Soul of Searing Steel

“I’ll be there soon.”

Joshua placed his palm onto the small crystal globe, that was the mini-communication circle. He lifted his head and took in a deep breath. His stoic facial expression revealed no sort of emotion.

He turned around and gazed upon the blankets of snow that covers all that was around him. There were still some of the huge rocks that had not been fully buried at the slopes of the mountains. He then turned to his back and place his hands on the silver-haired young girl. “Ying. I have a favor to ask of you.”

“Yes, Master.”

Without a linger of doubt, she nodded but no sooner, the little girl cocked her head and stared at her master with her green eyes. “But, what is the favor?”

*****

“You should know the way from here.”

Joshua pulled the reins of the horse and got his legs buried in the snow beneath him. The cold north winter’s wind blew past his ears and rushed through his bones. Despite that, a bright red glow burnt around him, dispelling the coldness around him. “Take Black and ride with the fastest speed to Dark Forest Fortress. It’s not too far now. You’ll reach within an hour.”

“That… What about you, Master?”

The silver-haired girl took the reins of the black warhorse without showing any signs of understanding what her master was doing.

“What are you doing?”

“Me?” Joshua answered as if he was confused about her answer. It was not the right question.

Joshua took out the statuettes of a sword and an armor and muttered an incantation. A bright light then surged out of the black-haired, crimson-eyed warrior which then grew brighter with magic. The blinding light struck Joshua and formed a layer of armor around his body. The large sword was embedded in the snow right beside the man. He lifted his right hand, flexed his hands, moving the fingers which made a metallic clanging sound as he did.

A black cloth adorned the Maximilian armor which only added a sense of grandeur and dignity to the warrior over the plain metal armor. Hidden lines overlapped the metal plate on his shoulder armor was shaped like wings that were spread out from the embossment of a crow. His helmet had deep V-shaped gaps. A pair of glowing red eyes could see from the gap.

Even though the helmet muffled the sounds, Joshua’s voice could still be heard by the silver-haired, green eyes, Divine Armament girl.

“What else is there to do? I’m going to take out the trash.”

Boom!

The red crimson Combat Aura burst out of his body and blasted the snow around him away. What that was left around him were solid dirt and bulky rocks. Gravity had controlled him for only a second when the black-haired, crimson eyes, wearing a black Maximilian armor shot to the sky. The warrior that was radiating blood-red aura around him looked down towards the Dark Forest Fortress and smirked.

Gold-tier colossal beast? Berserk Daemon’s Rising? All of them were mere trash to him. A single stroke of his sword would be enough to kill those beasts.

*****

Dark Forest Fortress

When the masked warrior, Chiri Uranus opened his eyes after being unconscious for a short time, the very first thing he saw was the scene of Dark Forest Fortress covered in black smoke. All that he felt was frigid temperature and biting cold when he touched his weapon.

The chaotic magic causes the unnatural blow of the wind. The grayish clouds in the sky rolled on and on endlessly. Snowflakes the size of a human palm fell rampant on the battlefield. Winds that blew around the battlefield howled so deafeningly that the man was awoken from his state of unconsciousness.

“… I am… still alive…”

His cough was accompanied by a weak smile as he realized his current predicament. He struggled to get up to his feet. The man gathered his strength and used the iron spear as a stick to support himself. Carrying his battered body, the man limped as he realized that snow that already piled up a thick layer on top of the castle wall where he stood weakly.

What just happened? The man asked himself as he tried to recalled how he became unconscious.

“… Hmph. I’m lucky enough to be alive even though a charging beast sent me flying.”

He clenched his teeth hard when he felt a throbbing pain from his insides. The gray-eyed warrior turned his heart to try to understand what had just happened to the fortress. The war was still going on as the dark purple mist blanketed the entire field like morning mist. Sounds of cannons firing filled the air. The crackling of magic power could be seen at every moment as the earth trembled. However, the one sound that stood up among the rest was the sound of swords clanging.

“Attention!”

A loud commanding voice blasted from nowhere, surpassing all the noise that was in the battlefield.

“Arcane archers! Mages! Ballista squadron! Cannon squadron! Ready yourself! Take aim!”

“Fire at will!”

“Yes, Sir!”

