Resolve

Benjamin cleared his throat and slowly began, "I think... even if the enemy deploys several hundred Holy Light Cannons, if we can seize the advantage of terrain in defense, we may not be unable to hold them off."

"Several hundred Holy Light Cannons firing at once—what are we supposed to use to stop them?" someone immediately challenged.

"The Rune Defense Array," Benjamin explained. "This is the Magic Academy's latest confidential research achievement, and it possesses unimaginable defensive power. When the Queen attacked the academy, we relied on this very thing to fend off their assault despite the vast disparity in military strength."

At a time like this, he certainly could not keep anything up his sleeve. Besides, the Rune Research Group had developed this long ago; bringing it out now was no great issue.

Yet upon hearing this, everyone revealed puzzled expressions.

"Headmaster, forgive our discourtesy, but... we have never heard of any Rune Defense Array. Is it truly as formidable as you say?"

"Of course." Benjamin nodded. "I'll have people begin setting it up in Locke City. Once it is complete, you will all be able to witness firsthand just how terrifying its defensive capabilities are."

He was not simply boasting. In truth, he had great confidence in rune arrays.

After the Queen led her army in attacking the academy, although the Rune Research Group had failed to develop any new arrays, they had made several improvements to the defensive array. Its power would not weaken as its covered area expanded. On the contrary, the more rune sentences within the array and the larger the area it encompassed, the stronger its defensive performance became.

A defensive array covering an entire city... though it had never been put into practice, Benjamin felt it would be even more powerful than Havenlight's