Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-162

Soon after, all of the Aragami were killed.

The initially overwhelmingly huge Aragmi army had been completely wiped out as Joshua and the Supreme-tier Aragami battled against each other. Not even one Aragami remained in the vicinity.

Boom!

Once again, he fought against the Supreme-tier Aragami. However, he had been injured by the deflective attribute of the shell that was charged with a high-frequency wave. In the meantime, Joshua could no longer find any Aragami left to slaughter in order to provide the fuel for the Azurite to burn on. For that, he had no choice but to evade as swiftly as he could, dodging the continuous attacks from the Supreme Aragami. Meanwhile, the even though that Chaos daemon had also suffered quite a great deal of injuries, however, it was still vibrant and powerful. There seemed to be no end to its stamina at all.

The Famine was the spawn fostered by the Evil God. A 'Tooth of Desolation' was an existence that stood out from its own kind, surpassing way beyond the limit of Gift its own kind had. Its vitality was tyrannically strong. Its shell was super tough. Its ability to heal itself was fascinatingly swift. Also, it had the ability to fly, and it wasn't slow at all. What was even more powerful about it was that it could cross freely among Astral Realms and the void. Along with their 'mother', the Evil God, wandering around worlds, its existence itself was the very nightmare to the Order beings.

Joshua had been relying on the numerous Beneficial Effect attributes that he was buffed with to battle against the monster. Indeed, he managed to exhaust quite an amount of power the Supreme-tier Aragami had with it. However, it would be completely impossible to tire the monster completely.

On the fortress not far away, a huge and incomparable power flowed out from the core of the fortress, gathering and condensing right on top of the crystal sun. The power even formed a light cluster that looked like a layer of golden nebula. That light was emanating with extremely condensed Order energies.Then, under the command of 03, it was turned into a beam of fierce glowing concentrated light, bombing the body of the Supreme-tier Aragami, causing that gigantic monster that was focusing its attack on Joshua to be stunned for one brief moment, being unable to move.

Currently, 03 had begun using her glowing concentrated light cannons to support Joshua. However, the effects were not that great. Other than the first beam of the glowing concentrated light attack was much more effective, however, the Supreme-tier Aragami only needed to lift up its claws or move a few steps around the block and evade the remaining light cannon attacks. It did not sustain much damage from those attacks. Meanwhile, without the other weaker Aragami to recover his vitality, the warrior had become extremely careful with his assaults. He could only manage to keep the Supreme-tier Aragami occupied and avoid himself from being defeated.

Right on top of the fortress, Moreila and Clyre also wanted to help Joshua. However, their strengths were too weak. Moreila did not have a full set of weapon and armor. Meanwhile, because of the desolated world Karlis, Clyre had been directly rid of the druid's most powerful strength to communicate with nature. So the two of them could only clench their teeth as they watch the battle from a few kilometers away.

If Joshua could not stop this Supreme-tier Aragami, everyone would die!

The intense atmosphere and despair began to spread. Meanwhile, 03 was standing right beneath the crystal sun as she was controlling her cannons and looking at the scene right before her. Then she descended into deep thought.

"Chaos."

She whispered gently. Her words carried endless anger and resentment.

For thousands of years she had been aimless. This was the first time she had fought so hard… Yet for the first time over so many years, she had never felt that she was still alive, not like this.

Lowering down her head and looking at Clyre and Moreila, she started thinking. The elf and the dwarf, these races from a different world looked really different from the Karlisi. They did not have wings, and their appearances looked a little bit strange as well. However, they were living beings that originated from Order; that had the same civilization and wisdom, and their own pride and legacy.

Upon turning her head around, she quietly gazed at the desolated ruins of this world that was filled with only dust and rubble. Her eyes looked calm.

She was named 03, Artificial Intelligence 03, the core of the mobile fortress that was built by the Karlisi.

Ever since she was created, she had been guarding the Karlisi civilization, conserving the last remaining land that living things could survive on for them.

That was her mission.

She had spent thousands of years, wandering in this dying world, searching for all the remaining Karlisi in the world that might still be surviving. For that, she had crossed the plains, the valleys, and she even made it passed the vast lakes and the deserts.

She had never found anything, however, she remained persistent.

Because other than that, she had nothing else to do. The Karlisi civilization had vanished. She could only rely on the program she was written with a thousand years ago to maintain the meaning of her own existence.

But everything had come to an end. Her soul was on the verge of decaying.

Wandering around for over a thousand years, living through the days like the same day, the energy of the Artificial Intelligence was exhausted. For over so many years, she had been able to hang on purely because of her hatred towards Chaos after she had lost most of her emotions.

That was enough. She looked at Joshua, the shadow of the man who was battling against a Supreme-tier Aragami.

