Chapter 203 – Establishment of Negotiation (3)

As soon as Juan heard Dismas, all of Juan’s muscles became taut out of anxiousness.

‘

Was he targeting Entalucia to begin with?

’

Juan looked up at the sky in a hurry, but Entalucia was still hovering around in the air just fine.

When nothing happened even after a while, Dismas lowered his head with an embarrassed expression.

“Well, this is kind of embarrassing. This is my first time trying this, so it’s taking some time to…”

At that moment, Juan immediately jumped off the ground and charged toward Dismas before he could finish his sentence.

Meanwhile, Dismas quickly spun his hammer around to swing it toward Juan as if he was already expecting Juan’s actions. Dismas was actively making use of his bleeding hammer upon realizing that Juan was avoiding the hammer due to the discomfort that it caused.

But Juan didn’t dodge this time. He planted his foot firmly into the ground and caught hold of the hammer that was flying toward him. He suddenly experienced a sense of discomfort throughout his entire body as he exerted his full strength by tensing all his muscles.

At the same time, a great force began to distort the hammer. Dismas was taken aback when he saw that Juan had grabbed onto his hammer, but his surprise quickly turned into laughter; he was looking forward to what Juan was about to do.

Dismas had wielded his hammer to strike the heads of countless people and smash countless weapons up until now, but it had not sustained any damage whatsoever. The hammer not only contained a mass similar to a mountain, but it also harbored a lot of curses and resentment, all of which amplified its might.

Above all, his hammer was something that was smelted by the Emperor himself.

“How laughable of you!”

Dismas let out a roar and tried to push Juan down with his hammer. However, his eyes soon opened wide as the resentment and curses held within the hammer were released along with a scream. The resentment and the curses that spewed out of the hammer caused Dismas to cough, and the red-hot hammer that was heated up by Juan’s hands started to distort at a strange angle.

“What is going on…!?”

Dismas decided that he could no longer go easy on Juan and leave him unattended like this. His hammer was a gift from His Majesty and he couldn’t let it break under any circumstances.

Dismas attempted to get Juan off of the hammer by kicking him, but Juan reluctantly clung to the hammer; it was almost as if his hands were stuck to the hammer.

Dismas figured that he had no choice, and inevitably made a terrifying decision. At that moment, he came to a stop as he saw something being reflected in Juan’s eyes.

It wasn’t long until Juan also noticed what Dismas was looking at. A huge beam of light was stretching all the way from the West toward the Loen Basin.

“Damn it.”

It was too late by the time Juan tried to take action. The sight of a huge beam of light hitting Entalucia with the intention of making her drop from the sky filled Juan’s eyes.

Entalucia seemed like she wanted to try to avoid the beam of light, since she sensed danger, but the beam of light narrowly brushing against her was already enough to leave damage.

The huge beam of light punctured her wings, ripped off her scales, and left a huge wound on her.

Seeing this, Juan immediately used Fleeting Moment, the fifth stage of the Baltic Sword, as soon as he took his hands off of Dismas’ hammer. His heart constricted and his skin was suddenly set ablaze, but all his concentration remained on Entalucia.

At this moment, Entalucia was falling to the ground while shedding an enormous amount of blood.

The biggest disadvantage of using Fleeting Moment was that everything happened so quickly that even the user could only do actions that they had pre-planned. Yet, using Fleeting Moment was what allowed Juan to have a short moment to think.

The moment Juan’s sword flew past Dismas’ hammer and attacked his wrist, he pondered about the identity of the beam of light as well as Dismas’ malevolent scheme. It was unknown as to how badly Entalucia had been injured, but everyone would be in danger the moment she fell on the basin.

Juan grew anxious and impatient as he remembered that Hela had yet to escape. He blamed himself for not being able to make the right judgment quickly enough due to being too focused on his confrontation against Dismas.

Despite coming up with his next course of actions during the moment he used Fleeting Moment, Juan was left with a lot of regrets.

Dismas’ wrist was cut off in just an instant when Juan used the Fleeting Moment.

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While he was no longer able to hold his hammer anymore, he didn’t miss the opportunity created at the moment when Fleeting Moment was over.

Dismas stretched out his wristless arm and punched Juan’s face. Seizing the opportunity when Juan stumbled, Dismas pinned him down and mercilessly rained blows on his face using both his wrist and fist.

While it didn’t hurt much, Juan had no intention of letting Dismas continue punching him. So, Juan struck Dismas’ nose with his head.

The moment Dismas staggered back, Juan’s fists smacked into Dismas’ head and torso consecutively.

Smack! Smack!

A dull and heavy shock continuously struck against Dismas. His face instantly became bloody, but he was still smiling.

“This is amazing, Fake emperor!”

“You’re still crazy about battles, aren’t you?”

Entalucia crashed onto the basin with a loud roar. A huge cloud of dust soared from the ground as countless soldiers and giant slaves were crushed in just an instant.

Just before the dust rushed in to blur their vision, Juan stretched out his fist with the intention of completely overpowering Dismas at once.

