"Check that first."

"What?"

"The light. Can it be absorbed?"

I lifted my gaze. Burnt entrails dripped thick green radiance, heavy enough to feel its texture. It was so dense that the opposite wall was hidden from view. Unlike Leandro's translucent jade glow, this ooze was raw and viscous.

"There is light..." I murmured.

Clack.

I stretched out my hand.

[Absorb? Y/N]

Of course.

Swooosh...

I absorbed the murky green light. It felt like long-festered rot pouring into me. Instead of feeling light, it felt like molten lead, cooling magma, or perhaps entrails, slick and dripping where they had been torn.

Both Isaac and Naneow understood instantly.

"As expected... that means it's genuine, right?" Naneow asked.

I kept my reply brief, focused on the absorption. "Yeah."

[You have absorbed Thread-Needle Stab Lv. 1!]

[— The overwhelming desire to pierce and the talent for swordsmanship have fused grotesquely. With self-control released, you can stab with extreme speed and precision, driving the tip until it skewers the target. All five senses provide real-time feedback to guide the strike until the end.]

[— Sensory feedback is limited.]

[— Loss of most five-sense guidance. In exchange, concentration on a fixed point skyrockets, granting massive penetrative power.]

[You have absorbed Thread-Needle Stab Lv. 2!]

It was like when I first absorbed Leandro's essence. There was no mistaking it. The duke had truly been killed here and was not a fake or a shell of himself.

[You have absorbed Thread-Needle Stab Lv. 3!]

"Still... even with Garbera thrown in, is this really possible? Lawrence Tartier was the Empire's best for ten years straight..."

[You have absorbed Time Acceleration Lv. 1!]

[When attacking, defending, or closing distance, time stretches around you.] 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

[Lv. 1: Once every three seconds, time slows 1.25x per second.]

"Wait." Naneow bent closer, eyes narrowing at the enormous carcass crushed into the floor. "Two, four, eight... fourteen. Garbera's rings grow once per decade. This one lived at least 140 years. They also spliced in countless beasts. But more than that..."

I glanced at her, still drawing in the duke's essence. From the beast's cracked core, the same green light seeped through. Although it was weaker than the duke's, it was unmistakably real. Despite my unfamiliarity with the monster, it was formidable enough to prove it had been engineered.

"There are marks of suppression. Someone restrained Gabrera by force."

Isaac's voice cut in. "Creating a fair duel."

"Exactly. And who else could leash Garbera but the duke himself?"

[You have absorbed Time Acceleration Lv. 2!]

[Lv. 2: Once every three seconds, time slows 1.5x for one second.]

[Hero Skill: Time Acceleration Lv. 3 absorption denied!]

So each level increased the ratio by 0.25. At Lv. 4, he would have stretched each breath into double time, and surely more in practice.

The instant our blades met, it hadn't just been speed. It felt like time itself had been erased. To him, perhaps the world crawled unbearably slow. That Leandro had bested such an opponent was nothing short of astonishing.

I kept absorbing and asked, "So the duke held back?"

Naneow shook her head. "No. As a duelist, he fought seriously. The swordplay was genuine. You can't fake marks of this level. If Tartier had truly eclipsed Leandro to that extent, he wouldn't have died."

The words the duke had spat at me as he crushed me came back unbidden.

Oh my, how crude. What exactly were you trying to achieve with that greatsword? Hohoho... you'd better learn to focus on a single Sword Energy, Mr. Skeleton.

Perhaps what he truly desired was that life of single-minded devotion to the sword. He had chosen to end himself in a duel of pure steel.

[You have absorbed Brand Lv. 1!]

[— You can mark a human who draws your attention.]

[— Detection ability against the marked target increases greatly.]

[— Insufficient interest in humans detected.]

[Skill is mutating.]

[Attack power increases against marked objects.]

More skills flowed into me, one after another. I wasn't gaining as much raw strength as I had when I first absorbed the essence from Leandro's corpse on the ship, but the harvest was still immense. It was one of the richest in recent memory.

"Huh. Such clingy affection. Perhaps I should call it sincere."

"Affection?"

"Isn't it obvious? The one he waited for. He could have chosen allies, dug traps, or done anything. Yet he did none of it. This hulking thing..." Isaac gazed again at the broken corpse. "He wanted the period at the end of his life to be written by the one he loved. He fell into an impossible love, and with a corrupted soul provoked a chaste opponent to end him."

His words nearly broke my concentration on the absorption.

"Chaste...?"

However, Isaac only grew more rapturous, spinning his grotesque sermon.

"Neither god nor demon, I only wish to be judged by you! Let this defiled body be obliterated cleanly! Correct my depravity with violence! Break me apart so I can be reborn!"

"..."

