At roughly the same time, in a guest room within the prison facility.
"Fufu, fuhahahahaha!"
A silver-haired man's triumphant laughter echoed through the room.
"At last! At last, I've finally dealt with the fools who were obstructing this old man's rise to glory!"
The man—Zenos von Frenbreed—his face twisted with such ecstatic delight that it was almost painful to behold, and as if that weren't enough, his laughter only grew more frenzied.
"Katia von Trackia! A Flawed Lady who had the audacity to defy His Highness! Her pointless resistance, combined with Chris's incompetence, caused me endless trouble and earned me reprimands—but it's all over now!"
Among all those who had been most disadvantaged by the recent exploits of Katia and Ermes, this man was arguably the worst off.
Tracing it all back, everything had begun with his son Chris's failure to capture her, which had led to Ermes's unexpected rise. He was blamed by Aster for the Katia affair while being mocked by those around him as the incompetent fool who had banished Ermes.
Finally freed from that situation, his mind was entirely consumed by joy and his own petty calculations.
"The credit for capturing Katia is mine! I'll be rewarded as the loyal vassal who supported His Highness's wisdom more than anyone, and when His Highness becomes King, perhaps I might even... fufu, fuhahaha!"
Only rosy futures danced through his head. It was precisely at times like these that this sort of person fell under the thrall of a cheap sense of omnipotence.
"That's right. Still, that Katia woman truly made me suffer... She should still be in her cell. Hmph, maybe I'll go see her twisted face of humiliation as a little treat for myself."
And so, his mind drifted to unnecessary thoughts.
"I'll grant that the girl, despite being bratty, is beautiful. Teasing such a woman would be quite amusing! Besides, I'm the one who captured Katia. Surely I'm entitled to this much!"
Satisfying himself with his own twisted logic, entirely unaware that he was about to step on a certain someone's toes, he opened the door.
"The rest is whether that Ermes brat is still around... Well, without Trackia's protection, he's nothing to fear! I'll peel off that mask of his right away—"
"Something about me?"
Standing right before the door.
His expression was a calm smile, yet for anyone who could read it, his eyes held the unmistakable certainty that he had heard every word.
He was standing there.
"Wh—Ermes!? Why are you here!?"
"It's been a while, Father."
Paying no heed to Zenos, who stumbled backward in shock, Ermes delivered his perfunctory greeting.
"...Father. I owe you a debt as well."
He continued speaking, heedless of anything, pressing on unilaterally.
"Regardless of your intentions, you raised me. Until I was seven, you treated me very well. —But"
There, he let surface the sub-zero rage he had once displayed at the party.
"After hearing what you just said... I think not. —This works out nicely, so I'll be breaking through you first."
"...What?"
Meanwhile, during Ermes's speech, Zenos had taken in the situation—his demeanor and the girl he was escorting.
Though the details were unclear, he had broken in to rescue Katia, extracted her from her cell, and was now attempting to escape the building.
That was as far as his correct understanding went.
"Fuhahahaha! I see, I see—what beautiful loyalty between master and servant! And for that—I thank you, Ermes!"
With a booming laugh, Zenos released his magic power.
Completely oblivious to Ermes's feelings, to the unfathomable depth of the magic he was releasing, or to the gap in their power.
"To think you'd offer me the credit of capturing not just Katia, but you as well! What a devoted son I have!!"
He raised his magic power and began the chant for the spell that was his absolute confidence—the same inherited magic he had passed down to Chris.
"'Six are the holy bows, one is the magic bullet; its trigger is the arm of the false god'!"
"...Huh?"
That was when he noticed something was wrong.
The incantation he himself had just so grandly proclaimed—why had he just heard it twice?
"Oh? Elder brother didn't tell you?"
Ermes regarded the dumbfounded Zenos with an icy gaze, then raised his right hand.
"Formula Replay —'Magic Bullet Archer'"
Manifested.
An overwhelming number of magic bullets—overwhelmingly more, overwhelmingly larger, and overwhelmingly more powerful than Zenos's own.
"Wha—"
"Then, Father. ...Thank you for everything."
He unleashed them.
A flustered Zenos fired his own magic bullets a beat late, but without even a moment of equilibrium, Ermes's barrage swallowed them whole.
"Gwaaaaaah!!?"
Together with Zenos, he blasted through the prison wall.
◆
Outside, just as expected, the area was swarming with soldiers who had heard the disturbance.
"Over there! That massive sound!"
"Is that—don't tell me they broke through the wall!?"
"How forceful...!"
The soldiers who had gathered at the source of the noise quickly spotted Ermes and his group and moved to encircle them.
Without defeating them, a breakout was impossible. Ermes instantly reached that conclusion and unleashed the already-chanted'Magic Bullet Archer'.
"Guh!?"
"It looks like they're a ranged Bloodline Magic user! Barrier-type Bloodline Magic users, move up! Block the barrage!"
The opposition was, as expected of those entrusted with the Royal Capital's prison—they instantly saw through his hand and switched tactics.
Their plan was likely to shield the front with powerful walls and whittle them down from the rear with ranged attacks. Simple, but certainly effective.
—That is, if Ermes's magic were limited to ranged attacks.
"'Return unto heaven and proclaim the end; unto the embodiment of His will, a voice without form'"
What he uttered was a chant none of them had ever heard before. Glancing down at Katia, whose eyes had gone wide in his arms, he spoke briefly.
