Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles Volume 22, page 1
Prologue: The Rules of God That Rio Knows
1. Every time a transcendent one exercises their power, their existence is wiped from the memory of the world’s residents. If necessary, their memories will be adjusted to erase inconsistencies so that they make logical sense. The only people who can retain memories of the transcendent ones are fellow transcendent ones and their disciples. When anyone else tries to recall the transcendent ones, they first become incapable of thinking straight, then feel a heavy burden upon their brain.
2. Those who become transcendent will have difficulty remaining in the memory of others. They can make direct contact with the residents of the world and hold a conversation, but any memory of the transcendent one will fade the moment they part ways.
3. Transcendent ones are forbidden from supporting the interests of specific individuals or groups. Breaking this rule will result in the transcendent one forgetting the individual or group that was being supported.
4. The aforementioned rules of god apply to the disciples of the transcendent one as well. However, the effects of rule 2 can be weakened only when the disciple is separated from their transcendent master.
Chapter 1: The Aerial Battle of Rodania
In the noble district of Rodania, home to the headquarters of the Restoration...
Along a section of a street leading to the enchanted airship harbor by the lake, Rio stared at Celia in shock.
Why?
Celia was weeping sadly—but at the same time, there was a hint of confusion on her face. A spell formula appeared around her small body as though a magic was trying to activate itself.
It worked. It’s not possible to give you all of it right now, but I’m entrusting everything I couldn’t give that person to you.
“H-Huh...?”
Celia looked around restlessly, unsure of where the voice was coming from. One beat later, information started flowing into her head.
“...”
Her eyes were fixed on Rio, but she wasn’t seeing him. Wrapped in the dazzling glow of the spell formula, she stood there gazing into the distance.
“Celia? Celia?!”
Her father, Roland, shook her by the shoulders in a panic. Sara, Orphia, and Alma were also watching her worriedly from nearby. Everyone was equally surprised by the sudden turn of events.
But now wasn’t the time to be distracted by their surprise. The Beltrum Kingdom’s main army led by Duke Arbor was still attacking Rodania at this very moment—and the fall of the city was imminent.
The Aerial Knights of the Beltrum army were closing in from the skies, and the fleet of enchanted airships with Duke Arbor on board was a short distance away. The few remaining troops of the Restoration’s Aerial Knights were doing their best to buy time, but they wouldn’t be able to hold on for much longer.
No matter how one looked at it, the situation was clear. That was why Christina and the others trying to evacuate noticed Celia and the spell activating around her, but had to ignore her in favor of moving to the harbor.
Celia remained in her dazed state for less than a minute. Once the spell formula faded, she snapped back to her senses.
“Ah... Oh...”
However, her expression was one of extreme sadness. Tears spilled from her eyes and flowed down her cheeks.
“Whatever is the matter, my dear Celia?” Roland asked, peering into her face. He must have sensed what his daughter was feeling from her expression.
“N-Nothing, it’s just...” Celia shook her head as she wiped her eyes. There was something more important than explaining things to Roland right now.
“...”
With her red, swollen eyes, Celia stared at Rio with a determined look, as though to say she wouldn’t be forgetting him anymore. Rio himself was staring at Celia with an absorbed gaze. The two held their gazes from a distance of two meters for a long moment. As he looked between the two of them questioningly, Roland seemed to feel an odd sense of unity between Rio and Celia.
“Who...are you?” Sara, the silver werewolf, asked. Beside her, the high elf Orphia and dwarf Alma also had their eyes fixed on Rio.
“I’m Rio,” he replied truthfully. Based on what Sora had told him, transcendent ones had difficulty remaining in the memories of those around them. The moment he distanced himself from them, they would forget they ever made contact with him. Thus, he believed there was no problem in telling them his name.
But risks aside, there was also something Rio wanted to confirm: Did Sara and the others still remember him?
“Have we...”
“...met somewhere before?”
Alma and Orphia asked together. Sure enough, they couldn’t remember Rio. But their reaction implied that they felt some sense of familiarity with him.
It seems they don’t remember me. But they seem to feel some kind of recognition.
Once Rio confirmed that, he looked up at the sky. “You must be imagining things. What’s more important right now is for you to hurry. I will escort you to the harbor.”
He had originally planned to leave at this point, but he wanted to speak to Celia some more. That was why he made such a suggestion instead.
“Let’s all go together,” Celia responded first, agreeing with Rio’s idea. “Princess Christina and the others have left already.”
“Right...”
In reality, this was no time to be chatting. Once Rio and Celia started down the street to the harbor, Roland and Sara’s group finally moved as well. Just then, three young Aerial Knights descended to where Celia and the other evacuees were. Rio immediately prepared an art for counterattack, when—
Isn’t that...Stewart Huguenot?
