He didn’t tell everyone to flee. He specifically shouted, I’m going to run away!

And just to ensure there was no misunderstanding, he added an explanation. "Everyone! Hold him off so I can escape!"

It was brazen to the point of absurdity. With that, Karnak cast Wind Walk. His body rose into the air, and without even glancing back, he dashed deeper into the inner keep. Truly, he had thrown away his comrades and fled on his own.

Future Leven’s eyes blazed. I knew he’d try that!

This was precisely why he had set up the necromantic domains, even after securing Gellard’s absolute vessel. That man would absolutely try to run the moment he sensed defeat! And not only that, he’d use his subordinates as meat shields!

The golden giant roared. "You bastard!"

He was about to leap after Karnak when he was interrupted.

"Hatoba, bind my foe!" Chains of light burst from the earth and wrapped around his limbs. It was a divine spell cast by Alius.

The situation was thoroughly bewildering, but even so, he couldn’t just stand idle and let his enemy turn his back and escape.

Future Leven gave his sword a flick with a scoff. Waves of aura erupted in every direction, shattering the chains of divinity into pieces.

"Useless meddler!" he shouted.

To him, Alius held a different value than the others. Varos, Lapicel, and Leven were all undoubtedly worth keeping alive. They were rare specimens, after all. But Alius? There was nothing particularly remarkable about him.

Sure, he was a prodigy who had become a high inquisitor at a young age, a priest skilled in both combat and magic. Yet in the eyes of a martial king, he was just another one of the countless commonplace geniuses.

The only reason he had been kept alive thus far was because his divine blessings made it easier to capture the others.

Varos and the rest were not so easily handled, and if he used too much force, he might really kill them. But with that priest casting divine blessings, fatal injuries were reduced to serious wounds. That was why he’d spared him until now.

But it would be better to just kill him.

Adjusting his stance in midair, Future Leven lightly thrust his dual swords.

—Delphiad Swordsmanship, Echoing Arrow!

A ripple spread as the air itself warped into a circular distortion. From the center of the twisted air, a massive streak of light shot toward Alius.

Panicking, Alius hastily threw up a divine shield, but it was useless. The golden beam tore through the nine layers of divine shields as if they were mere sheets of paper.

The blinding beam shattered all his defenses and filled Alius’s vision in an instant. Without realizing it, he squeezed his eyes shut tight. In that moment, the word death flashed across his mind.

Had Lapicel not intervened at exactly the right moment, that might have been the end.

"Alius!" Before anyone noticed, the ash-gray-haired girl had leaped in front of the beam and raised her blue aura-forged blade high.

Compared to the martial king’s golden aura, it was a pitifully feeble blue aura. And yet, something astonishing happened. Her blue blade sheared through the golden beam as if shaving it away, diverting its path to either side!

The deflected beam shot harmlessly into the sky.

Future Leven’s eyes widened in disbelief. A blue-tier blocked that?

He could understand how she did it. Knowing she’d be overwhelmed in a head-on clash, she had expertly struck at the center of the destructive force, angling her blade perfectly to redirect the attack.

But even so, how she managed it was beyond him. Even Future Leven himself, with only blue-tier aura, couldn’t have neutralized a golden aura attack like that. No matter how expertly he angled his blade, he would’ve been crushed under the overwhelming power.

It was absurd. A mere girl, a child, had performed a feat incomprehensible to him, who had been the Martial King of Delphiad for decades. Plus, he had been a death knight of Monarch of Death Tesranach for yet more decades.

Who is that girl?

Of course, that miraculous act hadn’t come without cost. The instant she parried the blow, her entire body burst with torn skin and blood. Her insides churned, and her aura rampaged wildly.

Her skill had surely astonished even the martial king, but the best it could do was turn instant death into a grievous injury. Both Lapicel and Alius were caught in the shockwave of the devastating attack, coughing blood as they were flung away.

Lapicel's body convulsed as she collapsed. The blow unleashed by the martial king, delivered with full intent to kill, was indeed monstrous. Even though she had deflected it, her body was reduced to a wreck.

Her body and aura alike refused to obey her. Her vision blurred. No matter how her soul might belong to the future martial king, her body was still that of a child, not yet fully grown.

Lo-Lord Karnak...

In the end, Lapicel’s consciousness slipped into darkness.

***

Future Leven continued to hammer the ground beneath his feet after suppressing his curiosity. Capturing Varos, Lapicel, and Leven had been purely his own decision. It was a matter of personal desire.

But Karnak was different. Capturing him was the will of the cult and the absolute command of Tesranach. There was no room for Future Leven’s personal opinion.

No matter what, I must catch that man!

The thought felt long, but in reality, it was only a fleeting exchange. The lifeless old body of Gellard swept past above the heads of Lapicel and Alius, leaving a golden afterimage in its wake.

In an instant, Future Leven had closed the distance of several dozen meters and charged into the depths of the fortress. Just as he was about to extend his senses to locate Karnak, who had fled moments before...

Hm?

From within the collapsed inner fortress, a formidable light of destruction came hurtling toward him. For a moment, Future Leven’s expression hardened. For those with experience, the shape and energy of the incoming light alone were enough to roughly gauge the nature of the spell.

An eighth-circle spell, Hell Burst?

This was dangerous. Future Leven reversed his sword and raised it, spreading an aura shield before him. A golden shield of light unfolded and blocked the incoming crimson flash.

Right then, an ominous sound reached his ears.

That bastard!

Before he knew it, Varos had leaped out from the fortress corridor and unleashed his chain sword. At the same time, from the opposite side, Serati and Leven hurled themselves at him, thrusting their swords of blue energy.

