Supreme Monarch

Before Nullen could even muster up a response giving as he was eager to speak for a while now, someone suddenly interrupted him and answered with all seriousness.

Everyone looked at Ivan in surprise as he interrupted.

"A very powerful Devil?…"

"Could it be you're trying to say that the opposition is a high-ranked Devil… the Devil Lord 'Moloc' who was mentioned in the Saga of the Ancient Gods? Please... there's no way, you are joking right?"

Teyla strongly refused to believe anything so Ludacris. After all, a Devil Lord was a being only etched in legends. A being capable of going toe to toe with gods should not be mentioned here so casually.

"We do not know if the enemy is indeed a Devil Lord or an Arch Devil, but according to the Hunters' report, the devil appeared to have been territorial about a hidden underground cavern that housed an incredibly rare mineral this city must obtain at all cost."

They had nothing to say. The stiff looks on their faces spoke for them. Everything seems to become clear after hearing those words from Willow.

"So that's why the city is so interested in a common Gold mine."

"Indeed."

Although the consensus was slowly villainizing the city, Nullen didn't seem to care much about that as their intentions did not affect the nobles. It was understandable why they would all have reserves of going to a place where a large capable group of Hunters and merchants had gone missing not too long ago.

"As per the devil. We do not know its exact strength but divination from our investigation department shows that it is not a devil lord. Which is why we've decided to send you all in. To reassure your safety as Aur had done with his Guards, I'll also be sending three of my personal guards to accompany you."

'Three of the huh?'

Everyone's expression went somber as they stared at each other with complicated feelings on the matter. None of them could respond to that statement and their initial confidence in the matter didn't seem to be as absolute as it once was.

"Now then, with this situation in mind, I would like to ask you Magicians: are you confident in eliminating this creature? If not… well, then how about asking the Zorak family's Elders for help?"

The Zorak family's elders were beings beyond the level of even Rank 9 Magicians. Their strength was something that could not be comprehended easily by people like them.

However, Ivan immediately shot that proposal down.

"There is no need to go to such extent against a single Devil. As the Hunter Guild leader, I am aware of the state of my guild members' living status through the means of their Hunter bracelets. I wouldn't be revealing this to you all if I wasn't already aware that you can sense the spell that was embedded in your badge yourselves."

"And here I thought I was being too paranoid."

Teyla finally spoke up after being abolished earlier only for everyone to ignore her once more as they considered what Ivan had just admitted to they all turned their gaze to observe the reaction of Lix and Lilith.

Everyone here was strong enough to sense the hidden spell in both the magician's badge and Hunter's bracelets. This was a life-sensory spell that could be used as a location spell.

The spell hidden deep within the item could relay the wearer's information back to a certain location. Allowing for access to the wearer's current living status as well as location.

However, this spell was usually dormant within the item and would only be activated when the wearer's safety was in question to locate their body if possible, else, no one aware of this fact would willingly keep these items on their person.

This was also why they had turned to Lix and Lilith to see if they were already aware of this information. Giving as they were only a party of Rank 2 Magicians. However, there wasn't even an ounce of worry on Ivan's face.

This was because, neither he nor Riokar had believed for a second, that he was incapable of sensing such a basic spell despite how well it was hidden and they were, of course, correct as neither Lix nor Lilith had reacted to Ivan's words.

"Let us continue."

♦️♦️♦️♦️♦️

—Still in one of the Meeting rooms located in the Winged City's Lord's miniature Castle.

The meeting between the city lord himself, the leaders of two of the three largest organizations in the city alongside the leaders of the highest ranked Magicians party in the city, with the exception of a single Rank 2 Magician Party, continued their discussions after their main objective had been stated by Willow.

"Let us continue. The ideal solution would be to recruit orichalcum and Adamantine-ranked Hunters for this. No offense; but I'd prefer the aid of these professional Hunters who are versed in exploration rather than our Lord's personal guards. No matter how strong they turn out to be."

Severus voiced his concerns which seems to be legitimate concerns as Hunters, despite their ranks were more experienced in the field of exploring new territories and had a higher survivability rate in comparison to Magicians from the various magic institute.

However,

"That would be giving up the advantage, don't you think?"

"That is the best possible solution to the worst-case scenario. Need I remind you that our foe may be capable of leaving that cavern given the right motivation? If that happens, devils are incredible tempter and they could amass a fearsome army in only a few months."

"I… I don't want to imagine the terror facing such a fearsome and cunning foe would entail…"

Thanks to the presence of Hunter's guild as well as the Magician's guild, who regularly accepted the various cities' permanent quests to aid the city's forces in clearing out the monsters around. No city has been raided by monsters in over 500 years.

