Soul of Searing Steel

What was Order?

In the void before the birth of all things, there was a fire. This indescribable fire had no form and was indescribable. It was the first light of creation and the meaning of existence in all the multiverse that we know today.

The Initial Flame brought light which distinguished Order and Chaos. The ashes from the fire condensed as steel slowly formed shape. It formed many worlds in the void. Everything existed because of that.

That was the beginning of the Multiverse and all lives that existed in the universe out there.

However, fires extinguish and steels rust. The worlds would eventually move towards destruction and be reduced to void and chaos. Sometimes, monsters like the Evil Gods are accidentally born from the destroyed bodies and corpses of the worlds. They were the embodiment of Chaos itself. There was no good or evil in them. Their aim was simple. They just wanted the Multiverse to be destroyed.

So what could actually stop them? The answer to that would be a ‘no’. When the first Evil God was born in the ancient time, some of the worlds had yet to form. They were too young to become a world. In the face of those terrifying existence known to as disorders, efforts to resist were proven futile. The ‘young’ worlds would just perish no matter how hard they tried to resist the inevitable.

In the beginning, that was true.

The Evil Gods had devoured the bodies of many multiverses and slowly turned the worlds they devoured into Chaos, reducing every single one of them back to nothing—they did not face any resistance before that. Destroying a world was a piece of cake.

The process went on for so long that everyone and everything had lost count of the days because there was nothing such as time and dates. There were no living beings that actually possessed the wisdom to observe that sort of phenomenon. Many worlds had been destroyed completely during that period. The gathering of the Evil Gods had even reached as far as the core of the multiverses. They even made contact with the light of the Initial Flame.

The suffocating darkness extinguished the light. Many worlds were destroyed. The Evil Gods brought death to everything like they always did. They could have easily extinguished the Initial Flame—until that day.

In a world where life flourished, among the cavemen, who only knew how to survive based on their basic survival instincts, certain intelligent individual carefully picked up the sparks from the ashes of the thunder. That individual treated it as a treasure and he carefully preserved it.

Soon after, the torch was set ablaze and it illuminated the dark night. That illumination symbolized the coming of a new era.

That was the first Light of Wisdom of all the multiverses.

From the scattered individuals gathering into tribes, and from the initial tribes to the city states, the pace of wisdom gathering into a civilization exceeded the imagination of all beings. The city states were united into a kingdom. After that, kingdoms were conquering each other as they slowly merged into larger kingdoms. Knowledge and lives gathered and formed their very own civilizations. That was how the embryo of a civilization was formed before it grew into an infant and then an adult as time passed.

Woods and stones, rocks and mines, steels and tools, everything that revolved around technology were gradually the Sages in ancient times and had understood the essence of power from the world, creating the predecessors of combat aura and magic.

It only took about a few thousand years for all that to happen.

The Evil Gods who had no wisdom found it too difficult for them to destroy a world with a civilization that could resist their power. A pure calamity could only temporarily wreck them. For both the world and the Evil Gods, they could regain their strength and their prosperity in just a few years. Perhaps they could even grow much stronger than they were before. Chaos had stopped extending their tendrils to the worlds because the power of Order was expanding and spreading.

Hence, Order was civilization. It was life—wisdom could transform chaos into order. With wisdom, rocks and steels could be forged into tools. That was the meaning of ‘fire’, the essence of ‘Order’ itself.

As stated in the ancient saying, [Wisdom never fades, Order exists for eternity]. Both of them are correlated and dependent on each other.

Of course, the improvement of Order could also cause the power of the Evil Gods to increase. The Evil Gods of the ancient times were just a bunch of terrifying concepts without wisdom. They were the purest Chaos. Other than sanctioning some calamities or natural disasters upon the world, they were operated in a way that they could not even affect the worlds of Order. That was because the wreckage of the worlds that they were born from no longer had any life remained, nor was there any remaining civilization. They were basically wild beasts that were behaving according to the basic instincts of Chaos.

However, the destruction of a world with life and civilization was not the same. What emerged from the wreckage of that sort of world were existences such as the Evil God ‘Famine’ or Evil God ‘Pestilence’. Even though they were both the embodiment of Chaos, they possessed the wisdom of life.

Those Evil Gods imitated the civilizations that were destroyed, using their wreckages and corpses to create their own followers and believers. After that, the Evil Gods used the power of those wrecked civilizations to attack the other worlds.

The Evil Gods changed and adapted to the advancement of the civilizations at a terrifying pace. However, it seemed that they could no longer behave in the way they did back in the ancient times. Instead, they could only invade the worlds where certain circumstances and conditions were met.

—The top floor of the Epoch.

