—Frey Starlight's POV—

A lot had happened, and life had started taking strange turns lately…

Bracing myself, I took hold of both Uriel and Snow, readying to use teleportation.

"Our destination is our comrades at the vanguard," I confirmed what we were about to do, triggered my ability, and we all shifted .. teleporting for the second time that day.

"What if Aegon set some kind of trap there?" Snow asked, considering the possibility. I simply shook my head.

"Unlikely. And even if he did… we have plenty of allies there."

My target was Sansa ..with Ghost and most of those who had followed me into the war at her side.

Even if Aegon tried some trick, our individual power was far beyond what he could handle. With Snow and me together, we're a force they can't manage.

So I was confident we'd arrive safely. Even so, because of the wild Aura fluctuations I sensed where Sansa and the others were, it had become difficult to land exactly on their position.

"We'll probably drop somewhere close to the battlefield, so be ready for anything."

At my warning, Snow and Uriel both nodded, and I began at once.

Teleportation was instantaneous; reality flipped on its head, and we found ourselves in a different spot on the Ultras Continent…

The dead earth and suffocating sky were the same, but things were tangled .. and within seconds the sound of screams and clashing weapons reached us from nearby.

Before us sprawled a wide, barren plain, the ground smeared with blood. A thunderous battle was raging there now.

A closer look told me the enemies weren't human at all… but something else entirely .. something I knew well.

"These are…" Snow began, trying to parse what he was seeing. I took over.

"Puppets."

Puppets animated by a strange blue fluid that served as their blood ..

the very same puppets I'd faced in the past when I clashed with Simon Manus.

I'd thought I destroyed most of them, but the number before me was horrifying ..so great that our imperial forces were being pushed to the brink.

I didn't know the full situation, but I moved at once with Snow.

"Questions later! For now .. help them!"

"I don't need you to tell me that!"

In a lightning flash, Snow and I surged forward, Uriel following behind.

It took only seconds to join the fight, and our arrival sent ripples of chaos through the ranks ..drawing every eye.

Slash!!!!

With Vermithor's light, and Balerion's darkness ..

we tore through the puppets at high speed, driving straight through their lines with the intent to wipe them all out.

Our faces were known; the imperial side recognized us both, and their morale spiked at once.

"It's Snow Lionheart and Frey Starlight!"

"They've finally returned!"

Seeing the soldiers cheer, I realized Aegon's ploys hadn't reached this front yet. If they were hostile to me, they wouldn't have reacted like this ..

so at the very least… they weren't enemies.

With that settled, I focused entirely on erasing the foes before me and stopped paying attention to what lay behind.

Slash!!

My blade sheared metal with ease; the puppets didn't stand a chance.

Now and then I spotted familiar faces among them..like the policeman puppet that used electricity…

Or the fat clown who once swallowed one of my lookalikes, Clana Starlight, long ago…

Thinking of those times dredged up bitter memories. Somewhere inside, her specter still haunted me to this day…

Shredding puppets that burst into flame each time they died, I found myself frustrated with the whole situation.

Destroying puppets didn't count toward the Blood Path at all ..meaning I couldn't increase my power by killing them ..and they stirred up hateful memories besides.

All of it pushed me to end the battle as fast as possible.

Their numbers were immense, even if each was weak ..and that was why the Empire was losing to them.

I counted at least several thousand, crawling forward like ants from the distance ..as if some factory were churning them out without end…

"Seeing you stirred up foul memories I thought I'd buried, so don't blame me for playing rough."

Gathering Dark Aura, focusing all my strength ..

I released a colossal vertical cut, unleashing the strongest strike in my arsenal.

"Ten Thousand Steps of Shadow: Frey Starlight Style:

Nameless judgement!"

The instant it fired, time itself seemed to stall, and a black flood roared forth, swallowing puppets one after another .. along with everything around them.

That wave of darkness was terrifying to behold; its destructive reach went beyond imagining, leaving not a trace of the puppets it touched.

The darkness tunneled on for miles before finally detonating far ahead, sending a violet spark spearing into the sky ..

and the blow was enough to end thousands of puppets at once, heralding the end of the battle.

"I'm not used to seeing you use moves like that on this kind of enemy…" Snow said, tracing the path of ruin my strike had carved. He sounded surprised that I'd used one of my strongest techniques on foes like these.

"If we cut them down one by one, we'll never be done. This is the best way to deal with them."

"No argument here," Snow grinned, and the two of us turned toward the imperial forces.

With the enemy finished, it was time to hear from our allies.

Within seconds, a certain man stepped toward us ..

someone I hadn't seen in a long time.

"I was wondering where those violent Aura fluctuations were coming from… and it turns out it was you two ..the Hero of the Victoriad and the Church's Hero."

He approached, his body wreathed in a surging Aura shaped like serpents of lightning.

He wore a stunning golden cuirass ..a strange armor that suited his form so perfectly it looked like a part of him.

Blond hair… golden eyes… and an overwhelming build.

"Daemon…"

It was Daemon Valerion, one of my former classmates in the Elite Class.

"It's been a while, Starlight. I thought your last strike would kill me, but I came out without a scratch, unexpectedly. Can you really control your power that precisely?"

Daemon said with a mocking smile that couldn't hide his genuine surprise ..so much so it struck him as absurd.

I nodded, confirming his guess.

Earlier, Daemon had been up front fighting the puppets alone, so he was inside the range of Nameless judgement. But I sensed his presence ahead of time and screened him from the damage.

That was one of the perks I gained from the third stage of Shadow Adaptation:

perfect Aura control.

"Amazing… You two have gotten so strong it actually makes me angry."

"You don't look ordinary either," Snow answered, eyeing Daemon. "That strange armor you're wearing… something about it.. is doing something to you."

Snow wasn't wrong.

You could say the armor wasn't just something Daemon wore anymore ..it looked like a part of him, carved deep into his flesh and skin.

I noticed it too. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say around forty percent of Daemon's body had vanished and been replaced by the armor.

It was a bizarre phenomenon ..nothing I'd seen or heard of before ..but Daemon waved it off, turning away as he gestured for us to follow.

"Since you're back, you can help ..along with the saint with you," Daemon said flatly, leading the way.

We went with him, passing companies of soldiers ..hundreds strong who burst into applause and cheers.

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