“You cannot blame the Doctor for failing to predict that Kyrie would unleash Sacheol Blades.

After all, the Hall of Purity primarily operated across the central continent, magnetism arts were rare even among electric-art users, and Kyrie’s own magnetism arts ranked near the top even within the cadet branches of House Magnes.

Krrrkkkk!

“Kyaaaagh!”

“Ghuuugh!”

“Woooooah!”

That said, it was no excuse for allowing his doctoral candidates to be shredded apart without accomplishing anything at all.

Being torn apart was inevitable, but allowing them to die uselessly was unacceptable.

Doctor Adler drew in a deep breath.

[“■■■■■!”]

Boom!

A mental wave qualitatively different from anything below the Doctor level erupted outward.

The surrounding light and shadows distorted violently once, and mirages like infinitely boiling bubbles rose in the air before fading away.

“Kh!”

Even Kyrie’s own eyes momentarily lost focus.

I haven’t suffered a shock like this since fighting that mutant ogre.

Considering how much stronger he had become since then, it was utterly absurd.

Psssssh.

The Sacheol Blades surging like waves collapsed like breaking surf.

Black Sacheol scattered across the crimson earth.

“Grrrrrr…….”

The doctoral candidates who had been shredded inside staggered backward in their gigantic bodies.

“You will continue the experiments against those creatures! They will make excellent supplemental reports. Bachelors and Masters, follow me. This experiment must become a dissertation no matter what!”

Doctor Adler shouted while glaring toward Joi and the soldiers.

The mutilated and wounded doctoral candidates turned toward the thousand-man force.

“…….”

Even half-crippled, they could easily slaughter ordinary soldiers.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

The house-sized infiltrators descended the hill, shaking the earth.

Step. Step. Step.

At the same time, the Bachelors and Masters who had been hiding farther away revealed themselves.

Crack-crack!

“We obey Doctor Adler’s command.”

“For truth and truth alone.”

From beneath the sleeves of their white robes protruded things like the same bone blades and tentacle whips used by Doctor Adler.

The bone blades formed from transformed hands were made of reddish crystal, while the tentacle whips writhed alive, covered in countless teeth.

Those called doctoral candidates are complete mutants, while the ones called Masters and Bachelors are partial mutants.

Kyrie grasped the hierarchy of the Hall of Purity at once.

Thinking back to academy days, Bachelor and Master sound like ranks. On the other hand, doctoral candidate feels more like a position. The difference between combat-specialized personnel and ordinary personnel, perhaps.

And how they should be fought as well.

Doctoral candidates are hunted like giant demonic beasts—with ballistae and nets. Meanwhile Bachelors and Masters need to be killed by superhuman soldiers like knights and Blue Knights.

Kyrie immediately summoned two Blue Knights.

“Vane. Frey.”

The moment he called through Telephone Conversation, eager replies returned.

Yes. Leave them to us.

I’m on my way!

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

Vane and Frey burst out from the camp below the hill, galloping past Kyrie and Doctor Adler.

They charged directly at the Masters and Bachelors of the Hall of Purity.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

The doctoral-candidate infiltrators dragged their massive bodies down the slope.

“Joi.”

Leave it to me, my lord.

Kyrie immediately issued his next command.

Reassured by the confidence in her voice, he drew his sword.

Chijijijijik!

Pale blue lightning reinforcement blazed along the blade of the crystalline holy sword.

Sharp white currents snapped through the softly wavering aquamarine haze.

“So this is Doctor Adler—the one who has established his own truth.”

Tzzzzzt!

Doctor Adler extended long bone blades of dark crimson crystal from both sleeves.

They were the Hall of Purity’s Red Bone Blades.

“To restore humanity’s purity.”

By now even his legs had transformed into reverse-jointed structures like an ostrich’s.

Boom!

Doctor Adler leapt, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Rumble!

Kyrie used Thunderstep and launched himself into the sky as well.

The doctoral candidates of Doctor Adler trembled in humiliation.

What in the world is that Sacheol Blade, to carve through our bodies so effortlessly?

We too carry truth. Under Doctor Adler’s guidance, we too march toward becoming one with truth. So how could we be defeated by a mere deceiver like that?

Fuck. We turned ourselves into monsters to become stronger, and we still can’t beat a single Blue Knight? Fine. Then we’ll vent our rage on those bastards.

