Turan swallowed involuntarily as his mana perception revealed the commotion above. Any faint hope that something else might have happened vanished with the movements that followed. The hundreds of wizards overhead were clearly forming a broad encirclement around this prison.

'We've been discovered.'

Even retracing his steps, he could not recall touching a barrier or any sort of magic tool on the way here. How, then, had they noticed the intrusion?

His first suspects were Solif's parents, Godis and Romi, standing right before him. He had confirmed moments ago that they truly loved Solif as their son. But that did not rule out their cooperating with a trap to restore their child to his rightful place as Baraha's heir. The leadership could have promised him another chance if they somehow persuaded him to come back and brought him in.

"Get ready to leave."

"What?"

"They're forming a cordon above us right now to capture us."

Alarm appeared on every face. Seizing that moment, Turan fixed Solif's parents with a sharp look and questioned them.

"We have no time, so I'll be brief. Did either of you use some sort of device to summon someone?"

"What? Wh-what are you..."

"No!"

The middle-aged couple answered in shock. With no time to spare, Turan abandoned even basic courtesy, bringing his nose beneath their ears and inhaling. He could detect strong emotional scents from a short distance, but smelling them carefully at such close range allowed a finer analysis. Confusion, fear, a sense of injustice...

The scents were similar enough to be difficult to distinguish, but they felt closer to the emotions of someone falsely accused than someone whose hidden truth had been exposed.

"My apologies."

Provisionally judging them innocent, Turan quickly apologized and examined his surroundings.

Finding out how they had been discovered mattered more than rushing out immediately. Without knowing that, they would likely remain under pursuit even if they escaped. Yet he sensed no trace of mana on anything in the prison, from the two people they had come to rescue to the furniture and ornaments. Then Maysa, who had also begun looking around after hearing him, cried out urgently.

"Look over there!"

"Hmm?"

She was pointing at an ordinary air vent, the sort any basement like this would have for circulation. A moment later, however, Turan realized that the two vents were far too close together. He immediately sent wind inside to explore them and discovered something strange.

'This is...'

One opening led outside, as a normal ventilation duct would, but the other led to the ground floor, where the knight he presumed was the jailer stood. The far end was capped by what appeared to be a magic tool of unknown purpose. Seeing the jailer standing right beside it with his ear pressed against it gave Turan a fair idea of its function.

'Clever.'

A magic tool that gathered and amplified voices drifting up the vent while blocking sounds traveling down from the ground floor. It was a perfect means of surveillance that left no noticeable trace in the cell. The jailer upstairs had probably heard their voices and reported the intruders. Since he had raised the alarm without leaving his post, he clearly had a separate signaling device.

Whoever had designed this prison seemed exceptionally thorough. Turan immediately took a handful of Spirit of Fire from his pouch, sent it flying into the vent, and detonated it.

"Urgh!"

"What..."

Although Turan used wind magic to block the blast from rushing back, a tremendous roar and some of the heat still poured out of the vent. The ground floor, where it had exploded, must have been utterly devastated.

Having dealt with the eavesdropper, Turan immediately devised a plan. He now knew that Solif's parents were innocent and how their intrusion had been discovered. Their next task was escape. Despite the unforeseen circumstances, he needed less than three seconds to form a plan.

"This way."

Rising to lead the others out, Turan went back over their conversation in the cell to assess exactly what they had revealed. From what he could sense, the magic tool had been destroyed and the jailer seemed dead, but he also had to consider the possibility that their conversation had been recorded or transmitted elsewhere.

'They'll have identified Solif, of course. Who else would break in here? Other than that... we didn't say anything particularly important, surprisingly.'

Ironically, their information had remained secure because they had not trusted Solif's parents. Upon reaching the tunnel, Turan immediately instructed Maysa.

"Escape with these two first, then fly somewhere safe on Vije. We'll buy you time and escape separately, then meet up."

"Wouldn't it be better to leave together?"

"We couldn't move fast enough."

Solif's parents were middle-tier nobles, quite capable by ordinary wizard standards, but pitifully weak compared with Turan's party. Even a small mistake could cost them their lives. Considering that attacking and dodging were easier than defending, it was better for one of them to escort the couple far away while the others drew attention than to flee with pursuers on their heels while trying to protect them.

"Don't worry. We're certain Baraha's House Head isn't here, at least. It would take quite a lot to get us killed."

Judging by the circumstances, their enemies had not anticipated Turan's party and laid some elaborate trap. They had merely activated an emergency system prepared for contingencies. With the House Head and many of their elite absent, there was little chance of serious danger. The only real uncertainty was whether some of the fallen gods would reveal their true power. But with so many witnesses, they would not be able to do that lightly either.

