He Became The Most Insane Emperor Of All Time [EN]: Chapter 99

Became the Greatest Crazy Emperor – Chapter 99

[The following conditions must be met to unlock Imperial Soul Stage 2.]

[Contact with Frostfire Mana (Completed)]

[Reach the Frostfire Brazier (In Progress)]

[??? (Condition currently unknown)]

Crackle- Sizzle-

The divine power that had swept away the demons before my eyes lingered, crackling with electricity.

Everyone was stunned by the overwhelming sight, but I was focused on the messages that appeared after the status window.

Imperial Soul Stage 2. As someone who had only unlocked Stage 1, the mere mention of it made my mouth water.

However, I couldn’t figure out what connection Frostfire Mana had with the Imperial Soul to resonate with it.

Well, I don’t need to know the reason, as long as I can complete the conditions and use the power.

“You… I already knew you were a powerful paladin, but this far exceeds my expectations.”

As I was pondering, Caliburn approached and said cautiously.

Neither Igrit nor the others were as shocked or impressed as the rest, but even they were surprised by the previous strike.

“Can you use that multiple times? If so, we could easily reach the brazier.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t use it multiple times in a row.”

Attacks with such great power as before consumed a lot of divine power, and the Imperial Soul was not infinite either.

To be precise, the Imperial Soul had no end, but my soul’s vessel had a limited capacity to handle it.

“Well, if that were possible, you would have founded a nation instead of wandering around.”

“Haha… you’re not wrong.”

It felt a bit strange to hear those words as an emperor already.

“Anyway, thanks to you, getting in won’t be a problem. But still, only the three of us should go in. The others… won’t last long even if they enter.”

Caliburn then ordered his subordinate to establish a defensive line with soldiers and mercenary warriors.

“Also, strengthen the protection of Her Majesty the Queen. I believe it won’t happen… but I can’t trust Vestaltine.”

“Yes, Lord Caliburn. Trust us. And… please return safely. Isborg needs you.”

“…I’ll try my best.”

I could overhear him giving separate instructions to his subordinate.

The reason why only the three of us, me, Igrit, and himself, were going down wasn’t just for safety.

It was probably to keep the Queen’s uncle, who might be targeting the Queen, in check, and at the same time, to leave insurance in Isborg in case of failure.

“Well, it’s time to go down. Are you ready?”

“I should be asking you that. If you’re worried about her, Igrit and I can go down alone.”

“…Thank you for the thought, but I’ll pass. I’m not one to pass on what I have to do to others.”

Caliburn refused at once and took the lead.

I had only known him for a short time, but I shrugged and followed him, knowing that he would do so given his upright nature.

Igrit watched with a ‘That’s Caliburn!’ kind of look and followed.

“The mana is different from here. Surely ordinary people would suffocate from the dense mana.”

“That’s because the brazier is going wild.”

The palace basement was a huge spiral staircase structure with crystal crystals on all sides.

A structure that went down endlessly, with mysterious blue mana emitting heat and rising in the hole surrounded by the center of the stairs.

Surely, at the deepest part below, there would be the Frostfire Brazier, the source of that blue mana.

“We can’t last here forever either. We must recapture the brazier and stabilize it before we suffocate from the mana.”

“But it seems like those friends won’t let us.”

The defensive line at the entrance to the underground was pushed back once, but as soon as we entered the stairs, enemies appeared.

They were the hellfire demons with ominous green light that we had seen before.

But there were also some slightly different guys here and there.

-Gueeeee!

Ziiiiiiii-

A demon with crystals embedded all over its body and blue skin as if it had been discolored by mana.

The guy, with crystals instead of eyes, suddenly fired a beam from the crystal in the eye area.

The beam was aimed at me, but I was able to avoid it by reading the movement in advance with quick reflexes.

Then, the floor where the beam hit turned into crystal.

“I could be in trouble if I’m not careful.”

If you touch the beam, you will be petrified in an instant. It was best not to get hit, as I didn’t know how much I could resist such petrification magic.

The problem was that the demons were still launching a massive attack, and those ‘laser eye’ guys were mixed in, firing deadly petrifying beams.

It was a state where you could die even if you were grazed, but on the other hand, fortunately, we were not so easy to deal with.

“Burn! Weak hum-”

“You’re just the one I needed.”

Thud- Swish!

I quickly stuck to the demons to make it difficult for the beams to target me.

Then, I cut off the neck of one of the demons of the right size and used its body as a shield.

Ziiiiiiii-

Naturally, the demon was hit by the petrifying beam that was targeting me instead.

In the meantime, I grasped the optimal combat path with nerve acceleration and weakness identification ability, and started high-speed movement with maximum output.

Swish! Swish! Slash!

Moving, attacking, and covering were exquisitely done, dodging the beams and slaughtering the demons.

-Gueeek! Gueee…….

Whirly, Crack!

-Kueeek……!

“Five down! Come on! You seeds born into the wrong world!”

Meanwhile, Caliburn was continuing his almost instinctive battle, not fighting while grasping the combat path like me.

He didn’t avoid the beams, but when the prism eye targeted him, his throwing ax was already flying towards the crystal in the eye area.

As the ax flew, the crystal eyeballs were shattered, and in the meantime, Caliburn was rampaging more fiercely, butchering the demons around him like sheep in a slaughterhouse.

The sight of him wielding a huge greatsword savagely showed that he was still a barbarian with a ferocious nature, even though he claimed to be a knight.

Ziiiiiiii!

“Dangerous!”

Crackling-

“Thank you. I owe you one, Igrit.”

But even me and Caliburn couldn’t avoid or prevent all the beams.

Some petrifying beams targeted the blind spot, but each time, Igrit’s ice ability created an ice wall to block the beams instead.

