Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-222

"Greetings… Your Holiness."

Slightly lowered his head, Joshua placed his right arm before his chest and bowed at the white-haired old man with golden eyes that was formed from light. Joshua looked a little shocked and helpless at the same time. "It's my honor to see you in the North."

"Young man, I'm very happy to see you here too."

The old man, who had seen through his identity, spoke with a smile on his face. It was pretty obvious too that what he said was true. He was genuinely happy to see Joshua here as well. After that, this pope raised his right hand and pressed it upon his chest. He actually bowed at Joshua as well.

The warrior was simply shocked to the point that he had lost his ability to think.

Of course, he was not a person who feels awkward when someone salutes himself or think that saluting to one another was a strange thing. But what can you say about this? Right before him was the current pope of the Church of the Seven Gods in the entire Mycroft continent!

Pope!

Saint Igor, the bearer of the authority of the gods, who had the power level of pinnacle in the Legendary-Tier, was one of the most powerful men in the entire world. Even in Joshua's previous life, Joshua would not be confident enough to be able to defeat this man for sure. During the final phase of the Dragon's Calamity, his power was so immense that it was enough to make his enemies kneel down in respect. When the Church of the Seven Gods was besieged by tens of thousands of dragons, having suffered the worst and also the greatest danger of all time, Saint Igor swept away the sea beasts from the Southern Sea region and the berserk dragons with the power of the holy light. The scene looked as if the world was reduced into a piece of white paper. Anything that does not meet its Will was erased out of existence.

In addition to that, the pope was also one of the popes that would actually get close to the people. Having countless holy knights traveling around the world, annihilating evil, and defending the people from suffering any ill fate, all of these were part of the policy Saint Igor implemented when he was in power as the pope. In addition, he also developed spells that involved resonating the holy spells, allowing several priests and holy knights to be brought together into a single unit. The players from previous life had called that the 'Super Combination Spell'… Regardless of whether it was power, character, or wisdom, Igor was deemed to be perfect. Hence he was indeed worthy to be called saint in the world.

This kind of person does deserve Joshua's respect.

Of course, he was the adoptive father of Roland... If nothing out of ordinary would occur, this man might really die at the hands of his adoptive son during the battle in the Dark Abyss.

Pulling some of his free thoughts back, Joshua wanted to reach out and hold on to the old pope. However, the old pope shook his head and spoke in a voice that carried a slight ethereal echo, "Joshua Van Radcliffe… The name is a little too long though."

He was nothing like any of the ordinary old man. With a relaxed smile, he said, "Can I just call you Joshua?"

"Of course, Your Holiness."

What formed Igor's body were rays of lights. In the beginning, these lights were still somewhat dim. But now, these lights were gradually becoming more condensed. The warrior knew that this was like an avatar of a god descending to earth. However, this pope could also use that easily. That was actually very surprising.

But Igor still looked a bit dissatisfied. He glanced at Roland behind him and then used the holy light to take him to the side for the young man to take a rest. Then the old man continued to speak to Joshua with a serious face, "Young man, you need not constraint yourself because of my identity. There's no difference between you and I. You can just call me Igor, just as I'm calling you Joshua."

After finishing with his words, before he even waited for the warrior to reply, a dot of white sparkling flash appeared right before him. The light sparkling dot gradually grew larger. After a brief moment, a ball of light mass appeared right before Igor. Meanwhile, after another brief moment, along with a gentle fluctuation of a dimensional wave, a pure white scepter appeared in his hands.

At the same time when this wand reappeared, it caused Joshua's heart to feel a violent tremble—not because of the Azurite that was trembling insanely violently emitting high heat out of it. He could recognize the faint flame seed that was surrounded by countless pure white Holy Aura right on the tip of the scepter.

[Residue of the Initial Flame]

The system that came with him began to vibrate in front of his eyes with a thick rainbow font, indicating the value of the item right in front of him. Not only that, the scepter itself was also something that surprised him a lot.

[Sage's Legacy, The Bright Scepter]

The Sage's Legacy... After the awakening of the Azurite orb. It had been labeled as the [Sage's Legacy, The Azurite], did it or did it not?

Was there any connection between the two?

In the midst of his doubts, Joshua lifted his head and looked at the old pope in silence.

