Absolute panic erupted behind the tall walls and the soldiers screamed and ran everywhere. Some bumped into wagons while trying to strap their leather armour on while Archers blindly grabbed handfuls of arrows and sprinted up the stone stairs to the top of the wall.

Nobody was ready for a siege today since they had been expecting it tomorrow or even the day after.

Alexander stood in his bedroom while two terrified servants fumbled with his heavy steel chest plate. Their hands shook so badly that it took them almost twenty whole minutes just to help him put on the whole armor.

Alexander shoved the trembling servants away before he snatched his sword and walked all the way up the stone stairs to the defensive walls.

Leaning over the stone ledge, he fully expected to see a massive war camp but he was just left confused by what he saw instead.

He just stared at the wide road in pure disbelief.

Adrian’s army just stood there and they had brought absolutely zero siege equipment to breach the city. No battering rams or scaling ladders. No heavy catapults. Not even a thick tree log to bust the gates open.

Just thousands of guys standing around in rigid formations.

"What is his plan?" Alexander whispered. "You can’t just cut a stone wall open."

Down in the dirt, Adrian relaxed in his saddle.

He looked at the panicked archers aiming down at his army. But he didn’t draw a weapon or signal a charge.

He just brought two fingers up to his throat. He pressed them right against his Adam’s apple and forced a tiny drop of mana directly into his vocal cords.

"Ummm ahem, ahem... Hello?" Adrian spoke normally.

His voice exploded across the entire city. It was loud and travelled all over the place without losing any of the volume.

"Hello, just testing. Testing."

The magical amplification was so insanely loud that soldiers on the wall actually flinched and covered their ears. The citizens hiding in their houses heard it perfectly too and immediately got scared.

Adrian grinned. "Oh cool, it works."

He cleared his throat and looked up at the Viscount.

"This is a message to Viscount Alexander and every single person residing inside his territory." Adrian said "I am Adrian Sterling, the Baron of Oresfall. And I am officially declaring war against your territory."

The archers on the wall exchanged nervous looks.

"I have tangible proof that you were the ones who started this conflict." Adrian continued loudly. "And since you burned my land and caused massive damages to my people, I have a pretty solid reason to be pissed off right now."

Alexander ground his teeth together and just glared down at the arrogant bastard.

"Now, this next message is for the citizens and the soldiers." Adrian’s voice echoed off the buildings. "If you catch or subdue Viscount Alexander for me, I will not attack anyone. I will just behead your leader and go back to my place. You will all live."

The muttering soldiers went quiet this time and looked at each other.

"But if you side with him, do not expect any mercy. Because after I cut his head off, I will make sure every single one of you gets buried with him."

Alexander actually felt his stomach drop. The bastard was inciting his people right outside his front doors.

"I am going to give you the choice to pick your side." Adrian announced. "I will give you a time limit of one entire month. If you can, capture him. If you cannot, desert him and come over to us. And if you do none of these things... you will die."

Adrian dropped his hand from his throat.

He turned and looked at his army. He signaled his men to spread out and lock down the perimeter.

Then he locked eyes with the assassin leader standing nearby.

Adrian nodded.

Lorcan nodded back before he raised his hands and a massive wave of thick, white mist exploded outward. It washed over Adrian and his inner circle, completely covering them and hiding their movements from the archers on the wall.

Inside the thick fog, Adrian looked down at Aria.

"Are you ready?" Adrian asked.

Aria nodded and smiled at him but Adrian couldn’t do anything else but sigh. Aria had bragged about learning a massive third circle fire spell earlier and she had basically begged him to let her test it out.

So Adrian focused his mind.

He cast Telekinesis. He tried to grab her physical body with his mana and hoist her up into the air so she could see over the walls.

But he couldn’t even lift her up. At all.

He pushed harder. But his third circle’s output wasn’t enough for heavy weights. She was just a five year old kid so she wasn’t exactly heavy, but she was still way over his telekinetic weight limit. He just couldn’t pick her up.

"Okay, never mind." Adrian sighed. He looked over at the assassin leader. "Lorcan. You can lift her up, right? "You’re a fourth circle mage, so your raw mana output is on a completely different level than mine."

Lorcan gave him a weird look, but at the end, he just nodded and lazily flicked his wrist. A strong layer of mana wrapped around Aria and gently lifted her high up into the air, pushing high up but she was still inside the mist.

Though, the mist only impeded the vision of Alexander and his people but not Adrian’s group. To them it was like there was nothing other than regular air around them.

Aria floated up and looked down at the city behind the walls.

She got right to work.

Aria didn’t even chant. She just instantly triggered two complicated spells at the exact same time.

First, she pushed mana into her eyes. Her vision instantly enhanced, zooming in on the streets and buildings like a high-powered telescope.

Second, she cast a cognitive enhancement spell.