Caius coughed once again and began explaining their sudden visit with a grim expression. "A major incident occurred previous evening that shook the entire city to its core; even now, people cannot rest easy and are still trembling just hearing the details of the incident."
He paused and looked at everyone. Except for Eric, Lyria, and Livy, who looked baffled, the rest of his companions had grave expressions.
He could understand why the three were confused, so he elaborated with a solemn tone, "Devils Spice was brought down to the ground! Thousands upon thousands have perished! Among them, the Mana Wielders' casualties are over two thousand!" In fact, due to the poor state of most corpses, it was nearly impossible to make a perfect estimation. This was just the rough count the city guards had managed to compile in a short time.
Lyria and Livy opened their eyes wide, and Eric followed their lead, copying them. No, he was truly shocked—he had thought something major happened, but Caius was just reciting the same old things.
Eric had been personally present at the scene and saw the cruelty and the tragedy that had unfolded there; even now, he felt it was too much. He was especially shocked by the perpetrator's ingenious method of killing without even lifting a finger against the innocent people who just wanted to leave peacefully.
"Devils Spice? What is that? Some spicy dish? Or did a large number of necromancers sneak in to attack the devils?" Livy asked in confusion.
Brunhild and the others started coughing. Livy's innocent deductions nearly made them laugh out loud.
Brunhild shook her head and explained with a displeased frown, "'Devils Spice' was a terrible place—a venue for many wealthy and wasted people of Batley City to 'enjoy' themselves. People gambled and engaged in various such activities. In short, no sensible person would ever visit such a place. Well, maybe to see it for the first time, but they wouldn't go there normally."
Lyria and Livy nodded with understanding. Basically, it was an adults' entertainment centre. Hannah had informed them that there were such places even in Ringwood Town, where a few men gathered to do things that would suck them dry. They still hadn't fully understood what that meant.
Thorne continued after Brunhild, "From the information we gathered, it may or may not be the necromancers." He paused and continued in a tone that he himself didn't want to believe, "It was just a single man! Cloaked and completely covered. Some say it was a Demon; some say it was a Devil born out of all the evil deeds done by Devils Spice. Most of the survivors seem to have lost their minds; they didn't make any sense when questioned, while the remaining sane ones have even given that sole Demon a nickname: the Cloaked Demon!"
Thorne's expression was extremely grim. He wore a deep frown while gazing at the table. After all, a single person killing so many people would give anyone nightmares, especially when the casualties included a staggering number of thousands of Mana Wielders! Even the living legend and the second strongest person in Batley City had perished at the hands of this Cloaked Demon.
"In short, a single man killed thousands of Mana Wielders single-handedly!" Garrick said in an inconceivable tone. "I-I still can't believe this could even be possible!"
Lyria, Livy, and even Eric widened their eyes in shock.
To Eric, he may have been a participant, but he was not the only one killing! It was also the random Mana Wielders killing each other, which pointlessly increased the number of casualties. This meant he was being framed! 'What is the justice department doing?!' He felt falsely accused.
To Lyria and Livy, it might not be difficult to kill so many people with their abilities, but it was only possible if they were all locked in a single room, as most sensible people would run everywhere the moment they understood they couldn't win. So, the only possibility was...
Lyria asked with doubt, "Did an unknown Master Rank gather everyone together and kill them with powerful attacks?"
Caius shook his head, "No, that's the most confusing thing. Some say that it was just a Rank 1 Mana Wielder, while some say it was a Rank 4, and some even say it was a Rank 5!"
He was completely aware that it was pure nonsense, as no one in Batley City had ever seen a Rank 5 or even a Rank 4 taking action; however, this only showed how helpless everyone felt when facing this sole Cloaked Demon.
Hearing this, the trio was stunned.
"So, you mean there is a possibility that a Rank 5 is here in this city?" Lyria felt a headache coming on. "Although I am not sure, perhaps a Rank 5 can destroy the entire Batley City—or at least half of it—with a few powerful attacks, and I won't even be surprised if it is truly so..." She didn't pause and asked curiously, "Just what exactly happened that this person took such an extreme action? Did he get sucked dry somehow?"
She secretly peeked at Eric from the corner of her eyes. She had some suspicions. Only they were such demonic entities and had the power to do that, other than Master Ranks. Perhaps even the City Lord Gideon couldn't pull off such a massive massacre easily.
All of them stared at Lyria strangely. They chose not to comment on her joke—or perhaps it was not a joke; for now, they ignored it.
