The upper section of Rikentrion Table Mountain was a near-vertical cliff.

Rumble!

Kyrie stepped with Thunderstep and ran upward along that cliff as though flying.

‘There.’

His Bio-radar scattered across a distant embrasure reinforced with metal.

Hum!

Pulling force and repulsive force.

Kyrie unleashed a pulling force as though wrenching those metal components toward himself with all his might.

No matter how thick the embrasure was, no matter how deeply its parts were embedded, Kyrie’s body was still a human body.

Whoosh!

Kyrie shot upward into the sky as though being dragged in reverse.

The world seemed to slow.

“Fire!”

[“Guided technique!”]

The bullets fired by the marksman school students curved by a hair’s breadth and skimmed beneath Kyrie’s feet.

“Bring him down!”

“Stop him!”

The wind blades of Rikenta’s navigators grazed past Kyrie’s side.

Whoosh!

Meteorologists say that the only difference between cloud and fog is whether or not they belong to the same world as the observer.

Kyrie ran across the sky, piercing the fragments of cloud hanging over Sky Castle and turning them into fog moment by moment.

Crunch!

“It’s been a few months.”

Kyrie crushed the bricks of the embrasure wall with his gauntleted hand and entered the embrasure.

Through the thin clothes steaming with moisture, muscles swollen to their limit showed through like sculpture.

“It’s the Lightning Blade!”

“Students!”

“Buckshot!”

The marksman school students turned pale and swung their gun barrels around.

But after fighting the Dawn Council revolutionary warriors for so long, their reactions could only be a step too late.

Chain Discharge.

Clatterrrrr!

Kyrie unfolded Chain Discharge.

Lightning surged through the embrasure corridor.

“Aaaaaaagh!”

“Gaaaaaah!”

“Urk!”

The marksman school students dropped their guns and collapsed unconscious.

“This way!”

“Let us liberate those apostates from this land!”

[“O Myriad Star!”]

At that moment, Rikenta’s knights, battle priests of the Myriad Star Church, and cathedral knights of the Myriad Star Church appeared in the embrasure corridor.

The Myriad Star Church had sent reinforcements in response to the Dawn Council’s appearance.

“That eyepatch… the Lightning Blade?”

The Rikenta knights looked at Kyrie, then turned to the cathedral knights of the Myriad Star Church.

“O swords of Myriad Star! Kyrie is over there. Please punish that vile intruder, that criminal who tried to destroy the balance between great houses using Princess Erica as a pretext.”

“…….”

The cathedral knights of the Myriad Star Church hesitated.

It was not because they were afraid.

“O swords!”

Unable to understand the situation, the Rikenta knights urged the cathedral knights on in confusion.

Dong!

At that moment, the bell rang from Rikentrion Grand Cathedral.

Dong! Dong! Dong!

It was the bell ordering the retreat of the cathedral knights of the Myriad Star Church.

Rikentrion Grand Cathedral.

“Let us stop here.”

Saint Deneb proposed a withdrawal to the Archbishop of Rikenta.

“We can no longer prolong this civil war. The Dawn Council has grown too powerful in Rikenta. In particular, the recent loss of all the military supplies stockpiled in Molden was far too devastating. Let worldly matters be left to the world, and let us withdraw at this point.”

His eyes held starlight through the nominal prayer.

Its effects were clairvoyance, tracking, and farsight.

It was not farsight on the level of Peleus’s Ancient Empire crystal tablet.

But it was enough to sit inside the cathedral and watch Kyrie and the cathedral knights encounter one another.

“I did not expect Ortupios to be this incompetent.”

The Archbishop of Rikenta was using the same prayer.

He let out a sigh far too deep for his splendid vestments and nodded.

“Even then, it seemed the civil war would drag on too long, and Erica’s power was too weak. I raised Ortupios in order to end the civil war first, but perhaps that was the mistake of this ignorant servant.”

“Now let us leave it to Erica.”

Saint Deneb smiled gently, conveying that he had no intention of rebuking him.

“After all, are those not Kyrie’s words? She spent years as a prisoner, and now she is overwhelmingly outmatched even in military strength.”

“How long do you think that will last? Power cannot be shared. In the end, Kyrie had to leave House Astreos.”

“He was not driven out, but left of his own accord… no. I understand. Whether sooner or later, in the end it is the same. If Erica becomes the Viceroy of this land, then she will ultimately become its ruler. We need only make it so.”

And so.

Dong! Dong! Dong!

The bell continued to ring.

Sky Castle embrasure.

“We will stop here.”

The cathedral knights and battle priests of the Myriad Star Church lowered their hands.

“No. What do you mean by that?”

The Rikenta knights, retainers, and attendants hardened their faces.

