Chapter 162: Warming Up

"Hey did you hear that?" A soldier said who was stranded in the midst of the forest said.

His team consists of five soldiers – with two archers, two swordsmen, and one defender. They headed out for the capital as ordered by their general but, as soon as they reached the forest, they found that they couldn't find a way out anymore. As if there was a kind of spell surrounding it which messed with their sense of direction.

"Can you stop it with those warnings Alex? We've been here for a week and not one time were you right pea brain." The defender said who was also the leader of the group.

"I swear, it sounds like footsteps this time around." Alex had cold sweat running down his face, he could see shadows moving around them but nobody else seemed to notice these.

"God you're driving me crazy. It's bad enough that we can't get out of this place. Can't you just be calm for like one minute?"

"Okay…" Alex said in reply.

"Hey did you hear that?" He said again after a minute.

Everybody groaned that time around. Alex was an especially talkative troop member. Nobody from his group wanted to stay with him for too long because the guy never ran out of stories to tell. Unfortunately for his teammates, they got stuck within Zeke's trap and there was no way out for meager soldiers like them to get out. Hence, they had no choice but to listen to the frantic and terrified Alex.

"For crying out loud, I told you that there's nobody there. Tell him Chad." As soon as the defender looked at the said soldier, there was nothing but the mist. In fact, two of their archers suddenly went missing, leaving only the two swordsmen and him.

"Chad?" He said again.

"I told you there was someone!" Alex said in panic, not knowing what to make of the situation anymore.

"Shut it! Let's get into formation Brook." He said but, nobody responded to him.

"Brook?" The swordsman named brook was nowhere to be found. Soon there was only Alex who was left to accompany him.

"You should listen to your teammates you know." Zeke said, finally appearing in front of the two.

He had two heads on his hands and blood staining his clothing. His eyes were also glowing with the nature - endowed crimson color that came with being a descendant of Gallio. His lips formed a twisted smile which, strangely, was also something he practiced when he was in the cave for 12 years.

"No! Don't come any closer!" The defender shouted, recognizing the heads to be those of their teammates. The blood was still dripping down and, ion fact, they saw the ground around them overflowing with blood.

The sound of Zeke stepping on it was so loud that they knew it was real. Apart from this, there were also shadows all around them, clashing steel over steel; as if cheering Zeke on.

"Answer me before you meet the same fate. Who is the count of Elysium?" Zeke demanded; playing with their senses.

He wasn't actually holding on to heads, He simply knocked the three other soldiers out cold while he used the [Cloud of Dreams] to create an illusion of the things they saw.

"It's some guy named Zeke Elwood. We don't know. We haven't ever seen him in person. Only the generals have been able to have close contact with him." They said, shaking in fear.

"Is that all you have for me? What about your fortress is there anything special about it?" Zeke continued, wanting to extract as much answer out of them before he finished them off.

"There's nothing. Only the regular weapons that are found on every fortress sir. Please don't kill us." They said, shaking in fear and hugging on to each other.

"I see. Thank you for your cooperation." Zeke said, disappearing from their sight only to reappear, stabbing both in the heart.

"I'll just verify that with the other soldiers first. Enjoy taking your eternal rest." He continued, with both soldiers having their vision black out entirely as their lifeless bodies dropped to the ground.

Zeke continued to interrogating and killing each group that he came across. Unlike the first group hoverer, he decided to ask all the soldiers first. He began all encounters by beating the soldiers to a pulp and, if this wasn't enough to get answers, he'd simply place them within a torturous nightmare using [Cloud of Dreams]. The methods proved to be efficient as, he was able to squeeze out some data from all the groups.

That night, a lot of screams echoed within the forest. Even the birds which were peacefully sleeping got disturbed as they flew out of the area. It was a cruel thing to do but, Zeke didn't kill because he liked it. He killed because it was necessary.

This hunting went on for a whole hour, with Zeke successfully gathering more information about the doppelganger which he needed to defeat later on. However, as his victims were only normal soldiers, there was only surface level knowledge which he gained.

"Well, at least they gave me something. Now let's look at those quests again shall we."

