Building A Human Empire By Creating A Clan [EN]: Chapter 177

‘How unfortunate.’

Karkas clicked his tongue while watching the battle unfold below.

‘A fake is just a fake, I suppose.’

It was an assessment that Etomos would be furious to hear, but Karkas knew it to be true.

‘It’s better than the high elves Aleon made, but….’

It still paled in comparison to the original kin.

– Karkas!

– Fake who imitates Mother!

Just as he was contemplating taking a few specimens, a wyvern charged at him. Soon, five wyverns surrounded him, closing in fast.

– Fake? Me?

Karkas used his magic to open a small gate. The gate connected to Etomos’s breeding ground and spat out a swarm of flying insects. The swarm was so dense it made locust swarms look sparse as they headed straight for the wyverns.

The wyverns breathed fire, attempting to incinerate the insects, but there were simply too many. A significant number of the flying insects clung to the wyverns. Of course, even clinging on, the insects couldn’t pierce the wyverns’ thick scales with their teeth and stingers.

However, the sheer number of insects caused the wyverns to panic, and they frantically flapped their wings to shake them off.

– Pathetic.

Karkas scoffed and unleashed his breath.

Whoooooosh—!

The breath he exhaled was on a completely different level than the wyverns’. His body was that of a Lord, after all. The breath spread out in a fan shape, engulfing all five wyverns.

– Kaaaaaaak!

The breath melted the scales along with the insects clinging to their bodies.

– Who are you calling fake?

The intense heat melted the scales and flesh, and the wyverns, their wings useless, crashed to the ground. Karkas breathed fire at them again, ensuring their demise.

The humans and dwarves on the ground also melted in the inferno.

‘Etomos’s humans and Tiamar’s dragons… fakes are just fakes. No matter how well they’re made, they can’t beat the real thing.’

He felt the flow of magic becoming tangled. The magic he was naturally emitting was being pushed back by an equal force approaching.

– You’re late.

Tiamar flew in, leading her pack.

– How does it feel to wake up from a long sleep, Tiamar?

The two dragons faced each other in the sky, a palpable tension between them.

– What face does a loser have to return with?

Her thoughts were filled with deep disgust.

– Loser? You speak as if you’re the victor.

– At least I’ve never lost to you.

– Is that so?

Karkas smiled, then added, “Well then…”

– How about this body? The only being who ever defeated you is your father. But I have this body now, so what do you think? My beloved daughter?

Karkas provoked her, imitating her father’s tone.

– You insect….

Tiamar inhaled sharply. Her chest swelled, and heat surged within her. Similarly, Karkas inhaled, preparing to unleash his own breath.

But he stopped.

The flow of magic changed again. Amidst the collision of magic flowing from the two behemoths, a third, distinct magic—neither Tiamar’s nor Karkas’s—swirled between them.

The two dragons swallowed their breaths and lowered their heads, sensing the shift in power.

Swish…

Haze rose from the ground, the same phenomenon as when Karkas had opened a gate. Magic flowed out from a gate connected to an unknown location, and a human stepped through.

– Your father’s successor.

Karkas sneered, looking at him with his two sets of eyes. When he looked at him with his physical eyes, he saw only a human. But when he looked at him with his soul’s eyes, the figure was too bright to discern.

‘Hmm…?’

Karkas was momentarily taken aback.

‘What is it?’

Edar looked up at the two dragons. He stood on the snow-covered earth. The frigid winter wind enveloped him, but it was the dragons who felt the chill.

The magic he possessed, the magic that someone’s heart had possessed, the unrefined magic that held an ancient power, was leaking out.

It didn’t collapse. It simply disappeared, as if being absorbed by the world around him.

This was only the second time Karkas had seen Edar, but something felt profoundly different. Clearly, his physical eyes told him it was the same person as before, but his soul’s eyes perceived a completely different being.

‘Lord?’

There were two reasons for this.

One was the Lord’s aura that he felt emanating from Edar. Karkas knew it well, having taken over the Lord’s body himself. The magic Edar emitted was undeniably the Lord’s magic, flowing intermittently.

The other was Edar’s enormous soul. It had been large when he first saw it, but not to the extent that Karkas couldn’t comprehend it.

‘Why? How could he change so much in such a short time?’

His first impression was that Edar was worthy of being the Lord’s successor. He hadn’t believed Aleon would be able to subjugate humans again. But that was it. He thought Edar was weaker compared to Tiamar, but now everything had changed.

Edar’s soul was overwhelming both Karkas and Tiamar.

Swoosh—a sound that shouldn’t be heard echoed through the air. It felt as if a tsunami was crashing in amidst a typhoon. The magic that the human emperor naturally emitted was too fierce.

‘Could it be….’

