Soul of Searing Steel

Nostradamus’s gaze promptly froze. He was expecting Joshua to display the special aspects to his power, but now blinked a few times as he stared at the huge cavity in that Void distortion barrier before turning to look at Joshua and their encampment that was almost flattened by the sheer power of the fist. The mage paused for something, before managing to say, “Not bad… but try to be discrete next time.”

Although there won’t be a next time, he thought.

The archmage then clapped his hand, getting the other expedition personnel to emerge from various corners of the camp where they had been hiding haggardly.

“Hurry up,” he said simply.

“Yes, sir!”

Reassembling into a proper team, each of the elite expedition party members that were handpicked from various platoons of the Empire possessed Gold-tier ability. They were also commanders of various squadrons or titled knights, but were all now merely a member of the expedition. Quickly shaking off the confusion Joshua threw them into, they began to activate various runic circles over their bodies, and soon, fifteen fully armored steel warriors appeared before them.

Due to the meteoric rise of his own ability, Joshua had handed any correlated research regarding enchanted armor to Winter Fort Academy after suggesting the concept and crafting the first prototype. In turn, Winter Fort Academy, with its many mages dispatched from the Imperial Royal Mage Guild, popularized the armor amongst the Imperial Army with Joshua blessing, with the warrior earning a hefty sum thanks to his proprietary rights which he used to develop his domain.

Each enchanted armor was designed individually—the shape and interior design for respective armors tailored fore mages, priests and warriors were completely different. As the miniaturized engines in those armors hummed, streaks of spell radiance shown while the expedition team rose into the air collectively and urgently as if escaping something, hurrying towards the great cavity punched out by Joshua.

The distorted space was not too far from the edge of Fairyland. At present, the Skypiercing White Tower team that departed first has arrived at the inner reaches of the passageway Barbarossa created. They first set up half-way mana focal points, before prudently operated their magical puppet to venture deeper and collect information, with corresponding data quickly delivered to the joint screen in the assembly point shared by all four camps.

“The interior of the dimensional anomaly is a stable space. As hypothesized, a grand-scale demiplane.”

With a few blasts of static, a gray, vast flatland appeared over the screen, and on the dark screen, a dully glowing sphere was emitting silver-gray light. It was the puppet’s point of view, while a man calmly analyzed the findings beside the screen, speaking the common tongue with an Eastern Plain accent. “The plane is fundamentally the same as the Mycroft Continent. It can be ascertained as an ancient artificial demiplane, a ruin from the peak of the Glorious Era.

“Energy concentration: 9.37 standard Alpha levels, almost ten times the concentration levels in the Mycroft Continent before the Great Mana Tide. Influence from the Great Mana Tide confirmed.”

“There is an atmosphere in the demiplane, pressure amounts 1.21. There are no gray dust particles in the air although the ground itself is a condensation of those particles, and there is no sign of airflow apart from the immediate vicinity of dimensional passageway. Initial theory—it’s a region completely sealed over nine hundred years.”

“Alert! The surface of the demiplane contains extreme concentration of Abyssal toxic!”

Slightly panicked voices of the Skypiercing White Tower explorers promptly rang from the other end. “Radiation did not break through the spell barrier and the team is fine… But the concentration is almost thirty times that of the normal Abyss?! That’s even more concentration than the Abyssal breath that wafts from an archdemon corpse, how could normal dust carry such terrible toxicity!”

At those words, every Legendary champion watching the screen became focused—it was information worth their attention.

However, unlike the other Legends and Nostradamus who were perplexed why the demiplane would carry Abyssal toxic, Joshua was perfectly aware of the current situation. According to what he knew, the Skypiercing White Tower should have now arrived at the [Plains of Death] outside the Multiverse Sacrificial Ground. It was a land of dust completely flattened by extraordinary power, with countless demons and Abyssal monsters beneath. None knew anything in the pre-existence, but the warrior knew at this moment that it had been the first battlefield of the Abyssal invasion all those years ago. Uncountable ranks of demon armies that included Demon Generals were jointly vanquished by the gods in that place, piled into mountains of corpses that decomposed into dust, leaving terrific toxicity that never dispersed even after a thousand years.

