Kays Translations

Chapter 50: The Battle of the Skyscraper [Part 2]

The sudden arrival of Ren and his companions drew a startled cry from the far side of the rooftop garden.

“Oh?”

An obsidian-like monument stood among beds of brightly colored flowers, lending that corner of the garden an almost sacred atmosphere. A man in a jet-black robe stood before it, clutching an ornate staff.

His head was shaved like a monk’s, and intricate tattoos covered his scalp. His eyes had golden irises overlaid with reddish-black patterns, without a trace of white. Combined with his gaunt face and unblinking stare, they gave him a reptilian appearance. He was extraordinarily tall—nearly twice Ren’s height—but moved with his back curved like a stalking cat.

“Well, well. I thought my eyes might be deceiving me, but are you not the Third Prince?”

Radius had finally brought his breathing under control. Ignoring the exhaustion in his legs, he stepped forward. The knights of the Lion’s Holy Office formed a line before him, while Ren stood at their side.

“Bishop Lenidus.”

Ren did not recognize the name.

“Oh! You remember me?”

“How could I forget a man who once served as a priest in the Imperial Capital’s Grand Temple?”

“Hoho… I am honored. Five years have passed since I left the capital, yet Your Highness still remembers me.”

As Ren listened, he began to understand who the man was. What he could not understand was why a former priest had become a member of the Demon King cult.

Radius voiced the same question.

“You were once a renowned priest who served the Chief God Elfen. Why did you sink so low as to join the Demon King cult?”

“Low?” Lenidus repeated.

“Yes. Surely you understand what it means to serve the Demon King.”

Lenidus straightened his hunched back. He was even taller than Ren had first thought, perhaps because his blood was not entirely human.

“I merely opened my eyes! Elfen is the true fool!”

“What foolishness are you speaking?”

“Do I truly need to explain the greatness of the Demon King to a prince who dismisses him as a fool?”

No matter what Radius asked, Lenidus showed no intention of answering. Instead, he smirked and advanced slowly while his followers spread around Ren and Radius.

“Your Highness… the magic stone in the Grand Clock Tower is still the old one. Why?”

“You already know the answer. We discovered your intentions and waited for you here.”

“Then why is the defensive power created by the illustrious Mirim Altia absent as well?”

“Oh? You noticed.”

Ren frowned. Licia had told him that a defensive force protected both the Imperial Capital and Elendil. Lenidus’s words did not match that explanation.

“But there is no reason to tell you,” Radius continued. “I have no desire to explain anything to a man foolish enough to worship the Demon King.”

He deliberately returned Lenidus’s own words. The former priest stopped, and the cultists surrounding him halted as well.

“Very well. We need only take Your Highness before our cult leader and question you there. That will be more convenient.”

Their cult leader?

Radius’s brow tightened. Ren also felt the phrase stir a vague memory, though he could not yet place it.

Lenidus raised one arm. At his signal, the cultists closed in. The knights who had accompanied Ren and Radius stepped forward to meet them.

Lenidus remained behind his followers, smiling without fear.

“Your Highness,” one knight said, “these men are stronger than those below.”

“So it seems. Even so, capture them alive whenever possible.”

Radius did not issue that difficult order from a place of safety. He had entered the battlefield alongside everyone else.

“If death comes for you tonight, it will come for me as well. If none of you objects to sharing that fate, then show me the swords you inherited from the Lion King!”

For practitioners of the Mighty Sword Style, there could be no greater honor than hearing a member of the imperial family declare that he would share their danger.

The knights answered with a roar. They drew their blades and charged.

Steel struck steel. Wind magic tore through the night. Flames danced in midair and warped the view beyond them. In the space of a heartbeat, the carefully maintained rooftop garden became a battlefield.

Radius watched the clash for a moment, then addressed Ren.

“Ren.”

His voice was unexpectedly calm.

“There is something I must apologize for.”

“To me?”

“You remember my skill—and the occasion when we shook hands after our second meeting.”

Ren immediately understood.

“Equipment endowed with magical resistance interferes severely with Analysis. You were not wearing anything of that kind when we shook hands, so I accidentally caught a glimpse of your power.”

It had not been deliberate. Radius had offered his hand out of genuine friendship, not with the intention of examining Ren.

“What did you see?”

“Very little. In truth, what I sensed frightened me. The moment our hands touched, I perceived a power far beyond anything I could place within the realm of ordinary humanity.”

Radius must have touched upon Magic Sword Summoning, but he had failed to understand its nature. All he could grasp was its overwhelming scale.

“Because I could not comprehend that power, however, I came to understand something else.”

While the knights battled the cultists, Lenidus remained near the far end of the garden, reaching toward one of the Grand Clock Tower’s mechanisms.

“Once, a pillar of light rose from the Clausel domain and pierced the heavens. It appeared around the same time as the incident involving Viscount Given.”

Ren said nothing.

“That light was visible not merely from the Imperial Capital. It reached the Sky Continent, crossed the Elfen Ocean, and was reportedly seen even on the western continent.”

