Watching the scholars’ limbs fly through the air in every direction, I thought to myself:

At the very least, Crown Prince Valherios hadn’t been drugged.

Of course, letting my guard down was forbidden.

At any moment, blades from Crown Prince Valherios and the sworn warriors could come flying toward me.

Especially now that I had learned sword aura reinforcement, I found myself even more suspicious.

The bodily enhancement of sword aura reinforcement lacked the explosive force of electric-arts enhancement, but its endurance and indescribable transcendence were superior.

Ah. Now I had the exact word for it.

Right.

Sword aura reinforcement was a power that strayed further from the laws of physics.

It wasn’t a method of squeezing muscles harder through electric signals to force more violent contractions. Rather, a mysterious light—neither liquid, gas, nor solid—soaked deep into muscle, tendon, nerve, and bone alike, supporting every function with an uncanny sensation.

At maximum output, it felt capable of enduring even one or two lightning strikes.

Hum.

And so I ran onward while remaining as conscious of Valherios and the sworn warriors’ positions as I was of the scholars, Masters, and Corruptors.

“Victory! Honor! Oath!”

“We promised ourselves and the twin stars above that night sky!”

“For Stellite!”

Valherios stood at the forefront of the sworn warriors.

[“-----!”]

Several scholars suddenly rushed us while unleashing mental waves.

Their reverse-jointed legs slammed against the ground, scorpion tails lashed behind their backs, one arm had become a crab claw, and the other a sharpened biological bone blade.

Tap-tap-tap!

Valherios never slowed his stride.

Instead, he accelerated even further and used the exact same footwork he had once taught me.

Whoosh!

His legs spun halfway around while his sword rotated a full turn as he cut through them.

He calculated even the paralysis caused by mental waves, surrendering his body to inertia while drawing sword aura reinforcement to its limit to create a cutting force capable of slicing through anything.

Fwoosh!

The long blade became wrapped in a mass of golden radiance.

Who could possibly look upon that light and think it anything other than a blessing granted through a contract with the twin stars of fate and infinity—or eternity?

Shhkkaaaaaak!

The scholars’ limbs flew skyward.

“One must wield the power of truth!”

One of the scholars, despite having both arms severed, still thrust its scorpion tail toward Valherios.

“I dedicate this life to the seniors who revealed my true form to me!”

Whoosh!

I saw the eyes of the sworn warriors around Valherios waver.

I also saw Valherios hurriedly twist his wrist.

My body moved before thought did.

Hum!

Using magnetism arts, I lifted a Balsam Shot from the harness at my waist, then launched it forward with repulsive force.

Screeeeeech!

The Magnetic Railshot tore through the air with a sonic boom and reduced the scholar to a spray of blood.

“Ah, thank you. I made a mistake.”

Valherios wiped blood from his cheek and looked toward me.

“I merely did what was natural.”

I shook my head while recalling the Balsam Shot through magnetic force after memorizing where it had landed.

To me, it truly was natural.

I had been raised never to stand by while allies died.

And I certainly had no desire to be falsely accused of assassinating the Crown Prince without proper cause and dragged into a civil war.

But to the Crown Prince, such a thing was not natural.

He was not a Blue Knight of Astreos.

He had no obligation to swing his sword at the most dangerous front line.

Yet Valherios fought more boldly than any sworn warrior, wielding his blade in places as dangerous as any Blue Knight would.

Right.

Because he had failed to do what was natural, I did what was natural.

That was all there was to it.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Even afterward, large and small mutant demonic beasts continued to appear.

“Corruptors ahead!”

“Not a doctoral candidate. I’ll handle it.”

The cathedral visible ahead still felt unbearably far away.

Flash!

Large mutant demonic beasts visible even from afar were dealt with by Andromeda’s lightning strikes.

But those hiding between buildings, or blending into the stone architecture beneath rock-like shells, had to be cut down personally.

Valherios suddenly charged toward a mutant demonic beast resembling a stone giant.

Boom!

The mutant beast slammed down its fist at a speed impossible for something of that size, trying to crush Valherios.

Whoosh!

