Emperor of Steel

Kabooommmmm-!

All of a sudden, a huge explosion occurred right behind the Guard Knights and Hwang Bo-sung, who were guarding the sanctuary.

With the huge force the explosion did, the Gigants bounced back a few dozen meters away, and some of the Gigants smashed into the ground or were covered by the debris of the fallen buildings.

Boom! Kwang!

“Ugh!”

Due to the unexpected explosion which shook them, the knights that fell down along with their Gigants, feeling extreme pain.

However, thanks to the thick armor and the defensive magic circles on their Gigants, they were able to escape the worst possible case.

No rider had died in there.

Hwang Bo-sung, who got up first, looked back at the sanctuary in dismay.

“M-master…”

The sanctuary couldn’t disappear.

There were huge stones, which made up the magnificent structure of it, just a moment ago.

“Kuek!”

“Uhk!”

The knights, who were getting up one after the other, groaned in pain and asked with despair in their voices, “C-commander!”

“What are we supposed to do now?”

“What do you mean by that?! Search for His Majesty right away!”

Right when the knights, who were ordered by Hwang Bo-sung, tried to approach the ruins

Crack! Crackk!

All of a sudden, the large stones in the structure of the sanctuary moved, and Gigants jump out of there.

Hwang Bo-sung and the knights were shocked to see what had happened.

“W-what was that? An ambush!”

“How many Gigants were being hidden there?!”

The grey colored Gigants, whose origin couldn’t be understood by the Symphonia Knights, rushed over to the Symphonia Gigants.

However, neither Hwang Bo-sung nor his knights were too shocked to stand still.

Their instincts were honed through the battles they fought alongside Luke. They hurriedly began to attack the enemy Gigants that were circling them.

Kang! Clang!

Puck! Puckk!

The situation seemed to be against the Symphonia Guard Knights.

Surely, the Gigants of Symphonia had better output and performance, yet most of their Gigants had lost their swords and shields in the previous explosion.

Hwang Bo-sung, who was proficient in close combat and martial arts, was able to hold his ground by using the Trinity Martial skills.

“Do not panic! If there is no weapon on you, pick up the weapons that were dropped by the enemy and fight back!”

Despite the constant guidance from Hwang Bo-sung, the situation of his knights didn’t improve by much.

It was because the number of men, who were there to ambush them, were huge.

Hwang Bo-sung began to sigh after seeing the Gigants of his knights fall down one after the other.

They were going to get wiped out before they even know where their Master was!

Crack!

“Kuk, this!”

Hwang Bo-sung, who knocked down the enemy Gigant that had approached him with the Trinity Punch, seemed frustrated with the fact that the right arm of his Gigant was damaged.

Unlike his Puppet, the Gigant wasn’t a weapon designed to withstand close combat.

Even when used with aura, it was made for the purpose of holding a weapon.

“Come here! Get rid of him!”

Noticing that the right arm was broken, the enemy Gigants rushed toward Hwang Bo-sung.

Right when Hwang Bo-sung had switched from offensive to defensive position.

The land beneath them began to tear apart.

Crack!

“Kuakkk!”

A sudden explosion made the Gigants fall.

However, Hwang Bo-sung and his knights didn’t seem to be too glad.

They wouldn’t be at ease until they saw a Gigant rise from the cracks and confirmed it to be the Gigant of their King, Avenger.

“Hehehe! I got them at the right time!”

Luke smiled after seeing the enemies look irritated.

Hwang Bo-sung managed to approach him and ask with concern, “Master, are you alright? Did you get hurt anywhere?”

“I’m completely fine. The moment the explosion happened, I summoned my Avenger and boarded it.”

The moment Archbishop Antero triggered the explosion magic, Luke had created a distance between him and them by using Blink and summoned his Avenger from his subspace bracelet.

And he knew that being in the Gigant would be better for him than to face the explosion with his bare body.

Luke boarded his Avenger and began to use a lot of shield magic layers.

The shield magic that was amplified by the core engine managed to keep Luke safe inside Avenger during the explosion.

“Huh. For a second, my mind began to realize. Even a priest who held his hands out for God, eventually, he is nothing but a human being… And I just learned that even he could be brainwashed.”

Luke’s words seemed calm and casual, but Hwang Bo-sung and the Guard Knights could feel the rage in his words.

It was because the energy flowing out of Avenger was terrifying.

It was as if they were witnessing the demons that were summoned from Hell.

“I did get a very good experience from it. Now, how am I supposed to reward those men who have given me such great and different kind of experience?”

Luke turned his Gigant toward his enemies that didn’t fall from the previous shock.

He could never imagine for a Gigant ambush to take place even after falling into the explosion trap.

Luke was too focused on the zombie disease and securing the area that he hadn’t paid much attention to the traps of the Gigants or the mana circles that were sealed by Baymon.

While Luke was trying to figure out how to deal with them, the enemy Gigants had recovered from the shock and were ready to engage in battle.

“The enemy’s head has appeared! If we can kill him, the true disciple of God will give us great rewards!”

“Attack him! God’s warriors!”

The shouts of those that seemed to be commanders rang through the place.

The enemy Gigants rushed toward Avenger all at once.

When Hwang Bo-sung and his knights tried to counterattack, Luke stopped them.

“Guards, stand by.”

“Master, but how…?”

“These men had given me a great experience. Shouldn’t I show them my true skills as a sign of gratitude? That way, even if they die, they will understand what I mean.”

Luke was so upset with the enemy ambush that he wanted to wipe out all his enemies.

‘True skills of Master in the sense…?’

