Soul of Searing Steel

The miserable screaming of a man reverberated through the entire house that was narrow and small. Along with the screaming, there was also the mourning of young children and the begging voice of a young woman.

They cried out loud as they were attempting to get the attention of those around their house. However, their miserable screaming and their voices were all contained within the small house by some sort of force. Even when there were pedestrians passing by the front and the back of their house, no one could hear a thing.

Everything gradually fell into silence. After a final cry before death came for all of them, the only sound left in the house was the sound of a knife cutting into the bodies of the dead people.

By the end of it, even the sound of cutting into the bodies had stopped.

A few men who were wearing black robes remained in silence as they were carrying a male corpse that was cut into a mess over to the living room of the house. After that, they placed the corpse on a magic circle in the living room. The magic circle seemed to be drawn with mercury and black soil. There were traces of sulfur and saltpeter all over the magic circle as well. The circle was filled with blasphemous texts. In the meantime, a bizarre and yet immense evil energy that seemed to be able to distort everything in this world was slowly stirring in the magic circle as if it was chanting a very corrupted prayer.

[To the dead: Your soul will fuse with blood and dirt, getting immersed into the icy soil, sinking and plundering deeper, and you shall never be free.]

Blood erupted from the cut wounds on the dead body. Then the blood turned black under the influence of the power of the magic circle. Soon, the black blood formed into new blasphemous words one after another. The distorted face of the deceased seemed to be cursing right before the moment he died. However, the men in black robes were unmoved by the look on that face. All of them only remained in silence as they were looking at everything around them like madmen. After that, they removed all of the internal organs of the deceased and placed them all around the magic circle.

After they were done with the man, they moved on to the corpse of the woman and did the same thing to it. After that, they moved on to the corpse of the children. They had gone so far that they even brought out the corpse of a little baby that was still swaddled and placed the dead baby in the center of the magic circle.

Pure and innocent soul was the best offering in a sacrificial ritual.

When everything was over, the people in black robes halt their movements as they were standing by the sides of the magic circle, staring at the circle with their eyes filled with expectancy. Red fresh liquid was dripping from their hands down to the floor. The ticking sounds of the blood dripping drop by drop onto the floor were somehow disturbing.

And without falling short of their expectations, the magic circle formed from black blood began to glow with strange and bizarre dark red radiance.

Ba-bump.

A heavy heartbeat was heard coming from the magic circle itself.

Hiss.

Responsive to the heartbeat sound, mixing along with mercury and saltpeter, the black blood began to slowly flow in the magic circle.

Ba-bump.

Again, the red and black radiance flashed, followed by a clearer and heavier sound of a heartbeat. The blasphemous words seemed to have come alive, twisting and turning at the edge of the magic circle. In the meantime, the corpses and the internal organs that were placed around the magic circle were beginning to deform under the influence of some sort of power. The scene looked very bizarre.

In the heavily exhilarating breathing of the men in black robes, the floor creaked. Even noises that sounded like someone was rubbing his fingernails against the surface of a blackboard as if his life was depending on it was heard echoing through the entire living room of the house. Soon afterward, in the void, the sound of lunatic chanting in an inhuman voice began to reverberate in the house as well. It sounded as if they were praising everything of filth and evil.

“Did we succeed?”

At last, one of the men in black robes could not resist anymore as he broke out with his own voice from his throat. His voice sounded just like how an eagle would shriek, carrying a hint of enthusiasm for believing that he had finally achieved his goal. His entire body was trembling with excitement at the moment.

“No.”

Another shrieking voice that sounded older was heard coming from another one of the men in black robes. “We’re almost there.”

In the meantime, in the laboratory of the Royal Mages Guild, Joshua was about to take the ‘Dual Blades of Order’ from Brandon’s hands.

That sacred pair of blades were undoubtedly came from the Sage himself. According to the swordsman with blond hair, these blades were the weapon that was bestowed upon the first apostle of the Sage, the first Saint, to eradicate daemons from the voids. Just like the Azurite orb, the blades contained holy power. As long as the conditions were met, one would become capable of wielding unimaginable power just like what happened to Joshua back then when he confronting the Supreme-tier Aragami.

Comparing himself to Joshua, Brandon had yet to truly awaken his weapon. He could only vaguely feel the legacy of the dual blades. Even so, the swordsman already had a lot to benefit from it. The main reason that Joshua wanted to look at Brandon’s weapon was because he wanted to attempt aiding the swordsman in obtaining his legacy. The warrior wanted do so by attempting to communicate with the blades with denser Order energy he had within him.

