Soul of Searing Steel

Panda Novel

In the vast Void shrouded by the dark night skies, a bright starry speck glinted, rapidly driving through the lightless ocean of silence.

Mycroft’s Combined Fleet sailed silently. A massive, translucent and bulbous spindle shaped dimensional stabilizing field ran on full capacity, unleashing the light of stars while covering and protecting the fleet.

And yet mere optical tools would never observe the true appearance of that fleet in the stirred dimensions, but that certainly did not take into account the gigantic pioneer circles that were measured in dimensional quadrant units; continental behemoths that were over thousands of miles in length which bodies precepted sub-space harmonics; microscopic magical probes; negentropic tracking circles along with many other advanced technologies, super forms and large scale buildings.

“Is there no end?”

After Joshua kicked and destroyed a spying portal from some unknown location and made sure that were no peeking gazes, he raised a hand in irritation. Silver light burst out like a volcano from his path and shifted halfway, finally shifting in to a massive large black shield held aloft at the center of the fleet, shrouding the outer layer of the dimensional stabilizer field.

Joshua had mastered the Black Form Guard, a skill of the Black Fog’s main body: by unleashing substantial independent bodies, the barrier would absorb all electromagnetic waves and heat to a certain extent, withdrawing all aspect of one’s own appearance as if a black hole.

That way, the entire Combined Expeditionary Fleet would not be watched—the spies would not be able to obtain precise coordinates of their location, and were left with the option to identify the Fleet’s identity through the surrounding dimension distortion or how warped light was around them. However, that method would have been fine inside the galaxy, but those conditions did not exist even in the absolute emptiness of the Silent Void, which was why they were essentially concealed from all prying eyes from other galaxies until they reached the outer edge of the Multiverse.

It had been half a year since the Combined Fleet left Mycroft, and it was now Starfall Year 842, the twelfth of July.

The Starherders that had journeyed through the Void on the backs of Void Behemoths did not actually move quickly in the Dark Domain. They needed more time to adjust and ensure that they had not deviated from their path in the gloom, that they were on the right trail.

The experience from their voyage allowed the Combined Fleet to move even quicker through dark zones than they did, not to mention that Void Behemoths were never built for speed. Compared to the Starherders’ past journey that was very much just floating around, Nostradamus the Legendary dimensional mage and the Commanding Will of the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds had worked together and referenced the psionic warp engine to develop a super-void channel engine, moving eighty times faster than the Starherders at full speed.

After the initial three months acceleration progress, the Combined Fleet was now in a full-speed Void voyage phase. According to the experienced eight-legged fungal monarchs who had been through that path, they were almost one-fifth through their journey.

If that was the case, even taking into account the time to calibrate and place communications beacons and then accelerating again, Joshua believed that the Combined Fleet would reach the Multiverse in three years.

Having barred all external spying, Joshua returned to his seat, closed his eyes and pondered amidst reverent gazes from the crew.

“It’s been more than half a year… it seems that Mycroft his alright.”

***

With the bond between his true form and clone that transcends time and space, Joshua felt 35% left of his Spirit Deviation Rate. It was a percentage that basically did not affect his consciousness, and his true form should now be in complete dormant slumber, attempting to study and suppress divinity.

The Chaos Memories and the divinity left in the 35% were the most stubborn and irremovable. Even with new Mycroft players clearly joining Continental Wars, Joshua thought that it would it would only be fully cleansed when the Expedition arrives at the Multiverse proper.

“I could wait; I’m not in a hurry.”

Having ensured the state of his true form on the other side, Joshua opened his eyes. The Spirit Deviation Rate would not affect him when he fought now—there would be minor effects, though those would be trivial.

Still, there was no telling how Ying and Ling were… And Zero Three too. He did not know if they were taking care of themselves, or if they had completed the tasks which he had left them with…

Even so, the expedition’s operations here was fine even when compared to Mycroft, which was becoming ever advanced.

In a nutshell, everything was under control: the demonic fleet that should be stirring trouble had been rather orderly, probably because of the elites—and Goliath the Demon King itself watching over their shoulders. In fact, they behaved well even when the usual life-support vessels delivered and collected resources.

That was even more true for the Sartreans, Starherders, and Mycroftians. Whether pressured by the power of Legendary champions or being the handpicked cream of the military crop, all of them willingly followed the rules.

There was nothing much to say: the strong presence of order left the voyage rather dull as they journeyed through the absolute emptiness.

Nonetheless, the dull and uninteresting voyage was the best news for the Legendary leaders led by Joshua. Most of the Extraordinary individuals who did not have to stay on guard daily as well as the crew working on shifts were left with Fairy Cards, but they easily got bored of it without new expansion card sets—it would work as a pastime, but not for entertainment.

Regarding that issue, the Nature’s Magister had offered the solution of having the crew grow vegetables… and naturally, flowers. Indeed, most of them simply planted a few potted plants, and there were rarely any who would grow vegetables.

Be that as it may, there were those who do grow such vegetables, such as the First Party’s Nick. The dwarf, during the free time he has from training, had planted a cabbage as tall as three-dwarves at the zero-gravity zone, which became the talk of the fleet for some time.

Presently, there were several little flowers and cabbage beside Joshua’s official seat in the Dreadnaught . Those were gifts from his students, the largest of which was the Void Cabbage Nick was proud of, which would grow as tall as two men if even neglected a little.

On the other hand, the most beautiful was a species of magical flower cultivated by Ivan and Amelia. The petals of the flower would change color according to the elements around it—when it was around Joshua, it grows a silver base hue, a moving sky-blue color, and a starry golden-orange, surreal and enchantingly beautiful in a single glance.

