Soul of Searing Steel

The gray-haired girl walked out of the cabin.

Norni Nolan came to the deck of the Epoch as she calmly looked at the four of them. Her lips moved a little as if she wanted to say something but she thought better of it.

The alchemy girl’s body was clean. There was not even a speck of dust on her clothes. Her clothes not messy as well. It seemed pretty obvious that everything that had happened a while ago, including charging through the abyssal rift and crash-landing on the island, did not affect her at all. The white alchemy coat looked clean. There was not even a fold on the coat.

When the great nun saw Nolan, she shouted the name of the girl in shock. That was the nickname she kept calling the girl by. However, Saya only realized that the girl in front of her was unfamiliar when she called that name.

That was a completely different person.

In her impression, Nono was a gentle and naïve alchemist. She loved tidiness. However, she had always failed to tidy up her own room. Every time when she was doing her experiments and researches, she would always forget to bring some equipment or materials. Because of that, she would have to rush back to her room to get them. She was afraid of the waves. She was also afraid of octopuses. Because of that, she never actually walked out of the cabin to stand on the deck. She stayed beside Saya and always called her ‘Sister Saya’.

The Norni Nolan in her impression was definitely not the girl who was standing right before her now—a girl who wore a set of alchemy clothing tidily as she remained cold and calm. Her gray pupils flashed with the light of wisdom while her lips sneered.

… So everything she showed in the past… was all a disguise?

Without thinking too much, the nun already knew the answer. After all, Saya was still an elite clergy. In fact, she was saddened by her wrong judgment of the girl. However, she had not lost her mind. The great nun held back her emotions and pressed her hand on her chest. Then she remained silent as she began using holy power to suppress the creature in her head.

Holy light could vanquish all evil that was lurking around. It could also cleanse negative energy. Other than healing injuries and wounds, it could even resist the power of Chaos. Speaking of which, it was a joke that an almost omnipotent power could not actually take care of the parasites in their bodies.

That was because the parasitic worms were also living things.

It was not like the three members of the church could not use their strength to force the parasitic worms out of their bodies. It was because they would sustain a great amount of injuries if they attempted that. They could even potentially damage their brain. Furthermore, the enemy was never going to give them the opportunity to try that.

The situation remained unchanged.

“Go, my guard.”

Norni Nolan did not speak or do any unnecessary thing. She gently commanded the void, “Knock them out.”

A beam of light appeared before her, followed by the appearance of a gigantic human puppet that was about three meters tall.

“Yes, Master.”

That gigantic human puppet had four extremely thick and muscular metallic arms. It had the aura of a giant in the ancient tales. Its body was covered in a jetblack iron exoskeleton. The black was so pure that it was as if it could absorb light. On the puppet’s head a red observation column. Other than that, there was not even the slightest gap on its body.

The four limbs and its body had translucent energy crystals. There were also a variety of spells stored in the crystals. The puppet floated into the air with the activations of the spells in the crystals. It rapidly approached Saya who was the nearest target to its location.

As the puppet charged at the nun, one of its iron arms transformed into an extremely sharp sword. The blade flashed blue light. It was obvious that the blade was stained with poison. The puppet lifted its sword high up and slashed at the great nun.

That strike was powerful. The puppet did not hold back at all. The blue reflective light flashed in the air—that strike did not look like it was aimed to knock someone out at all. If Saya did not evade that, she would definitely have been sliced into half.

Saya evaded that strike. She moved her leg a little and vanished from her spot. She reappeared a few hundred meters away. That was holy light teleportation. It functioned similarly as the short-distant teleportation spell that was popular among the mages. That type of divine spell could allow some of the priests and nuns who were good in the art of divine spells to instantly reach anywhere that has light.

However, in using that divine spell, Saya suffered more pain. As she was distracted to use her power in the battle, she could not completely suppress the parasitic creature in her head. Her ability to think was instantly weakened. She almost fainted.

The gigantic puppet was persistent and continued to pursue Saya. However, Robzek and Roland began making their moves. The silver-haired holy knight reached out and swung his arm through the air like he was slicing something. A beam of silver holy light that looked like a giant sword slashed at the puppet’s head. Roland had also burst into full speed and charged at the Epoch where Nolan was.

