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Chapter 312 ~ The White Dragon Emperor’s Challenge

Silence.

Every living being froze, as though time itself had halted once again. Yet this stillness was not wrought by a spell nor the influence of a sacred gear—it was born from awe. From terror. From revelation.

All eyes turned skyward, widening as the battlefield was consumed by the blinding column of light. The warring chaos ceased in an instant, swallowed beneath the overwhelming radiance of divine judgment.

Holy light cascaded across the war-torn sky and scorched earth alike, blanketing everything beneath its purity as though heaven itself had descended.

And when at last the brilliance ebbed, they saw him.

A lone figure in white and gold.

Suspended in the air, his form seemed carved from sanctity itself—features too beautiful to be mortal, haloed by a gentle but terrifying aura of divinity. In his grasp, a greatsword gleamed, humming with restrained power, eager and alive in his hands.

He stood motionless. Calm. Absolute.

His golden eyes glowed with the radiance of divine flame, fixed upon the empty void where the descendant of Leviathan had once been.

Gone. Erased. Not ash, not remnants—nothing remained of her existence.

The mastermind of the ambush—the spark meant to ignite another great war, the one who sought to unravel the fragile truce holding the factions together—had been obliterated in an instant.

Thousands of mages had already fallen, swept away by Erika’s black flames and Vali’s white dragon might. Yet even then, the plan still carried a chance of success. 

If Katarea could have slain but one leader, or even a single close aide, peace would have shattered and bloodshed would have followed.

The White Dragon Emperor could have been endured. Even the black-flame demoness could have been circumvented somehow. But this?

This was beyond them.

They had witnessed absolute power. Power so divine it erased the strongest among them—blessed by the snake of the Dragon of Infinity herself—from existence without resistance, without struggle, without hope.

Reality sank in.

“R… R-Retreat!!!”

“RETREAT!!”

“Run! Get out of here, NOW!”

Panic tore through the ranks. Teleportation circles flared to life all across the battlefield, desperate glyphs spinning with frantic urgency.

But one by one, the circles fizzled.

“What… what’s happening?!”

“It’s not working! I can’t teleport!”

“The magic circles we prepared beforehand—activate them!”

“They won’t! N-Nothing’s working!”

“We’re trapped! R-Run! Fly! Just fly away!!”

Chaos spread like wildfire among the mages. Desperation replaced their earlier fervor.

And from above, Yuuji looked back toward the summit hall where Lelouch waited. A small smile touched his lips.

‘Great. He succeeded. Good. Everything went according to plan.’

The instant Katarea and her mages erected the barrier, Lelouch had begun his countermeasure—an invisible snare that overwrote her spell with his own, a prison of layered enchantments designed to collapse any escape routes.

It had only to wait until this moment. Until Katarea fell.

Not any earlier, that she would realize that the tides had turned too soon and escape. But not too late as well. 

Now, her forces were trapped.

Yuuji’s golden eyes glowed brighter, casting rays of light that spilled across the battlefield. His voice rang out, resounding through the broken earth and fractured skies, filled with the weight of command that none could resist.

“Capture the prisoners! Do not let a single one escape!”

His words thundered, resolute and absolute.

“Katarea was not alone. We will find the root of this treachery. Those who wished to plunge this world back into another era of suffering and war!”

Then, his hand lifted.

[Mass Heal]

Waves of radiant light surged outward, washing across the battlefield in every direction. Angels, devils, fallen—all felt it, warm and encompassing, seeping into their very core.

Wounds knit closed. Shattered bones realigned. Energy, once drained, returned in full.

The soldiers gasped as strength renewed within their bodies. And without hesitation, invigorated by both light and command, they obeyed.

The armies surged forward as one, overwhelming the panicked mages who now had no escape.

The flow of battle had shifted. 

The hunters, now the hunted, run to escape, but finding none with Yuuji’s [Dimensional Lock] and Albedo’s [Dreams of Reality]. There would be no escape. Not magically, not physically.

Erika slowly sheathed her katana, the ringing of steel fading as the blade slid back into its scabbard. The raging black flames that had engulfed the sky around her flickered once, then dissipated like smoke in the wind.

