Soul of Searing Steel

Panda Novel

When Socrasson woke and rose from the chaos and pulled his unconscious apprentice out of the debris, the battle on the Mycroft Continent was over for the time being.

In that very moment, the dense pine forest had been completely swept away by the shockwaves from the two Supreme champion’s battle. Against majestic forces that split peaks and stop rivers, the countless sturdy ancient trees that were centuries or even millennia old were no better than a fragile green foxtail.

That was true for a Gold-tier knight.

Slapping his apprentice’s face to ensure that he had merely fainted temporarily and not dead, Socrasson sighed. “Well, it’s fine to be unconcious.”

At least there’s no need for him to worry over the current situation.

The old adventurer then proceeded to ensure that there were not absent parts of his own body. Finally, hugely relieved, he turned around cautiously, studying the unfrozen riverbanks of the Magel carefully.

–There wasn’t any sound of a fight after I fainted. Perhaps those two Supreme champions have left?

Such a though crossed Socrasson’s mind, before he gaped helplessly when he saw the scene before him.

Starting from the Great Ajax Mountains, Magel’s Unfrozen River cascades and extends over thousands of miles majestically, and was vast enough to allow tens of giant ships sail adjacent to each other. It was the lifeblood of the four Northern Territories, the source of affluence for Moldova.

Nevertheless, the broad waterway was cut off by a gigantic crater at the moment, the downstream was already dried off. The crater itself had a radius of over a thousand meters, as if a small perfectly shaped amber circle was insert into the land, with the upstream cascading ragingly within and filling it gradually.

Socrasson was not left baffled, however—this was the repercussions of a full-powered Supreme-tier battle. The old knight could be counted as a man who had seen such carnage after following a Supreme champion to hunt violent dragons during bygone days. The battle between man and dragon had directly crumbled multiple mountains, turning the elevated topography into a wasteland.

Still, what really surprised the elderly but experienced adventurer was that huge sphere that was several meters tall standing beside the riverbank. It was entirely black but utterly smooth without half a circuit or protrusion, emitting tremendous lifeforce that was at once invigorating and irresistibly endearing.

Socrasson could not identify the object for the life of him, but a subconscious sense of foreboding told him that though it looked extraordinarily friendly, it was extremely hazardous in reality!

Turning his gaze, the knight suddenly that noticed that a large thing was moving in the forest nearby. In the next moment, a giant beast that was thirty meters tall appeared before him.

It was a Silver-pinnacle mammoth. Like Socrasson, it had been hiding within the woods, afraid of coming out while the two Supreme champions did battle. Now, it was tethered by the huge lifeforce originating from the black sphere, and approached it by every step.

Danger!

Without knowing, Socrasson had wanted to cry out to warn the behemoth that had grander lifeforce than he did. It was until it was at the tip of his tongue that the knight remembered—daemons did not know the common tongue, and it was unnecessary to reveal his own whereabouts to a beast. Therefore, he quickly closed his mouth and watched as the scene unfolded.

Naturally, the mammoth did not know it was being observed. It strode forward at a steady pace towards the black sphere—but as it reached two hundred meters away from the ball and stopped to observe its surroundings, a huge and vicious tentacle filled with barbed suckers reached out and wrapped around the behemoth’s body!

“Raaawr!!!”

The mammoth quickly cried out in an enraged bellow, and that was all it did—the tentacled had already mustered its strength and twisted the entire beast into a meat puddle. The innumerable suckers over the tentacle then spread open, each revealing mouthparts similar to lamprey and hurriedly consumed the behemoth’s flesh, devouring it in its entirety and leaving neither skin nor bone.

“Gulp.” Socrasson swallowed forcefully, an urge to run surging within his heart. Even if he was completely ignorant of what the sphere was, the knight knew that the object definitely had something to do with that Supreme-tier who was affiliated with the Cult of Pestilence.

Either way, such a dangerous thing could not be handled by him alone—he needed to leave quickly and notify his commander as well as the other factions to have everyone come up with a solution!

As soon as Socrasson picked up his apprentice and prepared to flee, two blinding radiance suddenly flashed over the horizon.

