Soul of Burning Steel

In the countless worlds of the multiverse, there will always be more or less regions, because of a widely circulated or unknown reason, the races living in the local world are honored as holy places.

Maybe because of religion, maybe because of history, maybe because of a great battle or a major technological invention, maybe even a great man was born or died here, in short, these places are so special that Every move will attract people's attention.

Mycroft Continent, South Far Sea, Seven Sacred Mountains—The Church of the Seven Gods of the Human Race built the first temple here 834 years ago, and established the common calendar of the mainland. It is located at the highest point of this mountain. At the top, because the designers were mixed with dwarves and elves, the initial temple, which is now the Great Temple, incorporates the characteristics of many civilizations.

There is no doubt that the Seven Gods, as the belief of 70% of the population of the entire continent, the location of their initial church, will naturally be called a holy place, but unfortunately, this holy place seems to have rarely had a real Peace, since it was built, war has not disappeared from the perimeter of the holy mountain.

Storms, huge waves, tsunamis, the invasion of the murloc empire, the impact of giant beasts in the deep sea, the latent destruction from the cult, and the siege of the undead army. Historically, the far south murlocs alone have carried out massacres on the holy mountain five times. Scale impact, these once-prosperous races called the giant beasts lurking in the deep sea as mounts, and called tsunamis as forwards, with the intention of directly erasing the Church of the Seven Gods from the far sea.

But as a result, the ocean empire of the murlocs split, and the two branches were forced to move between the coast of the eastern plain and the sea area of ​​the Thousand Islands of the Western Mountains.

Years of wars have gradually turned the Holy Mountain of the Far Sea into a large fortress. From the outside, it seems to be just a group of temples built on the island, with scattered towns and fortifications on it, but in fact, this area The land is soaked with holy light, and the ubiquitous magic circles have already connected the seemingly scattered temples and towns into one, forming an unprecedentedly large complex magic formation.

Since the completion of the construction of this magical position, few forces dared to attack the Church of the Seven Gods. It has brought peace to the Holy Mountain for nearly a hundred years, but a hundred years later, in the year 833 of Starfall, another force is preparing to attack the long-standing peace. The Church of the Seven Gods showed its minions.

"Hoohoo——"

The sky was as black as ink, the wind was howling, and the dark clouds were churning in the entire sky. The storm in the far sea has always been like this, and it has never stopped.

Summer is the typhoon season. If you look down from a high altitude, you can see a huge cyclone starting from the tropical sea and slowly moving towards the southern mainland, and the holy mountain is just in the path of the cyclone.

Due to the strong wind enough to break trees, huge waves seven or eight meters high were set off on the sea surface. In this weather, except for those giant arks built with magic and divine techniques, no ships could sail, not even schools of fish and The sea monsters also dived into the deep sea and stayed away.

However, other voices came faintly from the wind. It seemed to be the roar of some kind of ferocious beast, and it seemed to be a cry of pain with a sense of panic. Pastor Nian raised his head suspiciously. He looked at the surging clouds in the north, and could not help but frown slightly.

The rainstorm was approaching, and the sky in the distance was blurred. The priest couldn't see anything, but his keen perception allowed him to distinguish the fragmented roar in the wind.

——That is the roar of a dragon.

"What happened to the wild dragons blocking the holy mountain?" He murmured to himself in a low voice. The middle-aged priest couldn't be sure about this, but he knew that every time there was a violent storm, it was an opportunity for the wild dragons to invade. Before today, those hideous-looking large lizards had tentatively attacked the holy mountain four times. Logically speaking, they should have arrived around the holy mountain by now and started flying around the island, looking for vulnerable areas to attack.

But the fact is that there is not a single flying dragon appearing now, but the roar of the wounded dragon appears in the distance.

"It seems that something unexpected happened. Don't tell me that the dragon will also be injured by the strong wind." Shaking his head slightly, the middle-aged priest turned around and was about to return to the temple and report the situation to the higher-ups, but he hadn't taken a few steps. Constant explosions appeared in the distant sky, and the violent roar even overwhelmed the howling wind that swept across the world.

Turning his head in shock, the priest saw such a scene.

Four slender red beams of light appeared from a small point in the distance, and then rapidly extended towards the outside world. After a few seconds, it produced a violent explosion. The fiery flames tore apart the gloomy sky, dyeing most of the sky. It was bloody.

