The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 61 – Behind the Cloak (1)

His Majesty’s Flames were burning more and more fiercely. Ethan decided that if time wasn’t in his favor anyway, he should attack Ras as much as possible. As flames engulfed Ethan’s body, they continued to burn with his body as fuel. It almost seemed like Ethan was swinging flames rather than a sword now with how big the flames had become.

His Majesty’s Flames had already encroached on half of Ethan’s head, and his long hair had long since been burnt to a crisp due to the heat.

Ras was certain that Ethan would turn into a pile of ashes on his own anytime soon.

At that moment, Ethan’s flames brushed against the corner of Ras’ darkness once again.

This caused Ras to feel a strange energy inside his body. Before he could even find the source of the odd sensation, the darkness draping his body swelled up. Ras was appalled as he realized what was going on.

‘Nigrato!’

His Majesty’s Flames had been damaging the seal that Ras had placed on Nigrato. Nigrato’s power that began to leak out of the seal instantly dug into Ras’ body. In order to restrain Nigrato’s power from getting completely released, Ras had no choice but to focus all his attention on himself momentarily. It seemed like Ras had only flinched and paused for a second on the outside, but an experienced knight such as Ethan didn’t miss that short second and took his opportunity.

“Ras Raud!” Ethan roared.

Ethan swung his sword more accurately and ruthlessly, almost as if he was possessed by the flames. Without a single error, Ethan’s sword precisely pierced through the center of Ras’ body. With a clashing sound, the Indeterminate Polyhedron shattered into pieces.

“Noooo!”, Anya screamed.

At the same time, the flames burned fiercely as they engulfed the darkness.

***

“Ras Raud!”

Ras lifted his head upon hearing his name. Before he knew it, he was already standing on a dried-up white hillside. Ras noticed a white-haired man glaring at him with hatred and disgust in his eyes. As Ras read the furious hostility toward him, he raised his sword to protect himself. His hand that clutched the sword was intact, with skin and flesh still present.

‘Ah. I remember this moment.’

It didn’t take long for Ras to recall something. It was the day that the Order of Huginn had been ambushed by the Order of the White Crow for the first time. That day, Ras had split his knights into groups to command retreat. As a result, ten of his comrades who had been appointed as knights by His Majesty had died. Due to the sacrifices of the comrades who Ras had shared life and death with, the Order of Huginn and Ras had been able to maintain their power and run away.

Amongst the Order of the White Crow, there was a Templar who had chased after Ras all alone on his own. He was the first captain of the Order of the White Crow. Before he became the captain of the Order of the White Crow, he had been a member of the Imperial Guard. After the assassination of His Majesty, the Imperial Guard was treated with utmost disrespect. The captain of the Imperial Guard was executed for the charge of conspiring with the assassins, while the rest of the Imperial Guard scattered throughout the empire except a few of them.

Those who survived did everything they could do, regardless of the means to regain their honor after being labeled as traitors. They obsessed over eliminating the traitors, and desperately tried to find the traitors that were involved with the assassination of His Majesty. Ras was their primary target. Although Ras tried to prove his innocence, they didn’t bother to listen to him.

However, Ras didn’t want to blame the people that he didn’t even remember the names of; he had already killed them. Ras killed the first captain of the Order of the White Crow that day to avenge his comrades.

Even as he was dying, the first captain of the Order of the White Crow stabbed his sword into Ras’ chest, while at the same time, he smiled even as he drew his last breath—it was a weird smile that Ras could never forget.

“Ras Raud!”

Ras turned his head to the second source of the voice, and the blade of a spear was approaching his face. Ras barely pushed the spear back with his sword, and his hand which was holding the sword showed white bones.

At the same time, the female knight once again stabbed her spear toward Ras.

Ras could remember this scene from his memory. The injuries inflicted by the first captain of the Order of the White Crow had been eating away Ras’ body. The Order of Huginn had been weaker than ever, but Ras couldn’t give up on them for the sake of his dead comrades’ sacrifices.

