Adelio’s group, emerging from the audience chamber, quickly traversed the corridor.
Bang! Boom!
Amid the continuous roars echoing through the castle from the battle between Continent’s Twelve Heroes, one of the clan members appeared before Adelio and reported the situation.
“The guardian knight order and our forces are engaged with the Blispiel alliance! The inner castle entrance seems about to be breached any moment.”
“Understood. But there are intruders in the inner castle as well. We’ll quickly clean up the rats and head there, so tell them to hold on a bit longer.”
“Yes? What do you mean….”
“Do I need to repeat myself?”
An unusually prickly tone for Adelio. Overwhelmed, the clan member swallowed hard and quietly retreated.
Soon, his figure receded into the distance.
Adelio clicked his tongue.
“…Tch! I expected it when Ebel Stroke infiltrated the inner castle, but the advance is much faster than anticipated. There must be someone who planned all this before the civil war even started. I don’t know who the strategist is, but they’re exceedingly troublesome.”
“But we too have prepared a way to escape safely in such an emergency.”
Adelio nodded.
And asked the executive,
“…What about Sir Campos and Sir Eduardo?”
“They seem to lack the leeway to join. But we can’t delay any longer.”
“Hmm… Since we’ve informed them of the passage’s location in advance, no need to worry much.”
Not all executives were idly waiting in the audience chamber. Two were assigned to patrol duties just in case.
But now, with time pressing, they couldn’t afford to spend time to join them.
“…If Ebel Stroke has infiltrated, there’s no guarantee others didn’t follow. Be thorough in vigilance to ensure no tails.”
All executives heightened their senses. The two mages used high-level detection spells, but nothing was caught.
The eight executives, nodding, swiftly moved somewhere.
Soon, reaching the basement, they opened a hidden door and entered the damp waterway.
The Caracol executives advanced through the narrow, dark underground passage, relying on torches.
The target, Prince Ramon, seemed to be in the middle row, surrounded by all executives.
“I-is it really safe?”
“…Please remain calm, Your Highness.”
One of the executives placated Ramon.
Unlike his half-sister Isabella, who was decisive, this guy didn’t seem fit to be king.
As you can see, having dealt with two Caracol executives, I was waiting for them in this damp, dark place in advance.
In a corner of the ‘Reca Chronicles’ setting book, there’s this content.
In major cities of the central cultural sphere built in ancient times, it was common to design secret underground waterways for wartime. Recalling this, I wondered if Athanas was the same, so I had Camillo investigate in advance, and it hit the mark.
If escaping while surrounded, this was the only place.
While concealed with the Formless Robe (S-), I checked the sheets.
Roughly eight opponents of similar levels.
In a normal situation, victory would be improbable, but there’s no ‘absolute’ in the world, and results can vary greatly depending on circumstances and environment. With me possessing close-range penetration skills, having arrived early in this narrow place and laid layers of strong wires, the tactical advantage needs no explanation.
Rather, it’s fortunate they all came this way without clumsily scattering.
Of course, if the plan deviates even a step, it’s big trouble.
But thanks to Serene Clarity, my mind is clear and serene, and thanks to the Firebird link with Chesa, my condition is always optimal. That is, right now, I’m in top form 365… no, 364 days out of the year. I don’t feel like I’d make a mistake at all.
Smirking, I infused vibrating qi into the strong wires with ‘Infecting’.
At the same time, activating the spell in the Ring of Glacier (A).
<Pure Freeze>
Crackle!
Not only the bodies of some executives with low anti-magic, but even the torches illuminating the space froze.
With this, the light sources vanished.
“F-Freezing?!”
“Ambush! Stay calm!”
The lights went out, turning everything pitch black, but with the power of the Mana Eye (B) trait and the trace current I made flow through the strong wires, I could clearly discern the terrain and enemies’ positions even in the dark.
<Padio Blink>
Flash!
Releasing ‘Insulation’ and leaping through space.
Then, with utterly silent footsteps, I crisscrossed among the frozen executives.
Slash! Pshk!
Wielding dual swords and scattering slashes imbued with ‘Vileshaker’, screams and blood erupted from all directions simultaneously. I took out the troublesome mages and priest first. In that cauldron of chaos, touching the strong wires once, I lightly snatched Prince Ramon’s neck.
“Block it!”
“Damn. Who… is it!”
Adelio and four other executives quickly broke the freeze and thrust their weapons.
Intending to turn me into a beehive…
<Fortune Passer>
The ability of the Fortune Wheel Amulet (S) activated.
The simultaneous attacks without delay unbelievably all missed,
“Urk?!”
“Kuh…!”
Manipulating the laid strong wires, I induced two executives to stab each other’s hearts with their full-force thrusts.
