The battle began in front of the Grand Cathedral’s main gate.

"Break through!"

"Hold them back!"

No matter how high the Grand Cathedral’s wall was, and no matter how thick its defensive barrier might be, if you struck it from all sides with thousands of troops, it wasn’t something that couldn’t be breached.

I’m not here to bring things to an end. Of course the Patriarch must have contacted the archbishop separately. Even for the archbishop, if he surrenders and apologizes right away, it would be humiliating, so they’ll clash once—just once.

Even so, Kyrie thought this battle was a staged performance.

It’s you, Kyrie. You really are Astreos to the bone. You’re going to force your way in through the main gate? No matter how much blessing from the stars your so-called noble house has received, I didn’t think you’d look down on Manseong’s authority like that. I’ll show you. I’ll show you that even without being chosen at birth, you can become strong!

The Cathedral Knight-Commander of Astrion thought Kyrie was a Blue Knight with a fierce pride, aggressive by nature, and obsessed with honor.

You’re fighting right away? Don’t tell me you’re going to corner us by claiming we didn’t do anything? No. It’s not just that—we “didn’t do anything.” You’re still going to collude with the Grand Cathedral and even pin a frame-up on Andromeda, saying she had secret dealings with Rikenta?

It’s a great purge. You’re trying not to share a single thing with us!

Scipio, the adopted heir of the Mounted Patrol, and Silvanus, the adopted heir of the Goldcoin Brigade, believed Kyrie’s plan was to deny them any chance at merit—and by doing so, strip them of the very right to live.

"Starlight of Manseong! With that infinite radiance, envelop this wretched servant!"

"Like lightning, forever!"

"Look upon me!"

The three forces bared their teeth and collided with everything they had.

"Pierce with lucid starlight! Sacred Light Magic Bullet!"

Screee!

From atop the wall-like rampart, battle priests poured down starlight bullets like a downpour.

"Strike!"

Flash!

At Silvanus’s command, some fifteen lightning bolts crashed down, hammering the Grand Cathedral’s “Orbital Force Field.”

"By the name of Kyrie Kyrie!"

Frey leapt up onto the rampart and clashed with the cathedral knights.

Boom!

Frey wreathed a massive greatsword in tremendous current and swung, but the cathedral knight—blessed by the archbishop—didn’t retreat a single step and met her head-on.

Woooong! Woooooong!

Behind the cathedral knight’s head, a pale halo rose with the effect of Prayer of Halo. On the sword in his right hand, white Starflame blazed. And from his left hand, he unleashed Star-Fragment Baptism, firing heated projectiles.

["The son of thunder has come!"]

Nereus unfurled Heat Wave with his longsword and slammed into the main gate.

Boom!

The door itself went flying at once, but dozens of church soldiers thrust spears forward like a hedgehog’s spines.

["Speartips like that, against this body—kgh!"]

Every single one of them was a warrior who had received the archbishop’s Prayer of Halo and made their weapons spew Starflame.

They’re coming harder than I expected. You want it to feel like you fought your best and lost anyway?

Kyrie understood their mindset perfectly.

Then I’m going in.

It was rational to acknowledge the pride of a major organization.

Crackle, crackle!

With the Crystal Holy Sword saturated with lightning, he charged forward.

"Stop him!"

"It’s the Lightning Blade!"

The church soldiers blocking the gate screamed.

"How dare you defile the holy land!"

"Stop right there!"

Three or four cathedral knights rushed in, aghast.

Kyrie planted one foot into the ground as if rooting himself and swung the Crystal Holy Sword in a wide arc.

Clangclangclang!

With a single blow carrying the principle of the knockback technique Reflux, three cathedral knights were flung away at the same time.

Crack!

Under Kyrie’s bracing foot, the flagstone split from the massive recoil, and a shockwave spread outward in concentric circles.

"Stop him!"

"Raise shields!"

"Volley fire—Sacred Light Magic Bullets!"

The place where the three cathedral knights had fallen was filled by hundreds of church soldiers.

Kyrie lunged into the gap without hesitation.

"Hng, aaaargh!"

A spearhead wreathed in white flame grazed past his cheek.

Sacred Light Magic Bullets and Star-Fragment Baptism sprayed out like buckshot.

I can see it all. After seeing that Pillar Cloud, you must have expected my Bio-radar would be at least this good. Is this your excuse to surrender—only if even a monster that hundreds can’t stop comes charging in?

Kyrie ran forward, eyes fixed ahead.

