Soul of Searing Steel

After what appeared to be a long time, the Sixth Abyss was shrouded in dust once more.

With the advent of two monumental wills that transcended worlds, a biting wave of corrosive winds billowed through the acid skies of the Lava Inferno. It wafted over the land, kicking up layers of dust resembling black-silk from the land, rising and dulling the surface. The smog was formed after countless corpses had been combusted by the blaze over thousands of years, and soon searing steam rose to the clouds above, turning into damp specks of mud that dropped to the ground that could have been rain or sludge.

Countless Abyssal mud monsters squirmed excitedly in cheer, praising the Abyssal Lord that showered them with everything, although there were a lot more demons and monsters that were searching for refuge to evade the sludge that was more eroding than strong acid in panic. Under the dramatic turn of weather, the entire Sixth Abyss had fallen into a state of disquiet. All the demons and monsters looked nervously to the center of the Abyss, at the Burning Eye had hung atop the Tear Valley Fortress, waiting fearfully as it made its next move.

Goliath, however, did not mind the uproar it had caused. Now, the Lord of the Sixth Abyss and the Uncrowned King of all Lava Inferno demons had its thoughts focused upon the edge of the horizon, at that dragon-head crest that suddenly appeared.

The failure from the Mycroft Continent, the deity of the Pentashade dragons and the unnamed [Five-Headed Dragon God].

The Abyss never lacked in divine beings. There were endless worlds in the Multiverse, with each having neighboring Abysses. Most world civilizations or extraordinary powers had not reached the level of birthing gods—not to mention multiple deities—but a little endlessness still meant endlessness.

Although there were rarely any powerful realms that had multiple gods, it was definitely not unheard of, and hence there was naturally failures born amidst the competition between gods. The ending that awaited the losers was hence either dying by the hand of other gods, or to flee towards other worlds.

And the most convenient place for the case of the latter was the Abyss.

The [Five-Headed Dragon God] had no name, and was the guardian deity of the Pentashade dragon races. According to what Goliath knew, it was a loser that escaped death from the Mycroft Continent recently after its race had been defeated in the war against the other main races, while itself have been maimed after being besieged by the Seven Gods. It was forced to separate its existence and host them on three Dragon King bodies, and the one appearing now in the Sixth Abyss should be the part of its divinity the Dragon God left to gather news.

It had once represented the Pentashade dragons and collaborated with the Sixth Abyss and could almost be considered an ally. There was a team of magical dragons now fighting under Goliath in an otherworld, but for the Dragon God to have such acute insight over what went on in the Sixth Abyss, it was obvious that the Pentashade dragons had infiltrated the Lava Inferno to a threatening degree.

Still, the Burning Eye did not pay too much attention to the divine crest that was no true form. Abyssal Lords would receive a zealous devotion from their entire world that was equivalent to a god, and Goliath was also in its own world—instead of minding a maimed divine being, it had another target.

As its pupil whirled, the giant eye that was ablaze scanned the entire Sixth Abyss as the Demon King’s gaze permeates the grey-black smog that engulfs the world. Goliath’s vision swept through every land and pausing for an instant at every region. It was until its eyes reached the Black Sea Plains after going along the two banks of the Nether River that the Abyssal Lord was utterly consumed with rage.

The Sixth Abyss was different from other Abysses since it was a plane that held what almost count as organization and society. All lesser demons were ruled by archdemons or demon lieges, with those lieges in turn serving different Demon Generals that were in turn subservient to the Abyssal Lord’s leadership as they incessantly plundered and conquered other Abysses and worlds. In the few centuries Goliath had become Abyssal Lord it had labored to build cities and fortresses that belonged to demons, teaching those emancipated and unruly demons order through pure violence.

In such an environment like the Abyss, the effectiveness of such methods was quite low. Even so, as time passed, demons of the Sixth Abyss gradually changed from Abyssal beasts that were spread sporadically throughout the plane into ‘intelligent lifeform’ that could live and work within cities and fortress.

But now, everything was over!

