Death... and me

Roan was satisfied with Sister Orb's explanation. "That makes sense. Anyway, Sesame, bring us to the Fragment. Of course, be careful. I don't think that Belial left only an Illusion behind to protect his Fragment."

Sesame quickly grabbed Roan once again and teleported away with his Spatial powers. The Fragment was quite close, so there was no need for a Spatial Gate.

'Sister Orb, pay attention to see if you can perceive any Formation other than the Formation used in the Reincarnation Path.' Roan didn't let his guard down while Sesame moved.

With Sesame's speed, they arrived at the location in just 20 or so minutes. Immediately, Sister Orb warned them of a result. [You were right. I can feel the presence of three formations ahead.]

Sesam and Roan looked in the direction of the Fragment and could see an area with quite a few Dead Souls passing by. However, they quickly noticed that those Dead Souls seemed to be losing their Soul Energy slightly as they passed through that region.

The surprising thing was that the energy lost by those Dead Souls was pretty low. If one didn't come here knowing exactly what they were looking for, such a minute change in the Soul's Energies would pass completely unnoticed. Even if one did notice, they wouldn't think much of it as the amount of energy being lost was just too small to affect the souls. The Souls were still able to pass by and reach the Reincarnation Path in the end, so there were no problems.

Sesame and Roan were still concealing themselves, so no one could see or feel them with their Divine Senses. As mentioned, the Reincarnation Path is heavily guarded, so patrols were present in all the regions around it all the time. Let's not forget the teams that were responsible for guiding the souls that got too far away and couldn't find their way to the Reincarnation Path.

Right now, Sesame and Roan were seeing a small group of those Devils entering the range of the Fragment Location. The same location where Sister Orb felt the presence of three formations. Nonetheless, these patrolling Devils passed by the area without any issues. No formations were activated, and no attacks were sent. It was as if there was nothing wrong in the area.

'Sister Orb, what kind of formations do we have there?' Naturally, the two of them asked Sister Orb straight away.

[What I can tell with the limited time I had to check is that the main formation is obviously the Illusion one. The second formation seems to be connected to the first as an energy source. It's just that the energy source is the Soul Energy you can see coming out of the Dead Souls passing by. The formations over there don't seem to use Devilish Energy. No doubt these two are using Belial's AferLife Fog mantra method in some way. As for the third one... it is completely silent.]

'Are you saying it is turned off?' Roan asked back.

[No,] Sister Orb said. [I can't tell what it will do, but it isn't hard to guess that it will activate if it detects danger to the Fragment inside.]

'So, a slaughter formation?' Sesame raised his guard even more.

Yet, Roan quickly denied that idea. 'It's impossible to be a slaughter formation.'

'How come?' Sesame looked at Roan curiously.

Roan pointed at the group of Devils that passed by that area a moment ago. 'If a slaughter formation activates and kills those Devils there, for example, their death would immediately be identified. I refuse to believe those allowed inside the Reincarnation Path Area don't have their Soul Flames being kept so that their higher-ups can find out if they suddenly die.'

'A Slaughter Formation would not only not help Belial's cause but would attract unnecessary attention instead. Belial is not here at the moment, so what could he do if someone found out about his secret here? The same goes for trapping formations. If the patrols and the Soul Guides don't come back after a while, someone will come after them to investigate.'

'That's true...' Sesame got a little more relaxed. 'If it is not a Slaughter or a Trapping Formation, then what?'

Roan pondered the issue and could only think about a single possibility. 'If I were Belial, I would want to have a way of coming back here as fast as possible. He is an Elder Devil, after all. The best thing is to be here by himself. Which means... It must be a teleport formation or a formation capable of warning Belial of the sudden change.'

Sesame used his ability to feel the Fragment before saying, 'I know exactly where the Fragment is located.

[You can?] Sister Orb couldn't help but ask. [Even after getting this close, I still can't feel the presence of the Fragment. Are you sure you know the exact location within those formations?]

Sesame nodded and asked back. 'Yes, I'm sure. I told you, my abilities work differently from anything you know. If you want to conceal a fragment from me when it is close by, you will need something of equal or higher level. That's why your Soul Gem System Dimensional Realm is the only place my ability can't see through.'

'The Control Orb was given to Gem by Sister Orb when she was still the Universe's Sentience, after all.' Roan didn't find it surprising, especially with the system's ability.

[Your Pixiu Race is really quite good.] Sister Orb then asked the obvious question. [So, how will you do it? Don't ask me to analyze and hack the formations there. The system is off at the moment. Even if it wasn't, their level is too high. It would take me over a year to take control of those formations without anyone noticing.]

Sesame nodded. 'We would need someone who knows about those formations. The other Elder Devils should have countermeasures for Belial. They aren't idiots. It's just that I doubt we will find an Elder Devil willing to help us with it. Even if one appears, they will definitely take the Fragment for themselves. And that's if they don't try to kill us first.'

An idea immediately popped into Roan's mind. 'Oh! Don't worry. I think we have the perfect candidate!'