Chapter 1287
Chapter 1287
“Cease all fighting! Show no mercy to those who resist, but grant mercy to those who surrender! There’s no need to fight any longer! Emperor Stuttgart is our true enemy!” Siegfried exclaimed, putting an end to the skirmishes.
Now that the Proatine Empire and its allies had secured victory, spilling blood held little to no meaning now.
Continuing to fight now would be nothing more than pointless slaughter.
Even if war was chaotic, it had to serve a purpose. Now that they had won the battle, what meaning was there in killing more soldiers—especially those who had surrendered?
After all, they were fellow humans, too. They had to put things behind them and work towards forging a new era together.
“Kyuuu! We won! We really won, owner punk!”
Returning to his hamster form, Hamchi scurried up Siegfried’s legs and threw his tiny arms around him.
“You did great today, man,” Siegfried smiled faintly and said, patting Hamchi on the head.
“K-Kyuuu?! Are you okay, owner punk?!”
“Huh? Me? Why won’t I be—”
Thud!
Siegfried suddenly collapsed.
“Kyuuuu! Owner punk!”
“Ugh... damn it... This thing is really hard to control...” Siegfried groaned and quickly stored Annihilation’s Grasp back into his inventory.
[Siegfried von Proa]
[HP: □□□□□□□□□□]
[Primordial Force: □□□□□□□□□□]
[Stamina: □□□□□□□□□□]
He was in bad shape.
The backlash from using Annihilation’s Grasp was terrifying. The Universal-rated weapon had sucked him dry of HP, Primordial Force, and Stamina, leaving him completely exhausted.
“Ughh...”
“Open your mouth, owner punk!”
Hamchi hurriedly poured a potion straight down Siegfried’s throat.
“Tsk...” Chae Hyung-Seok clicked his tongue and cast a flurry of healing spells and recovery buffs on him.
“Phew! I thought I was a goner!”
Thanks to their quick help, Siegfried narrowly escaped dying from overexertion and managed to recover.
His near-death experience just now was a testament to how difficult it was to control the Universal-rated weapon.
‘I’ll have to be more careful from now on. I could be in serious trouble if I slip up and let it do something,’ Siegfried thought. How many people in this world could stop him if the Annihilation’s Grasp managed to control his body?
‘I guess I’ll need to re-educate that guy whenever I have time.’
Siegfried resolved to thoroughly re-educate the third-rate evil spirit to suppress it completely.
“Congratulations on your victory, my lord!”
At that moment, Oscar approached, knelt on one knee, and paid respects to her liege.
“Congratulations, sire!”
“Your Imperial Majesty! A fitting victory, I must say!”
Others nearby followed suit, kneeling and paying homage to Siegfried.
The hero who had saved the world multiple times had now led them to victory against the mighty Marchioni Empire. A person like him was truly worthy of their praise and reverence.
“Woooo!”
“Long live Siegfried!”
“Oh yeah!”
“He’s the best pro gamer of our generation!”
Even the Adventurers themselves couldn’t help but shout in admiration and acknowledge this unprecedented achievement. In the history of both gaming and BNW, there had never been any other player who had achieved as much as Siegfried.
However, they were not the only ones who paid homage to him.
“I, the Emperor of the Corals, offer my sincerest congratulations to you, O, Savior.”
Before anyone even realized, Theodosius, the Emperor of the Coral Race, appeared and knelt before Siegfried.
While this war was for the ultimate supremacy over the continent, it had also been the liberation war of the Corals.
The Marchioni Empire had turned the Coral Planet into its colony, stripping it of its resources.
However, things were different now.
The Proatine Empire’s victory over the Marchioni Empire meant that the Corals had finally regained their freedom.
“We, the Corals, are truly grateful to you, and we will never forget the grace you have shown us, O, Savior.”
“Oh, come on. I just did what I had to do.”
“Not at all! You have delivered our people to freedom. Hence, we, the Corals, shall honor and follow you, O, Savior, until the day our people become extinct.”
