The shout came from one of the rooms next to June's and belonged to Lix Elbas!
Another tremor followed the shout and small cracks spread on the floor of June's room too.
It was evident that a battle was happening nearby, but that wasn't Noah's biggest worry. In his mind, he could only think about the fact that he was still in June's room!
Noah quickly went for the wall next to him and knocked, hoping that the guard was still in the secret passage. However, there was no response from the other side.
Noah cursed in his mind and spread his consciousness at that point.
The walls usually blocked the mental energy, but the cracks allowed him to reach the corridor with his mind. Then, black flames surrounded his figure and made him reappear outside of June's room but at some distance from it.
A pair of eyes landed on his figure when he came out of the Warp spell, and Noah turned only to see a confused Faith looking at him.
She had become used to his messy appearance by then, but she didn't understand why he had used a spell to reach the corridor.
June came out of her room too, and Faith's gaze turned on her. She saw how even June's robe was quite untidy, but that wasn't strange since the shout had been too sudden.
However, when she added Noah's peculiar usage of his spell and her messy aspect, she couldn't help but think that they were connected in some way. Also, she was aware that the two of them had a past and had spent a long time together during the crisis.
Heroic cultivators weren't stupid, and both June and Noah knew that Faith had noticed that something was off. Yet, the situation was too chaotic, and Faith didn't find the chance to question them since more cultivators came out of their rooms and focused their attention on Lix's place.
Another tremor swept the area, and Lix came out of his room in a hurry only to discover that the other envoys were looking at him.
He was almost naked, and there was blood on his hands. Also, his mind seemed a mess since his mental energy spread randomly in every direction.
It was as if he wasn't in control of himself.
"I-I didn't mean to," Lix said in a broken tone, and his expression became even uglier when he noticed his bloodied hands.
His reaction made the others confused. It was evident that something strange had happened in his room.
"My bloodline gives you a home, and you repay it by killing a guard!" Lorie said as she came out of Lix's room.
She was completely naked, but the bloodied corpse of a Flawed human covered her front as she carried it in the corridor. The guard wasn't a heroic cultivator, but that act was still troublesome to handle for the forces of Noah's world.
"It's clear that something strange has happened." Cecil's voice resounded in the corridor, and the four leaders soon appeared behind the envoys.
"Indeed," Danielle's voice spread in the corridor too, "And the Duron Bloodline will uncover the truth."
The representatives of the six bloodlines arrived from the other side and stopped when they reached Lorie. There were three rank 5 cultivators in their group and eight more in the fourth rank.
The tension began to build as both sides waited in silence for someone to make a move.
'They can only benefit from this chaos.' Noah thought as he moved his gaze between Lix and the Elite humans.
He didn't like the Royal, but killing a guard while being inside the castle was too stupid even for the most spoiled noble. The six bloodlines had clearly planned that situation to gain some leverage on Noah's forces.
Sacrificing a Flawed human that wasn't even in the heroic ranks was just a small price to pay to gain a political advantage over the foreign assets. After all, the possibility of stopping the appearance of Flawed humans was too appealing for them.
They couldn't just leave that decision in the hands of cultivators capable of opening portals toward another world. They would never have the upper hand against that kind of force.
However, understanding the truth was pointless if there was no way to prove it. Just like Noah, with the attack at the Balvan family, the leaders were now in a situation where the only evident fact was that Lix had killed a guard.
"We'll interrogate him privately," Danielle said.
"No, you won't," Cecil replied.
"We agree to collaborate, but we can't let you handle this situation on your own." Elder Austin added.
The eight cultivators in the gaseous stage who had chosen to join the mating sessions didn't appear. So, the leaders were reasonably sure that they would lose Lix too if they let the bloodlines take him.
That wasn't a matter that could be handled if they focused on the differences between their factions. It was a situation that needed their full cooperation if they wanted to prevent giving the Elite humans the chance to restore their former power.
"Enough with words," Florent said as he neared Lix to seize him.
"Don't you dare!" Cecil sprinted and appeared right in front of the Royal and stopped Florent's arm from reaching him.
"This is our home!" Lorie said as her aura spread in the environment, and "Breath" began to converge in her position.
The others prepared themselves for the imminent battle too, and Noah didn't hesitate to wield his sabers.
He had noticed how the Elite humans glanced at him from time to time during their heated discussion, and that wasn't a natural occurrence. There were four rank 5 cultivators in front of them, but they still moved their focus on him for brief moments.
His instincts were telling him that he was in danger.
The situation was too tense, and even the slightest misinterpretation of a gesture could set it off.
Lorie let go of the guard's corpse, and Cecil used his mental energy to disperse the "Breath" that had accumulated around her. Danielle didn't like that and unfolded her consciousness in an attempt to suppress everyone in the corridor. Florent acted too, and he pulled to free his arm from Cecil's grasp.
Those small actions forced all the other cultivators on the scene to act.
The Elite humans used their mental energy to take control of the "Breath" in the environment and create spells that targeted the foreigners. The leaders promptly used their methods to disperse those weak attacks.
The shockwaves released from the actions of the rank 5 cultivators affected the beings in the fourth rank on the scene that deployed more spells to defend against those natural repercussions.
The walls and floor of the corridor began to fall apart, even if both forces were trying their best to hold back. They both hoped to collaborate, and killing any of their crucial assets would forever hinder that outcome.
Yet, dozens of Flawed humans in the fourth rank arrived in the corridor at that point.