Emperor of Steel [EN]: Chapter 124

“This can’t be happening…!”

Hwangbo Sung slumped to the ground, watching the wooden ox fall powerlessly. At that moment, the memory Oster had transmitted through the brainwave device flashed through his mind.

It was a scene of a beautiful silver-haired sorceress standing before a large monument in an underground chamber, speaking while several people watched.

“The One has granted us the power of time. However, a corresponding price must be paid. First, everything that has existed in this space-time since that day will disappear.”

“Then we will disappear as well.”

“If we can change this miserable reality, it wouldn’t be so bad, but what will happen to the princess?”

“I will also disappear. I am the one who must pay the price, and I do not exist in that space-time.”

“What if someone who exists at that time accompanies the princess?”

“The one connected to this space-time will disappear. However, if identical entities come into contact, there is a possibility of a kind of synchronization phenomenon occurring.”

“What do you mean by synchronization phenomenon?”

At the old knight’s question, the sorceress took out a piece of paper.

Something was written at the top, but the bottom was blank.

The sorceress wrote something on the blank space, then folded the paper in half.

Then, what she had written at the bottom was imprinted on the top.

Hwangbo Sung stopped the recollection of memories at that point.

‘A single piece of paper represents the same entity. If the top is the past and the bottom is the future, then when the two meet, the future’s record can remain in the past.’

He had already guessed from the memories he had received, but thanks to the sorceress’s explanation, he was able to confirm Oster’s identity.

‘He stepped forward in my place because he was going to disappear anyway? Is that how he decided to end things?’

Kwakwakwang—!

Lost in thought, Hwangbo Sung snapped back to reality at the earth-shaking roar.

The Avenger, with Hiros and Luke on board, was clashing.

The two’s fight was much larger and more intense than before.

Each time the arm, transformed like a greatsword, was swung like a whip, clear marks were left on the Avenger’s armor. The shockwaves that flowed out left large scars not only on the palace garden but also on the main building.

Moreover, the roars and screams that occurred with each attack were enough to terrify not only the people in the palace but also those in the surrounding streets.

However, the Avenger itself did not suffer any significant damage.

Rather, each time Luke attacked by deploying Gigantic Gold Aura on the greatsword, Hiros’s limbs were burned.

“Kuaaaaah! Luke, you bastard!”

Each time he was damaged by the Gold Aura, Hiros rampaged and spewed out demonic energy.

However, that demonic energy did not have a significant impact on the surroundings.

The Gold Aura, amplified by the core engine of the super-hero-class Avenger, spread out faintly and extinguished the demonic energy.

‘It’s definitely different from back then.’

Luke recalled the fight at the Zhuge family.

At that time, he was helplessly pushed back by Arsen, who was wearing the Ghost Armor Gorgos.

The performance of the test unit was inferior to what it was now, but his own skills, not having mastered the latter half of the Gold Sword, were also lacking.

But above all, Arsen was unbelievably strong.

He cornered him with all sorts of dark magic, and even skillfully used white magic to stop Hwangbo Sung and Zhuge Soha, who were trying to support him.

‘Compared to Arsen, this guy isn’t properly utilizing the power of the Ghost Armor.’

He was just making one of his arms into a sword and engaging in close combat, just like when he was using swordsmanship with his bare body.

Of course, that attack was incredibly strong.

The swordsmanship itself was clearly Gold Sword, even if he couldn’t use Gold Aura. Even if it was just the shell of swordsmanship, its power was considerable, and the demonic energy he was releasing instead of Gold Aura was not something to be ignored.

If it had been an ordinary rider instead of Luke, he would have already been defeated or succumbed to the demonic energy and met his end.

‘Anyway, it’s best to finish this quickly. It’ll be a problem if the damage increases any further.’

The detached palace and part of the royal palace were destroyed. He didn’t want any more damage to occur.

Luke amplified the Gold Aura to its maximum.

In the fight against Arsen, he had to use the demon’s ability, Build Up, but he didn’t need to do that now.