Joshua stood in the middle of the magic circle and in the center of attention. He looked at the blinking divine runes before him. His red pupils reflected the shadows of the green orb.

The fact that the Church of the Seven Gods were not concerned with the Dragon’s Calamity did not surprise the warrior at all. That was because the current situation was completely different from the situation in his past life.

The Dragon’s Calamity emerged one year earlier than it should have. Many of the plans were not ready. Furthermore, the entire world was well aware of the conspiracies that the Pentashade Dragons attempted to brew. The Northern Empire had managed to create a vaccine that could resist against the Berserk Dragon’s plague even before the Dragon’s Calamity broke out. That was all thanks to the warrior and the action he took to ensure that everyone was well prepared for the Dragon’s Calamity, leading to the current situation where the Church of the Seven Gods was powerful enough to resist the Dragon’s Calamity.

In fact, the Church of the Seven Gods was besieged because most of their elite clergymen were sent out across the entire continent, scattered, in order to vanquish evil. So, they were unable to return to their church to defend it. Even though their current forces at the church were not truly their main and most powerful forces in their church, several Legendary-tier dragons would definitely not be able to penetrate the almost indestructible defense of the church.

And for that reason, Pope Igor even had the extra hands to assemble an elite task force and sent them onto a quest to locate and explore the rift that was connected to the Dark Abyss.

Unlike the Evil Gods, there were also elementals that were tainted by Chaos deep in the Dark Abyss, but the nature of those things was more similar to the nature of life. Demons were found to have strange and bizarre appearances. They were extremely ferocious. However, they were largely different from the children of the Evil Gods—they had their own civilizations. Although the Demon Lords were ruling the place barbarically, it was clear to see that the demons did have their own civilization.

Perhaps it was similar to the speculation by a fellow mage scholar, the Dark Abyss took the resemblance of a world that was alien formed from pieces of wreckages from the worlds that were destroyed. It was categorized into Chaos and Order. It contained the factor that could cause destruction.

The Dark Abyss had such a special attribute that the church knew that they had to enter that sort of place to learn more. Whether it was the Evil Gods or any living being of Order, the church saw that it was necessary to be well prepared for anything.

Just like Joshua who was currently analyzing the magic circle.

[Luminous Flame Seed]

[Quality: Legendary]

[Explanation: The Church of the Seven Gods took years to create the divine circle with their research. The divine circle has the ability to cast Chaos away and spread the Order power.]

[A test item that was precisely created and modified many times in accordance to the environment of Anos Abyss. Its capability to purify is greatly reduced in the Chaotic region of Anos Abyss.]

[The power originated from the Sages surges violently in depths of the divine circle. You can sense the presence of the ‘Bright Scepter’, a Legacy that belonged to the Sage. Because the design of the circle has yet to be perfected, it requires Order power to fuel it before it can be activated.]

[—This is a Flame Seed of Order.]

“It seems that Igor has found the method to not rely on the Legacy of the Sage to wield Order power.” Joshua murmured to himself, “He is truly worthy as the number one man in the entire continent, walking before everyone.”

The warrior sounded impressed. He admired the pope very much. If Pope Igor was born during the ancient times, he would surely become one of the Sages that leads the mankind to prosperity. The glorious Flame Seed was able to start up a magic circle for sheltering purposes in an environment filled with Chaos. It means that human beings would no longer be helpless against the invasion of Chaos as their attempts to fight back would no longer be futile.

Although the divine circle before him had some small flaws, it would not make anything worse. It did not matter that much because the moment where they needed to unleash the complete version of the positive energy would be five years later.

Joshua did not hesitate and he immediately adjusted the power within the Azurite inside his body. He attempted to operate the giant magic circle.

However, when the warrior’s will came into contact with the orb in his heart, the Legacy of the Sage unleashed a great amount of knowledge and information and was transferred into Joshua’s mind. It was so great that even Joshua, who had a will as strong as steel, felt dazed for a moment.

The Azurite which was once sealed away had been revealed to be the Legacy of the Sage after Joshua kept it with him when he was annihilating Chaos. However, the Legacy of the Sage had yet to reveal its own Legacy to the warrior, as everyone had thought.

It had indeed given the warrior quite a substantial amount of power. Regardless of its ability to convert the Chaos daemons that were slain into life force or the form of ‘King of the Searing Soul’, the Azurite had given Joshua more abilities he could ever ask for. In reality however, the Azurite was just giving the warrior its abilities. The orb could only sense one thing inside the warrior’s heart. That was ‘battle’. Hence, it only provided Joshua the power to battle. It withheld many secret messages and information about the Sage from the warrior as it was just a treasure that carried only the Order power.

However, the Azurite seemed to be behaving more different than usual. It sent quite a substantial amount of information to the warrior.