“We will not fight brothers in faith.”

“And where, exactly, are these brothers in faith? Did that man not bring those apostates of the Dawn Council here with him?”

“Our duty is to punish great sinners who defied Myriad Star. It is not to engage in battle with Young Lord Kyrie.”

“That young lord is an apostate!”

“It seemed to me that he was using divine authority perfectly well just moments ago.”

“The Dawn Council apostates attacked us, and that Kyrie attacked us as well!”

The cathedral knight of the Myriad Star Church merely made the sign of the cross and stepped back.

“That can be examined later in ecclesiastical court.”

“Good.”

Kyrie smiled in satisfaction.

Crackle, crackle!

Dazzling white arcs of electricity burst around the black eyepatch.

“That’s how it is.”

The Rikenta knights and retainers gritted their trembling teeth.

“Hup!?”

At that moment, Kyrie threw himself aside as though he had sensed something.

Baaang!

A starlit bullet slammed into the place where Kyrie had just been standing like a pillar of fire.

Boom!

The entire embrasure corridor was swept up in rising dust from its force.

Kyrie frowned at the wound that had grazed his cheek and stared toward the opposite end of the corridor.

The marksman commander was crouched low, wearing a similar expression.

‘She dodged it.’

At the far end of the embrasure corridor.

‘Bio-radar, probably.’

The marksman commander loaded a second round with calm but rapid hands.

‘At this distance, a Guided technique won’t have enough room to curve in. I have to land a direct hit somehow.’

Clack.

She was not in good shape herself.

She had been ambushed by Dawn Council revolutionary warriors and cut several times by swords.

If the name and divine authority the constellation had given her, Blue Hydrangea, had not possessed a wide-area offensive attribute, she might have died before she killed them.

‘This battle is finished. The Myriad Star Church chose Erica. Ortupios is finished now.’

Blue Hydrangea had already sensed defeat.

So long as Erica, the lawful heir, stood on that side, this battle was in essence a civil war no matter how many tens of thousands House Astreos had mobilized.

Whoever drew in more allies and the Church would win.

Erica had brought Kyrie, and the Myriad Star Church seemed to have abandoned Ortupios.

‘Forget the remaining payment. I’ll be lucky if I get out alive.’

The future of the marksman school, a mercenary group hired by Ortupios, was obvious.

‘At least I have to send the girls back.’

Blue Hydrangea looked toward the students gathered beyond the bend in the corridor.

“Sister.”

“Shh.”

The wounded second-year students were sitting with their backs against the corridor wall.

Students granted divine authority for emergency treatment were struggling desperately, but only a few could join the fight at once.

‘I have to take Kyrie hostage. He is the line tying House Astreos, Erica’s backing, to Erica herself. If Kyrie’s life is at stake, Erica will have no choice but to let us go.’

Blue Hydrangea aimed ahead, filling her watery eyes with utmost emotion.

The corridor was so thick with dust that she could not see even ten meters ahead, but the divine authority White Flower Star had granted her—Tracking technique—allowed her to sense even the slightest movement.

‘Huh?’

Tstststst!

That was why Blue Hydrangea shuddered.

Black iron sand swirled through the dust.

The Sacheol that had been spread out dimly and broadly like mist gathered into one place, increasing in density, then writhed and spun like a steel hedgehog.

Krrrddddd!

Brilliant white arcs of electricity flashed within that current of iron scales like the blood vessels of a monster.

“So you’re the musketeer who hit my shoulder.”

Step. Step. Step.

Kyrie walked out into the corridor with his Sacheol shield deployed.

“You’d better aim for the head this time!”

The realist Kyrie had not revealed himself merely for simple intimidation.

Because of the thick stone walls and the corridor’s cover, Lightning Strike and Magnetic Railshot were difficult to use, and even Discharge could not reach far because of the countless metal ridges and protrusions.

His only option was to block what he could, advance somehow, and decide it in close combat.

‘Then that’s what I’ll do.’

Kyrie boldly chose the only option and advanced.

Tstststst!

That was why, with the Sacheol shield wrapped around him like wings, he truly looked like an apostle of steel and lightning.

[“O White Flower Star.”]

Before that tremendous enemy, Blue Hydrangea quietly closed one eye.

[“Grant this servant the strength to protect my sisters.”]

Hum.

The Explosive technique, which granted explosiveness.

The Reinforcement technique, which increased the bullet’s power.

The Penetration technique, which increased the bullet’s piercing force.

The Rapid-Fire technique, which sent a divine follow-up strike.

All four techniques unfolded in combination, and her body was engulfed in light.

Hummmm, huuuummmm!

The image of a flower like a fully bloomed blue hydrangea rose behind her head.