Unlike the broken test unit, the Avenger’s core engine amplified his power sufficiently.

Wiiiiiiing—!

“Vanish! You disgusting monster created by an evil being!”

Luke charged the Avenger forward and struck Hiros with the greatsword, which was loaded with the maximally amplified Gold Aura.

The Cyclone Rage, the latter half of the Gold Sword technique he had already shown once, unfolded with several times more power. The air violently split, and a golden trajectory like lightning cleaved through Hiros’s body.

Kukwakwang—!

“Kueeeeeek!”

A flash of light like the sun flickered, and hot heat spread in all directions.

And Hiros, completely split in two, melted away like wax.

“It’s over!”

“His Majesty has defeated the monster!”

The royal guards and ministers, who had taken shelter in a safe place and watched the fight, burst into cheers.

However, Luke, who had defeated Hiros, did not relax. It was because the demonic energy he felt from him had not completely disappeared.

‘There’s something. It’s not over yet!’

Luke looked around, chasing the traces of the demonic energy that had not disappeared.

Then, he discovered a black bead gleaming within the remains of the melted Ghost Armor.

‘That’s it!’

Wooooooong!

The demonic energies that had not yet disappeared were flowing into the black bead.

Each time demonic energy flowed in, the black bead created a louder noise and vibration.

‘This is dangerous!’

Luke didn’t know the identity of the black bead, but he instinctively sensed what was about to happen and deployed layers of shield magic around the black bead.

One layer, two layers, three layers… As many as he could deploy, and as powerfully as possible.

Kwaaaaaaang—!

Along with a deafening explosion that tore through the sky, a dark flash of light burst from the black bead, and a terrifying explosion occurred.

The crimson flames that soared with the explosion shot up to the sky.

The flames, which had swallowed even the clouds, raged in the sky for a long time before disappearing with the wind after a while.

2

“Haa, what on earth is going on?”

Hans sighed deeply, as if the ground would cave in.

It was good that someone claiming to be another descendant of the hero had come.

The descendants of Rakan were so few in number.

But then, he had accused the king, who was a direct descendant, and turned his sword against him, and after being beheaded, he had turned into a monster that was spewing demonic energy.

And after rampaging as if he would turn the royal palace into a wasteland, he was subdued again by Luke, and then he even self-destructed just before being annihilated.

If it hadn’t been for the shield magic that Luke had desperately cast, it would have been a massive explosion that could have caused devastating damage to not only the royal palace but also the city of Brenden.

“I wish it was all just a dream.”

Three days had already passed since the incident, but it felt like it had just happened.

High Priest Maron was completely out of it, holed up in the temple, repeating, “This is a dream, it must be a dream.”

‘Huu, even if I want to deny it, the scars of the battle are too great.’

The detached palace was so badly damaged that it needed major repairs, and other buildings in the palace had broken windows or were damaged here and there by fragments of magic and aura.

But the most serious damage was to the garden behind the detached palace.

The place where the fight had taken place had a huge crater, large enough to fit the entire detached palace, due to the aftermath of the self-destruction at the end.

Thanks to that, the restoration was sluggish. Even the royal guard’s Gigants [large, humanoid war machines] were mobilized, but it was not enough.

“Geez, how are we going to restore this?”

Sebastian scratched his head with a troubled expression.

He, who had almost had his identity exposed because of Hiros’s trickery, had transformed back into his human form.

He had made the excuse that the curse seemed to have been lifted because the one who had used the sorcery had died, so no one suspected him.

No, everyone was in no state of mind to suspect anything right now.

“Prime Minister, what should we do?”

“Well, wouldn’t it turn into a nice lake if it rains?”

Sebastian looked dumbfounded at Hans’s absurd answer.

“Are you serious?”

“In a way, isn’t it a good thing? Other kings and queens of other countries hire their people to build things just to enjoy boating in their royal palaces.”

Hans wondered what he was even saying.

