Soul of Searing Steel

“To be frank, I’m a little curious.” The warrior said calmly as he stood upon the shambled land.

“Of how many times you could be reborn.”

With greataxe and greatsword in hand, Joshua’s gaze flashed with fluorescence as he assumed a standard combat pose.

Meanwhile, Herlas narrowed his eyes halfway above the sky, his pupils that were seemingly empty glinting with a dangerous light.

“Then try, unduly young warrior,” he replied with a slight sneer.

Before he finished, the high priest moved first.

If the battle between Supreme champions did not end within seconds it would drag longer and longer. As the two extraordinary individuals with meticulous conduct over their own power gradually became familiar with their opponent’s combat rhythm and energy levels, they would eventually adapt to the various fighting methods of their enemy and therefore extend the combat duration. There were even historical records that Supreme champions fighting for tens of consecutive days without stopping.

However, Herlas would not do that. Although Joshua was a prioritized target above the Mount Mordus ruins and extremely dangerous, he would never fight an attritional battle with the warrior in his own world of plagues. At most he would acquire a pyrrhic victory, and might even lose his opportunity to acquire that ‘Shard’ sealed within the ruins.

That was why, clenching the staff in hand, Herlas utterly shattered it into shards that floated everywhere over the sky.

He gave up on his human form.

Lifeforce materialized like a waterway along with the majestic power coming from an unnamable deity from the void, rising and condensing behind the high priest before finally turning into a black halo that hung behind him. Reminiscent of a spider web, the halo was filled with inconceivable and blasphemous runes, tightly arranged against each other as if the will of Chaos was given form, possessing power that would drive a person insane with a single glance.

At the same time, Herlas’s entire body began to shift swiftly and abnormally. He raised his own right hand, his mouth curling with a mocking smile.

“Let’s see if you would be the one who kills me, or if I’ll be the one who kills you.”

Wrooom—

That thin but powerful right hand of the high priest melted as if the man himself was a wax figure. It was the physical form of streaming vigor, and the pale-white material rebuilt itself into a cannon the color of darkness, locking tightly on Joshua.

Gray crystals covered the mouth of the arm cannon. Each of them started to shin, and horrendous energy ripples gathered. The warrior who was being aimed at instantly felt the gravity fluctuate around him, with innumerable stone shards and fungi floating as if losing their weight, flying towards the black cannon.

Joshua was no fool—he took a few steps back decisively, his eyes affixed upon the burst-type weaponry that was clearly Herlas’s trump card. Any who could not tell what was going on were lunatics, no longer mere fools.

As soon as the warrior had evaded the blow, the land where he was violently shrunk, as if there was huge fist within the Void that squeezed tens of meters of earth into a little dot.

—Bio-Gravity Cannon!

Joshua’s pupils could not help but shrink at the sight. He felt his hairs standing upright behind him as a sensation of being in incredible danger echoed across his mind.

Herlas might not even fully understand the principles behind his own attack, but the warrior who was from a more advanced era knew just how unbelievable the blow had been. The cult’s high priest had activated his own strength and contorted the gravities within that small zone and crumbled it to form an existence similar to a small black hole. If Joshua had remained where he was just now, he would be a meat puddle even if he did not die.

Pure lifeforce combined with extraordinary divine spell could actually achieve such a feat. As expected, this world has countless champions that should never be underestimated!

“The Void’s Grasp is too slow.”

Things were far from over. Seeing that his attack was fruitless, Herlas extended his left hand, and it soon turned into a beehive through the same life stream transformation. Flashing radiance gathered from within, before powerful beams that was several ten thousand degrees hot was shot viciously straight towards the vigilant Joshua!

At the same time, two seams opened over Herlas’s chest. Each of his ribs flew out, surrounding Joshua as if they had a will of their own. Their rips were surging with a focused light blade, as if they could be ejected at any time, releasing the destructive force stored within.

Since the High Priest of the Cult of Pestilence could easily create an endless assortment of insects and fungal species, he obviously could make himself stronger and better.

With the black halo that resembled a spider web behind him as the center, every part of Herlas’s body gradually turned into a vicious biological weapon, pouring every bit of brutal firepower towards Joshua. Small mushroom clouds rose to the air in the world of plagues, the scorching impacts rising alongside the smoke and haze into the air.

Against the erratic release of ‘Void’s Grasp’ and the lightning beam, Joshua could only take continuous evasive actions. Still, even if Herlas had never once displayed on the Mycroft Continent the complete inhuman armament transfiguration that was causing Joshua much headache right now, the warrior could still feel a thrill.

For the enemy to use his full power was proof of the warrior’s own ability. Apart from that, Joshua also understood the reason.

Under the illumination of lifeforce radiation, every creature within the subspace now had no place to hide. At the moment, everything—be it fungus, moss, insect or microscopic bacteria—was offering the shreds of their small lifeforce. The infinite amount of minuscule vigor assembled into a curving river, flowing and amassing towards Herlas’s body and the halo behind him.

It was obvious that the high priest current combat armament form required the support of vast lifeforce, with the incessant Bio-Gravity Cannon (Void’s Grasp) consumed tremendous energy to activate. Although Joshua did not know why Herlas would want to end things quickly, this moment of danger also offered an opportunity.

