The Emperor Was Smiling
Parsus staggered backward, his balance shattered. Dense residual mana rippled across his chest plate.
"…!"
The light blazing from within his helm flickered wildly, unrestrained.
He had been driven roughly thirteen meters when, without warning—
Gooooong!
Reddish-brown mana erupted from his armor in a surging tide. The burst of force realigned his body and restored his footing. His boots found the ground.
Drrrrrk—!
Parsus ground to a hard stop, carving two deep furrows into the floor. Tile fragments sprayed along the gouges.
But there was no time to catch his breath.
He swept his greatsword in a long horizontal arc at once.
Buwang—!
A crushing wall of wind pressure scoured everything ahead of him. A vast Sword Thread sliced through the air with a chilling edge.
"…"
Leon watched the oncoming blade path with unhurried eyes. Then, as casually as plucking a piece of conveyor-belt sushi, he struck at a single point along its line.
Pukwaaang!
The Sword Threads tangled and birthed an enormous repulsive force. Blinding colors thrashing in a frenzy. But the only thing that rebounded was the reddish-brown greatsword. Just as Leon had tapped it, the weapon's trajectory bent as if the laws of physics had simply given up.
Tdeudeudeuk—
Parsus's arms were dragged somewhere he never intended them to go. He had lost control of his own blade.
Through the gaping opening that left him exposed, he sensed Leon lunging in to tear into him.
Kkuung!
In desperation, Parsus stomped down into a force stance. The floor shattered, and a shockwave exploded outward in a wide radius—a shield that would buy a cornered knight time.
…If Leon hadn't already anticipated exactly that.
"?!"
Only then did Parsus see that Leon's feet were already slightly off the ground.
Tuuung!
The shockwave caught Leon's lifted body and hurled him high into the air. He vented mana like a thruster, adding still more propulsion.
Peobeobeobeong—!
"…"
Wreathed in blue mana dust, Leon drifted through the air and looked down. His eyes met Parsus's as the knight snapped his head upward in alarm. Power was already gathering from the man's feet all the way to the crown of his head, a skyward cleaving strike prepared with startling speed.
He's cut down a few drakes before, hasn't he.
The motion was far too practiced. This was a man who had hunted flying enemies more than a few times.
The greatsword came surging up from below—a blade path wide enough to blanket the entire radius of air Leon occupied. He needed to answer it.
No. I'll just end it here.
No point in dragging this out.
Leon had already found the knight's weakness. Blood roared through his veins and his head spun with razor clarity. His concentration, elevated to a dizzying height, sharpened his combat sense to its absolute limit.
There.
In the space between heartbeats, he found the infinitesimal point.
Buuuuuuung…!
His sword trembled finely and sang out a clear ringing cry.
Jecheon Sword Style — Fourth Form
Grand Radiant Thunderbolt
Leon became a single bolt of lightning and drove himself into the earth.
———Kwarrrreung!!!
An unseasonable flash of thunder lit the banquet hall. A colossal burst of light blanked the spectators' vision for an instant.
Parsus's greatsword crumpled under the thunderbolt without mercy—as though the heavens themselves were rebuking him for daring to cut the sky. From the greatsword the impact traveled in sequence: head, shoulders, waist, knees. Overwhelming force crushed him flat.
Kkung!
Parsus collapsed onto one knee. The greatsword he had raised overhead trembled on the brink of giving way.
"…Mm."
Kkuguguguk—!
Leon, pressing him down with steady weight, let out a low hum.
Hadn't he said it wouldn't end until the man was unconscious?
"You brought this on yourself."
Leon adjusted his grip and laid the blade flat, turning the face of the sword toward his opponent rather than the edge. Then he began to thrash Parsus with it like a club.
Kwang! Kwang-kwang! Kwang-kwang-kwang-kwang-kwang!!
Up. Down. Like hammering a nail. Like pounding rice cake in a mortar. The sword traveled a path of almost insulting simplicity.
The results were anything but simple.
Every time the flat of the blade connected, Parsus's body and armor crumpled. A waterfall of successive blows. He was driven deeper and deeper into the floor.
"Ghhhk!"
Parsus strained with everything he had and still could not break free. It felt as though a mountain were falling on him. Armor arts and protective techniques meant nothing at all.
Kwagwagwagwagwagwang—!!!
Residual mana erupted like fireworks, dyeing the surroundings a vivid blue. Parsus's reddish-brown mana was all but swallowed by Leon's azure, barely visible. The shockwaves radiating from them battered the barrier in front of the spectator stands. Mages scrambled to reinforce it.
The detonations grew louder. Light scattered in every direction. The one-sided violence only intensified.