Dismas burst into laughter and blocked Juan’s fist with the elbow of his wristless arm.

Crack!

With a grotesque sound, Dismas’ arm was dislocated and bent at a strange angle. Dismas made a dumbfounded expression upon looking at his dangling left arm.

“This is just incredible. There’s no way I’ll ever win.”

“What even happened to you? Did you lose your mind?”

Dismas had always been fond of battles, but what he liked was pure competition, rather than this kind of wild fighting. On the other hand, the only thing Juan could feel from Dismas right now was madness.

Instead of answering Juan’s questions, Dismas smiled and stepped down.

“Haha. I’m now one hundred percent sure that I can’t win against you today. So I guess I might as well stop now.”

The fact that his wrist was cut off didn’t seem to matter to him at all. Not only did Dismas have the essence of the emperor, he also had the Pope on his side. Healing and recovering from his wounds was easy as counting one two three.

But the same was also true of Juan. Although he was also drenched in blood, he was more bothered by Dismas' attitude rather than his own injuries—it was a matter of great displeasure.

Meanwhile, Dismas picked up his hammer with his remaining hand and began to run away.

“I promise to kill you and take your corpse with me the next time I see you!”

Dismas quickly disappeared amidst the thick dust. It wouldn’t be difficult to chase after him, but Juan figured that Dismas’ situation was no longer an urgent problem that must be dealt with immediately.

Juan took a look at the traces left behind by a huge beam of light that had just passed by. Dragons were species with a considerable amount of magic resistance, since they were quite good at magic. But that beam of light had penetrated the basin and even extended to the East even after hitting Entalucia and blowing away dozens of giant slaves.

Even Juan wouldn’t be able to endure it if he was hit directly by such a beam of light. All Juan could hope was for Entalucia, Hela, Pavan, and Haild to be safe.

“What have you made, Dismas?”

Juan muttered to the air.

“And what the hell did you make it for?”

***

Entalucia’s fall left behind a huge impact on the basin. Juan was able to confirm that Entalucia was alive by checking for her presence, but it was not clear whether she was conscious or not. He had no choice but to leave her to Haild for now.

On the other hand, Hela’s situation was far more urgent than Entalucia’s. Although it was much weaker than earlier, the ominous energy still remained where she used to be. This could only mean one thing—the process of the formation of the Cainheryar was not completely over just yet.

The surroundings were full of dust and corpses. The soldiers covered in white dust staggered past Juan, while the knights from the Order of Surtr seemed to have already escaped. Juan could only hope that Hela wasn’t swept away by this disaster.

Shortly after, Juan arrived at the place where he could feel Hela and Pavan’s presence. The large tent was torn due to shockwaves and completely blown away, and a part of Entalucia’s tail was covering the surrounding area.

Juan was speechless upon seeing the oddly inflated pieces of meat in front of him. Juan strode up and split the pieces of meat in half when he felt Pavan and Hela’s presence from inside it. The heat emitted by Sutra instantly cut the meat with a burning smell, and Juan started looking for Hela and Pavan by cutting up the pieces of meat one by one.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

At that moment, pink body fluid suddenly sprang up. When Juan opened the area where the fluid sprang up from, he found someone lying face down.

It was Pavan with a huge cut on his head.

Pavan had hurt his head in the aftermath of Entalucia’s fall, but it looked like the protection from the pieces of meat managed to save his life.

Juan quickly tried to pull Pavan out of the pieces of meat, but soon stopped when he saw Hela beneath Pavan.

Pavan was tightly holding onto Hela’s sleeve and refused to let go of her.

“Please… Please let me go..”

Juan let go of Pavan at the sound of his moaning.

Meanwhile, Pavan seemed to have come back to his senses and staggered to get up. He tried to head outside but failed; he couldn’t even stand up properly due to the exhaustion.

“Pavan.”

“...We found it.”

Pavan stared blankly at Juan with cloudy eyes and held something out. It was hard to see, since it was covered in blood, but it looked like a piece of flesh with red letters engraved on it.

“It took a long time… because there was too much blood… I couldn’t see… but all we had to do now was to just move it… but then… something suddenly came over us…”

Pavan stuttered and tried to mutter something constantly. It was hard to understand, but Juan could quickly tell what Pavan was trying to say to him.

Then, Pavan handed over a piece of flesh to Juan.

“Please either ask His Majesty to get rid of this… or put it inside that bastard’s mouth,” Pavan muttered.

Pavan didn’t seem to be able to recognize Juan, perhaps due to the shock, as well as the blood covering his face.

Juan grabbed the piece of flesh from Pavan’s hand and then Pavan stumbled with his head down in relief.

However, the effect of dark magic in the piece of flesh had long since disappeared.

Pavan tried to approach Hela once again but Juan stopped him.

“Pavan, stop.”

“I… have to tell… master that everything is okay now…”

“Hela is already dead.”

