Emperor of Steel

It shared borders with the Irea Kingdom and the west of Symphonia, north of the Holy Empire, and the seaside of the Grenada Kingdom, which held a transportation hub.

Perhaps, that was why the trade had developed in the past, and with the money earned, they would develop various commerce industries and became a wealthy nation.

As wealthy as the nation was, it held strong military power and had a history of repelling the Baroque troops from invasion.

Zaragoza, the capital of the Castia Kingdom, was a place that was bustling with wealthy places.

With a large population, which had almost reached 1 million, they didn’t know that the lights wouldn’t go out even late at night.

That day, the royal capital, was brighter and a lot hotter than other days.

“Kuak!”

“Ahhh!”

“S-save the people!”

The city, which enjoyed its dazzling prosperity, turned into a mess.

Screams were erupting from everywhere. Groans and cries could be heard all over the streets where joyful laughter and songs were supposed to be heard.

“A monster! Run away!”

“What the hell are the troops doing!?”

Death Knights wandered around and swung their swords.

Some of them were stronger than Gigants and destroyed the walls and buildings. They were also killing people by stepping onto them.

Those people, who got cut down or stepped on, were the best ones.

Those who turned into the Undead because of the black magic of the Lich would go and attack their families or relatives who were around until they suffered.

There was no exception, either humans or animals.

It was as if they were trying to get rid of all the living things.

“Your Majesty, the inner wall has collapsed!”

“We have lost contact with the soldiers guarding the south residential area, Danube.”

“Fisher legion is also requesting to retreat.”

Royal Palace of Castia Kingdom.

James II wasn’t able to stay alert with all the reports and messages coming in from all directions.

Every possible way seemed to have been blocked and was hard to believe.

“Who the hell is it? What kind of bastards are attacking us?!”

James II asked the ministers who were there in the room along with him.

The first report that Zaragoza was under attacked got reported 2 hours ago.

There was already an incident where Cartago got attacked by unknown enemies and got annihilated, and instead of having a good time with his multiple girlfriends, he was holding a meeting with his ministers late at night.

In the meantime, the royal capital was said to be attacked and immediately sent in the defense troops and the central troops in surrounding areas to be dispatched.

They were all under the impression that with their power, they would be able to defeat the enemies.

In the royal capital alone, there were 200 Gigants, two Sword Masters, and an 8th circle Meister of the Royal Magic Tower.

But the situation turned out to be a lot more different than what had been expected.

There was no response from the central troops deployed near the capital.

Even if they weren’t being able to be contacted, they figured the troops would move right away after seeing the flames in the city, but when no new report came, it seemed like the troops had already been hit by the enemy.

Over 200 Gigants were smashed by the giant Death Knights or were taken down by the Meteor strike falling from the sky and turned into scrap metal.

It was the same with the high-ranking Sword Master Count Roma and the Meister of the Royal Magic Tower, who represented the kingdom. They also got defeated.

The strength of the enemies, Count Roma, the head of the Knights and the National Guard, broke down before even entering the Gigant for a fight.

The defeat of Count Roma was a huge shock to the National Guard.

The morale of the knights plummeted, and they began to be passive in defensive warfare and collapsed like sandcastles.

Even the troops that were dispatched to defend the area and defense lines of the city too collapsed right away.

“How about requesting assistance from the allies?”

The court wizard, who was holding the crystal ball, answered the question of James II.

“We have been contacting the other nations, even King Luke of Symphonia, but the communication isn’t working. Perhaps, the enemies are disturbing the communication.”

“Kuek, damn it!”

If the communication was being messed with, then there was no way to even get the situation reports from other units.

Now they knew how Cartago got wiped out without even a single information coming out of there.

“If the magic isn’t working, can’t we send in messengers?”

“I have already sent them, but...”

The wizard felt horrible about finishing the statement, and James II began to feel lost.

Was this all really happening? Was it just another terrible nightmare?

The vice commanders of the Knights approached him and spoke, “Your Majesty, you need to go.”

Currently, there were 80 Gigants and a few troops around the Royal Palace, but the vice commander’s judgment was that they couldn’t stop the enemy anymore.

The fact that James II had to abandon his palace and runaway was a huge humiliation.

But if he survived, wouldn’t he get a chance for revenge?

“An escape plan?”

“The messenger said that the teleport gate is fine. You get there from the secret passage in the palace.”

“Okay, we will escape immediately...”

It was when King James II was about to make a decision...

Kwang-!

Along with a terrifying roar, the palace began to shake.

