The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 258 – Qzatquizail (2)

Bubbles filled Juan’s vision.

Aside from a dark purple liquid, there was nothing else around him. There was no light or heat other than the cold liquid. The only heat was Juan’s flame.

However, Juan felt as if he had brought a candle into the deep sea. He felt as if he was in incomparably deep waters, and he had no idea if there was even a surface he could swim toward.

‘Qzatquizail.’

Juan could instinctively tell that he was inside Qzatquizail. Juan could feel the crown trembling with joy after finally finding its owner. It seemed as if it couldn’t wait to return to its original place so that it could replenish itself.

‘Don’t even think about it…’

Juan concentrated and strengthened his control over the crown. The fluctuating flame quickly settled down, but Juan found all this to be suspicious. Gerard possessed half the crown, but he still got buried by Qzatquizail’s will.

Gerard’s traces were also suspiciously diluted and difficult to find. Juan couldn’t help but think that perhaps Gerard had decided to help Qzatquizail by giving up the remaining half of the crown.

“Hah.” Juan chuckled as if he was mocking himself. The anxiety that was about to overwhelm him vanished. There was no point hesitating at this point. There was no way he could stop Gerard or Qzatquizail from waking up now.

Gerard would definitely resurrect and do the same thing over and over again, even if he were to stab Gerard with Elkiehl.

Therefore, Juan decided to leave Gerard alone until he summoned Qzatquizail into this world. It was all so that Juan could deal with the two of them at the same time.

‘At this point, it’s ridiculous to be afraid of Qzatquizail’s awakening…’

Qzatquizail’s heart was the crown, and Juan was the crown. Juan chose not to deny such a fact. After all, he knew that even though he could break, he would never collapse.

Juan decided to reveal his location amidst the depths of the abyss.

“Let’s burn it up!”

Juan’s flames burned fiercer, and the bubbles around him got fiercer. The surrounding liquid also started to boil violently as the temperature rose. The heat quickly spread, and the blood that had cooled turned red.

Juan didn’t stop there.

He had already become the flame itself, so he shouted, “I have returned!”

Lub Dub!

The surrounding liquid made a move. Juan could hear the sound of a heartbeat from far away, and it was so loud that it sounded like it could make the entire universe ring.

He could feel that Qzatquizail’s domination was successful, but he still couldn’t let his guard down because he was sure that Gerard would have come this far as well.

The world in front of Juan was suddenly illuminated. Juan was astonished by the massive space that appeared in front of him, but he soon realized that he was looking right at Qzatquizail’s eyes.

Beyond Qzatquizail’s eyes were a strange universe surrounded by an unfamiliar night sky, multitudes of stars surrounding a void, stars that burned inexplicably hot, a massive unknown planet, and clouds of gas. It was a scene that Juan had never seen before.

Juan was certain that the empire was smaller than a speck of dust compared to the vastness of the universe in front of him.

And then there was Qzatquizail…

Qzatquizail spanned half of such a vast universe. What appeared in Juan’s world was just an extremely small part of Qzatquizail. Qzatquizail was so huge that Juan couldn’t help but wonder if it was still alive.

Unfortunately, Qzatquizail’s body part here belonged to just one head of the nine-headed dragon.

Juan suddenly felt sick while facing the vastness of a universe. He knew from his knowledge that the world he was ruling was extremely small compared to a universe.

However, Qzatquizail’s sheer vastness was so overwhelming that he felt sick.

‘No, I must not be agitated…’

Juan gnashed his teeth and tried his best to stay calm. His goal was simple—to close the Crack which had invaded his world and keep the world safe from Qzatquizail.

Juan tried to control Qzatquizail as much as he could by any means. As he expected, the Crack which had broken into his world appeared in his eyes. Juan moved Qzatquizail and pulled it close to the Crack.

.

It was more difficult than he had expected. Juan couldn’t help but gasp for air.

All of a sudden, he heard a whisper.

‘Isn’t it strange?’

The voice sounded like Dane.

‘You have the power to control a universe. It is a great power that allows you to create and destroy universes, but you’re struggling to fill a hole in the world. Don’t you find that strange?’

“Shut up.”

Then, Juan heard Gerard’s voice.

‘I don’t understand. You can be even greater than this. The empire can shine forever, and humans can be immortal. Why is it that you do not want that to happen? Why are you fighting to reject all that?’

Juan did not answer. However, the voices grew louder and louder.

Then, Dismas’s voice tickled Juan’s ears.

‘None of this would have happened if you had chosen immortality—my beloved father. Your children could have ruled the empire in harmony forever. No one should have died!’

“Aaaah!”

Juan ignored all the whispers and tried his best to close the Crack. The wrinkles in the space created by the Crack unfolded, and the Crack started to close.

However, it was still nowhere enough.

Juan suddenly realized that the tentacle Gerard had pulled up was too deep inside to completely close the Crack. Juan tried to pull out the tentacle again, but the voices got louder the stronger he pulled.

‘Why do you even care about something like that?’

This time the voice sounded unfamiliar this time, but it contained the will of the universe.

Juan instinctively realized that the voice belonged to Qzatquizail

‘Everything will eventually come to an end. The heat will cool down, the scents will vanish, the light eventually darkens, and objects will eventually be shattered. Every universe will eventually come to an end. What happens before the end will not impact the end.’

Juan’s eyes turned bloodshot. The voices were shaking his heart. Tens and thousands of voices whispering at once ruthlessly shook Juan’s consciousness and heart. The tentacle was buried so deep that Juan couldn’t pull it out.

