Soul of Searing Steel

Powerful beings do no need motives for how they behave. They would advance when they want to, stop when they want to.

Powerful beings do not need to reflect on their own behavior. They would stay in existence if they want to—it's the proof of the strong.

That was why.

The warrior who genuinely thirsted for a fight was the same.

There was no need to find greater meaning. Even saving the world would not be reason enough for a warrior who simply fought whenever his heart desired.

As the Circle of the Apocalypse rotated slowly, the magical formation that could manipulate the world displayed its true depth as the Evil God, [Scourge].

In the clear sky, tons of thick, dark clouds appeared out of thin air in an instant. In the blink of an eye, the heavens and the land were shrouded in endless gray.

Smoky fog spread along the clouds, its dust immediately filling the entire world except for the Mountains of Origins. The air froze in one fell swoop. Water turned into ice that glazed over all things. The biting frost withered every plant and dried every river. Surviving beings struggled between the dust and the ice, unable to breathe.

The first of the [Ten Plagues], smog.

Only the Mountains of Origins—the domain sheltered by Father Nature was not affected by the Apocalyptic Circle. The gloomy clouds enveloped the summit like a wall but could not penetrate that streak of light-green holy light and invade within.

Still, if the smog could not do it, that did not mean other methods would not work. Mystical purple lightning streaked across the looming, bulky clouds in the company of booming thunder. Bolts of lightning branched across and struck the earth. Something gigantic moved in the illuminated fog– its tremendous golden body stirred the haze, creating piercing winds—as if a walking hill.

It was a titan colossus.

The ultimate puppet formed from countless golems.

Resembling both an armored samurai as well as a beast pieced together intricately with plates of metal, the titan colossuses glowed with the cool beauty of precision engineering. They wore an outer shell as smooth as that of the adamantium golems, their head devoid of facial features—save for two beams that acted as eyeballs, a scorching view just like the sun. 

Its shell that bore the appearance of a golden armor was incomparably sturdy and could keep out any damage. The colossus was also different from a typical adamantium golem—it was ten times larger and surrounded by lightning bolts that hurts the eye. The bolts were like a part of the colossus, appearing incessantly on its skin.

One, ten, a hundred, a thousand… The titan colossuses alone numbered over thousands. Even without accounting for the ordinary golems that carpeted the land, there were legions of flying things in the air, their horde looked similar to the gloomy clouds weaving in and out in the company of the thunderbolts.

The armies of Chaos had expanded to such monumental scale in days; there was no telling how many summits they had devoured and how much earth they dug to grow their ranks in such an exponential amount.

All who saw the spectacle were quiet.

Be it the elven guards on the airship or the holy knight who stood upon the half-dragon's body alongside Joshua, or Ling and Ying whom Joshua held in his hands or Black, all were showing a doubtful expression on their faces—or were conveying their mood telepathically.

–Inconceivable!

–How is that possible?!

–Why is there so many?! How can we win this?!

Countless thoughts flashed in their mind's eye. Nevertheless, to say that they were being fearful and timid would be an underestimation of their will—anyone would have had their doubts.

"Even at the Plagued Land fighting against the brethren of the Evil God of Pestilence, I've never had this feeling…"

Clenching the weapon in his hand while holy bolts wafted around his war hammer, Roland sensed Father Nature's divine strength within him. Though he trusted his own ability and the holy light, uncertainty lingered.

He was unsure if he could win, unsure if he could safely prevail through this struggle. Even someone as self-assured as Roland had no way of being unreservedly assured of a triumph—yet the holy knight had an impulse to pray to the Seven Gods.

And they did not have to wait long.

Soon, at the edge of the Mountains of Origins where the sun still shone, a humongous iron hand suddenly protruded from the wall of haze. An adamantium golem the size of a mountaintop followed, exiting the smoke unhesitatingly—strutting towards the center of the mountains where the Divine Tree of Beginnings stood. More than ten colossuses followed behind, their identical steps trembling the earth.

