Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-271

At the same time while Joshua and Israel were sparring…

The holy knight was walking all alone in the woods of the Great Ajax Mountains.

It was already late at night. However, Roland did not care about it. After all, he was the kind of person who would just do what comes to mind regardless of day or night.

The small pathway of the forest was peaceful and quiet, with the occasional chorus of insects. The daemons of the day have long ceased their roars, leaving only the rustling of the leaves like waves in the sea of trees.

At this time, Roland was walking deep into the Great Ajax Mountains in order to get to the volcanic area and pay a visit to his friend's beloved horse. The half-dragon mount was named Black. Back when the expedition party were done with exploring the secret area of Mount Great Ajax, Joshua instructed his own mount to stay and guard the dimensional passage before he immediately departed for the Imperial Capital. At the same time, he had asked a favor from the holy knight to keep an eye on Black to keep it from causing any trouble.

"Although that mount is restless, it can be considered obedient, unlike the other draconic beasts."

As he was walking down the pathway, Roland thought, "At least the transport drakes of the Church are not as obedient as Black is." He was a little troubled though. "So the question would be whether it is due to the master or the mount."

Perhaps both. Shrugging his shoulders, the holy knight began to consider other issues. "Well, it seems to be a good time for me to start looking for a mount now. I'm a holy knight after all, not a holy warrior. It's really inconvenient to summon the celestial warhorse every time."

As he was carefreely thinking about future matters, Roland had unconsciously arrived at the surrounding area of Mount Great Ajax.

Upon locating the entrance, and walking all the way down the path before him, in the midst of the gradually increasing temperature of his surroundings, Roland sensed something amiss.

"Strange…"

He mumbled to himself saying, "That creature has the bloodline of an Elder Dragon. Theoretically speaking, there should be at least a hint of dragon's might around here. Why is it that I can't sense any at all?"

Now that was really strange; since Black had only awoken to its Bloodline not long ago, it should not have learned how to suppress its presence and might. So why is there not even the slightest trace of dragon's might around the tunnel?

Perhaps it had wandered off deeper into the lava area to play in.

There was indeed such a possibility. Roland could not help but shake his head when he thought about it. But he said nothing as he continued walking toward the secret area underneath the volcano.

But when he arrived at the enormous lava cave, the holy knight was shocked by the scene before him.

The dimensional door is gone?!

No, that's not it. After sensing a faint dimensional wave, Roland immediately negated what he previously thought, and then he sighed a breath of relief. He quickly walked forward along a black rocky pathway and made his way to the center of the lava pool. There, he lifted his head as he looked at where the faint dimensional wave was.

The dimensional passage seemed to be sealed shut for the moment, as the holy knight had confirmed. He was after all one of the candidates groomed by the Church of the Seven Gods to succeed the current pope, thus, with regards to magic he can be considered more knowledgeable. And so Roland was able to see that the dimensional passage was sealed shut due to some horrific situation powerful enough to disrupt dimensional waves such as an elemental Storm occurring on the other side of the passage. So currently, the dimensional door remains sealed, just waiting for whatever was stirring on the opposite side of the Dimensional Passage to cease before it would reopen.

"Thank goodness it's not closed."

With a load off his heart, Roland began to relax. However, right after that, he turned and looked around, and then frowned. "But where is Black?"

Even with the use of divine spells in his search, the holy knight was not able to find even the slightest clue of the whereabouts of the giant draconic horse, whether it was beneath the magma, or the black rocky pathway, there was not even a tiny sign of Black's presence. Even though it would normally not be possible that anyone or anything could leave any traces behind in areas like the lava pool, the Gold-tier half-dragon would have at the very least left some of its own unique elemental energy behind.

But there was simply nothing here.

"… That can't be…"

At this point, Roland had no choice but to admit that only one possibility remained. The blond-haired, blue-eyed holy knight looked towards the unopened dimensional door in disbelief as he muttered to himself, "Don't tell me…"

"Black, you idiot! You've crossed over to the other side, didn't you?!"

Imperial Capital, the royal study.

When Joshua said those words, he had already put some thought into them.

As one who has a system, with the addition of his experience from his past life, he could undoubtedly transcend to Legendary-tier barring any mishaps. Although it seemed a little arrogant for him to have said those words, it was merely a matter of fact.

By Israel's command, the whole company of imperial guards bid their leave and returned to carrying out their duties. At the same time, due to the emperor's conduct of acquiescence, word such as that of who the emperor sparred with, or what the emperor's judgement towards him was, were spread out by the servants and imperial guards.

With Morlaix Palace as the center, the news radiated throughout the entire inner city area—along with the departure of a few palace nobles who left to visit their friends all around, the news immediately reached the mansions of the great nobles, which include two dukes, several counts, the city guards, the imperial cavalry, and even the Church of the Imperial Capital. It did not take long before the lights that had been put out for the night were lit up in the mansions of these important people, shadows dancing behind the curtains, as if in a discussion over something. Soon after, many servants in their plain clothes left the mansions, hurriedly heading towards other places.

Joshua van Radcliffe.

Though this name was already famous from the beginning, the name had currently made it thoroughly to all the ears of the circle of nobles in the upper echelons of the Empire. At first some were in disdain, as they believed the warrior to be nothing but a nameless rural aristocrat who simply killing a few dragons by sheer luck, but now, everyone had immediately cast behind their initial thought as they began to discuss veracity of the story out of Morlaix Palace, regarding the Radcliffes with a fresh pair of cautious eyes.

