Ranker’s Return

The emperor’s words were like cold knives that flew over and pierced Damanos’ and Galiya’s chests and crushed their pride. There were only seven demon kings in the demon world. They ruled over an unknown number of demons and demonic creatures, making them literally kings of the demon world.

However, they had no confidence in defeating their opponent and decided to attack together. The emperor’s words were true, so they couldn’t refute them. 

“What does that mean?!” Damanos was enraged by the emperor’s words.

The emperor touched the shame that had risen in his heart. The fact that demon kings had to join together to attack a human hurt his pride.

Damanos’s figure disappeared and reappeared right in front of the emperor’s nose with his fist dyed black. As Damanos stretched out his fist, the air exploded. Upon seeing that, the emperor laughed and swung his fist. The emperor’s fist shone silently with seven colors and moved slowly like it was erasing the surroundings.

Moments later, the emperor’s fist and Damanos’ fist collided, sending intangible waves sweeping out around them. The violent fluctuations shook and broke things. The ground was cracked and turned upside down.

‘What is this?’ Hyeonu raised a hand to cover his face. Sand and dust rose and blew everywhere. This was all due to Damanos and the emperor and the collision of their fists. When the floating particles sank, Hyeonu’s vision finally became clear. He gazed at where the emperor and Damanos stood.

Their fists kept constant contact like cogs running smoothly without any error, and no one pushed the other. Then they came to a stop, still with their fists touching.

“Hey, is this a demon king? Is this a demon king? Yes, this is a demon king!” The emperor burst out laughing.

At first, the emperor cocked his head and showed a questioning expression. Then it gradually changed to ridicule. He was disappointed in the level of Damanos, who was a demon king. There were only seven demon kings in the demon world. So the fact that Damanos’ power was only at this level made him laugh.

“You were stagnant in peace, demon king—no, insect.”

The moment the emperor’s words were over, lights of seven colors hovered around him. These lights were spheres of different sizes, and they gathered to form a seven-colored sphere before flying quickly to Damanos. Damanos frowned when he saw the spheres heading toward him. At the same time, he raised his magic power, and black spheres appeared behind him.

The number of black spheres was exactly the same as the ones the emperor had created. Damanos’ spheres immediately moved to intercept the emperor’s spheres. Every time the spheres of the emperor and Damanos collided, there was an explosion, and the roar of the explosion was accompanied by shockwaves. The shockwaves didn’t cause as much damage as during the first collision, but there were more collisions this time, so the aftermath was similar.

‘It wasn’t to this extent with Rubolle...’ Hyeonu recalled that the scale of the battle between Rubolle and John Blake hadn’t been to this extent.

‘Is the emperor stronger? It doesn’t seem like it...’

To Hyeonu’s knowledge, John Blake was stronger than the emperor. The reason for such a conviction was that Lebron had said so.

‘The fight is too flashy.’

Hyeonu thought the fight was more dramatic than it needed to be. There was a specific reason why he felt this way.

‘The important thing to note here is that there are two demon kings...’

This was the problem. If the emperor were unable to beat Damanos easily, the current situation would become a great crisis since there were two demon kings who came to Etono. It definitely wasn’t a good situation.

‘The timing sucks.’

It was really fishy that they came the moment Lebron was away. Even if the timing was wrong, it couldn’t be so terrible.

“First, let’s help the emperor,” Hyeonu murmured. It would be difficult for Hyeonu to directly participate in the combat as the emperor and Damanos were on a different level from him. Nevertheless, he didn’t necessarily have to help with his sword.

“Tang-E, come out.” Hyeonu summoned Tang-E. The summoned Tang-E wasn’t as mischievous as usual and quietly buried himself in Hyeonu’s arms.

“There are many terrible guys here, Master dude,” Tang-E cried out from Hyeonu’s arms. After all, there were two demon kings and the emperor here, and a fierce battle was currently taking place between a demon king and the emperor. It would be stranger if Tang-E were not afraid.

“Tang-E, can you place some buffs on the blond man over there? He is on our side.” Hyeonu stroked Tang-E’s head and pointed at the emperor. Tang-E’s buff was a cheat that could tilt the situation instantly.

“Understood, Master dude.” Tang-E nodded and raised his paws toward the emperor. A tricolored light poured from Tang-E’s paws and quickly seeped into the emperor’s body. The emperor immediately felt the changes that occurred to his body. His entire body was now full of strength and as light as a feather.

“This cute friend is very talented.” The emperor looked at Tang-E and smiled. It was a perfect smile right down to the tails of his eyes.

The emperor’s movements changed a lot, and he showed an overwhelming appearance that was different from the previous battle. The moment the emperor raised his fist, lights of seven colors appeared and wrapped around him together. This light was different from before; it wasn’t just increasing the power of the pure energy.

It pulled things in from the surroundings like a black hole. In other words, it was a terrible attraction power. The force was strong enough to pull in the nearby Damanos. The emperor aimed his fist at Damanos, who was being pulled over with a flustered expression, and struck his arm. There was the sound of a stone breaking, and Damanos was sent flying away.

