Emperor of Steel

Luke was in a hurry to head over to Angara, the capital of Irea Kingdom.

It was because if the Angara got destroyed, a huge blow would come for the continental alliance.

However, Irea didn’t have a long-distance teleport gate.

It wasn’t a decision taken by the King and his men, rather it was due to the lack of funds in the nation. It wasn’t called the Kingdom of seclusion for nothing.

‘Damn it, in such urgent situations…!’

First, Luke moved his troops and supplies as far as he could with teleport magic and then hurried up the match.

‘At any cost, the Angara needs to endure the battle, just till we arrive…’

The King of Irea, Charles was already informed of Arsene and the Undead legion heading over there.

He did propose the idea of evacuation, but Charles didn’t like it.

-Our Irea Royal family has never run away from enemies, not once in history. Of course, probably because we held a neutral stand all through the generation, there were very few enemies invading.

Charles, who said that with a blunt expression, said that he would try to block them as much as possible.

Seeing that Luke couldn’t hold back his emotions.

“The enemy coming over there is not an ordinary one! He is the Lich King, Arsene, he created a large army of Undead and has been alive for over 500 years!”

-Even if the opponent is a demon, we are not going to withdraw and evacuate.

“Look here, King Charles! This isn’t the time to act so stubborn!”

Despite Luke’s repeated warnings, Charles cut off the magic communication, saying that he wouldn’t withdraw.

That only made Luke’s heart more irritated.

“I don’t get it… why is he being so useless?!”

“Irea men are usually like that. They are more stubborn and open to outsiders easily.”

When Belik was talking about the nature of Irea, Arch Duke Gregory, who was beside him asked.

“Your Majesty, can Irea really stop the enemies?”

Luke shook his head, not needing any time to think.

“The Castia Kingdom, which is a lot stronger than the Irea Kingdom, couldn’t stop a couple of Lich and Death Knight. It is only a matter of time before Angara gets ruined too.”

“But wouldn’t it be better than Castia defending, I mean, we informed them in advance, right?”

“I hope they end up doing something good…”

Gregory, who looked at the skeptical expression on Luke’s face, gave orders to the Saint Guard.

“Raise the speed of the march! The people of Angara are in danger!”

“Yes, Sire!”

The members of Saint Guard shouted at once and moved quickly on the horses they were riding.

At present, Gregory had around 1,000 Saint Guards and 3,000 Knights of the Imperial Army, and 200 Gigants.

The knights were all on the horses, while the Gigants are on their trailers.

Reina lent the troops gathered in Bless, and because of that, Luke contacted the Symphonia Kingdom and asked for troops to be dispatched.

Since the Symphonia Kingdom and the Irea Kingdom were neighbors, if their 4th squad of army moved, they would reach Angara a lot sooner than expected.

They ran for two full days to save time, but they hadn’t met Arsene or his legion, instead what they saw was.

Burning buildings in Angara and the bodies which had fallen to the ground and burnt.

Arch Duke Gregory, who took in the entire scene of the city of death, sighed.

“We, we were too late!”

“Damn it, senior! This is all because of the warlocks, I want to punch him down as soon as possible!”

At Belik’s words, Gregory shook his head.

“Not all warlocks are evil. Didn’t warlocks of the Black Tower help in purifying the Undead troops?”

“Well, that is becau…”

Gregory was shocked at the words he spoke.

If it was his past version, he would never be defending the warlocks, he would have used his sword instead of his brain.

That change was all because of Reina and Luke.

“Your Majesty, let’s go to the Royal Palace.”

Looking at the horrors of the city, Luke walked to the palace.

The city was ruined, but there still could be some survivors.

Gregory ordered the Holy Empire to search the city and followed Luke.

The situation was the same for the Royal Palace—all burnt and smashed.

The battle was quite fierce, and there were many bodies along with broken Gigants and soldiers everywhere.

The regrettable thing was all the common people who fled to the palace died.

“This is weird.”

Belik, who was looking around, opened his mouth.

“What are you talking about?”

At Belik’s words, Luke asked what was so weird.

