Lines of blue mana spread along the rooftop like a web of roots the moment Fargryneill took a step forward during her declaration of battle. Although not as fast as either Nongramos or me, her speed while sliding along her dragon paths still seemed like a train running at high speed, ready to ram into anything along its tracks.

She gave her little “warning,” and that was enough for the first seat to react. Unsheathing his longsword, he swung his blade forward, but instead of hitting the kirin princess, she kicked the ground, sending multiple clay tiles flying up. Dragon paths spread from the ground, connecting each tile into a tree that blocked my senior’s attack.

The dragon paths are still spreading. I noticed when I saw the mana attaching itself onto his elemental meisterweapon. With another stomp, the mana line tucked on the weapon, breaking it as if it were a tree branch. I know our meisterweapons can’t be compared to normal weapons due to the lack of skills, runes, or enchantments, but they’re still empowered by our Mana capacity and Intelligence. Last time I checked, Duarn was level 164, but similar to Tasianna, he is stronger than his level suggests. All ‘Sword Saint ’ candidates must have the [Martial Aura Amplification] skill, after all.

If a “Territory” were an advanced aura application that uses your natural elemental affinity to turn the surroundings into the ideal battleground, then “Martial Aura Amplification” was a more subdued and focused application that only applied to the “Physical skills and related” category.

Weapons, physical skills like “X claws” or “X fangs,” and so on. It essentially was the fused form of [Mana Strike] and [Stamina Strike], and you had to have both at level 10 to become eligible for the skill, although not everybody could get it. Estranor and I were some people who still couldn’t get it, and you couldn’t buy it from the Skill Point shop. Or, I just didn’t have any affinity for the skill to buy it.

Unlike a Territory, [Martial Aura Amplification] was solely focused on bringing a melee combatant’s destructiveness to a modicum of a high-ranked mage. While Abilities could simulate the widespread prowess, like my Voltaic Red techniques, martial aura—or aura blade, as sword saint candidates call them—just made it easier. Then again, to mages or people who could use a Territory, they considered [Martial Aura Amplification] a “pity skill” from the Origin Gods since you didn’t have to possess an elemental affinity, nor did you need high mana to use it. You needed Mana and Stamina to use the skill, but the mana cost was nowhere close to how demanding a Territory was.

Though even a dull knife could kill a person in a suit of armor. [Martial Aura Amplification] was, at the end of the day, still an advanced aura application. Joking about a person who could use their aura in such a manner was, well, a death wish.

I’ve seen enough blood stain Duarn’s black armor to turn it as crimson as Donut’s scales. As such…

“No passing through,” Duarn said as his shadow blade regrew.

“Already heard all the ‘Right Hand’ stuff from Vifi. A swordman in front to block the plebs, while the master stands behind, buffeting us with arrows. Don’t try it. I’m already too used to that battle tactic. I have a little sister who is far better in the back as a mage and healer, so that I can have free rein pummeling bastards like—!”

Bzzz! Electricity crashing against water… how often has it happened until now? Not enough. Lord Wrath seemed to have agreed, as his greatsword blocked my saunte from hitting Duarn as the beat was rising.

“Her feet. She’s moving with the rhythm,” Lord Wrath said as he pushed me back, covering Duarn’s sides. “The music is weakening me, and Vifi has grown since we last met. I can’t appraise her, either.”

“I figured, my lord. That tapping with the dragon princess’s voice is starting to irate—Grk!”

“THAT’S MY LITTLE SISTER SINGING!” Fargryneill shouted as if she was angry, but her thrilled face said otherwise. She looked exactly like a wrathie with [Excited] at 100%, and was using Duarn’s comment like a stimulus to activate her [Battle Frenzy].

With one punch through that clay tile tree, purple flames burst from her body as her hair started to glow a similar color. As the shards of clay showered around us, the flames gathered around her finger before she shot it similarly to her [Freikugel]. She mentioned how her [Fuera Arcane] didn’t have the penetration power as the original, but a faster casting time has its uses.

