The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 159 – Horn and Fire (2)

Juan realized that his words had touched a sore spot for Barth.

“I used to trust you enough to leave my back to you, Barth. You were my very first comrade and a friend. I had even helped you avenge your race, and you had thrown yourself in the way of danger to save me several times. So, why did you betray me like that?”

Juan lowered his sword and approached Barth.

But Barth took a step back, frowning.

“If you were dissatisfied with me, you should have just directly come at me with a sword instead of getting my son to stab me in the back! Just like now!” Juan shouted angrily.

“You know nothing about me!” Barth shouted as he swung his sword at Juan.

At the same time, Juan quickly turned around and dodged Barth’s attack.

At that moment, Barth’s sword bent at a strange angle—Barth used the fourth stage of the Baltic Sword, Fog Solution and pressed down upon Juan.

A powerful attack that could split Juan in half as soon as it touched him continued to move toward him.

Seeing this, Juan drew his sword and directly faced Barth and dug into his gaps.

Juan’s face became distorted as he slammed Barth’s sword as hard as he could.

Clang!

With a sharp sound of swords meeting in the air, Barth staggered back.

“Barth, what the hell are you doing right now? Are you messing with me?”

Barth remained silent at Juan’s question.

“Why are you using the Baltic Sword? It seems like you are confident enough to think that you can beat me quite easily without even using your own skills.”

These words caused Barth to glare at Juan with clenched teeth.

On the other hand, everyone who heard Juan’s words had puzzled looks on their faces.

‘Why is he asking Barth Baltic ‘why are you using the Baltic Sword?’ Isn’t that only natural?’

Barth Baltic was practically a master in the Baltic Sword performed by the Imperial Army. Those who knew that the inventor of the Baltic Sword was the emperor thought that Juan was being sarcastic.

However, Juan was pointing out a completely different part.

“The Baltic Sword was made for humans. In fact, the Baltic Sword doesn’t suit you in the first place. After all, as far as I know, Hornsluines have their own swordsmanship.”

And Juan was right about that. Hornsluine had their own swordsmanship that was created based on the characteristics of their strength and size. That swordsmanship used by Hornsluines was completely different from that of humans.

Barth Baltic has been using the Hornsluine’s swordsmanship techniques when fighting against countless numbers of strong enemies until now.

This caused Juan to frown. Although Barth was extremely skilled with the Baltic Sword, he was no match for Juan, who was the creator of the Baltic Sword.

Barth just stood silently and repositioned himself.

“...I must have spent way too much time among the humans,”

‘Hornsluine’s swordsmanship techniques, huh?’

Barth clicked his tongue; he thought that he would have to rummage through his memories to recall how to perform Hornsluine’s swordsmanship techniques. After all, he never had to fight with all his might in the past forty-eight years. The only swordsmanship he performed during that time was the Baltic Sword, since he had to teach his knights.

Barth Baltic inhaled a heavy breath, then raised one hand to send a signal to Pavan.

The knights who recognized Barth’s signal turned toward Pavan with perplexed expressions. At the same time, Pavan was frowning as well.

“Captain, what should we do? That signal is…”

“What do you mean what should we do? It is the order from the Regent.”

Pavan was not convinced of Barth’s order, but he couldn’t resist it either. Pavan shouted at the Imperial Army in a loud voice.

“Imperial Army! Take one hundred fifty steps back!”

The knights repeated Pavan’s orders and gave instructions to the subordinate soldiers with unconvinced looks on their faces.

Pavan looked at Barth with worried eyes. He had several opportunities to see the Regent’s power in the past. Even though Pavan had never seen Barth fight with all his might, he learned what a great hero who had fought against gods looked like—and also learned that he would never be able to reach Barth’s level even if he trained for the rest of his whole life.

Pavan knew that the vast plain would be too small of a stage for Barth to use his full strength. He knew that Barth’s order to make the troops step back was to ensure that the troops didn’t get caught up in the upcoming battle. He felt his shoulders getting tense without realizing.

‘Is that black-haired young man that strong of an opponent?’

***

When the Imperial stepped back, Juan also signaled his army to retreat. His army had to watch Juan and Barth’s battle from between the buildings because the Magic Tower did not have outer walls.

Juan tilted his head from side to side.

“I think we still need more space.”

