Soul of Searing Steel

Inside the unknown world.

Priest was sitting beside Sol in a corner of Hub Accrafa, both of them having panting as if exhausted canines.

“It’s too tiring… never thought that the elves are no lighter than humans even if every single one them appeared slender!”

Priest was a Gold-tier warrior. Even if his ascension was recent and had arm strength in the units of ten tons, he was not merely attacking with a simple burst of strength with the force of a few dozen tons, but maintaining that output as he carried dozens of elves in the air and flew a dozen miles.

Flying was nothing to Gold-tier champions, but that was limited to him flying alone. When he carried someone else, or to be precise carried a whole bunch of people along for such a long distance, it still somewhat exceeded Priest’s ability.

After all, he was a warrior, not a rider or a flying car.

“At least they’re all inside now. Never thought that we could actually do this!”

Beside him, Sol reached out and grasped Priest shoulder’s with a grin. “You’re great,” she said cheerfully, “I’m almost dead right after putting one person in the hall.”

“It should be alright…” Priest could clearly smell the fragrance of the elven girl and appeared rather uncomfortable. Although he attempted to escape, he soon gave up on trying to shrug off Sol’s hand.

“What, is there anything else?” Rider asked casually.

On the other side, the other four members of the Elite Party who had arranged the elves approached, and Priest hurriedly stood up in return. “There’s nothing else actually,” he said, shaking his head after considering things for a moment. “All the elves are safely tucked away, I’ve activated Hub Accrafa’s defensive systems and transmitted the signals. We’ve done all we could—if the Evil God soon awakens, we could only pray that the Hub holds on since we lack countermeasures, or that the champions of Mycroft would come to aid us.”

At that, the chamber fell silent.

Priest was right. It was their limit as Gold-tiers, and while there were seven to eight other similar elven tribes in this world, saving the Overwatch tribe had already left them half dead and used up all the time they had. The tremors beyond were ever distinct, and Clergy could see distant peaks abruptly rising, just as colossal giant tentacle silhouettes danced in the distance—signs that the Evil God beneath the land was reviving.

“Aren’t we a little unlucky?”

Rider could not help recollecting. “For the record, we encountered Black Fog in World Zero One, a Legendary hostile aberration when we were still Silver, and then there was no lack of wild Gold-tier monsters and Supreme-tier overlords. Now that we’ve risen to Gold, we run into an Evil God at once—I think… Mmph?”

“Stop thinking!”

Both Caster and Clergy had simultaneously launched ‘Hardened Tongue’ and ‘Word of Truth: Seal’ at Rider, just as Alchemist warningly drew out a dangerous-looking test tube of black potion, gesturing at Rider that he could force feed him with it.

“Either way, let’s wait. We’ve weathered many a difficult situation—even if this is the most threatening one, it’s the least worrying too.”

Priest did not deal a blow to morale—he merely rubbed his forehead tiredly and smiled bitterly. “At least Hub Accrafa and the nine moons have suppression capacity, and records stated that it’s not the first time the Evil God rampaged. Perhaps it may hold on?”

That being said, Priest himself did not hold out much hope. The Evil God’s rampage this time could be a final struggle before death, for its resistance was of a power far beyond those ever recorded… if reinforcements did not come, fortune does not favor them.

Still, hope was there.

Priest looked at Sol, who was smiling innocently beside him. It was utter fortune that the elven girl who was not far from death could be freed from the corruption and torment of Otherworld Blight, and certainly why she could smile so happily.

At the moment, Sol’s lethal wounds of Chaos had mostly vanished. Even if part of it stubbornly remained on her back, it could be purified if they could return to the world of Mycroft… Like Sol, the entire Overwatch tribe could be cleansed.

At least, it was not the worst-case scenario.

Priest could not help smiling at the thought.

Waiting, and holding on to hope. That was the last thing the Elite Party could do.

***

Outside the unknown world.

The darting Silver Star and the Green Star arrived outside a small, black and deathly world.

After using all strength to chase after Joshua’s, the Nature’s Magister soothed her tired Legendary behemoth with a tinge of heartache. At the same time, she pointed with certainty at the mundane, typical world, a hint of suspicion on his face. “Weird. I’m actually picking up some elven scent.”

Joshua said nothing. He gazed at the outer layer of the world with his Steel Strength Vision fully opened, seemingly intending to see through the World Barrier but without any effect.

Something similar to the Black Fog’s Black Form defense, the warrior thought.

The champions of Mycroft’s civilization who recently fought the Black Fog’s main body all understood that the Black Form meant a presence that could absorb all energy and photon movement. When blacked by Black Form, all energy, even light would be inescapable, absorbed in its entirety.

A defensive system similar to black holes.

Although it resembled a dead world in appearance, its interior was not so. Only radiant energy emanating from inside the world were entirely pulled by the outer layer of the Black Form, isolating all distress signals or even Steel Strength information, severing all contact in an out.

In theory, even Chaos presence would not escape, which is why the Evil God of Wither’s power could have weakened the Black Form, thereby creating a gap in the flawless information blockage, allowing Chaos presence to transmit out.