The strength of the two holy knights was restrained by the circumstance and they could only unleash ten percent of their combat aura and their holy light. Even though that was the case, their attacks were sharp and clean. There was no way that they would be sloppy or weak even though their powers were restrained.

However, it was pretty obvious that Nolan and her puppet did not intend to go head on with the holy knights. The gigantic puppet instantly gave up on pursuing Saya. The puppet easily dodged the holy light sword attack that Robzek threw at it. The female alchemist took a step backward. Three spells instantly appeared on her robe. Each of the spells possessed the strength of the pinnacle of Silver-tier and even beginner Gold-tier.

[Bind], [Order: Restrict], [Circular Wind Shield].

Two Status Restriction Spells and one Shield Spell. Ensuring her own safety, she delayed Roland’s movement. Many small-scale alchemy markings appeared from her arms. That was a type of magic creation similar to something like a magic scroll, but much more costly. It could store magic spells and techniques that the user could use. Using it in the battlefield, the user could repeatedly gain access to all of the spells and techniques stored within it.

More than a dozen Alchemy markings were thrown from it. Each marking was activated by the lady with her spirit. Instantly, the ground where the blond-haired holy knight stood instantly burst with lightning, flames, and winds. A terrifying amount of magic energy and element energy circled Roland and seemed to have only one goal, which is to make sure Roland was dead. The bombardment of attacks on Roland’s body had made ripples in the blood sea.

If Roland was at his normal status, he would not have to fear those attacks. He would either dodge them or take the damage with his body, he would have enough strength to handle the situation. However, now, even though Roland was wielding the power of Holy Light to block all of the attacks that were thrown at him, he was breathing heavily as cold sweats poured down his head. He was barely holding on.

The moment when the Holy Light was diverted to the other part of his body, there was nothing else that was holding back the parasitic creature. It began to move again. The holy knight could vaguely sense that he cannot hold on for much longer.

Next to Robzek, the gigantic puppets were into pieces. Pieces of iron gears and magic enhanced structures flew around before sinking into the blood sea. Even though he was a little uncomfortable, his status was much greater than Saya and Roland’s statuses.

Upon the destruction of her puppet, only did she speak. “Number two, number three, you’re up. Go forth together.’

With two beams of light, two more gigantic alchemy puppets that were similar to the first one appeared beside the lady. They were silent as they charged at the Supreme-tier holy knight.

Those alchemy puppets possessed the strength of an intermediate Gold-tier. Their bodies were equipped with all types of small-scale magic enhanced cannons and some military grade equipment. The combat A.I.s were extremely powerful as well. They were actually powerful enough to keep Robzek occupied for a long time. When the situation looked a little odd, the puppets retreated a little to evade the holy knight’s attacks. They even activated powerful skills such as Flamethrower, Aurora Ray and other spells to attack the holy knight.

However, they were not able to do much to Robzek. The Supreme-tier holy knight continued to perform solidly in the battle. He even struck back at the puppets whenever he could. In just a few seconds, the two powerful alchemy puppets had received a huge amount of damage. There were dents all over their bodies.

Yet, nothing had changed.

A vein popped up on Robzek’s forehead as he sighed heavily, his hand movement paused for a brief moment. The two gigantic alchemy puppets seized that opportunity to charge in and knocked him unconscious.

The last person was Joshua. He was the first person to charge at the battlefield and was also the person standing furthest from Nolan at the moment.

The warrior walked slowly as he made his way next to the ark. He looked at the three members of the church who were out cold and were being brought up to the deck. They did not show any response.

When the female alchemist was done with moving them onto the ark, the warrior asked, “Why didn’t you launch any attacks at me?”

Joshua did not feel unsettled after witnessing everything. He was just interested to know why the lady alchemist did not attack him. “Why didn’t you just kill Saya and the others?’

Suddenly, another giant floating island landed in the blood sea and was devoured by the sea. A moment later, the fourteenth gigantic Chaos Rune appeared in the Mycroft Continent.

“Because even if ‘Earth II’ attacked you at the same time, they might not be able to take you out.”

After handling all the things she was tasked to do, Norni Nolan turned over slowly and looked at the warrior and spoke coldly, “I have collected enough data and information on Captain Robzek and the others. I have come up with plans that were specifically designed to handle them. I am confident that I can defeat all of them when they are infested with the parasitic creatures.”

