Chapter 154
The madness of wanting to tear apart anything that touches what’s yours.
An obsession that allows no compromise, no forgiveness.
‘How can that child have such eyes…?!’
Only then did the Empress realize.
Madness was not Ante’s alone.
“Listen carefully.”
Angelina’s voice, filled with anger, carried the Sun’s power.
“My only family is Ante Flaubert.”
At those words, Ante’s eyes grew round.
His stopped heart began to pound wildly, and the world that had faded to ash began to fill with color again.
The overwhelming emotion rising to his throat and the desperate feelings swirling in his mind made it hard to breathe.
“From before, and forever into the future.”
No sooner had she finished speaking…
BOOM.
The Sun’s power erupted.
That vast power flew toward the magic circle behind the Empress.
It was the darkest and most intense of the many magic circles drawn here.
“Capture them all!”
The Empress issued orders while using the Witch’s power to block Angelina’s attack.
KABOOM!
Each time the two powers collided, a loud explosion occurred.
“Capture her!”
The soldiers rushing toward Angelina…
CLANG! BANG!
“I believe I am your opponent.”
Were blocked by Artoas.
The archers were the same.
“Shoot!”
They shot arrows and threw spears with vigor, but…
CRACK! Rumble.
They were blocked by the magical barrier surrounding her.
“….”
It was Ante, with an indescribably complex expression, who had formed the barrier around Angelina.
Angelina, glancing at the barrier with spears and arrows stuck in it like a beehive, slightly turned her head to look at Ante.
When their eyes met, he flinched greatly.
Angelina smiled brightly and snapped her fingers.
The suspended arrows and spears broke in half and fell to the floor with a thud.
“How…! How can you forgive him?!”
The Empress trembled.
Her plan had completely fallen apart.
The Empress thought Angelina would waver if she told her the truth about Ante.
It was a story sufficient to make even the gentlest child feel betrayed and turn away.
Ante had hidden it all this time and played the role of a kind brother to her, so it should have felt even more eerie and hypocritical.
She had planned to tear out the Zeplictus embedded in his heart when Angelina lost the will to fight and Ante fell to the depths of despair after losing his world.
Since Grandonia was already half in her hands, she calculated that once she got Zeplictus and corrupted Angelina, who had lost her will to fight, with the Witch’s power, Artoas would soon be in her hands too.
All to complete the Witch.
She judged it was the optimal moment to use ‘that truth,’ her final stronghold, and thought it was a perfect plan.
Or so she thought.
“Forgiveness?”
The thought that Angelina would embrace and protect Ante without the slightest wavering… truly, she hadn’t considered it even a tiny bit.
Isn’t betrayal human nature?
Trust once broken should shatter easily like an eggshell, and faith and love should transform in an instant.
But why?
“I knew you didn’t marry me purely out of love. But I never thought you would harbor thoughts against the Imperial family’s will.”
That man lying on the floor.
That man who whispered love every day turned his back without a moment’s hesitation as soon as he saw her true self…!
She had once loved the Emperor, too.
It might have been love when they married.
But the Emperor lamented the absence of the Saint even during state affairs, and when he was with her, he only complained about why the Sun God wouldn’t send down a Saint, and at every moment, he only looked forward to the Saint’s return.
Saint, Saint. Saint! SAINT!!
It was sickening.
No matter how much she played the role of an Empress who loved the Empire’s people, the Emperor only sought the damned Saint.
So the Empress thought.
What if I become the Saint?
That twisted affection had come this far.
It was all for him, but he abandoned her.
He didn’t divorce her for the sake of the Imperial family’s dignity, but he completely turned away.
Yes, that’s how it should be.
No matter how much she claimed it was for love, it would be normal to hate and detest her!!
“Why don’t you resent him!”
Instead, she was busy protecting him, wrapping him in layers of the Sun’s power.
At the Empress’s shout, Angelina tilted her head.
And with an expression that showed she couldn’t understand at all, she said:
“What a strange question. You need something to forgive in order to forgive, and something to resent in order to resent.”
As if the question itself was wrong from the beginning.
Finally, the Empress’s eyes were covered with madness.
“No… No, it’s because you’re the Saint. It’s because you’re that damned Saint!”
KABOOM!
The red Witch’s power exploded and pounced on Angelina.
Angelina raised her hand upward to gather the Sun’s power.
But someone repelled the red energy faster than she could.
With a sound of cutting through the wind, Blake, who had swung his sword horizontally, embraced Angelina.
“It seems the conversation is over, so I don’t need to wait any longer, right?”
His voice with a deep resonance struck her ears.
When his languid scent enveloped her body, the anger that had been boiling uncontrollably until just a moment ago melted away like snow.
It was a strange thing.
He had only declared that he would no longer stand back as he embraced her.
Yet his voice gave her a sense of stability, as if telling her that everything would be alright now.
Having regained her usual calmness, Angelina took a deep breath and opened her mouth.
“Yes, the negotiation has broken down.”
As she released the Sun’s power with all her might, the corner of Blake’s mouth turned up.
“Always as the Sun wills.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than power surged from his body as well.
“Capture them! Seize that sword!”
At the Empress’s frenzied command, the Holy Knights in red uniforms began their attack again.
The priests also used powers of red energy that appeared to be curses and debuffs, but they all were neutralized and disappeared against the Sun’s power.
‘The sword…’
Angelina glanced at Artoas while supporting Blake with the Sun’s power and protecting Ante, who couldn’t use magic perfectly because his body wasn’t fully recovered.
The Empress’s obsession with Artoas was very strange.
‘Could it be that even when she tried to attack my brother…?’
Angelina, having realized something, turned her fingertips.
Rather than simply enveloping Ante with the Sun’s power, she penetrated deep into his heart.
It was the moment she filled it with the Sun’s power as if trying to occupy that place.
WHOOSH! BOOM!
Ante’s fire magic, which had been attacking the priests, grew enormous as if oil had been poured on it.
“…!”
“What?!”
It wasn’t just the priests who were attacked that were surprised.
Ante also looked at his hand in apparent confusion.
After being affected by the Empress’s red energy, his magical power hadn’t properly returned, and he couldn’t control his magic as he wished.
He had been sweating, trying to keep his magic from escaping his control when suddenly it felt like the uncomfortable restriction had been lifted.
Ante turned to look at Angelina, feeling the familiar and warm energy from his heart, and saw her eyes sparkling.
“Hmm, as I thought.”
Muttering quietly with a sly smile, she quickly turned her head and used the Sun’s power differently than before.
The white light that had only been supporting Blake traveled down his arm and enveloped his sword.
And Artoas absorbed that power like a dry sponge dropped in a water container.
Soon, they could see the effect.
Woong-!
“Aaaagh!”
With one strike from Blake, weapons shattered and the Holy Knights flew backward as if swept away by a strong wind.
Blake also briefly wore a puzzled expression similar to Ante’s, but soon smiled as he felt Artoas resonating pleasantly.
He couldn’t help but feel good as this power, permeated with her scent, seeped into him as if it were his own.
And it wasn’t just Artoas’s resonance.
Hum hum, Zeplictus’s heart and Artoas’s blade recognized each other and awakened, growing increasingly powerful with Angelina’s presence.
“Th-this…!”
“I thought it was strange how obsessed you were with the sword, but thanks for letting me know something good.”
Seeing Angelina’s bright smile, the Empress’s face turned red and blue.
“The Saint…! Everything should have been mine!!”
The crimson energy, which had become even more ominous, dyed the Empress’s skin red, raised her veins, and with bloodshot eyes, she raised a huge tidal wave of red energy behind her.
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