The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 211 – Sword and Poison (1)

As soon as Juan realized that the attack was targeted toward Dismas, Juan let out a roar and pushed away the smoke around him in a hurry.

Dismas was still in the prison cell, but this time he was standing up. His back, which had certainly been struck by the beam of light, was already recovering itself amidst a gurgling sound.

Only then did Juan realize that all the pieces of iron embedded throughout Dismas’ body had melted away.

‘Did he attack himself all in order to get rid of the restraints keeping him in check?’

Before anyone knew it, Ivy was already in Dismas’ arms. She was bleeding from the back of her neck, but she didn’t look like she was seriously injured.

“Stay back. Do not come near me, fake emperor,” Dismas shouted, almost as if he was warning Juan.

Although his recovery was already underway, his ability to recover was not the same as before due to the burns; not to mention that the iron pieces that were embedded inside him had not been completely removed.

There was no other way for Dismas to stand up to Juan other than holding Ivy hostage.

However, Dismas’ plan was not effective enough to restrain Juan. Juan simply ignored Dismas’ warning and strode closer toward him with the intention of killing both Ivy and Dismas if need be.

At that moment, someone threw a spear toward Ivy and Dismas. The spear that was clearly aimed at Ivy was bounced off by Dismas when it got close to Ivy’s chest.

Upon glaring in the direction the spear came from, Dismas found Pavan preparing to throw a second spear straight toward them.

“Pavan!”

At the same time, Lenly charged toward Pavan with a loud roar.

Thanks to Lenly’s interruption, Pavan stumbled and missed his chance to throw the next spear.

Juan ignored the two and used Blink to rush toward Dismas.

However, at that moment Dismas used his own hands to penetrate his chest.

Just as Juan was feeling perplexed at the unexpected sight, Dismas pulled out a small necklace containing teleportation magic from inside his chest.

“I’ll see you next time.”

Dismas tightly held Ivy in his arms and in the blink of an eye disappeared amidst a burst of light.

***

“Your Holiness. How much do you happen to know about Telgramm?”

A few days ago in Cabragh, Helmut and Imil Ilde were climbing up the tall tower on the outskirts of the city.

Helmut was perplexed by Imil’s sudden question. Although Telgramm was well known as a weapon that was used by the emperor, no one knew much information about it. Come to think of it, it was said that Sutra as well as Dismas’ hammer were created by the emperor himself, while Nienna’s Oberon was a weapon created by the king of the fairies.

On the other hand, too little was known about Telegram other than its power.

“I don’t know much, but I’ve never really thought about it. Is there any other information on it besides the fact that it was a weapon used by His Majesty?”

Imil smiled and looked back at Helmut.

Helmut was irritated by Imil’s smile, but he couldn’t say anything since he owed far too much to the Ilde family; Imil was the one who introduced him to the Order of Surtr, and Ilde family was the one who made a counterattack against the fake emperor possible with the help of their enormous fortune and widespread distribution networks.

Considering that Imil Ilde had even sacrificed his youngest son, who was a Templar, he had earned enough merit to even appoint him as a Saint of the Church.

“It is only natural that you don’t know much about it, Your Holiness. After all, it’s not a very well-known story. This is because those who created Telgramm disappeared even before they were recorded in history,” Imil Ilde said.

“Those who created Telgramm? Who are they?” Helmet asked.

“I’m sure Your Holiness will find them to be familiar. They are the Hornsluines.”

Helmut paused for a moment. The only Hornsluine he knew of was Barth Baltic.

‘Did Barth Baltic create Telgramm?’

Helmut thought so for a brief moment, but he soon realized that Imil meant the ‘Hornsluine race’ itself—a race that was extinct now.

“You should already know that the Hornsluines confronted the gods in the past and in return, their species went extinct. But it is not known specifically how the Hornsluine tried to confront the gods. At that time, Hornsluines did not try to face the gods alone; instead, they tried to join forces with a group of wise men called Aruntal. You might have heard of Aruntal already, Your Holiness.”

“Are you talking about His Majesty’s teachers? Yes, I have. I know that one day they all suddenly disappeared.”