Beside her, Vali hovered in the air, frozen in place. Within the gleaming white armor of the White Dragon Emperor’s Balance Breaker, his expression was hidden—but his trembling aura betrayed him.

His devil blood quivered, gripped by primal terror. That radiant column of judgment still lingered in his senses, searing into the very marrow of his being, a divine light that eclipsed anything he had ever seen or felt. His instincts screamed that it was a power meant to annihilate him.

And yet, his human blood surged with a different response. It burned with awe, with exhilaration, with yearning. That display of overwhelming might had struck something within him—an unshakable desire, not just to witness such power again, but to challenge it. To one day cross blades with the man who wielded it so effortlessly.

On the ground, inside the summit chamber, every eye was fixed upon the lone figure floating in the heavens. Sirzechs, Grayfia, Serafall, Azazel, and the gathered peerages of Rias and Sona pressed near the windows, their faces illuminated by the last lingering rays of divine brilliance.

Those of devilish descent shuddered. Even now, though the light had faded, Yuuji’s aura still hung heavy in the air. It pressed against their hearts like the memory of a nightmare—except this was no nightmare. This was reality.

Their souls trembled, and their instincts recoiled, whispering the ancient truth that devils were never meant to stand before divinity.

Serafall unconsciously clutched her chest, her playful demeanor stripped away, replaced by wide-eyed reverence. Rias bit her lip, unable to tear her gaze away. Even Grayfia, whose mask of composure rarely cracked, felt her breath falter at the overwhelming presence emanating from Yuuji.

“…This is… This sure is unexpected, huh?”

Azazel’s voice finally broke the silence. His words carried a dry, helpless laugh, but the weariness in his tone was unmistakable. He leaned back slightly, rubbing at his temple as though exhausted—not from battle, but from the relentless emotional whiplash of the day.

So much chaos. So much death. And now, this.

His gaze drifted to the man beside him—his old “brother.”

Michael stood still, as though carved from marble. His eyes, however, gleamed—not only with awe, but with something brighter, fiercer. Admiration. Yearning. A spark of hope that had not touched him in centuries.

Such divine radiance. Such holiness. It was heresy to think it, but Michael could not deny what his heart whispered: in that instant, the divinity Yuuji displayed surpassed even the Father who had created him.

Michael swallowed hard, his lips parting in a soft breath.

‘I must… I must invite him to Heaven.’

That was the thought burning in his mind. Not as a weapon, nor as a tool of war, but as something far greater.

To Michael, Yuuji was no longer just an ally. He was a beacon. A being who might—just might—rekindle the light of Heaven itself.

--------------------------------X--------------------------------

“Mordred.”

The name cut through the silence like a blade.

Vali finally stirred from his shocked daze, the lingering terror of that divine strike still burned into his nerves. Yet rather than retreat, it ignited something else within him. His wings flared wide as he shot forward, armored plates shifting. With a hiss, the helmet of the White Dragon Emperor receded into the armor, exposing his face.

And there it was—the expression of a true battle maniac. Wide eyes, sharp grin, trembling with exhilaration.

“Let’s fight.” His voice was hoarse, charged with hunger. “You still have more, don’t you? I can feel it—you’re not even tired. So let’s do it. Right here. Right now!”

Yuuji turned toward him, the corners of his lips curling into a small, weary smile.

“No.” His answer was simple, unshakable. “We can spar sometime later. But not now.”

Vali’s grin twisted wider, almost feral.

“No… not just a spar.” His fists clenched so tightly the knuckles whitened, his whole body trembling like a beast barely chained. “A real fight. This is what I’ve been waiting for!”

His voice shook with the exhilaration of obsession. “I’ve finally found it—someone stronger than him. Someone who can push me higher. Someone who can drag me into uncharted heights. So fight me, Mordred! Fight me!”

The White Dragon Emperor’s aura surged like a storm, a maelstrom of blinding silver radiance erupting outward. The sky rippled, the fabric of space groaning and bending under the pressure as if rejecting his power.

“You killed Katarea,” Vali snarled, his excitement only mounting. “One of the leaders of Khaos Brigade! They’re your enemy, right? Then fight me—because I’m one of them too!”

