Chapter 175: Drag them into the light[Fixed]
Morris stared at the polished surface of the table for a long, silent moment, the gears of his mind clearly turning as he processed the sheer implications of Noah’s power.
The room felt suddenly claustrophobic, the weight of the secrets held within these walls pressing down on everyone present.
Finally, he exhaled and then leaned back, his robes rustling with a dry, papery sound.
"We’ll need to contact the Magus Order about this... this isn’t something we can handle alone. Their archives might be the only place where we can find a record of how to truly excise a demon of this caliber." he muttered.
As he spoke, Yuan and Varis sat on the very edges of their seats, looking like men who had been thrust into the center of a storm they barely understood.
They simply kept nodding their heads in a rhythmic, mechanical fashion at every word Morris said, their movements stiff and unpracticed.
They were still in a state of deep, paralyzing disbelief, struggling to reconcile the reality of the situation with their own humble beginnings.
Now, they were sitting at the same table as the continent’s most powerful Arch Magi—the very legends they had studied in history books and heard whispered about in awe-filled tones as children.
To be in the presence of such overwhelming power made every breath feel like a privilege they hadn’t earned.
At the mention of the Magus Order, a sharp sound of irritation broke the heavy tension.
Ayu let out a weary, frustrated sigh, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed tightly against his chest. His posture was rigid, and his brow was furrowed in open distaste.
"The Magus Order..." he spat, his tone laced with genuine, unfiltered venom. "I hate those guys. If we bring them into this, it’ll be very annoying, tsk."
It was a well-known, foundational fact across the continent that the Adventurer Guild and the Magus Order were as fundamentally incompatible as water and oil.
Their long, shared histories were stained with decades of bitter rivalry and cold, calculated hostility.
They had almost never once truly gotten along, and their constant friction was the subject of countless tavern songs and political debates that spanned generations.
The root of this deep-seated, systemic animosity lay in the Order’s suffocating approach to magic; they were notoriously obsessed with rigid rules and arcane regulations, constantly hovering over the guild like vultures.
They were always trying to restrict the adventurers’ freedom, impose limits on spell casting, and dictate exactly how they should conduct their operations, viewing the guild as little more than a necessary evil.
Ayu’s face remained twisted in a deep scowl for several seconds, but as the silence in the room stretched on, his expression eventually shifted.
He looked down at his hands, his fingers tapping rhythmically against his elbows as he reached a grim, unavoidable realization.
In this specific case, the usual pride, the history of petty rivalry, and the deep-seated hatred didn’t matter. There wasn’t any other choice available to them.
With the terrifying threat of a cosmic being aiming to devour the entire planet looming over their heads, and the unsettling truth that the shadow organization had already infiltrated the deep layers of their society, the petty squabbles of the past felt dangerously insignificant—almost childish.
They all needed to come together, setting aside their ancient prejudices and deep-seated hatred to fight the approaching extinction in one unified front, or they would surely face total annihilation.
Ayu shifted his weight, his sharp, predatory gaze turning toward Morris.
He leaned forward, the shadows of the room playing across his features, his voice dropping to a low, cautious register.
"But then... is exposing the existence of these demons to the rest of the world like this really such a good idea...?" he asked, his tone laced with genuine concern. "The moment the Order knows, the secret is as good as out. We risk panic, hysteria, and worse."
He didn’t wait for an answer, instead casting a suspicious, sweeping look around the dim, quiet chamber.
His eyes flickered to the corners of the ceiling and the heavy iron doors that led out to the corridors.
"Look around us," he said, his voice hard, lacking its usual playful cadence. "Even among all of us here... we still don’t know who might be a hidden spy for the demon kingdom, or if one of those shadow figures is currently lurking somewhere close by, listening to every single word we say."
Morris let out a heavy, shuddering sigh, running a hand through his long, golden hair.
"Yeah... that’s right," he murmured, his voice sounding raspy and strained in the oppressive silence of the room. "But perhaps this is still the best option we have left. These... demons, these parasites... they have remained in the shadows for so long, manipulating events from the darkness while we were none the wiser."
He suddenly clenched his fists, the knuckles turning white against the deep red fabric of his robes.
The heat radiating from his body flared, causing the air around the table to ripple with faint, shimmering currents.
"We can’t try to fight them in the shadows also," he said, his voice dropping slightly.
"We’ll lose easily that way; they have had centuries to master the dark. The only way to break their grip is to drag them into the light with us, to expose all their evil doings to the world. We force their hand, and we fight them where they cannot hide."
Noah, sitting quietly across from the Grand Guild Master, felt his brows knit together beneath the black cat mask. A frown tugged at his lips as he processed the logic.
’Drag them into the light...’ he thought.
The phrase echoed in his mind, bringing back memories of the journey to this fortress.
He vividly recalled the moment he had turned to Ayu while they were still miles away from the headquarters.
He had been skeptical, openly questioning why they were bringing such a dangerous, high-profile asset directly into the heart of the guild’s headquarters.
He had asked Ayu if they were really just going to carry the demon along with them, essentially broadcasting their discovery to every pair of eyes they passed.
