Emperor of Steel

“At last, we have arrived!”

The Symphonia Kingdom’s troops, who ran for two days, finally entered the Minos Basin, where the large magic circle had been installed.

“Cheer up! The way up is a little tight, and after that, pass through the exit that is at the opposite side of the basin!”

“The zombie purgation operation will begin soon! We can rest as much as we want once we get there, so keep running!”

The commander of each unit rushed their soldiers to move.

Although they reached the point of operation, the Undead troops were right behind them.

“I can’t, can’t move anymore…”

“You idiot, it is just a little more!”

Contrary to the encouragement of the commanders, the soldiers couldn’t speed up.

They had already struggled for quite a lot of days in pushing out the Undead from the forts, and they were marching to the Minos Basin all night.

Although there was little time to rest, it wasn’t enough to relieve themselves of the fatigue they had accumulated over the years.

“Oh, there are many soldiers who are more tired than expected!”

Luke seemed troubled as he watched from the sky by using Fly magic.

If the Kingdom’s troops get entangled with the Undead before entering the basin, then it was another chaos for him.

Even if they were able to use the super large magic circle and relay tower, the damage to the soldiers would increase rapidly.

To prevent that, Luke issued a special order through command.

“Take the fallen soldiers into the wagons and trailers!”

“Throw all your weapons and armors! Just get up and run!”

The moment the order fell, the soldiers threw their spears and swords along with the armor and started running.

Even the wagons and trailers threw away any weapons inside it to create more space for the tired soldiers.

It just stops at that. The Gigant riders picked up the soldiers into their hands or placed them on the Gigant shoulders as they rushed ahead.

Thanks to that, around 180,000 Symphonia troops were in the safe and managed to outrun the Undead.

“Right, run! Just focus on running now!”

As Luke watched the kingdom’s troops enter the basin and rush to the exit which was on the other side, Luke turned to the Undead.

Kuuuuu!

Keeeee!

The Undead, which arrived at the entrance of the basin, ran over the other Undead. A bottleneck occurred on the path, which made the Undead gather into huge groups.

Seeing that, Luke began to turn anxious.

It was because the Undead who couldn’t get inside the bottleneck region would scatter over to other places.

Fortunately, what he was worried about didn’t happen.

It was because the Undead which were in the far rear pushed the Undead at the front forward into the basin.

“Master, you don’t have to worry about the rear.”

Johas flew toward Luke with Fly magic.

“The Undead in the back are being controlled by the warlocks of the Black Tower. We assure you, none of them will stray away from escaping!”

“Thank you. You did great help.”

When the Symphonia troops began to retreat, Johas and the warlocks of the Black Tower took over 20,000 Undead.

When the Undead army crossed the barrier, they took control of the Undead.

Since the remnants of Veritas and Zemerton were removed, there was no more concern about losing control over the Undead.

“But how is the magic circle coming along?”

“It was said to be finished. Reina is already waiting in the sky.”

Luke pointed at the hot air balloon that was floating above Minos Basin.

Johas looked at it and smiled.

“Well, Her Holiness must have been nervous too.”

“Maybe because she wanted to cleanse the poor people quickly.”

After a brief conversation, Luke and Johas looked down.

The entire basin was covered in black because there were millions of Undead there.

After confirming that 20,000 of the allied Undead on the tail entered the basin, Luke sent the signal to Reina.

“Reina, do it now!”

Reina, who was waiting, got ready.

She saw the signal sent by Luke and began to gather her power.

“Oh great father, free these false locks created around your innocent children!”

Woong!

As the Aether Globe moved, the Aether in her body transformed into Spirit power and began to spread.

The super large magic circle amplified her Spirit power.

While the core engines of the Gigants worked in accordance, the magic stones were accelerating to the maximum. The magic figures and characters engraved in the basin shone brightly.

“Wow! That is such a bright light!”

“It is so beautiful!”

The soldiers of the Symphonia Kingdom standing at the exit of the basin couldn’t help but admire the flowing magic circle.

