Noel was running by himself when he was already near the city. Unfortunately, this was the only thing he could do.
At first, he thought about looping around the town. Unfortunately, the north side where the Muivell Kingdom was had been protected strictly not by this kingdom but by the Muivell Kingdom. If a future noble was spotted like this, there would be a lot of problems.
On the other side, Qiel and Nelfer were watching the area closely. Hence, the only thing he could do was to stay in close proximity to the city to avoid their detections.
However, it also meant that the city could spot him, especially people from a tall building.
When he was about to pass the city, a light flew into the sky.
Noel glanced at the light and the origin, fully knowing that the person who released that signal would be someone from that organization.
Noel remained calm as though he had predicted all of it. In fact, Noel didn't do anything special. He just maintained his pace, trying to conserve his energy.
That signal alarmed not only Qiel and Noel but also Tristan and Sandra.
"!!!" Sandra widened her eyes in shock and hurriedly said, "Tristan. That signal… Did you hear it?"
Sandra hurriedly moved to a quiet place and Tristan finally replied, "Yes. I could hear it. Considering the time, it must be the signal of Master."
"So, should we start running?" Sandra asked while looking at the sun's position. There were about another fifteen minutes before the promised time.
Tristan also took a peek at the position and said, "No. We will follow Master's instructions strictly. We will leave the town after the sun is directly above our heads."
"All right then."
Sandra and Tristan didn't know anything about the real purpose of that plan. However, Tristan had promised Noel that he would follow his plan from word to word.
Without them realizing it, they had escaped another scheme from the Supreme Devil Organization.
By sending that signal, the Supreme Devil Organization could startle Tristan, the person Legolaz was searching for. Since he wouldn't be with Noel and only a little child, he would panic and leave the town.
This way, it would be easy to spot him and capture him for Legolaz.
And that task was given to the person who sent the signal earlier. When he shot the signal, he was scanning the area, watching closely to see if there was someone leaving the town.
But there was no one who left the town. The people were just shocked by the signal, and the authorities had turned a blind eye to this one.
"There is no one? I should wait for a bit. That kid shouldn't be that powerful, so he can't run fast. So, he might be running around the town to escape."
Ultimately, he was waiting for Tristan and Sandra, wondering if the kids were actually in this town or not.
…
Meanwhile, Noel kept his eyes on the south direction, knowing that the enemies would definitely come from that direction. Even Dimitri had blended himself into the surroundings, ready to intercept the enemies. As Noel ordered, he had to defeat Nelfer in the shortest period of time.
There was an eerie silence for a whole ten minutes, and Noel was about to completely cross over the city.
However, he soon felt an incredible fluctuation of Spiritual Energy coming straight at him.
He instinctively used his Enhance Forward Rune on his body to launch himself forward.
Boom!
An explosion occurred right at his original position. If he hadn't used the rune earlier, he would definitely have been hit by that explosion. He knew that it was Qiel's arrow.
Still, it gave away Qiel's location.
He hurriedly read the track of the arrow and raised his head, albeit a bit hard because Qiel was hiding behind a sand hill.
'Are you serious?' Noel clicked his tongue, never expecting that Qiel would be this skilled. It turned out Qiel's arrow, which was made of Spiritual Energy, could curve in the air.
Another three arrows suddenly flew into the sky, trying to cut Noel's path.
"Tsk. As expected of a Devil Saint, their intensity is far different from a Superior Demon…" Noel took a deep breath. It seemed that he had to reveal everything in order to stay alive.
He remembered the conversation he had with Heisk after absorbing the energy from the ice jade.
As promised, three days after the necklace absorbed the ice jade, Noel received a notification from Ardagan.
[Mission: Heisk's Evolution II.]
[Description: Heisk will proceed to absorb the energy that has been stored inside the necklace (3 days).]
[Reward: Ice Burst, Snow Shield, Cold Empowerment, Eternal Frozen, Frost Control Upgrade ]
[Frost Control has been upgraded to Spiritual Cold Control.]
'There are so many abilities coming.' Noel was quite surprised that he got four Spirit Abilities in addition to his Frost Control being upgraded. 'Yet, Heisk hasn't evolved to the humanoid rank? I can't help but wonder how strong you will become once you reach that rank.'
'I have to thank you for that opportunity. Although I haven't reached the humanoid rank, I'm not far from it. As long as there is another ice element item, I can definitely evolve. It doesn't need to be as powerful as the ice jade earlier.'
'I see. Still, with the information I have received from Ardagan, it seems that these five rewards will be extremely useful for me.' Noel smiled.
