Light Novel Volume 17

Rakudai Kishi no Eiyuutan Light Novel 17 is the seventeenth installment of the Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry light novel series, written by Riku Misora and illustrated by Won. It was released in November 2019.

Summary
"--In that case there is no other way but winning! You! Defeating me!

Tendou, who has discovered brightness in Touka's soul, activated a disaster-class Noble Art that swallowed the entire Kyushu land. He has only one goal, to corner Touka into a situation where she must defeat him in order to guide her into a "blessing", in other words, "awakening"! In a situation where many lives are taken hostage, Touka is struggling to overcome her own limits! However, her mind is completely defeated by Tendo's overwhelming power--Meanwhile, in Tokyo capital, a new threat approaching from the other side of the sea has been detected. In response to this, the Knights League has begun mobilizing fighting powers!

The 17th volume filled with fierce battles where the true worths of those who had sharpened their blades with the "Failed Knight" in the past are being tested!

Intermission: Spreading Ripples
The Toutokubara Family is the second largest conglomerate in Japan with French nobility origin. They still have a long-standing idea of “noble duty” in the 21st century which they do not monopolize wealth, set up public interest foundations and develop various social welfare businesses. Kanata, who is the General Affairs Assistant of the Toutokubara Welfare Foundation, is currently busy with paperwork at the foundation’s facility. Kanata came to Wakaba House in Fukuoka with Touka Toudou and Utakata Misogi, but they were only together for 2 days. The problems Wakaba House has been facing recently are bothering her and she’s hoping that the plan proposed by the old man staying at Wakaba House will be successful in resolving the problems. Suddenly, she receives a call coming from Itsuki Kurogane which surprises her. Kanata had made an inquiry to the police about the identity of the old man at Wakaba House. Itsuki informs Kanata that the old man, Tendou Harima, is actually a dangerous criminal that escaped from a prison belonging to the League of Mage-Knight Nations. A declaration of emergency has been sent to the mage-knights in Kyushu and Kurono Shinguuji is already on her way there. Itsuki also informs Kanata that Tendou is a human-shaped disaster and ordinary knights can’t even touch him. After hearing this, Kanata immediately contacts Utakata and she learns from him that Touka is currently with Tendou. Itsuki thinks it takes time for Kurono to arrive in Fukuoka from Tokyo and the mage-knights in the nearby areas will only get slaughtered one-sidedly, but there is one person that might be able to at least hold off Tendou. Itsuki then contacts Bukyoku Academy’s director and asks for a certain student who he needs to contact as soon as possible.

Chapter 4: Blessed Power
In the cemetery, Touka delivers “Raikiri” at Tendou but the old man stops the blow easily with his manifested Device, “Ame no Murakumo”. The old man also introduces himself as the founder of Tendoushuu, the “Great Flame” Tendou Harima. His Device looks like a rusted bronze sword but the magic power he poured onto it is huge. Touka jumps back as she has never faced someone with this level of magic and it is dangerous to be close to her opponent without knowing much about him. In addition, she has heard about Tendoushuu, the group responsible for the mass murder that occurred long before she was born. Touka doesn’t remember seeing Tendou’s name in the records of the incident which is probably because his existence was kept hidden. Touka then asks Tendou if he was deceiving her and the others, and Tendou apologizes for keeping his identity a secret. Tendou needed to know the reason why God unleashed him again on this world, but after talking with Touka he is certain that she deserves a trial from God. Touka doesn’t understand what Tendou is saying but he says she will understand soon. Tendou then raises his sword towards the sky and his whole body releases green light which passes through the tip of his sword. The pillar of light launched to the sky causes clouds to gather and become a huge thundercloud that darkens the sky. Touka can tell the amount of power in the black cloud is probably a million times of the power of her “Raikiri” and even Stella’s amount of power might not compare. Despite so, Touka doesn’t falter because if Tendou also uses lighting then they will just cancel each other’s ability. She believes victory will be decided by their skills in using their weapons and she should be superior in that area considering Tendou’s body that looks almost like a skeleton. Tendou then says that his power’s destination is not Touka and that it pains him that he might have to kill the children at Wakaba House who were kind to him. He believes such trials are necessary because if Touka manages to stand up again after losing her current family then she will receive God’s blessing. Touka replies that she won’t let that happen but Tendou tells her it is impossible for the current Touka.

