BOOM—

The oppressive aura filled the entire manor in an instant, causing even the illusory water screen to ripple and almost disintegrate.

The piercing sword intent spilled out, slicing tiny notches into the hard metallic objects all around.

At this moment, even the Titled Rank Knights of the Round Table found themselves at a loss for words.

All the soldiers and knights could only stare dumbfounded at the figure silently rising to his feet, holding the Sacred Sword.

"I go..."

"To bring him back."

The cool voice echoed within the manor. In the next instant, the master of the Sacred Sword had vanished without a trace. Only a streak of light, as brilliant and golden as the edge of the sky, remained.

The whole manor fell into silence.

After a long while, Gawain's hoarse voice finally broke the silence.

"Has the King... truly achieved a Legendary breakthrough?"

"Although he is under the enhancement of the Sacred Sword, he has indeed reached the Legendary rank," Tristan replied, not opening his eyes, merely strumming the seven-string zither once.

As leaders of the Rebel Alliance, they should have been excited and thrilled now that their King had finally reached Legendary status. Having a Legendary figure among them meant they were no longer inferior. They would no longer need to hide and scurry about as fugitives. Instead, they truly had the standing to participate as a major force in the chess game of Escarnia.

But at this moment, no knight felt jubilation. Clearly, this was not a simple encirclement. Vortigern's troops could be said to have come out in full force, and it was unknown by what means they had managed to sway a Blood Prince who should have remained neutral. If Cain hadn't taken the initiative to strike, revealing Vortigern's hidden strength and conspiracy, this insidious, unexpected ambush might very well have been the moment of total downfall for the Rebel Alliance.

Even now, it was a desperate situation of one Legendary standing against three. Even though they had immense confidence in the Knight King, reason told the knights that such a feat was nearly impossible.

Moreover, this place was hundreds of miles from the Valley of the End. Even at Legendary speed, the journey would take nearly half an hour. Even as Black Knight Cain, how could he possibly hold out against two Legendaries and an Abyss Lord with Legendary combat strength for that long? It was merely a rescue mission doomed to be in vain... and for this effort, their own leader might well be ensnared too.

"Shall we also go?" Gawain suggested.

His words were barely out before Tristan rebuked him. "Fool! In a battle between Legendaries, ordinary 6-Ring fighters are nothing but a hindrance. What we can do now is take this opportunity to evacuate the civilians as much as possible and minimize the losses to..."

A clamor arose from the soldiers behind them.

The two Knights of the Round Table focused their attention on the water screen. Vortigern and the Blood Prince were still below in the canyon, confronting Cain on the cliffside. But behind Cain, several pitch-black bats, hidden by the night, silently emerged.

Then, in an instant, the bats converged, transforming into a gaunt, pallid figure identical to the Blood Prince. Flandre, formed from the swarm of bats, reached for Cain's back, targeting his heart. He moved without the slightest fluctuation of Magic Power, completely undetected.

The very next moment, a blood-red heart quietly appeared in Flandre's hand.

But it was at this precise moment that an anomaly occurred.

「...」

Looking at the blood-red heart that had appeared between his pale fingers, a cold, indifferent smile surfaced on the colorless face of Blood Prince Flandre.

As one of the Abyss Species and a member of the Blood Tribe, he could not walk the path of a Beastmaster. However, what Flandre, a Legendary, took pride in were the various special abilities innate to the Blood Tribe.

First, he used "Double Illusion" to create a decoy to attract attention. His real body, taking advantage of the Blood Tribe's natural ability "Bat Transformation," silently appeared behind Cain. Then, he unleashed his most powerful special ability—

"Heart Control."

THUMP.

THUMP.

In Flandre's hand, the illusory blood-red heart gradually solidified, becoming clearer and more real. Twisted blood vessels emerged from the void, connecting to this fantastical creation. The blood-red heart pulsed and swelled with the flow of blood in these vessels, emitting a thunderous beating sound.

This was a special ability Flandre had only awakened after ascending to Legendary status and becoming a Blood Prince; it was also his most powerful offensive technique. It could create a reflection of the target's heart from the crevice between the Spirit Realm and the material plane, where reality and illusion intersected. Though a reflection, it resonated mystically with its physical counterpart. If the reflection—or rather, the duplicate heart—shattered, then the real heart would also be destroyed alongside it.

This was a death spell that ignored all external physical defenses, directly harming the opponent's heart. Facing this ability, no matter how tough the armor, how powerful the defensive Sacred Relics, or even the tight protection of an entire army—all were meaningless. This was truly instant death.

With this ability, Flandre had even killed a mature pureblood giant dragon—once a dragon's heart shattered without timely treatment, death was the only inevitable outcome.