“Wh-what?!”

The startled ministers screamed when a knight entered the room.

“We are in trouble! The Gigants and knights who were guarding the palace got wiped out by the wide-area attack of the enemy wizard!”

“What?!”

How strong would the wizard have to be to take down 30 Gigants and 200 knights at once?

“Your Majesty, follow me right now!”

The vice commander, who thought that plans had to be implemented right away, took James II to the secret passage.

The secret passage was connected to the underground channel that brought water to the palace.

The underground waterway was connected to another point in the city, the place where the teleport gate was located.

However, James II and his party got stopped before they could even move 10 meters away from the palace.

“Not possible!”

Perhaps, it was because of the enemy’s attack, but the passage was broken.

‘If I knew this would happen, I would have moved the teleport gate into the Royal Palace!’

James II regretted his decision.

Zaragoza’s teleport gate was near the central square and not in the palace.

It was because the previous king didn’t like the teleport gate in the palace. His argument was, what if an enemy nation sent in an assassin.

The former king, Sean, who was as much of a playboy as James, moved the teleport gate to the central square and built a separate palace where his girlfriends would stay.

The other officials would always ask for the place to be changed, but neither the past nor the current king listened to them.

They never thought that Zaragoza would be attacked.

‘It was my fault. I should have asked my allies and King Luke for help!’

He regretted distancing himself from the alliance because of what he did with the Undead and his high sense of pride, and now things were irreversible.

“En-enemy!”

At the guard’s shout, everyone’s eyes turned in the guard’s direction.

There were less than 10 people, and no one believed that they could defeat the Death Knight or Lich.

“Huauhua!”

A bleak laugh escaped James II’s mouth.

On a hill overlooking Zaragoza.

A man was standing with his robes flapping due to the night breeze.

He was the Lich King, Arsene.

“Kuakuka, kill everyone and destroy everything! Nothing should be alive by tomorrow morning! Man or animal!”

His eyes, which were giving out the instruction, were cold.

Arsene came over to Castia by boat from the west coast of the Libiya Kingdom as soon as his Undead making was done.

He wanted to kill his old enemy, Luke, right away.

But there was a small change in plans.

Before killing Luke, he decided to remove his allies first.

And the first one was the Castia Kingdom.

There was no Sword Sage or any famous wizard there, but the nation had great money and advanced magic engineering.

In addition, Castia Kingdom was the place where his descendant, Zehart, was living after breaking Libiya’s finance.

So Castia was decided to be the first one.

“Master, we have slaughtered all the humans in the residential and urban areas.”

An advanced Lich approached him and reported.

“You did well. No one ran away, right?”

“Yes, it is impossible to escape with all the zombies spreading outside the city.”

“Kuek, then the only place left is the Royal Palace.”

In the center of the city.

The Royal Palace of Castia.

There were Guards, the Central Army, who had retreated over there and were protecting King James II.

Hundreds of guards and over 80 Gigants were on stand by, but it was just a matter of time before they got annihilated.

There was no way they could stop an advanced Death Knight, and the Knight class Gigant got smashed one after another.

It was natural that it couldn’t be prevented. The advanced Death Knight’s combat power was close to a Sword Emperor.

Moreover, the Sword Master, Count Roma, and the Meister of the Royal Magic Tower, who were the pride of Castia, were already dead.

“When the battle is done, pull out the Undead. Don’t miss a single one. It will be tough if Luke knows who we are.”

Arsene didn’t want to reveal the Undead army until all of Luke’s allies were killed.

After receiving a report saying that the 11 million Undead army were cleansed in less than 2 months, Arsene thought that he should be more careful when dealing with Luke.

‘I hate to admit it, but he did end up turning dangerous to me.’

But, in the morning when the sun rose, the palace would turn quiet.

All those who resisted would be annihilated.

Arsene, who turned a city of 1 million people into a graveyard, ordered for withdrawal.

Well, he tried to order.

Wheeing!

A wave of familiar magic was detected in the vicinity of the palace.

It was the wavelength that the teleport magic was triggered, an eerie smile caught Arsene’s mouth, sensing the wavelength.

“Oh my, an uninvited guest has appeared.”

It seemed like an unwanted man had entered the city.

The identity of the man was someone Arsene knew very well.

‘I want to play with you right now, but it isn’t time yet.’

As a response, Arsene ordered his Lich to withdraw right away.

“Kuek! Wait a little longer, Luke! I will kill you in the most miserable way!”

With those words, Arsene disappeared from the hill.