The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 219 – Cabragh (5)

Juan looked toward the outside of Cabragh upon suddenly hearing Sina’s voice. However, he could feel a strong energy gathering in the tower. Juan hurriedly protected himself using Gepelude’s body and at the same time whispered to Kelagrenon wrapped around him.

“Eat it up.”

Telegram’s beam of light swept over Juan once again. The heat emitted from Telgramm covered Juan completely; it was almost as if it was trying to strike him down to the ground. The rocks on the ground melted in an instant to form a boiling puddle, but the heat itself was not that big a deal for Juan.

The real problem was the destructive nature of Telegramm. Every time a thunderbolt penetrated his muscles, Juan twitched and felt as if he was about to collapse at any moment.

Juan clenched his teeth.

“Fuck off!”

Finally, Juan parried the beam of light launched by Telgramm to the side with his hand, causing the beam of light to be bent and bounce off to the side.

Helmut, who had been watching the scene from above the tower, was shocked by Juan’s unbelievable move and almost fell off the railing.

‘He just bounced off the beam of light—no, the thunderbolt? But that’s impossible.’

Then, a sudden gust of wind removed the steam from the puddle of liquefied boiling rock. Juan’s appearance revealed amidst the steam was very different from before. The dark lump he was holding in his right hand seemed to be a part of Gepelude’s body, while white-colored thorn-like things floated around him.

The white thorns almost looked like they were made from shards of bone and moved along Juan’s body. At first glance, the thousands of thorns that were pointing in the direction of Telgramm and resembled wings.

Thunderbolts could be seen rapidly running through them.

Meanwhile, Juan repeatedly clenched and unclenched his stiff fist while feeling the power of Telgramm that was flowing through Kelagrenon.

[It’s been a while since I’ve had a feast like this. It’s quite a burdensome diet.]

“Can you have some more?”

[Maybe one more time? And another one after that if I get a half day of rest.]

“It’ll all be over before then.”

Activating Kelagrenon’s power to eat up mana put a considerable amount of burden on not only the allies, but also on Juan as well. However, using it to defend at just the right time was no problem and didn’t cause anyone to suffer. The question was how long Kelagrenon would be able to hold out against Telgramm’s power.

‘I guess twice is the limit… It’s as expected.’

The fact that Kelagrenon could withstand the power of Telgramm twice was already quite remarkable. After all, Kelagrenon was not a god; it was only a god’s pet beast.

Juan looked up at the tower. Considering the amount of time before the second beam of light was launched, Juan figured that the third beam would be launched again quite soon.

However, Juan wouldn’t be caught off guard again regardless of whether Kelagrenon was able to hold out or not.

Juan’s feet stomped on the ground. The stone pavement cracked the first time Juan stomped on the ground. The second time Juan stomped on the ground, the area around Juan sank down with a loud noise. As soon as Juan stomped on the ground for the third time, the entire area collapsed completely and Juan jumped into the air.

In an instant, the lightning running through the white thorns that were Kelagrenon split apart and spread like wings. The white thorns then followed the trajectory left behind by Juan, leaving lightning-like traces that soared toward the tower.

Juan, who jumped to the top of the tower in the blink of an eye, turned around and flipped in the air. He could see Helmut’s shocked face while flying in the sky.

Meanwhile, Helmut hastily tried to grab another Telgramm and throw it toward Juan.

“I’ll never get used to how ugly his face is no matter how many times I see him,” Juan muttered to himself.

Even before Helmut could throw Telgramm, Juan lightly shook his hand that was wrapped by Kelagrenon toward the tower. At that moment, Telegram’s energy which had been absorbed by the white thorns of Kelagrenon, was shot straight toward the tower.

Shadows throughout all of Cabragh disappeared for a moment. The energy of Telgramm that was released indiscriminately instead of being purified and shot concisely toward a point covered the skies above Cabragh.

Although it only lasted for a short moment, all the ongoing battle stopped at once due to the intense light that took away everyone’s sight. Soon after, all the light in Cabragh disappeared, and a series of explosive roars swept through the surrounding areas. All the windows burst, without a single one remaining intact.

A short period of silence filled Cabragh after the huge noise swept through the entire fortress. Not long after, Juan landed on the spot where he had first jumped off from.

Meanwhile, Kelagrenon was now returning back to its original form as an armor after releasing all of the energy absorbed from Telgramm.

Juan lifted his head to look up at the tower again. The tower, which had been directly hit by Telgramm’s energy from such a close distance, had not yet collapsed but was destroyed around the middle level.

The tower had already been tilted to the point of instability even before Juan’s attack. Probably, it had only been maintained by magic until now; however, now it was only a matter of time before it collapsed, since it could no longer maintain its original shape. Considering that its huge size towered over all of Cabragh, it was clear that Cabragh would turn into a complete mess when the collapse happened.

At that moment, Juan sensed the presence of the Pope at the top of the tower. It was only a faint presence, but Helmut still seemed to be alive. Juan had a lot of questions that he wanted to ask Helmut, but he couldn’t waste any more time here. He had to settle things and disable Telgramm.

It was certain that Sina was inside Cabragh. If she had been left with no choice but to join the battle, that could only mean one thing.

“Dismas.”

Juan tried to move to where Sina might be in a hurry.

However, at that moment, Juan found a black lump that was squirming and breaking apart on one side of his field of vision. He had almost ignored the presence of the black lump, but soon came to a stop as he realized something important.