The Gold-tier knight squinted towards the sky. The two dots—silver and black-gold respectively—were dragging along a belt of light, plummeting like a roaring fallen star. Before Socrasson could wrap his head around yet another unknown phenomenon, it had dropped with a velocity that surpasses sound itself and exceeding human reflexes from the blue yonder, streaking towards the black ball!

A multitude of black tentacles rose from the sphere as if intent on flooring the two dots, but it was useless. Both silver and black-gold radiance were unstoppable and invincible—the tentacles that could slaughter a mammoth in seconds was as meek and funny as hairs for them. In an instant, a huge portion of the appendages were cut, and the dots broke through easily.

Then, the latent sound waves only struck the remains of the forest more than ten seconds after the dots swept into the black sphere and vanished. The poor knight apprentice who lay on the far was jolted awake by the plummeting impact, before being knocked out again. Socrasson’s own Gold-tier physicality withstood the tremor, but he became puzzled and confused.

“What… was that?”

With his ability, he could not tell what was within the black sphere, and was unaware of the terrible battle going on in the outer reaches of this world.

At the same time, in the world of plagues.

Joshua held the greatsword and greataxe in his hand. The silver and black-gold radiances broke through the realm’s barriers, and arrived in the subspace through the passageway Herlas left behind.

“Master, this is the first time you’ve summoned me on your own volition!”

A lively girl’s voice rang from within the silver sword. It seemed moved to tears even as it spoke with a heavy emphasis, “The first time!”

As for the black greataxe, there too was a youth’s rather uncalm voice. “To think that there’s still a day I’d be used again…”

“Thanks for your trouble of rushing here.”

The warrior only smiled slightly towards the stirred young boy and girl.

As Joshua held on to the two divine armaments, his sheer presence gradually grew to a threshold that far surpasses most Supreme individuals. The radiance over the greatsword and greataxe too became brighter as they assimilated and were eventually with the red-black light, until the end, Joshua himself became a dim sun that stood upon the land!

Divine armaments were formidable weaponry crafted from the bones of Radcliffe family members. Although they were sentient, they ultimately were part of the wielder’s body. Therefore, carrying the divine armaments were equivalent to mending something lacking.

Joshua, now in true perfect form looked up towards the expressionless Herlas, spreading blazing life radiation akin to the sun’s surface with every breath the warrior took. Within hundreds of meters, the world of plagues was vaporizing, leaving only wisps of smoke even as the terrifying and scorching air current billowed towards the edge of the world, with every sprout and fungi withering in its wake.

“So you’ve got your weapon,” The high priest of the cult muttered softly at the sight. “The reputation of your presence is fully justified.”

As cold and fiery gazes met each other in the void, the battle resumes.

In the very next moment, a gale suddenly struck, engulfing the subspace in every direction like a sound of thunder. The warrior’s figure vanished immediately, leaving behind a corridor of vacuum with ripples that spread everywhere. And then, a cold, sharp and silvery glint of a blade closed down the distance of a thousand meters and bypassed every obstacle, slashing down towards Herlas!

With a focus of his gaze, the cultist high priest could see the greatsword that came swinging down on him, the terrifying force raising cyclones and the presence of tidal waves, as if it could easily split mountains in half.

Still, the cultist high priest was no weakling. He had gone through countless battles and faced off against different Supreme champions. Against the warrior’s heavy greatsword strike, Herlas opted to dodge away swiftly, before forming a plain magical staff in his hand by gathering the black fog in the air.

In the end, Herlas’s chief occupation was a priest—not one of pure melee combat. He had no way of saving his strength against Joshua in the warrior’s current state. Tightening his grip over his own makeshift weapon, complex runes floated over the plain staff in an instant. Corrupted magic formations spread with the staff at the center, locking on to the warrior.

Boom!

There was just a distance of several meters between Herlas and Joshua right then. Powerful lifeforce that was fused with corrupted divine spells originating from the God of Pestilence gathered over the staff, turning into a destroyer beam the size of a fist that could penetrate all things, shooting straight towards the warrior’s chest.

None could dodge within such a short distance!

