Before she could finish mapping out the details, Lubbock's eyes suddenly widened to the size of saucers, a yelp escaping his throat.
"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?!"
Everyone whipped their heads around in shock.
Haruto had calmly stepped out of the shadow of the forest canopy and was walking directly out into the open, heading straight toward the brightly lit main gates of the capital.
He paused, glancing back over his shoulder with an easy, confident smile. "What else? I'm going to slip inside."
Before anyone could stop him, a massive pair of incandescent crimson dragon wings, crackling with pure, roaring flames, violently unfurled from his back.
With a sudden, deafening gust of wind that bent the surrounding trees, Haruto launched himself off the ground, soaring straight up into the night sky like a falling star, heading directly toward the heavily guarded heart of the Imperial Capital.
"What in the world is that guy thinking?!" Lubbock shouted angrily, waving his arms in sheer panic.
"He's going to blow our cover and get every single one of us exposed!"
Beside him, Najenda stared up at the blazing sky, her face locked in a grim, unreadable expression as she murmured,
"Is that... some kind of unknown Teigu?"
There were only forty-eight Teigu in existence, and Najenda was intimately familiar with every single one of them.
She was dead certain that wings of living flame did not match any recorded Imperial Arm.
The overwhelming, crushing aura radiating from those wings felt entirely too organic, too terrifyingly primal—as if they were forged from the literal soul and essence of an ancient, god-like dragon.
"Najenda, what should we do?!" Leone asked, her anxiety spiking as alarms inside the distant capital walls began to blare.
Before Najenda could issue an order, Akame calmly stepped forward and spoke. "Haruto said we should just stay here and watch."
"???"
While the members of Night Raid stood there bewildered, Akame was quietly interacting with the system interface, relaying Haruto's exact instructions sent directly through the chat group.
Haruto: "@Akame, @Mai Sakurajima, @Saeko Busujima, the rest of you just wait down there and watch the show."
Mai Sakurajima: "Alright, be careful up there."
Akame: "Understood. The chat group members are asking if I should open a broadcast. Should I start a live stream?"
Stella: "Of course! I want a front-row seat to see him tear the capital apart."
Frieren: "Grabbing popcorn. Do it, Akame."
Akame: "Alright then."
[Ding! Akame has started a live stream.]
[Ding! Stella has joined the live stream.]
[Ding! Frieren has joined the live stream.]
Stella: "There's quite a crowd gathered down there. I thought this was supposed to be a rescue mission—why isn't anyone taking covert action?"
Saeko Busujima: "Haruto-sama has already gone ahead of us."
Akame: "Yes. He is currently executing the infiltration phase."
At that exact moment, Haruto stood effortlessly atop the highest, central-most tiled roof of the sprawling Imperial Palace, looking down over the sprawling metropolis like a feudal lord surveying his domain.
With a sudden surge of overwhelming, demonic energy in his chest, he heavily amplified his voice, shouting out into the humid night air:
["Listen closely, people of the capital! Night Raid's Mine, your desperate comrades sent me here to pull you out of this filthy dungeon. If you can hear my voice right now, scream out your location!"]
His roar echoed with the terrifying, seismic pressure of an ancient dragon's cry, reverberating across every single alley, courtyard, and stone wall throughout the entire Imperial Capital.
In a split second, the sleeping city was violently jolted awake. Thousands of paper lanterns flickered to life, and the frantic shouts of guards and captains rang out into the dark.
Down in the forest, the members of Night Raid stood utterly paralyzed and speechless, while even the chat group participants watching the transmission through Akame's feed were entirely taken aback by the sheer audacity.
Stella: "Is this... what he calls infiltration?!"
Mai Sakurajima: "Ah... well, Haruto-kun did say it was an infiltration right before he flew off."
Ayame Yomogawa: "Good grief... This is more like kicking down the front gates with a war drum."
Everyone was thoroughly stunned by Haruto's unique definition of stealth, feeling a mixture of helpless amusement and spine-chilling shock.
Within the heart of the capital, from the lowliest foot soldiers clutching their spears to the childish Emperor and his corrupt ministers waking up in their silk futons, the entire city was sent into a chaotic frenzy.
Torches flared like wildfire as armed platoons scrambled in a panic, desperately searching the streets for the source of the thunderous voice.
Unfortunately for the frantic imperial guards rushing through the paved courtyards below, not a single soul possessed the presence of mind to look straight up into the pitch-black sky.
Where Haruto hovered casually above the palace tiles, wrapped in a blanket of scorching, divine flames, watching the squirming ants below with a mocking smile.
******
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