Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-26

Since they knew the identity of the man that was gravely injured, who could still give off an intimidating aura, things were easier. Even though they thought killing the successor would be simple—

The great twin doors were flung open allowing Joshua and Ying to go in the church. One of the knights of the cathedral hurried to the back, perhaps to report to the higher officials. After a short while, when Joshua's arrival was informed, two priests came to the hall and welcomed him to a small chamber to start the preliminary healing process.

"Please remove the resisting powers against the holy element." The priest that had a younger appearance politely requested. "You are a Gold-tier warrior. If you're unwilling to cooperate with us, I'm afraid that our divine spells would not work on you."

"That's true. My apologies."

Joshua had truly forgotten about having the Level Suppression effect since all the priests that were his comrades were all legendary tier. If he did not remove the Combat Aura around his arm, he would not be able to receive any healing. Hence, he'd rather have a full healing effect than suppressed healing.

"Please continue."

The priests nodded and started to chant their spell.

"Word's Truth: Cleanse."

"Word's Truth: Diminish Bleeding."

The spells used were simple ones to kill all bacteria and to slow down the bleeding process to help stop the bleeding. Perhaps due to a higher tier of power, the priests that were healing Joshua had to use a lot of magic power to break through his powerful resistance. From the looks of it, the church would have a tough time dealing with Joshua. In fact, three knights of the church were getting into a dusty mess just by cleaning Ying. The entire welcoming hall was literally covered in dust.

Not long after, the previous knight that had run off to the back of the church, returned to where Joshua was. Following closely behind him was an Upper Silver-tier, middle-aged priest. Despite having a full head of white hair, the man did not give out the vibe of an old man. In fact, he had his chest held high, his nose pointy, and his eyes sharp, all of which made him appear dependable.

"Master Artanis."

"Master Artanis."

The two priest got up from their healing and bowed to the person.

"Is it done? Not bad."

The man glanced through the work done on Joshua's mangled hand and immediately understood the potential damage to it and how efficient his disciples were. After praising the two priests, he looked at Joshua and shook his head. "Joshua… How did you end up like this?"

"My question exactly, Uncle Artanis. When did St. Laurent become so quiet? Listen carefully. I think, beside us, there's no one around."

The two seemed to be close, however, it was not the time to have a friendly chat. The effect of 'Enrage' had started to wear off. Joshua could not even exert the force to open his mouth when the pain from his crushed hand had started to prickle his brain.

"Follow me to the quiet room."

Artanis knew the degree of such pain. Instantly, he turned and quickly made his way to the back of the church. Joshua gritted his teeth in pain as he got up to follow Artanis. The two priest followed as well.

The four knights in the cathedral stayed back and closed the large door. Ying was done and wanted to follow Joshua, however, she was immediately stopped by Joshua.

"Ying. Please wait here."

"… Yes, Master."

Joshua could not think straight then but could tell from her expression she was feeling disgruntled. No matter how she felt, once the order was given, she had no choice but to obey.

In the quiet room, Joshua, the black-haired warrior, sat down on a stone chair and place his left hand into the center of a crystal basin with markings engraved on the side. Artanis sat down opposite the table. With long sharp pliers, he carefully picked out the bones fragments within his flesh. The other two priests were busy as well.

Of the two priests, one of them was very young. From his appearance, he looked like he had just reached the age of twenty. The other was older. Probably at the age of thirty-four or thirty-five. The younger one was standing beside Artanis and illuminating the table with a divine skill called the 'Shadowless Illumination' while the older one was casting a divine spell called 'Resist Pain' and a bright radiant light. The light was to assist Artanis to have a clearer view of Joshua's hand while also preventing the wound from festering.

From Joshua's point of view, the scene was the same as any modern-day surgery.

"Alright. I'll have to reassemble the larger broken bones and remove the smaller ones. It is time to start the restoration."

After a few seconds later, Artanis stretched out his hand and took a deep breath. He took a piece of clean cloth and wiped away his sweat. "Ahh…I'm getting old. My vision is so blurry that I almost pulled your veins."

The younger priest frowned and said, "I did suggest you get yourself a pair of goblin-made glasses yet you insisted on not getting them!"

"Enough." Artanis glared at the younger priest and continued, "Let's get on with it."

