Soul of Searing Steel

Panda Novel

His thoughts were gradually drifting away from the dream related to the Sage.

Examining his body from top to bottom, Joshua noticed that there was no problem at all.

He patted Ying, who was still wiping her tears away from her cheeks, on the head and placed her on the side of the bed. Then he let the divine armament girl lie on his lap after smacking the black draconic girl who was rolling around away from his lap. The warrior put away the quilt that was made of the ‘Shroud of Turin’ and got up from the bed.

His movement was smooth. His body did not show any stagnation or uncomfortable soreness at all. The current condition of his entire body was perfect.

Currently, Joshua was feeling endless vitality surging within his body. His energy continuously poured out. He did not feel even the slightest unease. Previously, the heavy injuries he had where his entire nervous system was burned inside out felt like it never happened at all. The injuries seemed to have miraculously vanished without a trace.

The warrior was convinced that he could get into another great battle now. That was not a misleading hunch, his thought was true. The current state of his body was much better than it ever was before the battle.

Looking at his surroundings, Joshua noticed that the decorations around the room were simple. However, the room was filled with dense Holy Light. The curtains were drawn with the healing runes as they hung on all four walls of the room. They released energy waves with attributes to provide the body with positive effects. The warrior could not deny that the Church was extremely concerned about healing his injuries. Whether it was the four Supreme-tier champions who were maintaining the vitality of his body until Pope Igor and the Nature’s Magister arrived, or the room that was carefully decorated, they proved that they were sincere in helping the warrior.

By that time, the two divine armaments and the black draconic girl seemed to have calmed down. They were truly worried sick this time. In the past, Joshua would be able to turn the situation around whenever he was faced with danger. The power of the Azurite had always been able to save the warrior’s life. However, the situation was completely different this time, his injuries were so heavy that even the Azurite was unable to regenerate his flesh and blood fast enough to save him. The warrior could only rely on the support given by the others. This was indeed the worst he ever had.

According to Ling, after they had regenerated Joshua’s body completely, the projection of the Nature’s Magister vanished without a trace. Even though his body had been completely regenerated, his spirit had yet to recover. He remained in a coma for almost half a day. His body was transferred to the room.

As for now, the war between the Church and the Pentashade dragons had been momentarily paused. Due to the aftermath of the warrior’s battle and the last resort of the red dragon, the system of the entire berserk dragon legion on the northwest side had been hit hard as their number was less than 10% of their initial number. There were at least hundreds of giant dragons affected, most of the giant dragons were killed on the battlefield. There were also a small number of them missing.

The Pentashade dragons had suffered a tremendous loss. The high morale of the giant dragons that had accumulated over several months due to the siege on the Sacred Mountain had been knocked down. It would take approximately one week for them to readjust their forces and their morale as well.

Joshua had not expected that his spirit would be connected to the Sage’s illusion during that period of time. He had not expected that something so huge would happen when he was in coma–in simple words, the church and the forces of the berserk dragons had momentarily called for a truce. The Sacred Mountain seemed to have an absolute advantage over the situation of the war.

The longer they delayed, more divine puppets would be made. The reinforcement forces from the kingdoms in the distant south could possibly have arrived at the Sacred Mountain. In fact, the reinforcements might have arrived. The warrior knew the Nature’s Magister personally. The arrival of that Legendary-tier druid was obviously suggesting that the situation of the current world had changed since his past life. Having two Legendary-tier Champions joining forces to battle against three Legendary-tier giant dragons, and the elven race to join forces with the Sacred Mountain to go to war with the Pentashade dragon race, the situation was definitely better than having Pope Igor defending everything on the battlefield all alone in Joshua’s past life.

However, he was unaware that the situation was not about two Legendary-tier champions going against three Legendary-tier giant dragons. That was not really that important of a thing for him to take note of.

After roughly describing the situation, Ling was a little hesitant as if he wanted to say something. The warrior was able to see through the boy easily. Joshua leaned over, smiled and hugged the boy. Then he whispered gently into the boy’s ear, “I’m sorry to have you all so worried. You have gone through a lot.”

This time, it was truly his own recklessness that caused him to be so heavily injured. However, the warrior could not find the words to apologize. Joshua knew that if he was more prepared for the powerful magic enhanced weapon held in the hands of his enemy, which was a forged divine weapon, he would not have put himself in such a situation. And thanks to the enhancement of the siblings of the divine armaments who were indestructible, the two of them were able to survive without a scratch from the powerful the impact.

