The very instant Renith hurled the Holy Lance with all her might, a blaze of radiant light streaked across the sky like a shooting star.
At the same time, her Refraction magic intertwined seamlessly with the drifting mist, cloaking both her and the Viscount in a thick, concealing shroud.
Renith rode the wind, her movements fluid and effortless—one smooth, unbroken motion.
It took her over ten minutes to carry the Viscount to a hidden corner near where the Second-in-Command had previously set up camp. Before the Viscount could even recover from his shock, Renith had already vanished without a trace.
A long while later, Renith leaned against the wall of the alley outside the agency, her face slightly pale. The earlier effort to hold off Kelke had pushed her magic to its limits, leaving her internal mana nearly depleted.
“Huff…”
She closed her eyes gently, drew a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Only after she had recovered a bit did she trudge back into her room with heavy steps.
After today’s battle, Renith now had a rough sense of her own limits—and of Kelke’s strength.
In her estimation, unless she could compress her gaseous mana into liquid form, she would always be at a disadvantage in prolonged fights. Yet such a transformation would be long and arduous, demanding immense effort—not something achievable overnight.
The pressing question before her now was how to deal with the thorny problem that was Kelke.
From what she knew, Kelke was known as “Kelke the Blind Believer.” His power was deeply tied to his faith, and that very conviction seemed to grant him strength beyond ordinary limits.
When he first appeared, his strength was merely at the Viscount level. But everything changed after the Viscount from the gang launched the ambush.
Kelke became shrouded in an unknown force, and as the battle raged on, his power continued to climb until it reached the peak of the Count level—only then did it gradually stabilize.
“How intriguing…”
Renith sat in the chair in her room, brow slightly furrowed, lost in thought.
She speculated that Kelke’s Divine Gift might be able to actualize his wishes—that through his words, he could channel some force and reshape reality.
But if he truly possessed such overwhelming power, why not simply wish to become a Duke? With a wave of his hand, he could unleash a cataclysmic strike—so why linger between Count and Viscount?
Renith believed that this power to realize anything must have its limits. After all, even the mightiest river has its source, and even the vastest sky has its horizon.
So she decided to put it to the test—one final time—with her Pseudo-Divine Art: Aurora Holy Lance.
In the heat of that fierce battle, when Kelke summoned his shield, the “aura” around him dimmed slightly, dropping from peak Count to ordinary Count level. Renith caught that shift with keen eyes.
This proved that Kelke’s Divine Gift had bounds—it couldn’t be used without restriction.
Suppose his power could reach Marquis level at most. But if he wanted to divert that power to do other things, he would have to surrender his current rank and channel that energy elsewhere.
He had only been a Viscount before, which meant he’d been using that power for other purposes.
Those soldiers emerging unscathed from the sea of fire?
That eerie scene suddenly flashed through Renith’s mind.
If Kelke could shield his soldiers from physical harm—or protect them from flames—then everything would make sense.
Kelke had been lending his power to his troops.
Anyone with eyes could see that the combined forces of Mobis City’s gangs and workers were nothing to scoff at. Even with the most advanced weapons, Kelke’s nine-hundred-strong army couldn’t possibly have swept through half the city in just a day and a half.
But with Kelke’s power backing them, it all clicked into place.
If those soldiers were truly impervious to physical injury, then no matter how fiercely the gangs and workers attacked, they could hardly inflict any real damage.
“Still, there is a path to victory…”
Renith mused to herself.
If the gangs and workers focused their assault in one concentrated push, Kelke would most likely distribute his power among the soldiers.
At that moment, she and the gang’s elite fighters could strike together—and possibly take him down.
But that was an ideal scenario.
Besides Kelke himself, there was also a Viscount and seven Barons on the enemy side.
In a one-on-one fight, how would the remaining Barons be handled?
To even the odds, Renith would have to personally intervene.
Perhaps… there was a better way.
——-
Two more days passed in the blink of an eye.
That day, Renith returned to the agency to find a group of burly men drinking inside. Vester seemed to be in decent spirits—if he fell, the workers of Mobis City would lose half their backbone.
Back in her room, Renith took out over twenty magic scrolls.
The materials inside these scrolls were the fruits of her exhausting labor—refined from the surrounding earth and river water. She’d pushed her mana to the brink of depletion to gather them.
Still, the yield was well worth it.
“Nearly twelve golems. If I were stronger or had proper refining equipment, I could probably craft even higher-tier ones.”
Renith pondered.
Truth be told, she’d always looked down on golems as clumsy contraptions. They were bulky, slow-moving, and only useful on large-scale battlefields. Worse, the moment they appeared, they’d become priority targets and rarely lasted more than a few minutes.
By comparison, a single spell she cast casually could probably kill more than a golem could crush underfoot.