Snap!
Immediately after, I manipulated the hooked strong wires to pick up the fallen executives’ badges, and borrowing Restinel’s booster, leisurely left the scene.
“Uwaaaah!!”
Only Adelio’s rage-filled cry echoed through the narrow underground passage.
Boom!!
Ebel swung his enlarged left arm.
The audience chamber was torn asunder, the bodies of Caracol clan members and prince’s soldiers shattered, and even the outer walls of Athanas Castle were damaged, but one person—Citrio alone remained unscathed.
What in the world is that…?
Whoosh!
As the dust cleared with the wind blowing through the broken wall, Ebel’s figure inside the audience chamber was revealed.
Citrio narrowed his eyes.
Ebel’s enlarged left arm had somehow shrunken back. But overall, his bulk had increased.
It wasn’t an illusion.
It couldn’t be.
After all, his height reached a whopping 4m.
Literally a giant-like appearance.
“…Some kind of transformation magic?”
As typical for warriors, Citrio had little interest in magic beyond commonly used spells. Pondering with shallow knowledge wouldn’t yield answers.
“Fine. Shall we truly test our skills, northern strongest knight.”
Citrio’s heavy mace concentrated ‘mountain king’s qi’. The precursor to Altus blunt technique secret, ‘Landslide’.
The heavy sword Ebel held—strangely stretched to match the user’s height—was also enveloped in red energy.
Ebel assuming the preparatory stance for Stroke heavy swordsmanship secret, ‘Heavy Red Lash’.
Thud!
Simultaneously, both figures kicked off the ground and entangled, their red and green lights colliding in the air.
Bang!
A massive explosion reverberated through the entire castle.
A great shock traveled up the mace, numbing Citrio’s arm. The remaining nearly dropped the weapon.
Overwhelming strength difference!
Rumble!
Just the aftermath of that clash caused the entire audience chamber to collapse, the floor caving in, sending both plummeting to the lower level.
While falling, Citrio shouted,
“Kukuk, so it’s not just a petty trick! It seems your strength has increased as much as your size has grown!”
Citrio’s lips curled up.
He couldn’t remember the last time he lost in a contest of strength. Having sought out powerhouses across regions and accumulated battle experience, encountering someone surpassing him in power was already decades ago.
Perhaps due to the greatly elevated mood, adrenaline surged through his bloodstream.
“Huuu….”
Landing in the palace entrance hall, Citrio employed the auxiliary breathing method Tului Heart Method (B). ‘Fivefold qi’ enveloped his shield.
Boom!
Another clash.
But this time, what collided with Ebel’s heavy sword was not the mace but the shield.
‘Fivefold qi’ possesses extremely low friction. Citrio, wrapping it around his shield, used near-divine shield arts to deflect the heavy sword and slid into Ebel’s close range.
Though Ebel had gigantified to over 4m height, his agility barely dropped.
However, the excessively lengthened limbs’ reach inevitably created blind spots.
Citrio, now relatively diminutive, decided to effectively exploit the advantage from the size difference. He climbed onto the gigantified Ebel’s body.
If I get hit once by that massive arm, it’s over. I need to move as swiftly as possible.
Judging so, whoosh! Without hesitation, Citrio discarded his mace, swiftly strapped the rectangular shield on his left hand to his back. And drew two hand axes from both waists.
Crack! Crack!
Citrio moved across the giant-like Ebel’s body, hacking down with the axes.
The axe blades were blocked by heavy armor, ‘qi armor’, and unbelievably tough muscles, failing to penetrate deeply into Ebel’s body.
But his [Strength] reached a whopping 19.
Pshk!
It meant sufficient monstrous strength to make even a gigantified body spout blood fountains.
“Kuh!”
Feeling sharp pain, Ebel writhed wildly, but Citrio narrowly evaded his strikes and repeated embedding the axes.
“You’ve dug your own grave, Ebel Stroke! The ‘furious qi’ you use is a heart method that accelerates blood rotation to boost firepower!”
This was why overheating came quicker compared to other breathing methods.
Moreover, with accelerated blood circulation, once bleeding and abrasions occur, the already poor sustainability drops drastically.
Pshk! Pshk!
Shoulders, arms, thighs, chest… The two axes in Citrio’s hands created countless minor wounds on Ebel’s body.
Due to furious qi, blood vessel circulation sped up, leading to faster blood loss in a vicious cycle. At this rate, he’d collapse from anemia in tens of seconds.
“Relying on a technique not familiar enough for real combat was your downfall! You were more threatening before gigantifying!”
“What did you just say?”
At that moment.
