Soul of Searing Steel

With the black-and-red veins on the ground as the center, countless pitch-black bizarre energies along with a little ghostly-gray color were gushing out from the gaps of the cracks on the ground. Meanwhile, these bizarre energies would change upon contact with anything. Regardless of whether it was the dust or the rocks, the remaining bones or steel, regardless of what state it was in the first place, everything would be coated with a layer of crystal the moment it was being corrupted by the energy. With the substances or things that were coated with a layer of crystal as the center point, small-sized Aragami were formed one after another.

So this was how the lowest level of Aragami were created. The power of Chaos would corrupt everything, and the things or substances that were corrupted would be turned into these small and weak abominations. The level of their strength started off at Steel tier. It could only be said that they were only comparable to ordinary adult humans. However, their numbers were endless. Their numbers had filled every existing dark corner of the continent.

Meanwhile, the other Chaos daemons that were slightly stronger, would have a special label right in front of their names. They were labeled as 'The Famine'. Each of these creatures had a complete crystal shell and a complex body structure. They were completely different existence compared to the weaklings of their same species.

At this time, as the fortress went deeper into the mountains, the speed of the fortress moving forward had become even slower than before. Even though 03 had been spamming her radiating light cannon attacks and occasionally use her 'Glowing concentrated light cannon' attacks to purify the Aragami in the surroundings, the large horde of Aragami were still able to catch up with the mobile fortress little by little.

Charging from frontline of the Aragami army were monsters with the appearance of a locust, some sort of grasshopper species. However, their bodies were all nearly two meters tall. Their bodies were covered with thick chitin and crystal shells that were much stronger than steel even in the same proportions. The shells were stacking up on one layer after another like dragon scales. Meanwhile, their heads with antennas were firmly protected by thick crystal layers with shiny surfaces. Each of them had six pairs of limbs with countless wrists along each limb, giving them the ability to disregard any terrain and move forward with ease. Furthermore, their weapons were sharp—razorblade wings that seemed to be able to easily tear steel.

Being extremely fast, a few simple jumps brought them so much closer to the fortress. Some of them even climbed their way up to the top of the metallic base of the fortress. The ferocious Aragami then began to swing their claws and wrists around. They only took three seconds to completely make it on top of the metallic base of the fortress. Then, they saw Joshua who was waiting for them to come in.

Along with the advancement of these locust-like Aragami, there were also Aragami with the appearance of a centipede with many legs. Their bodies were covered with fragments of broken crystals. Even though their long bodies looked fragile, the sound their bodies made when knocked on the metallic ground of the fortress indicated otherwise. Meanwhile, their movement appeared mechanical. Because of that, they had the ability to perform rapid assaults. Furthermore, their heads were basically like battering rams used to break castle gates, making the attacks of those weak looking Aragami extremely ferocious and strong.

After the Aragami had made it up onto the fortress, they did not even show the slightest hesitation at all as they charged straight towards Joshua. They all looked like moths flying towards a flame. While they were charging forward, Clyre was using her plants in an attempt to stop them from advancing. Even though it seemed effective, the number of Aragami were just overwhelming. So her efforts were just like trying to douse a fire with cups of water.

At this time, if one would look down on the battlefield from the sky, the Aragami army would look like an army of black ants pursuing the tail of a silver-white metallic fortress, desperately trying to surround the warrior that was blazing with red fiery aura as if they were attempting to put out that fire.

"Excellent!"

However, how would it be possible for Joshua to sit on his *ss while waiting for these fellows to attack him? The warrior who was already pumped up by the power of the Azurite lifted his head and let out a thunderous roar into the sky, trembling every single particle of the air in the battlefield. The red Combat Aura that was brewing around his body began to surge up even more violently. The Combat Aura looked like blazing flames that could burn a city to ashes. At the same time, Joshua's power continued to overflow as the power was leaking out from the gaps in between his armor. Deep dark red energy that looked extremely dense was emitting shockwaves that could be seen with the naked eye. Upon that, his body then absorbed the enormous amount of energy and stayed still. He was craving to slaughter. Meanwhile, Moreila who was right behind his back was trying to warn the warrior that the monsters were about to attack him. However, when he was warning Joshua, Joshua had already burst into a beam of moving light, dragging along his Combat Aura with him, leaving a line of Combat Aura radiance right behind his back as he advanced towards the large army of Aragami.

With his left hand wielding a giant axe that ordinary people couldn't lift up even if they were using their full strength, Joshua charged into the army of Aragami. With the giant axe swept out at the monsters in front of him, a violent shockwave swept across the monsters like a sickle harvesting weeds, cutting all of the Aragami that looked like locusts and centipedes in halves.

The shells formed from chitin and crystals were shattered under the powerful strike of the axe. A massive force of impact rebounded back at the warrior, shocking the bones and muscles of the warrior violently. However, such a small amount of damage could be instantly healed up under the support of the Azurite's everlasting stream of power. Meanwhile, as Joshua could tear off as many Aragami as he wanted to, a layer of red radiance slowly emerged on the surface of the Divine Armament that Joshua was holding in his hands, which made the Divine Armament sharper and much more unstoppable for the time being.

With the giant axe in his left hand tearing apart the tough shells, and the tip of the giant spear piercing through the heads of the Aragami, blocking the attacks of the Aragami with his right arm charged with his red Combat Aura and crushing the limbs and wrists of the Aragami, Joshua was unleashing hell upon the Aragami army.