It seemed like a light that could save them.

While the light filled the basin, Reina’s Spirit power got amplified by the magic circle by 10 times, well more like 100 times.

The Spirit energy that got amplified began to spread in all directions through the relay tower.

Wheeing!

“Oh!”

It was first like a huge rainbow in the dry sky, and then snow-like light began to pour down.

Not just the soldiers, but even Luke who devised the magic circle couldn’t take his eyes away from the magnificent sight.

‘This is… amazing!’

The light covered the entire Minos Basin.

The soldiers who felt the light fall on them realized their pain and exhaustion were flying away.

“Is this the power of the pope?”

“Ah! Look over there!”

At someone’s shout, the soldiers looked at the large Undead army at the basin.

Until just a moment ago, they were like zombies chasing after the army like hungry beasts with their rotten bodies.

But now, new flesh was covering their rotten bodies. Their eyes seemed to have some light in them.

With the Spirt power falling on them, the Undead went back to their original form, humans.

“Where are we?”

“Why am I here?”

“What the hell even happened?”

While the Undead or even the Libiya people were confused, the Undead in the rear, which was made up of Symphonia troops were the next to be cured.

20,000 Symphonia soldiers who turned into the Undead while blocking the Undead got covered in light, and they too got cured of the curse.

“Hurray! I am alive! Alive!”

“I am back to being a human!”

The soldiers, who got purified, cheered with excitement.

After being bitten by the Undead, they suffered in terrible pain and fear of turning into an Undead.

Did they doubt going back to being humans again?

What if they were left to become an Undead forever?

They were in such thoughts until they lost their reasoning. They were worried and prayed earnestly.

They hoped that the operation would be successful, and they would get to return home safely.

Luke and Reina did it without failing their hopes.

“Long live the pope!”

“God Bless Your Majesty!”

In the basin, the shouts of the Symphonia Kingdom’s troops resonated.

Luke flew toward a hot air balloon, which was in the sky, instead of returning to the cheering soldiers.

The Spirit power was great.

Trees were sprouting from the field that had turned dry, grains were growing in an instant, the trees were giving out fruits.

It was a miracle beyond what Luke expected.

There was indeed a great use of the large magic circle, but it was all thanks to Reina who had the ability to use Spirit energy to such huge amounts.

Naturally, Luke couldn’t help but worry about her.

“Dad, is mom alright?”

At Karen’s question who flew toward him, Luke frowned.

“She should be fine. She won’t be still even if she isn’t alright.”

He thought about how hard she would always work.

Not long after, Luke and Karen arrived at the hot air balloon.

They could see Reina surrounded by Reas and other wizards.

The light had faded from her face, and she was unconscious. It was evident that the Aether she used was more than what her body could handle.

“Mom!”

“I told you to not overdo it!”

Luke and Karen grabbed onto Reina’s hand.

As the Aether of the two flowed in, Reina’s complexion turned normal. She slowly regained her consciousness as the Aether Globe in her heart was being restored.

“Did I do it?”

“You did it. You did so well that I got angry!”

Reina smiled at Luke’s yelling.

She tried her very best to liberate even one who had suffered, and it seemed like her efforts weren’t in vain.

‘It isn’t over yet. We have solved only one part of the problem.’

The Undead were still out there attacking the Volga Republic, the Navarre Duchy, and the Baroque Empire too.

Their task wasn’t done unless those places were completely cleaned up.

However, Reina wanted to be more thorough in doing her task of purifying the Undead.

“I told you not to overdo it, right? What if you get sick? In the most severe cases, your Aether Globe could be damaged. Then even your life can’t be guaranteed.”

“But, things went fine.”

“Because you were lucky this time, and you did wake up, but what if…”

“I know. Stop getting angry because of one mistake I did.”

Her dad’s yelling and nagging, and her mother asking for an apology.

With a small smile on her lips, Karen looked up at the sky.

The light falling down had ceased, but the rainbow was still in the sky as if trying to put hope into their hearts for making it this far.