Baaang!

The musket rifle spat fire.

Tstststst!

Kyrie answered by deploying his magnetic field.

‘Blocking repeating crossbows won’t be enough. A wide range isn’t inherently better. I have to use even the magnetic force of the Sacheol shield, accumulate repulsive force around me, and raise it like a wall.’

‘I’ll break through. This time I’ll break through. And then all my sisters will return to the school alive.’

The will of the two collided, and patterns of magnetic force raced across the surface of the Sacheol shield like waves.

A bullet wrapped in light shot toward Kyrie.

Krrrddddd!

Blue Hydrangea’s bullet pushed into the magnetic field.

The intangible magnetic force scattered the halo clinging to the bullet, distorting light and shadow throughout the corridor.

In the end, Blue Hydrangea’s bullet broke through the magnetic field.

‘I expected that.’

Kyrie’s expression did not change.

‘I never expected the magnetic field alone to stop it.’

What mattered was reducing its force, especially its speed.

As for explosions, shockwaves, and all the other bizarre divine powers, the density of the Sacheol shield was enough to block them.

The problem was when something drove straight through by sheer velocity, and that alone he had certainly stopped.

Boom!

Kyrie’s Sacheol shield rippled like a drop of mercury.

But in the end, it did not break through.

“Damn it!”

“It worked!”

Joy and despair crossed on both sides of the corridor.

Baaang! Baaang! Baaang!

Kaaang! Kaaang! Kaaang!

Blue Hydrangea fired, fired, and fired again.

Kyrie blocked, blocked, and blocked again.

Each time the blue-flamed hydrangea and the pitch-black Sacheol shield collided, arcs of electricity overflowed through the entire corridor.

Rumble!

Kyrie came forward with Thunderstep, the Sacheol shield before him.

‘Now.’

The moment Kyrie appeared larger than the palm of her hand, Blue Hydrangea fixed her bayonet.

She meant to meet him by activating the close-combat Enhancement technique and bayonet aura.

If Kyrie had raised the crystalline holy sword or the Wall-Breaking Longsword, she might have been able to trade blows once or twice.

Tstststst!

But Kyrie reshaped the Sacheol shield into the form of a greatsword and swung it.

Sacheol Blade.

“Ha.”

Blue Hydrangea let out a hollow laugh as she looked at her own bayonet, barely two spans long, and that enormous Sacheol greatsword that looked bigger than two people.

A smile as brilliant and as desolate as a hydrangea,

Boom!

Blue Hydrangea was launched upward toward the ceiling.

Kyrie did not immediately charge deeper into the corridor.

‘There were still more than ten third-year-level fighters active.’

Instead, from the embrasure the marksman school had vanished from, he leaned out and cast Chain Discharge into the sky.

Crackle!

“We’ve broken through!”

“Lord Kyrie has captured Embrasure Three!”

“Rally at Three!”

“Senior! I’m coming!”

Blue Knights like Frey, Vane, Daniel, and Hari gathered like a swarm of bees.

“This way, sir.”

Joi also climbed to the embrasure with knights, retainers, and attendants in tow.

She had a thick coil of wire slung over her shoulder.

It was a light yet strong cord made in the engraving workshop.

“My lord!”

Joi threw a one-use signaling magic tool into the sky.

Pop!

A small blast.

[“Joi!”]

Kyrie looked at her.

Pulling force.

His hand seemed to extend toward her, and then the wire slung over her shoulder twitched and was slowly pulled up into the sky.

It was nowhere near enough to reach the base of Table Mountain.

But at various points along the middle slopes, attendants and retainers were already waiting with coils of wire strapped to them.

“Connect them!”

“Get up first, then lower more lines down!”

One line of wire was extended all the way below.

The attendants and retainers who climbed along that wire then let down the wires they themselves had been carrying beneath the embrasure.

“Forward!”

Joi threw another signaling flare tool toward the ground below.

Step. Step. Step. Step. Step. Step.

The soldiers began climbing Sky Castle in earnest.

Joi sank down where she was and let out a deep sigh.

One great burden had been lifted.

Kwarararara!

High in the sky, Erica and one of Rikenta’s direct-line blood were fighting while throwing all the clouds in the heavens into turmoil.

‘Was it Ulysses?’

Watching something like that made ropes and command feel meaningless.

“Deputy Battalion Commander Joi?”

At that moment, someone approached Joi from the side.

“Jacobin?”

The revolutionary warrior corps of the Dawn Council.

“It is Jacobin IV. Might I have a word with you for a moment?”

He was the warrior of the sickle that cuts through the curtain of deception.

“No.”

“……?”

“I have nothing to say to you, sir.”

Joi answered.

Chapter 183

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