Soul of Searing Steel

At the outskirts of Moldova. Midnight. Falling stars. At the first light of day.

Dark clouds were covering the sky. There was some faint radiance shining through the gaps between the dark clouds. The entire land of that region was violently suffering the wrath of the blizzard. Everything was dark. However, right on the icy land covered in snow and frost, there was a small green light flying towards the direction where the mountains and the forest were. It was moving forward at an extremely fast speed.

Directing his dark green Combat Aura to charge himself up, Brandon departed from the fortress. He was charging forward at lightning speed. The howling cold wind was blowing in his face. However, the wind was blocked by a layer of green translucent energy wave. In one brief instant, he had crossed the snow-capped hills and arrived at a small plain land in front of the Dark Forest.

The corpses of the daemons had filled the plain land and the hillside right in between the Dark Forest and the fortress. The remains of the daemon corpses that were bombarded by all sorts of spell attacks and alchemy cannons were basically shredded all across the ground that was covered with snow. Purplish red blood that was frozen could be seen all over the place. The violent winds had blown away the scent of blood. With a quick glance, one could tell that there were approximately tens of thousands of dead daemons lying around in the vicinity.

However, for the army of 200,000 daemons that were lurking deep in the Dark Forest, this number of casualties was considered insignificant… not to mention that the spring was just around the corner. At a time where the Dark Forest was sowing seeds all around, these corpses would become the best fertilizers that the Dark Forest could ever ask for.

"If the fortress is breached, the Dark Forest will expand until everything is taken over. All sorts of distorted plants might even grow all over the fortress… so there's no room for any failure in this raid!"

Brandon's body was radiating. The special attributes of his Combat Aura were the 'wind' and the ability to 'shred'. In the middle of this ravaging blizzard, the golden-haired swordsman was actually much faster than Joshua's speed. And because of that, he had the confidence to start later than Joshua did. He believed that he could catch up with Joshua who had already gone deep into the Dark Forest.

Regardless of anything else, the two Gold-tier combatants who covered each other to share the stress load in facing the Dark Tide would definitely be able to progress faster than one, By doing so, they could be more confident in killing the Gold-tier daemons that were nearby the dimensional rift.

"I need to hurry. I need to be faster."

Taking a deep breath, Brandon initiated the impulse of his power deep within his body through this breathing. His body was completely blazing with his dark green Combat Aura. His moving speed had become even faster on a whole new level. The strength of the wind seemed to be rejecting the gravity from setting in, in the meantime, the air resistance seemed to be nullified as well. Lending the power from the surrounding in the middle of the blizzard storm, the golden-haired swordsman was moving forward like a shooting star. He went so fast that he looked like he was moving in a vacuum.

Boom!

Along with the sound that seemed to have broken through the sound barrier, there were some long waves of green aura dragging along on the back of Brandon who was charging fast towards the front. The invisible shockwaves were rippling out from the center of his body as he moved forward. The violent shockwaves had pushed the blizzard that was violently pouring down on the earth away. The hot air that was formed from the high-speed friction between the air and Brandon's Combat Aura passed into the surroundings of the earth. Frost and snow were dissolved into some dirty ice water all over the place.

Under the violent friction against the air, there were even small electrical charges surging in the air all around him. The electrical lights were sparkling. Countless snowflakes evaporated upon touching the electrical charges, leaving only water vapor floating all over the place that Brandon went through.

Under that sort of speed, Brandon only took a few breaths before he went straight into the Dark Forest that was shrouded by dark purplish mist.

However, upon entering the Dark Forest for a short moment, Brandon quickly slowed down his pace a little. He even stopped moving after a brief moment of slowing down his pace. He landed on a large black leaf that seemed to be decaying.

"The chi has vanished…"

Brandon observed his surroundings for a moment. He seemed very puzzled all of a sudden. He furrowed his brows and said, "The Chaos magic in the mist is just too damn condensed already. Is this the reason why Joshua's chi is blocked?"

Everyone had their very own special chi. The stronger you are, the deeper the others could feel your chi. If someone was blocking their chi on purpose, then that was a different story. However, with the knowledge he had, the swordsman knew that Joshua was not a person that would conceal or block his chi. So that left only one answer to the question. The purplish dark mist all over the Dark Forest must be the main reason why Brandon could not sense Joshua's presence.

The dark purplish mist was formed from the black dragon's scale powder as the source. This dark purplish mist that shrouded the entire Dark Forest was infused with magic and snow dust as well. Even with the eyesight of a Gold-tier combatant, one could only look no further than thirty meters. Furthermore, this mist could also cut off the ability to sense the chi of others. It would be unwise even for the Gold-tier combatants to walk around in the Dark Forest. To trace the route that Joshua went through, Brandon had to observe all of his surroundings for any signs or traces left behind.

