Emperor of Steel

“Luke de Rakan…!”

Earner reached for his severed hand while grunting his teeth.

Luke, who saw him in pain, couldn’t hold back his smile.

“Woah, I meet you once again here. I heard that in the Southern Continent, if people meet for three or more than three times, it isn’t considered as coincidence, but the inevitable end. Maybe our relationship is such an inevitable one?”

“What bullshit are you spewing?”

“It means that between me and you, one of us is destined to die. You must be feeling it too, right? Isn’t that why you keep on avoiding me by doing this and that?”

“Kuk, you think I am afraid of you, so I’m avoiding you?”

At Luke’s sarcastic words, Earner seemed angered.

He had never fought with Luke in his full strength.

Even in the past, both of them fought in the Zegal clan. However, they stepped back after fighting for a bit.

But to consider their meeting as not a coincidence but the end of the other, that made no sense.

Luke called it the inevitable end for one of them.

“This body hasn’t just mastered the uses of Zen energy but also the techniques of the Apostasy. If I decided to go full power, it wouldn’t take long to turn you into powder!”

“Then why don’t you try it?!”

At Luke’s unending ridicule, Earner’s anger was turning into rage.

“You…!”

There was a reason why Luke flew right toward Earner and kept on engaging him into a conversation.

It was to make enough time for princess So-hye and crown prince Jo Won-rak to evacuate and to install the secret magic barrier to prevent Earner from running away.

Even if he could let the other enemy soldiers run away, Luke thought this man in front of him shouldn’t be left alone.

There were two reasons for it.

Firstly, it was because Arsene too was learning the techniques of the Apostasy, and it seemed like Earner too was using the same skills.

In order to defeat Arsene, the enemy of his life, Luke had to be familiar with the techniques of the Apostasy.

And the second one was because Luke was the great wizard, who had managed to get the 9th circle.

As a wizard and a scholar who studies the reasoning surrounding the world, he was curious about the techniques of the Apostasy, which were similar to dark magic.

This made him think that by capturing Earner, he would make the man speak out all the techniques of the Apostasy.

“If you get caught, I am going to turn into a worm that swirls around in the dirt.”

“Y-you bastard!”

At Luke’s arrogant words, Earner’s face turned red with anger.

Earner had nearly been alive for 200 years.

It was the first time that he had been insulted so horribly.

That was why the little insult was enough to turn his face red.

“I’ll see if you would still be this arrogant when I peel your skin while you are still alive!”

“Before going after my skin, how about I get rid of your confidence?”

Luke showed no signs of backing off in their verbal argument.

If Earner was the man who lived for 200 years, then Luke was the Black Sage, who once swept the entire continent of Rhodesia, making him known as the Devil King.

Earner, who had fallen for Luke’s provocation, pulled out a large bell from his sleeve and began to shake it while chanting a strange spell.

Jingle! Jingle! Jingle!

Luke, who couldn’t understand what Earner was doing, tilted his head.

All of a sudden, he felt something terrifying behind his back.

Luke turned back reflexively and swung his sword.

Cang!

His body was pushed back by the heavy force.

However, Luke was shocked to see the one whom he used the sword against was himself.

Rather, it was Hiros.

‘What is this?!’

Before even Luke could understand what was happening, fire magic came from behind and hit his shoulder.

Pop!

“Kuk!”

Groaning in pain, Luke turned his head.

It was Arsene’s guardian, Baymon, the one made of his past body, standing with a staff in his hand.

Luke couldn’t even understand what was happening.

Although he wasn’t sure if Hiros was alive, Baymon had been completely rid of his energy in the hands of Luke.

So how could that man be alive and attack him?

The moment when Luke wasn’t able to think of any suitable explanation, others attacked him from left and right.

‘Shaikan and Arch Duke Gregory?’

Shaikan’s stance against him couldn’t be known, but Arch Duke Gregory would never fight against Luke.

Rather, Arch Duke Gregory would never leave Reina’s side in the Holy Empire to come all the way to the Southern Continent.

“Then this must be illusions.”

“Hahaha! It might not be as simple as that. There are strong enemies residing in your mind, and with my skills, they are capable of attacking you.”

Earner, who managed to create distance between Luke and him and disappear, burst into elated laughter.

It was an illusion, but they weren’t fake.

Getting struck by it, it seemed like he would bleed and die.

An ancient technique of the Apostasy.

The reason why Earner seemed so good at his work was because he managed to find the lost techniques of the Apostasy, which were scattered all around the world.

In addition to that, he seemed to have all the skills of the Kwi Gok-mun, whose descendant he calls himself of.

In fact, in the distant past, Earner’s skills and the techniques of the Apostasy seemed to have come from the same roots.

If the Kwi Gok-mun were the ones who settled down to have normal lives after sealing away their dangerous skills, then the Apostasy were the ones who went into the world because of their ambitions.

And it was a fact that only Earner knew because he succeeded in their teachings.

However, Earner had no intention of living a normal life like those who did in the past.

However, that didn’t mean that he would go on a rampage and create organizations to take over the continent like the annoying Apostasy.

He felt that it was good enough if he could intervene in the foolish fights of the humans.

In particular, trampling those who were known to have extraordinary skills gave Earner an incomparable pleasure.

Rather than counterattacking, Luke kept on avoiding the attacks from the images.

“Kuakkk! Where are you running off to? If you are the descendant of the warriors, you shouldn’t keep avoiding me…”

Slash!

Earner, who was hiding in the dark and teasing Luke with an elated voice, shut his mouth.

It was because of a blow that hit him deeply on the cheek.

“Y-you, how did you?!”

As Earner was muttering something, not being able to understand, Luke, who appeared in front of him, had a cheeky smile.

“A man who is good at creating illusions. Shouldn’t you be able to recognize the illusions created by others?”

Luke was caught up in the situation created by Earner.

He didn’t get caught up between the four men as Earner saw.

Rather, he used the illusion magic to trick Earner’s eyes and began to search where Earner was hiding himself.

“That was a pretty decent trick, but the illusions don’t seem like they can attack at the same time. And it seems like the illusions respond to what you see and attack, right?”

Luke’s observations were wrong.

Until the moment Earner was attacked, the illusions only pursued the illusions, which represented Luke.

“I hope that it wasn’t the best trick you had. Otherwise, this would be a very crappy fight.”

“Uhh! Y-you!”

Earner’s face distorted with disgust.

However, Luke, who managed to defeat the Lich, Arsene, this man, wasn’t that scary.

Luke was confident. He believed in his skills and his mind, which was full of curiosity.