Legendary Architect of Apocalypse

"Who are the people inside these paintings?" Elias asked. "Are they being punished for something?"

"I don't know much about the history of these paintings, but I do know about that one." Grey pointed toward another painting.

He moved over to the previous painting, which showed a human whose eyes and mouth were stitched with a blood red thread.

Only the man's ears were left untouched, as if wanting him to hear everything, including the footsteps of people walking past him. However, he couldn't see them. He also couldn't open his lips, to express his pain.

"It was a painting made just last year. If I remember correctly, his name was Estefan. He was a Fifth Year Student of the Auxiliary Class. He saw Painter do something, that he shouldn't have seen,"

Grey told the students Estefan's story that he thought they might find interesting. He also wanted them to know more about Painter as they were going to interact with him next.

"The Painter punished him by enslaving him in his paintings. He stitched Estefan's eyes with which he had seen things. He also stitched that mouth close, as if to make sure that he couldn't tell anyone what he saw."

As he reached this point, he appeared to be struggling. His face was slightly red, but it wasn't from anger or fear. Instead, it looked like he was trying to stop himself from laughing out loud as he remembered that incident.

Unfortunately, he failed to control, and burst into laughter. "That fool really thought that just because he stopped him, no one was going to know about the things that Estefan had seen. He really underestimated me."

It took him a long time to control his laughter, as tears almost appeared in his eyes. He still remembered Painter's face when he told him that he knew.

"What did he see?" Elias asked Grey, who seemed to know a lot about it.

"I can tell you. It's not as if Painter can kill me. But you're different from me. If you know his secret, are you certain that you won't end up as his next painting subject?" Grey offered Elias an opportunity to know Painter's secret, but more than an offer, it was a warning.

Even if Elias wanted to know more about Estefan's story and Painter's secret, he understood that it wasn't the time. Knowing this secret was like a ticking time bomb.

"You know what, I have changed my mind. It's not fun if I'm the only one who knows about it."

Before Elias could even react, Grey went down on a knee. He whispered something in Elias' ears, ensuring that only he could hear it.

Even if the other students couldn't hear the secret, they had heard that it was a secret that might bring more hostility to Elias.

If the Painter was really an existence which could even destroy a Fifth Year Student of the Creator Class, then he was definitely a dangerous existence. Many of them felt like they might be able to take advantage of this situation.

"You..." Elias looked at Grey in disbelief. That man... He never told him any secrets! He just whispered some random words in his ears, while making everyone else believe that he was telling him a secret.

He didn't know any secret of the painter, but almost everyone believed that he knew about it. Even if he tried to explain, no one was going to believe him. They were simply going to think that he was trying to protect himself by lying.

He knew that he had ended up in a trap. But it wasn't a trap that seemed to originate from hostility. Instead, it was more like a trap that originated from Grey's amusement.

"If you can kill Lilian, I'm sure you can also find a way to protect yourself. Please make it fun. You're an Ashborn after all," Grey said before standing up.

"Oh right, I think I forgot to tell you. Your next class is the Beast Selection Ceremony. And the Painter will be in charge of that," he said, making Elias's frown deepen.

This was a worse trap than he had thought. He wasn't even given time to prepare, and he was already going to meet the Painter, who had entrapped so many souls in those paintings, hanging them at the entrance for the world to see.

"Let's get going. You shouldn't be late, or you'll fall behind the Creator Class." He clapped a few times, catching everyone's attention, which was already on him in the first place.

He took the lead, with the children following him. Many of them were looking at Elias with glee, especially Rey, who had been most worried about his safety before.

Rey didn't know that Elias had used external weapons. To him, Elias was an existence that was dangerous enough to kill a Professor. If Elias didn't die soon, then he might come for him next when he was least expecting it.

If the Painter killed Elias, then it couldn't be any better for Rey. He wouldn't even need to get his hands dirty in the process.

'What a pity. I wanted to kill him myself, but it looks like I won't even have an opportunity,' he thought, not accepting the fact that he was scared. Even now, he tried to convince himself that he wasn't afraid of Elias.

The long corridor seemed to stretch for an eternity. For Elias, it felt even longer as he seemed to be thinking about the Painter. The only good thing was that his temporary abilities like storage were still with him.

The abilities were supposed to last for seven days. As the test ended earlier, he still had a few days left. He didn't know exactly how long these temporary ability cores were going to last. It might even last longer than seven days, but he prepared as per the worst.

The Professor soon came to a halt in front of a door.

"We are here."