The streets were asleep.
Not the type of sleep that came with peace, but the kind that felt… eerie.
There was no chatter, no footsteps..not even the usual drunken murmurs that bled out of taverns at this hour.
And the fifteen of them moved through the shadows, making sure to maintain this silence.
Their leather armors brushed lightly against their clothes, as they held their weapons close to prevent even the slightest sound from escaping.
Marcus had emphasized that they approach this place as secretly and silently as they could.
His gaze was fixed ahead.
Unknowingly, his left hand tightened slightly, causing the finished gauntlet to let out a faint creak before going still again.
He exhaled slowly.
This place…
For a brief moment, the present blurred, overlapped by his memories.
Broken walls with blood-soaked grounds. There were bodies, too many bodies strewn across the streets like discarded rags.
A rotting stench accompanied this scene.
Marcus could almost hear the unnerving echoes of inhuman cries.
He had been recalling what had happened the last time he was here, in his previous life.
The outbreak had already happened, and two Delirious Devilish Mutants were set loose.
Standing here, those scenes in Marcus's memories seemed like a dream.
A silent suffering that only he could understand.
With an exhale, he calmed his emotions.
Currently, the tavern stood before him, intact and untouched.
Like nothing had ever happened.
Marcus narrowed his eyes and made a slight gesture with his head.
"Move."
Knight Brown stepped forward. He approached the door cautiously.
His hand hovered over the handle for a second before pushing. Hmm?
It was unlocked, which was strange.
Surely such an establishment would guard against thieves.
With just a bit of push from the knight's shoulder, the door opened easily.
Creak….
The sound felt louder than it should have, causing everyone to pause.
According to the young lord's briefing, they would be encountering cultists here tonight.
So many of them were nervous, especially the knights who were cultivating Aspect and were just recently promoted to knighthood by Marcus.
They had no experience to their names. Aside from sparring, they've never experienced true life-and-death squabbles.
But none of them let their nerves affect their movement. A mistake or hesitation could cost them their lives and the lives of their comrades.
This, they knew.
They poured into the building, one after the other, spreading out slowly and deliberately, stretching their senses to the limit.
Marcus stepped in last.
The interior was dim, but Marcus's eyes couldn't easily be covered by the darkness of the night anymore.
Tables and chairs were scattered as they should be. Mugs rested where they were left, and a faint smell of stale alcohol lingered in the air.
Nothing was out of place, yes.
And yet…
Everything seemed wrong.
"Clear the rooms," Marcus whispered and his men moved in threes, a practiced formation taught by him.
They nudged doors open, not allowing their movements to disrupt the silence of the night.
Seconds passed before they all returned, confused and bit, dejected.
They were expecting a bit of a scuffle, or even a battle, however…
Was the young lord wrong?
Some of them thought.
"Milord," Brown returned, and spoke with a low voice. "We've checked every corner of the building. There's no one here."
It was strange.
Even though Agard had degraded, structures like this had remained.
Normally, there would be drunk degenerates drinking away their lives with what little coins they had.
And even if they weren't, the owner of the tavern would at least be in the building.
However, there was nothing. As if it had been abandoned.
If Marcus wasn't aware of what would become of this place tomorrow, he would have believed this facade.
"No, there's something we're missing." His gaze swept across the tavern once more.
Suddenly, his eyes dimmed, as though they had lost their lights. Then, they changed, the world shifted before it became still.
In Marcus's gaze, the world became a body of water. Still to the point of silence.
Within this body of water, soft ripples slightly disrupted its surface.
When each ripple came in contact with Marcus's body, his head turned in the direction it came from.
This was the first major ability of the Mind's Eyes Art.
Rippling World.
Marcus was unsure of its true use, but he found out that he could use it to sense things.
Each ripple came with a heartbeat.
Out of the ripples he sensed, many of them came from a different direction.
Far too many.
Marcus quickly closed his Pulse of Seeing to preserve his willpower, subsequently deactivating his Mind's Eyes.
"It's not that there aren't people here. They are just underground." He walked towards the counter at the other end of the room.
Walking around it, he was searching for a hidden entrance, but unfortunately, he saw nothing.
Hmph, I'll find you whether you want to be found or not.
He activated his [Inspect].
Since his breakthrough, this skill's mana consumption has reduced.
In a matter of seconds, information appeared before him.
[Hidden Illusion Formation Array: It obscures the senses of people; sight, hearing, and feeling, to hide. A Grade-2 Formation Array.]
Marcus frowned upon reading this detail. In the previous life, there were no findings of anything like this.
A grade-2 Formation Array?
An uncomfortable feeling arose in his chest.
The power of formations is characterized by their grades, with grade-1 being the weakest.
But because it was the weakest didn't mean that it wasn't powerful. Even as he had upgraded his Arcane Knowledge to level 2, the grade of Formation Arrays available to him was still within the range of Grade-1 formations.
For a Grade-2 to be used for something as simple as hiding an entrance… it didn't quite sit right with Marcus.
Sure it was enough cover, and deconstructing it was beyond his current abilities.
Even a Radiant Knight would struggle to break it using brute force.
However, Marcus's current physical strength was well above that of any normal Radiant Knight. Because he had awakened and opened his Heart Pulse with the energy of the Five Elemental Aspects, his body was different.
But if we break this forcefully, it might alarm them… no, we should stop them now rather than wait. Even if they're alarmed, we should still have the advantage of striking first.
"Milord?" Floki called out.
Everyone was wondering what he was doing when they saw him squat behind the counter.
"Stand back a bit."
With a soft inhale, Marcus opened his Heart Pulse.
A charge of power quickly invaded his muscles, causing veins in his body to expand.
Before this power could travel far in his system, Marcus closed the Pulse again, before quickly directing the power it gave him all into his right hand, and slapped the ground.
Just right above the hidden formation array.
Dum!
Like a drum that was struck with force, an initial sound echoed, but it was soon absorbed by the formation array.
A crimson, round formation, more than 4 feet in radius came into view.
It flickered violently, flashing in and out of view as though it was struggling to contain what had struck it.
The force from Marcus's palm was enough to shake the building. It was so strong and unexpected that most of the knights around lost their footing as the building shook.
When did the young lord become so powerful?
His knights thought as many eyes widened with fear and awe.
To them, that slap didn't seem like much.
Just when the formation array looked like it was about to be destroyed, it stabilized.
"Break for me!" Marcus, a bit frustrated, attacked again.
He opened his Heart Pulse again, this time, tendrils of fire appeared below his palm.
Dum!
Boom!
Fractures appeared on the wooden floor, spreading out like a web before it was silently incinerated into ashes.
Even the formation array was unable to withstand this force.
This time, the sound from his attack could be heard.
With the disappearance of the formation array, a stone stairway leading underground came into view.
"Scree!!"
A loud inhuman scream burst out from below. Waves of Devilish Intent, so potent that they arrived with otherworldly whispers, rushed outwards.
All of this, at the same time, sent chills down everyone's spines…