He paused his art the moment he recognized his opponent. As his last time implied, he was the son of Duke Huguenot. Back when Rio had attended the Royal Academy of Beltrum, Stewart was part of the grade one year younger than him, and he had pinned his crime of pushing Flora off a cliff onto Rio. He was the culprit behind Rio’s decision to leave the Royal Academy. He had also abused Latifa for his own amusement, back when she was a slave.
The last time Rio had encountered him was when he returned to the Strahl region as Haruto. The drunk Stewart had picked a fight with Rio in an Amande restaurant, which his father Duke Huguenot scolded him harshly for. Rio hadn’t seen him since that event.
Is he part of Rodania’s Aerial Knights? But why has he left his squad to descend here?
The few remaining Aerial Knights of the Restoration were still fighting in the sky. With all the squads focused on stopping the enemy, why had Stewart and the other two knights left their post to descend here? Rio found their actions somewhat odd.
“Who the hell are you?!” Stewart must have found Rio and his mask equally odd, as he yelled for Rio to identify himself with a glare.
“It’s okay, Stewart.” Celia intervened immediately in support of Rio. “He’s someone we can trust. What’s more important right now is protecting Princess Christina and Princess Flora. They’re up ahead—go guard them.”
Having been one of her students at the Royal Academy, Stewart trusted Celia.
“Professor Celia... Very well. We will focus on protecting the princesses.” Stewart backed down obediently.
“Over there! There may be someone of importance with them. Don’t let them get away!”
Just then, the movements of Stewart and the other knights caught the eyes of the enemy. Aerial Knights from Beltrum started descending one after another.
“Tch...”
Sara and the spirit folk girls were the first to raise their weapons, but—
“I will bring up the rear. Sara—please guard everyone until they reach the ship,” Rio ordered, before leaving without waiting for a response.
“Huh...?”
Sara did a double take at her name being called. She hadn’t introduced herself to him, but she assumed it was because he had heard the others call her name in the middle of the earlier battle.
“Sora will accompany you!” Sora immediately followed after Rio.
“Thank you. I’ll do most of the fighting, so please take care of anyone who gets past me. Don’t let them reach the harbor.”
“Got it!”
Thus, Rio decided to throw himself into more battles.
“H-Hey...!”
With the worried look of a lost child, Celia called after Rio. She seemed to believe he would disappear again.
Rio paused and looked back at her with a gentle smile. “It’s okay. We’ll talk properly later.”
That was enough to ease her woes. “Okay!” Celia said, wiping away her tears.
At that, Rio started running. He accelerated and took to the sky, meeting the incoming Aerial Knights midair. He then activated a spirit art to create a blast of wind that changed directions erratically, directing it at them.
“Wh-What?!”
The blast of wind swallowed up the Aerial Knights along its path.
“Huh?!”
The Aerial Knights were violently shaken by the wild air current. In the blink of an eye, the knights lost control of their griffins. Their safety harnesses prevented them from falling from the griffins, but the harsh wind forced them to land one after another. But there were more knights hovering just outside the range of the art.
“What is that guy?” Their attention was completely focused on Rio’s presence in the air.
“Eliminate him. Prepare your photon bullets! And fire
“Photon Projectilis!”
The Aerial Knights uttered their spells one after another, deploying magic circles at the ends of their swords. Once they locked their aim onto Rio, they fired their spells at once.
“...”
Rio stared at the approaching barrage of light bullets calmly. It would have been easy for him to accelerate and evade them, but he chose to remain in the air and draw the enemy’s attacks towards himself instead. Then, he cast a barrier of magic essence to block those shots of light.
The bullets of light sank into the barrier like balls being thrown against water, losing their kinetic energy and coming to a stop. After all the attacks were successfully halted...
“Wha...?!”
The Aerial Knights who attacked were speechless—Rio had stolen control of all of their spells. Once he noted all their locations by eye, he reflected the light bullets he had caught back at them.
“E-Evade! Evade them!”
The attack they had used was rebounding back towards them. The Aerial Knights had never experienced such a thing before, so they panicked. Their formation promptly fell apart as they dashed about evading the bullets.
Photon bullets were preferred for enemy suppression as they had lower lethality than other attack magics, but a direct hit was still strong enough to send an unguarded human flying. If a bullet struck the wrong spot, it could even fracture bones or snap the spine, resulting in death.
I have to avoid hitting them if I can...
And so, Rio manually controlled every bullet one by one, diverting them away from directly hitting the knights. Choosing to injure instead of kill on the battlefield further lowered the enemy forces by causing them to redirect troops to assisting injured allies.
But another reason for his actions was the rule of god that said he couldn’t support the interests of an individual or group. With the exception of a few circumstances, transcendent ones had to use their powers for the sake of the entire world. He was forbidden from participating in the conflict of humans and protecting only one side.
A certain amount of support could be overlooked, but the moment the rule was triggered he would lose all memory of the people he tried to assist. That was why the more Rio fought right now, the more the situation leaned towards activating the rule’s penalty.
Crk. Crrrk.