“Yes, Your Holiness. Hornsluine had a meeting with Aruntal before their extinction. The strongest and the most powerful race at the time had a meeting with Aruntal, the organization that had the most amount of information among all races, all in order to confront the gods together. The two groups thought of ways to fight against the gods on the spot. The Hornsluines came up with a weapon, while the Aruntal came up with the process of creating an adversary capable of fighting against the gods. However, their opinions clashed, and in the end, they couldn’t reach an agreement. So, the two groups decided to go their separate ways.”

Imil continued to climb up the stairs, then paused to catch his breath. Climbing up the stairs was not as exhausting for Helmut, since he had undergone the same procedures as the Templars, but he could still tell that the tower was quite tall.

He could see the whole of Cabragh when he looked out of the window.

“Hornsluines hid from the eyes of the gods to make a weapon—a spear that could stab gods to death. And finally, they stabbed one of the gods with that spear and drove him to the brink of death.”

Imil exhaled a long breath and looked back at Helmut.

“That was their last resistance. Upon feeling threatened, the gods started placing curses on them. That’s how the empire’s most supreme race went extinct in just an instant. At the same time, the spears made by them were abandoned on the outskirts of the empire—except for one.”

“Is that what Telgramm is? The one that I handled?” Helmut asked.

“To be precise, what Your Holiness handled was not really Telgramm. That’s only a fraction of it.”

Finally, Imil and Helmut reached the top of the tall tower. Imil took a long time to catch his breath, and then slowly opened the door. What was revealed behind the door was a space where strange-looking pillars stood at an angle, while silver-colored vertical patterns covered the walls.

Just about when Helmut was about to ask Imil what this space was for, he closed his mouth upon looking closely at the vertical silver-colored patterns on the wall.

Those were not some simple inscriptions—they were all Telgramms.

Hundreds of Telgramms covered the walls of this space.

“No way! Don’t tell me these are all…”

“Yes, your Holiness. They are all Telgramms. To be precise, Telegramm refers to the bow created to kill gods, and the ‘spear’ which Your Holiness used can be said to be an arrow of that bow. But for the sake of simplicity, let’s call those arrows Telgramm. Those arrows alone have the power to change history, even if you just use them as spears. That should pretty much explain just how powerful Telgramm is,” Imil explained.

“But… if it had such amazing power, why were the Hornsluines so helplessly destroyed at the hands of the gods…?”

“Gods are powerful beings. I can say with confidence that the power of the gods who are resurrected using Cainheryars is less than one-fourth of their original strength. Restraining their power is a necessity, since there’s a chance that they’ll free themselves from Doctrinal General Dismas’ control. Even Doctrinal General Dismas doesn’t want the divine to be truly resurrected—he just wants to use them as his slaves.”

Imil approached the slanted pillar in the middle of the round room. The pillar was not embedded in the ground—it was floating slightly above the ground.

“From now on, Your Holiness must learn how to properly handle Telgramm.”

“Handle Telgramm? Me?” Helmut asked back.

“Yes, Your Holiness. Who else could dare to use the weapon entrusted to us by His Majesty?” Imil said as he put on a thick glove made of some unknown material to pick up a Telgramm.

Then he carefully held it out in front of Helmut.

The plain-looking and strange spear with no boundary between the blade and its handle looked more like a needle than a spear. But Helmut knew that this was the true form of Telgramm that the emperor used in the past. The thunderbolts that spewed out its power in all directions were only a fraction of the power of this mighty weapon.

“For your information, this Telgramm is not bound to you like the Telgramm used by His Majesty or Your Holiness. For this reason, it won’t respond to any of your summons. Even so, it still holds the purest form of the power of lightning.”

Helmut was startled for a moment, but he started burning with desire upon hearing Imil’s words that this was the true form of Telgramm, something that even the emperor himself had not touched before. Helmut’s oldest desire was to be like the emperor after years of respecting and admiring him.

Finally, it was the moment Helmut’s dream would come true—the dream to hold power in his hands that not even the emperor had ever held in his hands.

Helmut’s hand grabbed Telgramm. With a sharp shock, a flash of light spread throughout the surroundings for a moment.

Upon seeing Telgramm, which was burning and emitting a subtle glow in Helmut’s hand, Imil slowly stepped back while admiring quietly.

