CH 237

Gerard raised his left hand and slowly waived it to the right. A huge lump of rock moved along the direction his finger was pointing to and broke into pieces when it crashed into another rock. Then, Gerard pulled together the countless pieces of rock and tightly clenched his hands.

The pieces of rock that were floating in the air were gathered and compressed under the enormous pressure, soon turning into red lava. The round lump of lava then quickly cooled and started giving off a purple light.

The rock soon disappeared somewhere beyond the Crack.

Sina thought that Gerard’s movements were like that of a conductor. None of the things he did felt real even though she was watching from right behind him. The ‘rocks’ that he was controlling with his fingertips were what were commonly referred to as mountains.

Gerard not only created and smashed, but also moved mountains with ice caps piled on top of them from a far distance—he was like a god creating a new world.

“What are you making right now?”

Sina couldn’t help but ask. Gerard’s work of moving the mountains completely destroyed and isolated the route she was planning to use to try and escape.

There was nothing edible that could be found around the entire area, but for some reason, Sina wasn’t feeling hungry.

Gerard had explained that this was due to the fact that he was constantly infusing his mana into her.

Gerard was strangely kind to Sina. However, Sina thought he was just pretending to be kind to his hostage.

“I was too reckless last time. I made a mistake…” Gerard replied with a sigh upon hearing Sina’s question. “I’m trying to come up with a way to minimize the damage, even if it takes a little more time.”

Sina still couldn’t understand what Gerard was talking about. Yet, Sina could tell that the term ‘mistake’ referred to the massive earthquake that had occurred a few days ago. The earthquake hadn’t affected Sina, since the place she was in had floated into the air. But she had witnessed countless mountains and cliffs crumbling under the power of the Crack.

“And I’m not making something. I’m breaking them,” Gerard added.

Sina didn’t bother asking Gerard why. She had already seen something wriggling within the Crack several times. Its movement was as mesmerizing as a dream and as slow as a plant.

Sina had her doubts; she wondered whether Gerard was trying to summon that thing into the world.

“Are you trying to destroy the world or something?”

Gerard stopped breaking the mountains upon hearing Sina’s question. Then he looked back at Sina as if he found her words to be absurd.

“You are being quite offensive, Sina. Do I look like someone who would destroy the world? You believed in a monster and served him as the emperor, but you can’t trust me?”

“A monster? Are you talking about Juan? I think I’m being fair. At first, I, too, thought that Juan might be a monster who had come to destroy the empire. Is there any reason why I should think of you as someone special?”

Gerard looked displeased, but he didn’t attack Sina. He simply continued with his work.

“The world won’t be destroyed. Rather, it will become a lot safer and stronger than it is now. Humans will prosper and enjoy peace within the fence built by the new emperor. I want you to see the empire greet the era of peace, Sina Solvane.”

“Me? Why?”

“Because being acknowledged by you makes me feel like I’m being acknowledged by my own father. That’s also the reason I brought you back to life.”

Sina’s movements stopped. In fact, she, too, had been aware. The wounds she suffered when she was attacked by Dismas were so bad that there was no way she could have survived. She had been trying her best to convince herself that it was due to the emperor’s essence that she managed to survive, but she clearly remembered Juan’s remark—the emperor’s essence only guarantees regeneration, not immortality.

In particular, Sina recovered at quite a slow pace when she was hurt compared to the others.

‘But I came back to life, huh?’

“So you didn’t rescue me. I died but you brought me back to life, Gerard.”

“All it took to revive you was a slight electric shock, since the emperor’s essence had already restored your body. I didn’t even have to bring back your soul, since you had just died. Yes, I am the one who brought you back to life.”

However, Sina didn’t seem to feel any joy or appreciation upon hearing this. Sina just looked contemptuously at Gerard and opened her mouth.

“...You do what Juan absolutely refused to do with no hesitation. Tell me, was the taste of the emperor’s power that sweet?”

