The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 208 – Dismas Dilver (1)

Dismas revealed his teeth as he looked at the Arkul gate, which had been completely destroyed in only two blows.

“Imil, head over to Cabragh,” Dismas ordered as he looked for Juan, who had disappeared from the mountain.

“Doctrinal General?”

Imil looked at Dismas with a perplexed expression on his face, but soon realized his intentions.

“Doctrinal General, you must come with me! This is not your ordinary battlefield. The Order of Surtr isn’t here and neither are the Cainheryars! Above all, Telgramm is not fully ready to operate just yet!” Imil shouted in a hurry to stop Dismas.

“He is still here, Imil. He has already done such terrible damage to our soldiers. We can’t just let him leave him like this without getting revenge on him.”

“But you already know that we can’t win!”

Dismas turned his head and glared at Imil with sharp eyes.

Imil gasped when he met Dismas’ gaze, but gritted his teeth and continued to speak.

“You… must come with us… without you… we will not be able to hold out… Doctrinal General…”

Dismas frowned and lifted Imil up by the collar. Then, he pulled off the necklace hanging around Imil’s neck and forcibly put mana into it.

Imil tried to shout something, but his body soon disappeared as if it had just been erased by that light. Only then did Imil realize that he was forcibly being sent to Cabragh.

To prepare for the upcoming battle, Dismas took out the bleeding hammer that he carried on his back. The handprint on the hammerhead left by Juan was clearly visible. The hand that had left this handprint had also left a scratch on Dismas’ pride.

“You should have just run away along with him.”

Dismas immediately brandished his hammer at the sudden voice behind his back. The walls of the spire that were struck by his hammer burst like sand, but Dismas did not feel any bones breaking or flesh being torn.

The moment Dismas’ gaze turned toward his back, something black had tightly grabbed his head.

***

Juan used Blink and slammed against Dismas even before the latter could blink.

Using Blink’s tremendous acceleration, Juan smashed Dismas’ head against the spire wall. The spire wall instantly burst and scattered into debris everywhere. The two plunged down.

Then, a loud bang rang throughout the entire Arkul gate; however, not a single person looked up.

The Arkul gate had been turned into a battlefield when the Capital Army’s Cavalry rushed in. The Cavalry rushed into the gate like a surging wave as they began to ruthlessly slaughter the soldiers inside.

Giant slaves let out a few roars as they tried to punch a few of the cavalry to death, but soon, dozens of spears pierced through their heads, causing them to drop to the ground.

Mid-flight, Juan grabbed Dismas’ face with his left hand and punched him with his right. Dismas’ jaw was shattered and fragments of his teeth flew out with every thud.

But Juan did not stop or slow down until Dismas’ head hit the ground.

The impact of the fall made the stone pavement on the boulevard crack in all directions. The shock was so great that Dismas’ head was almost buried under the stone pavement.

Yet Juan didn’t stop even then; he repeatedly punched Dismas.

At that moment, the bleeding hammer that Dismas was holding in his hand struck Juan’s side. Juan only felt a slight pain, but he was thrown into the air and flew to the other side of the boulevard before he even knew it.

‘The weight difference between him and me is so big that I won’t be able to hold out if I don’t prepare myself enough.’

Dismas, who was lying as if he were dead, slowly raised himself up, using his hammer as a cane. His face was so badly damaged that it was hard to even recognize him, but it quickly recovered like a piece of clay that was being molded.

Juan clicked his tongue as he confirmed that Dismas’ hand, which he had cut off the last time, had already grown back and was fully intact. It was only natural that Dismas had the ability to regenerate, since he had Juan’s essence, but even taking that into account, his rate of recovery was extraordinarily fast.

“You’re a strong man, and yet you’re still not letting your guard down. That’s pretty impressive, fake emperor!” Dismas said as he spat out the last bits of his broken teeth.

All the missing teeth had already grown back.

“You’ve become a monster, Dismas,” Juan said with a frown.

“A monster? No… All I did was train the abilities given to me by my father. Just as muscles grow when you constantly use them, skills also improve when you use them.”

Juan was already aware of the fact that the catalyst used to revive a Cainheryar was Dismas’ flesh. This meant that Dismas had voluntarily butchered himself hundreds of times.

Juan had a fed-up look on his face as he imagined just how many pieces of meat would have been needed to revive a Cainheryar.

“You are just… I don’t even know if you’re really Dismas at this point. Do you even feel pain? Do you have at least a little bit of your human heart left in you?”

“Of course I feel pain and of course I have a human heart within me.”

Dismas placed his hand over his chest in a calm manner. His expression seemed somewhat sad and determined.

