Soul of Searing Steel

Despite their cheerfulness, the Fairy Queens had given sincere answers after being asked. Neither Joshua nor them spoke after the true ‘dented’ state of the galaxy was shown, and the entire Elemental Smelter Palace was silent once again.

“Regardless,” Queen Blazing Sun said, her rather energetic demeanor appearing unhappy instead, “this is the change we’ve discovered happening across the galaxy and the Multiverse—we are not sure about the latter since it is simply too vast, and our observation capacity could not even exceed a few dozens of planetary regions.”

“To be frank, if we could find worlds with high-elements suitable for our race to survive, would we even have created Fairyland and stay rooted here over hundreds of years… Really, I’ve not went on a trip to the outside for so long.”

“I mostly understood.”

Joshua became calm again after his brief shock. He noted the ‘dented’ form of the galaxy down in the depths of his mind, and could not hold back a sense of pity that he actually never realized that. Nevertheless, who would be so bored to connect the endless stars? Moreover, with the presence of the Void Vortex and the huge scar on the galaxy itself, anyone would easily ignore that dark, starless zone.

Having digested that information, Joshua looked up an asked another question. “That being said, that’s merely the ‘difference’ you’ve discovered. What I wish to know is what you think of all this.”

While he had put things that way, Joshua was not compelling the Fairy Queens to reveal more information. Ultimately, he was a human in his thirties, and nine years since he crossed into this world. Though he was aware of many secret facts, he was not sure if those elements were unusual since he considered everything normal and logical.

Only the fairies that had lived across two generations could precisely determine the difference those eras.

“What we think…” The Fairy Queens murmured, glancing at each other and tried passing the buck, before deciding to let Queen Blue Sea speak.

“Our opinion,” she said with a mild, feminine voice after clearing her throat, “is actually unbelievable. It may be incomprehensible for humans, but don’t claim that we are making things up to bamboozle you.”

Waving his hand, Joshua gestured that he would not, and Queen Blue Sea was at once relieved.

“I think,” she said with forthrightness and without restraint, “the reason our galaxy is in such a state is because it had been battered by someone!”

Joshua was left speechless, but after being briefly at a loss, the warrior quickly grasped the queen’s meaning. “You’re saying that our galaxy is dented, not because of natural ways but because of outside interference?”

That point had actually crossed Joshua’s mind since he was aware of what a galaxy’s model should look like, but he was not a hundred percent sure that it applied to all galaxies given that this particular region was a Multiverse with diverse supernatural powers… It is only after verification by the fairy natives that he could be sure that his idea was not influenced by personal opinion.

“That’s indeed the case… but the idea itself is simply nonsensical. It’s fine if it was battering a world, but who could batter a galaxy?”

Queen Blue Sea appeared reluctant to continue the topic as well. She hurriedly shook her head; her ocean-blue hair swayed as if waves. “Actually, we still have some research materials left from the Glorious Era. Would you be interested, Count?”

“Of course.” Able to see the queens’ disinterest in delving deeper into that matter, Joshua simply allowed them to change topics.

“Do I have to add other information as well? Such as regarding fairies of other forms.”

***

The Fairy Queens had initially intended to gift Joshua the news for free, even teasing him regarding ‘fairies of other forms’, that he did not have to tell them about the Empire’s artificial fairies project—they were supporting that particular undertaking behind the scenes after all… However, when Joshua revealed the form of Silver Fairies, all of them inhaled sharply, their wings ceasing to flap and their dainty figures making them even adorable.

“Isn’t—isn’t this bad?”

Queen Mother was the first to shift uncomfortably in her seat. She could sense that while those fairies were mostly different from elemental fairies in form, they had additional reference points in her opinion.

The Four Elemental Fairy Queens intended to make Fairyland, their creation complete—something all Legends were aware of, but none of them understood that four elements alone could not make it whole.

According to their plans, after they had built the outline of their world, they would create elemental and non-elemental fairies of other forms, such as Light Fairies, Dark Fairies, Ether Fairies, Psionic Fairies, Holy Light Fairies and the like… It is only when all elements are possessed that a world would form and thus be complete.

