Emperor of Steel

Kung! Grrrng!

“What? What is this?”

“Earth- An earthquake! Get to safety!”

The mana’s fluctuations were so strong and getting stronger that the ground began to crack.

Count Rolex and the other wizards were surprised at the changes and took a few steps back from the center.

‘This, this is surely…’

The Iron Knights who were in charge of guiding them recalled the time when Ferrero appeared from the tunnel of light.

It was the same situation, however, this time it was a lot more intense.

The trees around were collapsing and the ground shook.

Woong!

After a while, the tremors which seemed to have destroyed everything around subsided, the center began to show a tunnel of light.

“That is it! Count Ferrero came from that!”

“What?”

At the words of the knight, Count Rolex couldn’t believe it.

According to the Emperor’s words and his vision of the Imperial Palace, all those in the underground ruins were told to be gone.

Moreover, it was difficult to think that someone would have entered the dungeon as the exit had collapsed.

‘Then, where is this connected to?’

When Count Rolex was puzzled, someone slowly walked out of the tunnel of light.

He seemed to be a southerner with long hair and beard.

‘Southern Continent man?’

Count Rolex was shocked.

He thought that it could be some guys from the Libiya special forces who infiltrated their ruins, but a sudden appearance of Southerner only confused him more.

He who had numerous scars on her face and a prosthetic right arm was holding a silver-haired girl who was asleep.

“Who are you?”

“Where did you come from?! Answer me!”

The knights jumped at the man and pointed their swords at the southerner.

The man was looking around at the place, he looked at the knights, the words engraved on their armor and laughed.

“Kuakk, hahhhha!”

“What, what is with the old man? Him laughing is getting on my nerves!”

“He isn’t retarded, right?”

The wounds on his neck seemed to have hit his vocal cords.

Count Rolex asked his guards to hurry for the man.

“Capture him! Don’t kill him!”

He had to figure out how that man had appeared from that tunnel.

At the command of Rolex, the knights approached the elderly southerner.

They were all confident in their skills, however, they were aware of the many different kinds of fighting techniques that southerners used.

“Do not resist. Follow the instructions and gently…”

Puhk!

As soon as the knight reached out to the steel prosthetic hand, the knight disappeared.

He punched the knight, which made him fly distantly.

It was evident from the knight’s bloody body that fell on the ground that he died on the spot.

“Dammit, this man!”

“Attack him! All we need to do is stop him!”

The knights who were angry yelled.

However, the movement of the elderly was much faster than the sword the knights wielded.

Each time the steel prosthetic moved up, down, left or right, a body of the knight flew or collapsed with limbs bent.

‘Fist Master!’

A skill which could be compared to that of a Sword Master.

Count Rolex, who recognized the man’s skills, hurriedly used magic.

He believed that his magic could hold down the man who was creeping everyone out with his Fist Master skills.

But the changes in the man’s movements were quicker than Rolex’s thoughts.

Quickly holding the girl in his arms tightly, he punched three times at Rolex and the wizards.

Rolex was amazed at the force in which the fist came.

‘What was that, a strike with aura?’

Grrr!

A shock wave with powerful lightning flew with the sound of a thunder.

Startled at the force, Count Rolex immediately nullified the Press spell and went for Shield magic.

Kang!

“Kuak!”

Wizards who responded slowly or outside the scope of Rolex turned into ashes.

“Kuak! How is this…?!”

Rolex ended up throwing up blood.

He thought that it would be easy to stop an attack from a Fist Master since he was an 8th circle wizard.

But being pushed like that meant that the elderly man was much stronger than him.

‘Fist Master? No, he must be Fist Sage!’

Rolex was screaming inside when he was preparing for the next attack.

He could end up getting his bones bent, so he tried to do his best.

However, the next attack didn’t come.

As soon as he looked at the man, he couldn’t find him anywhere. He could find no trace of the man walking away or where he went.

‘What?’

With a bright expression on his face, Rolex hurriedly brought out the magic communication device to report to the Emperor.

The emergence of someone new and strong had appeared in the Baroque Empire, and that was the priority.

At the meeting point of the south of Nemesis, Luke and his party met and hurried to get to the Symphonia Kingdom.

