Chapter 65: Lucian Was Captured

A backlash shot through her veins almost immediately. The compressed hot energy surged wildly up her spiritual channel like a whip and caused a spurt of pain at her wrist.

Her grip on the weapon loosened and a few droplets of blood splattered on the stone surface. Evelyn stumbled backward three steps before regaining her stance.

She clutched her bleeding wrist with her left hand and forced a calming breath into her lungs. A scorching pain flared across her chest, but she bit her lip to keep a grimace off her face.

A dry chuckle sounded from the opposite side of the glade.

’You thought the Blood-Shackle array was a capturing formation for taming beasts?’ The cult leader sounded condescending. ’It is a feeding formation, a confinement array designed to bind and consume high-grade elemental bloodlines such as yours, little bird.’

He turned his head slightly, revealing the amused glint in his eyes.

The harder you struggle, the more the chains constrict.

Before Evelyn could retort, heavy thuds of footsteps announced the approaching party. The rough gravelly path at the edge of the clearing was being traversed by several figures.

"L-Let me go!"

A distressed shout tore through the air.

"You bastards! Do you even know who my father is?!"

Two figures emerged from the thick fog, their faces covered by scaled pig mask. One of them dragged the unconscious Eric by the back of his neck but the young man’s swollen face revealed the brutal beating he suffered. The red combat suit he wore yesterday was torn and stained with blood and dirt.

Yet, Evelyn barely spared Eric a glance.

Another figure walked behind the two pig-masked cultists, his hands firmly tied at his back with a thick rope

Lucian.

Evelyn’s eyes nearly popped out of her skull.

For the first time since the trigger word went off, the composure on her face was thrown out the window and her breath hitched at the sight of him

"Lucian?!"

A high-pitched shriek escaped her throat.

"No... no, why are you here?!"

She instinctively took a step forward.

"They lied to you-!"

"Evelyn, calm down."

Evelyn’s heartbeat pounded in her ears as Lucian calmly talked over her shoulder. His tone did not convey the slightest shade of fear and despite the blood trickling from her wrist, she couldn’t help but lock her eyes onto his. His eyes swept over her injury before narrowing at the bloodstained gash on her skin but he remained composed throughout the whole thing.

’Well, well...’ The Martial Master Stage cultist smirked. He seized Lucian’s collar and a dark iron dagger unsheathed from his belt was planted at the noble’s throat.

’What a heartwarming family reunion.’

He turned his attention to Evelyn.

"The Sterling Family’s precious pearl is willing to die for the sake of a dirt-born commoner who cannot even save himself,"

"Let him go!"

The young noble raised her rapier high despite the stinging pain at her right wrist. Blood dripped steadily down her fingers as she advanced forward.

"He has nothing to do with this! He is a level 1 student!"

She gripped the hilt of her rapier tighter.

"If you want blood, take mine then. If you want a sacrifice, take me and leave him be,"

’Lady Evelyn...’

A broken noise reached Evelyn’s ears and she turned to see Eric clutching at the swelling flesh of his cheek. The words that came out of his mouth broke something inside her.

’Please... tell them to let me go too. My family... they have money. Please... spirit stones... rare metals...’ His voice wavered and tears stained the dirt on the ground. ’If you kill me... it’ll all end here...’

The cult leader gave Eric a cold look but paid no heed to the wheezing young man. His crimson eyes studied every twitching muscle on Evelyn’s face, the way her breath came short every time the pain from her injury reminded her of Lucian.

They way her eyes darted around, searching for a way to get to him and the way her fingers fidgeted with her fingers as she stared at Lucian’s jugular, dagger pressing dangerously close.

A tiny smile formed under the cult leader’s mask. The sight of her emotional breakdown was enough to convince him of what he wanted to see.

’Noble heart.’

He stretched his arms wide and the pulsing runes on the Blood-Shackle array emitted four thick beams of crimson energy that wrapped around Evelyn’s wrists and ankles. Her body crashed onto the crater at the centre of the glade, pinned by the crimson chains. They constricted tightly with every heartbeat, keeping her in a fetal position.

’You are truly cornered, Lady Evelyn.’

The cult leader sneered.

’Your vanguard is miles away, your flames will not get past these walls and your precious commoner is already on the chopping board.’

Evelyn writhed and wriggled uselessly against the chains. They only coiled tighter, cutting into the skin of her wrists and ankles.

Only Lucian remained unshaken.

The coarse rope binding his wrists was the only thing that distinguished him from any random prisoner. But the faint outline of his Domain magic suffused the rough rope as his fingers tested the knot’s thickness. Unseen to all, his fingers moved up to the rope on either side, feeling the minute pulse of life in the fibres.

The set up was perfect.

The roles had been played, the bait swallowed, the actor entered the stage. Now the play could finally start.

The swirling purple mist at the centre of the Hollow Basin grew denser until it resembled sharp daggers of stagnant air pressing down on everyone present.

A broken Eric writhed on the wet stone, the rune-chiseled slab of the clearing absorbing the blood trickling from his split lip. His entire body shook uncontrollably. The unshakable feeling of superiority he had all through the academy, the constant favouritism of his family and friends, the endless parties and dinners where the rich and powerful dined and laughed among themselves, it all evaporated into nothingness at that moment.

"Please..."

He gurgled out a mouthful of blood and more teeth on the ground. His stained, shaking fingers fumbled at the cult leader’s robes.

"...my father... he owns half the Northern trade routes..."

The Martial Master Stage 2 cultist looked down at the broken, shaking young man, a sick feeling stirring in his gut.

’My apologies.’ But the sight of Eric’s mangled cheek and the smell of his cheap, dusty clothes only made him feel ill. "Go, get yourself a job." He lifted his heavy boot and-

CRACK!

The boot met Eric’s temple with a sickening sound.

’Shut your hole, cattle.’

The young lord’s body went limp, eyes rolling back as he crumpled to the ground.

The cult leader kicked him viciously. "You are a waste of my resources."

Still, nothing more than the faintest interest showed in his eyes.

Evelyn struggled furiously against the crimson restraining chains as her azure magic flared in defiance against the obsidian pillars at bay.