Hwang Bo-sung knew what the real power of Luke was.

However, the knights that heard it were curious.

‘His Majesty’s true skills? Is he going to use dark magic?’

‘Is it true that he had learned the legacy of the Devil King Saymon?’

They had heard about the occurrence of the warlocks from Dark Moon and Luke’s revelation.

However, they were too shocked by the story.

Also, they weren’t in the position to talk about it, so they kept their silence.

It was because even the Holy Empire, which was known to hold its hand against dark magic had stayed quiet, and no one thought that Luke would have learned dark magic with any bad intention.

Moreover, the warlocks were able to control the zombies and isolate them from the towns. They were also helping the people there. The hostility toward the warlocks reduced by a lot.

‘If His Majesty uses dark magic, how strong would His Majesty’s combat ability be?’

‘Well, seeing how he was able to catch the high ranking demons the other day…’

The knights had seen the Sword Masters of the Symphonia Kingdom battle with the King several times.

There were a lot of one-on-many battles, but they never felt like Luke was giving out his all.

So, in a rough extent, Luke would be at a Sword Sage level at the very least.

As everyone was expectant on seeing Luke’s true skills, Luke took a step toward the enemy Gigant and raised the right hand of Avenger.

“Black Bind!”

Thud!

The Aether Globe in Luke’s heart soon changed into a black circle.

The moment Avenger’s core engine amplified the dark magic, something that was similar to roots rose from the ground.

The roots or stems that seemed very much like creepers began to bind itself around the legs and torso of the enemy Gigants, which were on the front line.

“Uhk! What is this?!”

“I-I can’t move my Gigant…”

The shocked enemies moved around, but the more they struggled, the more the output of the core engine of their Gigants decreased and so did the rider’s aura.

The Proximal Guard Knights of Symphonia seemed a little disappointed when the enemies didn’t even move from their spot.

‘What? Was that dark magic?’

‘I thought that it was going to be some kind of great destructive power, but it is just a simple hold magic. That’s all?’

What they thought wasn’t unreasonable.

The enemy’s aura, which was being absorbed by Luke’s Black Bind, couldn’t be seen through the naked eye.

When the captured enemies began to falter, Luke once again used dark magic.

“Make sure that not a single one of them remains. Dark Grinder!”

The same time as the spell unfolded, purple mist began to gather over the heads of the enemy Gigants.

The mist that hovered over their heads turned like a whirlwind and covered the enemy Gigants.

From the fog could be heard the sound of metal cracking and splitting.

Crack! Tear!

In addition to the rupture of the Gigants, the screams of the riders could be heard.

“N-no! Save me!”

“Uakkkk-!”

Dark Grinder was a new dark magic that Luke had created very recently by using Dark Gravity and Dark Impact magic.

It was a terrifying dark magic, which accelerated its movements with Magi particles in it. It would turn into a purple fog and become faster than a storm itself.

Once caught in the magic, even a Hero class Gigant couldn’t survive.

The enemy Gigants, who were stuck in the Black Grinder, turned into nothing more than black powder without being able to defend themselves.

Seeing that, the Guard Knights of Symphonia couldn’t stop their bodies from trembling.

‘T-this is the dark magic of Devil King Saymon!’

‘Is this what it is? The power that went against the continent in the past?!’

The enemies were as astonished by Luke as the knights.

However, their astonishment broke soon enough.

The enemy too had seen war at home and foreign nations. They watched the knights and wizards, but they never witnessed their Gigant troops being swept away like that.

“Unbelievable…! I’m just dreaming, right!?”

“R-run away!”

The enemies, who were terrified of it, tried to retreat.

Avenger, who pulled out his giant sword, rushed toward them like lightning.

Slash! Slash!

Avenger moved like a rolling stone under Luke’s control.

As if dozens of Avengers had appeared, after imagers had appeared everywhere, and the trajectory of the aura being used was appearing on the air like a spider web.

The insects that were getting trapped in the web were being destroyed without fail.

“Damn it! Our path is blocked!”

“Don’t stand there! Smash everything!”

The enemies tried their best to fight against evil.

However, once Luke unleased the third phase of Build-up and the fallen angel’s Ultra-high-speed movement ability, the movement of Avenger couldn’t be caught with the naked eye.

In an instant, the enemy troops got defeated, and the rest of them threw away their giant swords and shields and ran away.

They were too scared that some guys even left their Gigants and ran on barefoot.

“Huhuhu, you wanted to mess around with your own will, but when it comes to running away, you need to get my permission!”

Grrrng!

The hand of Avenger triggered Thunder Bringer.

With the purple sparks on his fingertips, lightning spread where he pointed to.

The remaining men, who were trying to run, turned into ashes.

Luke’s battle, which left no enemies alive, left the Guard Knights’ eyes wide open. Even Hwang Bo-sung, who knew about Luke’s power, was shocked.

‘I thought that it was going to be a one-sided fight… This wasn’t a fight. This is a slaughter.’

‘The Sword of the Warrior can use the power of the Devil King!’

‘Emperor Rudolf is no longer an opponent for His Majesty!’

While everyone was in their own thoughts, Luke gave out orders.

“Take care of the injured and prepare for battle.”

“Prepare for battle? Master, isn’t the fight done?”

When Hwang Bo-sung asked, Luke shook his head.

“No, the movements of the zombies are a lot more active than before. They are surely aiming for the Holy Imperial’s army that is stationed outside the city.”

There was anxiety in Luke’s speech.

The knights knew what he was so worried about and decided to clean up the mess and follow their King.