As the night deepened, so did the stench of blood.
At this point, Marcus had lost count of how many they had killed.
Cassir's residence was filled with guards. Even though they hadn't reached the man's mansion, they had killed so many.
Finally, after an hour of taking out the guards outside, they reached the mansion.
A huge abode that was several times bigger than Marcus's mansion.
Almost half of the entire land's square feet.
The guards here were several notches stronger than the rest– more equipped, donned in full iron armor and well-made weapons that looked intimidating from afar.
Without probing much, Marcus could sense that they were all peak-level Tidal rank fighters.
If this were before, he would have hesitated.
But now, he was well aware of what his Knights were capable of.
If this were a head-on battle, he would have hesitated, but it wasn't.
Marcus had emphasized silence and striking to kill. From the training he gave them, under his Will, their senses were tuned to function like an assassin's.
Without a word, Caleb slipped forward. A flicker of steel hit the eyes of the guards around. They could see a person coming, but they couldn't hear a thing.
By the time they realized that it was an intruder, it was already over.
The other knights spread out and did away with the other guards.
When they regrouped around Marcus, the young lord used his Rippling World to probe the building.
"It's too big for us to safely cover everywhere silently. It would be better to know where to go."
Though he wasn't familiar with Cassir's aura, he could narrow down his location by tracing the densest concentration of guards, or the strongest–and eliminating the rest.
For a person who filled his place with so many guards, his resting place should have as many guards or even stronger guards.
While probing, Marcus was able to sense hundreds of presences.
Just like he sensed in the tavern, these presences came from below.
Baron Savani did say about a rumor that Cassir housed captured slaves under his mansion… he should have been the one in charge of capturing people for the cult.
Marcus was expecting this, so he wasn't affected by this revelation. He pushed it aside and continued to probe deeper.
On the West side of the fourth floor, he sensed three powerful presences gathered there.
"Got you," Marcus whispered.
Hmm?
He frowned and turned his head and looked back for a few seconds. He had sensed two powerful presences quite a distance behind.
One of them was so incredibly powerful that it almost broke Marcus's skill. And the other presence was a familiar one.
He hesitated for a fraction before shaking his head and ignoring them.
"Brown, Mercidin, and Caleb, you three should search for an underground entrance."
Their eyes widened, thinking that they were going to come across the same thing they had come across two nights ago.
Marcus could even tell what they were thinking from their expressions, but he didn't say anything about it.
Perhaps the underground structure here is connected to the same one they found under the tavern.
"Then we might come across cultists?" Brown asked.
"Very likely. You all recall how to deal with those Amulets, right?"
They nodded their heads.
"Your mission will be to save the people you find there. Kill anyone or anything that obstructs your path. You might be facing what we saw at the tavern, or worse. So be prepared."
"Yes sir."
"Logail, you're with me. You might have to fight your toughest battle yet."
"With my life, my lord."
Marcus nodded and said, "Let's move."
The group of five entered from the front door. There were no guards on the inside watching this part of the mansion.
Marcus and Logail quickly made for the stairs, while Brown and the rest began searching the ground floor for underground passageways.
With every flight of stairs they ascended, the mansion became eerily quiet.
There were no torches or glowing crystals lighting up the mansion, no source of illumination.
No guards were in sight.
Marcus felt as though he was being watched by many eyes.
But while probing the mansion, he was certain that he hadn't sensed people around these areas.
He looked left and right as they climbed, and was left even more conflicted than before.
It was a weird sensation and a maddening thought. To the point where Marcus began considering retreat.
His heart pounded in his chest, making him feel like he had just stepped into the den of a wild animal.
By the time they reached the fourth floor. Marcus's back was already covered with cold sweat.
His breathing was a bit ragged and his eyelids felt heavier.
They stood in a dark hallway that led down to a huge oakwood double door.
Marcus looked to the side and saw that Logail was in a better condition than him.
Though he had kept his Heart Pulse and Pulse of Seeing closed, Marcus believed that he was still stronger than Logail in this state.
And yet, the knight was looking better than him.
His brow furrowed. Could it be that I was the only one experiencing those sensations? An illusion?
Marcus wondered as he closed his eyes to check his condition.
His senses were telling him that he wasn't caught in any form of illusions.
I see… it was a different spectrum.
A type of sensation that Logail couldn't perceive at all. But that didn't explain why he wasn't affected.
Suddenly, Marcus's head snapped to the door in front.
They've noticed us!
The three strong presences he sensed had approached the door.
Creak!
The door suddenly opened and two figures stepped out.
One man and the second, a woman.
The man was huge, standing over seven feet, giving off an intimidating aura.
His eyes seemed to glow even in this dark hallway. His skin was pale, with wiggling veins that looked like snakes.
As for the woman, she had an average height, however, the aura that came from her felt… baleful.
Even stronger and intimidating than the man.
Her eyes were yellow, and her skin was a bit green.
It was unnatural.
Radiant rank.
Marcus wasn't afraid of people of this rank anymore, however, these two didn't look like the average Radiant rank fighters.
"Pair of rats for the taking." The tall man smiled. Marcus and Logail didn't seem like much to him.
As for the woman, she didn't say anything, only staring at Marcus as if she wanted to peer into his very soul.
Logail held his hammer tightly in his hand as a feeling of dread crawled up his spine.
"Go all out from the beginning, forget about not making noise. Don't hold back with your special power." Marcus said as he placed a hand on the Knight's back.
"Yes, my lord."
Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Logail calmed his heart.
With this calm, a feeling of peace radiated out of Logail.
And then a soft and subtle golden glow enveloped his body.
This transformation was something Marcus found out about a day ago, and even though he had seen it, seeing it again filled him with questions.
As for the opponents, they too reacted to the power they sensed from Logail.
It wasn't oppressive, rather, soothing. But at the same time, it was threatening.
The tall man stopped smiling and glared at Logail.
"Let's have some f-"
Boom!
A tall silhouette tore through the air and crashed through a wall.
Boom!
Before he could get himself, a steel hammer wrapped in a golden glow descended on him, pounding him into the ground.
The first hit created cracks on the floor… The second made a deep hole, and the third sent the tall man down to the third floor.
Above the hole stood a fierce Logail, glaring down the hole with a frown.
My attacks connected, but why do I feel this way?
He wondered.