A few minutes earlier.

Frey. Don’t die. Bishop Saturn will remember that I was the one who pushed you into a death trap.

Kyrie ran, sky-fragment cloak streaming behind him.

No bodyguards. Not even a single soldier. Yet that one-eyed gaze did not waver.

The gate we were assaulting is on the eastern side. Move down and climb the southern wall. That’s the best option.

The southern wall of Helix Barony was the tallest, the northern the lowest.

Because the mutated beasts came from the south.

He chose, deliberately, the hardest point of assault.

They came from the south themselves. Psychologically, the south is where they will be most complacent. And since they locked the gates and held out, they won’t have cleared the grass on the plains. Enough cover for one person.

A realistic calculation.

Especially the concealment.

Ssshhhh.

Tall southern grass, higher than a man’s height, swayed in the wind.

Anyone who has farmed knows that on warm, rainy land, weeds will grow to the sky within a week.

No matter how conspicuous his cloak was, it could hide one man.

Thwack! Thwack!

He heard the ballista fire to the east.

He could see soldiers rushing toward the eastern ramparts.

Go.

Kyrie sprinted.

Then his constantly deployed bio-radar picked up movement.

Beasts?

The grass was too thick to see outlines clearly—but there were definitely greenskins in the brush.

So you ran all the way here.

He could have exterminated them with lightning-tech.

But the flash and crack would be seen from the walls.

Vmmm—

Electro-tech, Dominance.

Kyrie’s gauntlet vibrated, releasing a powerful electromagnetic shock.

“……!”

The orc warrior froze, unable to scream, his greatsword quivering in his grip.

“You insist on getting in the way.”

Kyrie swung his thunderblade without letting a spark show.

Slice.

The orc clutched its throat and rolled on the ground.

A Blue Knight did not need visible lightning to be a deadly warrior.

Kyrie belly-low crawled through the grass until only about a hundred meters remained to the wall.

No more cover. The moment I stand, ember-arrows will rain on me. I’m wearing quilted armor underneath the cuirass and gauntlets. Getting hit will hurt like hell.

The wall stood roughly twenty-five meters tall.

From below, it looked impossibly high.

No one said I was going to get hit.

Kyrie loosened the sky-fragment cloak and wrapped it around his left arm, then burst forward.

Crackle!

Enhanced nerves fired high-voltage signals through his muscles.

Thunder rumbled through his body’s movement.

Kyrie shot forward faster than the naked eye could track.

“A Blue Knight!”

“A Blue Knight!”

Rykenta soldiers on the wall panicked and aimed their ember-bows.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Arrows thick as a man’s forearm fell like southern rain.

Four strides. Four strides is enough.

Kyrie swung the cloak in wide arcs to deflect them.

I can see everything clearly now. Do not fear.

Enhanced retinas. Sharpened bio-radar. Leg strength capable of leaping several dozen meters in a single bound.

With over 700% Thunderbody, blind arrows could not kill him.

Tat-tat-tat!

Like lightning, Kyrie reached the base of the wall.

A 25-meter wall could not be perfectly vertical.

That slight incline was enough for a superhuman knight to run up.

Thunder boomed with each bound.

Three great leaps.

Kyrie landed lightly atop the battlements of Helix Barony.

“Fire!”

“Glory to House Rykenta!”

“The Storm Castle shields us!”

“We walk toward the eye of the storm!”

Rykenta soldiers snapped their bows toward him.

Three to the left, seven to the right.

Kyrie brought his cloak-wrapped left hand to his belt, taking three throwing daggers at once.

“Get lost. Invaders.”

Crackle.

With Projectile Imbuement, the daggers glowed white-hot. He flung them at the soldiers to his left.

At the same time, he activated Imbuement on his thunderblade and darted right.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

“Ghk—!”

“Aaagh!”

“Urk!”

The three to the left fell with blades lodged in their throats.

One soldier pulled the trigger in desperation—

Ssssk!

—but the unnaturally tough sky-fragment cloak stopped the bolt, spilling it aside.

Kyrie charged into the group on the right.

It was late in the afternoon, and the Imbued blade shone brightly.

Slice, slash.

With each sweeping arc of the thunderblade, limbs and heads flew.

But the soldiers were not the true objective.

High-speed thought kicked in. His bio-radar processed the entire battlefield.

He scanned the bell towers and ballista towers near the eastern gate.

One Rykenta ballista aimed at him—

Thud!

“Aaaargh!”

A ballista bolt from Joy’s side smashed their engine and skewered the crew.

My people cleared many towers. Good.

Kyrie focused on searching.

Found.

Third tower behind the eastern gate—the tallest.

Rykenta navigator Gamos was gathering wind.

Kyrie remembered his fight with Ericant.

He recognized the omen of that power.

Siege-gun.

A wind-lance impossible to see or evade.

It was aimed at Frey.

No javelin. Chain Discharge won’t reach. And with the sky like this, I can’t use Guided Bolt. Likely one of their navigators manipulated the weather.

Kyrie accelerated his thinking.

Too late to run. Fire a ballista? No—the Wind-King Armor could block one or two hits. The special Calling Down Lightning was already used earlier.

Crosshairs filled his mind.

He clenched his teeth.

No matter how pragmatic, a Blue Knight lived and died by pride.

Then… no. Even so.

He recalled practice with Nereus a few nights ago.

Yes. I’ve surpassed 700%. I might be able to. No—I can.

His body moved first.

He reached upward.

