Ergo paused stuffing his face and Cirk also perked up to that bang which the Kruger Patriarch could not possibly say meant nothing.

With both Ergo and Cirk knowing how paramount it was that they acquired the map, they both stood up from their seat immediately with Ergo grabbing his ax and they dashed over to sound.

Pietro was however still seated with his brows furrowed while he sighed.

Brian looked over at the two whose backs were already gone from his sights and then to Xerx who seemed to still be tethering on the edge if whether he should go after the sound or stay with his lord in case this multicolored aired man-caused any trouble.

"What are you still waiting for?" Brian asked with a frown and it seemed to jolt Xerx out of his trance-like stare at Pietro.

"I'll be going now, my lord" he said and dashed after the two leaving Brian and Pietro alone.

It was silent for a while and then eventually, more to ease the tension than anything else, Brian asked,

"You won't be going with your companions?"

Pietro's brows relaxed a bit and he said,

"It's not that serious. Yet."

...

So... Hal knew he was in trouble.

Killing the rest of the guards had been incredibly easy as none of them stood a chance against him once he brought Devil energy into play. The energy alone already caused them to feel fear and then he manipulated it into spikes that stuck out all around his body and made him seem like a human porcupine.

However, the lead guard, after getting stuck with multiple spikes and falling fast found the strength to grab the lid of the chest in a last desperate attempt to get the chest from Hal before he died which was still a pointless endeavor regardless.

However, once his hand was on the lid, he slumped backward finally but had a good hold on the lid as he fell and as it had never actually been locked, he was able to open it.

"No!"

'No!'

Hal and Grimoire yelled at the same time and it was because they had both seen the inside of the chest were etched with runes as well and Hal attempted to close the lid shut but it was already too late...

*Bang!*

The activation of the runes once the lid was opened caused a loud bang and a ripple that spread across the entire hall.

Hal instinctively protected himself with Astral energy but that was pointless for two reasons.

First, the runes were of a higher rank than his Astral sense and,

Second, the runes were never meant to harm him physically and that was clear from the fact that they went right through his protection but left him the same as before.

Hal grabbed the map from inside the chest and sent it into his Inventory just as he discovered what the runes had caused; they were anti-concealment runes at the sixth rank and would render all concealments useless for thirty minutes or so.

So you can see how he was in trouble. The most important part of his getaway plan was now ruined and the impact became all the more clear when a swarm of guards arrived and the one leading pointed at him,

"There he is, there is the intruder!"

Hal resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he thought,

'What gave it away, you idiot? My totally black clothes or my mask?' and formed blades on his arm with Devil energy while he began to radiate fear by also initiating the Devil shroud so that his whole firm seemed to be releasing nightmarish vapor.

"The hell..." Began one of the guards before he was stabbed by Hal and his body kicked back into other guards.

The rest were quick to summon their cosmic Armaments and swarm him.

With this first response team of guards being mostly at the peak of the cosmic Armament realm and the mid-stage of the Cosmic phenomenon realm, Hal was far from worried.

However, he was not here to battle and knew from what Roxy had told him that it was not the guards he really needed to worry about.

It was the Kruger estate protection itself that was worrying.

Once they put up their protective Array which would not allow anyone to come in or out, then it would be so much harder for him to leave.

Even with a portable teleportation scroll.

And then, to use the teleportation scroll itself, he needed to at least be a little out of range of the guards to get the required breathing room.

This was getting more difficult by the second.

Funny thing was, Hal was still quite excited as he worked through the guards and cut down as many as made the mistake to get close to him, and then he sighted someone staying a few meters away from where he was with the guards.

The young man had also summoned his cosmic armament but his clothes were different from that of the guards. He was dressed as a man of status.

Probably one of Brian Kruger's children or at least a member of the Kruger family.

Hal felt it was to be expected that members of the family would be alerted to the commotion but he had thought it more likely that they would let the guards handle it rather than get their hands dirty.

And for the most part, he was right.

Members of the Kruger family were not too worried as they felt their family had good enough security to take care of an intruder, this particular member was just a little peculiar.

He was releasing the pressure of his cultivation as he looked at Hal who was still cutting down guards and getting ever closer to making it out of the main part of the Kruger estate and Hal could feel they were actually in the same realm of cultivation.

The young man's eyes were wide with battle lust and he dashed towards Hal.

He moved so fast in fact that it almost took Hal by surprise. His cosmic Armaments were two daggers connected by a chain making it more clear how he preferred to fight;

Up close and personal.

Hal sidestepped and the young man's dagger stab missed him.

"Young master Bray" chorused a number of the guards while the young man ignored them while he licked his lips and looked closer at Hal's mask,

"Oh look, I missed" he stated the obvious before he whirled around and attempted another stab which Hal deflected with his arm.

As this was battle mode, Hal's cultivation was out on display but it made more for comparison as he was mostly relying on the power of his Bloodline...

Speaking of which,

"You're scary" Bray said, obviously referring to the fear Hal was radiating which he could definitely feel.

The weird part was that he could fight despite that.

And he was quick. Too quick in fact, it almost felt as though his feet were not touching the ground.

Looking down at his feet, Hal understood why,

"Body skills" he said in a low voice indicating the skill circles that showed wherever Bray's feet touched.

"Good eye" the Kruger youth said before twisting in incredible speed to stab at the top of Hal's head...