CHAPTER 56- Subordinate

Ray knew this old man was Lothaine because of his appraisal skill, and he was thinking how he would extract information from him under the eyes of so many people.

However when he looked at his skills he found something he could use.

'Isolation (SSS)'

Yes, this was an extremely rare skill and how he obtained it was pretty clear.

There were only a handful of skills in his status screen. Instead of investing on various skills he had gone all in on one.

And without wasting any time Ray knew this was immensely helpful for him.

'Divine Sin.'

[Obtained skill Isolation (SSS)]

Ray knew he just had to get near the old man now. There was a very high chance that he would try to take this chance and isolate him just to kill him.

After all even an extremely patient man can only handle so many setbacks, especially when the source of most of them was just in front of your eyes.

And even if he didn't, Ray could just use the skill himself and make the others believe that it was the old man's doing.

But he didn't have to as Number 1 appeared to be more prone to emotion than he thought.

'Is this old man really the one who makes great strategies?'

Looking at his status he found the old man's intelligence stat to be S+, but Ray himself was on a whole realm higher than him so he didn't see any value in keeping him alive other than connecting him to the vice leader.

But that one simple reason was enough for him to try and make this old man his slave.

Now standing in the isolated space with the old man trying to control his anger Ray thought what he should do.

"Ray Celestia, if it was not for you, I would have already become the king of this damn empire. You will regret ever making an enemy out of me!"

'What is this old man talking about?'

"You? Become the king? Did you hit your head somewhere?"

Lothain couldn't take Ray's words anymore.

He had always been the wise instructor to everyone, and even if he was not too famous everyone respected him.

Seeing someone so young disrespecting him put him on his nerves.

At this moment, Ray's quest window popped up.

[Envy System (Legendary)

Quest: Delusional Old Man

Requirement: Do something about him.

Clear Conditions: (1) Make him spill out important information.

(2) Make him shut up.

Rewards: (1) Potion of Seeing (one-time use) x1

(2) Active skill: Disrupt (A)]

'…'

Lothain standing in front of him took out a spear from his ring and pointed it at Ray.

Ray immediately felt a threatening aura from the spear.

'It's an artifact type weapon; normal weapons will break instantly if I use them…'

"You cannot use the royal spatial ring to get artifacts from the palace in my isolated space!"

Ray really hated this old man more and more.

'Why does he keep speaking about every single damn thing and why does someone supposed to be so intelligent telling me about the weakness of the skills he is using!'

One thing to note about people like Lothaine was that they thought they were above everyone else.

He wasn't like this before and was a humble teacher.

However staying with the association, working alongside the almost invincible looking vice-leader at the highest rank under him and killing the king without any consequence naturally built his ego.

Right now, he felt like Ray in front of him was just a weakling compared to his immense experience.

And he wanted to make him feel the despair by telling him how hopeless his situation really was.

But he didn't know it was only helping Ray.

'I don't need to use the palace artifacts either way, it's the perfect opportunity to try that out…'

And with that he pulled something out of his personal spatial ring.

As Lothaine watched the weapon come out he was mesmerized by its beauty.

A sword so white it appeared to be shining. There were detailed engravings of wings and harps on the hilt making it look exotic and extremely precious.

But weirdly enough he felt no aura from the weapon.

'Is that just a normal weapon that looks extremely mesmerizing?'

'Is it is, you are looking down on the artifact given to me by the association…'

Lothain's spear was an artifact that could conduct mana directly and infuse it into attacks making them far deadlier than normal.

*Swish*

Pushing the ground with his feet he rushed forward with his spear extended out forward to pierce Ray's heart.

'Even if you try to block it, there's no way your weapon can block this…'

But just as a matter of reassurance, he infused his metal elemental mana into the weapon, making the attack far sharper and deadlier than it already was.

But what happened next was something he would never expect.

*Tngggg*

With a shrill noise, the tip of the spear met the flat of the white blade and immediately stopped moving.

It didn't budge one bit.

Lothain was unable to hide his shocked expression as Ray seemed to be satisfied with what he found.

'The sword of the 9th hero didn't disappoint me!'

However experienced as Number 1 was, he immediately broke the attack and swung his spear sideways aiming at a weak spot.

But Ray was even quicker as he slashed his sword at the place the attack was aimed and blocked it with ease.

"Are you really the teacher my father had? And this is what you rely on? An artifact?"

Lothain didn't let it get to his head this time as he slowly started using magic separately.

As he swung his spear in a different direction, hundreds of metal spikes slowly started forming out of thin air behind him and revolved threateningly.

As Ray saw what was happening, he thought his next step.

'That is quite dangerous… my mana is completely depleted after that outburst in the hall…'

He couldn't but up a barrier thick enough to block so many metal spikes at once.

'I'll just have to use my physical speed…'

'Subdued Rage.'

Ray felt his body slowly grow faster and stronger as the attacks from Lothaine appeared slower than before.

