86 Closing

Aringer had collapsed unable to move, and Carina was casting a holy magic on him. He slowly recovered his wits and control but silence still dominated between the experts. The strongest among them Aringer was nothing more than a ragdoll in this realm. Then what about them aren't they even weaker?

"What was that Aringer," Carina asked as she stood up from healing Aringer

"I couldn't tell you, but that being was extremely powerful. Maybe even the holy father would be unable to defeat it." Aringer said in uncertain terms.

"Are you serious?" Carina asked as she looked at the place where the Elf appeared.

"You sent your consciousness out, and then she appeared? What did you see regarding that Minotaur?" Carina asked as he purged the shadow energy around them using her holy spear.

"You saw that dragon didn't you?" Grandmaster Isaiah said as he looked towards the white fey beast

'Is this the power of a near-legendary grand knight?' Aringer said as he looked at Isaiah purity sword. Even Carina's face couldn't help but twitch at the power.

"Yes a massive dragon shadow with a violet and devilish gaze," Aringer said in dread

"Was it an Astral devil?" Teacher Elton asked

"No, Astral devils are eldritch abominations, not dragons...." Aringer insisted as he shook his head no

"Then a corrupted guardian dragon?" Carina said uncertainly

"Not that either, we know which dragons are corrupted...." Aringer said as he hinted towards something, everyone realized the truth. They secretly knew which guardian dragons are alive, and which ones have been corrupted. But they never released that information, and right now no one wanted to know.

"Then what could it possibly be?" Elton asked in an almost impatient voice

"I didn't want to bring this up since it has no actual evidence but....." Aringer said as he scanned everyone's faces

"But what.....?" Carina asked

"What if that was a Shadowborn noble from ancient times, I had heard a few tidbits from his highness about such matters," Aringer said as he awaited everyone's response.

"The Rain King said such things?" Leandre asked, he hadn't spoken earlier due to some lingering fear of Aringer. But this matter was far too earth shattering to gloss over.

"Would I lie as the aid to his highness?" Aringer sternly reminded as he gave Leandre a death stare. Among experts, the slightest lack of respect can lead to great enmity.

"Weren't Shadowborn destroyed by the will of the void?" Carina asked

"A race like that isn't so easily wiped out, they had a true god backing them. There must be remnants, it seems we came at a bad time. I feel certain we will all be slaughtered by the dragon when its returns." Aringer said as his face darkened, the white fey beast had already found them...

"It's coming this way," Dante said as he looked at the fey beast, underneath his calm facade. Was a face distorted in anger, confusion, and sadness...

He felt the link with Brian almost completely fade away, when Brian requested energy earlier. He felt incredibly terrified, what kind of existence did Brian encounter. But he also felt assured that with his power, Brian would remain safe and get great benefits. But now the link was severed almost entirely, the only thread was like a tease.

'Who is responsible?!?!!?' Dante yelled out in his mind, this was equivalent to slicing a piece of his own flesh off. Not only that but the death of Brian cut at his only avenue for freedom from Asmodeus.

"Find your disciples, we will stay no longer," Aringer said as he flew off into the sky, the gigantic fey beast approached throwing its fists in a furious barrage.

Aringer closed his eyes, and the aura of telekinetic power abounded from him. The aura consolidated as a gigantic being, with a single eye on its forehead. The eye opened and radiated intense Bloodlust.

"KILL!!!!!!!"

The giant raised its fists and met every fist from the fey beast. They were fairly matched up, with the removal of the Astral devil part of the beast.

It lost a significant amount of its power, and the balance of energies being disturbed weakened him further. As the giants fought out, and Aringer commanded his giant in battle. Everyone else proceeded to look for their students, but Elton looked especially anxious.

"Elton, what happened?" Isaiah asked they weren't able to talk earlier; as they were busy dealing with the present issue.

"Lucas' medallion it shattered....." Elton said with a saddened tone

"What?" Grandmaster Isaiah almost screamed out, but he controlled his feelings.

