Soul of Searing Steel

"Huh?''

After being asked all of a sudden, Ying who was looking all around the place with interest was surprised. She then reacted to Joshua's question and said, "I'm coming with Master."

Her eyes sparkled when she said that. She seemed to be very curious about how humans healed.

"Do you just take a bone or a piece of flesh and nail them down to your wounds? But human flesh and steel aren't the same right? That soft and squishy thing… How do you even forge it into a fixed shape?"

Having strange ideas in the little mind of hers, she did not voice her question aloud. Joshua who had gotten the answer from her and Artanis had not been paying attention to Ying's facial expression. The two men then continued on to discuss some trivial matters as the three of them walked towards the quarters.

At that time, the warrior was wearing a normal white t-shirt. His armor had already been taken off while he was back at the military camp. He was also wearing a brown jacket on top of the white t-shirt though. At the same time, he was in a pair of navy blue trousers and dark brown leather boots. With the bandage on his left hand, he looked nothing like a count of a territory. He looked just like a random mercenary or an orc hunter from the west side of the mountains.

"Honestly, Joshua, you need to change your clothing style a little"

Turning his eyes towards the black-haired count that looked very young, the old priest could not help but sigh, "If Fang and the late count were still around… nevermind. With your current aura, no one would dare to treat you like a mercenary anyway."

After all, Joshua was most probably be seen as a cold merciless killer that did not count his kills. If this was not his own territory, people might have already screamed for help and guards of the city would have come over to take him.

Joshua was not bothered by it at all. "If it's for the banquets, I'll suit up properly. But for regular occasions, I'll just wear clothing that is as convenient as possible." He shrugged and said, "No matter how well you are dressed, no one will care about it when you're in a battle. Even if your clothes are made of gold, your enemies would not go soft on you."

"That's not the point…"

While the two men were talking, along with Artanis and his two apprentices, and also Ying, the five of them walked across the praying hall through the long carpet and onto the altar in the hall. Then they walked through the corridor that was quiet and arrived at the room that Joshua was healed in previously.

The warrior was familiar with the room of course. So he just sat on a chair and took off his jacket. Then he put his left arm out. Meanwhile, the two apprentices immediately took out a crystal ball and placed it on Joshua's arm. Then they took off the bandages that were wrapped around Joshua's arm like they were very used to doing it. After that, Joshua's swollen arm was slightly revealed to the two apprentices. His shoulder seemed to have sunken in.

"What a serious injury…"

The younger apprentice muttered softly to himself. Meanwhile, the middle-aged priest spoke politely to Joshua, "Sir, can you disengage the protection of your Combat Aura? Your instinct's protective energy is giving me trouble to put my spells in order to heal you."

After saying that, this Silver-tier apprentice that was already middle-aged could not help but sigh. The difference among humans could really differ a lot. He had been an apprentice to be a priest for over twenty years. He had dedicated his entire life and his efforts in researching holy spells, honing his belief. However, he had only reached Intermediate Silver tier. Meanwhile, this young count right before him only seemed to be in his twenties but had already reached Gold tier…

That's right, he was still a new Gold tier power user at that time. Now, his strength had grown unpredictably powerful. With merely his instinct's protective power, he could already repel the holy spell the apprentice was trying to apply on Joshua. Isn't Joshua's power growth a little too fast?

Upon hearing the healer's request, Joshua naturally followed the apprentice's instruction. Meanwhile, when the two apprentices were casting all sorts of holy spells on Joshua's arm, Artanis walked to a rack in the resting room. He seemed to be looking for something.

After a brief moment, he took out a piece of crystal accessory and put it on himself.

Upon walking up to the warrior, Artanis looked at Joshua with a doubtful face. Then he explained, "Your injuries are far too great than I expected. Also, your bones are cracked and some parts are missing. I'll need to cast some additional enhanced holy spells to support the holy light in speeding up the healing process. We need to enhance the healing power and the speed of regenerating your bones. So it takes longer time for us to prepare."

Well, that reason was reasonable. Holy spell items were much easier to make then enhanced items. Basically, each priest would have a few equipment or items to handle different sorts of situations.

Walking up to the warrior, the white-haired Priest and his two apprentices began to gather the strength of the holy light, getting ready to heal. The blinding white light began to radiate and went into the translucent crystal. Along with vague buzzing sound, the milky-white radiance began to charge up the crystal.

The time required to heal was very long. The milky-white radiance was floating around the left arm of the warrior. Because his level and skills had been boosted up, Joshua's body had become much more powerful and enhanced than before. The holy light of the two Silver-tier apprentices was not powerful enough to heal at the pace like they did last time. Their healing skill became much slower than before now.

However, Artanis was still a Perfect Silver-tier priest after all. He could become a powerful Gold-tier priest anytime now. Furthermore, he also had his own holy spell appliances. Heavily enhanced with power, the effect of his holy spells could still provide significant healing on the warrior.