And then Lothain released his magic and all hundred of the spikes immediately rushed towards Ray, ready to take his life in a moment's carelessness.

Ray was using his utmost concentration to observe the trajectories of the metal spikes and swung his sword to block them.

But as he was about to block a metal spike, Lothain jabbed at Ray with his spear where he was unguarded.

'Resistance Negation Footsteps.'

With one step sideways, the perfect attack of the old man as easily dodged as Ray swept swinging his sword to block further incoming spikes.

*Clang*Clang*Clang*

Left, right, up, left,…

As he kept blocking each one, new spikes formed behind Lothaine and launched themselves at Ray who was forced to keep blocking them.

And in the meanwhile the old man kept swinging his spear trying to take advantage of his situation and injure him.

"Its futile, no matter how hard you try you cannot escape your demise…"

*Clang*Clang*Clang*

"You will die too, just like your father!"

Ray's footstep faltered for a second and he was almost hurt by Lothaine's swing incoming directly at his heart.

The old man finally thought he had found something he could use.

"You knew my identity as a member of the association, but you didn't know that?"

Ray was pushed back a few more steps but still remained uninjured as he kept swinging his sword, his hands almost appearing to be a blur.

"Your father died because he was stupid enough to follow my plans, and this empire would have been in my hands if it was not for your existence!"

A few more steps.

"And there are so many people doing my bidding in your own palace you will never get rid of. All my plans were perfect…"

And right then, Ray saw a window appear in front of him stating that the Envy quest was completed.

After seeing that, he opened his mouth to speak.

"So it was you who planned everything for today?"

With a smug expression on his face, the old man expressed his affirmation.

"Yes, and soon the whole emp-"

However he could never finish his sentence.

Ray was just buying time.

He knew that the old man would start blabbering and disclosing information on his own. He just had to play along and entice him to keep going.

He had already admitted what he had planned and that he was one of the masterminds.

If that was the case, he was also behind the one using the confusion spell on Isis.

'And I was wondering when the Wrath quest would be completed…'

Ray remembered there was a wrath quest he had left forever, and seeing Number 1 in front of him was the perfect opportunity to complete it.

For Lothiane, everything happened in a flash.

Ray activated 'Reverse Berserk' and felt himself growing even faster than before.

He put all his strength in his legs and dashed forward.

With his agility and negation footsteps, he dodged everything coming his way and rushed forward without break.

Lothaine immediately swung his spear to break his momentum but it didn't go as expected.

Ray's spatial ring flashed and a normal looking sword appeared in his other hand.

Ray raised this sword to the spear and as it was normal, the sword broke from the middle , making it jagged and uneven.

However the swing never went through.

Ray sidestepped and swung the broken sword at the old man's side.

The swing was so fact due to his growing momentum and high agility, the jagged end of the sword pierced Lothaine's side in a far more painful looking way.

But that was far from over.

Ray pulled the sword out, tearing apart a chunk of flesh from Lothaine's side, making an extremely gory looking wound.

"AHH! YOU-"

But it had only just begun.

Ray might not have enough man left to create a shield but he did have enough to spread it out in a few thin strands and control tiny objects.

Within seconds a few metal spikes previously aimed at him were now floating behind him aimed at the old man.

Every metal spike collided with its counterpart, blocking the magic with immense accuracy.

This time Ray outright threw his hero's sword at Lothaine's face.

The old man had seen how that sword could block his spear and thought it would cleave him apart clean, but only Ray knew that would never happen.

He raised his spear to block the incoming sword and neglected guarding his sides.

Once again, Ray threw the broken sword towards him aimed at his legs.

Lothaine dodged it as well and was about to lauch his own attack because Ray was disarmed when he saw a fist flying towards his face.

*BAM*

As the old man flew back and fell down, his metal magic got deactivated and the spikes of metal disappeared from the space.

Ray walked up to him and picked up the hero's sword as he looked down at his face.

Lothaine who had fallen down adjusted his weight and balanced himself before touching his nose.

It appeared to have broken.

He was bleeding from his lips and nose and the side of his stomach hurt just when he breathed.

"You know, you should have just kept quiet from the beginning…"

The old man however was not listening to Ray.

He was angered beyond what he could handle. He had no qualms about escaping anymore, all he wanted was to kill this brat if it was the last thing he did.

While Ray was looking down at him thinking about how he would make him his slave, the old man muttered something under his breath.

"Grand Magic… Subordinate…"

The entire isolated space started rumbling and from slowly a small metal blob appeared in mid air and started growing.

Ray watched it and immediately threw his sword to stop it from growing.

The metal blob was slashed apart in two but it healed back and started growing much faster than before.

Within seconds before Ray could even take back his sword the blob grew massive, ant its shape began changing.

As he watched the scene in silence there was now about a thirty fee big metal giant standing before him.

'Holy shit that must have cost this old man his entire mana, he can't fight after his…'

And while he was thinking, Lothaine looked up at the giant and commanded.

"Kill him."