"In this country, isn't magic everything? Huh?"
Rades was frozen in place, only his head able to move, but the expression on his face grew increasingly distorted, his voice hoarse and sharp.
"Since that's the case, I'll use this power, which you all despise, to destroy everything you cherish."
"I will use my own strength to take revenge on the Magic Knights and this country!"
He roared to himself, portraying himself as a tragic character who, after being treated unfairly, rose up in defiance.
Ryoma listened quietly, his heart unperturbed.
Revenge?
Perhaps that was part of the reason, but this guy clearly had a deeper, hidden agenda.
His gaze inadvertently swept over the ornament Fuegoleon wore on his chest.
That should be the main objective of the Eye of the Midnight Sun—the magic stone Fuegoleon was wearing.
Should he help Fuegoleon?
This thought flashed through Ryoma's mind.
According to the original plot, Fuegoleon would be severely wounded here, losing an arm, and then fall into a coma.
But it was also because of this near-death crisis that the Fire Spirit Salamander would choose him as its new host in the future, allowing his strength to make a qualitative leap.
If he intervened now and prevented all of this from happening, would Salamander still choose him?
The chain reactions caused by changing a person's fate are unpredictable.
Just as Ryoma was pondering—
Buzz!
An extremely subtle magical fluctuation came from beneath his feet without any warning.
It was a power that... twisted space.
Ryoma's eyelids twitched violently.
Almost at the same time he sensed the anomaly, a dark, irregular circular area, seemingly capable of devouring all light, appeared out of nowhere on the ground beneath his feet.
Without the slightest hesitation, Ryoma skipped the action of looking down to confirm.
Thanks to the power brought by the Space-Time grimoire, his perception of spatial fluctuations was extremely sensitive.
Whoosh!
An inconspicuous, specially made ice crystal in the air suddenly shattered.
His figure instantly vanished from where he stood, as if he had never existed.
The next moment, he had already appeared several meters away, standing beside the pile of corpse remains that he had previously frozen into powder with one strike.
Where he had just stood, the dark area formed a black vortex, emitting spatial fluctuations.
This sudden scene stunned everyone present.
Fuegoleon's pupils contracted, and he abruptly looked at the spot where the Spatial Magic had appeared, then at Ryoma who had instantly appeared in the distance, his eyes filled with surprise and doubt.
Asta, even more so, gaped, completely unable to see what had happened.
"You little rat hiding in a rat hole." Ryoma's voice was cold.
He didn't even glance at the spatial vortex, his gaze locked onto another relatively intact pile of corpses not far away. He could feel the source of that Spatial Magic hidden there.
He raised his hand, fingers spread.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The remaining frost on the ground instantly erupted. Countless ice thorns, thicker and sharper than before, shot up from the ground, like a group of bloodthirsty giant pythons, madly strangling towards the pile of corpses.
However, just as the ice thorns were about to pierce through the corpse pile, another faint but clear spatial fluctuation flashed away.
Ryoma's brow furrowed slightly.
He sensed that the Spatial Magic user hiding in the dark had once again used Spatial Magic to dodge.
"Tsk."
What a slippery fellow.
This sudden change made Fuegoleon instantly realize something. He immediately released his magic power to sense his surroundings.
"!"
His expression became solemn for the first time.
Gone.
All gone!
The other Magic Knights, who should have been fighting enemies all over the capital...
Their magical presences had all vanished without a trace in that instant.
It was as if they had never been in the capital at all.
"It's Spatial Magic..."
Fuegoleon's voice was terrifyingly low.
The enemy side's Spatial Magic user could silently teleport so many Magic Knights at once.
Ryoma hadn't expected it either. He was clearly standing right next to Fuegoleon, yet the guy hiding in the dark dared to directly attack him, risking alarming Fuegoleon.
Was he afraid he would ruin their plans?
Or was it that this guy was so confident that he thought he could teleport both him and Fuegoleon away?
No, that's not right.
His target just now was only him.
It seemed that, in the opponent's plan, he was a variable that had to be eliminated first.
"Haha... Hahahaha!"
Just then, Rades, frozen into half an ice sculpture, burst into maniacal laughter again after seeing the Spatial Magic. The fear on his face was swept away, replaced by a twisted pleasure of a successful scheme.
"Only just realizing it now? Too late! Everything is too late!"
He looked at Fuegoleon with a pitiful gaze, as if looking at a dead man.
"Do you think our goal is to destroy the capital? To kill these ants?"
"No! No! No!"
Rades laughed hysterically, his voice sharp and piercing.
"Those were just side shows! Bait to attract the attention of you fools!"
His gaze, like a venomous snake, fixed firmly on Fuegoleon.
"From the very beginning, our true objective... was only you! Captain of the Crimson Lions—Fuegoleon Vermillion!"
The moment his words fell—
Buzz!
A black spatial vortex, identical to the one that had appeared beneath Ryoma's feet just now, suddenly emerged beneath Fuegoleon's feet.
Its speed was so fast that it gave no one any time to react.
"Brother!"
Leopold in the distance cried out in alarm.
Fuegoleon's expression remained unchanged, and he showed no intention of resisting.
"Just as I wished. I can't catch a tiger cub without entering the tiger's den."
A figure appeared beside him like a ghost, without any warning.
Whoosh!
It was Ryoma.
He had actually stepped into the range of the dark vortex on his own initiative at the last moment of the Spatial Magic's activation.
Fuegoleon turned his head sharply and saw Ryoma's still calm face.
"You..."
Ryoma glanced at the black space rapidly expanding beneath their feet, about to swallow them both, and a playful arc appeared at the corner of his lips.
The other party had issued such an obvious challenge, wouldn't it be impolite not to go and see?
Moreover, with his and Fuegoleon's combined strength, they wouldn't be instantly killed.
If it came down to it... he could escape alone.
Although afterward, he might have to live a fugitive life, being hunted all over the world by the Eye of the Midnight Sun, and possibly even the Magic Knights.
Ryoma looked at Fegenlion and replied in a relaxed tone, "I'll go with you."