Soul of Searing Steel

The shock wave formed by magic energy appeared like a coating of light, covering the entire suburbs and the capital city of the province. Where the high concentrations of magic elements could suffocate people, it also caused extraordinary creature such as Black to feel much more refreshed and their spirits, lifted.

By the hill, located by the outskirts, the draconic horse and the holy knight stood right on top of the wreckage of a stone giant.

"I'll go and take a look at the situation first. You will follow me afterward."

Looking at the direction where the explosion of the Thunderous Mountain happened, Roland thought about it before he instructed Black. He slowly levitated into the air as his face appeared deadly serious, "Oh yeah, can you sense the status of your master? He should still be alive now, isn't he?"

—Naturally, my master would not die so easily.

The draconic horse nodded slightly. Although it seemed worried, it did not panic. Black could feel the presence of its master. Even though Joshua is not in a great state at the moment, he is definitely not dead yet.

After seeing Black responding to him positively, the holy knight did not hesitate at all. He surged with Holy Light as he flew towards the direction of the explosion.

The impact of the magic energy so great that the radiation caused malfunctions to the observation abilities of all golems. Most of the Rock Puppets were stagnated and some of them went around in circles. As the holy knight went through the area, he was not intercepted by any sort of obstacles. It was smooth sailing all the way to the center of the explosion, a huge pit on the border of the land.

The intense magic reaction has vaporized most of the rocks. So the previous explosion did not set off much dust into the air. And because of that, Roland is able to immediately find his target.

Ying and Ling have once again shifted themselves back to their humanoid form. The both of them were carrying Joshua who seemed to be almost passed out.

The warrior was in a pretty bad state. Even though his body appeared to be intact and there were not many obvious wounds, a large surface area of his skin was burned. There were even signs that his skin and his muscle tissues had melted. The magic radiation seemed to have affected him badly.

Seeing the situation from afar, the holy knight sped up towards the two divine armaments and descended right next to them. Then he quickly walked up to the Ying and Ling as he spoke to the two of them in a calm manner, "Let me have a look at him."

"Alright, Mr. Roland."

Upon seeing the arrival of the holy knight, Ying and Ling let out a breath of relief. They are definitely not going to reject the offer.

As the two of them were so much shorter than Joshua, they dragged the warrior as they walked. They laid the body of the unconscious warrior on a flat stone surface to allow the holy knight to observe the warrior's state.

"The impact of the explosion coming from the energy core of the gigantic golem is far beyond our imagination. No one could have withstood the full impact of that sort of explosion."

As Roland inspected the warrior, Ling exhaled. He looked a little terrified as he spoke, "I've never seen nor heard about such a powerful core. Our world does not even have an enchanted puppet that is as tall as a mountain."

Ying, who was just standing beside Ling, remained silent. She bit her lip as she stared at Joshua who was currently unconscious. Her eyes were filled with worry. The girl held on to the hand of the warrior, unwilling to let it go.

"Has he not considered this before going for it? Did he not think of the possibility that he could not withstand the impact of the enemy's self-destruction?"

Roland continued to inspect the warrior's body. From time to time, he would use Holy Light to heal some of the more serious wounds. He looked a little helpless when he said, "Anyway, he hasn't advanced into Supreme tier yet. He is still a Gold-advanced being. He should bear in mind to act cautiously no matter what. Too much recklessness might cost him his life!"

The black-haired boy shook his head as he started explaining, "At first, Master had already gotten out of the central region when the core exploded. He could have come out unscathed if he had flown forward at full speed. However, without any reason, he suddenly stopped flying at the last moment. And then, the core exploded and he was hit."

Ying nodded in agreement. That was not a lie.

They did not understand exactly why the warrior would stop at the very last moment and allowed himself to be hurt by the impact of the explosion.

Suddenly, huge heavy footsteps came slowly. Black has also arrived by the side of the warrior. Everyone moved Joshua onto the back of the horse. Roland felt that the warrior's body was unusually heavy. His body is tougher and denser than steel. His left arm seems to be holding onto something.

