Emperor of Steel

The world around him was turning round and round as if moving in a whirlpool.

Rudolf’s mouth was wide open, and his eyes dizzy.

“Kuakk! Here I go! I’m going into the past to change my fate!”

He was going back to the past to achieve what he wanted!

And in the great world he was going to make, he decided to build a temple for the Great Mother, Belize!

When Rudolf was feeling elated, the whirlpool stopped, and a blue planet appeared in front of him.

‘Is this the Middle earth where I used to live?’

As he went down through the atmosphere, the continent of Rhodesia appeared and soon, the capital, Nemesis.

‘Huh, have I finally come to the past?’

His eyes opened wide, thinking that he had arrived at the Imperial Palace ten years back.

However, he saw something that shouldn’t have been in the Imperial Palace at that time.

The dome was created two years ago to restore the remains of the time travel device.

‘This, how did this even happen? Obviously, the dome was built after the underground ruins had collapsed…’

Rudolf couldn’t understand.

Either it was a memory or not, his body that was full of the light blessed on him by the Goddess began to get dragged somewhere.

He couldn’t help but feel astonished when he saw where he was getting dragged.

Rudolf and Luke were exchanging fierce strikes at each other in the ruined Imperial Palace garden.

“This is it, Rudolf!”

Luke, using his Clock-up sword, rushed over with the Holy Sword Valiant.

At the same time, Rudolf merged into his body as if his body was sucking back his soul.

The words of the gentle Goddess resonated in his ears.

“I want to make it happen, even if it’s just a little.”

“Did you say you wanted to go to the past? I will accept your wish.”

The great Goddess didn’t break her promise.

She clearly sent him back to the past, but it was just a matter of a few minutes.

“Ahhh! You cheated me, Belize!”

Rudolf screamed as he watched Valiant come for him.

Cang! Slash!

A noise his ears had already perceived once.

However, the result was different from the past.

In the past, because of his desperate response, only his left arm got cut off, but this time, Rudolf was blinded in anger and frustration, so Luke’s sword went through his heart instead.

Rumble! Bang!

“Your Majesty!”

Rudolf, whose heart was hit by Luke’s blow, flew through the dome where the time travel device was located.

Shocked, Count Ruff ran for him, but soon, Arch Duke Gregory’s sword changed the fate.

And it was no different from the other Knights of Guards who ran to help Rudolf.

“Majesty! Please wake up!”

“Kuak! I was… tricked…”

Red blood was oozing out of Rudolf’s armor that got cracked.

Bang Bang!

The moment when Rudolf, who lost his energy, tried to say something, Karen went ahead and broke the time travel device with heatwave magic.

The domes opened too closed off along with the dimensional gap.

‘Ahh, it is over. It is over…’

It wasn’t the end.

Rudolf’s dying eyes saw Luke approaching him.

“Protect His Majesty!”

“Strike the traitor Luke de Rakan!”

The remaining SS knights rushed to Luke and his men who were getting close to Rudolf.

However, their resistance was grim when compared to the past.

Luke was strong, and Rudolf’s defeat had instilled an unknown fear in the hearts of the SS.

“I won, Rudolf.”

“Y-you… won? Cough! No, you didn’t.”

Before Rudolf lost his consciousness, he decided to take a dig at Luke.

“Damn it… Those gods… choose you… That’s…”

At Rudolf’s words, which seemed to deny Luke of winning, Karen and the other men frowned.

However, Luke admitted what Rudolf said.

“Yes, as you said, I may have been the choice of the Gods and the reason for my win could be them.”

More than 500 years later, he got reincarnated as the descendant of the enemy and was still able to come to the point not because of the ability he gained in this life but because of the help of his past life’s memories.

But…

“But what I mean to say is being chosen by a god too is a skill. That means that you didn’t have that ability.”

“Chosen… Karma…”

Rudolf recalled the words of El Kassel.

He said that Rudolf didn’t get to touch the power of time because of the Karma he gathered.

Would Luke de Rakan too have such Karma?

Rudolf’s thoughts stopped there. It turned tough for him to maintain a straight mind with such grave wounds.

But before his sense got cut off, he had work to do, using every last bit of his strength, he pulled off the golden chain from his neck.

On the golden chain, the emperor’s scepter, the shape of a dragon was there.

The scepter, carved out of rubies, was an item that should have never been stolen by invaders.

It was because there was a hidden secret, not just a simple object of authority as the ruler of the empire.

It was a very dangerous secret.

‘This is your victory, Luke de Rakan. However, I will not let you enjoy your victory.’

With a sly smile, Rudolf struck the scepter on the floor.

Swoosh!

The moment a rumbling noise started around them, Rudolf’s neck got cut clean.

Luke, who seemed suspicious of his last action, did it in a hurry.

It did seem like the vain act of the man going to die, but Luke didn’t like it.

The man couldn’t be separated from his greed even after being defeated in the battle.

“Oh, god!”

“Why did you do that, Your Majesty!?”

Hwang Bo-sung, who was looking at Rudolf’s severed head, asked in confusion.

It was because despite his success in trying to resolve the family grudge, Luke’s expression of anger seemed too horrendous.

