As if answering his roar, the skies also roared as dark lightning flashed through the sky, signaling the beginning of a storm.
The attack was a high tier spell, which was enough to use every ounce of Gabriel's strength to be used only as a last resort. However, Gabriel didn't care. If he needed to win only one of the two battles, then this was the one he was going to win! And he was going to do it overwhelmingly.
As for his battles with Cylix and Novius, he could at least ask them for some time to rest and gather his strength. He was sure that they weren't going to say no to his basic request. However, even if they said no, he still had the Infernal King to hold them back while he prepared himself.
Before all that, he first needed to defeat Axion.
A strange dark energy spread everywhere, turning the entire surroundings dark. Even through the Portal, Cylix and Novius also couldn't see anything that was happening on the battlefield. It was as if an ungodly dark power had completely covered the battlefield, making them blind to what was happening on the battlefield.
If anything, they could at least feel the dark energy even in the hallway, which was sleeping through the portal.
The dark energy was only a tiny bit similar to the Darkness of Novius and Qin, which they could feel, but they also knew that, for the most part, it was something more... Darkness was a universal force. Even though it was classified as a devilish element by the outside World, it was a pure form of energy.
If anything, darkness was the purest form of energy since its existence; even before the universe came, the sun, the moon, or anything else came into existence. Darkness wasn't an unholy element but the strangest energy that they were feeling now; it was enough even to make them feel chills for some reason.
It was the energy of death which was the most unholy form of element, consisting of all the broken hopes, dreams, and infinite rage of billions of dead beings! Darkness was a powerful Element, but not as powerful as the Element of Death which walked over the dead bodies of billions of beings in the universe.
Where there was life, there was death, and death was the only thing that was inevitable for a person! All those who lived had to die sooner or later! The Deadly Energy seemingly appeared in the tower for the first time as long as Cylix and Novius had been there.
The Dark aura of death was so powerful that it was even able to surpass the spatial restrictions, appearing in the majestic hall, but that wasn't all. The dark aura spread even wider, able to leave the bounds of the Tower.
The Head Council Members who were standing right outside the tower, observing the ranking, felt this dark energy that they didn't feel before. It was coming from the tower, but it was the first time this was happening.
Eliana was a Mage of Light who was more sensitive to this aura, but the others weren't completely ignorant either. All the Head Council Members felt this terrifying aura.
Eliana raised her hand, joining them together. She cast a barrier around the tower to restrict this terrible aura around the Tower. She didn't want this aura to reach their students as she didn't know what kind of effect it could have on them.
A beautiful golden barrier appeared around the tower, restricting the aura.
Since the aura had passed through a lot of spaces and barriers to spread it, it had already gotten weaker by the time it reached here. Thanks to that, even a single barrier of Light from Eliana was able to stop the aura.
"This aura is similar to the aura we felt from the Dark Mage who attacked the Museum," Eliana commented, recognizing this aura.
Even though the aura she sensed before was the aura of the Infernal King, it had a trace of death and darkness. Gabriel's aura at the moment also had the same essence more or less.
She was sure this aura couldn't belong to a Mage of Light. At this point, she was even more convinced about something. She also realized that she had been wrong about her initial assumption.
"You're right. This aura is quite similar to the aura we sensed before," Rem agreed with Eliana.
"The Tower never leaked an aura like that. What is happening?" Lishen asked, confused. He didn't understand why the aura of the Prince of Darkness was coming from inside the tower.
"Of course, it's coming from inside because Karyk is inside. There's only one person who is inside the tower. This aura could only belong to him. Since he's fighting on the 99tg floor, he probably used some spell that removed whatever illusion he had cast," Eliana commented grimly. "We were all wrong about something..."
"Illusion? Wrong about what?"
"Karyk wasn't a Mage of Light..." Eliana answered Lishen and the others. "If I'm not wrong, Karyk is the same person we saw inside the Museum! That's also why he was able to kill Hawrin so easily. Yann was right! Karyk was the killer!"
"How can that be?" Lishen inquired. "We all saw the enemy inside the Museum. He wasn't Karyk. I've seen both of them, and they both look different..."
"Exactly. They both look different," Ren agreed as he started shaking his head, just realizing how they were all thoroughly fooled by one person!
"Karyk knew about the Museum and all the Numens. That meant he came here specifically for our Numens! Hawrin was just a bonus for him, if I'm not wrong," he further explained so the others could also understand the entire situation.
"And if he came here to take Numens, of course, he would deal with Lambard. He wouldn't attempt the theft without preparing a buyer! He most probably has a good relationship with Lambard already," Rem theorized, going slightly deeper in his theory.
"Either Karyk already possessed a Numen, or he asked for one from Lambard... A Numen which could help him disguise..." he further added.
As soon as he spoke up to this point, Lishen's eyes lit up.
He exclaimed, "The Ring of Apophis!"
They had all heard about Lambard possessing a ring that could help him disguise any way he pleased. With the ring, it could be impossible even for them to find out the true identity of the person.
"On the night Hawrin died, a student claimed that he saw a first-year student entering the Dorms," Eliana stated. "But there was no student with those facial features... That would make sense if Karyk had the ring of Apophis, which he used to change his looks to not leave any evidence behind."
"That would also explain why he wasn't taking off his Gloves on his right hand specifically... That's where he wore the Ring of Apophis!" Rem declared. He wanted to beat himself up for taking this long to piece all these things together.
All those stories about the gloves being something special for him were a lie.
"So he manipulated us all... And we fell for it! The Prince of Darkness was right before our eyes all this while, and we couldn't even see him?" Lishen slapped his forehead.
The entire academy had been fooled, including the smartest of them.
"That's probably also why his talent was so high in the measurement... If he is the Prince of Darkness, he has the Grimoire of Darkness, which boosted his talent and Spiritual Strength. It makes sense that his talent came out so high!"
"We were blinded by his talent and our greed which made us an easy target." Eliana clenched her fist. She was really enraged, mostly at herself.
"It's still not too late, is it?" Xinci chimed in. "Stop being so gloomy. We haven't lost yet. It's not too late. We found out at the right time. He is still inside. When he comes out, we can capture him!"
"Moreover, isn't that even better? If we can capture him, we can not only retrieve all our treasures but also destroy the last hope of the resurrection of the Church of Darkness!" Yoan agreed with Xinci.
"That's right." The Head of House of Water Rin also found it perfect. "We aren't too late. When he comes out, he won't know that we already know his truth!"
"Since he's using all his strength inside the tower, he probably doesn't know that his aura is leaking out. He also won't know that we already know his identity. If he is completely unsuspecting, we can take him down much easier."
"That's right. Moreover, since we have time, we can prepare a trap for him as well!" Rem agreed. Now that they knew who the enemy was and where he was going to be later, they could place more traps for him.
"We need to activate the Space Sealing Formation around the academy. Even though it will consume a lot of Spiritual Strength, it'll be worth it since it'll make it impossible for him to use Teleportation formation like last time!"