“Only Your Holiness, the representative of His Majesty, will be able to handle this weapon in the empire.”

“How do I… How do I use this? Do I just wield it like Telgramm?”

“You can take the position of the designated shooter by standing in front of the pillar and then throwing it toward the target. It is a weapon that can be shot from a long distance, but it will take a long time to learn how to use it properly. Let’s stop here for today since everything will be in vain if we are caught by the enemy due to using it recklessly. We have done enough for today, since we found out that Your Holiness is capable of handling it safely.”

Helmut alternated between looking at Imil and at Telgramm, almost as if he was disappointed to hear that they should stop for the day. Unlike the Telgramm that he used before, the one that he had not been able to handle properly, the refined light of the Telgramm in front of him gave him a strange sense of exaltation—it was as if it acknowledged his authority as the only true authority.

But Helmut knew that he had to be patient. He carefully handed over Telgramm to Imil.

“I hope that I will be able to handle it again in the near future,” Helmut said.

“By all means, you will, Your Holiness.”

Imil took Telgramm from Helmut and carefully put it back on the wall. Upon looking at the scene, a sudden question popped up in Helmut’s mind.

“Come to think of it, you told me that the Hornsluines made a weapon and the Aruntal made a great adversary capable of killing gods, right? If the weapon created by the Hornsluines is Telgramm, then what happened to the adversary that was created by the Aruntal? Did they succeed?”

Imil smiled at the question.

“Of course they succeeded. That’s why all the gods in the world are dead and gone now.”

Helmut was horrified to realize who the adversary created by the Aruntal was and that he had asked a stupid question. The man who killed all gods was so famous that no one even had to say his name out loud.

The moment Helmut thought that he had finally caught up to the emperor, he felt the gap between himself and the emperor widen once again.

“...I see. That’s how it is all connected…” Helmut said as he turned back to look at Imil.

“How do you know all these stories? Even I didn’t know any of this, and I’m the Pope.”

Imil did not answer him, only giving a strange smile.

***

A group of lights suddenly began to gather in the middle of Cabragh’s red fortress hall.

Soon, Dismas and Ivy appeared in the middle of the hall as the light spread all around them like an explosion.

Dismas collapsed to the floor as soon as the teleportation magic was over. His half-melted body was bubbling as self-recovery was underway, repeatedly destroying and healing itself.

Ivy had also immediately lost consciousness due to the heat from Telgramm, as well as the aftermath of the teleportation magic, despite being protected in Dismas’ arms.

Imil and the knights from the Order of Surtr hurriedly rushed into the hall.

“Doctrinal General!”

Imil approached Dismas who was gasping for air with difficulty. Burns were difficult to heal even with Dismas’ recovery ability. Although it would heal on its own over time, Dismas had to endure terrible pain until then.

Imil pulled a thin bottle out of his pocket and sprinkled it over Dismas.

Just when Ilil was about to bring the bottle to the corner of Dismas’ mouth, Dismas grabbed his hand to stop him.

“Is it medicine?” Dismas asked.

“...All it does is relieve pain to some extent,” Imil answered.

“Pain gives me the feeling that I’m being forgiven by His Majesty. So leave it alone.”

Dismas chose to suffer through the pain, but there was no reason for Imil to not nurse him.

Imil quickly instructed the knights to bring water and some towels to cool Dismas down. None of the knights refused to follow Imil’s order, since he had already taken an important position in the Western Army.

Meanwhile, Imil took a glance at Ivy who was still unconscious.

“Why did you bring her with you, Doctrinal General?” Imil asked.

Dismas glanced at Imil like he was talking nonsense.

“What kind of question is that? That’s the Saintess. It is our duty to rescue the Saintess from the vicious enemies who have forced her to come to the battlefield. May His Majesty be our witness as both His Holiness and the Saintess are in our army.”

Imil nodded with his mouth closed. Ivy was not only worthless as a hostage, but she was also a nuisance to the Western Army—especially for someone.

At that moment, the door of the hall opened with a loud bang. Helmut, who had run all the way from the tower housing Telgramm, was approaching them while gasping for air.

Imil sighed.

“If His Majesty is not really our witness, then those two being on the same spot won’t necessarily mean a good thing for us.”