Priam
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Chapter 412: Neither Hypocrite, Nor Hero
🕑 Added 2025-09-13 07:11:09 +0000 UTCPS: Priam Character Sheet
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At a few clipped orders from Kazuki, the hoplites filed out, leaving the two Champions alone.
âI thought Iâd find you on the front lines,â Priam said, glancing around. Even months after integration, the wonders of this new life hadnât dulled for him. Standing on a hoplite war platform fell into that category.
âMy soldiers need experience. But Iâm ready to step in if another Tier 3 shows up.â Kazuki gestured at the staff planted in the metallic deck beside him.
As Priam stepped closer, he noticed a sheath carved directly into the transportâs plating. Around the platform, similar hollows yawnedâslots sized for the blade of a spear. The âstaffâ beside Kazuki was nothing more than the shaft of his weapon.
âYou didnât have swalya on Earth,â the hoplite realized.
âWe had coat racks and umbrella stands, but not this.â Priam crouched to examine the recess. âSome centuries back, a few cultures had weapon racks, but thatâs ancient history. We stopped wielding swords a long time agoâtakes too much space in the subway.â He frowned. âThereâs a sound⊠like the faint buzz of a grinder.â
âAn automatic sharpener. Swalya donât just hold our weapons; they hone the edge and coat the blades with an anti-corrosion treatment. Normally inaudible, but with your statsâŠâ
Priam nodded, rose, and moved to stand beside him. Before them, the war raged.
The front had shifted hundreds of meters since the hoplitesâ initial ambush. Elite Aelbes were rareâmost had been pulled to Proximaâleaving the rest of the populace to wage a feral guerrilla war against the invaders. Kazuki had responded to that by ordering the systematic leveling of every building in his armyâs path.
Even so, rubble often concealed not-so-dead warriors. With Micro, tribe-hunters could still their hearts and wait for a bit, springing ambushes from beneath the ruins. Though mangled by blasts, they still hurled themselves at the invaders, dragging hoplites with them into deathâs embrace. Priam himself saw a one-armed Tier 2 rush a hoplite and tear out his throat with his teeth before falling under heavy artillery.
âTheyâre worse than undead,â Kazuki growled.
âCornered beasts are dangerous,â Priam reminded him. âBut to be frank, your soldiers drop their guard too quickly.â
The hoplites were disciplined, organized, heavily armed, individually strong thanks to a brutal selectionâabout one in a million became a true eliteâand to rigorous training. To that was added millennia of military science, impressive air support, and AIs backing a brilliant commander: Kazuki Arashi.
However, strategies for a conventional war were failing against System-fueled hunters fighting a guerrilla.
âThey lack practice against humanoids enhanced by the System,â Kazuki said.
âThe real problem is personal power. We both know that numbers wonât matter against Transcendents.â
âThe drones lost them soon after you entered the cloud.â
The Tier 4s had vanished at the onset of the High Tribulation. Likely, they werenât part of this simulation at all.
Lvl Up: [Rule Breaker] lvl 22
CHAR +3
Meta (Chance) +6
The tempering was still ongoing.
âAnd Tier 3s? How many have you taken down?â
Barely a quarter of the phalanx exuded the spiritual pressure of a Tier 1. The gap in attributes and skills was noticeable as the battalion struggled to defeat Tier 2s. Beyond that, the gulf was almost unbridgeable.
âFour. Each took a hundred soldiers with them. We spotted two others; I had their positions bombed, but they managed to flee each time.â
Priamâs smile withered. âOnly two?â His tone dripped with irony as he scanned the smoking ruins. âYet all I see are ruins. Are your artillerymen cross-eyed or what?â
âIf you have something to say, speak plainly.â
Priamâs eyes flared with anger. âWe were supposed to cut down their elites to stop them from invading Proxima. Not slaughter crafters defending their homes! What the fuck are you doing?!â
âThe Aelbes have quests to drive us back. They donât die for honor, they die for rewards.â
âOh, please, I know you donât give a shit about that. In the end, theyâre dead all the same!â
Kazuki turned to his rival, voice hard. âYou would have me order my soldiers not to defend themselves when attacked by an artisan?â
The Juggernautâs hearts thundered, broadcasting his fury for all to hear. Twenty meters away, a hoplite sniper stiffened.
