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64. The Fallen Imperial Family (1)

All the people looked up at the sky at the words that the Apocalypse had started. It was not just those in the capital who looked up; people all over the continent could hear the system speak too.

[The Apocalypse has started.]

Those words struck terror into all the citizens of the empire, sending them into a panic.

[The protective shield placed over the continent by God is now being removed. Starting now, all sleeping ancient races will awaken, and all external gods who have met the conditions to descend can now live on the continent.]

The system’s words threw everyone into despair. If all the ancient species and external gods were to wake up, then that would spell the extinction of humankind. Only those humans who had made contracts with the ancient or external gods would be stay alive, living out the rest of their days like slaves. Everything the system said made them despondent.

“Ahhh……”

“Is this the beginning of our end?”

“We are all going to die! We’ll all die!”

Right as the citizens were wailing in anguish, the pillar of light over the palace caused the building to collapse, and some thing began rising up the beam of light.

“Your… Your Majesty?”

A human form was rising through the light.

It was the body of the dead emperor. The ministers stared blankly at the figure while muttering to themselves.

“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!! This cannot be! Heuk heuk… Your Majesty! You can’t leave like this!”

In one corner, the chamberlain plopped onto the ground as he sobbed.

The pillar of light might have been far away for some, but all the citizens could distinctly see the emperor’s body as it rose up the pillar. It wasn’t that their vision had suddenly improved, but somehow everyone in the capital could see the terrible state of his body, with his left arm and chest missing due to the dragon’s attack.

[The Hildenburg royal family has fulfilled the promise they made with the Lord to protect the God’s Orb till the end. Due to the last emperor’s noble sacrifice, the Lord God’s power will now begin spreading over the continent.]

-The Lord’s power will be manifested all over the continent, in order to fulfill the ancient contract between God and humans.

-The conditions for external gods to descend on the continent will be limited, and they will not be able to descend completely.

-It will take a long time for the ancient races to recover their strength.

-There will now be restrictions on demons and corrupted races coming over.

As the system continued speaking, all the people stared vacantly at the sky. The pillar of light over the palace began emitting a distinct mana wavelength, and the light’s power began spreading over the continent. As if all the happenings up till that moment had been expected, the Lord God’s power covered the entire continent, and suppressed the power of the corrupted races that had come to the continent.

-How is this……

One of the dragonfolk frowned as he felt the godly power suppress his own power. Once the Apocalypse started, the protective shield had obviously disappeared and he had definitely felt the strength of dragon blood in him blossom. But barely a few minutes had passed and it was being suppressed again.

The most hateful thing in the world was having something be given to you and then it being taken away again.

All the dragonfolk and hatchlings who had experienced the dragon blood strength flow freely through them only a moment ago immediately became agitated.

On the other hand, hope began to grow in the eyes of the citizens of the empire. The system’s voice rang out again, intensifying that hope.

[The start of the Apocalypse has brought a great crisis to humankind. The Lord who protects the world here bestows a present on humans.]

-From now on, all humans will awaken their mana.

-All who have previously awakened their mana will be granted an additional benefit. With one exception. Those who have made contracts with ancient gods or external gods will be ruled out.

-Starting now, everytime an awakened person kills an ancient race or external forces, they will receive immense power.

The moment the system finished speaking, light began to shine from the bodies of everyone in the capital. Countless people awakened their mana, and a great fighting spirit began to blaze in the eyes of those who had run away or hid themselves in fear. A quest window appeared in front of them, and they began showcasing special skills.

At the same time, they encircled all the dragonfolk who had jumped over the city walls or flown into the capital, and began using their new-found powers to kill as many dragonfolk as they could.

“Die!”

“How dare you touch our empire!”

“You killed our emperor!”

The enraged citizens dumped all their fury they had gathered until that moment on the dragonfolk. Seeing the humans who were charging at them with reddened eyes, the dragonfolk who had infiltrated the capital fell into confusion.

-These… these vermin!

Anger surged through the dragonfolk as they saw those things that were weaker than ants rush to kill them. They who had inherited the blood of the dragon tribe!

However, their anger remained that: just anger. Slowly, the situation began to look unfavorable for the dragonfolk, as well as for the hatchlings. Things were already not looking good for them when the drake knights and airship fleets attacked them previously, and now they had even awakened their mana. The battle became more difficult for the dragonfolk to handle.

-Everyone retreat!

The dragon, who had changed from his human form at some point, flew up to the sky and ordered all the dragonfolk and hatchlings to withdraw.

But the soldiers would never let them off just like that, especially the two commanders who had arrived hastily through the warp gate. The central army commander and the southern commander clenched their teeth, and used all their power to stop the escaping dragon.

“You thought you could just run off after murdering the emperor?!”

“You made a mess of the capital, and must now pay with your life!”

Leopold, the central commander, and the southern commander, David Fieldran, joined forces and blocked the front of the ancient dragon. A huge thunderbolt struck the dragon as he tried to escape, causing it to plunge to the ground. Leopold struck him mercilessly with his huge aura blade.

-How dare you, you filthy things!

