41 He is Abadux, The Hunter!

The grounds of the Nightstar Estate shook violently as everyone tried their best not to fall. Lucas, using his Blade of Chaos, stabbed it into the ground, anchoring himself. It wasn't just the Nightstar Estate that shook; the entire Moon City shook.

As the ground continued to quake, they were suddenly hit by an extremely violent gust of wind, making a few of the awakened-ranked knights fly away as the entire mansion trembled, with cracks starting to appear around it.

Lucas and the others gritted their teeth, enduring the shaking for what felt like an eternity, until finally, the tremors subsided and the violent gust of wind dissipated. Suddenly, before anyone could collect their thoughts, say anything, or look around, they heard a sound like glass shattering. The sound was so loud that it made a few of the knights' ears bleed as they screamed out in pain.

Turning towards the sound, everyone's faces turned even grimmer as they saw the barrier of the Nightstar Estate break apart. The barrier was set up by an artifact that could only be destroyed if a saint attacked or multiple grandmasters at the same time. Either way, whether it was a saint or multiple grandmasters, the situation didn't look good for Lucas and the knights.

'Shit, just what the fuck is happening? I can't even contact Luna,' Lucas thought, trying to reach Luna through their mental link, yet something was interfering.

"I can't communicate with Sir William... something must be interfering," Dylan suddenly spoke up, holding an emergency communicator device that should have allowed him to interact with William.

As everyone kept their guards up, ignoring the comrades who were still on the ground panting, they suddenly heard the ominous laughter of something above them.

Turning their heads towards the source, they saw a demon—a demon with long legs and arms, his face contorted into a bloody grin, his eyes pitch red. As his black batlike wings extended out, yet they weren't flapping in the air at all... it was as if they were just to intimidate them even more as he just stood on the air itself, looking down on Lucas and everyone else.

"Ah! Now I finally have the attention of you fine gentlemen! May I be allowed to introduce myself? Yes? Thank you! I am a demon, you see! Shocking, right!? My name is Count Karciel of the House of Greed! An honor to be in your presence, heir of the Nightstar, Lucas Nightstar, the White Devil himself!" the demon called Karciel said theatrically, bowing 90 degrees with his right hand on his chest while standing in the air.

"W-what did he just say..."

"A C-count-ranked demon is here..."

"No way we can fight that monster..."

As the demon heard the despairing voices, his grin only broadened on his face.

"Ah, you must be worried, right? Right!? Well, there is no need, for I came not alone! So don't be afraid! You see, if you look behind you, you may see my brothers who are here for this amazing show!"

As they heard the mad demon's voice, they all abruptly turned around with wide-open eyes, feeling despair fill their entire bodies as they saw at least seven other demons in front of them. Not just any demons. Lucas and the rest could tell... at least two were Baron-ranked demons, and one was a Viscount-ranked demon...

'W-what do I do... I can't fight them. I am not strong enough yet to fight all of them. If perhaps it was only one baron ranked I could stand a chance but... this is just impossible. I-if father and William perhaps make it in time we might win this but will they make it in time even? They must have felt the tremors of the barrier breaking...'

Lucas rapidly thought of any way to deal with this situation, yet nothing came to his mind on how to win this fight. The only thing he could do was hope... hope that his father and William would make it in time, perhaps they could stall a little bit with the mad demon.

Yet...

as if the gods heard his thoughts and decided to mock him, he and the rest heard the words of the mad demon once again.

"You see, Sir Lucas, you Nightstars certainly are interesting, don't you think? To have a vice-commander at a low 9-star level!? And then not just that, but the commander being a low 10-star level swordsman!? And your father, the great Alexander Nightstar, a mid-10-star level mage! And wait, we are not done yet, my friends! His personal maid being a peak 8-star level mage herself! Truly interesting, don't you think? This was supposed to be an easy mission where we simply kill a mere viscount family and capture you! But who would've thought you lot reeked of so much mystery, it ended up calling me for more of my brothers and a certain annoying somebody as backup, you see!"

'What, so they are here for me? But why...'

Suddenly, Lucas realized the reason. It was because he was the White Devil. The mad demon said it himself; they must've come here to capture him for whatever reason, yet they went overboard due to the Nightstars being more special than they thought? But what did he mean by a certain annoying somebody?

Lucas, Dylan, and the others, already figuring out the reason for the attack, only had determination in their eyes at protecting the heir of the Nightstars... that determination didn't last long when they finally looked back at the seven demons as they parted ways for the certain annoying somebody...

As Lucas and the others gazed at the new arrival, all of them broke out in a cold sweat as their whole bodies started being covered by it and trembled. Their breaths became labored, their teeth shattered, and in the end, more than half of the knights dropped their weapons and fell on their knees.

Gazing at the person or thing in front of them, its face couldn't be seen, nothing could be seen except for it wearing a dark cloak covering its face as an insane amount of miasma poured out of it. It must have had some mental attack that made most of the knights kneel and drop their weapons by staring at it, except for the knights like Dylan with stronger wills or Lucas, who was immune to mental attacks... or perhaps it was because of another factor... fear. A factor that they all felt and weren't immune to in the slightest as they gazed at the being. Not even Lucas or Dylan were spared, as they only felt sheer fear looking at the thing.

"J-just what is that demon? N-no, is that thing even a demon?" Dylan said in a shaky voice.

"W-whatever that thing is, it is not supposed to be alive. G-gods! Is it even alive?" another knight said.

"We can't know since no one knows... t-that thing has never been spotted in Myrniel before... it is a first," Lucas said with great difficulty.

"Hahahaha! Great guess, Lucas Nightstar! You guessed correctly, as expected of someone like you! Allow me to introduce you! Someone who is not a demon but a wraith! Yes, you heard me, a wraith!"

"An infamous wraith as well, you know! Not even us demons dare to mess with him or his kind!"

"He who sleeps in the shadows itself!"

"He is Abadux, The Hunter!"

[AN: New illustrations of Sylviette are now available on my Patreon! Please check them out and consider supporting me to keep the motivation going! I hope you're enjoying the story so far! Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments or review section!]