Demonic Madness

On the other hand, Solarstras Empire did not seem to have any intentions of expanding their territories. The Solarstras Empire had been quiet without doing anything big for the past few years.

However in terms of military strength, the Solarstras Empire was said to be even more powerful than the Astenora Empire.

Solarstras Empire had existed way longer than the Astenora Empire and it was publicly recognized as the most powerful human nation in the whole continent.

Some even claimed that Solarstras Empire had enough power to unite the whole continent if the Solar Emperor desire it.

The Solarstras Empire's elite troops, the solar knights were recognized as the strongest knights in the whole continent.

They were the pride of the Solarstras Empire and even Astenora Empire did not dare to take them lightly. Solarstras Empire was a sleeping tiger that even Astenora Empire did not dare to provoke.

The king of Crenoth thought deeply at the continentalmeeting request from Astenora Empire. Since this was a continental meeting, Solarstras will also likely participate.

The Crenoth king did not want to discuss anything with the Astenora Empire which had been trying to invade and swallow their lands for the past decade.

As for Solarstras Empire, king Sermon had little communication with them. After all Solarstras Empire rarely do anything in the last decade.

But the king quickly threw these thoughts away. Now was not the time for thinking useless things like that.

A demon lord had appeared and the survival of the whole of humanity is at stake. At least the Crenoth king planned to listen to what the two empires would say.

"Very well. Accept the meeting request and send an envoy to the Astenora Empire. We will see what they have to say."

Of cause the king would not personally go to the Astenora Empire which was trying to swallow them the past years. Astenora Empire was basically their enemy. It would be like walking right into a wolf den.

But the Crenoth king also did not have to go personally. With the existence of magic, they can have a long range meeting.

When these kinds of meetings and discussions between the rulers of the nations were held, they often used the consumable magic items called projection magic crystals.

Projection magic crystals always come in pairs and they have the ability to connect each other.

Although there is a distance limit, it's range covered the whole continent at the very least. They could only be used one time and also quite expensive. Not many could afford them.

When the meetings between the nations were called, the king would send an envoy to the meeting location with one of the two projection magic crystals.

When the envoy arrived at the meeting location, the king would activate the other projection magic crystals.

This way, the king could appear with remote magic projection without having to go to the meeting place physically.

A pair of projection magic crystals could only be used one time and after that both crystals will shattered into pieces. Thus, only royalties and some great nobles could afford to use these magic items.

Despite these restrictions, this method was way safer and less time consuming than going to the meeting location physically. As the leaders of the nations, most of them were naturally very busy people.

They did not have the time to go all the way to the meeting location every time a meeting was called. Thus, the magic projection crystals were very convenient for people like king Sermon.

At this moment, a messenger hurriedly came into the conference room to report.

"Apologies for interruption but we have received a report from the border that a meteorite seem to have fallen down at the forest between our kingdom's border and Aliridom kingdom."

"A meteorite?"

The king of Crenoth frowned. Meteorites were not comman in this world. This could only meant that something was very wrong.

In this new world, the world's atmosphere was engulfed and protected by the barrier created by the guardian conclave.

It was protecting this world both physically and magically. Thus, neutral meteorites were almost non-existence in this world.

Unless powerful mages cast high level spells such as 'Meteor Summon' or 'Meteor Strike', there was almost zero chance that meteorites could appear in this world. Therefore, all the known meteorites recorded in the history of this world were all created by people.

Of cause the king of Crenoth did not know of the existence of the world barrier or the guardian conclave. Those information were not accessible to someone like him.

After all Sermon was just a king from a normal kingdom. He did not know of the world's secrets.

However, the Crenoth king could feel something was amiss. He was clear that this meteorite was caused by someone powerful.

"Relay my orders. Send out a squad of the kingdom's mages to the border to investigate the case."

King Sermon issued his orders. He had a bad feeling about this. Because of the new threat of the demon lord, his instincts were going wild. The timing was too coincidental.

The king had a feeling that this would not end well if not handle properly. He did not dare to imagine that the location the demon lord had appeared was near the Crenoth kingdom.

After discussing about the counter measures for the prophecy a while longer, the king dismissed the conference with a heavy heart. The ministers and nobles bowed and left the conference room.

The old king lean back on the throne and sighed. He had long passed his prime and already too old now. He knew he would not last much longer with his terrible illness.

"I guess I have to leave this task to my son."

He sighed again. The king of Crenoth was going to die soon because of his strange disease.

He did not want to do it but he had no other choice but to pass all of the hard responsibilities to his eldest son, the crown prince during these turmoil times.

_ _ _ _ _

"My lord, we have arrived at the location of the Crimson Cross's hideout."

Adrosiean nodded at Rexhell's words. They had been traveling for many days without stopping.

Ever since Adrosiean turned the cult members into demonic humans, their physical prowess had enhanced greatly. Thus, a few days without sleep was neglectable for them.

As for Adrosiean, he did not even have to rest and no longer have any physical needs like eating or drinking. He was always in his peak state without any exhaustion.

After continuous days of traveling, they were finally deep inside the dense forest where the Crimson Cross's hideout was in.

Adrosiean's gaze moved. He did not see anything expect trees and an unusual looking obelisk in front of them. Some strange words were carved on the obelisk.

Adrosiean senses familiar energy emitting from the obelisk. His eyes flashed as he activated his skill. A small amount of darkness also came out of his chest and fused with the skill.

"Detection Magic, Magic Sense."

It is a common skill in the game that many players have. But Adrosiean enhanced it with his gem of eternal darkness to make the skill more powerful.

Unless the opponent was using another mythical item or some unknown methods that did not exist in the game, nothing could hide from his detection.

With his skill, Adrosiean finally saw the familiar energy emitting from the obelisk was covering the Crimson Cross hideout like an transparent barrier. He looked at the obelisk closely and saw some demonic runes engraved on it.

"This obelisk might be the thing that was hiding the Crimson Cross's headquarters. If I am not mistaken, these energies are of demonic magic."

Adrosiean could feel the demonic energies from the obelisk were resonating with his own. Slowly the invisible hideout of Crimson Cross was finally revealed to Adrosiean's eyes.

Adrosiean's vision extended to far across the whole hideout. It was truly huge. Most of the houses, more like the tents were painted with red which seem to be some kind of blood and decorated with various bones.

Adrosiean's glance moved and saw many cultists moving around the hideout freely. This felt more like a prosperous town rather than a shady demonic cult.

"Wow. The scale is way larger than I expected. This is a whole small town."

Adrosiean was astonished. He could not understand how a demonic cult this big could exist inside the Crenoth kingdom without getting purged.

Of cause there were much bigger demonic cults in the game but they were mostly in isolated places like faraway desolate mountains or forests where the population is small. Never in a forest that just beside the royal capital of a kingdom like this.

Of cause Adrosiean had no idea that the Crenoth kingdom was getting pressured by Astenora Empire and the kingdom had no time to deal with the demon worshippers. The political struggle between the nations were not known to him yet.

Adrosiean thought. Forcefully tearing apart this invisible barrier was not difficult for him. But he quickly forget that idea. It would only create pointless commotion and was unnecessary.

"Let's wait and see for now."

Adeosiean silently waited by the side. Rexhell stood in front of the obelisk and raised his hand. He chanted some words, possibility like the passwords for getting passage.

The runes on the obelisk shone with red blood light. A small crack appeared on the barrier like an entrance.

"Lord, please follow me."

Rexhell bowed and said respectfully. Adrosiean nodded as he followed Rexhell into the barrier.