At his further explanation, Maysa nodded solemnly and took the middle-aged couple by the hands, pulling them along.

"W-wait! My son—"

"Go ahead and wait for me, Mom, Dad! I'll be right behind you!"

An innocent smile spread across Solif's face as he waved, speaking like a child. Without the mask, his face looked to be in its mid-to-late twenties, as befitted his age, yet somehow he seemed just as boyish as he had in disguise.

"Come back safe..."

After a brief hesitation, the two followed willingly, apparently understanding that cooperating would improve their only child's chances of survival. They left behind only that heartfelt plea for him to live.

* * *

"H-he's coming!"

BOOM!

The passage leading aboveground exploded with a deafening roar, and Baraha's wizards cried out, taut with tension.

They already had a good idea who their opponent was. Solif Baraha. A man who had risen to the position of heir through outstanding talent and character despite his relatively ordinary birth, earning overwhelming support from Baraha nobles of similar backgrounds. Now, however, he was nothing but the vilest of criminals, having cast aside every kindness his house had shown him, slaughtered the kinsmen sent to bring him back, and fled.

Those who had once admired him had felt disappointment equal to their admiration, and so had stood by while his parents were confined. It was only natural for parents to bear responsibility for their child's crimes. Yet whatever their disappointment, everyone acknowledged his ability. The strained faces of those surrounding him proved as much.

Someone's wind magic cleared the billowing smoke, revealing a figure walking out in front of the ruined prison building: a broad-shouldered young man with cropped silver hair. Solif looked around and gave a leisurely whistle.

"Well, look at all these familiar faces."

"Surrender at once, you loathsome criminal!"

"Sneaking in while the House Head is away, you despicable wretch!"

Along with their shouts, fire and light rose on every side, joined by the golden radiance that combined the two. The Light of Judgment—a secret art requiring both the Sun bloodline and exceptional magical talent. Nineteen of those present wielded it, and thirty-one others possessed noble-caliber mana even if they could not. There were also more than five hundred knights.

Even Solif would struggle to survive such numbers. That was, if he still possessed the strength they remembered, that of an ordinary top-tier wizard.

Facing that formidable force, Solif raised both hands as though surrendering and shouted.

"First, I am sorry for running away from the house! But I had good reason, and I'd like you to hear—"

"He's stalling! He's clearly trying to smuggle his family out!"

"Damn. How did you know?"

At that shout, Solif clicked his tongue and instantly manifested an enormous halo behind him. The faces of Baraha's wizards stiffened at the speed, the size, and the heat washing over them. They instinctively realized that his mana had grown even greater. Though still feeble compared with Baraha's House Head, he now seemed beyond even the several elders who had once been his equals.

"This..."

"Hold nothing back! If we don't kill him, we'll die!"

At someone's shout, hundreds of spells unleashed at full strength rained into the encirclement. It was sheer violence of numbers, enough to leave even a top-ranking wizard injured. Anyone could see that the attack was meant to kill, not capture.

"Hmm."

But Solif curved the ring of light around his body and successfully blocked every attack. He would once have struggled to withstand such an assault. Now, having absorbed the great sea serpent's power and awakened the guardian bloodline, he found it hardly difficult.

"What..."

"He's unhurt?"

Regarding their astonished faces steadily, Solif reached into the backpack pouch at his waist and withdrew his hand. The moment he scattered the pitch-black powder it held, a colossal explosion erupted before the prison. Its destructive force was downright unreasonable considering that he had used only a handful of mana. For the first time, the Spirit of Fire displayed its might in Solif's hands.

"Aaaaagh!"

"My arm, my arm...!"

"The wounded are to fall back for treatment!"

Though Baraha's nobles gave their orders coolly, they could not hide their dismay at what had just happened. As the world's foremost wielders of fire magic, they understood just how bizarre that spell had been. An explosion of such destructive force, without the slightest warning?

Then one of the elders watching from behind shouted.

"If he tries to scatter black powder, set it alight! That will make it explode!"

Seeing how quickly the man recognized the properties of the Spirit of Fire and devised a countermeasure, Solif committed his face to memory. A moment later, those relatively unscathed by the explosion began firing spells at him again. These attacks aimed not so much to kill as to drain the mana he spent defending himself. They were clearly practiced at joining forces against opponents stronger than themselves.

"Tch."

However powerful Solif might be, pitting his mana against hundreds of people was foolish. He immediately broke from his position and charged toward the thinnest part of the cordon. As a guardian-bloodline noble with mana approaching a House Head's unleashed the full strength of his legs, a thunderous crash rang out and the solid stone floor caved beneath him, splitting with great cracks.

"Huh..."

"Stop him!"

