Dantalion

As Neo was locked inside the dimension created by Bog, something else was happening just at the outskirts of the city, almost a good 30 km away from downtown.

It was a dark night, darker than usual. The moons were hidden behind the thick, black clouds on the sky.

Although it looked to be thunderstorm clouds, there was not a single thunder coming from such clouds, they just there, calmly, blocking the moonlight from more than 100 km radius from the city.

In the middle of the forest, a badly maintained, wood house, that looked to be about to fall, could be seen.

Just outside the house, by the front door, there was only a single person that was casually smoking.

Smoke slowly rose the cigarette in the middle-aged man's mouth as he casually stood by the door like he was waiting for someone or something.

The person was no one else but the normal-looking middle-aged, black-haired Theo that Neo had meet just a few hours ago.

Since it was in the middle of the night and the house was very far away from city, the only light sources in such isolated place was the oil lantern by Theo's feet, and the light on his cigarette.

Theo calmly stood there with his eyes closed and enjoying the peaceful night away from the noise on the city.

The cold wind drifted along the deserted surroundings, but it didn't seem to faze Theo as he just enjoyed the silence and calmness.

Theo sighed as his face slowly changed from peacefulness and happiness, to emotionless.

"Such a nice and peaceful day...why do people come all the way here, interrupting my moment, just to die?" He complained in a low tone so that only he could hear.

The trees that were around the house fiercely shook as the wind picked up and threw the fallen leaves up in the sky.

Following the fierce wind, multiple shadows emerged from the dark forest, some of them carrying sources of light such as flashlights, other just casted a Light Magic to illuminate their path towards the bartered house that Theo was standing.

They came from all side, completely encircling the house and consequently Theo.

These figures were wearing all types of clothes and even armors.

Most of them were using leather armor, some were with shine armors made of unknown and magical metals.

Their weapons were also different from one another, swords, spear, bows, staffs, gauntlets, etc.

But one things was for sure, they were all magic users.

The concentration of mana in such place swiftly changed as more than 50 magics users appeared all in a single place.

Their strength vary from each other, most of them being Adept Magic Users, Level 4 Mages capable of using up to Tier 4 Spell.

Theo could see as such because when he tried to pry into their soul, he was somewhat blocked by their natural Soul Armor that only Adept Magic Users or higher have.

With the majority of them being Adepts, the minority, 5 of them, were Senior Magic Users, as Theo could feel the different types of Law coming from each one of them.

45 Adepts Magic Users and 5 Senior Magic Users.

It was a pretty strong line up to appear in Atlas.

In Ancardia, which has a more sense concentration of mana, a group such as this wouldn't cause a lot of commotion, but in Atlas, this was another situation.

As soon as they spotted the house, they stopped moving and readied their weapons.

Theo's eyes scanned the people that appeared, one by one, after he was done accessing their strength and their weapons, he warmly smiled and casually asked, "What brings all you ladies and gentlemen at this abandoned house in the night?"

"Are you Theo?" One of the more courageous newcomers stepped forward and asked Theo.

"Depends on who's asking..." Theo answered dismissively.

Another one stepped forward while carrying a huge two-handed sword and a full metal plate armor. On his other hand, he had a smartphone.

He switched his sight between the screen of the phone and Theo a few times before saying with a huge smile on his face, "The description checks. He's Theo, one of the recruiters for the Equalists."

Theo's eyebrows lifted a little after he heard his name and where he works from a stranger's mouth.

"Hehehe..." A burly woman wearing leather armor and a bow in her hands took a step forward and menacingly spoke, "Step aside, the bounty belongs to the Black Desert Bandits."

She was one of the 5 Senior Magic Users.

"Aren't you being too forceful, Gina?" The armored man that spoke first fiercely flared at the woman, "We all got here at the same time, why would you have the bounty all by yourself?

The woman with a wild appearance was Gina Wolfheart, the leader of the the Blac Desert Bandits's excursion on Atlas just for the bounty on Theo's head.

As she was one of the daughters of the Bandit Chief, she have her own little army with somewhat strong soldier such 27 of the 50 people that came here today for the bounty on Theo's head that was almost of 1 million Crystal Coins, an exuberant amount for a single atlarian with apparently no power.

Crystal Coin was just one of the types of currency used in Ancardia, a single one is equivalent to 100 Gold Coins.

This amount of money was more than enough to blind all types of bounty hunters in Atlas to go crazy in search for Theo.

"Because we have a bigger number and strength." She said proudly as 2 more Senior Magic Users stepped up from behind her along with 25 more Adepts Magic Users.

The man squinted his eyes as he raised his hand and two Senior Mages appeared behind him with the rest of the people.