âThe Aelbes arenât a whetstone for your army. If it canât handle its missionâor if you canât control itâit has no place here.â
Kazukiâs gaze sharpened with disdain. âIt was hubris to think we could behead the tiger without collateral bloodshed.â
Priam barked a joyless laugh. âDude, this isnât a mistake or two slip-ups. Youâre committing a fucking genocide! Killing children!â
In the background, bombs rained, gunfire tore the night, and both hoplites and Aelbes fell, each dying for their own.
âItâs easy to judge those who dirty their hands to preserve the peace in your world.â Kazukiâs voice hardened as he seized the shaft of his spear. âWithout me, an Aelbe-Empyrean alliance would have razed the continent humanity clings to. Then, with the moral high ground, you would have pledged to avenge them.â
âYouâre projecting your failure onto me.â
âPerhaps. Perhaps not. Either way, humans would have died for you to keep a clean conscience.â
âOr, we can all live for an ideal.â
âNo.â The General raised his weapon, and his Spear Mastery sheathed it in a metallic gray halo. âIf you were an idealist, you would have saved them.â He gestured at the sea of fire. Some people were still screaming inside. âThe Aelbes wanted a world where they could live in peace. Valaryth could have taken them in. But you consider this territory yours.â
âOurs.â
Kazuki studied his friendâs eyes, then inclined his head. âForgive me. Ours. I donât judge you. Itâs a resource that may one day save our peoples. Nevertheless, it makes you, at best, a useless yapping critic, at worst, a hypocrite.â
The word struck Priam like a slap. His mouth opened, then closed. He could have justified himself, argued that not killing was not the same as not saving; that the world wasnât binary. But he understood: for Kazuki, it was. There were his allies on one side, and the rest of creation on the other. In the face of such conviction, words are useless.
Priam summoned a flame into his hand. Kazuki smiled and dropped into a defensive stance.
âAt last, you speak with your body. Yet it doesnât feel like you.â
Priam returned the smile. Strangely, his anger was gone. âBecause it doesnât matter. Weâre in the High Tribulation, and your karma is choking my soul.â
âIs that a metaphor?â
âNo. At first I thought our link was killing me because you were my best friendâŠâ Priam laughed at Kazukiâs embarrassed expression. âBut now I think the massacre your soldiers commit stains Oasis. Youâre accumulating bad karma and Iâm paying the price as the Lord. In the real world, the karmic debt would bite me in fifteen, or twenty yearsâwhen some survivor from todayâs massacre came to slaughter my family while I was away. Here, the High Tribulation collects immediately.â Even right now, he was feeling the noose of corrupted connections tighten on his soul. âIf I kill you, I erase part of that debt. I buy myself timeâmaybe enough to temper my gate.â His draconic instinct surged, and obeying an impulse, Priam declared to the world: âIn plain words: I want to exorcise my bad karma.â
Lvl Up: [Rule Breaker] lvl 23
CHAR +3
Meta (Chance) +6
He took the notification as a sign of approval.
âYouâll forgive me if Iâm skeptical,â said Kazuki, even as plates of metal snapped into place across his body. When his transformation into Knightmare was complete, he loomed a full meter taller than Priam.
âAll the better,â the Juggernaut grinned, not the least bit cowed. âAfter all the times you flattened me in spear practice, I need to remind you which of us comes out on top in a real fightââ
Instinct screamed, and Priam sprang back. Doriâs bladeâKazukiâs spearâsliced past, missing his face by inches.
