The three of them walked aimlessly along the street...
Suddenly, Rudeus noticed a gigantic fortress slowly flying through the clouds overhead!
"Whoa! Eris, look! Look! What's that up there?"
"What?"
Eris looked up at the sky in confusion, then said dismissively:
"What? Don't tell me you don't even know about Armored Dragon King Perugius's Floating Fortress, Rudeus?"
"Of course I know about it. I just haven't seen it in person before. So that's what it looks like..."
Eris suddenly launched into an enthusiastic explanation of the Floating Fortress...
"Hey, Eris, you know so much about it. Have you been inside the Floating Fortress?"
"I... I wish I had... But that's just impossible..." Eris lowered her head in disappointment.
"What if I said I had a way to get us there? Would you want to go?"
Eris smiled scornfully.
"Hmph. All you do is brag, Rudeus."
"Rudeus, Perugius's Floating Fortress is several thousand meters above the ground. How would you get there?" Ghislaine asked, puzzled.
"Neither of you believe me, huh? Then how about a bet? I bet I can take you inside the Floating Fortress!"
"You're on!" the two said almost in unison.
"Then what are the stakes?"
Rudeus thought for a moment.
"Ghislaine... how about letting me touch your tail?"
"No! Anything but my tail!" Ghislaine refused without hesitation.
"Huh? Then can I touch your ears?"
"That's fine."
"Good. As for Eris... just give me a kiss."
"Huh?! N-no!" Eris waved her hands frantically, her face bright red.
"If you refuse, I won't take you along."
Eris trembled all over, then hesitated.
"What if you lose?"
"Then I'll leave myself at your mercy."
"Wait, I have another question." Ghislaine suddenly spoke up, her expression serious.
"If we really do get up there, won't we be attacked as intruders?"
"Don't worry. I can use the Invisibility Technique, so we won't be discovered."
Rudeus led the two of them into a deserted alley.
"Come on, take my hands. Don't let go, no matter what happens."
The two did as I said, each taking one of Rudeus's hands.
The next second, he began to draw on the mana within him. A blue wave of mana surged out of my body, and his figure gradually vanished. His toes gently lifted off the ground, taking the two beside him along.
Eris and Ghislaine cried out together:
"We're floating! Is this magic too?"
Before they had finished marveling, Rudeus immediately increased his mana output.
**Whoosh-**the scenery around them blurred into streaks as he flew toward the Floating Fortress with Eris and Ghislaine.
"Aaaaaah! Put me down! I don't want to go anymore!!"
Ten thousand meters above the ground, the howling wind was sharp as a blade.
A raging black shadow tore through the sea of clouds at a terrifying speed beyond the speed of sound.
Eris was scared out of her wits. Her usual willfulness had vanished, and she clung to Rudeus's neck like a frightened koala, her nails nearly digging into his flesh.
Ghislaine's face was just as pale. Though she barely managed to maintain the dignity of a Sword King, the fierce wind flattened her beast ears against her head, and her voice trembled as she spoke.
"R-Rudeus, you really don't need to fly this fast... Lord Perugius's Floating Fortress isn't... isn't going to grow legs and run away..."
"Don't panic, Ghislaine. We're almost there!"
Rudeus faced the fierce wind and looked up at the behemoth rapidly growing larger in his field of vision. Deep down, he couldn't help cursing.
Damn! He really is an old monster who's lived for a thousand years. This castle is way too damn flashy!
The towering walls rose from the ground, at least fifty stories high by his estimate.
The entire castle floated in the empty space at the center of a ring of silver mountains, exuding an aloofness that did not belong to the mortal world.
How the hell is this thing defying gravity and floating? Is it relying entirely on the lift generated by an ancient large-scale magic circle?
Just as the three came within a hundred meters of the Floating Fortress, something unexpected happened!
Boom!
A blinding bolt of purple lightning exploded without warning from a dark corner of the castle.
Like a furious dragon breaking free from its cage, the lightning blasted straight toward the three of them, bearing a destructive pressure!