Of course, she, a barbarian warrior, was not only focused on defense, but also actively attacked by freezing and destroying enemies.

Thud! Crack! Slash!

“…That’s the last one. For now.”

“Let’s take a break. It’ll be a problem if we’re too tired to move.”

As we broke through and went down without a word, the demons became sparse and we had time to rest.

Soon, all three of us sat down anywhere and started to rest.

“Caliburn. I want to ask you something.”

“What are you curious about, Igrit?”

Igrit asked Caliburn, who was roughly wiping the blood of the demons, with a slightly anxious look.

“You are a knight of Isborg. But you were a tribesman.”

“That’s right.”

“…Then, do you have no regrets about the tribesmen?”

At Igrit’s question, Caliburn stroked his thick beard as if contemplating for a moment.

“It seems like a question with many implications, but if you’re asking if I miss the days when I was a tribesman, not really.”

“But… surely even here, civilized people will oppress the tribesmen who are their own kind?”

She looked even more anxious when the person she and her tribe worshiped as a god said such a thing.

“Oppression… you could say that. But the tribesmen also attack, plunder, and kill civilized people while talking about tradition, honor, and courage. They even treat the same tribesmen the same way.”

Caliburn’s answer was cynical, but rather than showing hatred or anger towards anything, it was indifferent.

“Civilization or barbarism, such distinctions are meaningless. So I don’t think all tribesmen are my own kind or brothers. That’s probably the same when they look at me.”

“…I see, I understand. Thank you for answering.”

Igrit seemed quite disappointed to hear Caliburn’s answer.

But she didn’t seem to be shaken that much, probably because she didn’t know the situation 3,000 years ago, so she thought it wasn’t the time yet.

“Hey, can I ask you something too?”

“Wow. You’re asking me a lot. Well, I’m in your debt, so ask me anything.”

“How did you become a knight?”

“Ah, is that what you’re curious about? Well, it’s nothing special. I owed my life. To Tiana… that is, the Queen.”

A rare affection appeared on Caliburn’s face when he mentioned the Queen.

But not knowing if he was aware of it, he continued his story.

“When I was young, I lost my family due to tribal disputes. I barely escaped, but I would have died in the snowfield if someone hadn’t found me.”

“Was that the Queen?”

“I was lucky. She was the one who found me, and she was the one who took me in against the opposition.”

Caliburn said that far and seemed to be immersed in the afterglow of memories, but soon shrugged and said.

“That’s all. After that, I somehow got the title of knight. So for the Queen and this city, I must recapture the brazier.”

“That was a good story.”

“Well, let’s move again. I want to hear your stories too, but we don’t have enough time. Let’s hear it when we get back.”

Hmm, well.

If things go well, I’m going to rescue the Wizard Lord and leave here, so I don’t know if I’ll have time to talk.

Of course, telling Caliburn about the 3,000 years later might cause a strange butterfly effect, so I should refrain from it as much as possible.

Anyway, after that, we continued to defeat the demons and go down without hesitation.

It was a huge underground facility large enough to supply mana to the entire city, but the depth itself was not that deep.

Of course, breaking through the countless demons that were rushing in was not easy, but it was not impossible.

“Is this where the brazier is?”

“That’s right. The deepest part of the underground, the Crystal Garden, the sanctuary that houses the brazier.”

As the name Crystal Garden suggests, it was a place where crystal crystals were in full bloom like a flower garden on all sides.

It was not a living flower, but crystals like ice flowers.

But it was more of a creepy sight than a beautiful one.

Because people were trapped in those crystals.

“Welcome, mortals. You foolishly came all the way here.”

And from the center of the garden, where the brazier was, a man was walking.

If you exclude the large crystal embedded in his forehead, he was already a familiar person.

“Wizard Lord… long time no see. Or, is it not him now?”

“Hehehe… are you talking about the original owner of this body? That arrogant wizard has long since surrendered to me.”

“I see. So who are you?”

“If I were to say, I am the great Duke of Hell-”

Whirly! Pow!

“Why are you listening to unnecessary things?”

Before the being who occupied the Wizard Lord’s body could answer, Caliburn’s throwing ax was stuck in his face.

His face was split by the ax and he fell down, and I, who was trying to rescue the Wizard Lord, thought for a moment that things had gone wrong…….

“…Oh, how rude. Even if you put on the facade of a knight, you’re still just a barbarian, the wolf of Isborg.”

……As if he wouldn’t be defeated so easily, the demon appeared elsewhere.

The place where he reappeared was clearly where the crystal with the person trapped was.

“Impudent!”

Once again, Caliburn’s ax flew. Then he transferred to another crystal again.

This time, not only Caliburn, but also me and Igrit each fired aura and cold air to destroy his clone.

“You don’t even give me time to introduce myself? You’re such boring humans.”

“Shut up, there’s no reason to listen to the words of a demon-”

Caliburn’s hand, which was about to throw the ax again, stopped.

“Are you going to kill me too, Caliburn?”

There, instead of the Wizard Lord, was a frail girl with long silver hair.

It was Tatiana, the Queen of Isborg, whom I had seen on the ground.

“Snap out of it, Caliburn!”

Igrit pushed Caliburn, who was넋이 gone [넋이 gone is a Korean expression that means someone is stunned or in a daze] after seeing the appearance changed into the Queen.

No sooner had she done so than a petrifying beam flew from somewhere.

He would have been in danger if it had been a little later.

Slash!

In the meantime, I sprinted at high speed and cut down the one disguised as the Queen.

The neck of the slender girl flew into the sky, but it had already turned into someone else’s neck.

“Hahahaha! Are you starting to have fun? There’s no need to rush, because the show of me, Nabias, the Duke of Hell, is just beginning!”

Along with that, the laughter of a crazy demon was echoing.