Chapter 243 – Things That Began to Gather (5)

Dane swung his cane and pulled the floating rocks in front of him, cold sweat running down his forehead.

He had already installed dozens of safety devices before he showed up in front of Gerard, but despite all that, Gerard was an opponent he couldn’t afford to let his guard down against.

The ten Danes stepped on the rock, and the one standing at the very forefront was the Dane that had the form of a young boy.

Gerard just looked at Dane in a calm manner.

Sina, who had been keeping a low posture near Gerard, couldn’t understand what was going on right now. It was well known that Gerard was against the emperor, and Dane was also hostile to the emperor.

But Sina couldn’t figure out why the two were giving off such a ferocious atmosphere when they should be working together.

‘

I did hear that Dane betrayed Gerard, but why would he do that? Didn’t he say that he wanted to create a perfect and eternal emperor, like the one Gerard is now?

’

Dane’s attempt did not seem to have gone in vain considering Gerard’s current appearance. Of course, there might be disagreements about whether Gerard was perfect or not, but it would be no exaggeration to say that Gerard was the ideal that Dane wanted to create.

But Dane was glaring at Gerard and shouted.

“What do you think you are doing right now, Gerard? Didn’t you say that you would create a world for humans?”

“I did,” Gerard replied, almost as if he was completely uninterested. “I will make your dream come true, Dane Dormund. I will create a world where all humans are able to become giants and leap into space. You just need to sit back and watch, you know.”

“How in the world is this the process of creating a world for humans?!” Dane shouted as he pointed the tip of his cane toward the chaos that Gerard was creating. “You borrowing the power of the Crack was nothing but a preparation! But you dare to make the Crack even bigger and stronger? If you really want to be the emperor and make the empire shine, then go back to Torra and demand the throne! That’s what I was expecting you to do!”

“The Crack won’t be a problem, Dane,” Gerard answered in a calm manner. “I can move the entire Wall of Nulvin with just a flip of my hand and use it to close the Crack right now. Even the various entrances to the Crack that have already opened throughout the empire can be closed. Everything is under my control—under my authority. So what is the problem?”

“What is the problem, you ask?” Dane asked back, dumbfounded. “Have you really gone mad? Just because you have Qzatquizail’s Crown doesn’t mean that you are the ruler of the Crack! Qzatquizail is just one of the nine heads of the dragon, and the Crack is the world moved by the same nine-headed dragon! No matter how strong the power of the Crown is, it is absurdly arrogant to think that you can control the Crack!”

Dane took another step forward and continued.

“Although your physical body is the same as the emperor’s, you cannot control the power of Qzatquizail, the true owner of the Crown. No—there are even more beings beyond your imagination lurking beyond the Crack. The nine-headed dragon, the Owner of the Stars, the Queen of the Crack, the Beasts of Nightmare, all the kinds of beings that whisper into your ears… even the emperor would need to be humble and vigilant in the face of the Crack! It’s better to completely close the Crack and cut off all ties with them!”

Despite Dane’s earnest appeal, Gerard slowly raised the corners of his lips to smile. Dane’s heart sank before he knew it as soon as he saw Gerard’s smile. His gaze slowly turned toward the left, where the Thornbush Priest Organization was watching them from.

The Thornbush Priest Organization had been trying to get the Crown back for decades. But now, they were now loyal to Gerard.

This was not because Gerard had the Crown—it was because Gerard was willing to return the Crown.

At this moment, Black Aldebaran’s smile looked more gruesome than ever in Dane’s eyes.

“No!”

Dane screamed and hastily swung his cane. But his magic died down without a chance of reaching Gerard. Instead, the rock behind Gerard split in half with a loud roar and soared into the sky.

Gerard looked back at the split rock and opened his mouth.

“As you said, there is certainly a limit to the emperor’s body.”

“You really are crazy, Gerard! So you’re planning to transfer yourself to the body of Qzatquizail?”

“I have already taken the body of the former emperor. There’s no reason for me to not do the same with Qzatquizail.”

Dane let out a scream that was more like a cry and sent out a series of magic. However, none of them was able to reach Gerard. Only the islands around Gerard were being destroyed.

Dane was covered in cold sweat as he struggled to approach Gerard.

Meanwhile, the Order of Lindwurm and the members of Aruntal were just watching the breathtaking battle in silence.

“Doing that would mean waking up Qzatquizail! It was only after Mananen McLeir, the Star that can not Fall, took away the Crown from Qzatquizal that the Crack finally calmed down. Do you think this world will still be fine when he wakes up?”

