Soul of Searing Steel

“Weird. Which impudent fairy has been spying on us?”

Joshua said suspiciously, scanning the sights around Fairyland before shrugging. “Energetic little fellows.”

“The world would be so much interesting if humans and fairies were equally energetic.” Pope Igor’s clone smiled beside him. “If it wasn’t for their inability to live in low-energy realms and the risk of diminishing after living there for a long time, they might have been the race that pioneered the spiritual aspect.”

***

It was now Starfall Year 840, the 14th of April—more than half a month since Yolanda came and left.

Compared to other Legends who have other duties, the elderly pope and the warrior were relatively idle, and able to split a clone to discuss recent events.

Before being disturbed by the little fairies (both men did not consider things seriously), Igor and Joshua had been talking about some friendly communications sent to them by certain foreign Void civilizations.

“They seem to be survivors of the Final Battle.”

With the Church’s warship Fort Glory patrolling the Void throughout the year, its surveillance station known as the ‘Saint’s Eye’ easily discovered the envoy fleet from other civilizations, which was why the Seven Gods Church received most transmission sent by other civilizations.

The pontiff had been very pleased over the matter—the presence of those Void civilizations might reflect some of Mycroft’s lost history. However, he soon realized regretfully that most of those civilizations had escaped the Evil Gods’ indiscriminate decimation of all intelligent creatures in the Final Battle because of various measures they implemented themselves, and had basically skipped that part of history. They hid in their own shelters over thousands of years, only to be stimulated by Mycroft’s recent high-profile resurgence, granting them the courage to return to the galaxy that was once filled with Evil Gods and Chaos.

All of them self-proclaimed to have established relations with the Glorious Era, just as the Unified Archives certainly contained such information. Even so, after a thousand years or perhaps more than that, the pontiff could hardly decide such matters for the entire world.

In the end, compared to those Void civilizations that hosted social bodies which were long unified, present-day Starfall Era had yet to be unified.

“Unification is at hand—in fact, we are actually already united. Empire, White Tower, various small kingdoms… the boundaries of those factions had long since mattered.”

Being an Imperial Noble, Joshua spoke self-deprecatingly without holding back. Then, noticing the pope’s stare, he simply continued matter-of-factly, “I’m not saying anything wrong. If all Legends be willing, one day is all we need to bind the world into a loose alliance. After all, the power of mortals and Void fleets are insignificant compared to our power—in fact, we are the main force of our civilization in sheer firepower.

It was not wrong: every Legend’s power is more than the sum of every non-Legend combined. Even those Legends not adept at fighting was completely different from normal humans in terms of fundamental living essence and could hardly be harmed by mundane measures. Be that as it may, Joshua would never underestimate them for that reason, since only powerful civilizations could groom powerful Legends without end. In comparison to foreign foes who were immeasurably formidable and had inexhaustive Void resources, civil strife was laughable and depressing, and would at most nurture some competition.

That was why Joshua would say that the world of Mycroft had already been unified: every Legendary champion had already been allied, an accord far more effective between any faction and nation.

“Regardless, since those civilization came on friendly terms, we should return their diplomacy.”

Igor could not help feeling a migraine when he thought about it, and waved his hand to end that conversation. “As long as our plan isn’t affected, those civilizations could do what they want—by the way, how many times have you been visiting Fairyland lately?”

Even as he spoke, the elderly man looked up at two fairies who were hiding behind some bushes nearby, watching them carefully. “Could it be that that’s your type?” He laughed quietly.

“Type? What type?”

Joshua shook his head, and simply pointed at one Silver Fairy which had been flapping its wings as it diligently moved some cobblestones. “I’m here for those kids.”

***

Silver Fairies were brand new species, with most of their population moved to Fairyland from their native world, Karlis. The four Fairy Queens had wanted to use them as a template to complete Fairyland, just as Joshua wanted to entrust them to the Queens, instructing those creatures that were essentially newborns.

Now, regardless of what the Silver Fairies had learnt, it appeared that at least they were very compatible with the local fairies… In fact, they had already assimilated!

Joshua narrowed his eyes. He saw a Silver Fairy and a Flame Fairy putting their arms over each other’s shoulders as they flew around in Brownian Motion. It was natural since flying around with wings and a rocket ejector was already fine, much less with stability.