He connected his own mana to the mana of the sky.

A Blue Knight’s mana was lightning—thus manifesting as thunder.

“Aaaaah!”

Even with 730% Thunderbody, it hurt.

Old pain returned.

His nerves felt like red-hot iron wires stabbing into bone; his vision washed to black and white; uncontrolled muscles spasmed.

He could barely breathe.

Crackle—crackle!

His raised hand trembled, sparking wildly.

Please.

The mana he invoked became the primer that called down the sky’s mana.

No. Not begging. You cannot move the heavens by pleading. Control it like your own limbs. No matter the pain.

The sky was cloudless.

Kyrie swept his hand as if gathering all clouds that were not there.

This lightning is mine.

A blue radiance ignited across the twilight sky.

This life is mine.

The radiance sharpened into a pale thorned tree—and fell.

Flash!

Electro-tech Calling Down Lightning.

The symbol that separated direct-line and collateral-line heirs was now wielded by a brothel-born adopted son.

“……!”

Navigator Gamos of Rykenta died without a scream.

“He did it! Kyrie did it!”

“Kyrie struck down the navigator!”

“Kyrie! Kyrie! Kyrie!”

A bolt fell like judgment.

The following thunder was drowned beneath the roar of the army.

“Charge!”

Frey, wild with joy, thunderstepped toward the battlements.

“Charge indeed!”

Joy unleashed the elite corps—officers, veteran knights, and priests—to seize the walls.

“Calling Down Lightning…”

Gaven ran among them and reflected.

In House Astreos, Calling Down Lightning is the right of discernment. In a storm-dark world, it is the act of revealing one’s own clear truth through one’s life.

Kyrie was producing an answer.

Whether it was the right answer did not matter—only that an answer was being born.

“Grant mercy…”

Bishop Saturn, even amid the frenzy, closed and opened his eyes.

His aged face held shock—nearly despair.

The Rykenta soldiers on the wall wore the same expression, but for different reasons.

“Lord Gamos is dead!”

“He’s dead!”

“A Blue Knight climbed the southern wall!”

Morale collapsed.

Fighting alongside mutated beasts had terrified many from the start.

“I knew this was doomed!”

“Trusting beasts for war was madness!”

If the Royal House or the Eternal Church discovered this, the consequences would be ruin.

Even after seizing the city, dread never left them.

The city’s bishop had escaped. Mutated beasts prowled outside. Rebellion could erupt at any moment.

Their navigators had kept them together.

Now one of them was dead.

Half the mutated beasts were already dead within half a day.

The rest refused to return from the Custodia Frontier March.

Discipline unraveled.

“I—I’m running!”

“Me too!”

“Run!”

Soldiers threw down bows and fled.

“You cowards!”

Auren swung blades of wind and decapitated one, but for every one killed, three ran.

His mana was nearly spent after massive windcraft deployment; his condition was poor.

All because of that one-eyed bastard.

Auren gave up trying to rally them.

He did not look at the Blue Knights coming over the wall.

He looked only at Kyrie on the eastern battlements.

Kyrie was bleeding from his good eye, the eye under the patch, his nose, his ears.

Of course. No one calls down lightning multiple times a day and remains whole.

Auren spread his cloak.

Windcraft: Glide.

Whoosh.

The blond navigator crossed the sky on his green cloak, heading for Kyrie.

Kyrie saw him and stood upright.

His motion looked like that of an empty shell.

“One-eye! You—YOU—I will kill you!”

Auren used Amplify through the wind, his voice booming.

He drew wind-blades to shred Kyrie like butchered meat—

“Hah.”

Kyrie smiled faintly.

“You’re laughing?”

Auren’s rage twisted, then turned to confusion.

Thwack!

From behind him.

A javelin wreathed in red lightning flew like a burning meteor.

“Huh?”

It struck his side cleanly.

“Ghk!”

Auren spasmed midair, then fell, Wind-King Armor shattered.

The javelin had come from the northern wall.

“Get in line.”

On the northern battlements—

“He’s mine.”

Nereus spoke like a hungry lion.

Late by one step—but this is fine. A victory so decadent it feels sinful. If we push just a little more, the true victory will be ours.

He had completed his river-crossing and stormed the northern gate.

He’ll think he owes me. He’ll be quiet for a while.

Kyrie approached the fallen Auren.

South.

The main Rykenta army.

Inside a command tent.

“We lost?”

“Yes, Lady Erica.”

“So. We lost.”

The green-eyed windcraft user, with golden hair like sunlight, blinked slowly—as if unable to understand.

“There were no famous Blue Knights present, correct? The new prodigy of House Tonatio hasn’t earned renown yet, either.”

“They say an adopted son named Kyrie was the commander.”

“Kyrie?”

“They say he is a Blue Knight beloved by Andromeda. A brothel-born bastard who graduated top of the academy.”

The officer reporting trembled, unsure whether his head would burst like a melon.

A navigator at the long table raised his hand.

“With Helix Barony retaken, continuing the operation will be difficult. We should request support from the main house for a large-scale—ghk!”

Before he could finish speaking, a wind-blade slit his vocal cords.

Nearly perfect control.

“If you surrender to Astreos, there’s at least a chance to live. Fool.”

At the head of the table—

Lady Erica ordered the navigator dragged outside.

“Send more mutated beasts. Our army will withdraw and regroup.”

A reasonable tactical judgment.

A judgment one must never make when facing a Blue Knight.

Chapter 64

Comments