Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 60 Voice(3)

Translator: BaeBae Editor: BaeBae

Ethan battered his sword against Dilmond’s shield, once more.

The moment Dilmond’s shield tilted to the side, Ethan saw the opportunity to land a firm kick onto his stomach.

Though Dilmond was wearing thick and heavy armor, the power of the kick briefly lifted him into the air.

Blood spewed out of Dilmond’s mouth, but not enough to make him go down. It felt as if few abs were broken.

“Don’t force yourself. Why don’t you lie down and take a rest. You old crow.”

“Kid, my toes are sharper than your sword.”

“Well, look around. It seems like I don’t need to use my sword.”

Ethan dangled his sword in his hand and surveyed his surroundings. While the Paladins were fewer in numbers, they were outmatching the Hugin knights one sidedly.

Every Hugin knight was trained and selected rigorously, but most of their founding knights except Dilmond had died a long time ago.

The Hugin knights expression were full of tiredness and with each passing second, the number of knights lying on the ground was increasing. Meanwhile, the Paladins stayed the same.

Ethan looked for Dilmond’s throat and swung his sword. But his sword was met with a black giant sword.

A rusted and toothless giant sword. It was even stained in blood. The undead knights crowded around Ethan and drove him back. Ethan backed off before showing a disgruntled face.

An axe suddenly flew across at him. Ethan just managed to dodge it but it still hit the end of his helmet.

Ethan couldn’t help but clutch at his ringing head before backing off. Instead of going at Ethan, the undead knights regrouped with Dilmond back into formation. Ethan couldn’t help but feel annoyed.

‘They’re knights more so than monsters. We’re keeping them under control.’

They were worthy of the respect they got as ‘sunbaes’. A lot of the credit was on Lars for keeping them under control so well.

The Hugin knights were only able to hold their ground because of their undead knights.

With their frightening strength, the undead knights could not only hurt the Paladins, but also slow down their healing speed by contaminating them with their corrupted power.

It wasn’t enough to stop them from getting healed, but they could slow down their recovery process.

But still, it wasn’t a favourable fight by all means. Two had already fallen to Ethan’s sword.

As long as Bishop Rieto’s blessing continued to rain down on them, victory was assured for the White crow knights. Once again, Ethan rejuvenated his knights.

“Raise your swords knights! The emperor……”

Then, an ear deafening sound swept through Hiveden.

*****

Ethan couldn’t help but feel a bit of strength leave his legs at the sound that made everyone’s intestines squirm.

Rather, Ethan was doing well in comparison to the other Paladins who’d tumbled onto the ground.

Ethan received a shock that left his head blank.

Every Paladin’s eyes were shaking at hearing the voice.

“I say this under my name, Juan Kalberk Kenosis!”

Without question, the deep majesty voice that filled Hiveden belonged to their master.

For Ethan, it was difficult to even still hold on to his sword.

‘Emperor?”

No one spoke out, but the thought had appeared in the minds of every Paladin.

The Hugin knights were also panicking. However, they weren’t so agitated like the Paladins but were whispering to themselves.

Dilmond was staring towards the west, where the voice had come from. Even the undead knights had stopped moving.

There were Paladins that had started to pray after falling to their knees. Before Ethan realised, he was also citing a prayer of his own.

“My emperor, give us your orders. We will follow whatever you command. Even to death.”

Ethan desperately waited for an answer. However, no voice followed.

It was the emperor’s voice. A voice that he’d never heard since his birth, nor expected or hoped to have heard till his death.

Ethan felt as if an oasis had magically disappeared no sooner than he was able to glimpse it.

The wait was making him crazy.

Then, he heard a scream. One of the Hugin knights had stabbed a Paladin that was citing a prayer through the neck.

The Paladin gagged out blood as he shook and fell.

Everyone looked at the incident that had broken the sudden silence with disgust, but Ethan had his mind thinking about something more important.

“The regeneration blessing……stopped?”

Ethan was left confused. The blessing they’d been receiving had disappeared after the emperor’s voice had been heard.

