Because of Peter's death, the Aum family once again accelerated their plans. Save for a few powerful antimages who stayed behind, the rest of the antimages set out.
This action once again disrupted the plans of the War Alliance, causing a large number of casualties among apprentices who weren't prepared to deal with antimages.
The War Alliance began to think that this situation was not a coincidence, and they didn't realise that something was wrong until they encountered an increasing number of incidents.
"Shirley, Hailey, where's Ignas?" Lilith asked.
Hailey was irritated and snapped back, "Ignas isn't our slave. How would we know where he went?"
"Stop it. The Aum family is panicking right now. That has something to do with the both of you, am I correct?" Lilith's amber eyes were as calm as a lake, asking in a domineering tone.
The calmer Lilith was, the more irritated Hailey became. She hated how Lilith was acting as if everything was under control, "Are you interrogating us? Why? So what if we did?"
Lilith frowned and turned to Shirley instead, "Shirley..."
"No," Shirley interrupted. "Ignas stalked us. Are you aware of this?"
Lilith nodded, "Of course, he's a member of the War Alliance, he-"
Hailey sneered, "I don't care if he's in the War Alliance. Does that mean that all of you are superior to us? That's funny because-"
"Hailey, enough."
Lilith glanced at Hailey and Shirley; her features unreadable. "You killed an antimage in the City of Molan, and Ignas wanted to snatch the points for himself, so the both of you killed him. However, we couldn't sense Ignas' magic, so Adam was the one who killed him, correct?"
Hailey knew she had provoked Lilith, lowering her head in silence. Shirley glared at Lilith and walked out of the room with her sister.
"Adam's strong," Lilith murmured to the other members of the headquarters.
"No matter how strong he is, he is only one person. Ignas was irrelevant to our plans, but we must bear our fangs now."
"That's right, or our authority we established will be gone."
For an organisation trying to control the trial, losing authority was fatal. Lilith felt a little uneasy upon hearing this.
"Inform all apprentices that it is forbidden to provide any form of assistance to Adam of the Moldo Tower. Those who discover his whereabouts will be rewarded with 30 points, and those who kill him will be rewarded with 100 points."
Adam was blissfully unaware that the War Alliance had placed a bounty on his head. It had already been a week since he killed Ignas, and Adam was already on the other side of Ceylon Island.
"Master, why are we here? There may be a powerful antimage here," the devil whispered as the both of them hovered over the city ruled by the Hill family.
"I need to plunder some things," Adam simply explained.
This was the same answer that the devil was given the past few days, and whenever Adam answered them, his eyes would be filled with kindness and happiness. That was unusual of Adam.
Before they could interject, Adam had already launched the devil straight into town, "Kill all the antimage apprentices here. Be careful not to damage buildings like laboratories."
The Hill's family territory wasn't as powerful as the Aum family, but Adam found that the ordinary people living here were better off than that of the Aum family. He estimates it's because of the difference in magic being researched -- the Aum family specialises in human despair, so the massacring of ordinary people was normal.
Adam let the devil do the job for him, since his magic may accidentally raze the entire town to ash. The experimental equipment in town was important to him.
His points were constantly increasing, and Adam found that the devil was suitable for assassination missions like these...
"Master! Help! There are strange monsters here!"
Before his thoughts could form, he heard a series of cries from the devil. The centre of town trembled like an earthquake, and a huge gap opened up in the ground. A smell of rot permeated the air, and the whole city was enveloped in splotches of black ink.
"This monster looks familiar..." Adam pondered, retrieving a rusty knife from his portable space. Adam had studied this knife before, but due to the difference in knowledge, he couldn't activate the knife's magic. This knife was retrieved from that antimage apprentice named Querina.
The parasitic monster that Querina summoned back then was similar to this -- its body was formless and horrifying, and its body was able to emit beams of energy. Every drop of bodily fluids and every breath it takes was accompanied with a cloud of toxins and poisons.
Adam stretched his finger, allowing a lightning bolt to hit the monster's head.
The barrier surrounding the monster absorbed the lightning, and the damage caused was minimal.
A drop of green blood dripped down from its maw, and it turned into a small monster.
"Sure enough, that apprentice must come from here. This thing is more troublesome than the Aum family," Adam said.
Crackle crackle.
Adam waved his arm in the air, and a thunderstorm was formed. Countless lightning bolts rained down upon the town, tearing through the monsters' flesh as they roared in pain. Their large bodies swung through buildings in pain, and the ordinary people living in the city suffered heavy casualties.
