Soul of Searing Steel

Panda Novel

“This is the world of the Dark Abyss that is hidden behind Anos Abyss?”

Robzek recovered faster than anyone. He and Roland were the ones who summoned the gigantic light wheels formed from holy light in aiding the ark to crash-land on the ground. The exhaustion of that amount of power was easy for him to handle. However, the difficult part was the concentration and the control of his power.

Just like the warrior, he looked carefully around him. Obviously, he had also caught a glimpse of the entire island while they were still in the sky before they landed. So, he sighed, “I have never seen this kind of Dark Abyss before.”

“Indeed. It looks very different.”

Joshua nodded. He had also been to the Dark Abyss many times in his pre-existence. The places he went to in the Dark Abyss looked completely different from this one.

On the ordinary terrains of the Dark Abyss, they looked almost the same as the normal worlds. However, the air in the Dark Abyss was filled with decay and destruction. Many demons survived by slaughtering each other. Other than some special environments that might occasionally appear in the Dark Abyss, there was nothing much about it. The only thing difference between the Dark Abyss and other normal worlds were the living things and the environment.

However, in this place… he could sense a strange presence. Unlike the Dark Abyss and Chaos, which felt pure and special.

No matter what Robzek and the warrior thought, the others in the ark had also recovered.

Suddenly, a thunderous rumbling echoed with the trembling of the ground beneath their feet. So powerful that even the light that was released by the blood moon appeared to be flickering.

Everyone, including Joshua, was instantly distracted by the sound. Everyone looked into the distance. Soon, they noticed that the sound came from beneath the ground.

The sound continued, cracking the ground, as something seemed to be climbing out from the ground. Everyone immediately prepared themselves for a battle. They were ready to face whatever enemy that was going to appear anytime now.

But everything was different from what they imagined it to be–nothing was breaking out of the ground. Instead, the gigantic island in the sky trembled.

As the rumbling continued, the island in the sky began moving out from its original position. It was rising higher into the sky—straight towards the dark red, blood moon.

The floating island was extremely huge. Its diameter could reach up to a few hundred kilometers. It seemed to be pushed by some sort of force, approaching the blood moon like a flying meteor. In less than half a minute, the entire island had already risen over a few thousand meters higher into the sky.

Its moving speed had exceeded a hundred meters per second. In fact, it was moving at a speed that was close to the speed of sound. The ferocious wind pressure was pressing down on the floating island from top to bottom. Right at the bottom of the canyon, violent winds gathered. No one had the time to think besides focusing on resisting the incoming shockwave that was about to hit them. Funa had even transformed into her draconic form. She squatted down to the ground as she attempted to protect Hill, who was obviously weaker than most of the people there. She also shielded the wreckage of the ark to prevent the remaining parts from being blown away by the incoming impact.

“What’s the situation now?” The young elf, who just regained consciousness, inhaled and freaked out a little, “Where are we now?”

“The Dark Abyss.” The blond holy knight answered. He knew that Hill was freaking out. A simple answer was enough to calm him down. “We are currently being pulled towards that red moon, I suppose. God knows… That’s the situation now.”

The distance between the red moon and the floating island was unexpectedly short. While everyone was walking to each other, the floating island was already approaching the surface of the blood moon. It turned 180 degrees and slowly landed on the blood moon. Because of the gravity on the moon, everyone stood on the platform without falling into the void.

Joshua frowned and looked at Robzek and Robzek looked back at the same time. The warrior then flew into the air and leaped out of the great canyon to look at the blood moon from high above.

The warrior saw an ocean of black and red.

There was no end to the ocean. There were no craters, no pits, no continent and no mountains on the blood moon. Nor was there even a single living being. Only filth filled the place as if contaminated blood gathered here and formed into a sea of black and red water. The sea released a shady light that illuminated some things on the ground.

After the black rock island landed on the blood moon, ripples began to spread across the surface of the blood sea. It slowly sunk into the water as if the blood sea was devouring it. Soon, three sources of holy lights bound together to pull the gigantic ark up from the island that was about to be devoured by the blood sea. The wrecked ark was placed onto the surface of the red sea.

The ark had lost most of its ability to float. A layer of faint light barrier covered the entire ark, preventing the presence of the Dark Abyss from affecting its internal parts.

“What the hell is going now?”

