“Electromagnetic Railgun. Yes. That was it. He definitely took down that enormous thing in Rebellion with Railgun too.”

Tyren babbled incoherently.

Does this make any sense?

He could not even tell what he himself was saying.

He simply could not endure it unless he said something.

No matter how much Blue Knights are the strongest in one-on-one combat… anyone hit by that is finished in one shot. There’s no answer except dodging.

He had heard until his ears rang that Blue Knights were strong.

Do not face a Blue Knight head-on.

You must surround them no matter what, pin their feet with earth arts, throw a net over them, and shoot them down with crossbows.

Even if Black Knights and Blue Knights possessed the same knightly bodies, Blue Knights stimulated their muscles and nervous systems with electric arts, making both their strength and reflexes far superior to ordinary Black Knights.

This is already beyond any discussion of strength.

The authority Kyrie had just displayed was truly the authority of a Holy Seat.

Did Peleus implant a stigma into him?

Tyren even swept his gaze over the body hidden beneath Kyrie’s armor.

And though I didn’t see it clearly just now, the trajectory definitely entered between the ribs, pierced near the heart, and collapsed the spine. Because of Bio-radar and Neural Acceleration, his aim is perfect too.

A crushing pressure, as though he had been buried under stone, weighed down his entire body.

Tyren had secretly wondered why the other houses tolerated the violent excesses of the Blue Knights of Astreos.

Despite being primitive compared to the other great houses in force mobilization, strategy, and tactics, what gave them the confidence to raise their voices higher than anyone else and act so belligerently?

Does facing them on the battlefield with a sword in hand already mean defeat?

It seemed he would no longer doubt it.

“It’s not over yet.”

Kyrie drew his crystalline holy sword and looked ahead.

“I-Is that so?”

Startled, Tyren looked forward again.

“Hmm.”

The enormous skeletal giant from just moments ago had not been formed from the entire remaining corpse army.

Of the original seventy thousand, roughly forty to fifty thousand had been swept away by the Stone Tide. Another ten thousand had formed the colossal skeletal giant and collapsed.

That still left more than ten thousand.

“Can you use Stone Tide one more time?”

“It would be possible if we performed a shared casting as a grand spell, but I doubt it would mean much.”

Tyren received a telescope magic tool and examined the remaining corpse army’s composition.

“The proportion of skeletal knights is high, and there are many special entities too—ghouls, skeletal giants, abominations, and the like. They gathered them all in the rear. Even if we use Stone Tide, they will run over it.”

“Then we’ll have to take swords in hand and break through?”

“Even if the remaining ones are handled by heavy infantry and ballista troops, we must be the ones to break their spearhead.”

“Good. Follow slowly. I’m going first.”

Without even confirming the answer, Kyrie mounted his horse and snapped the reins.

“Hah!”

Vane and Frey, along with several other Blue Knights and knights, followed behind him.

“R-Regiment Commander.”

Pale with shock, Tyren looked at Joi, who had remained behind.

“Yes, Your Highness?”

“Does he always go like that?”

To him, it was incomprehensible.

It’s ten thousand! No matter how much he intends to strike and withdraw, how can he charge against ten thousand with only a few dozen riders?

“Everyone does. My lord is actually on the calm side.”

“No. At the very least, I might choose not to follow, might I not?”

“Are you not going to follow?”

The handsome yellow-eyed regiment commander widened those yellow eyes and asked back as though it were obvious.

Tyren could not even bring himself to become angry that a mere knight retainer had questioned him.

Of course, Joi’s perception contained some misunderstanding.

The Blue Knight Joi served was Kyrie, and the Blue Knight she had seen up close was Nereus.

“No.”

Before being a blood relative of a great house, Tyren felt something stir within him as a human being and shook his head.

“I should follow.”

He felt he understood, just a little, what Astreos meant by clarity.

The Brass Star will surely scold me. Asking where a Black Knight gets off trying to charge so recklessly.

I lightly drove my horse toward the corpse army.

Thudududududu!

Ever since I became able to use Bio-radar and Telephone Conversation in conjunction, command had become far too convenient.