"Haha, young man, did you notice anything after seeing this?"

As if he could see through Joshua's mind—in fact, the warrior did not hide his surprised expression. Igor tightened his grip on his scepter, allowing the radiating light on it to gleam for an instant. Then he gently said, "This is a legacy straight from the Sage himself, the prove to testify that the pope is the prophet of the Seven Gods descended upon the earth. It is also…"

"It is also a flame seed."

Watching the flickering flame had led him to feel very close to it. Joshua then muttered, "At least this is also a kind of flame seed. But this is truly astounding though, Pope… Master Igor."

After blinking his eyes, Igor seemed to be a bit surprised to know that Joshua actually knew about it. He grinned happily. "You've some knowledge about it I see. My young junior, what else do you know?"

"Actually, I know a little."

Upon shaking his head, Joshua looked away from the flickering ray of light. His face seemed to be a bit unwilling to look away from it though. He turned his head around and waved at the guards far behind him, asking them not to step forward. Then he revealed a confused expression on his face as he continued to ask the old pope, "Master Igor, although I've been hearing the name 'Sage', I do not know who he really is. The Azurite that he left behind has a Flame Seed that is powerful enough to reshape the world… There are so many doubts in my head. I do not know where to start at all."

"Well, Its already quite a lot to process for knowing all that. It would be normal that you don't know about it. You must know that even the legacy of the Church of the Seven Gods over thousands of years had lost quite a number of information in the first place. The Azurite in your possession switched hands over a couple of owners after it was being passed down from the third saint. By the end of it, it was being passed down to your family. After that, you are the one that awakened it…" Upon saying that, Igor shook his head and laughed at himself. Then he said, "I'm old. I've talked too much without even noticing it… Joshua, do you mind that I, as an elder, continue to be long-winded a little longer?"

"Of course I don't mind."

After shrugging his shoulders, Joshua waited for the old man to provide him a detailed explanation of the ins and outs of the series of events. These information were everything that he had never heard of in his previous life. These information had been hidden in the deepest part of the world. Only a few would know about them. For that, his curiosity was blazing on.

"The name of the Sage came from before the Starfall calendar. It was called the Glorious Era."

The old pope looked at the flickering flame seed on the scepter he was holding in his own hands. Slowly, he continued talking with an ethereal voice, "At that time, humans and other races still had no God. Meanwhile, the Sage was the strongest man of that era, and the power of the Sage was far beyond anyone's imagination. Legends said that his power had even surpassed the so-called Gods that existed in the later generations. He had reached an incredible realm. He could even go back in time to the past, see through the future, and know what was happening at the moment... but that because of this, things were bound to happen one after another. We call them the sequels of the prologue."

Upon speaking about that, Igor remained silent for a brief moment. Then he lowered his voice and spoke one word after another, "The Sage's Prophecy."

"The Sage had seen everything. He prophesized that there would be a great calamity that was bound to happen in the future. That calamity would cause the Initial Flame to die. Hence the gravitational heat and gale would burn all seas. Clouds of fire and ash would obscure the heavens. The heavenly stars would fall, the dark abyss will open, the ridges would collapse and pits would be formed, and the valleys would rise into mountains."

"If you say that other people's prophecies will be questioned upon with disbelief, if one does not believe, then every sentence, every word that the Sage had ever said are all the truth. They are all solid real truths. Since he had said it, then the future shall be facing a huge calamity. For that, the humans in that era began preparing themselves to face the calamity. Meanwhile, the items of the Sage's legacy in your hands and mine were created."

Speaking upon that, Joshua finally had a general understanding of his Azurite. However, he still had some doubts in his mind. So the old pope continued on telling him more about it.

"Although the Sage was extremely strong and powerful, he was not all-seeing and was not capable at everything. Although he could see the day of reckoning, he could not have determined when the calamity would happen. He could not have known which era the calamity would hit. In fact, it had not been long after. The prophecy seemed to prove that it would be coming. Meanwhile, the terrifying calamity would follow afterward."

"The Three Hundred Lost Years," Joshua thoughtfully muttered to himself. "Maybe a name change would be better."

Meanwhile, Igor nodded slightly. He fixed his eyes on the warrior and spoke lightly, "The invasion of the Evil Gods."