Soul of Searing Steel

In the endless explosions and shockwaves that overwhelmed the surroundings, the shadow of Joshua arrived right before Roland.

Joshua was completely charged up with dark red Combat Aura that surrounded his entire body. The Combat Aura seemed to have turned into the shape of an armor. The illusionary phenomenon appeared in the shapes of blades and broken bones, coming out from the Combat Aura. The red aura covered the dark red Combat Aura. Despite its bloody and horrifying appearance, it looked surprisingly sacred because of the light emitted from the Azurite. The warrior's head seems to be wrapped in the Combat Aura in the shape of a helmet that appeared fierce and terrifying. His eyes were gleaming with blinding red light.

Each of the stone giants were formed from multiple golems. Though they looked the same, they were actually completely unique on their own. Their system and the structure of their bodies were all completely different from each other. The titan colossus were different from each other as well. Each of the titan colossus was one of a kind. They had their own methods and styles of attacks.

A moment ago, Joshua annihilated more than a thousand stone giants in a blink of an eye as he relied on the Divine Power of Father Nature. By doing so, he has completed the training quest that the system requested him to complete. Not only that, he did not even need the system to support him. The warrior relied on the Divine Power and found the path to break through his own limit by using his own method.

Joshua had attained the Strength Mastery. From there, he relied on that to cross into the realm of Supreme tier. The strength of the warrior would not be restrained in that way. As long as he was still alive in the world, his strength would continue to grow until it reached the pinnacle of the world.

Furthermore, he was also initially equipped with Skill Mastery. That allowed him to possess perfect skills while possessing unparalleled strength at the same time. That was actually something that no one has ever been able to do. Because if one did not pour everything into it, the person will never be able to reach the threshold of Supreme. If Joshua had not lived two lives, he would definitely not have attained such achievement.

Supreme is the beginning of the extraordinary entering into the sacred realm. From that point of view, a Legendary is the embodiment of the gods that could walk upon earth. So Supreme would be demigods, as deemed by the people in the ancient times. These beings have the ability to shift the sky and hurl waves from the sea. It is a difficult task to call for the winds and rains if they ever wanted to do that.

The warrior at this very moment was able to unleash an oppressive pressure just by standing there. The pressure was so powerful that the mountains would crumble and the other beings around him would suffocate upon coming in contact with his aura. The warrior even had to suppress his aura in order not to intimidate the holy knight who was just standing right before him. Because of that, Roland felt a little uncomfortable.

"I'm going to go over there and shoot those fortresses down."

Joshua looked directly in the eyes of the holy knight and said, seriously, "Roland, can you stop the golems from coming through?"

Joshua, even though you've crossed into the domain of Supreme, you will not be the only one who will shine on the battlefield today!

Roland remained silent for a brief moment. His face seemed deadly serious. Then, he shook his head as he smiled and said, "Stop them? Who do you think I am?"

At that point, the holy knight suddenly rose his voice by a notch. His voice sounded a little furious as he began to speak, "I'm the strongest holy knight of the new generation of the Church of the Seven Gods. Of course I will be capable of stopping the army of golems! Let's cut the crap and get the job done already. Even though I not sure of what is happening around me, at least I still know who I am! At least I still know the most important thing of all."

The blond-haired holy knight paused for a brief moment and then grinned as he revealed a wretched smile on his face, "The enemy is Chaos!"

Although I did not know why would there be elves in this world, and why would the Evil God would descend upon this world, and also why would Father Nature come over to this world… but! But!

Chaos that slaughtered my friends is right here!

And because of that, I will definitely trap the enemies with my full strength and slaughter them one after another until there is nothing left of them! These goddamn Demons will need to cross over my dead body in order to approach the target I protect!

"Very well then."

A cheerful voice that praised the holy knight came from behind the helmet. Joshua spoke with a deep voice, "I trust you."

After the conversation, the warrior turned around as he walked away into the battlefield towards his enemies.

He, who just crossed into an entirely new tier, could not wait any longer to battle. He was ready to try out his newly attained power.

Joshua flew fast into the sky. He had advanced into Supreme tier after all. So his body has advanced into a whole new level as it had become extraordinary. While flying, his body was completely free of inertia and resistance. And because of that, he was able to move at the speed of lightning.

However, the warrior was carrying a momentum and noises far too great for anything in the surroundings to endure. A red ravaging wind flew straight at the three fortresses that were floating in the sky. That has undoubtedly gotten the attention of the enemies.

"Target, one enemy confirmed. Energy level is significantly high! Target is determined to be extremely dangerous!"

Invariably, these fortresses began to alarm their forces, "Purging mission identified. Unleash the highest seal of the core. Switch energy source to the runes. Initiating overload protocol!"

Instantly, the Runes on the three sky fortresses lit up at the same time. The runes appeared just like eighteen dazzling suns. And when these forts are overloaded and ready to deal with Joshua, a group of flying stone giants with huge wings have also given up on targeting the ancient tree in the distance. They turned around as they charged straight at the warrior like a tidal wave.

