Soul of Searing Steel

The bells in the town of Jarien rang urgently late into the night.

With the sounds of chaotic footsteps that soon became orderly, countless villagers hurrying to equip their weapon belts and wear their armors took to the streets. They assembled into squads and assumed formations spontaneously, while quite a few flight-capable spellcasters took to the air from the buildings, landing amidst the squad and started to issue all sorts of orders post-haste.

"The trade group—Darwion's seventh squad—has not returned. However, their soul lights are not extinguished—commence search and rescue."

The spellcasters were concise with their orders, while the villagers—or to be precise, part-time soldiers nimbly began their operations as if they did this all the time.

In an instant, the large formation split into three parts—one was gearing up, preparing to leave the village for the search while another manned the forts to begin defensive preparations. Though the last group was on standby, several leaders left their group and strode into the shrine at the center of the village.

"The point of trade is too far…" One villager who was staying behind and preparing to defend village sighed rather helplessly at the companion beside him. "Especially with that girl Darwion in charge of protocrystal trade, even the closest point is deep within the mountains. The smallest of mishaps and they would never be able to come back smoothly."

"Isn't that right." The companion agreed beside him. "That girl Darwion had once been a symbol, ending up with scars all over her body after battling for the last years—the Death Shade wouldn't care if you're a woman."

The two men's concerns were completely different, but they could somehow continue chattering. One of them was in charge of scouting out the distance in the watchtower, while the other held his bow at the ready.

Then, out of the blue, the villager on watch duty paused, before calling out loudly.

"Wait, they're coming back!"

With voice amplification magic, his voice spread throughout the entire village. Apart from him, the others too noticed the same thing, each of them spreading the pleasant news.

The village of Jarien was built on the peak of a hill that seemed to be dissected by some existence, with the top half being immeasurably flat, stony land. The citizens could therefore look down from above to observe far-off scenes.

At present, the villager on lookout noted from the edge of his vision that there was dust rising in the air. It was kicked up by horses as they galloped, carrying the squad, exactly thirty persons, who were swiftly bundling for the village.

"Three carriages?"

One of the lookouts, a keen-eyed man could already see those lofty but plain carriages, and appeared to be delighted. "So many protocrystals? That's almost twice the original amount!"

Protocrystals are materials that the intelligent lifeforms of this world used for cultivation.

The elemental energies in this world were chaotic and inert. Apart from certain special races, most life were unable employ it, and it was only through the power of these land crystals buried deep within the land that were stabilized but animated that could be used as ingredients for a variety of spellcasting and cultivation.

Therefore, in this post-apocalyptic world, there was nothing more precious than protocrystals. It is the keystone to a village's survival, an ammunition that could resist the invasion of Death Shades. That was why the village of Jarien had twelve teams outside village during daylight, searching and trading for functional protocrystals—Darwion being the captain of the seventh team.

The village man on the lookout was familiar with the female knight; his eyes were flowing with a soft luster. It was his innate gift 'eagle-eye', able to distinctly make out the scene thousands of kilometers away.

Therefore, he naturally noticed the warrior who was following behind Darwion's squad.

And so, after seven to eight seconds of staring blankly, the alarm that was of the highest alert resounded throughout the air over the village of Jarien.

As Joshua followed the local horseman back to their base, he could see the village guards who were vigilant to the hilt. They were almost at the edge of letting loose their arrows.

The village, built on a summit, had an artificial river running beside it, and a tall, sturdy wall that seemed out of place with a small village. There were many towers built upon its edge, with keen-eyed elite archers locking their sights upon the warrior.

"It's totally a mini fortress," Joshua said, not quite minding their nervousness and caution.

Along the way, the warrior had wiped out a large number of Death Shades, therefore almost understanding why such corrupted scents permeated the air of this world. He also would completely comprehend the vigilance of the village towards him, after they had survived under such circumstances.

"My lord, I ****."

The lady knight up front turned towards to say something. Joshua judged from her expression that she wanted to go ahead and explain that the warrior meant no harm. As such, he briskly let the squad return to the village while he alone stayed outside, waiting for further interaction.

Meanwhile, Darwion and the other squad members who had just returned to the small town were immediately mobbed by the immeasurably nervous village elders.

"Little Darwion, what is it with you?!"

One of the elders, a gray-haired man who seemed to be over fifty with a war hammer hanging by his hip, let out a long breath. He gave the female knight who was smiling bitterly a hug, before continuing with a grave voice that seemed to be quivering.

"How did your squad bring that terrible… that thing back here?!"

Beside them, a much younger male spellcaster clenched on his staff and sighed. "The village energy detection crystal simply exploded when it tried to scan that thing. Its ability surpasses second class, arriving at first sequence."

The spellcaster's tone was less alarmed. He understood that Darwion and the others were completely defenseless against a first-sequence champion. Furthermore, for the other side to not charge in and wait outside the village for interaction was in itself was the greatest cordial gesture.

"How on earth did you come in contact with that being?" the gray-haired middle-aged man urged on a little impatiently.

"Uncle Bolt, Uncle Aram." Darwion let out a troubled laugh in reply. "Things had really been a little weird… I think I'm still dreaming at the moment."

The entire town of Jarien was composed of members from the Astoria family—the lady knight herself were kin of the two village elders. Then, withholding nothing, she told them everything about their dire circumstance in the Autumn Waters Forest, including her thoughts about it.

"Huh…"

Drawing a long breath, the man named Bolt tightened his brow, although most of the anxiety in his expression had already vanished. "With just the energy shockwave around his body, he could destroy all those ancient warriors who slumbered within the Autumn Waters Forest? And every Death Shade along the way was wiped out too? Even the spirits of ancient behemoths were fell with one punch?"

