Soul of Searing Steel

Panda Novel

Joshua did not really have much interest in the kind of treasure he could obtain from the Royal Treasury. Having his power strengthened to such level, any magic item that was inferior to Extraordinary Grade would no longer be able to enhance his battle power. His body and Combat Aura were his best armor and magic support. His fists were the greatest killing machines he could ever own.

Furthermore, he already possessed the greatest and most convenient weapons he could ever ask for. The warrior glanced sideways at the young boy and girl. The both of them seemed to be whispering to each other. The warrior could not help but smile.

He knew better than anyone that if he had to pick a new weapon to be brought back home, those two little fellows will definitely be making a huge fuss around the house.

In any case, since Israel had made his decision to reward Joshua, Joshua had no intention to reject the Emperor’s goodwill. It would be a loss to not accept such a great offer. So, after he bowed to the Emperor, who seemed to be a frank and straightforward person, Nostradamus led the warrior out of the study room. The old mage then escorted the others towards another room.

“There may not be many good items in the secret vault, you know…”

While they were on their way over to the Royal Treasury, the old mage shook his head as he said, “Those are the items and equipment that are constrained by certain conditions. One must meet those conditions in order to use them. As part of the collection in the Royal Vault, they are extremely powerful. However, it will remain a question of whether you can use it or not. It depends on the qualities of an individual.

Upon hearing that, Joshua thought of all the junks in his own collection like the Ring of the Twin Infernal Serpents, that was designed for women only, and also, the Searing Steel Fragment that only he could see. He still had no idea what its abilities are after keeping it for so long. Hence, the warrior nodded in agreement to Nostradamus’ words.

“Indeed, those useful stuff should have been utilized accordingly by now. Only those which cannot be utilized will be kept in the vault.”

“That’s not what I meant… but it’s alright since you have understood what I was trying to say. And that doesn’t mean that everything in the vault is useless, though.”

Along the way, they have met a lot of palace personnel. When they saw Joshua and the others walk by, they paused the work at hand and bowed respectfully at them.

In the meantime, Nostradamus was leading the others through several rooms. They had gone through dark and bright doors as they passed through a number of quiet and empty corridors heading towards their destination. While walking, the old mage explained, “Israel’s strength is unquestionable. As a Legendary dragon knight, there are equipment that he cannot use. Hence, the existence of the vault.”

After a short while, they finally arrived at a granite hall, hidden deep in the complex maze of the palace.

Right opposite the hall, there was a rusty sealed gate, covered in magical runes that seemed to be gleaming every now and then. The gleaming lights were unleashing strong and powerful force. The air in the hall felt as cold as the North Pole. However, there was not even a slightest trace of frost or snow.

“Kreix’s Sevenfold Dimensional Seal?!” exclaimed Brandon, who had never spoken a word since they left the study room. He seemed shocked.

“Supreme-tier Sevenfold Seal, one of the most powerful dual-cast in the series of Dimensional and Curse-type spell?! This is like the highest rank of all defenses, even for a Royal Treasury!”

“I’ve spent quite a lot of time setting up this defensive magic circle.”

The old mage lifted his hand. A faint blue light glowed at his fingertips as he gently made contact with magic circle. Nostradamus smiled and said, “Since Israel said it himself that you can pick anything you want, only one, of course… then you shouldn’t hold yourself back just because you feel the obligation to be courteous to the Emperor. If you do not pick something of value from the vault, Israel will feel bad about it. He might even feel embarrassed.”

As he was explaining to them, the old mage unsealed the powerful Defense Magic on the door. The rusty door was activated and creaked open. Everyone walked closer to the door.

“So, please help yourself now, Joshua, while the rest shall wait for you outside the vault.”

Masking his emotions, the old mage said, “The things inside… some might be, as you said, compatible with you.”

Intriguing… How does the inside of a Royal Treasury look like?

Perhaps the interior of the vault will look magnificent and shiny. Or maybe the vault will be filled with treasures and powerful magical items that will shine and glow, filling the entire vault with colorful lights…

Joshua thought about the many possibilities of how the vault would look like. However, what he saw before his very eyes was an ordinary room that looked like a museum, filled with ancient antiques. There were no precious gems, no valuable magical items, no powerful enchanted weapons and armor, and no magic books containing powerful spells. There were only rows of rusty armors and broken blades placed neatly on each of the shelves in the room. There was also a rack on the side that displayed many dull jars and bottles. They did not look like they contained any precious potions. Even though everything in there seemed old and musty, the room was so clean that there was not even the slightest trace of dust in the room.

“Now this is really a surprise, even for me.”

His eyes narrowed, Joshua did not feel even the slightest disappointment for seeing all that. Instead, what he saw piqued his interest.

The degree of precision using a Sevenfold Seal Magic Circle on the door of a vault has already sent a chill down the warrior’s spine. Even though, as the Empire Kingdom’s chief of the Archbishops, who has yet to advance to the Legendary-tier for the moment, he was not too far from achieving that. If the old mage would go so far to cast such a powerful seal on the door of the vault to keep the vault sealed and secured, then this vault must be keeping something extraordinary and significant.