“Damanos!” Galiya moved toward Damanos as he flew through the air. Galiya grabbed hold of Damanos’ body and returned to his original spot.

“This arm... The wound isn’t recovering,” Galiya muttered as he looked at Damanos’ arm. He didn’t know what the emperor had done, but he could see that Damanos’ wounded arm wasn’t recovering. Basically, the demons and demonic creatures had a very good regeneration ability, let alone a demon king. Even if their arms were cut off and their internal organs disappeared, they would regrow. Yet the fracture in Damanos’ arm wasn’t recovering, despite being only a mild injury.

“Why? Are you confused as to why the bones aren’t sticking together? The wound will stay that way even with time. The reason why the wound doesn’t recover is simple. It is a secret technique of the ancient empire. I think you should know it very well?” Amazing words popped out of the emperor’s mouth. He’d used a secret technique of the ancient empire.

Hyeonu felt like he knew what it was. ‘The Luos Empire.’

The emperor’s throne had a passageway connected to the advanced academy, Rondal, in the ancient empire, Luos. It wouldn’t be surprising if the emperor had gotten something from it.

Hyeonu accepted it easily, but Galiya and Damanos didn’t have good expressions. To the demon world, the ancient empire was a history to be hidden. At present, few people knew the truth of that time as most of the people from that time were already dead. They had died in the middle or lost in a power struggle. Galiya and Damanos were the only demons who survived that time. They knew better than anyone else what the ancient empire was like.

Galiya and Damanos looked at each other and spoke.

“There are still traces of the cursed empire... I can’t let you go anymore.”

“The descendants of the empire must be killed unconditionally. This will allow the demon world to take over the middle world.”

The two men’s opinions were the same. The emperor was dangerous, and the legacy of the ancient empire was also dangerous. The risk factor had to be removed immediately.

“It is really a joint attack now,” Galiya said. There was nothing to worry about anymore. The slight hesitation that remained in their minds was gone.

“Oof!” Damanos ripped off his own arm. He grew a new arm in an instant. The regeneration consumed magic power, but it couldn’t be helped. He couldn’t fight with the deadweight.

Seeing this scene, Hyeonu sighed. He judged that even the emperor wouldn’t be able to deal with two demon kings at the same time.

‘Someone needs to help him...’

The person Hyeonu was thinking of was Lebron. It was only when he returned that this battle would return to the starting point.

‘He can’t come back right now...’

Nevertheless, it would take time to absorb magic power from the Quere magic power stone, regardless of how fast Lebron moved.

‘Should I join in?’

He didn’t know how tricky the pattern of the demon kings might be, but he thought he should be able to hold on for a while.

‘As long as I don’t die...’

If Hyeonu volunteered to help, there was a certainty that the emperor wouldn’t leave him alone. One-on-one, the emperor would definitely defeat the demon king. It was clear that the other demon king wouldn’t be able to fully focus on Hyeonu and that the emperor would look after Hyeonu. In that case, it was right to fight.

‘The retribution for sending Lebron away came back like this.’

Hyeonu started preparing for battle with a sigh. He took out the Mysterious Sky Sword and put on a mask.

‘I will kill Earl Delrun.’

Earl Delrun knew what the masked Hyeonu looked like, so Hyeonu had to quickly get rid of him before he spoke nonsense. This way, Hyeonu could use this false identity at least once more.

“Tang-E, buff me,” Hyeonu whispered as he put Tang-E on the ground. He had to clean the demon nobles up one by one. This meant he had to kill Earl Delrun instantly.

“Don’t push yourself too hard, Master dude.” Tang-E looked at Hyeonu with worried eyes. Asking for a buff meant that Hyeonu would join the fight soon.

“It’s fine. Have you ever seen me overdo it?” Hyeonu patted Tang-E on the head to relieve his worries. It was dangerous, but Hyeonu decided to jump in after calculating that it would be okay.

“Still... Then I will help you. I will save you when it is dangerous.” Tang-E patted Hyeonu on the knee. Then he stepped back and buffed Hyeonu.

“Thank you for your words, Tang-E.” 

Hyeonu felt lighter and used his own buffs one by one. As each buff was applied in succession, Hyeonu focused on his body and erased the flowing energy. It was just like what Lebron did.

“Is joining together the only solution the two of you can come up with?” the emperor asked. The battle between the emperor and the demon kings started again. The emperor was at a bit of a disadvantage. He pushed forward strongly, but he couldn’t deal a clear and effective blow.

In other words, he was just pouring out magic power. It couldn’t be helped. To begin with, the emperor had no great talent for melee combat. His specialty was utilising his unreasonably vast magic power and extreme magic power control.

Just then, a black-red light penetrated the battlefield and extended in between the two demon kings and the emperor. The light was directed at where Earl Delrun was standing. Earl Delrun poured out his magic power toward the light, but the light penetrated his magic power easily like it was a joke. The black-red glow pierced Earl Delrun between his eyebrows, and he collapsed to the ground.

Three pairs of eyes moved from the fallen Earl Delrun to the direction the light was fired from. A masked man in black armor stood there. “Your Majesty, I will help you.”