About a dozen figures appeared from the shadows, all of them surrounding Marcus.
They were all draped in dark robes and gave off the aura of Radiant rank fighters.
However, there was something more to them.
"Milord!" Brown called, about to run to his side.
"Continue saving the commoners. That's an order!" Marcus shouted, adjusting his gauntlet.
He couldn't let any of his men come here.
Even if these twelve robed people were normal Radiant rank fighters, none of his knights could take them on.
"The young governor?" One of them uttered in shock.
This was someone everybody had concluded to be weak–yet, here he was.
The powerful aura that they all sensed and that was the cause of their return, came from Marcus.
It was a tricky pill to swallow.
"The Priest of Agony will appreciate the blood of a noble, especially one who has inherited the strength of a Sirdi."
Marcus raised a brow at the figure who spoke. It sounded like a female. Even the way she stood, leaning on her hip, revealed her femininity.
He didn't care that they were attributing his power to inheritance.
What he cared about most was the eerie feeling he was getting from them.
"You twelve must be working for that piece of shit, Maney right?" Marcus asked.
"The Priest's name shall not be soiled by your unholy tongue!"
This cultist's voice seemed to have been amplified by something, causing his voice to be extremely loud.
It made Marcus's ears ring, while shaking his organs. The young lord even felt like vomiting blood.
The moment this feeling came, he reopened his Heart Pulse.
This time, he felt some pain in doing this.
Marcus grabbed his chest as the shock of the pain assaulted his brain.
Damn it! The Heart Pulse isn't meant to be opened and closed like this.
A Heart Pulse, once opened, is meant to remain open. However, because he lacked control, this was his only option for now.
But at the rate at which he had been opening and closing it, he could damage the Pulse and that could nullify his Physical Path with the Five Elements Arts.
Nonetheless, he chose this option of opening and closing it.
As his body received strength, his resistance towards the cultist's sonic attack grew.
Marcus conjured a circle of flames around his body, pushing it to explode.
The flames were strong enough to push these twelve back, but they didn't cause them any harm.
His Mana had almost run out.
In other words, even the physical enhancement from opening his Heart Pulse would soon run out.
I can't take them all now… we might have to leave.
Marcus hated this thought, and the feeling it brought to him. He was stronger than before, but still weak.
"The young lord is a Mage?" This time, the one who spoke croaked like a frog, startling Marcus.
If I had reached the entry level of the Five Elements Arts, perhaps my mana reserves would have increased a bit.
"Young Lord, how about you come with us willingly. We don't bite." Another woman said with a flirtatious slurry in her voice.
Her words sounded silky, soothing Marcus's mind and calming his heart.
Marcus even began closing his Heart Pulse, but when he tried to do this, his mind was stung with pain, awakening him from the charm that he had been put under.
Marcus's pupils widened as he realized what had just happened to him, and how scary the woman who had just spoken was.
Without wasting any time, he opened his Pulse of Sight, fully activating his Mind's Eyes Art.
His mind cleared up. Clearer than it had ever been.
At the same time, his [Lord With A Will] title was amplified.
Marcus's presence rose to a whole other level.
The commoners who were under the grasp of replica amulets, those still in the hall, fell to the ground.
A mental pressure, stronger than what these replicas of the Amulets of Dreams could resist, enveloped the entire hall.
"He resisted your charm?"
"Wait, his aura is rising! Retreat!"
The twelve robed cultists felt fear for the first time since coming across Marcus.
"What about the rest?"
"Our mission is mostly complete. Retreat and collapse the road the path, now!"
Marcus watched as they ran, and he secretly sighed.
This was a move he considered using on the spot. The same way that he had unintentionally intimidated Brown when he first opened his Pulse of Seeing.
He was banking on that same thing happening, and it did.
Unable to fight, he could only frown as he watched them retreat into the wide corridor.
What he saw next made his blood boil in anger.
Four out of the twelve jumped into the air and attacked the pillars supporting the road to the corridor.
Boom!
Bit by bit, the ceiling started to fall, and right below them were hundreds of unconscious commoners.
"No!" Marcus stretched his hands out the moment he saw large boulders falling.
The next moment, his hands moved in a blur, weaving hand signs. His tongue also moved with the same speed, to the point where he mistakenly bit his tongue.
But that wasn't enough to stop him.
Marcus was in the process of casting a level two spell.
Earth Shift.
Just when he was about to complete his cast, his mana ran out. A strong spell of dizziness hit his mind, causing Marcus to fall to a knee.
"No," he uttered under his breath.
The boulders were still falling. Just when he thought he had failed, he saw pillars of earth extend from the ground.
Dum!
They stopped the boulders in place.
Marcus didn't even care to know how, he gathered the little strength he could to give out an order.
"Knights! Quickly, save those people!" He pointed at the corridor.
When he saw that his knights were moving to carry out his order, his heart calmed down a bit.
"So, I was right. You are a mage." A familiar voice reached his ears.
Marcus looked up, only to see Veronica standing next to him. Her red pupils were trying to peer into his soul.
He was a bit confused. "How… How did you get here?" Marcus managed to say after a bit of struggle.
His chest heaved heavily as drops of sweat rolled down his clothes.
"I followed you." She said nonchalantly.
"What?"
Did this weirdo switch from openly stalking me to secretly doing it? Is that why I haven't seen her around my mansion since?
Either way, once again, Marcus was grateful for her presence. The first time he was grateful for her presence was when she assisted in teaching, in his previous life.
Marcus had just started to relax when he heard another explosion. The four who had tried to collapse their escape route returned and destroyed the pillars that Veronica had made.
What Marcus had feared happened. Though his knights had saved some people, there were still many more under the path of the boulders.
Blood splashed everywhere, staining the bottom of the cascaded rocks, red.
Veronica frowned, feeling annoyed that her efforts were destroyed.
Give chase?
She considered the thought, but quickly dismissed it.
Her eyes looked to the side to see a furious Marcus. Once again, tendrils of flames flowed out of his body, but this time, they were few.
His mana still hadn't recovered.
"Those bastards deserve death!"
Veronica frowned, shaking her head. There was nothing she could do at the moment.
She wasn't as furious as Marcus, but silently, she had marked the auras of those four.