Chapter 313

The Imperial Guard members had brains that underwent neural chemical processing.

Neural enhancement wasn’t exclusive to the Imperial Guard. Other groups and organizations also performed the procedure, and if one was willing to endure severe side effects, it was even available at illegal back-alley clinics.

However, no one could deny that the Imperial Guard's neural chemical processing was the most advanced of its time.

Even within the elite ranks of the Imperial Guard, the side effects of neural chemical processing were a serious issue. Despite its many advantages, there was a reason why the empire’s nobles refused to undergo the procedure. Unless they belonged to a military family, they tended to avoid it.

Even when the procedure was performed on those naturally gifted with thick neural bundles, high resistance to psychological trauma, and strong stress tolerance... mental issues frequently arose.

The ability gained by undergoing the procedure—despite its risks and side effects—was ‘Thought Acceleration.’

Ordinary people might experience extreme focus, where time seemed to slow and every detail became vividly clear, perhaps once or twice in their lifetime, during moments of extreme crisis. At such times, the brain would enter a state of overload.

But for an Imperial Guard, this hyper-focus could be triggered at will, with only mild pressure and mental preparation.

Akies Victima was a technique that pushed cognitive expansion to its limits, using the foundation of this thought acceleration ability.

‘Akies Victima is a combat technique based on stimulants and neural enhancement.’

Akies Victima maintained repeated cognitive expansion and overload as a constant state, forcibly removing the brain’s natural self-protection instincts. As a result, the brain ignored danger and absorbed information recklessly, engaging in ceaseless reasoning.

It was no different from a vehicle with its brakes removed. That was why every Akies Victima user was inevitably doomed to destruction.

The reason I was always irritable and plagued by anxiety was because of this. It always felt like a blade was pressed against the back of my neck. Well, I suppose I was drawn to Akies Victima precisely because I had that kind of disposition in the first place.

...My brief recollection had gone on for too long.

I was staring at the fragment of a teacup flying toward me. Kinuan had flicked it with his finger, sending it shooting in my direction.

Suppressing my combat instincts no longer, I unleashed them throughout my entire body as if throwing open a floodgate. A surge of vitality spread through me, and my mind felt clear, as though capable of anything.

The world sharpened and slowed around me. No... it had nearly come to a halt.

Tiiiiing!

The elongated sound of the teacup fragment cutting through the air reached my ears.

I extended my palm, raising it just enough to let the fragment graze past my face. It struck my hand and ricocheted away.

My vision was blocked for only a fleeting moment by my own palm, but in that brief instant, Kinuan had already risen to his feet as if he had never been sitting in the first place. His right leg was already surging toward me.

‘A kick aimed at my head.’

Kinuan’s foot scraped against the floor as it shot upward. His toes were aimed precisely at my chin.

Thud—woong!

I caught his foot with my palm, enveloping it in my grip. My body was propelled toward the ceiling.

‘No time to draw my weapon.’

Kinuan and I weren’t perceiving or processing reality in real-time. We were breaking each second into countless fragments, making decisions and calculations every fraction of a moment. Every minor movement was the result of meticulous deliberation.

Kinuan didn’t even allow me the slightest moment to draw a weapon at close range.

As I was hurled upward, he reached out and grabbed my ankle, pulling me back down.

‘He caught on to my intention.’

I had planned to use his attack as an opening to create distance. If I could secure even a brief moment, I would have time to draw my weapon.

‘Forget using Crucis. If I fixate on it, I’ll lose.’

We were fighting on the edge of time itself, cutting every moment into the smallest possible increments. Even the slightest unnecessary movement could lead to failure.

I optimized every single action, over and over again.

Kinuan was doing the same. His movements were so efficient they were almost beautiful. With flawless positioning and trajectories, he cut off my actions before they could even begin.

Boom!

Kinuan swung me down, slamming me toward the ground by my ankle. I barely managed to regain my balance, landing on my toes, and immediately aimed the back of my hand at his chin.

Kinuan smoothly raised his left hand, deflecting my strike as if brushing it aside.

Every prediction I made shattered in real-time, branching into entirely new possibilities.

‘Frustrating.’

Kinuan must have felt the same. We were countering each other’s moves with perfect calculations. This high-level battle of prediction turned into an eerie dance of offense and defense.

