Kaiya's expression flickered with uncertainty.
Was that imposter caught?
How was that possible? They were fine when they communicated last night. Could Kross be bluffing?
Kaiya looked suspiciously at Kross's face. The confidence there didn't seem feigned, which only made Kaiya feel even more uneasy.
"What a joke. I, Kaiya Kritov, am a descendant of heroes. How could I ever associate with cultists? Can a four-star hunter like you not distinguish between truth and such obvious slander?" Kaiya huffed.
"I don't want to doubt you, but someone definitely tampered with the Wuxin Island secret realm!" Kross stared straight at Kaiya, his gaze all but explicitly stating that he suspected him of being the culprit.
The argument between the two came to a temporary halt as they turned their attention to the other hunters conducting the search.
"Captain, I haven't found anything on my end," one hunter said, walking over while rubbing his temples with a disappointed look.
"Nothing here either."
"Same for me."
"..."
Watching the four empty-handed hunters, the weight on Kaiya's heart finally lifted. He glanced at Kross with a sneer. "It seems you can't find any evidence. I suggest certain people be more rigorous in their work. Do you really think you can slander the son of a count and a principal's assistant just by listening to the words of some cultist?"
"I'll remember this grudge," Kaiya said, narrowing his eyes with a cold laugh.
The wrath of the Kritov family was not something a mere four-star hunter could easily withstand.
"Captain..." A young hunter swallowed hard, looking at Kross with concern.
Clearly, they were also well aware of the price of provoking the Kritov family.
Compared to Kaiya's triumph and his subordinates' worry, Kross himself remained quite calm. He propped up his arm, his gaze suddenly drifting toward Kaiya's seat...
The leather gold chair beneath him.
From the moment he entered, they had been talking, and Kaiya had never once left that seat. Even though Kross had remained standing, Kaiya hadn't moved an inch.
The problem wouldn't be the chair itself.
But why was he so unwilling to give up that position?
Was there something special about it?
Kross suddenly looked at the desk in front of Kaiya, the one equipped with the magic network system. From the low-frequency flashing indicator light, he could tell the magic network had only recently been shut down.
Kross had a guess.
So, Kaiya was so unwilling to let others near his position because he didn't want them to discover a problem with the magic network.
Kross gave a light chuckle. He leaned his upper body forward slightly while reaching out his hand toward the magic network's sensor.
"Senior Kaiya, you probably won't mind if I check your magic network, right?"
Just as his hand was about to touch the sensor, a powerful arm suddenly gripped his wrist tightly. Both men exerted force simultaneously, their arms locked in a stalemate in mid-air.
Kross looked up to see Kaiya's expression looking as sour as if he had swallowed something foul.
"Senior?"
Kaiya looked as if he were about to grind his teeth to dust. His voice held a hint of fury and a trace of pleading.
"Was I the only one present at Hero Square?"
"Why do you keep chasing after your old senior!"
The moment Kaiya's words fell, the four nearby hunters' eyes widened. In that instant where time seemed to slow down, their faces were filled with utter shock.
Their bodies moved, but not fast enough.
Kaiya's golden eyes erupted with a soul-piercing light. The air was heated to a near-boiling point, and the entire Principal's Office turned into a fiery purgatory in an instant!
At the highest level of the tower, the sudden eruption of high-temperature flames instantly engulfed the entire room. Even the hallway was hit by a massive blast of fire. Glass melted, and students across the academy looked up in shock, witnessing a scene they would never forget.
The top floor of the tower that represented the principal exploded with the brilliance of fireworks. The walls, softened by the intense heat, began to sag.
In the midst of the flaming ruins, Kross knelt on one knee. His right arm was severely burned, and a pained expression crossed his face.
Kaiya pushed aside the half-burnt desk and walked toward Kross step by step. A patch on his face was covered in frost. Kaiya reached out and gently peeled away the ice, along with a layer of frozen, dead skin.
It revealed the precision machinery underneath.
"Are you one of Rubite's people?" Kross asked, his face pale.
It was clear the other party was an alchemical creation. Only the Rubite Kingdom possessed the technology to create such a sophisticated alchemical mechanical man.
Kaiya didn't deny it, but he wasn't in a hurry to strike Kross either.
Kross appeared weak, but in reality, he was ready to deliver a fatal blow at any moment. Such a petty trick naturally couldn't escape Kaiya's eyes.
Both were level thirty-something mages; the gap in their strength wasn't large enough for one to completely crush the other.
However, the battle between them was already far beyond what ordinary people could participate in.
In just a single exchange, those four hunters from earlier had been reduced to ashes in the flames.
Conversely, Kross, who had been even closer, only had his arm burned and had successfully counterattacked Kaiya.
This was the difference between mages of different calibers.
"What is Rubite's purpose in sending you here, and where is the real Senior Kaiya?" Kross roared at Kaiya.
"The real Kaiya?" Kaiya let out a playful expression. "He died long ago. His corpse is in the wardrobe of his room on the second floor of the Duke's Manor. The eldest son of the prestigious Kritov family was assassinated by our Rubite Kingdom, yet you people in Katar remained completely unaware. Truly pathetic!"
"He's dead?" Kross said blankly, his expression filled with horror.
"You Katar people are simply stupid to the core. A person with such an important identity was replaced, and yet you didn't notice a thing," Kaiya continued to mock him.
"With that look on your face, surely you don't think you can still escape?" Kross looked at him coldly. "This is Yiertaya Academy. Do you think no one else heard such a loud commotion?"
"Of course I know I can't get away. That's why I've already activated my self-destruct sequence. I won't let you learn any intelligence regarding Rubite," Kaiya said.
Kross frowned.
Kaiya huffed and said indignantly, "However, I won't kill you. I just want to tell you one thing before I self-destruct. Since the people from the Diao Cult betrayed me, I'll naturally pay them back for this grudge!"
Kross shifted slightly. "What?"
Kaiya glanced at him and said, "Since you say you've already captured my companion, I assume you should also know that the Diao Cult has already replaced the real Princess Ruiya."
Kross blinked upon hearing this.
Wait, what?
Princess Ruiya was replaced too?
Since when did he know about this?
Was he supposed to know?
Kross stood frozen like a statue, his expression shocked beyond measure.
Rate on N.U.