Because I could observe the locations and formations of both enemies and allies from above, the battlefield felt almost like a chessboard.

“Joi. The ground condition is bad, so have the ballista troops circle around to the ridge on the right and take position there. Heavy infantry will push from the front. There are many special entities, so mix in pikemen. The light cavalry in the rear has come too far forward, so pull them back a little.”

Understood, my lord.

Now that Joi would handle the tactics on her own, I needed to focus only on combat.

I raised my head and looked at the corpse army.

[“Neiiigh!”]

Skeletal knights riding skeletal warhorses and holding bone cavalry lances glared this way while ghost-fire dripped from their eyes.

“Kyrikyrie! Let’s go!”

“Senior! I’m ready!”

Frey and Vane shouted in excited voices, completely ignorant of what I was thinking.

These idiots, honestly.

There was a reason I had forced myself to charge out.

Tyren had smashed half the corpse army with a single authority.

If my military exploits were stolen from the beginning of the operation like this, every postwar move I intended to make could collapse.

At minimum, I had to be the one to finish this.

In that case, perhaps it was fortunate that these fellows’ morale was high.

“I’m ready too!”

I burst into laughter I could no longer tell was false or true and raised my Sacheol Blades.

Tstststst!

I raised strand after strand, again and again.

Metallic ripples became metallic waves, and soon the waves rose high.

“Huh?”

“Wow……!”

Frey, Vane, the Blue Knights, and the knights all exclaimed.

“It’s an authority called metal tide. Impressive, isn’t it?”

Kwaaaaaaa!

I sent the surging wave of iron sand, five meters tall and roughly fifty meters wide, roaring forward and grinned.

“It’s magnificent!”

“You are the greatest!”

I had learned this while practicing Sacheol Armor.

Since I did not need to control the fine details, I only had to pour mana into it, making it an easier technique for my current self.

Kwaaaaaaa!

With the metal tide before us, we charged toward the ten-thousand-strong corpse army.

Clack!

The corpse army truly held formation like an army.

In front, pikemen leveled long pikes to stop the cavalry charge. On both flanks, heavy cavalry—skeletal knights and the cavalry-type entities under them—prepared to charge and strike our sides. Here and there, monsters such as skeletal giants and abominations revealed bodies like siege towers.

“The thunderous star watches over us!”

Though I had spoken countless lies and deceptions until now, I could say this much with certainty.

The thunderous star truly was watching us.

【“Yes. I’m always watching, aren’t I?”】

Then perhaps all the other words could be true as well.

That hollow, sweet promise that if we lived clearly and died clearly, the net of lightning would gather our souls from the abyss and hang them high in the night sky to shine forever.

Though it was not a promise that applied to me.

“We shall roam the entire Empire while alive, and when dead, we shall roam the entire night sky!”

At least for them.

Please fulfill it according to the contract.

“Follow His Highness Kyrie!”

“For my proud classmate!”

“Senior, O my Senior! This arm I raise for you!”

Thinking so, I collapsed the metal tide.

BOOM!

Sacheol Blades surged violently and smashed the corpse army’s front line apart.

Karddddk!

The bone spears, skulls, ribs, and leg bones of the corpse army’s pikemen were all ground down and sliced apart, flying into the sky.

BOOM!

We drove into the shattered formation as though to pierce straight through it.

“I cannot die yet!”

I wrapped lightning reinforcement around my crystalline holy sword and swung it like a pinwheel.

Saaaaak!

The corpse army’s hard bones and weapons were sliced apart like pudding.

Through Bio-radar, I could see everyone fighting fiercely.

“Uoooooh!”

Frey likewise wrapped navy-blue lightning reinforcement around his greatsword and swung.

A sword as large as his own body danced atop his horse.

Slice!

A skeletal knight five meters tall, with six heads and twelve arms, collapsed as its waist was cut in half.

Thuk!

Vane wrapped yellow lightning reinforcement around his cavalry lance and thrust.

A skeletal knight clad in thick bone armor collapsed from the inside and sank down.

“Moonlight, that cleaves, the clouds!”