âToo slow!â Priam roared, unleashing a tidal wave of kinetic energy. The conical blast hammered Kazuki, hurling him from the war platform. The hoplite smashed into a burning ruin that collapsed in on him.
Too canny to engage the spearmaster in close quarters, Priam unfurled his phoenix wings and began weaving runes of protection out of his aether. They spun around him in orbit, ready to knit themselves into a Mille-feuille barrier to block an unstoppable strike.
The wreckage that had buried Kazuki erupted in a geyser of ash, embers, shattered beams, and bodies. The hopliteâs eyes locked on Priamâs, and he conjured one, two, then three blades of wind. They started strong, but winked out the instant they touched the Juggernautâs Domain.
âA basic kinetic strike like that wonât even scratch me,â Priam taunted.
Knightmare blurred. With terrifying acceleration, he devoured two hundred meters in a heartbeat. Priam barely got his forearm up in time. The spear sheared through skin, then a centimeter of bone before stopping cold.
Lvl Up: [Shear Resistance] lvl 26
CONST +7
META (Endurance) +2
For a heartbeat, both Champions froze.
âDisgusting constitution,â grunted Kazuki before retrieving Dori.
Then the dance resumed. A thrust speared into Priamâs chest, slipping between ribs to puncture a lung. At the spearâs tip, a sphere of wind swelled, primed to shred the organ apart from inside. Priamâs Domain short-circuited the detonation, but the split-second lapse cost him an elbow to his face.
With a boxerâs nose, Priam roared and countered with a lightning-fast strike from Promesse. Kazuki dodged with contemptuous ease. Three more strokes cut nothing but air.
The hoplite sniffed amusement, then responded to raw violence with apex technique. A feint forced Priam to overextend, and the spearâs haft cracked into his temple. Dazed, the young man staggered beneath a blistering combo of thrusts, each angled at a gap in his guard. Slashes, sweeps, grabs, and feints weaved together, harrying Priam until desperation forced him to trigger a kinetic storm.
When his eyes snapped open again, the twenty meters around him were a void. No air, no ground, no debris remained.
âChallenging you in close quarters was arrogant,â Priam admitted, panting.
â... But?â
With a grin, Priam gestured toward the ruins. âBut so is facing me on a battlefield.â
The bombings had left whole districts ablaze. Drawn to the Pyro Sageâs call, flames leapt skyward, weaving a cage of fire around the two Champions. Heat surged.
Kazuki tried to retreat, but with a step Priam rode the fire. He emerged from the wall of flame before his rival and unleashed a kinetic wave that flung Kazuki back before he could react.
The Juggernaut bounced his rival across the flaming walls in a brutal volley that lasted just long enough for the blaze to climb to metal-melting heat.
âReady? Here I am,â Priam said with a smile, clenching his fist.
Like the hand of an enraged god, the cage compressed, swallowing the hoplite whole. For a second, Priam thought he had won. Then, he sensed the flare of wind; a tunnel through the inferno bored by a devastating thrust.
Kazuki burst free like a cannon shot. He rolled on impact and took a second to rise. Half his mechanized armor had melted; patches of his scaled skin were horrifically burned across his back. Of his eyes, only two empty, smoking sockets remained.
With a mere thought, a small flex of his Concept, Priam had nearly annihilated his rival. Such was the power gap between a Duke and a Prince.
âGeneral!â a lieutenant cried.
Kazuki lifted his hand before tracing a complex gesture with his wrist. The officer saluted and assumed command of the raid. The Champion then closed his eyes. His armor liquefied and poured into his veins. His clenched jaw betrayed the agony.
When Kazuki opened his eyes again, Priam felt his own bloodlines shiver. The Titanâs blood had awakened. The hoplite was pulling out all the stops.
For now, Iâm far from doing the same. Prove to me that I should take you seriously, Kazu.
The Juggernaut raised an arm, conjured a lance of fire, and hurled it. The blazing missile devoured three hundred meters in an eyeblink before exploding in a spray of sparks against the hopliteâs torso.
