Emperor of Steel
chapter-25

Chapter 25: The Magi Crystals 3

Luke went into his room and threw himself onto his bed and went to sleep right away.

He was very tired since he had been traveling in a state where he couldn’t say that his body was good, yet he wasn’t able to sleep.

It was because he had to decide what to do in the future.

First, he succeeded in paying off the debt and defending the Gigant. However, two of the biggest things remained.

Overthrowing the Baroque Imperial and the Veritas Magic Tower.

‘Of all, I’ll never forgive the Veritas Magic Tower.’

It was what ruined the life that he and Katarina were supposed to have, and stole his work which pushed Saymon into studying dark magic for expanding his authority and power.

‘Even if the wizards of the Veritas Magic Tower aren’t relevant to the past, they are the ones who always commit huge sins by depriving people of basic necessities.’

The same was the case for the Baroque Imperial family.

They were enjoying building the empire with the help of the Veritas magic tower.

Shouldn’t that unjust power and actions be cleared?

‘To do that, I would need to have a stronger force.’

In order to have strong power, he would have to increase his power and his forces as well.

The estates had forces, and they could somehow be developed, but the problem was the body he was in possession of.

It was hard to grow properly in a normal manner because of a misleading dark magic curse that got placed without his knowledge.

‘I need something specific.’

Luke cleaned up his clothes and went out. He moved to the stable and brought out his horse.

“Young Lord, where are you going?”

The gatekeeper, who was guarding the main gate of the permanent mansion, moved to the front of Luke who was riding on the horse.

It wasn’t much since he had returned and he was off to somewhere, that too without his guardian. It would turn troublesome if he met people he wasn’t supposed to meet.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back in a jiffy. If the retainers ask, tell them I went to the castle that is in front.”

“You can go, but your guardian…!”

Before the gatekeeper could complete, Luke ran out with the horse.

“Young Lord! Please wait, young Lord!”

The gatekeeper screamed and chased, but Luke just went ahead in the direction of the huge castle that was straight to him.

Hundreds of years had passed to form a dense forest of old trees, and an old giant structure made of black stone appeared.

The castle, with the steep tower in the middle, was the former home of Luke in the past, a place that people called ‘Devil King’s castle’.

Legend has it that the Devil King’s Castle was built by the Devil Saymon with the stones that he acquired from the devils. He was described to have caught and sacrificed thousands of human as dark sacrifices and ate them like beasts.

“Hng, if I wanted to make it look much more sophisticated, it would have been very costly for me, idiots!”

Luke scoffed at the sign that said the origin and the name of the castle.

Even if Saymon wanted, there was no devil for him to pamper.

All the summoned ones were beaten by Saymon and later used for absorbing their powers and abilities, and a few of them were used for experiments.

At the time of the reconstruction, a dwarf tribe had helped, and the black stone was the basalt rock obtained nearby.

Not thousands, and definitely not a dark sacrifice, but there were indeed a few humans.

But they were the hunters who sold off the poor tribes, they just paid for their sins.

And history was left to the point of view of the winner. And Warlock Saymon was remembered as a Devil King for future generations.

“Today’s business is done… ah, young Lord, what are you doing here?”

“Just felt like seeing.”

Luke passed the horse over to the janitor standing at the gate.

As the closing hour was nearing, there didn’t seem to be any visitors left. It was a good thing for Luke as he won’t have to face any hindrance.

He walked along the long corridor to see it all.

‘I was with Katarina at that time.’

Luke went along with the memory.

At that time, while traveling with Katarina, he sought a place to escape from the rain and found a ruined castle.

At first, they only went in to avoid getting wet in the rain, but the two adventurous humans wandered around the castle and ended up finding a book that was left behind by a warlock.

‘I tried to get rid of it, but the book had some kind of protection magic around it, and hence it failed.’

In the end, the two decided to hide the dark magic book in a place that only they knew.

Luke, who later lost Katarina felt completely shut down, he returned there for revenge and unlocked the Dark Magic Book.

The Dark Magic Book, contained the essence of darkness and chaos, was always carried by Saymon.

9 circle of the dark magic could surely destroy the book, but he wasn’t able to get rid of it because it was one of the few things that he shared with her.

‘What happened to that book after my death? Would Rakan have gotten rid of it? Yeah, that stupid one was a fool with no consideration, he would have done that.’

Luke entered the main hall as he saw another ridiculous sign.

‘A brave man battled with the Devil King Saymon? To write down such red lies!’

In fact, the fight with Rakan happened in front of the giant structure, where the permanent mansion was located.

“How far did these people distort the truth? Huh! what is this now? I sat on such a childish throne?”

A majestic golden throne.

Luke, no Saymon, there was no way his throne couldn’t have been so incredible.

Just in case, he wanted to see if it was real gold, however, it was just a painted seat, and jewelry on display was just glass imitation.

‘If it was real, I would have sold it on sale.’

Tilting his head back, Luke approached the wall that was behind him.

“Let’s see, this is the brick to push, and that…”

Luke, decided seven of the bricks in the wall and pressed them in turns.

As they weren’t used for a long time, the bricks didn’t move well.

But later, as he pushed them, one after the other, they started to go in.

Drrrk!

Kukuku!

The wall split from side to side, revealing a hidden passage.

As Luke began to enter, he took the help of the wall.

“Surely, the building skills of the dwarves are the best. It works perfectly even after 500 years.”

There were no traces of people moving in or out of the passage as the dust had settled down.

Except for the spiders, dust, and the webs, the place was exactly the way Saymon had left it.

Because it was made with the help of the dwarves’ knowledge of institutions, the passage wasn’t captured even with the detection magic of the wizards or the hunters.

Luke, who was descending along the secret passage, reached a large bronze gate a while later.

“In the darkness I speak to the shining spirit, open the way for the truth.”

As Luke opened the door, the magic on the bronze door reacted causing it to open.

And finally, with a damp smell of the old air, the underground laboratory revealed it’s appearance.

Wizards normally set up secret spaces in their homes, and Luke too built a laboratory in the basement.

“500 years ago.”

Luke looked at the underground laboratory with his eyes.

Cobwebs, dust, and mold were in every corner of the room, except for them all the other things were right there.

A spellbook, a flask containing a magic solution, or the experiments that he stopped doing.

Reading his experimental journal, he could almost feel disappointed.

“It’s been an experiment with almost 90% done… it isn’t time to hang out here.”

Luke opened a book which kept a record of all the lab supplies that were present.

To find what he needed.

‘Third right cabinet safe!’

Luke opened the safe which was inside the cabinet.

What he took out of the safe was a sealed vial.

A translucent black liquid in the glass moved as if it was alive.

“I found you, Magi Crystals!”