Soul of Searing Steel

There are countless worlds of various compositions in the multiverse, just as the radiance of the Initial Flame came in millions of forms.

In this unnamed world, all things began with a dark-red sky.

The gigantic crimson stellar body hung within the universe—the star, past its prime, shone its weak light upon the three orbiting planets around it. The last time it expanded had been countless ten thousand years ago, leaving the system that once hosted seven orbiting planets with just three of its furthest orbiting planets.

The planet closest to this red giant had already been locked on by the tide. Half of the stone planet was under eternal incineration—its lithosphere had already melted, while the other was ice-bound in the chilling darkness. All air remaining were liquefied, surging in the cracks between stones.

The second planet was rotating in a rather unusually sloping angle. Solar winds that were exceedingly violent had already destroyed its ozone in an instant countless of years ago, disturbing the planet's magnetic field, the brutal impact stirring the planet's rotation axis.

And the one furthest from the red giant was a dark blue colossal gas giant. Perhaps because it had been too far away, it did not undergo much change all when its mother expanded all those innumerable years ago, and silently moved in the darkness along its own orbit as always.

There, everything began.

The surface of the gas giant was filled with immeasurably ferocious air currents. The winds that moved at tremendous speed wrought cyclones after cyclones that kept fusing and swelling, with some growing up to super windstorms hundreds or thousands of meters in diameter. The majestic sight could be distinctly observed even above the planet itself.

Joshua's consciousness awakened at this very moment. He stood upon the vacuum of outer space, unable to react for a while.

But in the very next moment, the scene changed and he entered the gas giant.

It was a dark-blue sea of gases.

Curious airflows that escape imagination had always surged endlessly within this vast billowing sea of clouds. The red giant that took up two-thirds of its sky illuminated everything within with its not-too-warm radiance. As the warrior's spirit was led by an indistinct guide towards its inner reaches, Joshua had already reached the gas giants rather warm interior when he finally understood where he was and was left shocked by it.

There were innumerable crystallizations deep below the thin ocean of gases. Frozen ice or metal shards cascaded with the airflow as the energies within the planet's core ejected them away, although they would soon gradually fall back. The process had continued for several dozen millions of years since it first began. Mana of such grand scale it astonished any existence washed out the microscopic debris, time after time.

Joshua looked on at the sight. Although he did not know why he who was attacking an Evil God fragment would suddenly appear here, the warrior took not mind but instead observed the insides of the gas giant interestedly

When he thought about the surprising construct of the Evil God fragment, he could not help having a presage.

And his presage quickly came to pass.

The flow of time accelerated. Under the colossal mana scour of the planet as well as the influence of that mana that could be counted in units of hundred million years, the insignificant material that was assimilated by mana was granulated into a core, giving birth to a unique life.

In the beginning, they were clusters of energy condensation without a fixed form without absolutely no intelligence to speak of. They flowed along the cyclones that moved at hundreds of kilometers per second and wandered the more docile gas oceans, absorbing the mana from the deeper reaches of the planet to augment themselves. Still, the lifeform tended to be killed due to the unstable outer layer construct of the gas giant, destroyed by the incredible air current shifts.

However, as if sensing that the environment it was born within was too hostile, they instinctively head for the depths of the planet where there was stronger air pressure.

Ultimately, these elemental forms of life that resembled gases inhabited the most stable gaseous composition at the deeper regions. They were nourished by the mana radiation the planet releases, interacting with each other using a special mana ripple that was electromagnetic radiation.

But even with the passing of ten thousand years their wisdom did not grow much and naturally did not form any sort of civilization. Despite that, these elementals lifeform that wandered the ocean of gases had their own unique shape of society. The excessive large living gases would combine and form a stable 'artificial' air construct within the turbulent flow while splitting part of itself to give birth to new progeny. The young would then be released when they grew to the point where they could move independently in the gas ocean—just like fungus that releases spore to propagate itself.

The curious morphology of this lifeform born in the gas giant certainly opened Joshua's eyes, but he knew that this was not the end.

