Margrave’s Bastard Son was The Emperor - Chapter 570

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 569
Fire. The Manifestation of Secrets
“Waaaaah!”
The soldiers who had been waiting for the barrier to crumble seized their moment, charging forward with a thunderous roar.
They stumbled briefly over the remnants of shattered golems and crumbled bricks, but quickly regained their footing and rushed toward the walls they could scale.
“The barrier has fallen!”
“Climb! Get up there and push back Burgos!”
“We don’t need ladders! Just crawl up!”
“Hahahaha! Finally!”
Crash! Bang!
Boom boom boom boom!
Continuous aftershocks and inexplicable explosions followed, yet the soldiers heard nothing. Like racehorses, they kept their eyes fixed on the gap in the barrier, charging forward with thunderous war cries.
Only those standing a step away in the Bariel camp sensed something amiss.
“Something feels wrong.”
“There are small explosions continuing from inside the collapsed section. Will they be alright?”
“…Don’t worry. They’re not the type to die easily.”
Simon, one of the three great commanders, clenched his jaw as he responded. He understood the Emperor’s intentions and grasped the current situation precisely.
Now was the time to trample over comrades and advance, not to clear rubble and rescue them. That was the shortest path to Bariel’s victory.
“They’re pouring in! B-Bariel soldiers!”
“Damn it! To the second gate! Hurry!”
“That’s—the barrier collapsed and twisted the entrance! We can’t enter through the north gate!”
“Fall back! Go around the other way!”
“Aaaaah! Bariel soldiers!”
“Advance! Keep going! Eyes forward, run!”
“Waaaaah! We came for victory! You bastards!”
Slash! Slash!
Bariel soldiers and Burgos soldiers met at the collapsed barrier, clashing swords and roaring at one another.
A battlefield where hot groans and cold death intertwined. The Bariel soldiers standing atop the rubble quickly surveyed their surroundings.
“There aren’t many Burgos soldiers!”
“Aren’t they all buried below?”
“Then this is a blessing!”
Slash! Slash!
Boom boom. Boom boom.
“Tighten the formation.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Press harder on the collapsed section! Forward!”
Jin watched and lightly kicked the horse’s flank. The white steed raised its front hooves with a majestic neigh, then began galloping forward with its mane flowing.
The high-ranking officers of the Imperial Defense Ministry followed behind, while the Imperial Guards wedged themselves between them to maintain close proximity to the Emperor.
Clop clop clop!
Jin Berosion. This was his first war since ascending to the throne. With such significance, there was something he needed to demonstrate to deepen its meaning.
A piercing shriek!
The Emperor’s blade drinking deep of enemy blood.
More than that, it proclaimed to the Bariel soldiers that their Emperor stood always at their side. Glory would be forged in their hands and his own, a rallying cry urging them forward without fear of death.
“Aaaagh!”
Jin severed the neck of a Burgos soldier who had strayed from the pack with a clean stroke, and the soldiers following him rushed over the corpse, trampling it.
“Your Majesty! I believe this position is ideal! Advancing further would be perilous!”
At Tweller’s cry, Jin pulled hard on his horse’s reins. They had already reached the base of the hill. It was a distance where arrows could find their mark if loosed from the wall, which now loomed even larger before them.
Though Jin and the other commanders halted their mounts, the soldiers streaming behind them surged past and charged forward without pause.
“Hyaaaah!”
“Advance! Erase Agiare from history!”
“Once the 11th Legion enters, I shall follow!”
“Yes, Your Majesty. We shall prepare.”
As Jin spoke, he covered his nose with his sleeve. A murky blue-green smoke seeping through the collapsed wall carried a stench far more acrid than expected. What in the world was this? The concentration was growing so thick that even the soldiers intoxicated by battle were beginning to notice.
“Your Majesty!”
Then came Ian’s cry from above.
“The Gypsy is dying!”
Was this phenomenon a result of the Gypsy’s death?
So Rutherford had finally driven his blade into her belly.
If so, there was also the possibility that Bonita and the Imperial Guards had suffered the same fate.
“Do not approach—!”
He was about to shout that while the charge was good, they should observe the situation, when—
Ian felt a chill pierce his chest. He could not explain it in words, but some unknown force seemed to caress the region beneath his heart.
And then—
A deafening boom!
Crash! Crash!
A tremendous explosion erupted from beneath the collapsed wall.
An explosion so violent that even massive stone fragments were hurled skyward. The bodies of soldiers standing atop the wall were torn to shreds and scattered in all directions. It became meaningless to distinguish between Bariel and Burgos soldiers.
“Your Majesty!”
A sharp whistle!
As boulders the size of houses flew in all directions like a volcanic eruption, the Imperial Guards summoned their mana blades and cleaved the debris falling toward them in half.
Boom! Crash!
“Aaaaagh!”
Soldiers were buried, torn, and obliterated by the rain of wall fragments.
A high-pitched ringing—
Jin clutched his numbed ears and stared upward at the sky. What a magnificent sight. As if all the stars that had drifted across the night sky had fallen here at once, their light extinguished.
“Your Majesty! Lower your head!”
A sharp metallic ring! Another ring!
Crack!
“Ugh!”
Several Imperial Guards who had been deflecting debris aimed at Jin were struck in the head by cascading stones and collapsed.
Humans are said to become powerless before the forces of nature, yet I found myself unable to move with merely stones raining down upon me. I pressed myself against the trembling earth, praying only that God would watch over me.
Zzzziiing!
Crash!
It was then that Ian descended beside me and conjured an enormous protective barrier. The relentless deluge was halted by an invisible wall and diverted downward, inadvertently creating a new barrier before the Bariel forces.
“What, what on earth is that!”
“A, a monster?”
“Look up! Up!”
But that wasn’t the real problem.
