The news that Victor Dreadpool had betrayed them spread quickly.
Verom, who first brought it up, spoke as if he had expected it all along — calm, almost indifferent.
Not surprising, Ludger thought the same.
He knew better than anyone that the mad scientist Victor was never a man who could serve loyally under anyone.
Still, one question lingered in Ludger’s mind.
“You just let him go?”
He turned to Suruna.
Though Suruna had always ruled the surviving First Orders with a laissez-faire approach — never interfering with their actions — that didn’t mean he ignored them completely.
And among them, Victor was different.
If anyone warranted constant surveillance, it was him — the one whose influence stretched across the entire continent.
“That bastard would shake hands with demons if it meant running his experiments, then turn around and praise the gods the next moment. He’ll flip sides like a coin whenever it suits him.”
“Wait— are you saying he’s working with the Lumenis Order?”
That revelation drew a shocked reaction from everyone around.
Tenaron, who knew Victor’s work better than most, was especially baffled.
“The Order took him in? That lunatic?”
He could only say that because he didn’t know what had happened inside the Holy Nation.
The Lumenis Order might have been corrupt, but as far as Tenaron understood, it was still — at its core — a religion centered on faith.
But that was his mistake.
“It’s the other way around,” Suruna said, shaking his head.
“The other way around...?”
“The Order didn’t take Victor in. There was nothing to ‘take in’ — because he was theirs from the very beginning.”
Ludger’s eyes narrowed as the image of the experiments in the Inner Castle flashed through his mind.
“So that’s why...”
The monstrous prisoner, the long-armed masked man, the grotesquely small figure — and the brutal human modifications performed on the bloodline of the previous Holy Sovereign, Benedict.
“Victor Dreadpool... I wondered where such a mad scientist suddenly appeared from. If he’d belonged to the Lumenis Order from the start, everything makes sense.”
“Wait a second,” Helia interjected, frowning. “Then that doesn’t add up. Why would someone like him leave the Order just to become a First Order?”
“Exactly,” she continued, “say he was born in Bretus — the evidence from those experiments proves that much. Why would a man like that need to join us?”
“To conduct experiments the Holy Nation wouldn’t allow him to,” Suruna replied flatly.
“That’s my mistake,” he admitted. “I never thought that lunatic could have been a product of the Holy Nation in the first place.”
Within Bretus, countless experiments had been carried out — and at the core of all of them was Victor Dreadpool.
Using fragments of the Saint to fabricate false Saints.
Turning failed creations into priests.
Transforming criminals and the unwanted into monstrous executioners fit for war.
Even that wasn’t enough to satisfy his ambition.
“After leaving the Holy Nation, he continued his secret experiments across the continent,” Suruna went on.
When Bretus eventually closed its gates to the outside world, Victor took it as a sign — the perfect opportunity to accelerate his research.
Bretus had forbidden all scientific, magical, and black magic experiments.
So he merged all three.
Through black magic, he researched cryptids and engineered humans into werewolves.
Through science, he developed gunpowder immune to the Silence of Fire, and created a new form of golem — the Liquid Golem.
Through magic, he crafted artifacts and built secret laboratories across the land.
He had, quite literally, spread his influence across the continent like a plague.
“I took him in for his talent,” Suruna said bitterly, “and he turned out to be a double agent.”
It wasn’t surprising that he hadn’t noticed.
Even after joining the First Orders, Victor had never engaged in espionage or politics — only research.
He had simply used Suruna’s resources to continue his work, and now that he was done, he’d switched sides once again.
“Better this way,” Ludger said quietly. “I never liked fighting alongside that man to begin with.”
Now, with Victor as their enemy, he’d finally have a proper reason — and the chance — to kill him.
“The problem is,” he added, “where is he now?”
“Nowhere on the continent,” Suruna answered. “He’s cleared out every one of his old labs. It’s as if he knew this was coming.”
If Suruna said that, there was a good chance it was true.
“You’re certain?”
“One of my powers lets me track people remotely,” he explained. “I can keep a constant eye on certain targets. I’d attached a kind of ‘eye’ to Victor long ago — but now, there’s nothing. If he were still somewhere on the continent, I would’ve seen him.”
“So you’re saying Victor’s not on the continent.”
“That’s right. Which leaves only two possibilities.”
One — Isla Machina, the mechanical island that drifted across the sea.
But Suruna quickly dismissed it; he had visited recently, and if Victor were there, he would’ve known.
“Then that leaves only one place.”
Their eyes turned in the same direction — toward the Citadel of Galahad.
“The Holy Nation of Bretus. He must be hiding somewhere within that fortress.”
“Even when the Holy Sovereign’s bloodline is fighting on the front lines, he stays buried inside? Seems the Holy Nation holds him in higher regard than we thought. Or maybe he’s just doing whatever he pleases.”
“Enemies are closing in from outside, and yet they’re keeping a threat like him hidden within... how unpleasant.”
Alex stepped forward. “Then shouldn’t we just drag the rat out from inside?”
“I’d like to,” Ludger said, “but we still haven’t found a way into the inner fortress.”
“Hmm. What if we just blow it up?” Alex suggested, a bit too casually.