However, right before his hand could touch the sheath of the dual blades, the warrior suddenly kept his hands back to himself.

He turned his head over and looked at his left side. His sharp eyes seemed to be able to see through the void. He seemed to have noticed something.

“I’m sorry, Brandon. Perhaps you’ll have to wait a little longer.”

After remaining in silence for a brief moment as if he was doubting his own intuition, Joshua had made up his mind as he spoke softly. His voice sounded calm, yet contained a fierce rage that was enough to strike a chill up to the spine of a giant dragon. “I have something to take care of.”

After he finished his words, the warrior decisively turned his body around as he walked towards the main door of the laboratory. Meanwhile, the other three were shocked by the sudden change of his behaviour. Then a voice came from the entrance of the laboratory. “Ying. Ling.”

“Come now.”

The young boy and the young lady had some doubts on their minds. However, the silver-haired lady understood her master’s meaning first as she responded to him in excitement. After that, she pulled her brother along as they made their way toward the main door of the laboratory, leaving Brandon behind. The swordsman had a blank face as he stood there holding his Dual Blades of Order.

“What is going on?”

After hesitating briefly, he also decided to follow the warrior. However, the swordsman still could not help but mutter to himself. “What the hell is going on? Why did he just go out like that?”

Meanwhile, at that time, Brandon only noticed that his Dual Blades of Order were radiating as he was holding them in his hands.

“Strange. I’ve just put the crystal back into the cabinet and sealed it off… so why?”

At the border side of the Imperial City, on a street unnoticeable to people, in between ordinary houses with low roofs, a shadow of a black cat was running across the street.

Because of the previous explosion incident, most of the people who wandered on the streets had returned to their homes. The patrol passed through the street here, but they rarely set their sights upon the streets and the houses in this area. It was already late night and they still had heavy inspection tasks to perform. Meanwhile, the priority level of this region was undoubtedly the lowest among all regions in the Imperial City. A glance across the place was considered as dutiful already.

Therefore, the patrollers would not even pay attention on looking at a wooden house that was a bit old and no longer had any paint on it.

In the wooden house.

The sacrificial ritual continued on.

The men dressed in black robes raised their right arms into the air at the same time without being told by anyone.

Each of them were holding a small sharp knife in their left hand. Their knives were stained with yellowish human fat. And these knives were the same knives that they used to cut the corpses of the house owner open. The knives were used to cut the throat of the man, dig out the eyes of the woman, and cut out the heart of the child before placing all of their internal organs in the middle of the magic circle.

Meanwhile, currently, the knives were used to cut open the wrists of their holders.

While they were tacitly slicing their blood vessels opened, their hot blood spewed out from the cut wound on their wrists. Along with the pulses of the heartbeat coming from the magic circle, the men in black robes were chanting loudly using some bizarre evil language to pray toward an unknown existence. From the look on their faces, every single one of them looked just like a fanatic that was about to go insane. Meanwhile, along with their chanting, the blasphemous words in the magic circle were spinning even faster than before. The presence of depravity was getting thick by the second, and the walls around the house were beginning to glow with a bloody red radiance that could cause dizziness to whoever looked at it. The scent of sulphur was filling up the entire house. That wooden house seemed to have transformed into a hell.

However, under the influence of certain power, everything that was happening in the house had been isolated from everything else outside the house. People from the outside would not be able to notice even the slightest bit of what was happening inside the house.

The strange sound of the heartbeats grew louder and heavier by the second along with the happening of the fanatic’s insane sacrificial ritual. The corpses that were placed inside the magic circle had completely turned into dried corpses by now. Every single drop of water and blood were drained dry out of the corpses and turned into some black liquid with strong stench. The liquid was flowing and behaving in a way as if it was a live. The blood was gradually gathering and condensing into the shape of a gigantic heart.

They had succeeded!

They had done it!

They finally did it!

Upon witnessing the forming of the black gigantic heart, the men in black robes revealed ecstatic smiles on their faces. Because of the seal that was cast upon in the previous era, the connection of the Dark Abyss and this world had become extremely weak. Well, the connection was so weak that it felt like there was no connection at all anymore. Each and every summoning ritual that they had in the past had been just like a nerve-racking gamble. Failure would only mean that their efforts and preparations, and even their lives would be turned into scorching flames, literally. Just like their cult members who failed not long ago. It was not because they knew where to hide in order not to be found. It was merely because they had failed in performing their summoning ritual. Their failure had scorched their bodies and souls until they were turned into some meaningless sparkles of flames.