“This is you seeking your own death. Even I would not have found this unremarkable world in centuries otherwise.”

Joshua could not help smiling, but his expression recovered soon after. The warrior then turned to Galanoud, “Your Eminence. Could you break this barrier?”

“Of course, but it would take some time.”

The Nature’s Magister naturally would not refuse. She understood Joshua’s intention and turned towards the Void behind him, frowning. “Don’t be reckless, you.”

They had darted right past more than twenty Void Behemoths—which meant more than twenty Legends, more than all of the Legends on Mycroft added up. Of course, those Void Behemoths were not adults that were millions of years old, and at most a few thousand, if not a ten or twenty thousand years. Those Behemoths appeared to be carrying something unusual and burdening as well, therefore leaving them unable to display their full power, with a single Mycroft Legend probably able to defeat all of them single-handedly.

Nonetheless, those were Void Behemoths, and they did witness the outcome of their rampage over the galaxy. There were many worlds destroyed, resembling grass plains devoured into barrenness by mountain goats—and Joshua was about to fight them alone.

It was truly crazy.

“It’s an unknown civilization,” Joshua said calmly in response. He was more aware than the Nature’s Magister that those Behemoths were clearly altered by a certain intelligent civilization. That was why there was a change of presence, preventing him from making any distinction between them and the world.

But whether that civilization was friend or foe, good or evil, none knew. They could be here to free the Evil God or, like them, attempt to kill it when it was weakened, and their abrupt appearance was shrouded in mist.

However, according to how that civilization had unsympathetically destroyed several worlds for the Void Behemoths to absorb a little organic substance, Joshua was not willing to trust them. In the very least, he was unwilling to let one civilization be a bystander when he fought an Evil God, and was reluctant to trust in any kindness from those cold-hearted beings.

Time passed. According to Joshua’s estimation, in three minutes and twenty-seven seconds, the civilization which rode on the fleet of Void Behemoths shone as if a world within the Void.

“Twenty-seven Void Behemoths… if that’s the civilization’s depth, it’s sub-par.”

The warrior sneered at the very thought, his gaze spread rather distractedly at the deepest parts of the Void as he recollected a moment long past.

Or perhaps a recent past.

***

Nine years ago, he was but an ordinary Earthling brooding over how he should pass his boring time.

Nine years later, he was now amongst the select few Legends, the most powerful individuals of Mycroft.

Worlds, Evil Gods and the borders of the galaxies were in his hands, and he thought nothing of a swarm of Void Behemoth.

“Galanoud. You’ve asked me before why I was always so serious—I’m not actually serious, but just enjoying everything to the point I’ve forgotten to convey my delight.”

Joshua said quietly, closed his eyes and began to muster his strength.

Indeed, the warrior enjoyed that life very much.

If he had not transcended, the former top martial artist would have basked upon the mundaneness of his mundane time.

He would continue his martial arts dojo and guide several apprentices he would have found from who-knows-where, gaming and occasionally going out to drink with friends. He might even get a wife in the future, have a few children as his stomach bloated and his muscles softened, passing the four seasons in the calm, setting sun.

But Joshua van Radcliffe had already refused that possibility.

Perhaps fate, or the Sage or some mysterious being had prepared a path and future that was filled with trials and tribulations, shouldering fate of worlds after worlds. It was filled with danger, and each step was considerably painful.

That was the exact same thing for civilizations such as the Starfall Era that struggled to step out of the ruins they were left with, as well as that unknown civilization which rode Void Behemoths across the galaxy, or just like himself.

At present, the Great Khan was watching the black world as the World Fleet approached it without stopping, as well as the Silver Star that stood in front of it, blocking the advance of the Fleet.

At present, in Hub Accrafa, the Elite Party and Sol were pointing at the skies in surprise, at the veins of dark green radiance of Nature which slowly appeared over the highest point in the skies.

At present, in the depths of the black world, a warped and evil being was howling in rage and wailing.

Joshua opened his eyes. Dark red light flashed beneath raging silver radiance.

Boom! Beneath the warrior’s feet, his silver planetary true form promptly throbbed and transformed. Neutron star substance, the sturdiest substance of the observable universe shifted visibly under the will of one man, Steel strong enough to level planets shaped into a tremendous fist that could stir dimensions and galaxies.

For toil, torment and the duty of shouldering of everything, for a man’s oath and resolve to become powerful.

That was exactly why he, having assumed that path, would differ so greatly from the fattening leader of a martial arts dojo who lived on a city on the space expressway.

“Stop.”

Planets trembled, dimensions twisted.

The Giant God of Steel stood at the center of the Void, erratic dimensional turbulences that engulfed those dead worlds around them thus revolving around him like planets to a sun. Joshua, who was now an incarnation of a world devouring giant deity stared coolly at the dark Void, towards the World Fleet that slowly decelerated in the distance.

He extended his hand. Five mountainous fingers straightened as a windstorm of Steel Strength unfurled by his palm. The warrior reached into the heart of the storm, drawing a silver-white great sword from within, the tip of the blade pointed straight ahead and drawing a silver trail over thin air.

“From here on out, these are Mycroft borders.”