Karkas realized why Edar had changed so drastically.

‘Does he have the Lord’s heart?’

There was no other explanation for such power.

He stopped himself from demanding how Edar had obtained the heart. Tiamar was staring intently at Edar. Even with Karkas standing right in front of her, all her attention was focused on the human.

She didn’t seem to know about Edar’s transformation. Seeing her reaction, Karkas calmed his initial excitement. An idea sparked in his mind, and he sent her a telepathic message.

– Amazing.

Tiamar only briefly turned her eyes to Karkas.

– I thought you were using humans, but I was mistaken.

– What are you talking about?

– Looking at the situation, it seems you’re the one being used.

– I’m being used?

– Don’t you have any other thoughts in front of that magic?

Karkas judged that she was unaware of the heart.

‘If she knew, she wouldn’t be so flustered.’

The reason she was flustered was probably the same as his own. Karkas harbored a plan to drive a wedge between the two forces that had joined hands to hunt him down, and he continued to send his thoughts.

– Being eaten by something you raised yourself… it’s a familiar story.

Tiamar glared at him.

– Shut up.

– Can you handle it?

– It’s none of your business.

– I can tell just by your reaction. That human is already out of your control.

Haze rose around her. Magic moved according to her boiling emotions. It was a fierce display, but Karkas laughed inwardly.

– Wake up from your delusion. You—

– Enough.

At that moment, Karkas’s thoughts were abruptly cut off. As if his voice was blocked by a wall, his thoughts were no longer transmitted to Tiamar. Simultaneously, the thought that Edar emitted echoed in his mind.

– Don’t do such petty things.

‘He read my thoughts?’

He was surprised once again.

Edar had read and cut off the thoughts he had sent to Tiamar. How? He wondered, but there was no answer. It was something he couldn’t do and had never even attempted.

“Tiamar.”

Edar stood on the earth and looked up at the two dragons. The two dragons high in the sky flinched at the gaze of the ant-like human.

“Did you come to see me, or to see your enemy?”

– I know. I know without you telling me, so don’t order me around.

Tiamar bared her teeth. The trembling in her eyes ceased. The confusion that had been visible on the outside disappeared. She had immediately regained her composure.

Now, the only emotion remaining in her eyes was hostility. She sent her gaze to the monster who had taken over her father’s body, then flapped her massive wings and flew in.

###

The two dragons clashed.

The forest trembled at the roars of both sides, and the snow covering the trees fell. The wind created by the flapping of wings caused the snowstorm that had briefly stopped to blow again, and avalanches occurred in various parts of the peaks as a result.

In the sky above the battlefield, which had been paused for a moment, Karkas and Tiamar tore at each other. They pierced scales that were difficult to cut even with orichalcum [a mythical metal] blades with their teeth and tore them with their claws.

– Kuaaaaak!

– Just because you have my father’s body, do you think you’re a dragon?

They tried to tear off each other’s wings and drop them to the ground.

– Fall! You parricide!

Tiamar bit Karkas’s left wing, and he bit her right wing. They tore at each other’s wings while entangled in the air.

Thud!

The aerial battle ended there.

The two who lost a wing crashed to the ground, and the impact caused another avalanche. However, the fierce avalanche could not sweep away the dragons. Even while being hit by the waterfall of snow, they swung their bloodied muzzles at each other.

Slash!

Blood splattered as flesh was torn off along with scales.

Whoooooosh!

Tiamar breathed fire with her heart exposed through the hole in her chest. Karkas spat out his breath with his organs spilling out.

The breaths collided, but neither could move forward. Instead, they splashed in all directions, causing damage to the soldiers who were far away.

“It’s falling this way!”

“Ru, run away!”

Soon, holding their breaths, the two wingless dragons fought like snakes. They twisted their bodies around each other like ropes, baring their non-venomous teeth and biting and tearing at each other. They were immortal, so they didn’t die.

– You can’t kill me, Tiamar.

– Neither can you.

They sneered at each other as they watched their bodies heal. Even the wounds where their intestines had spilled out healed without a trace at some point.

– We have only one destiny. To fight forever. I hope you don’t run away from your destiny.

Karkas spread his regrown wings and soared into the sky, and Tiamar followed him. On the ground where the two giants disappeared, the flames of the forgotten war soared.

“Brothers!”

The kin who had been caught in the avalanche emerged from the snow one by one.

“Our Father is with us!”

The kin hunted down the enemies floundering in the snow. Their entire bodies were broken by the snow waterfall, and their bodies and armor melted in the dragon’s flames, but they did not stop fighting.

“Kill! Destroy everything that is not human!”

The dwarves were helpless on the peak that the avalanche had swept through. The gunpowder was mixed with snow, and their short stature was buried in the snow.

