Soul of Searing Steel

“It worked! I did say it would!”

Priest, having entered the ripples promptly turned in excitement to his party and Sol. “I did it!”

“Leader, awesome!”

“Rad, leader!”

“As expected of our leader!”

“Great leader!”

“Priest, you’re incredible!”

Ceaseless flattery followed, just as a huge arch door suddenly opened beneath of Hub Accrafa. Holding back his thrill, Priest turned toward where the automatic doors opened. All kinds of thoughts, expectation and delight churning in his mind, just as there was a hint of doubt and prudence.

Behind those doors was the interior of Dimensional Hub Accrafa, the location of his present objective.

Entry was a must to understand the initial shape of that world, and how it eventually turned into its present-day form. Even if it was buried beneath stone over hundreds or perhaps thousands of years, Hub Accrafa’s observation magic would record many precious information.

At the very thought, Priest said, “I’ll go in to have a look. If I don’t come out for a long time… Don’t wait for me. Find a new spot and make camp—do not stay with those elves.”

Although Priest had entered Hub Accrafa successfully, he could not be sure that his cover would not be blown. It was not impossible for some bizarre magic or defensive measures inside the ancient ruins to kill him.

Even so, he must get inside since he was their only channel to learn about the truth of that world. While the Restoration Beam was not large it was not small either—it could allow an individual to move freely, but not several. Moreover, as a matter of insurance, Priest decided that he would venture in alone to avoid a complete wipe out.

As for the elves… in truth, it was not as if Priest did not trust them. Their deal was completed and the Elite Party had instructed them in crafting steel armor, just as they had certainly provided them the information they needed. Their partnership was pleasant, but Priest had always been on his toes after learning that the elves are connected in spirit and were collectively corrupted by Chaos, and hence unable to truly trust them.

As for Sol… it was the same for Sol.

Having instructed the rest of his party about what they should do, he headed toward the archway beneath the mountain. He walked quickly, just as the others did not spare time for any nonsense, having shared an understanding long before that.

Sol herself, however, bit her lip and watched Priest’s back with a difficult expression, as well as that once familiar Sacred Mountain. She was not foolish—instead, she was quite smart, and smart people did not need much words. By observing along their journey, she could tell that the exploration party was not the ‘human remnants’ her tribe assumed them to be, but from another unknown place that was strongly linked to the creators of the Sacred Mountain.

“So, this is… change.” The young girl closed her eyes and murmured inside.

***

Meanwhile, Priest arrived by the huge archway.

Although the Restoration Beam was cumbersome, for Gold-tiers who could lift objects that were dozens of tons heavy and throw Mammoths around as if a toy, a few tons of weight were nothing. Priest kept going forward toward the arch, where lights illuminated the interior of the hub dimly behind, seemingly clean and never changing despite thousands of years.

Priest neither thought nor hesitated, and entered with a single stride.

Then, he heard another gentle voice in his head.

“Respected Legend. Hub Accrafa is now on combat-ready mode. [Warning—Data Error] Chaos corruption class detected, 98% of the Hub’s universal modules has ceased operations. May I know the purpose of your visit?”

Soon, as the dimensions faintly cascaded, a bottle of beverage labeled ‘Saint Guinevere’ dropped inside the Restoration Beam. An avian lady with long blonde hair and a beautiful face was portrayed over the bottle as well, and there was a small line of text right below a golden sun background.

‘Saint Guinevere Energy Drink—the sun’s power at your palm, giving you the sensation of a corona blast.’

‘For instant energy, get Saint Guinevere—your best choice in the battlefield.”

***

Combat ready. Chaos corruption. 98% of universal modular operations ceased.

Three useful information from a single sentence. Priest did not really focus on the beverage that had expired for who knows how long, refraining from replying immediately as he considered.

Be it those nine ferocious Behemoth moons in the sky or the Chaos corruption plaguing the Mother Lifetree and the elves, all facts made evident that this place once saw a global battle against Chaos abominations in the distant past. It might have led to data error for Hub Accrafa then, causing its current rather haywire state.

The Dimensional Hub might still be on combat alert at the moment as it was back then, which was why civilians were denied entry.

Remembering some Glorious Era knowledge that he had received from the Unified Archives, Priest asked carefully, “I request entry to Central Control… Is that alright?”

When he finished those words rather recklessly, Priest shuddered, a little fearful of his own boldness.

It was Central Control after all—the vital section of most special Glorious Era buildings! A place only core personnel could only gain entry with various complex registration and the highest clearance levels!

To request as he did was the same as entering a stranger’s home and telling them to give you all their property… This might not end well!

“Your will is my honor.”

