Soul of Searing Steel

Viola Aeolus, a young female elf, bred and born on the soil of Babel Province, a doctor, was currently laying down lifelessly at her own home, enjoying the rare festive holiday because of the special celebration taking place in the city.

“For the love of Tree Mother, even if the world is ending… please don’t drag me out of the house…”

Covering her delicate face with her blanket leaving only a long green hair scattered right on top of her pillow, the young female doctor let out a pleasant groan. “Oh my god, my bed… my blanket… How can such perfect invention exist in this world?!”

As she was ranting her frustration, she rolled herself in her blanket and made herself looked like a sushi roll. After that, she rolled herself a couple of rounds on top of her own bed rejoicing the time for her to finally rest.

Ninety-eight percent of the people in the Bay Confederation were all sorts of elves. Among all of them, sixty percent were green-haired Forest Elves and silver-haired Underworld Elves, thirty-eight percent were red-haired, green-haired, black-haired and other types of elves, while the remaining two percent were the strange half-elves. Their bodies contained the existence of bloodlines of other races. However, there was no evidence found to prove their existence though. That had become a great mystery in the biological world.

“Our ancestors must have lived with the other life forms which possess wisdom. Well, we can tell that is true by looking at the various elements of our culture…” This argument has a considerably quite a hot topic among the academia.

As Viola had just participated in a seminar on bloodline related researches a few days ago, she was so exhausted for the moment. Today was actually a holiday that was extremely rare for her. In order for her to ensure the quality of her rest, the young doctor activated a Sound Nullifying Magic Circle in her house. Then she tossed herself onto her bed as she fell asleep comfortably in her soft blanket.

Naturally, she could not hear the urgent notification that was being broadcast one time after another by the government of Babel Province.

“The volcanic dragon will arrive in fifteen minutes. For the remaining citizens, please evacuate the city as soon as possible under the guidance provided by the military personnel. I repeat, the volcanic dragon will arrive in…”

The urgent announcement was being broadcasted over and over again. The sound of the broadcast blared through every single part of the city during the evacuation. Under the protection and guidance provided by the military personnel of the city, most of the citizens in the city had made their way to the sanctuaries that were temporarily set up in the fortress right outside the city. Of course, in the meantime, there were a small number of citizens who did not want to believe that bullsh*t that was happening. Even the elves had *sshole and bullies. They took advantage of the situation and robbed the other citizens. Although they had been arrested by the patrolling military personnel a brief moment after they were committing their crimes, there were still a small number of people remained in the city.

Of course, Viola who had currently descended into deep slumber as she was snoring all the way through the urgent broadcast in the city was one of the remaining citizens in the city.

The emergency broadcast stated that only ten minutes left before the volcanic dragon would arrive at the city. There were still quite a large number of people remained on the streets. The evacuation was yet to be completed. After all, the city was a large-scale city with a population that exceeded a million. Two hours was merely too short for them to completely evacuate a city of that size. Meanwhile, on the streets, the military personnel who were involved in the evacuation had already withdrawn themselves from the city along with the crowd of the citizens who were evacuated from the city. Meanwhile, the fully-armored military forces began to move in.

With the support of magical items, the army had built numerous temporal fortresses on the streets across the city. The armored vehicles were entering the city one after another. The heavy wheels of the armored vehicles had crushed the beautiful pathways, leaving noticeable traces behind the pathways. The magic-enhanced engines in each of the vehicles were operating just fine as they were extracting the energy from within the energy crystals to enhance the engines’ operating power.

Five minutes before the arrival of the volcanic dragon.

The plume of smoke that was moving rapidly towards the city had become visible to the people who were still in the city. All sorts of animals with sensitive organs, for instance, the animal companions of the elves, mice and all sorts of birds were moving back and forth in discomfort. Some of them even flew out of their own nests as they flee into the distance. The scenes were indeed terrifying even for the citizens who did not believe that a monster was coming towards the city. Staring at the plume of smoke that was charging towards them, they were frightened to the point that they were preparing to escape from the city now. However, it was already too late for them.

Zero minute before the arrival of the volcanic dragon.