Touka uses “Shippu Jinrai” to increase her muscle strength and moves fast towards Tendou’s blind spot. At that position she releases “Raikiri” and her blade passes through his body. However, no blood is spilled from his body even after she releases “Raikiri” few more times. There is no feeling of severing the flesh or even a laceration so Touka can only conclude that her attacks don’t hit. She doesn’t understand why and Tendou replies that she can’t touch him because there is too much difference in the stage of existence between him who has received the “blessing” and her who is just a person. The “blessing” he’s talking about is when a Blazer’s soul and body transcend human territory after surpassing the limits of his ego. He further explains that the magic power of a Blazer is often compared to their fate and it is said that the maximum amount of magic power they possess is determined at birth. But rarely there are Blazers who overcome their limit and go outside their given fates--stepping into the territory of non-humans. Touka who is a just a person can’t stop Tendou whose body and soul are closer to God. At first Touka thinks Tendou’s explanation is ridiculous but then she remembers about the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival final match where Ikki used “Ittou Rasetsu” even though the time limit of “Ittou Shura” had passed. The only way for Touka to stop Tendou is to step into the territory of non-humans herself.

Tendou then releases more magic power from his whole body and sends it to the sky through his sword. Tendou says “Tensai – Houten Banrai (sky disaster – sky-crashing heavy thunder)”, and the thundercloud that receives his magic power is releasing many lightning strikes. Instead of the cemetery, these lightnings are hitting the surrounding mountain and town. Each time the lightning hits, an explosion occurs and the struck area is engulfed in flames, including the residential area where Wakaba House is. Touka screams at Tendou to stop and as shown in a pic she desperately tries to stop him by attacking him many times. However, no matter how she attacks or which part of the body she attacks, her sword keeps passing through Tendou’s body hundreds of times without him injured. The exhaustion and the terrible imagination she has when hearing many people in town screaming cause her to fall on her knees at Tendou’s feet. There is nothing else she could do except begging for Tendou to stop. Tendou then bends his knees to hug Touka and says that he understands the pain she’s feeling. But he also believes that Touka can overcome this trial and save everyone. Touka realizes that talking to Tendou is useless and there’s nothing she can do with her hands while the thunderstorm continues burning the town. She stops resisting and begs for someone to save everyone while shedding tears. Utakata then suddenly appears at the entrance of the cemetery and calls out Touka. Seeing this causes Tendou to point his sword towards Utakata and tells Touka to resent him more so that she can overcome this trial. Tendou says “Kasai – Banshou Kaijin (fire disaster – all into ashes)” and a huge flame shoots out from his sword towards the cemetery’s entrance where Utakata is standing. However, Utakata is safe despite everything around the entrance is burnt in black. It is because Moroboshi is also there wielding his spear clad in golden light.

Itsuki contacted Moroboshi and Byakuya Jougasaki and they both agreed to assist with the situation in Fukuoka. They used Jougasaki’s teleportation ability to reach Fukuoka from Osaka in 5 minutes and then joined with Kanata in helping the evacuation of the local residents. After that Moroboshi went with Utakata to find Touka and reached the cemetery. Moroboshi tells Touka that everyone is safe and after hearing that she collapses to the ground from exhaustion. Moroboshi then rushes towards Tendou and tells Utakata to get Touka out of here when he has the chance. Tendou unleashes many lightnings from the thundercloud to intercept Moroboshi but they all miss. Tendou misreads Moroboshi’s position due to Moroboshi using footwork similar to Ikki’s “Shinkirou”. Moroboshi lands a thrust on Tendou which sends him backwards and during that moment Utakata grabs Touka. Tendou launches more lightnings but they disappear as soon as Moroboshi brushes them off with his spear-shaped Device “Tora-Ou”. Tendou realizes that Moroboshi’s ability can destroy magic power. The information on Tendou that Moroboshi received from Itsuki says that Tendou has the ability to manipulate “disasters” and he is a Blazer that has undergone “Excessive Awakening”. Tendou’s body is no longer human and has strong defense like a Device so ordinary methods can’t harm him. Moreover, he makes use of his ability to turn his body like a cloud to ward off attacks. However, Moroboshi’s Noble Art “Tiger Bite” is effective and so Moroboshi is one of the few people that can hurt Tendou which is why Itsuki chose to send him. Tendou agrees that Moroboshi’s ability can kill him, but only if the spear reaches him. Tendou then pierces his sword to the ground and says “Fuusai – Kokuryuu Toguro (wind disaster – black dragon’s coil)”. As shown in a colored pic, a vortex of black storm surrounds Tendou which makes it difficult for Moroboshi to land a thrust on him. The power of the black tornado far surpasses even Ouma Kurogane’s power, but Moroboshi doesn’t falter since the black tornado is created by magic.

