God decided to destroy Man and Man rebelled against God in retaliation.

An emperor arose in this land as a result of the rebellion. The emperor cut the gods into pieces and scattered them across the mountains, rivers, and fields.

***

Along with the intense pain, I lost strength in my hands and feet. Blood poured out of my throat and a black blade was sticking out of my chest. The blade stank of dead blood that had turned black as I slowly turned around and faced a young man.

This young man was my son. The sword piercing through my chest was held by his trembling and blood-soaked hands, and I tried to grab them. He was my eldest son, made from a fragment of my soul, Gerard Gain.

"Your Majesty," my son said with fear in his voice. Gerard Gain had never felt so much fear even when facing a tough opponent like the Dragon Lord. He was a brave and confident young man who was a role model for the knights. No one doubted that he would become the next emperor, but then I got backstabbed by him. Against all expectations, he betrayed me.

My throat slowly filled with my own blood. It felt like I was burning all over. I was used to pain, but I had never experienced this kind of pain. I wasn’t sure if the pain was due to the black blade or the person who wielded it. With that one blow, an ordinary person would have been dead without even having a chance to scream. However, I was the emperor of the empire. I was the guardian of mankind.

It was I who cut the gods into pieces and scattered them across the mountains, fields, and rivers.

I breathed in and let out a loud shout, causing all the furniture in the room to collapse and the ground to shake. Gerard fell to his knees with a thud. He seemed more distressed than me, the one who was stabbed.

Gerard knelt down with his head bowed, mumbling illogical words. I had so many questions for him as I looked at him. Why was he here when he was supposed to be defending the Eastern Front? How did he manage to sneak past the surveillance of the Imperial Guards? How did he get a sword that could kill me, and why did he stab me? Why did he look so unsightly now, even though he’d chosen to betray me?

But I didn't ask any of that. The important thing was that he had stabbed me in the back, and that was all there was to it. Betrayal. While it was something I was familiar with, I couldn't believe that my own son would betray me.

Gerard’s black blade stuck in my body slowly robbed me of my life, but I stayed still. I could have ripped through Gerard's soul and elicited a response to my question, but I didn't do it. I could have all the beings around me accompany me in death just by lifting my finger, but I didn't do it.

The whisper of some god who had proposed eternal life to me came to my mind, but I did not entertain it. I didn't think of the potential disasters my death would bring to an empire that had just been established.

I was simply frozen in place. I was afraid to think any more. I had spent my whole life fighting a war for the sole purpose of saving mankind. It was a life that was full of death and killing others. I had to give up a lot of things that were precious to me.

Only my children and my acquaintances were able to bring happiness into the harsh life I lived. But then, I faced betrayal from the child whom I loved the most. The person I cherished and loved the most had plunged a sword into my back. The source of my happiness had betrayed me. Maybe I’d lived my life wrong right from the start; from the very beginning of my life, everything that I'd ever done had been a mistake.

‘Don't ask him anything.’

That was the decision I reached in my heart as I looked at Gerard.

I wanted to tell him not to be afraid, and that if my actions of the past were what caused the present, I would accept death as it is. My vision started to blur.

The black blade that had dug deeply into me was like a worm devouring me. Flames shot up from the blood that had flowed down. The blade scratched against my bones and made a strange sound. Burning blood flowed down my fingers and the blood felt sticky as I heard something breaking inside me.

That was how I, Juan Calberg Kennosis, the first emperor of the empire, guardian of mankind, and vanquisher of the gods, passed away in the 47th year of the founding of the empire.

***

In the 94th year of the Imperial calendar, a fire the likes of which only happened once in a hundred years swept through the southern plains, leaving nothing but ashes in its trail.

"—I was resolved to die back there!"

No one could tell if the ash-covered boy was screaming or wailing. No one could understand why he was raging so much as he yelled, "Who the hell brought me back to life?!"