So, Ras absorbed the essence of Nigrato, the god of death, who had been an old enemy of his. And thus, he became Nigrato’s incarnation.

“So you finally gave up your life as a human, Ras!”

The female knight ferociously stabbed her spear at Ras.

Ras barely dodged her attack. Ras immediately remembered who his opponent was; she was a knight who had been knighted around the same time as Ras. Ras recalled taking classes on swordsmanship and tactics with her, not to mention fighting together as a team in a battle. Her hair which was as red as fire was now half-white.

She was the second captain of the Order of the White Crow.

Looking at his old colleague’s face filled with disgust and hatred, Ras thought that he had grown too old. He instantly felt a hundred years older. Ras didn’t remember her name, since he had killed her too.

Ras beheaded the second captain of the Order of the White Crow. Although her head fell off of her body, she had still been glaring at Ras in death. Ras couldn’t avoid her gaze. Even though Ras didn’t want to, Ras watched her mouth gaping open and close to say something.

Traitor.

The last word she left behind festered deep in his heart. It was deadlier than any blades.

“Ras Raud!”

It was the third shout Ras heard. Ras searched through his memory to try and figure out what situation he was in this time as he looked at the fiery sword that was stuck in his chest.

Anya’s piercing scream and Dilmond’s loud shout that almost sounded like he was puking blood could be heard.

Only then did Ras belatedly realize that he was back to reality.

“Get that son of a bitch off of him!” Dilmond shouted as he spurted blood out of his mouth, but there was no one that could approach Ras and Ethan.

The moment the sword pierced through Ras’ chest, a fierce gust of wind blew, blurring everyone’s vision. The sharp wind was blowing hard enough to almost be like knives cutting through your skin. Ethan, being the closest to the source of the wind, was nearly mutilated.

“Raaaasssss!

Despite this wind, Ethan didn’t drop his sword, and stabbed it deeper into Ras’ chest.

Ras looked down at Ethan, the young captain of the Order of the White Crow. Ras observed this immature and arrogant captain, and thought that the times had completely changed. This young knight had never even met His Majesty, had never been given his direct commands, nor had he fought alongside His Majesty against the enemy.

However, he thought that Ethan’s loyalty was not the slightest bit inferior to his own.

Ras couldn’t tell where things had gone wrong, nor did he know who was crazy. Ras had already become broken a long time ago, both mentally and physically. Before he collapsed completely, he had made his last attempt to assassinate Barth Baltic, but had failed to do even that. After his failure, Ras didn’t try to do anything else other than sustaining his existence.

‘So this is it for me.’

Ras felt death drawing closer. He could feel Nigrato’s madness and hear his laughter. It was impossible for Ras to control Nigrato’s power any longer. His Majesty’s Flames spread onto Ras’ body.

But at that moment, a darkness even more powerful than His Majesty’s Flames engulfed them.

Ethan opened his eyes wide, staring at the black spirit—that was the last thing he saw.

In an instant, Nigrato’s energy encroached on Ras’ body.

Ras recalled the previous captains of the Order of the White Crow that had stabbed him in the past. Although it had happened a long time ago, it didn’t feel like that for some reason. The past was the present linked into one.

And so, Ras broke down upon the third hammering of the Order of the White Crow.

***

Darkness soared from the middle of the battlefield all of a sudden. In an instant, lumps of darkness tens of meters tall grew and swallowed the sunlight in the sky, turning day to night.

Juan stopped to look up at the sudden change. The darkness continued to grow like an endless tree, and ravens began to caw and dance around in circles. Flocks of ravens perched throughout Hiveden as they smelled dinner.

The ravens weren’t the only ones that sensed what was coming. Everyone else in Hiveden could sense it as well—death was approaching them faster than ever.

Juan smelled the scent of desert from the blowing wind. It was the smell of death, and the smell of wasteland where nothing could grow. Juan was well aware of what that smell meant. Tears dripped down his cheeks.