“Meanwhile, you. You are an accident.”

Puppet Model ‘Earth II’.

After hearing the familiar vocabulary, Joshua smiled.

Seeing the smile on the warrior’s face, Nolan shook her head. The warrior was not supposed to be part of her plan, she was extremely cautious towards Joshua. Even though Joshua still maintained a certain distance from her, the lady alchemist had two of her puppets guarding her as the two puppets had formed an iron barrier in front of her.

“I know. You still have enough power to battle. Just like Captain Robzek, the brain-eating worms from the Abyssal Sea cannot temporarily affect your basic battle power.”

She continued to speak, “However, that battle power can only last for a very brief period. I don’t need to defeat you. I just need to stall enough time for the worms to do their work. Then you’ll pass out … As for why I didn’t kill them… That’s because it’s not necessary just yet. Be it you or them, all of you are useful to the plan.”

“Why did you betray us?” Joshua was very calm.

“No, I never betray.” Nolan paused for some time. Then she inhaled deeply and sarcastically said, “Mr. Joshua, you people do not seem to know the truth about the world. Because of that, you people have taken a completely different path than I did.”

“The world was destroyed long ago.”

Before the warrior could even ask about the ‘truth’ she mentioned, Nolan lifted her head and looked at the plane of the broken Dark Abyss—other than the blood moon and the scattered rock islands, there was nothing remained in the world. Only voids and chaos.

Looking at the ground, she blinked a couple of times and calmly explained Joshua, “The Mycroft Continent had already gone through destruction, just like the plane on this ‘blood moon’.”

The lady smiled coldly when the warrior expressed shock. She sighed gently and said, “In ancient times, when the Glorious Era was about to end, the world was destroyed because of a catastrophe that no one had seen before. Even the gods were extinct. The initial great continent that occupied one fifth of the entire world was shattered into seven different parts. Three of them had sunken deep into the ocean, now known as the distant sea of the far south, the Lost Sea in the North, and the Yis Abyssal Sea in the East… Of course, the world did not crumble because of that. A very powerful champion who transcended higher than the gods used his own greatness to forcefully stabilize the remaining four scattered continents and used a part of the ‘catastrophe’ to merge the continents into one complete continent, that is, the Mycroft Continent that we know of today.”

‘It’ had sealed up the Dark Abyss and reignited the Initial Flame, allowing this world to survive for another thousand years. However, now that the firewood is about to burn out, everything is coming to end.”

“My bloodline.”

Norni Nolan pointed at herself. She did not bother about whether Joshua saw her doing that or not. She carried on. “Originated from the Glorious Era, the Sage’s incarnation of the Mother Goddess of the Land.”

“At the beginning of the birth of my family, you can hear the miserable mourning of the continent beneath your feet. You can hear the voice of this world—it had been shattered long ago. It had died long ago. However, it continues to exist with its last dying breath because of the great existence.”

“About that, I actually understand,” Joshua interrupted. “However, what does that have to do with you siding with the Chaos Evil God and the Demonic Dragons?”

Nolan was not angry for being interrupted. Her main goal was to stall as much time as she could. She just wanted to wait until the warrior could no longer resist the infestation of the parasitic creature in his head. At the same time, she wanted to release her frustration over the years. Hence, she responded to Joshua’s question by nodding her head slightly. She answered, “Perhaps it is just a mean to get what we want by using each other. The ritual that Mandagar is performing this time aims to reconnect this broken Abyssal World with the Mycroft Continent. That is the request made by the Evil God. It is capable of entering the main Mycroft Continent through this fragile Dark Abyss dimension. In the meantime, the power of the Dark Abyss can also be used to connect the Dark Abyss with the Mycroft Continent.”

“Mandagar can acquire the power of the Legendary-tier by performing the ritual. The Pentashade Dragons can finally acquire the support from the Barons of the Dark Abyss. If worse comes to worst, if the Dragon’s Calamity fails, the Pentashade Dragons could still flee through here.”

Nolan was speaking nonchalantly. “I only desire to stay as Mother Goddess of the Land. Nothing more.”

“Oh?” Joshua furrowed his eyebrows curiously. However, he did not ask his question. It seemed that he did not have any strength left to even ask a question.

