CH 255

“Captain Lenly. Are you all right?”

‘I’m okay, Miss Ivy.’

Lenly opened his eyes. His head hurt as if it would shatter, and the blood covering his eyes made his vision look blurry. He was definitely in a world of hurt.

Lenly remember the voice he had heard just before he came to his senses. He jumped to his feet and looked around, but there was nothing but an empty hallway in front of him.

There was a loud roaring noise from outside the window, and it was making his head hurt even more.

Lenly staggered up and looked out of the window and saw huge tentacles sweeping across the battlefield. The monsters on the battlefield were directly crushed into pancakes by the tentacles.

It was a bloody scene that resembled pandemonium. Lenly wondered if this was what the end of the world would look like. The Dragon Citadel had risen high into the sky, so Lenly had a bird’s eye view of the entire pandemonium.

The tentacles flattened and crushed mountains, covering the surroundings in a thick fog of dust. However, despite the dust, Lenly could still see that something huge was moving within the fog.

Lenly saw Gerard and realized that a part of Qzatquizail was soaring up.

Lenly muttered unknowingly, “Ivy?”

Lenly was sure that he had heard Ivy’s voice before he came back to his senses. There was no way Ivy would be on a battlefield like this. However, he couldn’t help but think that she might be here.

Ivy had followed them when they warred against the West, and Lenly thought that she might have come here because of him. Lenly staggered, and he barely managed to take a step forward.

He couldn’t help but start thinking that he was pathetic because he got beaten up to a pulp without being able to put up any resistance. Lenly had joined the Imperial Guards to protect the emperor, but he cut off the emperor’s body into pieces.

And in addition to being ignored by one emperor, another emperor had beaten him up.

“Haha…”

‘Can I get even more pathetic than this?’

Lenly had never thought that he would end up like this when he was once praised for being the most talented among the knights. He wasn’t really interested in the accolades of success, but he couldn’t bear to be seen as worthless.

Everything he had done throughout his life ended up being a mistake.

“Ivy…”

Aside from Ivy…

Lenly endured the dizziness as he started walking away.

‘Ivy.’

He had faithfully carried out the emperor’s order to protect her. He used her and deceived her, but Lenly had nothing left to show but her.

Lenly decided to look for Ivy. It didn’t matter even if she decided to spit on him or curse him. He thought that perhaps he would eventually see her face again once he was lying on the execution table.

***

Pavan was born in the East, but he had never been on a boat before.

He had heard many stories of the sailor’s life and the terror of a storm or a tsunami.

However, the scene right in front of him seemed like it didn’t pale in comparison to such stories.

“Damn it…”

A huge squirming tentacle passed right next to Pavan, and it almost looked majestic.

It was so huge that it was like an entire mountain, and it flew up and down, repeatedly striking the ground. The tentacle swept everything away.

The panicking monsters were struck down by the tentacles, and their blood had formed a thick batter that flowed down the tentacles as the tentacles rose once more.

The monsters were no different from trivial flies compared to the tentacles of Qzatquizail.

Pavan was convinced that nothing on the ground would be able to survive. The original topography surrounding the Wall of Nulvin could no longer be found.

Pavan was convinced that if he hadn’t entered the Dragon Citadel, he would have also gotten crushed, and his remains would have blended with the remains of monsters on the ground.

However, even the Dragon Citadel looked like a very small ferry among those tentacles.

The same was true of Entalucia flying in the distance.

However, there was a clear difference between the two: Entalucia was a dragon innately skilled at flight, while the one controlling the Dragon Citadel was Opert, who wasn’t used to flying at all.

Opert controlled the Dragon Citadel by playing a monotonous note with a red horn he had gotten from somewhere.

“Left! Incoming from the left!” shouted a warrior of the Northern Army.

Fortunately, Opert was already tilting the Dragon Citadel to the right, sharply blowing the horn as if he had anticipated where a tentacle would come from.