That would be 'hope'. Meanwhile, an old existence such as her would be an error, a mistake in the world. She should have died long ago. She should have initiated her self-destruct function and followed the same path as her makers did, extinction and death.

Right above the surface of the earth, violent shockwaves continued to spread. The warrior was still battling that Supreme-tier Aragami. However, he was gradually exhausted as he could feel that his power was slowly slipping away from his body. Sometimes, Joshua could launch his attacks, however, because he was temporarily exhausted, he had to retreat instead. After all, one small mistake from his carelessness would mean death.

"There's actually a warrior in one of the outside worlds who has become so powerful, who has mastered the power of Order. This man is truly worthy to be one of the men to possess the artifact of the Sage."

"He must not die," said 03 to herself determinedly.

At least, he must live on.

She was very extremely exhausted now. However, because of her hatred towards Chaos, she refused to die just yet. And now, her hope to get revenge was just right before her.

He could still become even stronger than now. His limits were not capped. He should not die in this desolated world that was coming to an end. If he could be given with enough time, he would definitely grow even stronger, he could become an existence that could wipe out Chaos and the Evil God, the Hero!

There was no doubt about it that this would become a fact!

After becoming determined, 03 immediately started observing the situation in the surroundings. Currently, the fortress was moving through the mountains. Meanwhile, the Supreme-tier Aragami and Joshua had been moving as they were battling against each other. Currently, they were just right by the side of the fortress, they were not too far from the fortress.

"Keep it occupied, Joshua!"

After resting her thoughts, 03's voice was projected out miles across the sky and the earth under the effect of magic, echoing back and forth in the sky overwhelming with Chaos.

"Just keep that Aragami occupied."

" What ?!"

Joshua's face was filled with confusion at the moment. He was distracted a little as he tried to listen to 03's shouting voice. Because of that, he almost got smacked down by the Supreme-tier Aragami's tail whip attack. The tail was fully charged with radiating greenish-blue lightning. If he really took a solid hit from that whip attack, even he would not have survived that.

With his current state, it would be a little too risky and dangerous for him to keep the Supreme-tier Aragami occupied. That was the thought that Joshua had in his mind. However, 03 had no reason at all to deceive him into doing something dangerous. The A.I had been using her glowing concentrated light cannons to restrain the movement of the Supreme-tier Aragami. Her action had led Joshua to believe that she was on his side. Not to mention, that the warrior always trusted his comrades.

So he clenched his teeth and started swinging his greataxe as he began his ferocious assaults on the Supreme-tier Aragami without even the slightest notion to stop, keeping the Aragami tightly occupied with him.

After that, a loud noise was heard coming towards them!

Rumble!

Under the terrifying glares of both the Supreme-tier Aragami and Joshua, the mobile fortress that looked truly like a mountain that was more than a thousand meters tall suddenly shifted direction. Right after that, the entire fortress shifted its direction towards the Supreme-tier Aragami and charged towards it with a momentum that was enough to crush heaven and the earth! It was about to ram into the Supreme-tier Aragami!

"Chaos monster!"

Standing right beneath the crystal sun, the calm face of 03 was instantly filled with a determined smile. Then she shouted, "Eat this! This is the wrath of the Karlisi that have been piling up for over a thousand years!"

The fortress rammed right into the Supreme-tier Aragami!

Along with the crumbling noises where the shell was cracked, the Supreme-tier Aragami was instantly crushed like a bug beneath a tank! Its body was torn into pieces all across the ground. The entire body of the Supreme-tier Aragami was rammed onto the mountain right before the fortress.

The powerful impact spread to the surroundings causing the mountains to tremble. At this time, Clyre and Moreila could feel that the fortress right beneath their feet—no… it was not the fortress, it was the earth! The whole earth shook with uncertainty, causing them impossible to stand firmly on the floor. Meanwhile, the echoing of the collapsing rumble still rang in their ears.

The tentacles of the steel tree were firmly fastened on ground of the fortress. However, even though that was the case, the sudden shake had caused them to feel like they were being completely thrown out of place. Under the violent shake, Moreila had noticed the changes that was happening to those huge mountains that were located not far away from them.

Under the violent collision between the fortress and the Supreme-tier Aragami, gray rocks were mixed along with flowing sand as the mountains were beginning to collapse, turning into a mighty flooding current that could sweep everything away! That current of sands and rocks were heading straight towards the fortress right below by the mountains!

Avalanche!

That was truly the meaning of avalanche. The huge mountains that were several thousands of meters tall were collapsing into scattering gravel, toppling down towards the huge fortress. The silver-white pyramid was about to be submerged in the sea of gray dust. Meanwhile, 03 had qualms of stopping there at all. She allowed the avalanche to drown herself as she continued to increase her effort on pushing and pressing the entire fortress against the body of the Supreme-tier Aragami!