Husk! Ruins! Corpses! Scorched soil! What the Burning Eye beheld was a deathly land with not one survivor. Starting from the Black Sea Plains and through the Grey Salt Plains, the Blood Mist Lake, the Sulfur Dunes until the central Nether River, it was as if the remaining population of demons along the way were survivors of brutal massacres. Signs of life were at an ratio of one to seven as compared to other regions, with many fortresses and cities crushed by searing blaze and pure brute strength, with one of the demon city actually being smashed under a hill that had been uprooted.

“Who?!”

The air quaked and a blaze promptly unfurled, claiming half the sky—if Goliath’s rage before had merely been against one who dared invade its lair and heavily injure Helm the Demon General, now it was an unnamed rage out of its monumental losses. It felt a tremendous humiliation as it looked upon the ruins of city that had been utterly levelled along the path!

It had always been demons that invaded other worlds in wanton ruination, so when did it came to a point that a person entered the Abyss to launch a massacre?! With no pause, the Burning Eye began to search for all clues between heaven and earth and rapidly locked on the position of its target. As the Tear Valley Fortress quake and swayed severely, the demon king fixed tightly upon the northwestern direction.

On the other hand, the Five-Headed Dragon God that descended with a clone that held a hint of divinity also held a rage that did not dull in comparison to the Abyssal Lord’s. The unnamed dragon god had already fused with its divine attribute into a single body several centuries ago and became the absolute patron deity of the Pentashade draconic races. Everything mundane were decided by the dragon kings apart from certain great events regarding changes to the races that the Dragon God would be concerned about, and strictly speaking it never cared a bit about anything to do with the mortal realm—although that man was an exception.

Everything changed because of that man! Since the berserker dragon plague spread several years ago it was as if every circumstance had something against the Pentashade dragons, and once the cause of all happenings that troubled the races were inevitably linked to that Northern Lord! It was he who killed Gore Magala and found the origin of the berserker dragon virus; it was he who wiped out the northern white dragons and found the original sample of the berserker dragon virus from their nest to make a vaccine; it was he who turned the nations’ eyes towards the Dark Forest and prevented the berserker dragon plague from spreading far and wide.

He was virtually a prophet who could foretell the future, and simply wrecked more than half of the Pentashade dragons’ plans from the very start!

Beyond that, that damned male human had also headed to the Abyss and ruined the plans for the supporting army of demon-blooded dragons. He had even blocked the blow from the [Longsword of the Ashlands]—the strongest offensive blow that could have dismantled the defensive circles in the Far Sea Sacred Mountain thus ended up fruitless! Flawless plans would always become flawed in the face of the human known as Joshua van Radcliffe, whose name and face were attached with brimming hatred in the rolling memories of the three Legendary dragon kinds and the many Supreme dragons, making them seethe but helplessly so.

But now, he actually came to the Abyss and was seriously hurt from combat against a Demon General! It was virtually seeking his own doom!

The dragon god did not take notice of the Abyssal Lord beside itself as well, the two champions that were above Legendary were both maintaining the most basic of precautions before searching every trace Joshua left behind at full power. The demons in the vicinity of the Nether River could promptly sense the two monumental wills brushing against every inch of land. Even Abyssal worms buried deep beneath the soil were startled from their slumber by the heavy pressure, and urgently dug through the soil out to the surface to breathe, just like worms.

At present, Joshua who was being pursued relentlessly by the two kin of victims was flying swiftly on a low altitude. His body was encircled in hot winds that would burn even if it touched the air as the warrior left, following the direction where the black dragon escaped.

He had just removed himself from the mood when he fought Helm. Joshua’s heart could not help throbbing when he recalled his state at the time, unable to stop himself showing a hint of graveness in his expression concealed by armor.

“As expected, assimilation with divinity is not that easy to evade.”

In the instant Helm the Demon General had appeared before the warrior, he sensed that he was no longer himself—in that brief moment, Joshua had forgotten his purpose for heading to the Abyss and the principles he laid down for himself, focusing entirely in the battle. There was neither hot blood or excitement for it was as if Joshua was no longer human but a war machine, with every emotion and meaning to battle shredded and merely went to [slaughter and destroy].