Pavan blankly stared down at Hela upon hearing Juan’s words. Hela’s limbs were already melted amidst the pieces of meat. The only parts that remained to help Pavan recognize her appearance from when she was still alive was her upper body—and even those parts were terribly damaged, as most of her skin was cut out.

There was no expression on Hela’s face.

Looking at her stomach which was cut wide open, as well as her exposed organs, Juan could assume what had happened while he was fighting against Dismas.

Pavan had done his best, while Hela did everything she could do to save Anya.

“No… no… no way… There’s no way. She was talking to me until just now.”

Pavan shook off Juan’s hand and approached Hela to examine her condition. He quickly checked Hela’s eyes, her breathing, and her heartbeat, but she showed no response.

Pavan stared blankly at Hela for a long time and then turned his head toward Juan as if he had suddenly remembered something.

Pavan staggered toward Juan, but soon slumped to the ground; his legs were already numb. Nevertheless, Pavan crawled toward Juan and muttered while grabbing his feet.

“Your Majesty, please… please save her using your power. I’m sure she can still come back…”

“It’s no use. She’s already dead. And she will only suffer and die once more in her current state even if I manage to get back my full power to try and revive her.”

“But… but still. If Your Majesty could at least give it a try…”

Juan didn’t move and Pavan clenched his teeth. He clenched his teeth so hard that his teeth broke and blood started flowing out of his mouth.

Pavan glared at Juan, but Juan was just standing there, motionless like a pillar.

Pavan could no longer see Juan as human—he could only see Juan as a rock that just stood still from the beginning to the end of the world.

Pavan lay down at Juan’s feet for a long time and then slowly raised himself up. His eyes were blank and cloudy.

He stood as if he would collapse if even the slightest gust of wind blew toward him.

Then, he slowly saluted Juan.

“Captain Pavan Peltere of the Order of the Capital… reports the failure of the mission… to His Majesty.”

Pavan’s salute was formal and perfect even when he was almost out of his mind.

Juan knew that Pavan and Hela were not on good terms. But he also knew Pavan’s obsession toward his missions and his desire to succeed.

The reason why Pavan was out of his mind was unclear; it could either be because Hela had changed him or because he was shocked by the fact he had failed his mission. But one thing that was clear was that Pavan was a different person from who he had been until now.

“Mother?”

But all this didn’t matter to the young man approaching them.

Haild was staggering toward Hela and he also appeared to have been injured by Entalucia’s fall. Haild looked back and forth between Juan, Pavan, and the unidentifiable mass of meat.

“Entalucia was critically injured… I was in the middle of chaos… then mother sent me a signal… so I came running… but… am I too late…?” Haild muttered with blank eyes.

Haild was connected to Hela through the Crack and was able to receive her signal. He stammered and found Hela amidst the pieces of meat.

Then he immediately recognized that Pavan’s sword had Hela’s blood on it as soon as he found Pavan standing there with an expressionless face.

Haild could feel his blood going cold.

“Ahhhhhhh!”

Haild charged toward Pavan without thinking any more. He was so out of his mind that he couldn’t even think about drawing his sword. Haild’s fist struck Pavan’s face in just an instant, knocking him down to the ground.

“You son of a bitch! You were supposed to protect my mother!” Haild cried as he continued to punch Pavan recklessly.

Pavan didn’t budge and let Haild punch him as much as he wanted—he did not dodge or defend himself.

At the same time, Haild showed no signs of stopping while Pavan’s face was getting helplessly crumpled.

However, when he pulled out Elkiel in his seething rage, Juan grabbed Haild’s wrist to stop him.

“Pavan did everything he could to protect Hela”

Haild looked at Juan as if he had a lot to say. But when Haild faced Juan’s heavy eyes, he had no choice but to drop Elkiel to the ground.

He breathed heavily for a long time, and then got up to head toward Hela.

Juan also approached Hela along with Haild.

Meanwhile, Haild stared at Hela for a while and then quietly removed her eye patch.

Then he muttered while holding her eye patch in his hand.

“She can’t be given an open casket funeral looking like this,” Haild looked at Juan. “I would like to request your assistance, Your Majesty.”

Juan found it hard to find the right words to answer.

“Hela died because of my orders. I don’t deserve to do this for her.”

“I’m sure my mother will find her grave on her own,” Haild spoke firmly despite hearing Juan’s words.

“And no one would take her death lightly if Your Majesty collected my mother yourself.”

Juan looked at Haild. Haild’s eyes were burning with anger and a desperate urge to get revenge.

Juan suddenly felt dizzy. In the end, it was Dismas who had killed Hela, but Dismas was also Juan’s son. If Juan had been a little more determined when fighting against Dismas, Hela might have still been alive. Juan couldn’t help but go easy on his son, and Haild was looking at Juan as if he already knew this fact.

“All sinners…” Juan reached out his hand toward Hela’s body. “...will surely pay for their sins.”

Hela’s body burst into flames in an instant.

The acrid dust began to rise toward the sky, and Pavan looked blankly up at the sky with his bruised face.

The smoke dissipated toward the East in the wind.