Sigismund turned toward the speaker. "Who are they?" he asked with a chilling tone.
Everyone also looked toward the person wearing dark, form-fitting armor with curiosity—except the two masked figures on the road, who seemed completely oblivious to their surroundings, chatting as if only they existed on the blood-soaked street.
The person began explaining while staring at the masked man with hesitation and dread. "I-If I'm not wrong, they are a newly arisen mercenary team. The masked man calls himself Asura, and the group is called the Asura Mercenary Group. They have never failed a mission before."
He gulped silently as he continued explaining, recalling this group's information.
"A friend of mine in the mercenary guild told me that though this group's members are few, each is more monstrous than the last. There are numerous shocking rumors of their past deeds, each sounding more unbelievable than the next..."
Before he could continue, Sigismund snapped at him. "I don't care about mere Apprentice Rank mana wielders' 'shocking' deeds. What I want to know is—do they have any Master Ranks in their group?"
A mere Apprentice Rank couldn't have killed his raging rhino so swiftly, so he suspected that perhaps a Master Rank was hiding somewhere and had taken action. This was also the thought of others—that was why none of them had volunteered to attack the masked man and were waiting for Lord Alvin to arrive. With his Spiritual Sense, no one could hide, and the killer of the raging rhino would have to show himself.
Receiving the rebuke, the man shuddered while shaking his head. "N-No, they are all Apprentice Rank..." He wanted to say that each of their members was said to have strength equal to a Rank 4, which sounded so ridiculous that even he had laughed when he heard those remarks from his friend—so he smartly kept quiet about it.
He couldn't guess whether the masked man or the masked woman was the culprit who killed the raging rhino, but the way the man stood calmly and carefree, despite being completely surrounded by them, clearly showed that this man was either very confident in his strength or had powerful backup.
At that moment, they felt a strong tremor on the ground and looked ahead to find that the Adult-stage Rank 2 Beast had arrived.
Seeing the beast and its master—Lord Alvin, standing on its shoulder—they all relaxed and smirked. Now that Lord Alvin had arrived, they no longer needed to fear any unknown variables. With the beast and Alvin together, they were strong enough to fight or even kill any early-stage Rank 4 Mana Wielder.
---
Meanwhile, after the white-haired woman stood up straight, she first glanced toward the two children staring at her with wide eyes.
She had only meant to give them a passing glance, but the moment she caught sight of their features—which looked too familiar to her—she was stunned. She stared at the twins for a moment longer than necessary before turning toward Eric.
Even though she didn't say a single word, Eric knew exactly what she was thinking.
If not for currently donning the Asura persona, Eric would have roared at her: *"Just what do you think my age is, that I can have kids grown up like them?!"* Not to mention, there could be many people who had some similar features to him—that didn't mean they were related! Not to mention, he was a lot taller than them at their age!
Of course, he didn't act upon his thoughts and kept his calm, stone-faced look. But then he suddenly noticed a small curl at the corner of her lip. He quickly refocused and found that there was nothing—she was as cold as ever. Perhaps he had imagined it.
To escape the awkwardness, he changed the topic and asked in his calm, level tone, "Why are you here, Divya?"
He had never called her here. The current situation might not be easy, but it was still far from the point where he needed others' help to deal with it.
"I heard from Master... sister, that Master Asura has arrived in Sagemore Kingdom. So I hurried here to see if I can provide any support," Divya answered calmly.
It sounded reasonable but also strange to Eric. Divya was on a major mission in Sagemore Kingdom—but that was far east of here. There was no reason for her to rush all the way here just because he had arrived in the kingdom she was currently in. Not to mention, she had her own mission to attend to, which he had planned to visit secretly after completing this one.
"...I understand. How is the current situation at the border? Will there be war?" Eric decided to move the conversation forward and asked something he was curious about.
Divya's expression turned solemn, and she gave a short nod. "Lochwheel Kingdom seems very determined to begin its expansion. Meanwhile, Sagemore Kingdom doesn't have enough troops to match Lochwheel's armies. So they have wildly hired as many guild members as they could. However, as most of them have no loyalty to the Kingdom—and they would without a doubt flee the moment they faced life-threatening danger—due to these and their half-hearted motivation, the existing Sagemore army's morale has further lowered."
She paused and gave her final conclusion. "The moment the war breaks out, Sagemore Kingdom's armies won't stand a chance. There is no hope for this Kingdom's survival."
Eric could understand Sagemore Kingdom's predicament. This was why hiring too much external help in large-scale battles was never a good solution for any kingdom. The guild members who had accepted this mission were just taking advantage of the advance payment and didn't care much even if they failed. The other portion—those serious about completing the mission—were just children, inexperienced groups who had accepted it to gain experience. They were far from truly resisting or changing the tides of an era by themselves. Not to mention mere Apprentice Ranks—even a handful of Master Ranks might not be enough.