“I wish to move some Silver Fairies to live in my world if they are willing.”

It was when one of those fairies fell to the ground with a thud that Joshua withdrew his gaze and said quietly, “I am one of their creators after all; my world is the best world for them.”

Even if the world of Karlis was rejuvenating, it was basically no different from a post-nuclear fallout land. It was difficult for insects or moss to survive there, not to mention that Silver Fairies which require demanding environments—if not for the favor from Karlis’s Steel Python, they might have a hard time to even stay alive.

On the other hand, while Fairyland was certainly a fine location, it still had no Steel Strength. Silver Fairies would hence be a class below Elemental Fairies, which was not a good symptom.

“Moreover, those kids are being idle.”

The warrior continued, seemingly unable to see that the pontiff was about to speak before stopping again. Joshua narrowed his eyes once more, sweeping a fatherly glance over all of Fairyland before speaking quietly, “Fooling around all day, never learning… they will resemble the Fairy Queens when they grow up!”

“This will not do. I must personal oversee their training, starting with flight. Just look at that leisurely speed—with their talent, supersonic flight should be a basic!”

‘What’s wrong with the Fairy Queens?!’ Igor had wanted to ask in return, but when he thought about it, the liberal pontiff must admit that even if the Queens were dependable for major events, they were a little capricious most of the time!

Furthermore, Joshua himself was not so reliable either!

“Ahem. I think you should think more in terms of education.”

In the end, the Silver Fairies were Joshua’s kin, and it was not fine for Igor to poke his nose into the family business of others. “There are strong and weak fairies too,” he said tactfully, “While the stronger ones might have the talent you speak of, the normal ones are actually quite weak…”

“All the more reason to train harder!”

With that particular conversation ending promptly, the old pope could see that the Silver Fairies which were now laughing jovially had no chance of escape, and so simply shifted the conversation to talk about the Abyss.

“Roland has been scouting the enemy in surrounding Abyss.”

Strolling by the river, Igor’s clone was using Holy Light as a medium to exchange information with his true form—there was certainly delays as the true form dispatch information. “He, along with your friend, swordsman Brandon of House Kaos had moved through five different Abysses, but there were unexpectedly few demons.”

“It did not appear to be due to their slaughtering or devouring of each other either. The Chaos presence of all Abyss had diminished considerably, and are about to become normal dead worlds.”

***

There was a huge difference between dead words and Abysses: dead worlds have utterly expired, while Abysses simply hung by a thread.

Naturally, there were many dead worlds inside the Abyss too. Demons would flourish in them too, although there would not be large swarms in such worlds, nor would there be powerful Abyssal Lieges.

And now, five Abysses had lost all hint of life and turned into simple dead worlds…

It was an important piece of information.

“Could they have caught wind that we are about to purge them and fled beforehand?”

Joshua could not help pausing and turning suspiciously at Igor. “Did they go to the Sixth Abyss?”

“There’s a demon king there. Not everyone is like you, so fearless of death that they would run around down there in their free time, walking their dragon.”

The pope calmly and objectively pointed out how they differed, and so indicated his agreement.

Even so, he found things unusual.

‘According to the original course of events’, the warrior thought, ‘now should have been the moment when demons slowly welled into Mycroft, leading to the Abyssal War in the future… how is it the complete opposite now?’

‘Could I really have changed the world so much?’

Soon, he realized that it was certainly so.

Others notwithstanding, the warrior himself may have forced every Sixth Abyss demon to move house. Abyssal invasion? Unless there was an opponent that could hold their ground against him, he alone could consume… defeat most of the Abyssal legions.

“Right.”

At the mention of Abyss, Joshua suddenly remembered the Bloodmoon Abyss, and Light’s true form inside the Blood Moon.

If the Abyss nearby Mycroft had changed so drastically, could the Bloodmoon Abyss develop problems as well, given that it is connected by portals and was closer to Mycroft than the First Abyss?

Since Light’s true form had visited him when he was molding a world, he did not visit it in return.

With that thought, Joshua made his next plan for the day: he would visit it at the Bloodmoon Abyss, why taking a look at the present situation of the entire Abyss itself.