The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 217 – Cabragh (3)

“You dirty apostatic bastards!”

The Imperial soldiers’ heads were falling as soon as Dismas wielded his hammer.

Every time Dismas swung his hammer, the Imperial soldiers collapsed like wheat being harvested. Despite their high morale as the emperor’s army, the soldiers couldn’t hold out against Dismas anymore—especially when shields were of no use against him and he showed no response even after being stabbed by their swords.

In fact, the Imperial soldiers chose to jump on top of the Giant slaves to attack them rather than deal with Dismas.

This caused Dismas to glare at his surroundings with a growl as the soldiers faltered away in fear.

Dismas was not interested in dealing with ordinary soldiers. He gritted his teeth upon thinking that his true opponent must be slaughtering more of his allies even as he was dealing with these trivial soldiers.

At that moment, a loud roar rang out from the gate.

The corners of Dismas’ mouth went up when Helgrim’s roar was heard. As someone who had spent a long time fighting against the Giants, Dismas knew better than anyone else what this type of roar meant.

It meant that an enemy worth fighting against had finally appeared.

“Fuck off!”

The imperial soldiers hesitantly retreated upon hearing Dismas’ fierce roar.

Then, Dismas strode through the encirclement of Imperial soldiers to head toward the main gate, assuming that the fake emperor had certainly appeared there.

‘This war will simply be over after I cut off his neck.’

It didn’t matter to Dismas that he had been constantly defeated by the fake emperor until now. After all, he hadn’t been fighting with all his might until now. Although it had been for strategic reasons, things were different now.

After having a long discussion with Ivy, Dismas was confident that killing the fake emperor would solve everything.

‘Because of that, first of all I should…’

Dismas quickly raised his right arm even before he could finish thinking. His right arm was cut off in an instant, while a feeling of cold and sharp pain assaulted him.

Then, the ice spear that cut off Dismas’ arm in the blink of an eye brushed against his neck.

Dismas was shaken by the opponent’s clean and powerful attack that came so suddenly.

There was only one person in his memory who could use such powerful magic against him.

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“Older sister Nienna?”

There was no answer to his question. Instead, more ice spears poured over him one after another with a sharp trajectory. Despite the attacks being quick and strong, they were all meaningless.

The ice spears that continued to fly toward him non-stop were blocking Dismas’ view and penetrating his legs, leaving scars that looked like someone had thoroughly minced him.

Dismas gritted his teeth and swung his hammer with a roar. Numerous ice spears that were waiting to be thrown toward Dismas exploded and instantly burst at his loud roar. At the same time, his opponent was helplessly pushed back as well.

The space where Dismas’ hammer passed through was strangely distorted, but soon recovered on its own. It was an attack so powerful that it could never be endured without dodging.

Only then did Dismas have a chance to look and glare at the opponent who had attacked him.

“I thought it was my older sister Nienna. I’m not going to lie… You have surprised me.”

“...Doctrinal General Dismas,” Sina snapped back sharply. “I am Sina Solvane from the Order of the Blue Rose. I will summarily dispose of you on the charge of treason.”

A stream of cold sweat ran down Sina’s forehead. This was not only because of the tension over the fight making her nervous, but also because she was violating Juan’s words by stepping out right now.

Juan had asked Sina not to step up if she considered herself as his friend and not his subordinate.

However, that was why Sina had no choice but to step up.

‘What he said was basically an order.’

Sina doing just as Juan told her was no different from obeying his orders.

As Pavan said, it didn’t matter who it was that cut off the neck of an enemy commander on the battlefield. However, Juan couldn’t be allowed to be the one to kill his own child.

Sina couldn’t sit back and watch as Juan was forced by the world to make such a harsh decision.

Sina let out a shout and once again raised her sword against Dismas. The two started clashing on the steep wall.

Dismas punched out the two extended blades of Sina’s ice spear with his left hand. The ice spear was instantly smashed and scattered everywhere, but the fragments of the ice spear managed to pierce through Dismas’ forearm. Then, those pieces melted down instantly, but the wound was left behind.

However, such a wound would not affect Dismas in the slightest.

The walls burst like clay and the debris scattered to the surroundings every time Dismas’ hammer swayed violently.

Sina gritted her teeth. She knew that there was no way she would be unscathed after being hit by just the scattering debris, let alone Dismas’ hammer. If she stopped moving for even just a second, she would instantly be trampled under Dismas’ hammer.

Although Juan had given Sina his essence, she had no idea how strong its power was or how to use its power. One might assume that it would give her the phenomenal ability to recover like the children of the emperor, but she didn’t seem to be as strong as them by any means.

‘What is it that you wanted from me, Juan? Did you just keep me alive because you didn’t want me to die back then?’

But that was not what Sina wanted in the first place.

“What are you waiting for, knight? Did you only come to drag out this fight and waste my time?”

