CHAPTER 094
As Morpheone’s head and body simultaneously fell to the floor, the serene and beautiful landscape of Inis Lake vanished.
In the emperor’s unwavering red eyes, the cramped and gloomy eighth chamber came into view.
Dozens of eyes embedded in the walls on both sides flickered, illuminating the dark room.
A bluish-green head with bulging eyes rolled at the emperor’s feet.
Worms wriggled out of its gaping mouth, spreading across the floor and disappearing into the cracks.
“Are you awake now?”
A gruff voice echoed in the emperor’s ear.
The white leopard approached, limping, its expression filled with relief and joy.
The eighth chamber, where the emperor and Caligo had entered, was an empty space.
The dim interior was revealed by the blinking eyes embedded in the walls, but the monster itself was nowhere to be seen.
Aside from the bizarre eyeballs, the room resembled an underground storage.
Nevertheless, the cautious emperor and Caligo began to meticulously inspect the interior.
Caligo lowered his head to the floor, sniffing for the monster’s scent.
“It’s strange. There’s no smell at all.”
Caligo muttered to himself, then asked the emperor.
“Did you find anything special?”
Receiving no answer from the emperor, Caligo raised his head to look at him standing opposite.
At that moment, Caligo’s expression hardened.
He hurriedly dragged his injured front leg to the emperor’s side.
The emperor stood motionless, his expression eerie.
His eyes were open, but his red pupils reflected nothing.
His red lips murmured something incessantly, smiling grotesquely.
He appeared as if under a black magic-induced hypnosis.
Caligo, well-versed in black magic, instantly realized who the master of this chamber was.
Caligo headbutted the emperor’s leg forcefully, shouting.
“Snap out of it! It’s Morpheone! If you stay like this, you’ll go mad! Wake up!”
No matter how much he shouted, it was clear the emperor was already floundering in the illusion Morpheone had shown him.
Caligo even scratched and bit the emperor’s calves and thighs with his sharp claws but to no avail.
Morpheone, a pioneer of black magic, toyed with people’s minds.
Soon, the emperor would be trapped forever in the moment he most desired, his soul devoured.
Caligo, raising his voice, clawed and bit the emperor’s hand, but the emperor just stood there, smiling innocently, incongruously.
How much time had passed?
Just as a weary Caligo was about to give up and lower his head,
“Keeeek!”
The bone-chilling sound of a monster’s death rattle filled the room.
The grotesque form of Morpheone, invisible until now, appeared.
The emperor shouted, gripping Morpheone’s throat.
“Did you think Arabelle, who spent the night with me until this morning, would wear a dress exposing her neck and arms? Her lips wouldn’t be perfectly smooth and glossy, and her neck and arms wouldn’t be unmarked after spending a night with me. Talk some sense!”
Even in a crisis, the emperor’s vulgar and bold words sounded plausible.
Following the emperor around had clearly affected my own mind.
Caligo, nose tingling with emotion at the sight of the emperor’s return, thought to himself.
He would never admit the joy he felt upon realizing the emperor was safe.
Frowning in what seemed like a wounded pride, Caligo grabbed the chimera’s goat horn from his leather bag and tossed it to the emperor.
The emperor effortlessly caught the horn with his free hand and, without hesitation, severed the monster’s neck.
The emperor’s red eyes glared at the head falling to the floor, spewing yellow blood.
Morpheone had shown him the moment he most desired, tempting him.
The treacherous monster had tried to trap him here, even feeding him food from the underworld.
What was most unforgivable was that it had dared to imitate Arabelle.
Crunch.
The corners of the emperor’s lips twisted as he stomped on Morpheone’s head, grinding it underfoot.
As cracks began to form in Morpheone’s head, a golden light seeped out.
The emperor reached into the cracked head and pulled out a gold orb the size of a child’s fist.
“It’s Morpheone’s orb, which can enter dreams and control minds, even of gods. A treasure coveted by gods.”
Caligo explained as the emperor examined the orb in his hand before stuffing it into his leather bag.
As Caligo exited the eighth gate, he glanced up at the emperor.
“I thought you had gone mad, but you managed to hold on to your sanity.”
“You have a tendency to underestimate me. I won’t tolerate doubting your sovereign.”
“What nonsense is that? Why would you be my sovereign? I serve only Princess Ermior.”
“Is that so? That’s good to hear. I thought you’d demand a knighthood for your service as soon as we got out of here. I was willing to grant it out of annoyance.”
Caligo stopped and looked up at the back of the emperor’s head.
A knighthood.
Knights, who had emerged in the human world a hundred or two hundred years ago, were the most interesting humans Caligo had encountered during his thousand-year wait.
