Spike these heads

The man adopted a fighting stance as well, bending slightly from the waist and spreading his arms and legs widely. (Yujiro Hanma fighting pose.)

None of the parties advanced during those brief seconds.

A bead of sweat has formed on the Joran's and agent's forheads. They all know that maybe the next movement will be their last moment.

Even though Joran's mouth was almost dry from all these nervousness, he was successfully able to calm himself by swallowing some of his saliva.

After doing some mental math and analysis, he has determined that it will take their entire team just 5 seconds to get in contact with their opponent. Thus, he has to launch the attack unexpectedly, given the urgency of the situation, since the opponent's counterattack could ruin their formation and lessen their chances of winning even more.

Thus, he sent his agent a mental transmission message.

"Charge, you all have only 5 seconds to make contact and neutralize the target."

With that, slightly less than 2 thousand individuals clad in black clothing began to move toward the man, with Jordan in front of Group 4, which was attracting attention from the ground.

Now, countdown has started on every agent's mind, including Joran.

the estimated time upon the contract for all the groups: 5 seconds.

All groups started to move towards their target.

The estimated time upon the contract for all the groups: 4 second.

At this moment, each member released their maximum amount of mana to enhance their physical abilities.

The estimated time upon the contract for all the group: 3s.

By now, all members were only 20 feet away from the point of contact.

The estimated time per contract for all the members: 2 seconds.

A glimmer of hope rises within the hearts of agents that they could survive this, as they had not converted into a dead lump of meat despite reaching the target's vicinity.

The estimated time upon the contract for all the groups: 1s.

The Joran blade was the first to reach near the neck of that suspicious person.

When Joran noticed that his opponent was motionless and that his blade was only a few millimeters from that's man's neck, he became more and more confident that he would surely prevail in this battle.

But suddenly.

"Stop, you fools." A loud yell accompanied by immense pressure befell Jordan and his group, which made some of the lower-ranking members drop to their knees and the higher-ranking members stop what they were doing.

The voice came from above the sky, from where a man wearing a butler coat descended on the ground.

Every intelligence service agent, with the exception of Jordan, falls to their knees upon seeing the elderly man.

But then Joran subsequently spoke with frustration, "Robert, what does this mean? I almost succeeded in killing that man."

Hearing this, Robert simply sneered at Jordan and ignored him completely as he turned to face the man in the gray coat.

Unexpectedly, yet, Robert takes a dogeza pose in front of the man, bending both legs on the ground, and starts to speak with a trembling voice.

"O supreme being, please pardon them for their stupidity because they are ignorant of your greatness. I offer you my head, Supreme One, to quell your rage. Please forgive them."

This declaration of Robert was met with a great many gasps from the gathered crowd, and someone who truly respected Robert stepped up from the crowd to defend him.

""What on earth are you doing, Sir Robert? Get up, sir!!! I am sure if we attack him again with your assistance, we can definitely kill this man."

Hearing this, the man burst into laughing, "Haaaaaa... haaaaa.. haaaaaaa!! Murder me? Me? What a century-long joke, but prior to considering killing me, consider saving yourself first, insect." With that, the man raised his hand in the direction of the person who had just spoken, folded his fingers into a carrom sticker position, and simply flicked his index finger, causing the person's head to burst like a watermelon who was approximately 70 feet away from the man.

The agents who sawn this scene was completely taken aback by this and start to quake with fear as they have never seen such a vicious and forceful demonstration of power, realising that this man could kill them with the flick of a finger.

However, the black haired man ignores all of that and just looks at Robert, who is kneeling.

"Butler, get up. From what I can see, a significant portion of your soilders has passed the test. Despite some being foolish," said the man, looking towards the dead headless agent.

Robert stands up, looking shocked because he had mentally prepared to die for the Ballad family, only to find out later that it had all been a test.

Thus, he asked right away to get his doubts cleared up.

"Supreme one, can you please explain your statement?"

Without giving any answer to Robert, the man, with his back to the woman dressed like a maid, posed a question: "Take out the deserters."

