Chapter 541: The Reason Why He’s the Emperor’s Shadow

The moment Kaldaroth vanished, the world broke again.

BOOOOOOOOM!!!

The void humanoid was slammed downward, its body crashing into the ground with such force that the land caved in for miles, layers of corrupted earth folding inward like paper.

It hadn’t even seen the strike.

Kaldaroth stood above it, greatsword already mid-swing for the next attack.

CLANG!!!

The creature reacted this time.

Multiple limbs burst out from its back, elongated, jagged, and shifting, and intercepted the blade. The impact sent ripples through space itself, distorting the air into warped, glass-like fractures.

The ground beneath them couldn’t decide whether to exist or collapse.

The creature screamed not in pain but in fury. Its body twisted violently, snapping its broken limbs back into place as its form expanded, growing larger, denser, and more unstable. Its humanoid structure began to unravel, bones stretching, skin tearing, void leaking.

Its torso split open, revealing something deeper... something wrong. Kaldaroth didn’t step back. Didn’t hesitate.

"Yeah," he muttered, voice low beneath the helm. "That’s more like it."

The creature lunged again faster and sharper. Its movements were no longer bound by structure or form. It didn’t attack from one direction; it attacked from all directions.

Limbs pierced from the ground. Claws tore from the air. Its body phased in and out of reality, striking from angles that didn’t exist.

Kaldaroth stood at the center of it and raised his blade. The temperature plummeted.

CRACK... CRACK... CRACK...

Ice spread instantly, a cold that didn’t just freeze matter... It froze motion, froze intent.

Every incoming strike slowed. Then halted. Then... FROZE.

Jagged limbs, claws, fragments of void, all suspended mid-attack, encased in crystalline frost that shimmered with a faint, unnatural blue.

Kaldaroth moved through them. Each step shattered frozen space beneath his feet.

"Too messy."

His free hand lifted slightly. Darkness gathered.

Curse.

It seeped into the frozen limbs like poison through veins. Then it activated.

CRAAAAAACK!!!

The frozen limbs didn’t just shatter; they collapsed. Fragments disintegrated mid-air, erased as if their existence had been rejected outright.

The creature shrieked again, this time, its voice layered with something deeper.

Pain. Real pain.

It recoiled, its body twitching violently as it tried to regenerate and failed.

Where Kaldaroth’s curse had touched, nothing returned.

"Regeneration denied," Kaldaroth muttered.

The creature froze.

For a brief moment, it hesitated.

Then it changed. Its entire body convulsed. Flesh tore apart, limbs retracted, then exploded outward again, larger, thicker, more grotesque. Its humanoid form was gone.

What replaced it was something monstrous. A full beastial form.

It towered now, easily over thirty feet tall, its body a mass of writhing void flesh and jagged bone structures that pulsed with unstable energy. Multiple heads formed and dissolved along its upper body, each screaming silently, while its core, if it had one, glowed faintly beneath layers of shifting mass.

Its presence multiplied. The pressure returned... Tenfold.

The three adventurers miles away were forced flat against the ground again, their bodies trembling uncontrollably.

"What... is that..." the shield-bearer whispered hoarsely.

Even from that distance, it felt like death. Kaldaroth looked up at it.

Unmoved.

"Finally done playing?" he asked.

The beast answered with a roar that tore the sky open again.

Then it attacked, not with limbs, not with claws, but with everything. Its entire body surged forward like a collapsing star, space folding around it as it tried to consume Kaldaroth whole.

There was no dodging that. No blocking it. It was a complete annihilation attempt.

Kaldaroth planted his feet, both hands wrapped around the hilt of his greatsword. The ground beneath him froze instantly.

Miles. Then tens of miles. The land became a crystalline wasteland in a single breath.

"Then let’s end this."

His red eyes flared. Ice surged up the blade, but this time, it wasn’t just ice. Dark veins of curse intertwined with the frost, coiling around the weapon like living chains.

The air screamed. The world trembled. Kaldaroth pulled the blade back, then swung.

"Frostgrave... Execution."

The strike didn’t travel. It expanded. A massive arc of frozen annihilation erupted forward, slicing through the charging beast with unstoppable force.

For a moment, everything stopped. Then, the beast split.

Clean. Perfect. From top to bottom. Silence enveloped the place. Then...

CRAAAAAAACK!!!

The two halves froze mid-separation, encased entirely in cursed ice that spread faster than thought, consuming every inch of its massive form.

The creature tried to regenerate, but it couldn’t. It tried to move, but it couldn’t. It tried to exist, but it was being denied existence.

Kaldaroth lowered his blade slowly.

"Too big."

He stepped forward once and tapped the frozen mass lightly with the flat of his sword.

"Break."

The world shattered.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The entire frozen structure exploded into billions of fragments, each piece dissolving into nothingness before it could even hit the ground.

Gone completely. There was no regeneration, no trace of its body, no return for it. Silence fell heavy and absolute. Kaldaroth stood there for a moment longer.

Then, he rested the greatsword against his shoulder.

"Target secured," he muttered.

Behind him, the three adventurers slowly rose, their bodies still shaking as they stared at the aftermath.

"He... he killed it..." one of them whispered.

"That was a demigod-level..." another added.

Kaldaroth didn’t turn. He didn’t acknowledge them, but his voice carried back regardless.

"If you’re done watching," he said flatly, "get up. Your mission isn’t over. The emperor is watching you."

The three exchanged looks, then straightened immediately.

"Yes, sir!"

Kaldaroth glanced once toward the distance, toward Anbord, toward something far greater approaching. His red eyes dimmed slightly.

"Troublesome, but nothing Master can’t deal with. He wouldn’t even need to move."

Then he vanished, leaving behind only frozen ruin, and three adventurers who now understood exactly why he was called... The Emperor’s Shadow.

They’d finally recognized the knight. He was the hidden protector of the empire. If the emperor was the sun, he was the moon, reflecting the emperor’s grace and strength to his citizens. That was Kaldaroth, the Emperor’s Shadow, and they’d gotten the first seat to witness one of his battles. He had killed a demigod in less than five minutes, making them wonder just how powerful their emperor currently was.

He couldn’t be any less than a demigod.

With confident strides, they resumed their expedition for the hidden, protected town, knowing that the emperor himself was protecting them.