Chapter 435
Chapter 435
Chapter 435
Zeke was momentarily taken aback by the priest's unexpected proposal.
'Eliminate Arthur Draker?'
Reading his reaction, the priest slowly continued.
"By now, you must know. Arthur Draker is the one who has effectively brought this continent to a standstill."
Zeke glared at the priest and asked.
"What do you mean by bringing the continent to a standstill?"
The priest responded with a resolute voice.
"Arthur Draker has committed many unjust acts while hiding behind the name of justice. He interfered with other kingdoms' succession using assassins, crushed growing merchant guilds to benefit Draker, persuaded honest people to follow his will, and when that failed, killed innocent people. And above all, Arthur Draker's greatest sin..."
RUMBLE RUMBLE!
The powerful pressure emanating from the priest's body compressed space itself.
"Is that he changed history according to his will."
Zeke recalled something upon hearing the priest's words.
'The fabrication of the Dragon Slayer legend.'
Terakan Draker, the Dragon Slayer who liberated the continent from an evil dragon.
But this wasn't true.
The truth was that Bahamut, known as the evil dragon, sacrificed himself to seal the Demon King's soul.
However, the Draker family manipulated this legend to elevate their family's honor.
That false honor had continued for a thousand years.
And Arthur Draker was instrumental in making his family the rulers of Midland by actively utilizing the Draker's distorted name.
"Arthur Draker is a fearsome figure. He will eventually use even your reputation as the Knight of Salvation and ultimately devour it."
The priest's voice carried sincerity and persuasiveness.
He slowly approached Zeke.
"Zeke Draker, I value your talent highly. If you join hands with me, I can give you the power to stop Arthur Draker."
The priest now stood right in front of Zeke, extending his hand.
"Take my hand. A new world will unfold before you."
Zeke raised his hand toward the priest as if entranced.
Boris, watching from behind, shouted at Zeke.
"Boss! Come to your senses!"
But Zeke, as if unhearing Boris's words, had already grasped the priest's hand.
A satisfied smile appeared on the priest's face.
"You've made the right choice, Zeke Draker."
That's when it happened.
Golden aura burst forth from Zeke who had taken the priest's hand.
He had gripped Agamemnon's mask hidden under his clothes and unleashed its purifying power.
WHOOSH!
Powerful purifying energy poured toward the priest.
SIZZLE!
Black smoke rose where the priest's hand was exposed to the purifying power in Zeke's grip.
While demons would typically scream and writhe in agony when exposed to purifying power, the priest merely looked down at the aura-emitting Zeke.
He spoke while looking at Zeke.
"Is this your choice, Zeke Draker? How disappointing."
This time Zeke raised Bahamut and summoned a Radiant light blade.
Then he thrust the sword with all his might toward the priest's heart.
STAB!
Bahamut, carrying the brilliant light blade, buried deep into the priest's body.
Black smoke billowed from the pierced area.
Yet the priest's expression remained unchanged.
"Knight of Salvation, you will regret today's choice."
The priest reached out and gripped Bahamut's blade that had pierced his heart.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
Then, while directly gripping Bahamut's radiant light blade, he slowly began pulling it from his body.
SIZZLE
Despite black smoke continuously rising from his body, the priest didn't let go of Bahamut's blade.
Zeke gritted his teeth and tried to force the blade back into the priest's body using mana power, but it was useless.
'Magic power doesn't work?'
That's when it happened.
CRACK!
Cracks slowly began appearing on Bahamut's blade in the priest's grip.
Bahamut's surface was breaking under the priest's power.
'Impossible.'
Though hard to believe that it could break despite having an indestructible attribute, Zeke quickly put Bahamut back in his inventory and stepped back.
The amount of black smoke leaking from where the blade had pierced the priest's heart began gradually decreasing.
This time Zeke drew Roland, fully donned Agamemnon's mask, and summoned purifying power.
The priest stepped back while looking at Zeke and extended his hand toward him.
CRACKLE
The priest's outstretched palm split open, revealing a red eyeball inside as if an eyelid had lifted.
Meeting the red eyeball's gaze, Zeke felt his movements instantly become sealed.
'UNGH!'
Even using all his powers including Soul technique and Astral Sword, he absolutely couldn't move.
The priest's hand revealing the eyeball grew larger until it could grasp Zeke's entire body.
Zeke tried to escape the priest's palm, but his body wouldn't move.
That's when it happened.
RUMBLE!
Raven, who had been sleeping in the dimensional gap, appeared and let out a phoenix cry.
As the mystical phoenix cry rang out, Zeke's heart stirred.
THUMP!
The sleeping heart of Bahamut awakened and resisted the force binding Zeke's body.
Then a crest began to appear above his chest.
CRACKLE!
As sparks flew across his entire body, Zeke could feel the paralysis holding him gradually loosening.
'I'll widen this small gap.'
Raven flew through the air and let out another phoenix cry.
WHOOSH!
Not missing the gap created by the phoenix cry, Zeke summoned the power of Blood King Caligula.
A third eye appeared on his forehead and opposed the eyeball in the priest's palm.
CRACKLE
The sparks flying from Zeke's body grew more intense.
The priest's hand slowly approached to grab Zeke.
The dragon's heart beat violently as the third eye's power also strengthened.
SNAP!
Before the hand could touch him, Zeke was barely able to move his body.
Quickly retreating backward using Wind technique, Zeke glared at the priest while breaking into a cold sweat.
The giant palm that tried to grab him had vanished.
The priest spoke while alternately looking at Zeke who aimed Roland at him and Raven who was letting out phoenix cries.
"The power of dragons, the Blood King, and even commanding the divine beast phoenix. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself."
With those words, the space around him distorted and a gap appeared within.
