The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 57 – The Emperor’s Spears (3)

“It’s pretty good for us that Ethan is being impatient. Since the Order of the White Crow scattered into squads, we have to stop them from rejoining. We’ll have to scatter our forces as well,” said Anya.

“Wouldn’t it be better for us to stay together and take them out in smaller groups?”

“The Templars are far more threatening when they are united as a group. They can use their Grace on a bigger scale, and their ordinary Grace becomes much more powerful than when they use it individually. They will definitely rejoin once they figure out we are all together in the same location. Our target in priority is Captain Ethan Etil, since he is the most dangerous one out of all of them.”

“Is he that dangerous?” Juan asked out of curiosity.

“Well, only the most powerful elites within the top twenty of the empire get the opportunity to become the Captain of a knight order with Templars. Of course, factors such as character and faith are taken into consideration as well. They are granted His Majesty’s Grace once they are chosen, so they become even more powerful. However, the consequences are much more severe for them when they are defeated.” Anya looked at Juan. “And that’s why your task is important. Sir Dilmond will take care of the city’s north, and I will take care of the south. I left the city center to you just as you requested, but… Are you sure you can fight Ethan Etil one on one? I heard the last time you encountered him was a close call…”

“I don’t think I can win right now, but I think I might be able to kill him.”

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

“Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan. We stayed up all night preparing for this, didn\'t we?” Juan said.

“That’s true, but…if worst comes to worst, maybe sir Ras can step up and…”

“Absolutely not,” Juan said firmly as he placed his hand on Anya’s hand.

Anya carefully nodded. Everyone in the Order of Huginn knew their most important priority. Ras wasn’t simply a leader to the Order of Huginn, but he was their symbol, who must never be defeated in any circumstances. Besides, Ras was already in a bad condition.

“Leave it to me. I promise you won’t be disappointed.”

“Then…I’ll be counting on you,” Anya nodded as she looked at Juan.

***

Ethan’s sword cut a few strands of Juan’s hair as it grazed past him. Juan smoothly charged at Ethan, but Ethan’s elbow hit his shoulder, pushing him away. Juan managed to land on his feet, but had no time to catch his breath. In an instant, a sharp blade brushed against his neck. Feeling a stinging sensation, Juan wrapped his hand around his neck and took a few steps back.

“You picked a fight first, but the only thing you’ve been doing is running away. Kid, is there anything else you can do other than making smoke and moving fast?” Ethan said in annoyance.

Juan took a breath and tilted his head left and right, popping his neck. He could feel Talter’s energy gradually receding from his body. It had only been ten minutes since the battle began, and Juan was already full of scratches and small injuries. On the other hand, Ethan was untouched, with not a single wound, even though he was covered in Talter’s blood.

“You should’ve backed off as soon as you realized that the cut you made last time was only a fluke. I gotta admit, lasting ten minutes against me is worth complimenting. It’s rare to find people other than Templars that are capable of doing that.”

“You’re not too bad yourself.”

Ethan laughed—hearing Juan say that he was ‘not too bad’ dumbfounded him. Anyone could tell that Juan was helplessly losing the battle. In fact, Juan’s head would’ve already fallen before Ethan’s sword if it weren’t for Juan’s strangely moving fog, Blink, and Talter’s blood.

“I don’t know who taught you, but you don’t seem to have learned how to judge your opponent’s capability. You must belong to the Order of Huginn, considering that you use the Baltic Sword. Who’s your teacher? Dilmond? Annabelle? Perhaps it was Ras himself?”

“I’m the one who taught Ras.”

Ethan thought Juan was joking, but Juan’s face was more serious than ever. Ethan’s irritation soared to see Juan’s expression.

“Whatever. As long as you belong to the Order of Huginn, there is no reason for me to keep you alive. Let’s finish this quickly.”

Ethan repositioned himself and pointed his sword toward Juan. This time, he decided to use his full strength and instantly kill Juan.

Juan also took a strange stance, got ready, and took a deep breath upon reading Ethan’s intent to finish this quickly.

Ethan frowned upon seeing Juan’s strange posture. Such a weird posture couldn’t be seen in the Baltic Sword.

‘Is it a derived posture?’

It was common for different knight orders to use derivatives of the Baltic Sword that were better suited to their own particularities. Considering that the Order of Huginn hadn’t interacted with other knight orders for so long, it wasn’t so strange that they would have unusual postures.

However, as a man who knew everything about the Order of Huginn, Ethan couldn’t help but be nervous about Juan’s unfamiliar posture.

‘He is certainly not some ordinary knight.’

Juan’s instant movement skill looked similar to ‘Blink,’ which was one of the highest-ranked Grace skills. Since there could be no way that he was granted His Majesty’s Grace like the Templars, it could be inferred that he was either one of the people who shared His Majesty’s essence like Ras, or Ras’ successor. If that was the case, his posture was likely a secret skill that no one had seen before.

Ethan carefully waited until Juan made a move first. At the moment Juan jumped off the ground, Ethan defended himself with all his might. But instead of charging at Ethan, Juan turned and ran in the opposite direction.

“Huh?”

Ethan blankly stared at Juan’s back for a long time. Juan didn’t bother to look back and left Ethan behind, leaving the battlefield. Only then did Ethan belatedly realize that Juan had run away.

“That son of a bitch!”

Ethan chased after Juan with all his might. As he chased Juan, he destroyed everything that blocked his way and caused a dust storm. However, considering that he was wearing heavy armor, even though he was granted His Majesty’s Grace, it was impossible to catch up to Juan, who was running away using Blink.

“Get back here! You bastard!”

Ethan cursed out in anger as Juan eventually disappeared. Ethan’s sparkling eyes searched his surroundings, but all he could see was the alley ruined with dust and debris.

