The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 238 – Magician’s Garden (2)

Juan remained calm despite Dane’s provocation.

Dane’s dream for a utopia and for humanity to be supreme, a dream which he had dreamed of for hundreds of years already had ended in a failure once with Juan, and then his decades-long plan failed once again with Gerard.

Dane said that Gerard was closer to perfection than Juan, but Juan knew that this was only Dane trying to deceive himself. Dane was just exhausted.

However, none of that was Juan’s business.

“I don’t think your wishes and dreams were inherently wrong, Dane. Everyone dreams about such an absurd world.”

Despite Juan’s calm reply, Dane rose from his seat with an angry expression.

“What’s wrong with humans creating a world only for humans!?” Dane shouted in a loud voice as he stood up with the help of his cane.

Dane’s voice echoed throughout the Church and shook the floor. Juan heard the sound of a landslide from somewhere far away. Despite all this, he sheathed Sutra instead of raising it toward Dane.

“I have already seen humans cultivating a world for only humans beyond the Crack! They were all powerful men that are not even the slightest bit comparable to the oppressed humans of this poor world!” Dane shouted with all his might.

The numerous encounters Dane had over the years had caused him to develop a dream. He had dreamed of a world where humans would lead and rule the world instead of being ignored and persecuted by gods.

Dane never considered his dream to be impossible or absurd. In fact, he had almost succeeded.

“The emptiness of the universe or the pressure of the deep sea did not affect them in any way. All the lands were their fields, all the seas were their fishing grounds, all the beasts were their livestock, and even the empty space of the sky was their road! Even the wind and the sun were treated as nothing more than just a part of their force!”

Dane dreamed of domination, of prosperity, and of evolution. He spoke on behalf of all the great things with all his might. In Juan’s eyes, he no longer looked like a small child. His ideal was something beyond this small world.

Amidst Dane’s dreams, Juan’s existence was infinitesimally small.

“What’s wrong with that?!” Dane shouted at Juan, almost as if he were scolding just a small child.

Compared to the long years of Dane’s life and the distant future that he had envisioned, Juan was no different than a child. Dane was trying to press down on Juan with the weight of eternity and infinity.

“Tell me! What is so bad about humans creating a world for only humans? Why is that considered ridiculous and absurd!?”

“From the very beginning, your wish could never be fulfilled, Dane. Especially if it is you who’s dreaming of it.”

Juan’s answer was frank and firm.

Dane glared at Juan with a distorted look on his face.

“What did you just say?!”

“With your crude head, you probably believed that your dream could come true with a single superman and a single ideology. But I bet that you are wrong, Dane. I have no idea what the people you’ve met and the world you saw was like. Perhaps there could be a world like that. But I guarantee that such a world could not have been created by a single superman.”

Dane tried to say something back to Juan. But no words came out of his mouth.

“You speak as if you love and worship human beings, but all you have for humans is contempt—you look down on them. You believe that they can only ever progress through instigation and guidance. If that’s the case, then I recommend you to raise a dog instead, Dane. The dog will obey you as much as you want it to.”

“Why, you…!”

“What you should have done was to cooperate with Aruntal. Aruntal could have done what you had wanted. Of course, that probably wouldn’t have been creating a world where humans are the only ones to prosper.”

“The world I wanted to create is a perfect world! A world where only humans can prosper!”

“Yes. A world that has shaken off all impurities, huh? It must be a boring and bland world. But Dane, there is no such thing as perfection. You wanted to make a perfect world, but… All right. Maybe, just maybe, someone could have made it possible since there is no such thing as absolutely impossible.”

Dane faintly smiled and tried to refute Juan’s argument. But Juan continued to speak in a firm voice.

“But that someone is definitely not you. You are a man who can never be satisfied with anything. If you were a sculptor, instead of a magician, you would have ground down the entire world just to make a perfect sphere. At that point, even if you manage to make it, all you would have left in your hand would be a small bead.”

Dane’s expression turned pale from anger. Then, he soon swung his cane at Juan with a raging expression.

“You are wrong!”

