The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 168 – The Ones Who Started Everything (6)

Sina tried to imagine Juan being afraid of spiders, ghosts, or clowns. However, she immediately got rid of that image; it did not suit Juan at all.

Then, Sina inadvertently felt uneasy. There was no doubt that Juan was not afraid of anything, but that didn’t mean he had no weaknesses.

‘Juan’s weakness, huh?’

Sina tried her best not to think about it, but she couldn’t help being curious.

At that moment, Juan found something from behind Mananen McLeir’s body.

“I found it.”

“What is that?”

“A catalyst that will help us move instantaneously when we go outside. I remembered hiding one around here before.”

‘Teleportation… Thank goodness.’

Sina was relieved as she didn’t have to worry about being carried on Juan’s back.

On the other hand, Juan didn’t seem to be ready to leave just yet.

“Hold on a second. I’m going to need to clean this place up before we leave.”

“Clean it up?”

“I’m just going to get rid of Mananen McLeir’s body for good this time, so that Dane, that trash, can’t mess with it anymore. Mananen’s remains have been useful in too many ways. I do owe him quite a lot, but I think it’s time to let a friend go now.”

Sina tilted her head in wonder upon hearing Juan’s words.

“But isn’t the boundary of the empire made with the help of Mananen McLeir’s body? Won’t the boundary disappear if you get rid of his body?”

If the boundary disappeared, the mythical beings who fled out of the empire may appear yet again. Of course, Sina didn’t think that such a thing would happen as long as Juan was in the empire, but she couldn’t be certain that Juan would be in the empire forever.

“Yes, it will disappear,” Juan answered.

“Then…”

“But it won’t be the same as before. Back then, humans were powerless and scattered everywhere. It was also a time when powerful gods were wandering around. But all the terribly strong gods are dead now, so it might actually be better to get rid of the boundary. The current boundary almost feels like it is locking up the humans.”

Sina looked at Juan with anxious eyes; it was hard for her to imagine the empire without the boundary. This was because she grew up hearing stories of uncivilized humans and monsters living beyond the boundary.

“I’m not completely sure about this either. But I think that it needs to be done, considering the harm that leaving Mananen McLeir’s body will cause. Besides, it’s not like there’s no alternative if it doesn’t work out well,” Juan said as if he could read Sina’s anxiety.

“Okay. Then do it,” Sina answered briefly.

While she was anxious about the future that she had never once expected in her life, she decided to believe in Juan.

“You are the emperor.”

Juan stared at Sina upon hearing her answer. He tried to say something, but soon sighed and looked back at Mananen McLeir’s body in silence. He then began to mutter something while placing his hand on it.

Not long after Juan finished reciting, the remains of the dried-up, black body started wriggling. An intense heat started rising from its arm which had already been turned into a lump of charcoal, and the mud around them instantly dried up and cracked. Furthermore, the thick bones that had been lumped together started shrinking with a rattling sound.

Sina managed to see the flow of nature on Mananen McLeir’s body. Fresh leaves sprouted, grew, flourished, burned, froze, flew away, and scattered, but the cycle soon started once again after that. Things that would usually take decades to happen quickly passed before Sina’s eyes. At the same time, Mananen McLeir’s giant-like body was slowly being compressed.

The traces of the body quickly disappeared, and then only something that looked like skeletal remains that were about the size of an ordinary person remained. While the head was still shaped like the skull of an eagle, the overall figure was clearly humanoid.

“What is this?” Sina asked.

“This is… I have no idea. This should have disappeared as well.”

Juan looked curiously at the remains that looked like bones. Ordinary skeletal remains should be dry and white, but these remains had a metallic texture that gave a subtle glow. Juan stared at the remains for a while and then touched it.

At that moment, a bright white light flashed before Juan’s eyes.

***

Juan opened his eyes in the white world with absolutely nothing around him.

Juan instantly realized that he had been pulled into an imaginary world—something inside the remains had forcefully summoned him.

Considering that it hadn’t even given Juan a chance to resist, it was clear that it was a magical creature that was just as powerful as Mananen McLeir or Juan himself.

[Who are you?]

Juan turned his head toward the voice. However, the surroundings were still completely white.

At that moment, Juan suddenly saw something black come down and then quickly disappear back up. The surroundings slowly started to look like a series of patterns spread in all directions as it created waves.

Juan blinked his eyes upon realizing that his surroundings were no longer white, and then thought of a ridiculous possibility.

This white thing all around Juan was the eye of some creature—a creature whose size alone was likely to be enough to reach the horizon.

“Show yourself completely.”

Compared to the gigantic existence that was the creature, Juan’s voice was so small that it was unknown as to whether or not Juan’s voice would even be heard.

But, the power of his voice definitely reached the creature. When the huge creature blinked, a completely different landscape unfolded before Juan’s eyes.

This time, something huge with a face could be seen—it was a creature with skin that had a texture similar to the metallic texture that Juan saw earlier on the remains. It looked more like a well-made statue rather than a creature.

The creature had four wings extending in all directions, and had feminine and elegant curves. The unrealistic beauty made it feel more like an elegant beast than an intellectual creature.

[I couldn’t see you properly because you were too small. So I shrunk my size. Who are you?]

“Thanks for doing that. My name is Juan Calberg.”

The opponent remained silent for a moment. After a short moment of silence, a voice was heard again.

[The emperor?]

Juan tilted his head upon hearing the creature’s words that made it seem like it knew about him.

“Do you know who I am?”

[You should also know who I am as well if you knew Mananen McLeir. I am Kelegrenon.]

Juan momentarily felt perplexed upon hearing an unexpected name. This beast that was called Mananen McLeir’s dog was also known as the beast of destruction and disaster.

