Soul of Searing Steel

The sky was extremely dark—volcanic ash, smoky fog and dark clouds that appeared out of nowhere had blocked the sun in the sky. The haze was everywhere. The setting sun disappeared and the world was thrown into darkness. The gigantic ring of light that was rotating slowly in the sky was the only light source. The mysterious phenomenon brought fear upon the people towards the great unknown.

Withstand the assaults from the golems and wait for the supporting army from the capital city of Babel Province to arrive.

The very simple command, however, was not an easy one to follow. Not at all.

Currently, the Confederation has lost count of the number of calamities that have befallen the continent. There were small ones like storms and blizzard and big ones likes great floods and droughts that took lives from the land. There were also small number of destructive disasters like the eruption of Mount Sigma and the tsunami wave that flattened Sapphire Port which caused permanent losses that were simply irreversible.

The Confederation was called “Confederation” because it was formed by the merging of all the greater provinces. The Sea Bay Central was governing the strength of all the provinces, coordinating with each other. The invasion of the golems was a serious problem that is something that must not be taken lightly. But the local military personnel were also responsible in rescuing the locals. That is, unless, in the true meaning of it, that the Mana Tide could not be resisted even with the power of an entire province, or when even the Central Region is not capable of moving their army to the other provinces to surround and suppress the enemy forces.

The army forces of the neighboring Liard Province and De Loin Province were tasked with their own missions at the moment. If it wasn’t because for Babel Province’s shortage of strength and manpower, they would have mobilized their army forces to provided support at the port.

“Why do we need to delay the golems?” Nielson questioned, a little puzzled. He was well aware of the military matters. This old elf has lived a long life after all. He understood what a ‘strategy’ was. “These golems will find a highly populated location before they raid. Perhaps we can make a more strategic plan instead of trying to delay the golems like blind idiots. It will be an advantage to choose the time and place for the battle. So let’s get over to the largest city nearest to us. We can make defensive counterattacks there!”

—The Sapphire Port has been destroyed. The nearest large city would be the capital city of Babel Province.

The soldier patiently explained the current situation to the old elf, “Some golems have emerged near the capital city. The strange thing about them is that they can just appear anywhere they like, even from the ground. They just suddenly appeared in the Central Region. The army force back at the capital city are clearing out the golems in the city. So it might take a while before the army can annihilate the enemies in the city. If the new batch of golems are to be brought to the capital city, the golems will attack the city from both sides. Our city might fall under that circumstance… so we must hold the monsters here.”

The old elf remained in silence in the dark for a brief moment. He then sighed loudly and said, “The Confederation has really encountered too many calamities… the continuous occurrence of natural disasters, the invasions of the golems… Why did the world change so much? Could it be that the Mother Tree no longer protect us all?”

In the myths and legends of the elves, their ethnic groups came from the source of everything—the Mother Tree. The first elves were born from the fallen leaves of the branches of the Mother Tree. It was obvious that it was only a myth. However, that doesn’t stop the Elves from believing that the Mother Tree was a real existence. That belief is deeply rooted in their daily lives and cultures.

It was futile to sigh like that. After giving it some thoughts, the old professor did not get back on board of the armored vehicle. He walked towards Black, which seemed to remain in silence. The old elf used the language used by the people of the plains and spoke out with a loud voice, “Volcanic… Lord Black!”

The half-draconic horse had also just came back from its deep thoughts as it reacted to the old elf. It has turned its head over and looked at the white-haired elf, who was currently standing right beside the convoy vehicle. It then responded to the old elf’s words with a groan.

Having been astounded by the fact that Black possessed great wisdom and tendency of behaving humanely, Professor Nielson hesitated for a brief moment. He then gritted his teeth as he bowed down in a respectful manner. “I sincerely hope that you can lend us a hand. Let’s delay the golems in front of us.”

With the strength of this army, it was almost impossible for them to slow the many golems that were about to land on the ground. If the army has to forcefully delay the movements of the golems, there will definitely be a great deal of losses. However, if a dragon can join forces with the army, the situation would be completely different. But the volcanic dragon was still a gigantic beast with an unknown origin to anyone on this continent, so the big question remained—would it help the elves or not?

Nielson knew that Black was a dragon that was friendly to people. It even helped with stopping the meteors from landing in the capital city of Babel Province. The draconic horse even went to the frontline to annihilate the golems. So there was a great possibility that it will also help the elves in this battle again. But the old elf wanted to make a request to Black, in hope that it will increase the likeliness of it agreeing to help them in the battle. Even if it was just a small possibility, he simply could not afford to lose it.

“Growl—”

Elf, they are also my enemy. You don’t have to request. I will naturally engage myself with the battle against those monsters.

Though they were not speaking the same language, without a valid reason, the old elf somehow understood what Black was trying to tell him. He was filled with excitement as he got back on board the armored vehicle. Meanwhile, the draconic horse looked at the meteors that were crashing onto the surface of the earth, causing powerful tremors. Its golden eyes seemed to be filled with doubts.

Battling… alone?

