Chapter 189
Chapter: 189
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>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 189
>Chapter Title: The Way of Repentance (1)
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>After the prince, who had climbed the demon tree like the wind, vanished atop the thickly branched treetop.
Kiiii...
Bruno realized the prince's plan had succeeded when the demon tree suddenly halted and began shriveling up.
"...Did we get it?"
But the joy was short-lived.
The group panicked as the demon tree's remains plummeted downward faster than expected.
The tree wasn't just shrinking in volume—it was crumbling into dust and vanishing into thin air. Just like most dead demons, it was being rapidly reverse-summoned back to the demon realm.
Uh, wait! If this keeps up...!
"Prince Mores!"
Sure enough.
With the demon tree gone, the prince's body, left floating in its place, began plummeting downward at accelerating speed. He looked completely limp, as if unconscious from whatever had happened above.
"Your Highness!"
The pale-faced Knight Masain threw his sword to the ground and dashed toward the prince.
"This is bad...!"
Bruno also strained to muster even a faint amount of aura, reaching out toward the falling prince.
But it was far too little to catch the boy's body, which was picking up speed. Bruno gritted his teeth, thinking.
'If only His Highness were conscious!'
When the prince had first fallen from the demon tree.
Knight Masain had caught him safely, but at the last moment, it was a sudden mass of materialized aura that had decisively slowed him down.
And Bruno knew that familiar aura well. The rough yet delicate aura that appeared and vanished whenever the prince meditated.
The prince, inexplicably masterful in aura manipulation, had clearly materialized it unconsciously in that crisis.
But now, unconscious, they couldn't hope for such luck again.
'...If only His Majesty would come here now!'
But Bruno, glancing at Lady Sharon with that faint hope, couldn't hide his dismay.
Her gaze was blankly fixed on the sky, and she was muttering nonstop, as if she'd completely lost her mind.
Her already uncontrollable channeling was raging wildly.
"Have you come? Have you finally come?"
"But why to me like this..."
"Wind, blow! Faster, faster, faster, faster, even faster..."
"Mores, wait! Slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, even slower..."
"Ah, I see! We're waiting for you!"
And perhaps by mere coincidence.
Right after Lady Sharon began muttering, the wind swirling around them seemed to pick up speed bit by bit.
Unlike materialized aura, it was a natural gust blowing from below upward, fiercely toward the prince.
Accordingly, the prince's descent slowed ever so slightly. As if something in the air were pulling him up.
'...What in the world is happening?'
While the bewildered Bruno glanced at Lady Sharon, her incomprehensible mutterings continued.
"Ahhh, I don't want to disappear like this!"
"Get a grip! Lee Seong-jin! Lee Seong-jin!"
"We're waiting for you forever."
"Faster, faster, faster..."
"Slowly, slowly, slowly..."
"You've answered our prayers, now just command us!"
At that moment.
An astonishing sight unfolded before the group.
The demonic energy, scattered and losing its anchor after the demon tree vanished, suddenly began clumping together as if gaining a will of its own.
And that demonic energy swarmed around the prince. Like countless hands grasping him.
Little by little, the prince's fall was slowing.
"Holy Emperor Daddy! Hurry! Quick! Quick!"
"Daddy Majesty! Daddy Majesty! Daddy Majesty!"
"Lee Seong-jin! Lee Seong-jin!"
"We're waiting. Just come to us and command..."
Lady Sharon was now shedding endless tears.
Unable to control her channeling, she deeply resonated even with the faint emotions carried by stray thoughts.
It was the channeling of a sensitive spirit user who captured even the dimmest stray thoughts that Bruno couldn't even sense.
"We just... quietly..."
She staggered.
With those words, Lady Sharon lost consciousness and collapsed to the ground. The startled Bruno quickly supported her, shouting.
"Lady Sharon!"
He hurriedly checked her condition—thankfully, she was breathing steadily. It seemed like a temporary side effect from excessive channeling.
Meanwhile, Prince Mores, whose speed had slowed even further, was now descending slowly like a feather fluttering in the wind.
"...How in the world..."
The entire group stared dumbly at the unbelievable scene, as if entranced.
And finally.
Enveloped in the demonic energy cradling him like a cradle, the prince landed lightly in Knight Masain's arms.
* * *
Splash, splash.
Nate slowly opened his eyes on the rippling surface of the water.
He always got terribly seasick coming out of the Rift, but the prayer hall's artificial pond always did its job perfectly.
Erasing the sense of disconnection from other spaces.
By minimizing the power he felt in his body as much as possible, adapting back to reality from the Rift happened much faster.
As he entrusted himself to the gently swaying waves, he naturally recalled his son's recent plea.
-Father, I have a request.
The day before leaving the capital, his son had boldly approached him.
-A request.
-Yes. I won't be here for a while, and it feels uneasy just leaving like this.
Nate was dumbfounded.
Who was making who uneasy right now?
-Fine. What is it?
-Very simple. If anyone tries opening the Rift while I'm gone, give them a thorough thrashing. If intruders come to Delcross, finish them off... no, eliminate them before they even invade...
-...
-Isn't that it? Or even if they just intend to intrude, wipe them out from the start...
