6 HOURS LATER

"So… you are telling me that after you stayed in that city for almost 2 days, you were left with no choice but to go back here? I thought it will take you around a week to do this." The one who said these words was Alina, who was currently sitting in front of Alex.

Allina seemed to not look that pleased as she talked with Alex, as if there was something that was pissing her off now.

"Well, things happened, so…" Alex trailed as he tried to explain himself in front of Alina. "I just have to go back here…"

"Oh, and does that include BRINGING ANOTHER GIRL OUT TO A DATE?" Alina said coldly as a murderous aura began to spread out from her.

Alex began to tremble as he felt Alina's killing intent, realizing that he was screwed right now.

"Alina, I just did that to steal info from Anya." Alex said as he adapted a pleading expression on his face. "I have no other malicious intentions at all!"

"Oh, and you call her by her name now? Anya, was it?"

"…Well, I-" Alex tried to explain himself, but he was cut off as Alina raised her right hand dismissively.

"…Sigh, forget it." Alina said as her frosty glared weakened. "My eyes are telling me that you are not lying."

"Does that mean that you forgive me already?

"Of course not." Alina said, much to Alex's dismay. "Even if you did that to get info, I'm still not happy that you have to ask her out to do that. You understand where I'm coming from, right?"

"Yes, I can understand that." Alex replied as he gave Alina an apologetic smile.

"…Hmph. Tonight, you will be sleeping outside the house." Alina said as she resumed on polishing the blade of her katana. "Consider that as your punishment."

As Alex heard what Alina said, he began to feel relief, as he realized that by tomorrow, Alina surely might have fully forgiven him.

But before Alex could silently celebrate, Alina shot him another question while she was busy on her blade.

"So, what will you do with those three that you brought back here? Surely you won't just keep them asleep?"

"Oh that." After hearing this question from Alina, Alex started to scratch his head as he felt a headache forming inside him.

"Alina, you know that all I wanted to do earlier was to Pillage Nero and Anya's powers." Alex honestly replied as he let out a sigh. "But you saw what happened earlier, right?"

"You're talking about those golden marks?"

"Yes, those marks." Alex replied as he gritted his teeth in frustration. "If they were not there, then I should have been able to pillage their powers already!"

"…."

*****************

2 HOURS EARLIER

After Alex escaped from the assassins earlier, the first thing that he did was to hide his tracks, and then go back to where his teammates are.

At the instant that Alex arrived at his teammates' location, he immediately used Pillage on Anya.

After all, her Celestial power was something that Alex had wanted to obtain since he first saw it.

But at the moment that he used Pillage on Anya, something frustrating has happened.

A golden mark, which looked like the symbol X, suddenly appeared on Anya's forehead.

As this mark appeared, Alex felt his Pillage Spell actually being prevented from working at all!

It was as if that golden mark was preventing Anya's powers from being stolen!

At the moment that this happened, Alex's started to review the memories that he stole from Artos, and there, he realized what that golden mark was.

"It's an Anti-Devourer Glyph!" Alex muttered to himself angrily as he could only glare at Anya in disappointment. "Of course she will have something like this! How f**king great!"

When Alex realized what this golden mark was, he started to feel extremely disappointed.

The Anti-Devourer Glyph, just like what its name says, was something used to prevent a Devourer's power from working on a person.

Technically speaking, it should only be able to fight back against a Devourer's power.

But as Alex saw it right now, it can even prevent Pillage from working!

Now this just makes Alex's mood worse.

"Tsk, if the Devourers did not exist, then this Glyph should not have existed at all. F**k!" Alex muttered to himself angrily as he let out a sigh.

"Now I know why many hated Devourers, they really just mess everything up! F***ing Devourers!"

As Alex said these words, he started to recall everything that he knew about the Devourers and their abilities.

From what Alex knew from the stolen memories, a Devourer was someone who can use their so-called 'devouring power' on an object and gain a portion of the attributes that object.

If they used their devouring power on fire, they will gain a small portion of the attributes of fire. If they used their devouring power on metal, then they will gain a small portion of the attributes of metal.

If they want to gain more power, then Devourers will have to use their power on more and more objects to increase its corresponding attributes.

But a Devourer's power does not only work on objects. They can use this power on people too.

If a Devourer uses their devouring power on a person, they will gain a portion of the person's abilities, like a portion of their strength, a portion of their agility, and a portion of their intelligence.

The more people a Devourer uses their power on, the more that that Devourer will get stronger.

If this already made Devourers somewhat frightening, then the effect of their power on the Celestials, Symbolists and even on the other Devourers will make them more terrifying.

See, if a Devourer devours a Symbolist, a Celestial, or another Devourer, they will also gain an extremely small portion of their power.

So, if a Devourer devours a Celestial, that Devourer will gain a very little amount of Celestial power. The same thing goes if that Devourer devours a Symbolist or another Devourer.

