Soul of Searing Steel

The extraterrestrial daemons from the other realm suddenly appeared across the Illgner Continent 245 years ago.

They descended from the sky like shooting stars and meteorites, along with a gigantic magic circle formed from ten light wheels. In the early days of the advent of those meteorites, because they appeared just like shooting stars and their meteor-like appearance, they were honored by all the elves as the descendants of the stars. The elves even wanted to worship them as their gods.

However, it turned out that the name they had given to the beings that descended along the stars could not be more wrong.

Those emotionless blood-thirsty creatures that existed in humanoid form were actually ferocious beasts that were composed of gray rocks. They had outer shells that were extremely hard and somewhat resistant to magic. At the beginning of their arrival, they looked just like giant meteor rocks. However, after the body surface had cooled down, these monsters, which were later known as golems, began their hunt over for any living being with blood and flesh.

In the first week of the fall, more than half a million people were killed by the monsters that fell from the sky. Since time had passed for many years, currently, there was no existing data as evidence at all. However, the learned community believed that this number would only increase, and it would not decrease anymore. Well, the community had the remaining several cities and a large number of skeletons and bones to prove the credibility of that speculation.

These daemons from other realms beyond the sky had driven the last generation of Elven Dynasty into desperation. Many years later, the endless rebel army and the newly established Bay Confederation finally toppled them completely. However, the threat of the golems had yet to be removed. Instead, it had gone far worse than it was.

“Oh my god! That number!”

Upon looking at the sky, the guards in the city could not help but take a deep cold breath. One of them could not stop muttering in fear. “That’s an invasion! They’re coming down in an army! Oh, for the love of Tree Mother… That is an entire fleet of daemons up there! They’re larger in number than the previous descent that happened back at the Valley of Cold Winds!”

Most of the soldiers who were picked to deal with the volcanic dragon incident were veterans. So they naturally knew about the battle that took place in the Valley of Cold Winds three years ago. Many of them had fought the battle themselves. That invasion had almost caused a complete destruction over the fortress of a large-scale city of the Bay Confederation. However, even though they managed to survive the invasion and kept their fortress from being destroyed, there were numerous deaths—hundreds of thousands of them had died during that battle. Everything across the distance of hundreds of miles was scorched into ash and dust. Everyone who knew about that battle could not help but feel an intense chill right up their spines.

In the meantime, the commanding center had also descended into chaos at the moment. They were gazing upon the falling flares that were coming in hot, scorching up the sky above Babel province, making everything looked bright as heaven. Countless meteors were showering down as they were forming lines of light tracks behind them right in the middle of the sky.

“Fortunately, we have evacuated the people before this…”

One of the commanders was trying to be optimistic towards the current situation. He was looking at the red light screen right before his eyes. Although his mood felt as if he had just tasted sh*t a moment ago, he was still smiling bitterly as he shook his head and said, “Or else, there would have been hundreds of thousands of deaths, or even millions of deaths on our festive day.”

Meanwhile, right in the technology department research institute far away from the city, numerous technicians were urgently calculating the trajectory route of the meteors. Finally, they came to an astonishing conclusion. “Thirty percent of the golems are about to descend upon the soil of Babel’s capital. The wave of the impact and the explosion are estimated to destroy one-third of the buildings in the city!”

“The economic loss is estimated to be 19 million Gintala. The death counts will reach over 120,000… Fortunately for us, most of the citizens have been evacuated to the sanctuary, or else the death count would have been doubled or even tripled.”

No one had set their thoughts on how to stop the incident from happening. Well, that was because with the current technology of the Bay Confederation, they had nothing that could effectively intercept or block any objects coming from the sky. The newly developed floating airship could only provide support from the air to suppress anything on the ground. They would not be able to do anything about the golems until the golems land on the ground.

In the capital city, the military army had prepared themselves well enough to withstand the incoming wave impact. Meanwhile, the remaining citizens that yet to leave the city had gone into the houses and some of them even went down to the underground basements. That was because the sanctuaries that the government had built up were too far from them now. Hence, they could only find a safe spot trying to survive the situation.