Charge, crush, hack and slash, destroy!

Bathing in the body fluids of the Aragami that splattered in all directions like a fountain, Joshua's black armor was once again covered with a layer of unspeakable color. Crushing another few Aragami's bodies, Joshua glanced at the surroundings with his red eyes. Right beneath that black helmet, those two blazing light dots in the dark had made Joshua looked as if he was an existence that was even more dreadful than any Aragami around in the vicinity, or even much more terrifying than a devil.

The locust-like Aragami and the centipede-like Aragami could no longer stop the warrior from advancing forward. Meanwhile, the Aragami army seemed to have noticed this. Some of the stronger Aragami had already started to launch their attacks from afar as if they had received signals from their comrades on the frontline of the battlefield.

The Aragami were still thousands of meters away from where Joshua stood. Each of them had bizarre appearances. They looked like giant crabs with gigantic bone wings on their back. Their heads looked like the structure of a turret, with numerous dull crystals embedded on top. Along with the gathering of energy powers, these crystals that were initially dull began to radiate. Layer by layer, the power of Chaos was beginning to gather.

Soon afterward, with the Gifts of the Aragami, the power of Chaos that was extremely hazy turned into impacts that could not be touched. These impacts were aimed right at the warrior that was slaughtering up the other Aragami right on the frontline of the battlefield.

In addition to his slaughtering, Joshua's sharp instincts made him notice the attacks that were aimed at him from afar, leading him to roar thunderously once more. Invoking his Combat Aura, he shook off the locust-like Aragami that surrounded him. In a flash, he disappeared from the sight of the monsters, leaving a trail of sonicboom clouds behind.

However, these untouchable energies were still charging towards the warrior that was raiding forward along with thunderous bangs across the sky.

"Hargh!"

Along with a loud cry, Joshua discovered that he could only take everything head on. He crossed his hands in front of his chest and took the powerful strikes of energy strikes head-on. The energy strikes landed right on his two arms.

These powerful untouchable energies instantly generated unspeakable high temperature right before they landed on their target, destroying Order energy in the surroundings. Instantly, the surface of the metallic base that was touched by the waves of energy decayed instantly, as though corrupted by time. In just one brief instant, these traces were then turned into ash which dispersed in the air. Joshua's body was not corrupted because he had the Order energy of the Azurite to protect him. However, even though that was the case, the outer layer of the tough black armor had been incinerated to dark red. Meanwhile, the powerful impacts had also broken Joshua's balance one strike after another, causing him to retreat as swiftly as he could to nullify the energy strikes that were coming at him.

Thud thud thud thud!

The sounds of the metal denting in were heard along with the footsteps of Joshua backing off one step after another. Numerous deep footprints appeared on the surface of the metallic ground on the metallic base of the fortress. The pattern of the bottom of Joshua's boots was crystal clear, imprinted on the surface of the ground.

Not just one strike, the shapeless impactful energy strikes kept flashing on across the sky from afar. Endless strikes of impactful attacks continued to land on Joshua's body, setting Joshua off from attempting to regain his balance, leaving dark red scratches all over the surface of his black armor. The black smoke that rose from the scratches brought along a sensational smell of burned steel.

After several rounds of attacks, many dents appeared on the surface of the armor Joshua was wearing. Every single time he attempted to regain his balance, getting ready to get out of the deadlock of the Aragami's attacks by relying on his own speed, he would be bombarded by the next wave of energy attacks and also the attacks from the Aragami that was surrounding him up. It seemed that these Aragami had no fear of death as they marched towards Joshua. Limbs, tentacles, and other possible weapons they had on them were struck straight towards Joshua with the attempt to hold him down on the ground. However, with merely a horizontal swing of his greataxe like a baseball bat, Joshua had already struck off the monsters all around him, shattering their crystallized shells, sending them flying into the air.

However, because of that, a few untouchable shapeless attacks managed to strike Joshua's body. If he did not invoke his own red Combat Aura that was infused with tough and intensely dense power of Order all around his body, his armor would have been shattered into pieces by those shapeless impacts from the attacks and his body would have to sustain the damage from attacks. On the other hand, Moreila and Clyre had been wanting to support Joshua from the rear. However, they were currently occupied with the swarming of countless Aragami that were trying to kill them. Although they could keep themselves alive without any problem, they had no extra hand to give aid to Joshua.

Boom!

It was another strike coming straight at him. If the old dwarf or the elf who had no defensive equipment on them had to take on such an attack, they would mostly die from it. However, Joshua was wearing a full set of heavy armor after all. Regardless of the damage on his armor, he was only able to feel that he had just received a heavy punch head on. He could take it, however, the metallic base of the fortress could not endure it. The metallic ground that had been corrupted again and again by the impact of the Chaos power was finally unable to bear the weight of the warrior. On the spot, the metallic surface collapsed into a big pit and Joshua felt right into the pit as if the pit had swallowed him whole.

An opportunity!

Falling into the cratered pit, Joshua immediately understood that this was an opportunity to get out of the deadlock. Right in between the rising rust of steel, he swept his eyes across the dark sky and immediately locked on to the Aragami with a strange and bizarre appearance.

His armor and body were in tatters. He got those scars because he had been continuously sustaining attacks from his enemies. Because of that, his body was a little tired and sore at the moment. However, the fire in his eyes was not diminishing at all. Instead, the fire was blazing even more violently every passing second. His blazing will to battle was growing stronger.