His Bio-radar, elevated to a higher realm, informed him of every movement around him.

There wasn’t a single attack here that would deal him a fatal wound.

"Ugh!"

Then a scream rang out from behind.

Scipio?

Kyrie saw it with Bio-radar.

"How dare these bastards!"

Scipio, trying to follow after him, had taken a spear to the thigh and was stumbling.

The injury itself was shallow, but the cathedral knight charging from behind him was the real problem.

I’ll help him.

Screee!

Without hesitation, Kyrie drew a dagger from his waist and threw it.

Thunk!

The lightning-charged dagger buried itself to the hilt through a gap in the cathedral knight’s armor, and the knight collapsed on the spot.

In an instant, he vanished into the chaos of the battlefield.

Is that a threat? That you can kill me whenever you want?

Scipio ground his teeth.

That throwing-knife technique—insanely fast. If it hits even an eye, we’d go down in one shot.

Fear and rage blazed up together.

Fine. You ill-mannered little brother. Today I’ll carve out merit you’ll have no choice but to acknowledge. Even if the heavens have abandoned us, you’ll learn this—we didn’t lose because we lacked skill.

Scipio began to pour out lightning in earnest.

Crackcrackcrack!

Blasting away nearby church soldiers and cathedral knights, he latched onto Kyrie and pushed forward.

So you knew. I only bruised his pride for nothing.

Kyrie clicked his tongue, thinking it was help that would’ve been better not given.

"Don’t fall back!"

"Manseong! Grant us strength to stand against those unjust brigands!"

"Deploy the Bewitching Star Confusion Formation!"

At that, the church soldiers and cathedral knights surrounding Kyrie and Scipio withdrew at once.

Saaaaaah!

"Huh?"

It looked like a ball of fire was falling from the sky—then the space around Kyrie dyed itself black.

What is this?

Kyrie pushed his Bio-radar higher and scanned the surroundings.

Humm.

He had been dropped into a strange space.

The sky was filled with constellations he had never seen before, and black fog wrapped around everything so nothing could be seen.

"It’s the Bewitching Star Confusion Formation."

"What?"

"It’s the church’s sorcery. It shows you weird hallucinations using Manseong’s power. Bio-radar doesn’t work in here. Get your head on straight. If you slip, we both die."

Scipio explained the situation, trembling inside even as he spoke.

I need to tell him how serious it is. That way, he won’t be able to kill me in here.

Right. They said the Manseong Church uses formations like this. It’s my first time experiencing it. He won’t attack me in here, will he? He can’t disobey the Patriarch’s order, but I don’t like leaving a risk factor in a situation like this. Especially if he knows more about this than I do.

In the end, it only backfired.

Kyrie pushed his Bio-radar to the limit.

Humm!

Even its always-active range was several hundred meters, and in battle he could spread it to over multiple kilometers.

I can only sense what’s nearby. The electromagnetic waves are being canceled.

Even with that Bio-radar, he couldn’t see beyond a few dozen meters—despite what the naked eye suggested.

Ssssk!

Then dozens of bundles of white flame rained down from the sky.

To the naked eye they appeared only for an instant before vanishing, and they registered only on Bio-radar.

If Kyrie hadn’t mastered the technique of reflecting predictive sight into Bio-radar—by blocking Wind Blades—he wouldn’t have even reacted to something this subtle.

"Dodge!"

Kyrie reflexively shoved Scipio.

Kaboomkaboomkaboom!

A fireball slammed down where Scipio had been shoved aside.

Because the black fog carpeted the entire ground, he could feel heat and vibration, but he couldn’t see the actual strike.

Did he save me, or attack me?

Scipio looked back and forth between Kyrie and the ground.

Not knowing what to believe, his blood ran cold.

Whoosh!

Then a black ripple erupted behind Kyrie.

"Behind you!"

"Behind—?"

It was a ripple that didn’t even register on Bio-radar.

Scipio leapt, saturating his Thunderbolt Longsword with lightning.

Crackle!

Seeing that, Kyrie jolted and dodged sideways, and Scipio’s Thunderbolt Longsword rebounded as it canceled out the black ripple—Gravity Wave.

Betrayal. So it really was like that?

Kyrie assumed even that ripple was an Authority Scipio controlled.

He might attack me at any moment.

He’s calculating fiercely right now.

Now? Now? Now?

This time for sure!

The two of them spread Bio-radar to its limit and moved while guarding against everything around them.

They avoided the intermittent falling white flame, Gravity Waves, and even attacks like Sacred Light Magic Bullets that didn’t register on Bio-radar.

