The Tyrannical Great Emperor
The man never thought Dordlet would lose. Neither did Shiori. Shiori could use transformation magic, and transformations granted by the Goddess’s power could even deceive spirit kings.
However, Alicetia utterly loathed counterfeit versions of her family. Shiori was killed, and Dordlet was crushed before he could deploy his magic armor—a result born of their arrogance.
But before the man could send the remaining subordinates to swarm Alicetia, she deployed her trump card.
“Crush her!”
“Great Emperor.”
The moment hundreds of elite fighters rushed at Alicetia, her body floated up, and a giant figure appeared around her.
A giant clad in golden armor with ominous blackened patches formed around Alicetia, who stood at its translucent chest, her eyes vacant.
Oooooooooh
The Great Emperor swung its fist down upon the approaching warriors.
The elites evaded easily—yet many of them were still sliced cleanly in half.
The Great Emperor’s body was formed from magic barriers—ones functioning as explosive reactive armor. Upon impact, it would detonate, scattering fragments like blades in all directions. Merely dodging the blow wasn’t enough to ensure safety.
Even the man had to defend himself from these barrier blades, grabbing the chest of a nearby warrior and using him as a shield.
“Tch… won’t even talk, huh? Fine.
That magic won’t last. Everyone, keep attacking!”
The man instantly recognized the Great Emperor’s weakness. Alicetia clearly couldn’t control it properly—magic beyond one’s capacity never lasted long.
Though it meant sacrificing his pawns, obtaining Alicetia was his top priority.
He despised Iris. Ever since childhood, he had been a ‘hero.’ Athletic, smart, wealthy, popular—everything had always been his.
He grew up twisted yet successful, until university in America, where he met Iris—and learned what it meant to be beneath someone.
Iris was isolated at university. A brilliant mind who ignored predecessors’ work and effortlessly surpassed their results in days or weeks—an outlier who terrified others.
Those who’d devoted years or decades to their research were rendered obsolete in an instant. Iris nullified their life’s efforts, and he was no exception. No matter how much he struggled, he couldn’t reach her level.
He knew it was misplaced resentment, but in his eyes, women were supposed to submit to him.
Unforgivable. She stood above him, yet her gaze reflected nothing—not even acknowledging those groveling at her feet. That’s why he decided to claim Iris for himself. And then, he discovered the plan.
The Lycoris Project.
It was a program to efficiently produce engineers—breeding geniuses from geniuses. An ethically and humanely reprehensible plan.
Moreover, there was no guarantee that the offspring of two geniuses would be talented—talent wasn’t determined solely by bloodline.
Yet if even a 1% chance existed that genius offspring would result from such pairings… if further research could produce gifted individuals… that was justification enough for the project.
Iris had been included without her consent, deemed a ‘naturally successful example.’
Carls and Shizuka were brilliant in their fields—important national figures. Their child, Iris, inherited both talents perfectly. This fueled the project’s expansion in funding and personnel.
But Carls’s vehement opposition led to its initial failure. Iris was sent to Japan, ignoring her homeland’s directives, and even got engaged on her own.
They thoroughly investigated Takuto Shishidou. While talented, he fell short of true genius and was deemed unfit for Iris.
While Carls lived, things remained in check. Iris annihilated surveillance efforts, sometimes even pitting enemy factions against each other using false information.
After Carls’s accidental death, Iris’s guard slipped. Manipulating a demoralized Iris became easy.
Under their coaxing, Iris produced weapons, drugs, and ultimately the technology they most coveted.
Perfect cloning and memory transfer technologies.
Cloning already existed, but ethical and legal problems arose due to biological mothers. Alicetia’s artificial womb solved these, making mass production feasible, free from maternal influence—paving the way for designer humans.
Yet it all failed. Iris destroyed everything and vanished.
After Iris’s death, things worsened. Momoniku II, who fled into the network, hunted down everyone involved. Some were exposed, others were bombarded with military missiles—mass panic swept across Earth, though most citizens were never informed.
Only two people escaped Momoniku II’s wrath—one being Akira Sudou, this very man.
Before Momoniku II could get to them, they fled to another world. Not even Momoniku II could reach another dimension.
Ooooooooooh
The Great Emperor raised both hands to the sky, and a massive magic circle spread across the battlefield.
“This is bad. It’s gonna attack everyone indiscriminately!”
“Full retreat!”
“Stalling’s over—I'm burrowing underground!”
The split bodies commanding each regiment sank into the ground using earth magic.