Moroboshi’s spear is clad with “Tiger Bite” and he thrusts into the tornado. He should be able to reach Tendou by rushing through the windless hole created by “Tiger Bite”. However, he is strongly hit from the side by a tombstone caught inside the tornado and his body rolls towards the cemetery’s entrance. Many rubbles of different sizes are moving at tremendous speed inside the tornado and so it is impossible for Moroboshi to break through the storm. While Moroboshi gets back up, the black cloud of Tendou’s “Houten Banrai” releases lightning. The lightnings keep striking Moroboshi many times and he is able to protect himself with “Tiger Bite” but barely. Despite already releasing so much magic power, Tendou shows no sign of running out of power. Moroboshi never heard about Desperados until he was informed by the League but he’s convinced that Tendou has inhuman amount of magic and is a human-shaped disaster. Moroboshi then increases the power of “Tiger Bite” and throws his spear into the sky. It causes the area around the cemetery to be clear of lightnings and Moroboshi takes that chance to escape with Touka and Utakata. Tendou is happy that there are young people who can make such appropriate action and so he thinks he should give them God’s trial. He then activates “Shinsai – Hoshinari (quake disaster – star’s ringing)”, a Noble Art that creates earthquake which is said to be the biggest disaster on Earth. After he pours magic power into “Ame no Murakumo”, tremors that gradually become bigger are formed on the surrounding mountain. The mountain collapses into a landslide that crushes and washes away everything in the area including burning forests, highland residential areas and the student-knights that had just escaped from Tendou. The tremors also spread to the nearby city, with the grounds sinking or rising and the buildings breaking down one after another. Lightnings also keep striking, creating fires and explosions everywhere. In just one hour, the entire Fukuoka City collapses.

Sometime later, Touka wakes up on a hospital bed with Kanata greeting her. Kanata says everyone from Wakaba House is safe thanks to the League mobilizing the evacuation fast, and Touka is relieved to hear that. Utakata is in a coma because he was caught in the landslide and he used his ability to make sure Touka was the one uninjured instead of him. Kanata then explains that it’s been 5 days and since then the entire Fukuoka and Saga, part of Oita, Nagasaki and Kumamoto Prefectures have been destroyed by lightnings, rainfalls and earthquakes. All the citizens there were evacuated to southern Kyushu and Touka is currently in a university hospital in Miyazaki City. The disasters have settled down for now but it’s only a matter of time for the second expansion since Tendou is not caught yet. Kurono had rushed to the area but the damages were already too great that evacuation had to be prioritized. Kanata didn’t expect Tendou would do such horrible thing but Touka understands that Tendou just simply believes that he’s delivering God’s blessing. Suddenly there is a voice broadcast that requests all B-rank and above mage-knights including student knights that were involved in rescue operations to gather for a strategy meeting to capture Tendou. Touka and Kanata then head for a conference room in the hospital where almost 20 knights already gathered. Moroboshi is one of them and Touka immediately thanks him for rescuing her. Most Blazers that came to Kyushu are from West Japan and the number of B-rank Blazers in all of Japan doesn’t even reach 100. Only few elites which include even Yuuzou Kaieda are gathered in the room since attacking Tendou with large number of people is not a good idea. The A-rank Kurono then enters the room and begins the strategy meeting for the subjugation of Tendou.

Kurono who is in command of the operation briefs everyone in the room that Tendou has stopped his activity due to fatigue but it’s only a matter of time until he resumes and destroys southern Kyushu. Everyone in the room agrees that they need to attack Tendou before then. They have been informed that Tendou is a special Blazer that has undergone “Excessive Awakening”, and Kaieda asks Kurono to explain about it since even an elite veteran like him never heard about it before. Originally this information is only disclosed to those who have reached “Brute Soul” or close to, but the League has given permission to disclose it since it is an emergency. Kurono explains to everyone about “Desperados” which are rare existences that can increase the upper limit of their magic power after achieving “Brute Soul” and possessing a special characteristic called “attraction force” that enables them to strongly affect causation and become very difficult to be affected by other Blazers’ causation interference type abilities. When a Blazer reaches “Excessive Awakening” they lose their rationality as a human and become a monster. The League’s point of view is the “demons” that existed around the world since ancient times were actually Blazers that lost their humanity. Kurono adds that achieving “Brute Soul” can only be done by exhausting every possible effort and having a strong “ego” to move forward without giving up even when facing the limit of your potential like Ikki did during the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival final match. The reason the League is keeping all of this a secret is because they are afraid many Blazers will be forced to do unreasonable things in order to overcome their limit. Using Ikki’s way of life as an example, everyone who knows him understands it is not something that everyone can do. Kurono also informs that all this information is specially disclosed under Itsuki’s authority to B-rank and above Blazers participating in this operation and should not be leaked.

