Soul of Searing Steel

While the war was on the verge of breaking out far away, Joshua was thinking about his own path of ascension.

Though the cultivation methods of the Mycroft and Grandia continents differed much, the fundamentals were the same. From the warrior's complete comprehension of the matter, he could clearly recognize any differences or similarities.

The Initial Flame ignited Chaos to allow life in the Void. The Primordial Steel subsequently shaped worlds and spawned all things—just like how a person could be born a pygmy while another born robust, every world had unequal Steel Strength when they were first shaped.

As such, the contrasting amounts and essence in the power of Creation brought countless dissimilar worlds, while also affecting the distribution of energy adrift provided for the use of intelligent life in each world.

Naturally, having more Steel Strength did not mean that the concentration of energies in that world was high. In fact, worlds that possessed grand Steel Strength had such dilute energy released it was virtually undetectable since their physical forms were borderless with vast galaxies.

On the other hand, worlds with weaker initial Steel Strength would have extremely high energy concentration since they exist within a balanced eternal cycle or were small worlds possessing one or two stars—as such, there would be many extraordinary individuals born there too.

Joshua was uncertain on which world—Mycroft or Grandia—was larger. However, the Mycroft Continent itself notwithstanding, there were endless oceans and many mysterious thresholds and half-planes hanging beyond the sky on Mycroft—including the Infinite Horizon where the gods reside. Though that particular example did not suit the survival of ordinary life, its vastness alone did not dull in comparison to the entire Mycroft continent.

On the other hand, the world of Grandia did not have such subsidiary planes. It only had a single continent, which is why the energy adrift here—otherwise known as its mana element concentration—should be larger than the Mycroft Continent.

Still, Joshua did not try to sense how vast the energy concentration in Grandia was, but he had found the reason.

It was the protocrystal mineral that extraordinary individuals of the magical energy discipline lived upon.

According to the warrior's hypothesis, the world of Grandia had condensed most of its forces into innumerable mineral-like energy crystallization during its creation.

Those crystallizations—also known as protocrystals—were buried underground, forming streaks of mineral veins. To not put it mildly, the protocrystals were actually equivalent to 'fat cells' for this world. However, although they were useless, they were an energy that was more primitive and resembling of Steel Strength compared to the aura and mana that Mycroft humans cultivated with and spawned.

From the aspect of combat power alone, the magical energy discipline was not stronger than mana or aura. However, it would bring an assortment of special attributes for those who cultivated with it.

With this power, Grandia's extraordinary individuals had changed the essence of their lives. As such, their lifeforce and soul were fused together from the start, becoming hard to dispel due to this special energy.

It was also why both beast and men, having perished thousands of years ago, would leave undead spirits—even Heroic Spirits behind on the world of Grandia, as well as keeping part of the powers they had in life after being awakened by a certain power.

Holding the Jewel Seed, Joshua kept absorbing the substantial energies within. This holy stone fragment that contained water and ice magical attributes should, logically speaking, be hard to digest for a being of fire-attribute aura. However, the warrior's heightened level and precise understanding of energies allowed Joshua to easily reverse most attributes of the coreless energy, turning it into that which he could use.

As the warrior maintained his analysis of the energy essence and studied this hybrid of lifeforce and mana, his own aura and lifeforce gradually grew closer to the core aspect of Steel Strength. He watched bit by bit as his energy output level increased continuously, now reaching 45%.

This meant that even if he went to another world that varied from Grandia and Mycroft, his power output would remain at 45%.

"That's about it."

Sensing that he had reached his current limit, Joshua stood by the edge of the lake and temporarily stopped assimilating the energy within the holy stone fragment. Gingerly opening his left hand, a crimson aura fluorescence surged, creating a fireball the size of a fist out of thin air over the warrior's palm.

Though small, the fireball was immeasurably dazzling. It exuded a blazing white radiance and spread scorching heat waves along with life emission across all directions. It was so hot that it had boiled and evaporated the surface of the lake beside him, illuminating several kilometers around the warrior as if it was day.

Joshua stared at the fireball in his hand, as if the radiance that was stronger than the sun did not exist at all.

This was not a secondary-tier flame created by burning his own aura, but the incredible heat produced as he attempted to accelerate the movement of atomic particles. In this little fireball, the energies within the air were collided by the high energy particles the warrior's aura created, becoming a circumstance akin to the self-destruct of a Nuclear Star.