That sensation had been subtle and discreet as if there was nothing wrong about it, with even Black itself sensing nothing different with its master from before. To the black dragon girl, Joshua had always been that kind of a person who would temporarily put anything on hand temporarily to fight against a formidable at full power.

The truth, however, was not so.

The warrior loved to fight, but would never be frenzied over it. This time, he had entered the Abyss to search for two Legendary mages, the destruction and slaughter in between being merely the method of search. To forgot that rule and enter a life and death struggle against a powerful foe was virtually a corruption of Joshua’s belief.

That was absolutely impermissible—battle must be controlled through human will, and not the other way around. The former was a warrior, the latter a lunatic. Since awakening his divinity, Joshua had always wanted to control it and not be controlled by it.

Father Nature, Ogner, the God of Might… every being that he interacted with cautioned him with the most solemn tone and demeanor, that he must pay attention and be alert towards the power from the Multiverse. It was a double-edged sword that could make mortals divine or turn Legendary into puppets with no self-will, while even deities would be restrained and become something that was not Themselves.

Shaking his head forcefully, Joshua banished the urge to battle that was rising again and searched patiently for the black dragon instead. It was exactly how he could so rapidly recover from the influence of divinity—he did not come alone to this world. There was Black beside him, and if he really did not give a care and pursued the fleeing Helm, Black would not be spared even if he could escape from the Abyssal Lord and Dragon God. Compared to the life or death of a Demon General, the safety of the black dragon girl mattered more to him.

It was not quite the same as the unfamiliar world that he had arrived at years ago. While Joshua changed the world, the people and things on the Mycroft changed him too—if not for an obscure sense that this tour into the Abyss would be beneficial to the black dragon girl’s growth, Joshua would not have brought Black either. His original plan was to have Ying, Ling, and Black all stay in his domain so that he would not have any worry like he did not in dire moments.

Looking back, however, having a little worry felt right.

With that thought, he accelerated again, the rampaging gale streaking like a keen edge over the ground, carving out a long ditch. Behind his back, two immeasurably wrathful gazes followed him tightly.

The battle had originally taken place at the plains beside the Nether River in the Sixth Abyss, but now the natural calamity caused by the two Legendary combatants extended to the extreme distance and formed an uncontrolled natural disaster. The shockwave of the [Star Blaze] that Helm had ejected shattered every cloud layer and obstruction in its way, with a huge chunk of a mountain that was in the path of the gamma ray cannon being melted. The tremors caused by the warrior stamping also spread far away as soil churned, with large parts of land being softened as if for sowing crops.

*****

On the northwestern side of the Sixth Abyss, two Legendary mages were forced to stop their research on the Squirming Forest below them. They took a few study samples and then levitated into the skies, looking towards the distance with a variety of support spells. Barnil’s artificial eye glinted with a multi-faceted radiance like a diamond, and what he first noticed was three high-energy body that distorted space itself was flying at his own direction with several times the speed of sound. Where it passed, ground frilled and tore, air burned and boiled while all things fell into an ocean of flames.

“Abyssal Lord?! And a clone of that Pentashade Dragon God?!” The old mage instantly exclaimed in shock. “Why are those bunch of monsters heading for us?!”

“It’s probably our fault…” The wandering poet William, meanwhile, found the truth. He smiled bitterly, shook his head before letting out a sigh. “Look at that dragon at the fore—isn’t it the Northern count’s mount? There is certainly no need to guess who the human behind it could be… he definitely came to find us missing persons.”

It was also simple to why the black dragon would subconsciously run towards them—the entire Squirming Forest was a trace left behind by an Ancient Dragon, and the black dragon, having awakened its Ancient Dragon bloodline, would hence subconsciously approach the region that appeared familiar to it.

“…*****!” Mumbling a curse without being aware of it, the old mage Barnil stamped his feet in the air to vent his anger, before speaking again with a tone of disbelief. “And here I thought it was a civil war between demons, how would it be that fellow?! This is the Abyss!”

How could anyone throw the Abyss into such an uproar and even fight against a Demon General?! Did he think that the Abyss was his backyard?! This Joshua, did he come to search or to kill demons?!