Soul of Searing Steel

Nolan could only see a dark shadow with a strong red aura before her face as the shadow threw a fist with infinite power straight at her head.

Being completely incapable of responding to that, the microcurrent that was carrying the information in the brain continued to flow in her neurons. Before the module that was responsible for sensing could even receive the information, and before she could even feel fear or despair, that punch had already hit her face. The impact of the punch traveled in the air and tore through every single particle in the atmosphere, causing an intense explosion in front of the alchemist.

Nolan could not even think about anything before that. However, the enchanted equipment on her body had a lightning speed response. Circles of hexagonal shields appeared out of the void and attempted to block the fist of the warrior.

However, that sort of defense was obviously meaningless before the warrior's strike.

The fist that blazed with red combat aura struck the protective shields solidly. Those protective shields were capable of blocking a full-powered strike of one with Gold-pinnacle strength. They were even capable of withstanding the hot lava of thousands of degree Celsius and the heavy weight of the earth crust without a scratch on them. However, every single layer of those shields were shattered like mirrors with a loud explosion. The strong wind that followed the punch set in after and blew Nolan away, who was attempting to retreat.

Even though the girl was able to pull herself out of the epicenter of the punch, the shockwave of the strong wind that followed the punch had caused the alchemist to lose her left shoulder, half of her left ear and some of her jawbone. If she had not pulled herself away from the punch, she would have been blown to pieces by now. Large pieces of flesh and bones fell from her wound as blood began to gush out from the opening of the wound. However, Nolan did not even have the time to pay attention to her wound. The warrior charged right at her again, she let out a scream and rapidly chanted a spell to bring up layers of translucent shields made of air. The girl instantly activated the teleportation door she prepared earlier to flee the battlefield.

The crystal black dragon which remained in the dimensional rift that was floating in midair had swiftly removed itself from its hiding spot. It could not afford to sit by and watch Joshua slaughtering her partner. If their plan ever failed, two possible things would happen. First, the relation between Mandagar and the organization behind it would be severed. Second, after the girl died, Mandagar would be forced to face the enraged warrior alone in the battlefield–nothing else was more terrifying than that.

Temporarily setting aside the ritual to project the Chaos runes, the Undead Dragon Mandagar had officially joined the battle.

The first strike of the undead dragon was a superior magic spell that could kill a giant dragon with one single hit–[Ray of Damnation].

Six crystals appeared before the crystal dragon as violet light particles began to gather before Mandagar's chest. Unlike all other magic powers that could cause all sorts of heavy visual impacts with massive sounds, the violet lights gathered quietly without making even a single sound. The lights had completely and instantly gathered its chest. The plasmatic high-heat light fused with the great power of the 'Curse of Death' as they shot at the warrior.

The murderous beam of light went through the surface of the blood sea, leaving a deep trench. Scarlet shadows overwhelmed the deep bottomless valley as it swept across the back of the warrior in attempt to block the warrior from pursuing Nolan.

However, Joshua was not bothered by it at all.

He just ignored the light beam that could directly kill any ordinary man as the beam struck his back. The attack penetrated his left lung. The warrior even let the curse to spread in his body. The curse had spread over his heart. Joshua chose to ignore everything. He was only focused on charging forward. He charged through the heavy barriers one layer after another as he made his way over to Nolan in lightning speed.

Then, he locked his grip onto the girl's head.

The brute force that trapped her head, the violent squeezing and the sudden suffocation that was inflicted on the girl made her unable to cast her spell. The magic energy that rebounded from her failure to cast her spell remained surging in Nolan's body, causing her to vomit broken pieces of her internal organs and a huge amount of blood onto the warrior's body. Joshua did not kill her immediately. Instead, he waited for the girl to regain her senses. He had something to say to the girl before letting her die.

"Traitor must die."

The warrior looked Nolan right in her eyes. Nolan was desperate. Joshua endured the bombarding attacks that struck his back as he spoke to the alchemist, "No one gets away from that. No exceptions."

The warrior did not show even the slightest hesitation or regret. He was simply bidding farewell with his former comrade with pride. "Farewell, Nono."

He tightened his fingers…

Crack!

Joshua turned his head around and looked into the sky the moment he was done with the girl. He stared at the Crystal Demonic Dragon which was bombarding magic attacks at the warrior.