Perhaps all this time they had underestimated the Radcliffes who had been stationed at the border of the northern Dark Forest. It would be ridiculous to simply describe the measure of potential for a future Legendary-tier champion as "not light", as it is a mighty fighting force capable of subjugating an entire country.

In spite of the strong reactions from the outside world, at this time, the few people in the study were just having a chat.

Rather than a chat, most of the time it was just Nostradamus asking questions.

"Is this the strength of the Sage's Legacy? … It's been merely a few years and you've already gotten this far."

The old mage walked a few rounds around the helpless-looking Joshua. He earnestly scrutinized the warrior's body, as well as the inconspicuous orb that hung in front of his chest. Nostradamus narrowed his eyes, with a strange expression on his face. "The Azurite… it looks inconspicuous, nothing but an ordinary azure-colored orb. There's no way that anyone could that it's where the legacy of the Sage's power is."

"Wait till it is activated; it will look quite beautiful then."

Having replied casually, Joshua sighed and said, "Master, Brandon has an Inheritance too, and he's your apprentice on top of that, so you can probably look at him instead of pestering me so much."

"This is different."

After shaking his head, Nostradamus was getting ready to explain, but Israel interrupted the old mage with his own explanation, "Joshua, each of the legacies that the Sage left behind are completely different from each other, and yours is somewhat more special."

At that very moment, the Emperor had already been seated at his chair behind the desk. Only this time, he looked less like an overlord of a massive army, but more like a world conquering king. "The Azurite, the Bright Scepter, the Dual Blades of Order, and the Robe of Wisdom; these are the only ones that can be confirmed by the records in the ancient books, not to mention there being only four Sage's legacies in existence."

The Bright Scepter is currently in the possession of Igor, the Pope of the Church of the Seven Gods.

As they were talking about this, Joshua recalled the Legendary-tier champion who incarnated before him; the presence of that man was much stronger than that of the emperor before him, as if he would soon reach the limit of this world, on the verge to transcend into the domain of Exodia.

The Emperor continued his explanation of the history of the four Sage's Legacies, "The Robe of Wisdom has vanished without a trace from a long time ago; the Dual Blades of Order that Brandon is wielding were found by a Legendary mage, Carbala Kaos, four hundred years ago in an ancient ruin hidden away in the Western Mountains, and that very ancient ruin was built to seal off the many horrifying void monsters using the dual blades. The Great Mage Carbala unintentionally pulled the blades out and broke the seal, allowing a few void daemons to escape from the seal, leading to the complete destruction of the ruin."

"These void monsters were powerful beyond imagination; even the Legendary mage Carbala could only banish them into endless dimensional fluctuations, since he was unable to kill them, not even by the slightest chance. It is no wonder then that the person who built the ancient ruin would even use the Sage's weapon to seal them away, giving up one of the Inheritances in the process."

"And another lost Legacy… my Azurite is a family heirloom, but because it had been covered in dust over all those years, it has only revealed its true form when it has reached my hands; no one ever suspected a thing about it before."

Hearing this, Joshua had a thought. He mumbled to himself, "Weapon, accessory, scepter, and robe. Each of them were indeed a completely different Legacy. From the looks of it, only the Legacy in the possession of the Church of the Seven Gods, the Bright Scepter, is the most complete, as it has never been lost."

"You actually know about the Bright Scepter?"

Israel seemed to be astounded. He fixed his gaze on Joshua as he laughed and shook his head. "You really are full of surprises."

"Truth to be told, the legacies that the Sage left behind cannot actually give their wielders tremendous amount of power. The Bright Scepter is also merely an item that symbolizes the authority of the pope. It's not even the most powerful weapon in the church. Even though the historical records say that the Sage's Legacies carry the secrets to the origin of the world, the Church of the Seven Gods have not done any research into it for close to a thousand years now."

At the side, Nostradamus filled in; the old mage was still looking at Joshua and he seemed very uncertain. "And for that, the fact that you've been able to make significant progress within such a short period of time is truly a special case. Regardless of your father or your grandfather, none of them had could obtain such immense Order energy from the Azurite like you. This is too good to be a coincidence… surely you're not the reincarnation of any Sage?"

That was actually a very reasonable assumption, while Brandon and the emperor have also nodded in agreement. After all, it was already a little out of the ordinary for a man not even twenty-five years old to be able to spar with a Legendary champion regardless of how anyone would think about it.

That's because I've transmigrated to this world, and I have the system to support me. I can advance into new tiers so swiftly because I've killed tens of thousands of Aragami in another world. It has nothing to do with reincarnation!

Joshua frowned, as he felt that he should put an end to this topic. Yet coincidentally, just as the warrior was about to say something to change the topic, a thought suddenly came to Israel.

"… Perhaps we can't talk more today, Joshua. The sudden appearance of the demon and sparring with you made me forget about something important, but before we end it here, I shall bestow you with some reward."

The expression of the emperor suddenly became stern; he slowly rose to his feet as he spoke in all seriousness, "Radcliffe, your sharp perception has led you to detect the presence of the cultists who were lurking in the shadows of the Imperial Capital; you slayed the demon, saving countless lives; you have also single-handedly preserved the Empire from losing face before the state ambassadors. Accordingly, I should personally reward you greatly, but at the moment I have important matters to attend to, so we shall have to compromise for the moment."

After having thought about it briefly, Israel spoke decisively, "So be it, Teacher Nostradamus will escort you to the Royal Treasury. You may pick any one thing that is to your fancy."