Reivan was beginning to understand why flight capability was such a massive advantage.

  By turning into elemental essence, he could kind of fly. But maintaining such a form for too long could completely drain him of essence—which was especially dangerous if he happened to ck enemies to steal essence from. Rematerializing and dematerializing again and again consumed a lot more essence than simply letting it run the whole time too, so he couldn't just resort to that pn of action. Normally speaking, knights only used such advanced mobility techniques to reposition after evading an attack that they would have been incapable of dodging with footwork.

  These mobility aetherbde arts were vital in fights, especially against flying enemies. Faced with beings who can fly, most knights can only choose between rapidly closing the distance for an attack; or stopping to materialize in mid-air—which would then allow the knight to attack but also cause gravity to start pulling them down again. While this worked for the most part, it was, understandably, sub-optimal.

  Perhaps that was why House Mercer rose to prominence so domineeringly. Most of its members possess the [Wind] attribute, meaning that with just a bit of training, even mortals could master the skies.

  Naturally, not every knight was a Mercer nor would they have an elemental affinity at all.

  In fact, the majority of knights didn't have an elemental affinity at all. What, then, would these knights do? Jump up or try to mount the enemy somehow?

  Perhaps.

  But, instead of pcing themselves in such a disadvantageous position by trying to fight in melee range somehow, knights would rather stay on their feet while pelting flying opponents with attacks. Like a bow and arrow. With a knight's soul armament, there was no running out of ammo too.

  Reivan was somewhat on the same boat. But of course, he had a few other options. Like riding Zouros or achieving a "pseudo-flight" by using his floating swords as jumping boards or an escator, climbing stairs to reach the clouds.

  Despite that, those were just options. But even those options weren't enough. He had to admit that he was incredibly ineffective when fighting in the air like this. Maybe he wasn’t used to it too, since the number of directions where opponents could attack from had increased.

  He was so ineffective that any espers he tried to sy along the way to the center ran circles around him.

  Reivan rematerialized behind a seemingly hapless esper that was using telekinetically controlled ship debris to terrorize some mages. Electricity was still snaking around his reformed body as he swept sideways with his spear.

  But the esper rose up just in time, clearly having noticed him. It then swooped down to take a swipe at his head.

  He jerked his head back, moments away from finding out if his armor could survive an esper’s direct cws. Right after, a splendid dispy of skill, he managed to pivot mid-air and kick the thing’s torso with an essence-infused greave. The attack created enough of an opening for a flying sword, also infused with essence, to finish off the esper by bisecting it down the middle.

  Heart still pounding from the sequence that surprised even himself, Reivan nded on the ship deck. That had been an accident born of instinctual movement, but it had worked out somehow and he was thankful for it.

  It was, sadly, the only example of a clean mid-air takedown he had for today. The others were a lot sloppier, involving a few extra seconds than he would have liked. Next time he hunted down espers, he would have to remember not to let any of them reach the sky.

  “Was that the only one?” Reivan asked the mages, who then answered in the affirmative. "Alright then. Take care of yourselves."

  Reivan could do nothing but offer a solemn nod, trying hard not to gaze at the gruesomely twisted corpses or the ones that looked like they were smacked by something big, hard, and heavy.

  He was not looking forward to the casualty report after this.

  A cloud of dark mist reformed into Sir Xander beside him. In pure travel time, Lightning was much better than Darkness, though the tter would then have the advantage at night or in dark areas. It was still bright out, so Xander would always g behind if Reivan went full speed.

  Even so, the knight’s presence was a balm on Reivan’s mind because it reduced the likelihood of being screwed from behind.

  “That’s the bottom part of the fleet cleared, right?” Reivan turned to the other. “It’s risen nicely so we can head to the center faster now.”

  “Indeed. It is convenient how the espers seem rabid today, not even attempting to flee from us.”

  “Right,” Reivan said, noticing that he’d stopped hearing spshes below. He leaned on the ship’s railing and took a peek, smiling when he saw none of the giant sharks-things lurking below the fleet.

  Clearly, the knights he left earlier had lived up to the task of crippling the megalodons’ ability to match the fleet's speed.

  ‘Now all that’s left are the giant bats on steroids and those annoying espers.’

  He didn’t need to check to know that the fight with the bats had devolved more chaotically than what was preferable. The darkin intercepted the swarm of bats but were outnumbered, so a lot had obviously slipped through. Lady Iselle and her people had triumphed in the initial arial csh.

