I Aggressively Stack Steel of the Heart in the Knight Order

This tactic was the best tactical decision he could make in such a short time.

The battle was unfolding exactly as he had planned. The moment Nelom slammed him into a wall, he activated the Special Ability of his Raptor Flying Bag, opening twelve additional hidden nozzles. He wouldn’t linger in the fight for a second longer.

He feigned losing control, tumbling wretchedly across the ground. But the instant he rolled past Reinhardt, the twelve hidden nozzles flared to full power!

All he needed was an acceleration period lasting mere milliseconds. Once complete, his speed would break the sound barrier, allowing him to escape this corridor of death!

However, that 0.7-second acceleration period was pure agony for Sipia. Every second felt like an eternity.

He could clearly sense an incredibly powerful Knightly Aura right behind him!

It was Reinhardt’s Knightly Aura—!

Time seemed to freeze, its flow slowing to a crawl.

Sipia crashed to the floor and bounced back up, his body still spinning in mid-air as he tried to adjust his posture for low-altitude flight. His forehead was beaded with cold sweat, his expression a ferocious snarl.

A silent roar echoed in his mind: ’Faster—!’

The twelve hidden nozzles erupted with a terrifying sonic boom, pulverizing the steel structures beneath and around him. As shrapnel and steel fragments flew everywhere, he felt something grab his ankle and shoulder.

The next second.

BOOM—!

Like a steel cable snapping! A violent tremor shot through the entire Avenger Flagship.

Sipia, who had been trying to escape, lost control. Propelled by the Raptor Flying Bag, he slammed headfirst into the ceiling.

If not for his swift reaction—summoning his Extraordinary Armor·Dissolving Battle Armor in a flash to protect his body—he wouldn’t just have failed to escape; the sonic-level impact would have been enough to smash his flesh-and-blood body into a pile of paste!

Even so, a deep, human-shaped dent was left in the thick steel ceiling.

At the same time, a cold, cruel voice whispered in Sipia’s ear.

”You killed my people and think you can run?”

At that moment, Urus lived up to his title, the ”Wind Demon.” He was like an ethereal phantom latched onto Sipia’s back, only his upper body visible as he whispered in his ear.

As he spoke,

Urus extended his right index finger, which was wreathed in high-pressure air currents, and lunged for Sipia’s brainstem.

The technique was subtle. Without careful perception, one wouldn’t even notice the high-pressure air current wrapped around his finger, a pure construct of Elemental Knight Power.

But this was the very technique Urus had used to assassinate countless powerful enemies: the Earth Ring·Silent Wind Cut.

The Elemental Power wrapped around his finger vibrated at a frequency of tens of millions of times per second. Under its own suppression, all the energy produced by this vibration was contained within the tip of his finger.

This ultra-high-frequency, short-duration vibration could slice through nearly any material or Knight Power he had ever encountered.

It could even cleave through Furnace Cast Holy Artifact-Level Extraordinary Creations with ease.

Out of professional habit, Urus always prioritized efficiency in combat and killing. He was unwilling to expose too many of his Mighty Power Traits under the watch of others unless it was absolutely necessary.

In other words, the only people who had ever witnessed his techniques, aside from the former leader of the Silencers and his Adjutant and Personal Guard, were the dead.

The instant Urus’s finger touched Sipia’s Dissolving Battle Armor, its surface rippled like boiling metal. To Urus’s disbelief,

his Silent Wind Cut, an invincible technique that had never left a single survivor, had been stopped cold by Sipia’s Extraordinary Armament!

Sipia’s Dissolving Battle Armor was unlike any other defensive Extraordinary Armament. Unless an attack could shatter its defensive threshold in a single blow, it was impossible to harm Sipia’s actual body, no matter how terrifying Urus’s power was.

At the same time,

cold sweat drenched Sipia’s back, plastering the lining of his suit to his skin. Internal bleeding in his chest made his breathing increasingly shallow and rapid.

