Chapter 582 The calm before the storm.

582 The calm before the storm.

After Maximus was captured, Dorian decided that the League of Assassins would lay low for the time being. This continued even after 2 years; they didn't accept or carry out any mission during this time period.

To the world, it seemed like the League of Assassins was afraid of Cinder's wrath, however, Dorian thought otherwise. He felt it was best the Empire's defences were relaxed for the upcoming war. So he was against keeping them on the edge.

The best part about the situation was that this was exactly the outcome the councillors wanted to see after their operation. This made it extremely easy for them to buy the ruse, making them oblivious to the storm that was about to befall the Synder Empire.

Throughout this period, Castiel hadn't been idling in any way. Prince Bryon had agreed to be assigning him to missions that continuously pushed his limit. Castiel kept on growing in both experience and mastery over his elements.

With each battle he fought, Castiel was not only getting more susceptible to rage, but he was continuously growing resentment for Blake.

After every battle he went through, Castiel always felt Blake would have breezed through the problem with ease. At first, he agreed that this was possible through Blake's skills, but as time went on, this thought changed to Blake having an unfair advantage by getting both the Space element as well as Ebony and Ivory.

He was angry at how Blake had always been taking first place right from the Zetron gaming competition to their time in school. However, he didn't remember the hours, efforts, sweat and blood Blake had put in to become so good.

At this point, he had long forgotten about the sacrifices Blake had made for both him and Brian; All he focused on was the negative sides. However, his recent resentment and jealousy were not totally his fault, it was due to the fire element inheritance he had just obtained.

Unlike, Valerius' inheritance which came in the form of a system that slowly trained and manipulated the inheritor, Synder's inheritance came with a back door that allowed him to mess with Castiel's psyche. He was constantly feeding him with such thoughts, as well as amplifying the thoughts hidden deep in his heart.

In terms of rewards for his missions, the royal family first started by giving him generous rewards based on his mission accomplishments, before giving him extra, separate from their usual generous rewards.

After a year of Castiel "working" for the Royal family, Castiel got access to extremely rare resources, even for other Ancestral descendants. Not only did his flames and body undergo major refinement, but his level had shot through the roof.

By the time the first year was over, Castiel had made it to the 3rd stage of the demigod realm, and by the end of the 2nd year, he was just one step away from entering the Angel realm (peak demigod). Unknown to him, his time was coming to an end.

On the other hand, throughout this period Brian had been left out of all of this; that was one of the major reasons why Castiel's situation had gotten to this.

After being left out in the first mission, Castiel returned to share his ideas of pausing their lives as adventurers since their rate of growth had been considerably slowed down.

Brian saw no problems with his train of thought, in fact, he even supported the idea. However, when he tried to tag along with Castiel on missions assigned by Bryon, he was swiftly rejected. What baffled him the most was that Castiel spoke up for him or cared about how he felt.

He was forced to return to his life as an adventurer. At first, he tagged along with other adventurers, but as time went on, he began recruiting more people into the Order of Chaos adventurer party.

After 2 years of countless missions, Brian had advanced to the 3rd stage of the Demigod realm (Intermediate) without the resources of anyone else.

As for the group, Blake's absence, Luciano and Castiel's sudden detachment had shrunken the group to only Brian, Camilla, Damon and Tessie. Just like everyone else, Damon had no clue of what was going on, but he seemed to have some suspicions.

The good thing was that none of them had slacked off during these 2 years. Except for Damon who was now an Advanced Demigod, the rest were all at the intermediate stage.

Brian had become an A-rank adventurer, Camilla a Major, while Damon and Tessie were now managing very important roles in their respective families.

...

Off the coast of the Northern continent was an island concealed by hundreds of formations. This was home to the once-active group, Crusaders.

The Crusaders were a neutral organization on par with the League of Assassins and the Adventurer Association. Their members comprised entirely of the light element users, and their aim was "fighting" for humanity.

The previous operations ranged from protecting unaffiliated states (villages, towns etc.) from monster hordes, taking out high-level monsters before they became serious problems, acting as bounty hunters by tracking and eliminating menaces to the society (members of the League.) etc.

The Crusaders and the League of Assassins were both sworn enemies who kept themselves in check. However, 500 years ago, the Leader of the Crusaders had a secret face-off with the Masked Man. It was a battle between light and darkness, but Darkness ended up consuming light.

The "death" of their leader left the Crusaders greatly weakened, ushering in centuries of the League's impunity.

Right now at the Crusader's island, a concealed pillar of light large enough to cover an entire city just dissipated.

A light so bright and powerful that it could illuminate the entire realm was about to shine, but the formations set in place quickly kicked in and reduced it to the area of the island.

Tens of floors underground, the once-dark room lit up, revealing a figure possessing a striking appearance with golden, flowing hair that shimmered like strands of spun gold. His eyes were a celestial blue, reflecting rage and revenge. He donned a robe woven from starlight, emitting a warm, golden aura. n-.0velbIn

His presence was awe-inspiring, radiating an ethereal and commanding glow, and his face was chiselled with classical perfection.

"I have returned!"