That drew a furious reaction — from all people, Seridan.
“What nonsense! Didn’t you listen earlier? The citadel itself is one giant mechanism! If we destroy the wrong part, we might ruin everything!”
Even Alex, who had expected her to suggest blowing things up first, broke a nervous sweat.
“I-I was just saying.”
“There are things you don’t just say!”
Seridan's eyes blazed as she turned to Ludger.
“Leave it to me, sir. I’ll analyze the citadel’s structure and find where that insane scientist is hiding.”
Seeing her determination, Ludger couldn’t bring himself to refuse.
She was right — if they damaged the mechanism carelessly, they might lose their only path inward.
“Then our tasks split three ways,” Ludger decided. “We’ll need to divide our forces accordingly.”
It wasn’t just about holding off enemies anymore — they needed a route to the inner sanctum above all.
And the key to that path lay with Ludger himself.
According to Deana’s words... only those in deep communion with divine power can enter that secret passage.
That inner sanctum — that was the true heart of Galahad Citadel, the reason for its existence.
If what lies inside is truly there... then I...
Suruna’s gaze turned distant for a brief moment, but he quickly brushed the thought aside.
Setadel noticed, but chose not to comment.
Both he and Suruna knew they had to focus on the task at hand.
“Seridan, locate Victor. He won’t be able to enter the inner sanctum himself, so he’s likely somewhere within the inner castle.”
“Of course! Leave it to me!”
“As for the rest, I need you to hold off the enemies that’ll soon be arriving from outside.”
It was, in truth, the most dangerous role.
“You don’t need to throw your lives away. Just hold them back — buy time.”
After all, this was an egg trying to resist a boulder.
No matter how powerful their current forces were, the united armies of the continent vastly outnumbered and outmatched them.
The difference in raw strength was laughable — over a hundredfold.
A head-on clash would mean instant annihilation.
But they didn’t need to win.
All they had to do was delay the inevitable.
Dig in, set traps, buy time — that was enough.
“Hey, Professor,” Caroline said, crossing her arms.
“From the way you’re talking, sounds like you’ve got some kind of plan to flip the whole situation.”
“I can’t be certain,” Ludger said. “Just... a possibility.”
A risky gamble.
And it would be Caroline and her mercenaries who had to stake their lives on it.
But Caroline only smirked.
“Well, better a slim chance than none at all. Still, there’s one more problem.”
She looked around at the assembled forces.
“I’ll admit everyone here’s strong. And with Bretus’s geography — all those waterways and checkpoints before reaching the citadel — it won’t be easy for an army to advance. We can pull off a decent guerrilla defense... at least on the ground.”
A sharp observation.
Ground forces would have to cross complex waterways, slowing them down — but the real problem was the sky.
“Even if we hold the ground, they can just fly over with airships and drop troops straight down. The three checkpoint cities will be worthless. Our geographical advantage disappears.”
Which meant they’d need a way to ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ fight in the air.
And the only one capable of that right now was Caroline herself.
“If the Golden Monarch’s cannons can shoot down their airships one by one, that’d help — but they’re not idiots. They won’t be flying standard models.”
Military airships were equipped with powerful defenses.
The Golden Monarch’s triple main cannons might bring one down — but that was assuming one-on-one combat.
“According to reports,” Caroline continued, “there are at least two thousand enemy airships in the sky.”
Two thousand.
Each one heavily armed, carrying entire platoons within.
That alone was enough firepower to erase a nation from the map.
And that was just their aerial forces.
Even if they could hold the ground, how could they possibly stop the sky?
Before Ludger could answer, Suruna spoke.
“That won’t be a problem,” he said calmly. “It’s about time... he woke up.”
“What?” Caroline frowned. “What are you talking about?”
He? Some individual? How could a single being stop two thousand airships?
Everyone was thinking the same thing — until one person suddenly tensed.
“...Wind,” whispered Violeta.
Her senses, attuned to air currents, felt it first — something strange.
The breeze brushing her cheek wasn’t normal.
“A pure wind is coming.”
A pure wind? Wind was wind — what did that even mean?
Even she didn’t fully understand it. There was simply no clearer way to describe what she felt.
“Yeah,” Suruna said, smiling faintly. “It’s about time. I made sure to wake him up myself.”
Overhead, the sky grew dark.
Thunder rumbled within gathering storm clouds.
A massive bank of clouds stretched across the heavens, thick enough to reach the stratosphere.
Lightning flashed within, illuminating a colossal shape hidden inside.
“What the hell is that?”
“Am I... dreaming?”
Even those who saw it with their own eyes could hardly believe it.
At the heart of the storm was something vast — something with wings.
Many wings, unfurling across the sky.
And though the tempest raged above, the citadel below remained untouched — not a single gust reached them.
“Ah,” Suruna murmured, smiling in recognition. “So you came, after all.”
The storm froze.
Time itself seemed to stop — clouds halted their spin, thunder fell silent.
Then—
FWOOOOOOSH!
The heart of the clouds split open like a curtain, and the being within finally revealed itself.
“The Elemental Lord of Wind.”
After a long slumber, the Lord of Wind had returned — descending upon the Holy Nation of Bretus.