Chapter 222 Welp, that escalated quickly
As the lion was quickly approaching its destination, Alex, who was riding on top of it, was busy on contemplating something.
"Right now, Nero already know that the Symbolist appearance that I had before was just a disguise. He already knows my real face…" Alex muttered to himself as he cupped his chin.
"I have no problems showing my real face to Nero, since he's already under my 'control'. There is no way that he will one-up me now. But even if I'm confident showing my real face to him, I cannot say the same thing to the other Symbolists…" Alex thought as he started to frown.
"Should I wear my Symbolist Disguise when talking to the Symbolists later? Maybe they will trust me more if I interact with them on a form that they are familiar with…" At the instant that Alex reached this point, he started to nod as he felt that it was appropriate for him to do this.
"Yosh, I shall do it this way then!" Alex's body then started to morph as he employed Envy's abilities, changing his appearance back to Sir Sigmund, the wandering Symbolist.
Nero, who saw what Alex did, only raised his eyebrows as Alex's appearance changed.
"So you f**ker decided to use your disguise huh." Nero said as Alex started to fix his clothes. "You want to face them while you are in your Sir Sigmund form?"
"What do you think? Didn't you just saw me doing it right now?"
"You!"
"Hehehe…"
Alex could barely stop himself from smirking as he heard the curses and profanities that Nero had been spouting since earlier.
Earlier, after Alex told Nero to just let go with his anger, Nero started to curse Alex out, and he always tried to use profanities everytime he saw Alex.
This kind of behavior does not offend Alex, as he could feel with this emotion sense the deep-seated rage inside Nero.
Why would Alex accept Nero's fake smiles earlier when he can sense the anger that he had on Alex?
Seeing the current irritable Nero was already enough to sooth Alex's mood.
"Well, didn't you tell those Symbolists that it was Sir Sigmund and his team that saved you?" Alex nonchalantly said as he waved his arms dismissively. "Since they will already expect Sir Sigmund to go there, then I will just use his appearance."
"Tsk, just don't f**k this up." Nero replied as he began to scratch the back of his head. "If you slip up a little, you will surely be attacked by them. Even I, who's under your 'control', won't be much of help to you there."
"…Maybe you are hoping for that to happen." Alex commented as he stood up. "Well sorry to burst your bubble, but I don't think something like that will happen. After all I have special set of skills that will assist me here!"
"Hmph, suit yourself then!" Nero replied as he turned around, seemingly refocusing his control on the titan below them. "Let's see how you will fare there later!"
"…"
****************
A few more minutes later, and the lion managed to arrive at its destination.
"…" Alex, who was still sitting on top of the lion's head, only had a silent expression on his face as he stared at what was in front of him.
"What do you think of this place? Does it fit to your liking?" Nero asked to Alex, although the tone in his voice shows that he was not that happy to bring Alex here.
"Well, this will do for me." Alex replied as he shrugged his shoulders. "This place looks fine actually."
"I don't need your opinion for that. My birthplace of course is the best place there is in this world."
"I'm just saying."
"…"
"What do you call this city anyway? The walled city? Coz it looks awfully like one."
"…"
Right in front of Alex was a walled city, with a wall reaching the height of a mountain covering the whole city's boundaries.
The wall seems to be made up of some kind of combination of metals and rocks, which provided a sturdy-looking structure.
Aside from the materials, Alex also noticed something unique with the wall.
The wall was covered in entirety with golden-tinged symbols, with almost every empty space on the wall scribbled with symbols.
Every now and often these symbols would glow, creating a display that was both beautiful and intimidating to Alex.
"What you see in front of you was the fabled Eternal Wall." Nero said as he instructed his lion to stop. "This Eternal Wall had been created by countless Symbolists before, with the intent to protect the main polis of us Symbolists. This wall was fortified with the best Symbols there is, making it extremely durable and tough." Nero then started to smile, which was a rarity in itself.
"Up until now, we have continued on adding more Symbols on it in an attempt to make it stronger." Nero said as he started to tap the lion's head. "And as of now, there's nothing that had toppled the Eternal Wall yet, and we will make sure that it will stay that way."
