Chapter 181

The platinum armor radiated a subtle glow, adorned with a shield-shaped emblem on the chest emblazoned with crossed swords and a sun motif.

Duke Beretos of the Platinum Knights, known as “Dawn,” swung a mana-bladed mace and charged towards the “White Shark,” Cariosa.

“Disarm yourself immediately!”

Naturally, he wasn’t alone.

Accompanying him were the renowned Platinum Knights: “Dusk” Pentah, “Purity” Orsa, “Mirror” Harcheta, and “Divine” Tenitia, amongst others.

With a cruel smile, Cariosa leaped into their midst.

“Valenciaunos. Wait!”

She deflected Beretos’s mace with a strike, sending forth a gust of wind that struck his wrist hard.

Thud.

The moment the mace slipped from Beretos’s grasp, Cariosa turned and delivered a high spinning kick right to the jaw of “Dusk” Pentah.

Whack!

Flames erupted as the heel met the helm, causing Pentah to stagger momentarily.

Immediately, a gust of wind surged towards Pentah’s armpit, but “Purity” Orsa, wielding a dagger-like sword, launched eight stabs in the blink of an eye.

“How dare you commit such atrocities in the holy Imperial Palace!”

However, Cariosa repelled the assault with nine slashes of storm and gentle wind.

“I’ll be swept away by the waves I summoned.”

She unleashed a blade of wind in the style of Asenorta, sending Orsa tumbling down the stairs.

“Mirror” Harcheta and “Divine” Tenitia charged in from both sides to strike Cariosa mercilessly.

Harcheta wielded both a longsword and a dagger, while Tenitia spun her sword overhead to create a crimson disk.

Ignoring Tenitia, Cariosa lunged at Harcheta.

The storm weapon, a weighty sword nearly 8 kg, was swung like a whip as Cariosa struck Harcheta across the neck, shoulder, side, thigh, and calf.

Crash!

The explosive sound echoed multiple times until Harcheta finally crumbled, and Tenitia slashed towards Cariosa’s nape.

“Your Excellency. How dare you extend your filthy grasp towards His Highness Valenciaunos!”

Despite Cariosa being a formidable swordmaster, it was a blow she couldn’t evade or counter.

Yet, Cariosa continued to smile with ease.

Swoosh!

Boom!

The fierce “Wall of Wind” shook Tenitia’s body, while “Stone Thorns” erupted, piercing her armor and hindering her advance, and solid stone steps transformed into a bog-like trap, binding Tenitia in place.

“Ugh!”

Still, Tenitia managed to swing her sword down.

Cariosa’s armor moved like a living creature, wrapping metal shards around her neck.

The red mana blade and the metal shards collided, momentarily shining with brightness.

Buzz!

The overwhelming rebound nearly made Tenitia lose her grip on the sword, causing her to buckle backward.

Cariosa, shocked by the realization that Tenitia had endured the blow of a sword expert, smirked with glee.

“I’ll spare you.”

Whack!

She stormed up the stairs, forcefully tearing into the spaces between armpit and thigh armor.

Rolling thunder!

Looking up at the stormy sky.

* * *

“Who dares to take my sister away at will? Though I don’t particularly wish to keep her, it’s simply too precious to give to someone like you.”

Standing on the main palace roof, Sererassie began her incantation.

The massive storm cloud overhead roared with thunder, obeying the summoner and preparing to unleash divine punishment.

For a moment, she thought she caught Cariosa’s gaze.

Having subdued several guards and knights, binding Tenitia’s strike with triple magic, and finally repelling the attack, the notorious swordmaster was looking up at her.

“Yes. That place is fitting for you.”

Sererassie’s arrogance and pride even overshadowed the swordmaster.

The only one she feared was the Emperor.

“Second place? How laughable.”

“Strike.”

Crack!

A lightning bolt streaked down like a branch.

Excluding diffusion spells, it targeted only Cariosa.

Still smiling chillingly, Cariosa raised her storm towards the sky.

The deep blue mana blade glimmered fiercely, absorbing the lightning.

Boom!

A blinding flash erupted, causing several guards to roll on the ground while crying out.

“A sorceress! Do you think you can match me with such magic?”

The same lightning fell once more.

“Such magic? Your judgments and words are premature.”

Boom!

At that moment, the arm raised against the storm trembled.

Sererassie’s dual-colored eyes and her coy face bore a satisfactory smile.

She commanded the clouds she had summoned.

“I do not wish to see such a monster any longer.”

From the great storm cloud, dozens of lightning bolts surged simultaneously.

Crash!

Knights and guards clad in magical plating dove to the ground, and even Cariosa, who had stood firm like a steel statue, began to falter.

Her metal armor glowed white, and translucent scales circled around her body.

Sererassie wore a victorious smile on her haughty lips as she declared,

“Does it not seem like I’ve won?”

Boom!

From the storm cloud, ten bolts of lightning condensed into a single point, compressing into a spear that plunged into the ground.

Sererassie’s navy-blue hair was suddenly enveloped in the golden radiance of the incantation.

Watching this, the elite warlocks of the imperial court widened their eyes or gasped.

With black vertical pupils trembling in humiliation, Cariosa muttered with a voice full of feeling, “Dispel.”

In that moment, the massive storm cloud melted away like August’s snow.

A tremendous volume of mana surged back, causing Sererassie to reflexively close her eyes tight.

Eyes, nose, mouth, ears, under fingernails and toenails.

Every pore in her body burst, and blood streamed down.

Yet Sererassie withstood it and gathered the rampaging mana into her heart.

It was an extraordinary level of mana control.

Cariosa watched the navy shadow standing on the palace roof falter.

