Emperor of Steel

“Kukuku! Finally, they moved!”

In the dark sky, Earner was looking at the Yu-dong castle with a wicked smile spread across his face.

In a matter of time, he knew that the Yu-dong castle would fall, just as planned.

Yu-dong was a rare castle fort, which had been attacked by the Song Empire several times over the past hundred years.

However, they never managed to capture the castle because of its close vicinity with the other forts.

From the Song Empire’s point of view, it was known to be the wall of wailing.

However, Yu-dong, who couldn’t get any help from the other forts due to the Kangshi and was nothing but a rat in the cage.

“Right then, should we start playing shogi in earnest now?”

Snap!

When Earner flicked his fingers.

The very moment, sparks began to form in the air, illuminating the darkness on one side.

Gwan-chang, who saw that, gave orders to the Song Empire.

“All! Full speed ahead!”

“Attack!”

Dum! Dum! Dum! Dum!

“Woahhhh-!”

As the drums were sounded, the announcement for the advance fell, Song Army which was waiting in the darkness, began to flock towards Yu-dong castle like a swarm of ants.

The number of troops was more than what the Yemaek dealt with in the morning.

All of the 600,000 troops attacked at once.

Thud! Thud! Thump! Thump!

At the lead of the Song Army, were Gigants which fled in the day.

Their goal was to break the gates and open the path for the troops.

“The steel giants are coming!”

“Attack! Attack!”

Kwang! Bang! Kwang! Bang!

To stop the Gigant, the cannons on the wall were used right away.

However, it was night time, it caused limited visibility, and because of that, the Gigants managed to walk past them without any effort.

Eventually, some of the Gigants who arrived at the gate, broke down the gate with the war hammer in their hands.

“We-we are in trouble!”

“Stop them! Stop them at all the costs!”

The officers and the soldiers who guarded the walls were shouting on top of their voices.

In a hurry to defend their castle, they went out and placed the Three-layered Shield right behind the castle gate.

But they didn’t think that it would stop the steel giant.

“Kukuku. Do they think that it can stop us?”

“Their courage is sure nice to see, but we need to move ahead!”

Not surprisingly, the mercenary riders approached the line and swung their arms at the shield. They began throwing away the shield as the men kept the shield on.

“Agh!”

“Cough!”

“Kuk. Stupid men! Do they even know why the Gigants are known as the core weapons of war?”

“Even a thousand of you men would be useless in front of us!”

The mercenary riders began to run wild trying to erase the bad name they had accumulated in the day.

At that moment, the gate was about to break completely.

“How dare you!”

They soon heard the terrifying voice from the inside of the castle, and lightning fell from the sky.

Grrrng!

“Ugh! Be careful everyone!”

Getting hit once, the riders began to turn scared and scattered back.

However, they were slow compared to the Thunder Sword skill and ended up breaking.

Pung!

“Woah! Princess!”

“Princess So-hye, long live!”

When she appeared, the morale of the Yemaek army rose rapidly.

Aiming her sword at the Song army, who flocked right outside the castle gates, So-hye said.

“As long as I am in here, you won’t be able to take a single step inside!”

“Uh, is that really so?”

In the air, the voice of a wicked man laughed at So-hye’s declaration.

“Who are you? Identify yourself right now!”

At the voice of her shouting, a man appeared in the dark sky.

He was Earner, who looked very much like a young man.

“KiKiki! I heard that Yemaek’s princess was really good at using zen skills, but seems like words do your skills no justice.”

Princess So-hye frowned at the gloomy energy the man’s body was giving out.

“By any chance, were you the one who made the giant corpse doll with the Kangshi?”

“Yes. The world calls me Earner!”

“Ea-earner!”

A feeling of astonishment showered over the mind of princess So-hye.

That was how high the man was known for his notoriety.

Earner.

In the Southern Continent, there was no person who wouldn’t know about him.

It was because rumors blew up all over the nations about the crazy man who had superior ability and was thought to be the descendant of Kwi Gok-mun.

Five years back, he became famous for his act of saying that he would offer 100,000 gold crowns for the Song Empire.

However, the same crazy man had appeared alongside the Song Empire on the battlefield to fight the Yemaek!

So-hye’s face went stiff.

It wasn’t simply because of his name.

It was because the opponent seemed to be a lot stronger at using zen skill than her.

Fear inside her urged her to escape, but she couldn’t step back.

‘If I retreat now, the iron giants can’t be stopped!’

If that happened, the gates would open, and the Song army would take over.

‘I need to stop them at all costs!’

Once Yu-dong gets captured, the nation would fall.

There were other forts and castles, but they didn’t have the power to stop the Song army.

So-hye, who was determined to stop them, looked at Earner.

“You are the lunatic! Earner. Fine. I guess I need to get rid of you too.”

“Hahhha! What did you say? You will get rid of me?”

“Right. Bringing out the dead from their sleep and using them as weapons! I will never forgive you for that!”

She was angry.

