Lucian's room was located on the third floor of the castle, a good ten meters above ground level. Even a formal Knight would be injured jumping from such a height, and since slowly drifting down with a Feather Fall spell would make him a sitting target for the Withered Shadows and high-level magic flying around, it wasn't exactly the best option either.
So Lucian did nothing at first, letting gravity pull him into a rapid free fall, and only after a precisely calculated interval did he activate Flight, using stellar gravitational force to reverse his momentum and slow his descent.
By that point he was already close to the ground, and he soon touched down softly on the courtyard soil.
The whole sequence was like skydiving — the only variable was accuracy. Wait too long in the air and it was dangerous; decelerate too little and he'd break something; and if the change in velocity was too abrupt within too short a window, his body would take damage.
But for someone whose soul was powerful and whose memory and calculation abilities far exceeded those of ordinary people, this was trivial.
The courtyard soil, hardened by poverty, was firm enough. Lucian pushed off with both feet and darted forward at tremendous speed, dodging the multicolored shards of light raining down from above, and headed straight for the castle gates.
Since Leo had a magic ring capable of activating Feather Fall, Lucian hadn't been worried about whether the young man could make the jump safely. His only concern was that Leo might be caught in the crossfire of magic or withering energy midair. But Leo wasn't like Lucian — he wasn't important enough for Nikanorov and Count Victor to deliberately redirect their unleashed power at him.
No sooner had Lucian run a few steps than his mental field sensed Leo being struck by one of Ivanovsky's punches and sent flying like a broken doll, crashing into the garden soil far off with a loud thud.
Because Nikanorov hadn't been directly defeated under Count Victor's surprise assault, the magic array that Lucian had hastily set up to muffle the commotion before engaging Ivanovsky — though teetering on the edge of collapse — had not yet reached its limit. The Great Knights and Knights stationed inside the castle still had no idea just how intense the battle between Count Victor and Nikanorov had become. So much so that neither side could spare a hand to deal with this array — whether reinforcing its seal or destroying it to send word to the outside world. Neither had made the attempt.
"Ivanovsky is a Great Knight?!" Lucian was genuinely startled, deducing the man's strength from that single punch. He hadn't seen through him at all.
Though trained Knights could mask their true power by controlling their gait, degree of muscle contraction, heartbeat, and blood flow, Knights who placed the greatest weight on willpower would often unconsciously radiate an intimidating aura — revealing the terror lurking within. Yet in their two face-to-face conversations, Ivanovsky had been utterly convincing. Like a genuine quasi-Knight whose bloodline had been stimulated by potions, like the ruthless but otherwise unremarkable boss of a smuggling ring who had held the operation in his grip for years.
"If I had launched a direct assault at Kalilina's estate based on the assumption that Ivanovsky had only two mid-level professionals protecting him… I'd probably be the one dead right now." Lucian felt a small measure of relief that he hadn't acted rashly, allowing his advantage of asymmetric information to play out. Then he sensed Leo groaning in pain, rolling over and staggering to his feet, while Ivanovsky leapt from the window and lunged toward him.
Leo had been knocked unconscious by Ivanovsky's punch, then jolted back to wakefulness by the violent impact of landing. His head and body ached as though they were about to fall apart. A grim thought flashed through his mind: "I'm badly injured. Any High-level Knight Squire could finish me off now…"
Even though Ivanovsky had used his fist, the strength of a third or fourth-tier Great Knight was terrifying. If Leo hadn't been in a state of fully activated Frost Giant bloodline at the time, that single blow would have shattered his skull like a watermelon dropped from a great height. As it was, the entire left side of his face had caved in — cheekbone shattered, blood flowing from his mouth, golden sparks dancing across his field of vision. Combined with the ten-meter fall without maintaining any sort of balance, his internal organs and bones had sustained severe damage. He was essentially combat-ineffective for the foreseeable future.
That was the gap between a Great Knight and a quasi-Knight! Even though Leo had spent years exchanging for various potions and pushing his bloodline abilities to within a hair's breadth of a formal Knight, it made no difference!
But compared to his physical injuries, the anguish in Leo's heart was far more intense. The man who had massacred his entire family turned out to be a Great Knight — and that meant he could see not the slightest possibility of exacting revenge through his own efforts. An endless despair and sorrow engulfed him, as though the world had been plunged into total darkness.
Then Lucian's voice reached his ears: "I'll draw Ivanovsky away. Look for an opportunity to escape, then meet at the place we agreed on…"
Second-circle Arcane Magic — Message.
Leo snapped out of his nightmarish despair, realizing this was no time for self-pity. A faint spark of motivation kindled within him — he wanted to repay his master for saving his life.
After sending the Message, Lucian didn't slow his pace, his figure leaving an afterimage as he reached the castle gate.
Then he activated the Fire Weaver's bracer, and a fireball struck the gate dead-on with a violent explosion, sending a wave of flames rolling outward.
Since the castle's defensive Divine Arts array had not yet been activated, the fireball blasted a crack through the steel gate, allowing Lucian to slip through and sprint westward toward the city of Ural.
Ivanovsky's feet hit the ground with a solid, earth-shaking impact — not only unharmed, but so forceful that the ground itself trembled. Without a moment's hesitation, he dashed out through the castle gates in hot pursuit of Lucian.
An enemy like Leo, who didn't even possess the strength of a formal Knight, wasn't worth a single glance from Ivanovsky when time was of the essence. After all, it was Ivanovsky who had slaughtered Leo's entire family, not the other way around.
That dismissive attitude filled Leo with a wave of bitter anguish. Without strength, even your enemy couldn't be bothered to care about you — because you simply lacked both the power to take revenge and any prospect of growth.
But then Leo noticed that the fireball Lucian had launched at the castle gate had simultaneously delivered the final blow to Nikanorov's hastily erected silence array, shattering it completely. The sounds of intense, terrifying combat now echoed through the castle for all the guarding Great Knights, Knights, and priests to hear.
"No more time to waste." Leo pulled out a vial of "Storm" potion and drank it, stabilizing his injuries and burning through his body's latent potential. Then he activated Giant Form and strode toward the castle gates with enormous steps.
Halfway there, Leo suddenly tripped over something. He looked down and found a pair of legs — what remained of Matvey after the corrosive toxic fog had eaten away at his body. The black boots were faded but only slightly damaged.