256th Chapter
Delun rolled on the ground, a fist-sized hole torn into his abdomen.
The students had not even realized Preches’ attack until it was too late, and they froze in terror.
Jusephin, who had stood there dumbfounded, finally knelt down belatedly and tried to cover the wound in Delun’s stomach with her hands.
However, the wound was far too large for Jusephin’s hands to stem the flow.
Hot blood overflowed from between her fingers.
The heat of the blood made Jusephin shiver as her hands turned crimson.
She couldn’t bear to look away, fearing that she would soon find herself rolling on the ground just like Delun. Instead, she stared at the blood flowing from Delun and tried to suppress the rising fear within her.
In that moment, Delun reached out toward the sky.
Jusephin knew that this gesture was the futile wish of a man facing death.
Yet, even knowing it was futile, Jusephin followed the direction of Delun’s outstretched hand with her eyes.
For a brief moment,
Jusephin saw a clear blue sky beyond the dark curtain.
She thought it must be a hallucination brought on by the overwhelming fear filling her chest.
Perhaps the tears welling up in her eyes blurred her vision and created this mirage.
But everyone saw the same vision—not just Jusephin.
The Demons also raised their heads toward the sky.
They believed that the barrier formed by the intermingling power of the Blessing of the Dark God and the Dragon’s might could never be broken.
They thought no amount of firepower could possibly penetrate it.
But someone stepped through the barrier from above, shattering their belief.
It took the Demons a moment to process and understand the presence of the intruder.
Afterward, they immediately began to manipulate their corrupted mana.
The barrier that Preches had cast, though believed unbreakable, was not without its defenses against intruders. Prepared spells were triggered.
Several Demons launched their mutated bodies like projectiles toward the intruder.
A massive barrage erupted from the ground.
Simultaneously, artifacts rained down from the sky.
Many of these artifacts, half-shattered during their passage through the barrier, accelerated toward the ground with overloaded energy.
Their attacks met, canceled each other out, and crumbled into fragments.
Countless flashes of light illuminated the previously darkened sky within the barrier like stars.
Through the storm of light, someone approached the ground.
At the sight, Preches flicked his fingers.
In response, the Command Blade piercing through the Golden Tower’s Dragonheart rotated toward the sky.
Tsuzuk!
Energy transmitted from the Command Blade, which had been eroding the Dragonheart, concentrated at the top of the Golden Tower.
The Demons joined in, infusing countless amounts of mana blessed by the Dark God into the Command Blade.
The density of the energy concentrated at the top of the Golden Tower surged instantly.
Even Preches struggled to barely control the condensed mass of mana, which writhed and compressed itself further…
And then exploded, projecting a beam of energy so powerful it seemed capable of splitting the heavens.
Kuuuung!!!
The recoil from the beam fired from the Golden Tower alone caused a typhoon to erupt and the ground to tremble.
No matter how great one’s martial prowess, before such an overwhelming force that split the heavens, they were merely ordinary humans.
Everyone thought they would be devoured. Everyone except Delun, who smiled while gazing at the sky, feeling a sense of déjà vu.
“My… hero.”
As if responding to Delun’s wish,
a small bead-like compression of Sword Energy glowing white formed at the tip of the sword Ray held.
The pure white bead detached from Ray and descended toward the ground.
The space along its trajectory warped, and every material it touched disintegrated, condensing into one.
The tiny bead had grown into a massive cluster of light, illuminating the sky like the sun.
This was a weapon of annihilation—crafted in human form yet capable of devouring even transcendental powers.
Even the beam of light extending from the Command Blade shattered and lost its brilliance within the distorted space.
The vast sphere of light finally collided with the ground.
Haaaaaaak!!!
The aftermath swept across the land.
The ground beneath the students was fully exposed to the backlash.
Those uninjured among the students attempted to move to protect the wounded, but before they could act, a single holy spear imbued with divine power descended.
Kuung!!
Upon touching the ground, the blessed spear erected a wall of light.
While the wall of light blocked the backlash,
three figures finally landed inside the barrier, descending from the sky.
Chaeeng!!
Absorbing the tremendous impact of landing with brute force, their identities were unmistakable even to fools.
One wore the resplendent armor of the Royal Guard.
Another was clad head-to-toe in weapons and armor inscribed with prayers.
And the last one… held the legendary sword that had accompanied the empire’s myths, standing upright.
Some students watching their backs shed tears, but none felt ashamed of showing them.
Ray turned his head to look at the students.
He saw the gravely injured Delun.
