Creak... creak...

Behind the secondary barriers, Princess Celestia grit her teeth and swallowed a ragged breath. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her usually pristine face was a mess, her silver hair matted with freezing sweat and dirt.

"...Celestia."

"Ah, ah. I’m fine. Perfectly fine. Nothing’s wrong. So please stop calling out to me, sister. It’s hard to focus and answer," Celestia responded nonchalantly to Rumina’s worried tone.

Rumina would erect the physical glacial barriers, and Celestia would rapidly infuse them with strengthening mana to keep them from shattering upon impact. Originally, they had intended to alternate between building the barriers and imbuing them, giving each other time to rest, but the sheer volume of the assault meant that was no longer possible.

Some of the stone barriers had already been permanently breached, and Rumina had frantically filled the massive gaps with thick walls of ice. The number of times the monsters had broken through even those icy walls was now countless.

Rumina had to rebuild the ice barriers each time, leaving Celestia solely responsible for infusing them with structural mana to hold the line. Not knowing when the main gates would completely collapse, Rumina couldn’t waste her magic power recklessly.

’Celestia’s at her absolute limit,’ Rumina thought, watching her sister’s trembling hands.

No, Celestia wasn’t merely at her limit; she was already beyond it. She was burning her life force to supplement her mana.

"Lucien... if he comes back, for real... He’s dead meat," Celestia muttered, her face so pale it looked as if she would collapse at any moment, yet her eyes still burned with stubborn determination.

Rumina asked softly, "Do you still believe that he will come back, Celestia?"

"...Huh?" 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"That Lucien will return. Do you still believe it?"

At Rumina’s question, Celestia paused as if to catch her breath, lowering her hands for a brief second.

Then, as if to say, ’Why are you even asking that?’ she replied, "Of course. You had the Intelligence network investigate him, didn’t you? You should know what kind of person he actually is underneath that awful personality."

Basic Ice Magic. Layering. Mana Imbuement.

With a sharp whoosh, Celestia’s mana surged outward in a blinding flash. She quickly and seamlessly restored the fractured ice wall Rumina had just created.

"Heck, I can finally take a breath," Celestia gasped, leaning heavily against a stone pillar as she finally filled the last structural gap in the barrier.

Rumina couldn’t believe what she just saw and looked again.

"...She stacked one active spell on top of another while simultaneously imbuing raw mana into already existing spells..." Rumina murmured in awe.

Adding just one formula to an active cast was an incredibly complex act, but Rumina, being a royal mage, knew just how unbelievable that level of multitasking was. Celestia’s talent was terrifying.

"Right, where were we? Oh yes! I still don’t know much about him!" Celestia forced herself to cheer up, slapping her freezing cheeks and placing her hands on her hips to feign energy. "But! He’s not the type to run away because he’s afraid of dying! He’s just... busy."

Celestia’s voice was assertive, almost defiant.

Rumina turned her amber eyes toward Celestia, then looked beyond the towering barrier.

"Yes, that’s right," Rumina nodded slowly.

Having read the classified intelligence reports, Rumina knew the truth. Lucien had recently been at the center of several major tragedies, and each time, he had put his life on the line. After each event, he was severely injured. Just two days ago, he had used a relic that left his body in a battered state, coughing blood and unconscious for nearly two days. He wasn’t a coward.

"Well, we can’t see Lucien coming back from down here anyway," Celestia said with a dismissive snort. "We can only hear the news from the knights up above on the barrier."

Rumina gave a bitter, exhausted smile. "Right...?"

As Rumina agreed, her gaze slowly drifted upward, toward the distant, grey sky.

Just as Celestia said, Lucien couldn’t be seen from the courtyard. He had headed somewhere deep into the Wilderness, far beyond the barrier. Even if he rode his horse, Cassian, back at full speed, they wouldn’t see him approach due to the sheer height of the walls.

...But then, what is that? Rumina squinted.

"What’s that, Rumina? What are you looking at—"

Following Rumina’s gaze, Celestia also stopped talking mid-sentence.

Their first impression upon witnessing it was... confusion. Their gazes were directed high upward, after all.

Something was rapidly approaching from the far sky, plummeting from an altitude much higher than the tallest tower of the barrier. It strikingly resembled the silhouette of a person, but they couldn’t confidently shout out that it was Lucien.

If that really was Lucien... he was completely insane.

Because he was flying in the sky.

"Hey, what is that...?"

Several exhausted penal soldiers and knights also spotted the falling object. Their expressions mirrored Rumina’s and Celestia’s absolute bewilderment.

How the hell is he flying?

But they didn’t have time to dwell on that logic. As the figure rapidly descended, they realized he wasn’t flying.

He was falling.

And what was that gleaming object clutched in his hands?

A sword.

It wasn’t a firearm. It wasn’t the Reaver shotgun or the Blackwood rifle. It was the Holy Sword of Elias, the ancient Paladin. And it was not a normal blade; it was a supreme holy artifact, practically humming with lethal, divine retribution.

************

A few moments earlier.

As I emerged from the treeline of the Sacred Forest, I saw the dire, apocalyptic state of the barrier. A tidal wave of mindless monsters was mindlessly battering the ice walls. The hopeless, desperate faces of the penal soldiers and the exhausted knights were visible even from a distance.

I have to divert the horde’s attention from the main gate, otherwise it will fall in no time, I thought, my mind racing.

Shooting them from the rear wouldn’t draw enough aggro fast enough. I needed a massive, flashy distraction.

So, I got an incredibly stupid, highly effective idea.

I reached into my spatial inventory and pulled out the Holy Sword. I hadn’t just looted the Goblet from the tomb; Elias’s sword had been resting there as well. It was a natural, absolute nemesis to these corrupted beasts.

And I know just the way to make a dramatic entry.

I quickly climbed the tallest, sturdiest ancient pine tree near the edge of the forest.

I stood on the highest thick branch, overlooking the massive sea of monsters.

I gripped the hilt of the Holy Sword tightly with both hands. I funneled a massive surge of natural mana into my legs and activated my skills.

Movement Arts Lv. 6 - Burst!

Pushing all the strength I had into my legs, the thick branch completely shattered under the sheer force of my launch. I leaped far into the grey sky, soaring high above the battlefield, hurtling directly toward the densest cluster of behemoths near the gates.

"RAAAAAHHHH!"

I roared as I plummeted from the sky, channeling every ounce of my remaining natural mana into the Holy Sword. The blade ignited into a blinding, golden meteor as I fell, aiming a devastating, two-handed downward strike right into the center of the horde.