The soldiers clung to any surfaces while screaming. They barely managed to dodge the tentacle, but the Northern Army started suffering from motion sickness. It couldn’t be helped because it was their first time experiencing this kind of movement.

“Damn it, are you sure you’re controlling this properly?!” Pavan groaned.

Opert briefly glanced at Pavan while blowing the red horn. Pavan also didn’t say much because he didn’t want Opert to stop blowing the red horn just to answer him.

Nienna held on to a window frame and looked down at the ground with an unprecedented terrified look.

“General Nienna, where are we going?” Pavan asked.

“We are going to stand by for now. We’ll land once we find a safe place to land,” Nienna answered.

They could neither leave nor go beyond the Crack. Opert wasn’t skilled enough to avoid the many tentacles if he were to enter the Crack, and going out of the Crack meant that they were leaving this disaster alone for others to handle.

Juan had given them a mission, so it was only right for them to wait on standby.

“His Majesty said that humans will kill Qzatquizail,” Nienna said.

“And that they will also kill the emperor…” Pavan said.

Nienna glared at Pavan, and Pavan hastily looked away.

“Well… first of all, we have to stay alive if we want to kill Qzatquizail. Unfortunately, I think that it will be a bit difficult considering our current situation. Oh, perhaps someone else can kill Qzatquizail?” Pavan sighed and said, “We wouldn’t have to suffer like this if His Majesty killed Gerard with Elkiehl.”

“If that had happened, then Gerard will show up once again one day to destroy the world. His Majesty won’t be there by then. Do you want to see your descendants perish?”

“Who cares? I’ll be dead by then as well. My descendants' survival is their problem. They can figure it out on their own when the day comes.”

“You might as well just die now,” said Nienna. She reached out to Pavan.

However, Pavan avoided her and headed toward the hallway.

In the great hall, many soldiers were vomiting due to motion sickness. The Dragon Citadel was weaving through the air as if it were a boat on a rocky ocean, and it seemed that the ongoing situation wouldn’t last a bit longer.

Pavan looked around and realized that Anya was missing.

***

The loud crackle of thunder could be heard as lightning collided against a wall.

The atmosphere of the other world had erupted when Qzatquizail began to make its move, and the atmosphere of the other world collided against the moisture that Nienna was forcibly holding in, creating a violent storm.

Innumerable lightning bolts incessantly struck the ground as the massive tentacles destroyed the world.

Lenly’s went dry at the sight. However, the destruction of the world wasn’t what was important to him right now.

Ivy was lying in front of him while bleeding out.

“Lenly… Loen?”

Lenly blankly looked up. A crushed figure was squirming, and when Lenly saw the parasites moving around on the figure’s visage, he finally realized that he was looking at Bekelt.

Bekelt’s face had always been a grotesque sight to behold, but now, it was hard to even call him human. The barnacles on his armor, which symbolized his status as a Lindwurm knight, had been torn apart and had tangled with his torn flesh.

“Lenly Loen… so you’re still alive. It seems like you went through a lot… although not as much as me.”

Next to Bekelt was Urkel, the Undead summoned by Anya.

Urkelt was slumped over with a dent in his chest.

Lenly and Bekelt were near the room where the Dragon Citadel’s heart was located. A heart could be seen inside the room through the slightly ajar door. Lenly figured that he had to have returned to where he started after wandering around.

Lenly turned his attention to Ivy lying on the ground.

It turned out that the woman was Anya rather than Ivy.

Lenly knew about Anya’s capabilities, so he couldn’t help but be curious about how Bekelt managed to defeat her. Lenly saw Anya’s severed finger.

He looked around and saw Anya’s finger with a ring on it.

It was the ring containing the essence of Nigrato, Ras’ magic, and Iolin’s blessing. Lenly surmised that Bekelt had to have severed Anya’s finger, which led to the latter losing her abilities.

Lenly took a closer look at Anya and saw that she would definitely die if she didn’t get any treatment sooner rather than later.