"This will hurt a little."

He touched the basin after a bright light glowed in his palms. The markings on the side of the basin glowed as light filled the engravings on the basin. The center of the basin then glowed with a soft white light, engulfing Joshua's hand. The effect of the light was immediate as he could see and feel his hand was being mended. The wound was closing at incredible speed and the pain subsided. After a while, the wound was closed and his mangled hand was restored to its original shape.

"Hmph. It's almost done."

The middle-aged priest removed his hands from the basin and the light faded away. Joshua closed his hand and nodded his head in satisfaction. "Besides a few missing bones, I can feel that my hand is almost completely healed."

"Let's not be hasty. If you're careful not to get into a similar incident that made your hand that way, you could fully recover within a day with your Gold-tier power rank."

Artanis stood up and took the crystal basin off the table and stared at Joshua sternly. "This is a warning. Although you can heal within a day, do not try to use your left hand for anything drastic for the next two weeks. Unless you planned to visit me again with another wound, I'd charge you for your next visit. Count yourself lucky. I'd charge you 3,000 gold coins for such a treatment. It's free this time since you're close to me."

"Not a problem. However, there's something I'd been wanting to ask. Uncle Artanis, weren't you a priest in the Divine Punisher Guild? How did your healing light become so effective?"

Joshua did not wait for an answer and got of the stone chair. He did not actually care for his answer since his hand was already mended. That was odd. Is switching between different Divine Light possible?

His eyes were glued to the middle-aged priest that was removing the crystal basin. Joshua had no recollection of such a skill back when he was playing the game. If such a skill had existed, his team did not need to consist of a gray knight, sacred knight, and templar. All he needed was to have one Divine Light user and be done with it. Such a thing could never be possible…However, the game had so many things that even if a player were to keep such function a secret, no one would ever find out.

"You're correct. This divine-engraved basin is made of helix crystal. Together, it allows Sacred Fire, Divine Heal, and Holy Judgment to change into healing properties. A month ago, the pope had brought a large number of knights and priests to the church near the holy mountain in the distant sea. Hence, there are only a total of seven members of the church. If it wasn't for that, there would not be many casualties out there."

The man sighed heavily. "Joshua. I'm neither blind nor deaf. I know that you're originally a Silver-tier warrior. Yet you stand right in front of me as a Gold. I couldn't help but notice there's a loud commotion outside not long ago. Coincidently, you come to my church and asked to mend such an injury. Could it be, that you killed them?"

"All of them." Joshua blatantly admitted. It was only then that Joshua used the appropriate tone and manners to talk to the middle-aged man. He was a good friend of the old butler. A Divine Punisher priest of the Church of Justice.

"Whether it was the wretched uncle of mine or the people that were pulling the strings from behind, I killed them all."

"Sigh… Cambrie, Victor. Would you please give us a minute?"

"Yes, Father," said the duo almost immediately. Even though they wanted to know what was going to happened, they had to obey their teacher. They paced towards the door and left the room.

Artanis stood up and went towards the door to lock it without saying a word.

Joshua trusted the man. He was one of the main reasons he had come to the church in the first place. Naturally, the priority was to get his hand healed.

Artanis was the old butler's good friend. Those two had been drinking buddies for the longest time and had been visiting the same bar, the dwarven bar east of the city. At that time, Fang did not age. In fact, he had the appearance and complexion of a young man that people had repeatedly mistaken for them as father and son. Sometimes even grandfather and grandson! Word got out and the two became closer as the two shared the same hobby of drinking good liquor. A long time ago, in a fit of drunken rage, the white-haired priest had demanded everyone around him to address him as a middle-aged man. Never mention the word old or face his wrath.

It was a funny incident to talk about… If only the old butler was still around.

After a long silence, Artanis laughed at the door and came back to his seat. He stared at Joshua's deep crimson eyes that had a slight black tint and said, "I'd never had thought that I'll be able to see you. It's been only two days since I'd received a request."

He shook his head and took out a folded envelope and gave it to Joshua. It was a letter.

"I believed he wanted you to read it when the time is right."

Joshua took the letter and noticed beautiful cursive handwriting on the letter.

It said: [To the New Master of the Radcliffe house—Joshua van Radcliffe]

[From, Your servant Fang]