“Huff… Huff…”
The canyon.
Yuru stood catching her breath after blasting away half of Yaphenon’s troops.
“Heheheh…”
The remaining soldiers surrounded her with tense expressions. Watching them, Yuru muttered under her breath.
“You idiots…”
Another magic circle formed in front of her.
“You think you can beat me?”
Most of her mana was depleted. But she was still the pinnacle of the magical world—the Master of the Blue Tower.
“This isn’t nearly enough.”
It didn’t take much mana to kill a human. Especially not foot soldiers who weren’t even remotely close to her level.
“What? Did you think you just had to keep me from resting?”
They must’ve thought they could take her down while she was exhausted. But only after she eliminated half of them did they realize how futile that hope was.
“You’d better not think about running.”
She had lost Clay.
And now Yuru’s eyes burned with wrath.
“I’ll kill every last one of you right here—”
Thud!
That was when it happened.
A sudden impact made Yuru instinctively turn her head.
Thud! Thud!
The Yaphenon soldiers turned to follow her gaze. And at the end of that gaze stood—
“Blasphemous.”
A knight clad in golden armor, wielding a greatsword engraved with a cross.
“T-That’s—!”
“A Guardian Knight!”
“We’re saved!”
The Guardian Knights.
Chosen from those with the greatest divine power within the Holy Alliance and trained into the most elite knights.
Warriors of God, bearing the skills of Grand Swordmasters and turning near-impossible divine energy into blade force.
“The will of God dwells within us.”
The knight, face hidden by his helmet, raised his greatsword. A cross was engraved on the back of his gauntlet—as if to mark him apart from ordinary knights.
“How dare you commit such unforgivable acts?”
“…”
Yuru erased the spell she was drawing and stared at him.
Guardian Knight.
The frontline of the Holy Alliance’s “Order of Light.” Powerful enough to guard the Hero Clay himself.
Still…
Even they needed to move as a unit to restrain Clay. While Yuru wasn’t quite on par with him in his prime, she was still the apex of modern magic.
I can take him.
If there was only one Guardian Knight, she could handle it.
“You must think you can beat me.”
As if reading her mind, the Guardian Knight spoke in a calm voice.
“If you were in perfect condition, that wouldn’t be an unreasonable thought. But you’re not, are you?”
He walked slowly forward. His armor was so heavy that the earth trembled with each step.
Thud… Thud…!
The sound pierced Yuru’s ears, making her grimace bitterly.
“I am Mayal of Yaphenon—the twelfth Guardian Knight of the Holy Alliance.”
Mayal.
She had heard that name before.
“The lowest rank.”
The youngest of the Guardian Knights.
“You’re the bottom of the barrel, and you came to face me?”
“Foolish.” Mayal rested his greatsword on his shoulder with a sneer, “I didn’t come to face you.”
He extended his hand, pointing directly at her.
“I came to pass judgment.”
“Tch. Ha!” Yuru laughed, tossing her head back, then turned with a twisted smile, “Go ahead, then.”
“Hm?”
“Do it.”
She spread her hand.
“Collectio.”
Mana began gathering rapidly into her palm.
“Conglomeratio.”
She muttered the next chant and clenched her fist. The mana condensed into a single point.
“I’ve been dying to cut you down.”
Before his execution, Clay had been bound by several Guardian Knights. Actually, saying ‘several’ was inaccurate.
The entire Order had restrained him.
“Couldn’t do anything because you bastards were in the way.”
But facing only one?
“That changes everything.”
“I’ll show you how badly you’ve misjudged this.”
“Aspiratio.”
As she whispered, Yuru opened her palm again.
The condensed mana—now reduced to a minuscule orb—slowly floated toward Mayal.
“What the…?”
“Did she run out of mana?”
“If that’s all, then—!”
As the soldiers raised their weapons again, thinking the orb was harmless—
“Stand back!”
Mayal shouted and dashed forward, pushing past them.
Clang!
The tip of his greatsword struck the orb.
Kagagagagak!
But the orb didn’t slice, shatter, or get deflected.
It clashed with his blade, holding its ground as if anchored in space.
“What… what is that?!”
The soldiers recoiled in shock.
The orb continued to press forward—slowly but steadily—pushing against Mayal’s sword.
“Try stopping it.”
Yuru bit her lip.
“Go ahead.”
Blood spilled from her mouth. She continued pouring energy into the orb.
Condensed mana.
It was a ticking time bomb.
The activation spell had already pressed the start button.
“If you can’t deflect it… we’ll all be vaporized.”
She had scraped together all the mana left in her body—firing off her highest output spell.