“I am already the Crown itself. Qzatquizail is nothing more than an empty body. Isn’t it only natural that I should be the one to dominate it?”

“Stop talking nonsense, Gerard!”

The ten Danes struck the floor with their canes. They were still very far from Gerard, but Gerard was affected by them for the first time.

With a cracking sound, the ground where Gerard had been standing fell apart and crumbled. At the same time, a Dane in the form of an old man appeared right next to Gerard.

However, Dane’s face was covered in dismay.

Gerard rubbed his thumb and index finger together in the air. At that moment, all ten Dane’s felt their necks begin to twirl. In an instant, all of the Dane’s had their heads pulled off of their bodies with a loud thud.

Then, Dane’s headless body was squeezed as if it were a mop, and instantly fell down to the ground.

Gerard brought one of the heads close to his face.

“Trying to distort my vision, huh? I’m disappointed that you thought such a trivial trick would work on me as well.”

Dane, who only had his head left, did not answer.

“Dane, you must have thought that your ideal was the greatest and highest. But your views and ideals are still narrow. Do you still limit yourself to thinking about the Crack as ‘something to be careful of’ even after you have spent hundreds of years exploring the Crack and wandering around the world?”

Gerard turned Dane’s head around and looked closely into it. Dane’s reddish skin did not seem to be alive.

“I know how great the power of the Crown burning inside me is. If we can manage to get the body of Qzatquizail, then we can have not only our universe, but also the other worlds and stars from beyond the Crack. Among them, I can be the biggest and most fiercely burning star. To be an immortal and good emperor is not enough. I will become brighter than my father whom I have looked up to.”

“You are crazy,” Dane puffed his lips and replied to Gerard. “You are the most terrible failure that I have created in my life. I even regret being born just because of the fact that I made you. Did you say that you’re going to be great? And that you’re going to burn brightly? Bullshit. You’re no better than a rat who fell to its death in the sewage.”

Hearing all this, Gerard only smirked.

“You speak pretty well even with your head severed from your body,” Gerard derided.

“You’re right. I won’t be able to kill you,” Dane murmured in a quiet voice. “But I can stop your terrible deeds. Then, someone else will soon come to kill you.”

Dane opened his mouth wide. For a moment, something could be seen inside his mouth. It was something that sparkled with unknown darkness on the inside.

Black Aldebaran, who recognized what had just come out of Dane’s mouth, screamed. “The Unreachable Star! That’s…!”

At that moment, ink-like darkness rose from Gerard's hand.

***

Juan sprang up from his seat upon feeling a powerful force of unknown origin blooming in the middle of the circular Crack. It was a force so powerful that Juan felt his vision being distorted.

For a moment, a strong wind shook Juan. He managed to maintain his balance, but the tremendous force that seemed like it could sweep away even the ridge he was supporting himself against rushed in.

All the clouds and dust in the sky were sucked into the Crack in unison. Juan couldn’t help but be surprised by the pulling force that resembled a huge hole in the middle of the sea.

It was a power that pulled everything around it and destroyed it all like a typhoon.

“Dane, what the hell have you done…”

Juan figured that there was no way that the people inside could be safe in the face of such power. It was a force that could blow away the entire empire if used recklessly.

But Juan just felt frustration rather than a sense of crisis.

Juan knew that Dane must have used this magic at the risk of his own life.

But despite this enormous power, never once did Juan think that Gerard would be beaten by Dane.

***

Sina thought that she was dead the moment darkness covered her eyes.

But the darkness only lasted for a short moment.

However, that did not mean that their field of view had returned to normal.

All the statues in front of Sina had become distorted and bent. There was not a single thing that remained intact.

Then, Sina suddenly realized that she was the only one who remained intact. The sword that she had dropped from her hand had become strangely long and was bent like a taffy, and it was pointing toward where Gerard was.

Gerard looked strangely distorted and round, and it was as if he was suppressing something with both his hands—and he was looking at Sina.

Fragments of something unknown were floating toward Gerard at a very slow pace. Only then did Sina realize that she was under Gerard’s protection and that she would die if she moved even the slightest bit recklessly.

No one could tell how long this strange world would last.

It was only after a time that felt as long as eternity that the strange world suddenly ended.

The sound of something pouring down rang out. Gerard crouched and clasped something in his hands. His hands were now twisted like a conch, but he just quietly looked down at his hands and brushed it off. His hands went back to being intact with just a couple of shakes.