His Dissolving Battle Armor had already taken two heavy hits and was now on the verge of collapse.

The realization that he had just been snatched from the clutches of the Death God filled Sipia with utter terror!

Although Urus hadn’t killed him, Sipia hadn’t sensed him use any Knight Power. He hadn’t even noticed when the man appeared behind him.

How could he not be terrified for something like that to happen in a life-or-death battle?!

Seeing his assassination attempt fail, Urus, though furious, did not hesitate. His form dissolved into a dispersing current of air, vanishing from behind Sipia and melting silently into the darkness.

The Silencer Warlord had now encountered two powerful enemies in a row, both of whom countered his abilities.

He felt a wave of helplessness wash over him.

After serving with the Silencers for so long—aside from the battle during the great rebellion—

Ever since he had emerged from the shadows to join the Vengeful Angels and assume the role of commander, he had gradually come to realize that the powerful foes the Vengeful Angels Battle Group faced were no longer the kind of targets he could assassinate at will.

Every one of them was a terrifying foe he might not be able to defeat even if he gave it his all.

’And Koller...’

One of the three ”kings” Sipia had brought aboard was intercepted by him near the hangar, locking them in a bitter struggle. But then came a blast of Spiritual Energy so terrifying it made his own soul tremble, and the powerful enemy before him instantly melted into a pool of blood.

’And then there was the time Reinhardt pinned me to the ground with one hand.’

’All this made him question himself, filled him with anxiety. Was he truly strong enough to be the Commander of Vengeful?’

’If Koller and Reinhardt weren’t here holding down the fort... I couldn’t even handle the Ash-Burning Tyrant, Nelom, on my own, let alone wait for Sipia to board.’

Perhaps it was his background in the Night Demon Legion, but as Urus was lost in self-doubt, he had no idea that Sipia was also drenched in a cold sweat, scared half to death.

Because from his perspective, a vanished Urus was far more threatening than one clinging to his back!

Being unable to sense Urus’s location meant an attack could come at any moment.

During his earlier fight with Reinhardt, his Dissolving Battle Armor had failed under the immense pressure and dissolved completely. ’If Urus had been there at that moment...’ The thought made Sipia, who always prioritized caution, grow even more uneasy. A deep anxiety began to take hold.

’These two enemies alone are this troublesome, and Reinhardt, who’s just been standing there, hasn’t even made a move yet...’

But of course, his worst fears were about to be realized.

As he fell from the ceiling, before he even hit the ground, he caught a faint azure afterimage in his peripheral vision. An instant later, a horrifying figure wreathed in Blood Flame appeared right beside him.

Sipia’s pupils constricted. ’Dammit...’

In that life-or-death moment,

he fought through the excruciating pain in his chest and, with all his might, summoned his fifth awakened Extraordinary Armament: the Shield of Destruction.

This Extraordinary Armament’s Special Ability had perfectly inherited the Conceptual Attribute of the Black Arsenal. It possessed only one Special Ability: Death Substitution.

No matter the scale of the attack—even one from a Sky Knight—as long as it struck the Shield of Destruction,

he would not die!

The Extraordinary Armament would nullify a single fatal blow. The price was that his body would suffer grievous injuries of varying severity.

His survival after taking Reinhardt’s axe blow head-on earlier was entirely thanks to the conceptual-level Special Ability of this newly awakened Extraordinary Armament.

An old, battered shield radiating a black aura appeared to block his side.

And then,

a terrifying force, like a high-speed warship, slammed viciously into him!

Sipia grunted as he was sent flying backward. Reinhardt retracted his whip-like kick in mid-air, completing his spin. Before his feet even touched the ground, his Aikacia Nozzles flared at high power.

A stream of azure, high-temperature Energy propelled his body forward like an arrow released from a bow, shooting after the airborne Sipia!

Meanwhile,

Koller’s voice rang in both his and Urus’s ears.

”The second wave of enemies has boarded. Four Assault Boats. Personnel count is unknown.”