"Well, that's a nice intro…" Alex said as he stared at the Eternal Wall with amusement. "But if this wall is meant to protect your polis, then shouldn't it also have some kind of dome to protect the polis from aerial attacks coming from above? Because from what I can see here, there's no dome at all…"
"Of course we know that." Nero replied with his eyes starting to twitch in anger. "You may not see it, but we have also placed permanent symbols on the air above this polis, which created a Symbol Dome."
"Oh right, now that I can see it, there really is indeed something there…" Alex muttered with his eyes squinted.
Right above the polis, Alex could make out some kind of hazy outline which was shaped like a half-sphere placed directly on top of the polis.
Alex was not sure if this 'dome' really is as strong as what Nero said, but since he said it works like that, then Alex will just accept that as it is.
"Hmph, now that I have shown you that this place is fortified, are you still wary of coming in?" Nero muttered as he glared at Alex "Or will you still stall for time before you come in?"
"What are you talking about?" Alex mumbled as he stared Nero. "You think I'm stalling right now?"
"I'm not an idiot, Sir SIGMUND.' Nero hissed as he stared at Alex venomously. "At the moment that we arrived, you suddenly twitched and your face slightly paled, as if you sensed something bad. You then looked at the direction of this place, and then I saw your eyes narrow in caution. A few seconds after you did that, you started to talk to me like this. You… you sensed something inside my polis, and you don't want to enter now, am I right?"
"…"
"…"
Alex and Nero then spent the next 30 seconds staring at each other.
Once that time had passed by, Alex looked away as he let out a sigh.
He then pointed his finger in front of him as he said,
"Well, you may not sense it, but I can sense an extreme source of danger just inside that polis." Alex said with his finger pointed towards the center of the city. "There, right at that spot."
"That spot?" Nero exclaimed as he saw where Alex's finger was pointing. "But that spot is!"
"Yeah, I know who is inside that place." Alex said as he stared at the massive tower inside the polis, which was where his finger was pointing at.
With the memories that Alex obtained from Artos, Alex knew that there was only one kind of person that was living in that tower.
"Nero, can you tell me why your master, the Grand Symbolist, seems to be intent on attacking us?" Alex said as he gave Nero a smile that was also not a smile. "Even here, I can feel his killing intent aimed at us! How interesting …"
"My master? But he was deep in seclusion!" Nero exclaimed as he frantically looked at Alex. "He should have no idea about this happening! And besides, I did not tell my master anything about this!"
"He's telling the truth." Alina said in the background.
"See! I'm telling the truth!"
"If that is indeed the case, then why do I see a muscular old man coming out of that tower?" Alex said as he indeed saw a shirtless old man coming out of the tower, with his muscles in full display. "And why does he look at as murderously?"
"!?OU@)(@(*U@!!!!"
Once the muscular old man had fully come out of the tower, his gaze went towards Alex and Nero, and from the way that he looked at them, it was quite obvious that this old man was not happy at all.
"NERO!" Once the muscular old man saw Nero, he started to bellow, with his voice rumbling the entirety of the Eternal Wall. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING RIGHT NOW?"
"I-I-I…" Nero seems to have short-circuited, as his gaze was only concentrated on that muscular old man. "Master… I'm bringing some allies here!"
"Allies? Quit telling me those lies!" The old man, who turned out be the Grand Symbolist himself, started to fly as thousands of symbols engraved in his body started to glow.
"Nero, the aura of those people with you are similar to the aura of the monsters from the Calamities! Actually, there is no difference between those Calamity Monsters and those people with you! Why the hell did you bring them with you here! You should have remembered what I told you before! If you see anything related to the Calamity Monsters, then you should destroy them!"
"!!!"
Before Nero or Alex could even react to what the Grand Symbolist said, the Grand Symbolist suddenly sent his palm slamming down to the ground.
At the instant that he did this, a 1-kilometer long golden palm appeared in the sky.
This golden palm then started descending at insane speeds, and from its trajectory, Alex realized that this palm was bound to hit them!
"You three, I do not know why your aura are similar to the aura of those Calamity Monsters." The Grand Symbolist said as the golden palm began to accelerate. "But no matter what the reason is for that, I don't care anymore! I just have to kill you all right now!"