The real problem was—
Craaaaaash!
“What, what is that.”
“Cover your ears! Cover your ears!”
“Ugh, damn it.”
A human form wrought from teal-blue smoke. The gas had taken shape with the explosion, reaching dozens of meters in height.
Beside it, things of every description poured forth urgently, scattering in all directions as if they knew exactly where they needed to go.
Kiiiieeeeek!
The horrific shrieks they emitted were deafening. Everyone shrank back, covering their ears. Only Ian stood firm, his posture rigid as he faced the teal-blue form.
“Your Majesty.”
Ian’s murmur was barely audible over the chaos. When I turned to look at him with a deep frown, he exhaled lightly and continued.
“The Gypsy is dead.”
“What? Count Ian! I can’t hear you!”
“All of these are secrets. Individual secrets.”
Thousands of forms were secrets the Gypsy had hidden within the ship. Now that the vessel was torn open and they spilled into the world, these decayed remnants would seek to return to their original owners.
The problem, if there was one, was that their forms had changed considerably.
“With the explosion, I sensed an unknown stimulus. An instinctive sense that the secrets would return.”
“Count Ian!”
“And that one, I suspect, is my secret.”
I caught fragments of his other words, but that last statement came through crystal clear. That teal-blue thing, dozens of meters tall, was Count Ian’s secret.
Kyaaaaaaah!
“It’s coming! It’s coming this way!”
“Ugh! Stab it!”
In the chaos, large and small forms moved frantically, seeking to return to their owners.
The soldiers dodged left and right or swung their blades, fearing they meant harm, but secrets, being conceptual entities, could neither give nor receive any physical damage.
Whoosh.
Ian removed his robe and murmured.
“Secrets seek out their masters and bring chaos to the world.”
The manner of their return was hardly elegant, but the Gypsy’s words held truth. I had wondered how things rotting away inside a ship could bring such chaos to the world, but seeing these forms made it clear.
“Your Majesty. Please wait a moment.”
“Count Ian! You cannot go! The attacks won’t work!”
“That is because I am not the secret’s owner. I can tell.”
It was far too immense. That presence—its power and heat were so overwhelming that one might mistake it for a Demon King itself.
Conversely, did this mean that Ian’s secret was equally vast, capable of shaking the world with such magnitude? Everything about his identity and all that had transpired in the abyss.
“I will reclaim my name.”
Tap, tap, tap!
Ian ran forward slowly, ignoring the throbbing pain in his abdomen. While everyone else fled backward, a lone boy with golden hair swam against the current. So brilliantly did he shine that everyone present burned the image into their eyes.
Whoooosh!
The colossal secret reached out as if yearning for Ian, and he leaped lightly, bounding up along its arm.
The Idgal that materialized in his hand gleamed far more brilliantly in contrast to the dark blue aura, evoking the image of a small star ascending toward the heavens.
“…Good God, this is insane.”
“I-Ian, sir.”
The battle between Ruswena’s mages and Bariel’s mages was halted by the Gypsy’s explosion. The Burgos soldiers barely survived the brink of death and pressed their hands to the earth, while the Bariel soldiers gazed blankly skyward, witnessing Ian’s ascent.
“What is the current situation?”
“Stones have piled up in front of the Bariel encampment! It appears to be due to the mages’ protective barriers!”
“What are our casualties?”
“Most of the debris scattered by the explosion fell onto civilian facilities, and most of the soldiers on the barrier are injured from the blast.”
“While the Minister of Magic is occupied elsewhere, now is our opportunity! Bring forth Ruswena’s dragon!”
Meanwhile, behind the Agiaar Barrier, movements to assess and manage the situation continued.
The thousands of cacophonous shrieks that had been rustling fell silent, and with Bariel’s guard now lowered, when else would opportunity strike if not now?
Whoooosh!
At the Commander’s order, massive dragons soon soared up from behind the barrier.
Seeing this, Minister Tweller drew his sword and spoke harshly.
“Are you not members of Gaia? The Dragon Sanctity Accord clearly exists—how dare you drag dragons into warfare!”
“Stop joking! Once dead, everything becomes meaningless! And wasn’t it you who first mobilized dragons in combat? Drop the nonsense about them not being for slaughter! Regardless of intent, if the dragon’s aid results in killing, then it is being used as such!”
Tweller clamped his mouth shut and turned to Jin. They had already discussed the situation unfolding now within the Imperial Palace.
“The dragons we possess are not purebloods. Therefore, there is no violation of the Sanctity Accord. These are gifts sent from Ruswena, so that nation will guarantee their use.”
“What?”
What kind of nonsense is this?
Bariel was now laying groundwork regarding the aftermath of the war, but Agiaar’s Commander remained unaware, showing only a bewildered expression.
But what could be done? There was no turning back now.
“All forces—!”
The surviving Burgos soldiers stumbled and slid down beneath the barrier. Now the direction of power had reversed. It was not Bariel rushing toward Burgos, but Burgos charging toward Bariel.
“Advance!”
Whoooosh!
With that, Ruswena’s dragons came flying at rapid speed. The mages, regaining their senses, drew magical circles to bind the hands and feet of the Bariel mages before them.
“They’re coming!”
“Everyone, take up arms!”
Clang!
Only the Imperial Guards possessed the strength to stop dragons here. They drew the special weapons crafted by the Dera Tribe and focused on the rapidly approaching dragons.
-Screeeee!
Boom!
And then—
Kyu hurled his massive body forward with all his might, ramming relentlessly.
Ruswena’s dragons hastily raised their tails to reverse direction, but Kyu bared his enormous fangs and pursued them without relent.
Screeeech!
The surroundings darkened beneath the dark blue smoke. A war between beings of irregular proportions—humans and spirits—unfolded across the heavens.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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