[Chain Quest Activated.]

[First Quest: Find out who the fake Zeke Elwood.]

[Second Quest: Engage in battle with the fake Zeke Elwood.]

[Final Quest: Defeat the fake Zeke Elwood.]

[Bonus Quest: Defeat the fake Zeke Elwood in less than a month.]

[Requirement: At least 80% of the noncombatant citizens in Elysium must survive.]

These are the quests which popped up as soon as Zeke entered the Elven Continent of Elysium. It wasn't anything new for Zeke. After all, his system generates missions based on various factors which includes the area. With that in mind, missions naturally came up which were connected to Elysium and his doppelganger.

"As expected, nothing new came up with the missions."

*Sigh*

"Well. Since I finished earlier than expected, I should destroy some of the fortresses first to send my regards." Zeke snapped his neck as he looked at the [Minimap].

The fortresses were farm from each other because Elysium had a vaster land than the Demon Continent but that didn't matter. Teleportation marks were placed everywhere. As mentioned, this was also one of the things which the group did while gathering intel and setting up the barrier. Zeke, Heron and Morpheus, all did their fair share of getting the marks placed.

Even the fortresses were infiltrated because of both Heron and Morpheus' ability to change appearances. Coupling this with Zeke providing them with uniforms of the soldiers enabled them to get in and out quickly and with ease. They couldn't; stay for long because, doing so would cause them to get detected and so, they were only able to reach until the gates. They talked with the guards, saying that there was a message that needed to be relayed to the general. Guards would then let them in only for the two to say that, there was something the forgot, touching a wall and leaving without raising suspicion.

"Let' get all the crystals back first." Zeke said, snapping his fingers. The item naturally went back to his inventory as, they were labeled as his after all.

The [Cloud of Dreams] wasn't needed in the forest anymore. Zeke already got what he needed from the soldiers although, it wasn't much. All that was left was for the monsters to eat the corpses of the dead soldiers.

"After I went through all the trouble to clean this place up. They just allowed the monsters to come back." Zeke said, disappointed with the government who didn't even take proper care of the eleven forest. It became inhabited with these creatures after a while because, nobody monitored the area anymore.

"Not that it's my problem anyway." He said, finally setting up the spell as he casted:

"Teleport."

As soon as Zeke appeared, he threw all the crystals containing [Cloud of Dreams] around the area. This quicky wrapped the fortress in a thick mist that prevented anyone from getting outside. The soldiers didn't know this yet however and simply focused on the target that appeared before them.

"Attack!" They screamed, with the ballistics all targeting Zeke.

"I'm not sure that's a wise choice to make at the moment." He said, dodging the first set of arrows as he finally summoned his army of [Conjures].

Everyone felt a cold chill run down their spine as the creatures emerged from a pool of black flames enveloping the ground. They tried killing these off immediately but, Zeke's summons were just too sturdy to be brought down quickly. Even with headshots made, the helmets they wore provided enough defense against a hundred normal arrows.

"Kill them!" The command then changed as all of Zeke's [Conjures] finally came out.

Zeke also decided to finally give the command to the thousands of [Conjures] that occupied the area.

"Devour."

The fight couldn't be called much so because there were just as many soldiers as there were [Conjures]. Even with the numbers being equal, all the buffs Zeke could provide for his team and their natural rank superiority made the battle turn to his favor without much effort. He then proceeded to the control room immediately, killing off the general there through a single slash.

He didn't want to waste time fighting a [Primal State] general so he ended it as quickly as he could. He then took the crystal which powered the portal on the Continent. Afterwards, Zeke teleported to the next location. That night, Zeke cleaned up a total of ten fortresses. He made sure that these were close to each other in order for nobody to notice because, they'd all be dead after all.

"All that killing is really tiring." He said removing his blade from the general whom he just murdered.

With all that he accomplished for the day; Zeke decided to finally take a rest. The real operation begins on the next day after all and, he wanted his body to be on its top shape before he fought the man who claimed both his name and his original body.

"I'm going to enjoy ripping you apart." Zeke told himself, watching the various fortresses crumble before him.