According to an old proverb, beginning is half the battle.

According to a proverb from the Eastern Continent, if you stay still, you are already halfway there.

Which meant that if you simply began and then stayed still, you had already achieved seventy-five percent.

Put another way, even after achieving that seventy-five percent, if you failed to properly handle the remaining twenty-five, you were doomed.

“My lord. Our military funds and supplies are starting to run thin.”

Cophion encampment, barracks.

As I listened to Joi’s report, I found myself thinking exactly that.

“I figured as much.”

I had expected it to some extent.

Several weeks had already passed since the Elector Princes Council ended.

The Elector Princes had each returned to their own headquarters, surrounding the corpse-waste plains from all directions while steadily tightening the encirclement.

For now, I remained in Cophion rather than at the front lines, overseeing the organization of our army’s supply routes.

“How did you know, my lord?”

I had heard this sort of report before.

“I’ve spent years sleeping in field tents too. Maybe not as much as you, but I’ve become pretty familiar with armies as groups that consume resources.”

That was not bluffing.

I had genuinely thought this through beforehand.

The supplies stockpiled in Cophion by the Myriad Star Church were absolutely not an amount that could “fall short of supporting logistics.”

But there was no way moving such an enormous amount of wealth from one side to another would be easy.

Administrative authority and responsibility, the merchant companies and guilds handling transport, my army and the Myriad Star Church—there was bound to be endless confusion and subtle conflict between all of them.

Especially with Saint Deneb and Saint Sirius still remaining in Cophion.

I knew a way to resolve those subtle conflicts in a single stroke.

And I could find no reason not to choose that method.

“Joi.”

“Yes.”

“Bring me my armor and sword. Call Frey too. I’ll settle this before the day’s over.”

“You mean your armor and sword, my lord?”

Joi slowly blinked her bright yellow eyes.

“Understood, my lord. Though I do not believe the problem I just described will be easy to solve that way.”

Like the longtime adjutant she was, Joi carefully tried to spare me from bearing political responsibility.

I was deeply grateful for that.

“If this can’t solve it, then nothing can.”

But by now, I had become someone who no longer needed even that sort of consideration.

“Kyrikyrie! You called?”

“Yeah.”

I left the encampment with Frey accompanying me.

“Where are we going?”

“The cathedral.”

“To pray?”

“Yeah. I’m planning to pray for someone’s peaceful rest.”

“Whose?”

Frey hit the heart of it perfectly.

“Saint Deneb’s.”

Screeeech!

The four-horse carriage came to a violent halt before the cathedral.

“W-who are you here to see?”

“Inquisitor Saint Deneb.”

“Inquisitor Saint Deneb is currently absent from—”

“Kyrikyrie, can’t you hear him? Bring him out before I empty the space above your neck!”

The cathedral of Cophion now swarmed with cathedral knights, devout soldiers of the Church, and mercenaries hired by the Church.

Yet before just two people, they had no choice but to lower their eyes and part like the sea.

“It’s Kyrie!”

“Th-the Lightning Blade!?”

“Imperator Kyrie?”

Step. Step. Step.

Because one of those two was already among the strongest of the Blue Knights, while the other ranked among the strongest in the entire Empire.

“I heard you were looking for me.”

Inquisitor Saint Deneb arrived not long afterward.

With silver-dusted hair, a beautiful face, and robes embroidered with sacred patterns, he looked exactly like the ideal image of a cleric from a fairy tale.

Clank.

But the thick plate armor worn beneath the robes and the two-handed hammer strapped across his back revealed exactly what sort of arrangements he had prepared.

“I trust you will explain why you have come.”

Kyrie was extremely pleased by that quick-witted attitude.

“You seriously don’t know?”

“Return what belongs to me. You promised you would.”

He had intentionally refrained from cornering Saint Sirius too aggressively.

Because he feared the Myriad Star Church might respond recklessly if pushed too far.

Which also meant he had truly wanted to corner them.

The resentment over their attempt to drive a wedge between him and Andromeda, revenge for his adoptive father Peleus, and their recent behavior of failing to properly provide Joi with supplies.

Any one of those was enough reason for Blue Knight Kyrie to come knocking with a sword in hand.

“Ev-everyone, leave!”

“This is dangerous!”

