CH 218

Sina’s expression froze upon hearing Dismas’ answer.

“Did you just say that you have already resurrected His Majesty again?”

“Yes. Do you think that Gerard, that meticulous son of a bitch, really failed to assassinate His Majesty in the past? No—he was successful and His Majesty really did pass away at that time. I have no idea where that asshole is right now, but I hope that he will be cursed for the rest of his life.”

“But Barth Baltic said that the assassination had been a failure and His Majesty had only been unconscious until now…”

“He only said that to prevent the empire from collapsing. Do you think the empire could have been maintained like this without His Majesty’s authority? His Majesty is at the center of the empire—that doesn’t change, whether he is alive or dead. It was only a matter of time before the empire would be torn apart, since we no longer had a common enemy.”

Sina grew confused upon hearing Dismas’ words. Until now, she had just assumed that Juan’s body sitting on the Eternal Throne must have been maintained by some mysterious power of the emperor.

Most of the people from the empire, including Sina, grew up hearing about the emperor’s achievements, as well as his tragic death from the moment they were born. It was said that His Majesty was not really dead—that he was just asleep, and that one day he would wake up once again and take care of the empire.

“Wait, then what do you mean when you say that you have resurrected His Majesty? How did you…”

At that moment, Sina’s pupils widened as if she had just realized something. She swallowed a gulp upon recalling the resurrection of the dead gods.

“No way… did you… actually…”

Dismas felt both frustration and anger when he saw Sina’s expression. He didn’t know why, but he felt an unknown feeling of guilt surging into his mind when he saw Sina’s shocked expression.

Dismas tightly clenched his hammer and changed his position.

“It’s time for you to die, knight. I’ll make sure to silence you forever.”

With a loud roar, Dismas raised his hammer and charged straight toward Sina.

Meanwhile, Sina quickly dodged away from the hammer which was being swung much more viciously and faster than before.

At that moment, a tremendous sound suddenly rang out throughout the wall. It was the sound of Telgramm releasing another beam of light. Yet, neither Sina nor Dismas had any time to pay attention to the sound.

“Dismas, wait! What the heck have you done…!”

“Shut up!” Dismas shouted.

Dismas’ face was red with anger. Even he himself couldn’t figure out why he shouted in such an impulsive way. But the more he saw Sina, who seemed to be the peak of innocence, the more he could not hide his lies.

‘Why, Dismas? Why do you believe that His Majesty, who has finally returned, is fake?’

He felt as if he could hear the Saintess’ whisper in his ears. The Saintess’ question was something that he couldn’t answer. Dismas believed that while he had failed to change the Saintess’ attitude, his stance hadn’t changed either.

But he was wrong.

The emperor’s death had left a small crack on him from the moment of the assassination. The Saintess had scanned him thoroughly and found this fact, and Sina had just stabbed him directly in that crack.

The wall that Dismas had built inside him was about to break.

“My father died that day!” Dismas cried out furiously.

An ice spear brushed against his cheeks and drops of blood scattered everywhere. Despite the freezing cold that even froze the scattered drops of blood, Dismas swung his hammer once again.

“And it was I who brought him back to life!”

Sina’s expression distorted as she tried to shout something. But she didn’t have the time to speak, since she was facing a much more intense and fierce attack than before. Even if she had an opportunity to speak, her voice would have been drowned out by Dismas’ voice, since he was constantly shouting.

“So how could it be possible that the fake emperor is my father!? My father is still present in this world with his holy body! How am I supposed to tolerate the fake emperor’s madness of referring to himself as the emperor when His Majesty is still alive?”

“Then tell me. Has His Majesty ever said a word to you!?” Sina shouted in a desperate voice.

Dismas flinched upon hearing Sina’s question, but he did not stop swinging his hammer. He continued to push Sina—it was as if he was ready to completely destroy the wall of Cabragh.

“No, my father did not say a single word to me. But my father has spoken through the Saintess’ mouth! He said to obey His Holiness, to defend the Church, and to spread his doctrine throughout the empire!”

“That wasn’t Juan!”

Dismas suddenly stopped upon hearing Sina’s voice.

Sina took advantage of Dismas’ pause and quickly prepared the ice spears for a counterattack.

However, Dismas did not budge.

