*#$%^%$#@#$%^&^%$#@#$%^%$#@#$%*

Horeo didn’t wait for anything, with no speck of hesitation he reactivated all of his spells, engulfing himself in a golden light, and with the wave of his hand countless halos of golden orbs filled the ballroom and shot out beams of light in unison, bringing out an hard to describe the sound that resonated deep within everyone’s bodies.

The concentrated power of the numerous spells caused an air quake almost as powerful as the one caused by Ettemi and Oemir’s coolest – which meant the most destructive – spell.

*WHOOM*

That speed of the young king’s reaction surprised everyone – everyone except for Cherro, unfortunately – every single light beam was swallowed by a circle of darkness that would appear in front of the black-haired self-proclaimed hero.

“Now, now. That isn’t the welcome I expected. Why are you all still alive? I was sure that my family would deal with you. Thanks for more mana though, much appreciated.

When the barrage of light attacks stopped for a moment, Cherro rolled his eyes and waved his hand dismissively.

All in all, taking mana from their opponent’s attacks was one of the basic abilities available for the darkness magicians.

With a flash of golden light, Horeo appeared right in front of the young man clad in darkness, the golden sword of light in hand, and stabbed him in the stomach without as much as a mocking smirk.

“Pfft…! What exactly do you want to achieve? Thanks to the powers of that insignificant attendant who somehow gained some status, I have perfected the absorption of foreign mana… so, once again. Thank you for the gift to celebrate my ascension on the throne.”

Cherro snorted in Horeo’s face and giggled, looking down at his abdomen where the blade of light was disappearing without actually damaging him in the slightest.

*•€±¿¤¡$€£*

Instead of responding to the taunt, Horeo raised his open hand and a cone of blinding light erupted from his palm, swallowing Cherro together with a big chunk of the wall behind him.

“You are very stubborn, aren’t you?”

*stab*

“…!”

Cherro’s voice came from the cone of light that had no intention of fading away continuing its unceasing attack – the words were not the only thing that passed through, though. A small jet-black dagger attached to the matching chain burst forward and stabbed into the young king’s shoulder causing him to frown in annoyance.

“That is not the only one~!”

Cherro snickered and two more chained daggers emerged from behind the light.

*stab* *stab*

Although the daggers did sink into something, it was not the flesh of the young king this time, instead, they were stopped by two golden orbs that appeared out of the thin air.

Horeo grabbed onto the jet-black blade burrowed in his shoulder and tore it out without even batting an eye, even though the dagger revealed itself to open up like a pinecone, creating a much bigger wound just by being extracted.

Seemingly simple action resulted in the young king losing a big chunk of flesh from his shoulder while getting afflicted with severe blood loss.

His complexion became paler but he did not let out a single sound, unfortunately…

He also released the spell, causing the cone of light to fade away…

“Getting desperate?”

…revealing the very healthy Cherro, with the only difference being a jet-black helmet protecting the head of the self-appointed hero…

As the jet-black-armor-clad young man mocked the gold-haired youth’s attempt to harm him, the bloody dagger jumped out of the young king’s hand and its chain retracted back to the top of the attacker’s wrist, while the other two stayed stabbed into the golden orbs draining them of mana like overgrown jet-black mosquitoes.

“…”

Once again, the only reaction that Horeo graced Cherro with was a frown…

…and a wind-up for a clearly telegraphed punch.

With his body shining pure gold Horeo stopped trying to get Cherro with long-range beams and instead turned their encounter into a brawl.

“How many times do you want to try these futile attempts…”

At first, it looked like Horeo’s whole fist would get swallowed by the darkness armor protecting Cherro’s body. Cherro himself even began trash-talking the young king’s inability to harm him- until…

*WHAM* *CRACK*

“UGH-OUGH…?!”

*BOOOOM*

The punch actually connected…!

Instead of doing the obvious thing in this situation – that being block the oncoming attack and absorb the mana that it contained – the darkness mana composing the jet-black armor gave way for the golden fist and Cherro received a bone-shattering punch to his ribs, the punch that sent him flying and crashing into another wall.

“Bhastard…! What did you do?!”

Cherro coughed up blood and crawled back up from the rubble that he broke off of the wall with his head because of the impact.

The self-proclaimed hero’s helmet was falling apart, crumbling like an ice sculpture, and while Cherro himself was getting heated, his breath was turning into the mist because of the low temperature…

“…huh…?”

The misty breath was something that pointed Cherro to the right answer before Horeo would say anything – not that the young king had any intention of saying anything, to begin with.

Both the dark-blue-haired man and the white-as-snow girl clinging to him like a baby koala bear were facing him, and the unsettling white eyes of the snow magician were glaring at him with burning intensity…

…snow magician…?