  Unfortunately, their powers couldn’t be used to their maximum capacity because their bck fmes would affect the ships and the people around the things they were killing. He was gradually discovering that the darkin sucked in these chaotic melees where friend and for were in the same pot. They were like knights in that they were better deployed alone rather than in small numbers.

  'I guess they’re best utilized as bombers after all. Mercers would have been better at securing the ships’ safety without risk to the ships and the allies aboard.’

  Well, they were better than nothing. At the very least, the bats seemed to avoid the darkin like the pgue. Homunculi were not known for possessing fear, so this must have been a purely practical choice because they knew what would happen in a csh.

  Reivan watched as a fleeing batling was struck in the back by a pinky-sized wisp of bck fme, which then spread rapidly and consumed its body like a ravenous tide. In barely two seconds, nothing remained of the giant house-shaped bat.

  ‘Holy fuck. I’m so far away but I can feel the heat from here. It’s good that Lady Iselle held back during our spar…’

  After today, there was no way he was going to think fighting a darkin seriously after this was a good idea. Even if he won, being burned by those ebony fmes didn’t look enjoyable.

  Reivan scanned what he could see of the other ships and decided that he should move on to the middle now. He’d helped out the ships he passed because he couldn’t ignore their plight, but he was running low on mana now and there were still no enemies to drain.

  This was yet another reason to hate the empire, he supposed. Espers didn’t leave behind a body and homunculi didn’t have mana at all.

  Taking magic power from the mages didn’t seem like a good idea since he would be consigning them to death if something ever came up. Besides, they didn’t have much for him to steal after they’d spent it fighting back a swarm of espers. The batling with a plethora of different injuries lying dead on the ship deck likely didn’t kill itself either.

  ‘Note to self. Next time, when fighting a purely homunculi force, be more miserly with mana.’

  Qi, he could freely spend because it only consumed stamina—a resource he could restore infinitely with [Effect Reproduction]. But mana was scarce. No matter how efficient he became at using it, he couldn’t overcome being a half-blooded warbeast. Though it afforded him greater physical prowess, don't you wish to learn magic as well?

  Fortunately, the elimination of the giant megalodons freed up Zouros. The winged serpent wasted no time in finding Reivan and offering its long and dependable back as a seat.

  Wasting no time, Reivan and Xander hopped on to save energy and they all headed for the core of the fleet's chaotic formation. Because he could leave the flying to Zouros, Reivan had the leeway to conjure a bow and shoot at any enemies they passed through.

  Xander did it too, and the knight was an absolute menace with a bow. A god of death wearing Aizenian steel. Clearly, though he’d inherited Valter’s preference for polearms, he had talent elsewhere too.

  ‘It should be here—huh? The hell is that…?’

  Reivan squinted at the ships that were supposed to contain their noncombatants. For some reason, white mist surrounded the entire vessel. And instead of trailing behind the ship as it sailed across the clouds, the thick mist seemed to cling to the sky ark.

  It was a strange thing, but what really got his attention was the espers swarming outside of it. Bck-winged women were also zooming around to stab fming spears through some of the phantoms, immediately destroying the vile creatures. But their numbers were few and the espers were many—they were clearly having trouble.

  “Full speed, Zee!” Reivan repeatedly thumped his serpentine companion’s back. “Eat to destroy.”

  Zouros’ massive form coiled up in response. In tandem with a forceful fp of its expansive bck wings, its body unched forward like an unleashed spring. Reivan almost fell off and actually had to grab Xander’s foot because his knight hadn’t expected the g-force.

  He was worried that Zouros would crash into one of the ships, but his concerns were for naught because Zouros seemed to have no trouble directing its gargantuan body.

  They arrived before the mist-covered ships as Zouros opened its maw wide before breathing in. The sheer suction force was, in a word, supernatural. It even had selective properties because the ships and the darkin among the espers were utterly unaffected.

  Only the espers got sucked in, the phantoms frantically cwing at nothing in a futile resistance against a force much greater than them. When the st one was devoured, Zouros snapped its maw shut. Its forked tongue licked the air as it went over to the next group of prey.

  There was more than just one set of espers, after all.

  Reivan left it to the ravenous serpent and hopped off, followed closely by Xander. Both of them nded on the liberated ship where they surprisingly reunited with his sister.

