The thing Kyrie had cared about most while preparing this operation was his own survival.

I absolutely, positively cannot die.

If the other Elector Princes and superhuman knights died, their respective stars would receive them. If ordinary knights and soldiers died, the Myriad Stars would gather them in.

But if he died, he would fall into the abyss.

That was why Kyrie had gathered every force he could personally command and devoted it to protecting himself.

"What a hideous sight."

The thundercloud Nereus had summoned came to a halt above them.

Flapflapflapflapflap!

From the imperial palace rose countless moth-like encroachers, grotesquely twisted crows covered in bulbous tumors, and every variety of flying corpse from the corpse-waste plains.

["Ky... rie!"]

A Master with bat wings led the swarm.

There were so many that they blotted out the sun.

The number was enough to make the Elector Princes, knights, and soldiers who had been fighting instinctively lift their eyes toward the sky.

"Don't you dare make me look up!"

Nereus looked upward as well.

Not at their sky.

At his sky.

Flash!

A crimson bolt of lightning descended.

The bat-winged Master burned away without leaving so much as a handful of ash.

Dozens of flying creatures around it were fried as well.

But there were thousands of them.

One lightning strike could not possibly damage a swarm that size.

BOOOOOOM!

At least, that was how it seemed—

—until the rebounding Heavenly Thunderbolt smashed nearly a thousand flying demonic beasts out of the sky.

"As expected of Lord Nereus."

"Tonatio of Thunder."

Kyrie's forces and the army of House Astreos gazed in admiration at the blond Blue Knight standing high above them.

The superheated air exploded outward in a great circular shockwave, sweeping through the airborne monsters.

More than a thousand flying demonic beasts plummeted to the ground.

Hundreds died instantly, their torsos pulverized.

Hundreds more had their wings torn away and could no longer fly.

Flash! Flash! Flash!

Nereus called down bolt after bolt.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Heavenly Thunderbolts detonated one after another.

The swarm of thousands rapidly dwindled.

"Hmph."

Nereus grinned as he looked up at the now-clear sky.

It was the smile of a Blue Knight.

"That's cleaner. Happy now?"

"Not really. More are coming. I'll handle those. Nerie-Nerie must be tired."

Frey wore a similar grin.

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

Four or five Masters and several dozen Bachelors charged in from the distance.

Both of their arms had mutated into crimson-bone blades, while their legs bent backward like those of giant ostriches.

They sprinted along the city walls faster than most knights.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

They moved so quickly that even though the cadets of the marksman school had already established overlapping fields of fire, they still couldn't hit them.

"Hi."

Frey waited until they were almost at the command tower.

"Now... goodbye."

Thud!

"AAAAAAAH!"

He planted both feet into the chest of the foremost one and kicked him seventy meters straight down.

"One's down!"

"Break through!"

"Break through?"

Fwoosh! Fwoosh!

Dark navy lightning reinforcement flared around Frey's greatsword like living fire.

"Go ahead."

He charged, swinging the massive blade like a windmill.

Thud!

The heads of the front three enemies flew off simultaneously.

They had raised their crimson-bone blades to block, so their hands were severed at the wrists along with them.

"Let's play tag!"

Before their corpses even hit the ground, Frey had already leaped toward the next target.

The Bachelors and Masters were excellent swordsmen.

Slash!

But Frey was an even greater swordsman than Kyrie.

The short crimson-bone blades extending from their wrists could never stop the Wall-Breaking Greatsword, a blade nearly as tall as Frey himself.

Slash!

Every swing split a Bachelor from head to crotch.

["-----!"]

"My head... hurts!"

Slash!

Even when they unleashed mental waves, the mental attacks of mere Bachelors were powerless against Frey, who had guzzled the elixir of sacred radiance.

If anything, they only made him angrier.

Some abandoned the idea of fighting Frey altogether and tried to slip around him to assassinate Kyrie instead.

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

Using his Bio-radar over a radius of several dozen meters, Frey instantly detected their movements.

He fired lightning bullets.

Crackle!

"AAAAAH!"

Struck by high-voltage electricity powerful enough to kill even a Blue Knight, the Bachelors and Masters collapsed unconscious, smoke pouring from every opening in their bodies.

"See?"

Frey burst into cheerful laughter at Nereus.

"Hmph. More are coming."

Nereus jerked his chin toward a graduate student approaching while crushing the defensive line.

