The enraged Perkuntra relentlessly pressed the ambushed Blasphemer.

The massive pillar that had pierced through the enemy split apart into countless bolts of lightning, each one transforming into an arrow that rained down upon the Blasphemer.

Am... bush... ed...

Caught in a lightning storm fiercer than any natural tempest, the Blasphemer groaned as he shifted into a defensive stance.

Even then, he did not forget to condemn his opponent’s cowardice.

‘He’s not wrong, though.’

The Fierce Beast honestly sympathized with the Blasphemer’s feelings.

To think that the mighty Thunder King would hide in ambush while pretending not to have been summoned. It was undeniably underhanded.

From the Blasphemer’s perspective, feeling wronged made perfect sense.

Of course, both the Fierce Beast and the Blasphemer regularly used ambushes and traps themselves without the slightest guilt, but they were undead.

Their opponent was a lightning spirit.

Unlike undead, who took pride in cunning and villainy, such tactics were disgraceful for a lightning spirit.

Shut up!

Perkuntra understood that perfectly well, which was why he responded not with words but with another bolt of lightning.

The Blasphemer’s limbs, desperately trying to regenerate and expand his body, burned away and tore free.

-Excellent, mage! To think you’d make the Thunder King stoop to something so cowardly and despicable! Truly excellent!

“...You should probably say that to yourself.”

Lee Han nervously glanced toward Perkuntra, who was violently beating down the Blasphemer in the distance.

He had only barely managed to persuade Perkuntra after endless pleading, but now Mahuda was making him anxious for an entirely different reason.

‘A demon really is a demon.’

-Why? The Thunder King should be proud. Didn’t he cast aside his stubborn pride and completely deceive his opponent? The Blasphemer is being toyed with!

“Hmm... Maybe I’ve acquired another demon I should never summon again. Just like Anfursas.”

-...Now that I think about it, perhaps the Thunder King’s feelings may have been hurt!

Mahuda quickly corrected himself.

As a demon who had hunted undead for ages, his instincts and political sense were exceptionally sharp.

-Wait! He’s trying to flee! Stop him!

All the surrounding forces were instantly drawn back into the Blasphemer’s body.

He was trying to restore his injuries and recover power as quickly as possible.

CRACK!

The Blasphemer’s body suddenly shattered apart.

Not because of an enemy attack.

He had split himself apart intentionally in order to confuse his enemies before escaping.

Each fragment transformed into a miniature version of the Blasphemer, scattering in every direction and obscuring the Thunder King’s vision.

-A shallow trick.

Unfortunately for him, the Fierce Beast had fought the Blasphemer for a very long time.

The Fierce Beast swept away the false projections with a wave of death energy, instantly located the real body, and sank his fangs into its torso.

The Blasphemer, who had nearly escaped, let out a howl of rage and agony.

-Thunder King, now! As promised, join your power to mine!

This damned demon never stops talking!

-Aren’t you being a little emotional about this... Ugh!

Perkuntra cursed at the endlessly irritating Mahuda, who contributed nothing except chatter, but in the end he honored the promise made earlier.

First an ambush.

Then a surprise attack.

And now, at the decisive final moment, lending his own power to the strike.

As Perkuntra possessed Lee Han’s body, his form transformed into a gigantic incarnation of lightning.

Normally, possessing the body of an unprepared mage like this would have destroyed both spirit and host alike.

But Perkuntra trusted Lee Han’s mana.

Mana that was immovable and unwavering no matter the threat.

Lightning infused directly into essence erupted violently, discharges bursting outward as though the power might explode apart at any moment.

Mahuda did not panic.

Using that power, he forged a gigantic spear.

The Fierce Beast felt instinctive fear the moment he saw it.

A spear of evil-breaking—

No.

A spear of evil destruction.

It was the natural enemy of undead.

The Lightning Spear of Demon Subjugation and Evil Destruction!

‘He still seemed like an immature mage... How can he wield magic on this scale?!’

