Soul of Searing Steel

Right before everyone, a black light column rose from the surface of the ground and shot right into the sky. It broke through the layer of mists and the clouds, straight through the dark sky and left a small ‘hole’ in the middle of the sky.

—Meanwhile, right from the ‘other’ side of the hole, the presence of the other world was beginning to seep in.

At that moment, the violet-haired mage had lost her ability to speak for an instant. As a mage, she could naturally sense the presence that was gushing through that crack in the sky. Because of the curiosity of her instinct, the countess even used her spirit sense to see if she could pick up anything up. And because of that, the pure evil Chaos energy had caused a large effect on her spiritual mind.

“Damn it, where does all the power come from…”

One moment right after she tried to sense it, Vale Dani could feel that there was a power as strong as a lightning struck back straight to her brain. Under the intense shock, she immediately knelt down to the ground and put her hand on her forehead. She looked like she was in agony.

If it was not because she had strained herself in using her magic spells, she would have reached deeper into the connection with her sense. If that was the case, the mysterious power from afar might have hurt her soul bad.

The countess took a few breaths before she lifted her head to look at the black light column. Then she grabbed on her gray staff tight, using it as a support to stand back up on her feet. Upon tightening her teeth, she said, “I know my territory well. There’s definitely no ancient artifact or any strong natural wondrous object on my turf… So why is there such a strong phenomenon happening here? Where did this power come from? What is lurking behind that hole over there?!”

Of course, that world was an outer world that had been dominated by the Evil God, an outer world that was totally corrupted by Chaos.

Standing on the edge of the wall, Joshua knew the answer to it. On the other hand, Brandon who went down to help Vale Dani up also knew the answer to that question. However, it was not a good time to explain it to Vale Dani. Currently, both men were looking deadly serious.

Truth to be told, there was no way that there would only be one ‘rift’ that connects the two worlds. For instance, back in Moldavia, there were already three existing dimensional ‘rifts’. They were all once sealed by the ancestors of Brandon, the legendary mage, about 400 years ago. Even though there would still be Aragami walked in from the other world, there was no way that the seals all around the Mycroft Continent could be broken.

Meanwhile, the bizarre phenomenon that was happening right before their eyes was the phenomenon when the passage that connects the two world had been completely opened. The hole and the black light column that emerged in the sky were merely the shadows of the dimensional power. Meanwhile, the passage on the ground must have been opened wide by now. Endless waves of Aragami must be gushing into this world right now.

“Although we have guessed that there is one dimensional passage here in the Dark Forest in Moldova, however, we did not expect it to completely open up… Joshua, how about the ones back in your territory?”

Muttering softly to himself, Brandon immediately turned towards the black-haired warrior and asked Joshua anxiously, “And also your fortress. I think you better contact and have a check on it!”

Joshua naturally knew what Brandon meant. Brandon was worried that the other three rifts back in Moldavia might have been opened at the same time. So he shook his head and said, “There’s no need for that, everything is normal at the moment. I’ve just contacted them.”

Right before Joshua and his knights depart for the Dark Forest, he had already contacted Moldavia once. So he knew that everything was fine. There was no strange or bizarre movement back at the church and the main city as well. Furthermore, there was no sign of any daemons in the Dark Forest by Moldavia. The sky was clear as the blizzard had stopped for days now. It did not look like winter at all.

Because of that, Joshua was sure that there was some mysterious power deep in the Dark Forest that was manipulating the movement of the blizzard and snow, moving them over to Moldova. In the meantime he had also told his educated guess to the two right next to him.

“We also have the same thought. However, one frost butterfly could not have manipulated the entire weather over the northern region. Furthermore, the phenomenon over here right now is a little strange and bizarre. It seems that the black dragon had kept itself busy these days. It did quite a lot of things behind our backs.”

Brandon could feel the expanding power of Chaos gushing across the land. He tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword, trying to suppress the anger that was rushing up to his chest, “Goddamn it. If it weren’t because we’re short on men and we do not have the initiative to attack, we would not have given it the chance to prepare all that! However, fortunately for us, the crack is smaller than we imagined. So the more powerful beings and existence will not enter our world just et. We might still stand a chance now.”

The violet-haired mage was still feeling the effects of a mild concussion. While she was listening to the conversation between her husband and the black-haired Warrior, she felt like she could not understand a lot of things they were talking about. However, she did not have the urge to go and ask questions about all that. Vale Dani shook her head a little and calmed her mind, nullifying the impact that she got from the psychic attack by Chaos.

