Soul of Searing Steel

"All of you, stay out. If there's a sign that the ruins are about to collapse, leave as fast as possible."

Calmly issuing his orders to Ling, Ying and the rest who were following behind him, Joshua strode through the doorway.

His eyes were immediately met with darkness.

The ancient ruins within Mount Mordus was in truth a gigantic steel prison buried underneath the mountain, with sealing formation and binding spells tailored against Chaos set on every brick on every wall. Everyone present—even the Pestilence cultists—were ultimately human.

Even if they had changed form into Blasphemous Spider-Demons, it was a type of vigor remolding. Since it was quintessentially different from the genuine Chaos in the Void, they were therefore not bound and would just need to beware of the various traps along the way. 

But after stepping through the obsidian door that was two-person tall and half-a-meter thick, the powers of the binding seal within the runic formations had instantly assembled—its energy values darting to tens of thousands, even up to hundreds of thousands. The sensation was like having the weight of an entire summit slamming down on one's head that intends to utterly crush and destroy every living thing that entered to hold even the corpse eternally where it was.

Joshua was human and one who carried the power of Order, essentially the same type of energy that runs through the rune traps within the ruins. Despite such high compatibility and adaptation ability, he still felt that his body movements were encumbered with several hundred tons of steel pieces. Needless to say, the weight against Chaos beings would be several hundred or above thousand times the pressure that was mounted on Joshua.

Nonetheless, the warrior's body did not even shake once against the load. He merely kept going forward and steadily as always, his feet thudding heavily on the floor.

Several hundred tons of heavy pressure was nothing to Joshua. When he was a Gold-tier warrior, he could already lift the gates of the Moldavian main city with his bare hands. At his full-power state with the use of various energy empowerment, he could even wrestle against mountain-sized Supreme-tier behemoths. Therefore, this level of weight was just about the same as wearing one more layer of clothing—it felt like nothing.

There was only a hazy fluorescence within the dungeon. Complicated white lines of energy were running across the dungeon walls, forming shapes that resembled electric circuits. The origin of the earthquakes was close at the fore, the hub where the energy lines assembled.

There, a certain dark giant creature was firmly striking the floor, intending to shake itself off its bindings.

No, it was more as if it was battling against someone.

Bang!

Suddenly, a dull strike echoed as a black human silhouette flew from the center of the dungeon. Joshua raised his hand and caught the silhouette's back, and only then did the blond swordsman who had been fighting at full-force realized that there was one more person in the dungeon now.

"Joshua? You actually came?!"

Leaning on the warrior's support to straighten himself, Brandon quickly turned, shocked and delighted at once.

He was shocked because he was aware of what Joshua had been doing. For the warrior to appear here, it was proof that he had defeated—or had even slain the Supreme-pinnacle champion that was Herlas. As for his delight, it was because he now had a powerful support, and the 'monster' in the darkness was no longer a worry.

"What's the situation at the moment?"

But unlike the blond swordsman clearly relaxed, Joshua's expression was very serious. Unlike Brandon who still believed that it was just ancient ruins lying within Mount Mordus, the warrior had already known that this was an immeasurably huge seal to hold an evil object of Chaos.

Now, they were at the very heart of the seal. It might even have been a part of the evil object that was doing battle against Brandon.

His sensory was being suppressed here, unable to spread over ten meters—just like it had been in Herlas's subspace. That was why Joshua would ask the swordsman about what happened.

"Ahem… The remnant of that bunch of cultists had escaped into the ruins after losing. They seemed to be familiar with the routes within, and kept delaying our pursuit with their topographical advantage… I was hot on the heels of that priest that led them, killing quite a few cultists, but I still let him escaped into this stone tomb."

After coughing once to shake out some clogged blood in his trachea, Brandon largely explained the situation. Then, his tone turned serious, while showing heavy doubts and a sense of inconceivableness.

"But after I followed him in here, I found him loudly chanting a completely bizarre and inhuman phrase, before he held off the heavy hundred-ton pressure and dashed into a bunch of unknown objects in the darkness…"

Before he finished, a scraping and squirming sound suddenly came from the nearby darkness. In the next instant, a second earthquake-like tremor quaked the land intensely—undetectable fractures were even starting to appear in the sturdy surroundings of the stone tomb.

Then, beams without a source appeared in all directions within the dungeon and focused on the center of the tomb. Incredible ripples of model power resonated, with radiance shining through the warrior's chest as well as the dual blades in the swordsman's hands. As if countless chains formed from light, the energy field bound the unnamable object in the center of the tomb.

The existence that had fought against Brandon finally showed its true body.

At the depths of Mount Mordus, a stone tomb that was not vast—its length and width did not exceed a hundred meters—lay within the core of the gigantic saucer-shaped sealed ruins. Inside the center of this aged and plain tomb, was a huge, unknown black material that was suppressed and restrained into a sphere shape by countless Order power beams.

The black sphere was about twenty meters in diameter, formed from a viscous liquid that resembled asphalt. It slowly surged and tried to curve outwards, but was unable to free itself from the entrapment of the illusory beams.

