Soul of Searing Steel

"Really interesting. It's actually alive?"

Barnil said, having heard the luminous orb jingle in reply to his question. Even William who had been calibrating the portal coordinates turned in curiosity, and studied the milky-white warm orb in Joshua's hand with significant interest. "To think that the Bloodmoon Abyss has such local lifeforms," he said. "Never heard of that before."

"Joshua, where did you get it?"

"The sky."

Joshua's reply was simple and direct. He never lied to others, and therefore simply answered even when it was a question from two rather neurotic mages. However, the warrior was now positive that both Barnil and William did not realize the source of abnormalities in the Blood Moon.

Lowering his head and slightly tightening his grip over the orb of light that was throbbing excitedly and trying to free itself from his hold, Joshua stared solemnly once more at the mysterious spherical being.

Its diameter was forty-three centimeters and almost weightless; its entire body shone with a dim cream-color radiance. It was not solid—its inner core was light that cascaded as if a vortex, although there was a thirty-one degree Celcius warmth and a repulsive force to skin contact, allowing even normal people to touch it.

On a single glance, the orb had an extraordinarily simple construct apart from that inner vortex core, and did not look at all like an intelligent lifeform. It was also exactly the reason why the two mages expressed curiosity towards it.

I really don't know if it's good or not, bringing you back to Mycroft.

Joshua could not suppress a sigh at the thought, and remembered that recent sight.

In the very heart of the Blood Moon and Joshua had declined the luminosity being's request to follow him.

His reasoning was simple, the first being that creature was the second light of the Bloodmoon Abyss, the only key and only possibility for salvation of that world. If it was taken away it was the equivalent of destroying a world's future, and Joshua could never allow that to happen whether from the aspect of emotion or logic. He was the King of Searing Soul—the successor to the Sage's will, how could he do such a thing?

The second being that he had no way of taking it away.

Joshua made a general estimation of the luminous being's size. Its diameter was about a hundred and twelve thousand meters, which proved that it was virtually the core of the Blood Moon. The core was also almost as hot as five thousand degrees—a temperature that keeps rising—which slowly changed it from a satellite to an orbiting planet. The process would take about thousands of years, and if huge amounts of Nuclear Stars were injected within the speed might be accelerated. Whatever the case may be, even if Barnil and William had the mana to destroy mountain chains and incinerate oceans, they could never cram the searing star core that was larger than a mountain into a dimensional portal. It was not something even the gods could do.

However, despite Joshua's repeated refusals, the luminous being did not give up. After a long pause, it acted in a way that rather surprised the warrior—beams after beams surged and tangled, combining to form a single white cocoon that, with the churning of energy as profound as the ocean, morphed rapidly. Ultimately, the giant cocoon cracked open, and an orb of light that was immeasurably minuscule compared to before leaped out and dove into Joshua.

It was precisely the orb of light that he was now holding, a 'seedling' that split away from the luminous being.

After dividing itself, the main body of the colossal luminous being became very quiet. While the split did not hurt it much, it could not avoid being fatigued. Additionally, it had not been long since it was born—now was exactly the time to preserve strength, and thus it slowly slipped within the core of the moon and fell into silence. In at least ten years, no one would find any trace of the luminous being that had fallen into silence within the Blood Moon, and would at most find that the Blood Moon was slowly turning into a sun.

It was also why Joshua did not mind Barnil and William running off to explore the Abyss.

"Although I'm very curious, time is of the essence."

The two old mages were definitely very intrigued by the orb of light. Through their powers as Legendary, they could tell that it was an element body of positive energy. The lifeform itself was similar to Light Elementals, although its inner core was exponentially more complex and hidden well. If he had not paid attention, even Barnil who has mastered summoning elementals and runes could hardly tell its difference from typical Light Elementals.

Barnil would not be too interested in it if it had appeared in the Infinite Horizon or some Light Elemental plane—but this was the Bloodmoon Abyss! It has always been famous for death, its coldness as well as its emptiness, a broken world that not even demon could survive! For such a complex Light Elemental lifeform to appear here, the old mage could almost feel his soul of curiosity burning.

It was hence regretful that time was of the essence just as he said. Although the world-teleportation that was prepared early on had shaken off the Abyssal Lord Goliath and the clone of the Pentashade Dragon God, it remained that there had been an error, not to mention that the Sixth Abyss was actually not far away from the Bloodmoon Abyss. If Goliath found out that they had not returned to the Mycroft Continent they would immediately be pursued by the two deity-tier champions. And this time, they would not escape so easily.

"The portal is open."

Beside them, the Legendary wandering poet William had finished verifying the dimensional data and nodded in satisfaction. "I did say nobody could beat me at teleporting," he muttered casually to himself. "That error before was definitely not my mistake!"

"That fellow Nostradamus notwithstanding," he added after a short pause.

The truth was certainly so. If not for Nostradamus ascending into Legendary with dimensional spells, William and Barnil might be the best in that discipline.

As a former wandering poet and current mage, William was most adept at manipulating other's minds and distorting his enemies' souls. He could control the five senses of an army in an instant, causing them to reverse directions and in turn attack their allies. Beyond that, the man whose motto was 'cautiousness and prudence' also mastered all sorts of teleportation spells of varied ranges, and when he combined with Barnil, the two could even activate a [Regional Fixed-Point Teleportation] that could traverse more than half a continent within the thousandth of a second.

Naturally, the distance was not limited to mere continents—from what Joshua had seen, he could tell that the two had already reached a summit in the know-how regarding dimensions. Now, they are able to step through the barriers between worlds within breaths, which, to a certain point of view, knowledge and Truth definitely incarnated for an instant.

