Lawrence von Bretus.
Lorelai von Bretus.
The twin siblings, though older than Ludger in actual years, looked barely in their late teens—whether because of the restraints or the bodily modifications, he could not tell.
Their full-body bondage-like restraints didn’t help either.
Even if those were technically high-performance magical devices, the design reeked so openly of the creator’s perversion that it was impossible to ignore.
It had to be Salesin’s work.
“I didn’t know our dear eldest brother had such a twisted fetish. Then again, thinking about it now, I can’t say I’m surprised.”
His tone was even, but the words were a deliberate blasphemy meant to provoke.
At that, the twins bared their teeth and growled like beasts.
Anyone could see it—clear anger.
“To think you’d get angry because I insulted the man who turned you into that pitiful shape. Even if you’ve lost your minds, do you really have no sense left that you once bore the blood of the Holy Sovereign?”
Bitterness tinged Ludger’s voice.
Once, he had promised himself countless times that when he revealed everything and returned to the Holy Nation, he would settle all accounts.
The bloodline of the Holy Sovereign was the enemy he was destined to destroy.
And so, he had wanted them to remain exactly as he remembered—unchanged—so that when the time came, striking them down would have meaning.
But now? The twins before him weren’t even worth that.
They were stronger than before—yes, the modifications had given them greater power than any training could have—but...
“That strength has no reason, no desire, not even madness left—only blind obedience to orders.”
Ludger muttered as though genuinely pitying them.
“It’s a waste of energy to even fight you.”
Kyaaaah!
Perhaps they sensed that emotion in him.
The twins reacted more violently than ever, as if enraged that he dared judge them.
Their fury manifested physically.
Kwaaaah!
A roar erupted as divine power burst outward.
The twin blast they unleashed together was more than five times greater than what he’d seen before.
But—
“Weak.”
Ludger expanded the shadow of his right hand.
A giant arm of darkness, shaped like a beast’s, grasped the pillar of divine energy.
Crackle—
Just by gripping it, he crushed the roaring beam into nothing. It scattered uselessly in midair.
“This isn’t the kind of fight I wanted.”
Even after their strongest attack was nullified, the twins didn’t falter.
Instead, they responded to his provocation, releasing a torrent of divine energy from their bodies.
The restraints that had held back their divinity until now couldn’t contain it any longer.
Shriiiip—!
The sound of leather tearing filled the air as their arms broke free.
The remnants of their bindings fluttered around them like ribbons caught in divine winds.
The leather masks hiding their faces tore apart, revealing white hair and youthful features beneath.
Beautiful faces—like living dolls, barely in their late teens.
The two looked identical.
Though still incapable of speech, emotion flickered in their crimson eyes—rage toward the one who had provoked them.
“Oh?”
Ludger’s lips curved faintly, amused at last.
Stirred by that, the twins exploded with divine energy, erasing all traces of their surgical scars.
Even their surgically altered brains regenerated completely under the overwhelming surge of divinity.
Their emotions restored, the twins lunged at Ludger.
With a thunderous sound, their figures vanished from sight.
Before Ludger’s pupils could even track them, they were gone.
Once limited to simple kicks, their movements were now utterly unrestrained.
Flap—
Their arms whipped through the air in dizzying patterns—so fast that even in slowed perception, they left afterimages.
Trailing their movements were pale, shadowy streaks of leather—the remnants of the restraints.
Those strips traced arcs in the air, striking like whips aimed at Ludger.
Slash!
In Ludger’s vision, a marble column struck by one of those whips was neatly sliced apart, its surface polished smooth as the chunk fell away.
The attack didn’t cut or strike—it erased whatever it touched, as if rubbed out of existence.
And the web of those erasing strikes spread across the entire space.
“An attack that covers the whole area, hm.”
Watching it, Ludger retracted his enlarged shadow arm back to normal size.
Then he raised his hand, fingers aligned like a blade, and pointed at the twins.
“If you’re going to burn the last of your strength, I should at least show you something worthy in return.”
A crimson shimmer flickered within Ludger’s blue eyes.
The whips that erased all in their path reached him—
And then—
Crack!
The world split diagonally.
Not figuratively—literally.
Space itself was severed, its layers twisting apart.
Everything within that trajectory was cut and scattered—the twins’ attacks, the twins themselves.
Their powerful, resilient bodies, the divine power shielding them, even the high-durability restraints—all useless.
A single instant slash—something like that could never be blocked.
The spell he had unleashed literally cleaved through space.
Through Ater Nocturnus, he had twisted space, compressed and honed it to a razor thread, then unleashed it like a beam.
The process was complex, but the result—devastating.
