A quarter of an hour earlier, Cold Dew Manor—
The flames from the explosion instantly set the entire mountaintop ablaze, illuminating the forest around the manor. In the firelight, the Imperial Guard lay strewn about, dead and wounded, no longer capable of mounting resistance. Brando leaped from the open area of the plaza, cleared the manor's iron fence, and landed in the forest. The siblings followed closely behind, landing safely one after another.
Charles flew through the air at the rear. As he left the manor grounds, he threw a force-field wave behind him. The invisible ripple, a kilometer wide, burst from his hand. The instant it touched the manor's outer wall, it crushed the wall to pieces. The iron fence atop it twisted and broke with a shrill wail, while the solid ground below rippled like water under the tremendous force. The earth could not withstand the surface tension and split open in several cracks dozens of meters wide, cutting off the city guard patrol pursuing them.
Once they entered the forest, the lights of the Crown District below the mountain could be clearly seen through the layers of tree shadows. The sprawling buildings and the Earl of Shevov District, where Moss Fortress stood, were separated by only a river.
But the road was not easy to travel. The moment Brando landed, he saw more than a dozen Flame Dependent Knights emerge from the woods.
The man at the head wore a white wolf mane on his shoulder. He was the successor of the Wolf Knight Hilman. The wolf mane on his shoulder was Hilman's spoils from the Battle of Homan Valley. The original had long since been lost when the thirteenth knight died, however. The one before them was merely a counterfeit—and not even the first-generation counterfeit.
The