Soul of Searing Steel

“Divine Dungeon Shroud.”

Standing on the peak of a hill, Joshua’s brows lifted slightly as he watched the stars fall upon the land, forming an obscure sea of shroud that extended over miles beside a lake. “Never thought that I’d actually make it.”

As he mumbled, he turned to look at the party of thirty or more teenaged boys and girls, watching as they climbed to the top of the mountain closely behind him.

“It’s beautiful!”

The one in the lead was the blond boy, Crete. The young Silver-tier had seen the falling star and the sea of shroud, and had exclaimed in surprise.

He had also climbed from the bottom to the top of the hill in less than ten seconds, neither the hundreds of meters in distance nor the ridged path causing an obstruction for him. Behind him, the others of the group reached the peak of the hill too. Together, they watched the stream of stars over the night sky and the obscure shining shroud on the ground, and could not help expressing fluctuating awe.

Behind the youths, the divine armament siblings who had walked further to the back to prevent anyone from getting left behind strode ahead and reached the warrior’s back.

“Huh. That thing seems familiar…” Ying said distractedly as he stared at the distant shroud that spread an extraordinary presence.

Ling nodded in agreement. “That’s right. It reminds me of that black shroud master had solved in the Imperial Capital before… I remember that quite a few buildings were broken!”

“I didn’t break those buildings.” Joshua softly reprimanded the black-haired youth before turning towards the youths who were standing in line. Then, an idea flashed across his mind.

Come to think of it, it’s a good thing that there’s a Divine Dungeon Shroud in my jurisdiction…

Three months ago, the warrior had already returned from Grandia to the Mycroft Continent. However, he had only returned to Northern Moldavia now, part of the reason being for these children.

On that previous occasion, the bygone departed spirits of Grandia had turned into newborn souls that were now part of Mycroft’s cycle of reincarnation. Furthermore, the world’s Origin power as well as a hundred and three thousand souls of sinners converted by a gigantic magic circle left behind by the Sage into an Initial Flame, and with that circle which engulfed the world, Joshua drove the Flames into the deepest core beneath the world of Mycroft, successfully prolonging the world’s lifespan.

It was a feat far monumental than epics. Joshua’s acts had created a distinct divergence in everything from the pre-existence. Apart from causing a huge sensation amongst the hierarchs of each great faction privy to the fact that the world was previously dying, most of the cult organizations that had fallen into darkness due to the impending apocalypse were left at a loss.

That includes the cult established by the descendants of the Mother Goddess behind the scenes in Nolan. It was exactly due to the despair and agony they sensed beneath their feet that they reached out to the Abyssal powers and made all sorts of malevolent dealings—to maintain the world’s life, they had been willing to fall and become demons.

It was a necessary sacrifice—such was the understanding every person within the cult had. If need be, they were willing to offer their lives for their ‘noble’ creed.

But… What if the world completely recovered?

Leaving them aside, even the revived Mother Goddess would have been unaware—quite simply, it was impossible for anybody to predict such a thing. Thus, the organization that had believed themselves to be justice fell to utter confusion after ascertaining that the world’s lifespan had been extended for a few millennia. Innumerable elders and superiors hiding within different regions and factions had contacted each other in a frenzy to check if their information were mistaken.

And in a few brief days, the internal structure of the organization was virtually broken—every single one of them knew now that all they toiled for was now meaningless.

“We had only reached out to those abyssal demons so that the world lives!” One of the virtuous elders said determinedly in a meeting. “If the world had returned to normal, why should we still make deals with those disgusting pieces of ash?!”

“Right.”

“Indeed!”

“There’s no need to keep supporting the Pentashade dragons either.”

More than half of the organization agreed with him. However, in another few brief days, the underground organization with immeasurable power that was established for centuries and had members across the world splintered into a number of groups. Naturally, those who gathered for a certain belief were immeasurably loyal when said belief was still valid, but with it gone, human impulses that were usually concealed would surface.

Hence, the group that never really had a true leader split under the interests of several powerful elders.

On the other hand, the warrior who had achieved all this never even learned of the group’s name—he was on the world of Karlis, searching for those children whose future he had given his assurance for.

Through a dimensional passageway constructed by the Seven Gods Church, Joshua arrived at the ashen world that had been conquered by Aragami. Thanks to the residual Initial Flame, Karlis’s flame was temporarily reignited. Though not much, it would maintain a normal environment in that world for dozens of years. Now, meek yet sturdy silver-white florets grew all over the land, their steel-like metals swaying against the wind.

The survivors of the Grandia world was exploring the new world by the edge of a shattered continent. There were not many of them, though they were not that few either. The population of more than two million gathered around the Four Holy Cities—the Majestic Mountain Titan Urbandy being one of them.

Having accepted a request from the cities, the earth giant displayed divinity as befitting of the Divine Child of the Land. Its power fertilized the barren land around the cities immediately, and with crops growing at an unimaginable speed, the food crisis was solved immediately.

Certainly, Urbandy behaved as it had said itself—offer tithes and it would grant its protection in return. Still, the titan that had been already famous even amongst the survivors swiftly received worship from most of the citizens, thanks to its actions.

And as the Grandia survivors labored to survive, the warrior, keeping himself anonymous, found all the youth he had awarded his legacy to in secret. Initially, to break through to Legendary and recognize the contrast between the Steel Strength of different worlds, the youths had practiced the special Kokyu-ho he had developed. With Joshua’s level, the Kokyu-ho he had founded did not pale in comparison against the legacies within most powerful factions, at most there would be a need to improve certain intricacies of the ability.

