He Became The Most Insane Emperor Of All Time [EN]: Chapter 235

Became the Crazy Emperor – Episode 235

To reach the Valley of Fire, we had to continue through the ashen forest.

We had escaped the completely burned areas, but even where the trees were intact, their leaves and the grass were all grayish-white, as if they had lost their vitality.

-The World Tree burned down, turning everything around it like this.

-The unquenchable, evil fire burned it all.

Ah.

That must be the Flame of Purification. So, in the end, is this my fault?

But well, I had to deal with the Spirit King and the elves back then, so it couldn’t be helped. Thinking about it, doesn’t seem like it’s really my fault?

“Ahem, surely the entire Spirit Realm hasn’t become like this?”

“I don’t think so. If it had, a terrible disaster would have occurred.”

“If the Spirit Realm disappears, will natural disasters occur in the Material Realm as well?”

“Not necessarily, but the nature maintained by the Spirit Realm would collapse. For example… a place that was warm thanks to the Spirit Realm might suddenly become a land of extreme cold.”

“I see… Even if I don’t like the Spirit Realm, it must not disappear.”

Even though I’ve already set fire to the Spirit Realm several times, if I can win the spirits over to the human side, I might need to manage the Spirit Realm better in the future.

-We’re almost at the Valley of Fire.

-Bad elves, bad demons, many are there.

-Many friends are captured. Can you save them?

As we walked and chatted, we arrived at our destination, the Valley of Fire.

Beyond the grayish-white forest was a valley where flames blazed, true to its name.

“The terrain is a complete natural fortress. Bringing an army would only increase the damage.”

The spirits probably didn’t create the terrain with defense in mind, but the demons and elves had fortified the area with steel barriers from who knows where.

And everywhere, spirits they seemed to have hunted were trapped inside magically reinforced iron cages.

“So, what are you going to do? Don’t you need an army to deal with them?”

“If I go all out, I can take on one or two legions. Of course, I can’t do that recklessly…”

However, such reckless battles are hard to wage lightly. No matter how strong I am, if I’m careless, I can die just as easily.

But right now, bringing an army would result in too many sacrifices. I abandoned the idea of throwing soldiers into this impregnable natural fortress.

“But there’s one weakness. We don’t have to deal with them one by one. Our goal is to block the path the demons are using to enter the Spirit Realm.”

“Ah… that’s right. Certainly. So, there must be a gate connected to the Material Realm or Hell somewhere.”

“Yes, it would be great if we could permanently block it, but can you do it?”

If we achieve that goal, we don’t need to find and kill them one by one.

They’ll just be trapped in this Spirit Realm, unable to go anywhere, and starve to death.

“Yes, if we find them, we can do it with the power of the spirits.”

“Then, finding the location is important, but we also need to rescue the captured spirits.”

I had planned to rescue the spirits from the start, but now there was more reason to save them.

However, it would be best to carry out this operation quietly. If it were just me, it wouldn’t matter, but with Loretta and the spirits being held hostage, starting loudly would be a bad move.

“Then, Shadow Stealth…”

“Wait, wouldn’t that be difficult here?”

“Huh? Ah, now that I think about it…”

There were flames everywhere. It wasn’t a good environment for Shadow Stealth with light all around.

Hmm, what to do then?

“I’ll try this time.”

“You? What are you going to do?”

“Well…”

Before answering, Loretta borrowed power from a nearby fire spirit and cast spirit magic.

Then, flames enveloped Loretta and me, but the flames didn’t harm us at all. Rather, the flames concealed our figures.

“This should be easy to use for stealth.”

“Indeed. It’s hard to do something this delicate with the Flame of Purification.”

I can also wield the Flame of Purification, but the Flame of Purification has the property of purifying even fire, so this kind of trick is almost impossible.

“Alright, we’ll move quietly in this state. Stay close to me as we move.”

Hidden in the flames, we soon moved towards the Valley of Fire.

Even though they had made it a natural fortress, the enemies couldn’t detect our stealth at all because of the flames everywhere.

Conversely, we were using the Watcher’s Web [a technique to sense the surroundings] to discern the movements of all the enemies in this area.

“Huh? Did something move just now?”

“What are you talking about? There’s nothing but fire.”

Even when we passed right in front of them, the elves on guard duty didn’t notice.

I approached the first iron cage where the spirits were trapped.

Clang-

“Wait, that’s the sound of the iron cage opening-”

Thwack!

“H-Hostile-”

Stab!

I quietly dealt with the elves guarding the iron cage. I cut their throats and stabbed their hearts, and they died without even screaming.

It was easy to dispose of the bodies. Since there were fierce flames everywhere, if you threw them there, no one would know they had disappeared.

-Huh? A human freed us.

-Human? Why a human?

-We’re on the human’s side now.

-Huh? Are the elves bad now?

When I released the spirits, the spirits who had come with us explained everything to them.

Their reactions seemed a bit slow-witted, but I didn’t think I needed to step in and say anything.

