[674] The Secret of Radum (2)
It took roughly four seconds to fall.
Mages could cast fly, but the swordsmen had to decide fast.
"Ahhh! Save me!"
Baikon flailed, his wits gone.
Even a schema user who could fight nimbly in heavy armor was helpless when plummeting from that height.
When Shirone spread his radiant wings, Lupist shouted.
"No! Advance toward the Life Flower!"
They rushed for Baikon despite him, but an electric net struck first.
"Damn it…!"
At that moment, Jane—who had been nearby—teleported and snatched Baikon like a hawk, bringing him down to the ground.
"Tch, stubborn."
When the others followed her down, Lupist had no choice but to change course and land.
Once on the ground, the tall buildings hemming them in made the place feel suffocating.
After confirming Baikon was safe, Shirone gave an order.
"Account for everyone."
"Seventeen. No one's missing."
Jane said as she scanned the Life Flower.
"I'm recollecting the photons. Being attacked on the ground will be a different level of danger."
Lupist's eyes narrowed fiercely.
"I told you to push forward. You disobeyed the chairman's orders?"
"...I'm sorry."
Jane bowed. Shirone frowned in displeasure.
"We're aboard the same ship—shouldn't we fight together?"
It was a fair point, but to Lupist it sounded no different from the rhetoric of a civic group.
"Listen carefully, kid. The mercenary company may be everything to you, but I have a duty to maintain balance for every citizen of the capital—and beyond that, for the whole kingdom. To keep fairness, where everyone has roughly the same chance of dying miserably. The kingdom will not allow one person's preference to expose other citizens to greater danger."
Baikon stepped forward and bowed.
"I'm sorry. Give me one more chance. It won't happen again."
Lupist didn't reply; he just turned away.
Once resolve is broken, it's hard to rebuild. If someone could do that easily, they wouldn't have wavered in the first place.
"Jane, be prepared for discipline when this is over. I'm keeping you alive because you're still useful."
More than the cold words, Jane was stung by having disappointed the chairman.
'A mere component…'
To Lupist, every person in the kingdom was just a part to keep the system running.
"I'm sorry. Because of me…"
Baikon reddened as he apologized; Jane shook her head and forced a smile.
"So what now?"
At Yordic's question, Shirone looked up toward the iron tower rising beyond the buildings.
"How likely are they to destroy Radum just to attack us?"
"One hundred percent. They know this is their last battle. They'll throw everything at us."
"Then why don't we strike first?"
If they hit with Angel's Punishment, they could probably destroy the Life Flower's emplacements.
"By whose authority? That's royal property. We must preserve the system until we recover the Life Flower's seed."
Meirei, who had been eavesdropping on Ra Enemi's thoughts through the divine frequency, pointed down the main road.
"The enemies are coming."
Ra Enemi's voice was in the past tense.
That meant the attackers had already arrived; countless Ain-type beings shimmered beyond the concealment barrier.
"Our position has been detected. Interception will begin."
"What a nuisance."
Lupist faced Shirone.
"Get to the Life Flower as fast as possible. Can you do it?"
Shirone, understanding the chairman's intent, drew a deep breath and nodded.
"Yes. We can."
"Move at maximum speed. Kuan, watch the VIPs. The rest, guard the flanks and rear."
Kuan pressed close to Aria, and from inside the concealment facility the guttural voices of the Gader tribe rose.
"All units, attack!"
One by one, the attackers revealed themselves.
They were members of the lower organizations of the Spectrum: the Black Revolutionaries, Radiant Breed, Speed Killers, and the like.
"Kill the humans! Fulfill the revolution!"
Their numbers swelled and filled the distance. Lupist's brow tightened and he opened the Spirit Zone.
'Ironguard Wave!'
Steel magic formed and surged upward in a ten-meter-high iron wall that rushed forward.
"What… what is that?"
The wall expanded with wind-like speed. While the troops were stunned, Lupist launched himself.
"Follow me. No laggards."
Hundreds of the Ain were pressed against the iron wall and screamed as Shirone raised the Incarnation of the Radiant Angel high into the sky.
'Angel's Punishment!'
With a thunderous impact, a spear of light drove into the field beyond the iron wall, scouring the area; Ain bodies were flung into the air.
Boom! Boom!
Confirming no friendly fire, Shirone cast Angel's Punishment again and again.
Hearing the infernal cries beyond the iron wall, the troops shuddered and gritted their teeth.
'Monstrous things.'
It was becoming impossible to tell who was human.
"Stop them! I said stop them!"
"How the hell do you stop that, you crazy goblins!"
If calling the clash of the strongest spear and the strongest shield a paradox, then their combination was catastrophe incarnate.
'Is that an Ivory Tower candidate?'
Even if the chairman might rank that way, Shirone running neck-and-neck with a publicly recognized first-class archmage was chilling.
'Just a little farther.'
When the distance to the Life Flower dropped under a kilometer, Kuan's tension spiked.
'At last—we'll see the upper echelons?'
By Kuan's account, the Ain in the concealment facility were all middle class or lower. Though strong, they were on a different level from the elites waiting at the Life Flower's pinnacle.