Joshua personally did not believe himself to be a person of refined taste to put flowers around his own seat. Those flowers were too dazzling and beautiful that… it was not as if he disliked them, but he did not really their presence if he was being frank…

Either way, well… it counts as a sincerity from his students. Joshua himself did not say that he did not want them after his initial ‘not bad’ assessment either, and had simply accepted those gifts, occasionally watering them as the days passed.

Still, it had to be said that those apprentices that Joshua had especially brought along, their work bore much fruit.

Amongst the five members of the First Party, their team leader Ivan had been assigned as an advanced engineer at the arcane puppets section on the Dreadnaught , in charge of maintenance and refurbishment of massive combat units. For their seriously understaffed expedition, only puppets were viable if they were to conduct land battles or were being boarded—it was a supremely vital task, and though Ivan was young, he had an advantage in his rich experience for arcane battles and melee combat compared to other mages. Being one proficient in both magical and physical conflict, his experience could be applied directly on the combat memory modules of their combat unit.

Amelia, meanwhile, works as the leader of the central core on a battlecruiser, actively controlling the vessel with her formidable talents at magical calibration. She proved gifted in leading, with the Glorious Era Avian Legend Yana Milo billing her, believing that she could become an excellent fleet leader.

Both Nick the dwarf and Karin worked at the energy department of the Dreadnaught , having outstanding control over their Extraordinary ability in their daily maintenance of multiple warship engines, occasionally moonlighting for improving some overloaded faculties. Of course, that was on the surface—Joshua knew that Nick was developing an element crushing cannon in a secret research cabal, while Karin was conducting live tests for a substance-energy transition bomb with another research group under the Legendary champion Vahina.

As for the special crewmember… Arlwa, the Seventh Prince of the Diamond family, had been brimming with passion and diligence after witnessing his father the Emperor ascending as a god. Each day he would train until the arranged cultivation period for the vessels’ Extraordinary individuals ended, and the legacy that Joshua had previously instructed him in was so powerful that if he did not use his full power, to the point he feared that his leaking power could affect the daily work of the other crew.

In a nutshell, as the first students Joshua had taught and experimented with Extraordinary ability, the First Party’s present accomplishments were very much the results of their own effort and hard work since the warrior himself did not spare too much effort on them. Naturally, Joshua would help by offering conveniences, although it does not really compare to the focus and seriousness which he showed in instructing his later students, Lisa and Priest.

He was pleased to see the seeds he sowed so simply had blossomed so well.

On the other hand, the five members of the Elite Party were not as separated as the First Party. As veteran otherworld explorers, all of them instructed other Extraordinary individuals in the advance scouts of the Dreadnaught —this time, it was their turn to have others go through hellish training, something which they would be all too willing to help with.

As for the trio Lisa, Syndicate, and Zero One, they were assigned to the fleet patrol to inspect various vessels and straighten any noncompliance… Zero One’s true form was there as well, having transformed into a large corvette on the surface of the Dreadnaught , hanging by the docks.

Compared to the First Party whose main class were mages, Priest’s power was bursting towards Gold-pinnacle as a warrior with a direct legacy, while Lisa was beginning to reach the edges of Supreme—the Draknoid girl herself was not even eighteen, which was why everyone considered that she had surpassed Joshua after reaching such a level at that age.

Pure Ancient Dragon bloodline combined with the most powerful Legendary legacy of present had allowed to master the ability to shift electromagnetism, having unleashed a destructive burst the size of a city when she adventured in the Abyss. Her own power could directly crush an entire hive of Abyssal monsters, leaving a semi-permanent trail of destruction on the surface.

Beyond that, there was not much to say.

Whether it was the Nature’s Magister using the excuse of growing vegetables as semi-sentient combat-able plants, Barnil’s experiment with runic stagnation effects in Void environments, Vahina’s substance-energy transition bomb or the spatial compression technique that the Sword Saint tried with the warrior himself, intended for common use and similar research… those were all not major events.

With Joshua’s influence, all of the Legends had found new paths—having left their own galaxy to witness the vastness of the Multiverse, the champions whose limits of knowledge had been broken felt endless inspiration developing in their minds.

Relatively speaking, the element crusher which triggers massive explosions through atomic collapse phenomenon was actually a norm for bombs. After all, those normal heat and shockwaves, combined with photon and element radiation would only destroy ninety-five percent of matter over a world, destroying bloodlines, genes and basic runes for elemental lifeforms… it was not actually some outstanding design

“Our fangs and claws are sharpened as ever… but at least that’s not a bad thing.”

Joshua stroked the petals of the magical flower beside him carelessly and watched as its color changed. Sky-blue and orange radiance mixed, before becoming distinct once again, a sight he could not help but smile at.

“Civilizations and Extraordinary individuals of another galaxy, how exciting… hmm?”

Noticing that his mind was a little troubling, the warrior shook his head and muttered to himself, “Spirit Deviation Rate is a little high…. And we had come for peace and truth.”

“Time to rest.”

***

The Mycroft Combined Fleet hence steered ahead amidst the utterly empty Void. Neither Starherders nor demons were making any false moves, and the meticulously designed fleet itself has not presented any mishaps or damaged equipment. Even so, Joshua still did not discover traces of the Metal Dragon God’s journey—since the homeworld of the Astral Dragons were not along their path, and that they had long since split ways.

The Metal Dragons so yearned for their homeland that they were willing to maintain a mutually isolating relationship with the peoples of Mycroft. That was why Joshua naturally had no reason to stop or interfere with them, and he could only hope that the Million Steel Dragon could obtain its wish, or at least present a requiem for the home they had left so long ago.

Either way, the voyage would never pause over that. The fleet rapidly streaked the void, stirring waves over the silent and calm Void.

Time passed, and two years went by.

It was the moment of arrival in the turn of an eye.