Two nobles in his path shaped the Light of Judgment into a sword and a spear and struck at him, but he formed a whip of his own and blocked them. That left a collision of pure flesh against flesh. With a tremendous crash, more than a dozen bodies flew comically through the air. Even a glancing touch from his charging body snapped limbs like brittle stalks, while those unfortunate enough to take a direct hit were all but pulverized. It looked like ordinary humans being rammed by a massive monster.

"Wh-what the hell? How?"

"It's not like he has the Ruban bloodline..."

His ferocity recalled a noble of the great House Ruban, born with the Strongman and guardian bloodlines. Hearing someone's incredulous mutter, one of Baraha's elders issued a firm command.

"Everyone, after him!"

"What about the other criminals?"

"Ignore them! We only need to capture him!"

With the question of pursuing Solif's parents dismissed out of hand, Baraha's wizards hesitated briefly before racing after Solif. The elder did not immediately follow. Standing still for a moment to catch his breath, he murmured.

"Alma."

"Yes."

A woman had been standing quietly beside him. Somehow, there was no respect for him in her voice. Rather, she sounded as if she were addressing someone with whom she had no connection at all. The elder made his request politely.

"I'd like you to go below and pursue the escapees."

"Are you sure you don't need help over there? Unlike what I was told, he's well beyond an ordinary heir's level. He might smash the whole lot of you."

A vein bulged in the elder's face at her almost mocking tone, but his years of experience allowed him to regain his composure quickly.

"You cannot use stealth properly inside this temple anyway. You would be more useful helping with the other matter."

"Well, all right. The House Head did order us to cooperate with you as much as possible."

As she spoke, Alma gestured, and four people mingling with the knights headed into the prison with her. A moment later, the elder sensed their presences vanish after they entered and snorted.

Five Zahar nobles, brought in by the House Head to cover the gap in their forces before he left on urgent business. Sinister and untrustworthy though they were, their assistance would surely enable them to capture Solif. That was how nightmarish Zahar nobles were when pursuing someone. All the more so when one of them was no less than a candidate for heir.

* * *

"Clearly this way."

Having descended beneath the prison, Alma Zahar gave a disbelieving laugh at the tunnel in one wall. They had tunneled in to bypass the security aboveground.

The use of earth-alteration magic on this scale made it clear that one of the intruders possessed the Earthkeeper bloodline. Nobles not born with that bloodline never developed enough proficiency to use earth-alteration magic on such a large scale.

"You take the lead tracking them, Rad."

"Yes, Lady Alma."

Alma, the Zahar House Head's first cousin once removed, was one of Zahar's three candidates for heir. Now that Perga, the weakest, had been eliminated, it would be more accurate to call her one of two. Accordingly, the Zahar nobles accompanying her treated her with the utmost deference.

A moment later, the man called Rad swept the area with tracking magic and pointed ahead.

"That way."

"Any traces?"

"I believe we'll find some a little farther in."

"Let's go."

Naturally, Alma was the best Pursuer among them, but one of her subordinates handled the tracking magic to keep her mana expenditure to a minimum. Each carrying their preferred weapon, the five Zahar nobles entered the tunnel without delay. None conjured a light, yet all could see through the darkness, and their steps never faltered.

"Here, this should work as a tracking med—"

The Pursuer in front pointed at a silver hair on the ground. The moment he bent to pick it up, a deafening blast rang out and a shock wave engulfed all five nobles. Realizing it was the same kind of explosion that had occurred aboveground, Alma shouted urgently.

"Everyone, hide!"

She had no idea when Solif had returned underground, but judging by the strength he had just displayed, confronting him head-on would be suicide. Alma used stealth magic and pressed herself into a corner. Once safe, she first checked her own condition.

Thanks to her defensive magic tool, the actual damage was slight. Her face stung as though she had suffered mild burns. Those would heal naturally soon enough, so she could ignore them.

With her own safety secured, her next task was locating the enemy. Her darkness-piercing gaze swept the surroundings.

'The tunnel has collapsed, and there's no one in sight... More importantly, how did he attack? I didn't smell him at all. A barrier?'

She did not know what that explosive magic was, but it made sense if it had been triggered by barrier magic rather than cast directly by someone. Using tracking magic targeted at humans turned her suspicion into certainty. All she could smell nearby were the faint bodily scents left by people passing through. That meant either no one was nearby or only concealed Zahar nobles were present.

'They said the couple have the Sun bloodline, so he has at least two accomplices: an Earthkeeper and a Barrier-user.'

Realizing she had frightened herself needlessly, Alma clicked her tongue, dropped her stealth, and prepared to order the collapsed tunnel excavated. Just then—

"Uh—"

She felt as though something invisible had abruptly snatched her neck. Before her brain could even identify that unfamiliar sensation, everything before Alma's eyes went black.