In response, the woman nodded and said, "Yes, master."

She then extends her hand, creating what everyone takes to be spatial magic—to take something out of thin air and throw it on the ground.

When the soilders see what's on the ground, their eyes widen.

It's none other than the head of a deserted soilder who's abandoned their group during their first encounter with the blacked hair man.

Robert, who was also taken back by this scene, immediately understood what the test was about. But suddenly, a voice interrupted his train of thought.

"Let go, butler; our work here is finished. Now let's meet that fellow." Said the black-haired man.

Robert realized right away to whom this man had been referring. So, he responded in an appropriate tone.

"Great one, indeed. Do follow me, please."

The three then made their way over to the count's mansion, but just as they were about to enter through the front gate, the man in front stopped abruptly and called "Butler."

With a nervous tone in his voice, Robert, who has been following the man-woman pair from behind, answers right away.

"Yes, great one."

The man then smiled softly and spoke as though he were a cherished messenger from God.

"Spike these heads and put them on display around the mansion so no one can dare to do the same thing ever." The man spoke as he turned to face the agents in front of him.

Hearing such commands from such an angelic appearance not only gives Robert chills, but the agents do too.

°

°

Ynder spends his days in his mansion, cultivating the void of the lightning arts, and is oblivious to the chaos around him.

After practicing for two days and advancing to level 5 in the voids cultivation arts, he came to the conclusion that this art is more incredible than any other cultivation art that has ever existed in this land because it enables him to practice the mana breathing techniques used by mages as well as the mana gathering techniques used by knights or physical type warriors.

The primary distinction between a mage and a knight is that the latter gathers mana in their cultivation core by absorbing and refining mana particles, while the former gather mana and creates mana circles around their heart.

The larger their cultivation core, the more mana a knight can refine and amass; however, a mage's ability to use mana from their surroundings to power their techniques by breathing "mana particles" is determined by the circle they form around their heart.

But in the case of void lighting arts, it allows Ynder to form mana rings around his heart and also the cultivation core at the same time which is never heard of.

These rings are connected to the cultivation core by newly created "mana veins" in his body, which enables Ynder to significantly increase the number of mana rings around his heart that correspond to his rank in the cultivation core, making him an 8-circle mage.

But suddenly, the door to the room where Ynder was cultivating was knocked on abruptly.

"Who is it?" With a serious tone, Ynder questioned, knowing that he had given specific instructions not to be disturbed while meditating.

"Count, it's me," reflects back to the voice coming through the doorway.

Ynder becomes at ease upon hearing the well-known voice, and he inquires once more. However, this time, he does so with curiosity, since he believes that since this individual has gone to such great lengths to declare a "shadow lockdown state," it must be a serious matter that needs to be brought to his attention.

"Tell Robert. What happened?"

"Lord, "that" person is here."

Ynder, who had been very laid back, instantly became tense and on high alert after hearing this.

Ynder, who is at the initial stage of the SSS class, was able to sense almost every person in the virro city; however, he was unable to sense "this" person, indicating that they are at least x rank or possibly the mythological "upper rank," which has never been seen or heard as they were only mentioned in some folks stories.

Therefore, he wasted no time in grabbing his robe and running to the door to meet the individual in question and to inform him of everything that was going on.

Information

[1] ranks: for mages, knights, or warriors, the ranking system is almost the same with some differences.

As in knights or warriors, the ranks are divided from G to SSS class and X class (this will be updated further) according to their cultivation core rank.

For mage, their rank is also divided from G to SSS class and X class according to their number of circles. (This will be updated further with the progress of the story.) But in the case of mage, F and G class mage are considered novice and apprentice rank mage, which are considered very weak but slightly stronger than normal people.

So the actual rank starts from E class as these mage are 1 circle mage, D class as 2 circle mage, C class as 3rd circle mage, B class as 4th circle mage, A class as 5th circle mage, and moving forward, SSS class and X class as 8th and 9th circle mage.