However, the warrior's attention was soon diverted. Nearby, the black dragon girl was sitting up on the ground, her face full of pain. She had one hand touching the horn on her head while the other was pressing on her hip, and upon noticing that Joshua was approaching, she quickly began to moan.

"Master, I still feel a little pain on my hip…"

"You need to train," Joshua replied simply, holding the orb as he walked to Black and crouched, reaching out to touch the black dragon girl's hip and shoulders. Her muscle that was torn apart could feel the external pressure, sending a pang of agony that made Black cry out in pain.

Be that as it may, the warrior shook his head. "For Ancient Dragon bloodlines, such muscle tear should have regenerated already… you probably weren't injured too many times, and your ability on such sense had not been stimulated."

Shuddering subconsciously, Black watched her master a little fearfully even when he was gently massaging her to lighten the muscle ache. She felt a dark will spreading from Joshua body, and as expected, after a brief mumble, Joshua spoke—cruelly, but with a tone that appeared gentle.

"When we get back, I'm arranging for Socrasson to design special training for you." Joshua smiled, nodding as he stood up. "Starting with twenty laps around Moldavia, and you would train until you're exhausted. Prepare yourself, it won't be easy."

Granted that Black's injury was completely caused by Joshua's speed, the warrior in fact understood that the cause of the incident itself was due to the fact that the ability of people around him already gradually could not catch up to the speed at which his own abilities developed. It was the same for everyone—Black, Ying, Ling, even Archbishop Artanis, Brandon and his wife. Among his acquaintances, only Israel, Nostradamus and Pope Igor had power that was equal or greater than his, and there were just ten such individuals on the surface of the Mycroft Continent.

It was perfectly normal. With the System, the Azurite, the best combat pathway and the best Legacy, Joshua knew that it was perfectly ordinary if they could not keep up with him. No other person in the world had better conditions than himself, but even if that was the case, he did not look forward for a day where he had to face attacking powerful foes alone.

"Grow up quickly," Joshua told Black softly as she stayed speechless, shocked by her tremendous mission. "I await the day you and I could fight side-by-side—unlike now, where you have to leave once I start fighting."

"… I'll train well, Master!"

Upon hearing the warrior's musing that was almost a sigh, the black dragon girl's whole body quivered. In an instant, her heart flashed with many complicated and indescribable emotions, amongst them being embarrassment, reluctance, bewilderment, and helplessness. Soon, however, she became determined.

"I'll do my best!"

While Joshua was very glad with the black dragon girl's determined reply, he was mindful that at Black's age as a dragon, she was a child in human terms. Battle and adventure to her were in fact simply entertaining games, and in spite of the power from the Ancient Dragon bloodline that could support such a relaxed attitude, that determination was far from enough from following his footsteps.

"Get up, it's time to go back to the Mycroft Continent," he said. "If it still hurts, I'll carry you…"

'Ding-Ring-Ring~'

Before Joshua finished, the orb of light in his hand suddenly emitted a wind-chime jingle. Then, mild light shot at Black, whose expression was now completely baffled.

"This feeling?!"

Black could feel a snug breath wrapping around her, a sensation as if soaking in warm water. Her body was brimming with an indescribable comfort—although it did not last long. What quickly came after was a wave of agony that cuts into marrow, an instant that almost caused Black to roll her eyes upwards and faint, but the girl quickly realized that the countless torn muscle fibers in her body began to heal at incredible speed.

Even Joshua was surprised at the speed at which Black's internal injuries healed under the illumination of that radiance. In seconds, the startled black dragon girl could stand normally, and flexed her arms—there was no question that she had fully recovered.

"Actually having such ability… Right, the main body did help me regenerate energy just now." Joshua mumbled to himself as he lowered his eyes to look at the globe that was about the stop emitting rays. "Looks like Black's training can be more intense."

Meanwhile, the globe jingled again as if to struggle away from the warrior's grasp but did not succeed.

Still, after some thought, Joshua simply let go of the globe of light. In return, it promptly let out a series of crisp cries in excitement, whirling in circles in the air before slowly landing on Black's head.

Watching the cream-colored creature that cured her darting towards her, Black was assuredly not alert against it. She merely waited curiously for it to act, and soon the girl felt a soft and warm touch appearing on her head.

Joshua held back a smile—from where he was standing, the globe had dropped on top of Black's head, and was coincidentally stuck between the black dragon girl's horns. The sight was hard to describe, but was undeniably delightful. The globe seemed satisfied with its current state too, and after squirming a little to adjust its position, it stayed contentedly on Black's head and did not struggle like it did under the warrior's grasp.

Heading a ball.

Joshua shook his head and left his musing unsaid. He gestured for Black to follow himself, before turning and walking towards the two Legendary mages who had already opened the dimensional portal. Behind him, even as Black hurried after her master, she carefully made sure that the globe did not fall off her head.

There was nothing much to elaborate on what came next. Everyone, be it the two Legendary mages, Joshua or Black were very familiar with the teleportation. After Barnil entered the portal to start the teleportation, Joshua too, brought Black and the orb into that pale-blue doorway.

There shouldn't be anything unexpected this time, right?

Unable to help having the thought, Joshua sighed silently. He had a little feeling that he would never return to the Mycroft Continent so simply.

And it was the truth. The moment Black and the orb followed closely behind Joshua into the dimensional doorway and prepared to warp back into the Mycroft Continent alongside the warrior, there was a pure silver-white flash that resembled steel. Thus, the warrior's figure suddenly vanished from the black dragon girl's vision.

The unexpected happened.