A brilliant golden flash crashed down over Varos’s head. With a sharp exhale, Varos swung his silver blade upward. Gold and silver clashed, sending out ripples of force. Varos grimaced under the crushing weight of the impact.

It was a terrifying blow, but he managed to withstand it somehow. Fortunately, the force behind the strike was just within the limit of what he could endure.

Of course, the price was steep. He had drained a vast amount of aura, leaving him depleted. The others were in much the same situation.

Lapicel was swept away by the golden shockwave, but she managed to avoid injury. Like a weighted doll, she rose back to her feet and rushed toward the enemy once more.

Leven followed right behind, unleashing a series of strikes with his blue aura blade.

—Delphiad Swordsmanship, Storm King’s Barrage!

It was utterly ineffective. The golden aura cloaking Death Knight Gellard’s entire body was an impenetrable wall in itself. Every slash bounced away uselessly, and the swirling storm of aura swept Leven off his feet.

Seeing Leven go down again, Varos frowned. What is that bastard thinking?

For some reason, Future Leven wasn’t launching any truly dangerous attacks. From earlier, he had been using attacks that were strong, yes, but still just barely manageable for the group. At this rate, it was obvious how they would end up. They would all collapse from exhaustion.

Is he planning to capture us alive? Varos pondered.

And yet, that didn’t seem quite right either. For some reason, only Serati was suffering under a relentless onslaught. A storm of golden killing blows poured down on her like rain. Even a graze from each blow would scatter her aura and shatter her body.

There wasn’t much she could do in the face of such overwhelming force. All she could do was dodge and keep dodging—sometimes crawling on all fours, sometimes rolling desperately across the ground.

Explosions erupted wherever she had been a moment before. She could feel death creeping closer, and she felt like she might die at any moment. Panting heavily, Serati swung her aura blade with everything she had, again and again.

Like hell... Faced with that absurd torrent of golden violence, it was all she could do. Like hell I’ll just die here!

Of course, no matter how fiercely Serati fought back, it meant little to Future Leven.

"You’re surprisingly good at running away." He scoffed before continuing to flick his wrist leisurely.

The golden blade danced gracefully like a sword performing an elegant waltz. Flashes of light crashed down around her without pause.

Just a little more and her head would roll.

Just a little more...

Just a little...

Hm? A glimmer of intrigue sparked in Future Leven’s eyes. By now, she should have been well dead. But for some reason, she wasn’t.

What is this?

She wasn’t particularly talented, nor did she have outstanding battle sense. She didn’t possess overwhelming physical prowess or vast reserves of aura. Until now, she’d survived only thanks to pure luck.

But still...

Can luck really hold out this long?

Her results were far too good for her actual skill. In the face of the attacks he unleashed, she should have perished already. Each attack would have killed her nine times out of ten. In other words, there was only one chance in ten she could evade them. Yet, she grasped that slim chance every time.

As he watched her more closely, Future Leven found himself impressed. She possesses a peculiar kind of instinct.

The red-haired woman didn’t possess the typical talents of a warrior. No, to be precise, she did possess them. Her physical abilities, aura control, judgment, swordsmanship, and combat sense were all excellent. She lacked nothing to be called first-class.

It was just that, from the perspective of a martial king, she seemed trivial. And yet, even to him, there was one particular talent that stood out.

She has a talent for gambling.

She possessed a gambler’s instinct, honed to a razor’s edge. It was something that allowed her to transcend reason and calculation to seek the narrow gate between life and death. It was that keen sense for risk that had kept her alive until now.

Of course, this wasn’t exactly an ideal talent for a warrior. It was the kind of ability that could easily lead to ruin. One mistake, and it was over. In fact, there had been a time when she had lost both her arms in a single misstep, though Future Leven had no way of knowing that. Still, the fact remained that this instinct was keeping Serati alive at this very moment.

Future Leven frowned. What a nuisance.

Of course, if he truly set his mind to it, he could kill her. All he had to do was overwhelm her with sheer, crushing aura. But it was difficult for him to target only Serati for a kill while sparing the others. If he used too much force, Lapicel or Leven might get caught in the blast.

Moreover, it wasn’t just her instinct that kept her alive. There was another reason. A sharp voice rang out amidst the fierce battle between Future Leven and Varos’s group. "Frost Bolt! Fire Blast! Lightning Arrow!"

It was Karnak, watching from afar, firing off spells at just the right moments. Arrows of frost, explosions of flame, and bolts of lightning all aimed for Future Leven’s back.

Future Leven scowled. This trick again?

Spells like these were no threat to him. They were fifth circle magic at best, hardly weak, but still far from enough to penetrate the golden aura of a martial king. Pounding at Gellard’s aura shield with such spells was no different from punching plate armor with bare fists.

If that were the case, he could ignore them entirely. But of course, it wasn’t that simple.