Chaos daemons… these golems were obviously Chaos daemons. However, the elves were not aware of that at all. Defending themselves against the golems has become part of their culture. Most of the elves did not even begin to wonder why the golems appeared in their world in the first place. For them, their appearance in this world was merely an act of nature, just like the calamities and the tsunami. There were all acts of nature.

As Black had always been battling the Chaos daemons alongside the warrior, it was initially, excited, as it was experiencing a new situation in a new environment. So it did not feel like it was wrong to battle alone. However, now that it has calmed its mind, the draconic horse has noticed that it was far away from home. Its master was not around anymore. It was a lone dragon which could not find its way home.

Perhaps it was just anxiety, or maybe loneliness. Whichever it was, it was currently in a really terrible situation—an unknown rage was gradually building up in its heart. Black was not the kind that would feel depressed over such a thing. Maybe it was unconsciously influenced by the personality of its master so that whenever it feels frustrated, the only thing that comes to mind was to shred its enemies into pieces.

—Then let’s do this now!

In the middle of the night, two golden lights glowed as the eyes of the dragon began to move around, followed by the tightening of its vertical pupils. Upon locking on its target, the draconic horse did not seem to show even the slightest intention to wait or hesitate. It let out a growl, filled with anger, and the core in his chest began to unleash tremendous amount of heat, sweeping away every single trace of damp vapors brought by the tsunami. A blazing white light shone right out of it. The light penetrated the haze and darkness that covered the sky, bringing out a beam of light that looked slightly curved, and shooting straight at one of the meteors that was falling from the sky.

Boom—the light beam penetrated right through the meteor as if it was made of paper. The great impact of the penetration has caused even the meteor itself to sway from its course of projection, ramming into the other meteors near it. The sound of explosion made a delayed echo. Fragments of flames were seen splashing all over the sky like fireworks.

The armored vehicle, which was initially parked right beside Black, had to leave the vicinity instantly because the draconic horse was currently charging itself up with fire element around its body. The power rooted in its bloodline has been ignited by its rage. Currently, Black was surrounded with inextinguishable blazing fire. The draconic horse could feel that the more it used its power, the stronger it became.

“Roar!”

After unleashing its rage, Black felt that it was not enough. It growled like a brewing thunderstorm, filled with the aura of a lord. The core in its chest lit up again. Sparkling flares brewed right at its center.

A dozen blazing white light beams shot out right before the eyes of every witness in the vicinity. Unlike the previous light beam, Black has just adjusted the strength of each light beams, ensuring each of the light beams was powerful enough to destroy one meteor. The strength of each and every light beam was maintained perfectly equal. There was no excessive nor insufficient energy in each of the beams. Numerous light particles were seen making long trajectories across the sky, forming into the shape of a gigantic fan. In an instant, the attack has laid waste to the meteors, destroying the golems within each of them.

“Well done!”

Cheers were heard from the convoy. Taking down one enemy means that they would have to face one less enemy later in the battlefield. However, before everyone could feel the joy of seeing what Black did to the meteors, more meteors emerged from the darkness of the sky. Along with shrill howling, hundreds of meteors were seen showering upon earth like rain of fire. That was not even the most terrifying thing they would witness today. The third wave of the meteors emerged as they began to fall from the dark sky as if following the projection paths of the previous meteors destroyed only a few moments ago. With the same amount of meteors landing upon earth, the ground shook violently as if small earthquakes were happening, one after another.

Everyone’s jaw dropped as they witnessed everything that was happening before their eyes, “What the… how… that number?”

“We’re doomed… we’re all doomed…”

“…”

It seemed as if no one has ever imagined that the scene that was unfolding before their very eyes would come to pass. Most of the people who witnessed it could not help but doubt it. Were they just hallucinating? Hundreds, maybe even thousands of golems descending from the sky all at the same time?

The number of golems that came down to earth was almost the same number of golems the Confederation had to handle during the battle at the Valley of Cold Winds three years ago. Even then, the Confederation had to combine forces of army from most of the Provinces just to resist the golem force. After all, that was a battle that required tens of thousands of army forces and fortresses as their defense base.

If they were to face that sort of golem army with just one convoy, even if the volcanic dragon joined them, they would never be able to defend against the golems before them.

That was not the end though.

Right above the sky and beyond, in the high heaven higher than the clouds and the sky, there was a sound that sounded like the rumbling sounds of a gigantic machine operating on its own. Everyone in the Babel Province, even everyone across the entire Illgner Continent, could hear it. They lifted their heads up and looked at the sky with doubts and fear.

In the sky, the sun has fallen. A crescent moon rose slowly. The light of the moon was, however, dimmed by an incomparable magic circle that was formed from ten gigantic light rings. It rotated slowly. On a closer look, one could see that each of the light rings on the magic circle touched each other, just like gears. With each passing second it rotated, the brightness of the light it emitted turned brighter by a notch. Towards the end, the entire thing turned as bright as the Sun, shining its light into every corner of the world that has descended into darkness for a while earlier on.

Everyone who was gazing at the light rings has had an enlightenment deep within their hearts. It was something that was beyond the description of any spoken language; it was a language that could only be understood by the soul.

