Emperor of Steel

‘Huh, did I win?’

Luke sighed as he watched Gorgos disappear.

The previous attack wasn’t just a simple blow.

He used every bit of his Divine power and amplified it with the Core engine of Avenger and then attacked.

That was why he had saved his Divine power and waited till the end to use it

Although he succeeded in attacking, Luke was stiff instead of being delighted.

He knew that Arsene would die from that attack.

‘Arsene is a Lich. As long as I don’t destroy the vessel that is hidden somewhere, he will keep coming back.’

Even if it meant destroying the current body he was using, for Arsene, his body was nothing more than a Gigant.

“Master, have we done it?”

“I think so… But I can’t assure anything yet.”

Luke recalled a time when he fought with Arsene in the Zegal clan.

Even then, Luke had used the strongest attack he could.

Arsene’s body got recovered even after Gorgos was destroyed.

‘But it was an attack with Divine power. It has an upper hand over dark magic. Could this time be different?’

Luke was hoping for his expectation to be right.

It would have been the worst if the Lich recovered right away.

At any rate, Luke didn’t try to overthink things and stared at the place where Gorgos fell.

A minute had passed and then 5, yet nothing happened.

‘Maybe Arsene’s body has completely disappeared.’

The moment Luke felt relived, Hwang Bo-sung yelled.

“M-master! Your feet!”

“What about my feet…?”

Luke looked down at the feet of Avenger and was shocked.

Starting from Avenger’s feet, its legs were turning black.

Kiiing!

Luke hurriedly released his Gold aura by amplifying it using Avenger’s Core engine to spread the aura around the body of Avenger.

He tried to shake off the dark magic. However, it didn’t seem to work.

Rather, it was spreading even faster and the Gigant was eroding.

“Wh-what is this?”

“Kul. Kul. Ku! Thought. I. would. Die. So. Easily?”

An unpleasant voice could be heard from Avenger’s leg.

“Arsene?”

“Yes. It. Is. Me! I. will. Swallow. Your. Gigant!”

Shortly after being attacked with the Divine power, Arsene’s body along with Gorgos was turned into powder.

Arsene’s Undead body couldn’t be recovered that easily as the attack was of Divine power, the only attribute his body couldn’t take.

As a result, Arsene decided to give up and retreat.

‘But I can’t just go back like this!’

His body had the essence of dark magic, which he had gathered for 500 years.

Even if his body was destroyed, he wanted to be the one to take Luke’s life.

Instead of using the power in him to restore his body, Arsene scattered his body and hid under the shadow of Avenger.

While Luke was preoccupied with the decomposition of Gorgos, Arsene swiftly moved and clung to Avenger.

“Nonsense. How can the Gigant…?!”

When Luke started to panic, Arsene’s voice, which was filled with ridicule, spoke to him, “Kul. Kul. Kuk! Do. You. See. This. As. Impossible? You. Hold. The. Legacy. Of. Saymon. Right? The magic. Applied. On. A. Gigant. Can. Bond with. Dark. Magic.”

‘T-that means…!’

As Arsene said, the Gigant was a structure that was based on the Battle Golem model that Luke had created when he was still Saymon 500 years ago.

It was made of white magic and not dark magic of the current times. Its structure had been evolved over time, yet the most basic form of it hadn’t been changed.

Due to the dark magic, Arsene was able to make the Gigant erode.

Of course, in return, Arsene had to give up his body that held dark magic, yet he decided that it wasn’t a huge loss if it meant taking away Luke’s life.

‘No, if I can control this one’s body than erode it…!’

If that could happen, Symphonia would just be under him, and the entire continent of Rhodesia, including the Holy Empire would be under his feet.

He couldn’t help but smile when he thought of deceiving the people using the descendant of the Warrior.

“Master! Please escape!”

“Kuek, the hatch won’t open!”

Arsene had completely eroded the Core engine as well as Avenger’s armor.

Naturally, Avenger was no longer under the control of Luke.

The cockpit was turning dark and the hatch didn’t open. Luke was puzzled.

“Kul. Kul. Kuk. Will. You. Give. Up. Now… Huh?”

Flash!

Arsene had used the Anti-cancel and the Anti-magic magic around the cockpit to make sure that Luke wouldn’t escape from the Gigant using Teleport or Blink.

However, when Luke was able to break the hatch, Arsne was shocked.

‘Kuk, he still has this much power left?’

‘Damn, getting Avenger stolen is the worst thing that could happen!’

Luke, who barely escaped, looked at Avenger in dismay.