âFireproof?â Priam narrowed his eyes. âNo. That was my lance. It didnât even try to hurt you.â
âIt didnât deserve to,â Kazuki replied with half-burnt vocal cords. Lifting Dori, he wove his Aura, his Wind Concept, and the halo of his Spear Mastery around the blade. âReceive mine.â
The spearmaster slashed.
Priamâs instinct was so silent it alarmed him. Fourteen shield runes deployed, layering into as many barriers. All detonated at once, and Priam felt his flesh split from brow to groin.
Above and below, beyond his protection, the shockwave scythed the air, the building beneath his feet, and gouged a trench two meters deep and five long.
Lvl Up: [Shear Resistance] lvl 27
CONST +7
META (Endurance) +2
âNot bad,â Priam smiled, summoning Pyro to his hand. âYouâve earned your title of Champion. At the bottom of the list.â
â...â
âTied with Seth.â
âYouâ?!â
âAt last a reaction! And now, let it rain fire!â
For the next minute, a hundred fireballs were batted aside by a spear that seemed unstoppable. Both rivals circled, smiling despite themselves.
Lvl Up: [Rule Breaker] lvl 24
CHAR +3
Meta (Chance) +6
[Soul rupture in: six minutes.]
The countdown to death ticked on. Priam decided it was time to end the game.
Feeling the core of his gate approaching half completion, he summoned his wings. With a single beat, he dominated the battlefield. His jaws opened, and ambient aether funneled into his draconic lung. Three seconds later, he let out a Breath.
On the ground, Kazuki leveled his spear against what looked like a falling meteor. The earth quaked, the air shrieked, and hoplites and Aelbes alike fled the catastropheâs epicenter.
When the dust settled, little remained of the Champion but a charred skeleton, held together by scorched muscle and threads of molten metallic tendon. His chest had blossomed into a grotesque flower: petals of shattered bone, a pistil of dried blood studded with scraps of organs and fat. Swallowing a bomb might have left less carnage.
And still, Kazuki was lifting his arm, his Duty scorning death.
ââŠ.â
With a flick of his wrist, Priam summoned a cascade of fire that drowned his friend. or what was left of him. A heartbeat later, he dissipated it with a frown. Supported by its Concept, the hopliteâs body refused to burn further. Without a heart or brain, its will would eventually fail and its end would comeâbut not soon enough. By then, Iâll be dead as well.
The Juggernaut was hardly one to condemn those clinging to life, but he had the tools to deal with cockroach-like foes. With a thought, he turned his flames to mist and infused it with [There is no Heaven]. When the cloud touched Kazukiâs bones, unholy energy tore at its soul.
The General opened its jaws and screamed. Not a physical cryâit had no lungs leftâbut a spiritual howl. The soul, bridge between reality and Duty, fractured. It had no choice left but to dieâ
A wave of aether slammed into Priam. Its intensity erased his mist-woven clothes, blew out his Domain, and made [Kinetic Sovereignty] flicker.
Unable to hold his levitation, Priam plummeted. His attributes let him land without injury, but his eyes widened as he recognized something familiar in what was happening to Kazuki. This awakened a recent memory. A very recent one.
âThis wild aether⊠This natural majesty⊠itâs just like Old Nekomataâs High Tribulation.â
To survive the fracturing of its soul, Kazukiâs obsession had found only one path forward: to baptize it. But unlike the old Aelbe, the Champion was overqualified.
Barely a minute into the ordeal, a cascade of aether poured from the heavens like divine creation. The deluge struck Kazukiâs charred skeleton. While it didnât mend the body, it restored its soul and filled it with vitality. It had passed the trial.
Emerging triumphant from its High Tribulation, Knightmare had Tiered up.