As for the attacks coming in from church soldiers on the outside—those registered on Bio-radar from the start, no different from seeing them with one’s eyes.

They’re not panicking?

Ironically, the ones most flustered in this moment were the cathedral knights who had deployed the Bewitching Star Confusion Formation.

"Why are they so calm?"

"Because of Bio-radar, the church soldiers can’t suppress them. The cathedral knights need to step in—"

"If we misstep, the holy power cancels out and the formation breaks."

"Then call in more battle priests and use long-range Authority—"

"And who’s going to hold back the thousands outside?"

Normally, once trapped in the Bewitching Star Confusion Formation, you were supposed to be thrown into utter confusion by the warped space and disrupted vision.

You’d panic as illusions of stars falling from the sky alternated with real Authority strikes, and then cathedral knights and church soldiers would charge into the formation and finish you. That was the standard play.

But Kyrie and Scipio didn’t panic.

They were more wary of each other than of being trapped.

In the formation, being attacked was a constant. A surprise strike from the other man was the variable.

Just try moving.

No matter how I think about it, I should end it here.

Kyrie and Scipio kept moving, wary of each other.

Maybe it would’ve held if it were a prepared battlefield, but this was a formation deployed on the fly in the garden before the Grand Cathedral.

Saaaaaah…

Before long, the Bewitching Star Confusion Formation faded away.

"Finally."

"At last."

Kyrie and Scipio came back to themselves near the Grand Cathedral’s entrance.

He never let his guard down even once. Thanks to the Thunder Star’s perks, my peak potential is higher, but he has a reason he became an adopted heir. A superb Blue Knight. If he were on the same side, he’d be a reliable ally.

Seeing the church soldiers’ bewildered faces around them, and the eyes that still guarded against each other, he gave a faint smile.

That Bio-radar pulse was absurdly strong and clear. In that boy’s electromagnetic vision, he’ll catch even fine surface details on objects. So it wasn’t luck that he beat the older brother. He’s been blessed a lot. Of all people, it had to be you.

The saying that allies were more frightening than enemies felt like it applied here, too.

"Please, please—at least spare the faithful!"

Before long, the archbishop surrendered.

Is he actually crying?

That strangely sincere reaction.

You really do need acting skill like that to play archbishop.

Kyrie was briefly taken aback, then found himself impressed.

The lord’s audience hall.

Kyrie knelt on one knee and bowed low.

"Well done. I was worried when I heard battle had broken out, but you didn’t let it drag on."

Pellaeus praised Kyrie.

Seeing that he had gone into the Grand Cathedral with the archbishop after the battle ended and then come back out, Pellaeus assumed he must have exchanged words.

At the very least, it would have been conveyed that Kyrie’s intent was not to smash everything to pieces.

That was reassuring.

"There was no need to prolong it. It’s not something anyone wants, is it?"

Kyrie lowered his head, recalling the conversation with the archbishop.

With no clear proof, we will publicly apologize next week for intervening in secular affairs. Erica’s trial will ask for the crime of being a blade that was swung, but the responsibility will be laid on the direct line of Rikenta. Be grateful we will not pursue material compensation.

It was a satisfying result.

They secured the cause with certainty, but kept things at a level that wouldn’t disrupt practical operations.

"How did it feel to coordinate with your older brothers?"

Pellaeus felt Kyrie was trying to read his intentions.

It had always felt like unpleasant flattery, but oddly, it didn’t feel bad.

Is it because he’s a boy with ambitions of his own?

I can’t exactly say it was awful.

Kyrie shaped his words carefully.

"Now I understand why they became adopted heirs before me."

You can’t wipe out the entire middle management layer. But you must always beware betrayal. You have to bind them under an unassailable greater cause—a perfect justification—and keep them beneath you at all times.

The Patriarch smiled at the bone in those words.

So you’ve realized it. When dealing with them, things like justification are useless. You simply seize them with power and reign over them.

Each believed the other understood his heart, and they smiled.

"You know what you must do at the Grand Cathedral, yes?"

Those boys still need the church’s backing. They’ll receive some title like “next defender of the church.” That boy might find it tedious.

It was a smile hidden behind an eyepatch and a mask.

"Yes, Your Highness."

I’ll dump Erica’s crime onto the main house of Rikenta and demand interest-shark terms at the negotiating table. The timing is perfect. If I solidify my standing within the house on that foundation, it’ll become the best springboard for the next stage of the Hero’s Journey.

Chapter 132

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