Instead of Luke, Karen and Erwin shouted.

“Everyone run!”

“The entire Imperial Palace is going down!”

The moment the scepter touched the ground, the two of them seemed to sense it.

The mana wave began to change as if drops of something were falling on the calm surface.

The mana wave was too weak for one to be able to sense it, but they could feel the change.

It was as if the land was collapsing, and the mana revolved around the Imperial Palace.

Arch Duke Gregory and the Symphonia knights didn’t seem to sense the change in the energy just yet.

However, Luke’s serious expression and the instinctive sense of crisis in his body moved on its own.

“Karen! Shoot the flare! Inform the other knights and the Guard Knights too!”

“Yes, dad!”

Swoosh- Pop!

The flare was fired up in the sky.

In the vicinity of the main gate of the Imperial Palace, Jo Mimi and her party were still fighting the Iron Guards and the Silver Guards. Princess Ja-hye, Scarlet, and Shirley were also fighting the other enemies all over the Imperial Palace.

So far, their battles were victories, and then they saw the flare.

“Shirley! The flare!”

“What is the color of it?”

At Shirley’s question, who hadn’t seen the flare as she was dealing with the Baroque troops, the rider of the Guard Knights said, “Green and then three red.”

“What? Three red? How is the situation going on for them?”

From what she was notified before, green meant a successful operation, yellow meant a request for assistance, red meant full retreat, and three in a row meant… to act as soon as possible.

“The operation is a success but we need to run away from here?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they destroyed the ruins but are being pushed back by Rudolf…”

Bang- Bang- Bang Bannng!

The moment the troops were trying to make sense of the flares, the Imperial Palace began to collapse.

The ground cracked as if it was breaking apart, and everything visible to their eyes began to collapse.

“Wh-wha-wha-what was that?!”

“I don’t what it is, but we surely need to run away right?”

The earthquake seemed too violent.

Not just the people, even the Gigants were losing their balance.

In addition, there were cases where the ground didn’t just crack, but it even fell into a depth that couldn’t be seen with the naked eye.

But that wasn’t the end.

From the broken ground and cracks came out gas. This gas was helping the explosion to flare up.

“Oh my god, this is hell!”

“Don’t stop and keep running!”

Frightened, Shirley and her men began to run.

Unlike the Symphonia troops who ran away after seeing the flares, the guards of the Imperial Palace, the maids, and the attendants didn’t know what to do.

“Ahhh! Help me!”

“What the hell is happening? Kuak!”

“Is this the intruder’s doing?”

Luke and his group, who were thought to be the reason for the mess, had already left the Imperial Palace.

But they were still not able to calm their hearts.

It was because the heatwave and the destruction of the palace didn’t just stop at the Imperial Palace. It was also spreading over to the surrounding places where the mansion of the nobles and residences were located.

Jo Mimi, who joined them, gasped for air.

“Ugh…! Your Majesty! What is happening?”

“Before Rudolf died, he did his final attack.”

At his answer, she raised her brows in shock.

“Then, he committed all this destruction?”

“Right. Just before he died, he blew up the Imperial Palace.”

“That bastard…!”

She was so shocked at the act of Rudolf that her classy mouth started to spew curses at the dead man.

It was because as a princess of the Song Empire, she was taught a lot of rules.

Had she been in a civil war in the Song Empire, she would have never allowed Jo Won-gyun to set fire to the Royal Palace.

However, during that time, she was on her own search for medicine to cure the emperor’s illness.

“This is a whole other level of crazy, but from Rudolf’s point of view, this is great because the Baroque Imperial family had been ruling the people for a long time, so they feel that there is no future on the continent without them.”

Luke was well aware of that, the emperor, whose power fell because of his arrogance for claiming that he was the strongest, would take away his nation too.

Therefore, it was never possible for any nation to conquer the Baroque Empire by foreign invasion.

In particular, it was more unacceptable that the Imperial Palace, where the core assets of the empire gathered to be passed down to a new ruler, that too not from their bloodline.

“But hasn’t this gone too far?”

At Jo Mimi’s words, Luke shook his head.

“I am sure that this is going the right way.”

The Baroque Empire was founded because of the rebellion that happened in the Old Libiya Kingdom.

Whether the founder was Carno de Baroque or his descendants, they must have been worried about the time when someone other than their family would claim their nation.

The Imperial Palace being trampled or the tombs being stolen or something similar to that.

They must have thought that it would be better to blow up the place along with the enemy.

“This is… But even then…!”

If they combined the Guards, the knights, the male and female attendants and maids in the palace, it would be more than 10,000.

And most of them would have died because of the explosions that were happening.

Luke replied as if he wasn’t shocked about it.

“Rudolf is the only one who can do such unreasonable things. If I didn’t kill him off then, things would have been more chaotic.”

What would have happened if such a mad man went into the past?

Just the thought of it made Luke’s head ache.

Arch Duke Gregory, who was listening to their conversation, said, “How about talking about this at a later time? I think it is important that we get out of the capital as soon as possible.”

At his words, Luke nodded.

Under Gregory’s guidance, Luke and his men hurried to the temple of El Kassel, where the catacombs were located.