At present, we held roughly one-third of the western district, centered on the west gate of Spiramentaon.

“Clear the way!”

“Ready the cannon towers!”

“Arm up and form ranks!”

It might have sounded small to say we held “a third of the western district,” not even the whole west, but in a metropolis of a million people the actual area under our control was considerable.

“They gathered plenty.”

“So he didn’t keep the governor’s chair just for show.”

“Hmph. Even so—mostly common soldiers, at best Retainer-rank. Drop lightning a few times and they’ll all bolt.”

By the time we ran to the very front at the courier’s call, Gracus’s soldiers had already closed to within a hundred meters of our barricades.

“To the self-radiant one, son of the great Pellaeus, Kyrie of Astrion Astreos—thus speaks Gracus, governor of Spiramentaon.”

A courier under a white flag ran out from their lines.

He raised a horn-shaped amplifier magi-device and proclaimed:

“Why do you not disband your army even after a victorious Triumph? Why invade Spiramentaon, disrupt House order, and hinder postwar recovery? I, as the one entrusted with the governorship by His Excellency the great Patriarch Pellaeus, am bound to defend Spiramentaon against all, high or low. Disband your forces at once and present yourself at the governor’s palace, and no charges will be pressed; persist in rebellion, and you will pay the price.”

I recalled Andromeda’s letter.

She said Traysan sent Gracus a ‘handle it discreetly’ letter.

Plainly, both Traysan and Gracus were cornered.

For Astreos, resorting to such forced pretexts was uncharacteristic.

“Step aside.”

Nereus accepted an amplification artifact from a nearby officer.

“Neri-Neri. Shouldn’t Kyrie be the one doing this?”

Frey moved to block him, but I raised a hand to stop her.

“Let him.”

I made it look as if I’d ordered Nereus.

Wearing a face that said this isn’t it, Nereus climbed atop the barricade.

Only for a moment.

“Nereus of Tonatio Astreos speaks.”

He truly roared like a lion, seizing the attention of both our army and theirs.

“Whoa…”

“He’s no joke.”

Even to me he carried weight well; the soldiers’ impression was a foregone conclusion.

“We came by the Patriarch’s will to pacify the House’s southern lands. We exterminated Mutated Beasts and slaughtered the Rykenta army that profaned our territory. Now it’s your turn, Gracus.”

His rhetoric was savage and hasty.

“The night the Triumph ended, you moved to kill us. I won’t ask or quibble why. I’m neither curious nor is it important. We came under orders to pacify the southern lands—and to oppose us is to oppose the Patriarch!”

It was, in a word, Blue Knight-like.

“Traitor Gracus—come out at once and offer your neck!”

Thunderous shouts echoed several more times.

The enemy courier, face gone white, ran back to his lines.

Soon the cannons in Gracus’s army began to move.

“A pity. All of it is House property—and those are House soldiers.”

I let out a sincere sigh.

Raised as a Blue Knight, I won’t pretend I cannot enjoy the tension of battle.

But in practical terms, war was filthy and inefficient.

“I agree.”

Unusually, Nereus also nodded at my words.

“End it quickly.”

I reached a hand toward the sky.

Rumble!

Blue light gathered within the thunderheads.

I compressed mana as when I spoke with the Dreaming Thunder Star.

【True-Energy Guidance: 5%】

Through a Celestial Lightning Body at a thousand percent, I compressed and compressed again.

Krrrrumble!

“Hey, look at the sky.”

“Is— is that Gracus about to strike?”

“No, idiot. Look! It’s Lord Kyrie!”

I drew down the hand I’d stretched to the sky, fingers splayed as if to rake the air.

The massed lightning split into five streams and fell.

Flash! Flash! Flash! Flash! Flash!

Five bolts struck Gracus’s lines at once.

KABOOOOM!

A great standard went flying and cannon shards spat in all directions.

“…!”

“…?”

“…!?”

Shock rose on the faces of both our troops and Gracus’s.

The battle began with Kyrie’s fivefold Heavenstrike.

“Ballista crews, hold! Hold! Don’t volley until they’re up to that building!”

Joi moved without rest from Kyrie’s side to the foremost line, swinging her sword and barking orders.

“Fire! Fire now! Keep firing until the cords snap and the bolts are spent!”

Cannons emplaced atop various rooftops belched.

Shweee!

The Wind-blessed Ballistas, bearing the Navigators of Rykenta’s blessing, cracked Gracus’s shield wall like thin ice.

Knights and Navigators alike toppled like pinned beetles when a steel stake, loosed like wind, struck true.

