Chapter 327 The Situation All Around the World (1/2)
Nostradamus walked into the lounge with a sour face and a gentle sigh.
The robe he wore fluttered and flowed with blue light. The frost that covered the floor and the walls of the living hall instantly vaporized and vanished into thin air along with the fluttering of the robe. The tables and chairs, even the books that were blown away by the energy waves had been returned to their original places. After the entire living hall was restored, the old mage with white hair stared at Joshua as he started talking again, ”It's been a while, Joshua. Where on earth did you hide yourself? We've not seen you for a long time. And you've missed the celebration as well. Not to mention that no one could get in contact with you at all…”
Nostradamus sounded like he was complaining. After all, he was the person who suggested for Joshua to attend the celebration. His initial plan was to introduce Joshua to a few old friends of his during the celebration. However, he was not able to locate Joshua at all. Nostradamus went into great lengths to locate Joshua after noticing that the warrior had gone missing. He had even used Divination and Astromancy in order to locate the warrior. However, all of his efforts were in vain. It seemed as if the warrior had vanished into thin air.
”It's a long story, Master Nostradamus. Maybe you won't even believe what I am about to tell you. I've fought a bunch of rocks… perhaps we shall sit down and talk about it later.”
Joshua waved his hand as he stood back up on his feet. Then he shrugged nonchalantly. His words held truth. Be it the golems or the great falling star that threatened to destroy a world, everything he encountered was basically a bunch of rocks. The warrior sighed. ”They were really difficult to be dealt with.”
”Alright. Some special rock elements are indeed much more difficult to be dealt with. However, Dimore… why are you here then?”
Nostradamus mistook Joshua for entering the realm of Earth. However, he was not bothered by that. After all, the celebration had come to an end since. The old mage turned around and looked at the second prince who seemed uncomfortable. ”I know, you must be the one who started this, right?”
”Master…” Dimore lowered his voice as he replied Nostradamus. He was no longer inflated with the confidence he had when he was wrestling with the warrior—it was not because he had lost the game. It was merely because…
”You don't have to explain yourself, young Dimore… I'm very familiar with the attitude of the Diamonds.”
Nostradamus was slightly angrily but also at the same time, a little tickled. He seemed to have seen this coming, ”You're truly the son of your father, and you behave just like him. Whenever you are in the mood, you would just pick someone and challenge them. Your father had wrestled with Joshua in his study room, and now you have wrestled with Joshua in the Royal Library… If it weren't because you guys were too loud, I wouldn't have heard it and the library would have been dismantled to the ground by you two.”
”No… We've controlled our strength well…”
”Do you mean you've controlled your strength as well as you did last time?”
Joshua smiled a little when he saw Dimore getting scolded. The great mage was a mentor to Emperor Israel. The two of them had even gone to the battlefield side by side and destroyed their enemy forces. In regards to seniority, all members of the Royal family were students of Master Nostradamus.
After Emperor Israel passed away, Dimore would become more intimidating. His dignified and fearful appearance as an Emperor would surface. His actions would make him look like a tyrant when the humans were resisting the invasion of the Dark Abyss. But now, young Dimore was scolded by the old Nostradamus. He kept his head low and stayed quiet as he received the scolding from the old mage. That was indeed a rare occasion.
Nostradamus was almost done with lecturing the young Dimore now. He turned around and looked at Joshua. At first, he wanted to say something to the warrior for his misbehavior too. But eventually, he only sighed and said, ”When I first met you, you were sparring with Brandon… Joshua, are you really that fond of battling?”
”It's just interesting and fun to do it every day,” resting his hands Ying and Ling's shoulders, Joshua answered Nostradamus. However, he quickly shook his head and added, ”However, this is not a battle at all. This is not even close to sparring. This is just for fun… I believe you can tell by the looks of it.”
Nostradamus frowned even harder. His eyes flashed brightly as if he had activated some sort of observation spell. After a few seconds, the pupils of his eyes enlarged. Blue light waves swirled in his pupils. The old mage was shocked at what he discovered on the warrior's body, ”You! You've actually broken through the barrier and crossed into the realm of Supreme-tier! You've even reached the realm of the unknown!”
In his eyes, Joshua's body was exchanging energy with the magic energy in the atmosphere. His body was constantly drawing beneficial strengths and powers and expelling redundant energy. Blood flowed rapidly in his body like a great river, rumbling with a strong current.