This was also because Joshua was misled by the rumors he heard in his past life. None of the players in the past life was qualified to join the sacred battle on the Holy Mountain. Even if there was, they were already long dead and eliminated from the battle before they could learn anything about it. Most people just watched a short clip of cut-off CGI and read the battle report on the official forum to learn about the development of the situation. Joshua happened to be one of them back in the past life. He only knew that the berserk dragon forces were able to destroy a part of the defense of the Sacred Mountain using a powerful magic enhanced equipment. However, he never expected that the equipment was so powerful that it was an equal of a divine equipment. The range of the attack was vast, and the charging speed was extremely high, so much so that the warrior was unable to evade or hide from it. Because of that, he took the impact of the attack head-on.

Joshua originally thought that the equipment was a type of alchemy product like an enchanted charge gun. He thought that the weapon would require a longer time to charge to release such a devastating blow. However, he was wrong. It only charged for a few seconds before releasing that attack.

“Are you sure you are really alright now, Master?”

After getting up from the bed, Ying was more emotionally stable. After all, she had experienced many battles and perilous situations with the warrior. Through those experiences, she had learned to keep her emotions in check. Despite all that, the girl was still a little doubtful so she asked, “Or should we ask Lady Bertha to check your condition? After all, you have sustained a heavy injury…”

It was not because she did not have faith in Joshua’s. It was just her subconsciously wanting to be sure that her master had fully recovered from that heavy injury.

“Master is definitely in good shape right now.”

Those words came from Black. She seemed more open-minded. She did not worry too much for the warrior. In her head, the warrior had always been invincible. Even the god of death would have to kneel before the warrior. All of the minor injuries would be healed in minutes. The recovery speed of the warrior had blurred her judgment.

Even though his body had been burned to crisp, he was able to recover completely in half a day.

‘Master is indeed mighty,’ she thought.

At that time, Eva who was outside the door of the room was slowly keeping its eyes back. It stood by the entrance through as if it was a giant metallic armored ornament. Even though the Steel Elemental did not possess the capability to speak, it could still understand most languages. It already knew that the warrior had fully recovered from all of his injuries and no one should worry themselves with him anymore. So, it just stood at the door with joy.

“I’m all healed. Not a problem at all.”

Responding Ying’s, Joshua nodded and gripped his fists as everyone around him could hear a crack. Besides the brightening of his brownish skin tone from sun exposure due to the regeneration of his entire body, Joshua’s body and strength did not weaken even by a little. Quite a number of hidden injuries had also vanished.

The warrior could vaguely feel the green crystalline substance he saw while his soul was returning to his body. It was obvious that it was one of the holy relics that belonged to the elves, which could bring back the dead—a divine artifact that can regenerate a body, even the souls of the dead, the [Life Tree Heartwood].

The fruit of the Sacred Life Tree, also the bud of the Sacred Life Tree, could heal all sorts of injuries. It could even heal the life force that was burnt out from over-abuse of forbidden spells. The Life Tree Heartwood was the purest form of ‘Life’ gathered together into one. Other than some extremely special case like the hidden injury on Israel’s body, it was an omnipotent potion that could heal any injury. Grass and insects could be enlarged by the light of the Life Tree Heartwood. According to legend, those giant plants and strange insects in the forest of the distant south were born because several Trees of Life were destroyed when a natural disaster befell the region and scattered the Life Tree Heartwoods all over the place.

[Unique Blessing: Heart of Life]

[Your heart has been incorporated with a special kind of divine artifact, which constantly releases vitality and changes the essence of your life force. You gain the special abilities of ‘Extraordinary Regeneration’ and ‘Flawless Body’. Your healing speed is greatly enhanced. You are also immune to all Poison-type creatures that are Gold tier and below Gold tier. At the same time, your blood takes similar effect of an ‘Intermediate Healing Potion’. Your flesh and blood can be used as the raw material to craft Superior HP Potion.]

[The person who swallows the treasure into his belly will become the treasure himself… Hey, why are you looking at me?!]

[— Great Explorer Harland Lionheart]

After scanning through his character tab and confirming that most of his data did not change, Joshua also noticed that a new special gift had appeared. That confirmed his suspicion that the green crystal object that he saw earlier was indeed the [Life Tree Heartwood]. Only a powerful magic enhanced item like that would have such an amazing effect. It could even provide the person who ate it with a special gift.