At that moment, something caught his attention. A group of people was approaching him from across the dust storm; they were the Templars Ethan had sent off earlier.

“Captain! We heard you shouting.”

“I lost the kid. Did anyone see him? He came this way.”

The Templars exchanged glances with confused looks.

“The kid, Sir? We haven’t seen anyone. Actually, we couldn’t even find any of the residents of Hiveden either. We were on our way back because the road is blocked off.”

“The road is blocked off?” Ethan asked back in suspicion.

Only then did the cityscape begin to become clearer in Ethan’s eyes. The buildings were severely damaged and some had even collapsed; it was hard to believe that damage on such a large scale was caused by only the Templars’ power. Furthermore, no corpses or blood could be seen among the rubble.

Ethan felt a shiver run down his spine. The collapsed walls were blocking the alleyways.

“Only now are you starting to realize what’s going on?” Juans voice echoed from across the alley.

The Templars all drew out their swords. Meanwhile, Ethan wanted to charge at Juan immediately, but stopped himself due to an unknown feeling of hesitation and self-restraint.

Catching Juan wasn’t the main issue right now. Ethan tried to find out what his eyes were missing.

At that moment, a scent filled the alley, one that had been hard to recognize up to that point due to being covered by the smell of dust and blood. Ethan hastily commanded his knights.

“Everyone retreat from this alley!”

The well-trained Templars did not question Ethan’s command. They kicked their horses to instantly retreat from the alley.

“It was already too late to retreat from the moment you walked into this alley,” Juan grinned.

Juan made a long cut on his palm and dripped his blood on the ground. The moment his blood touched the ground, the entire alley began to burn with soaring flames. A huge fire erupted without even needing any time to spread.

The first one to be swept up by the flames was Ethan. He instantly caught on fire, as he was drenched in Juan’s blood due to their previous battle. Soon, the rest of the Templars and the entire alley were also swept into the flames.

“Ugh- Ahhhhhh!”

One of the Templars cried and rolled on the floor, looking like a big ball of fire. However, the rolling didn’t help to put out the fire, but only caused the fire to spread even more. The Templars were thrown off their horses and to the ground, as the horses were startled by the sudden flames. The horses ran wild and tried to escape, but it was difficult to even find the right direction to move. The Templar who rolled on the floor was trampled under the horse hooves.

One of the Templars swept into flames somehow found the right direction and approached Juan. Juan didn’t just wait for the Templar to burn to death, but he jumped straight into the fire to stab the approaching Templar in the throat with his short sword. Throughout the whole process, the Templar couldn’t even detect Juan’s movement with his eyes already burning.

“Think of it as a field trip to hell,” Juan said.

Juan jumped into the fire and began to slaughter the remaining Templars. The only person wandering through the fire and swinging his sword in a relaxed manner was Juan. The Templars, the so-called elites of the empire, all toppled down before Juan’s blade. They were bound to burn to death if left alone, but Juan showed no mercy.

Juan swinging his sword inside the sizzling flames made him resemble a devil. The fire broke down the buildings that had been barely maintaining their shape, and continued to spread.

This was what the Order of Huginn had been preparing all night. To be precise, the main plan was to get Ardin to lure the Templars to the alley, and attack them while they panicked in the fire. There were many other traps that had also been prepared, but Juan figured that he could take care of all of them here.

Juan diligently slaughtered the Templars. He threw the burnt corpses to the ground, and crushed them as he stepped over them to make his way. Then, he found one man still standing in the middle of the fire; it was Captain Ethan Etil. He was standing motionless inside the burning flame.

Juan made a bitter face as he saw Ethan still standing even when his entire body had turned black from the fire. Ethan was definitely not the type to die ridiculously like this, but Juan was also not the type to fight by fair means against an opponent he labeled his enemy. Juan ran toward Ethan.

Juan stabbed and cut Ethan’s neck, face, liver, pancreas, lungs, and everything else to make sure there was no possibility of him keeping his life. The moment Juan stabbed him in the heart for the last time, Ethan finally fell over.

“Huff…”

Juan left the burning flames behind and walked out the alleyway. With Ethan dead, it was only a matter of time before the other Templars were slaughtered. Juan felt the need to put out the fire as it had been spreading bigger than he had expected.

‘Call Ardin over to put out the fire, then…’

At that moment, Juan heard a loud noise of horse hooves beyond the wall. He could feel the presence of Templars approaching him from both north and south.

‘But the Order of Huginn should be fighting the Templars from north and south…’

Juan realized that something had gone wrong.

Crash!

With a loud noise, the fragments that had been blocking the alleyway exploded and scattered. Sixteen Templars entered the alley as both sides of the alleyway were broken open. It was the same attack Juan had seen when they were charging at the Hiveden’s city gate earlier. The flames died down as they passed by.

“Captain!”

Templars shouted in haste and looked around the fire.

Juan felt other groups of people approaching him once again; it was Anya, Dilmond, and the Order of Huginn. Soon after, the Templars faced the Order of Huginn, who had followed them. Juan could read the perplexed looks on the faces of the Order of Huginn.

‘They have no injuries.’

Quite a few of the knights from the Order of Huginn were injured, but not a single wound could be found on the Templars, not to mention that their numbers hadn’t gone down at all. Then Juan heard Anya shout with a concerned expression.

“Grace! There’s a Grace as powerful as the Bishop’s Grace pouring down on the city!”

Juan’s face stiffened. He could sense an odd presence inside the flames. Juan acknowledged the fact that he had failed to properly detect the presence as he had been distracted by the fire. Ethan’s spirit had never once diminished, even when he was burnt, stabbed in the heart, and half beheaded. Seven Templars that looked not much different from lumps of charcoal in the fire slowly began to rise.

With his neck split, Ethan smiled gruesomely.