Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 194 – Iolin (3)

If Iolin were to prioritize her resurrection, she could have easily ignored Anya’s attacks, since they weren’t able to deal much damage to her; she could easily focus on regaining her strength. However, Iolin had summoned the knights of the lake instead of ignoring or attacking Anya, because she considered defending herself a priority.

‘If I am even able to do even a little damage… there’s a chance that I can win.’

Anya figured that she had to speed up a little bit. As soon as she came to this conclusion, Anya quickly bounced back and charged toward Iolin with her army of the dead. Anya had no choice but to allow the army of the dead to attack passively, since neither Iolin’s weaknesses nor strengths could be identified even now. But if a simple attack could deal even some damage to Iolin, it was something worth trying.

‘If I can’t control her with darkness from a long distance, I can simply slam myself against her and make a mess.’

The knights of the lake immediately noticed a change upon seeing Anya’s unusual movements and raised their swords to clash against the attacks of the army of the dead.

At that moment, Anya crashed into one of the knights of the lake and rolled around on the ground.

Several knights of the dead quickly disappeared due to the recklessly attempted attack. Anya could also feel that a couple of her fingers were broken, but she didn’t care.

The sacred aura emitted by Iolin was mixed with the darkness being emitted by Anya to give off a cloudy glow just as Anya had intended.

The knights of the lake also fought amidst this mess by punching and kicking their enemies rather than swinging their swords. Such a pathetic sight made it hard to believe they once used to be the legendary knights and kings.

Anya smiled at Iolin and began to climb up the ash tree throne by stabbing her dagger into it.

“I’ll put you back deep inside the mud where you belong, noble lady.”

The moment Anya murmured, Iolin suddenly turned her head and looked at Anya. Then, Iolin finally lifted her eyelids to reveal her empty eyes.

“What the…?!”

Anya was briefly startled by the bizarre void inside Iolin’s eyelids. She had seen countless more horrifying things than this before, but seeing such a grotesque void in the eyes of such a beautiful woman like Iolin creeped her out.

At that moment, Anya found something unusual about Iolin—engraved in her eyes was a red letter. Once Anya spotted the red letter, she soon spotted the other red shapes and tattoos engraved all over Iolin’s body right away.

‘Resurrection… no. This is not some ordinary resurrection.’

Reviving a god would not just bring about a disaster, but would also produce a threat to humanity. Anya intuitively noticed that those who had revived Iolin had not only carefully planned her resurrection, they had even prepared means to take control of her. It wasn’t just a revival—they intended to control her as if they were training a dog to fight for them.

Iolin looked down at Anya and shouted something. While Anya wasn’t able to understand what she said, since it was spoken in the language of Elves, the knights of the lake immediately responded to those words.

Bang!

With the sound of trumpets echoing in unison, the army of the dead were thrown toward the surroundings. Shining horses began to crawl out of the muddy ground and then the knights of the lake rode them to trample on the knights of the dead.

Anya tried to cover her surroundings with her darkness to revive the knights of the dead, but the revival was inevitably slowed down due to Iolin’s sacred aura which kept interfering with the surroundings.

‘If only the sun had set…’

Although the unidentified meat was nourishing Iolin, it was clear that she only regained consciousness when the sunlight hit her.

Anya bit her lips; she had a feeling that she was bound to lose at this rate. She already knew that the situation would go completely out of control if a god is allowed to be resurrected fully based on her experience in Hiveden.

‘Your Majesty, please forgive me.’

Anya was constantly inserting her strength into Umbra, to the extent that her eyes had turned half black.

Meanwhile, the knights of the lake all looked back at Anya from atop of the ash tree upon feeling the unusual energy that was emanating from her.

As soon as the knights of the lake shouted something and raised their spears, ink-like darkness poured out of Anya’s mouth and eyes. Then, the darkness which soared like a waterfall immediately covered the knights of the lake and the ash tree.

The knights of the lake who were attacking the knights of the dead while riding their horses instantly fell off to the ground, and at the same time, Anya crawled up the ash tree amidst the darkness—it looked like she was intent on coloring Iolin with her darkness.

Finally, Anya’s hand touched Iolin’s ankle—but that was it.

At that moment, one of the spears thrown by the knights of the lake pierced Anya’s calf.

Anya couldn’t move a single inch due to the spear that pierced through not only her calf but also the tree. But Anya let out a growling roar.

“How dare you try to get in my way!”

The knights of the lake froze for a moment upon hearing Anya’s roar. They couldn’t feel any fear, since they were already dead, but the voice that was made by squeezing one’s soul was enough to make them stop.