Although the replies were not in unison, the soldiers that heard the command obeyed. In a matter of seconds, the sky was darkened with arrows, whistling as they tore through the airspace. Spells of all sorts flew across the battlefield and blasted their enemies. Those spells were in many forms, of fire, ice, and sharp rocks. All of the projectiles, magic or not, were shot towards the monsters that were swarming below the castle wall, dealing enough damage to inflict fatal wounds.

The scene was not for the weak-hearted. As the arcane archers and mages alike had blasted their attacks, the chaotic swarming on the daemons down on the ground had many empty voids where the attack had landed. Powerful loud blast, paired with the rising heat of the attack had melted all the snow that was supposed to cover the entire land of the north. The steam rose up, mixed along with the purple mist, causing the entire fortress seems to be puffing purple steam like a boiling kettle.

Although overwhelmed, the monsters had not shown any intention to withdraw. With the mind of a beast, they did not care for their fallen comrade. The daemons continued to bare their fangs and claws. With a putrid odor lingering all over their bodies, as splatters of their fallen comrades stuck to their bodies, they continued to attack the castle wall, breaking the stone wall with their long steel-like claws. One by one, they lunged themselves to the wall and clawed their way up. When the front had crawled up the wall, the ones behind moved forward, rampaging as they moved.

A few of the daemons possessed the Spitting Attack ability that had no blind spot. They remained on the ground and gathered magic power to spew out pillars of assorted colors. The attack blasted the fortress walls and caused heavy damage. Each time the attack landed, the walls would shake violently. Smoke would rise and fragments of bricks would fall.

“Ouuuu…”

A blue light that resembled lightning was blasted out of a daemon’s mouth and towards the masked knight. Chiri tried to dodge as fast as he could but due to the severe injuries he bore, his movement speed was reduced drastically. The high-powered beam attack grazed past his head and even melted the steel spear of which he was holding.

The black steel-made spear immediately turned searing red. Unable to withstand the intense heat, Chiri had to let go of the spear in his hand. Enraged, Chiri moved towards the edge of the wall to search for the daemon that had attacked him. At that moment, he felt an unusual coldness around his head. It was only then he had realized that his helmet was blown off.

“What a drag…”

Long dark green strands of hair fluttered against the wind. The ears that twitched was longer and sharper than of usual humans. Chiri tied his long hair and made a simple ponytail. The half-elf warrior’s face had tattoos that were drawn using the blood of daemons as the dye. There was still sparks of electricity crackling from his tattoos. He frowned.

“Hmph! It dares to use electrical attacks on me?!”

It was not the time for him to deal with such a monster that was at most a Silver tier, that of which could not even break his magic tattoo defenses. He had other more important matters to tend to.

Chiri picked up a random sword that was on the floor and observed the entire battlefield once more. After one clean scan, he had found his target.

On the far end of the fortress was another battlefield. There, a blond-haired warrior and a white-haired magician were co-operating to provide support against the ranged attacks and a frenzied colossal beast. A beast that had lost all traces of intelligence and the ability to judge. Even though it had a strong constitution of a Gold tier, it was firmly held back by two veteran Silver-tier fighters, rending it unable to proceed to attack the castle wall.

Even so, holding back the massive beast was hard for the knight and the magician. Both greathammer and magic staff were swinging around. All sorts of Combat Aura martial arts and magic spells were flung and blasted, yet they failed to break and penetrate the icy armor in order to deal substantial damage. All they could do then was to stop the enemy from moving forward, forcing the beast to circle around.

The human body had limits, limits that the colossal beast did not possess. Once the humans had grown weary, it was then that defeat would be certain.

Chiri pressed his chest as he could feel the throbbing pain piercing him from the inside. The damage dealt to him when he was sent flying by the colossal beast was too much for even a being with elven blood and the constitution of a Silver-tier warrior to heal. It was impossible for him to be fully restored in that short amount of time.

“However, it’s about right.”

The half-elven warrior to the other end of the fortress to rejoin the battle.

Just when he had taken the first few steps to gain his speed, he felt something in the air that was assaulting him. His body involuntarily jerked to the sudden presence.

At the same time, the two Silver-tier fighters, the warrior, and the mage felt the same presence. It was something frightening, something that made them extremely wary. In the same time, both the Silver-tier warrior and mage blasted their ultimate move to force the colossal beast to withdraw a few steps back. They then raised their heads to look into the distance.

There was something flying in the sky. A bright light that glowed blood red dyed the sky dark crimson red like late dusk that was soon to arrive.