The wings that these Golems had on them were sharp as blades. On the sides of their heads were iron horns that looked like battering rams. There was no sign of any life in these half-living creatures. They seemed to be just tools for battle. Their movements were as swift as the wind as the aerodynamic designs of their structures were great.

Hundreds, or thousands, or even tens of thousands of Golems were charging straight at the warrior.

Joshua did not seem to show even the slightest interest in getting himself entangled with the trashes. He lifted his silver greatsword and gave it a swing. Dark red Combat Aura began to unleash its powers as the greatsword is a red glow. Air blades that appeared curvy are launched with the swing of the blade.

The horde of golems made contact with the air blades launched by the warrior as they charged at him. They thought they had the number to spare in order to block the attacks of the warrior. However, they could not be more wrong than that. The air blades went right through the golems on the frontline as they continued to penetrate the other golems at the back. The air blades even went a distance beyond the golems, leaving behind debris, raining down to the ground. In just one brief instant, the entire horde of golems are wiped out by the warrior. It seemed that wiping out the golems was as easy as breathing for Joshua. With the humongous horde of golems out of the way, the warrior went forward.

However, the golem army kept coming. With the first horde being annihilated, another horde came into the vicinity in attempt to intercept the warrior from reaching his target. They seemed as if they had sensed an imminent threat posed by the warrior from afar. The golems swiftly approached the warrior from all directions. All of the Golems seemed to have received a command telling them to destroy the warrior at all cost. Soon, the warrior is surrounded by hundreds of thousands of aerial golems.

Roland, who was lending the strength from the Divine Power as he swept the aerial golems off of the radar with the full power of holy light he wielded, has noticed the situation in the sky. Even though he believed that the warrior was more than capable of handling that sort of situation, Roland felt a slight tension building up on his chest as he witnessed that scene.

The strength of the golems was insignificant to them as they were supported by Father Nature's power. However, the number of the Chaos daemons was so large to the point that it felt sick to even look at them. If the golems were to persistently go after Joshua like that, Joshua would eventually have trouble breaking through that layer of enemies regardless of how powerful he was.

Furthermore, the three gigantic sky fortresses did not stop attacking the warrior as they gathered sufficient amount of energy they required to launch their full attack on the warrior. They were preparing themselves to wipe out the golems within the vicinity along with the warrior. Perhaps that was the true imminent danger that was lurking around in the battlefield. That terrifyingly condensed energy wave even spread over into the distance. Roland believed that if that hit landed on its target, the target would perish even if the target was a Legendary.

However, just as the holy knight was beginning to feel worried about Joshua, a beam of red light, brimming with the sense of despair and terror emerged. Its appearance interrupted the thoughts of the holy knight.

Black was so fully occupied with the golems on the ground as he struggled against the horde of golems charging at him. However, the draconic horse lifted its head to take a glance at the sky and saw what was happening in the sky as it stood on top of the corpses of the Adamantine-tier golems it wrecked.

It was the light of a Combat Aura in the shape of an axe. It was flying straight into the center of the golem horde. It broke right through the bodies and wings of the golems that stood in its course as it tore through them one after another. Everything is destroyed regardless of how tough they were. The golems were sent to the afterlife immediately after they were struck by that Combat Aura.

One of the gigantic aerial golems that appeared like a griffin of more than ten meters tall was struck by the glowing Combat Aura when its tough-as-steel body was torn right through as if the body was made of thin paper. The time it took to accomplish that was less than half a second. The holy knight made an assumption that even if he went all out with his full strength, he would have needed to hammer the griffin golem two times before he could destroy that goddamn golem with a huge and tough body like that. However, now that Joshua has transcended into a new tier, he has become capable of tearing the enemy down with a simple swing of his weapon.

Even though Roland has witnessed the strength of a Legendary-Tier being beforehand, he still could not help but feel staggered by seeing what he just saw. He could even feel a faint horror towards the strength of his comrade.

Truth to be told, Joshua has yet to begin using any of his special skills. Nor did he use any secret ultimate power. He was merely swinging his greatsword at lightning speed, as he launched over hundreds of air blades. He has also used his superior control ability to condense his Combat Aura to the point that it solidified into something tougher than steel. After that, he started vibrating the Combat Aura at a high frequency before he unleashed the power that could destroy almost everything.

It was so simple yet so powerful and that was the reason why it was awfully difficult to perform.

Right after that, many more gigantic powerful aerial golems are shredded by the glowing axe of the warrior. Joshua was simply swinging his axe and greatsword as he reduced all of the aerial golems within the vicinity into gravels and shattered rocks. The warrior was clearing the golems up so rapidly that even the golems in the rear could not catch up with his speed to fill in the frontline of the battle. Because of that, a vacuum phase is formed right in front of the warrior, leaving the warrior a little space and time to take a breath. Or perhaps the warrior does not need to take a breath as he hardly felt anything yet. It was barely a warm up to him.

Scattered rocked flew all over the sky as they gradually rained down onto earth. Joshua was the only one standing straight in the middle of the sky. The other existence are reduced to ash and dust.

