As the tension between the two groups slowly escated, Illyan and Aurelia finally arrived at the location.

  “Damn… How are we supposed to sneak in if the stele is in such a pce?”

  Illyan cursed under his breath as he looked at the small stronghold in front of them.

  It was built on a very steep cliff, with the only accessible path being narrow and easily guarded. Not to mention the high tower in the middle of the stronghold overseeing the entire area.

  There would be no way they could catch them off guard if they went through the front gates.

  “We will need to wait for them to fall out, and then we should be able to get in,” Aurelia suggested as she stared at the stone walls with a serious expression.

  However, Illyan shook his head vehemently.

  “We can’t just wait for the opportunity without any backup pn. There are too many variables.”

  Illyan’s face turned somber. That was because when they arrived, Aurelia guessed that this group was the one Varel had joined.

  While he hadn’t spoken to the man personally, he felt that he was too unpredictable.

  “Hmm, I know what you are trying to say, but that could jeopardize our mission,” Aurelia said with a slight frown.

  “Well, I am pretty sure that if they’re gonna fight each other, they would still be able to notice us if we go from the front. Moreover, since one side is attacking the other, they will definitely ambush them. If they’re gonna do that and finish quickly, then we will never see any opportunity at all.”

  “Then what do you suggest we do? Climb the cliff on the other side?” Hearing the tone of his voice, Aurelia guessed he had an idea.

  And she was right, as Illyan immediately opened his mouth to expin.

  “That would probably be difficult. As you said, there’s no way there would be no measures for people who could climb that. It would take too long, too. It’s best to barge inside during the chaos. Chaos made by us. The opportunity needs to be created by us.”

  Illyan smirked while Aurelia’s eyes glinted with realization.

  “You are quite good at this. Did you do something simir in the past?” Aurelia asked with suspicion.

  “The art of ambushing is engraved in my body,” Illyan said confidently.

  When he was part of the Bakur Tribe, there were countless times he and his groups had to ambush other tribes. Sometimes, it was a straightforward sneak attack, while other times, more difficult and new strategies had to be implemented.

  Sowing discord was one of them.

  Tribes that were normally each other’s enemies banded together to survive, but if they created a made-up problem between them, they would likely fight among themselves in a heartbeat.

  “Hehe, that’s right. The answer was right in front of us. I guess I was a little too nervous.”

  Aurelia smirked as they whispered their ideas to each other while looking maliciously at the small stronghold…

  …….

  “Hmm?” Varel, who was sitting leisurely on a chair, suddenly lifted his head as he looked beyond the walls into the woods.

  For a moment, he felt uneasy, despite everything going according to pn.

  His brows creased as he looked around.

  ‘We need to wait for another few days. These bastards are too rowdy now since they lost contact, so their guard will be up for some time. Any suspicious activity would be discovered if not done well. But I feel uneasy. My instinct is getting better since I am close to opening my Mind Eye, so I should take this seriously…’ Varel frowned as he clicked his tongue in annoyance.

  “I guess we’ll need to be careful…”

  Thinking so, he looked at his co-leader, Svanor, who was directing his men.

  ‘I will get rid of you at all costs. Nobody will be able to stop my path toward greatness. You’re looking down on me because I can’t use mana, but one day, it’ll be you watching from the underworld as I reach the heavens in one step.’ Varel smirked as he washed off the nervousness in his heart with his deeply ingrained arrogance…

  …….

  “Tch, those bastards. Despite being on a chopping board like helpless fish, they still bark like dogs.”

  At this very moment, a group of sixteen was slowly wandering the forest, with half of them feeling disgruntled.

  “Shush! Don’t talk nonsense when you’re outside,” the guy next to the compining man scolded him as he jabbed him with his elbow.

  Then he secretly looked in front of them at the people in gray robes and added, “We need to wait until these guys in the ruins of Faruin finish the formations. Before that, behave.”

  The other guy snorted in annoyance as he stared resentfully at the acolytes.

  This was one of the reconnaissance teams that had left the stronghold not too long ago.

  The Venomous Viper Gang members were aware that they weren’t hunting for trolls, so they weren’t exactly excited to work needlessly, but the acolytes didn’t know such a thing.

  Because of that, Svanor, who still had Aziro’s commands in mind, pressed Varel to finish their job.

  Varel reluctantly agreed in the end, as he didn’t want to make Svanor suspicious.

  Of course, he also realized that Svanor would try to stealthily contact the city and Aziro since he felt something was off.

  Not that it mattered; the city was surrounded by Ezekiel's men, who would take down anyone who was pnning on leaving or entering.

  On the other hand, the mines were heavily guarded so that Aziro could not even try to escape.