The army of the Confederation were almost done preparing for the arrival of the volcanic beast. In the meantime, the plume of smoke was moving towards them from afar at a rapid speed. In just a brief moment, it had arrived before the city gate of the capital city.

Boom!

The earth was rumbling by the trembling footsteps of the volcanic dragon. As the dust and smoke were slowly dispersing into the surroundings, the footsteps were slowing down as a gigantic figure emerged from the dispersing smoke.

The black shells all over its body were coated with fire elemental armor. The draconic horse lifted its head as it looked at the city without a city wall. Its neigh was low pitched, as it was curious about the reason why the city did not have city walls around the city as protection.

It could sense that there were a lot of living things in the city. That was the reason why it came over here in the first place. Since it was already lost its sense of direction as it no longer knew how to get back, it would be best for it to get over to a crowded place. That seemed to be the wise words that its Master had told it?

However, what caused Black to feel confused was that most of the people were leaving the city though. That had the draconic horse puzzled. It had no idea what was going on with the city.

Since almost everyone in Moldavia knew about their count’s mount, none of them feared it. Because of that reason alone, Black had never thought that the people were leaving the city because of it.

“The target has arrived at the main gate of the city! It’s just right outside the city now!”

In the temporarily built headquarter in the city, all sorts of information and messages were relayed here. And most of the instructions and orders were also issued from here. A person who appears to be the commander of that operation was facing the communication circle as he was instructing all of the military personnel from the headquarter. “Listen up. Your mission is not to engage the monster. Your main task is to use the buildings and the fortresses around the city to your advantage and delay the movement of the beast as long as you can. We need to ensure the safety of the citizens. We must ensure their arrival at the sanctuary!”

However, the man was interrupted by a gasp from one of the soldiers on the scene.

“The target has slowed down. It’s… observing?! It’s actually going around the city observing our buildings!”

One of the communication personnel was looking at the light screen in shock. Along with a great rumbling sound across the quiet street in the city, a gigantic beast in the shape of a dragon was walking slowly around the city. As it was walking leisurely on the street, its golden eyes were filled with curiosity as well.

“Could it really be that the target has wisdom?”

“Judging from its behavior, it’s very likely that the target has its own wisdom!”

Casting aside the people in the commander’s room, in the Confederation’s Technology Department, the researchers who were observing in real time had already engaged in a heated discussion over that topic. Did that beast really have wisdom of its own? The topic spread out like fire. As a completely new species, the volcanic dragon possessed some characteristics of a [Dragon] that only existed in the elven myths. That point alone had already gotten the attention of most people in that world. Nevertheless, the beast seemed to have its own wisdom. Maybe it could even communicate!

Of course, Black was not aware that it was being watched, observed, and analyzed by so many people at the same time. These people were analyzing every movement it made ever since they made contact with Black. However, truth be told, Black was merely walking over to the city to find its way back home.

Looking around for a while, Black had finally found itself arriving before a wide street. The dragon horse nodded as if there was a side of it was humane. After that, it quickly set foot in the city.

As its body was overly huge, it used to be reminded by Joshua from time to time that it must not simply walk around the city on small roads. Because it might accidentally destroy houses that people were living in. Meanwhile, upon arriving at an unfamiliar place, Black still remained its good habit about that.

The street of the elven city was not built with tough rocks. Instead, they were built with clay that was much softer and weaker. Well, the clay had a certain degree of resistance against water and frost. Most importantly, they were much lighter than rocks and bricks. Not to mention that they were much cheaper in regard of their cost. Because of that, the tires of the armored vehicles had left track prints all over the streets. Meanwhile, Black’s weight was far heavier than any vehicle there was in the city. Every single step it took had left a remarkably deep footprint in the ground.

In order not to destroy the buildings in its surroundings, the draconic horse took note of their existence around it as it removed the barrier of fire elemental energy that was flowing around its body. After witnessing Black disengaging the fire elemental barrier, the senior officers of the Confederation Army who initially intended to order the attack on Black immediately ordered the strike force to stand their ground. Everyone went into their observation mode as they were focused on observing Black.