That vacuum space had also given Joshua a brief moment to charge up his strength.

Looking at the three sky fortresses in the sky, the warrior laughed out loud.

[Divine Armament Transformation LV MAX]

Using the divine armaments for a long period of time has caused the skills of the divine armaments to unprecedentedly reach the maximum stage. That was a stage never reached by even the creator of the divine armaments who hailed from the Empire Kingdom hundreds of years ago and the winged people of Karlis. The warrior has slaughtered so many Chaos daemons even the Azurite was on the verge of boiling soon.

At that time, the sky fortresses were done charging up their attacks. Each of them has selected a spell attack at the same time. They were ready to deal with the warrior who had a tremendously tough body and could move at a very high speed.

[Ultimate Efficacy—Thunder Scourge]!

Regardless of how fast Joshua could move, he could not evade an attack at the speed of a lightning. Three purplish lightning strikes that looked almost black shot at the warrior. Each of the lightning strikes looked like a light snake that was spreading in the air as they strike at the warrior. The golems in the vicinity that were caught up the attack were reduced into nothing. Every single bit of their bodies is vaporized into metallic gas. The warrior, however, did not show even the slightest intention to dodge when faced with such attacks. Instead, he lifted the greatsword in his hand as he used it like a lightning rod to direct all the lightning strikes towards the blade of the greatsword.

Purplish lightning bolts strike the greatsword. Ying could not help but feel surprised. Although the body of a divine armament was tough that it was almost indestructible, the level of attacks still affected her. The Thunder Scourges that have been charged up for a long time were supremely powerful. The girl is worried that her body might shatter into pieces for enduring so many lightning strikes at the same time. Looking at the electricity surging across her own body, she felt even more worried.

However, her worries were pointless.

The entire body of Joshua also surged with purplish electricity. The great magic energy embedded within the attacks has torn through the defenses of his Combat Aura as they sank into the flesh and blood of the warrior. Many small cut wounds burst opened all over Joshua's body. Dark red blood oozed from those small cut wounds as the blood vaporized into red mists that appeared as red as the blazing flame, spreading all around him. If he was not blessed with the regenerative ability provided by the azure orb and the blessing of Father Nature, and also the resistance against Magic power, he might have died an instant death.

However, Joshua remained standing as he gripped the greatsword and the greataxe in his hands. With a flashing of light, as the heat that was hot enough to melt everything, spread across his body, the Combat Aura that surrounded the two weapons remained tough as before. It is not destroyed. A joyful voice fell from the mouth of the warrior who surged with electricity.

"Sometimes, I'll also use two hands to wield a weapon!"

A corner of the helmet that was forged from his Combat Aura was struck open, revealing the red eyes behind the helmet. Joshua's voice sounded a little bored as he tried to conceal his excitement but joy still slipped from his tongue. "Now, let's try to use you!"

The warrior, then, lifted the greatsword and the greataxe in his hands. The black runes on both of the back of his hands were activated as they moved. The souls of Ying and Ling left the bodies of the two divine armaments at once. The two of them seemed confused as they circled around next to the warrior. Their eyes widened as they looked at their bodies glittering and translucent like crystals. The two weapons merged into one. Ying and Ling were both surprised and were in disbelief. However, that was strangely acceptable to them.

Divine armaments are weapons forged with core crystals of the Aragami—the main material in forging a divine armament. The shape and appearance of a divine armament differ based on the will of the wielder. Normally, the shape of the divine armament would never change after taking form for the first time.

However, that is just common sense. For Joshua, such a thing is never true!

As the first man to use the divine armament transformation to the max level, the warrior noticed that he could actually decide the shapes of his divine armaments, regardless of whether it was a bow or a hammer, a shield or a spear, or even an armor. He was about to turn the greatsword and the greataxe into a new weapon.

With the constant flashing of lightning all over the place, the silver greatsword and the black greataxe slowly merged into one. The two weapons have turned into a grey blade with a rugged appearance that resembled a cross spear but a little quainter. The flat sharp blade of a spear expanded in mass as it formed into the shape of an axe at the tip. It looked just like a strong tooth of a ferocious dragon unleashing soundless deterrent force.

The name of that weapon was called the 'Dragon-hunting Gunblade'!

"Come at me now. Let's see if you can block this!"

As the gunblade took its form, the lightning from the Thunder Scourge dispersed into thin air. The warrior gripped the huge gunblade as he stomped through the air. He laughed like a madman as he charged up his strength with his knee bent down a little. When he has charged his strength to the max, he launched the gunblade straight at the sky fortresses that were floating in the sky.

Right at that moment, the newly born Dragon-hunting Gunblade moved out of the warrior's hand and let out a deafening sound with fainting sighs and the miserable mourning of the boy and girl. It approached the targets at a speed so fast that even the air sparked with the friction! With the roaring of the air that sounded as if it could break the dimension, the flame spread fast as it gradually formed into rings that spread on rapidly into the surroundings.