After listening to Daimon's previous words, Eliot really tried with all his might not to get pissed off at such a stupid lie, but seeing Reyne's slightly fascinated eyes, he simply couldn't.
But since his grandfather was the one who stepped in for him, while he still got scolded by his father, he didn't explode but tried to call out the arrogant bastard instead.
"In case a bumpkin like you doesn't know, the Raydol family are direct descendants of a Blood Archduke, and their Blood Portal Scroll will scan the area before activating and then tell those at the other side of it, the number and level of those nearby, you know what that means right, you can't take them by surprise".
"And the son of that Blood Earl will for sure be accompanied by guards stronger than the ones calling him, do you really believe we haven't tried that in the countless thousands of years that the Adjudicators have existed", he said with a fierce voice.
Oliver kind of wanted to believe in Daimon, but what his son said was not a lie, over the years, they have been able to interrogate countless of low ranked flesh eating demons, but they have never been able to do that with a noble.
All the nobles are said to have a part of the Blood King running through their bodies, and due to that if they were to be captured and interrogated by anyone who isn't their ancestor or the Archdukes that are currently alive, they would become lifeless empty cocoons, so besides revenge and merit sake, there was no reason to capture a noble.
They were exchanged for rewards with either the church or the Adjudicators, they have been trying to bypass that problem for countless years at this point.
That's why the higher echelon of the Adjudicators with its long blood feud against the flesh eating demons, easily accepted the deal to let Emily live among humans, even if what she knew was not that much, as she was young compared to her mother and father, it was the first piece of valuable information they could get their hands off in a really long time.
Eliot didn't know hat since he has just recently been qualified to become a junior Adjudicator, but his reasoning wasn't off either, there hasn't been recorded cases of nobles being captured in a set up using the Blood Portal Scroll, and unless the masked young man in front of him could cross half of Kerrol in a day, he couldn't have been in the Red Plain battlefield so it had to be the first case.
"Well, that guy was accompanied by two women who had higher realms than "any" of the presents back then, but I just killed them both and captured him, to then make him a couple of questions", said Daimon as he shrugged.
He then got to enjoy the different reactions from the others, Eliot was probably cursing him to death, while Oliver wanted to believe him but couldn't, surprisingly the old man was the one more inclined to believe what he said.
"Can you bring that flesh eating demon here, I want to see him, I won't say a single thing, I just want to see you asking him something about his family".
Daimon nodded in response.
"Sure, he is in this city so it won't take long for me to bring him here".
"What, did you bring a flesh eating demon into Tiria you crazy son of…", Eliot's words stuck in his throat when Daimon glared at him, it was getting late and the influence of Kerrol's atmosphere was increasing too, even if Daimon was only going to tell him to piss off, his aura scared speechless.
"If that guy was a danger for me, something would have happened already, he was transported in a cage and kept prisoner since his powers and all possessions were confiscated, as to how I tricked the formation, well you should know since you can't see through my mask right", said Daimon to the old man as he ignored Eliot.
The old man bitterly smiled in response before saying.
"Guess you got us there, kid you surely are terrifying, are you not interested in becoming an Adjudicator I can vouch and have you reach the middle rank on the spot given the contributions you are about to make".
"No, I prefer the payment I already stated also I don't have time to play at war, let's get this over with and immediately set off to the Alzac volcanic area", said Daimon, which made the old man sigh in defeat.
'What a shame, such a talented youth… if only we would have found him before, he wouldn't be so indifferent towards humanity, well at least he seems to get along with little Reyne so it's not like there is no chance for cooperation', thought the old man as he said.
"Bring the noble here, just one question will be enough once I see it with my own eyes and hear the answer, we'll launch our attack on the church".
Daimon nodded and the tuned to see Oliver to say.
"Tell Gary to bring the prisoners I brought with me, here".
Oliver was a bit overwhelmed by everything that was happening, one of the goals that Adjudicators have been pursuing since their foundation was here in his city, at the care of one of his subordinates in plain sight for him, and he never ever considered that possibility, it was as he had danced on the palm of the masked young man all the time.
It's worth mentioning that Daimon didn't know about that thing regarding the nobles losing their minds if they were to be interrogated, it wasn't his fault though, Dilan didn't know about it either, only the Blood Dukes knew about it, and they didn't tell it to anyone to not cause panic among their people.
Most of the humans didn't know it either and those who did swore to not reveal it either, because that would only make the nobles fight more fiercely to not be captured as it would secure their deaths, to begin with no one wished to be captured by the enemy to the high echelon left it at that.
But it's precisely because he didn't know too much about Ghouls that he made a different deal with Jeanne and Emily, among the conditions they had to tell him everything they knew about them, and with that he filled in some flaws in his story.
No one noticed, but Jeanne, Emily and Reyne weren't surprised like them, when Daimon revealed hat Dilan has been under Gary's watch, because he had already told them beforehand.
A couple of minutes later, the door of the meeting room opened and Gary who rushed as fast as he could, entered the room with two cages covered with blankets.