“In Castia, not just humans, but even the livestock were killed. The same seems to have happened, but… I can’t see the body of a horse or a single cow.”

‘Now that one mentions, I can’t see any wagons. Not even a body of children.’

Maybe King Charles was evacuating the capital by using wagons and took out the children first.

As he thought about it, Luke who was shocked felt a little relieved.

“Well, we need to find the whereabouts of Arsene and his minions.”

At Luke’s words, Belik nodded.

“That is the priority. Even with the power of the alliance, we need to find out where they are first.”

It was obvious that if the sacrifice of people went larger and couldn’t be dealt with by the military, then the alliance would break.

And if the alliance broke, everyone would be dedicated to saving their own nations.

‘Before that happens, we need to grab them!’

It was when Luke made up his mind.

He went to hear what the report of the Saint Guards was.

Luke and his party went over to the royal palace’s throne room.

The body of King Charles was in the room. As if he was fighting till the end, his hand still held the sword, even in a situation where both his legs were cut off, and then the neck.

But what caught everyone’s attention wasn’t the body of the brave King, but the words written in blood, on the wall.

Luke, keep this in mind.

You struggled to follow me here.

The next turn will be Brandon, your place, stop me if you can.

‘Did he know I was coming?’

Well, not one or two, but 4,000 troops had moved, so Arsene might have noticed.

And he was right.

Arsene did change his strategy after realizing that Luke was pursuing him.

“What are you thinking? We need to go to Brandon right now!”

When Luke, who read the words, went stiff, Belik took charge.

Brandon was Luke’s base, and it was the political capital of the alliance.

Including nearly 1.5 million people, there were Guard Knights, Black Tower, and the Katarina magic tower, and the other key forces in the Symphonia Kingdom were gathered.

In addition, there were nobles who were their allies in there, all the students in the Academy, and the heads of the fairies.

If that place was devastated, the other cities of the alliance would be next.

Which meant that Arsene had to be stopped.

“Your Majesty. Belik is right. Call the Symphonia Palace right away and give an order to prepare for the battle!”

Gregory was on the verge of running to Brandon taking all his Saint Guard troops and Holy Empire forces.

He was extremely angry with the brutality of Arsene and his legion.

But somehow, Luke who should be the most hurried, was standing still and locked in thoughts.

After a while, he opened his mouth.

“It doesn’t seem like Brandon is the goal.”

“Sorry? What does that mean?”

Gregory couldn’t understand.

So, Luke laid it out for him.

“If Arsene had thought of hitting Brandon, he would have attacked it first. He knows that attacking Brandon can do more damage to me than the allies.”

“Then?”

“It seems like a trick to send me somewhere else.”

“Think this is a trickery?”

“Right. The trick of sending me to Brandon and then attacking the other places.”

There was a military phrase in the Southern continent.

It meant that to burn the west and attack the east, it was a tactic used very often on the battlefield.

Arsene’s real target wasn’t Brandon.

So, where was Arsene going to attack?

Luke, who pondered over it, realized something.

He shouted to Gregory and Belik.

“Bless! Bless is in danger!”

“What? What are you saying?”

“Yes, why suddenly Bless? It is well guarded by the Saint Guards and the Imperial troops…”

Belik’s expression hardened.

Half of the forces were currently in Irea.

No, more than half were with them.

And they even mobilized more than 70% of the Gigant from the Bless to save Angara.

For that very reason, Bless was in the most difficult state to stop even if someone other than Arsene attacked.

“Give us the order now! Hurry!”

“Yes, Majesty!”

Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Arch Duke Gregory hastened to order the Saint Guard.

The Holy Imperial troops who marched for Angara, without sleep, once again began to run for Bless.

Du-Du-Du-Du-Du-!

During the return, Luke constantly tried to contact.

He didn’t intend to stop the plan. He decided to use it as an opportunity to catch him.

To do it, a few people had to be moved, and the core forces of the continental allies had to be gathered in Bless.

‘Wait a little more Arsene! Bless is what will finish you!’

Luke, who grunted his teeth, used his Divine power to heal the fatigue of the horses and riders.