The 'Kokyu-ho' seemed to have fused deep into the bone marrow, becoming part of the person's instinct. However, the most surprising part was that the warrior's body was continuously becoming tougher. Although that process was slow, his body was not slowing down at all.
”Strength Mastery?!”
Incredible!
Nostradamus was shocked at Joshua's progress, having broken through the barriers before him, faster than anyone could in such a short time. He was indeed wondering how Joshua could have done it—Joshua had gone missing for over two weeks. Perhaps he felt that he was about to break through the barrier so he decided to go quiet and shut himself from the world as he meditated until he succeeded. Perhaps that was the main reason why he was not reachable through any means of communication.
That should explain why Joshua was absent at the celebration. The reason why I couldn't reach Joshua. No one would ever want to be interrupted when they are on the verge to break through their barrier. No matter how significant the celebration was, it would never be more important than stepping into the realm of sacredness… However, Joshua did mention that he was battling a bunch of rocks. Could it be that he had crossed into the realm of earth to break through his shell?
”If we had more time, you can congratulate me as much as you want to. I would have happily accepted all of your blessings,” Joshua said, shaking his head. Suddenly, his face turned serious, ”Maybe, it's time to talk about official matters… You're not thinking that I would travel all the way from the North just to show off my newly attained strength, right?”
”Of course now… There's no one around now. We can talk about it here.”
Dimore was still amazed to learn that Joshua had already crossed into the realm of Supreme-tier. After hearing the conversation between the old mage and the warrior, Dimore narrowed his eyes and was ready to turn around and leave the two of them to their 'official businesses'. However, Nostradamus lifted his hand and stopped the young man from leaving. He shook his head and spoke calmly, ”You should stay. You're the heir to the throne of this kingdom. It's about time you learn something.”
Hmm? Joshua looked at the two of them as he showed great interest. Then he quietly thought to himself, ”So it seems that they have decided.”
Then why did Israel suddenly passed away without leaving any will behind? If they truly had no intention to crown the firstborn of the Emperor as the next Emperor, they should have announced to the world that Dimore would be the next Emperor. So why didn't they do that yet?
Joshua made an assumption. But now was not the time to talk about that. He looked Nostradamus in the eyes and spoke about matters that was related to St. Laurent Cathedral, the cultists and the plague that were detected on their bodies.
Nostradamus listened seriously when he was briefed by the warrior. Dimore was listening in as well, he seemed to be amazed. The old mage seemed to fully trust the young Dimore. After he was done listening to the warrior, he asked, ”So did you bring the sample of the plague with you? If we have samples, we can get them over to the Royal Mage Association and do some tests right away.”
”Of course not. I wouldn't bring dangerous stuff with me everywhere. It's risky and you know it. I would have been surrounded by hundreds of guards of the Imperial City the moment I set foot in the city… However, if you want to take a closer at the plague, perhaps you can travel to the jail beneath the St. Laurent Cathedral. I've completely sealed off the basement there… Hmm… It seemed that I've unintentionally sealed dozens of cultists along with it. I assume that it is probably multiplying rapidly It would die off soon, at least.”
Nostradamus was not bothered about the life and death of the god damned cultists. He only felt the urge to look closer at the plague and its behavior. However, before he could prepare to depart, the old mage suddenly remembered something important. He nodded as he recalled his memory about something he had ignored for too long, ”That's right. I must inform Israel first. No matter the plague is real or not, it was indeed the right time to sweep the cultists off the surface of the earth on a large scale.”
So Master Nostradamus believes Joshua's empty words without requesting for the sample to be presented?
It was the first time that Dimore saw the old mage trusting another man so much. The old mage believed every single word the warrior said without even needing any proof.
In fact, that was related to the plague. A plague could drag a kingdom to its doom, it might even bring destruction to the entire world! It was too huge of a problem to be ignored.
Even though he was the second prince of the Imperial Kingdom, he still believed Joshua to be an honest man. The warrior was right though. Fists were much more reliable than words. Thus, it would be credible to think that a man with such power would never lie.
While everyone left Black Swan Palace and made their way to the center of the great palace, Nostradamus asked for the details of the plague. He clearly knew the identity of Joshua. He also knew about the power of the Azurite. Since the warrior had said it himself, this matter must be closely related to the Evil God. Perhaps this could possibly be the conspiracy planted into the world by the Evil God. No one would ever be negligent anymore after knowing the situation in the distant south, where the kingdom was plagued by the Dragon Calamity and the Berserk Dragon Virus. They have become more vigilant even against accidents and coincidences.