“Although not as much as the southwest road to the Libiya Kingdom, the southern highway passes through the Baroque Empire. Yet, with just slight suspicion arising on us, we will get arrested right away.”

Philip nodded as soon as Henry spoke.

“We need to go across the mountain or forest.”

“Yes, but if we are moving there, we’ll get noticed, so it will be better to move into different groups.”

Henry, who handed the information, returned to Nemesis with 3rd group.

The plan continued to spy the Baroque Empire for the future time.

Based on the information Henry gave them, the party headed for Symphonia Kingdom.

Avoiding the Baroque Empire army, they used the trails in the mountains and rested during the days and moved during the night.

Belfair transformed into a bat and led the party while looking ahead for enemies or obstacles.

It was on the third day of their movement to the south.

They rested in an unknown forest.

“Haa, what is this…?”

“That is right. I never thought that His Majesty would turn out like this.”

The knights looked at Luke and couldn’t believe their eyes, they saw Luke who was unconscious on the stretcher.

Honestly, the operation was a success.

To draw out the attention, the 3rd group carried out their acts of terrorism in Nemesis, and the 2d group which picked Count Ferrero’s family completed the mission without any casualties.

However, the problem was with the 1st group, in which everyone was considered to be the strongest.

Luke touched the monument and fell into slumber.

“Why isn’t he awake yet?”

At the question of Scarlet, Erwin who was looking at Luke’s body sighed out of frustration.

“I am not sure. He hasn’t gone any better despite the fact that I am using healing magic since the moment we got here.”

Sometimes, Knights and wizards come across the mana runaway.

It didn’t matter if one would learn to control the runaway themselves, but in severe cases, the person’s consciousness would be lost.

However, even in those cases, the outstanding wizard or priest could overcome the crisis.

It was because of their auras or mana rattle with divine magic or healing magic so their situation could be stabilized.

However, the condition seemed to be different with Luke.

Even though Erwin had been healing Luke for a dozen times, his body didn’t seem to accept it.

The mana treatments wasn’t getting absorbed into the body, but rather, it was bouncing off.

‘There is a little which might bet taken in, but…’

The energy arousing from Luke’s body resembled a light fresh green hue which was the same as Zenith village.

The energy which felt from Princess Reina, on her first visit.

‘Holy Pope is said to have the power of Aether. But does Aether harm people? And did His Majesty get Aether from some place? Was it the monument in the underground ruins?’

When Erwin was thinking about all those, Scarlet seemed worried.

“Of course, we are not going back like this, right?”

While she was mumbling, Philip jumped up.

“Lady Scarlet, how can you be so disrespectful? Should I tell his Majesty everything once he wakes up?”

“Ah, no I just…”

When Scarlet was answering, Philip turned towards Erwin and asked.

“Court Wizard, is there really no other way to wake up His Majesty?”

After thinking, Erwin spoke drawing out her conclusions.

“Maybe Princess Reina, no, well maybe it will be possible for the Pope.”

“I guess so. With the power of the Queen…”

Reina was the Pope of the Holy Arthenia Empire, the best divinity power on the continent of Rhodesia.

Honestly, the source of the divine power was Aether, but Philip, who didn’t know such details, thought that she might be the only one to awaken Luke who fell into slumber.

“Then we should head back to Symphonia as soon as possible.”

To call Reina who was in the Holy Empire, and the only place they could use the long-distance teleport gate.

Otherwise, for her to reach Symphonia would take more than two weeks.

Currently, there were 4 long-distance teleport gates in the Symphonia Kingdom. Rakan manor, Lamer city, Albertville Estates, and the Capital, Brandon.

The first three were made before the founding, and the gate in Brandon was previously half-built by the Milton Kingdom’s king, and Luke completed them after his coronation.

The closest gate to the group was in Brandon.

‘Honestly, Nemesis is much closer than that, but in this situation, it is like entering the Dragon’s lair…’

Whatever was the case, Philip urged the party to start moving.

It took a while to move since the family of Count Ferrero seemed exhausted, but they didn’t seem to talk about it.

However, when everyone was about to start.

Luke’s body which was on the stretcher began to shake.

“Ma, Majesty?!”

While Philip and Erwin panicked, Luke opened his eyes.

A grey ominous light was flowing out of his body which had been lying still till then.