The monster stood nearly thirty meters tall.

It had three heads, while countless insect limbs sprouted from every inch of its body.

"That one's pretty big."

Even Frey looked uncertain.

"I believe I'll handle this one, sir."

Joi raised a hand across his chest.

"You learned sword aura reinforcement?"

"I did, sir, but I wasn't planning to charge it with a sword."

Joi pointed ahead.

"They'll shoot it."

Clank! Clank! Clank!

Five hundred ballistae lined along the walls loaded simultaneously.

Ballistae designed to fight superhuman soldiers possessed draw strengths of two to three tons.

The super-heavy anti-demonic-beast ballistae often exceeded five tons.

And there weren't ten of them.

Or fifty.

There were five hundred.

Even assuming an average draw strength of four tons apiece, that meant two thousand tons of force launched in a single volley.

"Fire."

It was more than twice the graduate student's own mass.

THOOOOOOOM!

At Joi's cold command, all five hundred ballistae fired together.

Solid iron bolts the size of spears slammed into the graduate student's body.

The impact was so overwhelming that the gigantic creature was briefly lifted completely off the ground.

BOOM!

The graduate student crashed flat onto its back.

"Target neutralized."

Joi smiled pleasantly as he reported to Nereus and Frey.

The two Blue Knights looked at the fallen graduate student for a moment, then at Kyrie, before finally turning back toward Joi.

"So that brat really did find himself an excellent adjutant."

"Joi's the best."

There was something fundamentally different about him from ordinary adjutants.

Even Blue Knights could sense the quiet authority he carried.

"Good. What about my sister?"

Kyrie opened his eyes just then.

"Kiri-Kiri?"

"Sister?"

"What do you mean by 'good'?"

The Elector Princes had finally reached the imperial palace.

The Hall of Purity's defensive lines had collapsed across the board.

From this point onward, only citywide mopping-up operations by our scattered forces remained.

But we still hadn't won.

We hadn't even taken a single step into the imperial palace.

I briefly explained the situation to Nereus, Frey, and Joi.

"...Commit the main army."

Step. Step. Step. Step. Step.

"WAAAAAAAH!"

The moment I sent one final Telephone Conversation to every great house's main army waiting outside the city, soldiers poured through the streets—not wearing ivory cloaks, but the cloaks and armor of their respective houses.

It was a magnificent sight.

I checked my own condition.

Three minutes remained on Telephone Conversation.

My forehead still burned slightly, but the neural overload was somehow manageable.

I wore the full plate armor the mayor of Rebellion had given me, minus the helmet.

The crystalline holy sword rested at my side alongside the Wall-Breaking Longsword, explosive balsam grenades, and throwing daggers.

I emptied three bottles of holy water in succession.

Even my forehead cooled somewhat.

"Kyrie."

The soldiers and the cadets of the marksman school parted from the eastern section of the wall.

Andromeda approached, her tightly bound ponytail swaying rhythmically from side to side.

Countless engravings etched across her jet-black full plate armor glowed with blue light.

"You're here?"

"Let's go. We can't be the last ones, can we?"

She held out her hand.

I took it without hesitation.

"Kiri-Kiri, I'll be right behind you."

Frey instantly caught on and sprinted for the stairs.

"You little...!"

Only then did Nereus seem to realize my wicked little scheme, his face twisting.

"I can't very well let anyone else have the honor of being the first to set foot inside the imperial palace."

I shrugged.

Truthfully, there was nothing honorable about it.

Why would I willingly be the first through the door when who knew what horrifying Doctors and graduate students were waiting inside?

But for the sake of military merit, it couldn't be helped.

"I'm counting on you."

I smiled at Andromeda.

"Counting on me? What's that supposed to mean? Of course we're going together. Until the very end. Got it?"

Crackle! Crackle!

Smiling as brilliantly as the midsummer sun, Andromeda unleashed Descent of the Thunder God.

["O thunderous star."]

The next instant, we became a single bolt of lightning.

We shot across the outer city, soared over the inner walls, and landed before the imperial palace.

BOOM!

"...Just when exactly was Duke Kyrie planning to arrive?"

"Surely he wasn't expecting only us to go in first."

The booming voices of Tyren and Narji followed.

"Wh-what?"

"Grand Prince Regent Andromeda?"

"It's Duke Kyrie!"