Radius looked directly at him.

“Ulysses has continued to conceal his daughter’s power. I understand why. Revealing her strength would also expose her weaknesses. Even so, his behavior after the Baldor Mountains has long troubled me.”

The distance between the two narrowed by half a step.

The knights around them continued to overpower their opponents, allowing Radius to speak without taking his eyes from Ren.

“The Baldor Mountains suffered destruction on an unprecedented scale. I cannot believe the Demon King cult alone caused it. If they possessed that much power, they would have attacked the Imperial Capital directly. Therefore, something else must have awakened there.”

The clash of battle continued around them.

Then the Third Prince stated his conclusion.

“The Red Dragon Asval—the creature believed to have slept beneath the Baldor Mountains.”

Ren could no longer pretend Radius was merely speculating.

“If Asval awakened, the destruction makes sense. If Ulysses’s daughter possesses the power he is so desperate to hide, the rest also falls into place.”

“I still don’t understand,” Ren said.

“Which part?”

“Who defeated Asval? He was a legendary dragon. The Seven Heroes had to join forces to bring him down.”

“The answer is obvious.”

Radius closed one hand into a fist and pressed it lightly against Ren’s chest.

“You did, Ren.”

His conviction did not waver.

“You escaped the Baldor Mountains with Fiona and survived. You are the key connecting that disaster to everything that happened with Viscount Given.”

Ren offered no answer. It was not a question he could answer lightly, so he turned away and looked toward Lenidus.

“If you do not wish to speak of it, I will not ask again,” Radius said.

He withdrew his fist at once.

“But this much cannot be denied: you faced an enemy greater than any before it, risked your life, and returned alive.”

“And what do you intend to do with that knowledge?”

“Nothing. I merely believe tonight’s battle should be different from all the others.”

Ren looked back at him.

Radius’s gaze remained fixed upon Lenidus.

“I do not want another desperate struggle in which you must wager your life simply to survive. You already declared what you would do tonight. This time, you will be the one who overwhelms the enemy.”

Ren remembered his own words.

I will become the lion who crushes every enemy.

He had won his previous battles, but only by placing his life on the edge each time. That was unnecessary tonight.

Tonight, all he needed to do was display the power he already possessed.

“Edgar told me your mastery of the Mighty Sword Style may still fall short of his,” Radius continued, “but that if the two of you fought with your lives at stake, even he could not predict the result.”

“I am honored he would say so.”

“Enough modesty.”

Radius called two knights back to his side, then faced Ren.

“Show us the true power of the lion you claim to be.”

Their objective was to capture Lenidus alive.

Ren had come prepared to accomplish that at any cost. At Radius’s words, he took one step forward, then another.

“Will you clear the way for me, Ren—my comrade-in-arms?”

“I will, Radius—my comrade-in-arms.”

The pressure spilling from Ren caused both sides to falter.

The knights immediately understood and withdrew toward Radius, leaving Ren room to move. The cultists closed ranks, raising swords and staffs.

“Kill him!”

“Kill him!”

Wind, fire, and ice magic converged upon Ren from every direction.

The knights showed no concern. They remembered the day Edgar had tested him.

This was nothing compared with the Red Dragon’s power.

Even attacks that could not ordinarily be broken by physical force held no terror for Ren. None possessed enough strength to make him afraid.

He lifted the Iron Magic Sword almost casually and looked toward the clear night sky.

“The stars are beautiful tonight.”

Then he swept the blade horizontally.

The air erupted.

The pressure generated by the swing became a raging wave that collided with the mass of incoming magic. A brilliant flash followed as every spell shattered.

Radius and the knights instinctively closed their eyes. When they opened them again, Ren stood ahead of them with two swords in his hands.

Radius shuddered.

“Ha… I have never heard of a boy your age using Mighty Sword Art: Star Slaying.”

It was the Art Edgar had demonstrated before Ren the previous summer.

Among practitioners of the Mighty Sword Style, mastering Star Slaying marked one as a Swordmaster. In other schools, that degree of attainment would be equivalent to the rank of Sword Saint—the same level Licia had reached in the games.

Radius could not conceal his astonishment at Ren’s rate of growth.

Yet Ren’s progress had not come from talent alone. He had survived repeated battles to the death, experiences ordinary people would never know, and had endured training few adults could withstand. Those efforts had begun while he was still very young.

The qualities and skills he had cultivated for years were now flowering through the Mighty Sword Style.

Power gathered in Ren’s hands.

“Magic of that level cannot reach me.”

He could defeat every one of them.

The frightened cultists unleashed another barrage, but not a single spell touched him.

Ren vanished forward like the wind.

“Oh?” Lenidus murmured.

The point of the Iron Magic Sword was already aimed at him.

There was no need to waste time clearing away the weaker enemies first. Ren would bring down their leader immediately.

He no longer required anyone to stand at the front for him.

Ren now possessed the strength to advance according to his own will.

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