Everyone looked towards the thunderous rumble. Far away in the red sea of blood, viscous waves rolled as if something gigantic was moving underneath the surface of the blood water. It seemed that it was about to break the surface of the sea. Ten seconds later, an enormous Chaos rune appeared from the black and red sea water and floated upward.

That rune was so huge that everyone could see every detail on it—the rune was formed from the bloody sea water and special crystal lines. There were foul presences flowing across the lines, constantly flowing and changing. However, it also gave people the strange sense that it was actually still.

As it rose, the rune began to fade as if it was moving into another dimension in another world. No one could sit and do nothing as it faded—Joshua and Robzek were not stupid. They instantly recalled the Chaos runes that suddenly appeared in the sky above the Anos Abyss one after another a while ago. They had connected it to the current rune that just appeared from the blood sea and they immediately knew where all those Chaos runes came from.

There was something using the materials in the world of the Dark Abyss to create the giant Chaos runes and projecting them in the Mycroft Continent, turning it into a world like the Dark Abyss.

The Ocean Bladed Dragon, which had transformed into her primary form, instantly launched her attack. A lightning flashed across Funa’s green draconic eyes. With lightning magic energy gathering onto the top of her horn, a greenish blue ball of lightning appeared on the tip of her draconic horn. Layers of electrical energy moved along the layers of magnetic fields. The greenish-blue ball of lightning was charged to its maximum power and was shot out at a high speed. Instantly, the ball of lightning struck the Chaos rune.

That was the ultimate skill of the Ocean Bladed Dragon. If the ball of lightning hit the target, even an entire mountain would crumble. That was the power of the pinnacle of Gold-tier, it could instantly wipe out a small-scale city with its impact that was enough to create a tsunami.

However, that was if the attack hit the target.

Just a millisecond before the ball of lightning hit the Chaos rune, a layer of translucent shield with grid-like pattern suddenly emerged. The shield looked indestructible when it resisted the incoming of the destructive ball of lightning. A few seconds later, the lightning energy dispersed into hundreds of cyan plasma balls, releasing an electrical discharge into the atmosphere.

The Chaos rune had also vanished without a trace. It seemed to have moved to the other world. Because of that, holy light and the red combat aura struck through nothing but thin air. In other words, they missed.

“It’s truly unexpected that you people can actually make it here into this realm.”

Right after the rune vanished, an old and weak voice suddenly echoed in the Dark Abyss and across the blood sea. “The arrangements that I prepared in the outer realm seem to have failed in stopping you people from getting in. This is admirable.”

The voice spoke in the language of the dragon. The tone and the pronunciation were complex and special. The human vocal organs would never be able to speak in that tone. However, everyone was able to understand every single word. That voice was not only echoing across the material world but in the spiritual world as well.

“Sea monsters, the huge waves, the storms.”

The voice spoke with vague emotions. It sounded cold. “Evil dragon, daemons, the great whirlpool.”

“An expedition party sent forth by the Church of the Seven Gods is actually capable of breaking through so many obstacles. You deserve the title of the most powerful and influential party across the great continent indeed…”

“It is stalling for time.”

Joshua did not bother about what the voice said. He interrupted with his own thought. He had already noticed another floating island that was swiftly approaching the blood moon. The warrior spoke coldly, “That should be the thirteenth rune. The ritual is already half completed. We need to find the true form of our enemy as soon as we can!”

Although the current situation was confusing, stopping the ritual was the most important task they had to do. Destroying the abyssal rift came second now. Everyone who was present there was an elite. After being reminded by Joshua, they immediately searched through the blood sea to find their target.

Funa seemed frustrated and was sulking. She sneered at the voice and said, “That method of stalling time is old, no one uses it anymore!”

The energy waves of nature divine spells, holy light, and the draconic language detector spells began to spread across the blood sea. Every single inch was scouted by the meticulous scouting spells over and over again. They did not want to miss out anything.

However, nothing was found other than the affected blood sea. None of them was even able to trace the source of the voice.

However, Saya was the only one who had found something. She could see through the energy veins that were invisible to most of the people. She could even see through people’s emotions and souls, and also other unique things. Saya furrowed her eyebrows as she seemed to have grasped the tail of the enemy through a piece of information and that cold and indifferent voice.

She immediately lifted her hand and pointed at the sky above the blood sea. Her finger pointed straight into the void, “Joshua, Robzek, it’s over there! It’s hiding in the wrecked dimensional rift!”

Then, she immediately used telepathy to inform the two Supreme-tier champions about what she found.

