Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-268

Northern Empire, Imperial City.

Just as the Diamond royal said, this world only had one Empire kingdom at the moment. Hence the kingdom did not need a name. And for that, whenever someone mentioned the 'Empire', no one would actually thought of other cities across the entire continent.

Right in the center of the holy city that was surrounded by three mountains, there was a large city within the city. The inner city was surrounded by a strong wall, separating it from the other parts of the entire city. Within the walls, there were towering spires and a vaulted dome supported by stone pillars across the entire area.

There was the residence of the Imperial Royal Family, Morlaix Palace.

Morlaix Palace was built by the Empire state founding emperor. It originally had only a simple cylindrical hall that was known to be the residence of the royal family. However, the late emperor had different aesthetic styles in mind. So each of them had built palaces with their own preferences in the surrounding of the first building of the royal family for the past thousands of years. As a result, the entire Morlaix Palace had gradually evolved into a complex small city filled with many other palaces composed of countless architectural shapes.

In Morlaix Palace, the imperial royal family was not the only ones who were living there. There were also the operating station of the guardians of the royal family known as the [Mars Guardians], the Assembly Hall, the headquarters of the Parliament Hall and many more headquarters of the organizations under the jurisdiction of the royal family.

Sitting on the dark yellow carriage with the emblem of the sun, Joshua and Brandon, bringing Ying and Ling alongside them, were walking towards the palace. It was already in the middle of the night. However, because of the demon's appearance earlier on, there were still many city guards patrolling strictly on the streets. They were conducting investigations in an effort to prevent such incidents to happen ever again.

"Not only the Imperial City… Such incidents have been happening all over the continent as we speak."

With the Kaos family and the Imperial Royal Mages Guild as the sources of intel, Brandon knew some things more quickly than Joshua did. Before that when they were still on the carriage, he was reading through the information that was urgently sent over to him. Then he explained it to the warrior and said, "Currently, it is certain that the Eastern Plains are suffering the most serious disastrous events. The number of casters over there are the highest. There are also a lot of people with enchanted bloodlines as well. There are too many favorable conditions suitable for the cultists to carry out their sacrificial rituals. Meanwhile, in the distant South, because of the occurrence of the Dragon's Calamity over there, there were a large number of refugees at the moment. They were all deemed by the cultists to be the most suitable materials for the cultist's rituals. And because of the attacks from a large number of monsters all over the place, the army of the kingdom could not take care of too many things at the same instant, causing the South to suffer greater loses that might be even greater than the loses that the Eastern Plains suffered.

"Even the races that are hiding from the world such as the dwarves in the West Mountains and the wind elves, were harassed by cultists before. It seemed that the Imperial City did not suffer a serious loss all thanks to its heavily guarded defenses."

"I'm sure enough to say that cultists are everywhere." Joshua nodded slightly. He did not seem to feel surprised to hear about it.

As long as desires were not satiated, Chaos would spread. Regardless of any race, the same applied to all. There would not be any exception regarding this.

Because of the previous battle with the demon, the warrior had already changed into a new set of clothes. He seemed to have considered the fact that he was about to meet the emperor of an entire kingdom. He was wearing a set of clothes that an ordinary nobleman would wear. However, even though that was the case, those complicated patterns and decorations over the clothes of the warrior could not conceal the fearsome aura of the warrior. "However, why would the emperor summon us?"

He felt a little odd for being summoned to meet the emperor. After all, he only killed one demon earlier on. That sort of matter was considered sparse and ordinary. Even though he was in Imperial City at the moment, a simple gesture of gratitude would have been enough to make the warrior happy. In his past life when he was entering the Dark Abyss, he was leading a party as they were attempting to eradicate a lair of demons. Some time ago, Joshua had been summoning demons using the Book of Eibon. He treated the demons like his food for him to level up from time to time. So he had already felt a little numb in killing demons.

Even if the emperor wanted to learn something about the demons, there was no need for the emperor to summon him over to the palace.

"Not us. Just you. No one else."

Pointing out the fact that Joshua had misunderstood, Brandon shook his head and said, "Although that was just one demon, for one to appear in Imperial City, that is the biggest difference that demon had compared to the others. So regardless of the significance of other political or security defenses, that should mean that the seal that kept the Dark Abyss isolated from this world had begun to loosen up. Not to mention that you're a Chaos Guardian… I say you, Joshua."

Speaking of that, Brandon stopped explaining about it as he began to furrow his brows. He was not reading the information that he was holding in his hands. Instead, lifted his head as he looked the warrior in his eyes and said, "Can you suppress some of your presence a little bit more? The coachman and the horses of the carriage are trembling in fear now. You see, the carriage is heading a little off course from time to time. Didn't you realize that?"