The twins’ bodies split diagonally; the slash continued, slicing through Diena’s golden barrier and even shearing a part of the inner fortress itself.
A little more force, and the entire citadel might have been severed like a fault line.
Thud.
The twins’ bisected bodies collapsed, spraying blood.
Even so, they did not die immediately.
Their modified bodies and the burst of divine energy kept them ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ barely alive.
But the divine power that should have healed them could not—
The residual spatial severance blocked the flow of divinity itself.
“Ah... uh... ah...”
The last thing the twins saw before dying wasn’t Ludger.
Lawrence and Lorelai, their eyes regaining light, turned to one another.
Their mouths moved as if to speak.
The awakened brains released the flood of memories long suppressed, returning them to their past.
The twins reached out their hands toward each other.
But before they could finish that unspoken word, their lives went out—like lamps suddenly extinguished.
Their outstretched hands fell limply.
Ludger gazed quietly down at their corpses.
To regain one’s memories only at the end of life—
What had they wanted to say, in that final moment of clarity?
Whatever it was, it had nothing to do with him. He shut off his thoughts.
His eyes, now back to blue, turned toward the aftermath of his slash, and he frowned.
“The power’s too strong.”
He looked down at his hand.
Across his palm, countless fine lines had been etched, each beading with tiny drops of blood.
“If I’d miscalculated even slightly, I’d have been the one sliced apart.”
Even for Ludger, twisting, stretching, and severing space through magic was a perilous task.
The force and density of space were overwhelming—trying to control it could easily consume its wielder.
“I only managed this because of the inspiration I gained while confined—analyzing Rinne’s spatial magic.”
Until now, he had only used space to traverse shadows—passing through it, not manipulating it directly.
Later, through Ater Nocturnus, he had learned to distort space slightly, enough to deflect any attack regardless of its strength.
And now—compressing that distorted space into a single thread and releasing it—he realized it was something no human should attempt.
“Space is like invisible water. You can swim through it, stir it—but to shape it with your hands into a thread? Impossible.”
It was like trying to mold water into a strand of ice with bare hands.
Yet Ludger had somehow done it—a miracle born of cunning and luck.
He shook his head.
“I only managed this because I studied Rinne’s spatial magic. I thought I could replicate most of what I analyzed, but this one’s hopeless. If I can’t control it perfectly, it’ll kill me.”
A spell that could as easily kill the caster as the enemy.
The next time he used it would have to be in a true life-or-death moment.
“I can only hope I’ll never need it again.”
Only Rinne, whose very mana could manipulate space, could truly wield it.
Even then, Rinne had just begun realizing her spatial affinity—it would take her at least thirty years of training to achieve something like this.
“I finally thought of a powerful spell, but as always, theory and practice are worlds apart.”
Still, the result was success—and the tide had turned completely.
Even Diena, startled by his slash, showed it plainly.
“The twins... with one strike?”
Even as she faced Suruna and Helia together, for a moment she forgot both demons entirely.
That was how overwhelming Ludger’s spell had been.
And wasn’t spatial magic forbidden by Lumensis itself?
He had used it without possessing a spatial attribute—an act of sheer madness, born from years of study and obsession breaking through what was thought impossible.
Even if that path collapsed behind him, the fact that he had walked it mattered.
“You... what are you...”
This was neither divine power nor heresy—
It was purely Ludger’s own intellect and magical genius at work.
A fragment of humanity’s limitless potential.
For Diena, who had always believed humans could only ever live under the dominion of higher powers, what Ludger had shown was a shattering revelation.
“Is this really the time to be spacing out?”
Suruna’s voice snapped her back as his sword came swinging.
Diena hastily raised her golden scale.
One side dipped, twisting gravity ninety degrees around Suruna.
He fell sideways.
But since they were indoors, he simply planted his feet against the wall and charged horizontally toward her.
As Diena tried to activate the scale again, Helia slipped into the gap.
Between Suruna and Diena—
Small, balloon-like tufts filled with air popped into existence.
And adorable, cartoonish sheep bleated, “Meeeh!”
Even in the midst of deadly battle, Helia’s playful nature showed through.
Diena erased the distraction with divine power and once again tried to use the scale on Suruna.
Creak—
The balance tilted—
But Suruna, running along the wall, dropped back to the ground and kept coming, unstoppable.
“What?!”
Diena’s eyes widened.
She had intended to hurl him straight upward with that last strike—
But the opposite happened.
No, rather—the scale’s power hadn’t affected him at all.
How?
“What’s so surprising? Did you think I’d fall for the same trick twice?”
Suruna grinned as he swung his sword.
“I’ve already learned plenty about your little toy during this fight.”
He slashed—
Shraaash!
Crimson blood splattered across the golden throne.
