Soul of Searing Steel

When Joshua regained consciousness, he noticed that he was standing in the middle of a void.

This void was deep and dark. It was boundless in every directions. Chaos was everywhere. It felt just like an unimaginable dream.

However, because it was like a dream filled with Chaos, anyone would be affected somehow—because the warrior had just awoken from his coma, the endless void shifted. The vast land beneath his feet slowly revealed itself. The monotonous clouds and sky appeared right after, with the appearance of two moons in the dark sky. A small and simple world took shape in front of the warrior.

“… Am I dead?’

Was this where people end up in when they die?

At first, he was shaken up pretty badly by the thought of it. However, the warrior immediately remembered that he had fought against the ‘Great Star of Ten Calamities’ and ended in a stalemate. Hence, he assumed that he was not in a good condition now. He knew that something must bad must have happened to him during that battle.

That was possible. Joshua who could still feel the lingering pain in his soul knew how much damage the Divine Power had done to his body. If his heart was not core organ that usually carried and directed his Combat Aura, making his heart to be his toughest organ, he might have been reduced to ashes and dust by the Divine Power he obtained from Father Nature.

But even so, his body had lost most of its flesh and blood. After going into a coma and falling from the sky, the warrior believed that he would not have survived the fall.

But anyway, it was not the time to think about whether he had died from that fall or not.

The warrior began to attempt making some movements in the strange world. However, he was very surprised to find that everything was exactly the same as the real world. It was as if he had a real body and could walk freely on the surface of the black earth. Although there was no sign of any trees or plants, Joshua could still smell the scent of dirt and soil. He could also feel the gentle breeze of the night flowing in the air, bringing the scent of summer to his nose.

Wait a minute… when did I start feeling a movement in the air? A wind?

Joshua gave a quick look at the surroundings vigilantly.

Since the time he had awoken from his coma, the world remained empty. But afterward, the earth and the sky came into his vision, followed by the appearance of the clouds and the bright moons. Now, the earth had a familiar scent, and the wind began to flow in this world that was initially silent. The warrior could even feel heat in this world—

Everything came into details as the time passed. The simple world began turning into a real world all of a sudden. The warrior furrowed his brows after he felt the changes around him. New shoots were popping out of the black soil. Mountains and hills were beginning to form on the surface of earth, with water vapor all around them. A silvery river appeared out of thin air right beside Joshua. The water in the river flowed as smoothly as silk. There was a forest that rustled as if whispering into the ears of the warrior.

The night was bathed in the light of the twin moons.

Everything that was happening felt as if the world was remembering some old memories, trying to make a world with details based on the old memories. Everything in this world was so real that Joshua could even hear the stream bubble as it flowed, going over rocks and branches, and the chirping of cicadas echoing through the forest. The warrior was not only stepping on soil now but also on leaves that fell off the branches of the trees.

When Joshua lifted his head to look forward, his eyes were greeted by a familiar light. That was the color of the fireplace in a village. He also noticed that he was currently standing on the grass on a green hill, looking into the distance. He looked at a village that was located near a river by the border of a forest. Right beside the river, there was a suspension bridge made of solid wood and a rotating waterwheel. The sound of the mill’s movement made the warrior wonder if all that he was seeing were real.

Things started to seem complicated now.

Just as Joshua furrowed his brows and was wondering about what was happening around him, a white figure slowly walked out from the village.

It was a white-haired boy that looked flawless in both of his demeanor and appearance. He was wearing a white coat and a gentle smile on his face. The boy walked slowly through the path between the trees and approached the warrior.

Right after, the boy sat down and hugged his knees to his chest as he looked up at the moon.

Joshua was startled by the appearance of that boy.

He had seen this boy before—in the memory of the Azurite orb. That happened not long ago when he was almost killed by the curse of the Evil God cast by the Pentashade Dragon. That was the same face that appeared in the realm he was in when the power of Order automatically protected him from being killed by the curse!

His red eyes were fixed on the white-haired boy. Joshua took a deep breath to calm himself a little. If that was no accident, then this boy was in fact… the Sage when he was still a child!

Just like before, the white-haired boy seemed unaware of Joshua who was standing not far away from him. The boy seemed to be so engrossed by the two moons with faint silvery lights. A slight smile played on the boy’s lips, his eyes a little blurry as if he was deep in thought or he was just remembering some old memories.

While the warrior contemplated on what to do next, the boy suddenly spoke with his clear, boyish voice that echoed throughout the whole place, “I really miss this… the two moons that float in the heaven right above my home.”

Then, he turned around and looked at Joshua with his white eyes.

The world before the warrior’s eyes instantly shattered into pieces.

Fragments of memories flashed in front of the warrior’s eyes like an endless series of projections. Right in between each of the fragments of the memories, Joshua could see the boy slowly growing into a man. The boyish grin that the boy had before slowly faded off his face. Now, the young man appeared very serious as he had obtained the knowledge of the previous Sage while he was thinking about the meaning of everything. In order to explore the truth and the power of everything in the world, he had made the decision to travel the world. The young man had set foot upon every corner of the entire continent.

He traveled across the jungles, the hills, the plains, the interracial cities, the deep sea, the chilling glaciers, and the steep valleys deep in the mountains. He even traveled in different outer worlds of the other dimension. On the day the young man returned, he had already mastered the arts of every power that involved steel and fire, to combat aura and magic.

