Emperor Has Returned

“Actually, it’s better for us that Ethan is being short-tempered. Now that their forces have been spread thin, we cannot let them group again. We’ll have to spread our forces as well to meet them.”

“Wouldn’t it be safer to take them out in smaller groups?”

“Paladins are far more dangerous when they are in a group. As a group, they’ll be able to use ‘grace’ on a different scale, and also their own individual ‘grace’ gets stronger. If they find out that we’re moving as a group, they’ll do so too. First, we’ll need to look for our first target commander Ethan Ethil. His power is too formidable to be ignored.”

Juan curiously turned towards Anya.

“Is he that dangerous?”

“Only the elites that are within the top 20 of the empire are picked as a Commander of a Paladin order. Factors like personality and their level of faith are taken into consideration, but after you’re chosen, the amount of ‘grace’ you are given is astronomical. Only, if you are defeated, the consequences are that much severe.”

Anya looked at Juan.

“That’s why Juan’s task is so important. Dilmond will cover the north, I’ll cover the south, and Juan…..you did say you want to be positioned in the center……but, are you sure you can handle Ethan in a face to face combat? I heard you had a hard time during your previous encounter with him……….”

“It will be hard to win right now, but I think I can kill him.”

Anya made a complicated expression as if she didn’t know what to say.

“Don’t worry. I have it figured out. I stayed up all night preparing for this, didn’t I?”

“That’s true but……. Maybe Lars nim can help if it’s too much…….”

“That’s not necessary.”

Juan placed his hand on top of Anya’s.

Anya slowly nodded her head. They were very aware of what was most important.

Lars wasn’t just a focal point of the Hugin knights order, he was an emblem of the Hugin knights that shouldn’t, no mustn’t be defeated.

Additionally, Lars’ condition wasn’t the best at the present time.

“Leave it to me. You won’t be disappointed.”

“Right. Then…..good luck.”

Anya nodded as she looked at Juan.

*****

Ethan’s sword cut a few strands of Juan’s hair as it skimmed past.

Juan tried to get up close, but was struck back as Ethan moved his elbows to knock him away. Juan barely managed to land on his feet but he wasn’t given time to catch his breath. Instantly, a sword was brought down at him, and it breezed past his neck.

Juan clutched his throat that had been nearly cut and took a few steps back. Ethan’s expression was plenty annoyed.

“Picking a fight and yet you’ve done nothing but run. Can you do anything else but conjure some smoke and run fast?”

Juan caught his breath as he snapped his neck left and right.

He could feel Taltere’s essence slowly fade from within him. Also, his body was covered in cuts and bruises.

It had been 10 minutes since they’d started fighting and unlike Juan Ethan didn’t have a single injury on him, despite Juan using Taltere’s blood to empower himself.

“You should’ve noticed that the previous cut you made was only a fluke, though I do want to praise you for even lasting this long. Outside Paladins, there aren’t many as skilled as you.”

“You’re not bad either.”

Ethan could not help but laugh at Juan’s compliment. Anyone could see that Juan was losing the battle. Without the ability to control fog, use blink and the power coming from Taltere’s blood, Juan’s head would have dropped by now.

“I don’t know who taught you but it seems you didn’t learn how to accurately gage an opponent’s strength. From the way you use Valte swordsmanship, I’m guessing you’re a Hugin knight. Who’s your teacher. Dilmond? Annabelle? Lars?”

“I’m the one who taught Lars.”

Ethan assumed Juan was joking.

However, Juan’s face was completely serious. Which made Ethan more annoyed.

“Well, in any case I don’t have any reason to keep you alive. I’ll make this quick.”

Ethan readied his posture and pointed his sword at Juan. This turn, he was going to use his full strength and instantly end Juan’s life.

Reading the mood, Juan took a deep breath and took a strange pose.

Ethan frowned upon seeing this. It was a strange stance that wasn’t of Valte swordsmanship.

‘Was it a derived pose?’

It was common to see swordsmanship vary depending on the nature of the order that the knight belongs to.

It was a long time since the Hugin knights had any connection with another knight order, so it wasn’t strange to see unusual fighting stances.

However, knowing the Hugin knights well, Ethan found himself a bit tense in seeing his opponent take a weird posture.

‘He’s not your ordinary Hugin knight.’

His special technique in being able to move fast, looked alot similar to ‘blink’ which was one of the highest forms of ‘grace’. He wouldn’t have been given ‘grace’ so it was possible that he was one of the few that received the emperor’s essence, just like Lars.

And it was possible that he was the heir chosen by Lars.

If this was the case, that stance could be a secret form that hadn’t yet been seen by the empire’s forces.

Ethan carefully waited for Juan to make a move. The moment Juan hit the floor running, with all his might, Ethan readied his defenses.

However, instead of running at Ethan, Juan turned his body and ran in the opposite direction.

“What?”

For a while, Ethan stood still and simply looked at Juan. Juan didn’t even turn and look at Ethan as he ran away, leaving Ethan to his own.

Only then, Ethan realised Juan was running away.

“This bastard!”

With everything he had, Ethan gave chase.

As he ran, anything that got in the way was destroyed by a flurry of wind. But even for someone that was showered in ‘grace’, it wasn’t easy to catch Juan who was galloping away, using blink here and then.

“Get back here! You bastard!”