Nevertheless, that intention had a tremendous obstacle from the very first start—the form and mentality of the Fairy Queens were simply too radical and held strong affinity to their own element attributes. Basically, it was impossible for them to create fairies of other form to complete the world. That was why they would help the Royal House of Diamond, gifting them Fairy Bloodline and from there observe the outcome of blending human and fairy bloodlines, as well as agreeing to the Artificial Fairy Project and create prototypes of divine armaments.

But all of it were not complete successes. The Diamond Family’s bloodline was so chaotic that the outcomes could not be ascertained to have been caused by fairy blood. Furthermore, the artificial fairies had just reached the seventh generation when it ended: the testing grounds, the ‘Sealed Land’ had been bombarded by Joshua. Though Ying and Ling were fairies that possess minor ether and psionic aspects, they were now evolving in an unknown direction and no longer fairy form.

Therefore, when the Fairy Queens saw the fully complete ‘Silver Fairies’ that appeared very useful for reference, they lost all composure.

“It’s a win-win,” Joshua said flatly. “I wish to entrust them into your care and instruct them in culture and norms, so that they would quickly become intelligent beings and obtain powers of typical fairies. In return, you could obtain the information you wished for. While I am their creator, I had not the time to instruct them—my apologies.”

“Rest assured, we’ll definitely teach them well!”

Before the other Fairy Queens could agree since they were still engrossed in the energy constitution of the Silver Fairies, Queen Earth Mother declared determinedly at once, “you’ll be an important guest of ours from now on, Count Radcliffe—would you like us to imbue some Fairy Bloodline into your family? It’s certainly useful since it greatly elevates element affinity!”

“It’s fine. Us Radcliffes have been humans all along; we don’t need bloodline of other races.”

Joshua waved her off, declining her kindness. Then, after the brief riot died down, the Fairy Queens finally regained composure and quickly revealed their information.

“According to fairies of the last Generation… in other words, the fairies that lived in both eras of Glorious and Starfall, the former Glorious Era had studied the Multiverse with various methods just as we did, even performing extensive research of the prehistoric past of the Multiverse.”

Queen Mother Earth cleared her throat and continued, “according to what they told us fairies newly born into Starfall, the galaxy—even the Multiverse had once seen a perfect era.”

“During that time, all of the Void was inhabitable. Wondrous life was born even in the most barren of stars. There were lifeforms even in the sun, similar to us fairies but much more extreme.”

“During that time, there was peace in the Multiverse. Everyone was more willing to interact than war, sharing knowledge and ideals—the entire Multiverse was inhabitable, and so civilizations simply did not need conflict but only substantial resources.”

“That was a long, long time ago, a memory that only the stars remember. No civilization existing then would know the tale, just as gods could only learn bits and pieces about it by drawing information from world and Steel Strength.”

“But that perfect era suddenly ended in a single day.”

Queen Mother Earth continued gently, shaking her head while the other Fairy Queens and Joshua listened to her quietly. “Then, everything fell into a deathly darkness, and no planets have any records of that time. It was a Lost Age, but longer and more terrible than the Lost Three Hundred Years.”

“And following that Lost Age, Void Behemoths and Ancient Dragons were soon born. Most believe that they have existed during Creation itself, but that’s a misconception. According to Glorious Era research, those two species suddenly appeared after that beautiful era and the Lost Age itself, and during their own reign, the Glorious Era also held a different perception about those two powerful yet different creatures of Steel.”

“They believed that the existence of Evil Gods is born when the Multiverse is at its worst and its most horrific, but with worlds still existent despite impending annihilation.”

“As for the Ancient Dragons, they exist so that even after all the stars are ruined and countless worlds ended in death and darkness, they could gradually recover and birth hospitable worlds.”

***

With that, Queen Earth Mouth stopped. It appeared to be all that she knew and all she was willing to say.

Meanwhile, the entire palace froze.

(You! Why would you say so much?)

(Cherry-pick and be nice. You’ve doomed the conversation!)

