Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-296

"Since two decades ago, the mages of the Skypiercing White Tower in the East have developed the Void core. Ever since then, they have been wanting to see the legendary flying city coming into the real world. However, after so long, there hasn't been any sign or shadow of a floating city whatsoever."

Joshua stood up on his feet and stretched himself a little to loosen up his stiff body. Then, lifted his head and looked at the gigantic fortress, floating in the middle of the sky, covering half of it. He sighed and said, "I can't believe that I am actually seeing one in this world instead. The prototype of its kind, at that!"

—It was really gigantic.

The huge hexagonal sky fortress is suspended in the clouds. The fortress looked like it had a diameter of more than two hundred meters. The fortress did not stop showering offensive spells on them despite the fact that Joshua has just woken up from his coma. Frost attacks, blazing fire attacks, lightning attacks, and even air pressure attacks were some of the spells used. Every attack was powerful enough to do some serious damage. The showering attacks combined with numerous varying spell rays has tainted the clouds with strange and bizarre colors as the magic energy in the atmosphere is consumed by six light-blue runes and generated into energy that is used to power the fortress. The runes have even devoured all of the Elements in the atmosphere.

The warrior did not falter despite the constant incoming spells, nor did he show even the slightest fear. He raised both of his arms as the thunderous Elemental attacks flew at him at a huge momentum. Ying and Ling, reading the mind of their master, held onto the hands of the warrior. With a blinding flash of magic energy, a sword cut through the air in front of the warrior, drawing a wave of high air pressure as powerful as the blast of an atomic explosion. Dozens of offensive spells that were targeted at the warrior were instantly wiped clean by the impact of the air pressure.

Joshua stood on the back of the draconic horse as he wielded the great sword and the giant axe in both of his arms. His raging Combat Aura overflowed as it shattered every single Spell Attack that was thrown at Black. The pure life energy surged. Regardless of whether it was the light beam attacks, the thunder attacks, or the curse spells that were shapeless, everything was completely ineffective in the face of that energy.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

There were fierce explosions all around. Suddenly, the draconic horse felt a very heavy pressure upon its back, making it impossible for it to take another step. Roland, who was struck to the ground a moment ago, floated back into the air as he struck down a few aerial golems that were attempting to ambush him. After seeing Black being shielded from the ferocious wave of spells, the holy knight knew who is actually defending against the attacks from the floating fortress. He then questioned, "Why must that fellow wake up at a crucial moment like this?!"

Of course, Joshua did not coincidentally wake up at this crucial moment. Truth to be told, he was the one who requested the existence, the Soul of the Forests, to wake up him.

The existence remained eager to explain the ancient histories of this world to the warrior, and the truth that lied behind the gigantic magic circle appeared in the sky. However, Joshua felt a strong urge to return upon witnessing the enemies launching their assaults on his friends, family and his mount. He had to get back to the battle.

"Fire, ice, thunder, arcane spells, curses, manipulation of the atmosphere, spiritual attacks… Magic powers are truly remarkable as they can be arbitrary, but it has chosen to be my enemy. How pathetic."

Joshua burst into laughter as he continuously waved his weapons around. The air around him is distorted by the powerful waves of his Combat Aura as they turned into strong air pressure before propelling towards the spell storm that rained upon the warrior. The howling sound of the air has reached its peak and eventually became a row of vacuum space, leaving only deafening sonic boom behind. The intense explosions have hurled up everything in the vicinity. The shockwaves of the impacts were ravaging the surroundings. The other golems did not dare to even approach the warrior as the blazing light element momentarily blinded everyone.

"It is truly an honor to be here. At first, I just wanted to find my horse. I did not expect to face the siege of an entire world!"

Time seemed to stand still. Whether it was Black or Roland, or even Ying and Ling who was held in the hands of the warrior, every single one of them was hoping that the situation would remain unchanged for as long as possible. Under that sort of circumstance, the Combat Aura could resist the magic attacks, enough for the rest of them continue fighting as they flee.

Eventually, Joshua finally made his first move.

Suddenly, Black felt a heavy weight on its back and then the weight lifted. It immediately responded to the situation. Black knew that the warrior has left its back it immediately stopped running and turned its head around. Roland, who was luring the other aerial golems over to him, felt an apparition passed by in a blur at the edge of his vision. He noticed that Joshua, who was initially standing on Black's back, has vanished.

They all looked at the sky.

All they could see was a shadow of a man cutting through the spells in the sky. The warrior opened up a straight passage through the wave of elemental attacks as he swiftly made his way towards the body of the floating fortress. However, the floating fortress suddenly ceased its assaults. Its entire body is completely flooded with magical light that seemed like patterns of a crystal, and it seemed as if it was hesitating.

"Authorization identified. Harmonic Interface No.7. Thunder Puppets Amalgamate…" It sent out a strange spiritual wave. However, it did not show even the slightest notion to attack the warrior. "Authorization under identification. Target does not match the criteria of the appearance. However, target possesses a core aura…"

But Joshua is not surprised at all. Right on his chest, his Combat Aura carried two strange shards of light wheels, causing the shards to float in the air. One of it is obtained from the light humanoid that was found in the outskirts of the capital city of Babel Province, while the other one is obtained from the Thunderous Mountain that exploded a while ago.

The second shard was the one thing that the Soul of the Forests wanted the warrior to grab. And because of that, the warrior has been hit by the impact of the explosion and went into a temporary coma.

"What a truly pathetic puppet. It cannot actually determine whether I am its friend and foe just because I have these shards?"

With that thought, Joshua seized the opportunity to approach the bottom part of the hexagon fortress. He went straight for the weakness of the flying fortress as described by the Soul of the Forests—

The six magic runes that were gleaming with blurry light blue lights!