But his mental shock was so great that he wanted to find even such ridiculous positive points.

In fact, the damage that Luke and the Symphonia Kingdom had suffered from this incident was not as great as expected.

The royal palace was a bit damaged, but fortunately, the king, Luke, was safe, and apart from Oster and some royal guards being caught up in the fight and dying, there were almost no casualties.

Rather, there was a good point in that the rumor that Luke had learned dark magic had quietly disappeared.

The rumor that the one who had accused the king was actually a monster using dark magic had spread from mouth to mouth.

Hans had tried to keep it quiet, but it was difficult to hide because the incident had been so noisy.

He had to consider it fortunate that the rumors hadn’t turned out badly.

‘Is it really fortunate?’

Hans’s uneasy feeling did not easily go away.

It wasn’t just because of the shock of this incident or the problem of restoring the royal palace.

‘The energy Hiros used when he deployed the Gold Sword was definitely Gold Aura. But it turns out that his identity was an evil monster that spewed demonic energy.’

Until now, it was believed that Gold Aura, which had the energy of dispelling evil, could not coexist with demonic energy.

But Hiros broke that prejudice.

He used Gold Aura even while hiding demonic energy!

In fact, that was why Maron was out of it.

For him, who worshiped the hero Rakan as much as Hans did, it was unbelievable that a monster using dark magic had used Rakan’s swordsmanship and Gold Aura.

‘If Hiros is capable of it, could it be that His Majesty is also…?’

There’s a rumor that Luke de Rakan has learned dark magic.