From atop the barricade, Kyrie and Nereus also loosed Guided Lightning, canceling the enemy’s electric arts and fighting hard.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

A dozen-plus strands of Guided Lightning that Nereus had just hurled smashed a charging block of a hundred-odd heavy cavalrymen of Gracus’s in a single blow.

KABOOOOM!

Weaker than Heavenstrike, yes—but lightning is lightning.

Fifteen such lightning lashes fell at once, and the effect yielded nothing to Kyrie’s fivefold Heavenstrike.

Crackle-crackle-crack!

Kyrie used Chain Discharge to detonate an enemy Blue Knight’s Guided Lightning mid-flight.

When orbs of lightning in various hues came arcing in, Kyrie fired Chain Discharge.

A white lattice of Chain Discharge sprang up between orb and orb and speared the sky—and each time, the blast followed without fail.

Even Joi, who fancied she had seen her share of Blue Knights while serving Kyrie, could not fathom how that was possible.

“Joi!”

“What is it!”

“Elite troops from Gracus’s side are attempting a flanking charge from Sector 6! Four confirmed Blue Knights! Twenty Knights!”

“Lord Kyrie!”

Not that the field was entirely in our favor.

“Nereus!”

“Me?”

“I can’t spare anyone else. Only you!”

If even one percent of Spiramentaon’s hundred-plus ten-thousand citizens moved for Gracus, that was over ten thousand.

Add in the surrounding satellite cities and petty lords entangled by interest.

Had Andromeda not applied pressure through Izmael, dozens more Blue Knight lords might have gathered.

“My lord! They say the enemy is assaulting the west gate!”

“The west—what? That’s our rear.”

“A force that looped around to the south gate went outside the walls and circled to the west. Grapnels are already set.”

They weren’t strong—but they were many.

“Frey!”

“L—like I said last time. I’m Kyrie-Kyrie’s bodyguard, okay? I can flee with you, maybe, but I’m not supposed to leave Kyrie-Kyrie’s side.”

“If this army collapses, you think I live? Go!”

They were too many.

Atop the barricade,

Kyrie even sent off Frey, who had been guarding his side.

“Fuck! Sir Frey, derelict of duty, coming through!”

Frey’s boyish face twisted all at once as she sprinted for the gate.

“My lord! From the front!”

“I see it too.”

Then Joi saw it.

As if they had been waiting, Gracus’s army loosed a mass of cavalry.

“Bring me the head of the traitor Kyrie!”

They wore thick magi-plate to answer the ballista bolts, and judging by the splendid blazons, surcoats, and cloaks, they were an elite unit of Knights, Navigators, and Retainers.

“Volley!”

Joi, of course, did not sit idle.

Kyrie was her chance and her idol.

Her ambition—to survive and someday stand proudly at his side—bared its fangs.

“Ballista crews, rotate three shifts—swap bolt-belts!”

The ballistae we took from Rykenta poured their fire.

“Cannons—fire! Fire! I don’t care if you miss—send them all at once!”

From the rooftops, cannon shot ripped out and skewered horse and rider together.

“Nets—throw! On my mark!”

The net-throwers cast their hook-rigged nets.

“Now! Firepots! Burn Gracus that pig bastard’s vanguard with judgment by flame!”

They even hurled grenades recovered from Musketeer School mercenary corpses.

But the enemies who had cut through limits of flesh, wealth, age, and rank—no less than Joi herself—were not easy prey.

About a quarter were unhorsed; the rest ran up the barricade as if it were level ground.

“They’re coming up anyway.”

Kyrie kept flinging Chain Discharge with his left hand as he drew his thunder longsword with his right.

True-Energy Guidance is quietly good. One Heavenstrike covers the mana for one Chain Discharge.

More Guided Lightning was incoming.

If we meant to keep our precious Knights alive, we had to drop all of it.

Without Bishop Saturn, healing had slowed drastically.

“We’re so fucked.”

Joi spat a curse and drew her sword.

The sword Kyrie had given her.

“You pretty-boy punk who’s only good at flirting with girls!”

A Navigator in full plate swung a poleaxe and charged her.

It was clearly their first meeting, yet she felt a strong animus.

Add the physical gap between Retainer and Navigator, and that poleaxe looked flatly impossible to evade.

Hot.

Strangely, she wasn’t afraid.

Her body ran hot as in the battle with Rykenta.

Her heart burned.

Since drinking the Elixir of Sacred Light Kyrie had given her, that heat had multiplied severalfold.