Juan wasn’t weak enough to be struck by Dane’s cane. However, the cane that Dane swung toward Juan was no ordinary cane. At that moment, Juan’s waist seemed to stretch long, and then the space was torn in an instant.

The Church and the mountain were directly flung away without a sound.

.

After a while, the debris which shot up hundreds of meters, began to pour back down to the ground.

Buildings collapsed amidst the loud roars all over Riol.

However, Juan just stood still and stared at Dane amidst all the pouring debris.

Dane was shocked to see Juan remain unaffected.

Seeing this, Juan opened his mouth in a calm manner.

“I’ve seen your magic more than once. Haven’t you seen how I’ve even been up against the gods? Did you really think that I came here unprepared? Grand Magician Dane Dormund, it was you who taught me.”

“Shut up!” Dane shouted and once more swung his cane.

The mountain behind Juan trembled and soared into the air. The space immediately became distorted and flattened. Every time Dane swung his cane, the space would stretch long and be torn apart. The air violently rushed into the void thus created, and the air pressure alone was enough to tear off one’s skin.

A huge amount of dust filled all of Riol. The huge cliffs that the city had leaned against for hundreds and thousands of years were broken down and shattered helplessly.

But Dane couldn’t stop himself from swinging his cane.

Juan was quietly approaching Dane; it was as if he was just taking a walk in the breeze.

Seeing this, Dane began to laugh, dumbfounded.

The magic that he had just used was the high-ranked magic that he had trained in for a long time after Juan’s death. There was no way any other magicians could imitate it even if they were taught well. In order to obtain this magic, Dane had joined hands with a being he shouldn’t have—a being from beyond the Crack.

Yet, Juan was countering such a magic without even a single spell after he had seen it only a few times.

“Right. You were the fastest learner I have ever seen in my life! I was thrilled to see you and expected a lot out of you! You were infinitely close to perfection! While I was the one who created you, I respected you as well! But why?! Why?!” Dane screamed a cry. “Why did you insist on leaving us?! Humans could have become even more perfect with you on their side!”

Juan strode up to Dane without giving an answer.

Dane bit his lips and injected an even greater amount of mana into the tip of his cane. An ink-like darkness started to flow out of the tip of his cane and began to spread all over the place. It was the same darkness that Dane had used back in the Magic Tower.

In an instant, the distance between Dane and Juan virtually increased to thousands of kilometers, contrary to what it actually appeared to be. It was a distance similar to the distance between the northern and the southern ends of the empire.

The possibility of Juan being able to reach Dane through this darkness had disappeared completely.

“You don’t know about this magic. After all, it’s a combination of my knowledge and knowledge from the Crack. The moment you step into this darkness, you will be broken down into pieces at the atomic level,” Dane said.

Then, he stopped the attack and glared at Juan.

“I will be leaving your side, and I’ll never see you ever again. I’ll take my time, keeping an eye on Gerard and take back the crown when the right time comes. Then, I will start all over again. By that time, you will already be dead.”

Juan didn’t seem to be listening to Dane. Instead, he was lost in his own thoughts and just staring down at the darkness. Seeing Juan maintain such an attitude bothered Dane quite a bit. He didn’t believe that Juan would be able to analyze his magic just by staring into the darkness.

This magic was learned with great difficulty after combining the knowledge from beyond the Crack. It was not just the product of his desire to leap through the universe—it was only created after spending an immense amount of time and resources.

There was no way Juan could do anything about such a magic. It was simply impossible.

‘But… what if it’s really possible?’

***

Dane suddenly broke out into a cold sweat.

Meanwhile, Juan finally took a step forward; it was as if he had finally finished thinking. His feet began to slowly creep towards the darkness, and seeing such a sight made Dane want to scream.

Both the image of Juan being torn into pieces and the image of him passing through the darkness to crack Dane’s neck came to his mind at the same time.

Despite convincing himself that there was no way that Juan would be able to resist his magic, Dane unknowingly raised his cane and tried to push Juan away.

At that moment, something grabbed Dane from the back. Dane didn’t even realize what just happened. Even before he could figure out what was going on, his body was slammed into the ground.

