Chapter 132: |
Unfortunately, the imperial palace wasn’t the only trap Michael had dug. He was thinking of even more possible scenarios and situations at the same time.
The knight who discovered him quickly moved out of the way as soon as the man took out the magical tool he had hidden under his clothes.
“There’s something wrong here!”
The knight belatedly flew his sword, but it was already too late. When Michael let go of the glass bottle he was carrying in his chest and threw it towards the ground, a crimson light began to shimmer and ripple across the ground.
When Zeppel saw this, the colour left his face completely.
“You must avoid that! That one!
“Popo!”
Celia quickly extended her hand to the divine beast. Leonis pulled on Celia and tried to get her to cover her with his whole body.
It was too late to dodge. They felt sizzling heat that was similiar to that of lava emanating from the floor.
Terrible heat surged from the floor and began to burn everything in the cave. There was only one person who could survive in this flame, and that person was Michael.
Michael laughed maniacally and looked at the cave that was engulfed in heat.
It was an explosion magic circle.
Since he had the power to blow up an entire palace, neither the despised Leonis nor the divine beast would be safe.
‘Celia, who knew how to lift the curse, had to be taken out, but… It was dangerous to leave Leonis here. He could have died!’
The fire went out, and the floor started to melt with a crackling sound. At least, it was fortunate that lava did not flow from the ceiling.
Michael clicked his tongue at the fact that he had to take Leonis’s head to intimidate the nobles. If the body was burned beyond recognition, there were those who rebelled with vain hopes.
“That pet cat called the divine beast should have endured a little…”
A cold wind was blowing as the fog and heat dissipated. As the cold air spread through the space where the lava flowed, the floor hardened.
The large wings of light slowly folded, and he saw the knights, Celia and Leonis, with expressions that did not even feel the heat, let alone the burns.
The divine beast snarled while fluttering his wings of light.
―Who is the pet cat?
Michael, the adversary, used the flames freely, so it was basic to have magic tools against the flames. It was Cardian who had enough wealth to use magic tools.
Zeppel said as he shoved the cold-breathing pendant into his armour.
“Since there are many crimes he committed, public executions must be carried out, so I ask that you leave the head even if the limbs are cut off.”
― All right.
“… Can’t we just hang his head on poles?”
Michael quavered and took a few steps back in response to what Leonis and the divine beast said. Even with this, nothing happens! It was impossible.
“Wizard! Kill them, kill them!”
Leonis, with Celia in his arms, looked at Michael, who was running away. Normally, he would have left Celia to the divine beast or the knights and allowed her to make her own decisions, but… he was not relieved that the same situation was happening now.
He could see the monster pouring out of the spot where Michael had fled. It seems that Celia wasn’t all there was to see.
“Can you do it?”
Leonis, who was still holding Celia in his arms, asked. Celia didn’t stop it, as it seemed that there was nothing more threatening than the energy she felt.
“Leave it to me!”
“You don’t have to bring him alive.”
Leonis said this while watching the knights step forward. Excitedly, Celia leaned her head on Leonis’s chest while looking at the divine beasts and knights pursuing Michael.
The armour received from the God of Heaven was still translucent and shining golden, probably because it had gone through a crisis earlier.
“I was really scared earlier.”
Seeing Leonis’ face harden as soon as she whispered, Celia realised that she had caused another crisis of the divine beast.
“No, no! I just wanted to say thank you for showing up…”
Leonis let out a deep sigh at Celia’s flustered excuse.
“Same here.”
As Leonis once more wrapped his strong arms around Celia, he felt an overwhelming sense of relief. The realisation hit him that he had made the best decision of his life when he chose to pay attention to the screams rather than ignore them.
“Thank you for holding out until I go. Thank you so much…”
Leonis kissed Celia’s forehead and cheek, and at the end, she thought as he kissed her lips long.
The divine beast, Celia’s escort knights, all of them said they wouldn’t let him go.
It really occurred to him that hell training was necessary.
‘I’ll train all of you to the point where it’s engraved in your bones.’
✦ ✦ ✦
“Heuk, Hak….”
The blood was flowing from all over his body.
Even without Leonis among his pursuers, they were still powerful and fearsome. The divine beast tore and killed the remaining monsters as if it were playing a joke, and the knights were also horrifyingly strong and did not fall short of Leonis in terms of power.
With one arm severed and one leg deeply cut, Michael made a desperate escape through the gate.
‘Lars……Where is Lars?’
Here, the wizard who would have contributed the most to capturing Celia alive was nowhere to be seen. Michael’s blood was dripping out of the gate, looking for a place to escape.
There was a huge snake corpse in one corner of the mansion’s yard, but Michael didn’t recognise it.
This is because Lars, a follower of the goddess of destruction, only talked to Michael in the form of a human wizard and never showed his true self.
‘Shit! If Lars had been here, I could have closed that gate!’
