Chapter 176: Human spies[Fixed]
At the time, Ayu had offered him a dismissive wave and a calm, confident reassurance.
He had told Noah that every move they were making was part of the Grand Guild Master’s grand, overarching plan and that he didn’t need to worry about the consequences.
Trusting the Arch Magus’s word, Noah had stayed silent and followed the plan, and sure enough, they had descended upon the central courtyard with the frozen, three-horned demon exposed for every single adventurer to witness.
Even now, Noah knew the scene he had caused would have already become the talk of the entire city.
The image of the renowned Arch Magus Ayu and the mysterious, masked enigma known as Mr. White openly transporting a captured demon would be traveling through the streets faster than any courier pigeon.
It was a massive, public spectacle, a declaration of war that couldn’t be rescinded.
Noah sat back, feeling a complex mix of emotions stir within him.
He wasn’t entirely sure whether he should be happy or sad about this chaotic development. On one hand, having the truth out in the open leveled the playing field and stripped away the demons’ ability to operate in secrecy.
On the other hand, it turned him and his companions into the ultimate targets, forcing them to stand at the very center of a storm that was only just beginning to brew.
He had traded his relative anonymity for a seat at the table of the world’s most dangerous conflict, and as he looked at the hardened, resolute face of Morris Edgar, he knew there was no going back.
A sense of unease gnawed at Noah beneath his mask as the weight of the situation fully settled in.
He wasn’t just gambling with his own life anymore; he was potentially endangering the future of the entire continent based on a few assumptions and a very public reveal.
’Kael...’ he thought, projecting the question into the depths of his mind, ’will this really work?’
A faint, mocking chuckle resonated within his thoughts, Kael’s voice dripping with an arrogance that somehow managed to be comforting.
’Of course it would... who do you think I am? Do you honestly believe a group of mortals could outmaneuver me, even if they had the support of the abyss itself? Relax, boy. Your plan is sound, even if your execution was a bit dramatic for my tastes.’
Noah let out a silent, internal huff.
’Fine... do it,’ he commanded, signaling for his familiar to check the immediate vicinity for any signs of corruption or betrayal.
The shadow cast by Noah’s chair suddenly stirred, a dark, viscous ripple moving against the stone floor like liquid ink.
It was a movement so subtle, so perfectly integrated into the ambient darkness of the room, that not a single one of the powerful Arch Magi around the table noticed a thing.
Morris was busy staring at the ice-encased demon, and Ayu was still brooding over his hatred for the Magus Order; none of them had the slightest inkling that a sentient, ancient presence was currently sweeping through their very life force.
Seconds stretched into a tense eternity before Kael’s voice returned to Noah’s mind, low and sharp.
’Confirmed. None of those in this room have any sign of Nether in them.
Noah inwardly let out a long, shuddering sigh of relief, his posture finally relaxing just a fraction.
’It would have been terrible if one of them did...’ he thought, his heart rate finally slowing back to a steady pace.
Looking back, he realized his recent actions had been a little careless.
If there had been even a sliver of a chance that Morris Edgar—the most powerful man in the guild—was actually a secret spy for the demon kingdom, then Noah’s transparency would have been a catastrophic mistake.
He would have essentially handed over the most vital, private information directly to the enemy, revealing the exact method he used to neutralize their assets.
Still, despite his recent impulsive behavior, Noah wasn’t being completely naive.
Even in his moment of perceived carelessness, he had been careful enough not to expose ’everything’ he had learned to the adventurer guild, making sure to keep his cards close to his chest.
While he had been open about the existence of the experiments and the ’shadows’ running wild throughout human society, there was another thing—a much more dangerous piece of intelligence—that he hadn’t explained to them at all.
It was a secret that felt like a ticking time bomb, and he knew that for now, the less they knew about that specific truth, the better off they would all be.
There was a specific, reliable way to recognize the spies serving the demon kingdom.
To Noah’s initial surprise, the ranks of the enemy did not consist solely of demons or summoned entities.
They included humans—men and women walking among them in the flesh, living in their cities, and eating at their tables, all while serving a cause that intended to reduce the world to ashes.
For these human spies, the identification process was not as simple as spotting horns or inhuman eyes.
The only way to truly unmask them was to perform an internal scan of their bodies for any trace of shadow energy or Nether residue.
According to what Noah had learnt from Yaroth, the demons didn’t just recruit these people; they corrupted them.
They provided these human agents with a partial shadow element, fundamentally altering their physiology and effectively turning them into half-breed ’shadow figures.’
These individuals were not exactly warriors. This corrupted shadow element they possessed couldn’t be utilized to fight as actively as a true demon or a full-blooded shadow entity.
Instead, their value lay in subversion and espionage. They could receive directives and information directly from their demonic masters through a psychic tether, and their physical form allowed them to easily slip through solid walls or locked doors, making them the ultimate infiltrators.
The realization had been profoundly shocking to Noah. The idea that humans—beings who stood to lose everything—would actively betray their own world for a seat at the table of their destroyers was difficult to digest.
For a long time, he had struggled to reconcile the concept of humanity with such calculated treachery.
However, as he sat in the cold, silent war room, watching the powerful figures around him, he soon realized he had been incredibly naive.
He had viewed the world through a lens of idealism that simply didn’t exist in reality.
He understood now that humans, down to their very core, were often driven by a toxic mix of selfishness and insatiable wickedness.
Since every man had a price—whether it was power, gold, or the promise of survival in a dying world—it wasn’t actually a surprise to see that the demons had managed to buy them over so easily.
The moral rot of humanity was a resource the enemy had exploited with terrifying efficiency.
Noah leaned back, his hand resting almost imperceptibly on his thigh.
While he had kept this intelligence to himself, he took a grim comfort in knowing he held the upper hand, and possessed a way to detect those spies.
His method was even more sure proof than anything in the world.