  “Yani,” Jiji—still in full pte—reverse summoned her naginata and her helm before crossing her arms. “I never doubted you, but I'm doing fine.”

  “You too.” Reivan chuckled even as his eyes followed Zouros’ rapid clean-up of espers. Then his eyes went to the white mist, and in a moment of inspiration, he realized what it was for.

  ‘It’s for obscuring vision…’

  Much like his [Formless Will], an esper’s telekinetic abilities hinged on sight. Of course, he could maintain control of an item if he remained “aware” of it—which wasn’t difficult with soul armaments since it was literally attached to his soul. But an esper’s abilities didn’t have that benefit.

  They had to maintain sight of whatever it was they were using their power on.

  ‘This is really smart thinking.’

  And that was why he thought the mist was a stroke of genius. It would do wonders in hiding the non-combatants. That would mean that even if an esper got into the ship, it wouldn’t be able to kill every civilian inside faster than it would be taken out by the knights that were no doubt below the deck, guarding the cabins.

  No doubt, the civilians were under enormous stress because they could do nothing but wait within the fog, unable to see very well. But being anxious was a lot better than being dead, especially if your joints bent the wrong way and a twisted neck.

  Even through the floor and the mist, he could sense the presence of hundreds of lives below. Talking in whispers, breathing roughly, sobbing in fear. But alive. And at the end of the day, that was, perhaps, what truly mattered.

  “Good thinking,” Reivan gestured at the simple but effective defensive tactic.

  “Huh? No, it wasn’t my idea though…?” Jiji frowned as her head tilted to the side. “This is a basic tactic to protect civilians against espers. The battlemages protecting the civilian-filled ships have the spellballs for it too. Did you really not know?"

  “Uh…”

  Jiji’s frown deepened. “Alright, even if you don’t know, it’s fine. But you are aware that there are enchantments that do something simir all over Aizen’s border territories in case an esper gets in, right?”

  “... Of course, I know.”

  You have used [Essence of Falsehood]

  His sister grimaced in thought, massaging the bridge of her nose. “I feel this overwhelming urge to believe you… And that means you’re lying again. I can’t believe you don’t know this is a basic countermeasure for espers! I thought you studied hard for your role!”

  Reivan sheepishly scratched the back of his head. “I may have missed a few details on account of being worried about my wedding and being on my honeymoon…”

  That excuse didn’t really improve her mood, but she didn’t speak further on the matter. Instead, she tiredly waved her hand. “In any case, the battle is over. We just have to clean up the remains. Your bonded spirit beast seems to be helping out a lot with that.”

  Hearing her words, relief finally settled in at that moment. His knees even went weak a little, the pressure of thousands of lives finally being alleviated.

  One mistake.

  Literally, only one mistake, and there would be a lot more human corpses to account for.

  ‘Not like there aren’t any to account for even now.’

  Reivan used the sky ark’s railing for support as he looked at the rest of the fleet, noting that it was missing more than a dozen ships. It sounded like a lot, but considering they only brought a hundred and odd ships. But considering the scale of the attack, he honestly should have lost more.

  Yet they prevailed without significant casualties.

  But even with the taste of victory in his mouth, he still couldn’t feel happy. Because people had died here today. His people. People who had come with him because he had asked them to come.

  Even as Samsara’s expeditionary forces regrouped, Reivan couldn’t help but think about what he could have done better. He was aware that hindsight was twenty-twenty, and that he had made acceptable decisions in the heat of the moment. But he couldn’t help it.

  First came his regrets about the civilians.

  Reivan had wanted to give them the chance to find enjoyment in something after the hard times they endured. If he had ignored that empathetic urge, temporarily storing all the noncombatant civilians inside Zouros, then they would not have been pced in so much risk.

  Second was the absence of House Morva and House Demoscene.

  If he’d resisted his empathetic urge to raise the Arkhanian survivors’ spirits, Morva and Demoscene wouldn’t have had to travel separately. They could have helped resist the attack, and the Samsaran Forces wouldn't have suffered much fewer casualties. And even if Reivan did allow the noncombatants to enjoy the return voyage, if he had simply slowed the fleet’s pace to allow the gging Houses to keep up, then this encounter may have gone smoother.

  Reivan’s third concern was with how he deployed his forces.

  The encounter had been chaotic. Argonia’s offensive this time was multi-pronged, with the batlings looming on the horizon, the megalodons pressuring the fleet from beneath, and the espers wreaking havoc from within their fleet’s formation.