Of course since this was only small, the Devourer has to consume many Symbolists, Celestials, or Devourers if they want to fully use their abilities.

With this kind of power, it was already a common occurrence to see Devourers using their power on other Devourers.

But as for the Symbolists, and the Celestials, the very act of devouring their power was extremely illegal.

Any Devourer who uses their devouring power on a Celestial or a Symbolist will be put to death by any of the Three Factions.

With that kind of deterrent, the Devourers were able to interact with the Symbolists and Celestials with lesser tension.

But from time to time, there will still be some rogue Devourers who try to devour the power of the Symbolists and Celestials, especially the extremely talented ones.

Of course these Devourers all end up dead, but by that point, the damage has already been done.

So, in order to prevent these 'accidents' or 'isolated cases' from happening, both the Symbolists and the Celesitals teamed up to create something that will prevent the Devourer's powers from affecting them.

After years of research, they were able to find a solution.

And that solution was that the Anti-Devourer Glyph.

This Glyph, which was the combination of both the Symbolist and Celestial knowledge, can protect a person from having his/her power from getting devoured by a Devourer.

How the Anti-Devourer Glyph was created was basically a secret, but the only known information was on its use.

Unlike Symbols, the Anti-Devourer Glyph can actually be inscripted safely on someone's body, and once it was there, it can fuel itself by gathering energy from its surroundings.

Once a Devourer tries to use their power on a person with an Anti-Devourer Glyph, the Glyph will create some kind of force field which will prevent the devouring form happening.

From all the tests that were done, it was concluded that as long as the strength gap between a Devourer and its target was not high, then the Anti-Devourer Glyph will work perfectly.

With this kind of power, the Anti-Devourer Glyphs seems to be an extremely important innovation in this world.

However, there was one limitation with an Anti-Devourer Glyph.

And that was the fact that only 1 Anti-Devourer Glyph can be created every 100 years.

Both the Celestials and the Symbolists tried many different ways to combat this limitation, but they were unable to overcome this.

As of now, there were only 10 Anti-Devourer Glyphs, as its discovery was made 1,000 years ago. It will still take another 57 years before another Anti-Devourer Glyph can be created again.

With that kind of rarity and effect, it was quite obvious that the 10 Anti-Devourer Glyphs will be owned and used by extremely powerful Celestials or Symbolists.

"But if it really is rare, then why the f**k does Anya own one Anti-Devourer Glyph!" Alex thought to himself angrily as he let out another sigh.

After a few seconds of contemplation, Alex suddenly knocked the side of his head as he let out a laugh. "Right… how could I have forgotten that? Anya is the Queen Hoarder, and she is also the daughter of the Grand Minister. For her to have this kind of protection is actually predictable…"

After reaching this line of thought, Alex decided to abandon any of his plans on Anya for now.

Alex then looked at Nero, who was still asleep now.

"I don't need to even use my Pillage on him. With Nero's status, of course there's a high chance that he also had the Anti-Devourer Glyph on him." Alex thought to himself as he observed Nero's sleeping visage. "Well, I have to use Pillage on him just to confirm it…"

Alex then used Pillage on Nero, and to his disappointment, an Anti-Devourer Glyph indeed appeared on Nero's forehead.

"…Okay. This is just pissing me off more." Alex said as he tore his gaze away from Nero. "Tsk, two down, one more to go."

With Anya and Nero protected, Alex can only pin his hopes on Eris.

"Hmm… Eris does not have a high status like Anya or Nero, and she is a Celestial. Getting her power will be of great benefit to me." Alex muttered to himself as he started to nod. "And besides, this b***h had been busy on antagonizing me since yesterday. She can just consider what I will do to her now as my payback to her!"

After saying these 'excuses' inwardly, Alex summoned Greed for the 3rd time this day and used the spell Pillage on Eris.

To Alex's relief, the spell went smoothly, with no Anti-Devourer Glyph protecting Eris at all.

"…."

The ball that came out of Eris was milky-white, and it felt fluffy to Alex's hand.

Alex wasted no time as he ate the ball and refined the power inside it for himself.

**************

BACK TO THE PRESENT TIME

"So, you only managed to Pillage the Celestial power of the butler." Alina muttered as she sheathed her katana. "As for Nero and Anya, you were unable to do anything to them."

"That's just what I told you earlier." Alex muttered to himself as he let out a sigh. "Well, at least I now have a Symbolist and a Celestial Ability, which surprisingly, had the same levels of power. Maybe this is actually not bad at all."

"…Yes, but we still do not know what we will do with them." Alina replied as she pointed at the unconscious trio. "Not only that, but there's still the other Symbolists that we have captured before. If we don't do anything to them quickly, something might go wrong."

"Don't worry Alina. I already have a plan for that." Alex replied as he fixed his clothes. "Just give me a few hours, and I can sort all of this out."

"…If you say so."