'I heard there might even be pureblood vampires…'
As the blades sang and they advanced, Meirei—still listening to the intercepted voice of Ra Enemi—shouted.
"Interception orders received!"
As soon as she spoke, Lupist halted, lowered his center of gravity, and pressed his arms together.
'Golden Dome!'
An immensely thick iron shell formed, covering the entire mercenary company in a hemispherical dome.
Meirei began counting.
'One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.'
At the four-second mark, an energy beam fired from the Life Flower struck the Golden Dome head-on.
"Arrgh!"
The interior was hellish from the sheer noise.
The screams were swallowed by the roar, yet Meirei lifted her head with clear eyes.
'It fired after four seconds. No doubt about it.'
Ra Enemi was currently at the Life Flower.
"Damn it! Do something!"
As the Life Flower's energy beam heated the Golden Dome, the internal temperature skyrocketed.
They felt like chickens in a steamer.
"We're going to be cooked!"
Yordic unleashed cold from his Ice Globe.
It brought a brief chill, but it couldn't lower the temperature by even a tenth of a degree; the cold simply turned into steam.
'If the Golden Dome breaks, we'll die anyway. So gather the heat to the limit…'
Calmly calculating timing, Lupist cracked the Golden Dome when the heat became unbearable, causing fissures.
"Regroup at the Life Flower!"
The pent-up heat exploded. Alongside shards of iron, the troops were scattered in all directions.
"Ahhh!"
The difference between those who could withstand the blast and those who couldn't was stark.
Most were blown out of control, but Kuan grabbed Aria's waist and hurled them both out of the radius.
At the moment the beam wave that shattered the Golden Dome surged in, Shirone channeled the prepared magic.
'Ataraxia!'
It was instantaneous; the photon cannon passed through the magic circle and unleashed a blinding flash.
The mass wave of light shoved the energy beam back for a moment, but the beam was still far larger than Ataraxia's amplification could handle.
'It's truly massive!'
Even so, the instant Shirone bought with that spell gave everyone a chance to escape the radius.
Only Rian remained. Cutting through the gale, he ran and placed himself between Shirone and Ataraxia.
"Uaaaaaah!"
He drove the hilt of the Great Daejikdo Ideia into the ground, and the energy beam descended upon them.
'I'll hold! I'll hold!'
Rian's divine transcendence was powerful on its own, but his form when protecting Shirone was peerless.
"Guhhhhh!"
The energy was beyond a living body's limit; the vibration through the hilt alone crushed finger bones.
'I'll protect! The kingdom of conviction…!'
Fractures started at the bones on the back of his hand and spread through his body.
Smille. Smille.
The auditory hallucination returned; muscles in his calves and thighs tore with pops, his left eye was crushed, and part of his cheekbone blew away.
Finally, the energy beam dissipated.
"Ughhh…."
A ghostly groan escaped Rian after taking the Life Flower's interception head-on.
When the beam split at him, carving two massive paths through the city, it was enough to guess the scale of the force he had endured.
"R-Rian…"
Shirone's voice trembled.
He'd heard a brief explanation from Miro about Rian's realm, but the idea that Rian could take a strike from an ancient weapon with his bare body and live felt like a delusion.
"Rian! You can't die!"
Rian spoke, steadily.
"Yeah. I won't die."
He planted his hand hard on the hilt of the Great Daejikdo Ideia and slowly turned.
"Until I die, you will never die."
Rian smiled with one eye closed, and his face began to knit itself back together.
Smille. Smille.
Ignoring the persistent hallucinations, Rian checked the state of the Great Daejikdo Ideia.
'Impressive.'
Though it had sliced countless enemies, it had never been exposed to such overwhelming force.
But, true to an object that could never be destroyed, the blade bore no scratch.
'I don't know how long the hallucinations will last…'
It didn't matter.
If it was to protect Shirone, he would have thrown himself in even if this were the last time.
'Thank you, grandfather.'
Shirone thought of Klump's face as Rian sheathed the Great Daejikdo Ideia on his back and, dazed, asked.
"Rian? Are you really recovered?"
"As you can see, I'm fine."
The moment Rian gave a thumbs-up, Shirone landed a punch in his gut.
Of course the blow had no effect against Rian's muscle barrier, but that only made Shirone angrier.
"You idiot! What are you doing being so reckless? Don't you know what that is? It's an ancient weapon!"
"You were the one trying to do something about that ancient weapon, weren't you?"
"Huh?"
Shirone blinked.
"I saw you preparing a counterattack. You never intended to avoid it. If you hadn't bought time, everyone caught in the blast would have died."
Lupist might call that foolish, but it was a point Shirone couldn't give in on.
"That's true. The mission matters, but it's my mercenary company…"
Rian shook his head.
"It's fine. Whatever decision you make, I'll simply follow as your sword. What I really want to say is this: nothing is more shameful for a knight than failing to protect."
When Rian said that was what he truly wanted to say, he meant he would uphold it in any situation.
That was a knight's conviction.
Perhaps Rian had become a far greater man than Shirone had imagined.
'Sorry, Rian.'
As if reading Shirone's thoughts, Rian smiled and pointed toward the heart of Radum.
"Let's go. The journey continues."