Kyrie looked up at the fully mutated graduate student.

The Doctors said everything below Doctor class was a fake. I suppose this thing is the exception. One of their successful creations.

An encroacher whose entire body was encased in sleek, unyieldingly hard carapace, with a long trumpet-shaped mouth jutting from its face.

It's symmetrical. Stable as a living organism. I can't believe everything Piaget said... but if even part of it is true, then that thing is a monster formed by gathering together the souls of the ancient evil gods once again.

Its soul and flesh had once been torn to pieces, dissolved into elixir, and scattered into the bodies of countless people.

Then the scholars of the Hall of Purity had refined it, restoring enough spirit-and-flesh unity to equal a single "old thing."

An ancient evil reborn.

I might not be able to beat it.

No... at this rate, I definitely can't.

Even standing before that monstrous abomination, I immediately fell back on my greatest strength.

Because, in the end, it was the only thing I could rely on.

Its legs are surprisingly long and thin. Even those scythe limbs are so long they barely touch the ground. Physical attacks probably aren't its specialty.

I just have to deal with that mental wave somehow.

Bzzzz.

I spread my Bio-radar across its body and the surrounding battlefield while pushing my mind into high-speed thought.

Blue Radiance Lion's Roar.

That canceled it before.

The answer came quickly.

Putting it into practice was another matter.

But I have to wait more than a day before I can use it again.

And if I'm only canceling it instead of sealing it, then I'll have to keep matching its timing perfectly every single time.

That's impossible.

Especially while mental waves erupted without pause and graduate-student-class encroachers charged from every direction.

["■■■■■■!"]

BWOOOOOOOM!

The fully mutated graduate student's mental wave exploded outward.

"Urgh!"

"Ghk!"

"Augh!"

The Elector Princes and the superhuman knights staggered.

Vicher and Vichera had been on the verge of unleashing a torrent of flames, but the siblings lost control, and fire burst wildly in every direction.

Narji, the royal brother of Crosel, was likewise forced to release the graduate student he had been crushing alive in his grip.

["----! --!"]

["For the sake of truth, I gladly offer this one life!"]

["We are truth itself! Truth alone is worth more than anything else!"]

["Better to die a hungry philosopher than live as a well-fed pig!"]

["Now I know what I truly was... and I devote myself!"]

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Meanwhile, the graduate students, Masters, and Bachelors surged forward with strength several times greater than before.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Dark crimson veins pulsed across every Bachelor and Master's body as they accepted the power of the old thing carried within the newly created ancient god's mental wave.

Thrust!

"AAAAAAAGH!"

A Blue Knight had his torso pierced by a Master's crimson-bone blade.

His smooth black armor, forged from overlapping plates like scales and covered in expensive engravings, was exquisite...

...but even it had limits against the relentless barrage of multiple crimson-bone blades.

He had been only a step away from reaching the Planet Seat.

"Sir!"

Andromeda cried out in anguish, reaching toward him.

Crackle!

An Emission blast gathered in her palm, about to wipe out the Master and the nearby graduate students—

["■■■■■■!"]

BWOOOOM!

The fully mutated graduate student unleashed another mental wave.

["■■■■■■!"]

BWOOOOOOOOOM!

And another.

The lightning converging around Andromeda's hand flickered like a candle in a storm.

"Listen... to me!"

Her voice boomed like thunder as she forcibly gathered the lightning again.

"Your Highness."

The Blue Knight made his decision first.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A graduate student with six heads atop a serpentine neck, nearly twenty-three feet tall, twisted its enormous body and charged straight at Andromeda.

The Blue Knight seized the Master's shoulder and yanked him toward himself.

Thrust!

The bone blade plunged even deeper into his body.

Pain twisted the Blue Knight's face.

Shock crossed the Master's.

"You—!"

The Master's opposite arm had already been broken in battle.

He couldn't follow up with another strike.

"Glory to House Astreos!"

The mighty Blue Knight, only moments away from attaining the Planet Seat, called upon his Descent.

His muscles convulsed under forced currents of electricity.

With one final Thunderstep...

...he hurled himself toward the graduate student.