“I don’t know what you went through, but I’m sure you’ll feel sick once you heard what this bitch did to me. I was looking for an opportunity to escape while being torn apart, but things turned out better than expected. This bitch was guarding the heart, and the rest of the enemies are inside the Dragon Citadel right now. This is the perfect chance to kill them all at once,” Bekelt said.

“Kill them all?” Lenly said blankly.

Bekelt pulled out the fragments of the armor embedded in him and muttered, “Yes. We must carry out the task that His Majesty Gerard had given to us. The monsters are being annihilated right now, so the bastards from the Thornbush Priest Organization are probably panicking right now as well. I don’t think Black Aldebaran will die, but I figured that I should step up at the very least.”

Lenly realized that Bekelt had no interest in protecting this world. Bekelt simply wanted to borrow Gerard’s power and authority by showing that he was the most loyal to Gerard.

Unfortunately, Gerard was not interested in governing at all.

Lenly finally realized that he had completely failed. There would be no glorious empire ruled by the eternal emperor, even if Gerard managed to take complete control of Qzatquizail.

It also didn’t matter even if such an empire existed. It would be completely meaningless because Ivy wouldn’t be there.

All of a sudden, a dull noise reverberated throughout the Dragon Citadel as it moved up and down.

Lenly saw that Bekelt had thrust a knife into the Dragon Citadel’s heart, and blood spurted all over the ground.

Bekelt saw that Lenly was standing in a daze.

He approached the latter and tapped his shoulder.

“Hey, are you okay? Get it together,” said Bekelt.

Lenly remained silent.

“This is all I can do because we will lose our chance to escape if I completely stop the heart. However, it is only a matter of time before the Dragon Citadel crashes. It’s a shame to lose the Dragon Citadel, but it’ll be worth it in the end.”

Bekelt’s eyes flashed as he glanced at Anya. “Before we leave, let me finish this bitch off. I have to kill her with my own hands.”

Bekelt grabbed his sword and approached the motionless Anya. Bekelt raised his sword high up in the air, but Lenly screamed and unsheathed his sword.

Bekelt hurriedly twisted away to dodge Lenly’s attack.

However, Lenly’s attack managed to cut a long wound on Bekelt’s side.

Bekelt glared at Lenly. “Are you mad?! What do you think you’re doing?!”

“I-Ivy said… she said that she has something to tell me…”

Lenly started spouting words that sounded nonsense in Lenly’s ears while trembling and lowering his sword. However, when Bekelt saw the confusion in Lenly’s eyes, he came to the conclusion that Lenly had lost his mind.

Indeed, Anya looked like Ivy in Lenly’s eyes right now. It was the reason why he quickly unsheathed his sword and attacked Bekelt. Of course, Lenly knew that the woman on the ground wasn’t Ivy but Anya.

However, he still couldn’t let Bekelt kill Anya.

“Lenly, calm down! This isn’t the time for us to fight. The Dragon Citadel is going to crash soon, and this girl will die by then as well,” Bekelt said.

“B-but…you must not kill her. She’s—” Ivy’s face was still superimposed over Anya’s visage, and he even started thinking that Ivy was the one lying on the ground rather than Anya.

The Dragon Citadel started trembling, and the sense of weightlessness made Bekelt feel anxious. He growled when he saw that Lenly seemed to be sympathetic toward Anya.

“Damn it, Lenly! Does this one bitch really matter right now? The entire population of the empire is less than a handful compared to our descendants that will prosper in the future; you shouldn’t pay that much attention to this bitch!”

Bekelt’s words seemed to have sobered Lenly up.

Lenly had always been longing for a glorious empire with myriads of citizens, a vast territory, and a brilliant civilization.

The leader of the glorious empire would be the eternal emperor, and he would stand next to the eternal emperor, protecting him.

This had always been Lenly’s dream.

When Bekelt saw that Lenly seemed to be sobering up, he pointed his sword at Anya.