Hence, no matter how rigorous they searched the area, the patrollers and the guards would never find someone that no longer exist in this world.

However, a successful summoning ritual would open up a small breach on the seal.

The daemons that were summoned out were not really that important. The most important thing was the increasing number of small holes on the seals, one after another. The holy seal would gradually be torn open by the mourning despair of humanity until it finally failed to deliver its effect to seal off the Dark Abyss, causing the Dark Abyss and the world to reconnect once again.

One of the men in black robes had suffered from excessive blood loss. His skin had begun turning so pale that it looked almost white already. However, his gloomy eyes looked extremely fanatical as he was staring straight at the black heart was gradually forming in shape at the center point of the magic circle. In the meantime, his mouth was still moving as he was chanting on some Chaos prayer that no one could understand. While he was chanting, a thrill of excitement would occasionally get hold of him and the man would cheer in excitement whenever that happened.

Life was no longer important to these men who had been brainwashed. What they craved for was extreme evil and Chaos. It was the descent of Chaos upon this world that caused everything to be reduced to their basic savage form. For that, these men would give their lives to make that happen and they would not even give a damn about it. The men in black robes took the risk of being exposed to any imminent danger just to perform this one summoning ritual that worked exactly like a gamble while hoping that they could succeed before the search team of the city would reach searching the border area of the city.

And now, their success was presented right before their eyes.

The heartbeat became louder and louder. But suddenly, the world seemed to have descended into quietness for a brief moment. A sense of stifling uneasiness began to spread throughout the small house.

Afterward, a loud burst of sound was heard coming from a distance, whistling and approaching. While the men in black robes were staring in each other’s eyes in shock, a silvery light came right in like a meteor, breaking through the roof of the small house like tearing through a thin layer of paper. Then it struck and shattered the attic and its floor, the hardwoods and the rocks of the house. After that, along with the thunderous sound of metal and the rocks crashing into each other, the meteoric light instantly turned into a large silver greatsword, plunging straight into the center of the magic circle in the living room.

This silvery-white greatsword was radiating with a red glossy glow. That was in fact an extremely dense Combat Aura that contained immense Order power, which had holy patterns, flashing just like lines, purifying everything around it. Because the greatsword had plunged into the ground right in the middle of the magic circle, the magic circle was struck by its enemy of nature, its nemesis. Along with the sharp noises caused by the attack, black smoke began to rise into the air. The evil and bizarre radiance swiftly dimmed and the blasphemous runes and words no longer spun around the magic circle as if the circle had ceased to function in an instant.

“What the hell just happened?!”

“We’re under attack!”

“We’ve been discovered!”

“How can that be possible?! This is the magic circle that is formed by the power of the Evil God! So how is it possible that we were discovered?!”

After having a great shock from an unexpected attack, the men in black robes in the vicinity began to panic in an instant.

Meanwhile, the moment when the magic circle was disrupted, in Morlaix Palace, in the royal study room, the Empire’s King of slaughterer who was having his rest stood up on his feet in an instant.

“Blasphemous magic circle… Power of the Evil God! Those god damn cultists! How daring of them to cloak themselves from my senses!”

He was enraged before he could even react to the situation. The dark gold hair of the man almost stood up in the air as his rage was overwhelming his mind. His face was obviously filled with only disgust and hatred. Israel turned his head to Archmage Nostradamus who also sensed the great presence of evil. “Teacher, please send me over… wait a minute.”

Not only was the emperor shocked, even Nostradamus who was preparing to teleport over to the crime scene had a shocked look on his face. Their eyes seemed to be able to see through the void as they were staring at the scene from the palace.

“Is that so… Heh. he has arrived at the scene.”

The white-haired mage was stunned for a brief moment. After that, he revealed a faint smile on the cold face of his.

Right by his side, the face of the emperor slowly changed, from wrath to surprise, and from surprise to confusion. At last, he also whispered to the old mage and said, “Let him go then.”

Meanwhile, in the small house.

Along with the screams of panic from the cultists, the main door of the house was blown open. From the splintered wood chips of the destruction of the poor door, a cold flash was seen gleaming across the eyes of the cultists, followed by a greataxe flying right across the living room of the house like a meteor, completely destroying the magic circle that the cultists had spent so much effort to make.

“I see you.”

A voice came into the house right after that.

“You all should stay quiet.”