“The meaning of Order…”

Upon feeling the instant transfer of knowledge and information from the Azurite, Joshua looked at every single detail of the information and knowledge. Then he relaxed and began to laugh, “No matter what, everything will still involve battle.”

He shook his head and did not bother himself with the hidden meaning behind the strange behavior of the Azurite. He was focused on adjusting the power of Order, slowly pouring energy into the divine circle.

Although his thoughts were set on many things, he only used a few seconds to think when he started pouring Order power into the divine circle, using the Nuclear Star to completely activate the glorious Flame Seed in the divine circle.

Everything seemed to be ordinary at first. However, a few seconds later, everyone noticed that something was wrong.

“Hold on! Mr. Joshua, you don’t have to pour so much Order power into the circle!”

The senses of the Great Nun Saya was sharper than the senses of the two holy knights standing next to her. She was able to immediately sense that had something wrong— it was probably because the warrior was a little absent-minded for a brief moment before he freely poured Order power into the divine circle.

Good heavens! They had only intended to let Joshua try to see if the divine circle would work or not. They just wanted to see if it could be controlled smoothly. That amount of Order energy was enough to drown several Superior-tier demons!

“What?”

Joshua had also felt that something was off. He was affected by the transfer of information that contained the meaning of Order into his mind from the Azurite—while he was pouring the Order power into the circle, shadows of the Evil Gods had emerged in the mind of the warrior. Because of the sudden distraction, the warrior had unintentionally used his full strength.

He had only poured in his full strength for only ten seconds. But he had lost track of how much strength he actually poured. The situation had suddenly gotten out of hand.

The full strength of a Supreme-tier being.

There was a huge gap between a Supreme-tier champion and the power of a Gold-tier. When Joshua returned from Illgner, the Order energy of the Azurite had already been fully recharged from the battle with the Evil God.

“Stop it at once!”

Robzek and Roland reacted in the same way. Both of them immediately broke out in cold sweat. The divine circle on the Epoch was fixed by Pope Igor himself. Thus, the amplitude of the power of this circle could only be described as ‘inconceivably powerful’. During ordinary times, it could power up the entire ark by getting energy supply from the Nuclear Star. So what would happen when it takes in an immense amount of energy that the warrior just poured into it?

The two holy knights wanted to rush in and stop the warrior. However, it was already too late. A blinding flash of light burst from the divine circle and overshadowed everything. A violent surge of Order energy instantly pushed both of them a few steps back. Roland could not resist the impact of the energy shockwave. Robzek stood his ground firmly after he took a few steps back but was not able to move forward at all after that.

In the cabin of the Epoch, the young elf had shut his eyes and was quietly resting on the bed in his quarter, ready to sleep. Suddenly, a loud sound startled him. The power of Order which has condensed into a solid state, swept through the ark. That shocked everyone on board so much that they froze for a moment. It even startled some giant beasts that were swimming around the ark too. Hill remained confused as he just woke up from his sleep. He sat up instantly and looked around. “What on earth was that? That was terrifying!”

Suddenly, a silvery beam shot straight into the heaven from the Epoch. The light pillar tore through the dark clouds in the sky above Anos Abyss, turning half of the sky white. It had also agitated the Chaos power that was charging up somewhere nearby.

The sea region of Anos Abyss had been known to be stormy with violent winds around. It was hardly ever calm in that region. When it was calm, it was because the storm was brewing before it becomes a greater storm before hitting the region. The prediction that Hill made was actually based on that. In his calculations, the non-windy period should last for about three days before a great storm would hit. However, now, because of Joshua, the power of Order was spreading into the surroundings and was clashing with Chaos that was shrouding the entire region of the sea. The huge sudden change of the energy density had caused the storm to hit much earlier than they had anticipated.

Instantly, lightning and thunder filled the sky. Purplish lightning spread across the sky one after another. A gust of wind swirled and slowly turned into a gigantic hurricane. Ferocious waves, the storm and the hurricane brewed on the surface of the sea. The clear view before was now blurred by heavy rain.

“Sister Saya… what is going on?’

The great nun who was standing next to the circle used a crystal shield to resist against the ferocious wave of Order energy that gushed out of the divine circle. She suddenly heard a lively voice coming from behind her. Saya turned around and saw a little lady with long gray hair.