Joi shuddered at the sensation of that flame spreading through her whole body.

Krrrrrk!

She swung hard and closed the distance.

Joi’s blade scraped down the poleaxe’s shaft as she pushed forward.

The poleaxe blade, by a hair, failed to punch her shoulder.

A technique that could have taken her arm clean off.

“H—huh?”

Even the Navigator looked flustered.

He tried to wheel the poleaxe in a desperate counter.

It carried the strength and speed to cleave through four or five soldiers without effort.

Joi traced a crescent not only with her blade but with her foot.

The footwork of the New Moon Sword that Feijin had taught her unfolded perfectly.

Thunk!

Joi stepped on the shaft and sprang.

At the same time, she drove her opposite knee up into the Navigator’s jaw.

Crack!

A full plate harness protects neck and chest together by its gorget; a knee to the jaw won’t bare the throat.

But with the body thrown backward and the harness knocked askew, you could not prevent the exposure of the armpit and a line of the clavicle.

There.

Joi swung as if drawn.

Slish!

The Navigator’s arm flew into the air.

“Aaagh!”

Without immediate care, it was a mortal bleed.

Of course, Joi had no intention of letting him get treated.

Now too.

She kicked his ankle out to break his balance, booted his breastplate, and shoved him down off the barricade.

“How dare you! Lord Orius!”

“Vengeance rides my blade!”

“An eye for an eye—an arm for an arm!”

Four Retainers rushed with blades bared.

Below the barricade, one Knight also began to show interest this way.

Joi looked at the four Retainers.

Thump, thump.

Her sharpened senses told her exactly where to cut.

Her blood-lit body told her she could do it.

Hiss!

Joi leapt between the four and traced a crescent.

All four went tumbling, sliced deep at ankle, thigh, armpit, and flank respectively.

A Knight in Gracus’s lines glared and started toward her.

A mix of I’ve done it now dismay and dizzying exultation raced through her head.

Again, there was no fear.

“My lord!”

Crackle-crackle-crack!

From behind Joi, a pale-blue bead flew.

It struck the Knight’s breastplate, turned into a hair-fine line that cut the air and shot up to the sky—along that seam, the sky’s lightning bled down.

Rumble!

The Knight collapsed inside his armor.

“Joi! Well done!”

From atop the barricade, Kyrie shouted to her.

He took one more step down the slope and called lightning.

Flash!

Each time Kyrie swung his blade once, lightning fell on Gracus’s command echelons.

Their Blue Knights tried, in their way, to use Guided Lightning as lightning rods to shunt it aside, but it didn’t look easy.

“You’re the best, my lord!”

Joi raised her sword and cheered.

Flash! Flash! Flash!

“M—my lord!”

Even the cheering turned uneasy as four, five bolts fell in rapid succession.

They said Heavenstrike consumed mana the way Gracus ate meat.

Even if he had recently drunk the thundercrafter elixirs and today the Elixir of Sacred Light, more than this could be dangerous.

Flash! Flash! Flash! Flash!

Kyrie brought down twelve bolts in a row.

“Ghk!”

“H—how much mana does that bastard even have?!”

Three or four Blue Knights in the enemy ranks staggered all at once.

“Twelve? No. If you count the ones from the start…”

A Blue Knight on our far flank gaped.

Joi felt much the same.

“Kyrie!”

Whether a friend or a brother had fallen, one Blue Knight spurred his horse and charged out.

Electric fire spat under the massive hooves, and golden lightning filled the gaps in his full plate.

Rumble!

Kyrie snapped the Sky Shard Cloak and leapt.

“My lord!?”

Joi had no time to stop him.

Kyrie shot up so high he had to tilt his head back at a right angle to look.

Leg-Strength Enhancement boots, Sky Shard Cloak, and Thunder-Step, chained.

Higher than any building nearby.

Vvvvvmmm!

At the apex his blade went white-hot and shone.

BOOM!

Kyrie fell like a storm of fire.

The charging Blue Knight split from helm to horse and toppled.

“…”

That became a signal of sorts.

“They’re pulling back!”

“Gracus’s dogs are pulling back!”

“We’ve won!”

Watching the enemy ebb like the tide, Joi shivered.

Kyrie walked back up the flow, slow-footed, to the barricade.

So that is one loved by the Star…!

Joi felt her chest fill with a bright, ticklish something.

With Kyrie, it felt as if they could beat anyone with ease.

As I climbed the barricade, I thought:

This doesn’t pencil out.

At this rate, we will lose.

We needed allies.

Chapter 90

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