Hero of Darkness

Havi Hos Sigfreed, the current emperor of the Vulcan empire sat stunned on his throne as his loyal advisors informed him about two issues that even the emperor had to know of them. 

The advisor fireborne continued. 

"Firstly… those seven saints have questionable origins. Their appearance, their strength and even their weapons are very different." he continued his report. 

"One is a 1st stage saint who goes by the name Jugram Diablos. He's a giant human who usually guards the entrance of the company, making a statement that no one can do any funny business there. 

When the Hero's Party acted haughty and disrespectful, he pretended to be a semi-saint. But from the intel we received.. at the time of confrontation with the hero's party; he emitted saint pressure that is not seen in our or any of the neighboring empires at all. 

His origins are unclear but some of our experts say that he has strength enough to fight a couple of saints of the same rank on his own. 

We fear that in terms of potential, he's already way ahead of most of the heirs and veteran warriors of the six Fireborne clans." spoke the advisor with a grim expression. 

Obviously… none of them were aware that Jugram actually possessed a higher version of the True Demon bloodline called as Superior Chaos Demon. 

And since the Vulcan empire was far away from the Demon Empire, they had no substantial information available about it. Thus, no one could make sense of Jugram's chaos elemental aura. 

"And the biggest threat is their leader. As per our information… he goes by the name Omega Hrodvitnir. 

Just like the former, even he has mysterious origins. And he is a legitimate 3rd stage saint himself. 

Our spies reported that he has a very unique aura just like this Jugram Diablos. And this swordsman stopped one of the Hero's Party members, who is a first stage saint himself. 

His special skill that was enough to destroy the whole company building was frozen still in the air as soon this Omega Hrodvitnir appeared on the scene. 

And if our ancient records are correct… This is something only achievable by those who study the Gravity Law or have Telekinesis abilities since birth." accentuated the advisor. 

"The only solid information we have on him is that he might have been born in the Erdve empire." he revealed. 

"What makes you think that he's from the empire that serves the God of Space?" queried Havi with a curious gaze. 

"Because of his weapons, your majesty. 

He has 4 curved blades as his weapons… the one we know as Katanas. A signature weapon from the Erdve empire's culture and also the 6th Hero of Space was renowned for using a Katana instead of his divine weapon. 

We all know how he transformed the empire 500 years ago and established his world's culture there. 

If I'm not wrong, this Omega Hrodvitnir is what they call a Samurai Swordsman." 

"I see… two saints with unexplainable origins and varying skills and abilities. They can't be natives. 

What about the others?" asked the emperor with a thoughtful expression. In his mind, he was already thinking of many possibilities. 

However, the fireborne advisor shook his head. 

"We don't have any other information. No one has seen them and master Oakenshield has kept their identities secret. 

But during the confrontation with the Hero's Party… they made their presence known. 

And also… their attitude towards the Hero of Fire was totally disrespectful as if they didn't worry about offending him at all." said the advisor. 

They were the imperial clan after all. Even though they couldn't barge into the Oakenshield company because of the attention on Throk… their spies managed to get enough information easily. 

Little did they know… Kahn and Rathnaar had already planned to willingly provide them with this information. 

Although only Church seemed like the issue when Axel and his gang of warriors knocked on their door and tried to make a scene… both of them were already farsighted to predict that sooner or later, the imperial clan would also do a background check on them. 

That was why, Jugram and Omega, who were already exposed during that event purposely revealed their general information while adding their species as their surname. 

To make the imperial authorities do the guesswork on their own while they kept going about their lives. 

"Seven saints… with no prior information. 

Even master Vivaldi has only 3 saints protecting him and his company." spoke the emperor as his voice turned grim. 

"First, we thought it was either your highness Hector or Venessa. But they do not have that type of influence yet since none of them has been crowned officially… 

And during the incident with the Hero's Party at the gates of the company building, it was princess Venessa who stopped the fight between these saints and the hero's party." he revealed and continued. 

"But after that very day, the church officially announced their support to the blacksmith." he revealed and gave a cryptic look to the emperor as if implying something else. 

"Ah… those bastards. They must think we're a bunch of children. 

They had the Hero of Fire and his team pick a fight with the people of Oakenshield company's saints knowingly and create a scene as if they were at hostile to each other. 

Venessa stopping the fight would make it look like it was the Imperial Clan who hired these outsiders or my children were the ones to do it. 

In reality… it was the church all along who brought them in our empire." spoke Havi Hos Sigfreed who also misunderstood the situation just like Demiurges Val Arhlem, the pope himself. 

"What is it that they could gain from this blacksmithing duel?" he wondered. 

And now that the first issue was discussed… the advisor started sweating a bit as if he didn't want to talk more. 

He gave a look at the other advisors but they all averted their eyes and looked in random directions. 

One was intensely staring at the carvings on the chair he was seated on while the second was admiring the painting work done on the ceiling.

Sigh! 

The advisor let out a deep sigh again and continued… 

"But the biggest issue at hand isn't that at this moment. 

It's the relationship between the princess and the disciple of master Oakenshield." spoke the fireborne advisor and declared in a grim voice… 

"Kahn Salvatore." he emphasized again. 

Previously, the emperor didn't seem that worried about this human disciple because the emergence of seven saints was a bigger issue since they were always rare no matter which empire it was. 

Soon, the advisor gave a background report on Kahn… a normal human with no authority or standing who used to be a handyman and do small jobs such as acting as the Throk's substitute. 

They even found about his first noticeable appearance in Oslo city, the main trading hub of the southern border where he filled in as Throk's representative and bought the body of the Jatvuarym for 40 trillion harlen. 

And then how he got mixed up between Oakenshield and Tawerik after the former's students abandoned him and joined the latter's company because of Throk's beef with Rogis and the second prince having blacklisted him everywhere. 

Their Intel even mentioned how Kahn was forced to sign up a contract against his will by Throk. 

This was an altered story. In reality, it was Kahn who willingly volunteered. 

"Skip to the main point." said the emperor as he found these details unnecessary. 

The relationship between Throk, Hector and Venessa was already logical in his eyes. 

But he knew nothing about Venessa's relationship with this human disciple. 

"The thing is your majesty… in the past 10 months… the princess has personally met with this human disciple many times. 

Among her supporters… we have a second stage saint who personally witnessed her trying to recruit this person as one of her vassals. 

And he mentioned that she thinks of Kahn Salvatore as some business genius." informed the advisor. 

This second stage saint the advisor spoke of was actually one of the two fireborne saints who were present with Venessa when she invited Kahn to recruit him. 

Unbeknownst to her… he was one of the emperor's people himself. Someone they planted to keep an eye on his daughter. 

"But after that incident… she has been meeting him quite a few times under the name of recruiting him since it's already given that he will lose the duel." spoke the advisor again. 

"And what's so surprising about that? A loyal vassal is a backbone for any ruler." said Havi with uninterested eyes. 

"Recently… we received intel acquired from the workers in the company that whenever the princess meets this Kahn Salvatore… 

Their relationship seems to be very close." he said in a fearful tone. 

To this, even the emperor rose his right eyebrow. 

"And based on their behavior and how they treat each other during their 'meeting' which always involves both treating each other as equal and talk informally… or how they are always laughing and acting carefree around each other…" he spoke and almost froze on his spot while mustering the courage to speak their final conclusion. 

"Princess Venessa seems to be in love with Kahn."