The warrior started to look at the potions. He looked at the sealed bottles and jars on the shelves. He could sense that each of the bottle contained immense power. However, all of them seemed to hold some sort of special Bloodline, or should we say, special potions and agents used to awaken the Bloodlines?

These potions and agents could provide a person with a Bloodline of extraordinary life, awakening all kinds of abilities in a person without leaving any side effects at all. The only weakness of these potions was that the person must be compatible to them in order for them to work. If the conditions were not met, the potions won’t work at all.

After skimming through the potions and agents, Joshua knew that these bottles contained the Bloodlines of giant dragons and even fairies which were deemed to be creatures that only existed in fairytales. The price of each of the potion in here could potentially add up to be higher than the price of one god-tier weapon or god-tier armor. The reason was because Bloodline could be inherited by others while the weapons might not.

However, Joshua has reached the point where these potions would no longer do any good for him. The warrior has reached the level where he no longer needed to use any potions with Bloodline powers. If he could take another step forward and advance into the Supreme-tier, the strength of it will naturally transcend the nature of his body into an extraordinary state. His descendants will also naturally inherit some special “gifts” because of that. So, there was no need to consumer these potions, which could potentially alter the nature of one’s life.

Although the potions did not stand out, each of them were extremely precious. Because of that, Joshua has become interested in the ancient armor and gears displayed there. It might be possible that he found an extremely powerful equipment hidden deep in the vault. Who knows? There might be one just like the Divine Armaments which has yet to form a bond with anyone. Though they seemed rusty and broken, they will turn into extremely sharp blades once they are awakened.

Slowly, the warrior scanned the inventory of the vault, looking at the old weapons and equipment one by one. From the way they were placed, the warrior could tell that they were all extremely well-preserved. There was not even a single speck of dust on any of them. It seemed that a Purification Circle was casted upon the vault, maintaining the sterile environment in the vault.

But why?

Joshua furrowed his brows as he thought hard for a possible reason. The warrior could see that these weapons were obviously broken at the core. The truth was right in front of him. There was nothing left hidden from the looks of it.

The blades were blunt, some even had their edges chipped off. Not to mention that the armors had decayed long ago. No matter how well they tried to preserve the leather between the joints, it has already deteriorated to the point where they cannot be used anymore.

So why spend so much effort in preserving all these broken blades and armors? Even the potions were not safely kept and preserved as much as the blades and armors.

He reached out hesitantly and picked up a piece of broken flag. He doubtfully observed the flag, which pole was slightly bent. The battle flag has become brittle. The warrior mumbled to himself, “So, what makes you so important and special to be placed in this treasure vault?”

As he was wondering, the warrior swept his spiritual force over the flag. As the flag sensed the something, it began to vibrate gently, as if trying to tell its story. A memory was then revealed to Joshua.

There was a battlefield filled with corpses piled on top of one another and rivers in which blood flowed. The sun was dipping low onto the western horizon. Amidst the glow of sunset, countless warriors battled against their enemies on the battlefield, slaughtering one another, tainting the land with blood. The blood spilled so much that they formed rivers. The whole world look like it has just been purged. The thunderous roar of the warriors and their enemies penetrated the heaven and a pitch-black rift emerged in the sky and released countless of monsters.

The monsters were large and their bodies covered in black scales. Each of them had a pair of huge horns, a long tail and a pair of large, webbed wings and were called ‘Demons’.

There was a man holding a flag, battling the demons on the battlefield against the setting sun. In the glow of the setting sun, the warrior holding the flag stood up on his feet, slowly and steadily. His face was full of blood stain and wounds. His body was also heavily wounded. He seemed as if he could collapse any moment now. However, at that very moment, his shadow seemed so large. The warrior stepped onto a corpse of a demon as he waved the flag around.

A voice echoed through the wind, across the battlefield, “My comrades! The battle is not over!”

The voice was so powerful that it felt like it could penetrate the dimensions. “Follow me into the battle! Charge!”

The memory ended there. Joshua was shocked by the memory shown by the broken flag. He subconsciously gripped the flag tighter.

“The second battle in the Dark Abyss?! No… that battle has yet to happen. The memory that I just saw… it should be much earlier…”

His voice faded away. The warrior’s face looked ashen, “The previous era – the first battle against the invasion of the Dark Abyss!” The flag existed thousands of years ago!

Suddenly, the notification for the system identification revealed itself.

[Daniel’s Unfulfilled Wish]

[Steel-grade damaged weapon, ordinary battle flag, but contains a human soldier’s cry deep from his soul. This power has ensured its survival through thousands of year and has yet to be completely destroyed.]

[-Charge! Until death!]