“Let’s just settle for this, since it would be hard to find a different place now. If you don’t want your men to get involved, you should…”

“Be extra cautious. I know,” Juan smiled and continued to speak. “I won’t use magic. Magic won’t work against you anyway.”

“I will kill you with all my might, even if you say that you will fight using only one hand and one leg.”

Juan nodded upon hearing Barth’s answer; he already knew that Barth would say something like that.

When they thought that enough space had been created, Barth and Juan made eye contact. Before they even finished taking a short breath, the two clashed again in the air.

The members of both armies tried to keep their eyes on Juan and Barth as they fought, but ended up closing their eyes and turning their heads due to the shockwaves caused by their collision—at that moment, even the ground was shaking, as if an earthquake had struck the area.

Barth’s sword, which had been struck first, split the muddy ground at once. His attack was so strong that his sword was stuck in the ground.

Most ordinary knights would consider this to be quite a big mistake, since it would take time and force to pull the sword out of the ground again.

However, this wasn’t the case for Barth.

With the sword still stuck in the ground, Barth tilted and raised the sword over Juan’s head, taking some of the ground with it.

Hard ground poured upon Juan, almost as if it were water or air. The sand and gravel that was pouring down on him along with Barth’s charge were so harsh that he was bruised by them even if they just slightly brushed against him.

Juan curled his body up to minimize the damage, but then, a shockwave powerful enough to push him back repeatedly struck him.

However, he immediately jumped off the ground and charged toward Barth through the dust and the wind.

At the same time, Barth quickly swung his sword to push Juan off, almost as if he already knew how Juan would act.

Then, Juan threw himself into the air to widen his distance between him and Barth.

Juan clicked his tongue.

‘Well, he is making me feel like a kid again.’

Juan felt like a little child whenever he dealt with Barth Baltic’s enormous size, sword, and strength that even most other Hornsluines couldn’t handle. Fortunately, he had been experiencing something just like this up until very recently.

But at this moment, it wasn’t Barth’s strength or ability that bothered Juan.

‘Why, Barth?’

Barth growled with murderous intent, but he waited until Juan repositioned himself, almost as if he was waiting for Juan to approach him again.

Juan was quite bothered by Barth’s attitude, since it hasn’t changed even the slightest bit compared to when they used to duel with each other for training purposes. His attitude was as if he was being generous toward Juan.

‘Why did a fair and dignified warrior like you betray me in such a dirty way?’

Juan fixed his position, then raised Sutra as he charged toward Barth once again, while Sutra’s flames heated up the surroundings. The heat could even be felt from hundreds of meters away, and it was so hot that the dead trees on the other side of the plain suddenly burst into flames. The snow that covered the plain was beyond the point of melting and becoming muddy, and had now dried up and become crusty under the fierce heat.

Directly faced with this intense heat, Barth roared loudly. His short roar swept through the entire plain and dissipated the heat in all directions—Barth had just shaken off Sutra’s energy using a short roar and his own momentum.

Juan felt dumbfounded upon seeing Barth’s ability, but soon raised the corners of his mouth as he recalled the old days. The reason why Juan had always been fond of Barth was because of his crazy warrior-like spirit, which was the same even now.

The moment Barth’s huge sword and Sutra met in the air, Sutra’s flames shook to the point that they were almost blown out.

The sword that Barth was holding in his hand was made with a lump of iron, and had no special ability. Nevertheless, his energy alone was enough to make it seem like a magic sword with countless special abilities.

“Come at me!”

Directly facing Barth’s loud roar that could rip one’s face apart, Juan jumped toward him.

A shockwave continuously shook the ground and the air. The heat of soaring flames and the shockwaves from the swords being struck against each other made the people around the plain tremble. The soldiers looked at the sight with breathless expressions.

“Oh my goodness… His Majesty the Emperor…”

“What the hell even is that…”

The knights from the Order of the Capital watched the fight while muttering the emperor’s name without even realizing it. Not only was the opponent fighting on the same level as Barth Baltic, but his spirit and energy felt like they were far beyond that of humans.

Despite the fact that no one could take their eyes off of the battle, the soldiers couldn’t keep up with Juan and Barth’s movements as the flames soared up from one side and then to the opposite side in just a second.

None of the soldiers could see their attacks, but slashing marks were suddenly engraved on the ground and flames were soaring into the air. Swords, violence, death, and flames were all swirling in a narrow space.