“Yo, you monkey bastards!”

Their words were fierce, but their actions could not keep up. They would simply swing their blades like harvesting crops, and meet their end.

The monsters modeled after the kin were better. When the kin came out of the snow, they also came out of the snow and confronted them.

“We are the Emperor’s punishment!”

“……”

When the kin shouted and wielded their weapons, Etomos’s fake humans wielded their weapons in silence.

Thwack!

“Hmph!”

But that was only the sound of confrontation.

“A fake is just a fake.”

The fake humans were no match for the kin. They tried to make up for their individual shortcomings with numbers since there were many of them. Five or six humans were attached to one kin.

“Does a swarm of insects become human just because there are many of them!”

“Kario! Don’t show off in front of His Majesty and keep the formation!”

The kin slowly pushed back the enemy and climbed the mountain. Even though two dragons were fighting fiercely in the sky and the rain of fire they created was falling, the advance did not stop.

Drrrrr…

Intense flows of magic occurred one after another.

Old gods appeared from the land and sky. Their leader, Karkas, was fighting his nemesis, so there was no way they would stand idly by. They revealed themselves for the sake of the decisive battle with all their might.

The peak shook.

It was more intense than when the avalanche occurred. The snow covering the mountain had already flowed down several times, so it did not lead to an avalanche, but instead, a landslide occurred.

It was the sight of the monsters created by Etomos coming down over the peak. There were so many of them that they could not be counted, and even in the sky, Etomos’s flying insects replaced the clouds and blocked the light.

The monsters running in the darkness were like a black wave.

– Assemble!

The commanders of each regiment commanded with thoughts.

The kin closed their mouths. The reason why they bothered to exchange words even though they could always exchange thoughts was because of their master. Because their creator wanted them to live as humans, the creations also imitated humans.

However, it was a critical moment. There was no room for that.

– Prevent the enemy from reaching His Majesty.

– What about the infantry? Shouldn’t they retreat?

– Jonas says he will fight with us.

– Then let him. They must also fulfill their duty.

There was no tension. Their master was with them. What was there to fear when the existence more precious than their lives was by their side? They were only blocking the enemy from staining their master.

“Retreat.”

However, the resolution was short-lived. They lowered their fighting spirit and opened the way at the voice heard from behind them. The Emperor walked past the wall created by the kin and humans and walked forward to the wave.

Squeak, squeak.

While the ground was rumbling with the advance of the wave, the sound of stepping on snow was particularly loud. The kin, the humans, and the old gods were all watching and listening to the Emperor.

Everyone except the two beings engaged in eternal battle was engrossed in his actions.

“……”

The Emperor picked up a sword that had fallen on the snow. It was a sword with a broken tip, a bent blade, and missing teeth.

The material was not mithril [a mythical metal] or orichalcum, but just iron, so it was not even worth repairing. However, the Emperor grabbed the hilt with his right hand and grabbed the blade with his left hand and swept it from the bottom up.

If it were an ordinary person, they would have cut their hand even with a sword with missing teeth.

“I will fix you.”

But he was the Emperor.

The blade straightened and the teeth grew back. It was the appearance of a sword that had just been born from the hands of a craftsman. A faint golden wave rose on the back of the sword. And a faint blue flame formed on the blade.

The Emperor held the sword in reverse. He wrapped the hilt with both hands and lifted it to his face.

Whoosh, a long breath.

Haze rose from his entire body, and it had color. It was the same gold as the wave on the back of the sword. It was the sight of the magic surging from his inner self being transmitted to the sword.

“……!”

The Emperor raised the sword high and struck it down.

Thwack—

The blade pierced the snow-covered ground.

“Disappear. You sinful one.”

Light burst from his body. A light brighter than the sunlight shining down from the cloudless sky was emitted. And cracks also began to form in the earth where the sword was embedded.

Crackle, crackle, the gold, the same color as the light emitted by the Emperor, stretched out towards the black wave.

The cracks that had initially started from the sword were only five, but another crack was connected to the crack as if branches were spreading out.

——! —, ——!

———!

A shout was heard from the wave.

However, the Emperor did not care about the curse of the monster. He drew out magic from his soul and poured out the power left by the Lord and his race.

The golden cracks stretching out from the ground reached the top of the peak. The cracks were connected more densely than a spider web up to the altitude that would have been hundreds of meters higher than the Emperor’s position.

Boom——

The golden light that was under the cracks burst out as the cracks split, and covered the monster on top of it. The magma that erupted from a volcanic eruption would be insignificant compared to this.

The peak exploded. The mountain did not collapse. It simply disappeared.

“……”

The Emperor put down the sword and stood up. Now the place where he was was the summit. There was no way to go above it. The traces of the original peak crumbled into fine dust and fell gently.