"You're sure it was beyond tier 3," One of the five experts flying with Noah asked him. The man was an existence in tier 4, he looked to be in his middle ages and featured long brown hair. The expert was donned in a yellow attire featuring green stripes, but the cloth featured the guild's crest on his back and chest.
"Son, how are you even alive," the second female apart from Delilah spoke. "Exalted Imps are known for their bloodthirsty state, even if only a few know about their existence." The lady added shaking her head while she flew with the group.
"I tried my best, and was mostly lucky," Noah replied blandly while sweeping his gaze on the terrain below them.
The group of now six cultivators were on their way to the town, but they weren't flying too fast, at least mostly.
He was being held up by Delilah and she looked glad about that moment since she held his hand while they crossed the skies at high speeds.
There was silence for about a minute when the man at the brown-haired expert suddenly gasped out loud.
"By the gods," The expert exclaimed and soon the other four shared his surprise. Noah couldn't even begin to know what they were talking about but from the looks of things they had all seen something.
"You can't see it because it's too far for your consciousness. So let me show you," Delilah spoke making his guess right. But before he could react, he felt her consciousness interact with his and a clear image appeared in his mind.
One that caused him to gasp.
There, far more kilometers than his mind could reach was the town, at least what remained of it.
Huge curved manifestations of earth filled the town and its surroundings. The scene resembled what a ribcage would look like if revealed. Only far larger.
The five experts sped forward at that point and they arrived there in no time.
The night was still fresh and the moon still stood high above them, but the scene before Noah was far different than he remembered.
The exalted imp seemed to have moved to clean its tracks and it had taken more than half the forest around the town to do that.
Noah could even sight blood from his position. At least about two thousand humans had lived in the town, but everything had been destroyed. There had been no chance of escape. The strong had prevailed against them and carnage was all that was left
Noah felt fundamentally bad for that outcome, but there wasn't much he could have done.
"Spread out, search for the imp," the brown-haired man spoke, his anger clear in his voice, all of them were annoyed by that scene, even Delilah.
"Leave him with me," the brown-haired man commanded Delilah. "I have something to say to him."
Delilah nodded and Noah felt the man's consciousness grab hold of him.
The expert began to move about at that point. But he didn't say anything to Noah.
"Do you know what you've gotten yourself into young man?" The expert eventually spoke, but with his consciousness.
Noah shook his head in response.
"You've seen a being you shouldn't have. From now on you'll be pulled into the inner parts of our nation's guild system. Your name will be mentioned when this is reported to the royals, so get ready for a ride."
"It's going to be one full of challenges. But I believe you'll be able to survive them since you managed to escape something far more powerful than you," the expert spoke stopping to look into Noah's eyes for a while before falling silent for a few minutes.
"You're Sarah's student right?" He spoke again.
"Yes sir," Noah replied digesting the words he'd heard.
"Good. Get as much as you can from her, before stepping on your path, a lot will begin to be demanded from you, so get prepared. Cultivate and show yourself approve to the guild and even our nation."
"It might take a while, but when you get there you'll see things far differently."
"Why are you telling me all this?" Noah asked at some point.
"Because it's what it is to come. Destiny has chosen you to survive such a grotesque encounter. You're built for more." The expert explained flying up and down the scene while the others did the same.
"You believe in destiny sir," Noah spoke a bit shocked.
"Yes, young man. We may try to escape its reach but it still governs our life. Its the fundamental for our future. Every man is born with a destiny, but some are more special than others."
"I think there is a reason for your escape," the expert admitted.
"Are imps that dangerous?" Noah spoke, now curious. Sure he had witnessed a bit of the creature's power, but he had even considered it a human before seeing its face.
"Yes. Exalted imps are imps that have transcended their natural-born weakness. Which mostly deals with their intelligence."
"An exalted imp would have the type of power available to tier 4's merely after evolving. Give them a few years and their power become dangerous."
"But nature gives everything balance. Exalted imps are rare, but the exalted imp itself isn't the main issue They can be dealt with by a sizeable group of tier fours."
"It's the group it leads that poses a problem. They are wild and even worse than goblins. They possess mainly fire powers which makes them even more destructive, and they are selfless."
"If given the order; they would die for an exalted imp," the expert explained.
"How many do they usually come in," Noah asked gaining a rough idea of the danger those creatures posed.
"I've only managed to see one exalted imps army, and they numbered thousands," the expert explained. "That was about ninety years ago."
Noah couldn't help but shudder at that revelation.
"It's, even more worse if there's another imp close to evolving." The expert spoke.
"How do imps become intelligent?" Noah asked, missing that last detail.
"They of course feed. But on the brains of high leveled experts." He gave a grim expression.