Chapter 80 - Press Conference (2)

"Oh, but why would the official do that? Guild master Mali and the President themselves said that Arnold didn't have any right to enter that dungeon, then could you explain to me why would the official take a scan of his summons?" Nicholas stroked his chin and continued. "Not only that, if the official did scanned them, then shouldn't there be a record of it anywhere? And if there is a record then could you show it to us so that we could believe you?

"Because these are some serious allegation and if you don't have a proof then I could sue you for spreading false information about me and my disciple and also for making up fake stories to hide your crimes."

"W-What d-do you mean h-hide my crimes? I barely made out of the dungeon myself!" Rion lost his cool.

"Okay then tell us what happened next?" Nicholas still had a last card to play before revealing his ace.

"Then sometime later, I heard some mysterious noises s-so I-I went to investigate and saw that the murderer was fighting with the boss along with his summons. But the boss one-shotted his summons and killed him. A-After that I-I attacked the boss and managed to kill it. I g-got the r-return crystal and walked out of the portal as soon as I could."

"That's bulls*it!" Nicholas roared and got up from his seat, "You're telling me, a guy whose summons were 'supposedly' all ranked at A, by an official who didn't even scanned them, got one-shotted by the boss and you managed to kill the boss without getting a single scratch on your body? You think we are all idiots?"

Mali looked shocked by this turn of events panicked just like the others. He yelled at the reporters to edit the footage but they couldn't do it because they were broadcasting it live without any delay, it was impossible for them to do anything! They could switch off the cameras but the public had already seen what Mali had said about the matter, and if they still did what Mali wanted them to, it would hamper the 'credibility' of their respective channels and they might lose their audience. No matter whether they were paid for this staged conference or not, they couldn't risk to destroy their own image by trying to protect someone else.

All of them were played by a single man. It was no wonder why Nicholas was nicknamed as the supreme mage, his influence and intelligence were way too high for them to even comprehend. But Nicholas wasn't done yet, he still had his ace.

In the chaos, most of the cameras were still focused on Nicholas, who ripped off the right sleeve of his attire revealing 11 white dots on them. The dots are rapidly blinking. The reporters were confused as to what was happening, but before they could ask anything, Nicholas spoke up once again.

"These eleven blinking dots signify each of my disciples. As long as these dots are blinking, it means that they are alive!" He tore the left part of the attire as well, there were a couple of black dots on them, "These dots represent the number of friends and allies who are no more in the realm of the living."

Nicholas pointed on a white blinking dot before speaking again, "This dot signifies that Arnold, my disciple is still alive! What the guild and the President had been telling this whole time is nothing but lies!

"This 'Sole Survivor' is the one who killed his own team members and staged it all so that they could get some sympathy from the people after they sabotaged the dungeon trip! It's because of them, people having innocent souls like my beloved disciple get punished for the crimes that they never committed! Wake up people! We cannot trust them anymore! They are all liars who only know how to manipulate the innocent. We won't take it anymore! IT'S TIME TO FREE BRAZIL FROM THE GRASP OF THESE MANIPULATIVE BAST*RDS!"

Under normal circ.u.mstances people wouldn't have actually believed what Nicolas was saying as he didn't actually had any proof to backup what he was saying but thanks to the 'incite' skill, his plan had worked.

He had successfully managed to incite the people against the government. No one could save them now... No one! The looks on the faces of the reporters changed, Nicholas' ability had worked. Instead of badmouthing Nicholas they started questioning Mali and the others. Mali gave a strange look to Nicholas who smiles and leaned towards him before saying, "If you try to destroy my reputation, I'll obliterate yours in its entirety."

Mali knew he had lost the battle and all he could do now was run... run away from all this, but the question was how far would he be able to run?

***

SOMEWHERE ELSE...

Arnold was roaming inside the castle he was summoned to, looking for [The Guide Between The Worlds]. The castle was huge and was spread across an area of 15 to 20 square kilometers, so searching for a 'person' here was no ordinary task. Generally Arnold's would have used his summons to locate a target but this wasn't possible for him to do so anymore as his summons had been sealed into his domain the moment he stepped into this castle.

"Here goes the hundred and thirteenth chamber..." He mumbled and pushed open the door that was twice of his size. He looked inside the room, and was surprised after he saw what was inside. It was unlike any room he had been to so far, it looked as if it was a throne hall.

The moment Arnold stepped into the room, massive braziers encompassing each of the six limestone columns lit up the lower levels of the throne hall and coat everything in an orange glimmer. The relatively simple stonework on the domed ceiling dance in the flickering light while marble icons look down upon the marble floor of this magnificent hall.

A teal rug ran down from the throne, while rounded banners hung down from the walls. Between each banner stood a large candlestick, some of them had been lit and in turn illuminated the statues of divine beings below them. Massive, stained glass windows were contoured by dr.a.p.es which were colored as the banners. The curtains had been adorned with fancy tassels and gold leaves.

A noble throne of porcelain sat in front of a giant painting of some king and was adjoined by three similar, but less ornate seats for probably the direct family of the owner of the castle.

The throne was surrounded by sculptures of a ruby winged angel. But it wasn't the thing that attracted Arnold's attention... because Arnold was staring at the one sitting on the throne.