Once unleashed, it couldn’t be controlled.
A suicide bomb.
“Fool!”
Mayal roared.
“You’ll be caught in it too!”
“No.” Yuru grinned, “You’ll figure something out, won’t you?”
“!”
She didn’t think the Guardian Knight couldn’t deflect her suicide bomb.
She believed he could.
Guardian Knights weren’t weak.
“You’ll have to pour out every drop of your divine power.”
She knew she couldn’t win against him in her current state.
So she forced a choice.
Mutual destruction—or coexistence.
“You cunning little—!”
Mayal grit his teeth and strengthened his grip.
“But that was a grave miscalculation.”
Kiiiik!
Infusing his sword with divine power, Mayal began suppressing the mana orb.
“I’ll destroy this and cut you down!”
GRAAAAA!
The orb distorted and howled as it was being crushed.
BOOM!
The moment Mayal completely shattered it—
“You thought that was the real one?!”
Yuru, who had appeared to be collapsing, suddenly leapt toward him.
“This is the real one!”
From behind her back, she thrust her other hand forward.
Another hidden mana bomb slammed into the side of Mayal’s raised sword.
“…!”
BOOOOOOM!
A tremendous explosion rocked the area, sending soldiers flying in all directions.
“Save meeee!”
“Guaaahhhh!”
Screams rang out as chaos spread.
Amid the dust and confusion, only Yuru and Mayal remained, locked in a death stare.
“Just as I thought,” Mayal finally spoke, “Sorry to say…”
He drove the dagger deeper with a single sentence.
“Clay already told me everything about you.”
“…What?”
“He said the one who would destroy you… would be his own malice.”
And with that, Mayal stepped forward—slicing straight through her real mana bomb.
♧
“Clay.”
Leaving Neville in the lounge, still deep in confusion, Beatrice approached Clay, who stood alone by the window.
“Did you finish talking with him?”
“Who knows.”
There had only been one answer Neville could give to Clay’s question—between position and belief.
“He’s not someone who clings to the title of Crown Prince.”
Still, he hadn’t fully agreed to Clay’s declaration of war against humanity.
“But it’ll be fine.”
Just bringing him here was enough. There were plenty of ways Clay could make use of him.
“You cared about him, didn’t you?”
“I won’t hurt him. But I’m not in the mood to ask nicely either.”
If it could be used, it would be.
Clay no longer hesitated.
“I figured as much. I trust you’ll handle it your way.”
His plan had been thorough.
Even a Guardian Knight showed up…
To handle Yuru, Clay had sent a secret report to the Holy Alliance, revealing her presence in the canyon.
It was dangerous, but Clay had already calculated the timing.
He extracted Neville, handed Yuru over, and left the rest to unfold.
I remember everything.
How humans moved. How they operated. What territories they controlled.
He knew it all—because once, he had led humanity himself.
“Beatrice. I have a confession.”
“Hm? A confession?”
Beatrice tilted her head.
“You’re not about to give me your final words, are you?”
“Something like that,” Clay’s voice dropped low, “I betrayed humanity before I died.”
Beatrice blinked in surprise.
“You really did work with the former Demon King?”
“No. Not that.”
His betrayal… began the moment he realized he was going to die.
“I didn’t want to just die like that. Everything that happened felt too absurd. Too unfair.”
He clenched his fists.
“So I sowed seeds.”
“Seeds?”
“Yes.”
While under constant surveillance by the Holy Alliance, locked away, no one thought he could escape.
And they were right.
But precisely because he was surrounded, there were things he could do.
“They all assumed I was just waiting to die.”
So he talked to everyone who came to visit before his execution.
It was like a final feast.
While their guard was down, he gathered information, and left behind sparks of chaos.
“It was a moment where I could say anything to anyone maintaining this world’s balance.”
Their secrets, their plans, their petty concerns.
He heard it all.
“And I didn’t just take it. Since everyone believed I was about to die, they didn’t take my final words lightly.”
He planted warnings.
Made them doubt each other. Fear betrayal. Mistrust.
So one day, they’d collapse.
“…You’d already stopped being a Hero back then.”
Beatrice looked at him with something like sorrow.
“I didn’t just stop,” Clay looked up, recalling the canyon, “I scattered their weaknesses across the world—so the hypocrites who enjoyed my execution could kill each other.”
“Weaknesses?”
Beatrice furrowed her brow—then sighed.
“Yuru… was one of them too, wasn’t she?”
Clay didn’t respond.
But silence was answer enough.
“Beatrice.”
Clay’s gaze sharpened.
“Let’s start by stealing Yaphenon’s holy relic.”
(End of Chapter)