“My heart aches even now if I think about His Majesty—my father. It hurts as if I’m about to die at any moment. But that’s also why I’m fighting. I’m fighting to be healed. My physical body means nothing to me. If His Holiness hadn’t shown me the way, I would have been nothing better than a piece of meat, rotting away slowly.”

Juan clenched his teeth. His heart ached upon seeing Dismas calling himself a lump of rotting meat. He felt that everything was his own fault, and he knew that it was irreversible.

“There’s only one thing I can give you now—death.”

Sutra’s flames began to burn slowly but fiercely.

“But this is also a sin that I must bear.”

***

A Giant slave struck down with his huge shield. The enormous weight bore down on a cavalryman, splitting him in half before he could react. Blood dripped down the shield as the Giant pulled it back.

This Giant slave was rampaging more violently and intensely compared to the other Giants. It was not easy for the Capital soldiers to approach him, since he was standing between the cramped buildings.

Pavan frowned at the Giant.

“Ureal, Orn. Take a detour with the soldiers. It's a waste of time to be held back by this one Giant. Kilt, you check the rear of the Arkul gate. I’m not getting any reports from there… Don’t give them breaks. Make sure to turn this place into their graves. Hila, you go and catch the Giants’ attention. I’ll handle this myself.”

“What’s going on?”

Sina approached Pavan as he constantly gave orders to his subordinates. She was drenched in blood, but showed no signs of injuries. The same was also true of Pavan.

“We are being held back by a Giant slave.”

“But Giants have not been a problem so far, have they?” Sina asked.

“There are individual differences among the Giants—it’s just like how not all humans are the same. That guy is a pain in the ass.”

Pavan raised his sword and pointed it at the back of the Giant in question.

On the Giant’s back was a dead soldier hanging upside down. Countless arrows had pierced through his body.

Sina quickly judged the situation.

Unlike other lethargic Giant slaves that were still under control, this violent Giant was already out of the soldier’s control and had thus begun to make a fuss once he had regained his true nature. Sina assumed that he had been one of the most outstanding warriors among the Giants in the past.

“Don’t worry. He will soon be overpowered. We can’t have this guy slowing down the siege,” Pavan said.

“I’ll take care of him,” Sina answered briefly and jumped off her horse.

Upon seeing Sina charging toward the Giant, Pavan made an order to the other soldiers instead of stopping her.

“Everyone, cover Dame Sina! Break through the road as soon as Dame Sina charges at the Giant!”

The Giant didn’t hesitate to swing his shield at Sina when he saw her approaching him. The shield didn’t even brush against Sina, but the Giant swept the entire alley without stepping back. This blow left a long trail of blood on the road as all the remaining soldiers who managed to dodge the previous attack were swept away in an instant.

It seemed like Sina had no way out of this attack either, but she quickly disappeared before the Giant’s eyes the moment his shield struck.

The Giant looked around with a perplexed expression.

He saw Sina running on the wall from the opposite side of the road. To be exact, she was stepping on the fine bricks and decorations that were popping out of the wall, but to the Giant, that was no different from running on the wall.

In spite of her heavy armor, Sina easily jumped up to meet the Giant’s gaze, and her blade came crashing down on his head.

The Giant hurriedly raised his shield to block Sina’s attack, but it was no use. Just as the shield appeared in front of her sword, the Giant split in half from his forehead all the way down to his belly button, with a grotesque ripping noise. The Giant collapsed, while blood and intestines poured out from the long-cut wound.

As soon as the Giant collapsed to the ground, the cavalry immediately trampled on his body to rush forward.

Then, a massacre began elsewhere as the siege began in earnest.

Sina exhaled a long breath as she looked at the Giant’s body getting helplessly crushed by the cavalry.

‘He was as powerful as the one-eyed Giant from back in Tantil.’

Sina recalled Talter’s avatar that was killed by Juan back in Tantil. Although a bit smaller than the Giant Juan had killed, the Giant that Sina had just killed seemed to be on the same level as Talter’s avatar, considering that he was not only faster, but also armed. To think that she couldn’t even see herself facing the one-eyed giant back then… Sina realized that she had grown beyond imagination.

‘Perhaps it’s all thanks to the gift General Nienna left for me, but still…’

Sina clenched her pocket, recalling the items that Nienna had left her with before leaving for the North.

Pavan approached Sina. “That was incredible. I wouldn’t have been able to take care of him as fast as you did, Dame Sina.”

Sina hurriedly shook off the white frost on her hands.

“I just got lucky. Is the occupation going well?” Sina asked.

“The east wing has not yet been cleared. I guess there’s a troublesome enemy there… but it’s only a matter of time before it is fully occupied, since the soldiers who took a detour to the rear are about to enter the fray as well. The left wing will be finished in less than ten minutes. You don’t need to worry about the Capital, since His Majesty is there to take care of the situation. There seems to be a few remnants that have escaped, but I don’t think they will be a big problem.” Pavan reported the current progress of the battle in a calm manner.