"The Lightning Blade Kyrie has arrived!"

Before the dust had even settled enough for anyone to see us clearly, jubilation swept through the battlefield.

【Hero's Journey — Stage 12】

【Stage 6: Military Exploit】

【Detailed Objective 3: Conquest】

【Conquer the Hall of Purity's headquarters, the capital of the Ancient Empire.】

【Reward upon success: Thunderbolt Body +100%】

【Penalty upon failure: Thunderbolt Body -100%】

It felt as though light raced through every vein and nerve in my body.

The exhaustion that even holy water had failed to cure vanished completely.

"Thank you."

I murmured the words under my breath.

The thunderous star answered.

【"There's nothing to thank me for, is there? Once the army reaches the imperial palace, the city has already fallen. At least... that's what its former master would tell you."】

The voice was as haughty as ever.

Yet somehow, it also carried a trace of regret.

【"To think I'd return here like this."】

I had no time to dwell on those words.

【Hero's Journey — Stage 12】

【Stage 6: Military Exploit】

【You have achieved a military exploit recognized by every great house.】

【Penalty upon failure: Death】

【Reward upon success: Blue Radiance Lion's Roar】

【NEW! Advanced Perk: Blue Radiance Lion's Roar (24 hours)】

Stage 6 of the Hero's Journey had already been completed.

"Already?"

That surprised even me.

I'd expected it to happen only after this suppression campaign was completely over.

【"They've already acknowledged you."】

By then, the dust had finally cleared.

"Duke Kyrie."

"The Lightning Blade."

"You've worked hard."

"Magnificent command."

"The Myriad Stars themselves must surely have shone upon you."

The Elector Princes were looking at me.

Not just the friendly ones like Andromeda, Erica, and the twins of Flammerios.

Saint Sirius.

Valherios.

Narji.

Even those who had remained distant—or openly unfriendly—were all looking at me.

Every one of them wore the same gaze.

Deep goodwill.

Quiet reverence.

Eyes that shimmered like sunlight dancing across the surface of a lake.

So that's it.

That's what this was.

So that's what it meant.

"Things will be different from here on."

"What do you mean?"

"Up to this point we've had an easy time thanks to Bio-radar and Telephone Conversation. We couldn't be ambushed, and we could coordinate from every direction to keep them under constant pressure."

"So that ends now."

"Inside that palace they'll be waiting for us with everything they have. Since it's indoors, their mental waves will echo even more violently. And there won't be many places to dodge."

"Do you have a plan?"

Saint Sirius asked.

I almost snapped back that bringing everyone here without shedding a single drop of their blood ought to have been enough.

What more did he want?

"Yes."

But I realized something.

He hadn't asked Erica.

Or Andromeda.

Or Valherios.

He had asked me.

I forced myself to suppress my irritation.

In a situation like this, a question was the same thing as permission.

The one granting permission was the highest authority present.

The problem was that even I thought the permission I was about to ask for sounded completely ridiculous.

"What is it?"

Instead of answering with words, I answered with actions.

Shing.

I wasn't trying to create some dramatic atmosphere.

I simply found it absurd that I had to give this as my answer before the Elector Princes.

"So that forevermore I may be like lightning... and one day, when I ascend into the night sky, I can raise my head proudly before those countless Holy Seats."

Drawing the crystalline holy sword, I walked toward the main gate of the imperial palace of Soletaraon.

Yes.

It meant exactly this.

I had no plan whatsoever.

"Hah."

Saint Sirius let out a dry laugh.

"A frontal assault?"

"Very Astreos."

"Bold."

I'd assumed the Elector Princes wouldn't follow until several hundred bodyguards had gathered around them.

As heirs to great houses—the highest-ranking bloodlines of their families—I expected them to value their own lives more than this.

That would have been the sensible choice.

But before we were nobles...

...we were warriors.

"We're seeing this through together."

"Well, we did swear before a priest that although we were born on different days, we'd die on the same one."

We were bloodlines who had made contracts with the stars, risen through the sword, and won immutable status.

Me.

Andromeda.

Erica.

Valherios.

Saint Sirius.

Narji.

Severic.

Tyren.

Vicher.

Vichera.

Together, we charged into the imperial palace of Soletaraon.

"Kiri-Kiri! You're trying to make me unemployed again!"

Panting, Frey came running after us and joined the charge.

Chapter 242

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