He Became The Most Insane Emperor Of All Time [EN]: Chapter 96

“I appreciate you thinking so highly of me, but asking someone like me, who leads a force, for such a favor is a bit much.”

They know me as ‘Shadow,’ not the Emperor, but even as Shadow, I’m essentially the leader of the Western Knights, which is practically a country in itself.

Asking the head of such a force to casually head into a death trap is beyond brazen.

“Of course, we’re not asking for a free favor. If you save the Wizard Lord, we’re willing to pay any price.”

“You’ll have to prepare a very large reward. The price for my help is very high.”

Since I’m doing someone else a favor, I have no intention of doing it for free.

Of course, the Wizard Lord might be useful, and the arcane maze going berserk could be a disaster for the empire, so I’d have to help eventually.

But even so, I needed to make a show of it.

“Of course. Don’t worry about the reward.”

The high-ranking mage, a close aide to the Wizard Lord, repeatedly expressed his gratitude.

The reward I’m promised will be a useful bargaining chip after saving the Wizard Lord.

“I want to help with that too.”

Then, Igrit, who had been silently following me, spoke up.

She had been listening to the conversation and suddenly offered to help.

“There’s no need for you to get involved in this, is there?”

Igrit accompanied me to the Magic Tower city, but as she came because of the Northern Territory’s affairs, she had no obligation to help with this.

“A powerful challenge awaits beyond this maze. My warrior’s spirit is whispering to me.”

She spoke with something akin to religious fervor.

I didn’t see any lies in her eyes, but I didn’t naively believe her either.

She might be trying to put me in debt to her regarding the Northern Territory’s affairs.

“Whatever. As long as you can withstand the maze, you can come along. Just don’t hold me back.”

“Those are my words.”

She might have ulterior motives, but I didn’t refuse.

Even if I prefer to do things myself, there’s no reason to turn down help I can get.

Of course, Igrit might not be safe, but she volunteered, so she has to take care of herself.

“Then you two will be going in. Take this with you. It’s an artifact that can track the Wizard Lord’s location.”

The high-ranking mage handed me a magical artifact similar to a compass. Unlike a compass, it didn’t point to the North and South poles, but just had an arrow pointing in one direction.

“Can I definitely find him if I follow this?”

“Probably… I think so.”

“…You don’t sound too sure? Well, whatever. I understand your situation now.”

Perhaps they don’t know everything about the maze either.

At this point, I wondered if this was a trap to get rid of me using the maze, but that seemed unlikely.

The maze was actually going berserk, and the battle earlier didn’t seem like a fake act at all.

Rather, the mages seemed desperate all the time.

“Then I’ll open the door to the maze. It’s dangerous, so I can only open it for a short time. If you want to change your mind… now is your last chance.”

Neither I nor Igrit changed our minds at his last words.

“Open the door to the Arcane Maze!”

The Wizard Lord’s aide, who seemed slightly relieved at our resolve, began to open the maze’s door with his fellow mages using their magical powers.

The door, which had only opened a small gap due to the rampage, opened wider, and beyond it, I could see a maze with dreamy blue magical energy flowing through it.

“I’ll enter.”

Without hesitation, Igrit and I stepped through the door.

“It’s called the Arcane Maze, but it’s more like a library.”

That was my immediate impression upon seeing the other side of the maze.

It was naturally so, as the place was filled with bookshelves that seemed to fill every space.

“These books are all magic tomes.”

“Can you use magic?”

“No, a warrior doesn’t rely on weak methods like magic.”

…That’s a warrior-like thing to say, but considering she used cold energy as if it were no different from magic, it felt a bit like a double standard.

“…Well, neither of us has any talent for magic, so I have no right to say anything. Anyway, these are all magic tomes.”

It seemed the rumors that the maze was a treasure trove of magic weren’t lies.

Of course, I have no talent for magic, so it would be difficult to use the magic tomes even if I saw them.

“Can’t we take them and sell them? I’m sure the mages would buy them at a high price.”

“You’re so materialistic for an emperor.”

“I’m materialistic because I’m an emperor.”

How much money do you need to run a country? Of course, an emperor has to be materialistic.

So, I justified taking these magic tomes and selling them as being for the sake of the empire, and picked up a book from a nearby bookshelf.

Crack!

“Whoa!”

Thud! Tap tap tap tap!

Then, the book revealed hidden teeth and tried to bite me.

Fortunately, I avoided being bitten by quickly throwing the book away.

“These magic tomes have unstable magic cast on them. They can’t be taken easily.”

“…I guess if they could, the mages would have taken them all already.”

If the mages all came in together and took some measures, they might be able to take them or study them, but that’s impossible now.

“Let’s hurry up and find the Wizard Lord.”

I decided to stop looking around and took out the magic tracking artifact I had received earlier.

Following the direction the arrow pointed, I began to walk through the maze-like library with Igrit.

