Emperor of Steel

A cracking voice with no soul.

Luke looked over at the place where the source of voice could be heard, no energy could be felt.

The Bat winged demon, whose entire body turned into a mess, was on a hard stone slab.

“It was you.”

The demon which was almost dying was Belfair.

Fortunately, it wasn’t some random monster, but the problem was the condition of Belfair.

He was a vampire and a Sword Master who reached the intermediate level, and Belfair wasn’t the kind to lose even against a strong opponent.

Even if he crossed path with a Sword Sage or an 8th circle wizard, he would have safely escaped.

Yet, he was on a stone slab with his body turned into pulp.

Luke frowned, and immediately tried to heal Belfair’s body.

It felt like Belfair was running out of breath.

Woong!

Magi flowed from Luke’s fingers and absorbed into Belfair’s body.

Unfortunately, the Magi wasn’t able to recover Belfair.

Rather, when Luke changed the Magi into Divine power, the speed of body regeneration accelerated.

“You turned into a very weird one, Belfair.”

“It is all thanks to Master.”

Belfair learned the Silver Sword all because of Luke’s pressure and acquired the Divine power in that process.

The process of gaining Divine power was painful, but thanks to that, he was able to enter any temple at will.

In addition, he killed Meister Albert of Veritas Magic tower with Divine power.

‘Even this time I barely got out alive because of it.’

When Belfair seemed a little better, Luke went into questioning him.

“What the hell happened?”

Belfair sighed and began to explain.

“Well, as ordered by Master, we were looking for the Undead base of Arsene, and we managed to identify that they were beginning to gather significant amounts of jewels and gold ingots and sold them in the black market of Libiya Kingdom.”

He took his time in telling what he had found out.

Kidnapping several black market merchants and asking for information, the jewels which were engraved with the emblem of the Crete royal family which had long disappeared.

“But, on the Crete island, where I visited, the most Advanced demon was there guarding the temple alone.”

“What? An Advanced demon was there?”

“Yes, that too, a demon which had left the Devildom long back, it was like the Arch Duke of Devildom, Bargosa.”

From what Luke knew, there were a total of 5 ranks among the demons.

There were the Demon King, Arch Duke Demon, Advanced Demon, Intermediate Demon, and Lower Demon.

Among them the highest level of the demon tribes or clans was the Arch Duke Demon, which meant after the 7 Demon Kings, the demons of Arch Duke class were the strongest.

Most of the time, they were close to the Demon Kings and took on important roles such as escorts or guards.

And such a demon was on the Middle earth? That too, was keeping guard to a temple?

‘Arsene summoned him?’

That was the thought which passed through his head.

Due to the understanding and rules made by the Gods long back, the demons couldn’t emerge in Middle earth without a contractor.

If so, it meant that someone signed a contract with the demon and called him over.

And of course, the only one who could do that was the Lich King, Arsene.

“So what happened?”

“I tried to be as undetectable as possible, but I couldn’t fool the senses of such a top demon. Eventually, my luck ran out and I was in a position of running away.”

No matter how developed Belfair was, or if he learned Divine power from Luke, there was no way he could win against an Arch Duke Demon.

Even though he ran away immediately, he got caught, he fell into the dark thunderstorms created by Bargosa.

“If it was me before meeting Master, I would have turned into ashes right away. However, with the slight Divine power in my body, I managed to push back Bargosa causing a fatal injury.”

“You did well. From here, I’ll do it on my own, so you can rest here and recover.”

After speaking with Belfair, Luke came out of the prison, and Arch Duke Gregory was waiting.

Luke, who noticed that he was listening in on their conversation, wasn’t shocked to see him there.

Gregory pointed to the prison.

“You have a very weird one in there.”

“I think that it will be a good example to advertise the greatness of God.”

“A repenting demon... that was surely unthought of.”

With a thin smile, yet serious voice, Gregory asked.

“Would you want to go to Crete?”

“I feel like I should.”

It was surprising that clues related to Arsene came from Crete Island—which was located on the other side of the continent and not in the Libiya Kingdom.

He couldn’t decide anything else but go.

It was suspicious that an Arch Duke Demon was on Crete Island, and what was his relationship with Arsene.

If the demon did get summoned by Arsene, it was highly likely that the Undead base was somewhere on Crete Island.

‘No, even if the undead base is not in there, there could be something very important to the Veritas or Arsene in there.’

Thinking so, when Luke seemed to be ready to move, Gregory seemed bitter.

“Her Holiness must be very upset.”

“But I can’t help it. This is an urgent one.”

No one knew what kind of a plot Arsene or the advanced demon was plotting.

However, he couldn’t take Reina with him.

It was because she had already used a lot of stamina and Aether to purify the Undead.

To replenish the amount used, she had to get a proper rest for at least a month.

“The Arch Duke changed quite a lot. In the past, you were displeased whenever I was with Reina.”

“Of course, I did...”

Gregory, who smiled at Luke’s words, soon continued.

“Her Holiness is happy when she is with Your Majesty. I wondered if it was right for me to interfere with you just because of the status she held.”

“So, you mean to say that you put Reina’s happiness above the national prestige?”

“I never thought I would say this, but... it seems like I have started to regard Her Holiness as a family, not like my Master, but as my real daughter.”

‘So it was right!’

