After Carl Marcus left, Tatiana Belov sat blankly on the bed, lost in thought.
"...."
If you want the right called freedom, seize it with your own hands…
Tatiana Belov kept mulling over what Carl Marcus had said.
"...."
She sat there for a long while, trying to come to a conclusion, but none came.
Naturally so.
Tatiana was still trapped in the cage called Belov, and she wasn't yet ready to escape it.
Knock knock—
"Come in."
The one who entered her room wasn't the usual servant.
Tatiana found that odd for a moment, but her confusion turned to shock at the words that followed.
"The Navy Line has been attacked."
"…What?"
"There's been a request for deployment of the Special Tactical Assault Unit. You need to head out immediately."
"Ah… yes."
Even as she changed into her uniform, Tatiana couldn't hide her confusion.
The Navy Line was attacked? After the Wave was already over?
'What is this?'
Tatiana couldn't make sense of it, but unfortunately, there was no time to figure it out here.
"Do you have any relevant intel?"
"I'll send it to you."
Tatiana checked the data sent to her wrist device.
And slowly, her expression hardened as she read.
"…Turncoats."
If the intruders were really Turncoats, this wasn't just any incident.
It couldn't be.
Until now, Turncoats never moved in groups and acted independently.
Though Ark grouped them under one name, they were essentially individual anomalies.
But now they were moving together—that could only mean something unusual was happening.
"…I have to hurry."
Tatiana left the room.
Something ominous was unfolding.
* * *
Thoom────!
BOOM!
Explosions echoed endlessly.
With no restraint, I and the Turncoat Knight rampaged through the Navy Line, pressing ever deeper toward its inner sanctum.
["…Are we really doing this? I mean, isn't this going too far...?"]
Even Esther, usually indifferent, sounded worried as we left nothing untouched in the Navy Line.
Of course, we avoided causing fatalities, but it was inevitable that some soldiers would be injured.
"Gaaah!"
"Aaagh!"
As we tore through everything in sight, I started noticing figures who weren't part of the Navy Line's military.
It was the Navy Line's police.
'Police, huh… that means we've made it pretty deep.'
But it didn't matter.
Whether they were soldiers or police, our job didn't change.
Hssssss!
Massive bone spears burst from both of my hands, sweeping through the surroundings.
CRASH!
Vehicles lined along the streets, police armored trucks—none of them stood a chance and were sent flying.
I dulled the tips of the spears on purpose, so they weren't lethal, but they were still incredibly destructive.
"...."
The Turncoat Knight wasn't idle either, swinging his own spear and shredding through police defenses with savage force.
THUMP!
WHAM!
For all their pride in law and order, the Navy Line's police were completely useless here.
'Hmph...'
Even as the chaos unfolded, I pressed on toward the true heart of the Navy Line.
Where was the heart of the Navy Line?
If we're talking about who held the real power there, the answer was simple.
'The Belov Estate.'
The same place I'd recently visited to meet Tatiana Belov—that was the real center of power in the Navy Line.
'More than anything, if the Belov estate gets attacked, even Anton Belov won't be able to keep shielding his son.'
I'd reached my conclusion.
Now it was time to act.
"Let's go."
The Belov estate sat in the very center of the Navy Line.
Naturally, it wasn't exactly close from where we started—at the outskirts.
'With this much distance, we're bound to be intercepted.'
Until now, the only ones who'd shown up were relatively easy opponents.
But at this point, we'd definitely run into the Special Tactical Assault Unit or other elite forces.
Just then—
["Master!"]
A sudden sonic boom pierced the air, and a rocket came flying toward me.
It was clearly nothing like the previous heavy arms—this was on another level.
BOOOOM────!
The rocket exploded nearby, sending flames roaring up around me.
Fortunately, Janus responded quickly, minimizing the damage.
But it had been dangerously close.
'Fast and strong. With that kind of firepower… they've finally mobilized.'
The Navy Line's special units.
I didn't know which one yet, but it was time to get serious.
"Stop right there, monster."
A voice rang out—strangely familiar.
And soon, I recognized the owner of that voice.
'Ivan Belov.'
I hadn't expected the very man whose downfall I was orchestrating to show up in front of me.
'Perfect timing, I'd say.'
Now that I had made it this far into the Navy Line, Ivan Belov—its chief defender—was already in deep trouble.