"So how's Master doing?"

Right on the back of Black, Ying spoke for the first time since the explosion. The silver-haired girl was no longer as worried as she was. After all, they were divine armaments. Their master would have made a pact with them if he had known that there would not be unusual activities.

Roland was thinking deeply when he is interrupted by the voice of the girl. After a pause, he responded to the silver-haired girl, "Joshua? He is fine… He is in a much better state than I had thought."

More like, the warrior is in an abnormally good state.

Just a moment ago, the holy knight was using divine spells in an attempt to heal the burn wounds on the warrior. He had also inspected the internal organs of the warrior to find that the warrior did not suffer much damage at all. The result left him astounded for a brief moment.

Although Joshua's internal organs showed some signs that they had suffered some tearing before, all of the injuries and wounds within his body have healed themselves. The life force was gushing through the body of the warrior like a flood, washing every single part of the body from within. The life force was then absorbed by all the injured parts of the warrior's body. Even the burned surface of the skin seems to be almost healed as well. The muscle tissues that were melted by the strong radiation are completely regenerated to their former state. The warrior's body basically healed itself, nice and easy.

This level of self-healing ability was definitely not inferior to the legendary troll that was eradicated in early times! The life force that provided the warrior with such extraordinary healing ability came from the azure orb that lay on the chest of the warrior. Upon understanding how it worked, the holy knight let out a sigh of relief.

With the Azurite near him, there should not be much of a problem then. It would just be a matter of time before the warrior would regain his consciousness.

"So what are we going to do now? Where exactly is Black headed to?" Ying could not help but ask. Currently, the draconic horse was sprinting across the wilderness as if its life was depending on it. However, she had no idea where Black was taking them. That has made the girl worried and uneasy.

"The enemies that we were engaged with this time were just too tricky."

After hearing Ying's question, the holy knight replied, calmer than ever, "So we are going to need to find a place, get some rest as we get a hold of ourselves until Joshua wakes up. We need to be clear about the current situation before we can plan for the future."

As the strongest person that is conscious at the moment, the holy knight voiced out that he is responsible to come up with a plan. As he looked at the two divine armaments and the draconic horse, he began to explain the current situation, "Whether it is a golem or a stone giant, all of them do not possess an obvious weakness. Furthermore, the existence which has control over them is still unknown to us. Not to mention that we know nothing about this world. Those elves are not clear about everything that's happening to their world as well. Instead of annihilating the endless waves of golems, we should stay quiet and observe the situation first. We should look at the true intention of the Chaos before we make our next move."

*****

As for the elves, they were basically in a completely helpless situation. Those who were hidden well under the underground sanctuary had a slight chance to survive. For those who were open the surface of the earth could only be presumed dead by now.

The words of the holy knight were true. Indeed, they should hold their ground and observe the situation for the time being. Ying and Ling nodded to express their agreement. After all, they were only here in this world to search for Black. They did not expect the Chaos to destroy the dimensional door, causing them not to be able to return to their world temporarily. Instead of battling against the golems, they really need to find a place to rest and sort out the information they have gotten so far, since they arrived in this world.

"As for the destination that Black is trying to get us to…"

After seeing that the both of them have understood what to do next, Roland nodded his head slightly. However, he also turned his head around and looked at the draconic horse which was sprinting forward at top speed. Then he sighed and said, "I've no idea what this creature is up to."

I'm not Joshua, and I don't know draconic language. So how on earth should I know where this creature is trying to go?!

Upon hearing what the holy knight has said, Black immediately let out a thunderous roar, as a response to Roland's words.

—It had no idea where it was heading to as well!

The draconic horse was only instinctively sprinting forward.

If they had a map on their hands at the moment, they would have noticed that Black was actually heading straight towards a place far ahead of them where the Mountains of Origin was.