Seeing that Joshua had begun to tire under the infestation of the parasitic creature in his head, Nolan eased up a little. The warrior’s strength and his power during battle made her feel scared. That warrior was completely not in her plans after all. Fortunately for her, the warrior was defenseless against people he trusted. Hence, she was able to sneak the parasitic creature into the tea, which everyone drank every day.

But even though that was the case, Nolan remained vigilant to keep her puppets from leaving her. She kept them between herself and the warrior. She hid closer to the back of the puppets and responded the warrior, “Mr.Joshua, you are a noble of the North on the outside. However, you are in fact the Chaos Guardian that the Northern Imperial Kingdom used to seal the Sealed Land. You should know better than anyone that this world needs to rely on those seals to prevent the Chaos energy from leaking into the Mycroft Continent in order to sustain the combustion of the Initial Flame. Only then stability can be ensured—that is the proof that the world had already been destroyed long ago. However, because of some great being that came into the picture and meddled with the world, forcing the world to exist.”

“If we say that Chaos is the Beginning of Creation where nothing exists, then Chaos would be the end of the world. Chaos would be the end of the destruction of everything.”

Nolan spoke softly, “The Dark Abyss is the embodiment of Chaos itself. It is merged with many great continents like the Mycroft Continent. However, all the worlds that merged are the worlds where their flames were extinguished but have yet to perish. Those demons are the race that lost the flames. They are the ones that were completely combusted, never to be ignited again. Hence, because of that, they crave for the light of flames. They invade worlds where the Initial Flames are still burning.”

“Mr. Joshua, the very ground beneath our feet belongs to a world that embraced and cultivated us. It wants to merge with the Dark Abyss. After all, the great Mycroft Continent has perished long ago. The Mycroft that you know now can only be sustained by the combustion of Chaos… However, it is never enough to just rely on Chaos Guardians like you who have been guarding the Sealed Land. So when the firewood left by that great being runs out and we have yet to merge with the Dark Abyss, the world as you know it will crumble and everything will be reduced to nothing.”

At that time, the lady alchemist’s voice sounded solid and determined. That was the first time she sincerely spoke to the warrior. “I never hope for the world to perish. Nor do I love the invasion of the demons. We just hope to prolong the existence of this world, even if it means…”

“Even if it means turning into one of those demons.”

Joshua calmly replied the lady. “Isn’t that right? Nono, you are hoping that we could join your conquest. So you do not think it is necessary to kill Saya and the others yet. That is what you think, am I right?”

The warrior lifted his red eyes which seem to be seeing right through the puppets in front of the lady alchemist. His eyes seemed to lock eyes with the lady. Joshua then muttered to himself, “So that is the way it is. The Mycroft Continent has been destroyed long ago. No wonder the script went towards that direction. Even though Roland is easy to manipulate, he doesn’t seem to be the kind of person who would actually open the gate to the Dark Abyss.”

“Judging from the current situation, it is true that the remaining power of the Sage is the only thing keeping the entire world from combusting. That’s the reason why the great Mycroft Continent can last for over a thousand years…”

“You know about the ‘Sage’?” Nolan sounded shocked. The gray-haired girl had been hiding from Joshua since they were back on the ark. She was not aware of the information regarding the Imperial Kingdom. Nor did she know that the warrior was in fact one of the Sage’s Inheritors who possessed the Azurite. She shook her head and said, “No, it wasn’t the great man’s strength that has been sustaining the world. The Order is like a loop, a cycle of life that never ends. The wreckage of the world does not the complete cycle. It feeds on Chaos like it is the fuel.”

“The power that is maintaining this world comes from one of the ‘Calamities’. An Evil God.”

“Evil God?” Joshua repeated doubtfully.

“That’s right, don’t you know?”

Knowing about the Sage’s existence but having no idea about such simple and basic information. Nolan felt strange about it. “It’s everywhere. It’s been with living with us over a thousand years in the new era. It has been bringing us pain and suffering, and also endless wealth.”

Joshua paused and narrowed his eyes. “The Dark Forest.”

“That’s right.” Nolan nodded and confirmed, “To be more precise, it’s the Evil God [Fertility].”