Of course, this ability was not as invincible as imagined. Ultimately, "Heart Control" was still a type of curse. Against beings of the same rank as Flandre or higher, this instant-death curse had a high chance of being nullified. For instance, those damned Legendary Bishops and Legendary Sacred Knights of the Dawn Church, each enshrouded in the Sacred Light of Dawn's Divine Blessing, were impervious to most curses. And some special life forms lacked vital points altogether; they could live even without a heart. Using this ability on an Element lifeform, for example, would only consume some of its Magic Power reserves with no significant effect.

But Flandre had already confirmed: the Cain before him, though mysterious, was not of a particularly high rank. Moreover, he was a human of flesh and blood.

So—

"Your heart,"

"I shall take it."

The icy voice was like an executioner's pronouncement. A cruel smile flickered in Flandre's eyes.

In the end, he was just an ant that had not reached Legendary status. Although he seemed to possess some petty cunning, and that recent space-based offensive ability, along with the self-destructive combat method displayed on the battlefield, had, to a certain extent, reached a level comparable to a Legendary... but it was just external force, after all. This was an era where true power resided within oneself, and the gap in rank was as vast as the heavens and earth. Even if one relied on external forces to achieve power beyond their rank in some aspects, insurmountable weaknesses inevitably remained. Just like at this very moment. In the presence of my "Heart Control" special ability, all external aids were useless.

CRACK.

Flandre's withered fingers slowly closed. The blood-red heart in his hand let out a shriek, then, under immense pressure, it suddenly shattered into countless splatters of flesh and blood.

He had already foreseen Cain's demise: outwardly unharmed, but the heart within his chest quietly shattering. In his bewilderment, he would suddenly feel the intense pain in his heart, then die in shock and despair.

But, at the very moment Flandre crushed the illusory heart, he saw the thin figure clad in a long black robe with red clouds slowly turn its head.

In the black pupils revealed by the whirlpool mask, there was none of the panic, pain, or horror Flandre had anticipated; there was only faint mockery.

How was that possible? A vegetable can live without its core; humans die without theirs. This was a universally acknowledged principle in this world. Yet now, that principle was broken.

Flandre's pupils abruptly contracted.

What followed was Cain's indifferent voice.

"Old crone, aren't you surprised? Why can a person live without a heart?"

"However, it's unfortunate. The things that will change your worldview today probably don't stop at just this one."

Cain's finger tapped lightly in the void. The next moment, a sliver of silver light shone from the pitch-black eyes behind his mask.

"'Black Knight!'" Cain's indifferent voice sounded almost like a solemn, reverent declaration.

Almost simultaneously, in the gloomy heavens, myriad intensely black points of light emerged. This was memory metal, measurable in tens of tons. Or, to use a term from Shiayar's past life, it was what is known as magnetorheological fluid.

A tiny Alchemical Rune, quietly reflected in the eyes beneath Shiayar's whirlpool mask, began to turn.

Jayee's racial skill: "Metal Genesis."

And, "Colossal Armament."

These tons of liquid metal, under the power of the Alchemy Matrix, were forcibly constrained, contained, and reorganized. Finally, following a preset colossal blueprint, these memory metals completed their forging around Shiayar.

CLANG.

CLANG.

A river of pitch-black invincible metal enveloped Shiayar. Then, one by one, metal components were forged around him, assembling and piecing themselves together. The sounds of countless metal parts colliding rang out.

In just a few moments, a massive, pitch-black metallic construct took Shiayar's place.

This had transcended the realm of "Armorizing" or "Fantasy Armament Materialization." If Armorizing was the ability of an ordinary Beastmaster to use their Pet Beast's power to exceed their own limits, then what was occurring now was a technique far beyond it. It was not just the fusion of a Pet Beast's power, but the embodiment of knowledge passed down by an entire civilization over thousands of years.

To put it in terms from Shiayar's former life, it was the ultimate dream of all men—

"Mecha."

BOOM—

With the roar of its engine, the Core of the Furnace of that pitch-black mecha suddenly lit up with a ring of magma-like Red Gold light.

This was a colossal blueprint Shiayar had designed by combining many works he had seen in his previous life—from Gipsy Danger to Barbatos, from Shinkiro to Strelizia, he had drawn inspiration from them all. Ultimately, however, Shiayar had named it "Black Knight." It perfectly matched Cain's title in this world.

RUMBLE—

The pitch-black mecha turned its head. The next moment, a barrage of ammunition, like magnificent fireworks, sprayed downward. The sky and earth seemed to collapse; sand and dust swirled in the air.

CLANG—

A massive wind pressure, accompanied by an imposing shadow, swept over.

It was only when the Blood Tribe instincts screamed a warning that Flandre snapped out of his shock over the failure of his proudest technique, "Heart Control." He violently raised his hand, blocking the pitch-black giant sword that slashed down. Although his opponent was merely a 5-Ring or 6-Ring, the overwhelming might contained within that pitch-black mecha made even Flandre, a Legendary, feel hard-pressed.

He struggled to his feet, only to hear an icy voice drifting faintly from the towering pitch-black mecha.

"Do you also wish..."

"To dance?"

「...」