While they marched, thousands of low hills within the mountain range broke apart in an orderly manner. Gargantuan stone tree branches lay within; pure green lights glided around the tips, dying the protected domain a shade of green. Father Nature was awakening its true form, and that was when a voice that clearly was suppressing excitement rang beside the holy knight.

"The golems have arrived."

Wrapped in a red combat aura that made him appear to be on fire, Joshua brandished both his weapons—unconcerned at the sight of the titan colossuses flooding forward. "Roland, before we do this, I must tell you something—" he said softly and turned to his friend, grinning. "You won't be able to find any enemy if you don't hurry up!"

His words were so crisp and relaxed; there wasn't a soul that would have been left dubious. However, Before the holy knight could respond the warrior had already dashed off, shifting into an unbelievable crimson stream. Charging towards the colossuses' position, he only left behind a line that quickly dissipated into the air. "Fight! Don't pray!"

Because the Lord is with your blade!

Roland and Black had never anticipated that they would enter a scrap such as this. As the warrior left in supersonic speed and opened a passage, beast and knight glanced at each other in absurdity. They numbered at two-men, one dragon, two armaments, and they were supposed to charge at the thousands of titan colossuses, as well as flying golems and land golems spread as far as the eye could see.

Furthermore, according to Joshua—the warrior wouldn't stop at resisting their advance, but would also be demolishing them?

Staring at the warrior's already-vanished shadow, Roland felt overwhelmed.

–Oh, Joshua. You're such a free spirit.

Never once hesitating to pick the path he favored, never doubting as he advanced towards the target he chose, never losing himself in the way he lived.

"It's so enviable. I hope could be such a person, never doubting myself and living, however, I will."

But you're right. That's how we should be at this moment.

Shaking his head, the holy knight's heart was filled a curious courage. He left Black's back and streaked towards the air where flying golems gathered like clouds. His body shrouded in holy light, he dashed at the enemy without delay, roaring sonorously, "IT'S TIME FOR BATTLE!"

There's no other choice!

The power given by Father Nature flared within his body just as the immense sacred power converged on his war hammer. In that brief second, as if warping, Roland turned into a cluster of flashes that stabbed into the midst of the horde of flying golems. Many of them tried to stop him but failed, churned into powder by the holy knight's hammer.

Shards of stone scattered in the air. As if entering a threshold above human, his attacks easily shattered golems where once it would have taken him far greater effort.

The knight himself was unbelievably surprised and even forgot about dodging attacks from the other golems. The enemy was not lagging behind either; Roland had only stopped briefly, and seven to eight of the golems who angled and charged at him. They streaked, the air whistling shrilly behind them, and struck Roland's body.

There wasn't any effect.

Roland reacted; chanting in a mystical tongue he summoned his greatshield out of thin air that slapped the golems into pieces. The clothes on his upper body were diced by the monsters' lunge—exposing his rather unblemished chest. He lowered his gaze—not quite able to process that he was unharmed.

So, this is the power an agent who possesses the Rage of the Ancient God? Father Nature's blessing is most impressive!

In order to assist them in resisting hordes of Chaos, Father Nature did not hold back in his blessings. The full support he has given immediately allowed them to attain powers far beyond their usual levels. Roland felt that even the leader of the knights serving the Church of the Seven Gods would not be able to best him in sheer power. This majestic power was comprehensively inhuman—and was fully capable of slaying dragons and crushing steel.

"To reach such threshold—so that's why Father Nature could give such an immense responsibility to just the few of us!"

Finally realizing just how great his capabilities were now, the holy knight laughed as he stepped on the debris while advancing aerially. Blasting the golems apart along the way with every swoop, Roland cleared a path paved with white-gold holy light amidst the black clouds. The sky was filled with stony pieces while gales bombarded the corner of his clothes. Though not wearing one he felt that his physique was far sturdier than any armor—he wouldn't be the one hurt even if it were golems crashing into him. 

However, he has a raging suspicion. Father Nature's gift had given him overwhelming depth, but the number of golems were not decreasing—they were multiplying instead. It seems that for every flying golem he killed, two or three more would appear from the clouds.

There was no end to them.

Meanwhile, Black blinked once at the highest peak of the Mountains of Origins. It did not think much—since the two guys leading the way has already dashed off, it should be fighting as well.