Those who failed to escape in time, along with the Imperial Army, were engulfed by the tactical-class magic Light of Ruin. Those caught in its glow were incinerated alive.
Alicetia normally could only cast up to advanced magic. However, the Great Emperor used Alicetia’s body as a magical catalyst, forcibly unleashing any magic necessary without any regard for the toll it took on her body.
The Great Emperor wielded power surpassing even Draconia. Yet Alicetia could not fully control that power.
Ooooooooh
The Great Emperor indiscriminately unleashed destruction. The Imperial Army had been lured out onto this plain. With no allies nearby, the Great Emperor could unleash its true might.
Over and over, it slammed its fists into the ground, scattering shards of its barriers around. The devastation spread from the front-line militia to even the rear regular troops, plunging the Imperial Army into total chaos.
It was as if a single individual had overturned an army of unprecedented scale—at least, that’s how it appeared to the Imperial soldiers.
In truth, it was different. The more the Great Emperor rampaged, the more Alicetia’s life was drained—like a candle burning brightest before going out.
The Imperial Army’s morale was completely shattered. Attack, and they would be shredded by barrier shards. Don’t attack, and they would still be assaulted. That ominous armor carved terror into their very souls.
The Imperial Army’s main force was already retreating. They had not been warned Alicetia was such a monster.
But it was already too late.
Mr. Coote watched the battlefield, which had ceased to be a battle and become a massacre, while evacuating the Woofers. From afar, he picked up on the sound that reverberated through the air.
“It’s over.”
The Imperial Army no longer had the will to fight, but this was only the beginning.
The Empire had to experience true despair. If they simply retreated, they’d eventually attack again. This level of terror would only restrain them temporarily. They needed to be struck with overwhelming fear—enough to keep their hands off Arland forever.
Through Coote’s eyes, two armed airships sailed in formation. Chains extended from both, suspending rectangular compartments—these were power units ripped straight from magic warships. The mid-sized, high-output magic furnaces, integral to the warship’s power systems, couldn’t be separated from their control modules.
The airships themselves showed signs of abnormality. Excess mana billowed from their smokestacks, and their propellers spun erratically.
The furnaces were resonating. This resonance dangerously amplified mana output. The furnaces, suspended from the airships, had already had their control modules removed, bringing them to the verge of critical meltdown. The airships’ furnaces had safeguards, yet even those were near their limits.
“General Pash! We can’t stabilize the mana output!”
“Activate the backup control module immediately!”
The interior of the airships was chaotic. The runaway state of the suspended furnaces was causing resonance in the ship’s own furnaces, destabilizing them.
To manage the situation, magicians from the Technical Development Bureau had been deployed aboard, continuously casting magic to manually regulate the power systems.
Pash sighed with relief that they’d made it this far and ascended to the bridge to gaze outside.
“What in the world…?”
Pash looked out from the airship bridge and saw the Great Emperor.
“Prepare to drop the cargo.”
Several of Alicetia’s split bodies had boarded the airships after resupplying at the royal capital.
Pash realized Alicetia was present on the battlefield. He assumed the giant was created by her magic.
“Wait! The princess is down there!”
Pash and the air force officers weren’t informed of the full plan. They were loyal to Alicetia and would likely rebel if they knew the whole truth. They’d simply been told to drop the furnaces on the Imperial Army.
“As planned. This way the soldiers at the fortress will survive. Dropping the furnaces on the besieging army would’ve meant a 7% chance of the fortress’s barrier failing and our troops dying.
But by pulling the enemy here, we reduce that risk to 3%. A risk we can barely accept.”
Alicetia had drawn the Imperial Army away from the fortress for this reason. Dropping the furnaces on the besieging army would’ve endangered their own forces. By moving the impact zone to this plain, the risk was minimized. Alicetia had acted as bait to maximize the operation’s effect.
“Notify the second ship. Commence furnace drop!”
“We can’t kill the princess! Stop the transmission!”
A soldier rushed to halt communications, only to find a gun pointed at his head.
“Princess…”
The soldier, drenched in sweat, looked toward one of Alicetia’s split bodies.
“This was decided from the start.”
‘This is Unit 15. The bridge of the second ship is secured. Commencing drop.’
The other ship had already been seized.
“On my count: one, two, three—drop! Deploy shields beneath the hull! Emergency ascent!”
Thus, the furnaces were dropped onto the battlefield, plunging it into even greater chaos.
But the true despair had only just begun.
What do you think about this chapter?