Anger bursted out from Ethan as Juan disappeared. His eyes twinkling, Ethan looked at his surroundings. There was nothing but dust and an alleyway in ruins.

Then he saw something at the end of his gaze. From beyond the dust, a group of soldiers was approaching him.

It was the Paladins that he had sent through ahead.

“Commander! I could hear your shouting.”

“I lost the kid. Did you see him? He came through here.”

The Paladins looked at each other with confused faces.

“The child? We didn’t see anyone sir. Not even a single resident. We came back because the path ahead had been blocked.”

“Blocked?”

Ethan questioned with suspicion in his eyes. Then finally, he noticed the city’s bizarre landscape.

Buildings were damaged and some even had collapsed but the sheer destruction covered so much area that it was hard to believe his Paladins had caused all this damage. Additionally, inside collapsed buildings and walls, he couldn’t see a single corpse lying dead.

Ethan felt a chill down his back. The collapsed walls were blocking alleyways in the city.

“Have you only noticed it now?”

Juan voiced out from the end of the alleyway ahead of Ethan.

The Paladins all drew their swords.

Ethan wanted to immediately run and pummel Juan but something was telling him not to do it.

Right now, Juan wasn’t the problem.

He needed to figure out what he had overlooked.

At that moment, a disgusting scent of blood mixed in dust could be smelled. Ethan quickly shouted.

“Everyone, get out of this alleyway. Now!”

The trained Paladins didn’t question Ethan’s orders. They all immediately kicked their horses to retreat out of the alley.

Juan grinned.

“Too late.”

Juan made a cut on his palm and sprayed it on the ground. Moment the red blood touched the ground, the entire alley blew up in flames.

Juan had the entire alley covered in a mix of blood and oil. Flames rose from the area at once instantly.

The first to be engulfed in flame was Ethan. Ethan had been covered in blood from fighting Juan earlier so he was instantly set on fire.

The other Paladins followed suit.

The whole alleyway was on fire.

“Aughh ahhhh!”

One of the Paladins screamed as he rolled around on the ground like a ball of fire.

But the more he moved, he caught more of the fire. The horses, surprised from the sudden fire and heat, went wild making the Paladins that were riding it fall to the ground.

The horses that had gone crazy tried to escape from the fire but they were having a hard time even finding which direction to move.

Juan didn’t wait until they were all killed from the heat. He jumped into the fire and plunged his dagger into one of the Paladin’s throats.

The Paladin was too busy dealing with the fire, and didn’t notice Juan till the end.

“Think of it as a tour of hell.”

Juan rushed at other Paladins and started to carve them up as well.

Only Juan was gliding through the fire unhurt while swinging his weapon.

One by one, the Paladins that were the so called elites of the empire fell at Juan’s strikes. He could’ve left them to die in the fire but Juan’s didn’t hesitate to kill them.

Juan’s appearance could only be described as something close to the devil as he moved around the towering flames, swinging his dagger.

The fire proceeded to spread onto the nearby buildings, collapsing the few that were barely managing to stand.

This was what the Hugin knights had prepared all throughout the night. To be more precise, the plan was to get Ardin to lure them here, before attacking them once they panicked from the fire.

They had prepared the same tactic at a few other places but Juan judged that they could take care of them all here.

Juan busily slaughtered the Paladins. The dead corpses toppled to the ground and he stepped over it as he moved onto his next target. Then in the middle of the fire, he saw one man still standing.

Commander Ethan Ethil. He was standing firm in the blazing fire.

Juan’s expression turned bitter as he looked at the smolten black Ethan.

He wasn’t someone to die so easily. However, Juan wasn’t the honorable type that cared about fighting on equal grounds. He ran at Ethan.

Juan cut Ethan’s neck, face, liver, pancreas, lungs, everything that would diminish his survivability.

At last, Ethan fell over when Juan pierced his heart.

“Huuuuk……”

Juan left the flames behind and moved out the alleyway. Killing the other Paladins was only a matter of time as Ethan was now dead.

The fire had spread more than he’d anticipated and he felt now it needed to be stopped. Make Ardin douse the fire and then……”

Then, he heard the sound of many hooves.

He felt the presence of Paladins approaching. From the north, south, east and west. Juan felt something was wrong. The Hugin knights were supposed to be keeping the rest busy.

Kwang! The remnants and debris that was blocking the alleyways was blown back with a loud sound.

Sixteen Paladins intruded into the alleyway as both sides of the alley broke open. It was the same attack that he saw in the beginning when Hiveden’s entrance was blown apart. The flames waned in the passing spirits.

“Commander nim!”

The Paladins shouted as they looked into the flames.

Juan felt more people were approaching. Anya, Dilmond and the Hugin knights.

Juan surmised that the Hugin knights had briefly fought the Paladins, but could also see the panicked expressions on their faces.

‘None of them are injured……’

A substantial number of Hugin knights had been injured. However the number of Paladins hadn’t shrunk, nor did they have a single mark of injury on them.

Then Juan heard Anya shout with a worrying face.

“Grace! There’s a powerful ‘grace’ that’s being bestowed on the city!”

Juan’s face hardened.

He felt a weird presence from the engulfing flames.

Juan acknowledged the fact that he failed to notice the presence till now.

Even though his heart had been pierced, his throat cut, his body burnt in flames, Ethan’s spirits had never dissipated.

The seven Paladins that were molden slowly started to get up.

With his neck still cut, Ethan eerily smiled.