Valherios accelerated as fast as Thunderstep, evaded the blow, then spun through the air and deeply severed its Achilles tendon.

Shhk!

“Woooooar!”

The stone giant staggered with a howl.

Its leg had been crippled.

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

I raised my throwing daggers and fired Magnetic Railshots.

The mutant beast resembling a stone giant collapsed in a roaring heap.

“Well done! A magnificent attack.”

“Your Highness was equally impressive.”

“I told you to speak more casually. Hahaha, you really are astonishingly humble.”

“Let’s keep moving. We’ve already made it nearly halfway.”

At this point, the differences between scholars, Masters, doctoral candidates, ordinary Corruptors, and mutant demonic beasts had become clear.

“Six scholars on the right!”

“Careful! Eight Corruptors ahead! Asymmetrical, with eyes all over them!”

They could all be categorized as Corruptors, but even among them there were subdivisions.

First came the scholars.

They were the most common enemies within the Hall of Purity.

They attacked using mental waves and mutated bodies.

Next were the Masters.

They appeared to function as mid-level commanders of the Hall of Purity.

Each commanded at least five or six scholars, and the power of their mental waves was vastly stronger.

Then came the Corruptors.

Ordinary people transformed by mental waves.

Generally, their body parts were all asymmetrical, crudely shaped as though someone had kneaded flesh together by hand.

“Forgive me for failing to protect you.”

Shhk!

They were generally around five meters tall.

Mutant demonic beasts were simply demonic beasts transformed into Corruptors by mental waves.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

“Doctoral candidate ahead!”

“I see it too. We could use lightning—no. Let’s leave it to Sister.”

“Sister?”

“His Grace the Grand Prince Regent Andromeda!”

The physically strongest enemies were the doctoral candidates.

[“Until the day we become one with truth!”]

Their mental waves were roughly on the same level as scholars, but their size was on an entirely different scale.

Ordinary Corruptors averaged around five meters, but these so-called doctoral candidates often reached fifteen meters in height.

No ogre could ever grow that massive.

Still, it wasn’t entirely bad.

Flash!

[“Gkh!?”]

The larger they were, the easier they became targets for the overwhelming authority powers of direct descendants of the great houses.

Just moments ago, a doctoral candidate the size of a seven-story stone building had been struck by Andromeda’s blue lightning and burned pure white.

“Kyrie!”

I heard Andromeda’s voice from ahead.

I could already see her through Bio-radar, but I raised my head anyway.

Andromeda was waving from the cathedral terrace.

Countless Corruptors and scholars clung to the cathedral walls beneath her.

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

I blew several apart with Magnetic Railshots.

Crackle!

I incinerated several more with Chain Discharge.

Rumble!

The scholars unleashed mental waves, so I accelerated at once and stepped forward.

Tap-tap-tap-tap!

A series of slashes similar to, yet distinct from, the Radiant Wheel.

Shhkkaaaak!

The scholars’ limbs flew through the air.

At the same time, a scorpion tail thrusting through the gap registered on my Bio-radar.

Damn it.

Right now, instead of thick steel plate armor, I wore only thin cloth garments.

It couldn’t be helped because of the Bio-radar’s resolution.

I tried to block it somehow with my gauntlet.

Thanks to the impact-sharing engravings, merely placing it in the way would suffice.

“Duck!”

At that moment, Crown Prince Valherios kicked off the ground toward me.

Shhk!

A sword wreathed in sword aura reinforcement passed over my head and severed the scholar’s scorpion tail.

My neck had almost been cut off just now.

“Are you unharmed?”

“Y-yes.”

But Valherios had not done that.

It was probably because Andromeda was watching.

Surely that was it.

Repeating that thought to myself, I burned down the Corruptors and scholars climbing the cathedral walls with long-range electricity.

The scholars shrieked as they unleashed mental waves, but at this point, ordinary scholar-level mental waves were tolerable as long as there was even a little distance.

“Kyrie!”

“Sister!”

High above, Andromeda waved toward me.

In the end, we succeeded in breaking through the cathedral’s encirclement.

“Hurray! Hurray!”

“O stars above!”

