Soul of Searing Steel

It was not easy to join the Combined Fleet Expedition that the Mycroft Civilization was organizing—and that is for Mycroftians alone, leaving aside how the Sartreans, Starherders and demons handpicked their most elite.

Reserve crew chosen to join the expedition must be impeccable in both ability and status: they would either have to hold experience of multiple Void adventures or were determined to have excellent talent, and certainly be adapted to Void travel.

Then, in a brief four months, those reserves would be educated in various practical operations with thought acceleration, both through Spirit Terminals and in reality, thereby ‘creating’ a large batch of experienced crewmembers. After learning how to operate and going through multiple assessments in spirit simulation, veteran Starherder and Sartrean crews would guide them so that they could present their virtual experiences in reality.

Presently, fleet drills had concluded, and the crew who had been handpicked and subject to spirit assessment gathered, before being transported to the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds in Void logistic vessels, before finally sent to Fort Pioneer near the edge of the galaxy.

Dozens, and soon hundreds of luminous spots shot out from the Void Tower of the world of Mycroft up to the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds. Each were shining logistic vessels, dragging long distinct strings over the dark dimensional turbulences that swayed along with space itself.

Countless people were watching now.

In the Void region beside the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds, the Nature Magister looked on, just as the Sword Saint and Rune Master stood beside her. Incidentally having affairs at the demiplanes, they had seen the innumerable luminous spots darting toward them—and yet, the seemingly mundane sight left those Legendary champions who had become famous for so many years in graciousness and wonder.

“I would never have imagined such a sight ten years ago.”

The Sword Saint said quietly with a hint of complex emotion, instinctively stroking the longsword that he always carried around with him. “I was still playing hide-and-seek with cultists in the West Mountains then—brutes who hid amongst crowds and use civilians as human shields. I thought that my life would be spent playing vigilante and chasing those trash, and yet every single one of them revealed themselves a few years down the line so that we could purge them. But then I had lost my reason to wander around too, and my life was at once peaceful and boring.”

“Soon, we would head toward another galaxy.”

Barnil the Rune Master stroked his own beard and muttered distractedly, “And your hyper-activeness would soon be entertained—there’s definitely a lot of stuff you can cut happily over there.”

“Swords are for stabbing and slashing, not cutting. Don’t drivel if you don’t understand weapons, old fool.” The Sword Saint replied thoughtfully, having no intent for banter with his old friend as he watched the logistics ships moved on. “By the way, weren’t you looking for Ancient Dragons ten years ago? Now that you’ve found one, you’re bored as well… In the end, you’re just like me.”

“At least I won’t dress so shabbily and pretend as if my sacred blade is no different from a rusted sword. Always playing a wolf in sheep’s clothing… how prudish.”

***

Beside them, the Nature’s Magister did not join in the two old men’s bantering, although she was also remembering what she was doing a decade or a century ago.

What was she doing ten years ago?

She had been worried about the future of the elves and spreading a new Nature’s Path, racking her brains while combing ancient texts about where Father Nature had left for, a difficult and perplexing life.

A hundred years ago was much more far away. She was still aiding the Elven Queen to rein in various elven nobles of the Lake of Eternity, bringing the twelve scattered tribes under the Elven Court’s banter, competing depth of Nature’s Path against other druids, a happy but tough life.

Now, however, she did not have to think about anything… She had found the path forward for the elves, and from here on out, whether her race followed it or founded a new path, it was nothing she had to worried about.

The Nature’s Magister could finally consider her own life and her own future.

“Hah. Could I imagine my life now ten years ago?”

Galanoud muttered, and shook her head.

None on the world of Mycroft would have imagined it.

Just a decade ago, Mycroftians were led foolish and ignorant pre-industrial era lives. Farmers had to farm by themselves and labor for a year to barely survive after taxes, while workers such as craft, hunting, and any other profession but lack Extraordinary powers would definitely stay in their cities, staying utterly cautious if they leave town or end up as prey of magical beasts.

At the time, Mycroft was not even a shadow of the former Glorious Era. Even if they were called their successors, they were nothing more than primitives living in ruins.

But now, everything was different.

With that thought, Galanoud turned and looked towards the center of the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds, at the satellite cities where Extraordinary individuals lived and the mortals who served them.