Dismas shouted and quickly stamped his hammer down toward Sina. The hammer was incredibly fast despite its heavy weight, and brushed past Sina’s head by a narrow margin, slamming against the ground.

With an explosive sound, the ground under Sina’s feet disappeared—that part of the wall had collapsed with a single attack from Dismas. But Dismas did not stop there. He quickly jumped toward Sina who was falling after losing balance.

What he didn’t realize was that Sina had been waiting for him to move from the moment the ground under her feet had collapsed. At the same time as Sina created a horizontal ice spear over the wall, she also created a huge hell of ice thorns for Dismas who was falling toward her.

Dismas burst into laughter upon seeing more than a hundred ice spears aimed toward him and curled up to avoid as much damage as possible, giving up on attacking Sina.

On the other hand, Sina didn’t hesitate to relentlessly throw the ice spears toward Dismas.

Only a few among the hundred ice spears were powerful enough to pierce Dismas’ thick and muscular body. If Nienna was here, she would have been able to create ice spears harder than steel, but Sina was not good enough to handle Oberon to such an extent just yet.

However, Dismas fell to the ground, looking like a hedgehog even with only a few of the ice spears piercing him.

Sina didn’t let her guard down; she figured that it wouldn’t be late to speak after cutting off the enemy’s neck.

Sina pulled out one of the ice spears stuck all over Dismas and stabbed him non-stop. When Dismas finally fell, Sina directly jumped toward him to cut him.

A dull crashing sound rang out throughout the wall.

***

Juan turned his head toward the loud roar that shook all of Cabragh.

Parts of Cabragh’s wall were collapsing, and Juan could only think of one person who had the strength to break down the wall. Juan figured that Dismas must be fighting in the direction where the sound came from.

But Juan couldn’t afford to focus his attention on the sound.

“And I’m stuck here again,” Juan sighed.

His path to where Telgramm was located was blocked by a huge man with long black hair. He was wearing a black fur cloak, and stood with his back toward Juan. He seemed just as tall as Barth Baltic, but Juan felt an intense divinity from him.

Juan instinctively realized that the opponent standing before him was a Cainheryar. The Cainheryar looked a little bit smaller compared to the other gods, but was emitting a dangerous presence.

Seeing that the opponent was not moving at all, Juan briefly contemplated whether he should just turn around and go back to come from a different direction. There was no way Juan would walk past his enemies at normal times, but the situation right now was urgent.

There was no reason for Juan to do anything about a Cainheryar that wasn’t working properly. But as soon as Juan tried to jump past him, the man suddenly opened his mouth.

“Kneel.”

Juan’s legs trembled and his knees almost bent for a short moment. A heavy weight was weighing down on his shoulders. Juan looked around the surroundings with a shocked expression, but the buildings did not collapse nor was the ground crushed. The sound was only affecting Juan.

Juan clenched his teeth and surrounded himself with flames.

“Hah.”

As the heat began to burn up the path, the man belatedly turned his head, surprised. Only then did Juan notice the two huge and sharp horns that soared out of the man’s forehead toward the sky. The horns immediately reminded Juan of the Hornsluines.

“...Gepelude?” Juan muttered, dumbfounded.

‘Gepelude, the god of arrogance and domination…’

Gepelude was the first god who created life just to use as his soldiers and was obsessed with biological desires. Juan remembered the endless conflicts between Gepelude and Morguld, the god of war. Yet there was a clear difference between the two—if Morguld’s purpose was to partake in an endless battle, Gepelude’s purpose was to conquer and dominate.

The result of the war was Gepelude placing most of the continent under the control of the Hornsluines. In a sense, one could say that Gepelude was the first emperor of the continent. However, he was also the first god to be killed by Telgramm, a weapon created by Hornsluines—the race that resembled him not only in his appearance, but also his arrogance.

‘But now, he is protecting Telgramm after his resurrection.’

Juan felt that it was quite ironic.

“State your name,” Gepelude spoke in a calm manner.

But Juan felt the intense shock that shook his very soul even from Gepelude’s calm words. This was a force that drew out the answers from within Juan’s lungs.

Juan clenched his teeth and answered.

“Juan.”

Juan noticed that Gepelude’s reaction was a little different from that of other Cainheryars.

‘Maybe the god whose very nature is domination and arrogance can’t be controlled by anything.’

As soon as he answered Gepelude, Juan immediately ignited Sutra. Juan raised the corners of his lips when he saw the shock and anger begin to seep into Gepelude’s face.

Gepelude burst into an angry roar.

“The arrogant emperor who stole my throne!”

“Don’t speak as if I stole your throne. After all, what you ruled was the kingdom of the Hornsluines. It’s unfair for you to blame me, especially when it was you who ruined the Hornsluine’s kingdom,” Juan shrugged.