But his two eyes were full of shock and astonishment.

“What… who are you?”

Dismas’ spoke in a trembling voice.

“How did you make my father’s voice…? How do you have my father’s essence?”

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***

Juan dodged the blade flying toward him and struck a soldier’s chest. The soldier vomited blood at Juan’s attack, but continued to swing his sword toward Juan while trembling.

Juan frowned at the sight of the soldier charging at him even though his attack should have burst the soldier’s guts. Juan’s attacks targeted at injuring the soldiers to such an extent that they couldn’t fight anymore were of no use. The soldiers even tried to bite Juan when their arms were pulled off of their bodies, and they crawled to approach Juan despite their legs being cut off.

The soldiers that were already sabotaged were constantly charging toward Juan despite their injuries, all due to a single word shouted by Gepelude: fight. Everyone, including the Imperial as well as the Western Army were charging toward Juan with murderous intent.

Juan felt as if their murderous intent was stabbing his skin.

Meanwhile, Gepelude was simply looking at the scene leisurely without moving a single inch. He knew that the soldiers were no match for Juan and that they could never hurt Juan; he just wanted to see Juan slaughtering humans.

“I see that you still have a bad habit.”

Juan growled and raised the power of his flames. The soldiers suffered from the terrible pain caused by the burns as they stubbornly tried to attack Juan, but soon turned to ashes.

Juan tried to approach Gepelude again, but Gepelude simply ordered the soldiers, almost as if he was annoyed.

“Get stronger and kill him.”

The soldiers roared like lunatics with a single order from Gepelude and fiercely charged toward Juan. Then, one of the soldiers grabbed Juan’s arm through the burning flames.

Juan was so dumbfounded that he couldn’t even speak. For a moment, he wondered if he was in a nightmare, but what was happening was certainly real.

In fact, the soldiers weren’t actually getting stronger—Gepelude was just squeezing out their potential to the very limit. It was clear that the soldiers that were following Gepelude’s orders would end up like dry rags with all the water squeezed out in an instant.

In the blink of an eye, countless soldiers suffered from burns as they held onto Juan’s arms and legs to drag him down. They were constantly cursing and screaming—it was to the extent that even their tongues almost caught on fire.

Nevertheless, Juan did not stop walking toward Gepelude.

Seeing this, Gepelude once again opened his mouth.

“Stop.”

Juan suddenly felt his steps become heavy once again; it was as if his feet had been nailed down to the ground with just a single word from Gepelude. He felt like his feet would fall off if he moved his legs.

Despite this, Juan still managed to move slowly.

The fact that Juan could still move after hearing Gepelude’s order was quite shocking, but Juan was annoyed by the fact that he was affected by Gepelude’s order at all. Juan had been ordered to ‘stop’ several times already, and the battle was being delayed for nothing.

On the other hand, for Gepelude, a god who was born to be the ruler of all things and had the habit of being arrogant, facing Juan directly seemed to be quite unpleasant for him.

“Hold him and make him come to a stop.”

A rattling sound broke out among the soldiers. The soldiers who were holding and dragging Juan by his limbs began to connect themselves to each other to form a long chain. At least a hundred soldiers held onto Juan, making him feel like his muscles were being ripped apart.

Finally, Juan began to slow down, causing him to grit his teeth as he glared at Gepelude.

“Get down on your knees.”

Juan stumbled as if it was difficult for him to even stand anymore. Soon, Juan let out a long breath and slowly leaned down.

The moment Gepelude made a satisfied smile, Juan quickly bounced forward in the blink of an eye.

Bang!

With the sound of air being torn apart, the muscles of the hundreds of soldiers who had formed a chain to bind Juan exploded at once. Waves of blood instantly engulfed the surroundings.

Juan was so fast that Gepelude couldn’t even see him. Just as Gepelude was feeling perplexed as he tried to find Juan, Juan suddenly appeared right under his nose.

Juan quickly jumped up to Gepelude’s chest which was much higher than Juan’s height, and then shoved his hand inside Gepelude’s mouth.

“You’ve become much more pathetic after coming back to life. I remember having a hard time fighting back against you in the past.”

Juan tightly grabbed Gepelude’s tongue and clenched it as hard as he could, crushing it.