"Lady Katia, hold on tight."
"Huh?"
"We're about to accelerate rather quickly. Formula Replay —'Messenger of the Faceless'"
"—!?"
In an instant, just as he had declared.
With terrifying acceleration, Ermes carried Katia forward, slipping past the shield-type mage in the blink of an eye and closing in on another mage who was just about to launch an attack.
"Eh—"
A high kick flashed into the man's temple, instantly knocking him unconscious. Then another burst of acceleration. He neutralized another mage in exactly the same manner, repeating the process over and over.
"Wh—what is that magic!?"
'Messenger of the Faceless'.
It was a spell from a certain Marquis family. Its effect was simple—purely the enhancement of physical abilities.
However, precisely because of that, the range of enhancement was extremely powerful. Moreover, the technique was relatively simple, and Ermes had successfully reproduced it after having had several chances to observe it.
"Damn—at this rate, we'll be picked off one by one and wiped out! Everyone, hold formation! Minimize casualties and wait for an opening!"
Then, a voice that seemed to belong to the commander rang out.
Quick judgment—he must be competent.
He likely had experience fighting many Bloodline Magic users and was skilled at discerning their properties and choosing the optimal countermeasure.
...But it was a shame.
Their tactics were designed only for opponents who could handle a single Bloodline Magic.
"'Gather, south wind; tear asunder, north wind; the divine gale reaches all directions' Formula Replay —'Four Winds of the Heavenly Demon'"
Ermes chanted yet another Bloodline Magic.
'Four Winds of the Heavenly Demon'—the storm-summoning magic of the Eldritch earldom.
Its strength lay in its wide attack range and its vast wind energy, though it was inferior in raw destructive power.
Yes—a formation as tightly grouped as theirs was ideal prey.
The soldiers were immediately blown apart in every direction, and his strategy of picking them off one by one could resume.
"Wha—!?"
"Now it's wind Bloodline Magic!? What the hell is he doing!?"
The reason he had become able to reproduce so many Bloodline Magic.
The answer was simple—he had been shown them. Mainly through the guidance of Yurugen, head of the Trackia Duke House.
The magic of families connected to Yurugen, and the magic of families like the Eldritch earldom that he had brought under his control by exploiting their weaknesses.
By closely observing these and collecting a large number of samples, the accuracy of his Bloodline Magic reproduction had risen dramatically.
And what he was showing now was the fruit of that effort—his strength, freed from the constraints Yurugen had imposed.
The figure of an all-purpose mage who wielded the'Primal Inscription'to freely switch between and command a multitude of Bloodline Magic.
"Formula Replay —'Apocryphal: Breath of the Flame Dragon'"
"Formula Replay —'Netherworld of Salvation'"
"Formula Replay —'Apocrypha: Turtle Dragon Barrier'"
"Amazing..."
Cradled in Ermes's arms, Katia blushed and whispered.
The way he was now was exactly as he had once described himself.
He was a mage who was endlessly strong, astonishingly pure—and so free that it made one yearn.
"Wh—what the hell is he!?"
"He's like that legendary'Sky Witch'—no, even more than that!"
"A d—he's a demon! That man is a demon!!"
The cries of soldiers whose spirits had already been broken by the many spells Ermes wielded echoed through the air.
"...A demon, you say? Just as His Grace said—you claim magic is everything, yet you still try to cast it aside."
Ermes muttered in a somewhat cruel tone—and at that very moment.
"What is going on here!?"
A graceful, carrying voice—and golden hair that shone even in the darkness of night.
It seemed Aster had arrived. It was a considerable distance from the Royal Palace, so he must have been on his way to check on Katia.
"Your Highness. You've arrived quickly."
"Ermes...!!"
Ermes called out to Aster, who had immediately recognized him. Aster glared at him with undisguised hatred, let out a furious growl, and raised a blazing torrent of magic power.
It appeared he intended to start the fight right here—but.
"I apologize, but I have no intention of confronting Your Highness right now."
His Bloodline Magic was incomparably powerful. Ermes didn't harbor the slightest intention of underestimating that.
If they fought here, the battle would inevitably drag on regardless of who won. If reinforcements arrived in the meantime, things would only become more troublesome—something easily imagined.
After all, their current objective was to flee and buy time.
"Hah! You think you can escape from me!?"
"...I'll turn that question around—looking at this situation, what makes you think you can catch us?"
Every soldier who had surrounded them was already neutralized.
Aster was, of course, a far more powerful mage than any of the soldiers—but he was still only one person. His Bloodline Magic was a pure offensive type, and he lacked the versatility for the kind of agility this situation demanded.
In short—when it came to simply running away, no elaborate tricks were necessary.
"Formula Replay —'Four Winds of the Heavenly Demon'"
First, he activated the wind Bloodline Magic. He created a tornado between Aster and themselves, both as an obstruction and to obscure their visibility with clouds of dust.
"What—"
"Formula Replay —'Messenger of the Faceless'"
Then he enhanced his physical abilities. All that remained was to sprint at full speed into the distance, beyond the range of Aster's magic detection.
"Damn—you! Stop screwing around! Don't run—fight me! You coward!!"
As if they, the enemy, would ever comply with such demands.
...No, knowing that prince, he might actually believe they would.
Either way, there wasn't the slightest reason to listen.
And so it was.
Ermes, having succeeded in rescuing Katia from the unjust charges that had been forced upon her, vanished into the darkness of the night with her in his arms.