Marcius watched as the realization slowly settled in the eyes of the leader of the Order of Purple Sun. Admittedly, this entire situation had no chance for the order master to come out on top. Marcius had massively stacked the deck in his favor.
Not to mention the spy Marcius had planted via a puppet and mind-controlled elder, there was no chance any plan the order master formulated would go unnoticed by the Aemilia heir who used the Nexus of All Things ability every night. Learning from his mistake of being outsmarted by Duncan twice, both of which had caused great setbacks in Marcius's plans, the Aemilia heir was not leaving anything to chance.
Thus, when he learned of the order master's plan to activate the runic and spiritual seals buried deep underneath the stronghold in order to take the Aemilia clan together with his militant order, Marcius immediately commanded his puppet elder to plant some explosives that could destroy the activation of seals.