Mandagar was indeed very powerful. It was a Supreme-tier Demonic Dragon after all. Most of Grundy's magic attacks were not able to penetrate the combat aura barrier of the warrior, let alone breaking the defense of the warrior. Every single hit launched by Mandagar, even a simple Disintegration Ray, easily penetrated through the basic defense of the warrior. All of the attacks gradually disintegrated the flesh and bones of Joshua that were tough as steel. Because of that, his internal organs and his bones sustained damages when he took the attacks head on.

Perhaps it was because the abilities each of the dragons were different. Grundy was a War Demonic Dragon that was good at using large-scale attacks. Mandagar was the type that was proficient in frontal assaults.

After witnessing the warrior killing Nolan and seeing that the warrior had not collapsed after being bombarded with so many deadly attacks, the Crystal Demonic Dragon felt a tremble in its gut. It instantly amplified its magic energy used to enhance its spell attacks.

By carrying out a ritual that would merge the Mycroft Continent with the blood moon plane, Mandagar would receive a Gift of the Dark Abyss. When twenty four runes forms into a complete structure, the two worlds would merge. When the two worlds becomes one, Mandagar would be able to attain the realm of Legendary-tier–as a spawn of the Evil God of Famine, a Yoel Mardas! It would no longer be an old black dragon that was about to die!

It had already obtained a small part of the power from the Dark Abyss. Previously, Mandagar did not simply use it because it had yet to master it. However, currently, it immediately activated that part of the power without hesitating.

The Crystal Demonic Dragon remained floating three kilometers above the blood sea. It opened up its mouth as if it was ready to launch another attack. As a Supreme-tier Demonic Dragon, Mandagar chanted to sustain the stability of a spell for the first time. The sound between steels was loud as they echoed in the thin atmosphere. The draconic language carried words that were filled with magic energy as they slowly formed into curses that could destroy everything. Shrouds that were formed by negative energy gathered into the sky. Those mist then formed a gigantic layer of cloud that was thousands of meters across the sky, covering the seriously wounded Joshua.

The high negative energy could corrupt everything in the world. It could be the agent that represented 'death'. The corrupting wind had condensed into light. Soon, the shadows began to intertwine as a horrific purplish light spear came down from the heaven and straight at the warrior.

Joshua merely lifted his right arm and nothing else.

The light of the Azurite gathered on his right palm. Order power overflowed like the ferocious waves in the sea. However, that overflowing power of Order seemed to be trapped within a small area as if the power was crystallizing.

Suddenly, a strong explosion tore through the atmosphere.

—Boom!

The dark purplish light spear came into contact with the green radiating light from the Azurite. An intense explosion happened as the blood sea in that area was instantly torn apart. With the trembling violent force, the viscous liquid shattered into dust like broken rocks. The shattered viscous blood vaporized as the gas diffused. The sea within a few kilometers was completely hurled up, forming of huge waves.

The Epoch which was located not far away swayed violently. The ark was almost flipped over. Fortunately, there were two unconscious giant dragons by the side of the ark. Their bodies blocked the waves that could have flipped the ark over. But even so, the energy flow remained as a gigantic sinkhole, with a diameter of hundreds of meters, was created by the heat. Every single trace of liquid within that area was reduced to nothing. Even the sea could not fill that hole with the sea water in time.

Looking at the sea from high above, that sinkhole looked like a bullet wound that would never heal.

However, Mandagar felt a heavy feeling in itself.

Because he knew that the heavily-wounded warrior did not die after that attack.

It was exactly what Mandagar expected.

The red blood shroud slowly dissipated. A shadow of a human being who appeared to be unaffected by that attack stood below the black clouds.

The light of the Azurite in Joshua's palm slowly faded. The warrior lifted his head. His red eyes seemed like they were burning. The warrior's entire body remained intact. Not only he was not wounded at all, but his wounds also seemed to have healed completely.

His cursed internal organs were cast away as new ones were regenerated and replaced the old ones. Other than the black coat that was completely destroyed, Joshua seemed to have completely healed from his injuries. He opened up his hands as he faced the sky. He wanted to show Mandagar that he was completely unscratched.

—Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you, these evils will not touch you. The evils shall be cast away.

"So powerful."

Joshua spat out a breath of foul air from his lungs. That breath of foul air was actually the waste gas of the cells in high-metabolic speed. He stretched his muscles to loosen himself a little. Then, he stared at the Demonic Dragon above the dark clouds in the sky. "So, you shall not launch a second attack."

His feet moved, the power, strong enough to bring down mountains and destroy the sea, began to gather around the warrior. Then, the power exploded.

The sea of shroud scattered as the flames danced. The warrior tore through the dark clouds as he went straight into the sky to pursue his target.