The Hornsluines had three kingdoms in total, and all three had been ruled by Gepelude from behind the scenes. But Gepelude has been urging the three kingdoms to fight against each other and encouraged war among them.

‘But at the same time, the Hornsluines had also been planning to bring down their own god behind his back… They certainly resemble their own creator.’

“Shut up!” Gepelude screamed.

Juan bit his tongue to stop his tongue that almost rolled back into his throat by force. Then, he spat blood out of his mouth. He had dealt with all kinds of gods before, but he couldn’t help but think that Gepelude’s ability to dominate all things was quite difficult to handle. The ability to give orders to all living things was an especially tricky ability for Juan to deal with, since he didn’t have divinity.

But that was all. Juan smiled with blood dripping from his mouth.

“I remember the time I cut off your neck, Gepelude. Oh, how excited Barth Baltic was… he was like a child when he kicked your head. It was a shame that I couldn’t pull out your tongue back then; however, this time around I’ll make sure to pull out your tongue and stick it up your ass.”

Gepelude burst into a rage and spat out unintelligible words—it was a Hornsluine curse.

This curse was a disaster for those under Gepelude’s domination since he was an ungodly god, but it was rather fortunate at this moment since the curse was not exactly an order.

The legendary clash between the former emperor and the current emperor as they confronted each other began in the back alley.

***

Sina quickly retrieved her sword; she didn’t feel any thrilling sensation from cutting the opponent.

She soon realized that Dismas had already disappeared.

“Geugh, Keuk, Guek!”

Huge amounts of ice fragments scattered like snow as they fell apart. A grotesque laugh came from inside the lumps of snow and dust from the collapsed wall.

Dismas was walking toward Sina with ice spears embedded everywhere, causing his limbs to bend. He seemed to be incapable of making a proper voice due to the ice spear stuck in his neck. Dismas smashed the ice spears stuck in his body and managed to barely straighten his back to look at Sina.

After fiddling with the hole left in the middle of his neck like clay, Dismas soon smiled and looked at Sina as if her attack hadn’t even harmed him a little.

“You’re pretty good.”

Sina bit her lips; she realized that she couldn’t hurt Dismas even if she fought with all her might.

There was a chaotic and bloody battle being fought all over Cabragh. Imperial forces managed to tear down the wall and broke through the gate, but the Western army was still dominating inside Cabragh, since the Imperial soldiers were held back by the Giant King Helgrim.

But that didn’t mean that Dismas could let his guard down just yet. Dismas was nervous, since he didn’t know when Juan would appear and turn the tables around.

Meanwhile, Sina was nervous because she didn’t know when Juan would arrive. But it was true that both of them were exhausted.

“I didn’t know that there was a strong knight like you in the Imperial Army. I gotta admit that you deserve sister Nienna’s gift. Have you been designated as the successor of the North or something?” Dismas asked.

“I’m from Tantil in the south. I can’t live in the cold.”

Sina wasn’t in the mood for a joke, but she answered Dismas while searching for the right timing to attack again. Despite Oberon assisting her, there was a limit to Sina’s own ability.

She groaned as her chest felt stuffy. Sina knew that she had to kill Dismas, but she had hoped for Juan and Dismas to meet up and have a sincere conversation and solve the issue. She could understand Dismas’ rebellion and betrayal, but she hadn’t expected Dismas to unconditionally deny that Juan was the real emperor.

Dismas showed no change in his stance even after he had abducted Ivy.

“Why are you going against His Majesty?”

When Sina opened her mouth, Dismas looked at her with an expression like he was asking her what the heck she was talking about in the midst of the battle.

However, Sina just poured out her words, almost as if she was expressing her frustrations.

“He is the real emperor who came back to our side. In addition to the numerous Imperial citizens, even General Nienna has acknowledged him as the real emperor—and she is His Majesty’s daughter. So why are you being stubborn without even considering the possibility that he might be the real emperor?”

Dismas frowned.

“You speak just like the Saintess and I’m sick of it. You guys must have a tradition to fight with only your mouths. I will never fall for it even if the rest of the world does.”

Sina couldn’t understand Dismas’ stubbornness and distrust. It was true that Sina herself had also found it hard to believe that Juan was the emperor when she first met him in Tantil, but by now, Juan had almost completely gained back his appearance and power.

At that moment, Sina felt a cold chill running down her spine.

“Why do you think that? Do you have some proof to support your distrust?”

Dismas looked at Sina in silence. After pondering deeply about something for a while, he soon opened his mouth.

“I couldn’t say this before, since I felt complicated after having a conversation with the Saintess, but…”

Dismas glared at Sina and continued to speak.

“...I guess it doesn’t matter if I tell you, since you will die soon anyway. That fake emperor you have so much faith in can never be the emperor in the first place—after all, I have already resurrected the real emperor—His Majesty.”