No matter how mighty the beings he summoned were, it was still the mage himself who had woven their powers together.

It was utterly unbelievable.

But there was no time left to dwell on ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) it.

The Fierce Beast decisively reverse-summoned himself back to the undead realm.

The moment that spear was completed, the Blasphemer’s fate was sealed.

Remaining nearby any longer would only drag him into the attack as well.

Missing the Blasphemer’s humiliation was unfortunate, but suffering injuries from getting caught in the aftermath would take decades to recover from.

“Spear throw!”

***

“Hurry! Bring the potions!”

“We’ll handle it, so please remain where you are!”

“What nonsense is that?! As nobles of Granden City, how could we stand idle in a situation like this?!”

What the Einroguard students had failed to anticipate was just how little people listened.

In truth, the wisest course of action would have been fleeing until the palace disappeared from sight altogether.

Instead, the citizens of Granden City gathered completed potions and useful supplies before returning to the vicinity of the palace out of pride and honor.

The students desperately tried persuading, soothing, and coaxing them back until they finally managed to reach a compromise.

“Fine. Then stop at the 【Three Griffins】 bridge! Absolutely do not cross it! And if anything happens, retreat immediately!”

“Grr. Understood!”

The citizens halted in front of the bridge, evacuated nearby civilians, and distributed potions in preparation for potential casualties.

Meanwhile, the students anxiously stared upward.

Aside from escaping, the battle unfolding overhead was progressing in a way none of them had expected.

“Isn’t it getting too out of control? Can the knights really handle this?”

“So far the aftermath hasn’t spread beyond the palace... but we may still need to evacuate everyone.”

“How are we supposed to convince them when they’re insisting on helping?”

Yonair cautiously raised a hand during the upperclassmen’s discussion.

“What if we secretly gave them sleeping potions?”

“...That’s actually a good idea, but we don’t have any sleeping potions prepared right now.”

The students had prepared potions effective against undead, but no one had bothered making sleeping potions.

Especially not enough to knock out this many people.

“I prepared some separately in case this happened!”

“Over here!”

Asan and Anglago appeared carrying a chest filled with sleeping potions.

“Nillia will make them drink them.”

“?!”

Nillia, who had been standing quietly until that moment, blinked blankly like a cow suddenly dragged toward slaughter.

The upperclassmen, however, were deeply impressed.

“The second years are extraordinary...”

“To immediately think of drugging everyone unconscious. That wickedness is extremely Einroguard-like.”

What impressed them most was the decisiveness.

An ordinary student might have considered such a method after several minutes of hesitation.

These second-years had suggested it instantly.

“...Is it really that wicked?”

Yonair asked, sounding wronged.

Normally this was exactly the sort of plan Lee Han would have suggested.

Yet somehow Yonair ended up being called wicked for proposing it himself, which felt unfair.

‘Sorry...!’

Yonair silently resolved that if anyone ever said things like, ‘Does House Wardanaz specialize in schemes like this?’ he would defend Lee Han properly.

“Huh? Of course it’s wicked.”

“Hurry and bring the sleeping potions. We need to knock them out and move them far away.”

BANG!

At that moment, the sleeping potions abruptly became unnecessary.

The battle had changed completely in an instant.

“...”

“...”

“W-what is that?!”

The upperclassmen who had never seen Perkuntra before widened their eyes in shock.

Yonair glanced around nervously before speaking.

“Well... you see...”

“Ah. The Death Knights summoned it.”

-Excellent, Sir Nago!

“...”

At the Death Knight’s cry, the upperclassmen looked even more bewildered than before.

But even they could not compare to the complete confusion of the Granden City citizens, who knew absolutely nothing.

The crowd that had gathered beyond the bridge erupted into excited chatter as they watched the battle between transcendent beings.

“L-look! It’s Stedal! Stedal is over there!”

“He really wasn’t an ordinary mage...! He’s overwhelming that monster!”

