RETURN OF THE FEMALE KNIGHT

163. The Most Triumphant Moment

Jungkook did not hear anything that was said to him. It wasn't just his hearing that failed to process—his eyes were open, but he couldn't see, and his mind was numbly blank.
He was left alone in a world without Lalisa. It was an intolerable pain beyond endurance itself. A terrible cry tore from his throat.

"Raaaaagh!"

An inhumane scream roared from deep within his body. Taehyung, who was running towards them from nearby, widened his eyes when he saw Jungkook's transformation. He turned towards the frozen form of Namjoon and yelled at him.

"Lord Namjoon, get out of the way!"

"What?"

Namjoon's head jerked towards Taehyung, and at the same time, a Lunen enemy soldier ran towards Jungkook with a sword.

"Emperor Ruford! Take this!"

The soldier did not make it far. Jungkook caught the man's neck with his black-scaled arm.

"Kkkkg!"

The soldier uselessly scrabbled at Jungkook's hand in an attempt to escape, but Jungkook squeezed the man's throat. The man's eyes bulged grotesquely as he choked. After a hideous sound, the Lunen soldier finally went limp and died.

The sheer ruthlessness of the display caused those in the vicinity to fall into horrified silence. There was a dramatic difference between Jungkook earlier and Jungkook now. Even the air around him seemed to sink from the dark aura around him.

Jungkook snarled, and his eyes hardened as he stared down his other potential victims. It was terrifying. Even Namjoon was stunned to the point of immobility, and Taehyung was forced to grab him and drag him away.

"You'll die if you're near him. We have to get away as much as possible."

"What the hell was that...?"

"I'll explain later. Everyone, get away from the Emperor!"

His warning came too late—Jungkook darted forward, and in a single slash, another Lunen soldier died before he had the chance to raise his sword.

Not a single creature could stand in front of Jungkook and live. His wild blue eyes had already lost their reason.

"Aaaah! S-save me!"

Jungkook's clawed hand ran straight through the fleeing soldier's torso. He wrenched out his hand again, and the soldier's body tumbled to the ground.

Jungkook grinned and licked the enemy's blood off his arm. It was as if he were—enjoying himself. He was there, and not there at the same time.

Taehyung had only seen him like this once before, when Lalisa almost died of a poisoned arrow.

'His Majesty has gone mad with bloodlust again. But it's worse this time.'

Jungkook's monstrous mutation was easily visible from a distance. From Taehyung's experience, the greater the transformation, the stronger the power. This very moment was the greatest power he had ever witnessed.

'...No one can stop him. We have to get away now.'

Taehyung yelled at any of the Ruford soldiers that could hear him.

"Get away from the Emperor!"

But his cry did not reach everyone. The Ruford soldiers stood frozen in stunned awe at Jungkook's dragon-like appearance. Jungkook's eyes slid towards them, and he growled and charged towards them. It did not matter to him whether the people in front of him were from Ruford or Lunen. He was driven by a mad obsession to kill anyone who blocked his path.