As soon as Theodosius' words fell, the Ancient Corals approached them.
Crackle! Crackle!
Even the beings made out of pure energy paid their respects to Siegfried.
“You have saved our people, Promised One.”
“Thank you for saving our children.”
“The glory of the Corals shall be with you forever.”
They were beings akin to gods after sacrificing themselves by turning into pure energies, all in order to prepare for an alien invasion that would enslave their descendants.
Yet now, those very godly beings were kneeling before Siegfried and offering him the greatest form of respect they could give.
The Ancient Coral, who seemed to be the leader and was kneeling right in front of Siegfried, spoke up.
“We, the Order of Imperial Coral Knights...” he said. Then, with a brief pause, he continued, “...Shall become your blade.”
“Eh?” Siegfried tilted his head in confusion, baffled.
“The Coral Emperor of our time had set us aside as guardians of our race. Our mission was to protect our descendants from the coming crisis.”
“O-Okay, but why...?”
“We have fulfilled our mission, yet we still possess ample energy to rest.”
“Ah...!”
“As a token of gratitude for saving our descendants, we shall become your sword.”
“Whoa...”
“Call upon us whenever you need our powers. We shall not hesitate to exhaust our life force for you.”
Siegfried came to possess the Order of Ancient Imperial Coral Knights, each of whom wielded the might to bring down an entire battleship on their own.
With that, his already formidable military power grew even stronger.
***
The Proatine Imperial Army and the Allied Forces swiftly subdued the remnants of the Marchioni Imperial Army and immediately began regrouping and reorganizing their ranks.
Why had they decided to regroup and reorganize their ranks?
The reason was simple...
“We’re going to capture Emperor Stuttgart,” Siegfried declared.
He planned to ride on the momentum and march straight into the Marchioni Empire’s capital and personally capture Emperor Stuttgart.
The emperor could have already fled, but one ought to strike while the iron was hot.
Siegfried had no intention of leaving the imperial capital unconquered, so he led his troops and marched straight toward the city. Three whole corps and the entire air force were mobilized, but they didn't run into any opponents.
By the time they arrived, the imperial capital was already facing a battle of its own.
“For Coral!”
“Kill them all!”
The Corals, after crossing over from their home planet, were laying waste to the imperial capital. While the main forces of the Marchioni Imperial Army were busy fighting the Proatine Empire and its allies on the frontlines, the Corals had taken full advantage of the chaos and attacked.
With most of their troops deployed to the frontlines, the city was as good as undefended.
Emperor Stuttgart planned to deal with the Corals after winning the battle over the Proatine Empire. To buy time, he relied on the Adventurers brainwashed by the Elixir of Transcendence, but that decision proved to be a huge miscalculation.
‘Time to keep my end of the bargain.’
Upon arriving in the imperial capital, Siegfried immediately pulled out Annihilation’s Grasp. Then, he aimed at a massive spire topped with a signal antenna and hurled the weapon at it with all his strength.
Fshwoooong!
Kaboom!
A thunderous explosion rocked the air, and the antenna exploded into pieces.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The Adventurers brainwashed by the Elixir of Transcendence collapsed one by one.
“What?!”
“I-I can move again!”
“I can control my character again!”
The characters of those who were offline disappeared while the ones who were online immediately regained control over their characters.
Once freed, they stopped fighting the Corals and instead rushed to Siegfried.
“Thank you so much, Siegfried!”
“I won’t forget this! I’ll definitely pay you back!”
“You rock! Thank you!”
“I owe you big time, Siegfried!”
Siegfried smiled and replied, “Don’t mention it. I just did what I had to do.”
However, he was thinking of something else deep inside.
‘I’m the one grateful to you guys. Hehehe!’
Why?
It was all because destroying the antenna had just secured him a huge profit.
The stock price of Hive Games Entertainment, the developer and publisher of BNW, had plummeted ever since the brainwashing incident began. Not only that, a wave of class-action lawsuits from furious gamers around the world sent its value into a freefall.
