Blazing Wish, Reason for Betrayal!

White Wing barely blocked Ignat's strike. The moment Osphia saw the figure standing across from her in a pure white cloak trimmed with gold,

she stared wide-eyed in stunned disbelief, an icy chill stiffening her entire body.

Faceless Men like disposable tools, Puppets made from gathered human flesh and blood, an army of "monsters" she had never even heard of—

all the confusion from before tonight found its answer the instant she saw that figure.

But looking at the cloak that symbolized the identity of a Zero Knight, looking at him standing beside that enormous Puppets dozens of meters tall, looking at Harmon who had appeared alongside Ignat,

only one thought remained in her mind.

Why was he here?

All this time, the title Zero Knight had represented honor and glory to Osphia—the highest justice and dignity beneath the Queen.

Until this moment.

On the other side, Fang Ran had stopped to warn her, losing only a brief instant to attack. Yet the giant Puppets that had finished forming swept him away with a single punch.

Amid flying rocks and soil, he retreated more than ten meters behind a pitch-black barrier, then stared in shock at the suddenly appearing white figure.

He recognized him as one of the Zero Knights who had surrounded him when he returned to the battlefield on the Ice Sea!

It was actually a Zero Knight from Nevernight Palace itself!?

"Heh heh, what an outstanding pair of young people."

Looking at Fang Ran and Osphia, both of whom had endured attacks far beyond their own ranks without suffering harm,

the hunched figure beneath the gold-trimmed white hood chuckled, his face obscured.

"I thought the prototype had sufficient materials before. Yet it still failed to capture either of you."

Holding a strange wooden staff larger than his