“Let’s move quickly. Even if the guards are gone without a trace, it will look suspicious. If the surveillance system is sophisticated, we’ll be discovered soon. So, we need to find the place connected to Hell before that happens.”

“Hmm, the Watcher’s Web can’t properly detect the location.”

“I’ll ask the spirits.”

As soon as we encountered a slight obstacle, Loretta immediately interrogated the spirits. Having Loretta around made things easier in many ways.

-There’s a place where the phase overlaps with Hell over there.

-I don’t know the exact location, but if there’s a gate, it’s probably there.

-The friends trapped further inside might know the location.

In response to Loretta’s questioning, the spirits gave us some general information.

That was enough to get a sense of direction, so it was quite useful.

“Be careful, that demon supervisor will have a better sense than the elves.”

“Then we’ll have to break through head-on this time.”

[Blade Whip Mode Change]

Whirr, snap!

“…What?!

Thwack!

Silver Rose, transformed into a blade whip, stretched out like a bird hunting its prey and wrapped around the demon’s neck. And immediately cut off its neck.

But there wasn’t just one demon, and they soon reacted to the death of their comrade.

“It’s over there! I feel a presence in that fire!”

As Loretta predicted, the demons had a better sense in this environment than the elves.

But if that’s the case, stealth is meaningless. I immediately unleashed the Flame of Purification and Divine Power.

Whoosh!

“No, the fire…!”

“I’m burning in the fire…!”

The Flame of Purification, which burns even demons familiar with the flames of Hell.

The demons writhed in the pain of burning, unable to extinguish the flames on their bodies.

“Tch, you’re using petty tricks!”

But still, a demon is a demon. They soon scattered black magic imbued with dark energy and swung their hell swords.

Clang!

But the demons’ black magic was extinguished by the light of the Imperial Soul, and the hell sword was easily blocked by Silver Rose, which had returned to its sword form.

[High-Speed Movement Deployed]

[Mana Heart Output Amplification!]

I immediately amplified the output of High-Speed Movement and Aura Blade, moving at high speed through the demons and cutting them down.

In an instant, the demons were torn to pieces without even having a chance to resist. The demons fell to the ground in pieces.

The time it took to eliminate them was so fast that it didn’t seem to have been detected by the surroundings yet.

“Let’s hurry, let’s release the spirits this time too.”

I rescued the spirits in the iron cage they were guarding.

-Wow, we’re free now!

-Thank you, human. Humans are our friends now!

-Bad elves! We’ll get revenge!

“It’s better to save as many spirits as possible. I don’t know for sure, but the area around the gate will be even more heavily guarded, right? We can’t just think about closing the gate.”

“That’s true, but does saving a lot of spirits make a difference?”

No matter how much I move myself, it’s hard to release all the spirits trapped in this base.

If we get caught before that, it just becomes physically impossible.

But Loretta seemed to have her own ideas.

“I think we can borrow the power of the Spirit Realm and pour it all over this place. But to do that, we need a certain number of spirits.”

“Really? Then it would be useful for escape. Then let’s try to rescue as many spirits as possible while looking for the gate.”

I decided to follow Loretta’s plan.

Just in case, I also made a plan to spread my Wings of Light and attack the gate and escape in an emergency.

“An intruder has appeared! Guard the surroundings, they’re releasing the spirits!”

But the enemies weren’t just being foolishly defeated. Before long, they realized that there had been an intrusion and strengthened their defenses.

However, their response wasn’t very skillful. They probably didn’t expect to be attacked in this Spirit Realm.

Rather, they spread out their forces in all directions to prevent the spirits from being taken, which created even more gaps.

“We’ve been attacked here too!”

“No, there was a commotion on the opposite side just now!”

“They’re too elusive. There’s a possibility that there’s more than one or two of them.”

“Foolish! If there are many, how can it be possible that they’re not visible at all!”

Because we were moving through the flames, they couldn’t easily guess our size.

Of course, the demons sensed our presence even when we hid in the fire, but we preemptively assassinated those guys, so it was hard to notice.

“Okay, I think we’ve saved enough. This is the limit.”

“Okay, that’s enough. I’ve also located the gate. Now that it’s come to this, let’s cause a commotion first, neutralize the gate, and then escape, shall we?”

“Let’s do that. Can you do it?”

“Of course.”

With those words, Loretta immediately spoke to the rescued spirits.

“Children of the Great Nature, I, the Spirit King, command you. Show the despicable enemies who have invaded the Spirit Realm your anger and the anger of nature.”

Rumble-

At that moment, thunder began to strike in the dark sky of the Valley of Fire.

The ground shook, and in an instant, a cold snap blew in, while the flames in the valley became even more intense. Even lightning struck in various places.

A great disaster began to occur, where earthquakes, flames, cold snaps, and lightning coexisted, and the demons and elves stationed throughout the valley fell into great chaos.

“Now’s the time, let’s go.”

I guess I shouldn’t make Loretta angry in the future.