—-

Not too long after Asmidia’s curiosity escalated to new heights, a number of questions circulated in her mind. Truth be told, learning of Apollo’s preexisting knowledge made her restless. She started to question the reason behind Apollo’s presence, who until now was unknown to the masses.

‘If he knew about it… could he be a co-conspirator? Although it might be a reach, gathering answers are difficult as well since our resources have been effectively cut in half with the exclusion of the Council,’ Asmidia thought as her eyebrows furrowed. Despite her outer appearance, Asmidia wasn’t as trusting and familiar as she emulated.

Out of the Seven Lords, she wasn’t within the most untrusting. In fact, the only one who was more on guard against threats was Lucifer, since he rarely trusted anyone aside from himself. Even the other Lords didn’t have the luxury of gaining his trust. He felt it was too valuable to give away.

To earn it, it would take a ridiculous event, and even then, there was no guarantee that Lucifer’s trust would remain long-lasting. The more his Superbia interfered with his disposition, the larger the chances of it taking over his character completely. While it wouldn’t be a terrible situation, it’d most like turn him into an existence incapable of relying upon others.

Under extreme circumstances, the inability to rely upon others could ultimately result in a perilous outcome. Finally, Asmida looked towards Fuhrer who stood beside Apollo. Throughout the entire experience, aside from his initial words of warning, Fuhrer didn’t participate in the conversation.

At first, it felt unusual seeing as his presence was the most prominent within the room. However, given that he usually spoke from Apollo or that Apollo’s word generally aligned with his behavior, Asmidia gained the impression that Apollo was the one in control.

After coming to this assumption, Asmidia frowned slightly. “Is it true that this boy is the one calling the shots and not the old man who seems unusually dangerous?”

“Perhaps,” Saehtyn shrugged indifferently. Of course, he was nearly one hundred percent that the one in charge was the younger individual because he had once heard Fuhrer address Apollo as Young Lord. This was only possible if the old demon looked up to the young one.

Be that as it may, Saehtyn didn’t feel as if verifying Asmidia’s suspicions would gain any benefits. Instead, Saehtyn thought it’d be better for her to confirm her own suspicions. After all, a Lord should be confident enough to explore the depths of any uncertainties present before their eyes.

“I don’t like that answers, it’s too evasive~!” Asmidia grumbled as her brows progressively furrowed until a deep crevice formed in the center of her brows. 

Meanwhile, Apollo couldn’t help but chuckle. Despite his presence, she didn’t include him for any answers, which he found odd. ‘There’s no way that I overwhelm her to the point she’s unable to seek answers from me, right? Nevertheless, it wouldn’t hurt to check.’

“Ahem, you know, you can always turn to me for the answers that even Saehtyn does not possess. Perhaps you’ll come to learn that my information channels are not inferior to any of your own,” Apollo commented while making a small gesture to Fuhrer.

Fuhrer immediately answered by communicating through their mental connection. ‘What is it, my Young Lord?

‘Am I mistaken, or does it seem that the Lord’s powers are deteriorating to that of a normal Noblesse’s plane of power. Wasn’t it said that they far surpassed a Noblesse at their peak?’ Apollo questioned.

Although both Asmidia and Saehtyn were still powerful, Apollo noticed some discrepancies after Asmidia. In addition to her admitting that Geneva’s Sin Purity was pure enough to catch her attention, Apollo also didn’t overlook the fact that Asmidia’s Sin Purity seemed to have some unexpected blemishes.

While Apollo wasn’t privy to the state of her Luxuria Haze prior to the change in the Nihilistic Ring’s foundations, Apollo was sure that her haze should be free of any impurities, especially since all of the Lords carry an implanted perfected Sin Purity.

‘That is correct my Young Lords. As I explained before the Primal Sources are falling into a dormant state now that they’re no longer in the presence of the Towers or implanted into a created vessel. As a result, the amount of power the Rings are able to draw from their source is finite,’ Fuhrer answered.

Because of the method Estran employed to create the Lords, their powers were directly linked to the amount of Sin Reserves available to the Nihilistic Rings. Meaning, any decline in the atmosphere of the Nihilistic Rings would result in the hasty decline of a Lord’s ability.