Duarn ducked his head to avoid the fiery beam while stepping forward to slice Fargryneill, but didn’t notice in time that the kirin princess’s dragon path could move everywhere, even in the air, once she entered [Battle Frenzy]. His feet were glued to the ground before Fargryneill landed a body punch that sent the first seat flying off the roof.

“Lord Duarn!” the cloaked wrathies shouted, but were instantly forced to redirect their attention to Shay as he shot multiple icicles from his body. His breath attack froze the area, freezing anybody caught in it while blocking paths to intervene in our battle with Lord Wrath.

Although outnumbered, the fact that he could use true ice made approaching this defensive monster a massive hurdle for Duarn’s “Shadow Chasers.” Comprised mostly of rank Bs and a few low-level rank A, they posed no threat to the battle-hardened wyvern, but mostly because they were meant to be spies and scouts. The fact that they were here, instead of Lord Wrath’s guards, meant the only proper combatants were Lord Wrath, Hee, Duarn, and, most likely, Sakrha. The latter was probably defending the elven alchemist we were looking for.

Spies and only the necessary muscles. Perfect for whatever else they are planning here, outside of trying to kill me.

“Come on!” And without waiting for a moment, the moment Fargryneill saw Duarn crash on another rooftop, she immediately jumped and tried to land a roundhouse kick on Lord Wrath.

With his elemental arms manifested, his left-sided arms wielded his lance and mace, blocking Fargryneill’s attack, but were immediately infected by her dragon paths. As his arms broke off and he had to regrow them, it probably quickly dawned on Lord Wrath that kirins were us wrathies’ worst enemies. It was just our luck that we outnumbered them like crazy, and that the ones who were actual threats were contained in the Gueillxar clan.

Aside from the dragon paths, the fact that Fargryneill was a trained close-combatant even in her humanoid form and could use pure mana attacks that ignored elemental resistance gave her an incredible advantage. And she was showing this mastery as she coordinated with me as we ganged up on Lord Wrath. Her unrelenting attacks, combined with my timed [Dancing Thunder], occupied his entire attention, even if he could defend himself perfectly.

A master of war, in both the combat and planning aspects, he wielded his six arms like an actual flowing river—seamless and fluid. Even if he had to expend more mana to defend himself from Fargryneill, as his runes, enchantments, and meisterweapons were fodder to her mana-dominating racial skill, he still managed to avoid any lethal attack I could have landed with my rapier or halberd.

And that was good enough since it bought enough time for Duarn to reappear next to him with [Shadow Dash]. Like the good hound he was, he immediately attacked me, leaving Lord Wrath to target Fargryneill by himself.

“You finally use the swordmanship of your adoptive father. Even if it is dulled from the original, it just speaks of your talent,” Duarn said as our elemental weapons clashed. “Let us see if you can evoke its potential even further despite being so far away from your house. Branch out the Yok style, or fall to my blade.”

A sheen of white appeared on his dark elemental longsword, covering it up like a sheath. The color quickly changed to dark blue before he swung the blade at me, instantly causing [Danger Perception] to ring like a bell in my head. His aura was coursing through the air while a black mist started to exude from his legs, preventing me from using my voltaic lightning around him.

That motion—not even trying to change it up when I know you move well enough?

“The promise to stand fast ♫

Against the tidal waves! ♫

The Will to Fight and Survive! ♫”

Now! Ciene.

Twisting my ankles, I allowed gravity to take me completely as I slumped down and my body turned. Striking upward, I parried the horizontal slash as Duarn released the aura, sending the gathered aura flying towards the ceiling as it exploded around my weapon. It scorched my gauntlet a bit while destroying my lightning rapier, but most of the damage was mitigated as [Yok Style Fencing: Ciene] was supposed to do. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

“Brilliant!” Duarn shouted as two shadowy arms appeared on his back. “Perfect timing! Truly, you must return home with us, Goddaughter! War seeks you, and you must bring it to our lor—”

Yet before Duarn could break free from his usually stoic mask, he suddenly slid backward and swung his blade at Fargryneill, stopping her from hitting Lord Wrath by shooting out another aura slash. The dark blue slice slammed against the rooftop, cleaving through multiple wind blasts that were headed for him.