As it was his very own Gigant, he had only used the best materials and applied the latest magic engineering in it.

Avenger had the latest core engine with the output of 4,000 fight and the Iron Core he had brought from the Southern Continent.

It also had a linked Helm that was connected to the mind of the riders.

There was no Gigant in the Symphonia Kingdom that was stronger than Avenger.

It was safe to say that no Gigant in Rhodesia Continent was stronger than Avenger.

“Huh! This. Is. Similar. To. Atlas. But. Did. You. Steal. This. From. My magic. Tower?”

At the question from Arsene who had been examining the structure of Avenger, Luke asked, “Didn’t you also steal the research data of Saymon?”

“What?”

“Master, hurry and call the Gigant from the subspace!”

Hwang Bo-sung said, moving his Puppet to block Luke.

It was because he felt that fighting with a Gigant seemed more advantageous in terms of defense and offense than one’s bare body.

Luke’s subspace always held an emergency Gigant—a Knight class Gigant called Gaius.

Although it wasn’t as great as Avenger, it had its own skills.

‘What to do? I got stuck in this emergency. If one doesn’t have teeth, he should at least try to bite with his gums.’

Right when Luke tried to open his subspace bracelet, Arsene shielded himself from Hwang Bo-sung’s attacks and used Dark Blitz on Luke.

Pung! Ping! Ping!

‘Kukk. I can’t let annoying things happen!’

Arsene had already lost once and didn’t want to take another chance by giving Luke the time to prepare.

To keep Luke on his toes, Dark Blitz was more than enough.

Amplifying the core engine of Avenger, the Dark Blitz was shot toward Luke.

Due to that, rather than summoning a Gigant, Luke hurriedly tried to avoid the attack.

“He is like a monster!”

Hwang Bo-sung, who saw the plight of his Master, jumped in.

He didn’t want Arsene to attack Luke.

However, Arsene didn’t seem to know his intentions.

Rather than responding to Hwang Bo-sung’s attack toward him, Arsene avoided Hwang Bo-sung and focused on attacking Luke.

That ended up creating a funny situation.

Hwang Bo-sung attacked Arsene unilaterally, and Arsene attacked Luke in the same way as well.

However, no one was able to overpower each other.

‘How should I deal with this annoying man from the Southern Continent?’

Arsene was contemplating the different methods he could try to get out of the mess.

Of course, it wasn’t his intention to turn his attention to the Puppet and turn it into ashes since that would end up giving Luke a chance to summon his spare Gigant.

However, Avenger seemed to be in a much worse condition than he thought.

In its battle against Gorgos, some of Avenger’s joints and internal parts got damaged.

‘It won’t be favorable for a Gigant battle… Right, that one!’

Arsene, who was in thought, soon came up with a solution.

He deliberately created a gap.

Hwang Bo-sung, who wasn’t aware of Arsene’s intentions, struck a blow.

Kwang!

The Avenger, which had been struck by the Trinity punch caused a huge explosion.

Hwang Bo-sung, who was trying to attack, stopped.

The right hand of the Puppet turned dark as if it had been dipped in ink.

“T-this is…!”

“Kul. Kul. Kul. You will. Also. End. Up. Like. Your. Master!”

Arsene deliberately allowed Hwang Bo-sung to attack him.

Due to the difference in the structure, he wasn’t able to take over the Puppet. Even then, it was enough to create panic in Hwang Bo-sung’s heart.

“You coward!”

Hwang Bo-sung used his left hand to cut off the right hand of the Puppet.

Seeing that, Arsene smiled.

“Discard. It! Would. You. Cut. Off. The legs. Too?”

Pung! Ping!

Dark spears, which were released by Arsene, hit the knees of the Puppet.

The Puppet, whose legs were smashed, fell to the ground helplessly.

Arsene, who saw the Puppet got smashed, laughed at Luke.

“Kay. Now. That. The troublesome. Man. Is down. The. One. Left. To kill. Is. Luke. De. Rakan!”

He ran toward Luke like the wind.

Thanks to the time that Hwang Bo-sung had given him, Luke managed to open his subspace bracelet.

However, he couldn’t summon Gaius yet.

‘Damn it! If only I had a little more time…!’

He regretted the delay in his actions and avoided the attacks from Arsene instead of summoning the Gigant.

It was because if he let himself get attacked by the Gigant, his body wouldn’t be able to take it.

Rushing over to a defensive stance, Luke began to think about how to overcome the difficult situation he was in.

However, he couldn’t find any clear solution just yet, and that made his expression gradually harden.