Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-25

Chapter 25: Seven Gods of Men

A half-naked man with black hair who was holding a silver greatsword was currently standing right in the middle of a street with no undamaged bricks at all.

After the battle ended, the magic and elemental power that rippled across the battlefield where Joshua and Moz were battling against each other had returned back to their calm state. Meanwhile, the dust was blown away and dispersed from the scene. Joshua could sense that there was no one in the vicinity of hundreds of meters around him. No matter it was the residents or the mercenaries hired by the Wilson family, none of them dared to stay around to observe the place.

Followed by a bright yet non-blinding flash across the sword, the silver greatsword changed back into a silver-haired girl with green eyes who seemed disorientated.

“Master, was that it?”

“That’s right.” Joshua nodded without hesitation. “I’ve taken out that uncle who tried to snatch my title and the Gold-tier warrior of the Wilson family who orchestrated all this from the shadows!”

He felt great and relieved at the moment. He began to speak more than he usually did, “I know. There are certainly many plans involved in using a count as a puppet. There are a lot of schemes, a lot of backcourts, a lot of countermeasures… But f*ck it! None of that matters!”

Looking at the silver-haired warrior who died with his eyes wide open, Joshua spoke in disdain, “They thought they were very clever. But the truth is, they were too naïve. I’ve killed them all. So what’s the use even if they had millions of schemes up their sleeves then? A bunch of imbeciles!”

“No, Master… I don’t really know much about schemes and this sort of things… What I was trying to say was, don’t you feel that the battle only lasted two minutes? Don’t you think it’s a little too soon for the battle to be over?”

The silver-haired Divine Armament shook her head. She did not understand anything that Joshua had just spoken of. Ying looked at Joshua with dissatisfaction.

“I’ve waited for so long, and you only used me for two minutes?”

“Huh?”

“I’ve waited for so long!”

“… Well, I can’t deny that, Ying. That’s because I have you.” Joshua began to adjust his tone back to normal and spoke to Ying calmly. “Without you, the enemy’s [Glorious Strength] would never activate. I have no equipment that could block the impact of the enemy’s [Shape of the Wind]. The battle outcome with Moz would have become unpredictable.”

“Is… is that true?” The silver-haired Divine Armament girl was praised by her master for the first time, which surprised.

“Of course!” Joshua answered assuringly.

Upon hearing her master’s words, Ying immediately replied, “It’s my honor to serve you, my Master.”

After that, the young female Divine Armament smiled, even though was obvious that she was trying not to. She appeared joyful, as she followed Joshua from behind.

… Well, that’s good for now.

Upon nodding his head, Joshua did not intend to stay there any longer after he took his weapon back. He looked around for a bit to make sure the direction where he was heading before he began to move. “We’re going to the cathedral. We must hurry.”

“To ring the bell in order to inform the people?”

“No, to heal my arm.”

That was, in fact, a very serious thing to be handled as soon as possible. Since [Enrage] could suppress 80% of the pain Joshua was feeling and greatly enhance his strength, Joshua did not feel much pain in his palm that looked like a smashed mud pie dangling his wrist. However, he was experienced in such regard so he knew that once the effect of the skill faded and the adrenaline stopped, the sudden pain that was enough to make an iron-willed soldier drip cold sweat.

Although he could forcefully endure the pain, why would he want to do that?

Naturally, Ying did not have any objection to that. So the two of them began to rush over to the church not far from them.

Cathedral of St. Laurent

Seven Gods among Men. They were the God of Might and Justice, the God of Love and Hate, the God of Order and Destruction, the God of Law and Freedom, the God of Conservation and Reformation, the God of Skills and Schemes and the God of Life ¹ .

These gods had no difference in their status.

However, in the sacrificial rituals, the God of Life would be placed before the others. Well, no one knew the reason behind that. Perhaps many players had tried digging for the explanation on that, but there was no clear answer up until today.

The Seven Gods among Men had no name with real meaning, not they have any form. So no matter if it was the statues, the mural or even the paintings, there was no specific way to express their appearances at all. Each of the gods only had one symbol of their own. Other than responding to the humans’ prayers, the gods would basically do nothing as if they never existed in this world.

However, Joshua knew that it would not take long before one of the seven gods, the God of Might and Justice would form an alliance with the Metal Dragon God in order to take down the Pentashade Dragon God. By doing so, they would be able to remove the barriers of the outside world. That event should trigger the prelude to the arrival of the Dark Tide, a World Class Historical Event [Berserk Dragon’s Calamity]

The location where Joshua was currently standing at was known to be the cathedral of the God of Might and Justice, the largest meeting place in the North for the worshippers of the God of Might and Justice. It was named after the first saint, St. Laurent. Meanwhile, there was a black holy logo in the shape of a ring hanging above the bell tower that was blinking brightly.

Right by the stairs at the entrance, there was a huge stone tablet which has some words crafted on it.

“Justice without the light will require the strong to prevail.”

Frankly speaking, the cathedral had a somber atmosphere to it. It was a church community that reflected the public after all. So no matter how solemn they appeared to be, they had to be friendly to the people. Joshua turned to look at the other side, where there was another stone tablet piece.

“Monday – Friday, Will close in the morning. Afternoon, praise and worship session. Sermon in the evening.”

“Saturday afternoon meal. Sunday morning prayer. Afternoon meeting.”

There was also another small line of words crafted on the lower part of the stone tablet.

“Bring your own tableware.”

After all, this was a church. They could not ask too much from others. Joshua could still remember. When he was still young, he would come here to listen to the hymns. The old priest over here was very familiar with his presence. Would that old priest still be there? Would he still be able to recognize Joshua as the little boy back in the day?

After passing the stairs, he arrived at the doors of the cathedral to find that they were shut. There was also a huge and sturdy wooden plank stuck in between the doors. Well, there was no way that any sound would be able to get past that door. It was all his dead uncle’s fault. He was the one who caused all these. Because of his deeds, everyone did not dare to step out of their own houses. Since there was no one coming to pray, the church had no reason to leave their doors open. So they would have to shut their doors tight and stop anyone from entering. Even if Danlya and the Wilson family were ten times braver than they actually were, they would still not be daring enough to touch the sacred cathedral.

It seemed that regular shouting and screaming would do no good in getting the cathedral to open up their doors. With no choice left, Joshua was forced to activate his Combat Aura and knocked heavily on the door several times.

When the red radiance touched the surface of the grayish-brown door, instantly, a milky glow began to surface. This glow shimmered on continuously as if a stone was dropped into the surface of still water that caused countless ripples across the entire surface. It did not take long before the cathedral’s stone doors began to open slowly. Four knights that appeared to be the guardians of the cathedral and two Silver-tier priests walked from behind the doors to greet Joshua and Ying.

“The Cathedral of St. Laurent is not open any believers at the moment,” said the first knight despondently.

“We are currently not allowing entrance to pilgrims as well.” The second knight also spoke in the same manner.

“So no matter your purpose is here, please… Wait a minute, you are?”

Before he could finish the words that he seemed to know by heart, the third knight froze for a moment. After a brief moment of hesitation, he said to his comrades, “Hold on, my fellow mates. This… this person appears to be the next heir.”

Meanwhile, the [Enrage] form was about to end. The intense pain was beginning to spread across his entire body. Joshua sighed and said in a helpless tone, “That’s right, it’s me.”