Seeing this, the four of us snapped our eyes to the sky, only to see a humanized Beth, fully armored in ice, flying above us with a portal rune open. Inside, we could all see Hestia dancing and playing her geigler as she entertained her stream viewers. Yet, each time she turned around towards the portal entrance, we could all see her staring down at us, or more specifically, the demonkin before her catalyst geigler shoot out those wind blasts.

A facade for her fans, while her dragon side is at full display before her enemies. That’s exactly what you need to do, General!

“Ha! I can understand why you would want to follow her. I do not know the actual reason, but that stare is enough to tell me why Sakrha and Wagna consider her a real threat to Bole’Taria. Which is why she has to die if we wish to preserve our goal,” Lord Wrath said, provoking Fargryneill to snarl at him. Mana started to gather at her horn, but before she could do anything, she froze up.

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And not just her, but every single person on this rooftop did the same. Our eyes were unable to look away as a figure suddenly came into view inside the subspace. With hair and scales as azure as the ocean, the dragon-leviathan princess of the Kargryxian empire showed herself with a glare that showed nothing more than contempt.

She shook her hand, letting molted scales fly out of the portal before she snapped her fingers.

“Get off the rooftop!” Lord Wrath shouted at the cloaked wrathies, but the moment he did, the legs of one of them suddenly exploded.

Screaming from the top of her lungs, the wrathie fell onto the ground like a puppet whose strings were cut, only to then writhed in their own puddle of blood as anything below her knees was gone and bleeding her out. However, before it got any worse, a giant white flaming sun appeared on the edge of the city, flying up to the ceiling before sending a ball of flames at the wrathie to heal them.

Yet before the demonkin could start processing the situation, more and more wrathies lost their legs in an explosion, or more specifically, their legs were cut off by a high-speed water cutter. Although only a droplet, it was bouncing off Wendriosa’s scales and the clay tiles, slicing anything it passed, but without harming the objects it was landing on. Was this a display of her mastery over water, or was this part of her skill arsenal as a cloud-flying leviathan?

Regardless of the truth, Lord Wrath didn’t let himself ruminate over it as he was the next target. Instead of dodging it, though, Lord Wrath swung his mace as it was about to cut his legs, sending it flying back into the air, but a scale immediately flew in its path to bounce it back.

Lord Wrath managed to hit it back again, but instead of bouncing on a scale, the water droplet broke apart into five smaller ones. Five more projectiles, which were probably just as deadly as the original, showed their effectiveness when they immediately incapacitated five more wrathies.

“Hahahahaha!” Wendriosa suddenly burst out in laughter before she covered her face with her tail, although the look she had on right now seemed more like somebody who had just found a playmate.

“S-Sis, we’re still live.” I could hear Hestia say sheepishly as she stopped playing her music, making me wonder if she was aware that her voice was still echoing throughout the inner city. “W-wait, hold on, you guys actually like that?”

“As you said, I’m a ‘celebrity.’” Wendriosa giggled. “The people here know me, similar to how Frozen Nest would all know you by now, little sister. Honestly, don’t worry about it. Just as you said, we ought to rid ourselves of the vermin. Even if we cannot kill them, there are—Oaaah, Father’s horns, they’ve found them.”

And just as she said that, another surprise interrupted this battle as a leviathan suddenly jumped onto the roof. Mana mist exploded from their body as my [Danger Perception] rang in warning, prompting Fargryneill, Shay, and me to escape the roof just as that levianewt revealed their real self—a leviathan.

The serpentine, eel-like dragonkin bit down on the building, gobbling up every demonkin. However, just as they were about to swallow the bits of broken wood, metal, and clay, they spat out the demonkin frozen in Shay’s ice, wincing in pain before they body slammed a nearby building. As the building cracked and fell apart, they started slithering away like a real snake.

