William activated his spiritual energy and lifted himself into the air, utilizing a technique he had developed during his most recent training sessions, a method to float using spiritual energy.
Several metallic daggers flew out from his inventory in a sequence, each one shimmering faintly as it entered the open air. These were daggers he had previously acquired in the Titan Empire during his search for Amorphous.
William extended both of his arms outward and executed the 36-Hand Control stage of the True Armament Subjugation Art.
Why not 72-Hand Control? Because he did not need it.
His hands extended, outwards and moved in smooth arcs, and with each gesture, thirty-six daggers followed in the air as if they were bound to his will.
The floating daggers circled through the air in flawless synchronization, forming a rotating sphere of blades.
The black-robed man who had been thrown with a punch barely managed to steady himself before lifting his head to look upward in a tense posture.
The sun shone directly behind William’s figure, outlining his silhouette in harsh, blinding light, and the glare forced the man to squint as he struggled to focus on the shape hovering above him.
With a simple wave of William’s hand, the blades of the daggers changed directions inward, and the daggers descended like a storm.
The black-robed man roared as demonic energy flared violently from his body, and multiple defensive spells activated in rapid succession.
He managed to intercept several blades midair, while some scraped past him narrowly.
William calmly observed the exchange, his expression remained unchanged. He never intended to injure the man.
He just wanted to take him by surprise.
If he wanted to place the Mark of Slave , he needed to break the man’s willpower and mentality first, not merely injure his body.
Amorphous had been easy to dominate due to his lower rank and unstable mental state, but this man was SSS-rank, and the difference in Mana rank was significant.
Kreeeakkk!!
A spatial portal tore open behind William’s floating figure with a sharp distortion of space, and Sunchaser emerged with a flash of light.
The black-robed man realized what was happening far too late, his focus had been on the daggers, but he didn’t see a huge bird approaching where he was standing.
Sunchaser’s speed exceeded the man’s perception entirely, and before he could react, enormous talons slammed him into the ground with crushing force, pinning his body and preventing even the slightest movement.
William descended slowly from the air and landed beside him, his posture relaxed as he looked down at the restrained cultist without any visible emotion.
"Become my slave," William said evenly, "this is the only time I will say it."
William gave the man a chance to breathe for a few seconds and realise the situation, hoping he would make an intelligent decision.
William then initiated the placement of the Mark of Slave , his spiritual energy flowing outward in a precise pattern.
[ding!! Placement failed. Target has resisted the mark.]
^___^ !
William’s lips twitched faintly, he would need to waste effort on this man now.
"Maris," William called out calmly.
"Master," Maris responded instantly, and using Radiant Flash Step , she appeared beside William and dropped to one knee without hesitation.
She had observed the battle from a distance, and during that time, she had lost count of how many times shock had struck her like a wave.
It was the first time she had seen her master without the raven mask, and the realization hit her harder than expected when she understood that her master was a fifteen-year-old academy student, a boy who had once been responsible for killing her father.
Instead of hating her or discarding her, this same person had freed her from relentless suffering and offered her a chance to serve under him.
Is this what they call mercy?
Yet that was only one of many surprises.
Almost everything she had witnessed since beginning to serve William had shattered her understanding of power and hierarchy.
From the presence of the enormous swan to her master’s ability to wield both spiritual energy and mana simultaneously.
"Maris," William spoke coldly, raising his voice slightly so that the pinned man could hear it clearly, "you spent two weeks inside the dragon prison, correct?"
"Yes, master!" Maris answered sharply.
"Do you remember how they tortured you?"
"Yes, master!!"
"Very well," William said in a heavy tone as he moved his hand and placed it on the man’s shoulder. "You will now get the chance to return that experience."
The moment his palm made contact, sovereign sword intent flared outward and entered the man’s body. The intent flowed inside until it stopped just a short distance from the man’s core.
With a silent command from William, a thin thread of intent pierced the man’s mutated core.
The result was unimaginable pain.
"AAAAAARRRGGGH!!"
The man screamed as soul-piercing pain exploded through him, and his body convulsed violently beneath Sunchaser’s talons.
"Maris," William said calmly, "your next task is to break this scum’s mind until he submits to the slave mark."
William forced himself to remain composed, restraining the instinct to kill the man outright.
He could have used Amorphous to take the man’s shape, but Amorphous could not replicate memories, intelligence, or detailed operational knowledge that this cultist had.
William also did not possess any method to extract memories yet, though now that he felt the necessity of such a skill, he decided to search the shop for an appropriate method later.
William turned away from the scene and walked toward the carriage, instructing Sunny to erect a soundproof barrier around the area so the man’s screams would not echo through the forest.
Behind him, Maris continued the task that was assigned to her by her master, using only the daggers pinned into the ground earlier. Her movements were focused, but she was trembling slightly.
William reached the open carriage door and looked inside, and the moment he registered what he saw, one of his hands instinctively moved to clutch his forehead.
All the restrained individuals were still present in their original positions.
Except one.
Kara’s sister was gone, and the chains that had restrained her lay broken on the floor beside William’s own.
"Aaish," William muttered quietly, irritation creeping into his voice, "how could I forget she was a spiritual energy user? Of course, she could break the chains, too."
[crazy, how you couldn’t sense her leaving]
"Well," William replied flatly, "she must be skilled, I guess, but what about you?"
[Well, she went south from here. Maybe she is here to investigate the Clayman cult’s actions as well.]
"Interesting observation," William acknowledged.
[Well, it is expected of me. I am the system.]
"Trust me," William replied with a faint smile, "I expected much more."
[aren’t you going to follow her]
"I will meet her in the cellar," William said calmly.
[cellar?]
"Yes," William replied, gesturing back toward the restrained cultist. "The place he was taking us."
"Do you think the location where the cult conducts such critical experiments would be revealed to every agent transporting kidnapped individuals?"
"No. They must be using a common central holding cellar or jail, and only a select few individuals transport specimens from there to the main experimentation base."
[Do you think Kara’s sister realizes this?]
"If my assumption is correct," William continued, "then that beastfolk girl is here searching for someone. There is no way she remained unconscious the entire time."
"She was likely pretending and waiting to reach the experimentation base, but I intervened and disrupted the process by fighting here."
"She identified me as a threat and fled toward the base, and soon she will be caught because infiltrating a cult facility is not simple."
"Even if she uses spiritual energy, her rank is still too low, and the cults possess methods to restrain spiritual energy users."
"If they identify her properly, they would not touch her recklessly, she will most likely end up in the same cellar where they keep all the specimens, at least that’s what I think."