“Could it be that… these weapons… these armors…”

Holding tightly onto the battle flag, the warrior scanned the entire vault. Half the place was occupied by these broken equipment. Even though he had a vast knowledge about a lot of things, the warrior could not help but to feel astounded by the presence of all these magnificent existence. He had a difficult time calming his heartbeat, trying to take in all of it.

He put the flag down and picked up another equipment – a huge shield that has been completely deformed as a result of being exposed to high heat. The shield seemed to have a sort of image or a Magic Circle carved onto it. It used to be an enchanted equipment. However, it has worn out with time. The warrior picked it up and poured his spiritual forced into it to understand the story behind it.

This time, the memory he saw was not of a battlefield. Instead, it was of a canyon hidden deep in the mountains. Several men were battling against a gigantic being. With a thunderous roar of a dragon, it was not difficult to guess what type of giant that was.

A giant dragon.

This giant dragon was launching its fierce attacks on a large party. Among the crowd were quite a number of old folks and children. They were trembling in fear right before its mightiness. At the same time, several men were trying to fight against it. Although they seemed powerful, they could not seize control of the situation as the dragon simply and easily overpowered them.

However, when men worked together, they can always be stronger than if they were to fight the dragon alone. As time passed, the giant dragon began to weaken and soon, became disadvantaged. When the dragon sensed its inevitable fall, it let out a thunderous roar and spat out a scorching Dragon Breath straight at the old folks and children.

“NO!”

The screams came from the several men who were fighting the giant dragon. Fortunately, right before the dragon’s breath could burn the folks alive, someone rose among the others and came to the front. It was a young woman, holding a shield larger than the size of her own body. She stood between the dragon’s breath and her people, shielding them from the fire that would have incinerated everyone and sent them on the highway to heaven.

Boom!

The light beam charged with high heat struck the shield smack in the middle. Instantly, the tough shield, which was enchanted before, began to deform like an ordinary metal melting in the fire. The heat began to spread across the metal steel; the heat that could burn the flesh and blood of a warrior into ashes – let alone an ordinary woman who just happened to pick up the shield and was guided by her motherly instinct to protect her child.

Despite the scorching temperature, the young woman barely flinched. She screamed and cried as she endured the excruciating pain however, she did not loosen her grip of the shield – not even when her hands were completely burnt down to her bones.

When the dragon’s Breath has finally subsided, the men on the frontline battling the dragon overpowered the dying dragon and slayed it. But it was too late as the woman is now a corpse and has been burnt completely black. Yet, in her last moments, she never took a step back against the Dragon’s Breath.

[Ira’s Protection]

[Silver-tier broken shield, an overly heavy giant shield. Once possessed a powerful defensive ability. However, because to appeared to be too heavy for small-scale battles, it was rarely used, until a mother picked it up to protect her own child.]

[-A mother’s life and her persistence protection]

“I see… The precious thing is not the weapon itself but the history and the will it carries…”

For a warrior, weapons and armors were merely tools for them during a battle. Meanwhile, a true battle would require the warrior’s will and resolution.

Joshua felt calmer after taking a few deep breaths. He looked at the many broken remains of the equipment and items in the room and at that moment, his sense of respect grew as he began to realize the truth behind everything. He knew that each of the equipment and items here contained their very own stories. He finally understood their true value.

These were all weapons that carried the souls and beliefs of a human being. Even though they appeared broken and damaged, the strengths embedded in each of the equipment were capable of making others understand the meaning of the glory, the perseverance, the responsibility and the persistence of a warrior… Perhaps these were insignificant to powerful warriors like Joshua, but these could encourage weak people quite deeply.

The emperors and the princes in the entire history of the Diamond Family possessed courage and faith comparably more than any other ordinary person. And perhaps, that was the reason why they remained as the royal family in the Empire Kingdom.

For now, Joshua could not decide which one to choose. A decisive man like him was facing a dilemma in making a decision. For once, a decisive man like him was actually struggling to decide what defines him. He was confused and did not know how to proceed from there.

“Which… Which one should I pick then?”

Joshua swept his eyes across the room, looking at everything in the vault. Then he mumbled to himself as he tried to make hardest decision in his life. As he was coming to a decision, some of the weapons and equipment on the shelves started to buzz with life and to make sounds that resembled the battle of the armored cavalry. Suddenly, the flag that he first picked up when he first stepped into the vault, started to move violently. The torn-off war flag started to float and a faint sound of the battle horn sounded. However, the shield did not make even the slightest sound or movement.

As Joshua was about to make the toughest decision in his life on which item to pick, several equipment have seemed to pick Joshua as their master while the others rejected him. But Joshua had already made up his mind by then.

He took a deep breath and walked past the broken weapons and armors on the shelves. Every dignified and slow-paced footstep he took echoed through the vault. The warrior sensed every single Legacy that were thousands of years of age. He was remembering and honoring their screams from the depths of their souls and their silent persistence.

“O souls…” he spoke softly, as it echoed through the vault.

Your determination has impressed me. I shall remember all of you in my heart.

I shall bear your convictions; every single one of yours.

That, was the Legacy.

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