SIna was surprised that Pavan, who had neither the ability to detect the enemy’s presence like Juan, nor the ability to look down on the battlefield from the sky, was able to accurately explain the situation of the battlefield.

Pavan added an explanation upon seeing Sina’s expression.

“Considering the ability and characteristics of the knights, the strength of the squads, the speed at which the enemy’s support team arrives, the frequency of the launch signals and the messengers’ arrivals, I can get a rough understanding of how things are going.”

“...I see. I can’t imagine myself being able to do the same.”

“Given the speed of your growth in swordsmanship, it seems like you will be able to learn tactical skills just as quickly. Let’s head over to His Majesty, since it looks like the Arkul gate will be completely taken care of in forty to fifty minutes.”

***

Dismas’ hammer was damaged every time Sutra’s flames clashed against it. The hammer, which had already been damaged by Juan’s hands, was no longer able to use the strong resentment of its past victims like before. The only place the victims’ souls could go to was hell, but Juan was already presenting them with fire even hotter than that of hell.

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

Dismas burst into a roar and threw himself at Juan once again.

Juan chose to dodge the attack this time, since he figured that there was nothing good about directly taking the attack of the bleeding hammer. Grabbing the hammer just once was good enough after all.

After dodging Dismas’ attack, Juan immediately charged at the group of soldiers wandering around, aiming to cut them down.

A dozen of soldiers were instantly split in half and collapsed to the ground.

Dismas clenched his teeth and rushed toward Juan. Instead of focusing on the battle against Dismas, however, Juan continued to inflict damage on Dismas’ subordinates at his leisure. Dismas couldn’t help but burst into anger, since he had been expecting a thrilling fight with Juan.

“Fight with all your might, you son of a bitch!” Dismas roared.

“Would you be able to hold out if I did that?” Juan asked back with a smile.

Dismas gritted his teeth and kept swinging his hammer.

With that, Juan was convinced that Dismas was unable to use Spirit Calling. He didn’t know whether Dismas was incapable of doing it or he simply wasn’t doing it of his own will, but he was refusing to use Spirit Calling.

Dismas’ ability to summon the power of a god through his own body made Juan concerned beyond wonder. However, it was clear that the ability had some restrictions, considering that Dismas wasn’t using it even though he was having a difficult time facing Juan.

The moment the bleeding hammer flew toward his head, Juan quickly swung Sutra at it.

Slash!

A corner of the bleeding hammer flew away with a sharp noise, and the scattered pieces knocked down several buildings with a loud noise.

Dismas was bewildered.

“But how…?”

In fact, Juan had not broken the corner of the hammer in a single strike; rather, he had struck the part that he had already scratched with dozens of slashes. Even the power of Sutra was not enough to break the bleeding hammer in a single strike—but Dismas wasn’t even able to perceive such a fact.

“You’re slowly getting tired, aren’t you?”

Dismas’ expression hardened upon hearing Juan’s question. It wasn’t just the bleeding hammer that was damaged. Dismas was also burned here and there after being struck by Sutra several times. Even if he was granted the power of healing due to the emperor’s essence, the burns caused by these flames couldn’t be easily treated.

Unlike Juan, Dismas had no innate resistance to flames. His healing abilities gradually declined, slowing down his recovery.

Yet, that was not Dismas’ only concern.

Only now did Dismas realize that Arkul gate had already become quiet. The only things that Dismas could hear right now were the sound of the explosives, instead of the screaming and shouting. Dismas realized that all his soldiers that had been on standby at the Arkul gate had been completely wiped out during his short battle against Juan.

Twenty thousand of the Western troops and eighty Giant slaves had been slaughtered in less than half a day.

“There is no one on your side now, Dismas,” Juan spoke slowly.

But Dismas did not stop.

“Then we can finally focus on our battle now!”

Dismas snorted and lifted his hammer toward Juan.

At that moment, Dismas realized that his shoulder felt empty—the momentum of the hammer was carrying his right arm up into the air. Dismas’ eyes widened at this sight.

In front of him stood a blindfolded knight who was holding a sword.

Dismas lost his balance and stumbled, but tried his best to stand upright.

Yet, a moment later, another female knight slashed his knees.

Dismas dropped down to his knees.

When Dismas barely managed to look ahead, he saw Juan standing right in front of him.

“How pathetic.”

At that moment, Dismas tried to use teleportation magic with his remaining hand. However, it was too late; Juan’s Sutra had already pierced his throat .

A hot flame burned inside him and Dismas’ vision turned white in just an instant.