Soul of Searing Steel

The Glorious Era was the most prosperous age of the Mycroft Continent. Not only the human beings, even the elves, the dwarves, the trolls and the centaurs in the entire continent had developed into a glorious civilization. The vast continent was filled with prosperous races, and the energetic light of a strong civilization was enough to light up the other worlds.

According to the Soul of the Forests, the elves could already sail into the countless voids across the universe on their Sol Ship. Its engine operated on the energy that is generated from the combustion of Elements. The Sol Ship could sail on for eternity just like the sun when they go out to explore the multiverses. Also in the human world, there were countless dimensional doors that lead to multiple worlds as well. The knowledge and information about the other worlds have become a thing of science, which required professional attention for someone to learn all about them.

The people have constructed cities on the surface of the moon, sailing towards the sun to explore the mysteries and secrets that are embedded within. Everything in the world was thriving and flourishing.

However, pride comes before a fall. That was where it all begun. On the eve of the calamity, all four races—humans, elves, dwarves and other fairies living in the fantasy land had formed an alliance to perform a magic ritual so grand that it went beyond the imagination of everyone. They had opened up a smallDemiplane ¹ that interconnected all worlds that the Mycroft Continent could reach at that time. The four strongest races had the intention to use the Demiplane as the central station as they went out to explore, exploit and colonize all of the outer worlds.

The Demiplane was named the [Multiverse Sacrificial Ground]. The Sage was the one who personally named the Demiplane. The champions of other races had also presented their blessings to the establishment. Sacred inscriptions were engraved and placed in the center of the sacrificial ground.

It was truly the most prosperous time of the civilization. The fire of civilization burned bright, so bright that the humans were no longer just seeing one continent or one world but the all the multiverse—they were prouder than ever.

However, everything progressed as prophesied.

—The ignorant shall open the Gate of Apocalypse, and everything will not escape death that has befallen on them.

The number of dimensional passages that they connected had reached a point where they had lost count. While they raved over the success of the ritual, they had also unknowingly activated a dimensional door that should never have been activated.

[Gate to the Dark Abyss]

The abyss was not unfamiliar to the Mycroft World. The existence of the demons were known to the people since the ancient times. Although that was indeed a horrifying world filled the Chaos that was deprived of everything, no one on Mycroft was truly terrified of its existence. There were even some professions and classes that wielded the power from the depths of hell—the power to manipulate the demons into serving them.

With the stage of human civilization at that time, the people in the Mycoft Continent had no problem resisting the sieges from the Dark Abyss. However, the Gate to the Dark Abyss that was accidentally activated this time was different from the other dimensional passage that the demons used to invade the world.

It is connected to every floor of the Dark Abyss.

How many floors were there in the depths of the Dark Abyss? No one knew for sure. So no one knew how many demons would pass through that gate either. Even if most of the dimensional passages have overloaded and collapsed, hordes of monsters from the depths of the Dark Abyss will still manage to pass through the gate. There was even a terrifying unknown existence from the bottom floor of the Dark Abyss, which had woken up from its eternal slumber and started a havoc in Mycroft.

The races who had lost their strongest champions joined forces in resisting the endless stream of Demons. The battle was fierce and tragic. The entire continent was covered in bodies and blood. In order to close the gate, some champions had to sacrifice themselves. However, by the time they destroyed the gate, the demon army had already activated seven gigantic portals that allowed the demons to come over to the Mycroft Continent.

The Sage and the champions of all races returned from the deepest floor of the Dark Abyss. However, they were still incapable of changing the situation as that was a war between two worlds. Countless Chaos beings that wandered in the Void had gathered on the battlefield like sharks to blood. The Sage was occupied with the battle against several Evil Gods, who would have annihilated everything in this world and the world itself before the demons could lay waste to it.

Hence, the initially prosperous world was reduced to a land of rubbles and ruins.

The warrior paused as he remembered the expression of the Soul of the Forests.

In the mass of light formed by innumerable faces that flickered, ‘they’ all had the same expression—calm, but sorrowful and angry.

He recalled the expression of the Soul of the Forests when he was shown the illusionary realm.

The sky was dimly lit as it was covered by dark clouds. Those were not natural clouds but blood vapor that came from the deaths of the demons and the alchemic puppets in the sky. The tainted blood and the lubrication oil rained down on earth like a storm. The gloomy light began to spread from behind the clouds into the deadly silence, shining upon the world, revealing the corpses and ruins of the battle. Blood and corpses were everywhere.

The air is filled with the stench of sulfur and greyish white mists that rose from the remains and the soil. The world is tainted to the core. All life had been wiped out. A breath of that air would poison anyone.

The war against the demons and the Chaos beings had caused the mountains to collapse and the flatlands to crumble. In the southern region of world, now the far south and the home to the elves, everything was slowly sinking. As a result of fighting with the Evil Gods, the horrible and distorted will swept through the outer layers of the world as the chaotic darkness revealed a tainted world where everyone died.

“As for the rest, none of us has the knowledge about what happened after that.”

Those were the same exact words of the Soul of the Forests. Its voice was heavy and slow. “Because destruction had laid waste to the great continent of the home to the people, a part of the elves had to leave the Mycroft Continent. They arrived in this world soon after the final battle.”

“I was there, blessing and protecting them through the entire journey until we arrived at this world together.”

The words carried a vague sense of shame of a deserter of war. However, they were also firm as the existence has been serving the elves as their protector.

