——And so, we made it back to Her Excellency's building in a sorry state.
The battle between Klye and Code's interception system ended more spectacularly than expected, and yet more anticlimactically than expected.
Klye Andrich's magic demonstrated overwhelming power against the Code security system.
Against Klye, who had become living lightning, every weapon in the prison—from the mechanical soldiers on down—was blown away and rendered inoperable the moment it so much as touched him.
Countless turrets didn't even get a chance to fire before their functions shut down entirely.
Most of the buildings in this city were made of metal. Klye had simply unleashed a massive surge of lightning magic straight into the ground.
And that lightning spread across a vast area, incapacitating everyone present except me and Klye—both of us wearing Barrier Rings—including Kuhl and the staff.
Was it possible we actually deserved to get caught? Klye was so overwhelmingly powerful that even that thought flashed through my mind for an instant.
This was undeniably the Thunder Emperor.
There were probably only two ways to defeat Klye using Code's weapons: a surprise attack, or sheer numbers.
Even after destroying every weapon on-site, the prison's forces continued to deploy endlessly. But after Klye fought them for a while, the reinforcements abruptly stopped at some point.
Nora must have rewritten the rules for us. She came across as quite the hothead, but maybe she wasn't as bad as she seemed—though that might have been because Klye was there.
When the weapons first activated, I thought we were done for… but looking at the results, every activated prison security device had been destroyed, and our casualties were virtually zero—aside from Kuhl and the others lying on the ground, twitching.
Klye had always been strong, but I could tell his abilities had grown even more than before, just as he'd claimed. Luke had supposedly confiscated his staff, yet… Klye was just too strong.
As for Kuhl and the others lying on the ground and convulsing, they were clearly used to it.
Lightning magic was notoriously difficult to control. Well, he must have had it somewhat restrained, since the staff and Kuhl were still alive— Looking up at me, who stood perfectly calm thanks to the power of the Barrier Ring, Kuhl said through his convulsions: "It's… business as usual… don't mind us. My glasses… are insulating too… Once Elise… recovers… she'll heal us."
"You guys really have it rough, huh…"
That was the best—or rather, the most useless—remark I could manage.
§ Her Excellency welcomed Klye, the new arrival, with tremendous excitement and promptly registered him as a royal guard.
He was, ostensibly, a convicted felon imprisoned by Code, but Her Excellency didn't seem to care about that in the slightest. If anything, she appeared pleased that more people were showing up at her door.
In terms of magnanimity, Her Excellency was undoubtedly more befitting of a ruler than Princess Nora.
Klye looked like a complete wreck, but he recovered at an astonishing pace.
It seemed that the treatment had been a desperate measure designed to drain Klye's stamina and reduce his overwhelmingly vast energy, if only slightly. A highly advanced technological civilization had probably never anticipated someone who could freely command lightning.
And this time around, I was apparently in genuinely top form.
There had been various complications, but freeing Klye would undoubtedly help push the commission toward completion. His combat abilities were unquestionably on par with Kaiser's crew—a truly top-tier asset. Whether he'd be directly useful in protecting royalty was debatable, but as an escort, he'd be more than capable.
Which meant—I could now sightsee through Code without a care in the world.
"Klye, sorry, but I've got my own agenda here. I did save you, so you owe me your company."
"Of course! The mechanical soldiers are perfect for testing all sorts of things. My lightning still has plenty of room to evolve, too—and I'd be happy to lend a hand with your work, even if it's only in a small way!"
Klye Andrich—the Thunder Emperor—answered with his usual infectious energy. This man… was he really planning to evolve even further? And what kind of person agrees to help without even hearing what the job is— Kuhl and the others had smiles on their faces, but their eyes weren't smiling. As for Elise, they were pointedly looking away whenever she came up.
This was probably the result of charging into ever more reckless situations with that same carefree energy, until they'd ended up storming the Code itself.
Still, even though I'd asked for his cooperation, I had no idea what to actually have him do… If I asked him to do something careless, things could go sideways fast.
For now, I sat down in a chair, folded my arms, flashed a hard-boiled smile, and said something vaguely cool.
"Heh… things are finally getting a little interesting!"
Kaiser, Saya—everything's set on my end. Come join me soon.
§ § § "The Thunder Emperor… I never imagined he could fight like that within Code."
Angus Code reviewed every detail of the prison battle and let out a sigh.
The operation to redirect the prison's forces through rule changes had proceeded ideally. The timing of the rule modifications had been nearly perfect, and while Nora reverting the rules was unexpected, it was still within acceptable limits.
It was surprising that Nora had surrendered the Thunder Emperor, but so be it.
The only thing that had completely exceeded expectations was—the Thunder Emperor's power.
Inside Code, the construction of magic was disrupted. Offensive spells in particular were dismantled by the city the instant they were cast, rendering them almost entirely useless.
And yet, to compensate for that with such a method—indeed, Code's system could dismantle magic, but it couldn't dismantle the lightning itself once generated. To think he would dispatch the prison's weapons so effortlessly…
But Code would never leave a known weakness unaddressed.
In fact, even the current mechanical soldiers could handle a moderate amount of lightning without issue. If a lightning user beyond expectations appeared, they simply needed to strengthen their countermeasures.
"Hmph… If only we could have used knockout gas instead."
"The prison's rules are quite complex. I believe Your Highness did the best he could."
He knew that. No matter how familiar Angus was with the city's systems, those rules were all that could be changed in such a short time.
Carelessly and forcibly altering complex rules meant there was no telling where cracks would appear.
But it was still a missed opportunity.
If the Thunder Emperor could have been eliminated, they should have done it right then and there. If Saya and Kai had been deployed, they could have killed the Thunder Emperor.
But deploying them at that location would have been far too risky.
Spontaneously rewritten rules inevitably created inconsistencies. If, by some chance, deploying those two was recognized as breaking the king's rules, they wouldn't just lose their shot at the next throne—they'd be done for entirely.
The king's rules could not be broken. Even Nora hadn't used the knight order she brought along to attack the Spare's royal guards. She understood the taboo.
That the Thunder Emperor hadn't fallen into Nora's hands was good news. The Spare who had acquired the Thunder Emperor—Alisha Code—had nothing to do with the succession war.
But far from satisfaction. Even if they couldn't eliminate the Thunder Emperor, it would have been nice to use this incident as an excuse to whittle down Nora's forces a bit more— "Things aren't going well. Not well at all."
"It's just a matter of enduring until Your Highness ascends the throne."
Jean said with a smile to the brooding Angus.
The change of king was near.