In fact, it might just be the beginning.

There were limited spaces suitable for the gaseous lifeform to live within the inner reaches of the gas giant. Stable regions were fewer than imagined, and were partitioned by countless brutal cyclones. Some of the lifeforms had flown out towards the unstable surface layer in search of a new home. However, the potently cascading airflow would mercilessly tear apart the bodies of those adventurers—even the largest gas lifeforms could not resist the bombardment from winds that could reach up to hundreds of kilometers per hour.

As Joshua watched attentively, the illusion swiftly flowed with million and millions of times the normal speed, until a gas lifeform that attempted to compress its own body appeared several millennia later.

Contracting the gases that formed its body and assembling the energy within its body into streaks of urgently cascading squalls, the lifeform shifted its gargantuan body that had a radius of several thousand meters into a dark blue gaseous sphere that measured up to only several meters. Miniaturized, the gaseous lifeform finally broke through the barrier of gales after one swirling adventure, arriving at the surface of the planet.

It saw the red giant that continuously expand and covered more than half the sky.

The elemental lifeform did not have the ability to identify colors, but it could sense the terrifying power within the sphere that hung over its own head. The star's energy radiation, large enough to cover the entire gas giant carried tremendous flow of mana, scouring the surface of the planet and producing a myriad of beautiful radiance as magnetic fields brushed against each other.

The dark-red sky was the beginning of intelligence.

Perhaps due to its proximity to the two different energy radiation that clashed, or perhaps due to the instinct that accumulated over many dozen millions of years, the gaseous lifeform that shrunk itself started to change bizarrely. One way or the other, this was the first time in which intelligence was birthed amongst this unique race.

Returning to its homeland, the gaseous lifeform taught every existence it could interact with the method to contract its own body. And soon, countless blue gas spheres floated into the ocean of gases, receiving intelligence under the star's radiance.

Gradually, the new generations of gaseous lifeform had no need to head for the surface layer of the planet to acquire intelligence. Still, the process slowly became affixed into their coming-to-age ritual—only by compressing their own body, going to the surface independently and safely returning would they be acknowledged as a member of their species.

They called themselves 'Gass', a term used by the gaseous lifeforms to denote 'intelligence' in its primitive language.

The civilization development of the Gass was slow. They do not after tools or physical materials, but their civilization still slowly progressed in the units of hundred years. Using mana and gaseous construction to build 'walls' that withstood the rampaging cyclones, the Gass founded the territories of their own civilization.

As for those inferior Gass that were without intelligence, they were treated as building materials by the same species that could contract themselves, incessantly filling the titanic great wall of gas and becoming part of a newborn civilization.

"This sort of energy usage is quite special."

Joshua witnessed it all in the scattered shards of illusion. A bunch of energy luminescence appeared in his hand as he learned how the Gass assembled energy. Soon, imitating the motion of the gaseous lifeform, the ball of light gained an immeasurably solid composition. Even if it were a body of energy that was immaterial, it could now be shaped into different forms as if it existed physically.

The warrior appeared to be enriched. He felt that he would definitely learn something—perhaps even the clue to Steel Strength ascension—if he kept studying the living morphology of this curious existence. In such a short time, he had already improved his own aura shield and composition of energy flow in his body to a whole new level, largely raising his physical defense.

Even if it were gaseous lifeform without much wisdom, there were still many aspects that the warrior could humbly learn from them. In the end, all life is a unique miracle—there was definitely something to be taken from each.

But the next scene made Joshua's pupils contract.

In the void of Chaos outside that world, something cosmic had cruised by. Although the infinitely large existence did not show a hint of its form on the physical plane, it was a shadow that could cover the starlight in the visual plane of energy. The shadow passed by the red giant with three orbiting planets, before vanishing in a deeper layer of the void in no time at all.

But with that very instant, the end descended upon the system.