“The intelligence of the target is obviously very high. It can behave well and walk on the streets of the city without destroying the buildings around it. In order not to affect the surrounding environment, it even deactivated its fire element barrier.”

A researcher rubbed his forehead with his hands as he was puzzled by what he was looking at. “But why? How does the creature know what our buildings are? It did not stop while it was crossing the hills and the forests.”

“The target has definitely seen artificial objects. And someone must have shown it those knowledge!”

Another biologist spoke out with confidence as he seemed to be very certain about what he said, “The movement pattern of the target is very similar to domesticated pets or horses. You see, although it is very curious about the styles of the buildings in its surroundings, it did not go rampant around the city to look at the buildings. Instead, it chose to deactivate its fire element barrier around its body that could have caused massive destruction to the buildings around it if it had chosen to walk around with it activated! Normal beast would not have thought about that. Even household cats do not have such ability of self-control.”

Meanwhile, just when they were getting more excited as they were discussing on the topic, a cold voice of a man came out from the communications circle and interrupted the discussion. That was the voice of the minister of the military.

“I don’t care about this at all. You guys are the smartest people in the Confederation. So tell me now. Can we or can we not try to… communicate with this giant beast? If you’re saying that it has wisdom, then can we or can we not bring it further away from the city then? So that we might not suffer any unwanted losses…”

“… Well, we will conduct a small experiment to find out.”

Meanwhile, Viola was still lying comfortably on her bed. Just when she was having a good dream, a violent rumble shook her back into the real world and woke her up straight away.

She could even feel that her house was trembling like an earthquake was happening. Miserably waking up from her sweet dream, the female doctor opened her eyes, sat up knowing nothing about what was going on around her, and stretched her back a little. She was muttering to herself in frustration. “Just celebrate if you want to celebrate… what ‘s there to make such a big fuss that would shake the heaven and earth… moro…”

Boom!

A dragon claw covered in black shell was seen slapped right by the side of the window of the house. Meanwhile, the young elf with a light-green hair was staring at that scene as she was completely caught off-guard. She just stared at the huge dragon claw with her jaws opened wide as the claw was slowly moving away from the closed window. After the claw went away along with the rumbling that shook the entire house, a second dragon claw was seen going down to the ground through the little window of her house.

A moment later, the trembling sound went away along with the second claw as it moved away from the view through the window.

“…”

Rubbing her eyes without holding back her strength, Viola felt a chill rising up her spine, and all the way into her brain. That was not just an ordinary chill. It was pure fear. That fear had awoken the female elf. Hence, she immediately covered herself in her own blanket and rolled over to the side of her bed.

Faintly, her voice could be heard coming from through her blanket. Though her voice sounded deeper as she was covering herself with her blanket while she was saying something. “This is all a dream! You can’t deceive me into believing all that horse sh*t! It’s definitely a dream!”

Black was still walking slowly in the city. It noticed that the design and the layout of the city was completely different from the city it lived in. This city was much more elegant and beautiful. Well, the city just looked gorgeous. The entire city looked just like a piece of art. There were fountains, gardens, small landscapes, and statues of all sorts. It knew that it needed to be extra careful in order not to destroy all those delicate and small things.

It was at that time when it suddenly discovered that many lives were present in the street not far away from where it stood. They had yet to leave the city.

The dragon horse decided to go towards that direction.

Meanwhile, on the side of the street, there were numerous magic-enhanced vehicles blocking the pathway on the street. They were moving forward as slow as a snail… no… might be slower than a snail. It took more than half a day just to see them move an inch.

In front of the pathway, there was an accident. Although the confederation was already handling the accident as swiftly as they could, the pathway had been blocked by the damage on the surface of the pathway caused by explosions and the abandoned vehicles. All citizens were anxious and hasty in wanting to leave the city. However, they could only progress forward little by little.

“Holy god! That monster has arrived here!”

A panicked scream came from a vehicle that took note of the arrival of the gigantic body figure of the draconic horse. Naturally, the others around were alerted to its presence as well. The panic-stricken yells suddenly began to spread among them. Many of them did not even think as they reacted based on their survival instinct, they abandoned their vehicles and began to flee.