...Huh?

At that moment, I felt something inside my right eye.

As though permission had just been granted.

Flash!

Lightning erupted from the Blue Knight's body and shot into the heavens.

BOOM!!

The seven-meter graduate student exploded into charcoal-black fragments.

Nothing remained of the Master's corpse.

"...Sir."

Andromeda's eyelids trembled with fury.

Helplessness and rage warred openly across her face.

I never understood them.

I remembered what that remarkable Blue Knight had looked like when he was alive.

And I remembered the last thing he had done—

Throwing away his life without hesitation for Andromeda.

Even I, who spend every day beside a Holy Seat, don't possess faith like that.

So how can these Blue Knights throw away their lives as though they were nothing?

Maybe it wasn't because they believed...

Maybe it was because they wanted to believe.

Perhaps...

...I was finally beginning to understand how faith worked.

If Blue Radiance Lion's Roar can cancel a mental wave... then it must be an authority of the same nature.

If those encroachers have infused their essence into the mental wave...

...then Blue Radiance Lion's Roar must carry mine.

I drew up my lightning reinforcement.

I am Kyrie of Peleusnata Astreion Astreos.

A suffocating pressure seized my chest.

Every nerve in my body trembled violently.

The man who will one day become Emperor.

Even while lightning reinforcement and Bodily Enhancement ravaged every nerve I possessed...

...the sensation only intensified.

Grrrrrrrr...

The fully mutated graduate student slowly turned its enormous head toward them.

Its tiny eyes locked onto Andromeda, who had been preparing storm clouds this entire time.

Crackle... crackle...

"Urgh..."

Andromeda's hands moved frantically.

"O thunderous star."

For perhaps the first time despite being of the direct pureblood line...

...she resorted to spoken incantation.

Yet the calm confidence that normally adorned her face was gone.

As one of the direct purebloods...

...she instinctively knew.

If I take that mental wave head-on...

...the storm clouds are finished.

They'll scatter.

And in a chaotic melee like this...

...losing an authority that had taken so long to prepare was catastrophic.

"Protect the Grand Prince Regent!"

"Andromeda! Hurry!"

Not only the Blue Knights...

...superhuman knights from every great house fought desperately to buy her time.

"Hurry!"

Even Valherios bled freely as he carved through the Doctors with a sword reinforced by sword aura.

"You always tell me I'm too slow!"

"Shut up! This is as fast as I can go!"

Erica alternated between her longsword and fan, raising walls of wind to keep the graduate students away.

If Andromeda's casting failed...

...all of it would have been meaningless.

The death of the Blue Knight who had stood on the verge of the Planet Seat...

...would become nothing.

Grrrrrrrr...

The trumpet-like mouth slowly turned...

...until it pointed directly at Andromeda.

We're screwed.

For the briefest instant...

...despair that she had been too late...

...and determination never to give up...

...crossed Andromeda's heart one after the other.

But!

She poured every ounce of control she possessed into keeping the storm clouds from dispersing.

Everyone was still fighting.

Most importantly...

Kyrie was here.

Her half brother—

Who had remained loyal to her even with the position of young lord within his grasp.

She could not surrender...

...not when the battle that would grant Kyrie immortal glory lay before him.

Cold sweat streamed down her spine.

["■■■■■■!"]

BWOOOOOOOOOM!

The mental wave exploded again.

["■■■■■■■!"]

Fwoooosh!

Without realizing it...

Andromeda closed her eyes.

This is going to hurt...

Like lightning authorities, sword aura reinforcement, and Myriad Star Arts...

...the mental wave filled her Bio-radar vision with static.

Her entire world turned white...

...then slowly returned.

"...Huh?"

There was no pain.

Strangely...

Instead...

...there was only a warmth she had long missed.

And the scent that always clung to Kyrie.

Bergamot.

A bittersweet citrus touched with orange.

Soft iris.

A gentle floral musk wrapping around her.

Something's wrong with my sense of smell.

Yes.

There has to be.

Maybe it's a cerebral hemorrhage.

Old memories are replaying themselves strangely.

She immediately analyzed the situation.

