"Retreat!"
Uchiha Tekka snarled through gritted teeth, while Yamanaka Inoichi gave a silent nod beside him.
By now, it was clear that capturing Louise required three conditions.
First, the attack's force had to be enough to break the magical barrier quickly.
Second, Louise could not be allowed any time to chant spells.
Third, once she escaped, they needed to lock onto her position and track her—at the very least, to know where she went.
At that moment, Dr. Hartley stepped through the doorway, his face expressionless as he fixed his cold gaze on Uchiha Tekka and Yamanaka Inoichi.
"Since you two have come this far, don't think of leaving. Best stay here and wait with me for Sage Cato to arrive."
Tekka and Inoichi exchanged a look.
Inoichi moved first, darting toward the breach in the wall they had broken earlier.
Tekka, meanwhile, spun his three-tomoe Sharingan, slashing his long blade in swift arcs to deflect the storm of metallic spikes rushing in.
For a time, the ringing clash of steel echoed again and again, sparks bursting in all directions.
[Bang!]
The moment Yamanaka Inoichi leapt outside, he pulled a signal pistol from his robe and fired it into the night sky.
At once—
A bright red flare blossomed above.
All across Rondel City, the shinobi who saw it immediately prepared to break off their fights and flee the city.
But—
The once clear, moonlit sky had already been swallowed by thick clouds, thunder rumbling within, lightning flickering across their depths.
And beneath that storm—
Sage Cato stood, his small figure stripped of its usual mischief.
He stood upon a resplendent silver-white magic circle, expressionless as he gazed down at the chaos engulfing Rondel below.
"Though I created the school of battle mages, I have never cared for slaughter."
"But if it is slaughter in the name of protection, then I shall not hesitate."
Murmuring to himself, Sage Cato unleashed the magic he had prepared.
In the next instant—
The thunderclouds overhead roared with deafening fury.
Bolts of lightning lanced downward with precision, striking at the shinobi racing through the city streets.
Fortunately, the strikes did not fall in rapid succession.
It seemed Cato could not control too many bolts at once.
"Old man—stop right there!!!"
From the air, Sage Cato suddenly heard a thunderous roar.
Instinctively he looked up—and saw a streak of dazzling blue lightning hurtling toward him at incredible speed.
Cato was stunned. He hadn't expected that among the shinobi, there was someone who could fly.
And judging by the force of that lightning, this one was far stronger than Kurosuki Raiga.
Yet however astonished he was, Cato wasted no time.
He raised his staff and pointed. At once, two bolts shot down from the storm clouds above.
What happened next left the nearly seventy-year-old sage dumbfounded.
The figure, cloaked head to toe in crackling lightning—
Had evaded both bolts by the narrowest margin, slipping past them with impossible precision.
"How is that possible? Those are natural lightning strikes!"
If it had been magic-forged lightning, Cato could have understood.
In an instant, two identical doubles of A appeared at his sides.
They split away from him, charging toward Cato from different directions.
Cato frowned. At most, he could control only two natural lightning bolts at once.
If he struck the wrong target, the real one might close the distance.
The silver magic circle beneath his feet flared, and as his mana surged, countless arcs of silver lightning erupted outward in a dense, unbroken barrage.
"Perfect!"
Crackling with blue lightning, golden hair standing on end, A stepped upon Moonwalk, meeting the onrushing storm head-on with a blood-stirring roar.
"Hell Stab: Four-Finger Nukite!"
Without the slightest hesitation, A unleashed the secret technique his father had only recently passed down to him.
His right hand's four fingers pressed together, channeling an immense surge of Lightning Release chakra. In front of him, a spear of blazing blue light formed.
In the blink of an eye—
A shot straight into the dazzling storm of silver lightning.
From below, all who looked up saw three streaks of blue light like shooting stars, tearing paths through the sky full of silver bolts, surging ever closer to the sage standing upon his circle.
But before long, two of the blue lights flickered out without a trace.
Only the last remained—like a spear of thunder itself—driving upward, piercing, pushing, and pushing again!
Until it reached Cato's position, where the blinding blue lightning cloaking A's body was finally consumed and swallowed by the countless silver bolts all around.