The priests hurriedly evacuated the surrounding people.

“You bastards, if you interfere, I’ll crack every skull open! This genius is gonna go bam! bam! bam!”

“We were about to say the same.”

Frey and the cathedral knights blocked the doors on either side, controlling access.

Crackle!

Kyrie drew the crystalline holy sword and glared at Saint Deneb.

Electric sparks burst from both his eyepatched eye and his remaining eye alike as electric-arts bodily enhancement and neural acceleration unfolded.

Lightning reinforcement wrapped around sword aura reinforcement like the Milky Way spread across the night sky, flowing through his entire body and even into the sword itself.

Saaaaa—

Saint Deneb likewise raised his two-handed hammer and assumed a combat stance.

Brilliant sword aura reinforcement wrapped around his entire body as he fully prepared the martial art Gravity Collapse, which utilized the authority known as “gravity waves.”

“Father’s revenge!”

“Then receive punishment for insulting His Holiness!”

Rumble!

The next instant, the two kicked off the ground hard enough to crack the marble tiles beneath them and collided head-on.

KRAAAAAK!

The crystalline holy sword and the two-handed hammer smashed together, scattering orange sparks everywhere.

“Hah!”

“Ghk!”

Ordinarily, when a descending hammer collided with a slashing sword, the sword should have been knocked away.

Boom!

Yet Kyrie’s body, strengthened through lightning reinforcement, produced absurd strength and sent Saint Deneb flying backward without losing any of his forward momentum.

Saint Deneb rose into the air and kicked upward.

His body spun once midair before the hammer descended again.

BOOM!

Gravity Collapse.

The greatest martial art of the Myriad Star Church, using stellar gravity to disperse the weight behind an enemy’s attacks while adding that same weight to one’s own.

Clang!

My arm!?

Kyrie hurriedly struck beneath the hammerhead with his blade and flung himself backward.

His arm trembled despite the use of lightning reinforcement.

I could probably wrestle down an ordinary ogre barehanded right now.

Thrilled by that realization, he leapt again.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

He unleashed the swordsmanship for sword aura reinforcement that he had learned from Valherios.

With every step forward, he rotated his body, and every time his body turned halfway around, he spun the sword in a full circle, continuing a relentless vortex of slashes.

Clatterclatterclatterclang!

“Ghk!?”

Saint Deneb spun his hammer like a windmill to block, but Kyrie whipped his sword around like the very wind driving that windmill.

Slice! Slash! Shhk!

Saint Deneb’s robes were torn apart and gouges were carved across his plate armor.

That was thanks to the crystalline holy sword’s authority, which amplified already high voltage even further, combined with lightning reinforcement that multiplied cutting power and durability several times over.

“RAAAAAAH!”

Saint Deneb roared and raised the hammer high.

Sacred flames blazed fiercely from the hammerhead.

Not bad.

Separate from his personal resentment toward Saint Deneb, Kyrie admitted it was an excellent decision.

If he had lost in a battle of speed, then he needed to fight with strength.

Against Astreos in particular—a house whose stamina suffered under the strain unique to electric arts and whose durability was weaker due to its culture of light armor—it was an even better choice.

“Not anymore.”

Rumble!

Kyrie swiftly retreated while simultaneously activating magnetism arts.

Saaaaa—

Pitch-black iron sand flowed in like fog through vents, open doors, and passageways from every direction.

“What is this?! Sacheol?”

Simply rotating and vibrating it would shred ordinary soldiers alive, but Kyrie could feel the divine power blazing from Saint Deneb’s body.

Instead of trying to cut through a body that even blades could barely harm with ultrahigh-frequency iron-sand vibrations, he gathered all the Sacheol together and wrapped it around his left arm like a shield.

Sacheol Shield.

Tzzzzzz!

The ultrasonically vibrating shield covered half of Kyrie’s body.

“You think you can block this?”

Saint Deneb charged forward with his hammer raised.

Gravity Collapse.

The hammerhead glowed brightly with sacred flames and sword aura reinforcement, while his leaping step carried power multiplied severalfold through Gravity Collapse.

“If it’s trash like you, then as much as I want!”

At the final possible instant, Kyrie poured even more mana into the Sacheol Shield and restrained the heat through a magnetic field.

Ionized gas.

