The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 193 – Iolin (2)

Inside the carriage was a woman lying there as if she was asleep. Her skin was so fair, that it looked bluish. It was clear that it was a corpse. Lying with red meat acting as a bed, her head was crowned with mistletoe branches.

Anya flinched upon noticing her protruding and long ears that stuck out amidst the mistletoe crown.

‘An elf?’

At that moment, the sound of the horseman’s body slumping to the ground echoed. At the same time, the cloth covering the meat fell off, causing the rays of sunlight to touch the body of the elf woman.

At that moment, the elf woman who she had thought to be dead suddenly twitched her fingers.

Umbra immediately covered the elf woman’s body. Anya didn’t even realize how and why she was moving, but she instantly moved to block the sunlight from reaching the elf woman’s body. Anya’s entire body was covered in cold sweat as soon as she saw the elf woman’s body move.

While Anya was already used to seeing the dead standing up and walking around, she felt an unfamiliar fear when she saw this elf woman—it was the same type of fear she felt when witnessing the descent of Nigrato back in Hiveden.

‘Please… please.’

Anya murmured to herself on the inside. However, she soon met the golden eyes that opened inside the Umbra. The eyes were hollow and without any emotions, yet filled with an intemperate desire for slaughter.

‘It’s too late.’

Just one ray of sunlight was enough to wake her up.

Crack!

Anya’s body was thrown into the air and Umbra shattered into pieces.

The knights from the Order of Huginn were perplexed at the sudden situation, but they immediately lined up. They were more than used to fighting back even in unexpected situations like this.

“Anya! Are you okay?”

Dilmond rushed to help Anya up.

The Umbra that Anya was wearing had been miserably torn to shreds, but it was quickly being restored as its pieces merged back with each other again. The Umbra was not harmed, since it was not an object with a fixed form in the first place.

However, Anya was different. Anya wiped off the blood flowing from her mouth while enduring the pain of broken ribs and internal injuries.

At that moment, the pale elf woman had raised her upper body before anyone knew it and then emitted a subtle light. It was an ancient and sacred energy that was certainly different from Nigrato’s unholy energy.

Then Anya inadvertently saw a clear handprint on the neck of the elf woman. At the same time, she saw trees rustling from all sides and giving off a strong smell of the forest, making her feel as if she had entered the middle of an old forest just now.

All kinds of symbols and vibrations of power were pointing to only one thing—it was a reenactment of what happened back in Hiveden.

“Retreat with the Order of Huginn, Dilmond! This is not something that the knights will be able to deal with!” Anya shouted.

“Retreat with them? But our mission… damn it, okay!”

Dilmond was not stupid enough to argue with the captain in an urgent situation. After all, making a clear decision was much more important than prudence during a battle.

Following Dilmond’s instructions, the Order of Huginn quickly withdrew and induced the civilians watching them from the rear to evacuate as well in order to prevent them from being caught up in the fuss.

In the meantime, the elf woman was embracing the sun to the fullest with her neck making squeaking sounds in a grotesque fashion. The mistletoe crown placed on her head was sprouting with fresh green leaves.

“Go!”

The knights of the dead ran toward the elf woman in unison at Anya’s short order. The cold blades that were thrown toward the elf woman instantly cut her skin. But what flowed out of the cut skin was yellow petals rather than blood or the body fluids of a corpse.

‘She’s definitely a god. But what kind of god is she?’

Anya was not very interested in history or mythology. However, there was only one god that came to her mind when she saw the pointed ears that signified the elves.

The god of the elves and lakes, and also the guardian of the knights—Iolin.

‘It was said that she was strangled and drowned to death by His Majesty.’

Talter had collected blood for decades and barely managed to recover himself to the point where he could form a small amount of essence. Nigrato could only be revived through a powerful catalyst known as Ras Raud.

But Iolin, who was standing in front of Anya was blooming like flowers in the spring just by receiving the sunlight.

