In a Celestial Star quite a distance away from the First Realm of Hell, an old man was sitting down in the middle of a monastery as he enjoyed a cup of tea while looking at five golden glowing pieces of circular stones floating on top of a white board.
Some pieces were bigger than the others, with one being particularly large than the rest floating at the forefront.
The Celestial continued to drink from his cup as a few hours passed, when he finally observed a change as one of the golden pieces floating on the board...became dim and crumbled.
"Oh?"
His gaze seemed to contain interest and a hint of wrath as his fingers moved and collected the remains of the golden stone that were now grey. The remains became absorbed in his hands as he closed his eyes briefly and activated a particular skill, but he was soon disappointed as the results came to be nothing.
"Hmph."
The Celestial Grandmaster was annoyed that his tracing had not worked, his annoyance coming more from the fact that he had lost a piece, and yet he gained nothing from it.
A being had taken the life of one of the Celestial Disciples that he had sent, and this being was careful enough to first isolate the disciple in a different space before they killed them. Thus, the Celestial Grandmaster had lost one of his pieces that he sent forward to try and catch the worms trying to wiggle out of the Order and Balance that they had worked so hard to create.
His gaze became calm again as he looked at the remaining four golden stones floating on the board, quickly bringing the tea cup back in his mind as he fully turned his attention to these four stones, and simply observed once more.
It was only a matter of time before the fly was caught in his net.
---
A devilishly calm Vampyre floated in the azure skies of the First Realm of Hell as he was surrounded by droves of undead all around.
He watched as a single small Skeleton Knight moved out from the groups of undead as its empty sockets filled with golden flames looked up towards him. The Skeleton Knight opened its pristine jaws as it began speaking.
"I-"
BOOM.
Before a single second passed, the Vampyre Prince waved his hand as droplets of blood instantly appeared where the Skeleton Knight was, exploding the entire area as it cleared to reveal only broken bones.
Prince Cassius watched for a response from the surrounding undead as nothing happened, making him sigh as he turned his sight to another location and watched an identical Skeleton Knight move forward from the horde.
The golden flames dancing around the skeletons eye sockets seemed to be having fun as a voice rang out once again.
"As I was saying, I'm just a lowly passerby who happened to see something I wasn't supposed to see, and now I'm just curious as to the meaning behind it."
As the skeleton spoke, the destroyed bone Dragons and Blue Phoenixes that had been killed in the Blood World reappeared around them as good as new, with one bone Dragon coming to the Skeleton Knight as it lowered its large head and allowed the skeleton to climb on top, its bony wings flapping as it shot into the skies and came to the same eye level as the Vampyre Prince.
"Is it a personal vendetta? Or have I stumbled upon something entirely different?"
Prince Cassius could see the skeleton more clearly as he adopted a serene expression and thought of ways to contain this situation. He spoke languidly as he sorted the facts in his mind and replied.
"You mention the Celestials with disdain, and your first reaction to seeing one of them killed is not to leave instantly and report the killer to the Celestials to gain their favor, but to try and understand what happened."
An eerie devilish charm continued to be released from the Vampyre Prince as he snapped his fingers, the droplet of blood he was standing on quickly changing as it expanded and formed into a regal chair made of glistening blood.
Prince Cassius sat down domineeringly as he looked towards the skeleton and continued.
"This means that you are either a being from the long-forgotten Ancient Races that still holds a grudge against Celestials, or a little disciple from the Alliance, which means this is as much fun as you're going to have. So once more, what do you want?."
Calm, collected, and domineering.
Prince Cassius said these words imposingly, purposefully revealing some information that served as bait and to answer this being in front of him, yet wasn't too revealing of his own position.
His red eyes gazed calmly towards the skeleton that held dancing golden flames in its eye sockets, the only thing giving away its emotion being the happily dancing flames that seemed to have found something interesting to play with.
The skeleton in front of the Vampyre Prince's eyes was just a random Skeleton Knight chosen by Noah, with him transferring his voice as he was safely hidden miles away within the Undead Legion. His location was not even in the outside world, but in a luxurious house in the miniaturized Spiritual Land that was the size of a grain of sand as he relaxed on a fluffy couch next to a snuggling Barbatos.
The curvaceous woman had eaten too much and now rested her head in Noah's thigh as she let out cute breaths while napping. She had been training hard in the Time Space as her skills continued to increase in proficiency, and her rank was already at Transcendent as she enjoyed [Core]s from Noah first hand. All she had left to do was bring her skills to the same rank, a task that was much more time consuming for anyone that wasn't Noah.
His mind stopped focusing on Barbatos's cute face as he concentrated on his connection with the Abhorred Lich Emperor, sending commands on what to make the Skeleton say on his behalf.
He was happy as he got a chance to witness something stupendous on top of his already ecstatic mood as he farmed Infernal Skill Points and simply watched the power of the Lich he continued to dump the points into climb to insane degrees.
He had come across the first ever being that seemed to belong to a force that actually stood against the Celestials, and this being was expertly hidden in the Underworld, a world known to be an ally of the Celestials.
His smile continued to deepen as he wanted to find out more information, the moment he heard about Ancient Races and the 'Alliance', his ears perked up even more as his mind worked rapidly.
The memories of the Celestial Disciple Drax were abundant, but they did not have all the knowledge and intricacies of the enemies that stood against the Celestials.
From Drax, Noah was only able to know that there were other powers in the Universe that were not aligned with the Celestials, with some of them even being their enemies, but he did not know who these hidden powers were.
Yet now, he seemed to have stumbled upon a being that most likely came from one of these powers, and this...brought about a few possibilities. He looked at the Vampyre that had his body leaking an oppressive aura. This was a being at the Void Rank, and a powerful one at that. He did not have to move against them, and could perhaps make use of them if he played things correctly.
"We actually seem to have aligned goals, which creates new possibilities. Why don't we talk for a bit and share some information with each other?"
A skeleton with dancing golden flames observed a regal Pureblood Vampyre Prince seated on a throne of blood as a conversation that would flip the Infernal Hunt into untold chaos began.
