Chapter 1463: A Monster (Part 1)
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Uno was able to reach his main target without being noticed due to the series of stealth-enhancing techniques that supported his stealth skill.
Adding that everyone was too focused on their chants and the ritual itself, he was able to walk past everyone and stood at the center of those he was targeting unnoticed.
But there were still a few people who noticed his very unnoticeable presence the moment when he had to briefly remove the 'Void Veil' so that he could take out the prison prism.
The king of the Dark Cloud Kingdom, who was on top of the platform of the altar, sensed Uno's presence but could not do anything as he had to dedicate all his focus and energy to completing the ritual.
On the other hand, those nobles with the highest hierarchy beneath the royal family, quickly responded. "Intruder!"
The other believers did not stop what they were doing and continued to chant, leaving everything to the guards.
Those guards were slightly slow to react as Uno was already standing at the center of everyone. If they dared to jump at him or throw a powerful attack, the other nobles and believers would be caught in the crossfire.
All they could do was sprint at him, planning to capture him.
But given that they were still quite far from him, Uno was able to summon a prison prism at the center of some nobles with decent standing. Before they could even respond, the tiny cube that he had thrown suddenly expanded and grew up to a ten-cubic-meter cube, which captured everyone with it.
All the nobles that were inside that cube were sucked by the prison prism before it shrunk and returned to its original size. It then flew back to Uno as he grabbed it and put it back inside his inventory in a single motion.
Everything happened a little too fast, making everyone unable to respond to his actions.
Swoosh!
But at that moment, there was a person, who was able to reach Uno from the foot of the platform.
It was an archduke, who was also a knight at the same time. Moreover, he was also of Ascended Class and approaching to become an Ascended Race.
If it was on regular time, Uno would be having a hard time fighting this guy, especially when the latter was already a Level 200 Commander and comparable to a Level 200 Lord Rank Monster.
"Got ya~!" said Uno as he turned his head and looked straight to the archduke's eyes who suddenly appeared beside him.
The archduke was in the middle of swinging his sword when he suddenly sensed something was wrong. But before he could even retreat, he found that his body was completely restricted.
That was when he saw crimson strings wrapped in different parts of his body, restraining his moments, while there seemed to be an invisible hand clutching on his body and preventing him from exerting any strength.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Then he saw a pair of figures walking out of the void and standing on each side of Uno. One was an extremely handsome man with a noble air surrounding him, who was also donning a set of exquisite crimson clothes meant for the royals of a kingdom, while the other was someone in green butler clothes and a magician hat.
These were Vladimir and Grimrace, who Uno had hidden with his 'Void Veil' earlier.
Tak!
Right after the archduke was held in place, Uno casually threw a special prison prism underneath his feet, which quickly expanded and captured him.
Swoosh!
The Archduke, who was so imposing and powerful just earlier, was captured as if he was some sort of monster from that certain show.
Right after retrieving the prism prison, Uno turned to those noble elders standing at the foot of the altar before waving at them.
After provoking them, he suddenly hopped back and entered the void gate that just materialized with impeccable timing.
Vladimir and Grimrace, on the other hand, threw a series of random attacks in every direction to cause chaos before following him.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Boom! Boom!
A series of explosions erupted everywhere as the blood weapons and shadow daggers bombarded the nobles, who were still too focused on completing the ritual.
"Capture them!" shouted by one of the elderly nobles, who was emitting a very powerful aura.
He did not make a move earlier as he was assisting the king in controlling the demonic powers filling the entire place and pouring them into the giant cocoon.
But after what Uno and the two Elemental Spirits had done, he had no choice but to break free from his trance and turn to everyone.
His voice was like a clap of thunder within the cave, shaking the entire place.
Hearing his voice, the nobles snapped out of their daze alongside the guards, who were supposedly guarding them.
They quickly moved and entered all the caves, chasing after Uno.
The king, on the other hand, remained completely still as he continued to focus on the ritual. His chants did not pause as his voice grew louder with each passing second.
Now that the others were forced to stop their chants due to the disturbance that Uno had done, this ritual was solely reliant on him. If he lost even a hint of focus or if his concentration slipped even for a moment, then everything that they had done up until now would be all for naught.
There were also four royal guards, who remained to protect him. They were facing different directions while also using their respective means to survey their surroundings with their eyes, making sure that the same carelessness would not happen once again.
Uno, who did not leave the place yet, could not help but click his tongue when he saw that. He was originally planning to trick those people that he left the scene as soon as he had achieved his goal.
Then he would wait until the security within this place was at its lowest to try something that could stop the ritual altogether.