With just a few breaths, it felt like doomsday was already upon the world. Panic was spreading all over the place.

“Normin! Don’t stay there!”

Right beneath the shadow of the giant body of the draconic beast, the elven husband and wife were shouting loudly at their son. They were eagerly hoping that the boy standing beside the beast’s claw would run back to the parents and join them in taking shelter in an underground basement.

Meanwhile, the boy by the name Normin was hesitantly looking at Black which was gazing at the sky with its head up. After feeling hesitant for a brief moment looking at Black, the boy turned to his parents and said, “Alright, I’ll come right away!”

After saying that, he turned his head around and touched the gigantic claw of the draconic horse as he regrettably said, “So warm… Horsy, you must be careful. The meteors in the sky are scary. Please don’t hurt yourself.”

The boy had always felt that the beast in front of him was a horse, just like the horse that he always got to ride every time when he visited his grandfather’s house. He had no knowledge of what a dragon was. Well, this was definitely a horse to him… or perhaps this horse is a little too huge, that’s all!

After that, Normin swiftly ran towards his parents who came out to get him. After his father had grabbed tightly on the boy, he quickly clipped his son right beneath his armpit and started running back to the entrance of the underground basement.

“Roar…”

After seeing the boy and his parents had gone down to the underground basement by one of the buildings around it, Black let out a gentle groan before switching its focus back to looking at the sky.

Right above in the sky, the clouds were separated and scattered, and one of the meteorites fell towards the ground along with an imposing momentum that seemed to be able to destroy anything that got in its way. The sky was stained with fire, shrouding the sky blood red.

The presence of Chaos is so dense… are they the enemies of Master?

The draconic horse was feeling nostalgia as it thought of that. During the last encounter with such presence, or the Black Rising that came in previous years, Black was still an ordinary horse with merely the bloodline of a land wyvern. When it was battling alongside with its master who used all of his strength, Black could not even endure the impulse of its own master.

Although it had no wisdom at that time, it still felt humiliated and unwilling to admit that it was a disappointment to its master. It had let down its master’s trust as it was resenting on the fact that it was weak and powerless. So it did its best because it wanted to awaken a stronger bloodline in it, in order to become worthy of being the mount to its master.

Hence, everything had changed since then.

Running all the way to the center square of the city, Black had arrived at the empty city square where there were flags and tables and chairs that were scattered all over the place. The place was also filled with items and belongings of the people who left the place in a panic. Black was standing right in the center of the place. It let out another gentle groan and closed its golden eyes. The bloodline that came from ancient times was flowing faster and faster, until the blood under the veins of Black began to boil. It could not wait to destroy all of its enemies and reduce them all back to ash and dust.

Then, the red lights began to flow all around the gigantic draconic horse. Lava-like patterns were seen flowing across the black shells of Black on its entire body. In between the light and the dark, there was a strong presence overflowing through the gaps in between the shells.

The fire elemental energy that originated from within Black’s body was blazing so densely that the shape of the energy could be seen appearing in the air clearly. It turned into clouds of fire one layer after another surrounding Black’s body. Flashes of dark red electrical sparks were seen sparkling all over the clouding layers, bringing along gales of violent air that was so hot that they were hot enough to melt steel. The scorching heat that could even dry up a river had turned everything in the city square into ash and dust.

The flames began to grow as if the meteorites had hit the ground.

“Warning! A high heat signature has appeared in the center point of the city square! I repeat! A high heat signature has appeared in the center point of the city square!”

“Is it the volcanic dragon? What does it want to do…”

Instantly, a deafeningly sharp emergency broadcast was heard echoing across the ears of everyone in the commanding center who were observing the movement of the meteors. They were fearfully looking at the light screen as they were witnessing the rising figures of the data in all regards. “20,000! 30,000! 40,000!… The energy level is at 83,000? And its still increasing at an incredibly fast speed!?!”

“Unbelievable… That sort of energy!”

“The temperature cannot be determined anymore! Did the magic circle just overload?!”

“What in the actual f*ck is this creature?!”

“Wait! Just wait!”

