The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 112 – The Warriors of Arbalde (3)

The underwater prison of Beldeve was different from the prisons in other territories. The underwater prison which was known to have been built for non-human races such as beasts was not only huge in size, but it was difficult to enter as well. Even the warriors of Arbalde who weren’t afraid of fighting the Imperial Army feared the underwater prison.

Ergil and his warriors were currently locked up in the famous underwater prison. They were all only restrained with a gag and simple handcuffs, and there were no guards monitoring them. However, none of the warriors considered escaping.

This underwater prison didn’t require guards to monitor the prisoners; the way down was a sheer cliff with thick walls capable of withstanding even the attacks of a dragon, and there were rough waves all around. The underwater prison was located even further below in an underwater cave and was made up of air bubbles maintained by magic. Every prisoner trapped in the underwater prison trembled with fear as they breathed in the salty air and imagined the enormous amount of seawater ready to engulf them at any time.

The warriors took a glance at Ergil. Ergil was now the commander of the warriors; after all, it was certain that Yurban was dead. The warriors couldn’t understand why Ergil decided to surrender without even attempting to fight back—it was obvious that the Imperial Army would kill them anyway, since the warriors had been encroached upon by the Crack already. The warriors thought that even if the Imperial Army locked them up for now to dig out some information about the Crack, the Imperial Army would definitely kill them all once they were no longer useful.

The warriors had decided to follow their commander’s judgment for the time being, but they were beginning to grow impatient upon seeing Ergil not take any action.

Then the warriors heard the sound of bubbles. Soon after, water poured down from the ceiling and the magic bubble of the underwater prison slowly opened. An iron box then descended from the gap. The warriors anxiously watched the seawater soaking the floor of the prison, but the water stopped pouring as soon as the iron box passed through the gap.

“You bastards must be hungry, right? Her Grace said that she will interrogate you all herself in a little while, so you’d better fill your stomachs and prepare yourselves.”

Three Imperial soldiers walked out of the iron box. That iron box which was fastened with iron chains was the only thing that connected the underwater prison and Beldeve. The soldiers put down bowls of porridge boiled with who knows what in front of all the warriors.

“Wait. Come to think of it, these guys are gagged. How are they supposed to eat then?”

“It’s okay to take it off of them for a while. I bet they won’t even have the time to utter anything while they’re eating. Did you hear that, bastards? I’ll make sure you eat with your nose if you utter even the slightest nonsense.”

The soldiers took off the gags from the warriors’ mouths one by one and began to feed them the porridge. They usually let the prisoners feed themselves, but Duke Henna had ordered them to make sure that they fed these warriors with their own hands.

The warriors were able to fill their stomachs one by one. The porridge didn’t taste great, but even this was a rarity in the northeast where the supplies were low.

It wasn’t long before it was Ergil’s turn. As the soldier was taking off the gag from Ergil’s mouth, he suddenly saw something strange in Ergil’s mouth.

“Huh? Wait a minute. What are you hiding in your mouth?”

The soldier tried to pry open Ergil’s mouth with force, but Ergil refused to open his mouth. The soldier called out to his comrades in a hurry.

“Hey, everyone come here for a second. I think he’s hiding something in his mouth.”

“What? Is he hiding a razor under his tongue to cut the gag or something?”

“No, it’s not a razor… hold him still for a second.”

The soldiers held both of Ergil’s arms and forced his mouth open.

The moment Ergil’s mouth opened, a purple tentacle suddenly stretched out and grabbed the head of the soldier in front of him. Then the soldier’s body drooped with a grotesque sound even before he could let out a scream.

“W-what the hell is going on!”

The soldiers who were restraining Ergil’s arms panicked and tried to draw their swords in a hurry. At that moment, the tentacle spun around with a swooshing sound. The soldiers were instantly thrown at the wall and then fell down, motionless.

Ergil stood up with the thick tentacle wriggling out of his mouth, which was opened so wide that it almost looked as if it was about to tear. The warriors watched the sight in disbelief. Although Ergil hadn’t been granted a lot of powers from the Crack, he was a sincere warrior. No one had imagined that Ergil would have such a side—Ergil himself was a creature of the Crack.