If it was the old Cherro, the one before absorbing Zoemi’s powers, he would not realize what was wrong, but thanks to the natural abilities of the shadow magician, the self-appointed hero could see the shadows of the spells the pair were releasing!

“How dare you interfere in my fight?!”

Cherro growled furiously, trying to get up and get rid of the pesky interruption, but as he was attempting just that, he realized how sluggish his body was.

It was not possible for that to be the effect of just the ice-like magic the water sage and the snow magician were using. In the first place, his armor still protected him from frost.

As those thoughts were passing through Cherro’s mind, Horeo was already by his side.

“Don’t you even da…!”

*WHAM* x16 *•¤«•«£«±«$¤•»*

*rumble*

As the self-appointed hero was flinching in shock, the young king already launched and landed a series of devastating punches and topped it off with a massive blast of light that shoot a hole through almost the entire royal castle, causing a few rooms and passages to collapse in its wake.

“That… that is not… right…! I am strong! No one should not be able to stand up to me…!”

Cherro slid down the wall that finally stopped him, utterly humiliated, and spat crimson blood to the side in anger as he used the copy of healing magic to put his broken body back together until he could stand back up.

“…screw this… MOM! FATHER! SISTER OKTRIA! GRANDPA KIORTERELL! HELP ME!”

The self-proclaimed hero cursed under his breath before straightening his back and shouting at the maximum capacity of his lungs.

…to no effect…

“…what is going on…? Who is blocking me from contacting them? And who is hindering my movement? Is it really just those two with their mana-freezing spells…?”

Cherro groaned in annoyance straightening his back and wiping off the blood that began dripping from the corner of his mouth.

“I need more mana, that’s right. I can’t overwhelm them because I don’t have enough mana!”

Cherro face twisted in an angry grimace as he saw the fresh red stains on his white tuxedo and he declared, beginning to look around.

The solution to the problem he picked out himself was simple, after all.

With a spell that allowed him to take mana and abilities of people that he kills, he just needed to do just that.

“Since I will be the king, using the lives of the servants and guards from the palace is only obvious, right? Their lives already belong to me…!”

Charro grinned and mumbled to himself, eyeing out the brightly lit door that opened because of the force of the impact caused by him slamming against the wall and falling down has caused.

“Subjects! Forfeit your lives to the new….!”

Cherro declared swaying through the door and reaching out his hand with three daggers sticking out from the top of his wrist, ready to shoot out at whoever is the closest…

…but there was no one there…

Only an empty servants’ quarter with the mana crystal lamps still on.

“Hmph. They must have heard the commotion and ran away like rats.”

Cherro scoffed angrily and moved back, slamming the door and moving back to the hallway.

He checked a few more rooms and every single one was the same as the first.

“…”

“GAH?!”

As Cherro was opening yet another one, the gold prince teleported in front of him once again and punched right at his face, causing him to panic and duck.

Cherro’s body wasn’t feeling as sluggish as moments before anymore so he managed to react and doge in time, but he still felt the king’s fist brushing against the top of his helmet, ripping it apart with almost no effort.

“Ghhhhhh…!”

Cherro hissed and used the same spell that the prince surprised him with – he teleported away.

As for his destination, it was back at the ballroom.

Even though the young king was a problem, there definitely were weaker magicians there – which meant that there was a good source of mana there ripe for the picking.

“Surrender your mana to one true he…!”

As he thought he had the element of surprise on his side, Cherro called out triumphantly, only to find himself frozen mid-air.

And not just frozen as if turned into an ice block.

Cherro got pinned down and stopped mid-fall, unable to move anything besides his eyes, hovering above the floor thanks to outsides interference.

“My little ones, call the Pissy prince back.”

“!!!”

All of Cherro’s questions and then some were answered when the platinum-haired Miriette spoke up.

There was no need to search for the shadow of her spell to realize what she was doing – the face of the clock with the hands standing still was clearly visible behind the girl’s back.

“You Miriette-lookalike hag! Release me this instant!”

Cherro growled in anger, but was unable to do anything else – being able to speak was already quite a feat.

“Done.”

“So that **stain came back here…”𝞸𝗏𝓛xt.𝚌𝓞𝑚

Immeri nodded their head, and the next moment annoyed Horeo appeared next to them in a flash of golden light…

———-

*thunk*

As the fight in the capital of the Bellcephora kingdom was about to be reignited, one of the rotting planks on the side of the uncovered shipwreck that Cherro smashed Zoemi through, detached from the crumbling construction and fell to the ground, bouncing off on a stone.

The dirt, moss, and roots covering it got shaken off by the impact, revealing the faded letters.

-Heavenly Star Nation’s 8th crown vessel.-

-PRINCE AIDEN-