Suya lowered his head, glancing at the Sword of the Wind King in his hand.
Compared to the 80-meter-tall giant owl beast now before him, which had only slowly emerged half its head from the ground, its single, amber eye, protruding above the rooftops, completely filled Suya's vision.
His sword, in contrast, was less than a toothpick to it. Perhaps with all his might, he could stir one of its feathers? The slight thrill of "I actually figured out such a cool move so quickly" that had quietly risen in Suya's heart instantly vanished.
At this moment, under the gaze of this colossal creature, he felt his body freeze, his blood congeal, his heart momentarily stop, and his scarlet vertical pupils slightly contract.
Suya had initially thought this was some Singularity or Lostbelt from the Nasuverse, given the appearance of Noble Phantasms and historical figures.
But now, he suspected he might actually have transmigrated into a world pieced together from myths like the King Arthur legends.
In Welsh folklore, there was indeed a giant owl monster known as the Owl-beast, which Arthurian knights once hunted to symbolize the conquest of the wilderness.
But, for crying out loud, your owl is 80 meters tall?!
Could someone please tell him how these knights hunted a monster taller than an Colossal Titan?
And just as this thought emerged,
"By my will—"
"My Holy Sword is the embodiment of the sun, the solar flame that incinerates all impurities!"
"Before this radiance, dispel the night. O Holy Sword of the Stars, stripped of artifice, lend me your power!"
"Excalibur Gallatin!"
A clear, cold cry descended from the heavens!
The next instant, a beam of light, instantly illuminating Knight Street as bright as day, fell!
"Gooooooh!!!"
The giant owl monster, which seemed to have been contemplating making Suya its meal, suddenly let out a miserable shriek!
Suya couldn't even see how it happened, nor did he have time to ponder why he wasn't instantly vaporized by such a massive, high-temperature beam of light.
In Suya's vision, the 80-meter-tall owl monster, like a small mountain, flapped its wings and flew backward as if struck by a heavy blow!
And merely by flapping its ignited wings, the fierce gales it unleashed formed visible, massive blade-winds, instantly collapsing an entire row of houses beneath Suya's feet!
At that critical moment, Suya strained to lift the Sword of the Wind King in his hand, channeling all its condensed force into a blast against the oncoming blade-wind!
"Wind King Iron Hammer!"
Afterward, Suya was thrown directly backward.
He twisted his body in mid-air, falling back against a broken brick, then forcefully propelled himself off it just before hitting the ground. He then tumbled several times through a pile of rubble, barely managing to dissipate the impact.
Looking up again, he saw—
An even more exaggerated and colossal pillar of solar flame, nearly a hundred meters in diameter, descending from the sky, with an absolutely irresistible force, directly slamming the giant owl monster back into the underground of the capital!
Not until the last sparks vanished and Knight Street, which had been bright as day moments before, plunged back into night, did Suya finally come back to his senses.
He finally understood—why Hector was so desperate to become a hero, and just how exaggerated the mighty power represented by the identity of a [Hero] truly was!
Attendants, professionals, and masters were still within the realm of human comprehension. But a hero was like someone who had just chugged an immortality elixir or been exposed to gamma radiation, directly transforming to a level where they could obliterate streets, armies, and even cities!
In this world, anything below a hero was cannon fodder!
At this moment,
responding to the rumbling sounds of knights battling giant beasts echoing throughout the capital, a heavy footstep suddenly sounded nearby.
Clank, clank!
A female knight, clad in exaggerated heavy armor with long, wavy golden hair, came scurrying over, looking anxious.
She single-handedly lifted and pushed aside a beam dozens of meters long.
Upon finding Suya, who was relatively 'safe and sound' amidst the rubble, she finally let out a sigh of relief.
Then, with a slight blush, she gave Suya a somewhat shy and reserved smile, stating directly:
"My apologies, I seem to be late."
"Knight Suya, are you alright?"
"Ah, yes, quite alright." Suya collected himself. Seeing the glowing Gawain before him, he quickly asked: "That scene just now…"
"Knight Gawain, what happened in the capital?"
"Responding to an emergency royal summons, as a knight, I had to go to St. Stephen's Cathedral to participate in the Princess's enthronement and sword-pulling ceremony."
"However…"
"However, what?"
"After the Princess abolished the former king's policies in the name of the royalty, a battle of extremely high intensity erupted at St. Stephen's Cathedral. Before we could even react to what was happening, Her Royal Highness the Princess disappeared."
"Also missing were several abnormally powerful presences."
"At the same time, the Clock Tower detected that the pillar nodes of the capital's underground labyrinth had been tampered with by grand magic. Then, King Pellinore, the highest-ranking noble present, ordered us to deal with the giant beasts emerging from beneath the capital."
Suya frowned slightly. "The pillar nodes of the underground labyrinth were tampered with?"
Just then, Merlin, covered in dust and looking as if she had just emerged from a struggle, clutching Suya's blood-stained magic sword, suddenly crawled out from the other side of the ruins. Seeing Suya unharmed, she too breathed a sigh of relief.
"I was chasing you out to tell you about it."
"It's not just the pillar nodes of the underground labyrinth; the entire ley line flow of the capital city of Wincheston has been tampered with."
Suya didn't quite understand, but still asked:
"What will happen then?"
Merlin's expression darkened slightly. "That means the magical beasts of the underground labyrinth are furiously surging to the surface,"
"And the direction they are attacking is—the Golden Iron Curtain!"
Suya somewhat understood that sentence, but quickly, he realized an even more terrifying possibility and immediately asked Merlin: "Which side are they surging towards?"
Merlin asked strangely: "Surging towards which side of what?"
"I mean, are these magical beasts crashing into the Golden Iron Curtain from the outside, or are they charging straight at the Golden Iron Curtain from the inside?"
"It's definitely the inside!"
Hearing this, Suya's heart immediately sank.
The inside of the Golden Iron Curtain was the military camp he had just left, and magical beasts attacking there meant—
The Golden Iron Curtain was about to fall!
He quickly stood up, not bothering to brush off the dust splattered on him. He grabbed Merlin's hand with one hand and Knight Gawain's hand with the other.
The two women blinked.
Gawain looked at the dust-covered Suya, puzzled.
Merlin, however, instantly thought of something strange, her face turning crimson, glaring at Suya.
"I'm not going with you two!"
Suya didn't understand, looking at her in surprise: "No, what are you talking about?!"
He quickly ignored Merlin's strange expression, his face hardening, and immediately turned to ask Gawain:
"Knight Gawain, does that mean the chaos within the capital is only temporary and will soon be suppressed? And it won't affect the lives of the capital's residents?"
"There'll definitely be some impact, at least rebuilding the shattered buildings will take a few days," Gawain considered, then added, "However, it generally won't affect normal order."
Suya then asked: "Are nightlife establishments like clubs, casinos, pubs, and inns still open?"
Gawain nodded. "Yes, they are."
Suya pulled both women by the hand, heading out of the ruins.
"Then let's hurry and go—"
Merlin tried to struggle, but her E-rank strength was no match for Suya, whose strength was already approaching D-. She looked at Suya with a mournful face and an expression of terrified disbelief, as if saying, 'You're being too fast!':
"No, where do you want to go?!"
Suya didn't look back, responding:
"To the casino."
"Huh?" Gawain raised an eyebrow in confusion at this, asking,
"Knight Suya, aren't you going to learn [Magic Circuit] with me tonight?"
Suya shook his head.
"Time is tight, the mission is heavy."
"Just tell me how to train on the way; I'm listening."