Chapter 130 - Meanwhile On Kreiz…

While Aurora was billions of light years away destroying galactic cores and Diablo was thinking of how he would coax the enraged Aurora, Arthur, Layla and Nicole were currently causing a commotion at the Academy cafeteria.

To be more specific, the largest of the Second Year Class A cafeterias.

"Are you kidding me?"

"Isn't that a little bit too fast?"

"Even if they were superior stages in their first year, this is a new realm entirely."

"How did they break through so easily?"

The trio showed up at the same time and place after being absent for a week.

Just that was enough to cause a commotion as the trio were arguably the most popular second years.

Be it looks or academics or strength, they were at the top of it all.

Their strengths were comparable to some third and fourth years.

As for academics, they had been topping since the entrance exams.

When the trio entered the cafeteria hall, their fans all came over to find out where they went and what they were doing that caused them to be absent for a week at the same time.

However, they ended up noticing something else that shocked them all to their cores.

Arthur, Layla and Nicole usually concealed their energies.

Even if it was widely known that they were in the superior stage of the master realm, it was just because of what they had displayed during the combat test section of the academy entrance exams.

After the public clash against Owen, Arthur displayed strength above that of a superior stage master realm and also hinted at being in a higher realm than that but there was no proof or conclusive evidence.

However, that was not the case anymore.

All three of them did not conceal their energies like usual, as such their inferior stage grandmaster realm auras could be seen and sensed by all.

As for Arthur, even though he was in the intermediate stage of the grandmaster realm, he made use the concealment ring that was given to him by Creusery, the elder brother of his mother, Cattleya.

Using the ring that was given to him, he concealed his true stage and only let others see and sense him at the inferior stage.

'I decided to show them I was an inferior stage grandmaster because I am getting tired of hiding the energy usage even though I was doing a sloppy job at it.'

Arthur was well aware that he was not really doing a good job at hiding his energy usage.

It was somewhat hard to keep fighting with physical strength alone when he had an abundance of energy he could use, albeit barely.

He had only shown the public that he could use artifacts and not manipulate his energy itself at first.

'In that case, if someone uses an artifact canceller or something similar then I would have my hands tied.'

Besides, although Arthur acted as if he was not fully aware, there were times when he adjusted the ring's settings and let people stronger than him sense his stagnant energy flow.

Of course, Arthur let them do that so they could spread it and people will still think he could not use the energy.

He was supposed to maintain this status quo until he went to Varona and retrieved whatever legacy of Lucifer's was left behind there.

Unfortunately, Arthur was unable to commit to doing that and ended up derailing from his plans. Even though, he still tried to follow it even if a little bit.

However, after what he pulled during the battle against Owen, some will think he is regaining the ability to use his energy slowly.

Unfortunately, the reality was much further than that.

Arthur's enormous amount of energy was still too much for him to control fully, this was why he began trying to use only his magic and aura without touching his divinity and the other negative energy.

Even the mana and aura he used were barely half of what he actually had.

However, besides his immediate family members and Layla, no one knew he had that monstrous amount of energy.

Creusery's concealment ring, the cosmic artifact that originally belonged to Lucifer.

It allowed the wearer to select how much to conceal and how much to show.

He used that on his realm, thus the reason why people believed he was an inferior stage grandmaster.

Arthur once asked Creusery where he got the ring from and the latter said he hot it from a ruin in the Varona realm about 5000 years ago when he was still a mid-tier deity and liked exploring more than getting stronger.

He never really liked advancing in strength at the time, as such his progress was quite slow.

Creusery said he discovered this ruin in a desert in one of the smaller galaxies inside Varona.

He claimed to have faced off against some guardians who possessed high tier deity level of strength and would have lost his life if they did not suddenly stop attacking him after injuring him once.

The ruin also opened up for him and he could sense the aura of countless treasures within.

He went in and the ring was one of the things randomly kept on the floor.

Unfortunately, something urgent came up and he had to leave so he only took the ring.

However, he never saw the ruin again when he came back.

He scoured that entire galaxy to no avail.

In the end, the ring was then only thing he recovered from that strange ruin.

The ring also had some requirements to work.

He once gave it to Aurora but it did not work on her, same with Inglis.

However, it worked fine on Diablo, Cattleya and currently, Arthur.

This led Arthur to arrive at the conclusion that it only worked on members of the Devilian Royal family.

To be more specific, those who possessed the blood of Lucifer.

This also led Arthur to further conclude that the strange ruin Creusery encountered was Lucifer's ruin.

In addition, the guardians suddenly stopping their attack after injuring him once was most likely because his blood spilled.

After all, Creusery is Lucifer's grandson.

The guardians must have been ordered to not attack any of Lucifer's blood.

Arthur felt there was more to it as Hades' expression when he saw the ring on Arthur was one of shock.

As if he recognized the ring, or recognized what type of artifact it was.

'However why could uncle Creusery not find it again?'

After thinking, he realized that it had to do with the entrance.

Varona was a great realm that had multiple entrances.

It was quite large too, large enough to hold galaxies within.

When Alexia told him about it, she specified he should go during the realm expedition.

If he went at that time, he would have to use the entrance in the academy.

That meant that there was something about the academy entrance that was key to finding the ruin.

After all, like Creusery did, he could enter the realm normally with other entrances yet she did not say that but specified the academy entrance.

'Two more years huh?'

He smiled and put his hands over Nicole and Layla's shoulders before speaking.

"It seems we've all gotten more famous."

"Whose idea was it to not conceal our strengths?"

Layla rolled her eyes at Arthur as she spoke, nevertheless she did not push his hand off.

"Well, if people know we are grandmasters, less of them will challenge us."

"There are some… um… crazy people who would though?"

Nicole spoke up after some hesitation, bringing looks of shock to Arthur and Layla's faces.

Nicole noticed this and titled her head in curiosity while asking.

"Is it that weird?"

"No, it's not weird, it's just…"

"Our dear Nicole has finally grown up."

"Kyaa?!"

The two who recovered from their shock replied before suddenly hugging Nicole.

The onlookers gave them weird looks but they ignored them all.

"Nicole called someone 'crazy', I'm so happy."

"Is this what a father feels when their innocent daughter begins to know the ways of the world?"

Arthur and Layla ended up treating Nicole like a child throughout the rest of their lunch period.

They got her food for her and ended up feeding her all through the meal.

Unsurprisingly, there were some students watching with gritted teeth. 

They wished be in Nicole's position, while some wished to be in Arthur or Layla's position however, that is a story for another time.

◇　◇　◇

After their meal, the trio chatted casually while walking to class, however before they could enter, they encountered an annoying situation.

"I thought that revealing our high realms was supposed to drive them away."

"Unfortunately, as Nicole said, there are the crazy ones who would still challenge us."

Arthur and Layla sighed as they spoke while looking at the scene in front of them.

Rank 10 of the Second Year class, one of the sons of a Marquis named Kian had challenged Nicole to a duel.