Psssh
Ebel, eyes wide, emitted intense ‘qi pressure’ and smoke from his entire body, and Citrio, sensing abnormality, reflexively leaped.
Something heavy like lightning struck Citrio’s abdomen.
Crack!
Soaring into the air, Citrio spewed blood, eyes bulging. What had struck him was Ebel’s leg, now larger than before.
It grew bigger!?
4m, 4.5m, 5m…
Ebel’s body was swelling in real time.
“Arrogant brat, after allowing a blow to my grandson, I’ve been pondering. How to respond if facing an opponent much faster, using techniques like that kid back then.”
Muttering so while looking at the ascending Citrio, Ebel picked up the mace the opponent had discarded.
Then, the mace also enlarged to match his gigantified body.
Ebel is a knight, not a fighter.
It was natural that his soul imprint, Slugger (U), manifested through his philosophy and mindset, included the function to alter weapon size.
“But no matter how much I thought, no answer came. I tried learning quick sword as auxiliary, but having mastered heavy swordsmanship to the extreme, it didn’t suit my hand, and mobility-enhancing footwork showed little progress. Then, at some point, it dawned on me.”
What Ebel admired when first entering martial arts.
It was the giant’s power that withstood any attack with a strong body and crushed with force.
With outstanding martial talent, Ebel instinctively realized that reclaiming his beginner’s mind was the answer.
He soon explored all methods to realize the concept, and finally grasped a clue about ‘soul imprint’ through some ancient text.
To fully realize the aspiration of a giant, Ebel’s [Spirit] value was woefully insufficient. Because of that, several conditional restrictions attached to gigantify to the limit.
A representative one was preheating.
Slugger (U) grows stronger and larger as damage accumulates.
Citrio’s floating form, at its limit, soon began falling with potential energy.
“We meet again, Citrio Altus.”
Ebel’s body had swollen to 6m. He aimed at Citrio, who thrust his shield forward simultaneously with the fall, and swung the mace with all his might.
Crack!!
Unable to receive the aid of ‘mountain king’s qi’ as usual, he couldn’t divert the impact to the ground. The rectangular shield that took Ebel’s strike head-on shattered absurdly easily, and the mace exploded into Citrio’s body as is.
Grind!
The sensation of serially crushing bones transmitted up Ebel’s arm. A large amount of blood sprayed along the trajectory of the mangled Citrio flying away.
“Of course, if you’re still alive, that is.”
Prince Ramon hung on the spire in a disgraceful pose, and the seven executive badges Aiden Stroke ostentatiously displayed.
Seeing this, the guardian knights and Caracol clan members one by one lost their will to fight and laid down their arms.
Clang! Clink!
“Ah, hope remains! If Caracol’s clan master Sir Citrio Altus joins, we can sufficiently turn it around…!”
Even in the desperate situation, the knight captain didn’t stop encouraging. Indeed, a Continent’s Twelve Hero possesses power to single-handedly reverse such unfavorable war situations.
However, after what happened shortly after, the knight captain too had no choice but to shut his mouth.
On the spire, Ebel Stroke, a Continent’s Twelve Hero like Citrio, appeared. Seemingly right after a grueling fight, with a pallid complexion as if about to collapse and in tattered appearance.
Only then did the narrowed vision return to normal. The sight of the inner palace, clearly half-destroyed from the two superhumans’ duel, also came into view.
What that meant was obvious.
Clank!
Like the other soldiers, the captain dropped his weapon and hung his head low.
“We won!!”
“”Woooaah!!””
In contrast, the Blispiel alliance side began roaring with expressions starkly opposite to them.
Overturning everyone’s expectations, the Glicia Kingdom civil war ended with the victory of the Blispiel alliance and Princess Isabella’s side.
And that in just a few days.
But contrary to the short duration, the civil war birthed numerous tales.
Support from Quentaltin Subhuman Clan.
The sudden appearance of fairy knights.
The alliance’s elites recovering immediately from injuries.
The dark sphere that shattered the city’s barrier in one go.
The clash between two Continent’s Twelve Heroes.
The alliance’s detached force infiltrating via unknown routes.
Caracol executives attempting escape through underground waterways, abandoning clan members.
The Wiblet Empire’s reinforcements left directionless.
Due to the many events occurring without rhyme or reason, rumor has it that intelligence organizations watching the central continent all fell into great confusion simultaneously.
Because of that, many were quietly waiting to hear the report from the Church of Utility due to the Secret Numbering Counter (S).
In cases of calculating role shares in clan wars, the Church of Utility must publicly announce the distribution details, justifications, and reasons for rewards without omission.
That is, it meant revealing in detail who played important roles in this civil war.
And finally.
The long-awaited merit ceremony day arrived.