Terrina’s expression hardened.
It had been the same stance, the same strength, the same swing.
She had done it that way, and Alex had mirrored her like a reflection in a glass—exactly.
But the result was not the same.
‘I... was pushed back?’
Was it because Alex was a man and she was a woman—some difference in physical capability?
No.
Knights, regardless of gender, possessed physical abilities far beyond ordinary humans.
Among them, Terrina—a master-rank knight who wielded the massive, heavy Zweihänder—was far stronger than most.
Alex, on the other hand, had always leaned more toward technique than raw power.
In a head-on clash between the two, the outcome should have been in Terrina’s favor every single time.
It should have been.
‘You’re pushing me back... with my own swordsmanship?’
A strange feeling she could not describe welled up in Terrina.
‘Captain Lutus...’
Why was that memory surfacing now?
The day Lutus gathered her, Passius, Johan, and Leonhardt for a sparring session.
That day, Lutus had looked at the other commanders with eyes full of dissatisfaction.
He withdrew at the end as if slightly appeased, but there had been compromise and resignation in that gaze.
Why had he looked that way?
Terrina recalled the information that Lutus had stopped by Rederbelk before that.
Rederbelk. Royal Street. Oliver Twist. And Alex, who had been working under him.
“I see now.”
That day, Lutus had merely been watching.
Watching a seed of talent that had never existed before.
“It was you.”
Terrina thought she now understood what Lutus had been thinking when he faced Alex that day.
When he saw a seed that could grow into something unknown, he must have hesitated.
Should he crush it now—
—or help it grow?
‘A peerless genius born in an environment that could only breed resentment toward the Empire. A future threat... yet, as a fellow knight, he must have been curious to see how far that talent would go.’
And she also knew what Lutus must have chosen.
A man like Lutus Wardot never decided based on his own convenience.
Instead, he posed a challenge to his opponent—
—and then simply watched, to judge whether the other was truly worthy.
And now, Alex was not only alive but wielding Tempest, Lutus’s own technique.
That could only mean one thing: he had passed Lutus’s trial and earned his acknowledgment.
‘So in the end... a monster has been born.’
But that monster was not the only one.
On the opposite side of the First Gate City—
Far away, in the corner of her vision, blue current-like aura and cold, freezing aura were colliding violently.
Johan Oceanus and Leonhardt Kimbell.
The two were fighting with everything they had.
Yet no victor had emerged, which meant their opponent was formidable as well.
But Terrina had no time to worry about them.
Right now, Alex—who had not only stolen her swordsmanship but surpassed her with it—was the immediate threat before her eyes.
“Not looking too good, are you? That’s not how the Empire’s Lord Protector should look.”
Alex sneered at her stiffened expression.
Terrina tried her best to compose herself, but it was difficult.
Even she, who had always stayed calm and rational through every horrific incident, could not easily maintain her composure now.
Because being pushed back meant that Alex’s technique outstripped hers in perfection.
He had taken the swordsmanship she had honed and refined for years—
—and in just a single day, not only copied it flawlessly but used it even better.
It was a devastating psychological blow.
And because she was a master-rank knight, it hit her even harder.
To reach this height, she had poured in effort beyond anyone else’s and possessed extraordinary talent; she rarely faced walls she could not overcome.
Perhaps, if this had been before she met Lutus Wardot—
—she might have broken down here, losing the will to fight.
“Shut up, you servant of the Demon King.”
So what if he had «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» perfected her swordsmanship?
That changed nothing about what she had to do.
“I’ll defeat you and stop the Demon King. That’s all there is to it.”
“Really?”
“What do you mean?”
“If you truly meant to defeat me, you wouldn’t be fighting alone like this. You’d be using every method, every means at your disposal.”
Alex’s eyes gleamed sharply.
He saw through the truth Terrina had been subconsciously hiding.
“That swordsman fighting over at the Second Gate City is the same. Flashy display, but he’s not trying to finish his opponent. Almost like he wants to show off that he’s fighting.”
“......”
“They say everyone fighting in a war has their own story, but your side seems different. What are you scheming? Or wait—looks like you’re not under brainwashing, are you?”
Terrina didn’t answer, but her silence was answer enough.
“I see. So this battle isn’t entirely moving under the will of the Holy Sovereign, is it?”
Terrina was, strictly speaking, not a complete enemy.
But she wasn’t an ally either.
Even defeating her here wouldn’t change the tide of the war.
Alex thought for a moment.
Dragging this out would do him no good.
While Terrina held him here, other enemies would breach the First Gate City and reach the fortress.
‘Seems the youngest is holding the line with his friend for now...’
But against sheer numbers, they wouldn’t last long.
He needed to take down as many foes here as possible.
‘Then I’ll just have to finish this fast.’
As Alex made up his mind, a chilling killing intent rose from his body.
His sword, Copy Cat, was wrapped in ashen aura as it drew in Terrina’s Giant Killer.