Unlike what Priest imagined nervously and panickily, the voice in his head did not hesitate, and replied very smoothly and naturally, “Auto-Navigation Systems activated—Full autonomous service sequence initiating: target: Central Control.”

In the very next instant, a line of bright lights shone after a series of thumping noises. The dark hall and corridor were well-lit suddenly, and before Priest could observe the design and layout of the hall, the floor shuddered, and the young warrior abruptly sensed his body moving!

No, not him—the whole floor!

As Priest looked in shock beneath him, arrow-shaped patterns of light had quickly appeared over the black floor lined with golden stripes, and along with it a translucent repulsive shield materialized under his feet, lifting both him and the Restoration Beam. Then, without using any strength, Priest darted forward steadily!

Fully autonomous service sequence… so there was no need to walk as well?!

Priest felt as if he moved like wind and thunder, even faster than his flying car, not to mention his own top speed. There was simply no telling how fast it was—he sensed he had turned seven to eight junctions and moved at least nine floors above in the matter of seconds, and could not tell at once where he was.

That would naturally have been a Gold-tier’s sensation—Legendary-tier beings would probably consider it a typical stroll, and simply saving them the trouble.

One way or the other, after half a minute, Priest, who had to cling on for dear life to steady himself in the Restoration Beam sensed the Auto-Navigation System stopping beneath his feet. In front him were no longer rows of ordinary doors, but a circular door forged entirely from green crystals and appeared exceedingly high-end.

It was probably the door to Central Control.

Priest shook his head, doing his best to clear his head—he noticed that the door resembled the airtight cabin doors in aerial warships: airtight and very sturdy. It appeared to have three entire layers, and the materials used to forge the green crystal door was so extraordinarily sturdy that even Legendary champions would have a hard time breaking it.

Priest could feel that the crystal might have stored the divine power of a certain deity. In the Glorious Era, anyone who boldly attacked it would probably draw the arrival of a god’s clone.

Now, however…

Just as Priest was left troubled how he should open the three sealed doors, there were sounds of distinct machines operating. Then as the young warrior stared agape, the three divine crystal doors opened one after another for him!

“…Huh, that’s it?”

Rubbing his eyes and suspecting an illusion, Priest gulped bewilderedly. Yet to be freed from anxiety and nervousness, it was a long time later that he murmured rather shakily, “Could… Could this be VIP treatment?”

There was such a huge difference!

Unable to help remembering himself being throwing several dozens of thousand meters away, Priest was unusually annoyed inwardly—if he knew early on his mentor’s title was so useful, he would have activated the Restoration Beam early on! Such a winding detour, so much time wasted running around in circles!

Nonetheless, Priest ignored his shock and entered Central Control without hesitation. Since his mentor’s dignitary treatment was so useful, he should not hesitate and use it more! Fortune favors the bold, and overcautiousness is not an attitude of those under the tutelage of Count Radcliffe!

In the instant Priest entered Central Control, with clicking sounds of magical energy moving, the dark hall at the center was at once filled with mild white radiance.

It was a bowl-shaped hall. There were different kinds of displays on the entire arched dome, wherein Priest could see many sights beyond the mountains with a single glance. Naturally, some of those displays had darkened entirely, probably having been damaged as time passed.

In the hall, there were not many other special facilities apart from many cylindrical data storage tubes like those found in the Unified Archives. The only thing considered unique was perhaps a metal chair in the middle of the hall.

To be precise, it was not a metal chair—before Priest really looked at it, it was an oval, irregular metallic form. After Priest entered the hall, the metal flowed as if judging his size, hence turning into a seat fitting his physique.

At the same time, the voice in his head spoke.

“Respected Legend. After verification, Hub Accrafa is determined to have no conductor of Clearance Level Six, Five and Special at present.”

Behind the voice, series of runic data was being verified and inspected dozen thousands of times in every single second at the bottom layer of a huge autonomous sequences.

[Subject observed to be wielder of Pure Steel Strength, earmark condition 1 complied]

[Subject observed to be Fated Legend, earmark condition 2 complied]

[Subject observed to be Sage’s Heir, earmark condition 3 complied]

[2 earmark conditions complied. Commencing clearance transfer sequence]

The data verification was completed, but the voice was still speaking in reality.

“This Dimensional Hub is under the control of fully automated service sequence at the moment. As you are the only individual with fitting requirements, in lieu of ‘special wartime command regulation’ and ‘core rules’, the command authorization of the fully automated service sequence would be transferred to you.”

With that, a layer of pale green light suddenly shone upon the plain metal chair. As Priest felt his heart thump, unending flow of information bombarded his mind, leaving him unsure if he was in a dream or in reality.

