Soul of Searing Steel

Joshua spent over three hours to guide Black in adapting its new human body.

That was actually a very normal thing. A dragon that has never experience walking with a pair of legs would not be able to immediately adapt to the function of the human body. Black also did not possess any Legacy memory of it.

During that three hours, the warrior went through hell guiding Black. Finally, he managed to bring Black into mastering the art of walking and running. Black could also jump a little without falling to the ground after some practice. She could also speak a sentence or two in the human language. However, every time she was not focused enough, she would still fall flat on her face.

A few months ago, Black could already understand the human language. However, the throat structure of the giant dragon was not capable of speaking. Black had always been communicating with Joshua and the others by using its roars and the other sounds she could make. Hence, she was able to learn how to speak at a much faster rate than she learned how to walk.

"Master…" Upon rejecting the help from the Steel Elemental Eva, the draconic girl who attempted to walk on her own tripped over her own leg and fell to the ground again. She slowly stood back up on her feet from the metallic floor of the Ark and let out a gentle sigh.

Black's voice sounded very light and soft. It was nice to listen to her voice. However, she was stammering a little, "Human being no tail… walking… balance is very difficult."

After she said that, she looked at the warrior who stood before her with admiration. She actually thought that it was admirable for any being to be able to stand still on the ground like the warrior.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz. Buzz." Right next to her, the Steel Elemental which was summoned to help Black in her walking had also nodded its head as it made some unintelligible noises. At the same time, Black coughed and a golden blazing fire burst through the air and scorched the metallic floor of the cabin, turning it red hot.

There were also at least seven to eight more similar markings across the floor in the cabin.

"…"

Joshua who stood there with one of his sleeves burned to crisp only shook his head and sighed. Hill who had been hiding in a corner told Funa that Black was a talented draconic girl with a gifted wisdom. After all, she managed to learn so much about walking.

"The first time when I learned how to use Human Transfiguration, I spent quite a lot of time learning how to control my strength and how to balance my body."

Funa was fiddling with her own hair as she smiled. "However, I possess the Legacy memory. It is only a few hours since Black learned how to use Human Transfiguration. So it would not be possible for her to master all that in such a short while."

"For a beginner who started from the scratch, this is actually pretty quick," Hill nodded slightly as he stretched his back a little. He sleepily said, "I think that you should get some rest too, Joshua… In fact, I'm going back to rest. I was woken up by the noises you guys made after I had gone to sleep for like five minutes…"

Because the preliminary training for the black draconic girl to walk had ended, the young elf decided to bid farewell and leave the cabin. Funa encouraged the draconic girl with some motivational words before she left with Hill. Their voices echoed from the corridor as they slowly walked away. Only Joshua, Black, and Eva remained in the cargo bay.

"Well, that should do it. That's enough for today. It's good enough," the warrior muttered to himself. For him, it wasn't the most important thing for Black to adapt to her new human body quickly. As long as she's happy, everything was good. After all, after using Human Transfiguration for the first time, Black was able to shift into her draconic form and her human form at will. If she could not master the skill to balance herself to walk, the warrior could make her turn herself back into her draconic form to guard the Epoch with Funa. She could focus on learning all that when they return to their territory.

Joshua finally eased himself and reached out his hand to caress Black's hair. Then he spoke with a soft voice, "You have been battling against the sea monsters for a while now, and you are now training with me. Good work. You should rest now."

Then he lifted his head and looked at the cargo bay of the Epoch. He shook his head and said, "You're now in your human form. You can't stay here anymore. I shall get you a room."

"Alright!"

The black draconic girl seemed to be worried that she might accidentally spit out her dragon's breath again. So, she quickly covered her own mouth with her hands and only responded to Joshua with a gentle voice. She nodded and was joyful.

Black came up and tried to lick the hand of the warrior again out of habit. However, Joshua would not let her do that anymore. He gently tapped the forehead of the draconic girl. The draconic girl held her own head from the pain of the tap. She did not dare to do it again after that.

"Hold my hand." Joshua offered his hand so that Black would not fall after every few steps. The warrior turned around and brought her and the Steel Elemental Eva out of the cargo bay after making sure that the draconic girl had held his hand tightly and that she would not try to lick his hand again.

In the meantime, on the other side of the ark.

—The Epoch, temporary Alchemy Laboratory.

Although the laboratory was a temporary measure, the alchemy in the ark was not simple at all. In fact, the laboratory that occupied a large cabin was reasonably facilitated. The lighting in the interior of the cabin was bright. Every object was neatly placed in the spot they were supposed to be. Everything was very clean and neat. There were also small structured objects that looked like little bees of different sizes, approximately the size of half an ordinary fist, transporting materials and information back and forth in the air of the laboratory. Every inch of the laboratory reeked of professionalism.

In the middle of the vast cabin, there was a series of large alchemy machines operating quietly. They were all connected to a large silver workbench. A gigantic silver ring of steel with a diameter of three meters floated above of the silver workbench. Light blue runes floated irregularly around the silver ring of steel.

At the workbench, a small gray-haired girl with a pair of safety goggles was working on her experiment. She was controlling the Runes that were levitating in the air using the tools on the workbench to aid her. She was fine-tuning the ring of steel little by little as she engraved the patterns of Runes on the ring.

A gentle woman with long blond hair, blindfolded, stood behind the girl, observing her quietly.

Time passed. Unaware of the time, the gray-haired girl finally engraved the final Runes onto the ring of steel. She took off her goggles and seemed to be a little worn out. Then she rubbed her eyes and said, "The third phase of engraving the Runes has been completed… Sister Saya, we can now move forward to socket the Holy Artifact."