A husband and his wife were sitting in the car with their child. The father was spamming the honk on the steering wheel of his car in frustration while the mother was holding their son who seemed to be only six to seven years old in her arm. They were watching their surroundings cautiously as they seemed a little panic though.

But when the screams came to their ears, they also saw the huge dark shadow that was approaching their car. Their basic instinct kicked in as they were overwhelming by pure fear. The mother and the son were trembling in fear because of that. Just like the rest of the people, they immediately left their car and fled. The father was carrying all of their luggage on his back while the mother was carrying their son as they were running in the opposite direction of the gigantic creature.

But it was too late. Although the pace of the dragon horse was considered slow in its own preference, it was still a giant beast that was tens of meters tall. Each step it took would be equally as the speed at which people usually run desperately, not to mention that many streets were blocked by many enchanted vehicles. So the people were not able to run as fast as they could have.

Because she was too nervous, the mother fell to the ground after she tripped herself out of her own carelessness. When the father noticed that, he threw away all of the luggage on his back as he made his way back to save his own wife and son. However, in the meantime, the shadow of the gigantic figure was already shrouding over the wife and the son as the two of them witness the approaching of a pair of giant golden eyes of a dragon with fear devouring their hearts.

Are we going to die here today?

Fear, came lurking out from the depths of their hearts. As the father had helped his wife and his son back on their feet, they held on to their son’s hands as they were hugging each other in despair, waiting for their moment of death to come for them. However, suddenly, the parents of the boy noticed that their son was loose from their grip. The boy then walked up to the beast alone as he was looking into the eyes of the dragon horse with curiosity.

It was truly strange to say that this dark-haired elf boy was not afraid of the dragon horse at all. He just stared right at the dragon horse with his emerald green eyes that were filled with curiosity.

“So huge… How can a horse grow so huge… this horse looks handsome. It looks different from the other horses.”

The boy started mumbling to himself, “Why do mother and father feel so terrified by it? It’s not like it has any ill intent towards us.” Having that thought in his mind, the boy even lifted his hand as he waved at the draconic horse.

In the meantime, Black had also widened its eyes as it looked at the little boy right in front of it.

Without knowing the reason for it, Black was curious as to why would everyone it stumbled upon would scream and flee in terror after they had seen it with their own eyes. Well, who could blame the black horse for being confused, right? Black had always been close to the people of Moldavia. It even interacted with the people from time to time. Hence, Black would never have thought that those people were running away because they were terrified by its existence. Because of that, the horse felt troubled and helpless. It could not even ask anyone for directions.

However, currently, there were more than ten people remaining in their position as they did not flee away like the others. Meanwhile, those who remained still on their spot—of course Black could not tell the difference that those people were actually too terrified to even make a single move. Their legs turned jelly from the overwhelming fear they were currently feeling. Furthermore, there were also three of them being so close to it. There was even a boy waving at it as if the boy was greeting it.

That was really good. Finally, a normal person!

Looking at the boy with black hair and greenish eyes, Black instantly remembered the two teenagers who had been looking after it before its bloodline awakened, Ying and Ling. The two of them were always grooming its hair. When that memory flashed across its mind, the eyes of the giant draconic horse had become much gentler than before.

It hummed as if it was greeting the little boy.

Meanwhile, at the very same time, all of the high-ranking officers of the commanding department and the research department, including all of the military personnel had their eyes popped out at what just happened.

“What?!”

“That’s impossible!”

“For the love of Tree Mother… this…”

Through the magic probe detectors that were being placed all over the city, they were able to see clearly in which Black and the elven boy interacted. Everyone was looking at the scene with their unbelievable eyes as they still could not believe what they just witnessed.

“The target… is abnormally friendly to human!”

“The target has the wisdom to get close to humans!”

“It even attempted to communicate with the boy first?”

The Minister of Military Affairs was also paying close attention to the scene. He instantly rejoiced as the interception mission beforehand had failed. “That’s… that’s great… So fortunate that our mission failed…”

For a moment, he could not say any more words. “It’s great to know that we don’t have to be enemies with this horrifying creature… It’s great to know that we can work this through with the creature in a peaceful way…”

Most of the researchers, after remaining in silence for a brief moment, broke out into a full-on discussion about what just happened. Because they had determined the draconic horse had no ill intentions towards the world, they would need to come up with a plan to handle the current situation, and to communicate with the draconic horse. Whatever they could come up with, that would be crucial to decide what could happen next.