"Hwaaaaaaah!"
Parsus, who had been taking blow after blow without pause, let out a long battle cry. For an instant his energy surged like an active volcano.
"…"
Nothing dramatic changed.
Damn, he holds up well.
Leon simply repeated the motion with bored indifference. His speed and power never slackened—if anything, they only increased.
Kwang-kwang-kwang-kwang-kwang-kwang—!!
Parsus took the beating helplessly. He had been driven so deep into the floor that a little further and he would drop straight into the basement.
Then—
Kwachang!
Leon's sword shattered like glass. The Sword Thread dissolved, leaving only a bare hilt in his hand.
"…!"
Perhaps he took it for a golden opportunity—Parsus's fading eyes flared back to life.
Into those brightened eyes, Leon's fist came flying.
Kwaang!
A punch without a single instant of hesitation. Parsus's head snapped backward before he could even react.
Leon had known the sword was about to break and had prepared for it. A swordsman of his caliber would hardly fail to notice the state of his own blade. Hairline fractures had started running through the sword body around the fifth blow.
Leon felt a twinge of guilt.
Ah. This was a borrowed sword.
Even a treasured blade hadn't deserved quite this rough treatment. He'd used it like a blunt instrument, completely against its design. He'd have to compensate House Asonia later.
Kwagwagwagwagwagwang!
With the shattered sword gone, Leon wrapped mana around his fists and kept pounding Parsus—mounted on top of him, hammering the outer surface of the helm.
"———!!"
A monstrous noise hummed from inside the helmet. It didn't sound like a groan, exactly, but whatever the man was saying was impossible to make out.
Surely he's not declaring surrender?
Leon continued the merciless barrage of punches. Parsus flailed his limbs in resistance, but it was no more effective than a baby thrashing in a crib.
Kudeudeudeudeudeuk—!
Still, the man was disgustingly solid. Landing this many clean hits and still having him hold on was genuinely impressive. There was a reason knights trained armor arts and bothered to put on full plate.
Leon briefly considered peeling the helmet off, then abandoned the idea. It would be fixed in place specifically so it couldn't come free easily—and if his hands were occupied with that, he risked a counterattack.
Better to just keep driving impact through the helmet until the man blacked out. The high durability that was a knight's greatest strength, in this situation, only meant getting beaten for that much longer.
"I've heard the Imperial Palace basement is full of secrets. Let's find out if the rumors are true."
Leon meant it sincerely. At this rate, wouldn't they reach the underground soon enough? Assuming there was an underground space beneath them at all.
"———!!!"
Parsus, whose head had become a drill bit, could not answer. His skull was almost certainly rattling and churning so badly he was barely coherent—clinging to consciousness by a knight's sheer will alone.
"Sir, the quality of this helmet is excellent. The seams won't give."
The faceplate at least ought to have torn free by now, yet it held firm. Looking again, the equipment quality was no joke. The armor's muted color was likely from a heavy mix of black iron.
"The dwarves of Deron must have quite the temper."
Leon spouted nonsense while pouring fists down without rest.
…It went on for a long time.
Leon's fingers tingled. His arm muscles ached. His shoulders were stiff. His breathing had quickened slightly. Even with his absurd stamina, the continuous barrage had finally begun to load him down.
The floor had collapsed so thoroughly that a proper crater had formed, and the two of them had sunk clean into it. No suspicious underground chamber had yet appeared.
At last, when the crushed helmet was stuck to Parsus's face like a mask—
Leon stopped cold.
"…"
Shiiiiii—
The roar cut off. The mana detonations ceased. Heat, residual mana, dust, and debris billowed up from the crater in thick clouds.
Leon checked Parsus's condition.
Reddish-brown mana no longer flowing. A silent mouth. A body slumped like a puppet with its strings cut.
"Sir, are you all right?"
Tdeudeuk—
He gripped the ruined faceplate and tore it free. With no mana flowing through it, the piece came away easily.
Parsus's face was revealed—eyes open, completely unconscious.
"Good. I won."
Leon nodded, hoisted Parsus over his shoulder, and climbed out of the crater.
— …
The hall was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.
Kung!
He set Parsus on the floor. The unconscious Owl Knight sprawled limply.
Shwaaa—
And then, for some reason—though no one had asked for it—voice-amplification magic wrapped around his throat.
Jeobeok—
Leon turned his body counterclockwise, sweeping a slow look around him.
A banquet hall reduced to a wreck. Barriers thickened to excess. People staring at him with their mouths sealed shut.
Taking all of it in, he spoke almost offhandedly.
Last of all, he looked to the Emperor in the seat of honor.
The Emperor was smiling.