Soul of Searing Steel

[Flame burns Chaos, forging it into steel. Steel gives birth to all things. A new beginning will always meet its death. The living flame will die inside out. The ash will disperse into the void. Chaos will condense. The flame will be born from ash and return again. The cycle will continue on.]

The warrior who was combusting with flames was standing above the earth covered with dust and gravel. The sparks that emerged from the surface of his armor were dispersed into the surroundings behind his back along with the wind. His messy hair brushed his face. Meanwhile, a hand wrapped in metallic armor was used to swipe them off his face.

Right on the surface of the armor which had scratches all over it, dust rose from the ground beneath his feet. Because gravity was unbalanced at the moment, Joshua felt that he became extremely light. Upon taking flight as he moved forward, he caused winds that swept across the mountains, bringing along waves of roars. Meanwhile, Joshua narrowed his eyes as he revealed a calm face. He seemed to be listening to the creed that came from the ancient times.

[Origin by fire, birth by steel, wisdom unquenchable, order eternal. Legacies have been passed on again and again, until this time.]

That creed carried enthusiasm, the passion of human beings from their birth, and also precipitations of the wisdom of Sages in the past. The mark that was placed on his forehead by the Azurite was extremely hot now. Meanwhile, the echoes were stacking up one after another over thousands of times, slowly forming into one simple sentence at the end.

[Let the Flame reignite.]

His red eyes opened. Joshua looked at the surroundings and saw the gray land, the dark clouds and also the white snowy wind that was blowing across the mountains and the hills. The three different colors appeared right before his eyes. The scene that looked like a black-and-white painting made the initially desolate Karlis world looked even more despairing than ever.

Lightning was struck across the layers of clouds in the sky. The mountains and the ground were beginning to collapse because of the unbalanced gravity. The flying dust all over the place followed the wind in the air, causing chaos in every corner of this world.

“Master!”

A clear voice was heard from behind the warrior.

Joshua turned around to look behind. The black-haired young man with golden eyes ran up to him not far from the spot he was standing. The young man was running all along. Then, Ling stopped and stood right beside the warrior. Then he grabbed the hand of the warrior as he looked at the cracks and the discharging sparks all over the armor of his own Master. His expression displayed his worry towards the current situation.

“… Ling, time to prepare for battle.”

At this time, it was not the time to explain his whereabouts a few moments ago. Without saying any unnecessary word, Joshua patted Ling’s head as he believed that his own weapon would be able to understand him.

“Yes!”

As a weapon, Ling did not have to question anything. If his Master needed him, he would just respond to his Master’s calling. Ling straight away grabbed on to the hand of the warrior. The black tattoos on the back of their hands began to flash with the radiance of magic power. In the middle of the blinding radiance that flashed into the surroundings, the black greataxe was tightly grabbed by Joshua.

A powerful force had instantly connected to the Divine Armament. Right on the body of the black greataxe, there was a trace of Flame and ash appeared at the same time. Wielding his own weapon, followed by the whistling sound of the air, Joshua could feel that the Flame Seed that the python had fused into his body, the Azurite was combusting the souls that were accumulated from the monsters that he slaughtered all along in this world, unleashing an enormously strong power.

“What is this power exactly?”

Even in the past life, Joshua had never experienced such a thing before. The enormous power that he obtained from killing the Supreme-tier Aragami was slowly exhausting. He asked the python that was remaining in silence, in his heart. At the same time, he was looking at the three gigantic monsters that were approaching from afar. Currently, his heart was ignited like a blazing flame, and yet, as calm as steel.

” The power that bestows existence upon everything. ”

The solemn voice of the python echoed from Joshua’s heart, ” Protect the world, resist Chaos, this is the power of the ‘King of Searing Soul! ”

“King of Searing Soul?”

” You’re still not. The number of souls that you accumulated is still too low. Perhaps one day, you will reach that level. Hence, I shall bestow you my power to support your body, I shall grant you the opportunity to experience that power for the time being…

” It is also possible that this will be the last thing I will do in this world. ”

Upon speaking slowly, the voice of the python gradually faded and disappeared as if it had gone completely silent.

“Power… of the guardian.”

Upon digesting the words spoken by the python, Joshua spat out those few words.

Guardian, in his opinion, was a strange word indeed.

Originally, for Joshua, a person who could not even protect himself would be a meaningless existence. In his entire life, he had been constantly engaging himself in battle and experience countless hardships. No one could have replaced him at battle. No one.

Moreover, regardless of how hard one tried to guard, it would be much wiser to eradicate the enemy directly.

However, currently, he began to understand a little bit.

Even if everything succumbed to the influence of Chaos, in a world in which both life and civilization were destroyed, there would still be some remaining Flames lingering around.

The moving fortress that had been controlled by the Artificial Intelligence has long been damaged. However, according to the instructions given to her a thousand of years ago by her former master, she had been stubbornly driving the fortress around this nearly extinguished world, searching for traces of hope.

Guardian, was not a meaning but a responsibility, an insistence.

“Civilization—is not a stand-alone existence. The world is not a paradise for one person.”

Thinking thoughtfully as he muttered himself, Joshua seemed to have remembered something long ago when he had not even crossed into this world yet.

From the ashes among ruins, in the Fort Naya, the warrior and his comrades were intercepting the invasion of the Chaos daemons. Countless meteorite attacks were falling from the heavens. They were willingly battling with their swinging swords, letting out their joy… perhaps they had not been thinking so, however, that should be a part of the meaning of ‘Guardian’.

Because someone betrayed them, so Joshua had failed in the previous life. He was not able to see the final outcome as he was already reborn into this timeline of the same world.

However, in this life, he certainly would not fail.

“If the Mycroft Continent is about to descend into chaos, and that would be called ‘fate’…”

Joshua’s deep solemn voice overshadowed the sound of the long wind, “Well, when such a fate confronts me, it is no longer a fate.”

In the face of those who desire to alter it, fate will no longer be fate.

Is this the reason I came to this world?

Afterward, doubt began to spread in Joshua’s heart. However, right after that, he shook his head.

“But don’t get it wrong though.”

“I just think that, regardless of whether it’s the Evil Gods or Chaos, it would only be very suitable to treat them as enemies.”

In the dark sky, the sun disappeared without even the slightest trace. The frozen ground began to crack open. Along with the gravity of Chaos, the ground soon shattered into shapeless pieces.

Standing on the remaining ground that was still well-preserved, Joshua looked into the distant sky. The howling wind was blowing past his body, causing the sparks that were forming all around him to scatter into the direction of the wind. He let out a breath. A white steam rose into the air, turning into ice crystals before dispersing into the air.

The three Supreme-tier Aragami were flying rapidly from afar. Their large bodies were having friction against the air, producing red radiances and impacts. There were translucent waves rippling through into the surroundings like the rippling water waves from the bodies of those three monsters. The rocks and mountain peaks were being crushed and pushed away by impacts of the rippling waves. Their target was the radiance that looked like a small sun, the man that was radiating with the light of the Order, Joshua.

Slowly lifting up his greataxe in his hands as he was engulfed in the blazing black Satsui Hadou, the flame that was combusting on giving out sparks began to get set ablaze. It engulfed the armor entirely, licking on Joshua’s body.

Witnessing those monsters that were roaring while rushing towards him, Joshua grinned.

Going against destruction and doomsday?

I like it.