A knight patrolling the imperial palace suddenly felt a sense of unease and looked up at the sky. His eyes widened in disbelief.
“What the hell is that…?”
Something like a meteor was plummeting downward.
It was gradually slowing, but a collision was inevitable at this rate. The knight stood frozen for a long moment, unable to process the situation, before his instincts kicked in.
“Th-this is bad!!”
But the instant the knight opened his mouth, the unidentified meteor had already slammed into the crown prince’s palace.
Right after—
—!!
The diving aerial ship struck the ground. A deafening roar that threatened to burst eardrums tore through the air, and an enormous cloud of dust billowed up, completely blocking the view of countless people.
In the middle of that chaos,
Aiden asked calmly,
“Restinel. You okay?”
「Component damage at 17%. Margin of error is 3%. I will restore my original form using the built-in shape stone.」
“Good. Situation?”
「The Holy Nation’s large-scale ritual spell, <Silence Curtain>, has activated successfully. The massive audiovisual effect from a moment ago did not spread outside the palace at all.」
“Excellent.”
Restinel had sustained only minor damage and was otherwise fine. All passengers then disembarked from the ship.
“This is insane… We really just did that.”
One holy knight from the Church of Struggle shook his head and muttered to himself. Dorothy looked at him and the other thirty-two companions and said,
“Previously, Master Stroke of Blispiel and a few others raided one of Praszkeak’s hideouts. The crown prince must have felt threatened and relocated his base. Thanks to the cooperation of His Highness the Second Prince Salvador of the Wiblet Empire, we have identified the location of Praszkeak’s new hideout.”
“You said there were two hideouts, correct?”
“Yes. We still cannot determine which one the crown prince is currently staying in. We will have to find out ourselves.”
“…Which means we first need to reveal the identity of the body double inside the palace.”
Clatter clatter clatter clatter clatter!!!
While the Holy Nation’s elites were talking, nearly a hundred patrolling knights suddenly appeared and surrounded the group.
“Identify yourselves, intruders!”
“We are the Holy Nation’s enforcement unit. We have come to pass judgment on the wicked demon contractor, Yustasio Wiblet Leonor.”
At Dorothy’s icy words, one of the elite knights forming the encirclement began to tremble violently.
Insulting the crown prince was no different from insulting the knights who guarded his palace. The man who appeared to be the knight commander shouted in a highly agitated voice,
“…How dare you slander His Highness the Crown Prince! Not a single one of you will leave here alive.”
Shing!
The knights drew their weapons. The situation was on the verge of erupting into violence.
“Hold!”
“…H-His Highness the Second Prince?!”
Second Prince Salvador appeared as if he had been waiting. He stepped forward and blocked the escort knights who were about to charge the enforcers.
“These people are enforcers of the Holy Nation, and the claim that my brother Yustasio Wiblet Leonor is a demon contractor is an undeniable fact. Anyone who ignores this testimony and tries to defend the crown prince will bring eternal disgrace upon their house for producing demon worshippers across generations.”
“…!”
Salvador’s expression was deadly serious.
The quick-witted noble knights instinctively sensed it. What the second prince had just said was the plain truth. Even if it were not, once the second prince had drawn his blade, this was no ordinary matter.
Yustasio and Salvador.
One of them was destined to fall.
Salvador looked at Dorothy and said,
“Enforcers of the Holy Nation. In the name of the second prince of the Wiblet Empire, I request your cooperation. Please uproot the seed of demon worship from this empire.”
“We accept your request gladly.”
With that answer, the Holy Nation’s enforcers advanced into the half-destroyed crown prince’s palace, radiating a murderous aura. The escort knights could only stand there with their mouths agape, watching helplessly.
It was not that their loyalty was lacking.
They were simply overwhelmed by the opponents’ presence.
The enforcers who had arrived on Restinel were the cream of the crop, carefully selected by the Holy Nation. Many of them were even holy relic bearers; there was simply no way the palace knights could stand against them.
Deep inside the crown prince’s palace.
“Hey there.”
The crown prince’s body double greeted them leisurely, showing no intention of hiding his identity. He already seemed to have grasped the entire situation.
“That mechanical ship that just crashed… It’s a Machine God Tribe member, huh? Honestly, even I didn’t see that coming.”
“Polymorphic. Where is the real crown prince?”
“Who knows? Why don’t you try forcing my mouth open?”
“Yeah, I didn’t think you’d tell us willingly.”
The group quickly reformed their ranks.
They held the numerical advantage, but the opponent was a clone of one of the Five Heroes with abundant experience. There was no harm in being cautious.
Aiden signaled the rear line with a hand gesture.
Whirrr!!
Light bloomed from the priests’ hands. The gathered radiance soon formed a binding-type yang magic spell.
<Saint Ring>
Every priest present was at least archbishop level. Their [Divinity] stats were all 4 or higher. Even a simple spell gained tremendous power when they pooled their strength.
Shaaang!
Ropes woven from light shot out and wrapped tightly around the clone’s body. Estriel and the holy knights charged toward the restrained double.
‘Vileshaker’
‘Rejal Shock’
‘Neo Judgment’
‘Light Knuckle’
Fwoosh! Boom!
Countless secret techniques flew toward the clone. Various weapons mercilessly pierced, tore, minced, and shattered their target.
Fssshhh!!
The crown prince’s body, spraying fountains of blood from every pore, twisted into a bizarre shape before transforming into a pitch-black, unpleasant mass of slime. This was the polymorphic being’s true form before any transformation. They could perfectly mimic others, but when driven to the brink of death, their original appearance would surface like this.