Both sides stared at each other without bothering to hide their enmity.

Theo just stood there and enjoyed the conflict happening before him. Inward, he was wondering how much was the bounty on his head to have attracted such amount of Magic Users to the Mortal Realm, Atlas.

"How about my opinion?" Theo raised his hand and spoke with a small and devious smile on his face, "It's rude to decide someone else's fate without asking him."

"You have no right to speak, atlarian." The woman leader of the Black Desert Bandits's group snorted as she looked down at the strength that Theo was showing.

Without Neo's experience and knowledge, anyone would have difficulty seeing through Theo.

To the people there, Theo was nothing more than a human atlarian working for the Equalists as a recruiter for their cause.

As soon as he heard the contempt in her voice, his face changed.

The smile slowly disappeared as his face became expressionless.

If there was one thing he completely hated was being view with contempt just because he was an atlarian.

[What does ancardians have that make them so proud and contemptuous? The amount of mana? Their origins? Their lineage?]

Those were Theo's thought everytime he hear those ancardians say proudly how they are better than atlarians.

"What did you say?" He asked with a flat tone.

"You're nothing more than a dirty atlarian working for the traitors." She scornfully said.

"Good...good..." Theo took the cigarette from his mouth and clenched it in his hand.

A cold glint appeared on his eyes as thunder cracked on the once silent clouds on top of the house.

The woman finally realized that something was wrong.

The aura around Theo swiftly changed from harmless to completely opressive.

In the face of such overwhelming aura, the people that came for the bounty were soon unable to even breathe.

"This..." The woman's face immediately paled, and her lips trembled as she spoke, "Level 6...Master Magic User..."

Snake-like electric currents hovered around Theo.

Even by using her own Law of Earth to defend herself, she still couldn't protect herself from the enormous pressure just from Theo's own Law of Thunder.

Her body shook in terror, as her instincts screamed for her to get out as soon as possible.

The moment she turned around, Theo had already realized her intentions and immediately changed a spell to block all escape routes.

Since these people came prepared to kill him, why would he be polite with them?

"Tier 6 Thunder Magic: {Thunderdome}"

As soon as those words were uttered in the ancient tongue, the entire atmosphere around the forest changed.

Even those weaker bounty hunters felt the danger exponentially escalating every each second.

Without giving them time to recover, the entire forest along with the bounty hunters were trapped inside a huge some made of electricity.

Some of the hunters with sharper senses that decided to flee the moment they realized they misjudged Theo's strength were immediately burnt to ashes as their bodies touched the dome.

Gina and the other Senior Magic-Users looked in disbelief and terror as five Adepts turned to ashes just like that.

"This amount of power...it can't be..." Gina stared in terror as fear clouded her mind and heart, "Prometheus..."

"Yes, it's me..." He said with a smile on his face.

"P-p-please, forgive us..." She pleaded in her knees, "We're stupid and blinded by greed..."

"Forgive us!"

"Forgive us!"

All the other also followed suit and pleaded for their lives in their knees.

Theo watched this scene from the sky as he hovered above their head, like a god about to give punishment, "No forgiveness." He spoke with a cold tone.

With a snap of his fingers, lightning showered down from the dome at the hunters.

They didn't have the chance to react before they they were struck by the lightnings and became nothing more than ashes on the ground, not even their strong armors were spared by the ruthless and powerful lightnings.

Theo slowly landed on the ground and deactivated his {Thunderdome} around the area.

"That was quite a sight..."

Turning around Theo saw the person that appeared out of nowhere why lazily clapping his hands as he spoke to Theo.

It was a handsome young man with pitch black hair and black eyes. His skin was so pale that it couldn't be more white.

The newcomer was hearing formal clothes, a black suit, tie and pants.

The aura around him was very odd and eerie.

His eyes gleamed with slyness and darkness.

Theo glanced at the young man and spoke with a slight smile on his face, "So it was you that placed the bounty on my head."

"I ask for forgiveness if I troubled you, Prometheus." The handsome young man bowed and said cordially and respectfully, "I just wanted to be sure if you were really the one I was searching for."

"You just want to test my strength and see if I was worthy to cooperate." Theo grinned as he said those words.

"I cannot deny what you said." The young man didn't flinch at the Theo's commentary and just accepted the guilt.

"Well... although I disliked what you did, it didn't bother me too much." Theo waved his hands as he said dismissively.

"Thank you." A smile blossomed on the face of the young man.

"Now, tell me..." Theo's face became serious all of a sudden, "What does the 71st Duke of Hell, the demon Dantalion, wishes to discuss with me?"

At being easily identified by Theo, Dantalion just casually smiled and deeply looked at Theo's eyes.