Emperor of Steel

“Who are those?”

The guards who were near the front gate of the Imperial Palace of Nemesis seemed confused when a group of soldiers was running for them.

“They seem to be from Eastern troops… there is an Elder Knight in the lead.”

A senior knight, who was among the guards opened his mouth.

“Has anyone called over for the reinforcements?”

“No, we haven’t.”

They heard from the messenger that there were disturbances—like explosions and monsters appearing all over the capital.

It was possible that someone had requested for support troops in order to strengthen the defense of the Imperial Palace, but if someone did request for backup, the higher ups would have informed the guards.

“Why so suspicious?”

“Report it to the top, and stop them down…”

It was when the Senior Knight had said that.

Swoosh-!

An arrow made a sharp noise and pierced it in his head.

Scarlet, who fired the arrow just now, released another and another and took down the guards.

“Amazing skills. But, for a princess from the land of arrows, I can’t lose to her.”

When princess Ja-hye began to stretch her arms after getting riled up, the Yemaek warriors who followed her, shot their arrows.

The guards who were at the front gate got wiped out before they could even do anything.

“Go ahead and open the door…”

“We don’t need to do that.”

It was Hwang Bo-sung, who pushed away Scarlet and Ja-hye.

He clenched his fist, pulling it back, and yelled while pushing his fist for a punch towards the front gate.

“Trinity Martial Punch!”

Bang!

The energy of Ki which came in with the amazing power of a thunderbolt, smashed the gate of the Imperial Palace which was made of thick magical alloy.

Arch Duke Gregory, who couldn’t help but be shocked with the power he just witnessed, exclaimed.

“Marvellous. That much power is more than enough to take down one Knight class Gigant with just one punch.”

“Yes, it’s actually a lot more powerful.”

Hwang Bo-sung smiled and replied to Gregory, who was known to be the strongest person on the Rhodesia continent after Luke.

Although the attack was too straightforward, the speed and power covered the disadvantage of it.

“Count Hwang Bo-sung, maybe you’d like talking about it at a later time? We are in the middle of an urgent situation.”

“Ah, sorry, Majesty.”

Luke spoke back to Hwang Bo-sung and ran into the gate.

A few moments ago, the sound of the gate crashing into the ground would have been heard, and the guards who were deployed around were coming over.

“Intruders over here!”

“Go ahead, report it…!”

Maybe because of the preparations done for the defense, the guards ahead were a lot more than normal.

Whether they be a hundred or a thousand, Luke had the ability and confidence to get past them.

But what was more important than fighting those guards was to smash those ruins which seemed to have started.

He didn’t have the luxury of time to stand back and fight measly beginners.

“Arch Duke, take over from here. The situation is urgent, so I will go ahead.”

Before Gregory responded to Luke’s request, Jo Mimi came ahead.

“Leave this over to this woman.”

“Princess?”

“Yes, this much level is something I can easily take care of.”

She said with a confident face.

Luke didn’t want to entrust this task to the princess of an allied nation.

However, he couldn’t help but admire her skills which she showed right after saying that.

“Heavenly swords!”

After saying that—she sprinkled small stones on the ground, moved, and once she was done reciting the spell, the stone shone and quickly swelled up.

And began to form 3 meter giant stones of 100 in numbers which were created.

“Ho ho ho, this is something which has been passed down from generation to generation in our family. The Hobeop. Girls are the only ones who can summon them.”

And they were the source of Jo Mimi’s confidence.

‘She called them Hobeop?’

From what Luke knew, the southern continent was known to be something similar to a guardian.

The problem was the shape of the stone giants made by Jo Mimi.

The appearance of the face and the armaments didn’t look much like the southern continent ones at all.

The features were very clear and the plate armor, the shields, the large swords—which were typical of the Rhodesian knights.

Above all, the most striking was the two-headed line lion crest engraved on the breastplate and shield.

‘That is?’

Luke wasn’t the only one who recognized it.

The guards who rushed to stop them seemed very shocked.

“Th-that…!”

“The Old Libiya Kingdom!”

“Then, the rumors spread across the capital are true?”

As the predecessor of the Baroque Empire was the Libiya Kingdom, they knew the old crest of the Old Libiya Kingdom.

A princess from the Old Libiya Kingdom will appear and punish the Baroque Imperial Family!

The guards recalled the rumors they heard recently.

The higher ups said that it was a deception and held no truth, and regular guards were ordered not to speak about it.

It was because the rumors were insulting the Baroque Imperial family, and from the point of the Knights of Guards, such rumors couldn’t be encouraged.

So the guards knew, yet pretended not to know.

However, the stone statues looked exactly like the ones from the Old Libiya Kingdom!

“Were the rumors from the Old Libiya Kingdom true?”

“No, this can’t be it!”

Shaikan, well, Reichard had borrowed the name of the Libiya Kingdom and established it again as his own nation.

However, the royal crest he used was a dragon, and it wasn’t much different from the Baroque Empire.

This wasn’t just to show off the Dragonian lineage, but also to prove that he was the successor of the Baroque Empire.

Anyway, there was no time for the guards to think about it.

Because the stone guards were running around.

[Dragon’s crest… the crest of the traitor—Carno de Baroque!]

[Traitors!]

[Take down the seeds of the traitors and their henchmen!]

The stone guards, who saw the armor of the guards spoke in gloomy voices and smashed them with their swords and shields.

Jo Mimi was a bit startled.

The Hobeop weren’t just stone dolls.

Though they spoke only a few words, they were beings of emotions.

However, it was unprecedented for those stone dolls to display such excitement.

‘What happened?’

Hobeop was made by combining necromancy which was secretly handed down in the royal family and it was based on zen.

She knew that it used her vitality and martial arts.

Moreover, it wasn’t just the vitality, but the eight knight’s force who tried to suppress the Fairy Emperor—who appeared to help Emperor Jinjong at that time.

‘Is there any relationship between the ancestor and the ones here?’

Only Luke can solve the questions Jo Mimi had.

However, Luke wasn’t there with her.

He moved in a hurry while leading the other members of the troops to the ruins of time even before the Hobeop entered into the battle.