Plebelziam’s telepathic message arrived.
[Aiden. Something’s off. The waves I sense from him are far weaker than the one at the imperial palace banquet last time.]
“…Tsk.”
Aiden clicked his tongue.
Irumokwi’s clone was supposed to be level 64. Yet the combat power it had just displayed fell far short of that level.
He had a pretty good guess why.
“This guy is a fake of a fake.”
[What?]
“It’s a clone of Irumokwi’s clone.”
The clone created by Irumokwi’s soul imprint, Split Messenger (U), inherited a portion of the main body’s abilities. In other words, the clone could also use the splitting ability.
The reason this one had been weaker than expected was because it was a clone of a clone.
Which meant the real level-64 clone was…
“It’s probably with Yustasio at the hideout. They must have prepared a body double of a body double just in case.”
“…Is that okay?”
Aiden nodded at Chesa’s question.
It was still within expectations.
The slime-like body of the Irumokwi clone began to wriggle violently, as if trying to convey something. Aiden could not decipher the exact meaning, but it seemed to be mocking them.
…This thing?
Aiden let out a small, incredulous laugh.
He turned to Dorothy and said,
“The moment we kill it, it will turn into gas and return to the higher entity. All the information and memories it has collected will be transmitted back along with it.”
“…That’s dangerous.”
“Yes. But we do have a countermeasure. Instead of killing it, if we restrain it so it cannot even twitch a finger and lock it away somewhere, no information will leak to the other side.”
“…I see.”
Dorothy nodded.
She gestured to the priests.
<Prism Prison>
A translucent barrier formed in an instant, trapping the slime mass inside.
Aiden nodded in satisfaction.
No need to use the lamp after all.
—!!
A wave of panic emanated from the clone of the clone trapped within the barrier. It was probably wondering how Aiden knew the details of Split Messenger (U), information that should only be known to its allies.
Aiden smirked and spoke to it.
“Stay put and watch quietly until the situation is over.”
<Silence Curtain>
It was a kind of large-scale hallucination magic.
Thanks to it, the commotion at the crown prince’s palace was perfectly concealed. Second Prince Salvador exercised his skill and seized control of the palace atmosphere in the blink of an eye.
He mobilized the knight orders he had secretly recruited in advance for this day, completely sealing off entry and exit to the palace, and immediately convened an emergency council.
“Your Highness the Second Prince, what in the world is all this chaos?”
“I imagine everyone was startled by the sudden summons. But this is an urgent matter that cannot wait, so I would appreciate your full cooperation. Please take a look at this.”
Facing the nobles with puzzled expressions, Salvador presented concrete evidence that his older brother Yustasio was a demon contractor.
“This is unacceptable…! His Highness the Crown Prince would never do such a thing! This must be a conspiracy cooked up by those wicked church rabble-rousers!”
“To defend the crown prince even with such clear evidence… Count Kedillo, you seem rather suspicious?”
“…What do you mean by that, Your Highness the Second Prince?”
“Guards! Judging by this man’s behavior, I suspect he is a demon worshipper! Throw him in the underground dungeon and interrogate him thoroughly!”
“I-it’s a false accusation!”
The court count resisted with all his might, but against the elite knights who moved like tigers, he was dragged away without being able to put up any real fight.
Salvador looked around at the assembly and said,
“If anyone has something to say, speak now.”
“………”
Not a single noble opened their mouth. In this situation, defending the crown prince without solid evidence would immediately brand them as demon worshippers.
Soon after, the second prince knelt before the emperor.
“Please make your decision, Your Imperial Majesty.”
“Hmm….”
It was a formality. The answer was already decided.
The enforcers sent by the Holy Nation were watching with sharp eyes. If he sided with Yustasio now, even the emperor could not escape suspicion of being a demon worshipper.
‘You sharpened your blade well, Salvador…’
The emperor closed his eyes tightly.
“…I permit the arrest of Crown Prince Yustasio Wiblet Leonor. However, storming the crown prince’s palace without a single word of notice is a diplomatic affront tantamount to a declaration of war. Given the emergency, I will overlook it for now, but once this matter is settled, the Holy Nation will be held accountable.”
Whether to hide his inner gloom or not, the emperor’s voice rang out louder than usual.
At the same time, Praszkeak Guild House.
Yustasio stood on the dais, looking down at the subordinates lined up in the underground training ground.
The pseudo-demonified Praszkeak Guild members all radiated a sinister and terrifying aura. With forces of this quality, they could seize the Wiblet Empire’s imperial capital in a single day.
“…Yus.”
Someone called Yustasio by his nickname. The owner of the clear voice was a teenage girl who seemed completely out of place in the gloomy atmosphere of the underground cavern.
But appearances were deceiving.
Together with Yustasio himself, she was the guild’s greatest fighting force.
“What is it, Mork?”
“Intruders. Dozens of them.”
“…What?”
Yustasio frowned.
He had taken out plenty of insurance.
Unless they had sprung up from the ground, it should have been impossible to suddenly disrupt the guild house or launch a surprise attack from the sky like this.
But Yustasio knew better than anyone that Mork’s detection magic circle could not malfunction. Besides, it had not yet been confirmed that the intruders were assassins from Blispiel and the Holy Nation.
“Who are they?”
“Priests, holy knights, and various others.”
His face twisted into a deep scowl.