Terrina tried to resist, but that pulling force wasn’t something strength alone could counter.
“What! You’re using swordsmanship without even changing its form?”
“There’s no reason I should limit this sword to just your style, is there?”
Giant Killer was merely optimized for Terrina’s techniques; it didn’t mean other sword arts couldn’t be used with it.
The Tempest he unleashed through it proved that.
Where the original Tempest was precise and refined, the Giant Killer’s version was rough and ferocious—a crude storm.
It lacked delicacy but overflowed with power.
The fact that Terrina could barely stay upright was proof enough.
A massive gravitational pull formed around Alex, sucking everything toward him.
“Don’t hold it against me. Fighting each other’s what this is, right? And don’t worry—I’ll send your subordinates along with you.”
Terrina jammed Giant Killer into the ground, trying to anchor herself, but she couldn’t completely resist being dragged toward him.
“Kh...!”
At this rate, she’d be sucked into that vortex.
‘If I fall here, the entire Nightcrawler Knights will collapse.’
No matter how fiercely they fought, Alex could sweep them away with ease.
‘I’ll have to detonate my aura to create distance.’
It would cause internal damage, but she had no other choice.
The moment Terrina pulled Giant Killer free—
Flash!
A pillar of light fell from the sky.
A column of condensed divine power targeted Alex’s head precisely at the center of the vortex.
Alex abandoned his assault on Terrina and moved to intercept the beam.
The whirlwind of ashen aura clashed with the pillar, scattering light particles in all directions.
“Divine power?”
“Who...?”
The Nightcrawler Knights, who hadn’t dared intervene in this battle, looked around in shock at the sudden intruder.
No one had just arrived—they’d been here, hidden from the start.
And the identity of that intruder made them freeze.
“You... what the—what happened to you?”
“Kaiyen, your body—it’s glowing.”
“E-Elisa! When did you start wielding divine power?”
It was the Nightcrawler Knights themselves radiating divine light.
“What...”
Terrina was stunned.
Not all of them—barely ten among the full squad—but the fact that there were any at all was what mattered.
Knights who wielded aura—veteran Security Bureau operatives—were now using divine power.
‘Don’t tell me...’
An uneasy thought flashed through Terrina’s mind.
“Hm. So the moment their commander’s in danger, they show their true colors. Guess they’ve been watching from the start.”
Alex muttered, as if he’d expected this.
Terrina bit her lip. She had considered the possibility that someone within the Bureau had been brainwashed—but not like this.
‘So they weren’t just mentally controlled—they were granted divine power as well?’
No. Granted wasn’t the right word. It was something else entirely.
Those using holy arts had clouded eyes—no light of reason remained.
“They’re being remotely controlled like puppets.”
“How can you tell?”
“I can see it.”
With his fully opened eyes, Alex could see faint threads extending beyond that divine power.
“The Church really is relentless. Using the Nightcrawler Knights as chess pieces? Judging by your face, you didn’t know?”
“......”
“So you suspected, but not to this extent.”
Alex gave a faint smirk, then swung his sword toward Terrina.
She blocked instinctively, but the impact sent her flying back.
Landing and regaining her stance, she realized his strike had been different.
‘He pushed me away on purpose?’
Meanwhile, the ten brainwashed knights surrounded Alex, forming a golden circle of divine light over their black uniforms.
Glowing halos shone above their heads.
“I didn’t expect it to come to this. Never wanted it either.”
Alex spoke softly, almost regretfully.
His gaze swept over the knights—
—and froze when it reached the last one.
“...Enya.”
His former lover.
Though they had parted ways, she still lingered in his heart.
Now she stood there, expressionless, eyes fixed on him—
—a radiant halo above her head, divine power swirling around her body.
Her sword pointed at him.
Ten swords in total, all infused with divine light.
Alex’s eyes dimmed, a trace of bitterness settling in them.
“Maybe we were destined to fight from the very start.”
Perhaps there could have been another way—a peaceful conversation, some other resolution.
But Alex did not choose it.
Because now, he had comrades he had to protect.
He couldn’t betray his current allies for the sake of an old memory.
Did he really think he wouldn’t meet Enya on this battlefield?
‘Of course not.’
He had known the Nightcrawler Knights would join this holy war.
The Empire was marching; its subordinate order would not stay behind.
And yet, knowing that, he had still quietly hoped—
—that they would never cross paths.
The battlefield was vast, the war fought on countless fronts.
If they just fought in different places, perhaps they wouldn’t have to face each other.
“That was just my greed. All my greed.”
Alex restored Copy Cat to its original form and took his stance.
His eyes shone colder than before.
“Now that you’ve revealed your true colors, I’ll have to give it my all.”
At that overwhelming intent, even the brainwashed knights trembled—
their bodies reacting instinctively in fear.
“Otherwise, you’ll all die.”