Emperor Has Returned

“Not bad.”

From the tower’s upper stratum above, Juan was looking down at Huksel and his crew.

The equipment that Huksel had brought along proved to be more useful than Juan had first thought. During his heydays, Juan had never come across an equipment as such but he was able to figure out the principle behind it with just one glance.

‘Hmm..I see that monsters still exist inside the fog, but not enough so they’d wander out of the tower huh…..’

When Juan had burnt Grunvalde to ash, those fog monsters had appeared and wandered inside a few cities. They were called fog creatures.

The invisible monsters came about when creatures ventured deep into the Gray tower, attracted to the tower’s mana.

Like those humans who were sacrificed for Grunvalde, the tower continually took away one’s strength, so creatures found inside the tower were weaker than the one’s found outside.

And because their properties were naturally assimilated to the tower’s energy, they became transparent.

There were bound to be casualties when one would come across it for the first time. But for Juan who’d known about their existence, getting past them was straightforward.

Juan thought, if somewhat prepared, Huksel’s crew would likely not lose their life here either.

‘But in saying that, whether they could reach the top… is another matter altogether.’

Juan left the group behind and resumed his climb. Even the fog creatures had trouble noticing Juan’s stealthy movements.

Juan was always one step ahead, cutting each creature’s throat just as they noticed his presence.

He didn’t absorb the mana from their blood as it was heavily tainted with the tower’s mana.

‘Seems it’s still as powerful as ever.’

It had been a long time and yet, the amount of influence it had was astounding.

Unlike Taltere, Juan didn’t think Grunvalde was alive. He assumed this power radiated from the relic that Grunvalde had left behind.

The relic he had made sure to seal away as it could have led to total destruction, if it found itself in the hands of someone evil. The relic that gave Grunvalde the name, the demon lord of fog.

That was what Juan was looking for.

If it still contained the same strength, he was certain that it would be of great use on his journey.

“While there’s that, hmm… things seem worse than I thought…..”

Juan murmured as he striked down another monster that he skipped by.

He assumed the Gray tower hadn’t been raided for this long because the tower was linked with many wicked stories, while the church ill advised raids.

Yet, if anyone had truly wanted to raid the tower, it wouldn’t have been too difficult to figure out how to overcome its challenges.

Fog monsters weren’t what was truly dangerous inside the Gray tower.

The tower itself was the most dangerous attribute.

Krrrrrrrrr. At the sound of rocks scraping, Juan realised, this was the moment he’d been waiting for. In front of eyes, the pillars and walls around him started to move.

Anyone outside the tower wouldn’t have seen anything change. The tower’s external look was an illusion created by the fog.

As the whole floor crumbled and rearranged itself, Juan hopped upwards. The fog fell down like a waterfall inside the Gray tower and a figure started to form.

Slowly, the figure lifted itself attempting to get up. Juan quickly threw his body onto it and started to crawl up.

“———!”

This thing, that was made from bits of the tower, let out a strange shout that made Juan’s body shudder.

Briefly stopping, Juan hanged on and looked down. From a distant height, a vast empty space greeted below him.

The floor that Juan had just been walking on was nowhere to be found.

The Gray tower had formed an upper body of a Giant Golem. With an incomplete body, the Golem used the walls to steady itself. It looked down at the intruders.

Juan grinned as he looked at the Golem.

“Just like how I’d thought it would be.”

The Gray tower’s Golem was a being that Juan had made, to safeguard Grunvalde’s relic.

While he’d created many golems in the past, this one had been one of his earlier works, so it reflected his roughness and inexperience during his younger years.

Many years had passed, yet it was still silently carrying out its duties. Speck of moss had grown in the deep corners.

The Golem made a throat aching sound as it returned towards Juan.

For a moment, Juan harbored an excitement. But then, a giant fist came crashing down.

Juan quickly pounced away.

The windforce generated was enough to sway his body.

Juan clicked his tongue and casted blink. In midair, Juan’s body bounced towards the Golem’s shoulder.

At an impossible angle, the Golem attacked and tried swatting Juan down like a fly.

‘As I feared, without sufficient mana it doesn’t recognise me.’