The tentacle had to be pulled out if he wanted to close the Crack.

‘Was I expecting too much?’

This time, he heard his own voice whispering to him.

‘Did I get too arrogant when I thought that I could do what Gerard couldn’t do? Did my arrogance lead to everyone’s death and this monster’s awakening?’

The despair gnawed on Juan, and self-doubt started breaking him down quicker than the whispers. Juan could feel himself approaching the limits. Juan’s will blurred and faded away as he stood in front of Qzatquizail’s eye.

At that moment, Juan could vaguely make out a song reaching his ears.

***

“That fucking tentacle!” Nienna roared in fury. “The Crack can’t completely close because of that tentacle! We have to cut that shit off!”

The monsters were pushing the Northern Army away. The monsters also seemed to have fallen into a frenzy because the Crack was slowly being closed.

However, the Northern Army couldn’t disengage. They felt that this was the opportune moment to eliminate the monsters and close the Crack for good.

The deadly souls sharply picked at the monsters as they followed Anya’s fingertips.

The most valiant knights mentioned in myths, noble kings and the warriors who refused death to just fight, marched shoulder-to-shoulder with humans living in the present.

Anya was also marching toward death with her army.

Pavan was just recklessly swinging his sword without any plans or much thought, and he found what he had been doing to be a bit ridiculous. However, he had to admit that it was more refreshing than he initially thought.

Pavan killed the monster in front of him and ran through the monster’s split body. Drenched with the monster’s blood, Pavan screamed like a warrior from the North.

Haild jumped toward Entalucia’s flames, which were scorching the monsters into ashes. One of his eyes was blind, so he couldn't accurately measure depth and distance, and he also found it difficult to move his injured body.

However, he felt more refreshed than ever.

Haild had given up his revenge on Gerard. He didn’t want to waste any more of his life being bound to one person like Gerard. Haild decided to raise his sword for someone who would be waiting for him in Torra.

Sina’s mind was elsewhere, but the tip of her sword was aimed toward the enemy. She was meticulous as she calmly dismantled the monsters one by one and moved forward to the Crack where she thought Juan was located.

There was still a lot for them to talk about. She hadn’t even greeted him yet, and she still had too many questions to ask.

Sina had to meet Juan again, so she decided to wait and watch until the very end.

“This is it! This is where we’re going to die!”

Nienna roared and leaped into the monsters’ midst.

“You are legends! Sing your songs, warriors!” The Northern Army roared and began singing a battle folk song. The lyrics seemed to have gotten lost amidst the shouts, screams, and curses, but the fighters on the battlefield felt a strange sense of unity while singing.

Nienna tore a monster apart and started singing with the warriors. The song was a battle folk song with a hundred and twenty-two verses. Nienna could still remember how she taught Juan to sing this song.

“Today is the day we write the hundred and twenty-third verse of this song! The songwriters are us!”

The monsters faced an unprecedentedly fierce wave of attack.

The warriors were tiny, skinny, and weak compared to the monsters. However, the sight of them singing and attacking at the same time reminded the monsters of colonies.

The colony of creatures terrified the monster. They felt a primal fear that any creature would feel in an emergency.

All of a sudden, a huge shadow loomed over them.

Entalucia mercilessly poured her fire over them, and it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The primal fear quickly spread within the ranks of the monsters. The monsters of the Crack started running away to hide. They were able to do this because Black Aldebaran wasn’t controlling them any more. Some of the monsters even chose to hide within the Crack rather than face the Northern Army.

When the monsters started running away with their tails tucked, the Northern Army became even more ferocious.

Nienna didn’t miss the golden opportunity to slaughter them all.

“Kill all those cowardly bastards!”

***

Juan felt as if hundreds of millions of hands held and restrained him. The hands covered his eyes, his ears, and his mouth. They were preventing him from using his senses.

A sweet dream was trying to captivate Juan. Once Juan was captivated, Qzatquizail would then be able to achieve its original will.

However, a song reached Juan’s ears. He woke up startled.

He had almost fallen asleep, but the song woke him up.

‘This sounds like the battle folk song that Nienna taught me.’

Juan could still remember how he had a hard time memorizing the entire song overnight. In the end, he didn’t manage to memorize half of it, not to mention the entire song. However, he had memorized the song’s tune and beat.

Juan started humming to the song without realizing it. The voices started to fade as his humming synchronized with the sing leaking out from outside the Crack.

Juan slowly composed himself, but he still couldn’t move.

***

“His Majesty is saying that your voices are too quiet! Sing louder!”

Nienna was singing louder than everyone else, and a monster would fall to the ground with every syllable she sang. Nienna had no intentions of letting even a single monster escape.

The Northern Army pushed the monsters toward the Crack.

The song could be heard vividly throughout the battlefield.

Pavan wasn’t aware of the song’s lyrics, but he came up with his own lyrics while humming and swinging his sword. Of course, his singing wasn’t really doing anything significant because his pitch and beat were off.

Sina swung her sword while anxiously staring alternatingly between the tentacle and the Crack. Juan was in there, and he was the one who was trying to close the Crack.

‘What happens to Juan if the Crack closes while he’s still in there?’

Sina’s heart started to pound madly against her chest as her anxiousness shot to the roof. However, she couldn’t do anything other than cheer for Juan and shout as loudly as she could, hoping that Juan could hear her voice, even though he was in the Crack.

“Juan! I’ve made it clear to you!”

‘...that even if the entire world thinks you’re a monster, I will always believe that you still love mankind!’

***

“Sina…” Juan’s eyes snapped open.