*
Status:
PHYSICAL:
Strength 1 259
Constitution 2 317 (+20)
Agility 1 659
Vitality 2 213
Perception 998
MENTAL:
Vivacity (D) 666
Dexterity 988
Memory 1 219
Willpower 1 310
Charisma 1 040 (+18)
META:
Meta-affinity (O) 1 459
Meta-focus 902
Meta-endurance 1 692 (+6)
Meta-perception 876
Meta-chance 1 430 (+38)
Meta-authority 1018
Potential: 43 014 (+15)
Tier 0
[Tribulation]: Five Tribulations pending.
Next thresholds: 12 attributes > 1 200 / 3 attributes > 1 800 / 1 attribute > 2 400
*
Kazuki - Knightmare
Comments
Allan Miller
If this book ever gets published, the author will need to tighten up the plot. Itâs a fun read as a web serial but itâs very confusing and all over the place.
_mori
Illusion
AFunkyLad
Hehe so a high tribulation inside a high tribulation?
Shadow Korosu
Great chapter! Near the end though, I think there may be a slight mistake. - âTied with Seth.â âYouâ?!â âAt least a reaction! And now, let it rain fire!â - I believe that it should be "At last a reaction!" instead, the current word doesn't make much sense in that context.
_mori
Kazuki makes a reasonable argument, especially for their setting. Itâs definitely ruthless, but his options are limited. Itâs arguably cruel to both parties if he spares the aelbes. A vengeful child could very well return as a mid tier. Priamâs compassion is admirable but not helpful to either party. I feel like Esmee or maybe Eve are the only two who could resolve this with minimal blood shed.
CherMi
I'm kinda tired of the same argument being rehashed again and again without any resolution. Ruthless MCs are hard to connect to, but it turns out indecisive MCs are just annoying.
Baconwargod
He canât progress to Mastery 3 till he tiers up. His soul would either go apocryphal or his soul would shatter and even then after tiering up mastery three would force another high tribulation counter
LucStar
I liked the chapter; the fight between them was very good. But I must say I expected Kazuki to reach Mastery Level 3, not his high tribulation, much less for him to overcome it in 1 minute. It's surprising, and I have to ask, does this confirm that Kazuki will level up easily? Or is the tribulation just an illusion to make things difficult for Priamo?
Andrew
Thank you!
Eivind Aabakken
Thanks for the chapter! I'm not sure about the allegory. I mean it fits in the context and was well executed. However, the surrounding High Tribulation (if I understand it correctly) is a recreation/illusion of the HT's AoE, which ironically makes the trial of karma and consequence free of the entanglements of both, should Priam survive. Being reminded of real life horror in an escapist fiction during a no-stakes (no death, no consequence) part of the story was a bit jarring. It places quite a burden on you as the author to resolve the conflict in some way when the HT ends and reality crashes back. The allegory cannot be hand-waved and forgotten in a chapter, unless you want to comment on all of us westerners being witness to the genocide and moving on in a news cycle. That'll have to be quite on the nose or it'll pass over people's heads. It's also an opportunity for character growth and meaningful exploration of the issues, and you did that well in this chapter. Very interesting direction, and it all comes down to the execution.
Revolve
this is too confusing. is he tiering up or is this fake. I hate this karma illusion crap
Halfcrzy
I also don't know anymore. Thought it was an illusion, now I'm not sure if it is
Naasir Smalls
Uhhhhh wowwwww
brennon Petersen
Tftc!
QKelpFace
Iâm confused, is this a Karma induced simulation/dream or is Priam actually just fucking up Kazuki right now? Also these lower tiers really do not do Kazukiâs talent justiceâŠ
_mori
It seems a bit assuming that one high tribulation simulated another though. Just seems like it said âyou passâ for the sake of the actual high tribulation.
_mori
Throughout the chapter, I kept thinking âif Kazuki went apocryphal, the other champions would get a run for their money once he got access to mastery 3â. I didnât think straight up tiering would be an even more direct power boost.