The holy knight has opted to pick off the aerial golems while Joshua is facing off against the titan colossuses; it's better for him to handle the earth golems.

And that was why—as soon as the holy knight left, the half-dragon followed after Joshua's steps and sprinted at the direction of the colossus, kicking up a trail of dust in his wake. His body was encircled by hoops of holy light patterns that raise his power levels and incessantly poured knowledge into it.

The bloodline inheritance of Smelting Black Dragons.

As a deity that once resided in the Mycroft Continent, Father Nature, Lord of the Forests had observed many elder dragon breeds—and the Smelting Black Dragons were one of them. This species was peaceful, and lives its life wandering the oceans to create little volcanic islands and small continents.

Kind to nature and its fellow creation, it once enjoyed conversations with Father Nature's will—after all, He was a god formed from kindness. The two sides had exchanged many things; part of those was a sliver of the Smelting Dragon's inheritance.

It was now fittingly given to Black—since it had awakened its Black Dragon bloodline.

The half-dragon had a sensation that the bloodline powers in its body that had awakened just recently was being stimulated by the sacred powers from its blessing. Once a creature of mortal flesh, its body was slowly changing into that of an elder dragon—the earliest living beings that prowled the earth during the moment of Creation.

Waves of fiery energy surged beside it.

Now, Black's every step would leave behind a crimson molten hole; crimson gold stripes that bore a striking resemblance of volcanic lava appeared all over its shell. That's the appearance of the half-dragon that dove into the thicket of land golems. Red fiery elementals materialized in the air and exploded out of its body, splitting the golem army apart.

Black did not attack but merely dashed through the ranks of golems—the horrendously extreme temperatures it emanated were melting mithril golems and those of classes below. An incredible strength empowered its tail and body that throws any golem halfway up the sky with the slightest of contact. They would fall heavily and shatter upon landing; thus, the half-dragon kept charging without much thought and crumbled their ranks, creating utter confusion.

Still, it had the same problem. There was no end to the rocky abominations, though Black steamrolled through them, it had no way of shredding their numbers down.

At that moment, Joshua was fighting against the giants.

The dust from the dark clouds had completely obstructed his sight. Apart from the Mountains of Origins—Father Nature's domain, everything was swallowed by darkness. Countless stone giants and titan colossus wandered the pitch-blackness, heading towards the heart of the mountains and that ancient tree half-buried underground.

Their imposing appearance as they advanced could dominate one and all. Hills, summits, cliffs, and rivers were unable to stop them—they would trample everything to dust.

But there's one man who stood aloft in the air facing them, blocking their path.

Joshua held his greatsword and greataxe, his body shrouded by a red shade of Combat Aura. It sent horrendous shockwaves into the air, creating ripples that permeated the air across hundreds of meters. He stood without a word and watched the titan colossuses through the tremors in the atmosphere, his eyes sporting a mysterious twinkle.

A twinkle called excitement.

The force within Ling and Ying were pouring into the warrior after they were armed—meaning that Joshua had three-person's worth of blessing from the Lord of nature.

And that power was enough to crush all that he saw.

"Ah, pitiful puppets…"

Divine markings spread across Joshua's skin like circuits as genuine divinity pressed into the warrior's body. The Azurite in his chest glowed a green shade, mixing its hue with the red and turning into purple.

Staring at the titan colossuses as they kept pushing on, the edges of Joshua's lips curled up as he revealed a savage smile. Something appeared to be burning in his eyes as the pure instinct to fight boiled within the warrior's heart.

He drew a deep breath. His heart, immensely augmented, pumped rapidly—delivering blood, aura, Order energy and a threefold divine power to his entire body. The menacing potential had exceeded the limit of Father Nature's blessing, expanding every muscle of the warrior's body and floated his veins. Under the huge pressure, many of his capillaries snapped, spraying blood in the air that vaporized in the heightened temperatures, clouding the air with a bloody fog.

As he raised his sword, the tempest around the warrior turned into a real storm, his voice turning rather scattered in the wind—

"Return to your eternal slumber!"