The young students were looking at Gabriel as if he was a ghost. Only a few people had seen his real face. As for the rest, they only heard about him! Gabriel was like a legend!
The more the Academy tried to suppress the information about the Dark Mage Lord studying at the Academy, the more this information spread! At this point, there wasn't a single person who hadn't heard about Gabriel at the Academy.
Gabriel ignored most of the students here, even though he saw a few familiar faces. His attention subconsciously went to a young lady who was standing at the back of the crowd. It had been a really long time since he had seen that face.
There used to be a time when he loved a young girl that he grew up with. Being stabbed by her was the worst pain he experienced at that time, at least emotionally. However, after all this time, for some reason, he didn't have much feelings for the woman.
Let alone the feeling of love, he didn't even feel that she was worth her anger anymore. She was... Nothing!
Maya had killed Gabriel once. At least that's what she thought. But after she heard the stories about how Gabriel infiltrated the Academy and killed Hawrin, she understood that the Gabriel she knew before and the new Dark Lord were the same people!
To find out that the person she used to know was standing at the peak of the world now was a strange feeling, especially when she remembered that once upon a time, they used to dream of becoming the Head Priests together in the future.
To become a Head Priest was their goal which even they felt was almost impossible. However, it didn't even take Gabriel a year and he was already a Holy Priest, standing on an equal footing to the other Holy Lords. Even though he was despised by the world, there was no denying about his strength!
Watching Gabriel look at her, Maya subconsciously took a step back in fear! She didn't know what Gabriel wanted. If he was still angry, he could easily kill her.
Just a single glance of Gabriel and she felt as if she was being suffocated. There was just too much difference between the two of them. Maya was a strong student of the Academy, but that was all! Let alone a student or a teacher, even the Dean couldn't kill Gabriel!
Maya kept stepping back as fear engulfed her heart. Eliana noticed Gabriel looking at Maya. She had already heard about what happened between the two in the past from Maya herself!
Even if she didn't think she could kill Gabriel, she still couldn't let him kill a student right in front of her!
Her figure disappeared. And the next second, she appeared before Maya, hiding her from Gabriel's view.
Gabriel saw Eliana's swift reaction but he didn't care much. If he wanted, he could kill Eliana easily as well after all.
Instead, he turned toward the ranking list of the tower, glancing at the first rank.
Most people thought that Gabriel was upset to see that his name was second now. However, none realized that he just found it amusing that he could take the top two spots easily.
He didn't care about the students or even the teachers. Instead, his mind was still being occupied by what the Mirror Reflection said when it sent him out of the Tower of Challenges.
"The answer I'm looking for lies in my pockets..." he muttered the last statement of the Mirror, frowning. He couldn't believe it was that simple. The answer he was looking for was with him all this time? But what was the answer?
He checked his pockets. Most of his pockets were empty, but there was one pocket which had something that even he forgot about in the past.
"This..." Gabriel frowned, noticing the item in his pocket. When he received the item, he wanted to use it. However, because of everything that happened with the Arecia Empire and the Church of Flames, he completely forgot about it.
He brought out the item from his pocket that he had received from the Princess of Yann in exchange for sparing her life.
"The key to the Tomb...?"
According to the Princess, every Empire was given two such keys. It was the key that was used to enter a tomb which could only be accessed by youngsters.
"If I'm not wrong, she said the Tomb's entrance waa going to be accessible soon. The time should be near. If I'm not misunderstanding the Mirror, then I need to enter the Tomb to find the mystery behind the Garden? But whose tomb is it? How can its formation stop even the Holy Lords from entering if they don't satisfy the age criteria?"
While the students and teachers were worried about Gabriel's next action, Gabriel was more immersed in the ordinary looking key.
There were many mysteries behind this key and the tomb that could be accessed. He was almost sure that the tomb was created by a Demigod at least! Only they could have enough strength to even make a Holy Lord obey their rules!
"I don't know what's in this tomb that hasn't been explored all this time, but if that leads me to what I need, then I need to get there! Moreover, since every Empire gets two keys, Arecia should have two as well. Should I bring Avilia with me just to be on the safer side?"
"But I don't know how old she is. If she doesn't satisfy the age criteria, it'll be useless..."
He left most of his questions for later. He still had to leave this place first. But before that, he had to put on a show.
"Who is in the top place now?" he asked Eliana who was protecting Maya.
Eliana knew that it was the best opportunity. If she could subtly taunt Gabriel and awaken his fighting spirit, Gabriel was probably going to stay behind to fight the Holy Lord of Light! She couldn't miss this chance! She also couldn't let him know that the Academy had enmity with the Holy Lord of Light as well
"Do you really think you're some god?" Eliana snorted. "The top place is occupied by our great Holy Lord of Light, who just became a Holy Lord! Not only is he more talented than you, but he's also younger than you! With enough time, he'll definitely become your biggest nightmare in the future!"
Eliana didn't know how old the Holy Lord of Light was. She just said that he was young and a person who just became a Holy Lord to fool Gabriel. She was subtly letting Gabriel know that the Holy Lord of Light was more talented and a hidden threat for the future for him?
That way, she could get Gabriel to stay behind to kill the so-called young Holy Lord before he had a chance to grow. She didn't realise that the fake story she just came up with was actually the truth!
"Is that so? In that case, should I wait for him to come out and finish him off while he's still young?" Gabriel asked, already understanding her intentions.
"Well, I don't really hate the idea. But I also don't like wasting my time waiting." He further stated as he glanced toward a particular direction. "While I'm already here waiting, I might as well do something productive."
Eliana noticed where Gabriel was looking. Her heart skipped a beat as soon as she realized his intentions! The location where Gabriel was looking was the place where they stored their spirit crystals!
Last time, Gabriel had already robbed them clean! At least he was still sneaky at that time! But now, he was trying to rob them openly? Her face went pale as she cursed herself for trying to stop him!