They intended to utterly grind down Joi and the thousand-man force.

That alone would make an excellent experiment and splendid stress relief.

“Fire at them, my lord.”

Fweeeesh! Fweeeesh! Fweeeesh!

That confidence collapsed within less than five minutes of battle.

Huh?

Why are they this strong?

W-Were we really this pathetic?

Astreos ballista bolts targeted the soft flesh between armored plates, while Rikenta repeating-crossbows burrowed into amorphous flesh.

“Pull yourselves together! There’s no way we fail a mere experiment like this!”

“Aaaaagh! My eyes! My eyes!”

“This has to be a dream! It completely contradicts the data!”

The doctoral candidates twisted and roared.

“I don’t really know what that ‘data’ crap means, but imagining battle will go exactly according to plan just means you’re fucking idiots, my lord.”

Joi sneered magnificently at the scene while continuing to issue orders.

While the superhuman commander went off to fight a duel, this was the sort of preparation an adjutant handled.

“Blue Hydrangea. Fire. Aim for those shitty ankles, my lord. If they lose their feet, those bastards won’t move anymore, my lord.”

Based on what she had observed during the night in Rebellion, the Bachelors and Masters specialized more in mental waves, while the doctoral candidates specialized more in raw flesh.

We stop them from unleashing mental waves and bleed them out slowly, my lord.

So first they pierced throats and the gaps between ribs with ballistae and repeating-crossbows.

The holes allowed wind to whistle through their bodies, making it impossible for them to scream.

Unlike marksman school bullets, the shafts embedded in their bodies also prevented easy regeneration.

“Sisters!”

“O White Flower Star!”

“Show them ecstasy!”

Tatatatatang!

Then the marksman school’s firepower shredded apart their means of movement.

When anti-ogre gun barrels unleashed cross-shaped radiance, even fully mutated infiltrator doctoral candidates lost entire ankles.

Those carrying sniper muskets pierced critical tendons in a single shot.

Coordinated volleys forming a web of fire blasted away all eight legs of one spider-like infiltrator doctoral candidate.

Of course, these were wounds their regenerative powers alone could eventually heal.

“Pikemen.”

Joi advanced the soldiers before regeneration could begin.

“Stab the limbs first, then keep jamming spearheads into the gaps between their ribs until the fucking things burst apart, my lord!”

Step. Step. Step. Step. Step.

Pikemen wielding spears over five meters long advanced in formation.

Thunk! Thunk!

Their spearheads pierced between the doctoral candidates’ ribs.

As long as something was alive, muscles required oxygen from the lungs to function.

Even monsters were no different.

“If they don’t have ribs or bones, stab them first, then pour oil on them and burn them alive, my lord.”

“And watch out for that amorphous slime bastard that looks like demonic shit splattered across the ground! One of those thorn-shooting bastards before looked similar, my lord. Raise the shield wall high and don’t approach carelessly, my lord!”

“And why is that bastard nothing but bones—seriously, they’re all different kinds of fucked-up monsters. Fire nets at him, wrap him up tight, then smash his head in first, my lord.”

Joi expertly dealt even with the irregular specimens.

It was the battlefield intuition of a field commander who had entered training camps at six or seven years old, begun military life in her teens, and followed Kyrie through an impossible meteoric rise.

[“W-We are the Hall of Purity! We carry truth! And yet ignorant vermin like you dare try to kill us!?”]

One doctoral candidate of ten years trembled with bulging muscles while roaring through a third mouth.

For ten years he had pursued truth beneath Doctor Adler.

Never once had he imagined falling to mere soldiers.

“I don’t know what kind of shitty truth you’re talking about, but if power is what you call truth…….”

Joi snorted at his despair.

“……then we’ve always fought people who possessed truth, my lord. Rebel knights, giant demonic beasts local nobles couldn’t handle, fellow Blue Knight lords, Navigators of Rikenta……. Damn. Saying it aloud makes it sound even more fucked up.”

It was literally true.

Soldiers of the Empire of Stars were trained from the beginning to fight enemies stronger than themselves.

Soldiers trained to fight attendants, attendants trained to fight retainers, retainers trained to fight knights, knights trained to fight superhuman nobles like Blue Knights, and superhuman nobles trained to fight even stronger superhuman nobles.

To Joi and the soldiers, “monstrous enemies” were simply normal.