“Thank you for saving us!”

Valherios and I entered the cathedral grounds amid the gratitude of the citizens of Cophion gathered inside.

There was no need to go deeper inside just to find Andromeda.

“Kyrie.”

She came running all the way to the cathedral entrance, her face overflowing with emotion.

“Huh?!”

The instant she noticed the man standing beside me, her expression spasmed violently.

“Sister.”

I opened a Telephone Conversation with Andromeda.

I muttered only inside my mouth so Valherios could not hear.

Why the hell did you come back with the Crown Prince? Are you insane?

Even without using Telephone Conversation herself, Andromeda looked at me with an expression that made her meaning perfectly obvious.

“It’s a long story. But he didn’t try to kill me. Not yet, anyway.”

Never do this again. No—at least warn me first. You scared me. Understand?

She extended her hand to Valherios first.

“We meet again. I am Andromeda.”

“A pleasure. I am Valherios.”

The two exchanged painfully awkward greetings.

Fortunately, I did not need to endure that atmosphere any longer.

“My lord!”

“Right!”

Together with Joi, Frey, and Blue Hydrangea, we needed to secure the surrounding area and establish a reliable escape route.

I had no interest in rescuing people only to become trapped alongside them.

Andromeda needed to look after her own soldiers, while Valherios had to manage the sworn warriors under his command.

That made it even more necessary.

You can hear me, right?

“Yes.”

Since we could communicate even while physically separated, that made things easier still.

Not sure if you heard earlier, but we captured three Masters beneath this cathedral. Give it a few more days—no, even just a few more hours—and the drugs will completely melt their minds. We’ll be able to get testimony out of them.

“So that’s why you couldn’t leave.”

Andromeda’s words sent a shiver through me.

Masters were effectively mid-level commanders.

And commanders, by nature, could not help knowing the outline of the organization as a whole.

At the very least, they would definitely know the city serving as their base.

“At last arrives the Inquisitor of His Holiness the Pope! His Excellency Saint Deneb!”

At that moment, a name filthy enough to sour my mood simply by hearing it rang out.

Saint Deneb.

Two questions immediately surfaced in my mind.

Why was that bastard here?

And why had he only just arrived now?

“Sister. I’ll be right back.”

I hurriedly turned around.

“Joi! Blue Hydrangea!”

“Yes!”

“Yes.”

“Prepare for battle! Ballistae, gun barrels, grenades, muskets! Get everything ready to fire. Gather the decapitation units too. I’ll imbue all the weapons with electricity.”

“Has a Corruptor horde appeared?”

“Something similar.”

Praying desperately that nothing disastrous had happened, I returned toward the cathedral.

Step. Step. Step. Step.

Vane and Frey followed at my sides.

Behind them came knights, retainers, and attendants carrying weapons crackling with electric sparks, and behind them marched shield-bearers, spearmen, and the red coats of the marksman school.

“Damn it.”

The cathedral was already completely surrounded by cathedral knights, battle priests, and Church soldiers.

The civilians who had still been inside earlier had all been evacuated, and only white-helmed swordsmen remained swarming around the area.

“Kyrie of Peleusnata Astreion Astreos! Supreme Commander of the Elector Princes Coalition Army! If you do not clear the way, we shall consider it a crime of irreverence, sir!”

For the first time in a while, Joi opened the path with formal proclamation.

“Even those who call themselves the coalition command remain but beings of worldly affairs. This place concerns only the heavenly Holy Seat. No earthly ruler may dare intrude upon it. Though presumptuous of us, we earnestly request that you withdraw and patiently await the will of the Holy Seat.”

One cathedral knight raised the visor of his helmet and blocked my path.

I had no need to listen to all that complicated nonsense.

“An earthly ruler?”

I stared directly into his eyes.

“I am the son of a Savior marked with a stigma, a contractor who met the Holy Seat itself, offered up an eye, and gained power. And a cathedral knight who merely heard a few words from the Myriad Star dares call me secular?”

The cathedral knight’s eyes shook violently.

“Move aside. If you do not move immediately, I will strike you down with lightning.”

Chapter 224

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