Then Ergil simply broke the handcuffs with ease using his tentacles and walked toward the iron box. Ergil carefully examined the iron box, but soon paused; he didn’t know how to use the iron box to rise back up to the surface.

In order for the iron box to be pulled back up, its iron chain had to be shaken in a certain way; it was a precaution against a situation where the prisoners managed to rebel—and there was no way Ergil could know such a fact.

Ergil jumped onto the roof of the iron box and began to climb up the chain connected to the box. The warriors recognized Ergil’s intentions and immediately tried to stop him by screaming and shouting, but they still had a gag in their mouths.

Escaping the underwater prison wasn’t easy. Even if the prisoners successfully escaped the bubble made with magic, they would be crushed under the tremendous water pressure or be swept away by the fierce ocean currents and be drowned to death.

Despite the concerns of the warriors, Ergil tried to climb up and rip the bubble magic open by force. He swung his tentacles when something transparent and elastic blocked him—the purple tentacle easily pierced the bubble.

The warriors screamed in panic upon seeing the seawater starting to pour over them. Nevertheless, Ergil silently grabbed the iron chain and climbed up without looking back at his warriors.

It took less than a minute for the bubble to be completely filled with seawater after the bubble was torn by Ergil. In the blink of an eye, the warriors were drowned to death in the dark and salty sea.

At the same time, a purple tentacle crept up from the depths of the sea toward Beldeve with malice and murderous intent.

***

The waves grew rough as the winter wind fiercely blew toward Beldeve.

Hela was walking along the wall and noticed the unusual sound of the rushing waves. However, Hela believed that the reason why she felt it to be unusual was due to the anxiety that still lingered somewhere in her mind—although Hela was happy due to the continuous string of good news that had been brought back to her by Juan, it was hard for her to be completely relieved.

Good news had always been followed by the bad news throughout Hela's life. Not only did the assassination of the emperor take place shortly after Gerard Gain had proposed to her, but a large number of her disciples including Pavan left for the capital when she was about to wrap up their training and create a knight order.

Hela shook her head.

‘Don’t think too much, Hela. You don’t have much time left anyway. You don’t need to do everything all over again if things go wrong—you can just die now.’

Whether she ended up falling or crashing, it was time for her to run and never look back.

Interrogation of the warriors captured by Juan was her top priority right now. Hela hoped to find out the information about the plans of the Revenge King Urkel through the interrogation, which would allow her to attack him throughout the winter.

‘It’s better to think about even one more question to ask the warriors rather than paying attention to the sound of the waves.’

Then came the urgent sound of footsteps—it was Sina Solvane. She approached Hela with a short breath.

“There you are, Your Grace. I’ve been looking for you.”

“What’s going on?”

“I heard you caught some of the rebels. If you don’t mind, I’d like to join you during the interrogation. Would that be all right?”

Hela frowned upon hearing Sina’s request. While Hela’s evaluation of Sina wasn’t bad, the warriors were valuable prisoners. Hela felt that it wouldn’t be right for her to draw an outsider too deeply into the affairs of the eastern territory.

The moment Hela was just about to open her mouth to decline Sina’s request, Hela’s head turned toward the waves. The sound of the waves was definitely stranger and more abnormal than usual. The sound of the waves was coming from too close, to the extent that it was hard to believe Hela and Sina were standing on the wall.

Splash!

At that moment, a purple tentacle suddenly soared up from the sea. The seawater splashed against the wall, and a man completely soaked in seawater climbed up the railing of the wall.

Hela stared blankly at the man who reeked with a fishy stench. She couldn’t tell if what she was seeing was a dream or a reality.

The man who crawled up from the sea looked at Hela while the purple tentacle which replaced his tongue hung out of his mouth. The man puffed his mouth for a short second, gasping for air. Then he called out

“Hela Henna.”

“Your Grace!”

Whip!

In a blink of an eye, a tentacle swept away the two guards who had been standing beside Hela to the side. One of the guards screamed as he fell over the wall and disappeared into the raging waves.