But golems weren’t entirely worthless.
They were heavy, sturdy, and highly defensive—perfect as breakthrough and siege weapons.
In fact, after the Bolan Gun Factory raid, Renith had already been considering this problem: the city guards and police in Mobis lacked heavy weaponry and would struggle against sturdy golems.
Just like Kelke’s side—unless someone had something like the “tanks” described earlier to her, only Kelke himself could destroy a golem in one blow. The remaining Viscount and most Barons would be tied up by them.
Even if they used grenades, they’d need enough firepower to completely destroy a golem. After all, as long as the core remained intact, the golem would slowly regenerate.
Due to a shortage of certain elements in Mobis City, Renith only managed to create two Water Golems, six Earth Golems, and four Wind Golems.
As for the remaining eight scrolls containing golems, she planned to synthesize them into a higher-tier golem, specifically to keep the enemy Viscount occupied.
With all these preparations in place, Renith began restoring her mana, readying herself for the next clash with Kelke.
——-
Meanwhile, at the gang headquarters.
A man in a suit with a black-brimmed hat walked into Senava’s office, accompanied by a Baron bodyguard.
None of the gang members dared to stop him—instead, they saluted him with utmost respect.
“Boss? What brings you here?” Senava asked.
“What, can’t I come? I heard the gang’s situation is hanging by a thread. I don’t want to lose everything I’ve invested.”
The man took off his hat, pressing it to his chest, revealing a slightly aged face.
If Antina, Vester, or Renith were there, they’d immediately recognize that voice. It belonged to the very same “moderator” who had gathered the company bosses and nobles to form a resistance army.
“Kelke’s strength is indeed far beyond what we initially imagined… But that doesn’t mean he’s invincible. A few days ago, I witnessed a radiant burst of holy light with my own eyes—its power rivaling Kelke’s, evenly matched.”
“In that moment, I was convinced—Kelke cannot stop our advance.”
“We have a powerful ally… that strength is our anchor against a formidable foe. So we mustn’t get bogged down by the immediate situation—we need to look further ahead.”
The man said gravely.
“Tomorrow, summon that young fellow from the workers’ side—and that mage of extraordinary ability. I want to meet her personally.”
Senava then went on to brief the Boss on the current grim and complex situation.
Kelke was now delivering impassioned speeches near the Mobis City Government Hall, skillfully stirring up the emotions of nearby residents and students with his silver tongue.
Under his manipulation, a majority of the public now directed their anger at the gangs and the workers’ movement, branding them as the root of the chaos.
Despite the gangs’ and workers’ relentless efforts to sway public opinion, Kelke’s voice always drowned them out, leaving their attempts largely ineffectual.
Senava continued with the rest of his report:
All the gang forces had been consolidated—big and small, there were three hundred forty members in Mobis City. But after the brutal battles of the past few days, casualties had taken their toll, leaving a total of two hundred eighty-one combat-ready.
Though the Bolan Gun Factory had been destroyed, the gangs had managed to produce a considerable number of firearms—enough to arm everyone. The only drawback was limited ammunition: each person could only get twenty rounds.
“None of that matters much.”
In the Boss’s view, that was all the manpower they could muster. Kelke’s forces were far more numerous and powerful; they were like mayflies trying to topple a giant tree.
If mere guns and a few hundred men could defeat Kelke, he would have already risen to Marquis through his own wits and strategy, securing a seat in the empire’s power center—rather than scraping by as a Baron in a backwater like Mobis City.
His ancestors had once enjoyed glory too. As the grandson of a Count, he’d grown up hearing tales of his family’s illustrious history and knew many little-known secrets.
Armed with that precious knowledge, his father’s generation had carefully cultivated their own fighting force, all for the dream of making Mobis City their family’s unshakeable stronghold.
But then Kelke appeared and shattered that dream.
Kelke wanted to use the governance of Mobis City as a stepping stone into the empire’s center, to climb higher in power and status. That meant dismantling their interests and destroying nearly a century of their family’s work.
How could they sit back and watch all that effort go to waste?
Mobis City was on the empire’s remote frontiers, and the Boss had no powerful allies to turn to in other cities.
If Kelke uprooted them entirely and left them without a foothold, they’d be no better than those homeless drifters wandering from place to place.
“What we need to do is pool all our strength and kill Kelke. Directly engaging his army head-on would be utter folly—suicide, plain and simple. Once Kelke dies, his army will be leaderless, and things will slowly improve. We can reclaim control of Mobis City.”
“But one thing we must bear in mind—we have to move fast. Every second counts. Otherwise, given Kelke’s ambition and drive, his ten-thousand-man army will be at Mobis City’s gates within a month.”
“And when that happens… there’ll be no turning back.”
