The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 128 – Trap (3)

The cavalrymen hesitated for a second at the unexpected order. However, soon, they too saw the huge shadow hanging over their heads. The cavalrymen were slightly disorganized due to being perplexed at the sudden situation, but they quickly reorganized themselves and ran away from the beach—the Northern Army boasted the best military discipline in the entire empire, and they were pretty quick.

The survivors were perplexed to see the cavalry retreating so suddenly, but hurriedly crawled toward the beach as they looked up at the sky in fear.

A huge creature that seemed to be at least hundreds of meters long was flying high in the air. The creature’s wings were so huge that they covered the sun and tore the clouds into pieces. The fact that such a huge creature was flying in the sky itself seemed like a joke. The appearance of this phenomenal being that had been rarely seen for decades caused everyone’s mouth to drop open and mutter only one name.

‘A dragon.’

Juan burst out laughing at the magnificent scene he was seeing for the first time in quite a while. The creature was clearly a ‘real’ dragon that was over a thousand years old. It was unknown as to how it had been able to survive, but the extinction of the dragons was led by the Order of Lindwurm and Gerard. Juan guessed that it wouldn’t have been too difficult for Gerard to keep one of the dragons alive.

Even the soldiers of the Fourth Division who were already familiar with Horhell’s dragon looked frightened by the aura and dignity of the fully grown dragon.

“...His Majesty and the Order of Lindwurm made monsters like that extinct?” Someone murmured.

Everyone had the same thought—except Nienna Nelben, who had different ideas.

“Gerard.”

The moment Nienna said Gerard’s name out loud, the dragon turned its huge neck and looked down at the ground. There was clearly a long distance between the dragon and the humans, but everyone could clearly see the dragon’s eyes. Just one glance into the dragon’s eyes alone made ordinary people feel like they couldn’t move.

Then the dragon’s chest started to swell up. Upon realizing what was about to happen, NIenna ordered everyone to retreat in a voice so loud that her vocal cords could be ripped apart.

“Everyone, fall back! Right now!”

A huge wall of flames split the beach for a moment. Due to scorching light and heat, the soldiers covered their faces and quickly scrambled back. Flames that looked like they came from hell covered the entire beach in just an instant. The soldiers trembled with fear as they imagined all the survivors beyond the wall of flames to have already been burned to death.

Nienna hastily looked around to confirm that none of her people had suffered any losses.

On the other hand, the dragon’s flames melted even the sand, but the survivors beyond the wall of flames were still alive with frightened expressions.

Nienna clicked her tongue upon realizing that the dragon had breathed out a straight line of flames, almost as if he was cutting sand with a knife.

“He created a wall,” Nienna muttered.

Juan’s eyes shone at Nienna’s words.

“So that we can’t approach the survivors?”

“Yes. But it doesn’t matter since he’s here anyway.”

Nienna dispersed the cavalry with a signal. The appearance of the dragon was unexpected, and there was no way for the heavily armed cavalry to deal with it.

While it seemed like the dragon didn’t want to directly attack the cavalry for some reason, the damage would be enormous if it changed its mind.

The dragon was just hovering in the sky and still watching the situation. Both Juan and Nienna intuitively felt that there was someone standing on top of the dragon’s head.

“I’ll take care of the situation here, so stay back, dad.”

“Your opponent is?Gerard and he also has a dragon with him.”

As far as Juan could remember, Gerard and Nienna were of similar strength—Gerard was just the slightest bit stronger than Nienna was. But Nienna replied with a smirk.

“It’s true that Gerad and I used to have similar strength when you were alive in the past, dad. But now he’s got a dragon, the power of the Crack, and Elkiehl. He also has the ability to beat the Priests of the Crack,” Nienna said as she drew her sword.

Juan could feel the air freezing around him.

“Those same things are also why Gerard will be defeated. After all, it is my specialty to destroy the Crack.”

Nienna raised her sword high up in the sky and began to shout something. Juan noticed that she was casting a massive summoning spell—Nienna was summoning a Holy Beast that she had made a pact with.

According to Juan’s memory, there was only one Holy Beast that had made a pact with Nienna, the ruler of the winter and a daughter of the winter duke.