"Thanks Gary, now, everyone but me, Oliver and little friend Gabriel, please leave the room", said the old man to which Daimon shook his head.
"My… friend stays, miss Jeanne, miss Emily and Reyne stay too, they lent me a hand earlier against the church unlike others, the rest is up to you", he said, it was hard to ignore the intense gaze of the crazy girl when he called her his "friend".
His reason was acceptable though, Oliver didn't move to block the pressure nor confronted the Archbishop, Reyne spoke on his behalf too, it's not like Oliver wasn't going to help Daimon, but truth to be told he wanted to see what he was capable off, because he had zero knowledge about him, not a bad move but unfortunately, he chose the picked the wrong person to fight in terms of schemes, he wasn't Erin's student for nothing after all.
"So be it, little Eliot please stay out of them room for a bit with Gary, your father will inform you of what you have to know, later", said the old man, making Eliot clench his fists, but he understood.
His grandfather already stood up for him once, for someone of his standing it had to be humiliating to ask for something like that, with his own reasoning, Eliot didn't take it against his grandfather and instead stood up to leave, closing the door behind of him.
Daimon then stood up from his seat and casually lifted one of the two cages, placing it in front of the table to then remove the blanket covering it, revealing the masked blond haired man inside of it.
"Take your mask off and introduce yourself", ordered Daimon, Dilan trembled for a moment, he recognized Oliver on the spot.
"T-Tiria's Butcher, you swore to not kill me!", exclaimed Dilan to which Daimon said.
"I haven't done it, start talking if you don't want that to change".
Dilan shivered, he had been kept caged like an animal, being fed with cooked meat of magic beasts, which for him tasted like crap, his skin had lost its luster and his eyes were a bit bloodshot, but seeing that pair of indifferent eyes he remembered what happened in the cave back then and he immediately obeyed, not like he had a choice since he basically agreed to become a slave the moment, he signed that soul contract without reading it.
"I-I'm Dilan Raydol, the third son of the Blood Earl Dan Raydol, grandson of Blood Duke Sarlian", he said.
The old Ben nearly laughed out loud, but he limited to nod without saying anything just in case, Oliver was the same, which made Daimon chuckle.
"You can talk, there were other humans present back then when I captured and interrogated this guy", he said.
"Really!", this time the old man couldn't help but exclaim as he heard Daimon's explanation.
"Hey flesh eating brat, how strong is your grandfather?", directly asked Ben to Dilan, waning to confirm Daimon's words as soon as possible.
"H-He should be on par with Tiria's Butcher or maybe stronger since it is blood moon week, so don't try anything funny", said Dilan with an anxious voice, an attitude truly fitting to a useless third generation like him, he casually spilled the beans in a try to keep his worthless life.
The old man's body trembled for a second before he turned to see Daimon as he was lost in his thoughts.
'Does he have the ability to nullify the influence of the Blood King on his descendants… but that would mean he is like the first king!', he inwardly screamed.
"Oliver, give the greenlight, surround, kill and capture those traitor bastards right now", he heavily ordered.
"Yes, Lord father", Oliver immediately took out his communication device and sent a message through it.
At the same time, Daimon turned to see Dilan and then said.
"Return to your cage, you'll be interrogated later".
Dilan obeyed with his heart sill on his throat, he thought he was going to be killed on the spot, little did he know that he basically screwed over an operation that has been secretly taken place for dozens of thousands of years.
"Little friend, I was informed of your personal feud with that Cardinal punk, I'm going to crush their den, want to tag along, whatever you obtain is yours, of course the others can come too if they want to", said the old Ben as he waved his hand making a voluminous black armor with a big silver core embedded on the chest plate, cover his body.
Daimon's eyes glowed behind his mask, this old man was a late peak Stage Archmage, with quite a solid base, he even outclassed some of the Arch ranks back at the four galaxies, but when he put on that armor, he went up another notch.
'Battle prowess infinitely close to the early stage of the Half Emperor realm, he is actually on par with Liz', thought Daimon, so far, the only ones who he judged would be as good as the girls in the same rank, under the same conditions, would be Annete, Thea, Mellie, Sarah and surprisingly Marlene.
It's not like Jasmine and the others were weak, but they were still lacking a bit, compared to Liz and the others and that is prior to when they obtained their grimoires.
To set an example, this old man in front of Daimon was way older than Liz and even if Daimon judged him to have a strong Domain, only when he wore that armor, he became able to match up to her, it's a difference of dozens of thousands of years of accumulation.
That reminded Daimon of another of the important thins which he got to know, since he opened up with Jeanne, Emily and Reyne, he previously only knew up to Blood Dukes in the hierarchy of the Ghouls, after them there was the Blood King which wasn't alive as of current.
But that was only the public version of the story, there was another rank above Duke and those were the Archdukes, Emily was a direct descendant of one, though the weakest as he didn't consume human meat and blood, he was still way stronger than any peak Arch rank Emily has met, besides Oliver's father, those were her words.
