A sheet of white lightning dropped.

Everyone gaped, staring up at a sky higher than the masts.

“Got him in one?”

A Blue Knight muttered, dumbfounded.

It might have been that Trinios—the youngest of the Three—had been felled to no purpose.

“You fatherless—bastard!”

The brief lull ended fast.

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

Trinios burst out of the blaze of light and sprayed a coilgun barrage.

It was a technique that launched projectiles by using the repulsion of magnetism—like poles refusing to touch.

Palm-length silver-gray spikes came in at twice the speed of sound.

For Kyrie, who was not wearing metal armor in case he fell into the canal, even a single hit would be mortal.

At the very last instant he used that thing like Guided Lightning, bleeding the Heavenstrike off to the side.

But the Lightning Blade’s single eye stayed cold.

Rrrumble!

Kyrie kicked off the deck and leapt.

Boots enhanced for leg strength and the Sky Shard Cloak imbued with Glide worked in synergy, hauling the Blue Knight’s body up to the tops of masts tens of meters high.

Swaaak! Swaaak! Swaaak!

At the same time, Kyrie hurled throwing daggers.

By the Authority Projectile Imbuement, the white-heated blades aimed true at targets reflected moment by moment on his bio-radar.

For precisely the same reason, Trinios could do the same.

Crackle, crackle!

Kyrie handled the bio-radar unusually well, but Trinios too was a Blue Knight who could read and use it.

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

Iron spikes and daggers flew at each other.

Rrrrumble!

Kyrie kicked from the masthead and sprang diagonally for the next mast.

With a wide sweep of his arm, he called lightning as well.

Flash!

“You fucking brat!”

Trinios ran his body sideways and fanned his hand.

Pabababak!

Spikes sprayed in every direction, twisting Heavenstrike’s path like a crown of lightning rods.

In that gap, Kyrie took Trinios’s back.

Swaaak! Swaaak! Swaaak!

Daggers flew.

Trinios twisted his body in the sky in frantic haste.

*He’s decent. But in aerial combat he’s no match for us—the Three!

Ironically, the very press of the moment returned composure to Trinios.

He had driven Kyrie this far and still not finished it.

That fact explained Kyrie’s limits in aerial combat.

To use magnetic flight, one needed to fix one’s center with various metal parts—from the metal belt at the waist to the metal studs under the heels.

For that reason, one showed up clearly on others’ bio-radar—but it also made it easy to track one’s exact position in three-dimensional space.

Swaaak! Swaaak! Swaaak!

Trinios dodged Kyrie’s daggers in succession like an acrobat.

At the same time, he spun in midair and fired the coilgun.

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

One round punched through Kyrie’s right forearm.

If not for a Blue Knight’s body, the arm would have blown off whole.

“Gh!”

Whoosh!

Kyrie bounded between masts and charged at Trinios.

Thank you!

A triumphant smile tugged at Trinios’s lips.

Now it’s urgent!

He might have used some magi-device, but the very thought of beating a magnetism-craftsman in aerial maneuver war was rotten at its root.

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

Another round lodged in Kyrie’s shoulder.

Kyrie kept pressing in.

Trinios relaxed.

Your speed is decent and your grit is good, but in aerials you can’t match us!

No matter how long Kyrie could hang in the air, he still had to push off masts in the end.

Trinios, by contrast, could simply walk the sky.

The matchup in maneuver was plain.

Kyrie drew his lightning longsword.

The long blade gleamed white-hot.

It’s over!

Thinking it easier than expected, Trinios moved to fire the coilgun again.

Just then Kyrie opened his mouth wide and bellowed.

“[Fall.]”

It was Lion’s Roar thickly laden with the Authority Pressure.

Woooooom!

A massive ultralow frequency and electromagnetic wave shook Trinios’s skull.

He lost the focus needed to maintain magnetic flight.

“Huh?”

Splash!

The youngest of the Three, who a moment ago had run the sky, was now swimming in the water.

The battle at dusk did not run long.

Once the sun set and you could no longer tell friend from foe, the fighting naturally ebbed.

The two forces each moved several kilometers—one upstream, one down—to rest and prepare for morning.

“Kyrie! Kyrie! Kyrie!”

Kyrie’s camp was a festival.

“Did you see those Three bastards tuck tail and run?”

“Give ’em a little rain of ballista fire and they were dying to pieces!”