Gerard showed no signs of displeasure despite Sina’s sarcasm.

“You would have still been revived even if it wasn’t for me.”

“What?”

“The man who you believe to be the emperor has already abandoned all principles in order to save you. He was determined to save you, even if that meant giving immortality to all humans for the sake of fairness. He even said that he would give up on being the emperor.”

Sina tried to deride and laugh at Gerard.

‘Juan betrayed all principles in order to save me? He even gave up on being the emperor? That’s nonsense.’

But it didn’t seem like Gerard was joking or mocking her. Sina’s expression gradually hardened.

“That… that doesn’t make any sense. The emperor is not just some position that one can just give up. Especially if it’s…”

‘Especially if it’s just because of me.’

Sina swallowed her next words. She was just one of Juan’s numerous colleagues. Juan even remained calm and refused to heal Heretia when she lost her legs or revive Hela when she died.

Sina couldn’t understand why Juan would decide to bring her back to life when she was nothing more than just a watchdog.

“You were not as simple a being to him as you thought you were,” Gerard shrugged.

Sina glared at Gerard. She couldn’t believe anything that he said. He was someone who stabbed and betrayed Juan, all to steal the emperor’s power. Sina came to the conclusion that she had to hear everything from Juan himself.

“I want to meet Juan. Let me out of here.”

“I can’t do that. You need to stay and keep your eyes on me.”

“What?”

Gerard continued in a calm voice.

“See for yourself whether or not I am worthy of becoming the emperor, and tell that man. I can feel the power and ability that overflows within me. I can become more than just the emperor. You will witness all the things I achieve here. And then, you will tell my father that I have transcended him.”

Sina wondered if Gerard had finally gone insane. But, it was true that Gerard was capable of doing ridiculous things. He was not only moving a mountain or shaking the world, but also making something that Sina couldn’t even imagine.

She didn’t know what Gerard was trying to do in order to transcend the emperor, but Sina only felt fear.

***

Riol was a city built along the valley close to a cliff.

Unlike the Capital where spring had already arrived, snow was still piled up on every house, almost as if to prove that they were in the North. The river was still frozen, but the rural city seemed like it would be quite beautiful when snow finally began to melt.

But at this moment, everyone only felt a strange atmosphere throughout the city.

“There are no people here.”

Juan and Pavan looked down at Riol from a distance. There should be traces of snow being shoveled or footsteps here and there in a city where people lived, but Riol didn’t have any such traces.

“People might have left because of the earthquake and it could have snowed in the meantime,” Pavan said.

“That might be true if it was an ordinary city. But we have no choice but to scrutinize the other possibilities if we are assuming Aruntal to be staying there,” Juan said.

“I’ll get the soldiers to surround the city.”

“I’ll make a detour and strike at them from the cliff. Just be careful not to let anyone get out.”

The Imperial Army was not here to fight, but to make sure that no one managed to escape.

Pavan sent a signal to the knights. Upon receiving the signal, the knights and soldiers quickly began to surround the city in silence.

Meanwhile, Juan climbed up the cliff behind the city along with Nienna.

Dane may have already left the city, but Juan could only feel the presence of one being in the city right now. Juan thought that there was a high possibility that it was Dane. Soon after, Juan jumped off the cliff and climbed the tallest building.

It was a Church. Although it partially collapsed due to the recent earthquake, the presence he could sense was coming from there.

By now, Riol was completely surrounded by the Imperial Army, but there was no response.

Juan wasn’t discouraged. He knew that Dane was not the type to let his guard down under any circumstances. Considering Dane’s temperment, there was no way he would be this defenseless.

“I’m going in alone.”

“Dad.”

“He already knows that I will be coming. He invited me.”

Nienna’s expression became distorted and she ended up muttering a curse.

“Don’t worry. I can’t afford to confront him anyway.”

Juan jumped into the hole of the collapsed Church and headed toward the hall where he could feel the presence.

