Emperor of Steel

Kukkk, Kuuuu…

A dozen zombies were wandering around in a small village with 20 houses.

Normally, there would have been a lot more than that, but since Constantine had called for the zombies to enter Bremen, the number of houses became less in the village.

When Luke and Constantine appeared, the zombies rushed toward them.

“Hold!”

Once Luke tied up the zombies to prevent them from moving anymore closer to them, he looked at Constantine and said, “Okay then, I held them back, so do your thing.”

At Luke’s words, Constantine approached the nearest zombie and showed his power.

Wooong!

A cloudy light shone from his hand and spread around the zombie.

Right then, the rotten flesh on him began to regenerate.

The color of his body turned back to normal, and his eyes, which lost its light, came back to life.

The zombie turned back to human.

“Eh? I-I… What just…?”

“Rejoice. You have been saved by the disciple of God!”

Constantine spoke with a stern face to the person who was confused.

‘Huh, even in such a situation, he still tries to trick people.’

Luke could feel his anger rising in him, yet he left Constantine alone.

Instead, he took a closer look at the sight of how the zombies were being turned back.

He tried to use magnifying magic as much as he could and saw things he hadn’t seen before.

The sight of parasites coming out of the zombies.

The parasites, which moved out of its hosts’ body, quickly ended up dying as soon as they came out of them.

‘Now I see. The parasites moved in water, but now that they have been exposed to air, they are dying.’

When Luke confirmed the treatment method, Luke took a closer look at Constantine’s power.

‘He didn’t receive the real power of God, yet it isn’t the dark magic that uses Magi.’

Magi wasn’t an energy that could be used by anyone.

The reason why the warlocks were able to deal with Magi was because they studied dark magic for a long time, or they signed a contract with the demons.

Moreover, Magi and Divine power contradicted each other.

If Arsene had given Magi to Constantine, who held Divine power, either the Magi vanished or Constantine would have.

‘Me, Reina or Karen are able to use Aether. When we need it, we can switch it and use it. But what Constantine did wasn’t that.’

Luke watched closely for any changes in the body of Constantine as he used his abilities.

He even looked closely at the strange Divine power.

‘What is that? It’s not Mana or Magi. It’s not even Divine power. This is like…’

A wild and lively energy.

He saw it while studying wild animals. It was an energy that was similar to a wild form of energy.

‘Now that I have a closer look. It is a lot like that thing, much broader and vivid… Yes! This is similar to the Earth’s Tears in Reina’s body!’

Earth’s Tears.

It was the key that connected Middle Earth to the Spirit World.

Reina, who possessed ‘The Tears of Earth’, the key to the Spirit World, had gone to the Spirit World and met with Sylphid, the Spirit King of Wind, and was given Aether.

The memories of losing her and bidding farewell to her had risen in Luke’s mind.

‘If it is the Earth’s Tears, then it must surely be the Power of the Spirits. That means, the elemental power… No way! Hasn’t the Spirit Power disappeared from Middle Earth a long time ago?’

Luke was shocked when he began to think about the reality of Constantine’s power.

From what he knew, Spirit Powers on Middle Earth vanished a thousand years ago right after the passage between the two worlds was disconnected.

And naturally, the spirits, who used spirit powers, lost their source of energy and disappeared one after the other when the two worlds were cut off.

However, after a thousand years, the spirit powers came back!

‘Where did Arsene even get it to grant it to Constantine?’

Luke was puzzled and looked more closely at Constantine’s spirit powers.

‘Yet, there is something unusual. According to ancient records, the spirit powers need to be as lively as a living flame…’

Reina, who could handle Aether, could move stone statues, make flowers bloom, or make trees move.

Even the wind behaved like a living creature.

However, Constantine’s spirit powers were rather wild and not lively.

‘It’s almost like a corpse… Yeah, now I get it! He is using something like a spirit stone!’

If a creature died, it leaves behind its bones and as they age, they turn into fossils.

It was the same for the things called Spirit Stone from ancient times. When an elemental spirit died and fossilized, it would turn into Spirit Stone.

Just as wood turned into fossilized coal, the Spirit Stones also contained spirit power.

Of course, they weren’t as strong as living spirits.

However, the problem was that the items called Spirit Stone were the resources only present in the ancient literature.

Before being cut off from the Spirit World, they were used as an essential resource until the days of ancient Mado Civilization.