But now he couldn’t pass the time. He had to get away from here, even for a short time, and run far away.
He lost one of his arms, but a high-ranking priest could regenerate the missing limb for him. Michael was thinking of leaving the Empire and starting anew.
He was in possession of a power that had been taken from the emperor. His power to ignite flames from his body made him strong enough to fight a high-ranking knight.
So even if it takes a little longer, someday…
“Heok, heok……”
After making his escape from the palace and entering the alley, Michael began to move around and look around. He wanted to run, but he had lost a lot of blood.
With one hand pressed to the spot where his arm had been cut, Michael silently moved his steps. A normal human would have fainted or gone into a state of shock from the shock of having his arm cut off, but he was a man with divine powers.
On top of that, there was madness brought on by the curse, which made it difficult to pass out at this level.
‘Oh my god!’
Lucy, who saw the flying light of the divine beast and chased it to the vicinity, recognised Michael as he moved while covered in blood.
That’s Michael!
The enemy who had killed the princess was here!
‘So the divine beast flew all the way here!’
Lucy shuddered with the thrill. She always thought she wanted to take revenge. Lucy even bought a dagger, saying she needed it for self-defense, to avoid people’s eyes.
But……It wasn’t easy to stab people either.
Lucy, trembling and unable to step forward towards Michael, just watched him move around.
‘Can I do it? Stabbing someone…’
She couldn’t even pull out the dagger that she had tied up in her sleeve so that she could take it off at any time. Even though she hated him so much, the thought of stepping out in front of Michael made her heart stop.
Because he was a prince with as high a status as the sky.
She was afraid to come in front of him, even though she knew he was a fake. Even though it was the perpetrator who killed Amelia, whom she loved since he was a child, like her younger brother!
‘This is not fair!’
Someone grabbed Lucy as she was about to burst out crying. Pulled out from behind the cart she had been hiding in, Lucy realised that she had been so distraught and troubled.
Michael, covered in blood, did not recognise Lucy.
He knew only that Amelia had a nanny whom she cared about, and he did not know her name. He had completely forgotten that, in fact, he had cut off Amelia’s head and used it to blackmail the Emperor.
“If they come any closer, I will kill that bitch!”
Of course, he wasn’t talking to Lucy. Just as Michael fled through the gate to this place, the people who were pursuing her also followed him.
Michael knew that this threat wouldn’t work on Cardian’s knights, but he knew it would work on the divine beast.
Creatures sent by God were supposed to be that dumb. Even though taking Michael’s head was far more important than the bitch’s life.
―This despicable…!
The divine beast, who had changed back into his true form as a huge tiger, gave Michael a very mean look. He was following Michael faster than anyone else because he had wings.
Michael bellowed an insult at the divine beast while simultaneously forming a pair of flaming palms.
He used to have a red flame, but after being cursed by Celia, he could only emit black flames.
“Why……?”
Lucy asked in a trembling voice. Michael looked at the divine beast and threatened it by holding his hand close to Lucy’s face as if he were going to burn her face.
“Why… Pr-Princess Amelia… Did you kill her?”
Even if he didn’t have to kill her. Lucy asked in a voice that was not properly uttered due to her crying. Michael frowned as he looked down at Lucy’s face.
Perhaps because the name was mentioned so unexpectedly, Michael was annoyed.
“I don’t know what you mean when you say she’s important, coming from a girl like you. A girl who is going to die someday. It would have been good to use her in that way.”
“What……? You used her?”
Lucy asked, looking at Michael with a shocked expression on her face. Michael’s face twisted maliciously. Even in his head, he had the judgement that there could be no acquaintances of Princess Amelia in such a small city in the Duchy of Cardian.
Therefore, he reasoned, this woman was either an ignorant commoner who had made up stories about the princess in her head, or she was an ignorant maid who had only met Amelia once or twice.
“There aren’t enough heads in the sack to scare the emperor with just two of them. So I need a third… Ahh!”
Lucy was so overcome with rage that he had no idea she could move so quickly. Michael didn’t know what she was doing because he had never learned martial arts.
Lucy cried out, tears falling from her eyes wide open.
“Because of you!”
It was a dagger that was thin and small enough to be hidden in the wrist, but the wounds from the dagger stabbed with all its might were by no means shallow. The blade of the dagger lodged deep in his side made Michael as furious as the loss of his arm.
“What a wretched commoner!”
― Let go of her hand!
The divine beast, who rushed in in an instant, put a distance between Lucy and Michael and bit him. Michael, who had always lived in a safe place where he was protected, screamed and fought.
Lucy was thrown back, and tears ran down her face as she watched the divine beast beat Michael.
‘I couldn’t kill him.’
At least, she thought that she had given the very least revenge. The knights who came running late raised Lucy and examined the burns on part of her face.
Lucy watched Michael until the end and wished that he would be in pain from the wounds she had inflicted.