One of the researchers seemed to have noticed something. He was looking at the light screen very seriously. After that, he spoke with an extremely astonished voice, “The draconic horse is aiming at the golem meteors?!”

The heat wave had swept through every corner of the city, and the intense fire shone out into the surroundings just like a sun. Everything was illuminated. Only in a few seconds, the vast city square was reduced into a pool of lava. The golden red radiance was so bright that no one could have look straight at it with their own eyes. Everything was so bright that the draconic horse was no longer visible to anyone. The observation circles that were cast in the surroundings were destroyed one after another by the fire elemental energy wave. Only a few magic circles that were deemed to be the most complex and strong were destroyed, which allowed the others to witness what was about to happen right after that.

The meteors that came from the outer realm beyond the sky were whistling and falling towards the ground of Babel Province. They were coming in at a momentum that no city wall or anything in that world could stop. The presence of Chaos was spreading. It seemed as if everything was on the verge of being destroyed.

In the meantime, on the ground, in the blindingly intense light emanating from the clouds of fire elemental energy and the flares, a powerful roar of a dragon was heard reverberating across the entire city. The roar had carried the ancient presence, the will and the anticipation to battle against the loathing Chaos. Meanwhile, in the horrified eyes of the high-ranking officers and the researchers who were still observing the draconic horse in silence, three even brighter light dots were lit in the middle of the radiating clouds of fire energy. Two of them were the golden eyes of the draconic horse while another one was the blinding core of the draconic horse. Right before the chest of the gigantic being, a strong light was gathered and condensed, looking just like the sun. Its golden core seemed to be boiling right at that moment. The descendants of ancient dragons had launched an attack with its full strength for the first time after the bloodline awakened.

“Roar!!!!!”

Along with the thunderous roar of the draconic horse, a beam of light that no other words other than ‘dazzlingly bright’ was appropriate to be used to describe it was shot right out from the center of the city. Everything happened in a blink of an eye. The beam traveled through the air, penetrating through the layers of clouds in the sky and struck into one of the meteorite rocks that were falling down from the sky in the next instant.

After that, a destructive rumbling sound that was ten times louder than the sound of a thunder was heard echoing through the entire sky right above Babel Province.

Along with a powerful wave of impact spreading out from the impact point between the beam and the meteor rock, the clouds in the sky were all swept away in an instant. The red radiance that filled the entire sky had been completely overshadowed by the light of the beam itself. Through the observation screen of the observation circles, everything was completely covered over by the color of golden white. After a brief moment, everyone was shocked to discover that the other tens of meteorite rocks, or even more of them had all vanished without a trace. The sky was empty. There was nothing left in the sky at all, not even the clouds after they had been swept away by the impact wave of the collision between the beam and one of the meteor.

“The… me-meteor rocks of the golems… Thirty seven percent of them have been destroyed! The meteor rocks that were estimated to collide into the capital of the Babel Province have been completely destroyed! Gone!”

“That beam that was shot at the meteor has exceeded 150,000 Energy Level! That amount of Energy Level is equally as powerful as the capacity of the ten superior magic cores operating at their full capacities! Is this really a living being?!”

In the meantime, the chief commander was staying in his own office in the levitating airship. He was gazing at the scene from the beginning till the end of it. His eyes did not even blink even though blinding lights were seen one time after another throughout the entire incident.

“Fortunately…”

As his hands were trembling, the red-haired elf took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. This was a smoke-type stimulant that was made from a type of herb called the Spirit Awakening Herb. Ever since Vulcan felt that his body was deteriorating since five years ago, he had been using this product ever since. He would only use this drug to keep his mind on the task under this sort of circumstances.

After taking a whiff of that cigarette, Vulcan kept his eyes closed as he tried to calm his own mind for a bit. After that, he only noticed that he had been covered in cold sweat after witnessing the entire incident, from top to bottom. The few seconds that he experienced a while ago was perhaps one of the most intense experiences he had ever had in his entire life. And that experience felt just like the one he had back then when he was almost being assassinated by five Shadowstrike Assassins at the same time during his attempt to overthrow the emperor of the Elven Dynasty.

