Soul of Searing Steel

The horrible avalanche rumbled along with the surrounding mountains. The moving gray rocks instantly covered a large area of the vast land, turning the entire mountain area into a land of gravel and sand. Meanwhile, the aftermath of the impact was still spreading towards the outside, setting off the dust up into the air, forming a hurricane that was enough to sweep the world.

"Damn it!"

A moment before the moving rocks submerged the entire fortress underneath the avalanche, Moreila and Clyre barely reacted to the astounding scene that happened before their eyes. The two of them instantly unleashed their full forms and worked together to resist that powerful impact. Under the support of the greenish primal energy, the steel tree wrapped its roots and branches around its own Master and her comrade shielding them from all harm that was about to hit them all. Meanwhile, the outside of its silvery-white branches that turned into spheres in order to wrap around Moreila and Clyre had been engulfed in layers of golden Combat Aura that were as tough as the unmovable mountains.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The noises had overshadowed everything else in the surroundings, echoing across tens of thousands of miles. The mountains in the surroundings were collapsing one after another like the domino effect where pieces of dominos that were connected collapsed one after another like a chain reaction. The dust that was flying up into the sky spread out endlessly.

However, along with the passing time, the seemingly endless loud bangs were beginning to fade as well. Everything had gradually returned to silence.

*****

After an unknown period of time.

Kachak...

A faint sound was heard from among the high plain that was filled with gravel. The world that seemed to have paused in silence suddenly had a sudden slight change.

Kachak kachak…

Along with the soft sound that indicates something was moving, right on the flat ground, a small mound of earth suddenly bulged up across the surface of the ground as if there was something about to dig its way out of the ground.

Poof!

Along with a muffled sound, an unwitting force drove right out from beneath the surface of the ground, scattering the mound of earth. A fist that was wrapped in metallic armor emerged from the ground, and along with the dispersing dust and sand; a shadow of a man wearing a black armor and holding a greataxe in his arm slowly stood up from the pile of shattered rocks and sands. Then he walked out of the spot.

The blood on the armor had already dried up and turned black. The visor of the helmet was also covered with thick dust. Meanwhile, wiping away all the dust and sand off the helmet with a hand wrapped in metallic armor, the warrior seemed a little lost as he was observing his surroundings.

Right behind the transparent steel crystals on the helmet, were two red light dots igniting. Joshua who gradually regained consciousness grabbed tightly on his greataxe as he stood straight up on his feet, lifting his head up to look at everything that was lying before his eyes.

He saw it. The strong wind was howling. Looking pass through the flat land that was lying in front of him, the dust was drifting away in a slanted direction like a black straight line, dividing heaven and earth into two right in between. Meanwhile, a rumble was felt across the distant land. Countless shattered gravel and sand were right beneath his feet, covering over everything that was initially there.

Meanwhile, right on top of his head, the dark sky that was already dark has now become even bleaker. The black clouds in the sky had been mixed with countless spinning dust that gradually turned into swirls, engulfing all the light in the surroundings.

"… Phew."

The warrior out a long sigh, spitting out a breath that carried the scent of blood. Then he lifted his helmet off his head and clipped it right below his armpit. His face looked exhausted. His black hair was blowing along with the direction where the wind was blowing. Wiping his face a little, Joshua had already recalled back on what happened before all these. His face was filled with a complicated expression as he looked down towards the ground beneath him.

"She actually rammed over like that… what was she thinking?!"

Whatever her thoughts were, Joshua did not have the mood nor the energy to think about what 03 was thinking and why would she acted that way.

Because he was about to die.

While he was battling with the Aragami, he had used more than fifteen beneficial effects to power himself up. Furthermore, using the Divine Armament had also put quite an amount of load on his body as well. Joshua was completely pushing his body to the limit when he was making all his moves all the while back then. Initially, he could have relied on the Azurite to burn the blood of the Aragami, which provided him the power to heal his body. However, during the last battle, his body had sustained serious injuries. Although the Supreme-tier Aragami had also been fatally wounded by the body slam of 03, and it may have died as well, however, Joshua had also completely gone over the limit of the damage his body could endure. Currently, every single organ in his body was deteriorating.

"Hahahaha!"

Even with that sort of serious injuries, when he thought back about what happened, he could not help but let out a loud laughter. At first, that gigantic monsters which attempted to devour him was fully occupied with him. After that, the monster was humiliated for being rammed away by the moving fortress- Even though he could feel the pain all across his entire body, he would still want to laugh aloud!

Beside his body, along with a wave of magic power, the black greataxe had disengaged his transformation. The young black-haired Divine Armament with a pair of golden eyes instantly supported his Master as he looked anxious and worried. However, he was soon pushed away by Joshua with a gentle force. Ling could not help but feel even more anxious. "Master, you need to maintain the strength in your body now. I'll support you…"

"Don't be anxious."

