Chapter 96 – Flame Crown (5)

Chapter 96 – Flame Crown (5)

“Keuk...!”

The light that burst out from the Flame Crown enlightened the entirety of the dungeon. The light was so strong that it penetrated everyone’s eyelids even if they closed them tight.

Juan broke out into a scream due to the pain of his head boiling due to the burning heat. Regardless, the Flame Crown continued to burn with tremendous energy and came out of the middle of Juan’s forehead. Juan couldn’t maintain a stable mental state due to the pain, but he could still feel that a huge and powerful force was being released from his forehead. The force was so powerful that it almost distorted the surrounding space.

Juan couldn’t help but be confused. This power was definitely much greater than what he was capable of in his current body. In fact, it felt on par with the power Juan used to have during his time as the emperor. Juan had no idea that he had such power within him.

Meanwhile, Celine added a few more strange words to the song as those connected to Celine were shouting. The flames which had colored everything white began to settle down soon after, despite the blazing power of the flame still remaining. As the light faded, the appearance of the crown became clearer in Celine’s eyes.

“The crown!” Celine shouted in joy.

The crown that had appeared seemed more like a tall burning flame rather than an ordinary crown. Although Juan couldn’t see the crown properly as it was still in the process of coming out of his forehead, it was an unfamiliar item to him. Juan had cut down numerous gods with legendary equipment. He was the one who had created legends and myths with his own hands, but this item was still unfamiliar to him. Juan couldn’t believe something like this had come out of his own body.

‘Revival.’

Juan intuitively realized that his revival was related to the strange power of this crown. Juan further theorized that perhaps even the birth of an ‘emperor’ was related to this crown as well.

“My king, I shall use my own hands to retrieve your crown on behalf of the Thornbush Priest Organization!” Celine shouted as she reached out to grab the flame crown.

Juan tried to stop her, but it was hard for him to even move his fingers due to the intense pain. Juan was used to many different kinds of pain because of his experiences, but the pain caused by this heat was something utterly unfamiliar to him. Not only was he suffering from pain, but the mana inside his body didn’t move at all, almost as if it was all suppressed.

“I will place the mighty crown back where it belongs!” Celine shouted once again.

Upon seeing Celine’s hand tremble as she tried to grab the crown but was unable to do so, a question came into Juan’s mind for a short moment.

‘What’s stopping her?’

Celine could grab the crown with her hands at any moment now. But for some reason, she was hesitating and didn’t easily touch the crown, as if she was afraid. And that wasn’t just an assumption—she actually was afraid of the crown.

Celine’s agitation also affected the tentacles and the Order of Lindwurm and Juan could sense the agitation in the air.

“My king!”

Celine’s fingertips that had been trembling barely managed to touch a corner of the Flame Crown.

At that moment, a tremendous heat erupted from the crown and vaporized Celine’s entire upper body in just the blink of an eye. The heat was so powerful that it burned Celine without even leaving behind a single bone fragment.

The consequence of touching the Flame Crown didn’t just end with losing her upper body. The top part of the tentacle monster was completely pierced, scattering minced meat to the ground.

“Why?! My king, why?! I have served you with all my will!”

Celine was still alive due to her connection to the knights of the Order of Lindwurm and the fact that every single tentacle was an extension of herself.

The knights of the Order of Lindwurm then kneeled down and reached for the crown with a thirsty look on their faces, but none of them dared to touch it directly.

It was only then that Juan realized—while he didn’t know the reason behind it—that Celine couldn’t touch this power called the crown. She was only able to draw it out from within Juan despite her desperate longing for it.

“Ugh, keuk...”

The larger the flame crown over his head got and the clearer its appearance became, the more distant Juan felt from his own body. There were a few questions that popped up in Juan’s head before he completely lost his consciousness: the reason why Celine called him by the name of Qzatquizail, and what this unknown power was.

But it didn't matter now. Juan knew that he would continue to run around wildly like a beast. Juan was certain that no one in the empire, not even Barth Baltic, could stop him in his current state. Juan would continue killing, burning, and eating everything to turn the empire into hell as a beast of calamity.

Juan knew that he would soon recreate the myths that the empire had once eliminated. Juan thought that such a cycle might even be the natural path that had been prepared for Juan all along, and maybe even the purpose of his revival lay there as well.

‘No, but was the existence of the emperor even necessary in the first place? If the empire were to be destroyed and collapse like this, then wouldn’t that mean my existence was worthless from the beginning?’

The more suspicious Juan became of his existence, the closer he came to losing his consciousness.

Then, Juan saw Swallan at the end of his sight. Swallan had an arrow nocked on her bow, but she couldn’t even aim at Juan and was looking at him with an expression as if she didn’t know what to do. Juan didn’t hesitate to rush toward her.

At that moment, something that came from the door leading to the deeper area appeared between Juan and Swallan. That something suddenly jumped in between the two swung its sword exactly at Juan.

It was a man wearing a black robe with bandages all over his body—it was the stranger Juan had encountered back in Hiveden.

Crack!

The sword swung by the stranger accurately struck the flame crown that was coming out of Juan’s forehead. The flame crown wasn’t substantial physically, but Juan’s neck bent backward at the moment when the crown was struck by the sword. Juan’s body spun in the air and miserably rolled onto the stone pavement.

Juan wasn’t the only one who suffered due to this attack. The stranger’s arm was bent at a bizarre angle as he partially absorbed the shock from the sword striking the flame crown. The bandages that were wrapped around the sword instantly burned as if it had exploded.

The stranger wrapped his broken arm with his hand and approached Juan who was groaning and attempting to move his body.

With the sounds of the approaching footsteps, a black blade came before Juan’s eyes—the same blade which killed him during his time as the emperor. Upon seeing the blade that had killed him in his past life, Juan somehow felt relieved—he thought he might be more comfortable if he died.

But the blade didn’t move as Juan had expected. The black blade gently tapped the flame crown that came out of the middle of Juan’s forehead and slowly pushed it back inside Juan.

Juan’s head began to fill up with warm light and flame.

***

Swallan blankly stared at the black-robed stranger who suddenly appeared out of nowhere. She had been helplessly watching Juan's mass slaughter before the stranger appeared, and would certainly have been killed if he hadn’t shown up.

However, Swallan couldn’t be relieved by the stranger’s appearance, despite the fact that he had unintentionally saved her life. The stranger had appeared from the door leading to the deeper area, which meant he was a being that belonged to the Crack.

Swallan was wary and kept her eye on the stranger for a long time, but the stranger didn’t really seem to care about her. Swallan figured that it was only a simple coincidence that he had saved her from being killed by Juan.

The stranger touched Juan’s body as if he was examining his condition. Swallan felt anxious upon seeing the stranger’s actions, but he didn’t seem to be doing any harm to Juan. Rather, she even felt that he was pitying Juan while examining his condition.

The stranger quickly raised himself up from the ground after checking Juan, and Swallan was startled upon seeing the stranger turning around to look at her. The stranger didn’t say a single word to Swallan and only hid the black blade back into his robe. Then, he pulled down the bandages that were covering his body all the way up to his chin using his intact left arm and spoke. “Please look after him.”

Swallan flinched the moment she heard the stranger’s voice.

Regardless of Swallan’s reaction, the stranger turned around and headed to the door leading to the deeper area as if he had no intention of conversing with her more.

Not long after the stranger entered the door, the door leading to the deeper area moved on its own and was completely closed. This area of the dungeon which had been a chaotic mess until just a moment ago was soon enveloped in silence.

“Hah...” Swallan sighed.

Despite being extremely confused about everything that had happened, Swallan approached Juan.

‘He’s the emperor?’