! Teleport!"
However, Harris hadn't expected this.
Just as he and Julius broke the Illusion and stepped inside, the teleportation trap activated. He was left where he was, while the Hero was teleported away.
Harris: "..."
This was bad.
Suddenly, a gust of wind swept past his head, slicing off more than half of his hair.
Sophia held her greatsword in one hand, looking at Harris coldly. "Kuro, what exactly are you doing?"
Harris's original rogue-like expression vanished, replaced by the somber and aloof Kuro.
"None of your business. Now you'd better tell me where they were teleported to."
Boom!
Sophia's figure was so fast that Harris couldn't even see a shadow. Harris was sent flying, crashing into the garden of the courtyard. The massive impact kicked up a huge cloud of dust. With this one blow, Sophia had directly knocked Harris into a critical state.
"None of my business? A fine 'none of my business.' But I'm sorry, this matter really is my business now." Sophia walked up to Harris, who was now gasping for breath. Her attack had clearly been merciless; given Harris's attributes, this was a near-fatal injury.
"What do you plan to do to our friend while my master isn't paying attention?"
Sophia grabbed Harris's head.
She lifted his entire body up.
Harris's attitude just now had truly provoked her. Not only did you want to kill the person they were protecting, but you even dared to order her around like you were the boss?
Sophia wasn't going to indulge Harris's bad habits.
Yes, she couldn't beat the Dragon God's Main Body, but so what? Her master would blow up that dragon sooner or later. She just wondered what a true dragon tasted like, and if dragon meat was any good. Sophia was very angry right now.
Just as she said, although Tsukasa was an oddball, she already considered Tsukasa a friend.
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