Chapter 24: Cultists
The shrill alarm echoed through the skies above the Imperial Capital. The sudden chaos in the surrounding crowd made it impossible for the carriage to proceed normally. Joshua didn't have time to think too much; he simply opened the door and stepped out. He helped up a few Imperial citizens who had stumbled and fallen beside the carriage in panic, then raised his head to look toward the eastern side of the city.
"Well, well..."
Letting out a soft breath, Joshua furrowed his brow and murmured to himself, "This is no small matter."
On the eastern side of the city, flames flickered, their crimson glow illuminating several blocks. Black smoke and dust were rising into the air, covering a considerable area. Brandon and Nostradamus also got out of the carriage, both of them watching the scene as well.
"That area is a residential district... What's going on?"
With his extensive experience, the blonde swordsman quickly judged that the fire in the city wasn't too large. Once the city guards reacted and rushed over to extinguish it, it wouldn't cause too much damage. But his expression remained stern: "Could it be that some mage had an accident while conducting a forbidden experiment in their own home?"
Mage experiment accidents—such incidents had been common decades ago, each time causing considerable destruction. However, nowadays, the Imperial Royal Mage Association had dedicated experimental zones for mages. Unless one was experimenting with forbidden techniques, conducting ordinary magic in a more professional experimental area was certainly better than doing it at home.
"No, it's not an experiment accident."
The old mage, however, saw things with exceptional clarity. A gleam of arcane power flickered in his eyes: "There's no magical fluctuation, no large-scale elemental convergence. And if it were an accident, the experimenting mage would have come out to clean up the situation long ago... This is a purely alchemical explosion, not a mage experiment mishap..."
After a moment of silence, he spoke clearly, word by word: "This might very well be a deliberate attack."
The sudden explosion occurred only once. The panicked crowd gradually regained their composure, especially when they realized the explosion was far away from them and posed no threat to their lives. Courage returned to their hearts.
It had to be said that as residents of the Imperial Capital, most of them had a decent level of education. The calmed crowd, under the direction of the arriving city guards, orderly crossed the streets and returned to their respective homes. No further incidents occurred along the way.
The guards also approached the black carriage. They spotted Joshua and the other two and initially intended to conduct an inspection. But at the reminder of one guard, the others noticed the inconspicuous emblem on the carriage, which represented the Imperial Royal Mage Association. The white robe worn by the white-haired mage with his back to them was a Crystal-Weave White Robe, attire only an Archmage could wear.
In the Imperial Capital, anyone bold enough to impersonate an Archmage of the Association had probably not been born yet.
And anyone who could share a carriage with an Archmage was either a noble or a powerful professional. The group of city guards simply bypassed these three and went elsewhere to maintain order.
—Only a fool would provoke these people.
Brandon was still pondering the cause of the explosion. By now, the flames on the eastern side of the city had weakened, and the city guards seemed to have the fire under control. Nostradamus was also deep in thought, but before long, he spoke up: "Should we go to the scene and take a look?"
The old mage's eyes were full of doubt. Although he had speculated earlier that this was a deliberate attack, the logic simply didn't hold up. The explosion had occurred on the eastern side of the outer city, a residential area for ordinary citizens. An explosion there would, at most, kill one or two families and destroy a couple of houses. An attack of equivalent power, even if it were in the commercial district of the outer city, could kill dozens and cause financial losses many times greater.
Thus, he wanted to go and see for himself.
Joshua and Brandon naturally had no objections. They were also very curious. Joshua, in particular, had a vague suspicion in his mind, but he wasn't sure if it was correct, so he had to go to the scene to understand the situation.
The three returned to the carriage. Under the driver's guidance, the carriage turned and headed toward the other side of the street. Without the dense crowd blocking the way, they moved even faster.
Before long, they passed through the central main road of the Imperial Capital, went by countless shops and residences, and arrived at the eastern side of the city—the scene of the explosion.
The explosion site had already been cordoned off. Numerous city guards were patrolling and cleaning up the area. Some guards initially tried to stop the carriage from proceeding further, but just like their colleagues earlier, upon seeing the emblem of the Royal Mage Association on the carriage, they respectfully cleared the way. Joshua and the others smoothly arrived at the scene.
Near the ruins of a collapsed residential building, several squads of guards were sorting through the wreckage. In the debris, the fire had been completely extinguished, leaving only scattered black residual smoke rising from the charred wooden beams.
The fire had been extremely fierce.
With just one glance, Joshua could make a rough judgment. In the ruins, aside from stone objects and steel items nearly melted by the high heat, all the wooden furniture and decorations had been reduced to ash or charcoal. Not even a single intact fragment could be found. Natural fires and explosions couldn't cause this level of destruction; only spells and alchemical materials could achieve such an effect.
Beside him, Nostradamus also confirmed his own assessment. He furrowed his brow and stroked his white beard: "It's indeed a deliberately caused explosion and fire. Fortunately, because the celebration is approaching, most of the residents were out strolling in the streets, so the casualties should be minimal."
After a more detailed observation, Joshua also largely confirmed his earlier judgment.
"Cultists."
He muttered to himself, "They must be the ones behind this."
In a broad sense, so-called cultists refer to members of religious sects that do not follow the faith of the Seven Gods. These include primitive Druidic ancestral worship and Orcish shamanic rituals, but these don't quite earn the label of "evil"; at most, they are heretics. In a narrow, specific sense, cultists refer to those who engage in bloody rituals as followers of demons.
The origins of cultists are untraceable, but it's certain that their history is at least as long as that of the Church of the Seven Gods. Their influence exceeds ordinary imagination. In the western barbarian regions of the continent, many tribes worship various demonic cults. They kill living people, use blood to draw ritual arrays for sacrifice, and even engage in extreme and horrifying ceremonies like "mutual cannibalism," "self-cannibalism," and "mass suicide" to obtain the evil power of the Abyss.
Those who believe in demons are mostly driven by intense desires. Once trapped in it, they cannot extricate themselves. They pursue chaos, death, and social upheaval, seeking to return everything to a primitive state without order, where the strong prey on the weak. In his previous life, when the Dragon Calamity struck the Far South Kingdom, many cultists deliberately incited refugee riots, even capturing several small cities to establish separatist regimes, causing immense chaos and dealing a severe blow to the entire kingdom's order.
In Joshua's view, the bloody murder cases occurring across the Northern Empire were also the work of cultists. They were likely planning to use blood sacrifices for a secret summoning ritual. However, the Abyss had been sealed by the Sage in the previous era. As long as the seal remained unbroken, summoning rituals would rarely succeed, except through demonic books like the *Ibn Grimoire* that directly connected to the Abyss.
To the warrior, this explosion in the Imperial Capital was a summoning ritual that had nearly succeeded but ultimately failed. Nostradamus believed the explosion was caused by alchemical creations like gunpowder, but Joshua knew that demon summoning rituals inherently required materials like sulfur and saltpeter—the two weren't mutually exclusive.
"Still, to dare summon a demon in the Imperial Capital, and almost succeed... especially with the celebration banquet for the Orc extermination just a few days away."
Turning his head to look at the center of the Imperial Capital—that massive obsidian palace—Joshua stroked his chin and chuckled lightly: "Choosing this moment to strike, I wonder what kind of move His Majesty will make."
At that moment, news of the explosion had already reached the very heart of the Imperial Capital—the royal study in Morlai Palace.
Accompanied by a cold snort, a terrible storm was brewing within.