There was no blizzard or violent wind in the middle of this Dark Forest that was distorted by the Chaos power. The leaves were still strong and nice and the trees were fine even though it was already winter. Compared to the other normal forests, the trees in the Dark Forest looked darker. Regardless of the leaves or the tree trunks, there were also signs of scratches and teeth marks all over them as if any ferocious battle would happen in the forest. Naturally, the Chaos energy that was surging all around the forest had caused the trees to grow larger. Each tree should be approximately twenty to thirty meters tall.

Fortunately for him, Brandon managed to find the signs and footprints of Joshua. Along the dark passage he was walking on, the hot air was still staying still in the area. The hot air did not disperse. Meanwhile, there were countless corpses of the daemons scattered all over the place.

So that was the main reason nothing had come to block him from moving forward. So they were all here!

Before he could let out a sigh, the golden-haired swordsman suddenly froze for one split second. He saw that among the pile of dead daemons, there were also large bodies with gray-white shells covering on them. Each of the large daemons was at least five meters tall. They were like mini mountains lying on the ground by the side. Dark purplish blood was dripping off the headless bodies of the monsters, leaving warm stinky blood stench all over the place.

"White-shelled bears? Six of them? And all of them were decapitated in one hit?"

Upon seeing these predators in the forest lying dead on the ground like they were nothing, Brandon was not too surprised as well—with Joshua's strength, killing these monsters that were at least Silver tier would not be hard at all. However, judging from the fact that these bodies were still warm, he must be getting nearer to Joshua now.

Without any delay, Brandon immediately continued to move forward at high speed. Along the burned trail that was left on the path, Brandon followed the trail down to the path while he was bursting and charging up his speed. One shockwave after another was seen right behind his back every time he tried to boost his speed. Countless black leaves were falling for the trees after being blown off by the shockwaves that Brandon made. However, the next scene that appeared right before his eyes had forced Brandon to stop and observe the surroundings.

Huge dark trees were cut off. Some of them collapsed onto the ground. Right by the spots where the tree trunks were cut off, there was some dark red radiance flashing about, scorching the trunks of the tree. There were also wretched faces on each of the skin on the tree trunks. The roots and twigs of the trees looked like limbs.

"Demonic Treants?!"

Brandon let out a shout full of surprise. His eyes were filled with shock, "This piece of Dark Forest nearby Mount Great Ajax can actually nurture and create demonic treants?! That's not right. They were not Gold tier. Furthermore, their chi was chaotic. These are just inferior beings that were nurtured by combining Chaos power."

The demonic treants were the guardians being nurtured by the Dark Forest. They would only exist in vast forest areas. They were naturally born to be as powerful as Intermediate Gold-tier beings that possess extraordinary powers and many strange and bizarre abilities. For instance, they could take the life force from the other trees to heal their own wounds, to enhance their bodies. Relying on those sorts of abilities, they were nearly unkillable when they were in the Dark Forest. Even if they were just inferior demonic treants, they could still be able to become as tough as Gold-Tier daemons under the support of the Dark Forest.

Although it was just a quick shock, however, Brandon was still very worried about the current situation, "Things have escalated to this point now. Fortunately, there was no delay at all back there. If we had waited until the dimensional rift was completely activated, the Dark Forest that is corrupted by Chaos might have nurtured and create a few more demonic treants. By then, these monsters might have become an impenetrable wall of defense. We would have to face a large problem just to breach that defense by then."

Other than feeling fortunate, he also felt a little amazed. From the wounds of the dead demonic treants, he had not felt any trace of chi of Joshua's Divine Armament. There were only scent of rust being left on the cut wound. In other words, Joshua only used a normal metallic sword to kill all of these demonic treants which were deemed to be as powerful as the Gold-tier daemons, the guardians of the Dark Forest!

On the tree bark that was supposed to be tougher than steel, there were countless traces of sword cuts that were deep and severe. However, these seemingly rough sword marks layered on top of the other sword marks one after another. After that, there was another huge wound cut that was cut precisely on top of the other cut marks. Such a cut could be found all around the body of any demonic treants that were over twenty-meters tall. There were even some small wounds all over their bodies, weakening to demonic treants to the point that they could be killed by a final blow that left the huge wound on each of them!

What a ferocious and yet amazing skill!

Brandon knew. Unless he activated his own magical eyes, or else he would not have done that… Meanwhile, that dark red power's attributes was terrifying as well. That was definitely not some normal Combat Aura. It might be something even more dreadful. It looked a little like the Glorious Strength.

"Ha!"

Suddenly, a thunderous roar came echoing not far from here.

Along with the raging roar came a strong red light. This red light went straight through the shrouding dark purplish mist. It was unleashing dense Berserk aura like a bright shining star.

"Just right over there! It seems that the battle has already begun!"

Brandon instantly slapped his face to lift his spirits. It was obvious that Joshua was just not far in the front. It was obvious that the battle was intense!

Along with the trembling air and the rumbling sound, he once again unleashed his Combat Aura and charged towards that direction at extreme speed.