As the whole award ceremony came to a close, Reign and the other top brass of the kingdom all made their way to a secret office. Upon arriving everyone sat down, amongst the people present were of course all of the first evolution combatants of the kingdom, including Licht. Lico was also there and so were the prince and the princess, the two of them were there when Lios disappeared, the princess being right next to Lios and having seen everything in close proximity.
Various ministers, higher-ups of the many agencies that the kingdom had, and other important people of the kingdom were all present. This would be the first time since Lios had disappeared that everybody was gathered and would search for him together.
The first thing that they did was of course let the prince and princess speak about what had happened that night. Some of them had already heard the story but still listened attentively in order to refresh their memory. As the two finished speaking the whole room was quiet, it wasn't as if nobody knew what had happened, the surge of demonic energy made it clear that it was the demon worshippers that kidnapped Lios, the only question was why?
"So the coalition had no idea this was going to happen?" The king suddenly asked Licht who nodded his head.
"Yes, we learned of this information from the spies, nobody told us beforehand, at least nobody told me."
Licht's words made everyone go deep into thought, previously the kingdom believed it was the coalition that joined forces with an unknown faction in order to kidnap Lios, even after learning it was the demon worshippers they still hoped they would be right. If any kingdom was found to be working together with the worshippers they would be targeted by the whole world, the demons only wanted to bring chaos and nobody welcomed them, even so, there would always be some kingdoms or at least royal families that would break the taboo and work together with them in order to become stronger.
There were even cases of whole royal families being demon worshippers, and in rare cases, there were kingdoms that were primarily made up of demon worshippers. Every time something like that was found, all the kingdoms that were nearby would quickly band together and attack the kingdom in question, if not they would soon face extinction as a kingdom made from demon worshippers could increase in strength rapidly.
Nobody knew exactly why the demon worshippers kidnapped Lios, those people were always unpredictable and nobody knew what their intentions were. One thing was clear, however, that their intentions were not good, every time demon worshippers appeared, chaos would follow.
Lios's life and death were not a question however, all of the first evolution combatants and other notable figures of the kingdom had a life crystal that was stored inside the royal vault, by looking at the crystal one would be able to not only see if the person was alive or dead but their general state as well.
Lios's crystal was still fine, it grew a bit paler every day which meant he was getting weaker, but it was still not in a critical state and it was concluded that if things continued as they had, he would live for about 1 more month.
Since Lios's life wasn't really in danger, for now, the kingdom decided to first take over the territory of the coalition before putting all their efforts into finding him, it might seem cold-hearted to do so, but even Raigon agreed that it was the best course of action. His father would be fine for the time, but if the kingdom didn't act fast, they would lose all the territory to other kingdoms and would be put into a disadvantageous position.
The prince glanced in Reign's way a couple of times, after he had learned that Raigon and Reign had managed to go through the first evolution, he was shocked. He wasn't one of the people that knew about Raigon and his true power, but he was never one of those that distanced themselves from Raigon. Both he and his sister had a good relationship with him and knew what he was capable of, he had even done some missions together with Raigon's men before and was impressed by how good the organization was.
After learning that both Reign and his cousin had become so much stronger, he was a bit down, but he soon reinvigorated his spirit as he now had an even higher goal to achieve. Going through the first evolution would only be the first step as he wanted to become stronger than anyone in the area, to do that however he would need to train hard and for a long time, but he was ready for it.
"How about we go to where sir Lios was kidnapped?" Reign suddenly asked as everyone turned their heads in his direction.
"You have something in mind?" The king asked him as he looked at him with surprise.
"I might, but first I need to go there in order to check if my theory is correct."
Reign's words came as a surprise to everyone, they had, of course, visited the place where Lios was taken from but found nothing that could help them. They knew that Reign knew about that as all the information was available to him, and nobody believed he was dumb enough not to check the information available. That only meant one thing however, there was something that Reign believed they either missed or something that only he could do.
"Alright, let's go." The king simply nodded to him before everyone left the office, in mere minutes everybody had arrived at the princess's room, in front of which was Lios taken.
As soon as Reign arrived he stepped forward and stood right at the place where Lios disappeared, some of them were surprised as they knew that was precisely the position that Lios was at when he disappeared, something that was not put in the info as it made no difference to anyone.
"So, what do you think?" The king asked Reign as he looked at him with a weird gaze, everyone else was doing the same as they were a bit confused by what Reign was doing.
"It's alright, first though I need some help, princess, would you mind coming here?" Reign asked as the princess looked at him with confusion.
"You were the last person sir Lios had to contact with, it would help me if you came here."
"Go ahead." The king told his daughter as she looked at him for advice, she didn't understand why Reign needed her to be next to him, but if it would help him locate Lios somehow, then why not do it?
"Great, please don't move from your position." Reign said before putting his right hand on the princess's shoulder, he closed his eyes as he concentrated on sensing the demonic energy in the air.
Even though the others couldn't feel it, he was. He was extremely sensitive when it came to demonic energy and after going through the first evolution the sensitivity had increased, right now he was able to feel traces of demonic energy on the ground where Lios stood at before being kidnapped. He could also sense faint remnants of demonic energy on the princess as well as she was right next to Lios when it happened.
After a couple of minutes, Reign opened his eyes, a slight smile was on his face as he looked at the king and the others.
"I can't sense Lios, but I have a general idea of where the worshippers are." Reign's words came as shock to everybody, but before they could say anything, Reign motioned for a person to come to him.
"Sir?" One of the two guards Reign had called to enter the throne room stepped out before arriving in front of Reign. The guard was confused and nervous, he was in the presence of the king and every other higher-up of the kingdom after all. Reign put his hand on the man's shoulder as he smiled warmly at him.
"You see, I have always been very sensitive to demonic energy, it's a weird feeling, a sense of disgust that makes me want to vomit every time I sense it, or feel it from one of you guys." At the beginning of Reign's sentence was spoken to the king and the others, before his focus switched over to the guard who, at the end of Reign's sentence, had his eyes wide open before a burst of lightning suddenly erupted from Reign's hand, shocking him and stopping him from moving.
"I have to admit, you guys are quite good at hiding, I hadn't noticed any of you before I had gone through the first evolution, unfortunately for you, however, I can sense you guys from a mile away right now." Reign smiled as he looked down at the guard that had collapsed on his knees, both of the guard's fists were clenched as his face showed great distress to what was currently happening.
"So, let's take a short trip, shall we?" Reign asked everyone as he grabbed the guard and forced him to get up.
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