'I'm glad that I can help you. Please use my ability.'
After recalling that brief conversation, Noel's Spiritual Energy erupted. When he looked at the incoming arrows, Noel looked calm as though he had confidence in stopping those arrows. Unlike Ardagan's Undying Flame, Heisk's ice was tangible. The addition of physical form added another layer of protection.
"Snow Shield."
"Ice Mirror."
With a single wave of his hand, Noel formed three giant snowflakes right at the arrow's trajectory.
Qiel seemed to have sensed it as the arrow was trying to curve, but the snowflake was too big and the arrow ended up hitting the edge of the snowflake.
Normally, the arrow could shoot through Noel's ice mirrors. Unless he lined up all the ice mirrors, it was impossible to stop a single arrow.
But these snowflakes were different and Qiel noticed it too. The moment the arrows hit the snowflakes, they erupted.
The snowflake released a huge ice crystal, but the Spiritual Energy inside the arrow still continued moving forward, trying to break apart the ice crystal.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
As one would expect from a Devil Saint's attack, the arrows still managed to break the ice crystal apart, albeit losing most of its Spiritual Energy.
As a result, a few ice mirrors appeared on its way and stopped it completely.
"!!!" Qiel, on the other side of the sandhill, widened her eyes in shock. "What?"
Qiel was completely shocked because Noel could actually stop her attack easily. It wasn't like the previous one where he stopped an arrow with all ice mirrors but still got hit by the momentum and explosion.
On top of that, Noel was still a Spirit Master. Even if he was close to Spirit Grandmaster, he was still far from her level.
This was the first time she saw someone like Noel.
"Ardagan Family, what is their true identity? I think I have to ask Laufey about the Ardagan Family." Qiel's expression turned grim.
Before she could shoot another arrow, a shadow moved toward her, ready to strike.
However, Nelfer jumped into the sky and stomped the ground with his full weight, causing the ground to tremble and the sand to be kicked up.
Dimitri was forced to revert to his original form.
"You have gotten too predictable, former assassin!" Nelfer smirked.
Dimitri didn't answer him. Instead, he swung his shadow sword as Nelfer opened his hand, trying to grab it. He had coated his entire arm with Spiritual Energy to make his arm like steel.
And surprisingly, despite knowing his blade would be caught, Dimitri continued his swing.
Clink!
As a result, Nelfer managed to grab Dimitri's blade. After that, Nelfer used his other hand to punch Dimitri. "Die!"
Unexpectedly, Dimitri let go of his sword, startling Nelfer. Instead, he pulled both arms and tried to push Nelfer's other hand. Even if its power wasn't as high as the hand that caught his blade, Dimitri wouldn't be able to stop that punch… in a normal way, that is.
"Huh?!"
On the left hand, Dimitri exerted the power of his rune, which was the Spiritual Energy Dispersion Rune. On his right hand, Dimitri used the Rune Blast. Last but not least, he strengthened his body with the Reduce Impact Rune.
When they were about to clash, the Spiritual Energy Dispersion Rune caused the energy around Nelfer's arm to scatter.
Without the boost of the Spiritual Energy, Dimitri punched Nelfer's arm with the help of the Rune Blast.
Bam!
"What?!" Nelfer was completely shocked as that punch ended up knocking his body back, causing his balance to tilt.
Using that chance, Dimitri moved toward Qiel.
"No, you bastard! I won't let you!" Nelfer hurriedly stomped the ground and tried to catch up, preventing Dimitri from interfering with Qiel.
Qiel was startled and tried to fight back, but Dimitri couldn't help but smile at Qiel.
"!!!" Qiel instantly understood his meaning. Dimitri's target was never her. "N—"
Before she could say anything, Dimitri had stopped his momentum by using the Enhance Forward Rune but backward. That sudden stop was not possible physically, but that was why Nelfer and Qiel would be shocked.
Nelfer didn't predict such a thing and saw Dimitri turning around with both arms coated with shadow. Even his own shadow had turned into blades.
In a single instant, Dimitri waved his hands as all the blades hidden in the shadow slashed Nelfer, inflicting a lot of wounds on the body with the most critical one being the huge wound on his chest.
"Gaaaahhh!" Nelfer screamed. He just promised he wouldn't mess up, but Dimitri almost killed him in the first round.
As if knowing the signal, Noel suddenly sped up with his Enhance Forward Rune.
"!!!" Qiel gritted her teeth as she was forced to choose between helping Nelfer or pursuing Noel.
Noel and Dimitri couldn't help but smile. In the past two clashes, they were the defeated. However, today, they plan to win.