"I've suppressed it a lot already."

Looking at Ying and Ling on both of his sides who were trying to laugh out, Joshua shrugged helplessly as he looked at the texts of the system by the edge of his retina and sighed. "This trouble is really getting more serious day by day."

In the character attribute list in the eyes of the warrior, there was one figure that caught his eyes the most.

[Charm: -53]

All his other attributes on the list were more than 100 points each. There was only one with a negative figure.

Under that attribute, there was a new description being added, to explain the changes made to that attribute of his.

[As your Charm has exceeded below -50 points, your Aura of Fear has now evolved into Aura of Despair.]

[Because you have slain the superior demon 'Heart Devourer Raldan Asth, its curse and resentment are entangled all around your whole body. Your Despair Spiritual Energy has evolved into the Aura of Despair and you've obtained +1 in your judgment.]

[You have slaughtered a superior demon and you have given the demon a taste of fear and despair.]

[You have unlocked an achievement: The Nemesis of Demons]

Joshua was uninterested in reading the details about that new attributes of this achievement he just obtained. Anyway, it should be further deductions on his Charm value, making him even more intimidating, threatening, and even made him even more persuasive in negotiations. In conclusion, his appearance and image had become even more negative than ever right now. By just being there, he would have caused fear and despair to anyone just like what Brandon said a moment ago. The coachman and the horses were trembling in fear at the moment.

What kind of joke was having his Charm value reduced to -53? The warrior made an assumption that if he went to take a stroll around the city without revealing his identity, he would have been surrounded by almost all of the guards in the city. Regardless of which city he went, he would be blocked by the city guards and be forbidden to enter the cities. All of the working personnel in any public area would freeze in fear after he entered the areas. And now that he had obtained the Aura of Despair—also known as the enhanced version of the Aura of Fear, Joshua believed that he could definitely become the source that causes panic and fear all over the place. Regardless of where he went, he would simply cause massive panic across any place he ever visited. He would be even more demonic than any demon from the dark abyss.

"You've killed too many monsters and demons… I assume…"

Closing the document in his hands, Brandon seemed to feel helpless about it as well. "Since you've reached such an extent already, I believe that you might need the pope to help you with it…"

Of course, he knew that his friend in front of him was not a wicked person. In fact, in the eyes of the swordsman, Joshua was a competent and a perfect baron to his people. After all, the warrior was even willing to slay the dragons for his own people. Even after encountering many attempts of assassination, the warrior had never had any resentments or complaints. However, in the world with magic and souls, the curses that were left behind by the dying living beings were real. Monsters that were slaughtered by Joshua… Their resentments were entangling all around the warrior's body. Although they could not do any harm to the warrior, they did affect how the others around him looked at him.

Normally, there would be similar situations in soldiers who had fought countless battles over a long period of time. Instead of getting close to them, most people would respect them more, or even fear them. However, Joshua was in a completely different spot right now. He had reached an extreme extent in regard of this. From respect to fear, and from fear to a higher degree of horror, and from that higher degree of horror to terror… until the end of it, people would sense extreme danger the moment they saw him from afar. Some might even have soft legs as they could no longer move because of despair.

Through divine spells, priests could purify these sort of special 'conditions' though. However, just like what Brandon said a moment ago, Joshua would need someone that was a higher rank than the top tier, maybe the pope would be the only one who could solve his problem for him.

Because of the presence of the warrior on that carriage, the carriage was moving forward very slowly. It took them quite a long time before they arrived at the main entrance into the city of Morlaix Palace.

The guards in black armor came to the front of the carriage. They saw the royal emblem on the carriage, knowing that these were the important guests that the emperor had summoned. So the guards were being very polite to them. But even so, the rules could not be changed. The guards needed to open the door and see if there were any more men or women on that carriage. Furthermore, it was one of the strict rules that weapons were not allowed to be carried along into the vicinity of the palace. They must be handed over to the guards for the moment.

The guard who appeared to be the captain among all guards was requesting permission to open up the door of the carriage to inspect. Naturally, Brandon agreed and gave them permission to do their job.

Upon opening the door on the carriage, the captain lifted his head up and took a look into the carriage. With a quick glance, he recognized Brandon. As one of the most important nobles, the eldest son of the Kaos family, the swordsman was very famous among this group of guards. He was also bestowed with title 'Glorious Swordsman' and also the permission to bring his weapon into the palace.

Bowing respectfully at Brandon, the captain turned his head over to look at the other side of the carriage.

Then he immediately put his hand on the hilt of his sword that was hanging by his waist.