Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-99

Since he had found his target, it was time to begin. With two hands grabbing tight on the hilt of his silver greatsword that was larger than the size of a human's body with all ten of his fingers, Joshua emptied his soul and continued to communicate with his weapon.

In his previous life, he would not have done this willingly. A warrior was deemed as the wielder of weapon and skills, an expert of battle and killing. He was controlling a long lance and a greataxe, a sharp blade, and a heavy hammer. The warrior would only need to use tools and weapons to eliminate their enemies quicker. That was all.

However, after transmigrating to this world for quite some time, Joshua had finally understood one thing.

This was a world of fantasy. It was a world miracle that had Combat Aura and magic, demons and giant dragons rampaging across the continent, extraordinary weapons; just like Ying herself. The weapons had their own will and awareness. They also had their very own souls, their own 'flame'.

Since that was the case, they must be given respect.

Even though Ying had been saying that she was just a weapon every day, even though she was just a tool for her master to wield, Joshua had not treated her like one.

Taking off the broken helmet that was no longer usable, Joshua threw it to the ground. The helmet fell heavily onto the ground and the impact of the fall stirred up some dirt and dust. His black hair was moving along the wind. The eyes of the warrior were as bright as blazing flames.

"Ying, follow my pace."

Now was the time where the cooperation between the two of them mattered the most.

"Yes, Master!"

Based on the record in the memory core, Ying had also instantly understood what the warrior wanted. She immediately became serious. Her Spirit Sense was also being adjusted according to her master's. Finally, by the pact, the soul wavelengths of the two of them instantly resonated!

[Divine Armament Transformation Level 2!]

Just like the record in the inherited memory not only was a Divine Armament an extremely sharp blade, it was also an extremely tough and powerful weapon. These Divine Armaments had the same wisdom of life as the humans, not just passive weapons. Being in the same pact, they could respond by becoming more powerful beings. As the cost of it, their bodies would have to sustain a whole new level of burden.

For a person that just leveled up ten times, having all wounds and injuries lifted off of him, Joshua's overall attributes and power level had increased tremendously. It would not be a matter at all for him to handle!

Immense magic power was surging through the runes on his right arm from the Divine Armament's pact. The external energy was flowing in Joshua's body. However, the power that came from the external environment was circulating in his body as if the power was his to begin with. So basically, the warrior was heavily enhanced right now. He had become far tougher and more powerful than the giant dragon!

"But Master… If we're going to use this form all the while in battle, I-I can only last for less than twenty minutes…"

The magic power continued to surge intensely. The Spirit Sense wave of the female Divine Armament came in a little rush. Under the resonance of the two souls, Ying was also sustaining quite a heavy amount of burden. The twenty-minute limit was not the limit that Joshua could hold out for. It was Ying's.

"I've told you earlier. It's more than enough."

The warrior grinned.

I had no idea how strong I've become.

Compared to his previous power level, Joshua's overall strength had increased by a notch. However, there was no clear way to tell how much stronger he had become. Regardless, the improvement would be obvious.

As the legendary warrior in the previous life, Joshua knew better than anyone that how powerful the body of a Gold-tier warrior could be: running in the supersonic speed, the ability to fly freely, the ability to regrow lost limbs, and the ability of immune to all sorts of disease. These mentioned abilities were just the basics. Crushing a Silver-tier bull to its death literally with one hand, launching a punch as powerful as a cannon, and many other feats would be just a walk in the park. Just like what he was capable of a while ago, a truly powerful Gold-tier warrior could even submerge in lava and swim in molten steel. They could even chew steel and swallow gold, or eat rocks and dirt just to survive the worst situation they could possibly get themselves into.

However, currently, Joshua's body was greatly enhanced by the Flame of Order. There was no telling what heights his newly enhanced body was capable of.

As an extraordinary combatant with a physique similar to daemons or even the supernatural beings such as dragons, the energy in Joshua's body was hundred or thousand times stronger than the ones in normal people. That would also mean that, even if he wanted to use skills similar to Berserk that would potentially overload the body of the user at some point, Joshua would not have to worry about his body not able to cope up with the load.

Not to mention he also had the martial arts skills obtained in his previous life. He had mastered the way to use his muscles and bones and the way to control the blood flow in his internal organs.

"Phew—"

Upon exhaling, he took in another breath of air. The powerful lungs of the Gold-tier warrior were sucking in endless air like a black hole. Regardless of the black smoke that was mixed up in the dust in the air or the purplish Chaos mist in the surroundings, Joshua breathed in all of it without rejecting any of it. He just sucked everything into his lungs.

Right after that, he let out a long roar.

Along with the insanely long roar that sounded like a roar of a dragon, sonic waves rippled. His muscles and bones resonated. The blood in his body was boiling up along with the roar, followed by an extremely powerful tremble across his lungs. The trembling was so strong that a heavy and vigorous rumbling began to spread into the surroundings. The atmosphere around was torn apart by this sound as if the clear sound of broken glass was echoing down from the sky. Within the area of hundreds of meters, the blizzard that was pouring down like the feathers of a goose was being resonated by that long roar into ice crystals that looked like dust, falling down to the ground.

With a non-human body, a tremendously strong will, equipped with martial art skills and Combat Aura that was one of a kind in the entire world, coupled with mastered knowledge and skills to kill, the warrior had no idea how much stronger he had become.