A faint vibration came from the room above him. Joshua paid little attention to that. He noticed that this was not any Dragon Breath from any frenzied dragon or any shrine collapsing down. It sounded just like the sound of some gigantic puppet operating at a rhythmic pace cleaning up the rubbles.

That was probably the divine machines of the Sacred Mountain cleaning up the battlefield as they repaired the collapsed shrines in the inner rim of the line of defense. Joshua was not surprised. The alchemy products of the Sacred Mountain of the Seven Gods had always been extremely advanced. They had already developed large-scale engineering machines and structures long ago. However, they could not find a place nor a time for them to utilize their advanced technology. It seemed that the sudden war with the berserk dragons had gained the church an opportunity to use a lot of their old goods and inspirations from their warehouse.

Compared to the enchanted armor, these large-scale alchemy puppets were too huge and clumsy. Furthermore, 03 and Moreila had been working on enhancing the enchanted armor while lowering the cost and materials needed to build them. Well, it seems that Moldavia would soon be able to normalize the use of enchanted armor by the people. By then, the process of building them would definitely be faster than now. The resources of the territory would definitely increase due to the improvement in the efficiency of the labor force.

Just as the warrior was thinking about the progress in his own territory, he suddenly turned towards the door.

He furrowed his brows slightly and stared right at the space at the door. The warrior’s eyes seemed to see through the walls and the dimension and looked straight at the person who was about to arrive. A few seconds later, his eyebrows rose. He was a little surprised.

“This is truly a surprise…” Joshua muttered to himself. “It is truly unexpected that this man would come. Perhaps the battle among the Legendaries in the Void has come to an end?”

As the warrior muttered to himself, the divine armament and the black draconic girl also looked towards the direction of the door. At that time, a blue light began to shine around the door. The gigantic Steel Elemental Eva stepped aside a little to give way for the dimensional door.

A few seconds later, a dark gold-haired man holding a giant draconic lance in his hand walked out of the dimensional door and stood before Joshua.

It was the Emperor of the Imperial Kingdom, the Legendary champion Israel himself.

The Emperor whose title was the [Apocalyptic Dragon Knight] had a gentle smile on his face. After walking through the dimensional door, he walked straight to the warrior. Israel patted Joshua’s shoulder, seemingly in a good mood, “You are recovering pretty well, Radcliffe. Even though the Nature’s Magister was a little stingy, he is still a reliable comrade during hard and crucial times.”

Only a Legendary-tier champion could comment on another Legendary-tier champion with that tone. As the representative of the Druid who has a simple title, the Nature’s Magister was a completely different person from Emperor Israel himself. The both of them had completely different point of views on basically everything. Israel thought that the Legendary champion definitely had mental issues for being so stingy and stubborn. On the other hand, the Legendary champion thought that the Emperor was ridiculously arrogant and high profiled. That he was a complete cancer to the world.

So, it the price Pope Igor paid in order prevent a battle between the two of them was still unknown. However, from the looks of it, the relationship between the two of them seemed to have improved quite a lot after they have fought together side by side.

“So, how are you feeling? Did the forged divine longsword leave any residual or energy in your body?”

Israel seemed to know a lot of details about the warrior’s situation. Joshua did not seem to be surprised. It was pretty obvious that the Emperor must have gotten the news about the warrior from the start. He even knew about the danger that the warrior’s body faced.

He looked sincerely joyful that Joshua was all well. He spoke more than he usually did. The warrior bowed to Israel to greet him as he felt a little awkward. After he turned around, he did not respond to Israel’s question.

Naturally, Israel had also noticed that something was not right—Joshua had never been a person who behaved awkwardly. The last time the warrior paid a visit at the Imperial City, he straight away gave the Divine Crystal to Israel without saying anything. That sort of behavior was extremely rare in the world these days. There must be some great secret behind a man like that especially when he was acting awkwardly.

So the Emperor asked the warrior directly.

Joshua answered.

– Bam–

The tip of the giant draconic lance was plunged straight into the floor of the room as the Emperor was overwhelmed with shock. The white birch board of the floor that was waxed not long ago was pierced right through. The marble under it was completely covered with cracks. Israel lifted one of his hands and pointed his finger at Joshua. He seemed to have something to say but did not say anything in the end.

After a brief moment, the voice of the distressed man echoed through the room in the fortress beneath the Sacred Mountain.

“… You blew it up?”

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