“Even if the Volcanic Dragon is really the culprit that caused the eruption of Mount Sigma, it would be best that we remain calm and do nothing to it…” Spitting out a breath of smoky air, he mumbled to himself gently, “Not to mention that we have yet to confirm that the volcanic dragon is really the one responsible for the eruption of that volcano…”

“Fortunately… we are careful enough not to attack it.”

In the meantime, on the other side, Director Rolla spoke in a tone with a fiddle in his voice. Currently, he was on the brink of fainting onto the ground at the moment, leaving only one hand on the armchair by his side, struggling to sit straight in his own chair. Although his image looked pathetic and shameful, this silver-haired director of the Ministry of Biology with violet- eyes were feeling thankful about his circumstance though. “If that beam was shot into the city instead of the sky… the city would have…”

He did not speak at all after he paused there. Because everyone had known how it would have turned out if what he said really happened. Any elf with ordinary common sense would know what the consequences were. Any city in this world could never afford to suffer so much loss.

Meanwhile, in the center of the square, Black was breathing heavily.

The dense fog of fire elemental energy was gradually dispersing into the surroundings. The lava lines on the black shells of the draconic horse were gradually receding as well. And the golden core in its chest turned a litter dimmed than before.

Even if it was an upper Gold-tier dragon, it would still drain a lot of energy for it to launch an attack that powerful. That was also the first time Black had launched an attack with its full strength after it had advanced into a higher new tier. Black had yet to find a way to control using the limit of its strength. So it could only let all of its strength out, leaving not even a little bit strength behind for itself.

However, it seems like the effect of this attack is not bad at all. Such power should be able to help Master a little in the future.

Looking high up into the sky, the draconic horse nodded. Although there were still a number of meteorites falling from the sky, those rocks were not going to land in the surrounding areas of the city though. Well, that was already enough for Black who had been taught to protect the city.

As the square was no longer scorching with the high heat of the fire energy, the lava was swiftly condensing into lava rocks. In the meantime, Black had also absorbed back all of the heat in its surroundings. Meanwhile, just when Black was doing that, it sensed that the elemental energy in the atmosphere of the air in this world was strangely thin.

That was a rather unusual.

Black could not help but feel a little disgruntled about it. After all, when he was at Mount Sigma, it could feel that the density of the elemental energy there was as thick as the density of elemental energy in Mount Great Ajax, or maybe even more. That should be able to prove that the density of elemental energy in both worlds should be about the same. And because of that, Black should gradually grow stronger in this world as well.

But now… it felt as if the elemental energy in the atmosphere of the air in this world was being sucked away by something. Bit by bit the elemental energy in the air was leaking away from this world though. As the descendant of an Ancient Dragon bloodline, the sensitivity of the draconic horse towards elemental energy was so much stronger than most of the living beings in the world. The elves would never be able to do better than it in that regard. Only the pure energy life forms could be compared to it. Black was certain that the elemental energy in the atmosphere of the air was slowly depleting. If the elemental energy continued to leak away at that pace for another tens of years, this world might become a world that no magic can work anymore. By then, magic circles would only work if one was using magic crystals or runes that contained the power of the world itself.

In the meantime, Black was also certain that the energy level of this world was in fact similar to the energy level of Mycroft Continent back in the years long before today. Because time had passed while the leaking of the elemental energy continued until now, the world had become what it was today.

Of course, Black was not bothered by that at all. However, because it was not able to recover its stamina and vitality swiftly as it once could, it felt unbearably uneasy and upset. So it let out a roar of rage. It could see sparkling stars flying around its head as its never-exhausting body was suffering symptoms of fatigue.

Living beings like daemons and dragons would also be constrained by the environment just because they were too powerful beings. Black slowly laid on the ground like how a dragon would curl its body around right in the middle of the square.

It could sense that its body needed rest. Well, at least it would need to rest until he had recovered enough energy to walk again.

Meanwhile, in the research lab, the sounds of discussion was beginning to spread around.

“Is it feeling tired now?”

“It definitely is. Just now, that thing just launched a full power hit that exceeded the energy level of 10,000. Even if it is a real volcanic creature, it will still have to rest up a while before it recovers.”

