That night, three moons hung over the sky of Strauss Fortress. There was the real moon, shining high above, and two colossal lights that had suddenly appeared in the sky. The two forms were so bright and immense that, for a moment, they could easily be mistaken for moons.

As light clashed with light, waves of brilliance rippled across the entire fortress. The awe-inspiring spectacle was clearly visible not only to the forces of Strauss but also to the subjugation army.

Everyone gazed upward in fear. "What... is that?"

The naked eye couldn’t make out their identities. For one, they were far off in the sky, and both were cloaked in blinding light. However, aura users could barely make out the outlines using their trained senses.

"No way..."

"Is that the martial king, Gellard?"

Of course, even aura users couldn’t discern faces at such a range. But it was obvious enough that one of the figures was a stout, imposing old knight. And who else but the Martial King of Delphiad could display such overwhelming might with his entire body wrapped in golden aura? Yet, when it came to the luminous being opposing him, no one could recognize what they were seeing.

"Those are wings of light!"

"Could it be an angel of a goddess?"

Confusion swept through them all. They weren’t even sure if angels of the goddesses truly existed, and they had no idea why one would appear now. More than anything, the entire situation defied understanding.

"Why is the Martial King of Delphiad fighting an angel of the goddesses?"

In fact, they weren’t even sure which side was theirs anymore. The subjugation army had clearly come to rescue the captive Martial King Gellard. But there he was, alive and well, locked in battle with an angel. Could that angel really have been summoned by the cult of the Black God?

But how could that possibly be, when it shone with such resplendence? To any observer, it looked entirely removed from anything associated with darkness or death.

Amidst the reverent stares, one knight from the expeditionary army murmured, echoing the thoughts of them all. "What in the world is going on?"

***

The angel and the martial king both retreated for a moment, leaving behind the devastating clash. The Angel of Radiant Wings flapped his wings and floated in midair, while future Leven, who had seized the martial king’s body, steadied himself in the air as well.

After landing gracefully on the ground, he immediately kicked off once more and soared upward.

—Delphiad Swordsmanship: Sky Cleaving Slash!

Future Leven’s twin swords carved through the air, and the very sky seemed to tear apart as though space itself were being ripped open.

A golden curtain of aura spread across the night sky. It looked, at a glance, like a vast silk of light draping over the world. Yet those with sharper senses could feel the ruthless destructive force concealed within.

Karnak, as the Angel of Radiant Wings, focused his mind. I’ll block it!

The angel let out a resounding battle cry. A holy hymn rang out, filling the heavens. Aaaaaaaaaah!

Twin spears of light formed in the angel’s hands, and he unleashed a barrage of strikes. Countless holes pierced the golden silk, and in an instant, the aura curtain was torn and tattered. Deafening explosions resounded without pause.

Even the scattered fragments of light were enough to split boulders and tear the earth asunder. Amid the chaos of destruction, the martial king and the angel repeatedly collided and parted, only to clash once more.

Each time, their masterful swordplay and martial prowess intertwined. Dozens of exchanges left brilliant trails of light in the air, as they relentlessly aimed for each other’s vital points. Truly, it was a display of techniques worthy of the martial king’s name.

They’re incredible...

Present Leven watched the sky with a dazed expression, leaning against a half-collapsed pillar of the inner fortress. Under normal circumstances, he would have wanted to join the fight and aid Karnak, but...

—This is far beyond my ability to intervene. At this point, I can’t even tell what they’re doing anymore.

Future Leven had been holding back against them, which had allowed them to survive. But if he were to jump into this fray now, he would only become a hindrance.

Beside him, Serati muttered in bewilderment.

—But how is Lord Karnak able to fight like that?

The Karnak she knew had no martial skill whatsoever. Yet ever since assuming the form of the angel, he had been moving with speed and power on par with the Martial King of Delphiad.

Varos replied matter-of-factly, as if it were obvious.

—Well, it’s because the young master isn’t moving on his own.

This spell, Angel of Radiant Wings, was indeed something he had never seen before. However, the Demon King of Chaos was a spell Varos was already familiar with.

—Young master is merely the catalyst for the foundation. The angel handles the battle on its own.

Strictly speaking, this functioned similarly to Karnak’s other summoning spells. When a summoner controlled a summoned creature, they didn’t move it as directly as they would their own limbs. They only gave broad commands like fight, strike, block, or evade.

—Though this is a bit more direct than that, allowing him to control it somewhat like his own body, it’s still not as if he’s moving it completely as he would his own flesh.

—Meaning...

Varos trailed off with a short laugh.

—Yes, it’s just that the angel itself is very good at fighting.

In truth, the Angel of Radiant Wings didn’t actually exist.

—Well, technically, it’s still the Demon King of Chaos.

***

Future Leven gave a wicked smile after landing on the ground. "You managed to block that one."

He immediately twisted his twin swords and drew out more aura. Golden aura spiraled along the blades before scattering in all directions.

Future Leven swung his sword down in a mighty arc. "Then let’s see how you handle this!"

Streams of aura surged toward the Angel of Radiant Wings in wild, weaving trajectories, like dozens of golden vipers.

Karnak, who had merged with the angel, narrowed his eyes.

How would he handle it?

How would I know?

Karnak was a master of necromancy, but he wasn’t much better than an ordinary man when it came to swordsmanship. And to the average person, even a normal warrior’s swordplay was just a blur of shining steel. Recognizing specific techniques was out of the question.

