Soul of Searing Steel

The warrior who stood at the planet’s mantle shook his head in response. He certainly knew what Roland was thinking—years of friendship and having faced an Evil God together, Joshua certainly knew the doubts in the knight’s mind, and the desire he had to have it resolved.

That is why he raised both his hands, with a silver sphere appearing between them. All matter from metal, stone and half-melted magma, as well as core substances subject to massive pressure around him were hence pulled into the sphere. In three brief seconds, the thumb-sized silver sphere bloated to the size of a human head, even though the matter it had absorbed was the mass of several mountains.

“Roland, o friend—”

The warrior’s voice became solemn then. Lifting the silver sphere that was shrinking rapidly, Joshua merely used Supreme-pinnacle strength, which in turn did not really compress the sphere of substance.

Even so, its density was truly frightening.

“I know you want to ask why the world is such as this.”

In the very next second, the warrior briskly threw the sphere at the Holy Knight with his full might. Accelerated to dozens of times the speed of sound, the super-dense sphere of substance triggered a surging tide of matter within the mantle.

Meanwhile, faint halos appeared behind Roland as he stood over the planet’s core. As the dense sphere streaked towards him, he bellowed and burst in great Holy Light power—concentrated, almost solid Holy Light pressed down on the planet’s core, caving it while turning into the shadow of a massive hammer, hitting true on the sphere as if it was baseball.

In the very next instant, the Holy Light hammer dispersed with a resounding rumble while the silver sphere was sent flying. Like a meteor crashing upwards, it pierced layers after layers of solid mantle, darting towards the planet’s crust above.

Above the core, the halo behind Roland shattered and he took a few steps behind, unable to hold in and spitting out a mouthful of blood—which was not actually blood but fragments of his organs and Holy Light shards that floated above. The body constitution of Supreme individuals was no longer the same as mortal substance, and apart from some special substance, the body of most Supreme individuals would not have innards of flesh and blood.

“But I can’t give you an answer. I’m no philosopher.”

Just as you are not.

Joshua’s voice could be heard reaching him slowly. The warrior floated over the planet’s core, and spoke calmly, “Why is the world like this? I do not know and do not care, for thinking about such a question is not something a warrior like myself or a Holy Knight like you should be doing.”

We have more important things to do. 

For Roland’s part, the Holy Knight could only block Joshua’s assault with his full power and answer Joshua at once. He panted several times heavily, before slowly looking up over his own head from the depths of the planet’s core.

It was a deep tunnel heading straight down from above the planet’s crust. The bottom of the tunnel was the bright, searing core, while its center was filled with dark shadows—no drill of present Mycroft technology could ever achieve that, and yet the hands of Extraordinary individuals would. Moreover, it was merely the shockwaves of his battle, an insignificant outcome.

It was the miracle that Extraordinary power would bring—miracles that changed everything.

“Shouldn’t think about it… huh?”

The Holy Knight’s heart was shaken, but he quickly and firmly shook his head to refute those thoughts.

No, that was not what Joshua meant. Humans must never give up on thinking, for if they do not, everything from battle to survival would lose meaning.

There has to be a deeper meaning in Joshua’s words.

In moments, Roland smiled.

“I understand… So that’s it!” The Holy Knight muttered as if in epiphany, a student who appeared to finally understand a difficult question. He laughed softly, before guffawing heartily —but he soon stopped, his expression turning clam was he nodded slightly and looked up at Joshua.

“Joshua,” he said quietly, “a while ago, I really, really hated the stars.”

It was too vast, dark and hopeless, just as it was too mysterious and filled with unpredictable danger.

“But now?”

The warrior, who had intended to continue his assault and force the last bit of talent out of his friend lifted a brow in interest. “Do you like it now?” He asked, a little curious.

“No.”

Roland pulled off some of the remaining armor over his upper body, revealing the rather white skin beneath. He took a deep breath, and Holy Light reassembled as a set of gray, luminous armor, along with a full helm that covered his face and made his voice sound deep, “I still don’t like it.”

“The truth behind the Multiverse is far darker and more despairing than what I have imagined in my youth. Compared to that, the evil that occurs amongst men is simply insignificant, just as crime and punishment appear to have no meaning—that is why I really hate it, the truth.”

However.

Holding his tongue, Roland mustered his ideals once again. At the very heart of the planet, he summoned the power of the Holy Light, and the Holy Light answered him—Holy Light, dark gray, dim and different from the three commonly seen Holy Light, it had an attribute completely different from the power of other Holy Knights. It was clearly energy, but it assumed a form again as shield and hammer, grasped within Roland’s hand.

It is precisely because I hate this dark and despairing Multiverse, the stars that are filled with shadows and Chaos…

That is why a hero is needed to purge it!

“I don’t like the stars.”

“I don’t like the dark.”

“I don’t like the despair.”

Now, at the core of the dead planet, Roland’s voice reverberated out of thin air without him opening his voice, quietly and clearly quaking magma, metals and the depths of the mantle.

“Therefore, I would change the stars.”

I would make it bright, warm and safe—I would fill them with laughter and hope, and not the deathly nothingness it was now!

Explanation was unnecessary.

Philosophers of the world tried different solutions to explain that world, but it was simply trivial—the real question is how they would change the world!