“As one of the almighty Evil Gods among the multiverses, it was killed by the Sage during the ‘Calamity’ a thousand years ago. Its body and what is remained of the Mother Goddess of the Land merged the remaining four continents into one. That is also the reason why our world still exists.”

After explaining that, the gray-haired girl paused and attempted to understand what the warrior thought about it, so she asked, “Mr. Joshua, what do you think?”

She was referring to her and her accomplices joining the conquest to merge the great Mycroft Continent with the Dark Abyss in order to prolong its existence.

After pondering for a moment, Joshua laughed.

Then he asked, “So how many agreed with you?”

Nolan did not answer.

“I see.” The warrior had expected that. So he nodded his head and said, “I understand… your thought is solid. You believe that you are doing justice. No wonder Saya who can see through people’s emotion but could not see through your treachery. The great nun cannot see through people’s heart and therefore could not uncover your true face.”

“You have given up. So you plan to make it all right by merging the world into the Dark Abyss.”

Joshua voice grew louder. It became so loud that it sounded like the rumbling of thunder across the blood sea. “I do not intend to give up at all!”

On the warrior’s chest, a green light spot emerged. That was the power of the Azurite, the vein of Order power.

“Norni Nolan, the Alchemy prodigy.”

The warrior spoke softly, “My former comrade in arms.”

“I believe in you.”

“Although I have been betrayed once in my past life, I can’t believe that my comrade would actually backstab me.”

The power of the Azurite instantly flowed through the warrior’s body, cleansing every single trace of neurotoxin that numbed his nerves. It replaced the warrior’s combat aura to suppress the parasitic creature in the warrior’s head. At the same time, the intense pain began to spread again, the warrior’s nervous system.

Joshua was not bothered by that. He lifted his left hand and plunged his hand into his head, hard. Nolan witnessed that with her eyes and was completely surprised.

The five fingers crushed the skull easily. The warrior’s eyes were emotionless as if he did not feel pain at all. He did not show any sign of rage of the betrayal. Nor did he look excited. He used his bloodstained left hand and reached deep into his cranial cavity. At the same time, he spoke calmly to Nolan, “I have given you a chance, my comrade. And now you have lost it.”

After saying whatever he wanted to say, he pulled a silver worm that was about five to six centimeters long from his skull. Without even the slightest hesitation, he crushed the worm and took a deep breath. After that, his combat aura began to spread all over his body. He was ready to battle.

Supreme-tier was beyond the limits ordinary men could ever attain.

Strength Mastery, forging steel as the body, casting iron as the heart. The person who mastered that would have a body beyond anyone’s imagination, a body that was capable of releasing unbelievable power.

So a severe injury to the brain—what was that again?

A pressure that exceeded any ordinary Supreme-tier presence began spreading into the area. The black and red flame surrounded the warrior’s body like a huge fire dragon.

In just an instant, the blazing heat escaped into the surrounding. The blood sea was instantly reduced into nothing. There wasn’t any residue at all. All of the blood just vaporized into thin air. A horrifying shockwave began to spread. All of the blood sea within the warrior’s vision rippled. Huge waves formed and rumbled on the calm red surface of the blood sea.

“This…”

Nolan did not expect to see that. Her limbs began to soften seeing Joshua release his full strength. She could sense that there was a humungous shadow spreading near her.

She turned around to find Saya and the others because she wanted to use them as her hostages. However, the lady alchemist could only see a silver iron puppet lying on the spot.

Steel Elemental Eva seemed to have moved Robzek and the others into the cabin quietly, leaving only the two giant dragons by the deck. It was not capable of moving the two gigantic dragons. Nolan would not have used the two giant dragons as her hostages anyway.

“Well, it is actually a good thing that they have all fainted,” Joshua said from behind her.

The warrior appeared like a volcano that was about to erupt. It seemed as if the warrior’s power had been suppressed to its limit and could erupt anytime now. The red combat aura was fused with the black waves of the Satsui Hadou as the energy waves slowly condensed behind him. There was a pair of eyes which belonged to a giant god. Pure murderous intent and the will to battle filled the golden pupils.

“Otherwise, I would have gotten myself into trouble if they saw my ‘Divinity’.”

Suddenly, the blood sea began to boil.

The iron fist connected with the girl’s as the puppets were burnt to ashes.