Why does my mind and spirit always get attacked? The countess asked herself, quietly, sighing. She could feel that her mind and her spirit had calmed much more now. However, she could still feel the dizziness all over her head. Well, at least she could stand on her feet on her own now. Meanwhile, Brandon had let go of his hand on supporting her. Then he walked up to the edge of the wall and stood right beside Joshua. Both of them looked at the Dark Forest with some thoughts in their minds.

“I actually believe that we should not worry that much. This passage seems to be opened by force with an external power.”

At the same time, after observing for a while, Joshua, had a different opinion than the golden-haired Swordsman. He was focused on looking at the magnificent black light column. His eyes had regained their calmness.

In the previous life, he had witnessed multiple activations of the dimensional rifts. The warrior had rich experience in that matter. So he could easily see through the anomaly of the phenomenon and discover the true nature of it, “If my prediction is not wrong, that thing is not going to last long before it collapses on its own. So in such little time, no much Aragami are coming through the rift into our world.”

However, there was no telling at all about how long before the rift would completely open up.

The moment after he said his last word, just like what the warrior said, the black light column suddenly vibrated and distorted. After that, the entire thing shattered like glass being broken into pieces, dispersing into magical light dots all over the place. Meanwhile, the dark sky had also dispersed away at the same instant. The sunlight that was blocked had reappeared right in front of everyone’s eyes. It shone down upon the middle of the Dark Forest like a golden sword plunging right in the middle of that forest.

The strange and bizarre phenomenon had suddenly vanished. The dimensional rift was shut tight. The power of Chaos had also vanished instantly as if it was never there.

Meanwhile, at the same time, sounds of neat and uniform footsteps were heard coming from the entrance by the passage on the wall. Brandon turned his head around to notice that there were many knights and soldiers marching over to the wall from afar.

Although the raging blizzard and the howling winds were still vigorous to the point that people could not bear to lift their heads up. However, as a soldier, they would not hide in their houses while such unsettling phenomenon was occurring out there.

Along with neat footsteps, the guards, soldiers, and knights of the defensive force came into their posts one platoon after another. They opened the door to the armory that was covered in snow. Then they took out the alchemy cannons and enhanced heavy bows out of the armory one after another. They were loading on with tons of ammunition as well. Their captains and their barons did not even have to give any orders. These experienced soldiers had already made preparation to face their enemies all by themselves.

“Attention!”

A man with dark skin tone who had swollen eye bags right under his eyes walked up the Vale Dani. With a quick glance at him, anyone could tell that had not been taking much of a good rest recently. Upon standing in front of the count, the man reported with a clear voice, “The defensive force of the fortress has been prepped for battle!”

Meanwhile, the violet-haired mage nodded with satisfaction towards their performance. Then she praised, “Very good. Stay vigilant. The enemies are just ahead of us. They will show themselves anytime now. The first wave will be extremely ferocious. I permit all of you to use the special ammunition!”

“Yes, Ma’am!”

Upon receiving the orders from their countess, the knight replied and turned his body facing the others. Then he immediately gave the order to the others so that they began making some adjustment and reloading their weapons, “Those at the rear, take the Cloud Dispersers that the achemists always blow into the sky. Let us show those daemon b*tches some manners!”

Instantly, everyone on the wall began to get themselves busy preparing. In the meantime, the clear voice of the lady was suddenly heard.

“Master…”

Ying had been remaining quiet from the beginning suddenly spoke. Then she approached Joshua and spoke in a soft voice, “I can sense that there are a lot of Aragami appearing right in the middle of the Dark Forest. There are at least 1,500 of them.”

Upon saying what she wanted to say, the silver-haired girl stopped and thought for a brief moment. Then she added, “I can trace every single existence of Aragami in my surroundings without missing any one of them. That is one of the functions that I’m created along with. To maintain precision.”

“That’s good. That’s actually a great news. I was still worrying about what I should do if there are too many Berserk Daemons and my stamina is exhausted.”

Upon hearing the good news, Joshua nodded in satisfaction. He stood right on top of the frozen wall. He grinned. His eyes were as firm as steel. “However, now that I have so many cannons and weapons backing me up, I can charge into the center point of the Dark Forest without having anything to worry about.”

“Just a second Joshua, what did you say you wanted to do again?”