The black lump was a remnant of Gepelude’s Cainheryar, and it was collapsing on its own. In fact, the remainder of Gepelude’s body wasn’t the only thing that was collapsing on its own. All the Cainheryars throughout the empire were disappearing.

This was a positive sign, but for some reason, Juan had an ominous feeling.

***

“Tell me right now! How do you have the essence of my father?!” Dismas shouted at Sina again.

Sina tried her best to respond in a calm manner upon seeing the sudden change in Dismas’ emotions.

“He gave it to me himself.”

“He? Are you talking about my father? No way, that doesn’t make any sense. His Holiness can only borrow my father’s power to share and grant it to others. No one other than His Majesty can give that essence to someone. That is the true power of His Majesty…”

Dismas stammered and realized what he had just said. He stared blankly at Sina for a moment and then slowly opened his mouth.

“You are talking about the fake emperor.”

“Yes. You didn’t recognize his voice, his face, or his philosophy, but you did recognize this one thing—the essence of the emperor. I guess this must be some kind of guarantee about His Majesty, huh?”

Dismas tightly bit his lips, feeling humiliated.

“You… you don’t understand and never will. You don’t know just how many people have tried to mislead me or deceive me. I have been deceived and betrayed countless times… until His Holiness taught me about the way to resurrect His Majesty… but His Holiness is… His Majesty’s holy body is…” Dismas continued to speak gibberish.

At that moment, another beam of light was suddenly launched toward Sina and Dismas. Sina was startled and prepared to attack again, but Dismas’ hammer continued to hang low—it was as if he had lost his will to fight.

Sina remained vigilant while keeping her eyes on Dismas. Her heart was beating fast.

Meanwhile, the bombardment of the beam of light continued. If the beam of light was allowed to continue attacking as it was, Juan might fall in danger. However, it was no exaggeration to say that the battle would just end if Dismas reflected on his mistakes and lay down at Juan’s feet.

It would be hard for Dismas to avoid being given a heavy punishment, but at least the Cainheryars could be stopped if he surrendered now.

So, Sina decided to provoke Dismas further.

“The only emperor is the man that you call the fake emperor. The emperor you have resurrected is…”

Sina swallowed a gulp. It was hard for her to speak the last word, even though she already knew the truth.

“…it’s nothing more than a shell. It’s no different from any of the other Cainheryars.”

As soon as Sina uttered that last word with difficulty, Dismas' head turned with a grotesque twist.

In Sina’s view, not only the holy body, even the empire was nothing more than an empty shell. That was what Sina felt after traveling around the empire with Juan. The entire empire was shallow, pretending to be a normal country under the emperor’s name. The emperor and the empire were just empty shells, with nothing inside the shells.

And out of everyone, Dismas was the craziest lunatic, the one who was the most obsessed with that empty shell.

“No! It’s different! He is different! His Majesty’s body is not just a Cainheryar! It is nothing like those dirty and disgusting beings! The whole process was done reverently with blessings from His Holiness! I embroidered it with gold and silver, then decorated it with jewels and silk! Do not make such unpleasant and disgusting… remarks about the… noble figure of…”

Dismas screamed fiercely in denial, but his cries slowly died down. His eyes were empty and clouded.

Sina figured that Dismas must have already known that there was a similarity between the ritual used to resurrect the Cainheryars and the ritual used to resurrect the holy body. However, he had buried his doubts deep inside his heart and tried to resolve his suspicions by insulting the remains of the gods, since he could not admit such a truth.

‘It’s different. It’s completely different. The gods came back to life in a dirty and unpleasant environment, but His Majesty was resurrected reverently in a holy environment, decorated with gold and jewels…’

But no matter how much gold he covered the emperor’s body with, he could not hide the disgusting scent of the corpse. Dismas felt the inside of his head rustling and collapsing. Then, he recalled the image of Ivy who was looking at him with a determined and firm gaze.

“The Saintess really was conveying His Majesty’s words to me.”

Dismas turned his head slowly—toward the direction where the tower housing Telgramm was. From there, Dismas felt a huge energy and heat. The warmth he had ignored and considered as nothing more than just a deception until now suddenly felt so hot that it almost stung.

“Ah…”

Dismas faintly groaned.

“Ah, Ahhh! Ahhhhhhhhhh!”

The guilt that he had buried deep in his heart began to soar. Horrible emotions drowned him in an instant.

In the meantime, beams of light suddenly spread all over Cabragh. However, Dismas didn’t even notice the lights. All he could do was roar and cry.

However, his despairing cries were drowned out by the loud bang, making it so that no one could hear him.

Only one person—Sina, was looking at him with a sad expression.

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!”

Dismas’ tragic howls sounded like he was trying to squeeze out his lungs only stopped after he had vomited blood everywhere. Then, Dismas knelt down to the ground and looked at Sina with cloudy eyes.

“Kill me as painfully as you can,” Dismas murmured in a weak voice.

He slowly raised his right hand. At that moment, Sina suddenly felt something leaving her body.

Although it was just by a little bit, Sina's hand holding the sword felt a little heavier than before.

Sina immediately noticed what had happened. A minor reinforcement Grace that she had received back in the knight school was gone.

“Give me pain for all my sins,” Dismas said.

Sina didn’t even realize what was going on, but Dismas’ body suddenly began to swell. Then, tree branches split Dismas and rose up. A huge tree soared out of Dismas’ stomach, while red, lava-like tears poured out of his eyes.

Dismas was constantly shouting something, but it was no longer a human language.

Dismas was already distorted beyond the point of destruction.

He did not know how to ask for forgiveness.

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