Soul of Searing Steel

"Speak your mind."

A silver-haired lady, standing in the corner of the hall right outside the Royal Treasury Vault, turned around to look at her younger brother, a little confused.

"How will our future be?"

"Even if you asked me…"

Remaining in silence for a brief moment, the black-haired boy then replied her in a calm manner, "I have no idea as well."

That conversation took place before Joshua walked out of the vault.

Pulling his black hair to the back of his head, of course, Ling knew what sort of thought was lingering in the mind of his elder sister. The only thing that could concern the girl would be the fact that their master has become stronger every passing day. As his weapons, the two of them were being used less frequently now. This was, in fact, a very bad thing for the both of them. Even Ling had to admit that. The black-haired boy had long knew that his master, the warrior by the name of Joshua, had reached the point where his limbs were weapons of destruction. He had become so powerful that he could tear through steel with his bare hands and arm-wrestle a demon. Even giant dragons could no longer match his strength. His body is his armor, his fingers his spears, his fist his hammer and his palm, a blade.

This sort of mighty existence would only use a weapon if the weapon happened to be just conveniently lying around where the warrior could simply grab it… perhaps the warrior still gave consideration for the feelings of the siblings. Ling knew that his master cared about their feelings.

However, if a weapon was deemed to 'only exist to be used', then there will be no difference to them than being put aside like a piece of useless junk. The weapon would have lost its meaning to exist. Ying was haunted by that notion as she started to feel frustrated and distressed because her master has been using them less frequently nowadays. Though Ling also shared mutual feelings, he had a completely different point of view of it.

"No matter how the future turns out to be, it won't matter," the black-haired boy said seriously as he looked at his sister's green eyes. "As long as we can follow our Master and stay by his side, is there really a difference of being a divine armament or a human being?" He chuckled and added, "Master has always seen us as human beings. So what I believe is that we should not attach ourselves to only one identity."

"But we are created to fight, to serve our master so that he can do better in battles!" the silver-haired young girl stuck to her own opinion. She lowered her head as she looked at her smooth, fair hands that were glowing with a faint light. After thinking about it for a while, Ying turned around and said softly, "I don't wish for anything. I don't want to think about anything at all. I just want to stay by Master's side. Whether we are being used or being laid aside, we will still be weapons. But… perhaps… you're right…"

The voice of the girl was very soft. Only Ling who was standing very near her could vaguely hear what she said, "As master has always treated us like human beings, and we seem to have developed the will of human beings to wish and to dream. Perhaps… it is not my wish to be used by master at all. I just want to feel like I belong…"

My dear sister... Ling could not help but shake his head.

In the beginning, he was just an abandoned being, cast into a sealed room. However, he was unexpectedly and accidentally selected by his master as his weapon. Hence, he felt inferior to his sister. Although Ying had always appeared normal, she was not always that confident with herself. She had been having troubled thoughts about her master abandoning her; that she would no longer be needed.

"Alright… aren't you being needed all these while? Even now?"

Ling took a step forward and gave his sister and hugged her. He smiled and spoke softly into the ear of the silver-haired girl, "Just like I would handle the territory affairs for Master, you'd be helping Master with the chores back in the mansion. We have always been needed by Master. He couldn't have done all that without us anyway—so there is no need to worry so much about it."

"We can also do a lot more. Divine armaments can be just more than a weapon, you know…"

After Joshua came out of the vault with his prize, everything seemed to have returned to normal.

Joshua and the others walked in the hallway of the palace. It was almost midnight and so they were preparing to rest for the night. They made their way to the estate of the Radcliffe family in the Imperial City. Alphonso had arranged a feast for the arrival of Joshua and the others. However, from the looks of it, it seemed that the dinner was about to become breakfast. As for Brandon and Nostradamus, they still had some unfinished business to attend to. The swordsman went back to the laboratory to tie up some strings while the old mage was bounded to his duty to investigate the scene where the demon revealed itself.

"Do keep Moldova in mind and visit more often, my friend."

As they arrived at the main gate of the Morlaix Palace, they were greeted by the guards with respect. There, Joshua bid farewell with Brandon and Nostradamus. Instantly, the old mage has removed himself from the scene with a teleportation spell. Before the swordsman left, the warrior smiled gently at the swordsman and said, "Vale Dani and your two little daughters miss you more than you can imagine…"

"I understand. But Joshua…"

Brandon nodded his head solemnly. But a brief moment later, he revealed a teasing smile and said, "You're not that young anymore. I believe that now is a good time to find yourself a mistress."

The warrior laughed as he shook his head. When he was ready to respond, Ying was startled by a buzz at her waist. She picked up the communication device and was a little surprised to receive a transmission at such a late hour. "Who would be calling at this ungodly hour?"

The communication device was a rectangular metallic device engraved with a two-way communication circle. This device was a custom-made device that the warrior requested the professors in the Winter Fort to build. The magic-enhanced device allowed long-distance communication without any delay. However, though the coverage of the device was vast, the device was limited to only two points of communication terminals. Joshua would usually rely on this device to keep in touch with the people back in his territory.

It was already midnight by then. Theoretically speaking, if it was not some big issue, the people back in his territory would not have called him.

"Pass it to me."

After taking the communication device from Ying, Joshua knitted his brows as he activated the device to accept the call from the other end of the communication circle.

Brandon and the two divine armaments were staring at Joshua as they listened to the warrior talking to the person on the other side of the communication circle. After introducing themselves to each other through the communication device, they went straight to the main point. Initially, Joshua seemed calm however, as time passed, his expression turned to shock and then rage. After that, he calmed himself down.