Lenly glared at him. “But Ivy’s descendants nor Ivy herself won’t be in that empire…”

Lenly pounced on Bekelt. Bekelt gnashed his teeth and raised his sword. The two of them couldn’t afford to go easy on each other because they weren’t in the condition to dilly-dally, considering their current physical status.

Therefore, the two spared no effort and directly swung each other’s swords using their best sword moves. There was an audible clang as Lenly’s sword collided with Bekelt’s sword.

However, Bekelt’s sword slid down, dividing Lenly’s vision into two.

“Argh!”

Bekelt staggered with a scream and started rolling on the ground due to the extreme pain. There was an incredulous look on his face when he saw that his body had been split horizontally.

He wasn’t in the best condition, but he was still the Deputy of the Order of Lindwurm, a knight order considered to be the best knight order of the mythological era.

Therefore, Bekelt had never expected that a knight living in such a peaceful era would be able to cut him down with a single blow.

“What the…”

Lenly’s powerful sword move had almost split Bekelt into two, but it didn’t really matter because Bekelt was confident of his regenerative ability. As long as the parasites in him were still alive, he would eventually resurrect, even if he died.

Lenly slowly turned. There was a massive wound on his face, and both of his eyes were completely destroyed by Bekelt’s sword move. However, Lenly still stumbled around to try and find Bekelt, despite having lost his vision.

Bekelt gnashed his teeth. He held his sword and dragged his upper body toward Lenly. He figured that he could easily kill Lenly because the latter couldn’t see him.

Bekelt grabbed Lenly’s foot and made him fall to the floor. Then, he ruthlessly stabbed Lenly in the chest. Lenly coughed up blood, but Bekelt didn’t stop.

Bekelt wanted to stab Lenly until the latter was dead.

Bekelt raised his sword high up in the air for the final blow, but a spear was suddenly thrust through him. He turned and saw Anya’s pallid face glaring at him. She had taken the ring out of her severed finger and put it on an intact finger.

A knight of the dead lifted the spear, and the skewered Bekelt was lifted to the air.

“No, wait. I—”

The knight of the dead hurled Bekelt out of the window before he could even finish speaking. Bekelt descended at breakneck speeds, but one of Qzatquizail’s massive tentacles still manage to hit him.

Bang!

Bekelt exploded into fleshy fragments that scattered like powder.

Anya put pressure on her wound and staggered to her feet.

She slowly approached Lenly.

When she saw that Lenly was vomiting copious amounts of blood, it was clear that Lenly would die anytime soon.

Anya instructed the knight of the dead to come near Lenly.

Lenly barely managed to speak. “Ivy?”

Anya abruptly stopped moving.

Lenly tried his best to speak as he bled out. “I-Ivy, a-are you there…?”

Anya stared at him without saying anything.

“This place is too dangerous. I told you to stay in the Imperial Palace, but…”

Anya made the knight of the dead step back, and she also quietly took a step back.

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“I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to tell you…”

Anya then left without looking back even once.

Lenly, who was left all alone after Anya left, continued to mutter as he stared into the air with empty eyes.

Lenly was left all alone.

He stared into space with glazed eyes and muttered, “Please don’t say that you’ll forgive me. I’m not worthy of your forgiveness. I—your forgiveness is a luxury that I don’t deserve. More than that… I’m glad that I could see you for one last time. Ivy? Where are you going? I’ll protect you. Ivy? Please, wait. Wait! Where are you?! I… I can’t. I can’t hear you…! His Majesty… His Majesty told me that you wanted to tell me something. What is it? What do you want to say to me?”

Lenly suddenly took a deep breath. When the fresh air filled his lungs, he came back to his senses and was struck by the cruel reality that felt more painful than the swords that had ambushed him.

Ivy hadn’t come, and she also hadn’t left a message for him.

She had left without forgiving him, and he would die here all alone. No one was here to listen to his last words, and everyone would eventually forget him.