"Arcane Tempest!"

Just as someone might pretend to punch and instead slip a dagger through the gaps in the armor, Karnak slipped in something nastier. This time, it was eighth circle magic, and a focused, destructive spell at that.

Future Leven casually turned his sword.

That’s not something I can ignore.

Not that he was worried, of course. With a simple motion, he batted the spell away. Karnak’s scheme was foiled yet again. But thanks to that, Serati survived another round.

It had been like this from the start. Karnak kept casting spells in a way that, if they hit, it was good, and if they failed, there was no loss. It was an annoyingly effective form of interference.

Even so, Future Leven was deliberately letting Karnak be for now. He planned to finish off the aura users first, then deal with him afterward.

Could he leave the aura users and target Karnak first? Well, he certainly had the power to do so, and even if he did, it wouldn’t put Future Leven in any real danger.

The problem was, in doing so, he might miscalculate and end up causing serious damage to Karnak. Some might say, so what? Wasn’t it fine to just injure him badly? But Future Leven had his reasons.

I just don’t understand.

Future Leven recalled the absolute order given by Tesranach during their last encounter in the space beyond the void, before he had seized control of the Strauss family.

—The death of Karnak Zestrad is forbidden. This command is absolute.

He wasn’t giving an order to capture him alive, or to not kill him, but rather that his death was forbidden.

Why would Tesranach leave such an order?

***

The martial king’s blade pierced the sky. A brilliant golden sun spread its dazzling radiance across the land.

—Delphiad Swordsmanship, Wrath of the Sun!

An unrelenting downpour of aura engulfed Karnak’s group from above. The attack was so wide-reaching that not only were Varos and the other aura users at the front caught within range, but even Karnak and Alius at the rear as well.

Seeing the rain of aura arrows fall toward them, Alius hastily raised his staff. "Hatoba watches over me. None shall breach this sanctum!"

A radiant shield of light enclosed the group, and at the same time, the torrent of aura battered them mercilessly. The entire courtyard of the fortress shook, cracked, and tore apart. After a moment, Karnak and his group emerged from the thick clouds of dust.

"He’s ridiculously strong..."

They all looked utterly battered. Their bodies were torn in places, with blood streaming down from their wounds. Contrary to what Alius had proclaimed, the downpour of aura had pierced right through Hatoba’s blessing.

Of course, even this had been Future Leven holding back just enough to avoid killing them. But from the receiving end, it felt like they were being driven to the brink of death.

Sweat trickled down Karnak’s back as he racked his brain. What do we do? This really isn’t looking good.

Trying to fight a fully realized martial king with just their current strength had, as expected, been sheer folly.

If the four governors showed up, that might open a path...

He had already been attempting to contact them for some time now through magical communication. Just as with the other members of the group, they had set up secret magical channels in advance with the four governors as well.

But there was no response at all. The communication range for this spell was about twenty meters, but all the governors were locked in fierce battles elsewhere in the fortress, with no chance to get close to the inner keep.

And it doesn’t look like those battles will end anytime soon either.

The idea of flinging the archliches with trebuchets to catch the enemy off guard had been a decent move. Thanks to that, they had successfully infiltrated and destroyed the pillars of darkness inside.

But after that? The fortress was still guarded by Sir Kairon and no fewer than thirty powerful aura users. The thunderous sounds and tremors from the battles between the governors and those forces reached all the way to the central keep.

They couldn’t expect reinforcements from the archliches, but at this rate, they’d be finished before any help arrived.

In the end, we have no choice but to handle this ourselves...

Just then, Varos’s voice came through their private channel.

—Young master!

—What is it?

—Doesn’t something seem off?

—What do you mean?

—That guy... it feels like he’s deliberately holding back from killing us.

—What?

Karnak, puzzled, carefully observed the situation, and soon realized Varos was right. He’s not wrong.

Karnak hadn’t noticed before because he was too busy fighting, but looking back, the attacks were oddly cautious. Well, except toward one person.

Why Serati, though? Leaving that aside, it was clear that Future Leven was paying unusual attention to sparing the rest of them. Come to think of it, he did say something strange earlier.

Future Leven had declared that his possession of Gellard was the real trap. Meaning, the necromantic domains he had laid out beforehand weren’t really traps. Then why had he laid them at all?

Future Leven himself had explained.

—Those were set to block your escape. That’s why I find myself rather troubled now.

—If I let my guard down, you might slip away. How troublesome.

Whatever the reason, if killing them wasn’t an option, it made sense he had been so wary of their escape.

In that case... Karnak’s eyes gleamed. This was something he could use.

"Varos! Serati!" His sudden shout startled everyone.

"Yes?"

Why is he yelling aloud when we have private channels?

What followed was an unmistakably deliberate declaration, loud enough for all to hear. "I’m going to run away!"