Chapter 554 - Among Us

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The title they focused on however was Devil's Bane. While they didn't get a clear explanation of what it was. They understood that somehow Eldrian would be able to detect if someone was a devil in disguise. 

And upon realizing this two people in the crowd became extremely worried. 

"I said that because the first problem in the casting of a Tierless spell is being able to control your mana. Something which she has been working hard at. A Tierless spell is simply a controlled spell fueled by your emotions."

"Right, before I continue I should mention that we have two intruders among us."

The two froze, pulling out their weapons they tried to attack those closest to them.

But Eldrian had naturally taken precautions before announcing their existence. They were immediately forced to dodge as ice rained down on them from all sides. Eldrian's ability to cast without even moving a muscle was a big advantage in getting the first strike. 

His way of casting had naturally improved over these past months, even if he wasn't able to practice it. He had replayed his fights countless times with Two. The two worked out how he could improve it with what he had been able to do at that time. 

For a long time he had been able to dual cast, and this was even easier than that since he wasn't fully controlling the spells. Instead, he formed a mist of ice which he controlled as a whole, the number making it near impossible to dodge even if Eldrian didn't control the 'mist' well. 

Ceph -who Eldrian had informed before he exposed them- rushed in immediately after. He pushed everyone aside with wind magic while striking at the closest. Eldrian went for the other. 

The devils' were nowhere as strong as Milgoroth, they managed to put up a decent fight against Eldrian and Ceph. But only because the two were wary of hurting the confused people around them and the house they were in. 

As such they allowed them to escape out of the house, as planned. In those few seconds the commanders, generals, and captains recovered their senses and rushed out to support. But it was all over. 

Evale had let loose a divinely blessed arrow, killing one devil just as he took flight. Eldrian and Ceph brought the other down and Vivian was the one to land the killing blow. The fury in her eyes as she delivered the blow gave Eldrian chills. 

"Right, now that we have cleared the intruders, let's get back to our discussion," Eldrian said, making an important note that he had to talk with Vivian after dealing with the leaders of the army. 

The leaders however were all shaken to their core. They had known those two well, had fought with them for months, lived with them for years. To have it turn out that they were devils. It was not something they could move past so quickly, nor could they accept it lightly. 

Eldrian realized that and sighed, he told them to recover and use divine providence on all the leaders and soldiers to confirm their allegiance. 

No one argued that he basically gave them an order, instead, they all rushed to get it done. Naturally, no one had missed that Eldrian, at Tier 4, had been able to fight against a Tier 5 devil with ease. Being able to even guide the fight so as to not injure anyone nor harm his home. 

"Why did you wait to expose them?" Pelaros asked. The only ones to stay were him, Myropsis, Evale, Sofiera, and of course Vivian and Ceph. 

"Dramatic effect?" Eldrian joked but after shook his head in denial. 'Unfortunately, it seems the map can't detect hiding devils. That sucks...'

"While I am able to detect a devil in disguise, the detection depends on how vile they are. These two were likely groomed to be scouts and have been in disguise for a long time."

"They had nearly no aura or... Halo? Regardless, I doubt they have fed on many souls and likely the emotions they relied on to grow stronger weren't awful ones."

"I only managed to find them when my Observe landed on them- Yes, I was Observing everyone in the room."

Pelaros and Sofiera sighed with the same thing in mind; just how had it come that Eldrian was more knowledgeable than them on the subject? Curious, they wondered what he had been up to these past months.

"How does your title work?" Pelaros asked after taking a minute to compose himself. 

"Depending on the devil or demon, and how much they relied on other's emotions or souls for their growth. I will be able to see a sort of aura, or halo, around them. Best I can describe it is like the lingering emotions of those they tormented and killed." Eldrian explained. 

"In the case of these two, it appeared that they hadn't participated in such acts. Which most likely means that divine detection spells would also have a harder time detecting them. But, when I Observed them with mana sense, everything became clear."

"Still, to think that they had quietly stayed among us for months, years even..." Sofiera mumbled. 

"That is the worrying part indeed, why did they not act to secure the city's fall? Was it that they couldn't?"

"Considering that they were still only captains, it is likely that they felt their chances at causing a big enough disturbance was too low. If they had made it to be generals, they might have been able to cause far bigger of a disturbance."

Eldrian nodded, moving past that he asked, "Was this all the leaders that are left in Kynigo?"

"More or less, we left a few captains to maintain the cleanup of the battle. For the first time, we are able to go out to destroy the corpses of the undead."

"That..." Eldrian frowned, the fact that in all there had only been around forty people was worrying. Especially since this included the captains.

Placing the burden of the city's defense in so few hands was not smart. But considering that everyone was lower Tiered than normal, these were likely the best candidates already. 

"It might be for the best that the rest left," Eldrian commented, sharing the news that he wouldn't be able to repeat the spell to such effect wouldn't be good for morale.

He also felt that if they were so low on commanders then they truly had to make use of the players more. 

However, players were still only Tier 4. And unlike Eldrian, they would be considered average or only slightly above that in their Tier. Other than not dying a permanent death in combat, they didn't have much more to offer. Or so it might seem. 

'I'll bring that up later, still need to explain spirit magic first.', "Spirit magic is strange in how it works. It relies on emotions to feed its power. And it actually exhausts those emotions."

"What do you mean?" Evale questioned. 

"Well, this is at least the truth for Incinerate. It is a spell fueled by hate, anger, wishing destruction, and so forth. As I cast it, those emotions are called out from deep within. But after the cast, I am left without them."

"Like demons feed on emotions, these spells feed on emotions all the same."

"Are you saying you can't cast it again?"

"No, I will be able to cast Incinerate again. However, I won't be able to cast it to such an effect again. Each time you cast it will remove more and more of your emotions. And after some point, you will no longer have any anger left."

"That... Terrifying." Vivian shivered, unable to imagine what she would do if she lost her anger. How she would be able to hold on without it. 

"Yes, it is. And that isn't even the worst part."

"There's more?!" Ceph and Pelaros shouted in shock. 

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