  And he didn’t think his orders were wrong. Just that they weren’t optimal.

  ‘Zouros would have made quick work of the batlings. Even on its own. And none of the things would have gotten through.’

  The fact that a single creature could perform better than one hundred of the finest darkin warriors wasn’t an admission of the darkin’s incompetence. It was simply a fact—Zouros specialized in ying waste to rge numbers of weaker enemies. A million or a billion of those weaklings wouldn't have made a difference against a world-devouring serpent, even if it was an infant. Or the equivalent of an infant, at least.

  As for the sharklings...

  Some sky arks fell prey to the initial ambush— twelve, to be specific. And since Reivan sent Zouros to save the ones who were thrown overboard, the fleet and the sharks sailed on. The giant snake couldn’t shine as brightly as it could have. Instead, it spent time picking up the people thrown into the sea, then had to catch up to the battle that had left the giant serpent far behind.

  Now, thinking about it, if Reivan exchanged the darkin and Zouros’ roles…

  ‘Zouros would have absolutely made quick work of the batlings. No doubt. But if their assigned duties were exchanged, the darkin would have had to carry those fallen overboard. That would slow them down a lot. It’s practically impossible for them to catch back up to the battle. But then again, the bats would be a nonfactor so they aren’t all that needed either. Wait, no, the espers would still have been deployed.’

  Twelve ships had been sunk, each with probably more than a hundred people in it. So that meant twelve hundred people at least.

  There were only a hundred darkin with the force, so they would have all had to carry twelve people at a time before any of the fallen drowned.

  ‘Hm… I guess I couldn’t have swapped the roles out. Unless I’m fine with abandoning those that fell off the destroyed ships, then Zouros is the only option to send on the rescue.’

  Zouros wouldn’t have been back from the rescue in time to intercept most of the batlings either. Left uncontested, the winged abominations would have done as the espers did and nded on the ship decks to sow chaos.

  So in essence, he’d made the right choice by sending Zouros to the rescue and the darkin to intercept the batlings as much as they could.

  Reivan swept back his sweaty hair as he breathed a sigh. There were things he could have arguably done better, but he hadn’t done as badly as he thought. Maybe he was being too hard on himself.

  Then again, being carefree when people had died in this encounter was definitely inappropriate.

  “Yani.”

  Reivan felt a hand on his wrist and realized that his scalp stung. It seemed as if he’d been grabbing his own hair a little too hard and Jiji stopped him from potentially pulling literal clumps of his locks off.

  He let go and Jiji released him. Then he made an apathetic attempt to fix whatever mess he’d made of his hair. “Sorry. I didn’t notice what I was doing. What is it?”

  Jiji shook her head, the concern not quite leaving her eyes. But perhaps she knew him a little too well, because she didn’t bother to ask right this instant. “What do we do now? Send people back to finish off those rge things with missing tail fins? Maybe wait for House Morva and House Demoscene’s forces to catch up?”

  Reivan’s gaze fell on the other ships as he asked. “Do we have an estimate on the casualties?”

  “Nothing concrete.”

  “I suppose it’s too early for that…”

  “We’ll have one by the end of the hour,” she offered hesitantly.

  Reivan shook his head. “It’s fine, prioritize the wounded. I’d also like to send some people to track down House Morva and House Demoscene, if possible. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility for imperial forces to have ambushed them too, albeit with a smaller force.”

  Jiji’s brows shot up. “That’s true… I’ll try to establish communication with them as soon as possible. I did give them some holostones just in case. I wrote it down as a government expense. I hope you don't mind.”

  “Good job with that. As for the fleet, we'll set up camp deep innd. I don’t care if it’ll put a strain on the enchantments. We can’t anchor in the shores.”

  “Understood.”

  Reivan pulled his gaze away from the ships and turned to his sister.

  Jiji was a head shorter than him, he realized. So small. Frail-looking too, though he of course knew that she was anything but. This adopted sister of his could be bratty sometimes, and was a little too attached to him as well, likely because he’d cherished her during a period of her life when she craved it the most. She didn’t look very imposing in her armor at all, making onlookers think she didn’t quite fill it.

  Yet she had been vital in this expedition’s success, doing things he didn’t know about but needed to be done.

  “You did a really good job here,” Reivan said as he pced a palm on his sister’s head, rubbing it just like he did when they were young. Her white feline ears twitched, so he instinctively kneaded it softly. “I’m gd you’re here.”