“So against bastards at your level, we’re not gonna tremble and scream in terror, my lord. Shut every one of those mouths and die already!”

Joi lightly kicked her horse’s side and drew her sword.

Flash!

A beautifully drawn crescent flashed with starlight mixed into moonlight, and the head of the ten-year doctoral candidate rolled across the ground.

“Hah!”

Vane and Frey fought fiercely as well.

Clack!

Vane drew a sharp blade from the wrist of his left mechanical arm.

An option worth several hundred gold coins.

“Hahahahaha!”

Despite his neatly trimmed white hair, Vane rampaged like a barbarian warrior from the north.

Slash! Slash! Shraaaak!

With the blade on his left arm he carved razor-straight lines, while with the Wall-Breaking Longsword in his right hand he thrust deadly points.

Thunk! Thunk! Thruuunk!

Both the lines and the points blazed with vivid yellow lightning reinforcement.

[“---, --!”]

The opposing Bachelor unleashed a mental wave.

Vane’s savage advance faltered for a moment, and the Bachelor instantly swung his bone blade.

An opening.

If he severed the neck now, Blue Knight or not, it would end in a single strike.

Grab!

“Got you.”

“Huh?!”

That was what the Bachelor thought—right up until Vane caught the bone blade with his mechanical arm.

“I knew you’d swing here! Right?”

It was true the mental wave had shaken his mind briefly and interrupted his offense.

But after drinking the elixir of sacred radiance and training sword aura reinforcement, while beginning to use lightning reinforcement alongside bodily enhancement, his resistance to mental waves had also grown considerably.

Then I counterattack instead. Like Senior Kyrie!

Naturally, he turned the situation into a counterattack opportunity.

“You experimental rat! You dare attempt to comprehend the mind of a seeker of truth?!”

The special-alloy prosthetic arm worth thousands of gold coins became monstrously durable once infused with lightning reinforcement.

Krrrkkkk!

The Bachelor’s bone blade shattered within Vane’s grip.

“What are you babbling about? Want me to rip your mouth off?”

Thunk!

Vane raised the Wall-Breaking Longsword and drove it downward with full force.

The blade pierced the Bachelor’s foot and nailed him to the ground.

“Aaaaagh!”

As the Bachelor screamed, Vane used his now-free right hand to shove it into the man’s open mouth and clamp firmly onto his lower jaw.

“……?”

Confusion filled the Bachelor’s eyes.

“I told you.”

Vane broke into a crazed grin.

“I’d rip your mouth off.”

It was the madness of a Blue Knight feared by all.

Crunch!

Frey was no different.

“The supremely talented genius beautiful-boy Blue Knight takes the stage!”

Frey charged while spinning the Wall-Breaking Greatsword like a windmill.

The combination of Masters and Bachelors attempted a practiced counterattack.

One immobilized the body with mental waves while the other slit the throat.

It was teamwork that had destroyed countless superhuman soldiers.

Rumble!

Frey leapt high while raising the Wall-Breaking Greatsword overhead.

Navy-blue lightning reinforcement blazed like a forest fire.

[“-----!”]

Now!

A Master unleashed a mental wave.

“Ugh!”

But the Master should have considered why Frey had lifted the greatsword so high in the first place.

“UAAAAAAAH!”

Frey widened his eyes and crashed downward exactly as he was.

If his body became rigid, then he would simply unleash a technique capable of attacking while rigid.

“W-Wait!”

The lightning-reinforced sword strike descended upon the Master’s head.

Smash!

The Master became something resembling a red velvet cake smashed apart with an iron club.

The Bachelor soon followed after him.

“Whew.”

Lightning reinforcement really is nice! Wonder how Kiri-Kiri’s doing?

Frey smiled brightly as he looked toward Kyrie.

Huh?

Suddenly Frey’s pupils dilated infinitely.

He’s strong.

Kyrie thought as he knocked aside the Doctor’s thrusting bone blade with the crystalline holy sword.

Krrk!

The crystalline holy sword was a divine relic that amplified voltage.

Kyrie had further layered sword aura reinforcement lightning reinforcement atop it, enhancing both hardness and cutting power.

Even steel should have been sliced apart like pudding.

And indeed, the Doctor’s crimson bone blades were being severed like cheese beneath a heated knife.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The problem was simply that Adler’s swordsmanship—recovering the blade, thrusting again, sometimes cutting in from impossible angles—was absurdly refined.