The other Fairy Queens had kept throwing looks and cues to the Queen Mother Earth, only to be ignored by her entirely. Still, with the atmosphere having taken a turn for the gloomy and Joshua’s serious face being too scary, Queen Blazing Sun simply changed the conversation and continue. “Anyway,” she said, “that’s pretty much how we got the idea of creating a world… We wanted to find a way to do it in the absence of Void Behemoths, Ancient Dragons and natural Steel Strength!”

“Uh-huh.” Queen Blue Sea nodded and echoed. “That’s why we simply gave up on Steel Strength manifestation processes, and directly stabilized the world’s construct.”

With that, she conjured a cup of tea and sent it through thin air to Joshua. “Have a drink—you must be thirsty.”

“I’m not, but thank you.”

Joshua ceased his pensiveness as well and gulped down the tea in one go. “It must be hard,” he smiled, knowing that the two Fairy Queens were deliberately shifting the conversation.

“Of course!”

Queen Blue Sea replied spiritedly at once, having seen that the atmosphere calmed. “It’s super~hard! Look at us four, we’re so exhausted we are always in a daze. It’s been centuries since we relaxed, having to pit wits and brain against all manners of unexpected phenomenon coming from outside this world!”

“Isn’t it just. I’m really regretting accepting the last Fairy Queen’s legacy.”

“I’ve been had. I thought being a Fairy Queen is easy!”

Joshua’s brow lifted in return. “The last Fairy Queen?” he asked interestedly. “Could you be talking about the ancient fairies who lived through both the Glorious Era and the Lost Three Hundred Years?”

“First, you can’t call them ancient—they’d be really angry if they were alive.” Queen Sky Mist shook said, shaking her head. “That being said, we’re not sure whether they were. They might be, but either way they died from grievous injuries before the founding of the Starfall calendar.”

“That’s right,” Queen Blazing Sun’s mouth twitched. “The gods fought amongst each other in the Lost Three Hundred Years, and apart from the champions who had entered the shelters, everyone else fought in that battle… Many Legends and gods who survived the Evil Gods were hence wiped out in that civil strife.”

“It’s almost everyone lost their minds back then, and went off killing anything wherever they went. The former Fairy Queens did not join the battle, but they still have to counter the assault of other races… Anyway, even if anyone survives, they would be so ashamed to see the wastelands that were once their home, hence proceeding to commit suicide, self-sealing or just destroy themselves. Heaven knows why they fought so violently that even the Sage couldn’t just watch and simply up and left.”

“Ah, stop talking. It hurts to even say it…” Queen Blue Sea could not help but sigh as Blazing Sun became angrier the more she spoke, and kindly dissuaded her. “Have a drink.”

“No way I’m drinking your bathwater!” Queen Blazing Sun, however, burst out at once when she saw the little cup before her.

“But that’s part of my body!” Queen Blue Sea was outraged at once as well. “You’re being mean!”

“I am being mean! Isn’t that just your bathwater! No, it’s much more terrible than bathwater! Wait, I’m a fire-element fairy—why should I even drink? Begone!”

Meanwhile, Joshua did not pay attention as the Fairy Queens argued, staring instead at the teacup in his hand and entering deep thought once more.

‘What is with these fairies…?’

As for Queen Mother Earth, she simply ignored her companions’ squabbles and flew down from her throne to Joshua.

“In truth, it’s very likely that the Sage did not leave out of disappointment,” she said quietly. “Myself and the former Fairy Queens guessed that the Sage has discovered something so pressing that it was far critical than the Glorious Era in its entirety. That is why he simply don’t have the time to stop the gods from killing each other and simply left Mycroft in a hurry.”

“Even so,” Queen Mother Earth sighed and added, “he’s long since left. So, instead of minding ancient rumors, would it not be better to care about the present?”

“Don’t you think so, Count Radcliffe?”

Joshua did not hesitate for long; he shook his head and then nodded. “There would certainly be a time when the ancient thing is needed, and we could search for more clues by using past information as guidance… But you’re right.”

“All should be in service of the present.”