To a monster frozen in the form of a fifteen-year-old boy, knights in armor wielding swords on battlefields were objects of admiration.
“Don’t be ridiculous. To become a knight in your empire, even the lowest rank requires being from a noble family and graduating from the knight academy. An orphan like me doesn’t even qualify to enter the knight academy.”
Caligo scoffed, adding,
“Who would even accept a knighthood from an emperor like you? Hmph!”
Suddenly, the emperor stopped in his tracks.
His deep, resonant voice echoed down the corridor.
“An orphan doesn’t even qualify… What a filthy tradition.”
The emperor said, looking at Caligo limping toward him.
It was an imperial tradition regarding the knight system, something the emperor didn’t need to know about.
But Caligo’s words inexplicably irked him, causing his brow to furrow.
“Whether you want it or not, you will be formally knighted. You dare wound the emperor’s leg and hand. To avoid execution, you have no choice but to become a knight. Your loyal act to save the emperor will be forgiven.”
“So shameless! You dare threaten me over wounds made to save you!”
The emperor’s eyes softened as he looked at Caligo, who turned his head, pretending to be sulky, his face flushed.
The emperor and the white leopard walked silently down the long, frigid corridor, never dropping their guard.
Finally, they reached the end of the corridor, where a dense green vine thicket blocked their path.
The last, ninth door.
Caligo involuntarily swallowed his dry saliva.
The emperor's thick, straight neck also bobbed once in a big gulp.
Sssss.
Like a snake slithering, the vines slowly parted to both sides, revealing the ninth wooden door.
The emperor's sharp, deep red eyes scanned the door.
There was no "if" about getting through this room.
He must pass through this room to rescue Arabelle.
As the emperor clenched his molars, his wounded, sharp jaw contracted.
The emperor, standing tall and straight, once again drew the Musatir's sword from its scabbard,
Screeech.
The final door they had to pass through began to slowly open.
***
“Graaaaah!”
“Trraaaah!”
“Go away!”
“Stay back!”
“Kraaaah!”
Arabelle, Ermior, and Sepilia stood on a high rock, leaning on each other’s backs.
Demons with serpent bodies gaped their wide mouths below the rock, flicking their blood-red tongues.
Demons with the faces of dead women began to climb the rock.
Fortunately, the rock was slippery, causing them to slide down before reaching the three girls’ feet,
But soon, the hundreds of snake bodies surrounding the rock entangled, forming a hill for the demons to climb up.
“Gyaaaah!”
“Ahhh!”
“Ermior!”
“Grab my hand!”
“Kraaaah!”
As Ermior lost her balance and one leg dangling down, a demon seized the opportunity and bit the hem of her dress.
Ermior was helplessly dragged down by the demon's grip on her dress.
Arabelle and Sepilia desperately pulled Ermior by her shoulders and arms,
Rip,
With the sound of tearing fabric, Ermior was pulled into Arabelle’s arms.
“Phew… That was close…”
Arabelle, with sweat beading on her forehead, hugged the trembling Ermior and tried to calm her shaking voice.
Just then,
“Gyaaaah.”
From the dark sky illuminated only by moonlight, blackbirds appeared in flocks.
“Harpies!”
Sepilia shouted in a voice filled with terror, and Arabelle and Ermior's faces turned pale.
Demons with bird bodies. They were said to devour living humans whole.
Spreading their wings, bristling with poison-tipped feathers, they swiftly descended toward the rock where the three girls stood.
As their pointed beaks opened wide, the faces of swallowed humans appeared gruesomely.
“Kraaaah.”
The harpies' horrendous metallic cries threatened to burst their eardrums.
Arabelle covered her ears with her hands and locked eyes with a descending harpy.
As the harpy licked its beak and flew toward her, Arabelle instinctively shut her eyes tightly.
The rapid flapping of the harpy's wings tousled her hair.
Suddenly,
“Graaack!”
A cry filled with pain echoed in her ears,
Thud.
The sound of something hitting the ground heavily reached her.
When Arabelle finally opened her eyes, trembling hands clasped together...
A man fighting off the demons came into view through her dark pupils.
A tall man with black hair was wielding a longsword with ease, fending off monsters attacking simultaneously from the sky and ground.
Holding a harpy by one wing with one hand, the man turned his gaze to the three girls.
His blood-red eyes seemed to burn through her entire being.
Though she wanted to avoid his gaze out of fear, Arabelle was spellbound, unable to look away.
Sepilia's voice, filled with happiness, pierced Arabelle’s ears.
“He's my betrothed. He’s finally come to me!”
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