Once it physically manifested itself, it sucked in all of the surrounding mana like crazy, so destroying a whole city was easily possible for it just by appearing there.

Juan recalled the attempts of his enemies to forcefully summon this beast and have it physically manifest itself back at Hiveden and outside the Magic Tower for a last-ditch suicidal attack.

“You look… a little different from what I know. I remember you having a wolf-like form. Besides, you had no intelligence and had a much smaller body than you do now.”

[Well, there are many limitations I must abide by in order to adapt to the laws of physics in that world. Mananen McLeir created me in a free and peaceful world, but that world just collapsed. Do you know anything about that?]

Juan realized that the destruction of Kelegrenon’s world was related to him trying to get rid of Mananen McLeir’s remains. He felt that he had made a mistake, but then remembered that Mananen McLeir’s remains were already decaying and disappearing; it was only a matter of time before Kelagranon’s world also collapsed eventually.

“I think it has something to do with Mananen McLeir’s remains getting smaller. His remains are now only about the same size as me.”

[Is that so?]

Juan thought that Kelegranon would either be angry or sad, but there was not much emotion in her tone. She seemed to accept the destruction in a calm manner.

“So what are you going to do now, Kelegrenon? Our world is not powerful enough for you to manifest there.”

[I don’t want to go there even if you ask me to come, emperor. I hated how my form would become distorted and how I would act like a beast every time I was summoned to your world. That went against the reason why Mananen McLeir created me. If I go to your world without Mananen McLeir, I’ll slowly shrink after turning everything around me into desert. I don’t want that.]

“Then do you have anything else in mind?”

Kelegranon remained silent for a long time. Her body only glistened brilliantly from place to place in silence.

Juan had a feeling that the glistening of her body was the manifestation of her thinking.

Kelegranon slowly opened her mouth after a long period of silence.

[You said that Mananen McLeir’s skeletal remains are still there, right?]

“Yes.”

[It looks like Mananen McLeir left a place inside his skeletal remains for me to continue staying in even if my world ended up collapsing. That’s why I didn’t die even though the world collapsed. I guess those skeletal remains represent another form of ‘me’ that Mananen McLeir left behind for me to exist in.]

Mananen McLeir seemed to have cared a lot about his creation, Kelagranon. Juan felt that such a thing was quite unexpected, since he only remembered Kelegrenon to have been a beast of destruction that had no intelligence. However, it was only natural for Juan to think so, since only war existed in the time he lived.

[Emperor, I’d like to entrust it to you if you don’t mind. I don’t want to be trapped inside a cave again now that my world has collapsed.]

“Entrust it to me? I don’t really care, but you’re not going to suck all of the mana around you, right?”

[I can do that if that is what you want. The opposite is also possible. I can also do most of the work that Mananen McLeir used to do. Just make sure to keep his remains safe for me.]

“All right.”

Juan agreed to do so; it would only be more trouble for Juan if Kelegranon fell into the wrong hands.

Kelegranon stared at Juan for a moment, then suddenly disappeared.

Then, Juan’s eyes instantly darkened and he returned to the place where Mananen McLeir’s remains were.

Juan flinched and pulled his hand back from Mananen McLeir’s remains. He could feel Sina staring at him in wonder. Only then did he realize that only an instant had passed during the time he entered Kelegrenon’s inner world.

“Is there a problem?” Sina asked.

“...No, there isn’t. I was just thinking for a second.”

Juan gave an ambiguous answer and then reached his hand out toward Mananen McLeir’s remains. At that moment, Mananen McLeir’s remains began to rise up with a clattering sound and then they started winding around Juan’s hand.

Sina reached out with a perplexed expression, but Juan quickly stopped her.

The platinum-colored remains then wrapped around Juan’s body and quickly blended with the original clothes that were worn by Juan. Finally, they wrapped Juan all the way up to his head.

Sina looked at Juan from top to bottom with a perplexed look in her eyes and muttered in a quiet voice.

“An armor?”

It was full-body armor that seemed to be splendidly decorated with bones.

Juan touched the helmet of the armor. He had expected an eagle’s skull to be there, but it was completely different than he had expected. He realized that it was in the same shape as Kelegrenon’s unrealistic head that he saw in her inner world.

“No, it’s not armor.”

Juan shook his head at Sina.

“It’s Kelegrenon.”

***

After Juan and Sina left the Magic Tower using the teleport catalyst, Kelegrenon granted Juan an unexpected surprise.

Kelelgrenon seemed to examine Juan’s physical condition for a while, then she quickly began to restore the flow of mana that had been ruined by Barth Baltic’s horns. In the process, Kelegrenon improved Juan’s mana that had gotten used to moving inefficiently and also released the mana that was contaminated during the battle.

Juan felt his physical condition quickly getting better with just that alone. Kelegrenon quickly released all the bad energy from inside Juan and then burned it. In turn, Juan’s body responded to Kelegrenon’s heat and started heating up as well, thus burning all of the malignant tumors and scars in his body, and leaving behind only new flesh.

Juan felt that his body had become much lighter than even before he fought with Barth Baltic.

“What did you do to me?” Juan asked.

[Well, I can’t live in an unpleasant environment like this, right?]

Juan didn’t like how Kelegrenon called his body an ‘unpleasant environment,’ but he decided to let it slide, since he was quite satisfied with the effects.

Then, Kelegrenon cleaned up Juan’s body and slowly began to cool down again.

“What an unexpected surprise.”

Being the creation of the Mana God Mananen McLeir, Kelegrenon seemed to be much better at handling mana than Juan.

While Juan was enjoying the unexpected effect, Hela came to pay him a visit.

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