The red giant that previously had more than a dozen thousand of years suddenly started to burn unusually. Its brilliantly shining but not scorching surface suddenly started to boil, as if returning to its peak. The red radiance promptly turned into a brighter gold as endless gases gathered in its core and burned, before beginning to burn everything.

The balance between energy and mass broken, the aged core of the star began to shrink at an inconceivable speed. After the atypical arrive of the [peak], the star welcomed its end. The radius of its outer layer occasionally expanded and occasionally contracted. As it ejected sweltering gas currents, a small, white stellar body that slowly rotated could be hazily seen appearing in the center of the once-giant star.

The extinguishing of the Initial Flame, the reason all things end here—an obscure light that was absolutely ungentle.

As the red giant shifted, the seemingly huge gas giant was devoured by its own sun's terrifying expansion without any delay. Under the star's might, the Gass's fragile civilization was almost completely destroyed in no time at all. It was indeed 'almost', however, as some of the most powerful Gass did not die under the shift. They were compressed to the very edge of the shell within their own gas form, becoming a barrier sturdy enough to withstand everything to weather the abrupt change.

The surviving Gass latched on to the metallic core of the gas giant, the remnant of a world they once lived in. But even the dark universe within the metallic core slowly turned cold, while the sun, now a white dwarf, no longer emitted light or heat.

And so these gaseous existences that fed on energy simply went extinct while sensing their companions' mana radiation in the cold and desolated darkness.

Thus, a new Evil God was born.

The illusion ended.

In the dark void, the warrior grew cold as he watched the illusory scene of the Evil God fragment advance to its very end. It was as if he himself felt that despair of awaiting his own death in the wretched reaches of vacuum. Furrowing his brow, Joshua came to understand the origin of the illusion, but not why it was so.

Then, the obviously fatigued voice of a man appeared out of thin air, interrupting the warrior's thoughts.

"The thirteenth Evil God, provisionally named [Air], the reason for its emergence may be due to the influence of the first Evil God [Fertility]."

The somber voice also carried a hint of hoarseness that echoed across the dark void. He appeared exhausted, and was in turn brief with its dialogue. "The Evil God named [Air] did not come itself, the one that invaded the northern continent was just part of its body. With the dire situation in the battle of the void, I after hurry towards the frontline after sealing part of its remains deep underground. We could not discount the possibility of the Evil God of Air could descend once more. But as long as we research its weakness as soon as possible, we could definitely apply it next time.

"Date—Holy Calendar Year 5319, the 17th of October. Third Holy Apostle beneath the Sage's Seat, signing off."

What immediately followed was an infinitely brilliant flash of a blade that could tear across the stellar worlds—even dimensional composition.

The flash split apart the dark illusion including the atmospheric touch that plummeted from the sky. As the sacred radiance shone, the Evil God from the Chaos retreated.

Joshua was completely freed from the illusion and awakened with the spear in his hand. Beside him, Brandon's eyes still appeared lost.

In front of them, the inner composition of the Evil God fragment was completely destroyed. The Chaos wind that was compressed to its very limit had lost the energy construct that binds it and intended to rampage and destroy all that surrounds it, but that Chaos energy was completely dissolved under the Order beams within this sealed tomb, leaving just a pillar of dark blue smoke, floating around what was one a black sphere.

After thousands of years, a successor built a steel shell around the sealing tomb. The craftsman had also carved out the scene where the holy apostle banished the Evil God, but the researcher he had waited for had never come. Then, seismic activity and volcanic eruptions formed earthen layers that eventually built up into a mountain, utterly burying the ancient seal deep underground.

Until now, two heirs that carried the Sage's Legacies arrived.

"That… Is that the truth behind the birth of an Evil God? An elemental world with an elemental lifeform that propagated itself was somehow wiped out slow easily…"

The blond knight's gaze slowly cleared while the scent over his body slowly became stronger.

That dazzling blade flash by the holy apostle was awe-inspiring. His usage of energy and his sense towards the world had reached an apex. After witnessing it all, Brandon's threshold that kept delaying its own ascension relaxed.

He had actually broken through Skill Mastery right here, just like that!