Shaking his head and laughing, Joshua whose mind seemed to still be in the previous battle spoke to his weapon without thinking, "I'll die, but not that soon."

He did not seem to be worried about his own serious injuries that was about to bring about his own death. After all, in another ten minutes or so, he would really die of exhaustion. However, he still seemed inexplicably calm even after knowing that he was about to die. The red eyes of the warrior glinted with excitement. "Ling, now, I'll give you a mission."

After he paused for a brief moment, Joshua continued to say, "Find the location of that Supreme-tier Aragami."

Before that, when 03 was driving the fortress at an unstoppable momentum that could crush anything in the world or ram anything out of the way, he let go of the battle with the Supreme-tier Aragami in order not to become a martyr that would die alongside with the Aragami. After that, he was being blown away by the impact created after the two gigantic beings crashed into each other. And now, his injuries were extremely serious, and he was urgently in need of a Chaos daemon in order for him to heal himself.

On the other hand, Ling was worthy to be deemed as a Divine Armament that had an elite education. At first, he was very anxious because of Joshua's injuries. However, currently, he had calmed himself down after he noticed that the warrior had returned to his former calm and imposing manner. After hearing what Joshua said, Ling immediately understood why his Master wanted him to do that. So he only responded to Joshua with a loud 'Alright'.

Under the guidance of Joshua, Ling closed his eyes and started sensing the location of the Chaos energy.

It did not take long before the Divine Armament opened his golden eyes and spoke in excitement, "I've found it, Master. It's just right over there. The presence of the Chaos is extremely dense... And it's not buried too deep underneath the ground!"

"It's actually so near?"

Somewhat a little surprised as he looked at the direction Ling point at, Joshua nodded his head, "Help me dig then."

Well, Joshua was not trying to bully his own weapons. It was true that his body was not in good shape now. Currently, every step he took would gradually destroy his body and speed up his own death. Before that, he had no choice but to dig himself out of the ground. However, it would be wiser for him not to move much though.

Ling naturally did not hesitate to follow Joshua's request to dig the monster out. Although he looked very young, and his body was not really that tall, as Joshua's Divine Armament, the young man still had the power level of an Upper Silver. His speed at digging was extremely fast. Even without any tools, he was still digging faster than the speed of ten people digging the same hole at the same time. Not long after, a large pit and a mound of earth were presented right before the warrior.

After a few more moments, Ling's voice was heard coming from the bottom of the deep pit, "... Master, I've found it!"

Upon hearing those words, Joshua who had been standing still and trying to maintain his physical strength immediately leaned over in the direction where Ling currently was. Then he did not hesitate at all as he went into the pit.

Right in the cave, there was no light at all. Joshua was relying on his night vision all along as he walked all the way to the end of the pit cave. He had seen a piece of white bone along the pit cave. Ling's face was filled with joy and excitement when he was standing beside Joshua, though his face also looked a little bit exhausted.

After praising Ling, Joshua walked forward, squatted down and touched it. Although he could not see clearly the appearance of the bone structure, however, Joshua could still differentiate which part of the Supreme-tier Aragami's body that the bone structure belonged to.

That would be the gigantic horn of the Aragami that could pierce through the sky.

The greenish-white lightning that was surging around the horn had ceased to exist now. The horrific presence of Chaos had also vanished completely. Right in between the gap among the sand in the surroundings, there was even a slight hint of dark mist leaking and rising out of the gaps, which presence resembled death.

"It really died. It seems that its corpse has not yet disintegrated. We should be able to make it in time."

Using all his effort just to take up the Azurite that was hanging right on his chest, Joshua looked at this unremarkable Order artifact that looked like a glass bead. Then his face turned deadly serious. After that, he pressed the Azurite on the horn of the Supreme-tier Aragami.

Whoosh

A sound that indicated that something had been ignited was heard in the dark cave.

A bright light then emerged.

The Azurite that did not seem to be special at all immediately began to emanate an endless stream of light after it made contact with the body part of the Supreme-tier Aragami. The boundless power of Order then swiftly spread out as if a blazing fire had come in contact with some dried wood. It was blazing! In a blink of an eye, the intense light had illuminated the entire cave and it even spread out and formed into a white beam of light that shone through the sky!

The Azurite began to release high heat as swiftly as it could. Joshua could feel that he was like holding a flame right in the palm of his hand. Meanwhile, pure streams of vitality were carried along with the heat, spreading into his body, charging up every single corner of his body. The serious wounds began to heal very quickly. His internal organs and his spirit were gradually restored to perfection, or maybe even more powerful!

Immersed in the satisfaction of having his injuries recovered, Joshua had not noticed that the Gift of his Chaos Guardian and the attribute of his Azurite had changed slowly during the process of combustion.

[Unkindled Flame], [Blood of Chaos, the Origin of Blazing Flame], these two abilities that seemed to come in a package were slowly becoming a blur. Then they merged and formed into another one ability!

[Flame Seed LV 1: Bonfire]