Only then did Gepelude begin to struggle in a hurry and try to get Juan off of him. But Juan just grabbed Gepelude’s horn with one hand and refused to fall off.

“You’re not so arrogant now, are you?”

Juan clenched his teeth and raised the power of his flames with all his might. Even his eyes began to burn. At the same time he let out a loud cry, Juan pulled his hand that was still holding on to Gepelude’s tongue.

Splat!

With a grotesque sound, blood gushed out from Gepelude’s mouth. Then, Juan struck Gepelude’s face with his hand that was holding the fluttering tongue.

Gepelude gave up on being arrogant and struggled as he tried to push Juan away.

The cloak that has been covering Gepelude was torn as he tried to push Juan away. There was a huge hole in Gepelude’s body that had been covered by the cloak, and Juan was able to recognize the wound at just a glance—it was a wound left behind by Telgramm.

Despite being revived as a Cainheryar, the wound did not seem to have been completely recovered.

“Hah, it wasn’t just your mouth that had a huge hole.”

Juan repositioned himself, aiming to end Gepelude completely. It was his second time ending Gepelude’s life, but the feeling of killing gods always felt new to him.

At that moment, Juan looked up upon sensing something. His original target, the tower housing Telgramm, seemed to have moved a little toward him.

Just when Juan bit his lips as he realized that he had let his guard down, a new beam of light flew directly from Telgramm.

The beam of light covered everything around him. The street with the stone pavement, as well as the groaning soldiers all turned into ashes and scattered away.

There was nothing left in the wake of the beam of light launched from Telgramm.

After the powerful force that penetrated the wall outside Cabragh passed, hot air rushed into the void, ripping the surroundings.

There was no one standing there anymore—except for Juan.

“...I feel like I’m getting stronger as more and more time goes by,” Juan groaned with a fed-up look while looking at Gepelude, who looked completely tattered.

Although Juan had managed to use Geplude as a shield to block the beam of light, it was questionable whether or not he would be able to avoid it again in the future. Juan felt sorry upon seeing Gepelude being attacked by Telgramm once again, since he already had a history of dying to Telgramm.

But Juan was not the type to be generous just because he felt sorry for his opponent.

“I guess it’s better than nothing.”

Juan held Gepelude’s throat and kept his eyes on Telgramm while continuing to use Gepelude as a shield. Juan glanced at Gepelude’s lower body; there was nothing left under his waist.

“I’m sorry to break my promise to stick your tongue up your ass. I promise to fulfill my promise if you end up being revived once again.”

It was unknown as to whether or not Gepelude had heard Juan’s words.

Meanwhile, Juan didn’t take his eyes off of Telgramm as he started dragging Gepelude. Due to the incredibly fast speed of the beam of light, there was no way to avoid getting hit if he didn’t prepare in advance.

However, at that moment, a strange voice filled Juan’s ears. Juan quickly turned his head.

“Sina?”

Sina Solvane’s cry that contained the power of the emperor could be heard.

***

It was true that Telgramm’s bombardment had stopped, since Helmut was perplexed to see Telgramm destroying the wall of Cabragh due to Juan’s trick.

Helmut was frustrated and did not know what to do upon seeing the wall of Cabragh being turned into a sea of flames. It was Helmut’s first time seeing Telgramm’s destructive power up close.

‘But I can’t believe that I hit my own allies… Can I even handle this? Should I just take a Telgramm outside and swing it like a spear like I did back in Torra?’

Just when Helmut was doubting himself, a commotion came from outside the window.

Gepelude and Juan were fighting.

Telegramm couldn’t be aimed properly without an observer. However, Dismas was not playing his role of an observer, since he was fighting a knight called Sina. Helmut had basically been blind until now, since he was only relying on Dismas, but it didn’t matter if he could observe the situation on his own, aim and shoot.

Helmut quickly loaded Telgramm and launched a beam of light at Juan who was fighting against Gepelude. But the result was Geplude almost dying instead of Juan. Juan was still walking steadily toward the tower while looking perfectly intact.

“Ah, Ahhh! No, no, no! Why!” Helmut started screaming.

Juan was still approaching the tower. Helmut ran back to the many Telgramms displayed on the wall. Then, he prepared to launch another beam of light.

“Just die! Die already!”

Telgramm’s light stretched out toward Juan once again.