Though Ray’s expression twisted, he couldn’t prioritize Delun’s safety in this situation.
“This is not your battlefield.”
Ray’s voice was cold and grave.
The students remained silent, looking at Ray. Turning his back to them, Ray gave a short command.
“Take the wounded and retreat. Let no one die.”
Anthonyus threw a small relic to the students after hearing Ray’s words.
It was a healing relic capable of sustaining life for those severely injured, though not enough to provide full recovery due to the lack of time and resources.
Delun strained to focus his blurred vision on Ray.
Ray turned his back and began walking toward the enemies.
Despite the technique’s recoil causing his body to scream in pain, Ray ignored it.
With each step, blood trickled from his body onto the ground.
Still, Ray disregarded it and continued to rotate his Magic Circles and Core.
The attempt to destroy the barrier had failed.
Now, Ray, Anthonyus, and Michael had to weaken or disrupt the maintenance of the barrier from within—or face failure.
Failure meant death. Time was not on their side; they needed a swift resolution.
Hooook-!
As the aftermath of Ray’s technique subsided, the devastated landscape revealed itself.
The mangled corpses of Demons scattered across the ground slowly began to rise again.
Beyond the resurrected corpses and the barely surviving Demons,
the shadow of the Golden Tower stretching toward the sky loomed faintly.
Ray sighed.
He had intended to obliterate the Golden Tower with his previous technique, but it appeared they had managed to withstand it.
In front of the Golden Tower stood a woman Ray had never seen before.
Ray, Anthonyus, and Michael instinctively understood she was the mastermind behind this situation.
“That woman.”
“Will killing her be enough?”
“It’s hard to be certain, but if her head is severed, she won’t be able to maintain this barrier.”
If they could prevent her from focusing on maintaining the barrier, they might achieve some progress.
Michael stepped forward after exchanging a glance with Anthonyus.
“We’ll open the way.”
The suppressed aura emanating from Michael began to resonate heavily.
Though Michael’s aura was crude, Ray recognized it as a disguise concealing a fatal blow.
Anthonyus also stepped forward, raising his consecrated spear horizontally.
Simultaneously, all the relics Anthonyus wore emitted light, illuminating the darkness.
Ray tightly gripped both swords.
The few functioning artifacts still operational were reactivated.
Watching this scene from afar, Preches lamented.
“I knew you’d come.”
Preches had known that if anyone were to step into this barrier, it would be Ray first.
Still, he hadn’t attempted to preemptively exclude Ray due to insufficient means and a slight sympathy.
And now, Ray was approaching him from beyond.
Feeling the nature of the power emanating from Ray, Preches sneered.
“The one who reduced us to this state seems to have no sense of shame. To think you inherited the power of Harshia.”
Preches sympathized with Ray for a moment and wondered if he could ‘persuade’ him.
But persuasion was impossible, Preches reaffirmed.
There was no way the entity that bestowed such power upon Ray would leave no safeguards.
Like most Dragons, who offered blind devotion, Ray likely bore an ingrained blindness as well.
“Hmm…”
As Preches watched Ray approach, his gaze shifted to the imperial sword.
Moros, the lost imperial sword from approximately 600 years ago.
When the news came that the Empire had recovered Moros, Preches assumed the royal family had fabricated a counterfeit to stabilize imperial authority.
But Preches was wrong.
The sword Ray held was genuine, not a fake.
Preches grimaced slowly as he reflected on the distant warmth radiating from Moros.
Glory to the Empire.
That was the inscription engraved on Moros.
It was a phrase requested by the first emperor of the Empire and the only ‘pure-blooded human’ among all emperors.
Some might have found the phrase curious.
The preposition “to” is usually used after people or animals.
Grammatically, “Glory to the Empire” would be more appropriate than “Glory for the Empire.”
Nevertheless, the inaugural emperor requested the phrase “Glory for the Empire.”
“Haha… Glory.”
The Empire is the sole entity on this land.
For a long time, the Empire stood alone, referred to almost as a proper noun—”The Empire.”
For such a long time, it was simply called “The Empire,” and both its citizens and emperors referred to it as such.
However, the Empire had a name.
The name of the Empire was… Primus.
It inherited the name of the Ancestral Dragon [Primus], who founded the Empire.
Thus, if we reinterpret the phrase “Glory for the Empire” according to the original intention of the first emperor…
Glory for Primus.
Such a phrase emerges.
“Hah… What hollow glory.”
Preches unfurled wings of flame, unable to erase the smirk from his face.
Clash (2)