And yet, Joshua did not even dodge. He merely turned his chest sideways so that the beam missed his heart, allowing the fully compressed and harrowing impact tear through his right chest, pulverizing half his ribs. Enduring the strike, Joshua went on the counter forcefully and flew towards Herlas.

The air exploded and thunder cracked as the black-gold axe swung out in a dimly flashing diagonal cut. The blade of the axe that undulated rapidly could cut through the sturdy shells of Aragami even before it was enhanced—now, as a sacred item, its destructive force had multiplied exponentially. He cut through the hip of the cultist high priest, briskly splitting the waist while shattering vertebrae and hip bone—as if a hot knife cutting through butter.

But if Joshua did not fear pain, would Herlas be some feeble being? Even as the greataxe split his backbone, the high priest brandished his staff. In an instant, an energy blade gushed urgently and materialized over the staff that looked nothing more than a plain gray stick, the pale-white vanquishing sword of light stabbing towards the warrior’s cranium without a moment’s hesitation!

Cutting through air, the light blade reached its target in moments without half a sound. For most beings, the brain was the most vital weak point—even more important than the heart.

Destroying the brain was therefore a must.

According to Herlas’s observation, the two energy nodes that shone most brilliantly within Joshua’s body were exactly his brain and heart. Those nodes were a stark contrast to typical flesh and organs—no matter how grand the lifeforce, the nodes could not be regenerated in an instant.

Breaking the two nodes was hence the key to victory.

As the blade of light touched forehead, broke skin and was about to mince through the warrior’s brain, Joshua suddenly bellowed in rage.

Boom!

As the tremendous waves from the outlandish sound surged, red-black lifeforce boiled intensely and covered the warrior’s entire body in blood-red armor. It was so phantasmal it appeared that it would vanish anytime, but it firmly held back the blade that was filled with the cruel intent to kill, holding it tightly at the center of his forehead!

In the blink of an eye, Joshua remained impassive even as he stood before death’ door. His arms flowed with streaks of red-black energy circuits, and his lifeforce that was mixed with substantial aura violently urged on his entire body’s strength.

Then, both greatsword and greataxe moved, the silver and black-gold radiance expanding viciously, swinging towards Herlas!

The air was immediately torn apart, cutting out a plain of vacuum within hundreds of meters. Countless towering fungal pillars were destroyed by the shockwaves from the divine armaments, creating lightning and bolts that flashed and swirled, the harrowing killing intent stopping the wings of every flying insect and dropping them to the ground, while the others slipped back into their hives and shuddered!

Herlas was completely slashed into ashes that spread as far as the eye could see—the blazing cut incinerating all of his flesh.

Every single move of close-range fights between Supreme champions were such stunning spectacles indeed. In the hundredth of a second, a hole was blown into the warrior’s chest and his brain almost minced, while Herlas lost both feet and was even reduced to ashes.

Even so, Joshua had no intention of letting up. He frowned and retreated in a hurry to heal his own wounds. The warrior was fully aware that his opponent would not die so easily.

And after that very instant, a voice that was slightly shocked echoed throughout the world of plagues.

“To think that you’ve killed me once already.”

Along with the voice, Herlas’s body that had been cut into ashes started to regenerate rapidly within the layers of surging black fog. As if turning back time, multitudinous dust and atoms reconstructed the high priest’s body in the thousandth of a second.

Completely recovered, Herlas stood within the void and flicked his wrist, shaking his head.

“I’m different from you, Joshua. I don’t have energy nodes—meaning that I don’t have any weakness. Even if you tear me into ashes, you will never kill me before my lifeforce is exhausted.”

However, Herlas found that his words did not deal a blow to Joshua.

Instead, he… was smiling?

“Unlimited rebirth? As expected of Life Incarnate, it does fit your title. Although…”

Inhaling deeply, Joshua gripped the weapon in his hand. The Azurite was working wildly in his chest, spreading ceaseless lifeforce into his bones, muscles and organs, the divine circuits that represent combat and slaughter spreading bit by bit.

Even if the essence was not the same, his rich lifeforce would never allow him to be regenerate endlessly like Herlas.

However, it was plenty enough for him to kill his enemies again and again.

And that was why a crazy smile curled up over the corners of the warrior’s mouth.

What a coincidence.

Me too.

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