What Sylvester saw when he reached the Mage Division Building was just like what he feared he would see.

 

He saw countless dead Mages, all surrounded by rowdy Monsters.

 

To make matters worse, Sylvester also saw that the whole Mage Division Building was at the brink of collapse, as countless parts of the building showed signs of intense damage.

 

“Argh!!!” This shout of anger came from Divine Mage Imago, whose face was currently twisted in hatred. “That f**king b**ch! Once I catch her, I will personally rip off her f**king wings!”

 

”Wait.” Sylvester said as he placed his hand on the Divine Mage Imago’s shoulder. “Don’t just rush in.”

”What?” Divine Mage Imago replied as he saw what Sylvester was doing. “Why are you stopping me now? We need to go in and kill that b**ch!”

 

 

“Before you say those words, try to observe the situation below you.” Sylvester said as he just ignored the Divine Mage’s fury. “Don’t you see anything weird?”

 

”Weird?” It seems like Divine Mage Imago was not yet that consumed with rage, as he followed Sylvester’s advice.

 

”What the?” At the instant that he did so, the Divine Mage seemed to have noticed what Sylvester saw. “These Monsters…”

 

“They are all acting weirdly.” Sylvester supplemented as he looked at the Monsters below.

 

Sylvester knew for a fact that Monsters led by a General-Class Monster always tend to be organized and focused.

 

But the Monsters that Sylvester were seeing right now were the very opposite of that.

 

The Monsters below them were all running in circles, with none of them even attacking the surviving Mages.

 

It was as if they had forgotten their goal to kill Mages, as they only moped and roamed around aimlessly.

 

 

“This…” Divine Mage Imago narrowed his eyes as he continued on observing the Monsters. “Something wrong is happening here.”

 

 

“You are right, and if my suspicions were correct, our situation could be either good or bad.” Sylvester said as a neutral expression appeared in his face.

 

“Huh?”

 

 

Sylvester’s voice stayed neutral, as he was fairly confident of the hypothesis that he had.

“These Monsters are in chaos right now because their General is not around to guide them.” Sylvester said as a wary expression appeared in his face. “That just means that either General Draria had run away with what she wanted, or she was defeated by someone here.”

 

Of course, Sylvester was wishing that it was the latter that happened.

But logic does not seem to agree with Sylvester’s wish.

 

 

“It’s hard to find someone who can defeat General Draria in this place, so it seems more likely that General Draria left this place with her target….” Divine Mage Imago said as he looked around him angrily. “Argh! If we just moved a little faster, we could have caught her leaving!”

 

“...” After hearing the Divine Mage’s reasoning, Sylvester realized that it is highly likely that General Draria was not at this place anymore!

 

After reaching this thought, Sylvester hurriedly scanned the whole area, just to sense if General Draria was there.

 

To his intense disappointment, his scans showed him that General Draria was nowhere to be found!

 

And to make it worse,  Sylvester also could also not sense Teresa, Simon, and Alice!

It was as if they all disappeared along with General Draria!

 

“No! Don’t tell me that their target is my daughter?” Sylvester muttered to himself as his whole body started to smolder with rage.

 

Now that he thought more about it, Sylvester realized that his daughter really seemed to be their target.

 

”How could I be this inattentive!” Sylvester chided himself as he almost fell down to the ground. “Because of my negligence, my only daughter was now kidnapped….”

 

 

Right now, Sylvester was wallowing in extreme anger and despair, with the Golden Essence leaking out of him in numerous quantities.

Even an idiot can see that Sylvester was fuming and pissed already.

 

 

“Oi Golden Guy, maybe you should try to cool yourself down first.Your daughter hates seeing you angry after all.” These scathing words did not come from any of Sylvester’s companions.

 

Instead, it came out from below them.

 

Sylvester looked down, and he saw that the speaker was a human-sized person covered in countless tentacles.

 

The light of comprehension filled Sylvester’s eyes as he realized who this tentacle guy was.

 

“Hey! Why are you here?” Sylvester exclaimed as he pointed his halberd at Alex the tentacle Monster. “My daughter told me that you and your vampire partner had already left this World!”

 

“Oh, fooling your daughter is just easy.” Alex replied as he seemed to be not scared of Sylvester’s halberd. “Besides, do you really think I will leave this place? I still have some things to do here!”

”I don’t care what you plan to do here.” Sylvester said as a golden sword appeared above him.

This sword was vibrating quickly and was pointed at Alex’s direction, as if it was about to stab him in his head. “Leave this place now, as we are busy on looking for someone.”

 

“Oh, are you talking about her?” Alex replied as Sylvester saw the tentacle monster waving his hands.

 

 

A second later, and an unconscious person appeared in front of Alex.

 

“.……”

What Sylvester saw was a woman whose body was covered with scales. She also had a pair of wings, but that was not the most prominent feature that Sylvester could see in this woman.

 

There was a large, gaping hole in the woman’s torso, which seemed to be under some kind of curse.

 

The wound from the hole seemed to try to heal itself, but it looks like there was something trying to stop this regeneration.