Such rumors had circulated even before Luke became king. However, Hans and the other retainers who had long served the Rakan family dismissed them as baseless gossip. If Luke had truly learned dark magic, he wouldn’t have been able to master the Gold Sword. But this incident shattered that belief. Once they started to doubt, even Luke’s past actions began to seem suspicious. His outburst when the Demon King’s castle was sold, his arbitrary removal of the founder’s portraits and statues, his preferential treatment of the fairies as equals to humans, and his secret excursions without his retainers’ knowledge. ‘Could His Majesty really be using dark magic? No, if that were the case, the Holy Empire wouldn’t be so favorable towards him.’ Reina, who loved Luke enough to secretly marry him, might have overlooked it. But Grand Duke Gregory, the strongest paladin on the Rodisia continent and a devout follower of the gods, would not have stood idly by. ‘But what if he even managed to deceive Grand Duke Gregory? No, that can’t be. It can’t be.’ Hans tried to ignore the growing doubts. He didn’t want to believe that the lord he served, the head of the honorable family he had served for so long, had turned to the dark arts. While Hans was deep in thought, Luke was holed up in the East Palace of the royal palace. The East Palace was originally where the queen, direct princes, and princesses resided. However, since the person who should have been there was in the Holy Artenia Empire, it had been kept empty, only being maintained. Then, it was given to Karen and Oster as their residence. The two, especially Karen, were not considered strangers. It wasn’t just because she had saved him from the ether’s rampage or because she tried to stay close to him. It was hard to say for sure, but he felt a strange sense of familiarity with her. “How is she?” Erewyn, after examining Karen, who was deeply asleep in bed, answered Luke’s question. “I don’t know the reason, but she seems quite exhausted. Her energy is gradually weakening, but she doesn’t seem to be sick.” “Is that so? It’s no different from what I saw.” Zegal Soha, who had examined Karen before Erewyn, also expressed the same opinion. However, unlike Erewyn, she cautiously added a pessimistic remark. She said that Karen would die within a month if things continued this way. Luke was also aware of that. He could feel the ether [a magical energy] within Karen’s body gradually disappearing. So, he had deliberately shared his own ether with her, but there was no significant improvement. ‘Karen, who are you really? Who are you to suddenly appear and save me? And why did you try to stop the fight with Hiros?’ Could she really be an angel sent from heaven? Even though he thought it was absurd, he couldn’t shake the thought because of Oster. Immediately after the battle, Luke ordered Oster’s body to be recovered and given a proper funeral. If it weren’t for him, he wouldn’t have had the chance to summon the Avenger. However, the royal knights who examined the cockpit of the wooden automaton brought back a surprising report. There was no body, not even a trace of blood. Unable to believe it, Luke investigated the wooden automaton himself. And he confirmed that there was indeed no trace left. ‘It was as if he had evaporated into thin air. No, it would be more accurate to say that his existence had been completely erased.’ How could such a thing be possible? While Luke was pondering, a servant came to report. “Your Majesty, Count Hwangbo Seong, the commander of the Royal Knights, has requested a private audience.” “Is that so? Understood. Tell him to wait a moment.” After speaking to the servant, Luke turned his gaze to Karen. And holding her small hand, he once again shared his ether with her. Hoping that she would wake up again and solve the various questions he had. After that, he left Karen’s room and met Hwangbo Seong in the reception room on the first floor. “What is it, Commander?” After confirming that no one was around, Hwangbo Seong opened his mouth in response to Luke’s question. “My lord, I have something to say regarding this matter.” “Something to say?” “I know the things that my lord is curious about. Oster told me before he died.” “What?!” Looking at the surprised Luke, Hwangbo Seong continued with a serious expression. “You will surely think it’s absurd. But it’s absolutely not a lie. So, believe it.” “Tell me what you’re talking about first. How can I believe or not believe something if I don’t know what it is?” At Luke’s words, Hwangbo Seong paused for a moment. He had been very hesitant about whether he should say this. So, he had been putting it off, but he finally decided to speak and came to see him. “Karen and Oster are not from this era. They came from the future.” “What?” As if he had anticipated Luke’s bewilderment, Hwangbo Seong calmly revealed an even more surprising fact. “And Oster is me from the future. So, I was able to receive his memories, or rather, my memories from the future, through the brainwave transfer device.” “Tell me more details. If it’s difficult to explain, you can speak in your native language.” When Luke asked with a serious expression, Hwangbo Seong nodded and began to tell the memories he had received, the events of the future. 3 “Perhaps the beginning of the memories is from before Your Majesty returned to the palace. Oster, that is, the future me, saw that Your Majesty was not normal. Your return to the palace itself was also later than it is now.” Luke, who had returned after rescuing Count Perero, looked quite unwell. According to Philip, who had accompanied him as a guard, Luke had suffered severe internal injuries after accidentally touching a tombstone in the ancient ruins next to the underground prison. He had barely managed to escape, but he was unable to properly suppress the energy that had been absorbed into his body and had fallen unconscious. “That’s right. There was an enormous power called ether in the tombstone, and the moment I touched it, it flowed into me. I came up with a clever plan to calm the rampage, but I miscalculated.” “According to Sir Philip, who carried Your Majesty back, Your Majesty’s guardian amulet shone at the moment when your condition became very dangerous. Thanks to that, you were able to wake up.” ‘I see. So, it wasn’t Karen, but the guardian amulet that Reina gave me that saved me?’ However, the ether’s rampage was so severe that even after using the amulet’s power, the seizures and pain continued. So, even after returning to the palace, he had to recuperate for a long time or ask Reina for help. “The problem is that guy, Hiros.” “Yes, a fight broke out due to his slander and provocation while he was waiting for Your Majesty. And unlike this time, Your Majesty, who was not normal, ended up using dark magic.” However, even then, Luke could not defeat Hiros. Luke, who was defeated by Hiros’s attacks and the coldness of his retainers, was on the verge of death when Ambassador Nanda appeared and took him away. “Naturally, the country was in an uproar. The retainers, feeling betrayed, denounced Your Majesty for deceiving them. Disgusted by that atmosphere, I abandoned my position as the commander of the Royal Knights and went looking for Your Majesty.” “So, did you find me?” “Yes, while I was searching, a dark mage from a place called Dark Moon secretly came and told me that Your Majesty was hiding in Jason Territory.” “Right, the Dark Moon Magic Tower is there.” Hwangbo Seong immediately went to Jason Territory and met Luke. Although his complexion was very pale, he had been able to heal his injuries and calm the unstable ether to some extent with Nanda’s help. “I owe Ambassador Nanda a great debt.” “After that, you contacted the Queen in the Holy Empire through Grand Duke Belik. Despite Grand Duke Gregory’s objections, Her Majesty came directly to Jason Territory to take care of Your Majesty.” However, even after receiving treatment from Nanda and Reina, Luke’s body did not easily recover. That was how bad his condition was. So, Reina secretly traveled back and forth between Jason Territory and the capital, Bless, taking care of Luke diligently. “Meanwhile, a great chaos broke out in the Symphonia Kingdom. Hiros, who had ousted Your Majesty, became king with the support of the retainers, including Duke Hans, but there were many who opposed him.” A representative figure was Belik. Belik defended Luke even after learning that he had learned dark magic. This was because Reina had persuaded him that Luke had not learned dark magic for evil purposes and that the Demon King Seimon was not actually an evil person. “In addition, the military commanders of the provinces, such as the Gram brothers and Marquis Volant, also rebelled. Those who had not directly witnessed the fight between Your Majesty and Hiros thought that a coup had taken place.” “Then there must have been a civil war.” “Yes, Your Majesty tried to resolve it somehow, but it didn’t work out well.” Hiros, who had become the new king, brought a group of people who were loyal to him from somewhere and quickly took control of the Symphonia Kingdom. He suppressed the military commanders who opposed his ascension, abolished the preferential treatment of the fairies, and treated them like slaves. “The retainers who supported him opposed this, but he did not back down. Rather, he framed and executed or exiled the ministers who opposed him.” As a result, Symphonia was never quiet for a single day. It was fortunate that the Baroque Empire was still at war with the Lybia Kingdom; otherwise, Rudolf would have immediately marched his forces down. “But eventually, an external invasion occurred.” “Did Rudolf invade? Or the Grenada Kingdom?” “No. It was the Holy Artenia Empire that invaded.” “The Holy Empire? Why?” Hwangbo Seong, who had been silent for a moment in response to Luke’s question, finally opened his mouth. “Because Your Majesty was assassinated by those sent by Hiros.” “Ha……” Luke, who had been hoping for the best, smiled helplessly at Hwangbo Seong’s words. However, his expression hardened again after hearing the following explanation. “Later, the identities of the assassins were revealed to be remnants of the Veritas Magic Tower. What was surprising was that there was an undead made from Seimon’s corpse among them. Your Majesty died fighting that monster.” ‘I see. So, it was Arsen and the Veritas Magic Tower guys who supported Hiros in becoming king.’ Reina, who had lost her beloved partner, lost her reason. After fasting and wailing for several days and nights, she was consumed by anger and revenge and declared war on the Symphonia Kingdom… no, on Hiros. “That war lasted for over three years. In the end, the Symphonia Kingdom was defeated, and Hiros, who fought against the Holy Empire army until the end, revealed his true colors.” In the joint attack by Grand Duke Gregory and Belik, Hiros seemed to be meeting his end, but he soon transformed into a monster spewing demonic energy. He summoned the Goryoggos [spirit armor], the spirit armor, just like when he was defeated by Luke this time. “While fighting the monster, Grand Duke Belik was killed in action. Grand Duke Gregory, after a hard fight, detonated the core engine of the Gigant [a large mechanical construct] with his divine power, resulting in a mutual destruction with Hiros.” Thus, Hiros was eliminated by Gregory’s sacrifice. The Holy Artenia Empire had won, but it was nothing more than a victory with scars. Not only had the national power, which had been revived by the reform policies, been ruined, but they had also lost Grand Duke Gregory, the pillar that had supported the empire for a long time. As a result, the opposition forces, including Constantine, who had been quietly lying low for a while, rose up again, plunging the Holy Empire into chaos.

“What about Reina? Didn’t she step forward?”