Fortunately, Estran provided a few failsafe measures so that in the event of this happening, their power wouldn’t return to what it was before the implant. At most, they’d become normal Noblesse.

However, the reversal of the atmosphere’s decline would automatically reverse the Lords’ issues without further intervention.

‘I see,’ Apollo responded. However, Apollo’s thought became tangential as he thought of a few scenarios he could take advantage of. While the decline of the Lords was extremely disadvantageous for the Nihilistic Rings given that they were the only line of defense now, Apollo felt his agenda could easily resolve any issue that may arise by acting upon his impulses.

If the Lords were to decline to a power weak enough for him to wrest control of them, then Apollo felt it was worth it once their power was restored or even amplified. Granted, Apollo didn’t know the extent of the repercussion that would follow nor was he aware of the outcome that would follow the interaction of Estran’s ability and the system.

Thus, Apollo once again questioned the creator of the system. According to his knowledge, there was no way a demon could create such an intricate thing. If that was the case, then perhaps his father, Aztraval weren’t the creator, but the one who supplied the information to store within the system.

If the latter were the truth, then Apollo had even more answers to search for. For example, were there beings stronger than Monarch-level existences within the upper races? And, if they existed, could this be related to the disappearance of the Monarch and his currently unknown status?

All of these questions flooding Apollo’s mind caused him to bite his nail in silence. Matters weren’t as simple as he made it seem. There were too many unaccounted-for details that Apollo thought about as he continued to grow stronger.

After all, as Apollo grew stronger, so would the scope of the issues he faced.

“Fine, if you’re so willing to tell the truth, then tell me; are you in any way related to that distasteful bastard we met in Ashiraem’s Tower? Surely if you’re aware of the state of the Rings, you should be privy to the events that took place in the tower, no?” Asmidia questioned while placing her hip with an interrogative gaze.

Despite a gut feeling telling her that this boy before had the Ring’s best intentions at heart, she didn’t know if her instincts were sufficient enough to trust anymore, which was understandable since that too was linked to the condition of the Ring she possessed authority over.

“Which one?” Apollo chuckled softly. As a result, Asmidia fell silent while blinking her eyes. She had overlooked the fact that booths individuals within the room at that time could be seen as insufferable.

Therefore, Asmidia was forced to change her wording.

“I mean, are you related to any of them! Do you have something to do with them appearing suddenly?” Asmidia said with an exaggerated pouting while stomping her foot.

“Well, yes and no,” Apollo responded, causing Asmidia’s expression to grow harsh. These were the type of evasive answers that she detested the most. Luckily for her, Apollo was far from done.

“You see, I am indeed related to both of them but, not in the way you think. After all, they come from differing sides as well as differing agendas. The rambunctious fellow is simply someone who was unable to control his anger whereas the original culprit is someone dangerous to our race altogether,” Apollo said while crossing his arms.

According to Azridan’s explanation, Irzanach was undoubtedly in cahoots with the Angels. If not, he wouldn’t be in possession of their most cherished ability and once originating from an extremely large character.

In the meantime, both Saehtyn and Asmidia’s expressions changed. Although they had conducted this conversation within the walls of the Ashiraem Tower once before, it was just pure speculation at that time, But, judging by Apollo’s confident demeanors it was apparent that his words possessed at least a semblance of truth.

“We expected as much, but we can’t understand why someone of our race would conspire with another upper race, much less one that has been inscribed as an inconsolable enemy. Don’t our powers even conflict with each other? If that the case, how would he be alive right now?” Saehtyn questioned with a pensive expression.

At the very least, wielding the power of the Angels for a single second should have resulted in irreparable damage down to Irzanach’s power system. However, from what Saehtyn remembered, there wasn’t anything necessarily wrong with him. In fact, he seemed relatively unaffected by the usage of the power.

For a moment, there were no answers passed around but Fuhrer soon intervened with a possible reasoning. “Perhaps he was given the means to isolate the power from running amok in his system. However, that would be a difficult thing to manage, therefore giving him an extremely limited time window.”

Suddenly, another presence arrived in the room, causing the others to direct their attention to them. “Are we conversing about enemies? Well, let me join dammit!”