Emperor of Steel

Around the time when Symphonia’s army was attacking Sherwood city, a great deal of things happened in the Holy Empire.

An unidentified disease spread in the Jackson region to the north of the Empire.

People who were infected with the disease had their skin turned to black and their body would rot over the week and die, and those who died would be revived once 24 hours passed.

Almost like an undead zombie, and not a person with reasoning.

Kiiii!

“Ack! Everyone run away!”

“Flee from here!”

The village which was attacked by the disease began to attack the other villages into zombies and turned into a group of asura.

Several village men picked their axes or other weapons, but they were unable to keep up with the number of zombies and their force.

Eventually, rural villages were destroyed in an hour.

Those residents who were bitten by the zombies soon turned into one.

Even those who barely managed to get themselves out of the villages and flee to the estate manor saw their skin turn black and skin rot.

As soon as they turned into zombies, they began to attack the living.

“This can’t be!”

There was a group of zombies who entered the lord’s manor, which was turned into a zombie den.

There were around 30 paladins and priests who were dispatched to the place after getting the communication from the manor.

In the beginning, they thought that an undead or a warlock had appeared and summoned some demon, or then some negative mana had caused the rise of a strong entity from the graveyard.

However, they saw that the zombies were overflowing in the manor!

Kuuuu!

Kiiii!

When the living ones appeared, all the zombies turned their eyes on them.

“Priest Marion, you need to step back from here!”

Paladins stopped the men and asked for a retreat.

It was because there was no way that such a number of paladins could eradicate the zombies by themselves.

“Oh oh, El Kassel, all my faith and respect and loyalty was dedicated to you! Please give me the blessing to rest these people in the manor who have turned into cursed monsters!”

As the zombies began to run at them, Priest Marion began to prey.

The paladins had fled after setting a fire.

The only way to get rid of the zombies was to use divine power or purify the dead with fire.

They set fire all over the manor and found a few children who were being chased by the zombies.

“Priest, please save me! Mom and dad are trying to kill us!”

When Marion looked at the paladin, they infused the sword with divine power and took down the parent zombies right in front of the children.

Kiiik!

The children who saw their parents fall to the ground in ash shed tears. It was because they were parents who had loved them immensely till the moment they changed.

“Euah, mommy…”

“It is alright, it is alright now. The god will take care of your parents.”

Marion spoke to the children and escaped from the manor.

They were relentlessly rushing outside, however, they could barely rest till the sunset.

“What are we supposed to do now?”

When a paladin asked, Marion responded.

“I need to meet with Archbishop Bremen and discuss this. I don’t think that this is normal.”

“However, I did hear from the children when we arrived, that people who got sick ended up dead and turned into those undead things.”

‘Because of a disease?’

At the words of the paladin, Marion grunted. He wasn’t able to understand how one would turn into zombies because of an illness.

‘The kids probably misinterpreted something.’

Maybe when the kids weren’t looking, people were bitten by the zombies.

They saw the children scratching their faces and arms constantly.

It looked like a normal itch, however, their condition seemed to be serious as the wound would turn blue after rubbing.

“Hugh! I wasn’t looking at them because I was in a hurry to get out.”

Feeling sorry, Marion began to memorize the prayer and began to unfold divine power.

Soon the wounds on the children’s hands began to get swept away with the divine power.

“My divine power wouldn’t reach the skills of the Pope, but this might…”

“Ahhk!”

The moment priest Marion’s divine power began to get absorbed into the skin of the children, they began to scream and struggle with pain.

All of a sudden, flame broke out all over their bodies and their skin turned charred.

“Help me! Save me, priest!”

“It is hot! Please…”

It was an unexpected situation, an absurd situation, Marion and the paladins went stiff seeing what was happening.

What went wrong?

While they were shocked, the bodies of the children turned into ash.

“Th-this was…? Ahhh! Lord El Kassel! What the hell did they do wrong!?”

Marion sat down in front of the dead kids and wept.

His grieving cry spread over the reddish sky with the setting sun.