Soul of Searing Steel

[Protection of the Lord of Nature (Mythical)]

[Within the sheltered domain, the blessed will have their all attributes raised for 300 points or above. Raising just 200 points would add high-speed regeneration, immunity towards top-tier curses and prevents psychic attacks up to a certain threshold.]

[–Have no fear, brave warrior. The Lord of Nature is with you.]

[Radiance of the Forests (Legendary)]

[Within the sheltered domain, every plant and every friendly living being will temporarily raise your max HP and HP recovery.]

[–Calm your heart and listen. That's the prayer of the forest.]

[Rage of the Ancient God (Mythical)]

[You will gain temporary divinity as well as immunity from sudden-death, senesce, corruption and poison. You will also attain apex-levels of damage voiding while your every attack is considered holy damage and cannot be nullified.

[–A God's rage, the power of retribution endowed in His place.]

The divine force filled the entire karst immediately, silhouettes of it appearing even on ordinary stone walls. None of them except Joshua could grasp the power suddenly granted through Father Nature's protection just as every variety of the energy pulsated and encircled them.

Beside Ying and Black, illusion of different forests appeared—formed by the outpour of divine energies. Things appeared better for Ling and Roland. Still, although they contained the power within their bodies they seemed uncomfortable.

Two Mythical and one Legendary-class status gain had more than doubled their abilities within moments. Ling and Ying did not know how to make comparisons since they never fought with their bare hands. But Black and the holy knight was certain that even if it were an ordinary person or an elf, the blessings would instantly grant them the strength to tear apart giant dragons, and not just one.

"This is truly the blessing of a real god…" Roland spoke, moved and amazed—already losing count of the times he was wowed today. He had the lingering feeling that since meeting Joshua, he constantly encountered the mythical and the legendary.

Be it a dimensional passageway or an ancient volcanic dragon lair, or the invasion of the Evil God behind said passageway as well as an ancient deity that slumbers —the experience was on a magnificent scale, utterly unimaginable.

"Hiss…"

At a corner, Black unleashed a breath of fire cautiously—while taking steps not to use the energies within its shifting core. The resulting inferno blew up to a height of ten meters in a brief second—and looked capable of vaporizing a house. The sight made it close its mouth immediately, not daring to try again.

"We are weapons, why do we need such immense power for…" The silver-haired girl complained quietly, although she looked pleased instead of disgruntled.

She stretched out her hand; a bunch of pure lights appeared and turned into the greatsword she transformed into—which Ying excitedly showed-off to Ling at a corner. "Brother, brother, look, I can materialize my true form!"

"That's not how it's used…" Though the black-haired youth muttered as he watched his sister helplessly, he too was doing the same thing. Pure lights flashed and turned into a greataxe. "So that's what I look like when I turn into my Divine Armament form…" Ling added in curiosity as he gave it a good look.

Still, he knew that the force would both sharpen and harden them in addition to dealing more damage. There wasn't any issue with playing around with it either—it's a chance that's hard to come by after all.

Joshua watched his companions in front of the ancient tree while they slowly learned to handle their newfound powers. Showing a hint of a smile, he turned to Father Nature, pulling out what were once halos.

"This is the halo you told me to collect before." He held up the extremely sturdy pieces that he had collected from the core of the core of the Harmonic Terminal and the Hill of Thunders.

Presenting them to Father Nature, the intrigued warrior asked, "What use is there for this stuff?" For these halos he had to endure an entire self-destruction blow from the Hill of Thunders, going straight into a coma. He definitely would have remained unconscious if not for his Azurite.

"To give you a better understanding of what you're up against."

Father Nature spoke slowly as he glanced at the halos. A layer of green light wafted around the halos at his words and the objects floated towards the giant face. As the deity watched, a formless force immediately shrouded them, and a low voice resounded in the cavern.

"I shall use divinity to retrace and search for memories of the one who made the halos. There might be some information about the Evil God of Calamity."

"Watch closely, Joshua. There is just one chance, don't miss anything."

As soon as he said that, the halos shattered into bits and pieces dispersed into the air—and Joshua sensed a majestic will ready to communicate with himself. Without hesitation, he accepted the invite and was flooded by grand but scattered memories from the other end.

Then he saw it.

A world scarred as far as the eye could see, and a tormented soul.

"… I win."

"… The war between the mages has ended although the consequences haven't. Eighty percent of the world is polluted by magical radiation and not a blade of grass would grow. The tremors caused by Craig's elemental annihilation cannon continues. Earthquakes, tsunamis, and gales; all kinds of natural disasters are still destroying the world we live in. I may have won, but I don't experience half the joy a victor should."

"…The haze blankets the earth—and the sun hasn't appeared for ten days. Acid rain and severe colds have killed virtually all plant life. Is this the calamity of endless night of legends? Ha-ha, such an ironic punishment."

"…The system of magic shaped by years of battle is now too deformed. It's so funny; my magic can vanquish anything but can't make single seedling survive!"

"…Despicable war. Our world is now uninhabitable. Everyone is relying on magic to create food for sustenance; we're fine with it, but the common folk can't survive like this, there needs to be a way!"

"…Natalie is here to find me. She's the grandmaster of soul magic; that fellow has given me a crazy yet definitely viable suggestion. Perhaps I could try it."

"...There is no doubt that it won't be easy to gather every top-class mage, but I did it. The plan will be carried out—and it just might, by the last hope of our civilization."