There was no way Kyrie would be hugging her at a time like this.

And even if he did...

...they would simply be struck by the mental wave together and collapse together.

Her younger brother was an exceptional Blue Knight.

He was not a foolish one.

"Are you okay?"

"...H-Huh?!"

A familiar voice reached her ear.

Like the lingering resonance after lightning split the sky.

Andromeda whipped her head around.

Kyrie was embracing her from behind.

He had grown taller than she remembered.

She had to look far upward to meet his eyes.

A fierce face divided by a single black eyepatch...

...wearing an unexpectedly gentle smile.

The younger half brother fashioned from everything precious she possessed.

"Take control of the storm clouds again."

Kyrie grasped her hand and raised it toward the heavens.

As though spellbound...

...she followed his guidance before snapping back to herself and reasserting control over the storm clouds.

They're in much better shape than I expected!

She didn't need to ask how.

["■■■■■■!"]

BWOOOOOOOOOM!

Because she saw it herself.

The fully mutated encroacher released another furious cry—

Not something heard with the ears...

...but seen with the eyes...

...and felt through the body.

Black tentacles.

Countless staring eyes.

The hallucination swept toward her and the Elector Princes.

But this time...

There was no unbearable agony.

No sensation of mana being torn apart.

["■■■■■■■!"]

Fwoooooosh!

Behind her...

Kyrie threw his mouth wide open and roared.

Blue electrical flames erupted from his voice.

His formless bellow surged into the heavens...

...collided with the black mental wave...

...and ignited it in brilliant azure.

Like fire consuming oil...

...it canceled the mental wave in an instant.

"...Blue Radiance Lion's Roar."

Andromeda whispered unconsciously.

"The voice of the thunderous star."

Again.

And again.

And again.

Kyrie canceled every mental wave unleashed by the fully mutated graduate student.

Standing firmly behind her.

Supporting her waist with one thick arm.

The veins in his neck bulged.

The nerves beneath his skin glowed pale from strain as he roared without pause.

Each time...

...the air trembled like echoes of thunder against her cheeks.

Each time...

...the bittersweet scent of orange and bergamot...

...and the soft sweetness of musk...

...lingered around her.

She met Erica's eyes across the battlefield.

Erica's expression had become almost a spasm.

Those emerald eyes shook with a shock equal to anyone struck by the mental wave.

That's right.

A forbidden delight welled inside Andromeda as she called the storm clouds once more.

That's my little brother.

Nearly two-thirds of the authority had already been completed.

Finishing the rest was easy.

"Grrrrrr?"

The graduate student looked up toward the sky.

"Die! You bastard! Die!"

Andromeda brought judgment down from the heavens.

KRAAAAAAAAAAASH!!

A gigantic tree of blue lightning descended upon the fully mutated graduate student.

The fully mutated graduate student reeled violently after being struck by the storm clouds.

"OOOOOOOOOOO!"

Its once-smooth carapace blackened and peeled away.

Of its four scythe limbs...

...only one remained.

More than half of its trumpet-like mouths had shattered apart.

"Joi! Hold the encirclement at the inner wall!"

"My lord... just now..."

"We're alive, aren't we? That's all that matters. Kill anything that comes out!"

I sent my final Telephone Conversation to Joi.

【Your Blue Radiance Lion's Roar has reached the same realm as the Advanced Perk: Blue Radiance Lion's Roar.】

【The Advanced Perk: Blue Radiance Lion's Roar has been converted into Thunderbolt Body.】

I looked at the words floating above my stigma.

Shhhhhhh...

As my Thunderbolt Body increased, cool light flowed through every inch of me.

Ecstasy swept over me.

It felt like it had jumped from two hundred percent...

...to three hundred.

The nerves that had nearly turned to mush from repeatedly unleashing Blue Radiance Lion's Roar recovered in an instant.

"...Hah."

I steadied my breathing.

Then I stared across the audience chamber at Piaget standing among the Doctors.

Slowly...

I pulled one corner of my mouth into a grin.

Raised my hand.

And pointed straight at him.

That's right.

You're dead.

Chapter 245

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