Novel: The Emperor Returned from Ruin
Volume Two
Chapter Eleven: When the River Refused to Dry (Part One & Two)
---
Ethan surged forth from the void of existence, his manifested spear resting coldly in his grasp. He raised the weapon slowly until it aligned with both their gazes, his eyes fixed on Chen Hai—eyes that knew no hesitation.
He spoke calmly, a voice carrying the mockery of the cosmos itself:
"Are you truly a ruler of a galaxy… and yet you can't even touch my toe?"
Chen Hai's lips spread into a wide grin, as though he had just heard an amusing joke. His reply was steady, confident:
"Aren't you the same one who knelt before me moments ago… just to straighten my shoe?"
Then they charged.
This was no ordinary clash—it was the collision of two stars in the vacuum of space. The impact split the heavens and shook the earth, making all who watched believe they were witnessing a decisive, fate-bound battle. But the truth was far simpler: to Ethan, this was nothing more than an intense training session.
After a while, Ethan exhaled coolly, tightening his grip on the spear.
"My energy is almost gone… I'm tired of facing this walking corpse."
He took a cigarette from his mouth, stared at it briefly, then infused it with a pulse of internal energy. Flicking it forward, he sent it flying toward Chen Hai like a flaming meteor.
Chen Hai barely evaded it, exhaustion etched clearly on his face. Yet he burst out laughing.
"Recoil!"
Ethan's brow twitched slightly, but he ignored it and continued pressing his attack, forcing Chen Hai back step by step. Still, that single word—recoil—made the old man below, Baranis, break into a cold sweat as he whispered:
"Can he endure it?"
Ethan continued "playing" with his opponent.
Then—suddenly—his heart stopped for a fraction of a second.
A sharp pain, like a blade of ice, pierced his chest. At that exact moment, Chen Hai's fist slammed into his face with overwhelming force.
Ethan was hurled backward like a cannonball, smashing through the mountain rocks behind him. His pulse became erratic, his breathing heavy. He wiped the blood from his lips with the back of his hand, his eyes narrowing.
Now it was serious.
He gathered everything he had left into his right hand. His veins bulged and darkened, his fist trembling under the immense pressure. Energy converged, devouring its surroundings, until a spectral dragon coiled around his arm.
Then he released it.
All his power.
All his will.
Everything that remained of him—
in a single, final strike.
Chen Hai saw only light.
His body began to disintegrate at the edges, breaking into luminous particles that scattered through the air… and then he vanished.
Silence fell.
The tyrant was gone.
The old order had collapsed.
The War of the Throne had officially begun.
---
Elsewhere in the universe, upon a strange slab suspended in a timeless void, one of the glowing symbols suddenly shattered, turning into motes of light—a silent announcement of death.
A man with short silver hair stepped forward. A small black mark lay beneath his left eye, and he wore a peculiar white suit. He knelt before the darkness occupying the center of the hall.
"My lord… Chen Hai has been killed in the western sector."
The universe trembled slightly, as though responding to the voice that emerged from the darkness:
"Do you think I am ignorant of this, Thaddeus?"
The words became crushing pressure, raging winds stripping the place of stability itself.
Thaddeus replied calmly, unshaken:
"My lord… your orders?"
"Do not interfere. Leave it to the Aetherium."
---
Ethan returned to the ground, his body ruined like the wreckage of a ship. He fell to his knees, his spear dissolving from his damaged hand. Before he could fully collapse, he heard furious shouts fill the air:
"Ethan! You bastard! How dare you?!"
Everyone moved—soldiers, elders, survivors—forming a wall of rage around him. All he could see were faces twisted with hatred. He tried to stand, but his dust- and blood-covered body refused to obey. His head felt heavy; his eyes begged to close.
He finally collapsed, unconscious.
The moment he fell, the Revered Ones shouted in unison:
"Now!"
But a calm voice sliced through their frenzy like a sharp blade:
"Enough of this farce, Ether."
From the aura surrounding the old man Baranis, ghostly chains erupted, wrapping around everyone's necks in an instant. Even the planet's guardian who had once welcomed Ethan—and Esti, the embodiment of the Tree of Knowledge—found themselves immobilized.
One of the Revered Ones screamed:
"You decrepit old man! Are you seizing power now? Was all of this your scheme?!"
Ether laughed—a cold, metallic sound devoid of joy.
"Power? Hahaha… power over a kingdom that is about to perish."
