Even with the 1st Sphere Angels gone, Ashton still didn't recklessly barge inside the Palace...
Being careful inside an unknown territory is, after all, never a bad thing. He didn't want to trigger any traps or alarms if he could help it.
Earlier, none of the angels noticed him. This meant that so long as he remains inside the Grand Library, he'll remain unseen and undetected, therefore he'd be safe.
As he went in deeper into the palace, Ashton kept a decent pace.
The Palace was obviously large and very extravagant. Gold and white are the most dominant theme of this place. There are hints of lavishness and nobility everywhere he went. Even the simplest candleholders looked rather expensive in Ashton's eyes.
He also saw some portraits hanging on the walls, which painted a hint of vanity in this rather luxurious place. It seems that the angels aren't immune to these sorts of things either. In fact, they're full of it, honestly.
Another thing that Ashton noticed was the fact that there were no doors inside the Palace. The only door he saw was the one at the entrance, beyond that, there was nothing.
In place of doors, the angels hung white cloth to separate the rooms, which is rather odd. The cloth looked like silk, Ashton couldn't touch it to confirm but that's not really important.
'Well, this makes things easier for me. I can just go straight in.' He mused.
He didn't detect any traps or spyware around him even after using the Scan and Identify, which made him feel emboldened and think that there were none, to begin with.
He went through several rooms and didn't trigger anything which made him feel even more confident about his guesses.
1 Palace, 2 Halls, 10 rooms and 50 Camps...
The 2 halls and 10 rooms were inside the Palace itself, as for the 50 camps, those were stationed outside.
The rooms inside were the common rooms, each of the 1st Sphere Angels he saw had their own room which also served as their office. Aside from that, their rooms for other things such as Meeting Room, Research Room. Healing Room and so on...
As for the 2 Halls, there's the Mess Hall — a place where military rations are given out, it also serves as a place to rest and relax. And the Briefing Hall — where the 1st Sphere Angels receive orders from their superiors back at Laguna.
Ashton hasn't toured the entirety of the Palace to know that, he just came across a layout printed on one of the columns of the Palace which also provides direction.
'The Omnilingual Skill is really helping me out here.' Ashton rejoiced since, without it, he probably would be clueless on how to proceed from here on out.
The first thing that Ashton decided to do was to infiltrate the personal rooms of the 1st Sphere Angels.
Since their rooms serve as their own office as well, he figured that he should be able to find some documents in there that will give him some insights into their secrets here.
The first room he infiltrated was that of the Seraph — Neon. He's the one who gave the army some briefing earlier.
His room was clean and orderly, as expected. There were neat stacks of unfinished documents on his table, all of which are steeped in the Aura of the Seraph.
'It's probably a bad idea for me to recklessly disturb these files. The Seraph might notice it since his Aura is in them.'
Granted, he wasn't really thinking about going out when he said this. He knew that he could probably use his magic in the same way as how he controls the library to go through the files here but he didn't do so for now since he might leave some fluctuations behind and the Seraph could easily use that to track him down.
So, he peeled his eyes away from the documents even though it pains him. He wanted to look at them but he can't so he could only place his focus elsewhere.
He looked at the desk and saw that it was relatively safe to fumble with it since it has no locks nor aura of the Seraph.
He saw some drawers so he pulled them out and scanned their contents. He found some trinkets and gadgets that were of no use to him. Once he went through every single drawer, he pursed his lips and looked elsewhere.
After a couple of minutes of fumbling here and there, Ashton didn't find anything useful at all.
His eyes locked on to the stacks of documents. He really want to take a look at those but he controlled his desires. He can't risk it.
So, even though it pains him, he left the Seraph's room and proceeded to infiltrate the other rooms.
30 minutes later, Ashton groaned as he exited the last room.
'Useless...' He muttered to himself, 'The only thing that looked somewhat important was the stack of documents he found at Seraph Neon's desk, but even that was useless since he couldn't take a look at it lest he risks his safety.
'This won't do.' Ashton shook his head, 'I need to figure out a way on how I can investigate further with fewer risks. Hmm...'
'...wait! How can I forget!?'
Ashton's eyes gleamed. He looked at the time and thought that he still have some time left before the angels return.
He swiftly drove the library at each room of the 1st Sphere angels. He went into their bathrooms and discovered a trash bag filled with their feathers.
Ashton rubbed his palms and stole a handful of feathers from there. He did this for the other angels that lived here as well.
Once he gathered sufficient materials. He parked the library at the obscure corner of the palace and withdrew his control. He stood up and marched toward Aria's Lab to ask for her help.
"Hey, Babe!" Ashton called-out.
Aria looked up from her desk and smiled at him. Ashton went closer to her, leaned down, and kissed her. He then saw that she was working on 'The Core' and said:
"Can I trouble you for a bit?" Ashton then brought out the batch of feathers he stole. He also gave her the Cloak of Apparition and continued: "Can you use these feathers to modify this cloak? And if possible, can you also make me some gloves with the feathers?"
"Oooh!" Aria's eyes sparkled upon hearing his request.
"I need them to blend in with the camp. You know, it's like when I asked you to modify the safehouse to blend with the demonic territory?"
"Yeah. I remember. Sure! I can give it a try. You'd also probably want to alternate between Demonic and Angelic coating so I'll try to do both. Leave this to me."
"Thanks, Babe." Ashton smiled and kissed her again, "I'll give you 15 rounds later to show my gratitude."
"Perv!" Aria looked offended by that, then she said: "Make it 20 instead and you have a deal."
"As you wish, my Mistress." Ashton winked at her mischievously.
Aria just giggled and said: "Scram."
So, scram he did...
He only needs to wait until Aria figures out a way to make that happen and he could continue his investigations. For now, he went back to the 'driver's seat' and controlled the library again.
This time, he inspected the Mess Hall. More specifically, the rations that they're distributing to their army.
Ashton doesn't have any thoughts here aside from wanting to figure out if he could poison their rations using some demonic corruption. He had accumulated a lot of demonic trinkets so far, he can probably ground them up to dust and scatter them with the rations to poison the angels.
The Mess Hall is, after all, just a large, open-space, cafeteria. Something that the Angels probably shamelessly copied from Humanity as well. It is a place where angels can eat and socialize.
There's someone here, an angel who's probably the Chef in charge of this place.
[Lloyd]
Type: Guardian Angel
Title: Savior of the Famished
Celestial Bloodline Purity: 20%
'Savior of the Famished, eh?' Ashton mused to himself, 'Indeed, this one might be their Chef.'
According to what Ashton found out so far, only the 3rd Sphere Angels and above have titles. Moreover, their Title seems to have a connection with their personal skills.
'Poisoning the Angels might be a bad idea if there's a supervisor here.' He mused to himself, 'This one might see me doing it. Even if he didn't, there's no way this one would deliberately poison his comrades so the 1st Sphere Angels might discover that there's an intruder here.'
'That'd be bad for me.' Ashton shook his head, 'Unlike previously, I'm dealing with five 1st Sphere Angels here, which is equivalent to Demon Kings.'
'Demon Prince Lu isn't stupid, he only become one when I drove him to madness. I couldn't replicate that scenario here so the same method won't work.'
After abandoning the idea, Ashton controlled the library away to go to the other Hall which is the Briefing Hall, leaving the Guardian Angel still painfully unaware of his presence...
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