The voice that stopped them was not the voice of the woman who they were dealing with until now.

“No one can hold me back! No one can escape from me!”

The knights of the dead who had collapsed here and there all stood up in unison. They, too, began to march in a single line while shedding black darkness just like Anya.

The knights of the lake flinched and failed to move properly; something was trying to take control over them. While it was true that they had sworn allegiance to the goddess of the lake, they were also included in the realm of the dead.

“I am the ruler of the dead!”

Nigrato’s deathly voice was very suffocating to the knights of the lake.

At the same time, Anya forcibly pulled up the essence of Umbra while clinging on to the last string of her consciousness. Nigrato’s power which was engraved upon Umbra was raging like crazy, but there was no possibility of his resurrection, given that Umbra would explode before that happened.

But there was no way that Anya could be safe inside Umbra.

Anya swung her hand to break the spear that was stuck in her leg, then continued to climb up the tree again.

Meanwhile, Iolin’s hollow and empty eyes were still staring at Anya.

Anya noticed that Iolin was muttering something, but she couldn’t understand what it meant.

Instead of thinking too much, Anya decided to grab Iolin’s face and lower her head. The moment Anya and Iolin’s lips met, Anya poured Umbra’s power inside Iolin.

When the black darkness poured into her mouth, Iolin’s eyes turned black in an instant. Darkness flowed into Iolin’s eyes and down her ears as the power of the dead filled her up.

The power of Umbra was ruthlessly pulsing with Iolin’s body.

Then, Anya removed her lips from Iolin’s and looked down at her with an exhausted expression.

At that moment, Iolin muttered something once again.

“I can’t understand whatever you’re saying,” Anya answered briefly.

She did not wait for Iolin’s answer.

Boom!

WIth a crunching sound, the power of Umbra inside Iolin’s body exploded. The power of Umbra took the form of a spear and pierced through Iolin’s body at once, turning her into a dark chestnut. Iolin’s body instantly shattered and parts of her body scattered everywhere.

Anya, who was still holding on to Iolin’s face until the last moment, couldn’t avoid being pierced by the power of Umbra in several places either.

At the same time, tears streamed down from the empty eye socket on Iolin’s face, shattering away. Anya couldn’t tell if those were tears or snowflakes that fell on Iolin’s face and coincidentally melted.

Then, she knelt down in an awkward position; she was unable to collapse due to her being penetrated by the power of Umbra.

‘Is it over? Is everything over now?’

Anya’s legs trembled. A sacred aura was still flowing out of Iolin, but it was clear that she was being overpowered. However, she might not be dead for good.

What Anya couldn’t believe was the fact that even though she had destroyed Umbra, she did not succeed in overpowering Iolin. Not only was Umbra made with Ras’ soul, it was also his posthumous work. Yet Anya had no choice but to detonate Umbra; Iolin would have turned into an impossible enemy to beat if she hadn’t done so.

“Captain Ras, Your Majesty. Please forgive me…”

Anya pulled herself off of Iolin while begging for forgiveness once again.

She looked at her hands with an expressionless face upon realizing that she couldn’t move them properly; it looked like a few of her nerves had been cut off.

The surroundings were now filled with the army of the dead, crows, and the darkness summoned by Anya. The darkness did not disappear even after Umbra was destroyed, but it did not move either; Anya could no longer control them now that Umbra was destroyed.

“I didn’t think anyone would be able to defeat Iolin even if she was in the middle of resurrecting.”

At that moment, Anya felt something sharp penetrating her waist before she could even turn her head toward the sudden voice. Then, she fell from atop the ash tree while letting out a terrible scream. The pain and shock of falling straight to the ground made her feel dizzy.

Anya tried to stand up despite the intense pain and shock, but she couldn’t even budge.

“Give up. It’s not even worth trying. You won’t be able to move, since your spine is broken.”

Someone was looking down at her from the side. Anya could only see someone wearing red armor within her hazy vision. Upon recognizing the symbol of a hand holding a bloody hammer, Anya realized that her opponent was someone from the Order of Surtr.

“I’m sorry, but a Cainheryar is just too precious. I must avoid breaking it completely.”

Then, the knight of the Order of Surtr raised the hammer in his hand high up in the air and slammed it toward Anya’s head while she lay there helplessly.

***

For a moment, an ink like darkness colored the sky beyond the horizon.

Seeing this, Juan and Nienna, who were running with all their might, came to a stop.

The darkness which spread as high as the clouds swayed a few times like a wave before quickly fading away.

Soon, Nienna’s expression hardened when she felt a dry and cold wind spring up.