He slowly raised his hand and removed the veil from his eyes. Two pupil-less crimson eyes shone with a harsh, merciless light. He gazed upon the crowd and declared, as though reading from a book of fate:
"I sentence you… to annihilation."
Baranis whispered urgently:
"This is not in our favor. An event like this will trigger cosmic investigations. We must leave."
Ether glanced at him, then at the restrained crowd—pure disdain. Then both vanished, leaving the Revered Ones drowning in shock and terror.
But… this was not the end.
Suddenly, sunlight vanished. Absolute darkness fell—not night, but the absence of light itself. Then the ships appeared. They were not planetary in scale, nor stellar. They were something beyond imagination, as though fragments of the universe's fabric had taken form.
Then… everything changed.
All that existed within the Alliance—every life, every hope, every hatred—was reduced to a silent pool of blood.
The Aetherium had erased everything.
And afterward, in a single transmission, a voice devoid of emotion reported:
"The operation is complete."
---
On the other side, Ethan awakened.
He was no longer on a battlefield, but on a simple bed inside a quiet village hut. He wore clean clothes, ate a warm meal, and wandered through the unfamiliar settlement. By evening, he returned to the old man's house and found Baranis buried beneath piles of ancient books in his personal library.
"What are you looking for, old man?" Ethan asked.
Without lifting his eyes from the book, Baranis replied flatly:
"Call me Baranis."
A brief silence followed.
Then Ethan asked directly, seriously:
"Am I worthy now… to protect my planet?"
The old man nodded slowly.
"Tomorrow… I will begin training you."
Ethan smiled—a calm, unforced smile, his first in a very long time. He went to bed and slept, for the first time in years, without regret, without anxiety, without doubt.
He awoke at midnight. The place was unnaturally quiet. Baranis was gone. Ethan stepped into the backyard and found Ether leaning against the wall, as though waiting.
"Looking for Baranis?" Ether asked.
Ethan nodded.
Ether gestured toward the edge of the village.
"You'll find him at the end of the street opposite the second gate."
Ethan followed the directions and stopped before a door. A large sign above it read, in ornate lettering:
"Tinoa Brothel."
The corner of his mouth twitched. He went inside.
The interior was lavish, excessively ornate. At the center, reclining on a luxurious couch and surrounded by women of various cosmic races, sat Baranis.
Ethan's jaw dropped. Shock turned to disbelief, then to uncontrollable laughter. He laughed until he bent over, then looked at the old man and said dryly:
"So even the wisest elders of this galaxy… have such desires?"
He turned to leave, announcing that he would train with Ether instead. But Baranis leapt up and grabbed his wrist tightly.
"Wait! It's not what you think!"
Ethan tried to pull away, but Baranis' gaze sharpened like a blade.
"Ethan, what you're about to see may shatter your mind."
He dragged Ethan into a hidden chamber at the back of the building. At its center stood a strange sphere, radiating technology Ethan had never seen before—a Electro-Quantic Orb.
"Touch it," Baranis commanded. "It will show you the state of your planet."
Ethan touched the sphere. A small portion of his energy was drained, and images appeared—images of Earth.
What he saw froze him in place.
Rage—vast, silent rage—boiled within him. His jaw clenched until it hurt, his lips bitten until the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth. His body trembled, but beneath the anger lurked something else.
Fear.
A deep, primal fear—of the person he saw in those images.
He steadied himself, took out a cigarette, lit it with a glance, and extinguished the sphere with a single puff of smoke.
Baranis asked quietly:
"What was all that?"
Ethan replied with a single sentence, heavy as lead:
"I… am retreating."
The old man was stunned.
"That is an interference with fate. Who is this ruler meddling so deeply?"
Then he looked at Ethan.
"Tell me about your past life."
Ethan extinguished the cigarette, his eyes staring into a distant past.
"Earth. 2075. I was born an ordinary boy. Four years later, my sister Iris was born. We lived a normal life—kind parents, both renowned researchers. I grew up like any child, but my sister… was genius incarnate. She learned to read and write unnaturally fast, gifted at everything. At first, my parents tried not to compare us, but over time… favoritism became normal. The gap widened. She entered the world-famous Starlight Academy with top scores… while I joined the police."
He paused, breathing deeply.
"Then came the day. August 27, 2098. I was in the police café with my closest friend—Lisner. A fellow officer, famed for his courage and powerful body. Then we heard it—like the world ending. Earthquakes. Then the monsters came."