The little lady’s appearance was delicate. She looked around sixteen or seventeen years old. She looked anxious. She seemed a little terrified of the light pillar of Order, which has turned into solid before her. She grabbed onto the long robe of the great nun and spoke with her soft little voice, “I was finishing up my experiment… I wanted to show you the result of my experiment… but now… I’m scared to see this thing in front of us… I’m terrified…”

The voice of the little lady was soft and gentle. She looked like she was about to cry because she was terrified by everything that was currently happening. She stuttered and Saya noticed that. So, she turned around and pulled the little lady into her arms and comforted her. “Nothing bad is going to happen, Nono. That’s just a small accident… nothing serious…”

After hearing Saya’s reassuring words, the girl, whose name was Nono, blinked and glanced at the silvery light pillar that pierced the sky, hurling the winds and the clouds everywhere. Her big blue eyes were filled with doubt.

Noticing the expression on the little lady’s face, the nun seemed to also look troubled. She turned around and looked at the light pillar that was unleashing Order power into the sky but she could only sigh. “Actually, this is pretty serious… But rest assured that we can handle this. Nono, get back to the laboratory first, will you? I’ll be right here with you after this is done.”

“Oh, okay.”

Nono nodded obediently like a good girl, turned around and walked towards the passage into the ark. However, before she entered, Nono turned her head around as she looked at the light pillar. Then she muttered to herself and asked, “Is this another Supreme-tier champion’s deed?”

Her expression was solemn when she said, “The Church really has a deep foundation. They are capable of inviting a powerful being like this…”

The people on the ark were not the only people shocked by the presence of the light pillar.

In the sky above the sea in the distance, among the clouds that were moving with the movement of the wind, there was an enormous cyclone which was swirling in a low-pressure air flow not far from where they were. The rains and clouds had been absorbed by that swirling force. All of the violent winds were like the torrents in sky that drove the thick clouds towards that swirling force.

There was a great existence riding with the howling wind as it flew quietly without making even the slighting noise. Its presence was completed shielded by the winds and the clouds. It was difficult to track its movement or even its presence even if one was using superior divine spells.

Black Dragon Mandagar was moving in the direction of Anos Abyss. Other than the small parts of its facial features and its head, the black dragon’s body was entirely made of a black crystal. That form allowed the black dragon to change its body structure to reduce the wind resistance while flying in the air. It could also greatly reduce the possibility of being spotted by most of observation or scouting spells.

Killing its past apprentices was not actually a big deal for the black dragon which was an evil being in the first place. However, even Mandagar was not willing to bear the harsh blame of its elders. Hence, after making some preparations, it immediately began traveling into the distant sea, ready to hunt down an oceanic giant beast. Mandagar would finally complete the transformation of its form after devouring that life force. By then, it would finally be ready to head over to the rift by the depths of Anos Abyss to guard it.

However, when Mandagar arrived at the border of Anos Abyss, it noticed that the oceanic beasts of Anos Abyss had hidden deep into the depths of the sea. Some of them had even fled thousands of miles away into the other regions of the sea. The black dragon was confused, having no idea at all about what was going on. So, Mandagar flew further into Anos Abyss to hunt for preys.

At first, Mandagar was flying peacefully with the wind. However, a thunderous noise suddenly echoed far from where it was. The black dragon was startled and became more vigilant than before.

However, it was pointless to be more vigilant though. The silvery light pillar was seen piercing straight into the heaven as it penetrated through layers of clouds with an explosion, causing the clouds in the sky to ripple like the surface of a wavy water. The ripples came in waves. The dense Order power swept across the entire region of the sea. The presence of the abyss reacted to the presence of the Order power and thunders and lightning began appearing all over the sky.

As an old black dragon, Mandagar was prepared to be engaged in a battle. The sudden appearance of the thunders was more intense than it had anticipated them to be. Feeling helpless against the power of nature, the black dragon chose to retreat for now. It swiftly dived into the great ocean without any hesitation. However, the thunders and the lightning filled the sky so much that one of the lightning struck its wings by accident, causing the black dragon to lose its form while it was diving into the water, creating a huge splash of water.

“What… what on earth is going on?!”

As it floated up to the surface of the sea water, Mandagar seemed extremely furious. It stared right at the direction where the light pillar started. That location was coincidentally the center of Anos Abyss. It was near the border that one could enter into the central core area of the region. The black dragon was vigilant and nauseous at the same time as it sensed the Order Power that was spreading from that direction. Then it gritted its teeth while muttering to itself, “Church of the Seven Gods… It is really you people!”

“Wait a minute… I should wait until I have completed my transformation. Then, I will surely turn you all into nutrients for my crystals!”

As it muttered to itself, it seemed to have sensed something else as well. Its fury instantly dissipated. Magandar’s face twitched before a cold sneer appeared on its face. “It seems that I don’t even have to go. Those giant beasts hate that light much more than I had thought.”

Meanwhile, beneath the surface of the sea in Anos Abyss.

A gigantic shadow approached the Epoch at a rapid speed.

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