Chapter 458: Challenge

"Me? Don't worry. I'm not taking part in the event. I'm too lazy to participate in such things. But I would certainly attend the event to watch your battles. It's not always we get to see an outsider fight against the Nobles," Arthur answered, smiling. 

"I wonder how far you can reach in that event. If I were to go by your confidence, I would think that you'll certainly win. But it's not that easy, unfortunately," he added. "I haven't seen you fight, so I can't comment, but I think if you can reach the finals, it'll be a miracle."

The people in the arena soon finished their work and left, emptying the colosseum. 

Lucifer landed in the center of the empty arena and started observing the entire place. 

"What are you looking at?" Arthur inquired, landing beside Lucifer. 

"This place is small. Even stray attacks can hit the people in the seats. I thought this place would be bigger," Lucifer responded, shaking his head. 

"You're concerned about that? Don't be. This whole place will be covered in powerful barriers to protect the spectators. Moreover, all the Nobles would be here. There's no chance of things going wrong," Arthur answered. 

"That reminds me. Now that we're here, how about we also have a small battle?" he asked Lucifer, smiling.

Lucifer turned back, squinting his eyes. "Don't tell me this was the actual reason you brought me out to this place? That spies thing was just an excuse, wasn't it?"

"Can't I have two reasons simultaneously?" Arthur asked, smiling wryly. "Come on. Don't be unfair. You already fought me in your dreams. But I didn't get to fight you. I'll go easy on you if that's what you're concerned about."

"Sorry, I'm not interested," Lucifer responded as winds surrounded him, making him rise in the air. "See you tomorrow, Arthur. And thanks for the information."

Lucifer flew away. 

Sitting in the arena, Arthur watched Lucifer leave. 

"Did he really get scared? It doesn't seem like that. It's so annoying."

Frustrated, he kicked a stone that was lying under his feet, making it fly far away. 

"Huh? Lord Arthur? Did you come to see the progress?"

Arthur turned around, hearing someone address him. 

He noticed a man standing there in dirt-covered clothes. 

"Do you work here?" Arthur asked. 

"Y-yeah. I'm the incharge of the construction here."

"Good. Keep up the good work," Arthur said before flying away. 

The worker remained behind, confused as to what had just happened. 

...

In the continent of Triton, the Warlock Council's main headquarters existed. People of the Warlock Council were busy as usual. 

Some were training, some were resting, and some were having lunch. A lot of them were busy in work as well, going through the immense data to locate the things that the Warlock Council wanted but didn't possess. 

There was also one section of the Warlock Council that was having a meeting. It was the highest echelon of the Warlock Council who were there. 

The meeting room was occupied by the strongest Warlock Council Leaders. Since the Warlock Council was a coalition of Warlocks from Various nations, it didn't have one leader.

In fact, they had one leader for each of the nations, which had at least five Warlocks be the part of the Warlock Council. 

That was why all nations wanted to send their Warlock to the Warlock Council to bring their contribution to five, so someone from their nation could also get the leadership position. 

Unfortunately, it wasn't easy. Only the most talented Warlocks were selected to be a part of the Warlock Council. 

Every year, the nations could nominate at most five Warlocks from their side, which created a large pool of Warlocks since the number of Empires wasn't small. 

The Hundreds of Warlocks that were selected by the Nations then had to go through the Warlock Council Test, which was a six month long test.

Every year, only twenty people were selected through the test, and even that wasn't the end. The twenty people were then chosen to be the Warlock Council Interns for two years. 

Only the best three of the twenty people were selected to be a part of the Warlock Council. The other Seventeen were then sent to the Junior Warlock Council, which was like a branch of the Warlock Council. 

There, the failed people had to prove themselves to be promoted to the main Warlock Council. It was a really long and hard process to get selected by the Warlock Council. 

Even Jenilia was stuck in the Internship part of the Warlock Council while her brother passed the Internship five years ago. 

The rise of her brother was the fastest in the history of the Warlock Council since he was the youngest person to be selected in the main Warlock Council in the last ten years.

Unfortunately, he was also the youngest person of the main Warlock Council to be killed. 

Around a rectangular table, all the leaders of the Warlock Council sat. There was only one seat here which was empty. 

All the Warlock Council leaders had a black file placed in front of them, which had the words "Confidential" outsider. 

"So, we're here. What's the update? Did you again call the meeting because of the Divine Empire problem?" One of the Warlocks asked. 

"Didn't Andreas go there personally last time? What's the update? Don't tell me even he wasn't able to solve it. It would be embarrassing if even a Warlock Council leader failed there."

"Hah, did anyone really think he could succeed? If he had succeeded, he would've been the one sitting here. Unfortunately, that's not the case here."

"I was telling you all that I should've been the one going there, but none of you listened to me, did you?" 

An old man stood up, tapping the table. "Silence."

Everyone calmed down and looked at the old man, who was the person who had established the Warlock Council. He was also the oldest person here. 

"Can everyone please calm down? It's true that Andreas didn't succeed in getting the stone on the first try, but that's not the end of it. He's again going there, and he promised that he would return with the stone this time." 

"He's going there again? Are we supposed to be happy? He already failed once, and he's going to fail again. We're just wasting time by sending him," A Warlock snorted in annoyance. 

There was another Warlock who was thinking about something else. 

"Don't tell me you called me here to talk about something so minor? You couldn't tell us that over the message too. Tell us the real reason why we're here?" he asked.