“At first when I saw ’em flying in I was really scared. Then I remembered—we’ve fought and beaten actual fliers from Rykenta. Why were we scared of guys pretending to fly with magnetism?”

They’d not only seized a marked edge against the famed Three and their army—they had outright won the captain’s duel.

“You all saw our lord, right?”

“Of course we did! One shout and the bastard dropped.”

Everyone had seen it.

Trinios of the Three falling at a single Lion’s Roar from Kyrie.

“Tomorrow we could just break through.”

“Think so? Might be we really could.”

The soldiers’ morale speared the heavens.

“Anyone not on watch—sleep deep!”

“Kiri-kiri, you were so cool today!”

“Kyrie! You were the greatest! You’ll make all those ‘elder brothers’ into little brothers!”

Nereus, Frey, and Joi clinked cups in high spirits.

There were exactly two people who could not be purely happy.

Stronger than I expected.

One was Kyrie, who had crossed blades with the Three directly.

Their aerial movement is good. Thanks to the bio-radar they evade well, and they’re good at ranged attacks.

Even as all laughed, he replayed the day’s fight in his head.

Today only the youngest, Trinios, came to grips. The second, Diaes, and the first, Unutus, tried to press in from the sides. Thanks to the ballista fire-net we just managed a defense, but their coilguns killed quite a few Knight-grade aboard our ships.

He flexed his left hand—the one in the magi-device gauntlet.

Still—I learned Pressure lands well. I need to tell all the Blue Knights. Whoever uses Pressure well… ah, damn. That’s Epicus.

Kyrie’s face twisted.

Still prickly.

Off in a corner, Epicus was lifting a cup with his prosthetic hand.

By chance, Epicus too was not at ease.

Traysan.

During the day, in a skirmish with the second, Diaes, he had been given a covert proposal.

The elder brother Traysan has not yet given up hope for you. Come back even now. Bring Kyrie’s head and we’ll feed you Lightning Elixir, and set several bishop-grade priests on you to heal your limbs as well.

What?

If that’s too uncertain, then at least get in our way when we go for Kyrie tomorrow. Who would say anything if the aim of your Pressure Authority is just a little ‘off’?

His heart wavered.

I was a foster heir too.

There had been a time when Epicus truly envied no one.

Dragged into Kyrie’s wake, he had lost all power, wealth, and his limbs, even been sentenced—and here he was, alone in a corner, nursing a drink.

He wanted to go back.

If only I could set it all back.

Epicus lifted his head, furtively, and looked at Kyrie.

“……hup!”

In that instant he jerked his eyes down again.

Kyrie was looking straight at him.

With the bright moon and unnumbered stars at his back, Kyrie gazed down at him, indifferent, with eyes like blue candleflame—every inch a Blue Knight.

It felt as if, at this raucous victory feast, only the two of them remained.

Those eyes, full of tangled, subtle feelings yet ultimately serene, said:

Stand where you want to stand.

Epicus shivered without a sound.

This was the daring of one who had undertaken an oath of bodily loss.

The eyes of a man who could prize his goal above his life.

Damn, damn, damn, damn!

Epicus savaged his lower lip with his teeth.

“I’m telling all Blue Knights this: magnetism-craft demands heavy concentration, so Authorities like Pressure and Lion’s Roar land well.”

None of Kyrie’s words reached him.

Epicus prayed there would be no battle tomorrow.

He could not tell what choice to make.

“Waaaugh!”

“Uwoooaaah!”

Epicus’s wish did not come true.

The Dreaming Thunder Star despised desires without action; perhaps it was only natural.

“Break through!”

Kyrie’s host and the Three’s host crashed together the instant the dawn gray began to lift.

This ship—it’s light on cargo, pretty fast. If even this one hull breaks through, I’ll dump army and everything and head north straightaway! Erica’s under the hull anyway, and with the remaining soldiers and Blue Knights around, it’s not hard to claim the Three sold out to the Royal Stellite Line and tried to kill me and Erica.

Of all times, Kyrie hurled the flagship in the van and charged.

“Follow Lord Kyrie!”

“Hold the wedge! Unfurl the sails! I don’t care if they catch fire—set them!”

Countless ships tailed in behind; there was no retreat now.

For Epicus, it was a result of thought he could never have predicted.

Why is he doing this! Why!

Being in the very front, they naturally drew concentrated fire.