Juan had nothing to say. Comparing his power from what he once had when he’d created this Golem to now, his current power was a grain of sand in comparison to a shoreline of sand.

Kwang!

Again, Juan had just barely dodged it. While this situation wasn’t beyond what he had anticipated, he admitted he was lacking in strength.

He needed to overcome the Golem in order to climb to the top of the tower. It was only the emperor that was able to control the Golem. But currently, his presence was too mediocre to be considered an emperor.

Thing was, if the Golem was instead destroyed, it was impossible to reach the tower’s summit.

In doing this, Juan devised so that none other could take possession of Grunvalde’s relic if forced.

‘Regretting it a little….’

He still had other ways to get around the issue. While it was a bother, he knew of one method that was possible only for himself.

Juan started moving strangely. The Golem followed Juan’s path and continued to attack which was reshaping the tower’s interior structure.

As Juan tried dodging a swipe, he’d found himself slamming between a wall and a pillar. He decided that he now needed to fight.

‘I won’t be able to use blink too.’

He’d become a pancake if he accidentally blinked underneath a falling rock.

The Golem turned its body at a sharp angle, and swung his stretched arm. Its arm that looked like a pillar, scraped the tower’s outer wall, echoing a screeching sound.

Juan moved in just the right angle to escape it’s swing.

When he’d made the Golem, he never thought the Golem was fast, but facing it in a thirteen year old’s body, its power seemed overwhelming. Juan’s chest started beating in excitement.

“What display of strength.”

Expected of a gatekeeper that had safeguarded under his orders for half a century, he thought.

The Golem’s fist smashed through the wall that Juan was holding onto. Streaks of blood flowed down as flakes of stone skimmed past his cheek.

“Hmmph!”

To avoid the fall, Juan had to use blink.

Instantly, the Golem used some of its body and materialized a giant wall in Juan’s path. As if it had anticipated his blink.

Juan realised too late.

‘It must’ve remembered my trajectory pattern from when I had used blink before.

Juan admitted his negligence. The consequences were severe.

Like a fly, the Golem swatted Juan’s body onto a wall.

Along with the sound of a ball being popped, on the wall where’d the Golem’s punch had landed, blood was sprayed over.

Not stopping there, the Golem drove it’s fist in a circular motion into the wall. A deep hole was made on the wall.

The Golem slowly pulled it’s fist out.

Judging that it had completed its mission, it turned its gaze downward now needing to eliminate the other intruders.

Then, the Golem suddenly lost its balance. The Golem realised the structures that it relied on to stay up, had been destroyed by it’s own hand.

While the difference wasn’t much to an average eye, it was enough to bring the Golem down on it’s own.

Multiple times the Golem slammed into the walls. Along with a crashing echo it began its fall down the tower.

*****

“Aughh ahhhh!”

Huksel’s crews’ eyes widened at the humongous piece of rock that had fallen from above. One of the fog monster’s bodies bursted from being flattened by a rock the size of a human. A ‘splat’ sound continued here and there as rocks continued to fall.

Huksel grabbed a few of his crew and backed off from the unexpected occurrence.

It took a while till the rain of rocks stopped falling.

Benson’s shoulders were dislocated and magician Sereum was dizzy from possibly being hit in the head, but other than that no one was critically hurt.

Huksel nervously thought the tower was going to collapse entirely, but thankfully it hadn’t. Only problem was that the upper floor had vanished.

Looking on, it was going to be difficult. Worst case, he was considering rock climbing.

“Is everyone alright?”

“Bo, boss. What is that….”

Torrell was pointing at something in front of him. Huksel turned his gaze at the fog dust that was clouding something as it drew near.

At first, he’d thought it was a giant pile of rocks, but upon closer inspection it wiggled and the whole pile was moving as one.

Torrell’s complexion paled. Bits of rocks and a giant boulder that had slammed onto the ground all started converging towards the pile.

It was recovering its body that broke when it fell. A colossal sized body with each fragment spanning several metres.

As he noticed it having arms and legs, he quickly understood that it was of human form.

“Golem…… Beings that steadily held up the emperor’s throne with its thick arms. They really exist….”