“Enemies are coming.”

And before long, we encountered the dangers that roamed this maze.

The first ones we encountered were the mana devourers we had seen outside the arcane maze.

“They’re coming from all directions.”

“Run without stopping so we don’t get surrounded.”

“I was planning to do that anyway.”

Fwoosh-

Whoosh-

I immediately activated Mana Severance, while Igrit imbued her rune sword with cold energy.

And both she and I, without waiting for the other, rushed in the direction the mana tracking tool was pointing.

Swish! Thwack!

The formless mana devourers lashed out with long arms made of mana like whips or extended them like blades.

The attacks were so threatening that they could cut through even the thick armor of the Magic Tower guards, so defense was virtually impossible.

I avoided them with quick movements using high-speed movement and neural acceleration.

Slice! Slash!

And in an instant, I rushed to the front of the monsters and slashed them with Mana Severance.

“Kalibaaaaaaaaal!”

On the other hand, Igrit didn’t evade and charged straight through.

Normally, she should have been cut by the mana devourer’s attacks that seemed to ignore physical force, but thick ice had formed on her body like armor.

The ice was being broken instead of her body by the mana devourers’ attacks.

Ignoring the attacks in that way, she wielded her rune sword and danced like a possessed person, slicing up the mana devourers.

“This way!”

“Be careful!”

Whoosh!

“Whoa! Even the magic tomes are acting up!”

In addition to the mana devourers, the magic tomes on the surrounding bookshelves were also unleashing unstable magic in surprise attacks.

Deadly flames or electric currents flashed from time to time, a mana hole that sucked in anything appeared, and conversely, a rift that endlessly spewed out mana devourers was also created.

“There’s no end to this, are we even going the right way?”

“If this is pointing in the right direction!”

[Imperial Soul Stage 1 Unlocked]

[Mana Heart Output Deployed 250%]

I had been running and breaking through for about 30 minutes without rest, but no exit was in sight.

The number of mana devourers chasing or encountering us was increasing, so I had to draw out the Imperial Soul.

Since I drew it out, I decided to buy some time with a big blast.

Whoooooosh-

Aura with the properties of mana severance flowed clearly on the silver holy sword.

When I slammed the holy sword, which was crackling with electricity, into the ground, a dazzling flash of lightning struck.

Fwoosh!

Soon, a sound similar to birds flapping their wings, a sound similar to electricity crackling, spread out in all directions.

Then, all kinds of mana devourers that were spread out in all directions were swept away by the storm.

“Unbelievable power…”

Igrit, who endured the storm of mana by creating an ice barrier, was amazed as she looked at the surroundings that had been cleared.

“Hurry! We’ve only bought some time!”

But there was not much time to spare.

Due to the nature of this twisted space made of mana, it was obvious that mana devourers would soon chase us again.

I urged Igrit and rushed forward.

“…! I see a door up ahead!”

“I see it too!”

And beyond the maze of bookshelves that I thought would never end, I saw a door wrapped in bluish mana.

At the same time, a tremendous number of mana devourers were rushing in from all directions again.

Without thinking, Igrit and I hurried to the door.

When I reached the door, I opened it without hesitation.

Thud-

Whoooooosh-

What I saw as soon as I opened the door was a gust of wind.

I could only see white snowflakes, but it was completely unrelated to this place similar to a library, so I stared blankly for a while even with the door open.

“Is this the right way?”

“There’s no time to hesitate!”

I suspected that the mana tracking tool the mages gave me was defective, but as Igrit said, there was no time to hesitate.

I couldn’t endlessly fight the endlessly swarming mana devourers, so I had no choice but to go here.

“There’s no other way!”

I immediately went through the door, and Igrit soon followed.

Just before the swarm of mana devourers could pounce, the door to the arcane maze closed.

When Igrit and I came out of there, the portal that had been made in the form of a door closed.

“The way back is gone. I hope we can find a way for the Wizard Lord to return.”

Of course, it was questionable whether we could save the Wizard Lord, whose whereabouts were unknown, but the immediate priority was to find out where this snowy place was.

“This is… the North.”

“The North? Well, I guess you can only see this much snow in the Northern Territory.”

I had never been to the Northern Territory, but I knew that there was no place other than the Northern Territory where you could see such overwhelmingly huge snow mountains.

“No, this isn’t the Northern Territory yet.”

“What do you mean? Not yet?”

“Look over there.”

Igrit pointed to one place with her rune sword.

“That is…”

Among the vast snowfields, I could see a mirage-like sight.

A huge ice wall that reflected the sunlight brilliantly on the slopes of the snow mountain.

Above the ice wall, a transparent ice dome covered the entire city like a snow globe, and I could see a city shining like a jewel.

“Isborg, the frozen city. A city in the northern legends that is said to have been destroyed 3,000 years ago.”

As she said, this was not the Northern Territory yet.

This was in the past, before the empire was even created.