Suddenly, a sudden inspiration flashed in his mind as he looked at the dim sky in this world of plagues as well as remembering the scene when his full-powered fist shattered the void.

This was Herlas’s own turf… Why would he fight against his enemy on their home ground?

“Ying, Ling, let’s go.”

At the very thought, the warrior started communicating post-haste with his own weapons through his mind. Dodging another blow by Herlas that twisted void and turned land into a small dot, the warrior leaped forcefully towards the sky, leaving a streak of red-black light behind him and reaching thousands of meters above the sky.

Glancing at Herlas as the high priest turned towards him below, Joshua clenched the greatsword and greataxe in his hands and held them aloft in a cross shape before his chest, pure and sacred radiance emanating from the point of intersection as if a dully-glowing star.

[Divine Armament Max]

Ying’s flame symbolizes the warrior’s will, while Ling’s light symbolizes his resolve.

The two divine armaments were representations of two forces within Joshua’s soul, and brandishing them meant to change those pure will into realistic power. The Radcliffe family heads of old had done so before, inflaming their own will and resolve and wielding their divine armaments to fight against the daemons of Chaos.

In this very moment, Joshua had activated every power around his body, pouring every lifeforce and aura within his two weapons.

Boom–

Colossal energies were turning into waves of luminous mana, spreading across all directions.

Under the pressure, the uncountable fungal pillars were thrust downwards, thunderously reverberating through the sky, the blinding radiance making everything lucid in this subspace.

And amidst the powerful light, the tip of a spear extended.

It was an impossibly threatening gray weapon of murder. As if a plain cross-shaped spear, it flowed with dark-red circuits, the flat and sharp blade stretching and extending to the back until the end where a construct resembling an axe’s edge was formed.

His face expressionless, Joshua supplied it with his own strength, and flames started to burn upon the blade. The Nuclear Star forces danced before the edge, as if it would explode at any time and destroy everything before it.

The Dragonslayer Swordspear ¹ exists in the mortal realm once more, and the opponent it faces was a great demon of Pestilence, Herlas the Witherer.

Every monster on the land, be it plant or animals, virus or fungus—all life settled down. The foreboding sensation of death echoed throughout the world, petrifying them moving a single inch. Even Herlas, who had completely assumed an inhuman form, could feel a lighting sensation of danger throughout his body, as if he would be totally pulverized by that gargantuan body in the distance in the very next moment.

“I’ve underestimated you,” he mumbled.

But so what?

Facing Joshua who wields the Spear of Divine Retribution—a weapon that once faced an evil god, Herlas suddenly got an idea. In seconds, his entire body became a cascading liquid metal substance of vigor. The entire world was providing him vigor, allowing the cultist high priest to complete the intricate biological transformation in less than a second.

In that instant, a huge cavity appeared in his chest where a black sphere appeared. Fluid plasma swirled around it, the dark blue high-energy condensation gathering and dispersing. An intention that was sufficient to devour all things flowed from within, breaking apart all earth that stood thousands of meters around Herlas—the shattered land than rose, collected by the sphere.

—Void Shrink.

It was not a technique that could be used by Supreme tiers, but the most powerful divine spell learned after reaching Legendary and mastering the Cult of Pestilence’s most powerful codex.

Legend has it that this spell originated from an unnamable deity who was hidden within the Void of Chaos to consume the forces that the world uses. That majestic existence used that power to devour the stars and entire continents, along with the seas and the skies.

Herlas did not master the power either, but he could forcibly use it in a general sense.

Enough.

The sphere quivered, the shapeless ripple spread and ripping space apart. With Joshua at its center, dark dimensional tears spread like a spider web, reaching out wildly towards a certain center as if being drawn in by some terrible vortex.

At the same time, the Dragonslayer Swordspear darted out, the dark-red fluorescence mixed with solar flashes, stabbing towards where Herlas was.

Two powers met.

Sound vanished.

In the lightless world of plagues, a flash that far surpasses the sun suddenly exploded. It shone amidst the sky that was filled with clouds of dark spores, raising ripples from its sheer impact force all around the sphere.

The pillars of fungi were burnt to ash in seconds and blown off by the gale. Even the underground soil where thousands of poisonous insects hid was incinerated into cinders.

But the ruthless power was quickly declining, as if something was quickly absorbing and devouring the power from its very heart.

As the radiance and impact force weakened a little, Herlas, crippled, his rear halo shattered, stared at Joshua who was nearby, most of his flesh contorted by horrendous gravity shift.

“You’ve lost.”

He said.

“No.” The warrior shook his head, flashing a bright smile. “You’ve lost.”

Crack.

A distinct sound voice of something cracking rang in the air.

In an instant, a gigantic dimensional crack broke into the entire subspace of plagues after the collision between the two powers. On the other side of the crack was that familiar riverbank of Magel’s Unfrozen River.

In that moment, Joshua who appeared to be so hurt he could not move rose into the air. The swordspear in hand, he took the opportunity as Herlas was left astonished, swept it and briskly sent him flying into the dimensional crack.

“Go back!”