Being a zen skill user meant one should understand the reason for everything in the world, and the use of strength for a better world.

There were a lot of selfish men who always chase to try to satisfy their own greed.

However, Earner was a person who committed evil deeds that wouldn’t come under the category of greed.

There was no way she could ever forgive someone who carried out the tasks of apostasy under the name of the zen skill.

Getting rid of her worries, she could only feel anger rise in her, which allowed her to have the first one to attack Earner.

Biting her little finger till she bled, she wrote letters on the talisman and blew it into the air.

“Divine being, phantom of heavens! Pity the girl and defeat the ungodly one. Thunder Sword!”

Grrrrng! Krrrrrng!

As the talisman kept burning, countless numbers of lightning formed in the sky and flew right at Earner.

It was the most powerful offensive attack among all the Thunder Sword Zen skills she had.

Each of the lightning was strong enough to nearly take down Gigants.

“Oh my! Seeing you use Zen skill, you seem quite good.”

Despite the countless lightning flashes flying at him, Earner still had a smile on his face.

“However, this won’t be enough to stop me!”

As soon as the lightning reached him, Earner took out a vial from his sleeve and shook it.

Swoosh!

Something amazing happened.

All the lightning which were supposed to hit Earner was sucked into the vial.

“Th-that can’t be!”

“Kukuku. It is possible because this is the Chaos Vial, a technique created by the founder of Apostasy 5,000 years back. It has the ability to absorb all the zen attacks.”

As Earner smirked through his explanation, So-hye went stiff.

Earner laughed looking at her.

“And, it doesn’t just have the ability to absorb it, but also to return it back, stronger too!”

Kwrrrrrrng!

The lightning from the Chaos Vial went right for So-hye.

Strong lightning which looked like dragons rather than swords illuminated the entire Yu-dong castle as if it was day.

The shock waves and the roaring sounds blew away the roof tiles and muted the screams from the soldiers on both sides.

“Kuk…! I won’t stand against that!”

If such a strong attack hit the castle, the entire castle, the gate, and the walls surrounding it would be destroyed.

However, Princess So Hye decided to endure it.

She was already out of zen energy.

“Oh, I guess you need to stand because you are the princess of the nation.”

When Earner was making fun of her, he tried to get close to her slowly, So-hye disappeared from his eyesight.

‘What just?’

When Earner was shocked.

F*ck!

A blade pierced from his chest.

Somehow, So-hye managed to appear behind him and stabbed Earner in his heart with a sword.

Earner fell down vomiting blood and grabbing himself in pain.

“Th-that was surprising. Already for this… kuk! To learn the art of teleportation?!”

“It was because you were too arrogant.”

“Nope, the arrogant one is you.”

The moment he said that, the face of Earner who was in pain, went back to his normal sly expression.

‘A trap?’

The moment when doubt took over So-hye’s mind, she felt tremendous heat in her palm.

So-hye looked over at her hand which seemed like it was on fire.

When she saw it, the sword in her hand was burning and melting down!

“Ack!”

Hurriedly, she removed her hands from the sword and stepped back.

Earner turned himself into a giant dragon and rushed.

Wheing!

If she was attacked when he was still in the dragon form, her entire body would be incinerated.

So-hye hurriedly tried to bring every last zen energy in her body to perform another teleportation.

Thanks to that, she managed to avoid the attack from Earner.

However, Earner, who went back to his human form, appeared very close to her and grabbed her by the neck.

“Kuak!”

“What should I do now, princess? Should I crush your neck bone that I feel? Or should I pop the brains out of that pretty head? How should I kill you to make the Yemaek troops feel depressed and worthless?”

“You bastard!”

Those words weren’t from So-hye.

It was the voice of a young man filled with anger.

Earner turned to the source of the voice and seemed shocked looking at the person standing there.

“Oh, who could this be?! The traitor prince, Jo Won-rak, right?!”

“Shut up! Let the princess go right away!”

Jo Won-rak aimed his bow at Earner and snarled.

Zegal Hui and his other escorts scattered all over the place trying to fight the Kangshi, so they couldn’t help him.

That didn’t mean that he had any special skills.

Nevertheless, Jo Won-rak had no intention of backing off.

He didn’t want to be the man who runs away leaving his companion in danger.

Even if it meant that he was about to die with her.

“Tch Tch, just goodwill doesn’t help anyone.”

After throwing away So-hye, Earner rushed towards Jo Won-rak.

However, the moment his hand reached for Jo Won-rak’s neck, a sharp sword cut his hand.

Slash!

“Kuk! Wh-who was that bastard?!”

“If you look around with goodwill, some person will be ready to give you their strength.”

Earner who recognized the voice frowned deeply.

He knew that the person would come.

But the man arrived a lot earlier than expected.

“Luke de Rakan…!”

Earner grinds his teeth, spitting out the man’s name.

The descendant of a warrior who was supposed to be in the Northern continent and governed his Symphonia Kingdom.

The tip of his sword which appeared in the darkness was pointed at Earner.