He bent his knees slightly. The muscles in his legs were charging up like a bowstring being pulled. The power was being built up slowly. Then, the red Combat Aura that was blazing around his body turned dark red. His muscles were unleashing the power at the same time, bursting out on the spot—the howling winds blew the snow that were accumulated on the ground. The rocks were crushed and shattered into pieces. Gravity suddenly lost its meaning. The warrior levitated in the air and flew straight past the like an arrow traveling in the speed that exceeded the speed of sound.

Right in the middle of the sky, Joshua who was wrapped in a dreadful blood-red radiance stared straight through the clouds where the black dragon was currently at.

Dragon and Chaos.

Regardless of any of that, anything that needed to face him would become vulnerable. They would be so weak that they might not even withstand one hit from Joshua.

—High above in the sky, in the middle of the clouds.

The Corrupted Black Dragon that was camouflaging itself in the dark purplish mists went through the blizzard that was summoned by the frost butterfly. It was observing the dark green light dot that seemed to be slaughtering the Berserk Daemons and the Aragami at a restless rate.

Blood of many colors was flying all around the battlefield. Broken bones and minced meat pieces were spinning all over the place as well. Right in the middle of the Dark Tide, there existed a bloody path where broken bones and shredded meat pieces were scattered all over the path.

This human is very powerful indeed.

Looking at the fact that the golden-haired swordsman could almost instantly kill all of the daemons and mature Aragami on the battlefield, the black dragon had a thought to himself; if it went down to take care of the golden-haired swordsman by itself, any small mistake it might make battling that swordsman would lead it to have the same fate as the mindless daemons and the Aragami that were slaughtered. If that warrior with the red Combat Aura joined forces with the swordsman, the black dragon would not be able to handle the two of them even if it was largely enhanced by the Chaos power.

Not only the dual swords that were rippling with the waves of Order in the hands of the swordsman were extremely sharp, they also could repel the power of Chaos. The swords were swung across the air, leaving countless traces of light rifts in the middle of the air. Instantly, the Chaos energy that was surging in the air around tens of meters were all wiped clean. It was like they were burned by flames. There was no trace of any Chaos energy in the vicinity after that.

That was not the end. The black dragon believed that there was another dreadful ability being kept hidden in the body of the swordsman. As such, the swordsman could take out the Berserk Daemons and the Aragami while ignoring their defenses, killing them one at a time with only one blow to each of them. It seemed that the swordsman was reserving his strength for the battle that had yet to come.

However, he also seemed to have run out of luck and stamina.

Upon killing so many of the monsters, that golden-haired swordsman had finally slowed down on his pace of killing the monsters. The traces of winds that were stirred up across the air had begun to reveal some vulnerable spots while he was whirling his blades. Smelling the opportunity that emerged, the daemons and the mature Aragami that were coated with crystallized shell in the surroundings instantly surrounded the swordsman.

The fangs, the claws, and the impacts. The Dark Tide horde that was gushing ferociously at the dark green Combat Aura had the swordsman surrounded for good. Although each of his strikes could still kill one daemon or one Aragami at a time, however, he knew better than anyone that he could not last for long anymore. The black dragon knew about it well as well.

The frost butterfly was continuously casting the blizzard and coldness with the purpose of exhausted the stamina of the swordsman. Meanwhile, the monsters were charging at him endlessly, giving him no time at all to catch his breath either. Furthermore, there were also all sorts of hidden cursed magic power, negative spells

"—"

With the long roar that echoed through the surroundings, suddenly, a loud explosive sound was heard from the black dragon's back. That interrupted the thought that was running through its mind. The fluttering wings of the dragon instantly stuttered. It immediately felt an intensely horrific threat that seemed to be able to kill it in one brief instant approaching him at high speed!

It quickly turned its head around and looked around at its surroundings. However, it did not see anything. With its wisdom, it suddenly dawned on the black dragon that even though there was nothing in the surrounding, there should only be one possibility left!

Up above the sky!

"Hiss rawgh!!!"

It noticed the light source that was far above its back. The black dragon let out a raging roar and lifted its head up. It widened its one and only eye and looked beyond the clouds in the sky. Its eye seemed a little anxious. Instantly, through the endless clouds covering the sky, the giant dragon cold finally see the huge source of light that was totally clouded by the dark clouds, the blazing sun!

Meanwhile, right at the light source that was emanating endless source of light, there was a shadow of a man. It was lending the light of that sun to hide his breath and his presence. Gathering a blinding thunderous lightning in his hand, in an instant, he also noticed that the black dragon had discovered his presence. So he had no reason to hold back anything anymore. Upon charging up his Combat Aura, it instantly exploded, spewing out into the surroundings in the middle of the sky.

The radiance of the sun was being swept. Gust and thunder were rumbling in the surroundings. The dark clouds that were covering the entire sky were being blasted away by that power. The Dark Forest that had not been exposed to the sun because of months of blizzards had finally been bestowed with a layer of golden light upon it!

Meanwhile, during that moment, a silver greatsword that was surging with golden radiance landed from the sky along with a red shadow. The sword was aimed straight down towards the head of the black dragon—

[Mastery, Sunlight Blade!]