Chapter 498 Masked Shadows

The end of the week came in the blink of an eye and Nial finished the last runic armament.

More than 400 Originals at the Prometheus rank were eagerly waiting for him. None of them was sure what would happen but it would be their first meeting with the mysterious leader of the Onyx Association and the Orion Artisan Guild.

They had only heard a few things about their actual leader, and they marveled at his wealth and insights.

However, there were also a few doubts that spread through the minds of the adventurers. The most recent incidents with the Linaton Investigators had left them shaken, and it was pretty obvious that the situation would soon reach its climax.

The Linaton Investigators were unable to find any clues about the mysterious murderer. There was nothing to find, not the smallest trace of evidence that gave enough information to start researching.

They had spotted the emblem on the letter after weeks of looking for clues but there were not even similar emblems in the database of the Linaton race. This frustrated the higher-ups of the Linaton race, which was also why they instructed the investigators to never return if they cannot even find out who, or what murdered their Ambassadors.

It was humiliating that 10 Ambassadors had been killed inside the shelters of the weaklings of a human race. The origin humans were certainly too weak to kill their ambassadors, let alone in such a short period, or without leaving behind any traces.

Frustrated by the fact that no clues could be found, the Linaton Investigators killed a few more humans. Everyone was told to stay away from the Otherworldly Residencies but there were always a few overly curious humans, who didn't seem to value their lives.

A few of them were killed with a small energy blast that shot out of the Investigator's finger. The energy blasts usually burst open their targets' heads, or pierced their hearts, ending their lives instantaneously.

Seething in anger and frustration because they were not able to do anything, the adventurers who were waiting in the huge entrance hall of the Orion Artisan Guild began to hope that their leader could turn the tables.

Something had to change and the adventurers felt as if their mysterious leader was their last ray of hope.

And they were taken aback to see that their leader was a young-looking man with silver hair, and milky white…lifeless eyes.

He was clearly blind which caused an immediate response in the disciplined stance of some adventurers. Their straight back hunched a little, their shoulders pulled forward as if they had lost strength, and the tension in their body was released.

Nial visualized this with a faint smile on his face.

"Am I that disappointing to look at?" He asked with a faint grin. The tension in the entire entrance hall seemed to have evaporated into thin air.

Yet, the moment Nial halted in front of his adventurers, the entire world seemed to change.

"Stand Still!" He ordered, using Dominion on all four hundred Originals at the same time. His voice was quiet but extremely cold, and it possessed an unimaginable authority.

The hair of every adventurer stood up on its end, they strained their back subconsciously and stood still in front of Nial, whose faintly smiling expression seemed to turn into the smile of a devil.

"Salute!"

The volume of Nial's voice remained the same but there was not even the faintest noise inside the entire entrance hall. Thus, Nial's voice traveled through the hall like the overwhelming thunderous growling of a thunderstorm.

Every single adventure moved according to the given command and they saluted Nial, who hadn't even used Dominion for his second order.

"That's better," He added before he cleared his throat to announce the reason why he had called the meeting and asked everyone to gather.

"Now that we overcame the first hurdle, I want to ask if everyone here is willing to beat the shit out of the Linaton race's Investigators?"

Nial's attitude changed a little when he asked the adventurers and the corners of his mouth curled upward even more.

"If everyone is willing, how about I help you a little?"

While the question reverberated through the room, time seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.

The bright sun of a new morning shone onto the ten shelters of the human race, revealing tens of well-hidden figures that appeared in front of each of the ten Otherworldly Residencies.

The robed figures were motionless as they stood in the open space in front of the Otherworldly Residencies.

They were assembled in an orderly and disciplined manner, four rows with ten robed men each.

Their appearance all over the ten shelters attracted lots of attention almost immediately. Most citizens took out their bracelets' holographic screens to either start spreading the news or record a video because it was obvious that something big was about to happen.

Nial was not even close to the Otherworldly Residencies of any of the ten shelters but he received the information of what was going on in the surrounding areas of all ten shelters.

It was not too long ago that he had created a runic device that could be considered a transponder of information depicted by mana fluctuations.

Nial held the main body of the transponders in his hand and he was given all the raw information the transponders absorbed from their surroundings.

Meanwhile, he was just seated in his office in the Orion Artisan Guild. He was tired and could barely caress needy Ryu who had grown once again.

But despite having grown a lot, Ryu was still picky about his sleeping place. Nial's lap was still the most comfortable, even if the same couldn't be said for Nial because the Darkness Gryphon was longer than Nial's height. It was simply not possible for Ryu to sleep on his lap anymore.

Unfortunately, that was not something the Darkness Gryphon cared about.

Taking some time to focus back on the ten different sources of information, Nial realized that the Linaton Investigators had emerged at the windows of the Otherworldly Residencies.

It was as if they moved at the same time because they had appeared at the windows nearly simultaneously. And as if on cue, they lifted their hand at the same time and targeted the same area altogether.

To inflict the most fear, it would be easiest to kill one opponent after another, slowly and with as much cruelty as possible.

That was why the robed man in the first row on the right side was their first target.

They released an energy blast without hesitation and shot their designated target with an exhilarated smile on their face.

It almost looked like the Linaton Investigators had been waiting for humans to do something against them and that their wait was finally over.

"I wonder how stupid people such as them can be good Businessmen…"

The energy blast shot through the air and it hit its target just a moment later…or it was supposed to.

A huge white shield appeared in front of each of the designated targets, blocking the attack.

The white shield withstood the energy blast easily and it kept levitating in front of the robed men who had been targeted by the attack.

The force of the energy blast's impact was enough to create a small ring-shaped shockwave. It swept over the robbed men and revealed what was hidden under their robes.

The men and women removed their robes after the first few faces, or what one could see in their faces, were unveiled.

All men and women were wearing the exact same things. A black leather armor protected their body, only exposing the skin of their arm and neck.

Their mouths were not covered as well. This allowed everyone to see the confidence and pride-filled smiles of the men and women, whose eyes and noses were covered by a mask.

The mask had the shape of a crow with ruby-like eyes, and they all stared straight at the Linaton Investigators without a shred of hesitation.

One of the robed men in each of the ten groups retrieved a spear from their spatial ring and they stepped forward.

They stood in front of their group and circulated mana through their body, clearly revealing that they were merely at the Prometheus rank, and that they were human.

Then…they unleashed the power stored within the Broken Runic Spear, with their target being the entire Otherworldly Residency.

If other races treated them like pushovers, there was no need for the origin humans to tend to them!

The Otherworldly Residencies were thus not necessary anymore!