In fact, he had seen the signs of it.

Like being particularly sensitive to Reina-related things, or nagging her like a bride’s father during the secret wedding.

Anyway, when he heard that Gregory was standing for Reina, Luke felt the resentment he had towards the Arch Duke wash away.

“Which is why I am saying that I will accompany you to Crete.”

“Arch Duke will?”

Gregory nodded at Luke’s question.

“Your opponent is an Advanced demon. If it is a strong Arch Duke demon, it won’t just have superior strength, but also has plans, so Your Majesty alone can be overwhelmed. But that doesn’t mean that you are going to take the princess with you either.”

“I won’t.”

“Which is why I am coming with you. Besides, I can’t just leave the demon walking around the Middle Earth, especially as the Head of Saint Guards.”

If the Pope represented the head of El Kassel denomination, the Commander of the Saint Guard was tasked with eliminating evils which disturbed the peace of the world like warlocks.

At Gregory’s words, Luke was worried.

He was thinking of going in alone.

He knew that it would be quite a battle with the advanced demon.

But hearing Gregory’s words, he changed his mind.

Bargosa—the Arch Duke Demon, was very little known, and there was a possibility for everyone to fall into the demon’s plan.

And a Sword Emperor would surely be a great help in such situations.

“And even the Firestorm Belik is in Bless right now. And that is surely a very nice help to us.”

“Belik... he has a lot of dissatisfaction with me, so, I don’t know if he will listen.”

Belik, the former head of the Volga Royal Guards.

He didn’t have any good feelings for the Volga Republic, especially for Duke Dimitry, his rival.

So, Luke hated the participation of the Volga Republic in the Alliance and didn’t even participate in the Baroque beheading expedition on the pretext of being sick.

However, because Reina was favorable to the Volga Republic he didn’t speak out on it.

Instead, he would train the Red Wolf Knights or the Saint Guards while traveling between Albertville and Bless.

Thanks to that, young knights were being recruited.

“Whether Belik accepts it or not, we have to move fast. If it is known that they noticed our movements, they may go into hiding.”

“But he can surely try to cope with the presence of Your Majesty... we need to move.”

However, Luke’s trip to Crete didn’t take place.

The next day, a very surprising news came to them.

“We have a problem, Your Majesty! Last night, Cartago, the trading port city of Castia Kingdom, turned into a sea of fire!”

“What was that?!”

While having breakfast with Reina and the others, Luke was delivered the news.

“Explain it in detail.”

Luke put down the knife and fork in his hand and listened to the messenger for a detailed explanation.

The messenger began to explain in detail about what he received.

“Huh?! The Cartago city was annihilated last night after being attacked by unidentified monsters...!”

Cartago was the second-largest city and the economic center of the Castia Kingdom.

They couldn’t believe that such a huge city got wiped out in a matter of a few years.

“Dad, Cartago would have had a huge number of Gigants and soldiers stationed in there, right?”

At Karen’s question, Luke nodded.

“I know. Wasn’t there any word about who it might be?”

“Well, that is why the Castia royal family urgently dispatched an investigation team, but there was no word about discovering the identity of the monsters.”

‘Hm... who could?’

Just after overcoming the tremendous hurdle of the Undead riots, another problem came!

Luke contemplated for a moment and came with the most possible suspect.

‘There is a high possibility that it is Arsene. But does he have that level of skill?’

The Castia royal family couldn’t identify the culprit.

In other words, it meant that Cartago was quickly destroyed that even the attackers couldn’t be identified.

There were hundreds of thousands of people in the city and at least a thousand troops, yet nothing was done.

‘It wasn’t like that when Arsene attacked Enbury. That too, in front of the capital.’

If so, Arsene must have been a lot stronger than then, or maybe he had other powerful people by his side.

Thinking so, the first thing which crossed Luke’s mind was the advanced Undead, as well as the demon Belfair had talked about—Bargosa.

With that level of power, it seemed possible to destroy Cartago in a matter of seconds.

“Any calls from the Castia royal family?”

“Uh, no. this news was relayed to us by our intelligence officers.”

At the messenger’s report, Luke frowned.

James II had an emotional driven goal during the annihilation of the Undead army.

However, when such a mess happened in the center of his nation, it wasn’t convincing enough that he didn’t contact his allies.

It could be because of pride, but from Luke’s opinion, this situation didn’t call for one showing pride.

With his head down, Luke pulled out the crystal ball and tried to call the Castia royal family.

Despite sending the signal, there was no response.

It seemed like the call wasn’t answered on purpose.

‘F*cking stupid bastard!’

Luke, who was swearing at James II, spoke to Reina, who had been looking at him.

“I think I need to head to Castia.”

“Ugh, this is...”

Reina sighed with a sad expression.

She really thought that she would get to spend some time with Luke, but new troubles kept coming in.

“Be careful, I don’t feel bad.”

“Don’t worry. I will be safe.”

Luke reassured Reina and looked over at Karen.

“Protect your mom for me.”

Karen wanted to follow her father, but at Luke’s words, her intention collapsed.

It was because her mother was still exhausted mentally, and all her Aether was used to defeat the Undead, so it needed time for her to recover.

Erwin and the two princesses also wanted to follow, but they were rejected too.

An hour later, Luke set out for the Castia Kingdom with just Arch Duke Gregory and Belik.