Unable to bear it any longer—partly due to his lingering guilt—Yonair stepped forward to defend his friend.

No matter how he looked at it, allowing this alias to become famous could not possibly end well.

“Actually, most of the fighting is being handled by the Death Knights—”

“He’s merging with it! He merged with the lightning spirit!”

“Can a human even survive becoming one with a spirit like that?! The strain must be unimaginable!”

“Didn’t you hear what I just said?”

“...Never mind!”

Yonair immediately gave up and retreated.

Nillia looked at him sympathetically.

-Spear throw!

Against everyone’s expectations, the battle finally came to an end.

The citizens of Granden City erupted into thunderous cheers and stamped their feet in excitement.

“Long live the Knights of Einroguard!”

“Stedal! Stedal! Stedal!”

“Wait... Could the vigilante who attacked Uap actually have been Stedal?”

“...Th-that’s possible!”

The Death Knights, who were searching for lingering corruption and enemy remnants, were dismayed to see crowds gathering across the bridge with lights blazing.

-What were the students doing?

Naturally, the students who might have been held responsible had already vanished without a trace.

Any Einroguard student knew perfectly well that lingering after the enemy was defeated only meant getting dragged into more trouble.

-Should we disperse them?

-No. Forget it. We won anyway. We’ll explain the situation and send them home.

-What about the matter concerning the successor...?

-What successor are you talking about? There’s no successor here.

At those words, the other Death Knights silently admired him.

Rather than admitting they had failed to recognize a mere second-year student and had nearly recommended him for a professorship, earning the successor’s hostility in the process—

Simply insisting that the mysterious figure named Stedal Nago truly existed might actually be the wiser path.

‘Perhaps “Knight of Wisdom” would suit him better than Death Knight.’

-Exactly! The enemy’s poison must have dulled my thoughts.

-Haha. Get some rest. You may want to return to spirit form while recovering.

The Death Knights quickly unified their stories.

One knight positioned at the rear immediately vanished to lure Lee Han away before anyone found him.

“Knight! Where did Stedal go?”

-Stedal has already departed. The summoned enemy has vanished as well, but unknown dangers may still remain. Everyone return home. We’ll secure the area.

“Was the vigilante involved in the recent disturbances Stedal by any chance?”

-We cannot answer that.

“That means it’s true!”

-We know nothing.

If Lee Han had been present, he would have smacked every single one of them in the back of the head.

But from the Death Knights’ perspective, they had little choice.

They had no idea whether Lee Han wanted them to confirm or deny the rumors.

At present, the only safe strategy was refusing all responsibility.

We know nothing!

Unfortunately, in situations like this, “I don’t know” often sounded exactly like confirmation.

And the nobles of Granden City were precisely the type to interpret it that way.

‘So it really is true!’

The gossip-loving nobles spread rumors faster than Perkuntra’s lightning.

As a result, before Lee Han could even return to the 【Inn of All Sorts of Schemes】, stories of the terrifying battle mage Stedal had already reached the inn ahead of him.

When an enraged roar thundered from the upper floor—a cry so fierce it sounded like it belonged to a troll-blooded warrior—Mafira the servant trembled in fear.

What in the world had happened to make that kind professor so furious?

***

“You arrived faster than expected.”

“Of course. Our junior infiltrated alone.”

The Teleportation Club seniors met in a dark alley and confirmed one another’s identities.

If either of them had been captured by the Death Knights and was attempting to deceive the other in exchange for a reduced sentence, this was where it would be exposed.

“Then let’s move.”

“What if our junior hasn’t entered the palace yet?”

“That’s impossible.”

“I suppose so too... Hm? What’s that?”

The seniors abruptly stopped.

In the distance, Death Knights were controlling the bridge and the roads leading toward the palace.

They weren’t blocking entry.

They were conducting searches.

And beyond them, the palace itself looked bizarre.

Nearly half of it had been destroyed.

“...”

“Our junior didn’t do that, right?”

Sevius couldn’t bring himself to answer.