"You have worked hard and you have done a splendid job."

The great nun approached the workbench slowly and lifted her head as she 'looked' at the ring of steel that was levitating in mid-air. She was a little surprised. "Norni Nolan, you are truly worthy of the title of prodigy among alchemists. I have never thought that you could actually fulfill our requirements. And you have also engraved the runes onto it… that's impressive."

Saya was not the kind of person that would butter people. She was praising the girl because she was really impressed and surprised by the performance. The girl, Nono, felt joyful as she was praised by the great nun. She said softly, "Actually, it is all thanks to the complete information that was left behind for me to refer to. Or else I would not have completed the structure so quickly."

"It would take months for an ordinary Alchemist to understand the research materials of other Professions. And we don't have that long to wait."

After walking up to the workbench, the great nun used her special 'vision' to sense and understand the slowly rotating metal ring. After a long time, she smiled and patted the girl's shoulder and nodded, "Your work is flawless. Everything you measure here met our requirements. This is truly amazing, Nono. If we can destroy the rift that connects to the Dark Abyss this time, you will get one-third of the credit!"

"This is my responsibility as well," the girl held onto the hands of the great nun as she looked at the metal. Complicated emotion flashed in her eyes.

All the regions in the world related to Chaos and Dark Abyss were only limited to a certain region as of now. The same had happened to the Plagued Land in the West Mountains and the desolated region of Moldavia. Those regions were guarded by either the Church of the Seven Gods or the Guardian Families. They guaranteed that the power of Chaos in those areas would stay where they were and would never spread into other regions.

The only region that was different from the others was Anos Abyss. The Abyssal rift hid deep in the sea. It was not restrained or guarded.

Before this, the church was still capable of sending some of the Holy Beholders to guard the region of the sea. However, now that the church's hands were full with the siege of the Pentashade Dragons on the Sacred Mountain, the church no longer had any force left. Furthermore, the Pentashade Dragons seemed to have made some deals with the Dark Abyss. The situation became more perilous than anyone predicted it to be. To prevent any accident from happening, the Sacred Mountain had made the decision to completely destroy the rift.

The metallic ring on top of the silver workbench was prepared to destroy the Abyssal rift.

The metallic ring was named as the 'Wheel of Holy Light'. It was created by a believer of the church who excelled in the art of Alchemy approximately three hundred years ago. The ring itself possessed the ability to gather energy so abundant that several Holy Artifacts were required to contain it. The ring could then amplify the energy. In the beginning, that believer of the church was just attempting to create a powerful weapon that could bring great impacts during battle. However, he soon realized that the Wheel of Holy Light that could transmit holy light at a stable rate would be much more suitable to be used as the defensive core that supported the enchantment barrier of the church.

The so-called Holy Artifacts were artifacts that contained the power of holy light. As the realm of nature did not naturally contain the Holy Light Energy in its atmosphere, most of the artifacts were actually belongings that most Holy Beholders like priests and priestesses carried on them through generations. After years of maintaining that tradition, those artifacts often contained an enormous amount of holy light By bringing all of the forces in those artifacts together, the church was capable of using the gathered forces to either form an indestructible defense system, or launch an attack that could break through any defenses in the world.

After adjusting the design of the Wheel Holy Light, the Church of the Seven Gods managed to modify it into a Holy Artifact that could release all of its holy light in one go. As long as they were willing to dispose of enough number of Holy Artifacts for that course, the impact would be beyond the Legendary tier. That sort of power would be enough to destroy the Abyssal rift permanently and disrupt the dimensional structure of that region.

Initially, the church had prepared a Wheel of Holy Light as they made the Holy Artifact a self-explosive device. However, the Epoch was not able to approach the Great Central Whirlpool in the depths of Anos Abyss to locate the Abyssal rift. During their fourth expedition into the region, the Epoch had finally managed to arrive in the area nearby the Great Central Whirlpool. However, they were forced to retreat as a large number of powerful Chaos daemons raided the ark and almost succeeded in sinking it. Hence, Commander Robzek had chosen to use the Wheel of Holy Light to fend off those powerful Chaos creatures in order for the church to retreat in one piece.

However, during that battle, the Church's alchemists who modified the Wheel of Holy Light had sustained heavy injury. The Church had no other choices but to listen to the alchemist and invite one of his trusted friends he recommended to take his place in modifying the Wheel of Holy Light. Hence, Nono was invited to the current expedition to recreate a new Wheel of Holy Light, allowing the church to return to the Great Central Whirlpool sooner.

It was obvious that the lady called name Nordi Nolan (Nono) was a true prodigy. She actually managed to create a new Wheel of Holy Light in an incomplete alchemy lab in just a few days. The structure of the new one was enhanced in many ways as well.

"No matter what, we must show our gratitude."

Saya had always been a gentle nun. She looked at the tired lady. She felt compassionate for the girl as she gently placed her fair hand on Nono's face. "Get some rest, Nono. You have earned it. You have been a great help to the church."

"Alright," Nono said as she held the great nun's hand and smiled.

Back in the resting cabin.

Joshua introduced the obedient black draconic girl to Robzek and Roland. The warrior noticed the presence of the great nun at the corner of his eyes the moment she pushed the door open.

The warrior was not bothered by her presence. He intended to greet the nun at first but he also saw Saya who followed the nun.

Joshua was instantly shocked.

This girl! How is it possible that she is here as well?!