Ace and the house members were astounded by this announcement. Although they knew they would be going to the Abyss of Wandering Souls, they didn't think it would be in just three days.
However, they were all intrigued by the House Return Function. Although they were only given one-time access to this function, which would become permanent after they completed the mission series, they didn't know precisely what it did.
However, it was clear that this return function could summon thief acolytes back into Thief's House Space by their superiors. Unlike the house meeting, it was permanent. Or there might be more to it.
"If this return function can call back the Thief Acolytes, then does this mean the Teleportation Hall should be able to let us all teleoperate back and forth freely, right?" Winter loudly stated her guess.
"It should be something . I'm glad we chose this route; at least we can get both of these functions. It'll be a disaster for them if only we can return, but our acolytes can't." Freya nodded, as she also found these functions quite helpful.
Ace was also delighted with this function since he was worried about those Thief Acolytes since he knew all of them, like Thomas, Lillian, Aliya, and those three maids of Eva.
However, he could not use the main house functions against them. They were their superiors' responsibilities, and he couldn't interfere unless they did something wrong.
He then glanced at Zaria, who looked shocked. He knew she was now probably convinced to let Leah join the Thief House; this way, she could ensure Leah's safety.
"Alright, everything. I know most of you want to discuss the mission. But since we are already given a deadline, we should make our preparations and use these three days to take care of things on our side. We'll discuss the mission in another meeting, and the venue will be the Abyss of Wandering Souls!"
The house members nodded in agreement that three days was not enough. They all knew they wouldn't be back for quite some time, so all their plans would be put on hold. Despite that, they could still prepare for their return.
As for sending them back, Ace can still use the house meeting function, but the system temporarily removed the limitation. He was sure it would return to normal once they entered the abyss.
So, he sent Freya, Winter, and Alina back, while the latter only agreed to go after he had made an absolute promise that he would listen to her alone without any excuses once she returned.
She also made him promise to keep a distance from Eva, which was only met by the devil's laughter, and she could only grit her teeth and vow to return as soon as possible.
Ace only smiled wryly as those two were back at their antics again the moment the meeting was over. Still, he was fine with it as long as it wouldn't affect the entire Thief House.
Zaria also decided to return to close the shop while secretly preparing a letter for Falcon. Although she has no goodwill toward Falcon, he has overseen the sisters for as long as she can remember. If they vanished for a long time, she knew Falcon would probably overturn the entire Great Crown Domain, for she knew the old man's real identity!
Nonetheless, she knew Flacon would still make a huge fuss and probably start to search for her. Still, at least he wouldn't be hysteric this way, and she already had a pretty good excuse for her sudden disappearance. A mischievous glint flashed past her eyes as she looked at Ace before vanishing.
'Why am I feeling chilly?' Ace suddenly felt something amiss when Zaria vanished, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
Now, of all the house members, only Eva and Noa are left. Eva wasn't permitted to go back, nor could she summon her acolytes. The system has already announced that Ace will be teleported to where Eva was before coming here.
As for Noa, she looked at Ace and averted her eyes as she said, "Please send me back."
Ace sternly said, "What's there to go back? Just summon Thomas here; it's too dangerous for you to go back to the Fiend Assassin Guild after you have killed their leader and that other person. It's also probably dangerous for Thomas since he has a connection with you."
However, Noa shook her head, "I won't be in danger anymore. After I killed those ambushers, I found this token in the ring of the backer behind the guild leader. Please take a look."
Noa then flipped her hand and a pentagram-shaped crimson token; five points of the token were etched with black characters, 'Moon,' 'Star,' 'Soul,' 'Blood,' and 'Nether,' and in the center of this pentagram was a dark golden rune which read 'Fiend.'
The moment Ace saw this token, his eyes contracted; Eva was also astounded as she had seen this familiar token before.
"Isn't that the token you showed us with all those techniques because they matched the Fiend Assassin Guild's, and then Noa took those techniques because she was interested in finding them?" Eva asked as he had guessed something.
Ace was astounded at this moment. He tapped on the table, and something appeared right in front of him. It was another pentagram-shaped token with the same design and characters.
However, there was a significant difference: this token seemed to have a peculiar aura. The character 'Moon' on it was written in the center of the pentagram with the 'Fiend,' and in place of the 'Moon Rune' was a 'black half-moon' etched there.
Noa and Eva instantly noticed the difference, and his eyes narrowed as he knew he had guessed right.
"The leader told me that this token belonged to the Moon Fiend King's residue soul wisp that you encountered in the First Heaven, and those techniques also belonged to this Moon Fiend King.
"Now, this same kind of token has appeared on the guild leader's backer, and after investigating, I'm sure it belonged to the main organization behind the Fiend Assassin Guild." Noa spoke confidently, "You should've probably known about this organization's name, right?"
Noa and Eva were interested, especially the latter because she also wanted to know about the Moon Fiend King's real identity.
No longer ignorant, Noa had also long guessed that the title 'King' was probably not just a casual or a vanity statement. That guy was probably a terrifying Ascension King of some King Sect!
Ace's eyes flashed with a complicated glint as he looked at that token. He only showed her this in the hope she might discover something in the Fiend Assassin Guild since their techniques and skills matched the inheritance in the Moon Fiend King's space ring, and it seemed he was right.
However, after joining the Artifact Inferno Guardian Sect, Ace found that sects hide all kinds of information and identity proofs in these badges. When he fiddled with this badge, he instantly discovered it was right on the mark. Now, Noa had discovered this token as well.
"Infuse your spirit Qi into the central Fiend rune and then simultaneously touch each rune of your token's pointers one after another!" He commanded without revealing anything.
Noa eyes flashed with realization as she knew Ace wanted to confirm the authenticity of her token.
She followed Ace's instructions, and once she touched the 'star' rune on the token, bloody words suddenly projected above it: "Cult Executor-56 of the Outer Circle of the Nether Blood Fiend King Cult!"