He still asked, "Did any of the Guild's Master Ranks accept this mission to help Sagemore Kingdom?"
"None," Divya gently shook her head. "The only truly capable guild members who accepted the mission were either Academy students or well-reputed guild groups. But these capable ones are only there for experience—they would definitely not participate in resisting an entire army by themselves, especially since this whole Kingdom's leadership is already fragmented and has such low morale."
Eric narrowed his eyes. After some thought, he commanded, "Even though this war is an opportunity for you, don't push yourself to death. Our Guild's mission might fail, but this is about going against an entire Kingdom's army. Such failures are acceptable."
Just as Divya was about to agree, there was a thunderous roar—"Enough!"—and then a powerful psychological pressure descended upon the two.
Herman and Kiely, who had been dumbly watching the two masked figures—unsure if they were enemies, friends, or even what was happening—suddenly grew pale, their expressions twisting in horror. Soon after, they rolled their eyes and fell unconscious together.
Asura and Divya finally turned toward the big man who had arrived some time ago.
---
Alvin Vasco and his Adult-stage Rank 2 Beast, Toross Ape, had arrived at the scene a while ago and had been watching the two masked figures with amusement.
Alvin thought these two were scared stiff and were just playing ignorant so they could escape at the right moment. But despite waiting for so long, these two continued their own conversation without even bothering to glance at him or his beast!
He was completely ignored by two mere Apprentice Rank brats!
A genius Master Rank Mage had personally arrived, and two mere Rank 2s dared to continue ignoring him?!
This scene almost made it seem like *he* was the servant, waiting for his masters' conversation to end before he could speak!
How could he tolerate this?! Even if he had been in a good mood earlier, it was completely ruined by these two Rank 2s—and what was worse, there were nearly two dozen of his subordinates watching him make a fool of himself with their dumbfounded looks.
It was beyond humiliating! So he finally snapped and let his Toross Ape release its spiritual pressure upon these two detestable brats.
He didn't care if the twins lost consciousness—he had already located a strange item on the kid's neck. The rest was just figuring out what secrets it might hold.
He expected both Apprentice Ranks to lose consciousness or at least show fear on their faces—but despite the powerful Adult-stage Rank 2 Beast's spiritual pressure upon them, both remained unmoved. Their gazes were calm and steady, as if there was no pressure on them.
He finally narrowed his eyes. He could see that these two weren't normal. The masks they wore weren't simple artifacts—he couldn't even judge their tiers or see through them. Their outfits were high-grade Tier 2, which was shocking for any normal Apprentice Rank to get their hands on. This showed that these two didn't come from any normal background.
Even so, he was certain that there were no other powerhouses hiding within this town—or at least not within hundreds of meters around them. He would first capture these two and interrogate them—perhaps his time to become truly wealthy had arrived.
But first, he needed to break their calm, undisturbed expressions! Their indifferent, cold glances were a heavy insult to him. After all, even a peak Rank 3 wouldn't dare that—much less these two tiny Rank 2s.
He waited a few moments for the two masked figures to speak—so he could regain some respect—but they just stared at him and remained silent, almost as if they were completely relaxed and had no worries in life.
His face flushed. His anger rose higher and higher, and he finally ordered his subordinates with a thunderous roar:
**"You brats—bring that woman to me! She will be perfect to calm my nerves tonight!"**
He genuinely felt that the woman—despite covering half her face—was a beauty rarely seen in the world. Her figure was an hourglass, making any man feel a desperate need to obtain her affection. And her cold look, with that mysterious air around her, would make any man itch to uncover her secrets. The only slightly weird thing was her dress—though extremely attractive, accentuating her figure, it felt more like a maid's costume with a battle-oriented focus.
Despite all this temptation, he was still experienced enough not to lose his mind over a mere young adult girl. He had said this to make both brats lose their composure—to finally change their nonchalant expressions to rage or something.
But despite making his point clear—that he planned to humiliate the woman—both masked figures showed no emotional reaction. They almost looked like they were watching someone else's demise while remaining bystanders.
All the other Apprentice Ranks standing atop various buildings stood agape. They couldn't decide whether to follow their leader's order—there wasn't even a hint of hostility showing from these two.
Finally, Alvin Vasco snapped completely. He ordered with rage:
**"Capture the woman! Cripple that man—bring him to the town's prison. I will deal with him later."**
As he finished speaking, finally—there was a reaction from the two. Or rather, only from the woman.
Despite half her face being covered, the rage in her expression couldn't be hidden from anyone.
Divya took a large step forward and roared:
**"How dare you threaten my master?!"**
With one swift motion, she grabbed her longsword with her left hand—and made a swift horizontal slash.