Nonetheless, without a guide, those intricate may develop into side-effects or backlash. After all, the youths could be considered his first batch of ‘disciples’—he could not just watch as they ‘go wild’.

And so, Joshua brought them back to the Mycroft Continent, prepared to lead them back to his territory where they would be educated at Winter Fort Academy. Coincidentally, there was a huge vacancy for combat-class students, with the Gold-tier tribal barbarian warrior who had sworn his allegiance to Joshua often complaining about the lack of students, that there not enough people to train.

Then, just as Joshua returned to the Mycroft Continent, the dragon-winged girl Hillya had silently left, dropping her mystical robe as she headed for Karlis.

After Joshua revealed everything to her, she came to understand the causality behind everything and the founding of the Grandia world. However, it remained that she could not accept it, as such abandoning here right to the Sage Legacy. Determined to go and rebuild their home with her kin in a new world, she refused to stay on Mycroft.

It was a natural thing that neither Pope Igor nor Joshua disagreed. After Hillya had made a vow of secrecy in front of the Sage’s Legacy, she entered the passageway way to Karlis with infinite resolve, never once looking back.

The holy legacy relic she called the [Origin Robe] was thus handed to the pontiff and Joshua, who in turn would look for the next successor. While the secrets to the Initial Flame was discovered, the Sage Legacy was left undeveloped. Additionally, how could Joshua use the other three since he himself could not find all the secrets the Azurite possessed?

Joshua therefore indicated that he would hand the matter of successor selection process to Igor. Of course, the old pontiff had a slight bias—he tried to find a suitable candidate exclusively from the clergies in the entire three months after Joshua had returned, checking if they could resonate with the robe. It was only after it was proven that there was no suitable choice that Igor began to test other parties.

Meanwhile, the warrior had been resting in the Church after bringing the youths to Mycroft.

This journey to an otherworld in search of the final Legacy and delivering the Initial Flame had almost burned Joshua out. It was definitely a scene of magnificence and wonder in the epilogue of that journey when he turned into the King of Searing Soul and placed the survivors of Grandia in Karlis while lighting the flame of that ashen world.

In truth, without the energy the Sage had left behind, he would have been unable to hold out halfway through and assimilate entirely into the fire.

As for Joshua himself, while he recently ascended into Legendary tier, it was in truth a huge bottomless hole.

Like the warrior himself had put it—before Legendary, an ‘egg’ of greatness existed within all practitioners of different disciplines such as meditation in magic or Kokyu-ho in aura. It was the symbol of their most perfect and most powerful form that changes in correspondence to the level of the owner’s ability. Gold tier would be the first sign of fetal movement, Supreme-tier was when it showed its initial form, while Legendary tier was breaking out of the egg.

Still, breaking out of the egg did not mean achieving complete form. The ‘Steel Body’ that Joshua had made for himself—the indestructible body constructed entirely of pure Steel Strength—was only at thirteen percent after three months’ worth of composition.

It was the same for all Legendary champions since every single them require a long period to sublimate. Such was the proof of early-phase in Legendary—Legendary-intermediate assuredly meant a complete shift.

At that very thought, Joshua could not help turning towards the System.

For some unknown reason, the System had changed significantly. Errors would appear from time to time and the screen itself would flash rapidly as if about to disappear, although the Character Card was still stable with not much information lacking.

[Name: Joshua van Radcliffe]

[Form: Legendary]

[Title: World-bearer (unlocked with sole Mythical event)]

[Race: Kin of Steel]

[Race Skill: All worlds as one (As one of the first lifeforms in this world, any scene, world, unique secret domain or plane are now considered the most excellent environments, dispelling any negative status the environment naturally deals)]

[Level: LV77—Early Phase of Legendary]

[Challenge Level: LV75 (Legendary)]

[Attribute: …]

[Charm: Data distorted (World Savior title decreased, Destroyer of Worlds title decreased)]

As Joshua scanned through that line, there was an almost undetectable pause that even Legendary-champions would not have noticed. But soon he kept reading, taking no notice.

[Living Pattern: Perfect Body (81%)]

[Class: ? (unnamed)]

[Class Skill: Invincibility]

[Invincibility: Most mortal methods could not destroy your body—even dragon-tooth daggers could barely scratch your skin. Immunity against attacks below Supreme-advanced.]

[Neither ruin nor death.]

[Innate Talent]

[Martial Art Versatility: Reaching a limit of human combat technique, you now know every weapon and combat technique

—Ten million fights, ten million varying glories.]

[Terror Domain: Your very existence is the origin of fear and discomfort. Your enemy, never daring to stand before you, would flee with the wind. Within a certain area, each opponent would be given a single spirit check with those who fail falling into a state of panic.

—Transcendent over terror and darkness.]

[Divine Speed Evaluation: The velocity of reasoning that surpasses all mortals, reaching into the threshold of the gods.

—Is that prophesizing? No, it is processing.]

[Energy Core (Fusion Core): Boundless and terrifying energies are imbued within all things. There are rare few who could use it, with you being one of them. In certain moments, it is possible to ingest selected materials for rapid regeneration or explosion of energy.

—Hear that? My heartbeat is the sound of the sun.]

[Anti-gravity: Gravity could never shackle the soul that resides high over the heavens. Unconditional freedom of flight.]

—Existing is extraordinary.]

[Description: All glory and sin belong to you. Such is all the things that outstanding individuals should fulfill and shoulder.]