“Such remarkable talent. Yet a sorcerer with talent like yours can only grow to wield a sword like mine.”

Electricity still sparked between her sharp teeth.

“Just piercing through my armor surprised me. Tch. I hope you haven’t suffered too much. That must be Sererassie. This should be the famous ‘Infiltration’ spell. Regular blocking magic is no longer sufficient. I need to acquire a lightning-proof magic tool separately.”

The momentary distractions were interrupted by “Dusk” Pentah.

The sunset-colored mana blade descended, seemingly ready to split Cariosa in half.

Cariosa grinned widely, raising her storm and incanting.

“Let’s show something interesting.”

The infiltration technique used by Sererassie was replicated in her hands.

Covered by the infiltration spell, the electric shock and deep blue mana blade pushed Pentah’s sunset away, while a gentle breeze pierced Pentah’s armpit.

Sererassie, bleeding from the rooftop, watched with wide eyes.

‘In the meantime, did she… steal my magic? Yes. Experiences like that are not easily forgotten.’

Regaining her composure with a few deep breaths, Sererassie methodically prepared her spell, holding her staff in her left hand and forming seals with her right.

“Do you really think I’ll fall like this?”

* * *

“Valenciaunos. Let’s head east.”

Throwing a guard down the stairs, Cariosa proclaimed.

Valenciaunos smirked mischievously and shrugged as he looked down at her.

With a venomous smile, Cariosa thought to use her destructive magic to pull Valenciaunos in.

“Sure. If you wish to spill blood.”

At that moment, a voice brushed against Cariosa’s ear.

“Are you planning to imprison my lord in the castle tower where the sea breeze blows? Absolutely not.”

Tenitia, staggering, was getting back on her feet.

Cariosa looked at Tenitia as if this was fortuitous.

“Valenciaunos. If you come along willingly, I’ll spare that knight.”

Tenitia ignored Cariosa’s arrogant demeanor.

The jokes about the Platinum Knights mocking the Emperor had spread throughout the empire, and many looked down upon the Platinum Knights.

This was partly due to the leniency of the Platinum Knights.

It was meant to induce complacency.

Tenitia gripped the one-foot-long obsidian pillar she wore at her waist tightly.

Snap!

With a sound like something breaking, in the next moment, all mana within a 25-meter radius of the pillar froze.

This magic tool, a culmination of the craftsmanship from the Imperial Magic Guild, was a costly consumable that even the best mages could only produce one of in a month, despite their utmost efforts.

The mana blades of the knights shrank or vanished, and the numerous incantation circuits etched into their armor ceased to function.

“It’s a mana sealing stone.”

Cariosa chuckled as she looked down at Tenitia.

“As far as I know, Duke Valencius is more proficient in magic than in swordsmanship, right?”

“…”

“Do you think this will help? Planning to take advantage of that sorceress’s ambush from earlier?”

“…”

“Same with you. When I could only target armpits and the inside of thighs, you all got cut down, yet now you want to make your magical armor into scrap metal? It’s become harder to suppress injuries now that you can hardly use mana… Ah, I see. That’s why the armor feels heavier.”

Though sturdy knight armor originally weighs over 50 kg, it had felt as light as under 10 kg due to “Lightening” spells.

With mana frozen, that spell ceased to function, causing it to revert to its original weight.

Thus, it was only natural that the guards and knights struggled to stand properly in their injured state while wearing it.

Tenitia strained to lift herself up, removing her heavy helm altogether.

Without the spell extending her field of view, seeing anything through the narrow visor of her helm was impossible.

Her sweat-soaked, noble face met the summer breeze, and her red hair fluttered.

Cariosa sent genuine admiration for Tenitia’s piercing gaze.

“If you were born in the East, it would’ve been truly wonderful. Ah, it’s a secret that I said this. My knights are very jealous.”

Turning her back, she walked towards Valenciaunos.

Finally standing before him, her expression resembled a shark gazing at a piece of meat, looking slightly intoxicated.

“No one died, did they? Did I do well?”

Valenciaunos nodded with a bitter smile.

Though one of the guards was writhing on the ground in distress, none had died.

“Good. Thank you.”

Valenciaunos reached out and embraced Cariosa.

In an instant, she didn’t understand what had just happened.

The platinum hair, golden eyes, and sweet-scented red lips were right before her eyes.

The face glowing like pearls flushed crimson in an instant.

Cariosa smiled.

Her expression was full of the victorious pride of a high noble, swinging between appetite, lust, and a sense of conquest.

Valenciaunos spoke in a low, deep voice.

“As you know, the Emperor won’t come out. Having seen this, for the dignity of the imperial family, I must behead you, but then there would be no high noble to fight the Undersea People in the East.”

Cariosa grinned like a shark about to feast.

“Exactly.”

“Actually, the expectations of the Duke pleased me. The Duke is beautiful, strong, and wealthy, and showed me favor. The more the authority of my Emperor stabilizes, the more I’m left floating. Yes. The Duke is originally too good for me. I should be begging her to wed me.”

“Somehow, that sounds suspicious?”

“But even if I end up floating, I’ve decided to remain in the capital. My Emperor is here.”

“Who gave you that authority?”

“If there’s one thing I want you to remember… I hope you and my Emperor can be good friends with me. I mean it.”

Valenciaunos’s voice trembled for a moment.

‘In this life, I hope you will witness the fortieth year of your reign.’

The unspoken words melted in their gaze, and the Bandit Duke blinked, his serpent-like eyes closing and opening.

What she saw from a distance that felt near was as if the sun was setting and rising.

No matter what, she thought she would capture that faded, sun-like royal family.

In that instant.

BANG!

The gunshot of the arrow echoed.