“Beth, follow them!” Hestia commanded as she gestured with her arms for us to do the same. She quickly returned to her entertainer persona to keep the public from getting too suspicious, but if I were part of that crowd, I would have questioned things the moment I heard Wendriosa laughing like a maniac.

“Most of the people have already fled!” Shay reported as the three of us took the skies. “With all the noise, no wonder, but I can still hear people. That leviathan is just small enough to fit here, so we have a chance to beat it.”

Well, let’s see. Identify.

Oh yeah. Don’t even need to bring out my meisterweapons for this.

Though instead of worrying if we could beat this dragonkin or not, we should probably be asking why this leviathan was helping these demonkin. I could guess, but… I really didn’t like the way this was going. What sorta plot did Lord Wrath get himself into, truly?

Beyond just me and Hestia, what enticed Bole’Taria to interfere in the Caedhulen civil war? For I knew too well that Lord Wrath was not the one to make the decision. He was simply acting as the blade of our home, as every Prince of Wrath had done before him.

Maybe it was due to my curiosity that I told Fargryneil and Shay to slow down as we followed the leviathan. My indecisiveness gave the monster enough time to reach the wall. Headbutting the metallic sheets, it opened up with little resistance, showing hinges that were made to allow giant beasts like these to easily leave the city if needed. Although I very much doubt it worked in reverse, as the opening led directly to the ocean surrounding Lecullius.

Donut momentarily stopped her geigler play, probably flabbergasted as she knew either Fargryneill or I could have settled this situation without an issue, but Wendriosa raised her hand. She mumbled something to her, returning her attention to her music. Instead of continuing [The Trial of Kings and Queens] and [The Will to Survive and Fight], she pulled out her piano as cast [Unheiliger Engel] for Hikari to play on it, performing a duet for [Starstruck Winterscape], her dragonkin-focused song.

As the piano and geigler unified in a symphonic partnership, a rippling explosion burst from outside the inner city. Like a crescendo forcibly created with a bomb, it overtook and smothered Hestia’s song as the gaping mouth of a turtle shot from the azure below. The moment its jaws overlapped the leviathan’s tubular body, the former snapped its maw shut like a trap, bisecting the true dragonkin into two.

You gotta be fucking kidding me!

Blood showered the exit in red as the rescued demonkin were vomited out of the monster’s mouth. As I thought they would fall into the ocean, another leviathan jumped out of the water, rescuing them as they landed on the monster’s more humanoid body, with four arm-like tentacles pushing the adamantoise out of the way.

Crashing on the metallic walls, the city shook for a moment before it stabilized as a mana shield was projected around it, pushing the adamantoise right back into the new leviathan’s grasp. It seemed the city was fully protected from the outside with a mana barrier sturdy enough to stop even the collapsing body of a giant.

The monster turtle tried to retaliate, but a crab-armed leviathan smacked the adamantoise with its claw before pouncing at it with its massive grip, trying to tear the monster’s head out of its shell. Most of the smaller, swifter ships successfully managed to escape the onslaught, but a good number of the slower, larger merchantmen were crushed under the weight of the true dragonkin.

Taking advantage of this opening, the humanoid-armed leviathan attempted to flee, only for seven serpentine leviathans to emerge further away from the city’s borders. Water gathered in their mouths until they unleashed a barrage of water beams at their opponents. Although they managed to avoid five of the beams, two struck them directly on their torso. Although definitely not intended to be lethal, compared to what the turtle did, it still packed enough of a punch to send the leviathan crashing against the city with the recoil.

Once more, the barrier activated, fully protecting the city from any damage. Without it, I doubted the city could have survived.

As the leviathan tried to recover from the damage, Beth and Shay raised the metallic wall for us to exit the inner city, but before we did, we flinched back as we saw what was happening to the adamantoise. Lying in the blood of the leviathan it had killed, the crab leviathan pummeled its shell until it cracked, while a school of naga, merfolk, and levianewt armored in a suit of black metal ripped through its flesh like an army of ants.