Joshua let out a relieved breath as his left arm was feeling the healing power. He laid back on the chair to relax. Moving his eyes slightly, he brought up the system tab.

The warrior was used to look at the system only after the major battles were over. He just wanted to see how much he gained from each battle.

After that, he was bombarded with tons of information right in his face.

[You have killed the Gold-Tier Daemon—Ajax Aurumseeking Draconian Spider]

[You have killed the Gold-Tier Chaos Daemon—Chaotic Gore Magala a.k.a Corrupted Black Dragon]

[You have killed the Gold-Tier Daemon—Completely Formless Spawn]

[You have destroyed the Outer World Dimensional Rift]

[You have defeated the Supreme Aragami, Ouroboros! You have foiled a conspiracy against the material world!]

[Legendary Event— Outer World Dimensional Rift: Starfall Year 831, 21st of December, 7.09 a.m..

Northern land of the Empire, in the Dark Forest on the Moldova territory, an unknown reason had caused the Outer World Dimensional Rift to emerge. Countless Chaos creatures appeared and formed into a large Dark Tide that had more than 200,000 Daemons in it. According to the Empire's Level of Catastrophe Manual, the event is determined to be the highest catastrophic disaster in the whole history.

Meanwhile, at the fourth hour that the dimensional rift was activated, the Count of Moldavia, Joshua van Radcliffe charged into the heart of the Dark Tide and slew three Gold-tier daemons. Then he destroyed all of the dimensional nodes, stopping the rift from functioning. The rift should not be able to get activated again for the next three months. The disaster has been averted.]

[Your World Fame +5]

Joshua looked at the information with a calm face. For that, he had already expected to see all that. Even though he had obtained five points of World Fame after all that, it did not surprise him much.

Truth to be told, currently, it was only the transitional period between the first patch and second expansion. The entire Mycroft Continent had not really entered into the era where the Continental War exploded. This war that involved the dimensional rift was, in fact, an extremely rare event for the entire world as of today. So, the system only rewarded Joshua with only five points of World Fame. Otherwise, if this sort of event which only had a few Gold-tier Daemons on the battlefield was put into the middle stage of the second expansion where the world had wars that involve Berserk Dragons all over the whole continent, it would look like child's play.

Joshua turned his eyes around and looked at his personal information tab.

[Name: Joshua van Radcliffe]

[Form: Hero]

[Designation: Turn back the powers of darkness]

[Race: Human's Northern Division]

[Race Skills: Battle Race (Battle Experience Points X 1.1)]

[Level: Level 45 Intermediate Gold-Tier Glorious Radiance]

[Challenge Level: Level 42 (Hero)]

[Attributes: …

Charm: 1]

[Status: Left arm crushed and suffers heavy injury (Healing)]

[Class: Level 45 Chaos Guardian

—Hero Class, this is a Special Inheritance that only aims to destroy Chaos. As long as any wizards or warriors possess a specially enhanced item of Order, they would be able to acquire the Class. After acquiring the Class, your eyes will be able to see Chaos that lurks everywhere. You can now see if a person is upholding Order or not with ease. Meanwhile, your body will surge with powerful Order power that can make the other normal people in your surroundings to feel more comfortable and strong. However, it will also hurt anyone that upholds the power of Chaos. That means you'll become a part of the very existence that threatens Chaos the most. However, you will become the guardian on the side of Order.]

[The Fame of Chaos is inherently hateful, and the Fame of Order is inherently friendly.]

[-Gift-]

[Weapon Mastery: Can proficiently use any weapon that is forged by humans—Weapon Mastery is Battle Mastery's basic condition.]

[Bloody Combat Restitution: Right before death, enter a state of fake death. During faking death, you will recover Health Points slowly—Although you're still heavily wounded after this, the person who survives will win at the end of the battle!]

[Order of Emmanuel: Aura-type Skill, when within the effective territory of Order, all ability X 1.1. When within the effective territory of the Chaos, this skill will be nullified. Range 50 meters X 50 meters.

—Life requires the power of Order. It can make people more comfortable and strong.]

[Base Distinguish: Without being blocked by a Spell, the user can distinguish the base of the spiritual radiance of a living being. White represents Order, green represents Kindness, black represents Chaos, red represents Evil.

—Heart and soul will not lie]

[Flare of Purification: Aura-type skill. During a battle, purify and hurt all Chaos living beings, Chaos items and Chaos spells within the area of 25 X 25 meters around the user. The effect can be stacked once.