"…Everyone—even former foes—are working side-by-side. Seems that they too acknowledge that if they still wouldn't abandon our feuds and work together, all that awaits us will be the eternal isolation as our civilization dies."

"…Such a majestic magical formation, shrouding the entire world and hanging above this dead continent. The World Regulator Circle, that's what I'll name it!"

"…The transference of 17.096842051 billion souls is complete. From here onwards we shall abandon the scarred physical world. Magic shall be our sole enlightenment, and the World Regulator Circle shall become our body."

"…We may have abandoned the physical world, but part of the upkeep and adjustment of the Circle needs to be carried out from the external world. It would be a fine choice to create a few puppets to do our bidding and become our fingers."

"…The puppets are too clumsy and remain so despite many upgrades. The frequent natural disasters also easily vanquish them. Perhaps we should try producing some puppets that are more powerful and detailed."

"…The Harmonic-cored puppet is perfect. This existence that lives between the spiritual and energy dimensions can ignore most harm and could act as our hub as we create other puppets."

"…The World Regulator Circle is operating well. The spiritual realm created by the Fantasy System is flawless. Perhaps this is our ideal world, not that hateful physical realm."

"… 13461th day, 1737.53hours after complete soul transference. The first batch of elderly souls has died from old age, but their spirit will be recycled within the circle into new souls; our world shall reincarnate forever."

"… What is that?"

"… NO!! METEOR!!"

The rest of the memories were all fragments that even divine power could not recover.

For Joshua, the scene where the meteor one-fourth the size of the moon fell from the sky left a huge impression. He could still see it after the illusion dissipated.

"So that's how it was…" The warrior reacted instantly. The recollection might be of how the Evil God of Calamity had come into existence in that world. He was familiar with such sequences; he had witnessed the origins of the Evil God of Famine thanks to the Karlis world's will's assistance.

He stayed speechless for a moment then muttered, shaking his head, "Because he died due to a natural disaster, now he has to bring calamity upon other worlds?"

Despite his own best efforts to save himself, he was still ended by an inescapable falling star; that world just might be having one misfortune too many. The abyss of rage and despair then prolonged for millennia, never ceasing, and ultimately gave form to an Evil God.

There was a shred of pity in Joshua's voice. "It truly is a saddening existence."

Nonetheless, this did not affect the warrior's resolve.

He would neither fear nor hesitate, despair or doubt. However sorrowful the world would become, his heart was as unshakeable as iron towards any enemy.

Enemies must be vanquished, and the warrior must attain victory in this battle.

"The fight is starting."

Father Nature's voice boomed, shaking the karst—and the gigantic tree face gradually seeped into the tree before vanishing entirely. Only his echoing voice was left.

"I will do my best to awaken fully. It will take some time, you must hold on."

"Warrior, I believe in your promise. I hope you won't betray my trust."

His voice gradually melted into thin air, and the towering tree vibrated slowly. Threads upon threads of green light moved above, and tons of rocky shells were being shaken off, revealing the brown tree bark below.

On the airship aboveground, the guards who were still loyally waiting for their commander-in-chief —the man they serve were looking at an even more shocking scene.

The land suddenly trembled like water, tearing streaks of fissures into the ground. An infinite amount of blinding emerald lights shot out from the cracks and holy winds swarmed out —blowing away all the air of Chaos in the environment and formed an enormous semi-circle shaped protection zone.

Many summits in the Mountains of Origin were crumbling. Under the booming noises, numerous beings wrapped in dirt and stone revealed their real shape for the first time—layers upon layers of tree rocky branches that was the backbone every mountaintop in the range. Below them the tree crown and the tree trunk appeared; the true form of Father Nature, the Divine Tree of Beginnings.

It was of a grander scale than the entire mountain range. If the world tree did not grow deep below ground, its branches would have broken past the clouds and stretched into space!

Bands of energies brimming with life squirmed around the rocky branches, slowly returning them to a lively brown. Green sprouts were growing out into sheets of jade-colored leaves—the life source contained such power that it could bring back the dead and grow flesh over white bones.

"My god! This, how could this be!?"

The guardsmen on the airship were simply astounded, and some promptly guessed what the truth behind that very scene meant—

"Is that the Mother Tree in our myths?!"

"Has it awakened?!"

Shuddering, one of the elves knelt before of the colossal tree trunk. Incomparably emotional, his voice quaked. "The myths are not fake!"

"At the moment of great danger—even in the face of calamities that could destroy the world, the Mother Tree is with us!"

As the elves rejoiced and wondered, Joshua and his companions walked out of the karst to the summit at the center of the Mountains of Origins.

The warrior stood at the pinnacle which had been split apart. He looked towards the sky and frowned.

This was the dawn of the fifth day since they arrived in this world. It was starkly different from the nights bombarded by smog and torrential rain—the sky right now was as clear as it could be without a single cloud. The morning sunlight was slowly appearing on the edge of the skyline—but its weaker illumination was completely outshone by the sparkle of another existence.

It was the light from the ten circles.

The Circle of the Apocalypse. The World Regulator Circle. The remains of a civilization and a world destroyed by natural calamity. The Evil God who used natural disasters to put an end to other worlds.

"Such a sorrowful existence."

He lifted his greatsword and pointed towards the sky. Joshua felt no fear facing a multitude of stone giants and aerial golems that swarmed across the horizon. He merely stood on Black's back, unmoving.

Feeling the divine power that surged like ocean waves within him, he declared boldly at the heavens, "And a complete mistake of a living being."

"I'll put an end to this mistake!"