The shinobi who had already fled beyond the walls of Rondel wore grim expressions.
Uchiha Tekka, having slain Dr. Hartley but wounded in the process, stood on the surface of the Rho River outside the city, staring up into the night sky.
His face was dark. He had never expected that even A might meet disaster.
"This is bad…"
At that moment, Yamanaka Inoichi came to stand beside him, speaking in a low voice.
Both sides had taken heavy losses in this battle.
Their mission had ultimately failed—but they had still gathered valuable intelligence on the magicians.
More than that, they had captured several alive.
If A had survived, they might still have accepted the outcome.
After all, what war ever comes without death?
But now—trouble loomed. A's identity was far too special.
If he lived, matters could still be settled. But if he died—
The Raikage would almost certainly never allow the other side a chance to join the World Government.
It would mean nothing less than a fight to the death.
...
[Boom!]
[Boom!]
[Boom!]
It was at the very moment when the shinobi launched their surprise attack on the magical city of Rondel.
Inside the imperial palace of the capital, Emperor Molt sat upon his throne, his expression tense as he listened to the thunderous explosions rolling in from outside.
At the base of the stairway before him, Prime Minister Marcus stood at the head of more than a dozen ministers overseeing various branches of government. Their faces mirrored that of their sovereign, each one clouded with the same anxiety.
The air in the grand hall grew thick with a suffocating weight.
[Step, step, step…]
Amidst the tense silence, the hurried tramp of boots rang through the hall.
The Emperor's head jerked up, eyes fixing on the palace guard who strode quickly inside.
The guardsman advanced to the foot of the dais, dropped to one knee, and shouted in a strained voice: "Your Majesty, the Second Guard Legion has been annihilated outside the city! The Dragon Cavalry Corps has now taken over the battle!"
"What?!"
Before the Emperor could react, Minister Kejiro exploded in fury.
"That was six thousand men! A legion of elites composed entirely of citizens and nobles—and it hasn't even been an hour!"
The capital's army now numbered fewer than forty thousand.
Of these, only the First Guard Legion, the Second Guard Legion, and the Empire's most elite force, the Dragon Cavalry Corps, were stationed in the capital.
All told, no more than fifteen thousand men.
The rest were scattered across other key cities.
Even if they were summoned, it would take nearly a week for them to reach the capital.
But the situation had already grown dire.
The enemy's four warriors had reached the city walls!
Earlier that afternoon, reports had arrived.
Four mounted raiders were approaching the capital from the southwest, carrying the corpses of Princess Piña and General Grey.
Troops stationed along the checkpoints of the Dumas Mountains had tried to intercept them—only to be slaughtered.
Reinforcements sent afterward met the same fate.
One report described one of them as a thunder god incarnate.
Wherever he passed, lightning and thunder roared, and even the towers of the checkpoints were blasted to rubble.
This thunder god was flanked by three apostles—one who could transform into a giant eagle, and two others who were winged beings with pure white wings.
...
Throughout the city, fear spread like wildfire.
A suffocating terror hung over the capital.
At that very moment—
On the southern battlements of the capital—
Soldiers clutching bows or spears stared in horror across the plain.
There, a figure wreathed in golden lightning strode step by step over a carpet of dragon and human corpses.
The Dragon Cavalry Corps—completely destroyed!
Above, a massive black bird wheeled in the skies, its sharp gaze sweeping across the city.
On either side of the "thunder god" floated two winged warriors like angels, one wielding a white-cloud spear, the other a white-cloud sword.
Beneath them, countless corpses littered the blood-soaked earth stretching for tens of kilometers.
The next instant—
Every soldier of the First Guard Legion on the walls heard the thunder god's roar: "Adramelech!!!"
Then came a blinding surge of golden light.
Before they could react, an earth-shaking explosion tore through the air.
[Kra-BOOOOM!]
The southern gate of the capital—together with more than ten meters of adjoining wall and the towers above—collapsed in an instant, shattered by lightning's fury.
When the radiance faded, Budo emerged from the billowing smoke, lightning coursing across his body.
Behind him lay ruins, rubble, and a field strewn with corpses.
Yet his gaze never wavered.
It was fixed firmly upon the golden-domed palace on the hill—the Imperial Castle itself.
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