His voice echoed with mad delight as he roared:

“[Half Dimension]!”

Power tore from him in waves. The sacred gear activated, its ability latching onto Yuuji’s form, trying—daring—to halve his existence.

And at once, Vali’s body convulsed. His veins burned with borrowed strength. His armor rattled under the sheer, uncontainable flood of energy, spilling into him far beyond his limits.

“Gh—ha… Hahaha!” His laughter was manic, yet strained. Albion’s voice rang sharp in his mind, filled with urgency.

‘Vali, stop! You cannot withstand this much power! It will tear you apart!’

But Vali only grinned wider, his eyes wild with ecstasy.

“Then let it tear me apart! Let it birth me anew! Juggernaut Drive—!”

The cry reverberated through the battlefield, as his form began to warp and twist under the legendary forbidden evolution of the White Dragon Emperor.

Power exploded from Vali like a collapsing star, silver light swallowing the battlefield. His Balance Breaker armor cracked and shifted grotesquely as Juggernaut Drive began to consume him. Space warped, magic bled into the air in unstable torrents, and the ground trembled under the force of a transformation that could lay waste to everything around them.

But before it could fully bloom—

Yuuji’s golden eyes flared.

The sigil of Geass shimmered faintly, and with but a thought—silence.

All at once, the flood ceased. The maelstrom of power snuffed out like a candle flame crushed between fingers. The violent surge of aura, the twisting transformation, even the sacred gear’s forbidden evolution—all of it unraveled into nothing.

The Balance Breaker armor shattered like glass, fragments of silver dissolving into motes of light until Vali was left bare, hovering helplessly in midair. His wings dissolved. His body went limp.

“What—?!” Vali’s eyes widened, his voice little more than a broken gasp before the strength was drained from him.

With a mere gesture, Yuuji raised his hand. A soft white light shimmered at his palm.

“[Rest Near Death].”

The spell fell upon Vali like a lullaby carried by the wind. His eyes fluttered shut, and his body surrendered instantly to unconsciousness.

The last thing he heard was Yuuji’s voice—gentle, yet weighted with admonishment.

“Don’t do something stupid… Do you want to destroy my school?”

His world fell into darkness.

Yuuji exhaled softly, his gravity magic weaving around the White Dragon Emperor like invisible threads, lifting him as though he weighed nothing at all.

Those nearby, still reeling from the clash, fell into silence—not in awe of destructive might, but of something far more terrifying. Absolute, effortless control.

Then—

Rip.

The air itself split open, like a canvas slashed by a blade. The rift widened, spilling out a swirl of distorted space before stabilizing into a doorway of shadows.

From within stepped a tall young man—short, light-colored hair, brown eyes sharp as steel, and an athletic build clad in armor that echoed the style of ancient Chinese generals. Around his forehead gleamed a golden circlet.

Bikou.

The moment his foot touched solid ground, he froze. 

His body stiffened as the weight of the battlefield’s aura pressed against him. His skin prickled with goosebumps—Erika’s cursed black flames still lingering faintly, and Yuuji’s divine radiance that seemed to encompass his very being.

He gritted his teeth, but the tremor in his hands betrayed him.

A second tear in space opened behind him. From it, a slender, yet voluptuous figure, adorned in a sexy black kimono emerged, her long black hair flowing with a sensual grace, her golden feline eyes narrowing as they fell on Yuuji.

Kuroka.

The moment she registered his aura, her breath caught. It wasn’t just powerful—it was familiar.

Recognition struck her like lightning. The warmth, the resonance, the very essence of it… this was the magic she had felt from the faint traces from Vali after he returned beaten up.

Her lips parted in disbelief as her golden eyes widened further.

It couldn’t be.

It was.

And when Yuuji turned his gaze on her, smiling, she felt her knees weaken.

It was the same smile. The exact same gentle curve of his lips—the smile he had given her when she’d encountered him in her feline form, unaware of his identity.

A smile she had never forgotten.

“It’s nice to see you again… little kitty.”

Kuroka’s throat tightened.

Her heart skipped a beat.

“Y-You…”

Her voice cracked, her composure fracturing as shock and disbelief warred with something warmer, deeper—something she had buried since that fleeting encounter.