The people of Mycroft lived pleasant and easy lives now, a life they would never imagine ten years ago. Today, everyone is well fed, able to leave their cities and visit any place they wanted as long as they have the gold, even hiring Extraordinary individuals who would take them on a trip to another world.

Farmers did not have to hurry to harvest their crops before each season. By making a loan for specializing enchanted armor used for agriculture, even sixty-year-olds with half their teeth fallen off could finish milling an entire farmstead in a single day, compared to before where an entire family had to work. As for miners who work with perpetual hardship, even having to pay for it their lives, they had now been replaced with cheap and convenient puppets—most laborers who used to venture underground now became technicians who brought puppets that surveyed mineral veins and reinforced passageways.

Apart from certain rural areas where magical technology had yet become commonplace, almost every person posses Spirit Terminals which they could go on the forum and play games during leisurely moments, even training their spirit while entertaining themselves. If confident about their skills, they could challenge high-level dungeons in continental war and be rewarded with buffs in the real world—certainly none would have thought of such a life ten years ago.

It was unimaginable even for every individual who existed in the previous life of a certain warrior, for the change that technological explosion had brought forth to this world truly escapes any conception.

Although the mass production of enchanted armors and puppets had left many unemployed, it did not mean less jobs —the reduction of laboring work prompted popularity in manufacturing and service industries, with most mortals who used to provide hard labor now taking virtual lessons on the Spirit Terminal to pick up an easier trade to make a living.

Apart from that, the concept of nations and race diminished.

With that thought, the Nature’s Magister turned to the two Legendary champions of the West Mountains beside her.

Aside from the nonexistent barriers between elves, dwarves, and humans in the first place, the term ‘four major human settlements’ saw less usage at present. With the decline of the Dark Forests and the culling of monsters within, villages and towns of all fashions began to pop up in previously uninhabited wilderness. It was no longer only the Barnett Highlands that lay between the Northern Empire and the West Mountains. Furthermore, northwest of the southern fortresses of the Empire, a corridor of plains that was once covered in Dark Forest had formed, which soon became a trade route for two major settlements, once again giving life to the south of the Empire after the population dwindled as the dark tides stopped.

While the partnership of the top powers of Mycroft was due to forced cooperation against powerful adversaries, the entire civilization is gradually progressing towards a single alliance—the newly crowned Grand Emperor Romain of the West Mountains was a fine example: after coming to a compromise with the psionic royal families, he successfully assimilated smaller nations and united most of the West Mountains.

If things had unfolded like before, it would have taken the form of a ‘West Mountain Empire’ similar to the Northern Empire. The present era, however, was no longer an age of empires—the Nature Magister herself remembered the glorious face on Grand Emperor Romain when he was brought to the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds, and enlightened about the details of this galaxy and the Multiverse by the many Legends of Mycroft.

He had been in shock and awe, never having imagined the scale of his own civilization’s splendor and the terror of the enemies that may come in the future. Indeed, he never thought of the boundless, eternal darkness that existed beyond the bright world.

However, anyone capable of greatness was certainly not weak cowards. The former Grand Duke Romain was instead thrilled after learning about the truth of the world—he had in fact been rather dispirited after fulfilling his ambitions, but the new revelations reignited his ambitions despite his previous notion that ‘his work was finished’.

The strong were never people with visions bounded to narrow earth. Romain dispatched almost every elite of his newborn kingdom to join the expeditionary, while himself began to train diligently for the day that he would join the grand stage—as a Legendary champion, and not the leader of a region.

***

Meanwhile, inside Fort Pioneer.

Joshua and Nostradamus stood shoulder by shoulder at the fore of the fortress chain—at the edge of their galaxy, they looked out over the horizon beyond.

At the depths of the dark Void was a vague belt of silver light that stretched into the gloom of oblivion. It resembled the energy shroud that the Great Mana Tide carries, but both Joshua and Nostradamus knew well that it was not the Great Mana Tide.

In fact, there was no doubt that it was starlight.

“That’s where the fleet would depart for.”

The old mage stared at the silver belt of light as he spoke softly, “That is the point where the Starherders had entered: a long path composed of many world fragments, and an extended nebula composed of endless Steel Particles. That’s the divide between the dark Void and the galaxy.”

In the belt of light was a bright galaxy, and everything beyond was deathly silent Void.

“Right.”

Joshua stared at the dark Void as well, before closing his eyes.

“That’s the last stop before we leave this galaxy.”