‘But how? Wait. perhaps all that meat loaded inside the carriage was…’

The meat was well butchered, but she was certain that it was human flesh. Upon seeing the meat quickly drying up and crumbling, Anya figured that it must have acted as a catalyst for Iolin’s resurrection.

Cold sweat began to run down Anya’s forehead. There was no way an ordinary human’s flesh could act as such a strong catalyst. She didn’t know the identity of the people killed for all that flesh, but it was clear that someone who was capable enough to use such a method to resurrect a god so easily, then they would be a threat to His Majesty.

“Anya! We are ready to retreat! You should fall back as well!” Dilmond shouted.

“No. I’m staying here,” Anya answered with a firm look on her face.

“What? Wait… You…”

“You saw what happened back in Hiveden, and should know that we have to kill a god when they are at their weakest! Don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself! You don’t have to worry about me dying as long as I have Umbra with me. Rather, you should go and let His Majesty know that his enemies have the means to resurrect a god!”

“A god?” Dilmond muttered with a shocked expression.

“Yes, a god! Tell His Majesty that they are using some kind of meat as a catalyst to revive a god… hurry!”

Dilmond’s expression immediately distorted in confusion. However, he had his priorities in the right order. He told the Order of Huginn to spread out and began to ride his horse toward the north.

“Kill her, Annabelle! His Majesty killed Nigrato when he was even weaker than the current you!” Dilmond shouted one last time before he left.

Anya simply smiled without any words. At the same time when the Order of Huginn disappeared from her view, Anya brought out her undead soldiers with all her might. Hundreds of skeleton soldiers began to pour out of the Umbra. The dragon-blood soldiers created by Juan roared, while the knights of the dead marched in a single line. The cold air emanated by the army of the dead began to cover the ground with frost.

Anya murmured coldly.

“Bury her.”

Hundreds of skeleton soldiers rushed toward Iolin and began to crush her. However, the skeleton soldiers were scattered in vain as soon as the warm light being emitted by Iolin touched them.

Anya wasn’t devastated, since she had already expected this to happen. The effect she was waiting for came next.

An endless amount of bone powder from the skeleton soldiers covered Iolin.

‘What would happen if so much bone powder that is filled with unholy energy covers her?’

Anya expected it to at least have the effect of blocking the sunlight from touching Iolin’s body.

As expected, Iolin was quickly fully covered in white bone powder as she was still slow to move due to her just being resurrected.

Anya didn’t hesitate to immediately move on to the next course of action.

The dragon-blood soldiers barbarously rushed toward Iolin with the intent to destroy everything in their path.

Anya’s goal was to finish everything before Iolin was capable of using her true strength, just in case that she alone might not be able to do anything once Iolin started to use her energy.

It was questionable whether a god would die simply due to being stabbed or being dismembered like that, but Anya had no choice but to do her best.

‘After all, it is said that His Majesty cut the gods into pieces and scattered them across the mountains.’

Anya thought that all she could do was to imitate him as best as she could.

In the meantime, the cold winter weather got warmer due to a spring breeze. Anya grew perplexed at the sudden and unfamiliar climate change.

‘Is this kind of work so easy for the gods?’

Just like in Hiveden, gods could greatly change the environment of their surroundings simply by existing on the land.

Anya couldn’t imagine what it would have been like when countless of these gods wandered around the empire in the past. But she quickly put her thoughts aside; she was becoming anxious to finish everything quickly.

One of the knights of the dead swung their sword which was as large as his body and hit Iolin’s neck at once—at least Anya thought he did.

Clang!

The knight of the dead’s sword bounced off with a loud clanging noise.

“...Fucking damn it.”

Anya unknowingly muttered abusive words. An unknown group was walking out in line from behind Iolin’s back. All of them were wearing wooden crowns, and Anya was able to recognize the famous symbols despite her lack of knowledge—they were the knights and elf kings mentioned in the famous legend.

“The knights of the lake who swore eternal loyalty and swore to protect the goddess of the lake, Iolin… Was that not supposed to be just a legend?”