Ethan didn;t know what this meant. There was one possibility that he didn’t even want to imagine, but he tried to not think about it.

Ethan gritted his teeth.

“Knights!”

He shouted loudly as he raised his sword. He put some strength into his trembling legs.

The fighting had stopped due to the shock that everyone received, but he couldn’t let it go on.

“Lift your swords! The emperor has called out to us personally, giving us his blessing!”

The Paladins flustered and looked at Ethan with questioning eyes. The emperor had said nothing after voicing out initially.

There was no one that was immediately moving after Ethan’s shout. Ethan bit his lip.

Dilmond realised he was losing a good opportunity and hurriedly ordered the fight to again continue. The Paladins half heartedly defended themselves from their attacks.

Ethan bursted out in anger.

“Get your ass back up and raise your swords! Citing prayers in front of our enemies. This is not what we should be doing as Paladins! Pray through swords, give offerings through the enemy’s blood! We can still listen to the emperor’s voice while we fight!”

At Ethan’s howling, many Paladins started to actively clench their weapons again. However, compared to before, they were now one step behind.

Ethan was worried. The regeneration blessing had stopped and it was difficult to continue the fight with their morale dropping. Maybe something had happened to Bishop Rieto.

He needed something drastic to turn things around.

“Lars Raude!”

Ethan growled as he ran at the nearest undead knight.

The undead knight tried lifting his sword to block the attack, but a flame arose on the tip of Ethan’s fingers. The fiery flame spread itself onto Ethan’s sword, before he released it down onto the undead knight’s sword.

The sword shattered like ice. Ethan drove his sword through, splitting the undead knight in half.

The undead knight roared in pain before breaking into pieces.

Ethan didn’t stop. He attacked the next undead knight with his fiery sword.

The undead knights flustered before Ethan’s sword and went on the defensive but to no avail.

Ethan brought out his remaining strength and cleaved two more undead knights in half. The fire spread onto their remains and their bodies ignited and crumbled.

“Flame of the emperor……”

Dilmond muttered a moan. Flame of the emperor was especially effective against the undead like knights of death. However, it exhausted the user that much more and it was difficult to control.

Having slain three undead knights with the flame of the emperor, sweat dripped down Ethan’s forehead.

He had been saving it for Lars, but if this was what it took to make him join the fighting he was satisfied.

There was no one in the White crow knight’s history that had eliminated undead knights so swiftly.

But the price that he was paying was big.

Ethan noticed the burn on his hand and how the sword had molded onto it.

‘Good. This way I won’t be dropping my sword anytime soon.’

Ethan viewed it in a positive light. He felt a great amount of strength cycling through his body.

The heat of the flame was painful but the excitement boiling in him subjugated any other feelings he had.

A Paladin’s equipment was powerful, but another use it had was that it helped keep them balanced.

Their swords became more accurate, and so did their shields. THe Paladins coined this term ‘the emperor’s guidance’. As if someone was guiding their hands for them.

On top of that, Ethan’s equipment had been blessed with far grander ‘grace’ than an average Paladin’s equipment.

‘The emperor is with me.’

He lifted his sword up high and shouted once more.

“Lars Raude! Reveal yourself! Or else, I’ll kill every single last of your skeletons! I hope a commander of a knight order isn’t going to cowardly stay hidden behind his skeleton knights!”

“You dare!”

Realising Ethan’s intentions, Dilmond swung his hammer. Ethan lightly stepped back away from it, then proceeded to cut Dilmond’s shoulder and back.

Dilmond could only groan and fall back. He didn’t break into pieces as he wasn’t an undead, but he’d just received a fatal wound.

Ethan’s heart beated without stopping. He felt like a candle, using his lifeforce to burn more fiercely.

The heat of the flame made him faster, more stronger. But Ethan could feel his lifeforce slowly being eaten away.

‘If this would be the light that brightens the darkness in this world, then I would gladly give up my life. My emperor, you have given up on us so we’ll gladly burn to death!’