“Dad… That is…”

“Yes. It’s Umbra. It seems like Anya had to use her last resort.”

Juan already knew that it would be impossible for them to arrive in time before the resurrection was complete. Yet he had hoped that Anya would be able to stall the resurrection until he arrived. After all, Umbra was capable of allowing her to do so as long as it contained Nigrato’s essence.

But that explosion of darkness only meant one thing—Umbra’s abilities had been pushed to the limit and it had exploded at once. Completely suppressing the resurrection of the god would be possible if things went well, but Anya would be completely helpless if the plan failed. What the explosion signified was too harsh to accept.

“Wait, then what about Anya? If she was fighting around where the explosion came from, then…” Nienna’s expression became distorted.

“She is probably dead. She might have managed to escape if she was lucky enough,” Juan answered.

Nienna muttered some curses and started running again. However, her rushed steps quickly came to a stop.

A group of people was running toward them from atop the hill—it was the Order of Huginn.

Juan immediately noticed that Anya wasn’t with them.

“Your Majesty!”

The knights from the Order of Huginn immediately jumped off of their horses as soon as they saw Juan and Nienna.

At the same time, Juan didn’t hesitate to run straight toward them.

“What happened to Anya?”

“Captain Anya sent us to inform Your Majesty that a god was being resurrected and she remained there to fight! She said that resurrection was being accelerated through some kind of meat-like catalyst or something…”

“A catalyst that accelerates resurrection?”

Juan had never heard of such a method. If he knew about it, he would have gotten rid of all of it a long time ago. But there was no way the information Anya found at the cost of her own life could have been false.

At that moment, Juan noticed that one more member of the Order of Huginn was missing besides Anya.

“Wait… Did Dilmond remain there as well?”

“Sir Dilmond accompanied us halfway and then went back to Captain Anya to…”

“He went back, you said?”

Juan’s foot kicked off the ground as he started running again even before the knight’s words were finished.

***

Clang!

An irritating and dull piercing sound rang out.

The knight from the Order of Surtr took a few steps back while holding his chest. Upon realizing that his red armor had been dented quite deeply, the knight raised his sharp eyes and glared ahead.

In front of him stood an old knight holding a hammer.

Dilmond leisurely spun the hammer in his hand in a round motion and then opened his mouth.

“The Order of Surtr, huh? I’ve heard a lot about you guys. But no one told me that you guys were nasty enough to attack someone who has already collapsed.”

“I thought everyone ran away except for this one, but I guess there was one more.”

Dilmond swung his hammer once again, and the knight from the Order of Sutr also raised his hammer up in the sky. The hammer as a weapon was far from agile, but it was not suitable to block their opponent’s weapon either.

The two dodged each other and quickly jumped toward each other. The result of the fight ought to depend on who wielded their weapon faster and more accurately.

In that regard, Dilmond was at an advantage, given that he was able to aim for the chest of the knight from the Order of Sutr earlier.

But that did not last long. Dilmond grew increasingly out of breath.

‘I am definitely too old for this now.’

Swinging a hammer took many times the amount of power it took to swing a sword due to the meticulous skill required to control the direction. Therefore, Dilmond had been trying to save his energy by hitting the opponent with every swing of his hammer.

However, his opponent seemed very used to fighting against an enemy who was using a hammer.

The opponent was much younger than Dilmond and was as good as him at handling a hammer.

However, the opponent seemed to also be wary of Dilmond.

“You’re not too bad for being an old ass. What’s your name?”

“You must be curious about the name of the Grim Reaper who has come to take your life.”

“Well, I need to know what name I should engrave on your tombstone later.”

“My name is Dilmond.”

“My name is Cuare. I’ve never seen anyone who’s not a knight from the Order of Surtr handle the hammer like you do. Consider it an honor.”

Dilmond had no interest in Cuare’s compliment. Instead, he took advantage of the moment his opponent wasted by speaking and took a glance at Anya and Iolin.

Dilmond recalled the resurrection of Nigrato when he witnessed the darkness that was surging like a wave. But what he saw when he arrived was the scene of Iolin being shattered.

He thought Anya had successfully restrained Iolin, but that thought did not last long. The darkness was rapidly disappearing, but the sacred aura being emitted by Iolin still remained, despite it being weaker than before.

‘If I don’t take care of this asshole and finish off Iolin in time…’

Dillmond grew anxious and impatient. And his opponent did not miss this opportunity.

“I would pay more attention to the enemy if I were you!”

With a loud roar that made one shiver, Cuare’s hammer slammed into Dilmond’s abdomen.