Watching his son rambling whatever came to mind, Nate couldn't help but chuckle despite himself.
He'd never properly explained, yet the boy seemed to be devising his own role, trying to forge some causality.
-It's a waste of mental energy, Mores. To move causality, no matter what, you need a specific target that you recognize.
For example, Sigurd Sigurson.
As long as he hid in the puppet's body, that man was treated as a full-fledged human under the [Accord].
Thus, unless he broke the world's rules or stepped outside human bounds, no causality arose, and the Holy Emperor couldn't act first.
That was the constraint the [Accord] imposed on the Holy Emperor.
His son had been the sole exception with mere will. But that required the son to precisely recognize who the puppet was and make the request.
Of course, Nate couldn't reveal the puppet's identity first—that would violate the [Accord].
Sigurd Sigurson had discarded the puppet immediately after his son discovered it, for that very reason.
As long as his son knew the puppet's identity, he could die by the Holy Emperor's hand anytime, at his son's request.
-Does it have to be a specific target? Hmm, then... Ah! How about this?
After pondering deeply for a moment, his son said.
-If you get caught in the Rift, always return safely. Father.
Whoosh.
A faint wind suddenly enveloped him and his son.
As Nate blinked in daze, his perceptive son grinned brightly.
-Haha. There was definitely a reaction this time! It worked, right?
Yes. It must have been the causality his child created. As Nate slowly rose from the water, he thought.
This intrusion had been a rare powerful outer realm lord, yet it resolved more easily than expected.
'But I was away quite a while.'
Beep—
Opening the channel impatiently filled his head with noisy tinnitus. The Rift's severe spatial distortion made channeling unstable in the vicinity.
'I need to leave here first and get a night report from Lady Sharon...'
Though the nausea hadn't fully subsided, Nate dragged his dripping feet out of the prayer hall door.
But Katrina, waiting outside with a blanket, had an unusual expression.
"A message from Arenza, Your Majesty!"
Nate frowned at that.
If it was urgent, she could send a thought directly.
Cornseem.
Cunning bunch that never approached when the Rift opened.
But at her following words, Nate's face hardened.
"Prince Mores's party encountered a demonkin called the [Demon Tree]. Under His Highness's lead, the subjugation succeeded, but he suffered severe injuries..."
Nate stopped listening and expanded his channel.
But Lady Sharon didn't respond to his call. She was either unconscious or in such severe overload she couldn't receive his thoughts.
Instead, he heard his children somewhere, sobbing desperately for him.
[Holly Emperor Daddy! Hurry! Quick! Quick!]
[Daddy Majesty! Daddy Majesty! Daddy Majesty!]
Without a word to Katrina, Nate hurled his body into soul form.
-Your Majesty!
Hearing her distant cry, he rocketed toward the last place he'd seen his son.
* * *
"Your Highness! Your Highness! Are you alright?"
Masain laid Prince Mores on the ground, shouting urgently.
At a glance, the prince had no visible external wounds, but blood kept flowing from his eyes, which was ominous.
He hadn't regained consciousness at all, and his forehead burned like a hot coal.
"Call a priest! Hurry and treat His Highness!"
But no one could readily approach them. Because of the thick demonic energy shrouding the prince.
Noticing this, Masain tried swatting it away with his hands, but strangely, the demonic energy clustered around the prince wouldn't disperse easily, merely swirling persistently.
"Knight Masain! Step back for now!"
"It's already corroding!"
As said, black spots had already appeared on Masain's face and arms.
Even as a Holy Emperor clansman relatively resistant to demonic energy, prolonged exposure to dense amounts left him helpless. The result of shielding the prince without regard for himself.
At least, in this vicious demonic energy, the prince showed no signs of corrosion yet—that was fortunate, if anything.
But at this rate, it was only a matter of time.
"We'll purify the demonic energy first!"
Knight Valerie, and even the hastily summoned Priest Gustav, began prayers to purify it.
But as they stamped their feet with no results, a sharp voice berated Bruno.
[You fool! What are you doing? Call the Holy Emperor already!]
'...Red?'
Bruno startled and asked.
'What happened? What on earth went on up there?'
[That's not important now! What is that crazy holy knight doing? Tell him to call his father quick!]
Bruno replied with a troubled face.
'As you see, Lady Sharon is unconscious. It's impossible right now.'
[What? You can't just stand there! Then you do it—call him quick!]
'But Red, my meager channeling can't send thoughts all the way to the capital. Moreover, I'm no vessel worthy of His Majesty.'
[Then wake that crazy holy knight! Without a body, even if he comes, he can't do much. It'll hugely impact causality!]
The rampaging Demon King suddenly flinched and shouted.
[Eh? Huh?]
'What's wrong, Red?'
But Bruno soon sensed the anomaly too. The keen senses of a Decaron Knight detected the air's density subtly thickening.
"Wh-what is this?"
Priest Gustav and Knight Valerie, mid-prayer, looked up in confusion.
They suddenly felt divine power filling the surroundings.
A holy sensation like first encountering grace in the capital—reverent to the point of awe, permeating the air.
And then.
Boom!
With a mysterious pressure bearing down.
Whoosh.
The demonic energy around Prince Mores evaporated all at once, vanishing without a trace.