“This is a kind of magic I’ve never seen before. It could probably devastate the entire capital,” Gerard shrugged.

Only then did the Order of Lindwurm, the Thornbush Priest Organization, and members of Aruntal manage to stand up. They were helplessly caught up in the attack the moment Dane’s magic was unleashed. But the magic ended up being trapped inside Gerard’s hands and only a small fraction of its power escaped his hands.

However, that alone caused quite a few victims.

Those who were even brushed by the slightest bit of the magic’s power were scattered on the ground like powder. In particular, nearly half of the monsters summoned by the Thornbush Priest Organization were now dead and scattered.

Black Aldebaran opened her mouth with a pale expression.

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

“The Unreachable Star… I can’t believe he gave it up to attack…”

Sina realized from Black Aldebaran’s mutterings that this magic was probably the greatest attack that Dane could make. However, it did nothing more than damage Gerard’s hands for a very brief moment.

Meanwhile, Gerard was looking around with a frown on his face. Upon seeing his face, Sina realized that while Dane’s attack had failed to kill Gerard, it had successfully managed to destroy the huge structure which Gerard had been building for days.

“Fucking rascal! You are so annoying,” Gerard muttered.

“I hope you like my final present to you, Gerard.”

Dane, who was only supposed to have a head remaining, reappeared in the form of a young child.

“I can’t stop you now, but you can’t kill me either. I have no choice but to run away if you insist on destroying the world. There must be a place somewhere where I can escape your tyranny.”

However, Gerard simply ignored Dane and looked back at Sina.

Sina grew perplexed when her eyes suddenly met Gerard’s.

“Sina, let me show you what Solvane is capable of.”

Dane was still letting out curses and profanities at Gerard while grumbling like a crazy old man. But when he saw Gerard lift the strange spear, his eyebrows instantly bent into a frown.

“What kind of toy-like weapon is that? I’m going to curse you in your face even if you kill me several more times.”

Gerard completely ignored Dane once again and then aimed Solvane toward the sky. Then, he threw it into the air, almost as if he had nothing to do with Dane.

Then, Solvane split into two, four, then eight before leaving Gerard’s fingertips. Soon, it split into countless clusters of light and disappeared.

Seeing this, Dane murmured with a frown.

“What are you doing? That’s…”

Even before Dane could finish speaking, a golden spear pierced Dane’s left chest along with a splitting sound. The spear pierced through Dane and then got stuck to the ground. Instantly, Dane was hung into the air, almost as if he was a skewer.

Dane coughed and vomited blood. His eyes were filled with shock and fear.

Seeing this, Gerard smiled.

“Can you finally feel the fear of death once again after a long time?”

Dane’s eyes trembled upon hearing Gerard’s mocking question.

Sina realized that Dane wasn’t the only one who had been pierced by the spear. A few of the members of Aruntal, some of the knights of the Order of Lindwurm, and some Priests from the Thornbush Priest Organization were also pierced through by Solvane and skewered on rocks.

There were dozens of Solvanes emitting golden light around the Crack. For a moment, everyone was perplexed by the sight, but soon realized what had happened.

All the bodies penetrated by Solvane belonged to Dane.

Even when Dane acted as if he had given up on everything, he had tried to keep a part of himself hidden by Gerard’s side to keep an eye on him.

As soon as Gerard opened his hand, Solvane appeared in his palm. At the end of the spear was someone’s pierced heart.

“You’ve hidden your essence in a place that’s really difficult to find, Dane. I had to stab all of them because I couldn’t tell exactly which one of your bodies all over the empire was truly yours. Among them, this heart certainly seems to be more special than the others.”

Dane puffed his mouth and reached his trembling hands toward the heart. The only emotion on his face was fear.

The moment Dane was about to say something, Gerard took the heart stuck at the end of the spear. Then, he ruthlessly stepped on the heart and crushed it.

Finally, Dane died, letting out neither a scream nor leaving a last will.

When Gerard slammed the Solvane, which was in his hand against the ground, all the other spears disappeared in unison.

Meanwhile, everyone was speechless by the overwhelming power of Solvane and looked at Gerard in silence.

Gerard’s gaze turned toward Sina with a content look on his face.

“What do you think?” Gerard asked.

“What are you talking about…?” Sina asked back.

“I’m talking about Solvane. There are still many more things that I want to show you.”