Axel and Karna were aware that Alastor would be alright, because he had informed them of his disappearance beforehand.
'When Alastor does it, it looks easy! But actually doing it myself is way too difficult!' Axel thought as he trained to deflect projectiles with Karna.
"Ow!" A moment of distraction led to a dull arrow hitting him right in the forehead.
Karna told Axel, "You're trying to fight like Alastor. Don't. You can't fight that way."
Axel asked, "Why not?"
He wasn't angry, simply curious as to how he should get stronger. Karna replied without looking, "Alastor's fighting style is unique to him. It should not, and cannot, be copied. It's built around his extreme reflexes, instinct, and faster mind. You possess none of those."
Axel was not discouraged or disheartened by the comparison. He knew all of that beforehand.
"Then, how do I get stronger? I'm not too good with mana, and my family didn't even let me buy a sword style."
Karna looked at him, thought for a moment before asking, "Alastor dodged all arrows because he seeks a perfect, risky victory. Why did you dodge them?"
Axel was taken aback, "What? Because getting hit by an arrow is bad?"
Karna nodded, "Yes. But it doesn't matter if you kill your opponent before dying, does it?"
"You have willpower and pain tolerance. Just fight as many opponent's as you can, and engrave every experience into your body through your wounds. Pain is the only way for an untalented person to catch up to a genius."
Axel nodded. 'Then I'll just have to increase the intensity of my training even further.'
He called out to Karna, who was walking away, "Wait, where are you going?"
Karna replied, "To tell the Professors not to mark Alastor as dead yet. You should focus more on your girlfriend who is waiting for you outside your dorm."
Karna thought to himself, 'I still don't know how exactly Amber can change our fate.'
'Well, I already threw in my lot with Alastor. Nothing I can do about it except ensure everything goes well in his absence.'
.........................................
Further away, in the headquarters of Nine, William sent a message to Alastor, unaware that he was in a Dungeon.
The simplified contents of the message were,
'There will be an attack on the Academy within 1 month. To avoid being targetted, simply have your allies hold the symbol of Nine, and the summons will ignore them.'
Unfortunately, Alastor never received the message, and neither did his allies.
.........................................
Alastor looked at the void before him, as he thought to himself, 'I really need to get out of the Ohr Jinn pathway as soon as possible. While it is indeed powerful, power means nothing if I am not the one to use it.'
'The sooner I find suitable catalysts, as well as the seed, the sooner I can escape from this pathway.'
'Unfortunately, right now, it seems the Ohr Jinn is the only suitable evolutionary option for me.'
Alastor looked at the other options as he contemplated.
[Soul Herder]
[Influenced by: Unshackled Soul, Greed]
[Pros: Allows user to control souls at rudimentary level (Milestone). Allows user to control souls proficiently after 2 evolutions (Milestone). Allows user to control souls expertly after 5 evolutions (Milestone). Allows user to rule over all Souls after 9 evolutions (Endpoint). Connection to Plane of Emotions increased.]
[Cons: Decreased Strength. Decreased Speed. Decreased Vitality. Soul Corruption increased. Mental state decreased. Connection to Plane of Emotions increased]
Unlike before, the area where the appearance was displayed was gone, consumed by the void.
'Is it because I can use the Rune of Change to change my appearance however I wish?'
'This seems good, but not nearly enough for my goal.'
[Herald of the Old Ones]
[Influenced by: Shoggoth, Greed]
[Pros-]
'Nope.'
[Demonic Dragonling]
[Influenced by: Unshackled Soul, Greed]
[Pros: Unlocks Elemental Dominion after 2 evolutions (Milestone). Unlocks Proof of Power after 4 evolutions (Milestone). Unlocks Domain after 6 evolutions (Milestone). Unlocks Samsara Union after 9 evolutions (Endpoint).]
[Cons: Creation of Reverse Scale. Increased attention from Universal Balance.]
'Hmmm. This has potential. Samsara Union on the other hand.....'
'I'm not worried about the increased attention from the Universal Balance, since it's not alive anyway.'
'However, the only readily available ability to me right now, is the Ohr Jinn's Guidance of Fools.'
'Fine then. I'll choose Ohr Jinn once more. I can even choose it for the Viscount evolution. But after I get my hands on the seed, I have to step off this evolutionary path as soon as possible.'
Alastor selected the Ohr Jinn for his Baron evolution.
.........................................
In the past month, the lake in the Dungeon had been re-populated with various demonic creatures, now that the ruling Viscount was gone.
However, every creature avoided the small air bubble at the bottom of the lake. The being inside it, was evolving. Despite the demon's usual instinct of disrupting evolutions, there were two factors that stopped them from doing so.
The previous Lord of the Lake had spent most of it's time down there.
And....the creature that killed the Lord of the Lake was the one evolving.
No demon dared to interrupt the evolution of a demon such as this, even with their limited intellect and lack of sentience.
.........................................
Back in the human realm, William looked at the army of demons being formed before him, mostly populated with Barons and Viscounts, with the odd Count in the mix.
He turned to one raging demon with had various seals engraved upon it's body, Wrath oozing off it's form.
"Well, Marquis of Wrath, let us destroy the future of the human resistance, shall we?"
The demon of Wrath bellowed at William, the force made by the roar causing his hood to fall back.
He was not intimidated, "Hahaha! How enthusiastic! It seems you do not know! We have obtained the backing of the Sloth faction, as well as Lord Amon himself! We do not fear a measly demon of Wrath such as you!"
The seals glowed as the demon struggled, but seals created by a Demon King did not break easily.
William asked one of his subordinates, "Has Illia left to investigate the actions of the Duke sent by Lord Amon?"
After recieving confirmation, William said, "Good. Very good. Let humanity see their stronghold be destroyed, and witness this fact....Allying with the demons is the only way to survive!"
"Engage the stealth barrier! James, have the mole inside the Academy turn off the barrier within twenty minutes, I do not care if he lives or dies. Now, ensure that nobody holding the symbol of Nine is harmed, even if they are students. They are to be treated as VVIP's!"
The attack on the Academy had begun.