One beam on the front of the sphere had clearly dimmer radiance than the others. It flashed, as if it had come in contact with something harmful, allowing the black paste to break through the Order power barrier, forming a single long tentacle.

 The one that had fought against Brandon was exactly this thick and stretching tentacle. The black paste that shaped it slowly squirmed, moving with curious energy flow that makes humans feel uncomfortable.

Right then, the tentacle was violently striking the floor of the stone tomb. However, its frightening energy was diverted and spread throughout the entire ruin by the runic circles within the tomb—the cause for the quakes in the sealed ruins just now. 

"Be careful, Joshua!"

The blond swordsman pressed over his own chest unconsciously as he saw the sight. It was the spot the tentacle had struck and sent him flying—Brandon could feel a rib that was about to shatter inside.

"That cult priest had used some mysterious method to break part of the original seal," he said, his entire expression solemn. "And then used himself as a sacrifice to animated the curious sphere. Even being bound, its power is terrifying—all my attacks had no effect."

As he spoke, a pale-blue halo vaguely floated in his eyes, and his voice trembled. "This monster has no weakness or even concept of death, I simply couldn't find any flaw or chance… It's genuinely immortal!"

Of course.

Joshua's eyes focused on the cluster of mysterious black material; he could sense a weak but incomparably familiar scent.

It was one that he smelled in the Illgner world, when he faced the horrifying meteorite that plummeted down the sky alongside Father Nature.

That was a fragment of an Evil God.

Could the life and death of mortal creatures even be used to describe the form of its existence?

The black sphere that contained faint scent of the Evil God was still struggling in spite of the subduing from the Order power beams. Having finally reawakened after getting a sacrifice, the Chaos object in the Void was striving to escape the cage that had imprisoned for millennia.

But how could the seal, put in place by the champion that defeated it, would let it escape easily?

As the floor beneath his feet reverberated, the warrior could feel a sizeable energy flow cascading up from the lithosphere. This sealed ruins that stood near the Great Ajax Volcano was maintained by the energy from the magma region thousands of meters below the land.

That energy was so incredible that the beams that held down the Evil God fragment immediately brightened by a few times. Even that rather dim light pillar returned to its original intensity, pressing it down into the shape of a black sphere once again.

Only an object was left cruising around within the black ball, as if waiting for a chance to break the seal.

"… It ended?"

Brandon gaped at the sight for a moment. He blinked and looked around the stone tomb, his tone baffled as he muttered to himself. "So there's no need for us to act, huh…"

"It might have been a deity or holy apostle from the Glorious Era who put the seal in place after all—there is no way a self-sacrifice ritual of a Gold-tier priest would shake its foundation. On the other hand, things would be complicated if Herlas came to break it open."

While he spoke, Joshua inspected the sparkling runes that were emitting corona rays from every wall of the stone tomb, including the floor and ceiling.

The runes were producing the pillars of light that sealed the Evil God fragment. They converted the heat energy from the underground magma regions into pure order power and something similar to the positive energy of holy light, creating a tremendous force that could compress an entire mountain into a boulder the size of a house in order to hold down the black sphere.

If it was not so, Brandon would not be left with mere broken rib when the unchained Evil God fragment lashed out. The swordsman who had yet to enter Supreme would be dealt a heavy injury and be unconscious for dozens of days—even the warrior would have been maimed.

After studying the runes for some time, Joshua furrowed his brow.

"There's no problem with the seal itself—it's perfect. The spot that holds the seal, however, is an issue."

With those words, he pointed to a corner in the tomb. Brandon looked towards it—lines of minuscule cracks were starting to spread, tearing apart several runes that were spreading radiances, making it significantly dimmer. Similar cracks were spread throughout the entire tomb too, slowly extending while energy was being converted and flowed. 

If there were no accidents, the seal would completely lose its function over a dozen years—setting free the Evil God fragment within the mountain.

Even Brandon frowned at the sight. He ponderously looked outside the entrance—already set apart by layers of energy shield that streamed like flowing water. He could only see some blurry figures behind it—among them was a bunch of purple that waited before the door.

"This would be a problem. A dozen years is a brief time for us." The blond swordsman sighed and spoked with a low voice. "An eternal Chaos creature… Looks like we'll need the high priests of the Church of Seven Gods to come and check if the seal could be repaired. Oh, Joshua, aren't you acquainted with His Holiness the Pope? With him, then it would be mostly assured."

"Indeed I do." Joshua was pensive too, but compared to Brandon's solemn tone he seemed nonchalant.

Then, after a brief murmuring, the warrior suddenly spoke. "There's no need to trouble the Church—don't you have the Dual Blades of Order, Brandon?"

Joshua's gaze quickly shifted towards the swordsman's hip. The two divine weapons were gleaming coldly, resonating with the rich Order power around it while their body streamed with soft glistening light. Looking at the divine weapons that were also part of the Sage's Legacy, the edges of Joshua's lips curled up.

"Why not try using those to see if they could kill the monster?"

