Chapter 531: Chapter 526: 「Line Up!」

「W-Wait, my Lord… Please, wai…」

Kugi, who was sprawled out on the training ground, reached out towards me, calling out. But I didn’t bother listening to her words to the end, cutting her off.

「Nope, not waiting.」

I reinforced the wooden sword with telekinesis and added a charge of electricity to it. The first target is that arrogant horned bastard over there. He has been smugly sending his subordinates after me one after another. There’s no way I’m letting that slide.

「Don’t… underestimate me!」

The horned bastard, slightly shaky, managed to stand up, his eyes gleaming. Huh? My mental barrier deflected something just now. Is this guy a user of the Second Spiritual Form?

「Wha—!?」

「I should be the one saying that.」

「Gaaahhh!!?」

I pressed the crackling, electric-charged wooden sword against the horned bastard, letting the current ravage his body. If I recall correctly, too much electricity can kill a person, right? Well, I’m not exactly sure. Let’s just leave him half-dead!

「Urgh—! Ghh…!?」

The horned bastard rolled his eyes back and passed out. Without hesitation, I swung my crackling wooden sword down on a man with leopard ears lying nearby.

「Guwaah!? Abababababababah!?」

「Doesn’t matter if you’re already down, I’m not going easy on you.」

Smoke lightly rose from the leopard bastard’s body as his voice faltered into silence. I nudged him with my foot to confirm he was unconscious, all the while showing a friendly smile on my face. I think I just heard a shriek, like someone has seen something terrifying, but it’s probably just my imagination.

「Line up! I’ll make every last one of you scream! Even if you don’t get up, I won’t show mercy, so you might as well try to resist!」

「Uwaah!?」

The military officers of the Holy Vuelzarus Empire, armed with wooden swords and spears, began to stand up unsteadily or approached with strange, nimble movements. Are they using telekinesis to adjust their steps, moving a bit longer or shorter than their actual stride? So, that’s how they are trying to throw off my distance.

「Take this!」

「Abaaaah!?」

I extended the telekinetic blade wrapped around my wooden sword, transforming it into a massive sword that slashed through all their tricks at once. Only one of them got caught, huh? Guess extending the blade before swinging isn’t the right approach. I’ll need to extend it at the exact moment I swing.

「Guh-eh!?」

Unable to keep up with the instantaneous extension of my blade, about three of them were struck by the crackling electricity and passed out, their eyes rolling back. I mercilessly knocked down every military officer coming at me, regardless of age or gender.

「I-I surrender! I yield!」

「Do your enemies forgive you when you surrender? Huh!?」

「Gyahhh!!」

「Even if you beg for mercy, I won’t accept your surrender, not after you’ve been attacking me this whole time! If you don’t like it, try stopping me with your strength!」

The military officers left with no options, leaped at me. I held my breath, slowing down the flow of time, and struck their exposed torsos and shoulders one by one with my wooden sword. Some of them had what looked like shields made of telekinesis, but the power in my own telekinesis far surpassed theirs making those flimsy barriers of theirs no better than tissue paper. Absolutely useless.

「Aaaahhh!!」

Three more were flung back, overwhelmed by the electric blade extending from my sword. Seeing this, the remaining military officers seemed to grow cautious and spread out, forming a circle around me. Among them were Moegi and Konoha.

「Hiro-dono, don’t you think this is going a bit too far…」

「I’m only doing to you what you did to me, If you’re saying I’ve ‘gone too far’ you’re admitting you guys went too far in the first place, right?」

「Well, um… that’s…」

「No need for excuses. If you’re going to stand before me, weapons drawn, I won’t show mercy.」

I poured even more psionic power into my body, causing blue-white lightning to arc across me as I took a step forward. Moegi, not to be outdone, readied her wooden sword and conjured several blue-white fireballs that floated around her. Oh? So Moegi uses fireballs, huh? What kind of power Konoha will use?

The moment I shifted my gaze toward Konoha, she swung her wooden sword from a distance, her strike filled with lethal intent. A sharp crackling noise echoed as the telekinetic barrier I had surrounded myself with deflected her attack. Is that the sound of our telekinetic forces clashing?

「What the…!?」

「So, Moegi is the distraction while Konoha tries to take me down with her telekinetic sword strike. Clever.」

But did you really think I wasn’t being careful about defense in a fight against so many? There’s no telling where an attack might come from. I’m obviously prepared for something like that. I turned my left hand toward Moegi and Konoha, preparing to retaliate.