…-or even assassinate the king if possible.
But if it was that easy, then this quest wouldn't be at such a high difficulty in the first place.
"Tsk! I guess it can't be helped. Let's go with Plan C then."
Right after he said those words, Solus suddenly materialized beside him and quickly transformed into a ball of fire that flew straight to the cocoon.
Swoosh!
Seeing her rapid approach and sensing the pure sacred fire that she was emitting, the people who remained in the hall quickly responded.
"Stop that thing! Don't let it get near the incarnation of the Great Lord Beelzebub!" shouted the elder right after noticing Solus.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Two of the royal guards left the side of the king while the remaining two were left to activate their respective sensing skills to the fullest, making sure that no one would take advantage of this situation to assassinate the king.
Unfortunately, they were slightly off the mark this time.
Seeing that she had successfully lured two of the royal guards from the altar, Solus did not even hesitate to halt her advance before transforming into a rain of fire that bombarded the entire hall and threw those below in panic.
Those tiny 'droplets' of fire might look harmless, but they carried a dense sacred energy, which was also the bane of their demonic powers.
As the believers of the Demonic Churches and the followers of the Glutton Demon King of the Flies, their powers were highly restricted by this kind of attack.
And while everyone was busy dealing with Solus' rain of fire, a streak of light suddenly flew across the air and appeared right behind the altar.
Whitie, who was currently emitting a pure sacred aura, stood before the altar while taking a stance.
Bang!
The air around him seemed to explode as he focused all his mana into his fist, charging it with everything he had.
His intention was clear, and that was to destroy the altar with his strike – or at least seriously damage it.
Even if this demonic altar was sturdy and hard to destroy, it would still crumble in front of the mighty fist of a sacred being like Whitie.
Swoosh!
Not wanting him to do what he was planning, surrounding nobles with decent fighting capabilities rushed at him without any hesitation.
Bang!
But before they could even approach him, a huge and bulky figure suddenly fell from above and landed on the ground with a huge explosion.
Astaroth, who was currently wearing a set of earthly armor filled with ancient runes, blocked their path. He stood like a mountain in front of the incoming nobles while looking at them with a fierce glare behind his knight's helmet.
Vladimir and Grimrace also ran rampant on the other parts of the hall, killing anyone that they encountered.
This was Uno's other plan, if he could not stop the ritual by assassinating the kingdom, then destroying a great portion of the place and killing as many believers would at least delay the descent of the Great Demon King's incarnation by quite a lot.
"Such impudence!"
As everything was going according to plan, a powerful voice suddenly resounded and intensely shook the entire cave.
This voice was much louder than earlier as the noble entire released all his powers this time around.
The surrounding mana also seemed to come to a sudden halt as he filled the surroundings with his presence. This also resulted in forcing the Elemental Spirits to be unsummoned.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
They all turned into specks of lights that returned to their host in an instant.
Boom!
But at the same time, before Whitie could be unsummoned, he managed to release his powerful punch that blasted a huge portion of the altar.
"What audacity!" the noble elder became even more enraged when he saw that.
It might not be strong enough to make the altar collapse. But it was at least enough to damage a portion of the demonic formation drawn on the floor of the hall and a part of the array on top of the altar, which disturbed the ritual.
Cough!
Due to this, the king, who was too focused on finishing the ritual, suffered a backlash that forced him to cough out a huge amount of blood.
"Your Majesty!"
Seeing that, the two knights that were standing beside him quickly approached him. Their shouts also attracted the attention of the nobles who were still recovering under the altar. Even the noble elder also turned his head toward that direction.
Uno did not care about what happened next as he was already running at full speed toward the exit.
He seemed to transform into a gust of wind that blew through the pathways of the cave as he flew toward the escape route that he planned out.
Swoosh!
But right after he reached the exit, he was suddenly greeted by a huge crowd that seemed to be waiting for him for quite a while, given the solid battle formation that they had.
In front of these people, there were three people, who were emitting the greatest threat to him.
These people were Paimon, Amon, and Belphegor.
Belphegor, who was usually lazy and always sleepy, could not help but snap out of the dream world as he sensed something.
When he opened his eyes and turned toward the source of the uncomfortable feeling that he was getting, an intense shudder suddenly washed over his entire body.
He warily looked at the other party and warned Paimon and Amon. "That guy is dangerous."
The two did not need him to tell them as they could also feel such a threat coming from Uno. What surprised them even more was they could only feel this kind of pressure from a single person that they knew.
"It looks like we are wrong," mumbled Paimon with a grim look on his face. "It is not a rat, but a real monster instead."
...…