A Spirit could be called by an Elementalist. However, with the presence of the Spirit Stones, the action could be implemented right away without any time delay.

And as a result of such abuse of the Spirit Stones, the Spirit Stones were completely exhausted during the Mado Civilization.

‘Were there any left? Was that what Arsene had handed over to Constantine?’

Luke’s mind started to form new questions. However, there was no one who could answer it.

The wild animals that drank the contaminated water didn’t seem to get infected with the zombie disease. Maybe it was because they possessed the peculiar feral power that was similar to the Spirit Power, which could kill the parasites.

Constantine gained Spirit Power with the help of a Spirit Stone.

Of course, unlike Magi, it didn’t collide with Divine power, and it was surely something everyone would regard as a ‘mysterious power’, just like Reina’s.

‘Surely, the Spirit Stone was crushed until it became powder, and then he ingested it. It is probably because of that Spirit Stone that the old man turned young again.’

However, the important thing was that Spirit Power had the ability to eradicate the parasites, which was the main cause of the havoc that was happening, without any side effects.

Constantine talked with Luke, who seemed glad to have found the right answer for the zombie disease.

“See, I showed you everything that I could do, so you need to keep your promise.”

“Before that, I have a question. How many zombies can be turned back into humans at once?”

“That… At least 3 to 4?”

“What? That is all you can manage?”

Around hundreds, no, thousands of people had been turned into zombies.

And only 3 to 4 could be turned back at once, when would all the infected people be turned back to humans at that pace?!

“Huh, obviously, that is the only number I can manage. Did you think that things would be so easy just because I was chosen by God?”

“It wasn’t that you were chosen by God. You chose to believe that.”

There was a reason why Constantine had been stubborn even when going through the bitter taste of death over the cliff.

Luke and Reina surely would have decided to save the people at all costs, and in the end, they would have to rely on him.

“Surely, I can’t just leave you like that.”

Luke smirked and that made Constantine reflexively take a step back.

“A-are you going to kill me? Yah, your mana circle will disappear if you decide to break your mana oath, right!?”

A wizard wouldn’t be hurt that much if he or she lost a little bit of his or her mana.

However, if they suddenly lost a huge amount of mana, there was a high probability that the wizard’s body might collapse since they would be unable to cope.

“Huh, who said anything about breaking the oath? You and your henchmen’s life and status will be guaranteed. However, you all will completely be forgotten from the world.”

“Wh-what? You aren’t saying…”

“It would be better for you to start asking for a clean kill, tch, tch, tch.”

Constantine’s expression began to turn dark with every passing second.

He wasn’t foolish enough to not know what Luke meant.

It was a common occurrence to report that culprits went missing after being tortured to death.

And he too had done such things.

“And the other thing is that even if mana disappears, I have a lot of power to replace it. It would matter to me because I’m going to kill you.”

Luke had no concern even if his mana disappeared.

With the Aether Globe, if he needed mana, he could just replace the Aether with mana and use it.

In other words, unlike the other wizards, he didn’t have to revolve his entire existence around a mana circle.

“In the beginning, I thought that I should just get rid of both you and your henchmen. But that would be paying too less of a price for what you did. So, you need to disappear for them to repent.”

“NO-NO! Uahkk!”

Tak!

Luke snapped his finger, and the Black Bind began to wrap itself around Constantine’s body. It slowly began to absorb the Spirit Power in his body.

The Spirit Power, which was being absorbed by the Black Bind, slowly made its way to Luke.

Constantine’s body began to age once again, losing all the energy his body held.

“Hiiii! What are you… doing to me? Ahhhh!”

As the Spirit Power was completely absorbed by Luke, fire rose on Constantine’s face.

His wrinkled old face quickly became distorted as it started to burn.

“Uhhh! Hot! Save me! Please save…. Kuak!”

Constantine, who was screaming, got his tongue sliced off by Luke.

“Do not worry. I am not going to kill you.”

500 years ago, during his days as Saymon, Luke used to keep the fallen nobles and the corrupt priests as slaves.

He was thinking of giving Constantine the very same treatment as them.

“You made innocent people into zombies. Now you need to pay the price.”

“Uhhh… Ahhhhhh!”

Tears of blood flowed out of Constantine’s lifeless eyes.

It was a miserable scene for someone who once sought after the position of the pope of the Holy Empire.