‘Ras…’

***

It was unknown as to how long it had been since a god walked on the land of Hiveden. Only a few among the people of Hiveden had ever seen god. Long before His Majesty’s death, gods and divinity had already been driven out of the empire, and His Majesty had been fighting against the gods from beyond the boundary.

Dilmond had the experience fighting against the army of a god, but the view in front of his eyes wasn’t anything like he had seen before. Just the tip of a huge garment brushing against them caused the darkness to envelop them.

Although no one could see anything in the dark, the rotten smell allowed them to detect that something was wrong. All of the knights of the Order of Huginn as well as the Order of the White Crow and its Templars smelled the dry scent of death.

“Annabelle!” Dilmond hastily called for Anya.

However, he didn’t hear a voice replying to his calls. He figured that it was likely that she was in shock after witnessing Ras’ death or was in a situation where she was unable to speak or move. Dilmond decided to believe that it was the latter. Although Dilmond himself was also in shock, Anya and Dilmon had already been prepared to deal with such shocking situations as commanders.

“Sir Dilmond!”

Instead of Anya, one of the knights of the Order of Huginn who heard Dilmond’s voice approached him. The only thing the knight could do was feel his way through the darkness, but he seemed relieved as soon as he saw Dilmond’s face.

“There you are, sir! What’s going on right now? What happened to sir Ras?”

“Sir Ras had been…” Diamond found it difficult to continue his words.

The situation getting this far meant only one thing—Nigrato, the god of death who had been sealed within Ras had opened his eyes.

While Dilmond hesitated to answer, the knight’s gaze turned to the other side. At the end of his gaze was a knight of the dead standing silently.

“Sir Dilmond, I see one of our senior knights over there. It looks like senior Carl, so should we go and join him to…”

Before Dilmond could say anything, the knight was approaching ‘Carl’. ‘Carl’ turned his head toward the knight. The sound of heavy and dry footsteps echoed around the battlefield.

Dilmond had recalled an incident buried deep in his memory. It was an incident that occurred when he fought the necromancers in the southern area just after he had become a knight.

“No!” Dilmond shouted hastily as he realized that the knight was in danger.

However, before he could even finish his words, the knight’s skull was split by the sword which ‘Carl’ had swung. His face which had been split in half had an incredulous look of disbelief.

‘Carl’ no longer harbored a blue flame inside his skull. Instead, endless darkness was spewing from all the holes in his entire body.

Within the darkness, screams broke out from all directions. It was unclear who was screaming, whether it was an ally or an enemy. The only thing they could do in the darkness was communicating with their voices.

“Look for any human being! Whoever it is, whether it’s an ally or enemy, find the ones that are still alive!” Dilmond ordered.

‘Carl’ looked at Dilmond in silence, and strode off somewhere.

Dilmond didn’t care nor could he care about where ‘Carl’ was walking to, or what he was thinking. The only thought on Dilmond’s mind was that he had to save the people who were still alive.

“Do not attack the Templars! The undead are no longer our ally! Survival is our top priority as of now!”

Things would have been a lot easier with Ethan’s cooperation in commanding the Templars. However, Ethan had been engulfed by the darkness along with Ras. It never occurred to Dilmond that Ethan could still be alive.

At that moment, the knight who had collapsed with his head split in half squirmed. However, according to Dilmond he didn’t have any hopes of surviving.

The knight began to raise his body with an unintelligible roar while he spilled his brain juice out of the gap between the split skull.

Dilmond raised his shield and hammer. However, he found his hammer to be too heavy; he had lost too much blood.

‘I wonder how much longer we can hold out for.’

Dilmond smiled bitterly as he belatedly realized that there was no point in holding out.

He was facing a god that had been resurrected in modern times. Before His Majesty appeared, all the races were treated as toys by the gods. However, His Majesty was dead now, and his successors were scattered across the empire. No one would be able to survive in a world that was turning black.