Caius once again coughed, "He probably wasn't a Rank 5. Lord Gideon said he didn't find any such signs or presence, but he could also be wrong." He paused and thoughtfully continued, "After an entire night of investigation, the city guards have managed to piece a few things together from the broken accounts of the insane people who managed to escape."
"According to the survivors, all this started from the Underground Wrestling Arena. The people who successfully escaped from there said that the Cloaked Demon walked out of a secret room connected to the underground arena; this room belongs to a scroll maker of Devils Spice. After coming out from there, the Cloaked Demon started slaughtering everyone indiscriminately."
Caius then took a deep breath and continued with a heavier tone, "Just within the underground area, it is said he killed over eight hundred Mana Wielders! Later on, the guards cleared the collapsed Devils Spice building to rescue the people who might still be alive within the underground arena. And..."
He took another deep breath and continued with a quiver in his voice, "I-It is said that the stairs leading toward the underground arena had so many crushed and destroyed bodies of countless people that even Lord Gideon looked away after seeing it. The Rank 3 guards present on the scene puked nonstop and didn't dare to walk through that staircase."
"The entire passage was filled with so much blood, gore, and the insides of countless people that the stairway is currently being recorded as the site of the most violent and cruel deaths that ever occurred in the entire history of Batley City. People started calling that passage toward the underground the 'Stairway to Hell!' And the entire bloody massacre of yesterday was named the 'Biggest Tragedy of Batley City'!"
Hearing this, all of them went silent.
Garrick and Eilif couldn't help but tremble in fear. Even though they hadn't seen the scene, just hearing about it made them feel a freezing chill down to their bones.
Only Lyria among them felt it was too much to call it the 'Biggest Tragedy', as who knows, maybe a bigger tragedy could happen in the future, and then there would be a debate on which was more tragic.
"Were there any people still alive within the underground?" Thorne asked at this moment. Most of them were still unaware of many things, unlike Caius, who had received information directly from Guild Master Rodger.
Caius nodded and couldn't help but take another deep breath as he answered, "From what I heard, no one dared to enter the staircase after seeing its... condition. So, they made a new hole some distance away and jumped down into the underground arena to rescue any survivors. They found quite a few, but all of them seemed to have lost their minds. It is said their situation was so terrible that probably only some miraculous elixir could cure them now. Even the Rank 3 survivors there were quivering despite so many hours having already gone by. They couldn't talk or converse and just stared at the stairs with uncontrollable horror. I heard that Rank 1 guards had to jump down to bring even the Rank 3s above, as they couldn't walk, talk, or do anything."
"Hiss..." Everyone couldn't help but take a deep breath. Even Eric was no exception; he trembled and thought that this Cloaked Demon was really too inhuman.
They all stayed silent to calm their nerves and also to offer their condolences to the victims and their families in their hearts.
Brunhild at this moment suddenly remarked with clear disgust in her voice, "The underground arena was one of the cruelest places in the city; those inhuman wrestling matches had been going on for too long. The people who visited that place were simply inhuman. Although I hate to say it, these people really deserved the cruelest deaths!"
Eilif nodded and added, "In the past, I heard from some of my old friends who retired from the Mercenary Guild that the place was hell. Children were made to fight bears and wild animals, and without any surprise, they were eaten alive while people enjoyed such shows. There are more terrible incidents that were kept hidden by Devils Spice. It's a place where the audience could vote and decide on what they wanted to see next."
Livy and everyone in the room, except Eric and Lyria, glared at Eilif with detest.
"These people must be killed in a horrible way! If people didn't enjoy and request such fights, why would they host them?! I feel you guys indeed let out a demon by your own doings!" Livy criticized Eilif with a repulsive tone.
Hearing Livy's contempt, Eilif wanted to cry. He had never been to that place. He didn't have that kind of money to waste on those things, or else his wife would kill him! Why did he receive everyone's hate? He was just informing them of what he had heard. He was not at fault!
At this moment, Thorne asked with bewilderment, "Just how did Lord Gideon allow these things to continue?" He himself wasn't aware of such things, so it was indeed well hidden.
"I think he was also not aware of such things." Caius sighed. "Moreover, this was supported by many nobles and Mana Wielders from both guilds, or rather largely by Mercenary Guild members. Lord Gideon cannot just barge in and stop it unless the victims complain, which, as you can guess, never happened. Also, Devils Spice had power over many core workings within Batley City. Overall, it's a complicated matter that I am not sure of, but I think it's not easy to be a leader of millions of people. Anyway, we need to be careful; perhaps this Cloaked Demon is still hiding within the city. Even Lord Gideon is on high alert."