Unlike Alius and Lapicel, they had shared a covert magical message with Karnak. They had already been informed of the situation and had moved ahead to lie in wait. Thanks to that, their timing, as well as the position and angle of their strikes, were perfect. At this rate, even he, the martial king, could not avoid being struck from both sides.

Reluctantly, he retreated, and their follow-up attacks swung through empty air.

From within the shattered fortress, Karnak emerged. "Tch, a failure, huh."

Future Leven narrowed his eyes. "So you were only pretending to flee?"

Karnak replied without missing a beat, almost playfully. "Isn’t that obvious? Did you really think I’d abandon my comrades and run away by myself?"

For a moment, Future Leven faltered. Now that he thought about it, Karnak was right. In this situation, it was natural to assume the enemy would feign retreat and counterattack. It was a well-worn tactic, after all.

Then why... why did I believe he was truly fleeing?

He couldn’t understand himself. Why had he been so certain, despite knowing so little about this Karnak?

It was then. Suddenly, Karnak stepped back and immediately cast Wind Walk.

"Stop him!" Karnak bellowed.

At once, he bolted down the opposite corridor of the fortress!

That bastard! Leven wanted to give chase right away, but he couldn’t. He felt Varos’s chain sword flying at him from behind.

Even for a martial king, an attack infused with silver aura wasn’t something to be taken lightly. With a shout, Future Leven allowed his aura to explode outward. The surging energy deflected all of the chain sword’s silver blades. Without pause, he sprang forward.

I knew it! He really is running away! Once again, conviction took hold of his mind.

He had to catch Karnak, no matter what. What if he took Varos or Serati hostage to block Karnak’s escape? Such an idea never even crossed his mind.

Instinctively, he knew. Hostage tactics would never work on that man. If he tried to use his subordinates as hostages, Karnak would only be delighted to have bought himself time and escape beyond the horizon!

"You think I’ll let you get away?!"

***

Explosions rocked the entirety of Strauss Fortress, and the ground trembled without end. It was the result of a grand chase across the fortress. Karnak was slipping away like an eel with his Wind Walk, while Future Leven relentlessly pursued him.

Karnak would feign regret, only to strike back. "Rend the world asunder, Hell Burst!"

Then he would pretend to counterattack, only to flee once more. "Go, Varos!"

Again and again, Karnak muddled the line between retaliation and escape. "I'll run away!"

He continued to shout his intent to flee while either unleashing a barrage of spells, pretending to chant an incantation while backing away, or simply turning tail and running away at full speed without looking back. He was throwing every trick in the book into exhausting his pursuers.

Trailing behind him, Future Leven trembled with rage. "You wretched coward!"

Truthfully, with the power of the martial king, there was no way he could fail to catch Karnak, who was barely at the threshold of the eighth circle. He didn’t even need to go all out.

Even a moderate surge of aura would be more than enough to close the distance and seize him by the scruff of his neck. The problem, however, was that grabbing him by the neck might well become the act of snapping it.

This was golden aura, the power of a martial king. For an ordinary human, a mere touch would be enough to twist bone and flesh alike. Of course, a martial king wouldn’t lack the ability to control such force.

If he so wished, he could grasp Karnak delicately enough to leave him unharmed. All he needed to do was suppress his aura to a level even an ordinary person could withstand. But if he did that, he wouldn’t be able to fend off the assaults from Varos, Serati, and present Leven.

Even now, the three were doggedly pursuing Karnak, doing everything they could to obstruct him.

Deflecting Serati's aura blade, Future Leven scowled. "You troublesome pests!"

More than anything, he wanted to deal with these three first. But he couldn’t afford to. If he did, Karnak would slip away! Without a doubt, he would!

Seeing Future Leven’s reaction, Karnak gave a subtle nod to himself. As expected, he's the same.

It had been like this with Demphis and Maloka too. They knew next to nothing about Karnak, yet they carried an almost instinctive certainty about his personality, as if they understood him intimately.

And confirming what kind of certainty they held was a simple matter. He only had to consider the kind of assumptions his own subordinates would make, and that was the answer.

At this point, I might as well think of them as the very people I used to know.

Either that, or this being named Tesranach had far more in common with him than he realized.

Although Demphis did say Tesranach and I were quite different.

Even as such thoughts ran through his mind, the inner sanctum of Strauss Fortress was being cheerfully reduced to rubble. The corpse of Martial King Gellard and Karnak’s party crashed through the fortress, dodging, destroying, chasing, and being chased in turn.

Suddenly, Future Leven shouted in frustration. "Just how long do you intend to keep up this pointless farce?!"

They had been running back and forth through the fortress all this time. It was neither a full retreat nor a proper counterattack.

Peering outside through a crumbled section of wall, Future Leven roared once more. "All you're doing is tearing this place apart, leaving nothing behind but destruction!"

And it was true. All that remained of Karnak's frantic escape were the ruins of the fortress, and traces in the courtyard where, as if a child had been drawing pictures, deep furrows had been carved in the shape of a star...

In that moment, Future Leven’s expression hardened. Wait!

The pattern of destruction was far too precise. He had spoken without thinking, but now that he looked closer, it really was a star-shaped design. That star-shaped pattern, in more scholarly terms, was known as a hexagram. And there was a certain profession that made particular use of that symbol.

Future Leven blinked. "Necromancy?"

With a thunderous roar, an immense surge of death energy began to pour out from the hexagram. It was a colossal force of darkness, as though the God of Death himself had descended upon the battlefield.