"How is that possible, was he near that dragon?" Grandmaster Isaiah started to go through the possibilities.

"We'll find out, but if someone did it...." Teacher Elton said as he started to radiate a murderous aura

**************************

A little later, the group had reassembled; with a few groups of people returning with smiling faces. They had gained good profits, and some even made a breakthrough in their various techniques.

But Teacher Elton, Grandmaster Isaiah, Aringer, and Dante didn't look content at all. Aringer had fought off the white Minotaur at a price, and the other experts had their various issues.

"Who has seen, Lucas?" Grandmaster Isaiah asked he released his full unadulterated aura. Around Lucas and most people, he suppressed his full aura. But at this point, he was extremely angry and so his ignited his true life aura. This was the power of a pseudo-legendary knight.

From the group, Hawk-Eye walked to the front; he had a hard time getting there while experiencing Isaiah aura. But he succeeded in doing so, and he bowed under the suppression.

"Senior Isaiah, I saw Lucas head in the direction of the fey beast." Hawk-Eye loyally reported as though he was a scout, he had originally wanted to leave Lucas alone.

But when he realized which way he was going, he got interested and used his bloodline vision. It allowed him to see from great distances, but then a black wind obscured his vision.

"Oh?" Isaiah faces distorted in sadness, it was as he feared. Why didn't he tell that child to stop his arrogance? He treated his arrogance as a good trait, but it this time it just got him killed. Isaiah thought of something then he looked at Dante.

"Dante, where is Brian?" Isaiah asked scanning Dante for abnormalities.

"Brian's Medallion....it got destroyed." Dante reluctantly said that wasn't how he knew Brian died. But for this case, it was the only way he could tell them without being persecuted.

"Senior, Brian and Lucas did have a fight over some resources earlier." Hawk-Eye's eyes shined in greed, he thought this to be his moment of retribution.

"Speak further boy." Isaiah lightly intoned

"Simon and I had found each found a Longan fruit of different elements. We each rightfully took our own item, and Lucas got his own. But Lucas in his arrogance robbed me and Simon of our resources. Then Brian saved the rest of the people from being robbed." Hawk-Eye said in venomous hatred.

"So Dante do you have any explanation for why they both went missing?" Isaiah said as he stood up and approached Dante. His anger was apparent, and he has selected Dante to release that anger.

"Oh? As if your disciple was righteous, how do I know your disciple isn't responsible?" Dante sneered as he met Isaiah's angry stare.

"My disciple was of a much lower level compared to yours. Plus Brian was a mage, they have an edge against knights." Isaiah said but contrary to what he said, he was much stronger than Dante.

"Oh, but can't there be exemplary knights such as your disciple?" Dante smirked inside of him was a raging maelstrom of anger. But in the presence of Isaiah, and Dante's current weakened state. He couldn't help but surrender his anger and await his chance.

"There can be but you are far too suspicious, Dante what are you planning?" Isaiah said as he got even closer, he was a single moment away from slicing Dante into pieces.

"That's enough, neither of your disciples is likely to survive." Someone said, both Dante and Isaiah looked over in almost anger. But then they saw it was Aringer and they calmed themselves. Isaiah didn't have any certainty of defeating Aringer, so he stopped his witch hunt.

"We are leaving now, that beast will return; if we don't leave soon," Aringer commanded

"But...." Dante was about to continue, then Aringer sent a flying telekinetic palm. It hit Dante in the face and sent him flying back, into the ground he skidded until he stopped.

"Shut up, its time to leave; if you want to stay then stay," Aringer commanded in further anger

"Has his highness, declared this?" Isaiah said

"Yes! Otherwise, I would have left myself." Aringer said in spite

"Alright, we understand," Isaiah said reluctantly

Teacher Elton's murderous aura calmed but it merely hid away. The experts went through the earth gate and quickly escaped from the realm. Then when they left the realm, they activated a restriction to reseal the pocket dimension.