The knights shuddered and truly came to understand why Barth had ordered the soldiers to step back. This battlefield was far too small for Juan and Barth. Even taking a single step toward their battlefield could easily cause hundreds of them to be cut into pieces simply from their sword swings.

‘Regent Barth Baltic…’

Pavan watched the scene with clenched teeth. None of the knights had ever seen Barth fight with all his might. Even Pavan, the strongest one among the knights, had only seen his skills during a duel for training purposes. Pavan had never been ashamed to call himself Barth’s student, though he felt that it was hard to catch up to Barth.

However, Pavan realized that he had been under quite a huge illusion. Both Barth Baltic and his opponent in front of him were already far beyond human beings. In fact, it was impossible to compare them with humans or to gauge their skills in the first place.

The two men were those who had ended the mythological era that had continued for thousands of years.

Barth and Juan were showing them what the truly desperate battles were like at that time.

Bang!

Juan tried his best to dodge Barth’s attacks instead of confronting them directly. Barth’s attacks were so powerful that his feet almost got stuck to the ground when he had to directly block a blow from above, and his body would be thrown into the air whenever he was blocking the attack from sideways.

Juan began to sweat even before he knew it. He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he had fought using only his sword, without any magic or strategies.

However, such a thing was normal for Barth.

He had killed demons and gods alike with no magic or deception—with only his power and skills. He could use any of the weapons, since he was good at handling all of them. If there were no weapons, he used his fists to punch his opponents and then used his horns to trample upon them. He always stood on the front line of the battlefield, leading the troops.

Although Barth Baltic had confessed that he was involved in the emperor’s assassination, Juan couldn’t understand why such a man was involved in such a plot. If what Barth said really was true, then Juan wanted to hear the reason why Barth did what he did and what his reason to betray Juan was.

“Barth.”

Juan looked into Barth’s eyes, then he briefly muttered Barth’s name as he stuck Sutra into the ground.

Seeing this, Barth was startled for a second, but then he struck his sword toward Juan’s head, since he was in the midst of a fierce attack already.

Crack!

A scream broke out from the soldiers standing around the Magic Tower upon hearing a grotesque cracking sound.

“You had the perfect opportunity to kill me, but ended up failing. You really have gotten old.”

Juan had raised his arm to block Barth’s sword. If Barth hadn’t tilted his sword to the side, Juan’s arm would have been cut off at once. It was a close call, but Juan was confident that Barth didn’t really intend to kill Juan.

“Did you really want to die that badly? If that’s what you want, then stay still. I’ll end your worthless life for good this time.”

Barth raised his sword with a growl, while Juan just stared at Barth.

“Barth, O Barth… just tell me. How did you get so old?”

“Are you making fun of me? I didn’t think I’d end up looking so trivial in your eyes.”

“You’re not as strong, as agile, or as good as you used to be in the past. But I know that you’re not the type to be lazy to stop training. You have literally become too old. No matter how much you train yourself, you can’t help but run out of energy as you age. But you are a Hornsluine, a being that doesn’t age that fast. What really bothers me is your bizarre aging.”

Barth glared at Juan in silence and slowly lowered his sword.

Juan stared into Barth’s eyes for a long time.

“Are you feeling guilty?” Juan asked.

“I did expect you to say some bullshit, but this is even worse than I thought.”

“Then tell me with your own mouth. Go ahead and convince me. The Barth Baltic that I know is a man who would use his own hands to kill me rather than borrowing someone else’s hands. I wondered if I had been mistaken about you or if you had become a different person over time. But no… I am certain about my thoughts now that I have fought with you. What the hell are you hiding from me?”

Barth bit his lips at Juan’s question. He looked conflicted as to whether or not he should wield his sword against Juan.

However, he couldn’t bear to raise his sword as he looked at Juan’s firm and honest eyes.

Barth muttered, almost as if he was in pain after a long period of silence.

“Either just die or kill me.”

“I won’t be doing either until I hear your answer.”

Barth glared at Juan with murderous intent in his eyes.

“You are mistaken if you think that I didn’t intend to kill you. My desire to kill you is more real than anything. If you come back to life, I’ll kill you as many times as needed, over and over again. But…”

Barth gritted his teeth.

.

“I wasn’t determined enough to do so back then, because I didn’t know if my desire to kill you was sincere or not.”