My weapon is overwhelmingly superior. So why can’t I overpower him?

Tskaaaaaak!

Kyrie unleashed Radiant Wheel, transforming into a pale-blue vortex and charging forward.

Doctor Adler bent low enough for his chin to nearly touch his knee, dodged, then countered by raising both bone blades upward in the same direction.

Boom!

Kyrie unleashed Heat Wave, intending to end the fight in a single strike.

Chajajajajaeng!

Doctor Adler leapt backward and swung his swords thirty-two consecutive times, neutralizing Kyrie’s Heat Wave.

Saaaaah!

Kyrie used Cloud-Dragon Style, attempting to trap and butcher him from every direction.

Doctor Adler pushed aside the crystalline holy sword with one bone blade and thrust the other toward Kyrie’s throat.

“Damn it!”

Even when he gained an opening, it failed.

[“■■■■!”]

Because Doctor Adler counterattacked with a mental wave of an entirely different level.

Still, this is fortunate.

Even while his vision blurred under the mental wave, Kyrie sensed Adler’s approach through Bio-radar.

If it were anyone but me, they wouldn’t even have endured this long.

Even direct-line heirs of great houses would be no different.

Especially houses like Terra of the earth or Crosel of the currents, whose authorities manifested more slowly.

If they attacked with large-scale authorities, Adler dodged at impossible speed. If they entered close combat, he overwhelmed them through the combination of mental waves and swordsmanship.

Any swordsman weaker than Kyrie would already have collapsed bleeding long ago.

Even now.

Shhk!

The bone blade already before Kyrie’s eyes suddenly extended nearly a handspan farther.

Because of the mental waves, even Telephone Conversation no longer worked properly, making psychological warfare impossible like when fighting Tyren.

Whoosh!

Kyrie dodged the sound-speed strike through reflexes alone.

【Bodily Enhancement: 4.7】

【Neural Acceleration: 5.8】

Strengthening the body with lightning reinforcement boosted not only Bodily Enhancement, but Neural Acceleration as well to even greater output.

“Oh.”

Doctor Adler licked his lips as though impressed.

“Want me to rip your tongue out?”

Kyrie grinned savagely and raised the crystalline holy sword once more.

At this rate, he’ll escape.

Despite the murderous expression blazing across his face, his thoughts were complicated.

Joi and Frey fought brilliantly, but if I fail to kill this bastard, none of it matters. My knights and my regimental commander all fulfilled their roles perfectly. If I alone fail, I’ll be too ashamed to show my face.

Then, through Bio-radar, he detected movement far away across the wasteland.

Scouts from the skeletal army.

He had no idea when the numerical disadvantage would begin as well.

[“Duke Kyrie!”]

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

At that moment, a group of riders appeared on Bio-radar.

He could hear someone calling his name as well.

I can hear voices from a distance where Bio-radar only just picked them up? They should be several kilometers away.

The approaching figure closed the distance before Kyrie even had time to show confusion.

Radiant blond hair.

Heavy golden eyes.

[“You’ve done well keeping Doctor Adler occupied!”]

It was Prince Valherios.

Huh?

The instant Kyrie confirmed his face through Bio-radar, he made a decision.

Keeping him occupied? Me? That sounded exactly like he plans to steal my kill.

“Hah!”

Something had gone wrong.

He did not know precisely what had gone wrong, but something definitely had.

Rumble!

Prepared to take one or two sword wounds if necessary, Kyrie charged recklessly at Doctor Adler.

Kaaaang!

The Red Bone Blades and the crystalline holy sword collided in a shower of sparks.

“Hmph!”

Doctor Adler thrust with the right Red Bone Blade while attempting to withdraw the left.

Guess I’ll need to pour a ton of holy water on this later.

At that moment, Kyrie simply allowed the right Red Bone Blade to stab into his side.

Then he poured immense lightning aura into the crystalline holy sword and unleashed a technique learned from Nereus.

Heavenly Thunderbolt explosive sword.

KWA-AAAAANG!

Originally an authority that exploded the air through the extreme heat of lightning strikes, Heavenly Thunderbolt manifested through the sword itself as a medium.

“Ghk!”

Doctor Adler’s eyes shook as though struck by a mental wave.”

Chapter 222

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