We weren’t reacting to the present. We were anticipating the opponent’s future movements and countering them before they could happen.

It was like a perfectly synchronized dance. Neither of us seemed intent on landing a lethal blow.

‘So this is your true skill.’

I had defeated Kinuan in a previous fight, but back then, his mind had been in shambles.

‘Kinuan is shining. He’s full of life. So he really did recover from the cognitive dysfunction caused by Akies Victima.’

Now that his brain had healed, Kinuan was a flawless warrior. He deflected and blocked everything. His decisions and movements were unwavering, and since his entire body was cybernetic, fatigue wasn’t even a factor.

‘…I already know. Kinuan confronted me directly because he’s confident he can subdue me and win.’

Kinuan had seen right through me. He might even have understood me better than I understood myself.

Let’s assume that our combat processing speed and decision-making abilities were exactly the same.

‘Then I’m bound to lose.’

It was an inevitable limitation. As a living organism, I experienced fluctuations. Biological bodies weren’t constant—there were gaps between breaths, and those gaps caused my movements to lag ever so slightly.

Normally, I could compensate for this weakness. But against an opponent who possessed the same level of cognitive speed and judgment... it became a fatal flaw.

From a pure combat efficiency standpoint, a fully cybernetic body was superior to a biological one.

‘This is a predetermined defeat.’

I already knew it. The intuition granted by Akies Victima was showing me the future. No matter how hard I racked my brain, all possible outcomes pointed toward my loss.

Kinuan hadn’t even used his teleportation artifact yet. If I factored that into my calculations, the future became so bleak it was suffocating.

‘If only I had a fully cybernetic body…’

For the first time, I regretted not having one.

But if I did, Kinuan wouldn’t have initiated this fight in the first place. He wouldn’t have been certain of his victory.

‘Akies Victima—the technique of the weak.’

Right now, I was the weak one, and Kinuan was the strong one. There was no way to overcome this through sheer combat ability.

Was there a way to escape? No, this place was sealed off. There were probably ambushes prepared to intercept me.

If I lost here, Ivan Accretia wouldn’t simply let me go.

‘If I get captured and sold back to the Empire, I’ll become Ivan’s puppet.’

I couldn’t fight Kinuan in a domain where I had no chance of winning.

‘…I need to find another way.’

An uncertain, dangerous gamble. A future built on slim odds. And the necessary preparations to make it happen.

‘So lose miserably here, Luka.’

Leave nothing behind. Fight like everything will end if you lose. Bite down until the very last moment.

Kinuan bent his arm sharply before thrusting it forward like a bullet. He locked the joints of his cybernetic limb, stored up tensile force, and released it all at once—an instant acceleration strike technique. His vast combat experience was evident in his mastery of various cybernetic-exclusive techniques.

The impact surged through the air at supersonic speed.

Bang!

My left elbow shattered as if struck by artillery fire. Fragments of my limb scattered in all directions. Everything below the joint dangled uselessly.

Click!

I swept up the debris with my right palm and scattered it toward Kinuan like shrapnel.

Kinuan took the full brunt of the fragments with his entire body. That was something only a fully cybernetic body could endure.

I ignored defense and sharpened my right hand into a spear-like point. My fingers shot toward Kinuan’s forehead.

Kinuan twisted his head to evade the strike. At the same time, I swung my broken left arm like a whip, using the force from my shoulder.

Crack!

My shattered left arm struck Kinuan’s temple. But it wasn’t enough to deal a fatal blow. Instead, my already-damaged arm fractured further, and everything below the elbow snapped off.

But that attack wasn’t meant for damage. It only needed to obscure his vision for a moment.

I reached into my coat with my right hand and pulled out the Ignis Dagger, Mothblade, letting it drop. As it fell, I kicked it upward while throwing a punch.

Even as Kinuan dodged my punch, he kept track of the Mothblade’s trajectory. But I didn’t send the Mothblade directly at him.

The rising dagger reached just in front of my line of sight.

Clench!

I bit down on the Mothblade’s short hilt, twisting my head to aim it at Kinuan’s face.

Ssshhhkk!

The friction from the air heated the blade. My lips burned under the intense heat.