The expedition party sent by the Church of the Seven Gods had high power level. There was an Ocean Druid and an Ocean Bladed Dragon that were powerful at the sea, a great nun who could scout and two powerful holy knights who excelled in both offense and defense. A party like that could handle most of the special Legendary events. With the warrior’s presence, the spear that was used for offense purposes had just become a lot sharper now.

“Alright!”

After receiving the information from the nun, the warrior bent his knees down a little as he floated in the air, ready to take a leap. Soon, a strong momentum exploded beneath his feet.

Boom! Boom!

With his own combat aura as a stepping board, the warrior launched himself forward like a cannonball and instantly vanished from sight. The only thing that was left visible to everyone was a trail of long white airflow. The warrior approached the spot that Saya pointed at. The thin air in the plane of the sky above the Dark Abyss was not too much of a resistance to the warrior. Hence, the sound of an explosion was only heard when he broke through the air.

In the face of an invisible enemy, hidden in the dimensional rift, the warrior did not intend to make any unnecessary movements. He already knew which style and methods to use against that sort of enemy as he adjusted his combat aura, allowing the life force and the ionized energy on the outside to resonate. Then he focused the flow of the resonated energy to his hand and lifted his iron fist that was charged with the blazing black and red flame and aimed at the void. Without hesitating, he threw his fist with all his might.

Boom! Crack!

That fist carried a force so powerful that ripples spread from the impact point of the punch in the Dark Abyss with a cracking sound. Black lines spread and the dimension began to crumble.

—The dimension in this place is unexpectedly fragile!

That thought flashed across his mind. After that, the warrior could see that the true form of the existence because the dimensional cracks were crumbling, giving away its location to the warrior.

It was a daemon. It possessed a body that looked like a dragon. Its body was covered in black crystal exoskeleton. The shards of crystal substance across its body appeared sharp just like dragon scales stacked on top of each other. They covered and protected its vital spots from attacks. Its head was covered by a layer of pale white bone material that looked shell. Its draconic eyes gleamed with gray light.

The black crystal tail resembled a centipede. It formed a long tail with many segments. The dark crystals overflowed with Chaos energy and released the aura of a Supreme-tier being.

However, Joshua did not bother. He grabbed the opportunity and struck another impactful punch into the enemy’s head the moment the dimension was shattered.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

In the middle of the sky, another thunderous sound exploded. Being struck in the face by a powerful punch, the giant dragon’s entire body spun over and fell towards the blood sea like a falling star.

Before it reached the blood sea, two beams of holy light—one gray and the other silver, rose into the air from the blood sea. Robzek and Roland brought themselves into the air. The two of them gathered their holy lights around their hands and summoned their cross warhammer. They grabbed tightly onto their own weapons and aimed their weapons at the crystal dragon. Without mercy, the two holy knights struck their weapons straight at the enemy from below.

At a crucial time like that, no one cared if it was a fair fight or not anymore. With a burst of a silver wave, the crystal dragon was once again smacked back into the air. The heavy hammer infused with holy strength shattered its exoskeleton. Two deeply dented mark of hammer strikes appeared right on top of the surface of the bone as countless web-like cracks were spreading into the surface of the exoskeleton from the two dented marks.

The body of the crystalline dragon was enormous. Without counting its tail, its body would be at least sixty meters tall. Theoretically speaking, a gigantic daemon like this one would definitely not get smacked up and down like a tennis ball or a fly by the warrior and the two holy knights. However, the presence of the combat aura and holy lights had completely changed the circumstances of the battle. Those energy and power were extraordinary and could shift into any shape. They were not limited to only ordinary ‘strength’. They could also condense into small particles or they could spread like a fish net.

After that, it was Saya and Funa’s turn to launch their combined attacks. Black had also transformed herself back to her draconic form. She launched her Dragon Breath with the two other ladies who were launching their combined attacks. The combined attack of the three elements—holy light, the thunder, and the flame struck the crystal dragon’s face. The powerful energy flow even penetrated through its body.

After being bombarded with so many ferocious attacks, the crystal dragon exploded right in the air. Crystal shards rained down as if the battle was over. However, no one let their guard down just yet. They could not sense their enemy’s ‘death’. It was almost impossible that a Supreme-tier daemon was defeated so easily. Even an imbecile who thinks with his knee would not believe that.