The clouds started pouring snow even more furiously. One snow crystal froze and started spreading in all directions. As the crystal continued to spread as if it were swelling, it formed the shape of a large frozen wolf.

It was the beast that granted its name to Nienna’s knight order.

“Fenrir, answer the call of your master!”

A huge wolf came down from the sky, ready to devour the world.

***

The dragon wasn’t able to spot Fenrir, who was falling from the sky in time. The moment Fenrir bit on the dragon’s neck, it was agitated and its gigantic figure shook greatly. But the dragon was not an easy opponent—it would not fall to just one of Fenrir’s attacks.

The dragon struggled to avoid falling and immediately twisted its neck and spat flames toward Fenrir’s leg. Fenrir’s leg, which was made of ice, melted in an instant, but was reformed immediately. Then, Fenrir’s claws scratched the dragon’s stomach and tore it open. On the other hand, instead of spitting the flames again, the dragon folded its wings and curled up—it was a posture used to prepare for an incoming shock.

The dragon and Fenrir intertwined in the air and then crashed toward the sea. However, the dragon spread its wings and quickly escaped just before the crash. Only Fenrir slipped and fell without being able to bite onto the dragon.

This caused huge waves to surge toward the survivors, but they weren’t powerful enough to drag them back into the sea.

Meanwhile, people couldn’t take their eyes off of the bloody battle between the dragon and the Holy Beast atop the sea.

It was hard for one to even get to see monsters in the current empire, let alone Holy Beasts. This just proved that the emperor had created a safe world for humans.

But, there was certainly something fascinating about mythological beings.

The dragon flapped its wings to fly up into the sky again, but it was clear that it had been injured. Furthermore, Pnelil’s ability to freeze the opponent’s wound was burdensome for even a dragon, beings who had such strong vitality. At the same time, Fenrir no longer had any other ways to attack the dragon which was flying in the sky either.

Then people found a figure running across the sea. The surface of the sea froze everywhere Nienna’s horse passed through, and a white cape that resembled a winter storm fluttered behind her back. Nienna jumped off her horse and climbed on Fenrir as soon as she got close to it.

Fenrir rose above the frozen sea. The next thing people saw was Nienna reaching her hand out toward the sky from a distance. Oberon, the spear of ice, was clasped in Nienna’s hand. But the Oberon currently in her hand didn’t seem like the one she used when dueling against Juan.

Thousands of ice spears rose above the sea, and countless spear blades that colored the sea white were aimed toward the dragon at once. The energy contained in the ice spears was a lot stronger than the energy contained in the steel spears.

At the same time, the dragon flapped its wings in a hurry to try and accelerate, but wasn’t able to do so due to the injury.

Nienna finally threw the ice spear in her hand at the dragon. At the same time, the thousands of ice spears flew toward the dragon as well. The dragon belatedly breathed out flames to vaporize nearly half of the ice spears, but the remaining half struck exactly one of the dragon’s wings.

This attack caused the dragon to lose its balance and begin to crash into the sea.

***

Nienna felt her insides reeling for the first time in a while. The Crack had been very quiet in recent years. The Crack had always been a threat, but Nienna hadn’t really faced such a strong opponent that forced her to use all her might. The rapid consumption of mana made Nienna feel dizzy. But Nienna was laughing while breathing out a white breath.

The giant figure of the dragon appeared over the sea. Its size was slightly smaller than that of Fenrir, but with the addition of its wings, neck, and tail, it was three times bigger than Fenrir. The dragon was still majestic even with one of its wings damaged.

However, it wasn’t the dragon that Nienna was interested in.

“Show yourself, Gerard… I know that you haven’t even revealed your full strength yet.”

People might think that Nienna had been suppressing the dragon, but this was only due to the fact that Gerard hadn’t even bothered to attack her so far.

The children of the emperor were capable of easily catching a dragon.

Nienna was beginning to feel impatient due to her urge to fight against Gerard.

“Come out, Gerard!”

Nienna’s roar resonated over the sea. At the same time, the surrounding sea froze with a cracking sound all the way to the coast. Nienna’s eyes were burning with blue light.