In the office of the floating airship, the chief commander was also watching the scene with Director Rolla by his side. Both of them were also shocked to the point that they were staring at the light screen with their jaws dropped.

“… A creature that could cause a volcano to erupt… is actually so friendly…?”

After witnessing the draconic horse causing violent disturbance to the fire elemental energy and some intense explosions across the radius of hundreds of meters with merely its raging roar, the red-haired elf exhaustedly rubbed off the cold sweat from his forehead. Then he lifted his head and looked at the ceiling as he laughed it off. “This world is filled with the unexpected… this world is truly wondrous.”

Right by his side, Rolla shook his head and spoke in a serious manner. “Although the volcanic dragon might have the ability to trigger the eruption of a volcano, we can’t prove that it was really its doing though. The message that the investigative party left for us only stated that the volcanic dragon was living in the deep part of the volcano. And they also stated that the creature seemed to be sleeping—or perhaps the eruption of the volcano had woke it up from its slumber… who knows?”

Even though that was not the case in truth, what Rolla said was close to a little bit of the truth. Because of the sudden eruption of Mount Sigma, the dense elemental energy had caused the dimension to distort… Meanwhile, Black which was having its good sleep was inexplicably brought over to the vicinity of Mount Sigma.

Currently, Black and the elf boy were having fun. It had its four limbs bent and leaned over towards the boy, allowing the brave boy—or should we say the simple-minded boy, to climb onto its claw. Meanwhile, it was looking at the boy with its gentle eyes.

“This is so huge… And your claws are hot!”

Ignoring the screaming of his parents, the little boy was happy to sit on its black paws. However, the boy was surprised to find that his new friend was not looking at him like it did a moment ago. Black did not respond with a gentle neigh like it did before.

Its body quivering slightly, the draconic horse raised its head and looked into the sky. Because it gazed into the sky as if something big was about to happen, the probe detectors also turned towards the sky.

Meanwhile, time seemed to have stopped—

A small dot of light was seen moving rapidly towards the ground from the distant sky. It was a red light that appeared in the middle of the blue sky. The high-ranking military personnel, the researchers and the chief commander had their expression changed at the same time when they saw the appearance of the light. They were looking at the gleaming light that was falling down fast from the sky through magic circles. They could clearly see that the falling light in the sky was gradually turning reddish purple. Meanwhile, as the light was approaching the ground at a very fast speed, it could be seen that the gleaming light seemed more like a flare now. Meanwhile, right behind that flare, there seemed to be a huge magic circle that was formed from ten giant light wheels. Each circle of the light wheels had a diameter of hundreds of thousand meters wide. That was still the assumption made based on the fact that the flare and the magic circle were too far away from the ground to be seen clearly without any solid data.

“Those monsters from the outer realm—”

The chief commander was the first person to react to the situation. He slammed the table in rage and caused the light screen to tremble for a brief moment. “They actually chose an impeccable timing to come! They actually chose to come here!”

“Didn’t they always land on places that are not crowded?! They’ve never aimed to attack the city directly!”

The light wheels began to spin slowly. Each turn it rotated, a large part of the sky would be swept by an invisible force. Meanwhile, the red light was gradually getting bigger as it approached the ground nearer and near. Currently, one could see clearly that they were actually strange and bizarre gigantic meteors crashing down upon the city. The came from the outer realm. They were about to descend upon the earth of this world.

Putting down the boy who climbed onto its claw to the ground gently, Black stood up straight on its four limbs as it looked towards the sky in a serious manner. Its eyes was beginning to be filled with a devastating aura as if it was ready to engage in battle anytime now.

The draconic horse had been purified many times over with the Order power wielded by Joshua. Not to mention that Black had been battling against Chaos and Dark Tide alongside Joshua. Hence, it was hundred percent sure about one thing.

Those things that were coming down from the sky, those were definitely the presence of Chaos.