The tentacle then wrapped itself around Hela’s body as soon as the guards were out of the way. With a cracking sound, Hela’s only arm broke.

At that moment, Sina had immediately drawn her sword and attacked the tentacles. A black fluid splattered from the tentacles, but it was too late.

Upon realizing that Sina was not an easy opponent, Ergil threw Hela into the sea.

Seeing that, Sina screamed. “No!”

From such a height, the surface of the sea would be no different from a stone pavement. She would immediately lose consciousness and drown in an instant even if she managed to survive the fall.

Sina struggled to reach out and grab Hela, but her hand couldn’t reach Hela.

Meanwhile, Hela looked at the outer walls of the fortress of Beldeve from her position in the air. Hela had never seen the fortress of Beldeve from this angle before. The last thing Hela remembered before falling into the raging waves was the regret of never asking Horhell to take her for a ride on his dragon.

***

At the moment Hela encountered Ergil, Juan was far away from the walls, on the other side of the castle. Nevertheless, Juan immediately used Blink to get to Hela as soon as he sensed an unusual sign—but he wasn’t fast enough to stop Hela from falling into the sea.

“Hela!”

Juan shouted and clung to the railing of the wall. Dark blue waves raged on the surface of the sea, but Hela was nowhere to be seen. Juan slowly turned his head with a cold look in his eyes. A man whose body was fused with wriggling purple tentacles was caught in Juan’s eyes. Although the man had a strange figure, Juan could immediately recognize him at a glance—it was a warrior named Ergil whom Juan had captured with his own hands.

Juan’s eyes sparkled with anger upon realizing that Ergil had purposely allowed himself to be caught in order to infiltrate Beldeve. Juan gritted his teeth.

“You wanted more blood even after the deaths of so many of your people?” Juan said as he drew his short sword.

The tentacles continued wriggling, and then Ergil released a larger tentacle from his body. A tentacle that was even larger than Ergil’s entire body soared into the sky. A loud murmur and disturbance could be heard from below the walls due to everyone noticing Ergil.

Juan’s cold eyes stared directly at Ergil without flinching even once.

“I see. Nienna must have been too gentle. I’ll make sure that I don’t leave a single one of you alive this time around,” Juan said as he bounced forward.

Ergil immediately dodged and swung his huge tentacle to sweep away everything on the wall.

Sina quickly rolled back and barely managed to dodge the tentacle. It was obvious that Juan and Sina would be thrown into the sea if they were hit by the tentacle’s attack.

“Juan!”

Sina looked for Juan in a hurry, but she couldn’t find him anywhere. The moment Sina thought he might have been swept away by the tentacle, Juan appeared behind Ergil’s back.

At the same time, a few of Ergil’s fingers were cut off by Juan’s short sword.

Ergil hastily swung his tentacles toward the direction where Juan was. However, Ergil somehow ended up dropping down on one knee instead of catching Juan with his tentacles. Ergil’s eyes widened upon realizing that his lower left knee was gone.

The same thing happened again and again very quickly. In Sina’s eyes, it seemed as if Ergil’s body was slowly but surely being ground down. Starting from his fingers, toes, hands and then torso, Ergil was getting ‘shorter.’ Ergil’s tentacles weren’t able to touch Juan even once. Being unable to hold out, Ergil finally uttered a painful cry. But Juan continued to mutilate Ergil’s body with his short sword in a calm and collected manner.

Sina bit her lips upon figuring out Juan’s intention—he was torturing Ergil. Based on Juan’s skills and abilities, he could have easily ended Ergil’s life almost instantly a long time ago—but he did not.

Ergil lost all his limbs and fell onto the wall. Nevertheless, he stretched out his tentacles toward Sina as if he thought that taking her hostage was the last resort. But Sina was not as weak as he thought and was not subdued by such a simple attack.

Sina widened the distance between herself and Ergil as she split the tentacles approaching her in half.

Only then did Juan grab Ergil’s chin and tear out the protruding tentacles. Juan shoved his hand deep into Ergil’s throat with a cold smile.

“You’ll be begging me to send you to hell rather than keeping you alive very soon.”