The radiating light of Order and Holy gleamed on the palm of his hand. It was his to wield.

The memories after seemed to be shattered into pieces like ice and melted into water, never to be restored again. The warrior could only remember the last part of the memory—

Deep in the dark void, dimensional doors were slowly opening up. Gigantic shadows lurked beyond those doors. The power that originated time immemorial flowed in. Bizarre Chaos daemons gushed in through the doors in endless waves with only one goal—to devour the world.

There was a shadow of a man, blessed with a long robe made of light, standing before the horde of Daemons. His face was covered with a shadow. He held up his unparalleled authority in the battlefield all alone.

The world returned to chaos. In the void, there was no directions—up or down, left or right.

Joshua stopped watching the opening of the door to the Dark Abyss and the great battle among the Sage and the Evil Gods, slowly looked around as he felt a familiar and grand presence approaching him. He let out a sigh and spoke in a deep voice, “Please show yourself, I have no idea how to address you, my respected great existence.”

“May I know the true reason that I’m shown to all these memories?”

The voice swiftly vanished from the void.

However, another voice came swiftly.

“Those are actually not the things I wanted to show you.”

The voice from the void instantly responded to Joshua’s question. The voice was as loud as the thunder yet unexpectedly soothing. “I actually wanted to see your past memories, not the past of how the power of Champion existed and was mastered.”

With the echoes of the voice, the entire void started to violently distort. Glossy silver lights emerged from Chaos bit by bit. A gigantic python slowly revealed itself in front of the warrior. It turned its gigantic head around to reveal two eyes that were as bright as the sun, gleaming with intense silvery lights.

“Your body smells the same as mine. It seems that you have made contact with the wills of the other worlds as well.”

The giant python spoke in a direct and simple language. It did not give Joshua the chance to reply, “So, you can address me as the Steel Python of ‘Illgner’. That is how my name is called in your common tongue.”

Why would you want me to look at the past then?

Joshua was overwhelmed with questions at the moment. However, when he was about to ask those questions, the giant python beat him to it.  “Because of curiosity.”

The voice of the python caused the entire dimensional space of the void to tremble. Its voice carried a hint of curiosity and appreciation at the same time.“You are only a human being. You are not even the life that I give birth to. However, you are willing to embrace everything in this world to battle against Chaos in the void for this world.”

“So naturally, anyone would feel curious about you. Even I feel curious about you. I’m curious about the past of a warrior like you. What did you experience in the past that made you who you are today? Your will and your beliefs are truly unique. And what sort of world gave birth to such an extraordinary existence like you?”

The Steel Python of Illgner was completely different from the will of Karlis World. If Karlis was deemed to be an elderly who possessed wisdom, then Illgner would be a ravaging wind. It blows over the surface of the earth like a never-ending whistling wind. The way it spoke would never change.

Initially, Joshua wanted to ask some questions he wanted to know the answers to. However, Illgner shook its gigantic head as it regretfully said, “Warrior, we do not have much time left to talk. Your body has left this world, so I can’t force your will and your soul to stay here any longer.”

“My body is still alive?”

Raising his brow a little, Joshua, who was not allowed to speak ever since the python had started talking, finally said something. That information he just received had him overwhelmed with joy and relief. However, he remained doubtful, “But, my injuries are beyond just crippling my body. With that sort of injuries, anyone or anything in the entire universe would have been dead for sure.”

According to his own judgment, he knew that his body would cripple and collapse the moment the Divine Power withdraws from his body. Furthermore, the amount of blood he lost and the heavy injuries he had in his internal organs were far too great for him to have survived the battle. He should have died straight away.

“Father Nature, the god that you’ve spoken of, was the one who healed your body.”

Upon listening to the question that Joshua asked, even the will of Illgner World that behaved like a ravaging wind was able to explain the situation to the warrior with patience. However, the moment when it talked about Father Nature, the voice of the Steel Python sounded a little upset. “Truth to be told, that giant tree is just as malicious as the Evil Gods. It has terraformed my body, causing half of the living beings I created to perish. The remaining that survived had to change their appearances and their behaviors in order to adapt and survive… However, it has once again gone into hibernation in order to save you. It has also lost its ability to maintain the terraforming process on my body.”

Its relationship with the Father Nature was definitely not a positive one. They were definitely not on good terms judging from the tone of the python. For thousands of years, Father Nature had been hibernating. The newly born elves had gradually colonized the world and claimed themselves to be the natives of the world. Perhaps there would still be a war between the gods in the years to come.

However, in any case, everything was over for the moment. The Steel Python lowered its head as it spoke with its deep, thunderous voice, “No matter what, you have saved me… You have saved everyone in this world. Perhaps that was not the best ending I seek for, but it is still not a bad ending, not at all.”

“Hold on to this. This is the proof that you have saved the Illgner Continent. This is also the proof that you are holding onto my power, a glory that you deserve to hold on to.”

A silver radiating light suddenly emerged right before Joshua’s chest. The warrior reached out and grabbed onto the mass of light. However, before he could turn around to look down at the ground, the voice of the Steel Python echoed.

“Return now, return to your home.”