Dane was released only after being slammed into the ground several times; it was to the extent that he wouldn’t die or faint, but still feel a moderate amount of pain.

Dane drooped and looked up at the ceiling. He could see Juan looking down at him with calm eyes.

“What… but how… how did you get through it?”

“I got through it from behind.”

Dane couldn’t understand what Juan meant. For a while, he could only blink his eyes in a daze, then he recalled Juan taking a step forward into the darkness. Only then did Dane realize what had happened.

“An illusion? That was just an illusion?”

“It’s much easier and safer to deceive the opponent with an illusion than to offset that grand magic.”

Dane was about to say that Juan was being ridiculous, since there was no way he wouldn’t have noticed that the sight of Juan stepping into the darkness was just an illusion. However, numerous pieces of evidence belatedly began to come to his mind.

The fact that Dane was not very attentive due to the wound on his abdomen, the fact that he didn’t think that a fake would face him in what he thought was the last confrontation, the fact that Juan was able to dodge the magic he had worked on for such a long time without even needing to use any magic, the fact that Juan didn’t bother to neutralize Dane with all his might, and the strangely calm atmosphere were all hinting Dane that all of this was nothing more than an illusion.

But there was the most crucial mistake Dane had made.

It was that he believed Juan that would be powerful enough somehow to step over. That is what convinced Dane that Juan was actually standing in front of him with an overwhelming presence despite his image being a fake.

“No way… I used all that eloquence for just an illusion?”

“You’re the one who told me that you can make as many fake things as you want as long as the essence remains intact,” Juan looked down at Dane and whispered in his ears. “Dane, do you think I could have killed gods without deceiving them? I have never once been stronger than the gods. The battles against them were not fair duels, but dirty and shameful wars. And I’m about to fight a war more dangerous than ever. Neither do I have the time nor the power to waste on you.”

Dane tried to say something back to Juan. But Juan continued to whisper in his ear.

“And it is you who taught me deceit, Dane. How does it feel to see that you educated your disciple well?”

Juan stabbed Dane directly in the heart.

Dane had a painful expression on his face, but soon drooped. But even before Juan could blink his eyes, Dane’s body as well as the blood all disappeared in an instant.

Juan was not surprised; he already knew that the Dane that he stabbed to death was not real, but only an illusion.

“I can’t believe this. I didn’t expect to see each other’s illusions, given that this is our last encounter.”

An unfamiliar voice came from behind. Upon turning around, Juan saw a middle-aged man he had never seen before. The man gave off an aristocratic impression, and had gray eyes and gray hair.

However, it was very obvious that the man was Dane Dormund.

“Shall we try that one more time?”

When Juan asked this with a grin on his face, Dane’s expression stiffened.

“I was originally going to say goodbye to you, Juan. But after what happened just now, I have changed my mind.”

“What do you mean you have changed your mind?”

“I’m not?saying that I was persuaded by what you said,” Dane gritted his teeth and snapped back at Juan. “I still think that Gerard is better than you. But it is also true that he has many flaws. On the other hand, not only were you a good student but also a good teacher at the same time. I still think we might be able to cover for each other’s weaknesses—no matter what you say, Juan.”

“Enough with the bullshit. Just get to the point.”

“...I will tell you where Gerard is right now.”

Then Dane quickly continued before Juan could answer.

“I don’t care if you think I’m playing another dirty trick again. I’m going to find Gerard first before you do and I will change his mind. If you were able to persuade me, I’m sure I’ll be able to persuade him as well. A flaw can be fixed through teaching as long as he listens to me even a little bit…”

“And you’re going to make Gerard the eternal god of humans.”

“There’s no reason not to. You changed as well, didn’t you?”

Juan raised the corners of his mouth and opened his mouth.

“Go ahead and try with all your might. You’ll need a lot of extra lives, though.”

“Even if I fail,” Dane said while glaring at Juan. “The Crown will come back to you if you kill Gerard. Then I’ll have another chance. I feel like it would be less of a waste of time if you had the Crown rather than Gerard having it.”