If I now managed to defeat his forces, his fall from power would be all but guaranteed.
"Open fire!"
Ivan shouted, and the team behind him began their assault.
It was clear at a glance—they were a different breed from the grunts I'd fought earlier.
'So, he brought elites, huh.'
Bullets tore into Janus's bone armor with fierce intensity.
Clang!
Ratatatatata!
The impact was on a whole other level.
The weapons they were using were at least on par with the Ark-34 Automatic Conversion Rifles.
'Janus!'
I thickened the layer of bone tendrils wrapped around me.
A stray shot to the wrong place could mean serious injury.
Tatang──!
Tatata-tang!
A fresh volley of bullets sprayed the air as I charged in with bone tendrils coiled around me.
'First one.'
Hssss!
The bone tendril lashed out and struck one of the soldiers square in the head.
"Gah!"
Though the soldier screamed and went down immediately, it had been a controlled blow.
'They're soldiers protecting Ark. I can't let them get seriously hurt.'
Naturally, subduing someone without killing them is far harder.
But that was the path I'd chosen.
'Hmm?'
In that moment—
[Heehee…]
Ether wrapped around me out of nowhere.
As expected of a special forces unit—one of them was an ether-imbued soldier.
'Not that it matters.'
I brushed the ether off with brute force and pulled out the Spear of Ankelenth.
"He's broken free!"
"Restrain him again!"
I ignored the shouting.
Holding the Spear of Ankelenth, I reared my arm back.
Crack, crick—
My arm muscles howled in protest.
I twisted the muscles to their limit and hurled the spear.
BOOOOOM────!
A thunderous roar echoed as the Spear of Ankelenth crashed into the earth, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
The soldiers under Ivan Belov, caught in the shockwave, struggled to get up amidst the dirt.
"Urgh…"
"Unbelievable…"
They staggered to their feet, but the tide had already turned.
"Wh-what are you all doing?!"
Ivan Belov roared.
Clearly, he couldn't accept the reality unfolding before his eyes.
Ziiing───
Ivan Belov drew an R-1 Plasma Sword.
Even for me, taking a plasma blade head-on wasn't wise, so I drew the Spear of Ankelenth once more.
"Die!"
Ivan slashed wildly with the plasma sword.
But I wasn't foolish enough to let it land.
Clang!
The Spear of Ankelenth blocked it cleanly, and Ivan's eyes widened.
"You blocked… a plasma sword?"
Despite the intense training he received as a Belov heir, Ivan was still just human.
He wasn't an ether soldier. He wasn't a Skull Knight.
He was no match for me.
WHACK!
"Guh!"
I swung the shaft of the spear and struck Ivan across the chest.
Other soldiers tried to cover him, pulling their triggers, but Janus blocked the bullets with reflexive bone shields.
"You monster…!"
Even against the Navy Line's elite, the battle wasn't difficult.
Had their commander been anyone but Ivan Belov, it might've been more of a challenge.
'If Ivan had kept his cool and tried to tighten the encirclement instead of charging in head-on, I wouldn't have beaten them so easily.'
But he didn't.
He chose a frontal assault, failed to contain his panic—and lost.
'This area's under control.'
I could've finished off the remaining troops, but I saw no need.
"Urgh, ugh…"
Their commander, Ivan Belov, had lost the will to fight.
'And honestly, leaving Ivan alive and humiliated will make it even easier to remove him from power.'
With that, I turned my back on Ivan and his troops.
It was time to end this attack properly.
* * *
What… is this?
What the hell is going on?
Ivan Belov couldn't comprehend the reality before him.
It was just two monsters.
Yet those two monsters had decimated both the elite unit and the entirety of the Navy Line.
'This… this is impossible. It can't be.'
He'd led the best troops the Navy Line had to offer.
And this was the result?
"Don't… leave me."
Ivan clenched his teeth as he saw the Turncoats casually walk away.
They were ignoring him—just turning and leaving like nothing had happened.
To be ignored by a monster…
Ivan couldn't contain the rage boiling inside.
"Ivan!"
A familiar voice cut through the chaos.
Ivan clenched his jaw.
Of all times, why now?
Why did she have to see this?
"…Tatiana."
Tatiana Belov.
His younger sister—the one person Ivan absolutely didn't want to see him like this.
She had arrived.