Anya stepped back as she muttered with a fed-up look. The same was true of the remaining undead soldiers. What made Anya depressed the most was the fact that Iolin was continuing her resurrection process like nothing had happened despite the sacrifice of hundreds of skeleton soldiers and the brutal attack of the dragon blood soldiers.

The cut wounds on Iolin that were originally releasing petals had healed up again, almost as if Anya’s attacks were nothing more than a bunch of ants clawing at a tree.

Anya took a deep breath.

‘A god and heroes from the legends, huh?’

Anya curved her lips into a smirk.

“That just means they are those who were all defeated by HIs Majesty.”

With Anya’s cry, the newly rising army of the dead clashed with Iolin.

***

Juan ran as fast as he could, moving so fast that he was like an arrow that was shot toward Torra. His feet were more in the air than on the ground as he ran through the roofs and the walls—it was to the extent that people couldn’t even see him properly.

Juan broke into the Imperial Palace and immediately took Sutra.

“Dad! Just now…”

Nienna, too, was running into the Imperial Palace with a pale expression. Her expression became even stiffer when she saw Juan armed with Kelagranon and Sutra.

“What the hell is going on in the south of Torra right now?”

Nienna had lived throughout the mythological era and had great power, but she wasn’t able to completely realize what was going on. Only Juan, who had confronted gods throughout his life, was able to perfectly sense the situation immediately.

“Nienna, you come with me. I need someone to help me,” Juan said to Nienna with a stern look on his face.

“But what’s going on? Did a god resurrect or something?” Nienna asked.

“That’s exactly what has happened.”

“What? No way…”

Nienna answered as if she was surprised, but Juan figured that she must have also had a hunch about it, since she would have known that no such force could be created if it wasn’t for a god's appearance.

Hela and Sina belatedly approached Juan. However, the reason why they rushed to come was due to the report that Juan had rushed into the Imperial Palace with unusual speed—they still hadn’t sensed the strange situation.

Juan realized that Anya was nowhere to be seen among them.

“Right now, the south of Torra is… damn it. It must be that carriage.”

Juan immediately realized the situation. If the treason attempt was going to use a god, it was understandable for the enemies to think that their odds of success were high. The damage would be enormous whether Juan won or lost if the disaster from Hiveden is reenacted in the middle of Torra.

Juan gritted his teeth.

‘Even the nobles who participated in the treason will not be safe.’

They had only been used by Dismas, but there was no reason for Juan to forgive them. Juan’s expression became cold.

“I don’t know if the Order of Huginn is holding out fine. Focus the remaining troops on defense for now. A newly resurrected god would not be able to achieve strong power. I’m sure Nienna and I will be able to handle them. Nienna, hand over command of the Northern Army to Hela for the time being. Hela, cooperate with Pavan so that the aftermath of the battle does not spread around.”

Hela nodded and ran out to follow the order.

Juan glanced around at his surroundings.

“It’s not a sudden accidental resurrection of a god like in Hiveden, but rather a god that was revived through a carefully prepared plan of the enemy. If you can’t stop it in Torra, you won’t be able to stop it anywhere.”

***

The black fog surged in like a river. However, the fog which had been weakened by the energy emitted by Iolin, scattered into nothingness when faced with the knights of the lake.

Yet Anya didn’t give up and did her best to bring more darkness out of the Umbra. The undead became faster and stronger in this darkness, and their power of immortality also manifested in this darkness.

Iolin was still recovering her strength. She looked like the corpse of a pale woman a moment ago, but now she was wearing a misty silk dress with her eyes closed as she sat on a tree.

Iolin had never opened her eyes even once while confronting Anya, and the knights of the lake surrounding Iolin did not budge either.

Anya felt quite bothered by their attitudes. The knights of the dead and the dragon blood soldiers tried to drag down the knights of the lake several times but failed to do so.

They chose to either dodge or bear a hit when a spear of death was thrown at them from a long distance, but they never stepped forward.

‘If they are so overwhelmingly strong, sending the knights of the lake toward us would immediately lead to us being wiped out. But why…’

Only then did Anya notice the reason why.

‘It’s not that she isn’t damaged by my attack.’