"Weird," Joshua muttered doubtfully as he quelled the fireball in his hand. "Although my energy output level is at 45%, the current performance hints that I've at least recovered more than 60% of my strength."

Being able to generally manipulate a phenomenon akin to an exploding Nuclear Star had been Joshua's combat ability threshold when he fought in the battle against the berserk dragons at the Sacred Mountain of the Far Sea.

It was about sixty to seventy percent of his ability after he reached full-bloom following his battle against Herlas. In other words, though the warrior was now at 45% of energy output level, his ability was sixty percent that of his full power.

—That could be the comprehensive improvement after attaining a deeper understanding of Steel Strength.

After thinking for a bit, Joshua largely got the reason. Through his study of the magical energy discipline and protocrystal, his body and lifeforce had begun to shift towards the Steel Strength of origins.

Miniscule electric currents and fluorescence began to flash around the warrior's fist. Joshua noticed that he could hazily sense and manipulate the endless and extremely minute particles of matter around his body. These particles were the most basic of existence next to Power of Existence and Steel Strength.

As soon as he was able to sense those particles, the warrior immediately felt a huge difference from how he had sensed his surroundings before.

Scanning everything around him, Joshua appeared to feel something of an illusion—for there was now multitudinous cracks and seams between all things. Even his body, thoroughly honed and did not lose out to fine gold in sturdiness, was full of leaks and openings on the microscopic level that it would not stand a single blow.

Joshua was already aware that such was the reason his energy had been restrained after he arrived on Grandia—the material particles that formed his physical body were too sparse, so much so that he would easily be affected by his environment.

Since he came from a different world, the warrior's body density, along with the movement of the atomic particles within his physicality would contrast slightly in this world. That, however, tremendously affects the energy flow in his body.

Nonetheless, there are two ways to change this circumstance. One was to assimilate as much as possible with the local life and adapt completely with this world. The other was ceaseless improvement to augment his own body, attaining a level and body that was both indestructible and eternal such as the 'Primordial Steel'.

I'm now at Supreme tier, and my body had been honed to the level of extraordinary—ordinary matter and energy particles would not augment my body. Joshua thought inwardly as he stared at the holy stone fragment that was still emitting a beautiful radiance within his palm.

The Jewel Seed protocrystals are too rare and could only be found by chance. But in the very least, I would need something equivalent to the Cloud Diamond that Jarien had given me as bare minimum.

Having consecutively absorbed a Cloud Diamond and a Jewel Seed shard and almost increasing 10% of his energy output level, this was indeed a way for the warrior to improve himself even if it would prove difficult at the later stages.

Furthermore, Joshua had come up with a cultivation method on how to convert aura and lifeforce into magical energy, before subsequently refining that magical energy into Steel Strength. Still, it was purely conjecture since he had not really attempted the method before.

"Perhaps I should get a local to try this cultivation method of mind some time."

"But now, the fourth Sage's Legacy is more important."

Joshua's body slowly rose, but he did not move his own body with aura, instead relying purely on his own magnetic energy field to float by repelling gravity. He then recalled the face of the red-haired girl who was covered in scars after seeing it through resonance from the Azurite, and shrugged.

"Looks like the situation is dire—it's an incredible stroke of luck that she's alive."

Joshua and Igor had discussed the worst-case scenario before—the death of the heir of the fourth Sage's Legacy. It may have been due to the heir's perishing that the Legacy had resonated on its own, summoning other heirs to take it away.

Now, it seems that the heiress was indeed in a bad state, but those were just surface wounds and would not be a huge issue.

Without staying behind for long, the warrior rose thousands of meters, reaching Grandia's stratosphere.

Soon, a bolt of crimson lightning tore the night sky apart, darting towards the western part of the continent.

Half a day later, a dark phantom came beside the lake where Joshua had stopped by.

Loze the Shadeshifter solemnly investigate the residual marks. Fortunately, due to the warrior's powers that remained here, no Death Shades revived within a radius of several kilometers during the night and most traces were left intact.

After studying every piece of mud nearby, the black human silhouette had mostly pieced together the scene of what transpired here recently.

"I must report this immediately."

At a simple assemblage of mystical runes, the news was spread immediately.

Having no time or mind to be shocked, Loze realized that the existence that could counter this powerful being from another world definitely was not a slouch like itself.

To remove this uncertain variable, every Grand Commander might have to do the deed personally.