Chapter 554 - The Calm Before The Storm

Despite looking for two days straight John could not find a single trace of Melody. He had pretty much searched every corner of the Capital but there was nothing. Even now he could not understand how she and the other geniuses disappeared right in the middle of the city that had almost all the powerful people in the Empire. 

He went around the city and even look outside, he searched all the nearby areas but he found nothing. The second day of searching ended with him unable to do anything at all. The following day arrived and the tournament continued, despite everything going on in the Empire. 

John no longer wished to participate and wanted to continue his search, but he couldn't just not go as that would be insulting the other contestants that had already failed. It was a good thing that he was scheduled for the very first fight. The opponent John was supposed to face today was the little lady Kiara. 

Unlike the previous time, the crowd wasn't as excited as they once were. The atmosphere in the arena was weird, and some of the people there looked like they wanted to leave. That wasn't the only thing different from the preliminaries, another different thing was that the skies above the arena were filled with dragons, and on the ground were the Shadow Clan's top assassins patrolling the area. 

The people from the various clans and academies were also helping in patrolling the entirety of the arena. 

The majority of the forces in the Capital were now in the arena, if the enemy could get past this lineup then they would be truly formidable. 

...

In a secret location, Arthur was waiting patiently for the enemy force to make a move, standing beside him was Shera who was doing some minor preparations. 

"This time, I'll make sure to capture each and every one of those b*stards! I will make sure that they would pay the price of making a fool out of me. I will beat them down so much that even after they reincarnate they would never think of rebelling against teacher." Arthur showed a similar vicious smile the same smile his teacher usually shows as he gets excited. At his side, Shera who was looking at him could only sigh. 

'What happened to the cute kid I once knew? I thought that if I supervise him, I would be able to somehow save him from becoming like big bro, but this kid became even more aggressive than big bro. There's no more hope he has been influenced too much by big bro.' At that thought, Shera sighed again and shook her head. 

...

In the sewers below the city of New Grenton, several groups were moving around, and when they met a group of knights they captured and hypnotize them. At this point, they had control of over half of the normal knights in the Capital.

Despite everything they had done, even now none of the people from the Capital had found their secret base that was located deeper underground. In that underground base, the three top members of the enemy forces were looking at the map of the city. 

"Are the preparations done?" 

"Yes, we have everything that we need to summon our God. We just need to wait for the right time and he will descend upon this world, a true descent." 

"Finally, the time is nearing, the fall of the false God is upon us. We have suffered so much under his foolish rule." 

"We can finally be free from that arrogant person's rule." 

While his two companions were getting excited for what's to come the last one among the three was frowning. 

"Will this really work?" 

"Huh, what do you mean? Are you doubting the success of our plan?" The two glared at their companion.

"Yes... I do not wish to say it, but I must. Are we truly sure that we could win against him?" When his two companions heard what he said they looked at him as if they were looking at an idiot.

"Hmph, if it was by ourselves we stand no chance of achieving victory, which is why we have prepared for many years to summon our God. Once he descends even that arrogant b*stard will fall." 

"It's not like I wish to doubt our God, but don't you remember that he has already defeated a Deity before. Not only did he defeat that Deity but he gave her a true death." 

"How dare you! How dare you compare our all-powerful God, to a weak Deity such as the Goddess of Light. I can't believe that you a believer of our omniscient God would dare say such blasphemy!" 

The mana of his two companions started to leak and their killing intent was so dense and thick that the atmosphere became extremely tense. Yet despite the anger of his companions, the man remained calm. 

"As one of his faithful believers, I do not doubt the power of our God, but I do wish to dismiss the strength of our opponent. We are after all facing the Undefeated Emperor, and as his title implies he has won in every battle he has been in. From battling liches to facing off against dragons, and even Gods, every opponent he has faced had shared similar fates, they were all defeated. I fear that we are simply leading our God to an untimely end. I do not wish to be the sinner that has doomed our God to such a fate." 

"So what, do you wish to stop at this stage? Do you wish to continue to live under his rule? You do remember why were are doing this?" 

"It's not that I wish to stop, but... I just want to be sure that we have prepared for every possible scenario."

"We have already planned for everything, and there will be no mistakes. We have already waited for years, if we continue to wait his strength would only continue to grow, and at that point, there will be no future for us." 

"...."