Awakening The Only SSS-Rank Class! Now Even Dragons Obey Me

Schneitz explained to both of them, in full detail, about his meeting with Kaelos and how things went.

In fact, the best option was to explain everything thoroughly, because the matter was far beyond what he had initially thought.

What that insane bastard had done could plunge the entire national security of their country into chaos and even force countless Awakened from across the world to be dispatched here.

Worse still, if the situation wasn't handled properly, it could lead to their country being labeled as a Red Country—and if that happened, things would get even worse.

"A ring? But what kind of ring could make even you this worried?" Daniel looked at the old man with shock.

He had guessed that Kaelos must have used some kind of item, something that had somehow boosted his power drastically.

But enough to make someone like Schneitz Everlight—who never flinched—this concerned, even to the point of retreating? Did such an item even exist in this world?

"Even my grandfather has never heard of such an item before. What exactly are we talking about?" Lana also asked with a frown.

As the heir to this guild, she had full access to its secret archives, and yet she had never read or even heard about the existence of such a ring.

So what exactly was going on?

"Ah… the ring we're talking about is one of the Four Apocalypse Rings. The information regarding these rings is classified to the highest degree, and there are no written records about them at all."

"Their origin is tied to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. By sheer coincidence, one of these four rings ended up in the hands of humanity. Naturally, the Guardian Council refused to let anyone hold on to it—they wanted to seize it and hide it away." Schneitz paused for a moment, giving them time to process.

"But on the day the Guardian Council was supposed to take the ring, it suddenly vanished. Some believed it was stolen, while others said it had returned to its true owner. There wasn't much we could do about it. But who could have imagined that this ring would end up in Kaelos's hands?" Schneitz let out a sigh.

That ring was not something that could even be comprehended. The power sealed within it was far beyond human understanding.

Even back when the ring had first fallen into human hands, Schneitz and others had pushed to have it completely destroyed. Unfortunately, the Guardian Council refused.

If they had been allowed to destroy it back then, maybe things would be different now.

"What kind of powers do these rings have?" Daniel thought for a moment before asking.

"Each of the four rings has different powers. We don't know what the other three can do. But the one Kaelos holds can summon the Devouring Darkness."

"Devouring Darkness?" He frowned. He had never heard of such a term before.

"Yes. It's a sort of transcendent concept—a devourer formed from all hatred, malice, and resentment. Trust me, kid, you don't ever want to face it. That darkness rendered an entire continent uninhabitable," Schneitz said with a grave tone.

"An entire continent?" Both Lana and Daniel stared at him in disbelief.

Even just hearing about this ring made Lana feel as though her entire understanding of the world had been shattered and rewritten… who would have thought secrets like this even existed?

"Yes. In fact, aside from the currently known continents, there was once another continent, roughly a century ago. But then the Devouring Darkness descended and swallowed the entire land. Nothing on that continent survived. Nothing."

"Then how was information about that continent suppressed?" Daniel frowned. Everything was once again turning strange and unsettling, and he didn't like it.

"Yeah, why would the destruction of a whole continent need to be hidden?" Lana asked, just as shocked and curious.

"I don't know the exact reason either. That was the Guardian Council's decision—to erase the continent from memory entirely. You can imagine how difficult that must have been. They literally erased the existence of an entire landmass from people's minds… as for how they did it, I don't know," Schneitz explained.

"I see… then what happened to the Devouring Darkness?"

"It lingered there for many years, existing in that void. Eventually, the Guardian Council, along with the strongest national-rank Awakened, launched a covert assault on that continent. The operation was successful—they managed to revert the creature back into its true form: the ring."

"So they still couldn't kill it," Lana muttered.

"Every single demigod of the Guardian Council, along with dozens of national-rank Awakened, took part in that battle. The aftermath was horrific. The demigods were left heavily injured, countless national-rank Awakened died… killing that thing is beyond humanity's reach," Schneitz said as he looked at his granddaughter.

He himself had participated in that assault. In fact, not just him—August had been there as well.

Back then, August had been a prodigy, someone with the potential to one day reach the peak of national-rank power. But in that battle, his entire future and potential were destroyed.

He was left with eternal wounds that never fully healed, crippling him severely.

But compared to what happened to August, Schneitz considered himself lucky. That poor man's power had plummeted from a national-rank Awakened to a mere Half Step S-Rank.

Even just thinking back on that battle, and that monstrous being, made Schneitz tremble.

He couldn't comprehend how that lunatic Kaelos had even obtained the ring. If that creature was released once again, another continent would fall, just like before.

And beyond all of that, how had that bastard even gotten his hands on the ring in the first place? Even the Guardian Council hadn't been able to find it after all these years.

Could there be a greater force behind all of this? Schneitz was even starting to suspect that Kaelos might have made a pact with one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

If that were the case, things would become far worse. If one of the Horsemen and its "pet," the Devouring Darkness, were both unleashed…

The result would be the fall of two worlds. Stopping them wouldn't be something humanity—or any other race—could hope to achieve.

Unless maybe the dragons themselves intervened.

"So now my enemy is someone who can wipe out an entire continent? And can the ring actually control the Devourer, or is it just a container?"