With calm movements, Marcus knelt right beside the Grade-2 Formation Array that guarded the underground entrance.
His eyes danced around it a bit as he reigned in the curiosity to study it.
A thought crossed his head: "What if I can replicate this formation and use it to hide my entire estate from the eyes of the rest of the world?"
It was an interesting thought.
That way, he would be able to keep his progress and development a secret from many people…
Marcus shook his head.
The logistics, preparations, and materials needed to draw such a Large Formation Array big enough to envelope his estate were beyond his current capabilities.
Marcus understood that drawing a formation the size of a head was different from drawing one the size of a house.
"Let's forget about it."
He raised his sword and stabbed downwards.
Ding!
The formation's fluctuating light stopped the sword..
With an increase in force, the tip of Marcus's sword broke through the repulsive light.
Promptly ending the struggle of power between the two sides.
Silence ensued immediately.
No one had heard the commotion nor had they sensed anything wrong.
That was how Marcus snuck in.
His footsteps were light and fast, running down the fairly lit underground stairway.
Within a minute, Marcus arrived at the bottom. At the same time, he activated his Rippling World, but only for a moment.
Using it to locate the cultists in the underground structure.
Following his senses, after crossing a few winding corridors, he came across a cultist.
"Huh?" The clueless man had just registered Marcus's presence in his mind when his worldview changed.
Thud!
His head fell and rolled on the ground.
Marcus moved past the headless corpse and went on to his next target.
Every cultist he came across, he sliced through them without any hesitation or guilt.
Giving none of them the chance to shout or even process what was happening.
As the night progressed, bodies of cultists, in different locations in Agard, dropped to the ground lifeless.
The stench of warm blood filled the corridors and awakened the captured from their slumber.
Almost an hour had gone by by the time Marcus was done killing.
Not long after, Brown arrived with assistance, hundreds of people, and they began releasing the captives en masse.
The night stayed rigorous albeit silent.
One part of Agard was embroiled in trying to stop the spread of the fire in the Dead Forest.
While another was rescued from the hands of their captors.
By the time the dawn came, thick clouds of dark smoke could be seen rising into the sky from many corners of the Eastern District.
At the same time, carts filled with weakened people were being transported quickly to Marcus's estate.
***
Maney's residence.
The white fog of dawn announced the coming of the morning sun, when So-Lana, as well as ninety-nine robed people appeared in the garden below a balcony.
Standing in silence, staring at the sky with a confused frown on his face, Maney ignored their presence.
"Lord Priest?" So-Lana called out. Her tone was filled with worry and uncertainty.
Everything they had worked hard to accomplish in secret over the years had been upended in a single night.
Right underneath their noses.
"If it wasn't for that weak bastard of a Governor!" So-Lana's worry turned into anger as she cursed through gritted teeth.
"Say the word, Lord Priest, and we will march onwards to the Governor's mansion.
Razing it to the ground will be the least of his torture!"
Maney's gaze shifted slightly, looking down below at So-Lana.
Her suggestion sounded good, but something kept him from making a move.
How did he know? No, rather, how long had he known for?
He accepted my donation, only to return it after speaking with the students from Ulha Academy.
Could it be that information was passed to him through one of them?
Maney turned his head back to the sky.
Not only had he lost quite a number of his men, and the leverage he had over Marcus, he had also lost Aethera's Casket before it could get into his hands.
Maney felt like there were unseen hands meddling in his business.
Subtly and powerfully.
Suddenly, a slight, devilish light flashed in his pupils.
As the morning light shone to ward off the blanket of the night, crimson lights flashed around.
The threads of Causality lay before his eyes in the thousands.
They covered the sky, blotting out everything and interweaving at different sections.
Some of these threads Maney could trace and infer from them, however, it was only so for a minute sum of them.
As for the majority, they were blocked by the unknown and unforeseen. A barrier that he couldn't go through.
His eyes squinted as he focused on the threads of those he had once captured.
"Even their deaths are uncertain now… just who exactly had interfered?"
His eyes turned to a far corner, falling on the thread that was vibrating subtly. He stretched out his mind, trying to trace the owner and source of this thread.
Suddenly, his heart palpitated.
"Argh!" Maney held his chest and leaned over a bit.
"Lord Priest?" The robbed men below cried out with worry.
"How could this be? What horrible power has interfered with my plans?"
A powerful aura burst forth from his body.
The balcony beneath his feet caved under its pressure and collapsed. The building behind shook as though an earthquake was ensuing.
All his followers below fell to the ground, pressed into the floor against their will by the sheer force of Maney's aura.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk! Quite the view, isn't it." A crisp voice cut through the pressure and reached Maney's ears.
Upon raising his head, and staring into an empty space, Maney scowled before his expression returned to a light frown.
"Cassir." He uttered unhurriedly.
"What's got you so worked up to have awakened such a dark anger in your heart?"
"Don't farce ignorance, now."
A foot stepped out of the space Maney had been staring at.
Cassir smiled.
"To be honest, I'm also shocked. Or rather, I feel like we've been played. I also came here to ask if you've figured out who," he paused as his eyes fell on the corner of Maney's lip.
A light shade of red hung on its corner, before it was licked off.
"But it seems like that question is also redundant… the backlash must have been immense for it to have drawn blood from you," Cassir stressed on the last word in that sentence.
Maney didn't say anything, only looking at Cassir, as though he was waiting for him to say something.
"Do you think it was done by one of the loyal Sirdi men?"
A beat of silence and no activity passed by before Maney shook his head.
"I see… then what do you suppose we do?"
"Since I can't figure out who's interfering, I can only go for the obvious.
We fight back."
Arching a brow at that statement, Cassir said; "I'm not sure how much I can assist you with that. You should be aware of my unfortunate connection with the descendants of that House."
"I know. Let's visit the young lord for now."