Zeke noticed this ability was the space movement power of the deceased Rahim, who had been the leader of Six.
Zeke immediately raised his energy while looking at Abel behind the priest.
"HAAAAAH!"
He unleashed Infinite Sword Technique, sending Astral Sword flying toward Abel.
The sword strike flew toward Abel while tearing through space.
But the priest disappearing into the spatial gap with Abel and the Horsemen of Apocalypse was faster.
The Astral Sword only managed to tear through the space where they had vanished.
"Damn it!"
Zeke stomped the ground in anger.
Having lost Abel right before his eyes, Zeke clenched his teeth.
'I never expected the priest himself to appear here.'
Even Zeke hadn't anticipated that Harvey West, the Priest of the Abyss who had kept hiding his presence, would directly appear at this point.
Boris approached Zeke who couldn't contain his fury.
"Boss, we need to get out of here first."
It was clear that Imperial knights would soon rush in after seeing the burning sacred ground.
Hearing Boris's words, Zeke nodded with a stern expression. There was no point in being angry here now.
He grabbed Boris and immediately opened a portal.
WHOOSH!
The two men's figures vanished with the portal's light. Even after the people who had ravaged the interior disappeared, the Imperial Tomb continued to burn.
In the end, the Imperial Tomb, Rom Empire's sacred ground that had endured for ages, disappeared completely leaving only black flames and ashes.
* * *
After Abel burned the sacred ground, events flowed according to Zeke's intentions.
The imperial nobles and prestigious families who had maintained neutrality until now turned their backs on Jiemens and decided to follow Julius's will.
Soon, Second Prince Leo and Fourth Prince Carus entered the Rom Imperial Palace together with Julius.
Behind them followed the knights of the Beast Palace and Heaven Sword Palace.
After the Priest of the Abyss disappeared with Abel, no trace of Jiemens and the Nostra family could be found within Rom.
It seemed they had already noticed the situation and withdrawn their stationed forces from Rom.
So the first thing Julius's forces did upon entering Rom was eliminate the monsters existing throughout the city.
Monsters endlessly poured out from all sorts of places including Rom's sewers, abandoned houses, hills, and caves scattered throughout the mountains.
Only after the newly entered imperial army eliminated the monsters and stabilized the city could Rom's citizens who had been hiding and holding their breath in basements finally come out.
The citizens who had been trembling in fear cheered and shed tears of joy seeing Rom stabilize.
"Praise the Knight of Salvation who saved Rom!"
"Sir Zeke Draker is the true hero of this era!"
As rumors spread that Zeke had liberated Rom from Abel's grasp, his fame as the Knight of Salvation grew even higher.
His reputation spread beyond the Central, Northern, and Southern continents, reaching even the Eastern continent.
Apart from Zeke's achievements, Julius quickly sorted out Rom's situation.
He had originally planned to elevate Fourth Prince Carus to Emperor, but surprisingly, Carus refused the position himself.
Instead, he yielded the throne to Second Prince Leo.
By personally supporting Leo, he aimed to fill the lacking legitimacy and help establish a solid throne.
Zeke nodded as if Carus's decision to refuse the Imperial throne was natural.
'Carus probably thought it better to let Prince Leo handle the throne while he takes it easy in the background.'
Eventually, Prince Leo accepted Carus's proposal and decided to ascend to Emperor.
He granted Julius and Carus the positions of regents to oversee Imperial affairs.
While Rom found stability faster than expected with the swift decision of the next Emperor, problems weren't over.
Forces opposing Julius's led imperial succession had established themselves in southern Rom Empire.
Surprisingly, at the center of these forces was Castro Pollock, the Twin Palace knight who had warned Zeke about Azmund Varios's trap.
He gathered forces in Jupiter, a southern stronghold city of the Rom Empire, along with like-minded imperial noble families, the Golden Bull Palace knights, and powerful purists.
Zeke suspected that Jiemens, who had been stationed in Rom, might have gone to Jupiter with Castro, but this was mere speculation.
Amid the rapidly changing political situation, Zeke remained in Rom with the Black Sword Knights monitoring the situation in Jupiter. While keeping watch on Jupiter and observing Rom's situation, someone from the Four Seasons Castle came to see Zeke.
It was none other than Baron Draker, captain of the Black Corps and Arthur Draker's confidant.
Baron approached Zeke with his usual emotionless face.
Zeke welcomed Baron who had entered the Rom Imperial Palace and went to the office together.
Zeke freely used Regent Carus's office as his own. It didn't matter since Carus barely used the office anyway.
Baron bowed his head toward Zeke.
"Sir Zeke. Congratulations on completing your mission. The head of the family was greatly pleased with your military achievements."
On the surface, the head's order was to negotiate bringing the forbidden book possessed by Azmund Varios.
But Arthur Draker's actual order was different.
'Occupy the Imperial Palace.'
It was a near-impossible order to drive out the forces occupying the palace and take it.
But Zeke accomplished this spectacularly.
It was an incomparable military achievement that no other guardian knight of the Draker family could have accomplished.
Hearing Baron's words, Zeke slowly spoke.
"How did the head of the family react to announcing that Jiemens involved demons in this incident?"
"He said to do as you wish."
Zeke planned to reveal all of Jiemens's atrocities in Rom through newsletters.
From summoning monsters to attack cities to illegal chimera experiments and demon summoning.
He intended to completely eliminate any place for Jiemens to gain a foothold across the continent.
As Zeke was organizing future plans given the head's positive response, Baron spoke to him.
"There is a message from the head of the family."
Zeke, who had been lost in thought, raised his head and met Baron's eyes as if telling him to speak. Baron slowly continued.
"He orders you to compete with Black Knight Craven di Panion, the Black Knight of the Empire known as the Wise King."