—Impure strength shall be returned to dust by Order]

[Nemesis of Chaos: You understand the weakness and attributes of Chaos. Any Chaos attributed enemy that tries to hide, sneak or go invisible will be detected by you. Your damage dealt on enemies with Chaos Attributes X 1.2

—Demons and monsters, there is literally nowhere for you to die. Demons of mischief, you shall be slaughtered like sacrificial lambs]

[-Special Attributes-]

[Unkindled Flame: The negative effects that are cast on you by any beings with Chaos will only have minimal effect on you. Other than a small number of special power, they will not be able to affect your body and soul.

—Even if the new woods are not ignited, that will still be the original form of fire.]

[Radiance of Evil's Bane: When you kill enemies on the side of Chaos, you gain additional 30% Experience Points. If you will receive rewards for killing these monsters in the first place, your rewards that you will get will be doubled or tripled.

—Blood of Chaos will be the Source of Fire]

[Hallowed Haven: Aura-type Attribute, you will be the center of it. Region or territory within the range of (Level X Level) will be treated as the Shrine of Order. The current range is 45 X 45 meters.

—No judgment required when you're facing Chaos. The ground beneath your feet is the Holy Ground, while you shall be the executioner for Order…]

Upon looking at the Attributes on his system tab, Joshua could only come up with a thought.

The Class of Chaos Guardian was really not just intimidating by name. The series of Gifts and special Attributes of the Class could really aim their enemies down to their every bone. The warrior felt that if his status was perfect now, he could go up against Chaos by the number of one against one hundred. By relying on the recovery power of the Azurite, he could even do it without leaving a single scratch on himself.

Meanwhile, from the moment he crossed into this world until this current moment, Joshua had improved from merely a Silver tier all the way up to being a Gold tier within two months. Well, wasn't the progress a little too fast now?

Just when the warrior was sighing, the silver-haired lady sitting beside him let out a yawn as she looked disappointed.

—So this is how humans heal. They just use lights to rub the arm. So where are all the processes to forge blood and bones?! Could it be true that humans are made of light?! Otherwise, why didn't they use their original materials, their own flesh and blood, to fix themselves?!

While she was thinking deep, Ying had suddenly felt tired… That's strange. She noticed that she had been sleeping a lot lately. Well, she was a Divine Armament, she should not feel tired at all…

At the same moment when she was having that thought, the milky-white radiance vanished. The crystal that was glowing brightly began to dim down a little.

"The first step of healing is complete."

Upon letting the two apprentices leave and take a break, Artanis was feeling a little worn out as he wiped off the sweat on his forehead. After taking in a deep breath, he spoke, "The priest in Moldova did a good job taking care of your wound. The bones in your left arm have been connected together again. At least you can pick up things now. Based on the recovery rate of a Gold-tier warrior, it will only take a month, more or less, for you to fully heal. However, on one condition. You must not partake in vigorous activities. Meanwhile, about the part of your bone that is missing, you only need to consume more on the bones of the beasts in order for your bone to grow back. I'm afraid to tell you that even if we gather all the holy light from the world, it will not heal you. Consuming more beast bones is the only way to grow your bones back."

"That will be enough."

Attempting to move his hand, Joshua could finally clench his fist firmly. Then he revealed a satisfied smile on his face. "Based on my prediction, it will most probably take about three to four months to heal so much. With your healing power, I've been saved multiple times. You've done me a great favor."

While the white-haired priest was keeping his crystal back on his rack, he heard Joshua thanking him. Then he immediately turned around with a serious look on his face. "This is not a favor, my liege. You need to pay the medical fee."

"Of course, why would I not pay you?"

Helplessly nodding his head a little, Joshua stood up from his chair and looked at the surroundings with a strange feeling. "I've left the main city unattended for about one month since, but I've not expected that you and your apprentices to be here. I came here today because I wanted to find the old Gold-tier archbishop. He could have cured me much more easily than you guys. With his presence, you would not have needed to waste so much effort on healing me. Haven't they come back from the distant mountains?"

"It doesn't matter even if I have to put even more effort… But they won't be coming back anymore, my liege."

Upon saying that, Artanis was placing crystal round plate and all sorts of his crystal accessories back onto the rack. After that, he activated his holy spell and had everything locked up neat and nicely. This white-haired priest then had a strange expression on his face. "Actually, I should have told you about this earlier on. However, I had not seen you for a long time, so I was too excited and happy, I forgot to inform you about this... Come, have a look at this."

After finishing his piece, he rested his arms down. He then showed Joshua the special emblem that was pinned on the priest's long robe by his chest.

"Black halo, sacred thorns…"

Upon looking at the symbol on the man's chest, Joshua frowned. Then he muttered to himself softly, "Along with the cross of Justice… Wait a minute, Artanis, you?!"

The warrior dropped his jaw for a moment there.

"That's right."

Upon nodding his head with joy, the old priest revealed a complex and yet prideful smile on his face.

"I, Artanis, am now the Archbishop of St. Laurent Cathedral!"