  Jiji’s face melted into a sloppy smile, but she schooled her expression quickly. With a burning face, she spped his hand away. “D-Don’t do that in public… Also, you’re welcome.”

  Reivan chuckled, feeling the weight that had been pressing down on him earlier lessen—if only a little. He nguidly gestured at one of the ships, where a giant bat homunculi’s corpse was being pushed over the edge of the railing. “I want as many of those things gathered. The bats, I mean. Also, do we have an artifact that can contain one of those giant sharks?”

  Those had been even bigger than normal homunculi, after all. Normal spatial storage artifacts wouldn't suffice.

  “Hm?” Jiji followed his gaze and nodded, in apparent understanding. “For dissection, I assume? If so, we don’t need that many.”

  “That isn’t the only reason. Just do it, please.”

  “Well, alright… We have plenty of spare spatial storage artifacts anyway.”

  “Thanks.” He smiled, before turning to the knight who had gone quiet since earlier. “I think I’m going to rest for a bit. You can do so too, Sir Xander. We’re both drained of mana after all that flying around.”

  Xander—who had been quietly watching over him and waiting for commands—looked like words were about to spill out of his mouth, but he barely managed to hold it in. With a tired but crisp salute, he said, “Then I hope you have a good rest, Your Excellency.”

  “You too, Sir Xander. You too.”

  Reivan looked up and found his ship immediately, occupying the highest spot of their fleet. With the st bit of magic power he had left, he once again transformed into lightning and bolted into the sky.

  This battle had taken a lot out of him in various ways and he needed some time alone.

  The return voyage thankfully didn’t encounter any more hiccups afterward, though there was some displeasing news.

  As it turned out, House Morva and House Demoscene’s forces were attacked. Though fortunately, they only lost a handful of people to a night ambush by Imperial Vanguards. After a fierce but organized struggle, they escaped their attackers—with Morva flying toward the waters and Demoscene hiding underwater.

  Then at some point, the two Houses reconvened to give their pursuers a run for their money.

  The pursuing Imperial Vanguards, however, didn’t buy the fight they were selling. Perhaps the two Houses uniting hadn’t been in the empire’s pns, because they retreated immediately.

  A few hours ter, the team of messengers Reivan dispatched successfully established communication with Houses Morva and Demoscene. It didn’t take long for the entire Samsaran Expedition Forces to reunite soon after. And a few days after that, they finally nded back in Lageton, Samsara’s only habitable city.

  But as soon as he arrived, Reivan didn’t return to the pace to enjoy the welcoming embrace of his pregnant wife and his fiancee. Instead, he took a contingent of knights and went out to what used to be an uninhabited prairie near Lageton.

  It was there that he hung up all but five of the giant bat corpses they brought with them. He had all the corpses in the same position—kneeling upright with three earthen spikes propping up the head and the arms.

  Then he summoned Dom.

  Over the past few weeks, the temperature had gotten closer and closer to normalcy. As such, he’d begun to think that his lupine spirit beast’s ability to passively summon blizzards would finally activate.

  And he was right.

  Within moments, the skies were filled with clouds and snow started to fall. Howling winds blew in from who knew where, and a pleasantly frigid wind swept over them all. Only a few hours ter, the formerly dry ground was covered by a thick bnket of snow.

  Reivan stood beside Dom as they both stared out into the prairie, only to be startled when he noticed a familiar presence joining him at his side.

  “Helen, you shouldn’t be out here in the cold,” he chided his wife.

  “You’re out here in the cold,” she retorted with a frown, tightening the thick fur clothes she was wearing under the bck feather cloak she got from the darkin.

  “I have the affinity for it, so this feels nice to me. You don’t. And you have a baby in you. A baby that might not have the affinity either.”

  “It’ll be fine.” Helen shook her head and held up a hand to stop him from nagging any more than he already had. “What’s all this then? Why are you making something so creepy?”

  Reivan sighed as he returned his gaze to the prairie, where hundreds of giant bats were frozen in their kneeling position. “We know the empire has eyes on us, right? Espers and whatnot.”

  She nodded.

  “Well, the lights are on and we know they’re watching.” He smirked, evil and malice and all sorts of other dark things hidden behind his eyes. “So let’s give them a show.”

  AnnouncementChapter Word Count: 4410Last Edited: March 16, 2025