The cracking sound of the mask, which was taking the burden of the penalty, reached Rio’s ears. He had to be extremely careful of the penalty growing in proportion to the degree of his assistance—if he was going to intervene, he had to do it in a way that wouldn’t be considered as strongly. This way, the penalty would also be weakened.
There were many factors that contributed to whether his assistance would be considered strong or weak. The reason why he was only injuring the approaching enemies was because he was hoping that leaving them alive would be considered less assistance than killing them. His aim was for a stalemate in the situation without tipping the power balance. However...
“Damn it!”
“Assist the injured!”
There were too many enemies for that to be feasible. No matter how much he held back, taking on this number of people had to be considered a strong show of support.
He had no choice but to buy as much time as possible. Rio looked around the battlefield calmly, considering the most efficient way of consuming his mask’s capacity.
He controlled the countless photon bullets and made them attack the flying Aerial Knights of Beltrum Kingdom from every direction. He made them cut off the paths of those who tried to approach him and chase away those trying to flee, forcing their front lines to retreat farther and farther.
If a group of knights was gathered in one spot, he would aim to injure the griffins of one or two of those knights, forcing the others to focus on rescuing them.
The Beltrum Kingdom’s army, which had had the superior position thanks to the huge attack Renji made with his hero powers, was now faltering. The tides of battle were turning thanks to Rio’s extraordinary power.
“What is that...?”
It was clear to everyone in the surroundings that the scales were being tipped by Rio. Regardless of which side they were fighting for, the knights in the sky had their eyes fixed on him.
“It’s him! That man is the one controlling the attacks!”
“Spread out! Encircle him and defeat him!”
With their advantage in numbers, the Beltrum Kingdom’s army attempted to eliminate Rio. At their commander’s order, half the squads that hadn’t been engaged with Rio’s fight flew towards him.
“Y-Yes, now’s our chance! Use this opportunity to restore our front lines!”
Meanwhile, the Aerial Knights of the Restoration attempted to reorganize their forces. The shift of the enemy’s attention to Rio had given them the leeway to do that. Several hundred Aerial Knights from both sides filled the sky above Rodania. But then...
What’s this...?
A strange feeling filled Rio. It wasn’t a bad feeling—if anything, it was good.
Rio was currently controlling several dozens of light bullets. Controlling such a number from such a far distance—and at an individual level—should have required extremely precise control.
Has my control over spirit arts improved?
Was it because he had awakened to his transcendent powers? Rio felt like he still had the capacity to use other arts while controlling these bullets.
In that case...
In order to deal with the incoming enemies, Rio increased the number of light orbs before him by over three digits.
“Restoration troops, head to the harbor! Create a defense line and protect the evacuees boarding the airships! Princess Christina and Princess Flora are with them,” Rio said, instructing the Aerial Knights of the Restoration while moving forward to draw the attention of the Beltrum army. Furthermore, he had used a spirit art that carried his voice through magic essence, allowing him to send his voice directly to the ears of the knights who were specifically wearing the officer uniform of the Restoration.
“Huh...?”
The officers of the squads flinched at the sound of Rio’s voice right by their ears. There was a fair distance between Rio and them, and they normally never heard voices this clearly while flying, so they couldn’t tell who just spoke. However, the situation didn’t leave them with any other choice—they turned their griffins to face the harbor and looked for the evacuees Rio had mentioned.
“There they are! We will protect Their Highnesses! Any remaining squads form a line protecting the harbor! Now!”
A man in a fancier uniform than the others gave a decisive order. He must have been the highest-ranking officer present. The other officers began instructing their squads too. Thus, the remaining squads of the Restoration moved around the enemies swarming Rio.
“Damn it! Don’t let the enemies move freely!”
Of course, the Beltrum army noticed the Restoration’s movements. They weren’t about to let them pass without a fight.
“We can’t reach them!”
“Guh...!”
However, the light bullets under Rio’s control obstructed their movement. The orbs smoothly avoided the troops wearing the Restoration’s uniform and hindered only the Beltrum army. That helped the Aerial Knights of the Restoration realize Rio was completely on their side.
“Whoever you are, thank you!”
“All troops get behind that man while you can!”
“Form a line of defense before the harbor!”
In the sky, filled with an overwhelming number of projectiles and enemies, the Aerial Knights of the Restoration flew freely. Among them, the highest-ranking officer flew over to Rio. “Kind stranger, you have my gratitude. Will you continue giving us your assistance?”
“Yes.”
“Is it true the princesses have evacuated to the harbor?” the officer asked. He required more information to make informed decisions.
“Yes, the hero and Duke Huguenot are with them.”
“I see... That’s all I needed to know.”
With his mask on, Rio must have appeared extremely suspicious. But while it would have roused suspicion in times of peace, it was a trivial matter on this battlefield.
There was no doubt Rio was assisting them even now, and they had spotted the evacuees with their own eyes already. There was enough information for the officer to believe Rio’s words.
