Chapter 31
Chapter 31
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: Sorrow Will Come (3)
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"Father!"
The imperial prince of the Sonain Empire, Lui Sonain, was running toward the imperial palace, tears streaming down his face. Panting heavily, he flung open the doors to the emperor's chambers. There stood the 3rd Knight Order Captain Hyeon, the saintess Mariel Sonain whom he had brought with him, and the emperor of Sonain Empire, Luiel Sonain.
"Keep your composure. Don't let anxiety tarnish your dignity."
"But Father, the walls... the empire and you, our emperor, are in danger, aren't they?"
"I'm fine. The central command has already prepared the other subjects for evacuation, and this palace will never fall to the enemy as long as I'm here."
The emperor was already clad in armor forged by master craftsmen. It was adorned with feathers far more ornate than those of any knights or knight order captains, and he wore a cape made from the black fur of the Somins, said to shine only when the moon hid-resembling a storm cloud.
"For I am Sonain Empire."
Even the deep wrinkles on his face betrayed no hint of fear, befitting the man once called the Knight King long before ascending to the throne.
"Your Majesty, judging by the citizens' evacuation, we are ready for you to draw your sword."
"Very well. 3rd Knight Order Captain, take my children to the secret chamber behind the throne first."
The princess said nothing. She merely held back her leaking smile, worried that others might notice her pounding heart and budding madness. When Hyeon led her away first, she hurried off without even greeting the emperor, finally able to laugh.
"Then, Your Majesty. Yerutsa Rahav."
Fearing he might disturb the emperor's resolve and thus shake his sword, Hyeon quickly ushered the princess and prince toward the door. At that moment, the prince spoke up.
"Father! I'll stay with you!"
The emperor rose from the imperial throne and descended to his son's side.
"My son, remember this."
He drew his sword, which gleamed with a blue light. It had no separate scabbard; its tip split into two like a key, forming a massive blade shaped like a bizarre saw.
"A king is always under threat. But the king of kings, the emperor, must be the one who threatens the enemy."
The father patted his son's shoulder affectionately with a smile and continued.
"I can do that because you come after me. The empire is me, and my empire is you-keep that in mind. Now go!"
Though he didn't fully grasp his father's words, the prince felt a surge of fear from the vibrations and explosions echoing through the palace. Guided by Hyeon, he fled to a safer room deeper inside.
And the emperor remained alone in the palace.
"Yerutsa Rahav."
He gripped the massive sword with both hands.
"An emperor is not one man, but an inherited history."
He thrust his sword straight into the throne.
***
"Yerutsa Rahav!"
"Hold out until Captain Graveheim arrives!"
"Pour every attack on the fallen Mountain Giant!"
The knights clung to the Mountain Giant King's feet, risking their lives to prevent it from rising.
Whoosh! Boom!
Saint Holden sped over the walls faster than the wind, reaching the Mountain Giants and unleashing relentless attacks. Battles against such colossal monsters didn't suit his style, honed for human foes, but when it came to disrupting enemy formations and drawing attention, no knight in the order-save Riu-could match him.
"Fire the ballistae!"
The wall's cannons, after long years, fired once more at the demons as intended. The one beside the crumbled wall struck the Mountain Giant King's face directly, while the rest exploded amid the roughly five hundred giants Saint Holden had thrown into chaos. The empire's cities lay in ruins, the earth upheaved, filled with dust and flames.
The battle had raged from sunset into the deepening night.
"How... are we supposed to win this?"
At that very moment, a massive rumble shook the blood-soaked corpses littering the ground.
"What... is that?"
As the Mountain Giant King paused at the sound, every knight turned to gaze at its source.
Greeeeee!
There rose a colossal figure amid deafening roars.
"I, Luiel Sonain VI, call upon my sword Migdal! Raise the castle! Inherit the sword!"
Centered on the imperial palace, a massive blue sphere formed, and the castle and buildings disassembled and reassembled into a gigantic humanoid shape.
His sword's power gathered all the empire's castles and buildings into a single colossus.
"All of the empire is my sword!"
The emperor piloted the colossus like a ship's wheel with his sword, slamming it into the Mountain Giant King.