“So, is this the story of the origin of this elven world? What about the story behind the existence of the golems then?”

Although many of the information about the origin of the elves were suspicious, Joshua was not bothered at the moment. The warrior continued to ask the next question. He furrowed his eyebrows and asked, “So who is the mastermind that manipulated these mindless and soulless puppets then?”

“Didn’t those elves answer your question?”

The Soul of the Forest returned the question back at the warrior.  “Just like the meteor rain, the heavy rain, the drought, the earthquake, and the tsunami, the golems are also a part of the ‘Calamity’.”

“Calamity? How can puppets be part of the natural calamity… wait a second… the ‘Calamity’ that you spoke of…”

Initially, the warrior did not understand what the existence was talking about but suddenly understood the meaning of it—just like the word ‘Famine’ was not the literal meaning of ‘Famine’, and the word ‘Pestilence’ was not the literal meaning of ‘Pestilence’, the term ‘Calamity’ could be representing something far beyond the literal meaning of calamity itself—it could be a kind of existence way more terrifying than anyone could have imagined.

Slowly nodding its head, the mass of light confirmed the doubts that Joshua had. The ethereal voice echoed and vibrated in the atmosphere. “Naturally, a god of Chaos is controlling the golems. You can call it the Evil God [Calamity]. Or you can just label it with something more ancient if you want to.”

“The Ancient God [Great Stars of Ten Calamities].”

Riding on the back of Black, the warrior and the others were heading towards the location in the distance. On the horizon, they could vaguely see a tall mountain peak that was not surrounded by the gloomy clouds. There were faint green lights flickering around the mountain but there was no sign of golems.

On the back of the draconic horse, Roland rested with his leg crossed next to the warrior. After listening to the warrior, he asked, “Joshua, we both know that the names of the Evil Gods and their powers are somewhat correlated. ‘Pestilence’ wields the power to spread plagues. ‘Famine’ wields the power to desolate a world with hunger. According to the current situation, if this world is said to be invaded by the Evil God ‘Calamity… I would believe that to be true. However…”

He paused as he tried to put his words together. The holy knight then continued solemnly, “Ever since the golems have arrived at this world, all sorts of calamities had befallen the world. Not to mention that the calamities are getting more frequent than before. Look at the recent events. The number of volcano eruptions, the frequency of the earthquakes, the snowstorms, the flood, and the other phenomenon… Everything that’s happening in this world should be evident enough to prove the authenticity of the fact that the power of the Evil God ‘Calamity’ exists in this world. And the Evil God is brewing some of its evil plans for this world. However, the golems are indeed just puppets. They have nothing to do with the calamities at all.”

He remained doubtful about the existence of the golems.

“The origin of the golems is not really that important. The Evil God ‘Famine’ has relied on the existence of crystal insects to transform itself into an Aragami as its vessel to walk on earth. Hence, it would be logical to say that the Evil God ‘Calamity’ is using the puppets as its vessel to unleash its power upon this world. The appearance and status of its vessels are too insignificant to be investigated. These golems are merely the tools manipulated by the hands of the Evil God.”

Joshua shook his head as he calmly explained the rest. He narrowed his eyes and said, “The Apocalyptic Circle in the sky is the true form of the Evil God ‘Calamity’ itself. That should mean that the Evil God ‘Calamity’ is the complex combination of the super large-scale magic circles, and the golems are merely its fingers that it uses to bring chaos to the world.” According to the Soul of the Forests, the Evil God ‘Calamity’ was different from the other Evil Gods. It was an extremely long-standing existence in the history. It was even worshipped by some worlds before. Just like the real natural disasters, as long as the world can resist the ten disasters, then the Evil Gods would leave the world alone.

“So that is why it is called the ‘Great Stars of Ten Calamities’….”

Ying was sitting next to the warrior. She was confused. She could not understand if something was too complex. However, she could still understand this. She hugged her knees and leaned herself against Joshua as she murmured to herself, “I wonder how many calamities has this world endured.”

“Who knows… so many calamities have befallen this world since our arrival.”

Joshua shrugged as he stretched and put his fists on his eyes. Then he clasped his fist tight and said, “However, that should make the matter much more interesting… Our enemies are not merely golems that we can touch and destroy. We’re also up against the ‘Calamity’ which was thought to be imaginary.”

He smiled and said, “This is really a battle that ordinary people can never get the opportunity to experience.”

“Then where are we heading next?”

Roland remained confused. After all, he has yet to communicate with the Soul of the Forests. Yet, it was not possible for the warrior to describe every single detail of the piece of information he obtained from the Soul of the Forests. The holy knight spoke doubtfully, “The Soul of Forests that you kept mentioning earlier on… what kind of existence is that? Why would it know so much that even the Church of the Seven Gods doesn’t?”

Truth to be told, the Church of the Seven Gods inherited part of the legacy and the inheritances remained formed the Glorious Era. They understood the ‘Three Hundred Lost Years’ way more than most of the people in the entire world. However, some existence of unknown origin has suddenly emerged from nowhere and claimed that it knew that age much more than the church.

“Soul of the Forests? Well, you’ll know in a while.”

Without directly clearing the doubts that Roland has on his mind, Joshua turned his head around and looked towards the mountains in the distance. His red eyes reflected the faint green light that was radiating from the surroundings of the mountain. “As for where we are headed to, of course we will be able to turn the situation around.”

“We’re about to arrive at the sacred ground of the elves of this world—the Mountains of Origins.”