Ethan shouted once more.

“Lars, Raude! Hugin knight’s commander! Show yourself!”

With madness in his eyes, Ethan looked around. His attention focused on Anya, positioned far in the back.

Anya calmly drew her stiletto and summoned more undead.

Due to the vacuum of her knights, she couldn’t summon any undead knights but a vast number of undead rose from the ground.

“Are you trying to insult me with these!”

With his fiery sword, Ethan sliced through like a hot knife through butter. THe emperor’s flame disintegrated the undead that had been summoned. They didn’t even buy her a moment.

Ethan’s sword was flying towards Anya’s throat. Anya didn’t move. And the moment she gave in on hope.

Darkness rose from below.

Ethan was sent flying back from the immense power.

On top of the darkness, a white skull could be seen. Then, pieces of bone flew from here and there, forming a giant shape of a man.

Seeing a two metre giant skeleton forming, it felt hard to accept that it felt like a man. In its hand made from bones, a white sword was clenched tightly.

It was different from an undead knight or a Lich.

Ethan could tell from one look.

His previous commanders had thrown their lives, and died against this being. This being was the reason for the White crow order’s establishment and the source of their shackles.

A delighted Ethan cried out.

“Lars Raude!”

[That is the cause of your death.]

Lars’s sword swiftly swung through and cut out Ethan’s neck.

*****

The moment darkness swept over him, everyone thought they watched Ethan’s head being removed from his body.

However, Ethan had already fallen back, out of harm’s way.

Everyone was surprised to see Ethan move more quicker than the speed in how darkness enveloped him. Only Lars seemed unsurprised.

‘The emperor’s flame…….that’s a problem.’

By now, the emperor’s flame was covering beyond Ethan’s hands. All the way up his arms.

The more parts of his body the flame enveloped, Ethan’s equipment would become more heated and more powerful.

It appeared Ethan was ready to fully embrace the flame to all parts of his body.

He didn’t seem to mind that it was cutting away at his life.

‘Fool.’

Left alone, Ethan would eventually die, but the damage he’d do to the Hugin knights would be insurmountable. Lars had no choice but to intervene.

“Seems like you can’t swing any faster than that.”

Ethan provoked Lars as he rushed towards him. Lars dodged the fiery sword. Being an undead, there was nothing good about going into contact with that flame.

‘If I use magic, this would be easy…….but.’

Right now, he was tightly balancing the amount of power he was using. Lars was using most of his mana on suppressing his inner self from imploding out of control.

But even so, Ethan’s skills were excellent.

Ignoring the fact that Lars’s main attribute was in being a skilled magician, Lars considered Ethan’s swordsmanship on par with himself, in his prime.

Ethan’s sword scraped through darkness, whizzing just past Lars.

Once coming into contact with the flame, the darkness turned into dust before scattering. But that’s as close as he got.

By now, the flames enveloping over Ethan had spread and was now covering the right side of his face.

Ethan’s anger hit the sky as his long awaited duel with Lars was largely being avoided by him.

“You bastard! At least use your sword!”

[Don’t know why I should. You’re going to die regardless of what I do.]

“And you call yourself a commander of a knight order………..”

Ethan’s words were ignored. His opponent was the Hugin knight’s commander. Famous for strangling opponents to death, helplessly.

If the opportunity was there and if the method would likely work, he didn’t care about showing honor. For Ethan, it still wasn’t too late for him to stop the emperor’s flame from killing him, but by doing so he’d be giving up on winning against Lars.

Lars of course didn’t want a skilled knight like Ethan to die in this fashion. Even if he was an enemy.

However, he didn’t want to make them worried. Dilmond and Anya who were sending concerned gazes, and Juan who’d told him to stay put. He was going to do this the safest way possible.

Ethan realised he wouldn’t be able to attack Lars through his defense. He didn’t have long left. The result may have been different if he was in a perfect state before fighting Lars, but he’d used too much of his strength beforehand. Ethan muttered in despair.

“My lord, forgive me.”