Paisen abandoned her horse and leapt toward a skeletal trumpeter.

[“-----!”]

The skeletal trumpeter attacked Paisen by releasing a wave in which musical notes and illusions of translucent black tentacles churned together.

I intended to assist with Magnetic Railshot.

There was no need.

Whoosh!

Kicking off the air with the top of her foot and turning her body, Paisen drew up sword aura reinforcement.

That sword aura reinforcement, wrapped in gentle blue sparks, was proper lightning reinforcement.

The lightning reinforcement spun once through the air.

The light lingered long behind it, tracing a circle.

A circle just like the moon.

Saaaaak!

The sword art of a crescent moon longing to become full.

New Moon Sword Art drew a full moon.

The skeletal trumpeter was sliced apart along with its escort entities.

I too began drawing up my mana in earnest.

[“-! -!”]

[“----!”]

[--! ---!]

The true enemies of the corpse army were coming—skeletal knights with countless arms and legs, wielding countless weapons.

Those creatures could not be killed with ordinary swordsmanship.

Swordsmanship was not a technical system created to fight monsters with twelve arms.

That was why I needed armor capable of blocking attacks from twelve directions at once.

Tstststst!

Sacheol Armor was certainly no easy authority.

Reflecting every movement of the muscles and the corresponding movement of the skin while overlaying Sacheol on top was difficult.

Not impossible, though.

“Hah!”

Pitch-black Sacheol enveloped me.

I did not cover my head, since I had to maintain Bio-radar, but my body was sealed so tightly that not even water could have slipped through.

I felt a faint heat, an awkward yet reassuring weight, and overflowing power.

[“-----, --!”]

A skeletal knight holding cavalry lances in all six arms charged at me, accelerating on a centipede-like lower body.

Thududududu!

I could cut two of the cavalry lances.

I could not cut the remaining four.

I had to take them with my body.

So I let them hit me.

CLANG!

Four cavalry lances made of bone shattered all at once and flew into the sky.

Charrrrrrrr!

The fragments of Sacheol rose and sank in unison, dispersing the impact.

I might not have been used to Sacheol Armor yet, but with a Sacheol Shield, I had already blocked Blue Hydrangea’s signature technique, Hydrangea Scattershot.

I was not someone who would fall to an attack from a mere skeletal knight.

Slice!

As I crossed past the skeletal knight, I swung my crystalline holy sword.

The blade wrapped in lightning reinforcement severed every bone in the skeletal knight’s body and cut the thing in half.

[“--, --, --!”]

The next skeletal knight to charge had ribs like a maw and a medium-sized body.

Crack!

Countless ribs split left and right, trying to swallow me whole.

“Kyrikyrie!”

Frey screamed and tried to rush toward me.

“I’m fine!”

I abandoned my horse, leapt, and threw myself inside.

I added vibration to the Sacheol.

Wiiiiiiiiing!

White bone powder sprayed thickly.

Like high-speed rotating sandpaper grinding down wood, I violently shredded the skeletal knight from within.

When I saw its spine, I clenched my left fist.

Fwoosh!

Frictional heat was trapped inside the magnetic field, forming ionized gas, and I swung my fist, driving the ionized gas into the spine.

[“----!?”]

The skeletal knight collapsed, letting out an indescribable shriek.

“Senior!”

Wung!

At that moment, Vane seemed to see something through Bio-radar and pointed ahead.

“A Doctor?”

A figure draped in a white coat stood in the middle of the corpse army.

The resolution was not so poor that I could not have seen it, but I must have missed it while focusing on the skeletal knights.

If I caught that thing, then no matter how many tens of thousands of the corpse army Tyren killed, my military exploit would be greater.

“Stay close!”

“Yes!”

I aimed another Railgun.

“Will you be all right?”

Frey asked.

“Yeah!”

I truly would be.

Because this time, I would fire it as an authority.

【“Clever, aren’t you?”】

“Whose contractor do you think I am?”

【Electromagnetic Railgun (01 days 23 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds)】

Kwakwakwakwakwa!

Chapter 237

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