Meanwhile, the other expedition teams also successfully arrived inside the dimensional anomaly. Audio and visual feed came streaming in incessantly, which Joshua noted that every team was all now in the outskirts of the Multiverse Sacrificial Ground. The Skypiercing White Tower and the Imperial explorers had landed at two different ends of the Plains of Death, while the teams of the Eastern Sea Sage and the murlocs were at the [Ceramic Ruins] and the [Stone Pillar Forest] respectively. The former was an aged ruin seared completely into glass while the latter was a forest, turned into stone as ages passed.

The Multiverse Sacrificial Ground had been a Legendary-class public dungeon in the preexistence, the exploration difficulty which was so ridiculous beyond imagination that even Joshua did not finish exploring it then. Apart from those remains ancient battlefield outside, there were certain prehistoric alchemical creations left in the depths of the Sacrificial Ground that were still operational, such as that ‘Gray Sun’ that was located on an obelisk that was almost a thousand near its core and distributed energy to the demiplane. Apart from that, there were also several superweapons—[Giant God Warriors], puppets constructed from ancient alchemy that wandered everywhere and were at least Supreme-pinnacle tier.

But now, the individuals entering the ruins did not possess demon blood and hence would not activate the dormant Giant God Warriors, which makes the Multiverse Sacrificial Ground considerably safe at the moment. Joshua still felt an ache in his hand as he remembered those stalwart machines glimmering in blue light.

Nonetheless, there was no alarming news for the rest of the days. As several regions including the [Plains of Death], [Glass Ruins], [Stone Pillar Forests], [Dried Salt Sea], and [Silent Highlands] were discovered one of the other, the expedition teams had largely collected most information regarding the demiplane and reported them to the Legendary champions, allowing them to calibrate their power to prevent disturbance with the artificial realm.

Apart from that, they also discovered huge reserves of precious resources—in the buried toxic dust of the Plains of Death, there were ‘Soulstones’ that condensed after an archdemon’s death, while there were huge assemblages of anti-magic crystals around the Silent Highlands as well as eternal crottles in the depths of the Dried Salt Sea. Those were resources that could only be produced in extreme environments and extremely rare in the Mycroft Continent. It was also one of the greatest motives that each faction would explore unknown worlds or demiplanes since nobody likes to go without profit.

“The outer reaches of the demiplane has mostly been mapped, and our expedition teams’ mission is mostly completed,” Nostradamus said, arriving outside the camp, rising slowly as his body exuded pale-blue light, signifying that he has finished calibrating.

Facing the Void, the old mage spread his arms and smiled. “We’re up.”

Joshua too, walked out of the camp, leading Ling, Ying, and Light, the latter which was settled on the divine armament girl’s head.

“Certainly.” The warrior nodded in agreement. The truth was as Nostradamus had said—the depths of the Multiverse Sacrificial Ground was not any place Gold-tier explorer could enter or leave as they wish. Most convoluted circumstances could trouble even Legendary champions, and whether it was prehistoric alchemical ruins or a dimensional seal formed in war a thousand years ago, anything could easily imprison them within.

Thus, in the next moment, a pale blue portal opened while a streak of crimson ray rose, spreading monumental presence. The two Legendary champions thus moved with no hesitation towards the demiplane passageway while three other varied forms of ray also rose from the other three camps.

Between breaths, Joshua had brought the divine armament siblings and luminous orb in front of the passageway he punched out and streaked through it decisively, breaking through the barrier that the demiplane used to prevent air from spilling out. At the same time, Nostradamus stepped out from his portal and into the Multiverse Sacrificial Ground as well.

“The Abyssal breath is definitely thick and virtually the same as the Mycroft Continent. With a little adjustment, my power won’t be shackled.”

Standing over the gray soil of the Plains of Death, the old mage sensed his surroundings with keen anticipation. After his slight adjustments, his power could be used just fine and without stagnation on the unfamiliar demiplane.

Joshua, however, did not reply—once he arrived in the demiplane, he immediately sensed an ancient power.

It seemed to be calling for him.