Siegfried had used every bit of cash he had to buy up as many shares as possible, going all in whenever Hive’s stock crashed. Even after the class-action lawsuits were filed, he doubled down and bought up even more shares.
Most people would say that he was gambling, but he had no doubts that the situation would be resolved and that the stock price would rebound.
Why?
It was all because he was the one capable of resolving the situation, and he trusted himself enough to make that bet. Now that the antenna was destroyed and the brainwashing crisis was over, the stock would inevitably soar again.
‘I’ll make a few billion minimum,’ Siegfried thought, delighted at the hefty profit he stood to make.
Based on his estimates, he would make a minimum of thirty percent profit on his investments, and when taking into account the billions he had invested so far, his profit would be astronomical.
In addition, he would soon become an executive of Hive Games Entertainment, giving him influence over future game developments as well. However, the biggest reward was none other than the right to effectively own BNW for his personal use in the future.
Thus, Siegfried had achieved both immense financial gain and a huge leap in the real world just by destroying that antenna.
‘But that thing’s still bugging me...’
He glanced at the second pillar of light that had recently emerged on the horizon and frowned.
‘Ah, I’ll deal with that later.’
For now, securing full control over the Marchioni Empire’s imperial capital and capturing Emperor Stuttgart took priority.
“Kyuuu! Let’s go catch that emperor guy!”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
With that, Siegfried led the three corps of the Proatine Imperial Army and marched into the Marchioni Empire’s imperial capital.
***
The moment Siegfried entered the imperial capital, his eyes immediately turned toward the imperial palace.
If Emperor Stuttgart had chosen to flee, he would have definitely fled to that place, so he intended to secure the palace as quickly as possible.
But before that, there was something else he needed to do.
“Messenger.”
“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty?”
He summoned one of his messengers before heading over to the imperial palace.
“I want you to go right now and...”
“H-Huh?! B-But why would Your Imperial Majesty need something like that?!”
The order Siegfried gave was so baffling that the messenger couldn’t help but cry out in shock. For a lowly messenger to question the emperor’s will to his face was, by any standard, an act of grave disrespect.
How dare a mere servant question the will of the emperor?
“I have my reasons. Just tell them to make preparations.”
“A-As you command, sire!”
“I’ll be counting on you.”
“I-It is a great honor, sire! Loyalty!”
After sending the messenger to carry out his secret command, Siegfried immediately took to the skies, heading straight for the imperial palace.
“Kyaaaaah!”
“Aaaahh!”
“Gaaaah!”
Screams filled the air.
A brutal massacre was already underway in the imperial palace, as the enraged Corals had stormed into it and slaughtered everyone in it indiscriminately.
“How dare you! Do you even know where you’re standing?! This is the imperial palace of the great Marchioni Empire!”
“Filthy aliens! The wrath of the mighty empire shall fall upon you!”
The palace guards and imperial knights were locked in fierce combat.
‘Ugh... What an absolute mess,’ Siegfried thought grimly before heading deeper into the palace.
‘Hmm... Where is he? Did he already make a run for it?’ Siegfried wondered.
He activated Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance for the first time in a long while, bringing up the search interface and typing the emperor’s name.
[Alert: Searching for Stuttgart von Posteriore!]
[Alert: Search in progress...]
[Alert: Loading...]
While Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance searched for the emperor, Siegfried did not really have much hope.
‘He probably already made a run for it and escaped.’
After all, the emperor had more than enough time to flee, as word of the Marchioni Imperial Army’s defeat had probably long reached him.
Even if the Corals had invaded the imperial city, the emperor was capable enough to escape without much trouble.
Ding!
[Alert: Stuttgart von Posteriore has been found!]
Siegfried’s eyes narrowed at the notification.
Contrary to his expectation, the emperor had chosen not to run away.
Even though the situation had turned from bad to worse, he remained within the imperial palace.