Chapter 572: Unexpected
The peacock descended from above with a strong flap of its wings. Sylas hardly gave these City Lords a look before a crown flickered above his head.
Instantly, they all felt the horror of having their stats suppressed by 50%. No matter how hard they circulated their Aether or their Wills, it didn't change things in the slightest.
'Unexpected...'
Sylas looked at the bear demons who seemed prepared to battle already, but they were all looking toward Moose for his orders. As for Moose himself, he was in a bit of a shocked state as well. None of them had ever expected that Sylas would appear here.
None of them knew about the City Stele's ability. Otherwise, they wouldn't have gone as far as to kill their own messengers in the first place.
But that was still only part of it.
Even if they had known about the City Stele's hidden aces, they would have still come here. The reason being, a Territory was much too large. There were easily tens of thousands of people who called it home and several times that number in beasts.
Even if you had an aerial view of it all, how could you account for it all?
It was like staring at a satellite map. Unless you zoomed in, you wouldn't be able to find anything of interest. And if you were looking close enough to make out details, it would take you an impossibly long time to scan the entire region.
The only reason why Sylas knew exactly where their cities were was because picking out a large structure on the map was far easier than picking out individual people. If the latter was so easy, he would have already found Ragnar.
But how could these people know that he had been eyeing the Aether Stone Mine this entire time? Not just because of the mine itself, but also because of the city hidden underneath it. There would have never been anything that happened here without him being aware of it all. However, this sight alone made Sylas deduce many things in an instant.
His gaze flashed as he landed on them one by one.
"So. Which one of you is going to tell me where Ragnar is?"
There were several changes to their expressions, but they were all colored with confusion. Sylas didn't mind it at all.
They had all already realized that he was the Sylas Grimblade they had been hearing so much about. Though they weren't ready to meet him now, those among them smart enough to set all of this up would be...
Unfortunately for this person, they weren't smart enough to realize that they were being
used.
Sylas scanned over them one more time before landing on Moose.
"Are you going to keep up the act?"
Moose blinked, his simple giant persona coming out so smoothly that it was difficult for even Sylas to find fault with it. Sylas had always thought himself to be a person who read others
well, but Moose's antics, well...
They were certainly something.
"If you're as smart as you think you are, you'll know that while you didn't expect me to appear here, Ragnar certainly did. So why don't you ask yourself why that is?"
These three didn't know that Sylas was aware of the existence of the Aether Stone Mine, but Ragnar should have been there when Sylas unearthed it.
Of course, Ragnar didn't know that Sylas had guessed he would remain in the Woodland Territory. From his perspective, Sylas should think him to be long gone.
However, Ragnar had underestimated Sylas far too much once again. When you were vying for positions at the top of the world, only risk-takers would have a place at the table; anyone else would just be kidding themselves.
Someone like Ragnar certainly knew how to take risks... and he also knew how to set up traps. Moose's expression finally flickered somewhat. He knew that fooling Sylas any longer would be a waste of time. If Moose hadn't sent a human and killed him on the way back, he would still have some plausible deniability. But now?
In front of someone else, he might have some wiggle room. After all, he could say that Braxwell had done it for him or that it had been the idea of one of the other City Lords. But for some reason, Sylas had already locked onto him and him alone.
What Moose didn't know was that the reason for that was his bear demons.
The black fog they were emitting... they carried shades of the Scorpion Warlord inheritance's
aura.
Ragnar likely believed that Sylas wouldn't be able to make much headway at all, not without the items he likely had in his possession. What he could never expect was that Sylas might not know what materials he needed to permanently etch the Scorpion Warlord runes, but he would sense them when they were in action.
Now the question was, why had Ragnar wanted him to come here?
Was it as simple as luring him into a trap and forcing these three City Lords to throw everything they had at him?
Sylas clenched his fist and suddenly threw out a punch.
BANG!
Ditya's head exploded. His headless corpse fell to its knees before it toppled over in a rain of blood.
'I see. That's the final piece, hm?'
All three of these men were City Lords. So the question was... why did they dare to come here? How long could they leave their cities without ending up like Lucius?
Ditya's corpse suddenly morphed into the headless corpse of a naked woman. From a short
man to a slender woman. Or most accurately, a slender female Sylph.
'This isn't a simple disguise. It's almost like a projection. Their bodies were taken over by the
soul of another and controlled from a distance...'
Sylas made his deductions based on the dispersal of runes in the air.
'... So, the only real one here is you...'
Sylas looked toward Moose once again.