 

After seeing these features, Sylvester looked at the woman once more, as he and Divine Mage Imago glared at Alex.

 

 

“How did you obtain the unconscious body of General Draria?” Sylvester asked Alex in a neutral voice, although it was obvious that he was stewing some heavy emotions inside him.

 

“Oh, this girl? I defeated her earlier.” Alex replied as his tentacles began to wrap General Draria’s prone body.

 

General Draria then began to cough some blood as Alex tightened his wrap on her. “See? Even now she can still feel my attacks!”

 

”……..”

 

No matter how much Sylvester tried to accept it, he still found it hard to accept that someone like Alex actually heavily injured a General Class Monster!

 

After all, Sylvester’s first impression of Alex when they met over a month ago was the he was not that strong enough to fight against extremely powerful Monsters.

 

And yet, here is Alex now, currently wrapping his slimy tentacles on a General!

 

 

Everyone around Alex all went quiet as they saw the confusing scene.

 

“Oh come on do, you think this is the only surprise that I have here? There is still more!” After Alex said these words, General Draria suddenly disappeared.

 

The way that she disappeared was just the same way that he appeared before.

But this time, her disappearance was accompanied by the sudden appearance of an object on Alex’s main tentacle.

 

 

 

Alex seemed to have smiled after seeing this object, with him showing the object proudly towards Sylvester. “You know what this object is, right?”

 

 

Sylvester blanched when he saw what the object was.

 

It was a small pin, with the symbol of a tree engraved in it.

 

Sylvester knew what this pin symbolizes, as this pin was something that he was familiar with already.

 

Sylvester was familiar with this pin, as this was pin something that Simon always placed on his shirt!

 

“You have Teresa, Simon, and Alice in your captivity.” Sylvester said as he tried not to attack Alex at this moment. “That pin is something that Simon wears. He loves that pin so much that he always places it on his shirt.”

 

“Right-o!” Alex exclaimed as he slightly backed away from the glowering Sylvester. “Your daughter and her friends really are with me!”

 

 Alex then looked at Divine Mage Imago, who was watching the current situation with tension.

 

 “Oi Imago, your apprentice was also here with me, but you can be rest assured that he is safe.” Alex said smugly. “Don’t worry, he is in some good hands…”

 

“You f**ker!” Divine Mage Imago’s body glowed, as if he was about to attack Alex.

 

But before he could do so, Alex’s smug voice said something that made him stop in his tracks.

 

 

Hey! Don’t try to attack me now! If you attack me, my captives’ lives will be in peril, as their current hiding place was connected with my life!”

”….”

 

“If you kill me, then all my captives will die too!”

“F**k!”

 

Of course Sylvester was sure that Alex was bluffing about some things.

However,  Sylvester was not willing to risk his daughter and her friends just to attack Alex.

 

Alex surely might have some ways to damage his captives, and Sylvester was not that of an idiot to set it off.

 

Divine Mage Imago seemed to have the same thought too, as he did not try to attack Alex.

 

 

As for the other Divine Knights, they were also forced to just watch, as Alex’s threat earlier forced them to not attack him.

 

 

“Fine, what do you want?” Sylvester asked as he realized why Alex showed him General Draria and the fact that he had some captives with him.

 

This bloody tentacle monster wanted to get the cure from Sylvester, and just like before, this monster was willing to use hostages just to get what he wanted!

 

“I want the cure of course.” Alex replied, confirming Sylvester’s fears. “Give it to me, and I will release my hostages. Oh, and I will also give General Draria to you! With that kind of offer, giving me the cure is kinda doable already, right?”

 

“Sorry, but can you change your request?” Divine Mage Imago said as he glared at Alex. “It’s just that we cannot-”

 

”Hmph, quit yapping around me!” Alex declared as the tentacles started to raise his body.

 

Sylvester narrowed his eyes, as he started to feel an unseen pressure coming out of Alex.

 

 

“I know about everything already, even the fact about your World Tree!” Alex said, with him adding inflection to the last three words of his earlier sentence. “I also know about the fact that this war between the Essence Humans and the Monsters were all propagated by your World Tree!

 

 

Any argument that Divine Mage Imago was about to say was broken as Alex said these words.

 

The other Divine Knights looked at Alex in shock, as what he said essentially broke the balance in this situation.

”…..” Sylvester could only grit his teeth as he realized that Alex was able to discover the deepest secret of the Human Faction. “You, how were you able to know this?”

 

“Oh, I have my sources.” Alex said dismissively. “But my point is not yet done.”

 

Alex gave Sylvester another smug smile as he said,

 

“If my suspicions were right, your World Tree did something so radical which resulted to the creation of the Monster Birth Program! That is the reason why you were all secretive about the cure! You were all trying to hide the fact that your World Tree was at fault for this!”

 

“...” This time, Sylvester was unable to reply, as he was once again gob-smacked by Alex’s words.

 

“Of course I do not know what your World Tree did, but from what I can see, it seems like it was kinda heavy.” Alex said in a relaxed tone. “So, with everything that I said here, will you still give me the cure or not?”