In other words, Archdukes were those whose battle prowess surpassed the Arch rank, for people of Neptune, the gap between the Arch and half Stellar realm was big, but not impossible to cross with the correct preparations, of course we are talking about stalling or temporarily fighting against one.
Only those talented ones could cross realms to defeat opponents with higher realms, but in comparison at the four galaxies, a case of an Arch rank defending against a Half Emperor is way too scarce, Erin, Aura are one of the few in history to have achieved that, Aisha would have probably been able to do it too, if she didn't have to protect Daimon and fight against the guards of the Naktis back then when Victor's father joined the fight, too.
So, there was a wide area for Arch ranks with battle prowess that surpassed their ranks, and this old man was one of the strongest in that aspect, though he needed that armor to take that step, otherwise his body wouldn't be able to resist his own power, he was quite old and worn out after all, in comparison Liz was incredibly young for her rank.
"Sure, let's finish this quick so we can leave", said Daimon, which made the old man laugh, a transportation array appeared on the floor and with Oliver's greenlight, they all disappeared from the room.
The scenery changed to high into the sky, naturally Oliver created a platform with his mana to prevent them from falling.
From Above Daimon saw the city literally coming to live, the isolation array was secretly activated to prevent anyone from using spatial arrays to leave, there were soldiers secretly surrounding the cathedral and a certain list of buildings that were affiliated either open or secretly with them.
"Little Oliver, I know how much you have been waiting for this, so I'll leave the honor to you", said the old man as he threw a black and red scroll at his son.
Daimon immediately understood what the old man was talking about, that scroll was quite dangerous, it was a one time kind of treasure that was used to destroy arrays and weaken structures, it wasn't based purely on runes but on a beast core that was embedded into it as well.
"This is for Sana", mumbled Oliver as he opened the scroll and let a drop of his blood fall on it, to then throw it towards the cathedral, it had many more safety measures but Ben had already unleashing them, it was a really expensive and restricted treasure after all.
The scroll burned on the air above the cathedral and then as if the heavens were passing down judgement, a red lightning exploded and fell on the cathedral.
"Booom!", with a loud exploding sound and a flash of light, all the arrays on the cathedral crumbled apart and the walls and roof also cracked, having taken the upper ground, Oliver took a deep breath and then amplified is voice with mana, making his next words echo through the whole city.
"The Church has been making deals with the flesh eating demons, thus betraying humanity, for which they will be all captured and interrogated, if you are innocent don't resist otherwise you'll be killed!", his thunderous voice made the air vibrate a bit.
Followed by that, all the soldiers and forces hidden, came out of the shadows and surrounded their targets, which were taken by surprise, at the same time the members of the church including the Cardinal, Archbishop and the captain of their guards came out to fight, only to pale the moment they saw the old Ben.
"Well, well, well, it's been a few thousands of years since I saw you all, how about we catch up with each other", said the old man.
The three who were the higher echelon of the church in Tiria, immediately turned to escape but then were then hit by a mountain-like pressure which made them vomit blood and fall from the sky, crashing on the ground a few seconds later.
Just like that, the battle that broke out a moment ago was practically finished, though there were small fight here and there, with the leaders destroyed in seconds they lost, needless to say but similar scenes were happening in many cities at the same time.
…
Among the previous mentioned cities, there was Caliz, were a fierce battle exploded out of nowhere.
"Fuck, didn't you say that this city was under your control Paula, then where do all these bastards come from!", shouted Adam as he saw the sea of enemies surrounding them, he was only wearing boxers as he was previously rolling on the bed with the female Cardinal.
Speaking of her, Paula had an unsightly expression as she saw the City Lord, who was supposedly bedridden, standing at the front of the army as healthy as a bull, wearing a strong looking brown armor.
Paula immediately took her decision, she grabbed Adam and rushed into the basement of the church.
"Don't let her escape, capture everyone!", shouted the city lord as he rushed into the church but was blocked by the captain of the guards as well as the Archbishop.
In the meantime, Paula and Adam reached the deepest part of the basement, where a tunnel with a luxurious looking carriage was waiting for them.
"Those bastards had gone crazy, but don't worry, our major forces are already at Alzac, we'll reach there in no time after escaping the city, in the meantime let's enjoy ourselves", said the woman with a coquettish voice as she hopped into the carriage and laid down on the large bed-like seat.
Adam smirked and entered too, the carriage immediately became a flash of light as it advanced through the tunnel, the sounds of battle faded away in the distance, as the tunnel crumbled apart in parts.
Inside of the carriage, Adam who was hugging Paula couldn't help but say.
"Shouldn't have we taken all the things in the treasury you showed me?".
The woman softly laughed as she tightened her embrace on the Light Hero.
"They are nothing compared to what is waiting for us, I'll introduce you to your subordinates for the next mission, I chose a few cuties just for you", she whispered at him, making Adam nod, satisfied with the arrangement.
The dead point that has been keeping Kerrol stagnant, was finally lifted due to a series of reactions in chain.