Unlike the outside, the Church had quite a few traces of people coming and going. But the air was still cold, just like the outside.

In the hallway, there were drops of blood here and there. Juan followed the trail of blood until it stopped right in front of the door leading to the central hall of the Church.

Juan briefly prepared himself before opening the door of the hall to enter. As soon as he entered, he noticed a person sitting in the middle of the hall that resembled an underground tomb.

It was Dane Dormund.

Dane opened his mouth slowly upon seeing Juan.

“The emperor… Qzatquizal… a monster… I don’t even know what to call you.”

“Just call me Juan. That’s the name you gave me anyway.”

Dane snorted, dumbfounded. The Dane who was sitting in front of Juan in the form of a child was definitely the one who was smashed against the wall right in front of Juan’s eyes. But right now, there was only one wound on his abdomen.

“Didn’t you say that this was your main body? As far as I remember, it was completely destroyed,” Juan asked.

“It is true that this is my main body. It’s the body that I’ve had ever since I was born. It’s my most cherished form as well. But I also have another one that’s real,” Dane said as he tapped his head. “I will never die unless my true nature is attacked. I have a lot of extra bodies and the necessary magic to manage them all. You can achieve quite a lot of things if you don’t think you’re safe.”

“I don’t know about that. I think the big accomplishment that you attempted to achieve recently was a huge failure. Besides, I don’t think I'd be upset if I had to kill you many times.”

Juan approached Dane and drew out Sutra. Sutra continued to remain gray without burning, even after absorbing the power of the cloned heart of Mananen McLeir. However, Juan didn’t care too much, since he wanted to reduce unnecessary mana consumption as much as possible.

Dane stared at Sutra for a while and then soon turned his gaze to Juan.

“I don’t care. I don’t intend to get involved with this situation anymore.”

“...Where is Aruntal right now?”

Dane’s expression became distorted for the first time upon hearing Juan’s question. He bit his lips for a moment, and then replied as if he was spitting out his words.

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“They chose to follow Gerard.”

“Your current state should be due to the present they gave you before they left, huh?”

The wound on Dane’s abdomen would be fatal for an ordinary human. Although Dane showed no signs of being in danger, it didn’t seem like he could move.

Dane opened his mouth as he stroked the wound.

“This was a gift left behind by Gerard. He gave it to me when I told him that he was a failure. I took it without fighting back, thinking of it as a goodbye present. It didn’t really matter, since I can get more of his kind as often as I want. Then…” Dane smiled mockingly and looked at Juan. “He left with the spy that you had planted.”

Juan smiled back at Dane.

“So you already knew.”

“I was going to send you some false information through him, but the opportunity to do so has disappeared now. The others don’t know yet. I hope they get fucked over, those damned traitors.”

Juan found it quite funny that Dane was talking about people being traitors. In the end, Aruntal ran away, but Juan didn’t feel too upset; after all, he got to see Dane being treated so poorly by them.

Meanwhile, Dane sighed and continued to talk.

“Gerard is not as successful as I had wanted him to be. But he is closer to being complete compared to you. Lenly Loen in particular seemed to be satisfied with him. He only has Gerard left now. But now… I’m a little tired. Gerard has already left the palm of my hand anyway. I’ll take a break and aim for the next opportunity.”

“Next opportunity?”

Juan felt that Dane talking about a ‘next opportunity’ after creating an immortal god was quite ridiculous. There would be no such thing as a next opportunity if what Gerard was up to right now involved the Crack.

“What do you even mean by ‘complete’? Is it a god for only humans? Is it an eternal emperor?”

“Yes. Do you have a problem with that, you fucking failure.”

Dane frowned and whispered in Juan’s ear.

“All I wanted to do was to create a universe only for humans. I wondered how much humans could grow. And even if I couldn’t reach the end, I expected someone to reach the end instead of me, and to explain what it was like. Is that so wrong? To pursue the limits of human possibilities?”