And they were right. The crystal dragon, which was attacked by combos of attacks, was not dead yet. The shards of shattered crystals came back alive and begun gathering themselves. Soon, a dragon head was formed. At the same time, a heavy but weak voice echoed, “You people are strong. You have destroyed 9.25 percent of my body with one round of your combined attacks.”

It took only a short while to reform its body. It stayed at a distance from everyone for a while. Even Joshua could not get to it in time and he could only listen to the voice. “If the circumstance is unchanged, I would be completely destroyed by all of you before I could even complete the ritual.”

After its body had completely reassembled itself, the crystal dragon seemed a little smaller than it was before. The gray light lit up in both of its draconic eyes. “One of my few comrades was also a Supreme-tier giant dragon. It should have died in your hands earlier. Even though my strength stronger than its strength, I am not powerful enough to face all of you at once.”

“So.”

As the warrior and holy knights flew towards it, the dragon spoke coldly, “Please die here. All of you.”

Suddenly, an excruciating pain was felt in everyone’s head. Everyone lost their concentration, even the warrior was no longer capable of maintaining both his speed and Combat Aura around his body. He simply could not attack anymore.

Splash!

The warrior fell into the red sea. Both of his legs were stuck in the viscous sea of blood. Whatever that was left of his combat aura was able to stop the liquid from getting onto his skin.

However, the thing that kept Joshua doubtful was the fact that the bloody water did not stink. It did not even smell like salty sea water. Instead, it had a strange, fragrant scent.

However, it was not the time or place to bother about these sort of things.

The violent excruciating pain flowed through the entire body. The source of the pain came from the head. The warrior pressed his forehead with one of his hands and could vaguely feel that there was something squirming around in his head as if that something was feeding on his brain and his nerve. At the same time, that something was also releasing a great dose of numbing neurotoxin.

The warrior was very familiar with that type of toxin. It had a certain stimulant effect and could also isolate pain. It was the same type of toxin he found in the gigantic mammoth that he slew about two years ago back in the Dark Forest Fortress.

‘That is the toxin that creatures of the Dark Abyssal Sea possess. But when… when did the toxin…’  As his ability to think rapidly faded away, his neck began to feel stiff. Everything before his eyes was blurry and surreal. Joshua could only concentrate on moving his combat aura up to his head in an attempt to suppress the creature that felt like it was from the Dark Abyssal Sea—the effect seemed to be immediate. The intense pain and the illusion instantly faded away, leaving only a vague numbness on his head. However, he was not able to launch his attack. He could only stay still for now.

Everyone experienced the same. Patterns of holy light appeared on the Robzek, Roland, and Saya’s foreheads. Perhaps they had already activated their divine spells calmly and seriously to suppress the strange creatures in their heads.

However, Funa, Hill, and Black did not possess any means that they could use to suppress the alien creature in their heads. They were also weaker so they were helplessly in pain. Because of the excruciating pain and the illusions in their heads, they fainted in the blood sea as their bodies were floating on the waves.

Fortunately, the density of the blood sea was very high and the buoyancy of the blood sea was sufficient to keep all of them afloat. Otherwise, they would have sunken to the bottom of the sea and drown.

“… What is happening?”

This time, it was Joshua and the others’ turn to stall some time. The warrior furrowed his eyebrows as he used his combat aura to suppress the wiggling creature in his head. Then he asked the crystal dragon with a deep voice, “When did these sick toys get the chance to infest our heads?”

The dragon head that was formed from all those shady dark crystals did not change at all. The crystal dragon only looked at the warrior and the others who were stuck and could not approach the dragon because of what happened just now. Its eyes did not carry even the slightest emotion. It was not sad or joyful, nor was it agitated or enraged. It simply cast its spells and went back into the dimensional rift to continue its ritual.

Beneath the blood moon, a gigantic floating island was dragged to the surface of the blood sea. The island was devoured by the blood sea as the sea absorbed all the Dark Abyssal materials and substances. Right after that, a gigantic rune emerged on the surface of the blood sea and was slowly projected to the world on the other side of the dimensional rift.

At that moment, soft and gentle footsteps echoed from the cabin of the Epoch. It was so soft that it was almost silent. However, the footsteps were so clear to the ears of the four champions at the battlefield. Even though they were distributing a substantial amount of their power to suppress the parasitic creatures in their heads, their senses were still extraordinarily strong.

Everyone turned their heads to look at the cabin on the ark.

Saya exclaimed, “Nono?!”

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