However, if such an intellectual creature was to escape what may as well be its prison because of them, it could be very much a disaster for their city. Or even the world as they know it.

"...But, isn't that the more reason why the Lord's personal guards would be preferable than mere orichalcum ranked Hunters? From what I can see, they are far stronger than most."

"Well, strength isn't necessarily what we need here. It would be one thing if it was just defeating the devil, but that's not it. In this case, there I'd the constant threat of encountering a wounded drake and when faced with both the King of the Pass and a Devil, I don't think their strength would do us much good in that situation."

"Hmm... you might be right. While escaping might not be a problem for us, that risks the possibility of allowing the devil to escape into the city. Who knows how much chaos it could cause by its presence alone."

"Indeed..."

After being quiet for a while now, Nullen suddenly felt that these Magicians appear to be getting the wrong idea about something.

"Please do not worry about the city. If you will be fine with just the Hunters helping them my guards will take care of the city in case of an emergency. Besides, you've greatly underestimated the capabilities of my personal guards. Be assured, I leave you in good hands."

"I see, please accept our apologies then. With that settled, that just leaves..."

"Well, in lieu of that, what do you think of everyone just deploying together?"

The magicians promptly shot down the Merchant guild leader's proposal.

"I doubt that would be possible. In order to work as closely as that, we'll need to craft intricate battle plans, but the more complex the plan, the more likely it will go awry when something unexpected occurs. Rather than risk that it would be better to not work together and just operate independently. Speaking of which, aside from the existence of this precious mineral, do we know the reason why that Devil appeared there and what it is up to?"

"That's true. There is no reason why the devil would be protecting a few precious metals given how intelligent and cunning they tend to be."

"My guess is, it's preparing a ritual."

"A ritual?"

"Yes. Although I'm not sure what it's for, given the details of the information and its current location, I'm guessing it's using the energy from those metals to power a complicated Magic circle. For all we know, it might be trying to summon its master to this plane and has already obtained a living host."

Everyone fell eerily silent.

"Do you think that's why so many of the Hunters are still alive? That maybe it has only captured them to increase its chances for its master's selection of a host."

"That may be."

"How despicable."

"...Let's leave that aside for now. It's great that we have confirmation that most of our hunters are safe. Unfortunately, there appears to be a very high possibility that the merchants, miners, and Royal knights have already met their end with something that may be equally as dangerous as the devil. Our scouts were unable to locate any signs of them within the Pass."

"Something equal to a high-ranked devil? I take it you mean the King of the Pass. If that's the case then there are several ways of avoiding a confrontation with that beast."

"Still, it's really hard to do anything without any concrete information. We really should investigate that cave!"

The opinions of everyone present gradually began shifting in favor of that extremely sensible proposal.

​ The presence of the possible high-ranked devil that was suspected to be an Arch-Devil was a huge conundrum that places the lives of any scout they sent into the cave in danger.

Such a task would mean instant death, the devil was still located in that cavern. Moreover, the trip to the hidden cavern also poses a humongous threat on its own.

Also, such a cause of action would be very bad for Tyler if it came to pass.

He currently had no idea what had happened to those Hunters but luckily for him, a majority of them were still alive. If he had known things would escalate so quickly in this direction when he had decided to summon that spirit to play the part of a devil back then, he probably wouldn't have done it.

He hadn't fully understood Magic as he did now so he knew that he had left a trace of his identity behind when he had left that summoned creature there.

While such a minor trace was not enough to expose him fully as the demon lord of the Darknar family, it still had the potential to destroy the identity of Lix which had become increasingly vital to the survival of the Darknar family who possesses minimal influence outside the Darknar region. A problem he aimed to fix with the current trade talks with smaller ruling-class noble households.

Although allowing the identity of Lix to be dragged into the politics of the Darknar region was a shame ad its original purpose was to escape the chains of being a ruler as well as exploring the continent with a certain level of freedom no longer accessible to his role as w Demon Lord.

Nonetheless, Tyler could not allow anyone else to enter that cavern before him and he surely needed to get to those Hunters before anyone else could.

Tyler desperately tried to think of a way to guide the situation in a more favorable direction.

In the end, there was only one way to avoid exposing his identity.

Lix gulped — though his mouth at the moment was completely dried up and thus, there was nothing for him to swallow — he then said:

"To begin with, you are mistaken. That Arch Devil has nothing to do with the Chao Lord, Moloc."