Ethan closed his eyes.
"We sealed the steel doors and killed them one by one. But it wasn't training—it was like fighting nature itself. Then came… the Mutant. Human, enormous, fused with an earth beast. Massive fangs, thick hide. It tore through steel like paper."
His voice trembled.
"We tried to stop it. Our bullets were no more than bee stings. Lisner distracted it. I broke a gas pipe and fired a single shot. The explosion buried the monster. We moved toward Lisner, ready to escape. But the beast… wasn't dead."
Ethan opened his eyes, glassy and still.
"It lunged at me. I accepted my fate. Suddenly, sunlight no longer touched my face. No pain. Nothing. I thought I had died. But death… would have been kinder."
He fell silent for a long time.
"Lisner didn't hesitate. He threw himself into death for me. From the shock… everything changed. My life ended in that moment. I grabbed one of the monster's fangs and stabbed it. Again. And again. Until it shattered."
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"I collapsed beside my friend's corpse. He left me only… a pack of cigarettes. I lit one using the burning ruins and smoked for the first time in my life. I had heard smoking calms the nerves. That was my first real experience."
He raised his head, meeting Baranis' gaze.
"I became powerless. Especially when I learned my sister's academy was completely destroyed. My parents vanished for three days. I found survivors and joined them. Over time, each developed an ability. Their leader controlled water—Rank C. A former boxer. Tyrannical, cruel. He treated me as a slave. Three years passed. Morals collapsed. Food ran out. Seas were polluted. Humanity became savage. Our only creed: 'Survival of the strongest.' Eventually… they began eating each other."
He lit another cigarette, his hands eerily steady.
"One day, the Falcon Squad's supplies ran out. Food was gone. And yet… all the burden fell on me. They surrounded me, tried to kill me. I fled into a building, but they surrounded it. I grabbed a broken knife and screamed, 'Anyone who comes closer—I'll cut him!'"
A bitter chuckle escaped him.
"They laughed. I was weaker than all of them. But under death's shadow, under despair… I felt warmth in my gut. Comfortable. Was this… energy? My body acted on its own. I released my first personal ki."
He stared at his palm.
"I called it… Explosions."
---
Chapter Eleven – Part Two
The moment the knife detonated, the impossible happened. It flashed for a single second—then an explosion erased the entire building.
Ethan was the last one standing. He looked at the hand that had held the knife—it was gone. Nothing remained but a charred arm ending in horror. He collapsed to his knees.
Through dust and smoke, death approached—not metaphorically, but as a tall man in a black suit, walking calmly toward him. Darkness swallowed Ethan's vision before the figure reached him.
---
He awoke screaming, drenched in sweat, immediately checking his right hand.
It was there. Whole. As if it had all been a dream.
"Do you think it was a dream?"
Ethan flinched at the voice. A man stood in the doorway—bald, lightly bearded, obese, short, yet radiating absolute confidence and strange authority.
"No…" the man continued, pulling out a cigar. "We found you on the brink of death in the ruins and saved you. That's not cheap… especially at the end of the world. You owe me."
He tossed a folded paper onto the bed—a formal contract.
The bald man laughed, a gravelly sound.
"Names aren't important in my business, boy. Call me… the Shepherd."
He leaned forward, predatory gleam in his eyes.
"You owe me your life. And at the end of the world, that's not a free gift."
He tapped the contract.
"A simple deal. Work for me, and I erase this debt. Refuse…" his smile turned cruel, "and I'll make sure you wish you'd died in those ruins."
Ethan clenched his jaw, staring at the contract.
"What kind of work?" he asked darkly.
The Shepherd chuckled.
"Nothing strenuous. Just a bit of… persuasion."
Ethan understood. Assassinations.
Death wasn't an option. Iris needed him.
Slowly, he picked up the pen and signed.
Thus began Ethan's path as a hired killer under the Shepherd.
Years passed. He joined a wandering family led by Marcus. Peace did not last. The Time King rose, ruling Earth with an iron grip.
When Marcus fell beneath the Time King's staff, his body shattered, a blue cigarette pack marked ML lay beside him—the same one Lisner had left behind.
Ethan screamed:
"Master!"
The Time King showed him an image—his sister Iris, alive, smiling beside him.
Ethan fell to his knees.
His past had destroyed his present.
His present became hostage to his future.
And the game…
had not yet begun.