Darwion nodded somberly. On each of those occasions, she could feel that her eyes were about to drop out—it was neither fear nor surprise but a sheer escape of logic, the threshold things unimaginable.

Bolt gave a troubled smile in return. "Little Darwion, do you know what that means? Even the first-sequence could not do such things—only those 'heroes' and ancient 'heroic spirit' could."

"To be frank, according to what you've said, it's just a matter of thought for this lord to destroy our village," Aram said softly, shaking his head at a side. "It's not that I don't believe it—for something that could break the energy detection crystal, it's definitely possible. But I'm just thinking, what is it? Appearing from a pale-blue rift, that's not the scene of a heroic spirit's revival."

All three seemed to have concluded that the warrior was no human, and collectively ignored that point. From that aspect of logical thought, they were most certainly a family.

After a long silence, the other village hierarchs around them slowly got the information they want from the other members of the Seventh Squad. With Bolt and Aram at their center, they incidentally made the same decision.

"It seems… We could only wake the ancestor."

Waiting outside the village, Joshua was reading the language chart provided by the system.

The down-to-earth warrior had actually forgotten that he had the system itself, initially assuming that he should follow the locals and head to a village to learn the unknown language. But in truth, it was several times easier to use the vocabulary translation provide by the system than to get a general gist of the language.

[Common tongue of humanoids in the world of Grandia]

[A language commonly used by humanoid beings in the world of Grandia. Most learn it to for easy daily interaction and trade—even non-humanoids, apart from some races living in seclusion.]

Within the time Darwion's squad had hurried back to the village, Joshua had already learned basic interaction. By following the vocabulary translation the system had provided, he could also speak a little Grandia language.

But just as Joshua was about to dive seriously into it, he suddenly looked up toward the heart of the village.

The dark night sky was illuminated by the lights within the town of Jarien. At this moment, countless light-gold dots were rising from the bodies of every villager. The dots then gathered the elements that were drifting in the air, and, carrying the energies the forces that were spread across the world, seeped into the shrine in the middle of the town in its entirety.

Joshua's crimson eyes were burning with a fiery radiance, penetrating through void, stone walls and countless combusting life flames, staring at a powerful will that was slowly awakening across thin air.

"Champion."

A calm, warm and ancient voice rose from within the warrior as the powerful will spoke. It was plain common tongue used in ancient Grandia.

"My thanks for protecting my descendants."

As the voice spoke, a human silhouette suddenly formed in front of the warrior, formed from the endless golden dots that ultimately shaped the face of an elderly man.

Though ancient, the figure remained an imposing and powerful swordsman. His scalp was full of long hair that resembled lines of luminosity, while on his hip was a long sword that had a sheathe flashing with lightning bolts. And at the sockets where his eyes should be, the radiance swordsman had two bunch of raging golden flames.

Although shaped like a human, he was a divine sword that could cut through anything in Joshua's eyes. While the longsword was still in its sheath, Joshua instinctively knew that he could draw it even before one could think and cleave apart all things.

"Interesting." Joshua could not help curling his lips while he stared at the two golden flames. "You're the guardian of this village?"

Under the constant invasion of undead spirits, none would believe that there was no powerful protection keeping such a huge village standing in the middle of the mountains.

And for that, the warrior was thrilled—naturally.

Because the old person before him made him feel the nostalgic sense of danger—a power enough to threaten his life.

Although this danger was because the warrior had been restrained to sixty percent of his powers, it still meant that at full exertion, the radiance swordsman could hold his own against him even if Joshua in full power.

Supreme-pinnacle!

Bumping into such a powerful man by following a little carriage squad to their home arbitrarily, could it mean that the champions in the world of Grandia were a lot more than the Mycroft Continent?

Nevertheless, without waiting for the warrior to keep pondering, the radiance swordsman with Supreme-pinnacle ability spoke towards Joshua with a level and friendly tone.

"That's right. I am the guardian of this village, heroic spirit Jarien Astoria of the 'Earthbreaker Blade'."

"So, champion. Where do you come from?" The ancient who called himself heroic spirit asked. "What are you prepared to do, coming to this little town in the mountains?"

Joshua nodded and briskly replied, "Joshua van Radcliffe. A warrior from another world."

Though his Grandian common tongue was not smooth, each of Joshua words was filled with might sufficient for anyone to ignore his issues with intonation and language structure.

"I'm here to gather information about this world and search for an object."

The old heroic spirit paused slightly when he heard that.

Unlike his descendants, the sword saint Jarien—whose name had resounded throughout the continent in life and had even become a legend—could certainly see that Joshua was not your common man.

Be it the incompatible energy flow within the champion's body or his non-responsive expression after hearing his name, everything was enough to prove that he came from another plane, or even another world.

Still, he never expected that the warrior would be so forthright with his own origins.

On the other hand, such a thing was definitively ordinary for Joshua.

The warrior always hated winding around. So what if he told the villagers and the heroic spirit that he had come from another world? The fact that this world appears to be troubled by undead spirits notwithstanding, he would never fall foul of a surviving village. Even if it was a normal and prosperous world, locals would not develop a hateful attitude from the start when they encounter a powerful man from another world that had no ill intent.

Since that was the case, he should simply tell his intentions instead of being vague. He might just get better rapport in the process, acquiring even more meaningful information.

"Just to gather information, and search for an object, huh."

The face that was filled with wrinkled showed a hint of a smile. The ancient closed his eye sockets and opened them again, the faint golden flames shaking lightly as he spoke softly, "Then you're now the most important guest in our village."

Even as Jarien the heroic spirit spoke, the bulky wooden gates of the village slowly opened. The ancient then turned, gesturing for the warrior to follow.

"Come, powerful warrior named Joshua."

"I'll tell you everything you want to know."