  In the end, no matter what the acolytes did, Varel believed they were firmly in his grasp. But he was still cautious and told his subordinates some countermeasures in case of a crisis.

  There were around five teams sent outside with a simir composition.

  Four gang members who were skilled knights, two acolytes, and the rest were the acolytes’ guards.

  The official task they had to accomplish was to discover a lone troll and retreat to report it to Svanor and Varel.

  But both of these groups within the team had their ulterior motives. The acolytes wanted to stealthily contact their allies, while the gang members wanted to dey them and their suspicions.

  Unfortunately for both of them, there was another party involved that was hidden in the woods.

  “Did you find any trolls in the surroundings?” Illyan asked as he secretly watched the team trudging through the snow.

  A shadow blurred close to him as Aurelia arrived at the same pce.

  “Unfortunately, no. It seems they were prepared, as the path they’re taking is completely barren of any creatures.” She clicked her tongue after she said it.

  Originally, they wanted to make the same ambush with the help of a troll like before, but since it was like this, they could only choose a different method.

  “Then I guess it’s the second pn,” Illyan said lightly.

  “Yes. I’ll use magic to kill the vipers easily since it’s an ambush, but are you sure you’ll be able to finish all of these acolytes alone?” There was a slight worry in her voice. If they failed, it would be horrendous.

  “Don’t worry; if these guys don’t prepare a barrier beforehand, there should be no problem.”

  While Illyan sounded confident, he didn’t pn to be reckless. He was slowly gaining experience fighting with magic users, but in the end, every acolyte was unique. They learned different spells and used different tools.

  There were many variables that could kill him if he wasn’t cautious.

  “Then let’s not waste time. You attack first, since acolytes are hard to deal with.” Aurelia waved her hand as Illyan disappeared into the trees.

  It didn’t take long before he sneaked up on the branches above the acolytes.

  He took out one of his sabers but was careful not to reveal the glint of the bde. In his other hand, he held several throwing knives.

  ‘This will be fun,’ Illyan thought amusedly as he lunged down at one of the acolytes.

  “Wha—?!—ugh.” A gurgling noise resounded as one of the acolytes was pierced through from head to bottom.

  Everyone was shocked for a moment but quickly tried to unsheathe their weapons to attack.

  “F-fuck, ambush!” one of the vipers yelled out as he reached for his sword. Unfortunately, his head exploded as a mana bst removed it from his neck.

  Then there was another mana bullet grazing the second viper, but it didn’t kill him, as he managed to dodge at the st second. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t the target. The moment the bullet exploded, it released a screeching sound that spread across the forest.

  Three vipers felt dizzy as sharp pain assaulted their ears while Aurelia appeared in front of them with another spell already prepared in her hands…

  Illyan didn’t care about them at all as he threw the throwing knives at the second acolyte, who was already chanting his barrier spells.

  The acolyte panicked as he knew the spell wouldn’t activate fast enough and tried to dodge. But since Illyan threw several knives at once, effectively widening the range, it was impossible to do so.

  “Protect our lord!” one of the guards shouted as he jumped in front of the acolyte.

  Since the acolytes' knights didn’t belong to the kingdom, they could wear iron armor even without learning the flow, as their job was to be meat shields.

  Seeing the throwing knife, the guard was confident that it wouldn’t pierce his chest piece and that he would then sughter the fool.

  But that didn’t happen.

  Chink-Squelch

  “Eh? W-what?” The guard looked in disbelief at the gaping hole in his chest.

  The same squelching noise and groaning resounded behind him. Before his consciousness faded, he sighed in regret, knowing he had failed to protect his master.

  That was the power of flow.

  Illyan’s goal wasn’t just to kill them but also to frame the vipers. So, all of his attacks were infused with his flow.

  Of course, every flow was unique, and they didn’t leave many traces.

  Only the mess left behind was the key to realizing who the attacker was.

  And that was what Illyan was aiming for.

  Varel’s ability to infuse the flow into his enemies was feared even among acolytes.

  It wasn't a unique ability, but very few people in the kingdom could achieve such a technique without learning it from someone else.

  So who else would it be but someone that Varel taught?

  Of course, those who knew about the Smiling Devil who kidnapped Caleb might connect the dots, but if chaos ensued among the subordinates, it wouldn’t matter, as there would be no way back.

  “Agh!” Other guards also screamed in pain as other throwing knives embedded themselves in their bodies.

  Illyan didn’t stop for even a second as he took his saber out of the first acolyte with the sound of flesh being cut and rushed at the closest guard, whose head was immediately lopped off.

  Like a dancer, his feet made light steps as his saber traced beautiful but dangerous arcs in the air, reaping the lives of the guards.

  However, while some died instantly, he didn’t kill everyone in the same way.