All the more so when the opponent was the martial king, one of the four who had reached the pinnacle of martial arts. There was no way Karnak could hope to evaluate the swordsmanship of such a being.

But there was something he could discern. He knew whether to block or evade an incoming attack. He might not be able to understand the martial king’s swordsmanship, but he could read the flow of battle. And in that realm, Karnak had built up a wealth of experience.

Evasive maneuver!

The Angel of Radiant Wings moved in response to his command. It swiftly veered to the left and slipped outside the range of future Leven’s assault. Its movements and footwork were exquisite, dodging even the martial king’s complex attacks with ease.

Moreover, the Angel of Radiant Wings performed an extra action that Karnak had not explicitly ordered. With a flurry of its hands, it struck down every one of the incoming aura vipers.

As with other summoned creatures, the Angel of Radiant Wings followed Karnak’s commands, but in situations requiring instantaneous reaction, it could respond autonomously.

The aura vipers exploded midair in a series of deafening blasts. Immediately, Karnak issued the next command. Ascend and counterattack!

The Angel of Radiant Wings spread its wings and surged toward future Leven’s right flank. With a powerful leap, it soared into the air and drove a spear of light downward!

Future Leven did not stand idly by. He stepped wide and channeled his aura before unleashing a colossal two-stage upward strike.

—Delphiad Swordsmanship: Overkill!

The falling blow, like a meteor, collided with the rising slash, sharp as a crescent moon, erupting once more in a wave of light.

Future Leven staggered back with a groan. Once again, his attack had been intercepted at the perfect moment. It had been a strike he was confident in, yet it was blocked all the same.

Karnak let out a breath of relief while retreating. Fortunately, things are going even better than I expected.

***

Just as Varos had surmised, the Angel of Radiant Wings was a spell that transformed the Demon King of Chaos into necromantic magic.

In his previous life, Karnak had faced formidable enemies as the Monarch of Death: The Three Archmages and the Four Martial Kings. If he had to choose the more troublesome foes among them, it was unquestionably the martial kings.

It was common knowledge that aura users held the advantage over mages in one-on-one combat.

What good was it if a mage could tear the sky with a flick of the finger or split the earth with a single word? The overwhelming speed of an aura user could sever the mage’s fingers and tongue before they could act.

Necromancers, too, fought in a way not so different from mages. Thus, Karnak had found martial kings more challenging adversaries than even the archmages. After much deliberation, Karnak devised the ultimate close-combat necromancy spell: Incarnation of Divinity, Demon King of Chaos.

It was impossible to stand against a martial king with conventional necromancy, no matter what kind of demon he summoned.

If he tried to summon a transcendent demon powerful enough to rival a martial king, they would not listen to his commands. And as long as he kept the summon within the bounds of his control, they could not be a match for a martial king.

Thus, Karnak arrived at a conclusion. Project the image buried deep within humanity’s collective unconscious onto the darkness, and manifest an absolute existence.

He fused fearsome images—supreme evil, an invincible demon, death, despair—into the darkness, and summoned them into reality in a concrete form. Then, he superimposed that overwhelming image onto himself.

In doing so, he resolved the dilemma. If the transcendent demon was himself, there would be no issue of control. Thus, Karnak acquired close-combat prowess on par with the four martial kings with Incarnation of Divinity: Demon King of Chaos.

It was such a powerful technique that even after returning to this era, he devoted great effort to reproducing it at all costs.

First, he cloaked the dark mana in a brilliant shell of light, making it appear as though light had triumphed over darkness. But in truth, it was merely a matter of covering the darkness entirely in light. It was like stuffing something foul into a container and sealing the lid tight.

Next, he overlaid an angelic illusion atop the Demon King of Chaos, crafting an appearance so divine that anyone looking on would mistake it for something holy.

This way, not only did it hide the aura of darkness, it made the spell appear overwhelmingly benevolent. However, there was still one major flaw. The activation conditions were so restrictive that it was nearly impossible to use in actual combat.

For one, drawing the hexagram took far too long. It wasn’t that constructing the domain was particularly complicated. Rather, the problem lay in the type of the formation. It had to be drawn and activated in real time, and it couldn’t be set in advance.

In other words, he had to stop and personally draw an enormous hexagram, spanning dozens of meters, in the middle of a battle. What’s more, the enemy martial king had to be positioned inside the hexagram.

Only against an absolute being like a martial king could he reverse the flow and extract the unconscious image buried deep in their psyche. In this way, the spell functioned such that the stronger the opponent, the stronger he became in turn.

Thus, the Angel of Radiant Wings had not been intended for practical combat deployment just yet. There was no way he could ask, while painstakingly drawing a suspiciously enormous hexagram, "Excuse me, would you mind stepping inside for a moment?"

I never expected I’d be able to use it at this stage.

But it had worked because future Leven had been moving with blind, relentless focus. He had been so fixated on Karnak that he paid no attention to what was happening beneath his feet.

Well, Varos and Serati also timed their ambushes perfectly whenever future Leven's attention wavered, which helped too. Thanks to that, he had been able to deploy the Demon King of Chaos once more.

No, it’s the Angel of Radiant Wings now. Of course.

It looked, to anyone, like the epitome of righteousness. Karnak felt deeply satisfied.

With a bright grin, he issued the next command. Commence autonomous offense immediately after the charge!

The angel’s wings of light beat magnificently as the hymn sounded once more. Aaaaaaaaaah!