Joshua did not mention to Brandon that the black sphere was very likely the fragment a certain unnamed Evil God had left on Mycroft. Even so, the Sage had been a being who could best and slay Evil Gods. The weapons he left behind—even not fully awakened—should have a huge restraining effect on a Chaos being of the Void. 

Brandon too, unconsciously touched the hilt of the two divine weapons. When he had fought the tentacle just now, he could not pull out his weapons in time before he was sent flying, and was therefore unsure if the Dual Blades of Order could damage the opponent.

Still, the blond swordsman felt that it was a good idea after some thinking. The seal had already been damaged and would crumble, vanish in a dozen years automatically—there was no harm in trying. Moldova was also ultimately Vale Dani's domain, and it was always a husband's duty to alleviate their spouse's burdens.

Furthermore, Brandon somehow felt that this was something he should do himself. Even if he did not do it now, he would do the same thing in a dozen years.

The two men glanced at each other and nodded. Words are no longer needed since they had decided to do it.

Tightening his grip over the hilt of the dual blades, Brandon closed his eyes and adjusted the energy in his body. Layers of aura with soft-green luster shone around his body as if forming a green color body armor. Under the movement of lifeforce, the injury on the blond swordsman's chest area quickly healed as he shifted his physical status towards peak performance.

Then, he pulled out the dual blades.

There were no fanciful patterns on the plain and unremarkable divine twin blades, only glittering runes that emanated scent of divinity. The blades sparked with white radiance, resonating with the condensed beams in the surrounding tomb. The shapeless ripple as the two mixed caused the cold and hard stones on the walls to slightly hum, as if recognizing the divine weapon that the Sage had left being and were cheering animatedly.

The formless but razor-sharp breath of the sword spread along with the swordsman's breathing, cutting the surrounding atmosphere into portions of narrow airflow. Simultaneously, Joshua's chest heavily pulsated, his thumping heartbeats mingling with the green light, covering the entire stone tomb along with his urgently spreading lifeforce.

With just a single thought from the warrior, Ling and Ying stepped through the energy shield by the entrance. As mana light flashed, the two divine armaments flew into his grasp and fused into the gray Dragonslayer Swordspear.

"Do it."

With a stifled cry, Joshua moved first.

The warrior's technique had improved again after his battle against Herlas. Right now, he moved his spear slightly, and all vigor that was flowing away hurriedly shifted towards to the spear tip. Just like the countless little stars being attracted to a certain object, shaping into a long suction pad on the front edge of the spear.

Meanwhile, the lifeforce and Order power compressed and condensed to their very limits merged with the energy within the surrounding beams. Ignited by the warrior's will into crimson flares, it was stabbed at the black sphere in front of it.

Beside him, Brandon moved at virtually the same time, although his movement was much stronger.

Somehow, the blond swordsman could feel that the Order power in the surrounding beams were rivers streaming into the sea, assembling towards the two 'black holes' he clenched in his hands. The sacred white radiance even broke the surface of his body, flowing incessantly over his body.

It was then that Brandon shockingly found out that his Dual Blades of Order had already become two edges shaped in radiance, one of them silver and the other white. Every little radiance that constructed the edge were imbued with countless sacred runes compactly arranged, filled with endless energy that unfurled order scent that was indescribable with words alone.

Compare to the Azurite that had been activated, awakened and fully charged with uncountable lives of Chaos creatures, the Sage's Legacy that Brandon held—the 'Dual Blades of Order' had not seemed to arrive at the destined moment, and as such never showed any special aspects. But with the warrior's influence, the swordsman's fate had been changed, and the wheels of fate that would have started moving a dozen years later started to turn.

Hence, the twin blades that had shifted into flowing light slashed down directly as Brandon willed it. Emitting a roar as if a thunder, the blades reached the surface of the black sphere even faster than Joshua's spear even though the warrior had moved first.

The black 'ball' had long noticed the dangerous scent that was gathering nearby. It struggled with all its might, its countless tentacles protruding and surging, unleashing ear-splitting hums of something scrapping.

This time, the Evil God fragment wanted to shake off the shackles of the sealed ruins, truly using all its power it had left. Even the binding field formed from thousands of beam chains were shaken and convulsed from its movements and boomed like oceanic tides. The uncountable runes carved into the war exploded one after the other under the recoil, darkening the entire tomb that had been immeasurably dazzling.

Nonetheless, the twin blades and spear imbued with power of the ancient Sage, laced with substantial Order power, stabbed onto its body loudly.

Bang.

With a soft ring, Joshua felt his spear tip stab into something that was not real flesh and blood as it penetrated the sphere that appeared to be made out that endless asphalt-like paste. Instead, he felt as if his spear had plunged into an air current with an urgently spiraling interior. The current had no direction to speak of—there were instead countless little Chaos airflow of varying speed, direction, and sizes churning within, as if intending to push the swordspear out from its own body.

Joshua, however, merely added another notch of strength without a word. As such, the gray spear, carrying substantial energy flow, completely stabbed into the body of the black sphere just like that.

In the very next moment, a mirage unfurled.