The apocalypse was upon them—

Buzz—

As the buzzing sound echoed through the quiet world, a shapeless and invisible force has caused the clouds in the sky to ripple like water. The ten light rings continued to rotate slowly. After quite some time, the magic circle has become a circle that was formed from only nine light rings. One of the light rings has moved out of its formation and came to the center of the magic circle.

Light shone as the nine light rings emitted tens of millions of light rays as these rays converged at the center of the circle. Infinite rays of light overlapped each other, appearing to look like layers of nets stacking upon each other. Boundless power stacked up together. A strong pressure pressed down on the earth. At that moment, everyone who was still fixated on the emanating circle high up beyond the sky held their breath. Fear began to creep out from the bottom of their hearts, making some of them weak in the knees.

It felt like they were being watched by the evil gods.

Black was roaring thunderously. But its voice was overpowered by the loud buzzing sound that echoed through the world. Its heart was filled with a sense of lingering fear. The basic instinct of its bloodline inheritance was telling him that there was some sort of power gathering at the center of the light circle… growing. And that existence was about to break out of its shell in its cocoon. Yet, Black was unable to do anything at that moment—it could only watch it happening.

In an instant, before anyone could react to the situation, a fully charged power formed in the center of the light ring and rays of lights gathered as they formed a mass of light, distorting the world.

“It’s aiming at Mount Nasir—”

The voice came in a hasty tone from an elf with sharp-cornered eyes. He made an assumption based on his own observation. Before he could finish his words, a beam of blazing light shot out from the center of the mass of light, straight at its target. With an intense buzz, the light beam penetrated through layers of clouds. Every single trace of clouds within ten kilometers radius was dissipated, leaving the sky strangely empty. Due to the influence of the intense impact waves, the rest of the clouds broke out into heavy rain waves one after another.

The light hit its target and spread instantly. The distant mountain was devoured completely by the bright white light. It was the most terrifying sight that anyone has ever seen. Not even the horrific tsunami that hit the port earlier was as terrifying. The tidal wave of the light has devoured the whole mountain and the rivers nearby. Even the city, the villages and the Elves that were overwhelmed with fear and panic were not spared.

After that…

There was no ‘after that’…

With a strange rumbling, all the regions were swallowed by the blazing white light, vanishing without a trace. There was no explosion nor even the slightest trace of shockwave. When the beam of light was gone, the Babel Province suffered an unimaginable loss—its mountain. Where the mountain was originally located, now lies a deep pit with a radius of a few kilometers. Lava swelled at the bottom of the pit, reflecting the light of the flame.

In the middle of the huge pit was a crack that floated in the air. It seemed like a sign that the dimensional space was torn open. Fragments of the world scattered around that rift. On the other side of the crack, was a horrific existence roaring in rage. One could also vaguely see a gigantic golden apparition flashing by the crack.

-The crack is too small but it should be enough for it to cross through it.

So what exactly was going on now? Regardless of whether it was Black, the others in the convoy, everyone else in the Great Commander’s office who were monitoring the current situation through the Ccommunication circle, the personnel in the Central Research Center of the Confederation, or the military personnel, everyone had the same question in mind. Some have let the words tumble from their lips however, none of them had an answer to the question. Everything had happened so suddenly that none of them had the time to react to the situation.

“There is something coming out!”

In the armored vehicle that was parked nearest to the crack, a scout was holding onto a high-powered binoculars as he looked at the scene from a distance. He embraced his trembling fear that lingered in his heart and spoke as calmly as he could, “There is a lot… there is a lot… argh!”

The scout suddenly let out a scream, “They are golems!”

“They have wings and they can fly!”

“What?!”

The horrifying announcement of the scout took everyone by surprise. Black did not bothered itself with the fuss that was spreading among the convoy. Instead, it remained in silence as it stared into the distance. Those draconic eyes could see clearer than the binoculars. A few moments ago, Black has sensed the fear it would only feel when it was with its master. And now, that sense of fear was directed at the golden gigantic statue right on the other side of the crack.

That was the presence that was way beyond Black—Gold-pinnacle tier or even an existence of a Supreme tier.

Just as what the scout has described, hundreds and thousands of golems emerged from the dimensional crack. They were much smaller than the other golems that has descended to earth during the meteor shower. They were weaker as well. However, they all had varying shapes of wings on their backs, flying through the crack and making their way out into this world.

In the sky, the Apocalyptic Circle faded away very slowly. The crack slowly sealed itself shut. However, before the crack could be sealed shut, there were already thousands of flying golems coming into this world. As one could have estimated, there were about five thousand golems now. Some of them seemed to have noticed the presence of the refugees of Sapphire Port and charged towards the direction of the convoy at full speed. The presence of Chaos was swiftly spreading, tainting the world with its deathly silence.

Thud.

A dragon claw rested upon the surface of the ground.

Black looked at the sky and growled.

Unlike the convoy that was descending into chaos and panic, Black was reminded of the memorable time back in Moldova, when it was charging through the hordes of Chaos daemons alongside its master. It remembered the feeling when it was allowed to run freely.

This was indeed a tough battle.

But, for a true warrior, this battle was perfect.