"Alright, I am well aware of the situation now. Thank you very much for informing me, Roland. You have nothing to worry about, my friend… you don't have to blame yourself."

"It's okay. I'll come back and deal with this. No trouble at all. The celebration banquet will not end in a day. Furthermore, it doesn't matter if I didn't attend. I have met the Emperor."

"I understand. Just stabilize the situation first and get the atmosphere sorted out. I will be there right away."

After having a serious discussion with Roland, the warrior switched off the communication device. His face remained expressionless.

"What happened, my friend?"

Brandon was looking at the warrior's face—his face seemed to have blackened. He could not help but to feel a little worried. He then asked the warrior, "Did something bad happen?"

He has roughly heard about what was happening in the territory; there were some serious issues that required Joshua's immediate attention. For that, the warrior was required to return to the territory as soon as he could.

"It's nothing serious, Brandon."

When the communication device was returned to Ying, Joshua sneered. "My mount has wandered off and caused some trouble."

My instructions were clear. I told Black to look after the teleportation circle and don't wander off. It still went over to the other side of the dimensional passage! Well done, Black! You have gone against my orders.

Having thought that, his face darkened even more. "I will go back and teach that horse a lesson!"

*****

Illgner Continent, the next afternoon.

Under the guidance of Professor Nielson, Black and a fully armed army have arrived at the largest coastal port of Babel Province, Sapphire Port.

Sapphire Port was a large port that belonged to the Bay Confederation which was located on the northeast coast. It was strategically located that it was made a port in the deep waters by nature. After many years of renovations, the cargo handling capacity of Sapphire Port has become very large. Other than that, Sapphire Port also had amazingly mesmerizing views. The sea water was calm throughout the entire year. The sunlight that shone upon the surface of the sea made the sea dazzle like sapphires do. That was how the place got its name.

The reason they took Black—or perhaps the word 'escort' would be more suitable to describe how they were bringing Black to the port, was because the capital city of the Babel Province could not provide for this huge creature enough food and its other needs. As the eruption of Mount Sigma just happened recently, hundreds and thousands of refugees have wandered to many cities across the continent of Illgner. Naturally, most of the refugees had arrived at the capital city.

With the prosperous nation of the Bay Confederation growing stronger every single day, there should not be any problem for the capital city to provide food, clothing and shelter for the refugees. There was even room to hold a carnival to ease up the gloomy atmosphere of the situation after the calamities that had happened. However, the circumstances seem to differ with the existence of a large dragon. Even though Black was behaving exceptionally friendly to the elves, allowing Black to wander around the place would definitely scare off the elves who were faint of heart. Not to mention that the city was not built to generate resources and so, would not be able to provide the amount of food and other supplies that a dragon required. According to the judgments made by the researchers, the half-draconic creature was an aquatic species. Although it could live in lava or hot springs, seawater was obviously more suitable than land.

There were also a large amount of food source in the sea. With that option, the pressure to provide food and other supplies decreased by a notch. Even if Black was not the hunting type, it would be much more convenient for the people at the port to transport food and other supplies than on land.

On the way to Sapphire Port, Professor Nielson sat on top of one of the armored vehicle. He has yet to give up on trying to communicate with Black. He even asked his students to bring forth the information and data kept many years ago on the language spoken by the people on the plains. He enunciated his words carefully in order to get Black to understand. Yet, it remained doubtful that Black could actually understand the language as it seemed to be unfocused. Perhaps it was because Black could feel a chill coursing down its spine as if something terrifying was nearby. Ever since Black has awoken its Elder Dragon's bloodline, it seldom sensed this sort of feeling anymore. So what exactly was going on?

It felt uneasy at its core. Even though the old elf was trying to make his best effort, Black was not really listening to the old elf. The sort of chill that was currently creeping down his spine was so disturbing that its limbs felt weak.

As the white-haired old elf spoke to the draconic horse, the escort party has finally arrived at the hill, on the outskirts of Sapphire Port. From there, one could see the mesmerizing sight of the port from a distance. Everyone's jaw dropped as they were shocked by the scene before them—the entire sea was red.

Down at the harbor, a riot has broken out. Chaos was everywhere. There was no sign suggesting that the incident has taken place earlier or that it has just broke out. Under the afternoon sun, the water of Sapphire Sea, which was initially blue and beautiful, was turning cloudy red. Black mud and mulch, which was resting at the bottom of the sea, was now washed up by an inexplicable force, causing the entire region within ten kilometers radius to be tainted with a dark red color.

As the seawater became murkier, a strange smell floated over. The smell was familiar to all—the smell was like sulphur mixed with the stench of dead fishes that they could usually sniff from the port city. The scent was similar to…

"Roar!" Black suddenly reacted to the smell violently. It immediately turned its head around and looked at Professor Nielson. The draconic horse roared at the sky several times as if it was trying to say something. But the old elf did not seem to understand a single thing that Black was trying to say. Everyone was starting to get anxious when the old elf seemed to have realized something.

"The smell is very similar to the smell on the volcanic dragon… sulphur, lava, volcano… Volcano?!"

The old elf instantly turned around and looked towards the source in the distance that was turning the sea red. Fishes were floating on the surface. With a closer look, the area where the sea was red, was boiling. Professor Nielson assumed the worst.

"Is this a sign? That the underwater volcano is going to erupt?"