Far away from the lands of the Star Garden Peak, a group of strong individuals gathered together.

The place they were gathered at appears to be a huge throne hall.

Polished braziers at the bottom of each twelve ivory columns light up the entire throne hall. The intricate golden pattern on the vault ceiling dance in the flickering light while stone statues of fierce men and women look down upon the mosaic floor of the monumental hall.

A silver rug runs from the throne to the doors and is matched by smaller ones on either side of the hall. One can also see 10 burgee banners with printed golden weapons droop from the walls.

These banners represent the Nine Paragons of the Martial Arts Alliance and the last one was from the Alliance Head.

The towering throne of silver sits in front of a giant painting of the first ruler of the Alliance.

Currently, an old man sitting on the throne was looking down at the six Paragons that were respectfully bowing at him.

There are rumors that Paragons are the strongest Martial Artists and not even the Alliance Head can do anything about them… They believe that the Paragons were beings that can do whatever they want in the Alliance and no one would be able to stop them.

However, that is far from the truth and the Paragons know this very well.

For them, the Alliance Head is someone who had already transcended the limits of the human realm… Although Paragons, to a certain extent, transcended the limit of the human body as well, they haven't removed the shackles binding them to this world yet.

On the other hand, the Alliance Head is genuinely capable of defeating Celestial Beings with only his physical strength and that is something that Paragons couldn't do unless they have their weapons or tools that can help them push the limits of their bodies.

"Colm, Niall, and Ariana haven't returned. We can assume that they've died at the border…" The Alliance Head spoke with his deep voice showing no emotions at this news.

"That seems to be the case, Alliance Head… However, I don't think this is done by the Black Magic Organization. We have recently agreed to their conditions and there's no reason for them to break the deal." A slightly thin middle-aged man said. His name is Dromio and the youngest Paragon of all nine.

He wasn't previously this thin but after they battled against the magic god's Avatar, he had weakened quite a lot and he hasn't fully recovered yet.

"Was it the Black Tower's people then?" Another imposing man said as he touches his chin. He has a twin blade on his back and doesn't appear to be too bothered by the death of their three companions.

He didn't have a name and only goes by his title, Twin Blade Master.

"Who else?! It must be the Tower Lord… They must've learned that our Alliance decided to stop supporting them and got angry. No matter what, the Tower Lord can still command several Tower Masters and they have many weird tricks up their sleeve. If 10 or so Tower Masters work together… Those three would have a hard time dealing with them even if they work together." An old man among the nine paragons said with anger…

It can easily be noticed that his eyes are quite similar to Ariana's eyes since they were father and daughter.

His name is Lancelot and he sure loves his daughter. If not for the Alliance Head, he'd already rushed to the territory of the Black Tower and caused havoc…

He wanted to find out who killed his precious daughter and torture them… He wouldn't even be satisfied with that as he also plans to find their relatives and extermination their whole nine generations. If he found out that some of them are already dead, he would also find their graves and destroy them with his hands.

Everyone in the hall can feel his fury but none of them spoke about it.

The Alliance Head then spoke to break the silence.

"That's possible… I'm also thinking that it's the Tower Lord so I've sent my shadow to fully investigate this incident. I called all of you here since I wanted you to get his report once he arrives. It shouldn't take long before he gets here…"

As soon as he said this, everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

If it's the Alliance Head's "shadow" they believe that he would be able to find out what truly happened… It doesn't matter what kind of tricks they used to hide the traces of the incident, the shadow would be able to find out the truth… Nothing would escape from it.

After five minutes had passed, the Alliance Head's shadow has finally returned… A dark figure appeared at the ceiling before coursing through the Alliance Head's figure.

It was his literal shadow that had returned.

"Inform everyone of the result of your investigation…" The Alliance Head commanded his shadow.

Suddenly, six shadow tentacles stretched towards the shadows of the Paragons… As soon as it connected to the six, information suddenly went directly to their minds.

Apparently, the shadow just now was similar to Levent's Mind Network… It allowed the Alliance Head to connect with the six Paragons and pass the information to them in an instant.

As they browsed through the information, they were first confused since the shadow seem to have found traces of demihumans, demonic cultists, celestial beings, mana practitioners, and grand knights aside from the traces left by the Martial Artists of their alliance.

However, the shadow organized this information and found out about the series of events that has occurred…

It had concluded that except for Niall who had died far away from Niall and Ariana, the two Paragons died in a battle not against the Celestials but against a Magician.

"Wait! The Shadow didn't report any traces of Ariana's body… Is it possible that she's still alive?" Lancelot asked in a hopeful tone.

Parts of Colm and Niall's bodies were found and confirmed to have died… On the other hand, since only Ariana's items of clothing were found, she might have escaped and tried to recuperate in hiding.

She might even be waiting for someone to rescue her.

"Hmmm… It's good that you still have hopes… However, do not expect too much. For now, we'll follow the lead brought by my shadow and visit the nearest base of Ignacy's disciple at Nidite City." The Alliance Head said.

Lancelot didn't hesitate and replied.

"Please allow me to lead my team to investigate…"

The Alliance Head nodded in approval.

"I will allow it. Go pick up 10 useful slaves inside the Scarlet Dungeon and bring them with you."