Navigator-rank, Retainer-rank, and Knights—men were fighting everywhere, and Blue Knights flashed into sight here and there, only to be driven back by Blue Knights of their side sprinting over the ships.

“Kyyyyrieeee!”

Then Trinios came flying.

“Today I’ll let you taste river water!”

“Shoot them down!”

Swaaak! Swaaak! Swaaak!

Joi drove the ballista crews and let rip a volley.

Woooooom!

Trinios stretched a hand forward and unfolded the Authority magnetic field.

A shapeless but definite wave of force rolled.

The oncoming ballista bolts all bounced away, their paths warped midair.

“How dare you.”

Pababababa!

“Aaaaagh!”

Some reversed entirely and scythed down the ballista crews.

Trinios alighted lightly on the deck.

“Come out! Kyrie! I said come out!”

Hwooooo!

Immense magnetism churned.

The cannons that had taken aim at Trinios were ruined as all their metal parts ripped free.

“Ugh!”

“W-what?”

The sword-and-buckler infantry had their armor, shields, and swords all shoved and rolled by magnetic force—and tumbled into the water.

Wire-mesh nets unfurled in midair—then turned and wrapped the net-throwers instead.

“You say ‘come out.’”

A voice came from above.

“I never went in.”

From the mast, Kyrie was calling lightning and burning the Three’s assault boats.

Seeing Trinios approach, Kyrie drew his lightning longsword and leapt.

Kzzzzzt!

The white-heated blade came down as if to cleave the sky.

Boom!

“—Hup!?”

It was a force Trinios dared not meet.

Thoom!

The impact of the landing drove the bow more than a palm’s depth into the water for an instant and back out.

The youngest bounced his body, barely dodging.

Rrrrumble!

Then Trinios drew twin rapiers and sprang for Kyrie.

Crack!

In raw strength he was outmatched, but Trinios had magnetism.

Vmm! Vmm! Vmm!

Kyrie unfolded Linked Thunder and, in one breath, fired a chain of twenty-one thrusts—but their lines twisted slyly aside and slid off.

In swordsmanship itself Kyrie had the edge, so their clash ran razor-close.

Let anyone die. No—let anyone win.

Epicus squeezed his eyes shut and opened them, stepping into the range of Pressure.

He meant to stand with whichever side won—whoever it turned out to be.

Woooooom!

Epicus drew up his mana to the uttermost and unfolded Pressure.

Twang!

It rang the soldiers’ ears in the area with tinnitus.

Then Kyrie took a long step and unleashed an up-cut.

Twang!

An instant of power that lifted Trinios’s body into the air.

Idiotic bastard of a bastard!

Trinios sneered full-on.

Juggling-lifts only mattered against someone losing his center in midair.

Trinios calmly brought magnetism to bear, fixed his center, and on the contrary used the height he’d gained to scissor both blades down wildly at Kyrie.

“[I told you yesterday. Fall.]”

At that moment Kyrie too unfolded Pressure.

Vmm! Vmm! Vmm!

The electromagnetic wave Epicus burst and the electromagnetic wave Kyrie burst resonated, multiplied severalfold, and slammed Trinios.

Beeeeeeep—

“Guh!”

A blow that wrecked Trinios’s focus, balance, and consciousness all at once.

Thock!

“Your execution was late.”

Kyrie drove the lightning longsword into Trinios’s heart.

The youngest of the Three—his pupils trembled, then the light went out.

“Well done!”

Kyrie looked back at Epicus and flashed a broad grin.

“Keep doing exactly that!”

I talked Pressure yesterday and he watched well and stepped in at the perfect moment. Right. No matter how much of a bastard he was, a Blue Knight is a Blue Knight. After Prokus died he was vacant a while—seems he’s finally come to.

Epicus had no idea what had just happened.

This isn’t it.

His head filled with question marks.

I still haven’t decided!

“Epicus and Kyrie took the youngest!”

“Kyrie! Kyrie! Kyrie!”

“Epicus! Epicus! Epicus!”

The soldiers shouted his name.

Up in the sky, the shadow of the eldest—Unutus—drew near.

Elder brother Traysan.

In a remote feeling, Epicus took up his spear.

It seems I have become an enemy.

From now on, he would have to truly believe the tale that Traysan and Gracus hired Musketeer School mercenaries.

There was no other way.

Kyrie, Epicus, and the three brothers of Traysan all swung their blades from where they stood, each thinking something different.

Before today’s risen sun set, something would be decided.

Chapter 104

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