The entire Sacheol Shield erupted into blue-green flames.

BOOM!

Blue-green flames and crimson flames exploded outward in a disc-shaped shockwave throughout the cathedral.

TZZZZZZ!

The Sacheol Shield was crushed beneath the hammer and scattered apart in all directions.

“RAAAAAAGH!”

Saint Deneb roared louder and drove the hammer downward.

“H-hahaha!”

Kyrie did not let his expression twist in pain.

The ionized Sacheol Shield did not simply scatter apart.

Long Sacheol Blades extended from the edges of the shield and wrapped themselves around Saint Deneb’s armor.

Sssssss—

The superheated ionized gas began melting the armor while roasting Saint Deneb inside like a chicken in an oven, all while restricting his movements.

“Hup!”

Though startled, Saint Deneb reacted quickly.

Using Gravity Collapse, he spun the hammer at high speed again to scatter the Sacheol Blades and tried to batter Kyrie’s entire body.

That too was part of Kyrie’s plan.

WOOOOONG!

Pulling force and repulsive force.

Controlling armor wrapped in sword aura reinforcement through magnetism alone was not easy.

It became even harder when the opponent was also using Gravity Collapse to manipulate inertia.

But once wrapped in Sacheol Blades, it became entirely possible.

“Kyrie!”

“Kneel!”

At Kyrie’s gesture, Saint Deneb staggered like a novice puppet.

Pulling force and repulsive force tightened around the ends of Saint Deneb’s limbs.

“How dare you—release—this!”

“Back then, you almost imprisoned me.”

Kyrie smiled in satisfaction and extended his left hand, dragging Saint Deneb toward him.

“Now I’ve caught you instead.”

His crystalline holy sword pointed straight forward in his right hand.

KRAAAAAK!

The crystalline holy sword touched the edge of Saint Deneb’s breastplate.

The lightning-reinforced blade slowly crushed inward through the armor.

A vivid smile worthy of Astreos itself spread across Kyrie’s face.

His deep blue single eye gleamed horrifyingly.

“Enough!”

At that moment, Saint Sirius appeared.

“I will release Valherios. Please let Inquisitor Saint Deneb go now.”

“Valherios?”

“Asking that after coming here looking for us because we had the prince?”

Kyrie asked in confusion, as though he had never worn that terrifying expression at all.

“Why would I care about the prince?”

“Then why are you causing all this chaos?”

Saint Sirius was bewildered as well.

[Little brother! I heard the news. I heard you stormed the cathedral in Cophion and straightened that bastard out good? Seriously, well done! Too bad I missed it. You should’ve done it while your big sister was around. I would’ve gone with you. Next time we’re absolutely going together, got it?]

Several days later.

Inside my tent within my army’s encampment.

I let out a dry laugh while reading Andromeda’s letter.

I still had no idea what exactly had happened.

That day, I had enjoyed a satisfying revenge and returned a bloodied Valherios back to the royalist forces.

I did not know exactly what had happened.

But I did feel that an old suspicion of mine had been correct.

Perhaps the Church and the royal family...

Though it was still only speculation, it seemed valuable enough to exploit.

The more contingencies I prepared, the better. I should meet with them sometime.

The royal family remained uncertain, but there was something else I had definitely realized.

The support capabilities of magnetism arts.

Electric arts alone lacked raw physical force, making them poorly suited against opponents like the Myriad Star Church and the royal family who could simply endure and push through. But by using Sacheol Blades and the Sacheol Shield, that weakness could be overcome.

I heard Magnus was currently overseeing the supply routes for Andromeda’s army. If the opportunity arose, perhaps I should learn more magnetism arts from him.

“My lord, my lord!”

Fwaaash.

Joi swept aside the tent flap and entered.

“So the Church’s finally handling the settlements and transfers properly now?”

I asked while lounging lazily.

Even though the Blue Knights actively stepped forward under their motto of weaponized shamelessness, there were still few Blue Knights willing to directly clash with cardinals over something as “minor” as logistics.

“Yes. They are handling that properly now, my lord.”

Joi nodded.

“However, the military-fund problem still hasn’t been solved, my lord.”

“What?”

Hum.

Using magnetism arts, I pulled the crystalline holy sword hanging on the tent wall toward myself.

Chapter 228

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