Soul of Burning Steel

A horrific alarm hovered over the imperial capital, and the sudden chaos of the crowd made the carriage unable to drive normally. Joshua didn't have time to think too much, so he opened the door and got off the carriage. Then look up to the east side of the city.

"Good guy..."

With a soft breath, Joshua frowned, and couldn't help muttering to himself, "This is amazing."

On the east side of the city, there are flames flickering, and the red light illuminates several blocks. Black smoke is rising into the sky, covering a large area. Brandon and Nostradamus also got out of the carriage. They Also watching this scene.

"That place is a residential area...what's the situation?"

With rich experience, the blond swordsman quickly judged that the fire in the city was not that big, and when the city guards reacted and rushed to put out the fire, it would not cause too much damage, but he still looked solemn: "Is there any mage in the city Did something happen when you were doing a taboo experiment at home?"

Mage experiment accidents, this kind of thing happened often decades ago, and it would cause a lot of damage every time, but now, there is a special mage experiment area in the Royal Mage Association of the Imperial Capital. Magic, then it is definitely better to go to a more professional experimental area than at home.

"No, it's not an experimental accident."

The old mage saw it very clearly, and his eyes were shining with the brilliance of magic power: "There is no fluctuation of magic power, and there is no collection of a large number of elements, and if it was an accident, then the mage who was experimenting should have come out to clean up the situation... The alchemy explosion was not an accident of the mage's experiment..."

After being silent for a while, he paused and said clearly: "Maybe, this is a deliberate attack."

The sudden explosion happened only once, and the panicked crowd gradually regained their composure, especially when they realized that the explosion was far away from them and could not threaten their lives, their courage returned to their hearts.

It has to be said that as residents of the imperial capital, most of them have a good level of education. Under the command of the city guards who came to calm down, the calm crowd walked through the streets in an orderly manner and returned to their homes. Nothing happened on the way. Accident.

The guards also came to the black carriage. When they saw Joshua and the other three, they wanted to go up to check it out, but after being reminded by a certain guard, the others also noticed that the inconspicuous emblem on the carriage It represents the Imperial Royal Mages Association, and the robe on the white-haired mage with his back to them is a crystal-patterned white robe that only archmages can wear.

In the imperial capital, the person who dares to pretend to be the great mage of the mage association has not yet been born.

And those who can share the same carriage with the archmage are not nobles, but also powerful professionals. The group of city guards simply bypassed these three people and went to other places to preside over order.

——It is fools to provoke this group of people.

Brandon was still thinking about the cause of the explosion. At this time, the flames on the east side of the city had become faint, and the city guards seemed to have controlled the fire. Nostradamus was also thinking about it, but it didn't take long before he spoke. Said: "Shall we go to the scene to see the situation?"

The eyes of the old mage were full of doubts. Although he had guessed before that this was a deliberate attack, the truth did not make sense at all—the place where the explosion occurred was the east side of the outer city, where ordinary residents lived. At most, the explosion there will kill one or two residents and destroy one or two residential buildings. An attack of the same power can kill dozens of people even in a commercial street in the outer city, and the loss of money will be even greater. I don't know how many times.

So he wanted to go and see the situation.

Naturally, Joshua and Brandon would not have any objections, and they were also very curious. Especially Joshua, he had a vague guess in his mind, but he didn't know if the guess was right, so he had to go to the scene to see the situation.

The three returned to the carriage, and under the driving of the coachman, the carriage turned around and drove towards the other side of the street. Without the dense crowd of pedestrians on the street, their speed was even faster.

It didn't take long for them to pass through the main road in the center of the imperial capital, passing by countless shops and residential buildings, and arrived at the east side of the city, the scene of the explosion.

The scene of the explosion has been sealed off, and countless city guards are patrolling and cleaning up. Some guards originally wanted to stop the carriage from moving forward, but just like their previous counterparts, they respectfully let go after seeing the emblem of the Royal Mages Association on the carriage. After opening the road, Joshua and others arrived at the scene smoothly.

Near the ruins of a residential building, several guards were tidying up the site. In the ruins, the fire had been completely extinguished, leaving only scattered black smoke emerging from the burnt black wooden beams.

The fire was very intense at the time.

With just one glance, Joshua can make a rough judgment—because in the ruins, except for the stone and almost melted steel structures burned by the high temperature, the other wooden furniture and decorations were all reduced to ashes or coke. , even a little complete wreckage could not be found, natural fires and explosions could not cause this level of damage, only spells and alchemy materials could do it.

On the side, Nostradamus also confirmed his opinion. He frowned and stroked his white beard: "Sure enough, the explosion and fire were deliberately caused. Fortunately, because the celebration is approaching, the surrounding people are wandering in the streets." , so the casualties should not be large.”

And after more careful observation, Joshua roughly confirmed his previous judgment.

"Cultists."

He whispered to himself: "It must be a good thing they did."

The so-called heretics, in a broad sense, are members of sects that do not believe in the Seven Gods. Among them are the original Druid ancestor spirit beliefs, and there are also orc shamans, but these are not evil, at most they are Heretics, so in a narrow sense, heretics refer to demon believers who play bloody rituals.

The origin of the cultists cannot be traced, but it can be concluded that their history is at least comparable to the Church of the Seven Gods. Their energy is beyond the imagination of ordinary people. In the wild west of the mainland, there are many tribes who believe in various demon cults. They kill living people, Use blood to draw a magic circle for sacrifice, and even perform extremely terrifying sacrificial rituals such as 'mutual cannibalism', 'self-eating', and 'collective suicide' to obtain the evil power of the abyss.

Most people who believe in demons have deep desires, and as long as they fall into it, they can't extricate themselves. They pursue chaos, death and turmoil in the entire social group, so that everything can return to the original form of no order and the law of the jungle. , many cultists deliberately incited refugee riots, and even captured several small cities to separatize one side, causing great chaos and an extremely heavy blow to the order of the entire kingdom.

In Joshua's view, the bloody killings that occurred in various parts of the Northern Empire were also the actions of cultists. They should have planned to perform a secret summoning ceremony through blood sacrifices, but the abyss was sealed by sages in the last era. If it is not unsealed, except for the book of Eibon, which directly leads to the abyss, the summoning ceremony will be difficult to succeed.

In the eyes of the soldiers, the explosion of the imperial capital was a summoning ceremony that was close to success but failed in the end. Nostradamus believed that the explosion was caused by alchemy creations such as gunpowder, but Joshua knew that the demon Materials such as sulfur and saltpeter are originally needed in the summoning ceremony of the ancients, and the two do not conflict.

"However, he dared to summon demons in the imperial capital, and he almost succeeded... You know, in a few days it will be the celebration banquet for the extermination of the orcs."

Turning his head and looking at the huge obsidian palace in the center of the imperial capital, Joshua stroked his chin and said with a chuckle: "If you choose to strike at this time, I really don't know what kind of action that His Majesty will make. "

At this time, the news of the explosion had already reached the center of the imperial capital, the Royal Study of the Palace of Morlaix.

With a cold snort, a terrible storm was brewing.

I have something to do in the evening, I will update one chapter now, and I will update another chapter when I have time in the evening, so don’t say it is short.