“Then… should we seize the opportunity now…”

One of the researchers gave some thoughts about it before he started speaking in a hesitant tone. “… Let’s… uhm…”

However, he was interrupted before he could say another word about it. Well, he was not interrupted by anyone actually. It was just because he was being stared at by ten other researchers like he was an idiot for saying out what he had in mind. The stares were the reason he stopped talking.

“Are you nuts? Or are you an idiot or what?”

Instantly, the researcher who hinted to do something to the Volcanic Dragon was being smacked with complaints and lecturing. “We’re more than just fortunate as the creature did not attack us! What are you thinking? Are you trying to do something funny that might get all of us killed?”

“It has just destroyed the meteors of the golems. Not to mention that it had used an extreme measure that none of us could have been capable of doing. That should be enough to prove that it is an enemy to the golems. So the enemy of our enemy is our friend. Do you understand that or not?”

“Oh for the love of Tree Mother… Then I shall say this once. Currently, other than the few secret weapons that the Confederation are developing, none of our current weapons nor equipment could actually harm the volcanic dragon. That notion of yours is just illogical and lame. Don’t even think about it.”

Right at the center of the square, Black had completely shut its golden eyes up as it fell into slumber. It had no idea at all that it had become the main topic of discussion for everyone in the commanding center though.

But at the same time, an immense will that felt like the embodiment of the earth itself, the great Will of the origin of life, had arrived at the vicinity of the center square as it felt the presence of an intensive surge of energy wave which had never appeared in this world.

“This is…”

In the middle of somewhere in the void, an enormous Will was slowly observing the body of the draconic horse. ” The bloodline of the Smelting Black Dragon… The embodiment of fire underwater, the embodiment of volcano underneath the deep sea… How could its descendant ended up here in this world then… ”

That Will seemed to be puzzled. ” More than a thousand years ago, after I’ve left the physical world, I’ve never received any news about my home… so where did this little fellow come from? ”

Although it could not think of a reason, it was still able to meet a familiar existence. That alone was enough to make the Will very happy. ” The element in the atmosphere in the air of this world is too thin. So this little creature is not feeling well because of that? This is my fault then… Then, I shall grant you strength to regain your power. ”

Along with a simple notion from that Will, condensed fire elemental energy emerged all around Black out of the void. The draconic horse was instantly startled and woke from its slumber. It was looking at its surroundings in shock. The radiance of magic power and elemental energy were surrounding its body. The density of elemental power was far denser than the density of elemental power at Mount Sigma.

What is going on?

Although Black was not made clear about what was actually going on, it was never going to be bothered by such sort of things though. After all, Black was merely a horse or perhaps a dragon—in any case, that did not matter anyway. Instead, it was happily absorbing the elemental power to recover its physical strength.

But, this elemental power seems to carry a faint fragrance of grass and wood?

By merely taking just a few breaths, Black had fully recovered its physical strength. The golden core right before its chest had also returned to its former state, glorious and shiny. The researchers at the Research Lab were staring at the scene as they were grateful that they did not heed the suggestion of one of their idiotic associates and do something to the draconic horse. With that kind of recovery rate, Black had already fully recovered itself back to full strength even before anyone could arrive at the center square. After all, its recovery rate was deemed to be even faster than the movement speed of a high-speed vehicle.

After witnessing the scene, the great Will had also slowly vanished into the void.

It also needed to rest. It had yet to recover from the exhaustion it had more than a thousand years ago. This time, it had made an exception because it had come across a familiar existence. Perhaps it would only descend to this world one more time after many more years later.

In the meantime, the sky was slowly rotating, the magic circle of the ten light wheels that covered the entire sky was also slowly faded into the shadows of the sky. Its appearance and disappearance were deemed as a mysterious phenomenon. There was no sound or warning about it.

The incident on Illgner Continent had come to an end for the moment. Meanwhile, on the Mycroft Continent, in the Northern Imperial City, the Holy City of the Triplet Mountain.

Joshua and Brandon had arrived right before the Morlaix Palace, the royal residence located right in the centermost part of the city.