"We're done for!! We're going to die!"
Eris squeezed her eyes shut in despair and wailed.
A flicker of regret flashed through Ghislaine's eyes as well. She desperately tried to draw her sword, but weightless in midair, she had nothing to push against.
"Don't look like your lives are flashing before your eyes. Who do you think is driving?"
In that split second, Rudeus snorted.
With a point of his finger and a thought, Levitation instantly pulled the two women gently behind him.
At the same time, he thrust his right palm forward, concentrating the vast mana surging through his body into a single point in his palm!
"Magic Devouring!!"
A spatial vortex spun frantically in the void like a miniature black hole.
The next second, the lethal bolt of purple lightning slammed into the black hole.
There was no earth-shaking explosion. It didn't even stir a ripple.
The instant the raging lightning entered the vortex, it vanished without a trace, swallowed up completely.
"Go!"
Rudeus increased his mana output once more, turning into a streak of light as he brought the two women down safely on the silver mountains encircling the fortress.
However, their opponents clearly had no intention of stopping.
In an instant, countless densely packed bolts of purple lightning shot at them from every direction like a torrential downpour.
Rudeus's expression didn't change. Holding the Magic Devouring black hole with one hand, he "ate" the lightning strikes one by one, each powerful enough to blast a Saint Rank swordsman into charcoal.
Just as he thought he had figured out their opponents' attack pattern and was about to call out-
Ding!
A crisp, unusual sound rang out.
The mana shield around him lit up without warning, golden hexagonal patterns spreading across it like a honeycomb.
This was a defensive response triggered only when the shield blocked a fatal blow.
What happened?
Had he just been attacked?
But he hadn't seen a thing!
Before Rudeus could think further...
Ding!
Another strange sound rang out!
The shield lit up again.
This time, at the very limit of his dynamic vision, he caught a fleeting streak of golden light.
Rudeus's thoughts raced, and he immediately realized who his opponent was-
Almanfi the Bright, one of the Armored Dragon King's twelve familiars.
Almanfi the Bright, who turned into light and launched surprise attacks out in the open, and Kleene Elrond the Thunderbolt, who hid in the shadows furiously churning out balls of lightning!
The ability to see through his invisibility presumably belonged to Kleene Elrond, who possessed extrasensory perception.
The two of them had clearly taken him for an intruder breaking into a private home.
But putting himself in their shoes, if a few strangers descended from the sky in a sneaky manner without so much as a greeting, anyone would immediately unleash their biggest moves and bombard the area.
"Wait! We mean no harm! I think there's been a misunderstanding!"
Rudeus shouted at the top of his lungs, trying to open a diplomatic channel.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
But the response he received was an even denser barrage of golden streaks.
An endless flurry of slashes poured down on my mana shield, sending densely packed ripples across it.
Though they couldn't hurt him in the slightest, their relentless attitude made Rudeus frown slightly.
Suddenly, the purple lightning and golden light filling the sky vanished at once, and an eerie silence fell over the surroundings.
Had they given up?
No... that's not right-!
"Danger! Eris, look out!!"
An intense sense of danger made Rudeus's scalp tingle. He whipped around and, almost instinctively, cast a King Rank Defensive Barrier Technique toward Eris and Ghislaine.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The transparent barrier had barely formed when a rapid series of metallic impacts rang out.
Almanfi's unfathomable golden slashes struck the barrier from several blind spots almost simultaneously, sending blinding sparks flying.
Whew-that was close! A little more and cute Eris would have been forced to perform the Clone Technique in the physical sense.
He broke into a cold sweat and felt a flicker of anger rise within him.
"Hey... can you at least let someone finish speaking?!"
He maintained the defenses on both sides while weighing his options.
The situation was indeed rather tricky.
Counterattacking here would definitely be the most foolish choice. It would only enrage Perugius completely and ultimately cause the situation to spiral out of control.
Just as the two sides remained locked in a stalemate and the tension reached its peak, a figure finally flew leisurely out of the magnificent castle below.
It was a mysterious figure with black wings...