“And that’s the command clearance transferred?!”

If he was being truthful, Priest would never even dream that things would have gone so smoothly. By just putting on the appearance of a Legendary champion, clearance was transferred with neither conditional verification nor passwords check—was the Glorious Era really so lenient? And it was even wartime!

Even so, Priest did not hesitate to step forward and quickly throw himself on the chair despite his doubts. He had no other option in the first place… He had to do it, for he must obtain the information vault of Hub Accrafa, and giving up was impossible.

Just as Priest sat down, a formless power abruptly latched on to the Restoration Beam, whereupon an invisible mark was branded.

“Clearance transfer successful,” the voice in the head announced.

Priest, however, had no feeling of the clearance being transferred albeit the chair felt a little hard… it was after a long that he realized.

“Wait…” His eyes widened. “It’s the Restoration Beam?!”

The clearance for the fully automated service sequence was moved to the Restoration Beam?!

The voice in his head had been talking to the Restoration Beam all along?!

Priest was immediately left in a quagmire of emotions as he felt a sense of embarrassment known as unrequited love surging in his mind. Regardless of whether that was true, in a matter of seconds, the countless displays on the dome of Control turned off and on, seemingly to independently clear its original proxy sequencing following the transfer of authority. Silver veins of progress bars could be seen rolling forth slowly.

[Fully automated service sequence period: 2464489 days, 17 hours, 11 minutes and 29.88 seconds] — [Organizing information… Deleting redundant programs… Deleting pointless data… Arranging error codes… Arranging graphic data]

[Organization complete. Beginning information transfer to highest authority]

Just as the progress bar gradually progressed, even before the chair beneath Priest’s bottom heated up while he thought about how he should obtain the data through the Restoration Beam’s clearance, more than six thousand years of information crashed like a meteor into his brains, as well as the Restoration Beam’s.

***

A distant point in the galaxy.

In the Void, the man who stood upon a giant silver cocoon planet looked up thoughtfully.

The silver cocoon had been over a thousand meters long at the very beginning, but was now over a hundred times larger—the outcome of devouring one small world and other planet cores. As the complex runes over its surface shifted, the supreme body of mass that was almost as large as the Void Mother was stirring dimensional ripples in the Void that resembled oceanic tides.

“What is it, Joshua?”

The Nature’s Magister asked spiritually through the Void—she was sitting on one of the vines going over the body of the Legendary Behemoth she recently befriended, the creature she had named ‘Shaggy’ which belonged to another living world.

“It’s nothing. I’ve just sensed that the faraway party might have encountered some trouble… They must have opened their Restoration Beam.”

Having been prepared for departure for some time, the warrior nodded, saying nothing much else. He then turned toward Nostradamus behind him, who was slowly casting runes and magic circles with the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds to jointly prepare a galaxy-transcending and superior teleportation spell.

“Still,” Joshua said quietly, “that means they’re alive.”

“That’s good… That said, Joshua, are you really bringing the egg—uh, cocoon as well?”

“Of course.”

Joshua naturally understood what Galanoud’s question meant. The giant silver cocoon was his true form, his true combat ability—his clone, however, possessed the same power and might not even be weaker than his true form.

If that was so, why would he have the old mage and the Commanding Will waste several thousand times of power to teleport the cocoon as well?

To put it unkindly, was there a need to spend so much effort just because they lost contact with a Gold-tier exploration party? It was unreasonable from both aspects of cost-benefit and time… Moreover, Joshua did not appear to be one who would do so much for his pupils—he would at most do his part as mentor, babysitting was simply not his style.

But Joshua never intended to explain his actions.

How could it be explained at all?

Since the year started, the warrior had a sense that something was very wrong.

From the juvenile Void Behemoths fleeing the edge of the galaxy, the omitted Steel Authority, the Shadows anomaly, the erroneous temporal distortion and the time point of his own crossover… along with a variety of question that could not be completely described with just a few words, such as the hidden information Zero Three found: the missing Evil God Wither, and the nine Glorious Era Legends.

Still, thought there were many anomalies, but when each was screened through a single similarity could be found—all of them happened, or originated from the edge of the galaxy or beyond it.

There were no coincidences in this world, only inevitability. For so many things to happen at once proved only one thing: each of them were connected.

That is why the warrior knew that he should do his best as well.

***

Joshua made no reply, and the Nature’s Magister naturally did not continue.

The Void hence fell into silence… until a long time later.

“Alright!”

Nostradamus’s spiritual exchange came from the distance; his rather tired voice could be heard.

“Teleportation circle established!”

“Prepare for departure!”