The dragon flapped its wings, slowly breaking the ice of the frozen sea. Soon, someone appeared between the two horns of the dragon—it was a man covered entirely in bandages and wearing a ragged robe. No one knew for sure who he was, but Nienna was certain that he was Gerard. His posture, gaze, and the way he walked were all screaming his identity.

Nienna grinned.

“You and I have similar achievements, but people somehow always think that you’re stronger than I am. Let’s set the record straight today.”

Fenrir charged toward the dragon as soon as Nienna finished speaking. At the same time Fenrir’s sharp teeth bit the dragon, the dragon also bit Fenrir’s neck.

Nienna immediately jumped at Gerald while the Fenrir and the dragon were intertwined with each other. Then, Nienna launched the most powerful attack she could use, while Gerard also quickly read the energy being emanated from her sword.

The moment their two swords clashed in the air, the frozen sea was split in half. The shocking gusts of wind from the clash swept all the soldiers off the coast, and even the dragon and Fenrir were pushed back due to the shock. Nienna’s sword was pressing against Gerard’s sword as if she was pressuring him.

Nienna’s eyes became sharp upon seeing the bandages that were wrapped around Gerard’s sword getting ripped to shreds to reveal Elkiehl’s dark body.

“Is this all you’ve got? This is the power you gained from selling your empire, betraying your knights and stabbing your own father? Huh?”

Nienna roughly swung her sword and pushed Gerard. She wasn’t using the Baltic Sword, but was basically only pushing Gerard with brute force.

Gerard did not attack Nienna but just focused on defending himself. Nienna was getting angrier and angrier upon seeing Gerard’s actions.

“Do you expect me to go easy on you if you look pitiful like that?” Nienna derided.

Gerard remained silent. Gerard’s silence as well as his heavy eyes were wearing away at Nienna’s patience, and then her patience snapped. Nienna swung her sword with the intent to kill.

The moment Gerard raised his sword in his attempt to block Nienna’s overly simple attack, the space and time around them became distorted.

Nienna’s heart stopped as the air slapped against her flesh and started burning violently—it was the heat from the friction of air rubbing against her body. Nienna had wrapped herself in cold air as she knew that this would happen, but she still felt as if she had turned into a fireball.

Everything happened in just an extremely short moment, so short that even her shadow couldn’t keep up with her.

Gerard was unable to block Nienna’s attack that was even able to freeze time. It was the fifth stage of the Baltic Sword: Fleeting Moment.

Crack!

The moment a short cracking sound was heard, Nienna’s sword had already penetrated deep into Gerard. Gerard opened his eyes wide and looked at Nienna, while she glared at Gerard as she suppressed the burns all over her body caused by the heat.

“Keep your mouth shut—I have no intention to listen to your last will.”

Nienna tightened the sword in her hand with the intent to finish Gerard off.

Then, at that moment, someone quickly appeared and pushed her to the side, causing Nienna’s face to become distorted.

It was Juan.

“Dad.”

Juan sighed as he stood between Gerard and Nienna. It was the right thing to stop his children from fighting, but it wasn’t easy for Juan to intervene when they were fighting so fiercely. Fortunately, Gerard was severely injured and Nienna was exhausted.

Juan looked at Gerard’s condition. Gerard looked surprised due to Nienna’s attack, but he seemed to know what had happened.

‘Gerard must have reached the fifth stage of the Baltic Sword as well.’

It was natural that the side who used Fleeting Moment first was at an advantage when both sides had reached the fifth stage of the Baltic Sword. One might be able to notice and prepare a counterattack against it after they got used to performing the fifth stage, but neither Gerard nor Nienna had reached that level yet.

“Nienna, I know you had a hard time. But stop for a moment; I need to talk to Gerard. I promised Hela to hear him out before I punish him,” Juan said.

“Talk? Shouldn’t you check whether his lips inside those bandages are sewn together, since he hasn’t been…”

Nienna’s derisive remarks suddenly turned into a scream.

With a short stabbing sound, a black blade stabbed toward Juan’s chest. Juan even felt a feeling of déjà vu at the familiar sight that was occurring in front of his eyes.

Gerard was stabbing Juan in the back.

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