Boom!
Thus began the battle of giants. Each punch thrown, each fall, sent tremors through the earth and whipped up storms. In this clash like a natural disaster, the other knights-even Saint Holden afar and Nia in the sky-struggled just to flee the area. Lightning struck, scorching the ground further.
"Take cover!"
"It's His Imperial Majesty! Get out of the way-don't interfere!"
"Tend to the wounded!"
Then the Mountain Giant King's horns blazed greenish-black, shoving the emperor's colossus backward.
"Nngh!"
Not to be outdone, the emperor gripped his sword with both hands, pouring all his strength into it. Blue flames erupted from the central sphere like lightning, enveloping the body formed from the castle and all other imperial structures in azure light.
The bricks fused with beams of light.
Clumping tighter.
Exerting greater force.
The colossus pressed the mountain's shoulder to crumble it, igniting blue flames.
Pained by the blue fire coursing over its body, the Mountain Giant King thrashed its head wildly, repelling the emperor's sword. To extinguish the flames, it smashed its own shoulder with its brutish hand, scattering rocks-once its shoulder-across the battlefield.
With unquenchable blue flames clinging to the flying rocks, it resembled a blue hellscape.
Groooooar!
pStanding in that blue hell-no, embodying it-the Mountain Giant King raised both arms, charging to sweep away the emperor and the empire.
In response, the emperor forced more flames into his sword.
The twisting blue fire gradually whitened and coalesced with that power.
The sword burning his body and soul alike.
Flames rose across the emperor, his sword, and the entire imperial colossus it had summoned.
"I am the Knight King, Luiel!"
Luiel Sonain's eyes blazed with blue light as the colossus collided anew with the Mountain Giant King. Seizing the moment as it staggered, he lifted one massive arm and rammed its head, flipping it with his shoulder.
Grraaaaaah!
The Mountain Giant King screamed in midair, thrashing as it risked shattering.
"Fall, nameless demon!"
Wrath of the Colossus.
In an instant, the emperor's sky-piercing rage pierced the encircled Mountain Giant King, surging upward and pulverizing everything above.
Boom!
The Mountain Giant King didn't die, but its lower body shattered, hurling it far beyond the walls-past even Saint Holden's position.
Boom!
The impact collapsed the coastal plain entirely.
"We won!"
"His Majesty has felled the enemy!"
"Yerutsa Rahav!"
As the sun-hidden dawn broke, cheers like thunder erupted. The emperor panted, surveying the surroundings. Rain had begun falling unnoticed, cooling the charred earth as it billowed smoke.
From a gap in the adjacent castle, the prince watched his father's might in awe.
"Empire... recover... the damage."
The battle with the Mountain Giant King ended in the emperor's victory.
As he moved to return the colossus to its place and restore the wounded land, reestablishing the empire's great authority...
"Oh? I told you not to go ahead, Nepil. What can you do when he's that stupid."
An overwhelming swarm of flying creatures blotted out the sky's rain, visible from the distant horizon. Wings of nightfiends, glowing red as if setting the heavens ablaze, approached.
Their king at the forefront, Kirumin Jay, continued.
"All demons, advance. Today, we right the twisted myth!"
Red Blood Savages, dream demons including succubi, and even blue moon wolfkin. All other demons reaching the capital Sonain along the coast charged toward it.
The wolfkin bared sharp fangs in howls, the Red Blood Savages wielded crude blades, and the demons including dream demons spewed darkness everywhere while the skyborne nightfiends rained fire.
The demons plundered all they saw; what they couldn't take, they shattered, slashed, and tore.
The demons summoned rising shadows and fiery rain.
The demons killed.
The sky burned, and the earth tore asunder.
One knight dropped his sword at the sight.
"Is this... the end?"
Empire Year 260: The Third Demon Invasion Begins.
Kirumin Jay commanded the nightfiends plummeting like fiery rain.
"Go. Kill them all."
And then it exploded.
Died.
***
"Finally, the timing aligns. The Hero has halted, and the Demon Kings bare their horns."
The witch closed her book and merged the two flames, igniting them fiercely once more.
"Behold. Now sorrow will come."