  Some were grazed slightly, allowing Illyan’s flow to invade their bodies through the saber and do the rest of the job.

  One prick at the heart from inside was enough. Internal destruction was difficult but efficient once mastered.

  Illyan also used this ambush as an opportunity to train his proficiency in the flow.

  As he nearly finished them all, one guard, lying in a puddle of blood, stood up with effort and lunged at Illyan from a blind spot.

  But Illyan only rotated his upper body slightly to dodge the attack and used his free hand to unleash a palm on the guard’s chest.

  “Ghuaah?!” The guard could do nothing as he felt a powerful force rush up from his armor into his skin before it seeped even deeper into his body.

  Squelch

  The explosion of flesh resounded as his back opened up like a blooming blood-red flower.

  “Ugh…” Illyan groaned in pain as he suffered a headache. Since this was his st enemy, he wanted to test the full extent of his flow on a human.

  Not only did it kill him, but it almost made him explode into mere blood mist.

  However, the consequences came soon, too, as Illyan felt light-headed.

  Using too much energy was detrimental, no matter which worldly energy it was.

  Normal people would have a hard time recovering, but Illyan wasn’t afraid.

  He had tried to use his flow at full capacity several times already and knew that it recovered at a fast pace.

  As expected, his headache subsided almost instantly, and he felt better. Of course, the flow would recover slower, but that was only compared to his flesh wounds. To an ordinary knight, he would seem like a monster with an almost infinite amount of flow.

  Once he felt better, he quickly retrieved all his knives and sighed in relief at the success.

  “Aurelia, are you done?” Illyan asked lightly as he turned his head toward Aurelia’s side.

  Aurelia was resting, already leaning on the tree.

  She had fewer enemies, after all.

  Illyan looked down at her four victims and was impressed by her versatility.

  It would have been odd if they had all died to the same spell, so she used several spells, killing each in a different way.

  They were covered in sshes, burns, and frost.

  It was obvious that most of the attacks were magical, while the rest were weak sshes only weaker guards could make.

  “Good job.” Aurelia, taking a deep breath, looked up with a pale face and said this. It was exhausting to use so much magic.

  “Likewise. Can you still use magic?” Illyan asked with creased brows.

  To make it believable, she had to use spells, but that was gnawing at her mana, and she could lose years of progress if she wasn’t careful.

  “Don’t worry. It’s not that hard to use less mana if you know how to use it efficiently. I didn’t tell you about it since you haven’t used mana yet, but I’ll tell you about it ter.” Aurelia smiled slightly, her face regaining a bit of color.

  “Then that’s good. Let’s continue,” Illyan said with a smile as he looked into the distance. His sharp ears picked up hurried footsteps rushing toward them.

  After all, the noise Aurelia caused was substantial. The screeching mana bullet was [Sound Explosion], which was usually used in emergencies.

  When other teams heard it, they would rush to the scene immediately.

  “Hurry up,” Aurelia said as she donned one of the acolyte’s robes.

  Illyan also put on one of the viper bodysuits.

  Afterward, he used a solution to dissolve two naked bodies. Then they tampered with the battlefield as much as possible to make it seem like mutual destruction between the two sides…

  Illyan didn’t want to make it suspicious, so he couldn’t even loot his enemies, which pained his greedy heart greatly.

  “Hopefully, they won’t have time to realize anything… Now run, midy.” Illyan smirked as Aurelia started to run away from him.

  This time, however, her pace was much slower.

  On the other hand, Illyan didn’t hesitate to ssh his legs and even pierce his stomach to make himself look injured. Blood spttered on his body and his bdes, coloring the snow.

  Illyan stood for a second, taking a deep breath before focusing.

  He felt the blood energy within him. He began to shape it in specific forms as Aurelia had taught him. It took him a moment despite all his effort and focus.

  However, after a minute or so, he was ready to begin.

  He muttered words under his breath as he brought his palms together.

  “Moscaratus Haras Neobol’eter!” Illyan whispered the final part of an incantation of [Blood Ignition] with a slight smile as he opened his eyes, secretly relieved at his success.

  The freshly spilled blood began to sizzle slightly.

  Not only the blood directly connecting to his body but also that on the ground.

  All the information that blood could reveal was now gone. It couldn’t be used for anything as it became useless.

  When he first learned this spell, he was thrilled. But reality spped him in the face soon after. The spell was far from practical—at least, not at his proficiency.

  It took time and effort. The so-called ignition was also ughable at this moment.

  When he saw Aurelia do it, it was much more votile and sudden, and the process was much faster.

  But Illyan wouldn’t compin, as he just needed more training in the future.

  With a final look toward the approaching people, he turned around before slowly rushing after Aurelia with a ‘murderous’ intention…

  Now, the act began as the audience quickly approached to see what was going on…