Everyone then starts discussing a strategy to defeat Tendou. Kurono says Tendou’s body is a mass of magic power instead of physical matter due to “Excessive Awakening” and so his body is as strong as a Device. In addition, his body can turn into mist to evade physical attacks. Unlike Kiriko Yakushi and Shizuku Kurogane’s Noble Arts which they mix their body’s constituents into the mist, Tendou’s body is a complete spirit body so damages from chemical changes such as heat can’t be expected. Neither physical nor magic attack is effective against Tendou but if there is a possibility of damaging Tendou, it would be with Kurono’s “World Crisis” that can collapse the space-time of Tendou’s existence coordinates or with Moroboshi’s “Tiger Bite” that can directly attack Tendou’s magic power. Therefore, the strategy is that the other Blazers will distract Tendou and create an opening for Kurono and Moroboshi to finish him off. Diverting his attention should be possible since he would be vigilant against abilities similar to Moroboshi. In addition, Tendou who is blind relies on his hearing and so attacking with large number of people would reduce his accuracy. Moroboshi was unable to attack Tendou before because he was focusing more on defense but he should manage if everyone else takes care of defense for him. Kurono will also use “Clock Up” on everyone to make it easier. Despite being capable of playing an active part on the frontline, Kiriko is asked to stay and continue treating the wounded since she is better as a doctor. The meeting ends with Kurono declaring that the operation will start at dawn and so everyone should rest until then.

After the meeting, Kurono talks with Touka who apologizes for the disaster happening now because she and the others protected Tendou. Kurono assures Touka that it was actually thanks to her and others that the League was able to find Tendou. Touka then says that she finally understands now that the “blessing” Tendou was talking about was actually “Brute Soul”, and that he’s forcing Touka and others to achieve it. This was probably the motive for what he did during the “Teito Hotel Occupation Incident”. While it’s true that “Brute Soul” can be achieved when someone faces a crisis in life with feelings of despair and then their ego largely changes rapidly, but because it was achieved without the person’s own resolve it would largely hurt their spirit. People that achieved “Brute Soul” this way would just increase their powers abnormally and continue to live their lives in distorted ways, which was the case for Iris Ascarid and probably Or-Gaule, and would also achieve “Excessive Awakening” much easier. Kurono believes such a thing is not strength and so Tendou should be stopped. Tendou was captured before with the cooperation of Ryouma Kurogane who was the strongest water-user in Japan’s history and a Desperado, but this time all of Japan’s Desperados are out of the country. Trying to arrest Tendou would cause too much damage so the order from the League’s Japan branch is that Tendou must be subjugated regardless of whether he is alive or dead. As Touka is about to leave she just screams and then collapses all of a sudden. Her lips are trembling, her clothes are moist with sweat and her breathing is unusually fast and shallow. Kurono has an idea what caused this while telling Kiriko to go treat Touka.

Touka finds herself on a barren hill under a dark cloudy sky which confuses her since she had just talked to Kurono in a room. As shown in a colored pic, she is completely naked and chained to a crucifixion cross. The chain is unbelievably strong that even she who is a Blazer can’t even loosen her restraint. Countless human figures then appear and each has the same face as Tendou’s. They approach Touka while carrying “Ame no Murakumo” in their hands and then stabs her on different parts of her body. At that moment of pain, she suddenly wakes up in the same hospital room she was in before. Touka doesn’t understand what just happened and wonders if it was just a dream. Kurono believes that what Touka saw was her own “death”. Tendou can strongly influence cause and effect as a Desperado, and Touka had felt the fate of “death” which is inevitable. The chain in the dream represents the limit of her potential tested by the threat from Tendou. For now it is still a dream but the inevitable “death” will become real if she fights him again. The fear burned into Touka’s heart cannot be overcome easily. Because of this Kurono forbids Touka from participating in the operation. Suddenly, a huge alarm sound goes out, which is the national emergency alert that prompts all knights in Japan to be ready for immediate battle. Kurono then receives a phone call from Itsuki who tells her that the operation in Kyushu has been canceled. On the Pacific Ocean, 200 nautical miles from Japan’s EEZ (exclusive economic zone), the U.S. Pacific Fleet has emerged with clear hostility.

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