「Aaaaahhh!!」

「Uwaaaaah!!」

The lightning I unleashed from my left hand struck them both without mercy, sending Moegi and Konoha collapsing to the ground, screaming in pain. Lightning travels at about one-third the speed of light—around 100,000 kilometers per second—hitting its target almost instantly. In fact, I had already established a discharge path around everyone near me, meaning I could electrocute them all in an instant if I wanted to. Lightning doesn’t fly; it flows. Once the path is made, it hits before you even realize it.

As the remaining military officers saw Moegi and Konoha fall, they launched an onslaught of attacks with telekinetic slashes, invisible strikes, fire, ice, cold air, and even psychic waves. It seems they are really trying to subdue me now.

「That won’t work on me!」

I blocked all of their attacks with my telekinetic and mental barriers, then unleashed lightning in all directions, bringing down every last one of the military officers who attempted to subdue me. A few tried to defend themselves with shields made from psionic power, but my lightning cut right through them.

「Hmph… well, I suppose it was a decent learning experience.」

Some of them lay collapsed, steam rising off their bodies, while others were in much worse shape. They are all still alive, so that’s good enough. No matter what anyone says, it’s good enough.I’ll use telekinesis to gather up the limp and convulsing bodies into one spot and leave them there.

That long-range slash Konoha used earlier was intriguing. It’s probably a form of telekinesis, but how did she do it? Like this? Or maybe like this? Instead of sending a slash flying from afar, she generated it at a distance. It was the kind of telekinesis you’d see in action games or battle manga. It looked pretty fun. If I can’t figure it out on my own, I might just have to ‘borrow’ the technique from Konoha later.

Lost in thought, I kept practicing mindlessly until I finally succeeded in generating a slash from a distance. Once you’ve done it once, it’s easy. It’s like learning to ride a bike.

「Let’s call it Spatial Sword.」

With one swing, I sliced a bunch of small stones I had levitated with telekinesis clean in half. This technique requires precise spatial awareness, you have to generate the slash in the right spot or it won’t work.

While I was practicing, a user of the First Spiritual Form proficient in healing the body, woke up and began reviving the fallen military officers one by one. As they recovered, I continued floating countless small stones with my telekinesis and splitting them in half with a single slash.

I might have lost my temper and lashed out, but in the end, I’ve expanded the range of what I can do. If you think about it, this whole ordeal might have been useful after all. If you only look at the results, I gained a lot from this. Still, being dragged here against my will and getting beat up isn’t something I can just overlook. Though, since I’ve already paid them back, my anger has mostly subsided.

「Should I apologize?」

「…No need.」

The horned bastard, still sitting cross-legged on the ground, scratched his head as he said that, trying to act tough despite the situation. The researchers, who had collapsed or vomited after being hit by my shared pain attack, ‘Fly Away, Pain!’, seemed to have recovered somewhat as well.

「The Spiritual Power meter is broken… Do you think we can cover that with expenses?」

「Enough power to break it…? What kind of potential does he have…?」

Ignoring the baffled researchers, I walked over and crouched in front of Kugi, who was sitting on the ground, dazed.

「M-My Lord…」

「I’m not mad anymore. Sorry for getting you caught up in all this, Kugi.」

I patted the head of Kugi, who had her fox ears drooping down, lying flat against the top of her head. I don’t think Kugi had any intention of setting me up to get beaten—at least, I want to believe that. Though I’m not entirely sure, from the moment the sparring, or rather the mock fight, started, Kugi had looked worried the whole time.

「I’m so sorry… I’ve failed as your servant. I should have ignored my superiors’ orders and prioritized you above everything else, my Lord…」

「You’ve got your own ties to this place, right? Can’t be helped. Don’t worry about it.」

「I’m sorry…」

「You’re forgiven, you’re forgiven.」

You’re wondering why I’m forgiving Kugi, even though she let things escalate to the point where I got beaten? Well, of course, I forgive her. I’m soft when it comes to my women.

「Was it really necessary to beat us up too?」

「You drew your weapons to stop me, so no complaints allowed.」

「…」

Moegi gave me a reproachful look, but if she’d just stayed out of it and watched, I wouldn’t have gone beyond the shared-pain attack. If someone stands in my way, I’ll knock them down. But what’s with Konoha? She’s just staring at me with a serious face. It’s kind of unnerving to be stared at like that without any negative emotions.

「You did well.」

「Huh?」

「Nothing.」

With that, Konoha turned her back to me and walked off toward the others, who were busy helping the fallen military officers. What’s with her…? Also, my side still hurts like hell. I should head back to Krishna and get into the medical pod as soon as possible. Just because the fight is over doesn’t mean my wounds are healed. I might’ve cracked a rib or two at this rate.