Regardless of whether they were golems, Stone Giants or the Thunderous Mountain, the materials that formed their bodies were just ordinary rocks. Perhaps the more powerful ones have additional steel and some other magical materials within them. Even the sky fortress was of no exception. Their power sources are the energy cores and the runic cores that are embedded in their bodies. As long as these two things are destroyed, no matter how powerful a puppet was, they would still be reduced to dust.

Before the sky fortress could even identify what came into contact with it, Joshua has already launched his finest attack on the fortress. A gleam of silver and black light flashed, a greatsword and a greataxe are seen thrust out at the two magic runes that surged with a strong flow of magic energy. The weapons landed on one magic rune, each!

The voices of the boy and the girl screaming out in panic echoed as the two weapons flew straight at the two runes. The red Combat Aura rippled in the form of powerful waves from the two spots. These powerful waves created cracks on the surface of the sky fortress. The magic runes are instantly completely destroyed. The gleaming magic light on the body of the fortress dimmed down a little.

"Identified—Enemy!"

After sustaining damage from the attack, the sky fortress finally responded to the situation. It started spiritually lashing out on everyone and everything within its vicinity. Even Roland and the other golems that were fighting each other fell to the ground after being struck by the spiritual lashing. Within a few seconds, all the clouds and the golems within a few kilometer radius of the sky fortress scattered and dispersed and the sun shone brightly again.

But neither Joshua nor Roland is affected by the impact. Even Black did not feel much of the impact besides a little tremor in its head and felt a little dizzy after that. There is nothing more to say about Joshua the warrior. Roland, on the other hand, is the adopted son of the pope ever since he was still a child and had been accompanied by a Legendary-tier champion throughout his entire childhood. Thus, the spiritual lashing from the sky fortress felt like a gentle breeze to him.

When the sky fortress appeared distracted, Joshua picked up the greatsword and the greataxe again. Although the divine armaments were complaining, they did not hold back as they resonated with their master. The energy and strength of the warrior had been greatly enhanced with the divine armaments' transformation. Furthermore, Joshua has also cast a beneficial spell on his own body and reached a completely new level of power.

However, he was still far from reaching Supreme tier.

Just as Joshua was about to destroy the third magic rune, the sky fortress suddenly floated higher into the sky. Out of its six magic runes, two of them had been destroyed. However, the remaining four of them were still gleaming bright. Suddenly, hundreds of magic circles emerged into the opening at the same time. Half the sky was covered by floating runes and magic circles, slowly moving. It seemed that the sky fortress has moved heaven and earth as it went all out to unleash its full power as the executioner of the mission [Purge].

The wild energy of the spells attacked everything within its range. Light many colors flashed within the vicinity. Small mushroom clouds rose one after another. Lava flowed from the cracks that ran deep into the center of the earth, causing the earth to glow in red. A large number of aerial golems are destroyed along with the attack launched by the sky fortress. Roland wielded his giant shield as he deflected one of the light beam attacks that was randomly launched by the sky fortress. The decomposing light beam attack that hit him by accident left a small mark on the tough shield.

Joshua did not dare to do anything irrational at the moment. He analyzed all of the origins and the trajectories of all attacks, then, he started to dodge and evade them. His Combat Aura spread over his body as he flew, all charged up for battle. No matter what spells, blazing flames or thunder strikes are being thrown at the warrior, every single attack that came into contact with his Combat Aura are either shattered or destroyed.

While he dodged, he looked for the opportunity and the right moment to attack, Joshua let out a thunderous roar and shouted, "Roland, Black! Ignore those aerial golems and get over here! I need your assistance!"

—Focus on our firepower and kill the boss instantly!

"I was waiting for you to say that!"

Along with a loud laughter, the holy knight glowed with holy light. He was battling against the endless horde of airborne enemies in the sky to ensure that Black could run smoothly. Even after the spiritual attack launched by the sky fortress has taken out quite a number of aerial golems, there were still many aerial golems. However, the glow of the holy light caused many of them to fall to their deaths.

[Aura of Magic Purification] had the effect that could temporarily eradicate enemies and disable their weapons and magic powers or any berserk status such as 'Bloodthirst'. When the skill is cast on the golems, it would momentarily disable the magic circuits within them and cause them to cease moving.

Aerial golems were naturally fragile. Falling from the sky resulted in their deaths.

After getting out of the battle with the aerial golems, the holy knight turned himself into a mass of white holy light as he approached the sky fortress at a high speed. He gripped his giant shield tightly as he blocked countless spell attacks on the way towards the sky fortress. Black was not about to look weaker than the others. The core on its chest was gathering a large amount of magic energy. The two wings on the sides of its body slowly expanded. After a long roar, a huge beam of pale red-gold light is launched into the distant sky at the sky fortress.

The light beam was powerful. Even the sky fortress has to use part of it full energy in order to defend itself against the destruction it causes. Hexagonal translucent barriers began to unfold all around the fortress, followed by the sound of shattering glass as seven of the protective barriers are blasted into pieces. Now, only three protective barriers remained functioning as they surged with the light of magic energy.

That is good enough. Roland summoned his warhammer out of the Void once more. He let out a battle cry as he threw his war hammer at the barriers. The war hammer condensed with the white holy light and appeared just like a morning star far in the distant sky. With sacred praises and holy chanting, the war hammer smashed right through the remaining barriers, shattering the barriers into a million pieces like a hot knife cutting through butter.

"It's all yours!"

Of course it is!

Taking the opportunity, Joshua immediately stopped dodging. He turned around and headed straight towards the bottom part of the sky tower. He used his Combat Aura to boost his movements and in the next instant, the warrior turned around and charged at supersonic speed. Rings of impact waves tailed behind him as the silver greatsword and the greataxe in his hands shone with sharp flashes that reeked of danger and death.