Its dying screams and roars were ignored as the seven serpent leviathans approached their prey, only for three adamantoises and four leviathans to block their path. They did not try to battle, simply staring each other down as the chaos at the port started to take my attention. Yet I couldn’t stare at it for long as I frowned at the first adamantoise that tried to fight back.

It released water blasts from its shell, but two more leviathans ambushed it before it could attempt to flee. It was dragged away from the city as the crab leviathan continued bashing the monster until its shell finally broke open. With nothing but its scales protecting it now, the army of naga, merfolk, and levianewt warriors grew in numbers as more congregated around the true dragonkin.

“You left before we could say it.” Fargryneill tapped my shoulder, pointing at the dying dragonkin. “Lecullius forbids violence, but the rule is a bit more lax if you are within the inner city. You can cripple others, but killing is taboo. Immediately on the spot, a depth guard may judge you for death, with depth wardens having the authority to send leviathans and adamantoises directly allied with the church of Plesia as depth adjudicators.”

I clicked my tongue, although I didn’t feel too surprised how a Caedhulen city would “So that adamantoise—”

“Most likely overestimated the opponent that would jump out of the city,” Wendriosa said from within the portal, now that we were reunited with Beth. “Hestia, stop the stream.”

“A-already did,” she said sheepishly, frowning at the trail of blood, probably having lured in the sharks.

“He is part of my faction,” Wendriosa continued. “And the depth adjudicators over there probably know it, so he will survive. He pro… will need a holy dragon to attend to his wounds if he wishes to survive the ocean. Haaa… those leviathans who blocked the one who rescued the demonkin were the ones I talked to when we first landed in the port. They, too, are part of my faction.”

“Which means the ones fighting back belong to Karhalantheel’s spawn’s faction,” Shay said, earning a nod from Wendriosa. “Both sides are just waiting to fight. The adamantoise might not have intended to kill, but that rank B’s corpse still litters the port now. If this wasn’t involving us as well, I would have asked you to withdraw our support, Lady Hestia.”

“If this weren’t so difficult to handle, I wouldn’t have even involved my younger siblings,” Wendriosa said. “Yet, it isn’t. Nothing about my situation is simple, nor can I afford to not ask for help. My faction was usurped by a leviathan who killed the relative who supported me, and now a Divine Quest demands this faction’s new leader fight against a leviathan who, coincidentally, wishes for the death of Frozen Nest’s actual sovereign.”

“I agree, Young Highness. Your situation truly isn’t one to be envious of.”

Our group turned around when we heard somebody speak to us from below. Looking down, we saw Tasianna accompanied by—

“Master!” Hestia shouted, almost jumping out of the portal if Wendriosa hadn’t stopped her. “Krim! Graz!”

“My student…” A brown saurian stared at us, wiping tears from his eyes as he smiled. Dressed in robes similar to many priests around him, only that his was adorned by bones like a grimgarian shaman, he tapped his staff on the ground. “Tasianna had told how much you grew in your humanoid form, but… to see you standing here—taller—brings back memories of you from almost two years ago. Haha… what a situation we find ourselves in, but it isn’t something I mind too much to be able to see you again.”

“Come on, you don’t have to tear up like that! I’m trapped in here! It wasn’t even a year for me, so don’t make me want to hug you so much, Master!” Hestia said with a wide smile as she called out to the red and green saurian standing next to the saurian priest, also armored in the same equipment that those depth guards who pounced on that adamantoise were wearing.

… That Water Pantheon Champion. I noticed a naga slithering behind the congregation of priests, recognizing him well from his trident. One of the few real threats to me, even back in Elyonda. The same person that leonid, Ghorush, couldn’t ignore. Just couldn’t recall his name.

“I see there are more meaningful meetings than ours, Your Highness, yet I still believe ours will soon be more important. Wouldn’t you agree, Princess Wendriosa?” the levianewt priestess leading this congregation spoke.

The dragon princess nodded, looking quite annoyed at the situation. “Yes… Abyssal Warden.”

Oh, that’s where I recognized her. We’re about to get a stern lecture from the head of state. Great.