"To be strangled by the very justice he had fostered, he must have felt ecstasy in that final moment. He filled a lifetime's deficit of righteousness in an instant. An aesthetic climax, no doubt. In some ways, an enviable death."

Naneow shook her head, exasperated. "I can't fathom that kind of psyche, but if you insist on seeing it that way, it isn't impossible. The Relic of Illien surely played its role too. What is this?"

She pointed to a mound of white ash with a single sword planted upright in it. Amidst the wreckage, that lone heap and blade remained untouched and pure. None of us could discern its nature.

[You have absorbed Cosmetics Lv. 1!]

[Anyone can be beautiful! ...Well, not you. Instead, your Masquerade skill is slightly enhanced.]

With Cosmetics Lv. 2, the light faded. The duke yielded no more skills. I reached toward the round core etched with fourteen rings.

[You have absorbed Kasragi – Seed of Motility Lv. 1!]

[— Garbera's seeds burrow in spirals both vertically and horizontally through absorption mutations.

— They can even adhere to metal and plant themselves between microscopic lattices.

— You are not a plant.

— Seed lifespan is drastically shortened.

— Proper germination is impossible.

— In exchange, destructive power at sprouting is increased.]

...

[You have absorbed Seed of Motility Lv. 5!]

[You have absorbed Seed Summon Lv. 1!]

[— Seeds buried in the ground respond to your strong call, sprouting rapidly.

— This rapidly drains the earth's nourishing power.

— Unexpected side effects may occur.]

[You have absorbed Seed Summon Lv. 2!]

[— Growth efficiency increases; Intelligence cost decreases slightly.

— Probability of side effects reduced.]

[You have absorbed Seed Summon Lv. 3!]

With that, the light faded. I had only gained two skills, but the second might prove invaluable for raising Rubia's lordship level quickly.

I wonder how she's doing...

It had been less than a day since our separation, yet after witnessing countless deaths, anxiety gnawed at me. Still, she had Christina, the Merchants' Guild, Yublam, and Grassmere backing her. If something were to happen, it would be an anomaly.

Isaac watched me lower my hand. "Finished? I've already found the passage."

"Then let's move on. Two levels remain. That means the odds of raw, undiluted Lurium waiting below are fifty-fifty. If the vault won't break, we'll haul it out whole," Naneow explained.

Is that wise?

I recalled the day Naneow and her guild's finest were slaughtered. The vault had been massive, enough to fit five men at once. A seamless, smooth cylinder with no cracks or seams was filled with five hundred liters of pure Lurium.

Danger was certain, but the prize was worth any risk. Naneow's eyes gleamed with that unspoken vow. None of us objected.

***

Swoosh...

The chill of metal shattered the fragile quiet within the cavernous space.

Swoosh... Swoosh...

The resonance softened and grew smoother and smoother until only a faint hum lingered if one strained to hear. Leandro walked forward, feeling the vibrations in his bones. The echoes faded against unseen walls, yet the hidden presences only grew thicker in the dark.

Silence squatted black and heavy, unmoving. Leandro did not push it aside. He simply walked. After a long march, beneath a ceiling impossibly high for human comfort, vast machines awaited him with calm inevitability.

They glowed with pulsing red circuits, like exposed veins. Only the highest councilors of the Confederation piloted the titans. They were not mere iron men, but fusions of engineering, biology, alchemy, and sorcery. The divine war-machines with magical engines were revered and feared alike.

The Empire could never have built these. They were the Confederation's most violent pursuit of mechanical absolutes. Yet, here they stood, stolen, gathered in secret. This was treachery.

A voice rolled from the steel, amplified yet pure, devoid of static. "You slew Duke Lawrence. The Blue Lions have crossed the point of no return."

"Tsk tsk... There was much the duke still had left to do. How unfortunate for them to die like this."

The voices were familiar. I identified them as the Empire's top brass, Grand Chancellor Librettril, Marshal of Arms Alterion, Chief Court Seer Pyro, Minister of Agriculture Teres, Cavalry Commander Argo, Magus Al Gul...The entire imperial high council had shown up.

Bzzt...

Lightning sparked in tandem with the titans. None of these were figureheads. Even the officials possessed enough power to resonate with those divine machines. Each one would be a formidable foe if they simply stepped down from their titan now. And their numbers climbed to ten and more.

Someone let out a low chuckle. "Mercy or suicide, the weak are still the weak."

The familiar voice belonged to the Third Swordmaster, Querti, also known as the Red Berserker — a blade never drawn unless it was to be bathed in blood, hence the name.

"If the Fourth Swordmaster dies here too, only two remain. And if the Second Swordmaster, wherever he's hiding, should fall as well... then I alone will be the Empire's sole swordmaster."