Seeing the humans he had treated as less than crawling worms during the ancient times now treat him like a trifling plaything, the dragon’s anger flared. At the same time, he began thinking hard about how he could free himself from the dangerous situation.

Even in the ancient days, masters had been difficult opponents to battle against. Only the dragon lord was able to completely defeat them in a fight.

Boom! Boom!

-Rooaaarrr!

The angered dragon released his breath in every direction, but the thunderbolt’s power extinguished it, while he received severe injuries from the aura blade. The dragon’s magic was perfectly obstructed by the master-level southern commander’s magic. The magic master’s magic was strong enough to destroy the dragon’s ancient magic.

It was thought that humans’ magic had declined over the past centuries, but that was false.

As knowledge of ancient magic decreased over the years, humans established a new system of magic, which was now on par with ancient magic. The same had happened with swordsmanship and martial arts as well.

Ancient sword techniques and the powerful strength from the mythical times were so formidable they could be called calamitous. But it did not mean that humans were weak either. All those who were called masters had reached the peak of martial art, whether by ancient or modern terms.

All it meant was that ancient beings used their ancient methods, while the modern ones had their modern ways as well. [1]

-If only I had all my strength…

“I don’t think that would have made any difference…”

The southern commander looked at the ancient dragon with a leisurely expression. Although the dragon had lived for a long time and had a great deal of experience, his strength was not so much that it could easily prevail over a magic master. Afterall, magic masters were the personification of perfect human power. The only things the dragon surpassed magic masters in were his exceedingly long life and the great mana he had built up over time.

But now, the Lord God had given magic masters new power.

Crackle!

The dragon’s face froze at the spark that rose from the commander’s hand. The spark looked so ungainly and weak for something made by a master. But it meant something different to the dragon who could tell what was inside the spark.

“Pure lightning without mana.”

The southern commander smiled brightly as he spoke.

He had been stuck at the same level for a long time after he became a magic master. But that was now the foundation for him to gain new power and become even stronger.

Of course, the same held true for Leopold, the central commander. The more he used his sword, both his clan’s esoteric sword technique and his own special skills amplified.

-Are you playing me like some toy?

The two commanders chuckled at the dragon’s words. Yes, they had intentionally fought with the dragon in order to test out their newly received powers.

In his current state, unable to use all his original powers, the strength the dragon currently had was undoubtedly insufficient to deal with the two commanders.

“Let’s put an end to this now.”

Once Leopold spoke, David nodded slightly in agreement.

Having decided to finish the dragon, they both released their master-level strength. As if to prove that before they had been playing around with the dragon just to test drive their powers, an overwhelming power pressed down on the dragon.

The dragon expended an enormous amount of mana to withstand that power and tried to fly off again. He gathered his highest defensive mana and released his dragon breath at the two commanders. In any case, he had completed his main goal; all he had to do now was escape from this place. All those hatchlings and dragonfolk were disposables that could always be recreated now that the dragon king had started awakening. He, on the other hand, was not.

-I have to return to help the dragon king…

Having risen into the air, the dragon thought that he had escaped the ordeal. But before he could finish speaking, he crashed to the ground. A gigantic lightning spear had penetrated his defensive mana shield and skewered a huge chunk of his flesh.

-Roooaaarrr!

“You are quite noisy.”

As the dragon let out a horrible shriek, Leopold swung his sword with all his might, and like an illusion, sent the dragon’s head tumbling off his neck.

A clean shot.

With his power amplified to the max, Leopold’s tenacious sword had cut off the dragon’s head with one swipe.

-This can’t be……

The dragonfolk immediately began panicking as they saw the dragon who had led them die.

As bedlam arose among the hatchlings and dragonfolk, Leopold gave an order to everyone in the capital in a calm voice.

“Kill all these criminals who murdered the emperor. Their sin is too great to show any mercy, so they must all face capital punishment.”

All the capital guards, as well as all the awakened people, rushed at the dragonfolk in one swarm once Leopold gave his orders. Despite their lack of experience, having just been awakened, they had more numbers, allowing them to overpower the dragonfolk easily. The dragonfolk, unable to defend themselves against the onslaught, died one after the other.

Each time one of them died, the people who had awakened their mana became even stronger. Their increased power demonstrated the benefit that they had been granted by the Lord God: a power increase every time they killed any beings of an ancient race or corrupted creatures.

However, at some point, killing the dragonfolk went past restoring the empire’s broken pride and became a method of making their power increase.

Hasn’t it been said that there is no limit to human greed?

The humans resembled demons as their eyes glistened with greed to increase their strength by killing the dragonfolk.

“Die!”

“This one is mine!”

“F*** out of here!”

The people in the capital ran around killing each other first, as if they had gone mad. As the number of humans was large and that of the dragonfolk too few, the chances to increase their strength was limited. That was why they paid no mind to the differences between their strength and that of the dragonfolk, and just charged in. For those who saw others getting increased powers, their eyes shone with even more avarice.

Maybe it was thanks to that. It only took three hours to clean out all the dragonfolk who had been in the capital.

Notes:

[1] The expression used here is 벽을 뚫다, meaning to drill through a wall. A direct translation would be that both ancient and modern beings/people would drill through a wall in their own ways.