"I see…"
Faced with the chief of staff's threat, Shane tilted his head slightly. The heart in his chest began to pound heavily, and he was just about to make his move when—
"Father, please let them go!"
The air in the center of the hall suddenly rippled like water.
A man wearing a black face covering, several strange staffs strapped to his back, stepped out of a magic circle woven from light and shadow and appeared before everyone.
"Mystogan?"
Shane stopped, surprise flashing through his eyes.
He got here this fast? Did he notice that I secretly took Mira with me?
And that way he addressed him… Father?
"So he's the direct royal heir of this world… The one who benefits most from this whole system, yet chose to rebel against his own birth?"
Thinking that, Shane couldn't help finding it interesting. His impression of Mystogan rose a few points.
On the throne, Faust's cold smile instantly vanished, his gaze turning dark and displeased.
"Mystogan, you actually have the nerve to come back and face me? And you dare make demands of me?"
The old king snorted coldly.
"You think I don't know about the little things you've been doing all these years, sealing Anima all over Earth Land?"
Still as stubborn as ever.
Listening to his father's questioning, Mystogan pulled down his face covering and silently sighed in his heart.
Unless absolutely necessary, he truly did not want to face this blood relative whose eyes had been blinded by ambition.
He turned his head slightly and glanced behind him.
The black-haired boy bound by magic-sealing rope was smiling at him with complete ease.
Mystogan immediately felt a headache coming on.
He never expected that with only the small set of residual coordinates he had provided, Shane would be able to forcibly pierce the world barrier and arrive here.
And here he had been hurrying the whole way, worried sick that something had happened to them.
Now, seeing Shane's calm and composed expression, it was clear he really did have a way to use magic freely in this world.
Unbelievable…
Mystogan had heard plenty of rumors about this guildmate.
That deep darkness four years ago, the one that had covered the night sky and plunged the entire Kingdom of Fiore into panic, was supposedly caused by him.
Thinking of that, Mystogan instinctively reached toward the glass bottle in his coat. Inside was the unfinished medicine he had been developing.
Should he cooperate with Shane now?
At this distance, even with several captains of the Magic War Division present, if the two of them joined forces, they had a very real chance of taking control of his father directly.
Perhaps because some lingering attachment to family remained in his heart, Mystogan's thoughts raced before he finally took a deep breath and answered in a low voice.
"Father, this is not a request. This man, Shane, can cause destruction no less than that evil dragon if he truly gets serious."
"For the sake of the kingdom, not only should you release them, but I ask that you immediately stop the Anima plundering plan as well."
"This is exactly why I have always hated you!"
Faust struck the armrest of his throne with disdain and barked harshly,
"You are always so timid, always hesitating, always worrying about what comes after! You think this captive can threaten me under the eyes of so many elite captains?"
The old king sneered again and again.
"If he truly has that ability, why waste words? Let him stop me himself!"
"That's exactly what I was planning to do."
Shane chuckled, cutting through the confrontation between father and son.
He gave his hands a slight twist, and the magic-binding ropes were no different from decoration before his inhuman C-rank Strength.
The [Dragon Reactor Core], which he had deliberately suppressed, began to pound violently inside his chest like a heavy war drum.
"Since you're already here," he said, turning his head toward the stunned Mystogan, "then I don't need to go through the trouble of interrogating these people about how to get back."
"H-his hair is turning white?!"
"What… what kind of magic is this? It's absurd!"
Hughes, who was closest to him, immediately noticed the abnormality.
His face filled with horror as he pulled out a wand shaped like a conductor's baton from his coat as if performing a magic trick.
But before he could make any move, his vision blurred.
The white-haired figure vanished completely from his sight.
In the next instant, wind pressure struck.
Bang—!
A black-blue spear wrapped in azure flowing light swept across and slammed heavily into Hughes' waist and abdomen.
The captain of the Third Magic War Division, who had been so smug all this time, didn't even have time to scream before his whole body flew like a cannonball, smashing through a distant stone pillar. Whether he lived or died was unknown.
"Mages who rely too heavily on tools they carry tend to have that fatal weakness."
Shane stood with spear in hand and gave his evaluation in a flat tone.
Then his gaze slowly swept across the surroundings. The royal attendants who had been so aggressive a moment ago immediately turned pale with terror, gripping their weapons tightly.
And yet Faust, sitting high on the throne, not only did not panic—he shot to his feet.
He stared fixedly at Shane, and a strange fanatic light burst across his withered face.
"This surging, pure, vast magic… I've only ever seen it in that dragon!"
"Why? Why can you possess such power in our barren world?"
"Because of this."
Shane lightly placed a hand over his chest, feeling the endless interweaving of life force and magic.
"My heart can continuously create magic out of nothing."
He paused, remembering the massive dragon body he had seen earlier, and casually guessed,
"My counterpart probably has a similar organ. But judging from how he still needs to plunder magic from all over the world as tax, his organ may only be half-finished, capable of storing magic but not producing it."
The moment he said that, the fanaticism in Faust's eyes was gradually overtaken by greed.
Magic, in his worldview, was absolute power.
And a heart capable of endlessly producing magic… what did that mean?
That was a power even the evil dragon ruling the skies could not possess, a power it had been desperately seeking.
And now, that miracle stood before him like a dream, alive and within reach.
"Want it?" Shane tilted his head.
"…"
Faust's breathing grew heavy, his hands clenching into fists.
"Allow me to fulfill His Majesty's desire!"
A low voice rang out from the corner of the hall.
A man with a tall, fluffy pompadour, sharp eyes, and a neat, capable appearance strode forward.
He did not have Hughes' flamboyance. Instead, he carried the seasoned elegance of someone who had long survived the battlefield.
"That is Sugarboy, captain of the Fourth Magic War Division!"
Mystogan immediately warned him, "His fighting style is completely different from Hughes, who you just defeated. Be careful!"
"Knightwalker! You go too!"
Faust's voice sharpened with excitement.
"Cut open his chest for me! Take out that heart!"
"Tch. That disgusting work can be left to Sugarboy."
Knightwalker gave an irritated snort.
She reached up, tore off the scarf around her neck, and tossed it to the ground.
Then she gripped her spear tightly, glaring at the man before her, whose appearance had changed completely.
His once-black short hair had turned snow-white. At some point, a thin and beautiful fitted armor had covered his body. With a long spear in hand, his whole being radiated a terrifyingly sharp aura.
"This form of yours…"
The hunter gritted her teeth, anger at being deceived burning in her eyes.
"So back at the fairy guild, you really were holding back against me!"