This was an attack that ignored rational efficiency, aiming instead for a gap in his thought process. If I were going for pure effectiveness, it would have been better to kick the Mothblade directly at him.

But Kinuan would have predicted that as well. His combat intuition was on the same level as mine.

“Don’t do anything reckless. It would be troublesome if you died.”

He had enough leeway to talk in the middle of the fight. Damn it.

Kinuan’s fingers brushed past my lips. In that split second, he had snatched the Mothblade from my mouth, and his elbow followed, grazing my chin.

It was only a brief touch, but it was enough to rattle my brain.

…The world tilted into darkness.

“Seven seconds… That took two seconds longer than I expected. You always find ways to surprise me.”

Kinuan’s words echoed above my head.

*         *         *

‘I lost to Kinuan.’

That was the first thought that came to me as I regained consciousness.

Kinuan had completely analyzed and read me. Luka, as an individual, had no path to victory against him.

‘Once he got behind me, losing was inevitable. There’s no point in despairing or feeling frustrated.’

Kinuan knew everything about me. My origins, my identity, my goals—he had even observed my entire childhood firsthand. My combat techniques and thought processes had all been shaped under his influence.

On the other hand, I knew nothing about him. His background, his limits, the depths of his personality, his true objectives… Everything about him remained unclear.

The asymmetry of information was undeniable.

…I was weaker than Kinuan. As someone who had been completely read, I had no way to defeat him.

Among Akies Victima users, the relationship between the strong and the weak was absolute. In this domain, the weak had no way of defeating the strong.

‘If Mushir al-Kashura were alive, I’d be asking him for help right now.’

If I could merge with Mushir al-Kashura, Kinuan would become weaker than me. ‘Kashura,’ equipped with the Akies Victima component known as ‘Luka,’ would crush Kinuan as easily as snapping a child’s finger.

Now, let’s assess my current condition, Luka.

I was sprawled on the floor in the same position as Lars had been when he was locked up in the isolation chamber.

My left arm was gone below the elbow. My right arm and both legs were intact, but the neural connections at the joints had been severed. My weapons were scattered in a corner of the room.

“You’re awake, Lukaus Custoria.”

Sitting in a chair at the center of the isolation chamber was Dican, the Parish Overseer of Border City. He closed the book he had been reading and turned his gaze toward me.

I blinked at him. There was no point in anger. No, I wasn’t even particularly upset. We weren’t close enough for me to feel betrayal. But if my limbs were functioning properly, I would have broken his arms by now.

“Are you planning to hand me over to the Holy Corite Alliance?”

“I must say, looking into your background was nothing short of astonishing. A self-made man from the lower class, someone who has risen to prominence... Akies Domini, was it? You’ve climbed high enough to reach the core of the Empire.”

Kinuan must have spilled everything to the Parish Overseer. He would have had to, in order to persuade him to betray me.

“This is a foolish move. I…”

I was a high-ranking military officer of the Empire and an Akies Victima user. Even if they dissected my brain, they wouldn’t be able to extract much useful information.

“There are many Force users in the Empire. Some of them can read minds. If you are truly a valuable asset, they wouldn’t even need to interrogate you. Simply by making contact, they could uncover the Empire’s secrets, as well as everything about Kinuan. Kinuan may have released you for now, but the Holy Corite Alliance will continue to pursue you.”

“…At the very least, this will prove the necessity of Border City’s parish to the Holy Corite Alliance.”

The Parish Overseer let out a sigh. Then, he dropped the formal tone and spoke to me more casually.

“I feel deeply sorry for you. That much is true. So, as shameless as it may be, I’ll give you a chance to persuade me. I hope you can offer me something more enticing than Kinuan did.”

I twisted one side of my lips into a smirk.

“If I had such a bargaining chip, Kinuan would have killed me to keep me quiet.”

“…I see. Understood.”

The Parish Overseer rose from his seat. Just before he left, I threw him one last question.

“Is Lars still alive?”

“When this is over, I’ll make sure he is safely returned. I can’t release him right now, but I will ensure that Kinuan doesn’t lay a hand on him. This... I promise, in my name.”

His tone suggested he was struggling with internal conflict. He was likely trying to separate his duty as the Parish Overseer from his personal conscience, burying his guilt in the process.

I nodded and watched as he left.

Thud.

The door to the isolation chamber closed.