Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

"Alright" Vouves nodded.

<strong>BADUMP…</strong>

Simon felt his heart suddenly pound, from the moment they started announcing about how some participants were attacked last night, he was getting a bad feeling. His intuition had become extremely acute and his senses alert, he knew that something was very wrong but didn't know what.

And as if to answer his queries, the old man with a head full of white hair tied into a dreadlock declared who that person or rather the being was.

"Yesterday this old man was alerted of a sudden presence of a foreign race. When this old man arrived at the scene, I found young participant Ivan and prince Erwin injured. The assailant may have fled the scene but he had left a crucial clue, their presence".

"Together with Davis Hall from the Adventurer's association, we have concluded that the presence was none other than of a Demon Noble".

The moment those last few words sounded out, the whole crowd had become silent. The words Demon Noble wasn't something that they get to hear everyday not to mention many of them had not even seen one their whole life.

It came as a huge surprise for them that a member of a Demon race was here and they were also the one who attacked their third prince and a participant from the blackthorn kingdom.

Simon sat silently on his seat, his heat growing colder by the second. He now knew where the feeling of foreboding came from and why Cynthia sent a message telling him to get away from the capital yesterday.

Something was very wrong here and he could feel himself getting tangled into something that he had no control of. It was as if he had already fallen into a trap the moment he had decided to stay in the capital.

Simon looked at the people on the stage and noticed that Cynthia was not present amongst them. Why did she sent such message to him? Was she aware of his identity? If so then didn't it mean that his ruse had been seen through? Thoughts like a flood bombarded his mind.

Strangely enough though, he didn't panic even though he knew his situation would only get worse from here. He who had gone through numerous life and death battle in the ghastly winding forest found his mind and heart growing calm.

After that declaration from Vouves, the crowd started getting agitated, it was only to be expected, after all, there was just too much bad blood in the history of the two races.

"I want everyone to calm down and listen to what the royal knight captain has to say" Davis Hall said, the man was an officer of headquarters of the adventurer's association and naturally exuded an aura that made the crowd silent.

Cyrus Skyler made a complex face and admitted in front of the whole crowd.

"A few days ago before the Battle of the finest tournament started, we felt a breach in our city protection array and found out that it was made by a Demon Noble. We put our every effort into finding them but it was as if they had disappeared into thin air in broad daylight with no information to be found about them until yesterday. I apologise to everyone for keeping this a secret; however, I had no choice".

This was a blunder of the royal family, but the man was taking all of the blame on his own shoulders. He was trying to save the reputation of the royal family by being the bad guy.

Henry sighed, he was just about to stop his royal knight from ruining his reputation permanently when a derisive voice that contained some contempt rang out.

"Haha, so what the royal knight captain is trying to say is that the soldiers of this kingdom are incompetent and useless enough to be unable to find a single intruder in their own city?".

Everybody looked on with anger in their eyes at the owner of the voice. If it was some other person, he would have immediately been crucified or thrown into a prison; however, the identity of the speaker was a little special.

Oman ridiculed, but that was just on the outside. Internally, he was panicking thinking that the Demon Earl was caught. He couldn't be blamed for thinking so after all, there were currently two people above level 700 in this city.

If they were to investigate the demon and if he spilled their connection, it would spell doom for his kingdom

At another corner of the audience seat, Scott Green narrowed his eyes and seemed to be in deep thought, nobody knew what he was thinking.

Cyrus did not get mad at this slight of a comment, on the contrary, he nodded his head and declared in an unwavering voice in front of the crowd.

"It is true that the fault lies with this city's soldiers. That is why allow me on behalf of all the soldier to amend for this mistake and erase it forever".

His intention was clear, he had basically declared that he would be fighting that Demon noble. Cyrus Skyler was someone whose reputation was only preceded by Godwin, even the guild leaders of the top five guild respected him.

It came as no surprise that the people were awed by his declaration.

"A noble aspiration; however, leave it to us old fellows. We cannot allow it to think that it can do whatever it wants in the central continent. if it thinks that it can just hide amidst the humans than let us teach him a lesson"

Davis looked at Cyrus and declared. He then glanced at Vouves beside him "I might need your help old friend".

After saying that, their two bodies started floating mysteriously and before long they were standing at the middle of the sky high above the coliseum. The crowd curiously looked up from their seats, wondering what the two were planning to do.

If the demon noble had indeed hidden himself amidst the humans, it would be very hard to find it unless they have something that would reveal his position to them.

Davis Hall, tightly held his staff that was made from an ancient treants body and swiped it towards the sky a few times.  Immediately, a vast amount of mana, deep and powerful was released from his body and in an instant covered the sky.

The weather started changing and so was the mana in the surrounding which was starting to coalesce in the sky above the coliseum. Wild winds were generated and in front of many astonished eyes, a highly complex multi-layered magic circle that covered one-third area of the city was formed.

The sky suddenly darkened and thick clouds appeared out of nowhere.

"You are overstraining yourself again," Vouves remarked.

"Haa… haa.. shut up and help me complete this magic circle" Davis retorted.

The former shook his head and stretched out his old hands. With the motion of his hands, the multi-layered magic circle in the sky slowly started rotating and the runes in it started moving.

"You are going to use that skill aren't you?" Vouves asked to which he only got a small nod.

Davis started floating higher and higher until he could almost touch the enormous circle with just the stretch of his hands.

"Holy Magic Mastery… [Eye of Luminesce] [Gladius]".

At that moment, the resonant sound of a bell could be heard echoing out in every corner of the city. Every person no matter where they were or what they were doing, saw innumuerous rays of light like a shower of rain fall down upon them.

The shower of light encompassed the entire city and was even able to pass through walls and fall on people underneath it.

They looked at the incredible sight and at themselves who were covered in light. The people inside the coliseum were the same, they each were bathed in a shower of light which calmed their minds and gave them a feeling of warmth.

However, that wasn't the same for everyone. Simon who was seated on his seat, cursed seeing this sight. He didn't expect the man to be so powerful as to create such a huge spell that encompassed the entire city.

Though that may be the case, that wasn't his problem right now. Unlike the others who were having a pleasant expression on their faces after being exposed to this light, Simon on the other hand was having a difficult time.

He felt like his body was being burned by boiling hot water and black smoke was coming out of him, making him stand out quite a lot.

"Hohh, I didn't expect it to be amongst us inside the coliseum. Well, it spared us the trouble of chasing after him" Davis said as they slowly descended.

By now, the entire attention of the crowd was on Simon whose body was continuously releasing a black smoke. Seeing this scene, some of the young members couldn't help but ask their guild masters what was happening.

"Light magic is considered the weakness or perhaps the bane of all the creatures that have a strong affinity to darkness. A demon noble is no exception. Holy magic is the intermediate tier of light magic and is even more effective on them. To us, it would cause no harm but for a Demon Noble, it was no different than having to suffer a baptism where their body is continuously burned"

Brutus Sarge said getting up from his seat. It was not only him, all those people in the coliseum that knew what the black smoke entailed, got up from their seats.

"That man?!" Scott green who was seated Benny Beckermann narrowed his eyes when it landed on Simon. But before he could ponder any further, the person beside him whispered something into his ears which made his expression extremely peculiar.

"Are you sure that he was the guy that knocked you out that day?".