Huksel heard Anya beside him murmuring a whisper. Her expression was overflowing with happiness and awe.

However, he had no leisure to be worrying about her as the Golem had started moving again.

“Damn it! I don’t recall discussing that we needed to fight a Golem!”

Benson screamed. Huksel hurriedly tried shutting Benson’s mouth with his hands, but it was too late. The Golem’s had turned its attention to them.

The Golem turned its heavy body towards Huksel’s crew and began its approach.

Seeing its overwhelming size and weight shake the ground as it approached, Huksel’s mind soon found itself paralysed.

A single step with its feet, would turn them into rice cakes. The moment Huksel imagined the scene in his mind, he shouted out.

“Ru…. run!”

Kwoong! Kwoong! The Golem’s movement was slow but had much bigger strides than them.

As Huksel fled with a sense of despair, he noticed Sereum standing still in the same spot. He was still murmuring words that were unrecognizable.

Huksel didn’t easily give up on his comrades. But this was different.

Then, suddenly Sereum stretched out his hands towards the Golem and completed a short verse.

An explosive fire bombarded the Golem. The burning fire twirled around its entire body. The nearby fog was evaporating from the heat.

Huksel was stunned as he’d never seen Sereum use such powerful magic before.

Thought to have been simply a timid magician. Who knew he had such power in him.

For a moment, Huksel hoped. That was until the Golem began lifting its foot over Sereum.

Sereum was still standing still with his two arms stretched. The Golem’s leg slammed down onto the ground.

Huksel cursed himself as he pushed Sereum out of the way.

Kwang! Huksel tightly closed his eyes. As he regretted the failures he had to endure in his life, he waited for death. But for some reason dying wasn’t as painful as he’d thought.

It was regretful that he never got the chance to see his child, but with this he would leave all his failures behind. But still……

“Boss! Get out of there now!”

Huksel opened his eyes at hearing Torrell’s deep voice. A familiar shield laid in front of his eyes.

The imperial army shield that Torrell stole when he ran away from his duty.

It was heavier and tougher than most other shields. And the shield which had saved their life countless times was disfigured into a sorry state.

Its last act used to save Huksel’s lower torso.

Huksel quickly crawled out.

“Why……?”

“What do you mean, why. It’s because I don’t want to see my boss die a pitiful death! Especially when you’ve been played by that bar waitress fox.”

“Played?”

“Pregnant my ass. You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve seen that bitch wiggle money from naive adventurers. While that bitch only thought about using you to poach as much money she could, you were off dreaming about a sweet married life together.”

“What? Then why didn’t you say anything till now? Why didn’t you stop me from betting my life on this expedition?”

“Uh…..that’s because….”

Torrell hesitated for a while then finally spoke.

“I’m pretty certain she’s pregnant with my child.”

Huksel didn’t get the chance to reply. The Golem had started moving again.

Recognising they’d become a pattern in the ground if they stayed still, the two grabbed Sereum and started running.

Their movements were much slower than before. Sooner rather than later, they would be crushed.

Huksel bursted into laughter.

He’d made extensive preparations and yet everything was in vain. He’d even forgotten about the purpose of the expedition.

So dumbfounded by the situation, he continued to laugh. Beside him, he felt Torrell look at him as if he’d gone mad.

As the Golem lifted its foot over them once again, a massive impact hit the Golem’s head.

The Golem swayed side to side and lost his footing beside Huksel. Sideways, the Golem rolled past Huksel, Torrell and Sereum.

“Wha… What–!”

Huksel looked up at the Golem. He saw a shadow in the big dent that was made on top of the Golem’s head.

Huksel couldn’t see what ‘that’ was. It didn’t seem to look like a human. It looked more like a clot of blood, as fire was burning from its body here and there.

It was wearing a ragged cloth, but even that was on fire.

Huksel was terrified at the thought of it being a new monster but he noticed ‘that’ was holding a familiar dagger.

Juan’s dagger. Unlike before, the dagger was lit up in fire red and was shining in fancy markings. The fire was burning all over the body of ‘that’.

Huksel finally recognised that it was Juan.

However, instead of the face of a boy, he saw the face of a bloodthirsty berserker.