Even though he was on an island and was blown by the humid sea breeze, the priest couldn't help but feel a bit of heat from the light, but the magical rainbow light didn't last long. After a few seconds, all the red light that dyed the sky disappeared, and The roar of the mad dragon was even clearer.

Without hesitation, he turned his head immediately, and the middle-aged priest ran towards the direction of the Great Temple with all his strength. He knew that there was a fierce battle with the mad dragon in the distance, and it might be the rumored reinforcements.

And the battle that belongs to them is coming soon.

——North of the Holy Mountain, above the high altitude of the far sea.

The icy rain drifted in mid-air, and the water vapor falling from the clouds mixed with the strong wind with a speed of more than 50 meters per second, savagely washing away everything on the ship.

The power of nature is so angry that it seems that it wants to use this wind to completely overturn this giant steel beast, but the giant ship is unmoved at all. Although the wind is strong, it cannot be stronger than the crystallization of magic. The armor of the ship Inside, layers of magic runes emerged, weakening the impact of these gusts of wind, and even turning them into power, making it faster and faster.

It flew rapidly towards the distant holy mountain in the clouds, rain and strong wind, and around the battleship, there were almost endless clusters of flying dragons.

Thousands of crazy dragon beasts flapped their wings, chasing after this giant ship driving in the sky. These monsters wanted to approach several times, but they were blocked by layers of hexagonal magic energy shields. The incomparable elemental structure can even withstand the breath of dragons, not to mention ordinary physical attacks. At the same time, the alchemy cannons on both sides of the giant ship's hull are firing continuously, forming a set of extremely tight firepower nets, which will kill those All flying dragons that got too close were shot down.

Although the power of the magic energy focusing cannon is great, the cooling time is also long. Since it has been fired just now, it can only be suppressed with the alchemy cannon in a short time. It happens that the mad dragons have almost no wisdom and no coordination at all. The alchemy cannon It may not be able to kill them with one blow, but it can perfectly block the attacks of these monsters.

But things always have accidents. Just when the magic energy focusing cannon was about to cool down, a strange-shaped flying dragon surrounded by strange magic fluctuations circled a wonderful trajectory, and simply and neatly penetrated the firepower net of the giant ship. It ignored The gust of wind beside him swooped down from a high altitude and hit the right side of the giant ship.

The appearance of this flying dragon is like a demon in the abyss. Its bat wings are densely covered with barbed scales. Its two pairs of dragon horns have spiral patterns unique to demons. Its eyes are frantic purple blue. The alien flying dragon roared. Rush towards this giant steel ship, its target is the muzzle where the four previous magic energy focusing cannons were located.

As one of the leaders among the wild dragons, the Alien Flying Dragon, who still has a little wisdom, can understand that that is the real dangerous thing, and it needs to be destroyed as soon as possible, even if it costs his own life.

But before it could turn around and fly towards the muzzle, a black-red air blade flashed in mid-air.

The air blade broke through the water mist, and with a sharp explosion, it slashed heavily on the neck of the flying dragon. The dragon scales, which were harder than steel, were torn like tofu by the air blade that came out of nowhere. The ferocious face of the flying dragon froze suddenly, and it didn't even realize when it was attacked when it died.

However, after the air blade cut down the alien flying dragon with strength close to the gold level, it still did not stop its trajectory. This black and red line of battle energy extended to the cluster of flying dragons, and then swept across it violently, and dozens of them turned into madness in an instant. The flying dragon was chopped into two pieces by it, and fell towards the sea with a howl.

On the deck of the Gale, Joshua, who had killed dozens of flying dragons with a single strike, held a large sword and a giant axe, and stared straight ahead indifferently. Did not say a word.

The soldier's footsteps were slow, but they were as heavy as a mountain peak. The cold rain could not approach his body, because as long as he approached, he would be evaporated into a cloud of white steam by the black and red flames of fighting spirit.

On one side, the huge Steel Element No. 1 has already lifted the body of the alien flying dragon and brought it to Joshua. The soldier glanced at it and saw the origin of this strange flying dragon.

"The demon flying dragon, the degraded version of the devil blood dragon, no wonder it is used as cannon fodder."

Shaking his head with some disdain, Joshua said with a blank expression, "Is this the kind of thing that the five-color dragon sent to surround the holy mountain?"

That really looks down on the foundation of the Church of the Seven Gods for nearly a thousand years. You know, it is the origin of the clergy in the entire continent, a sacred place where all brilliance shines.

As soon as Joshua finished speaking, a deep and angry roar came from above the clouds.

"Humans, stop!"

This roar was like thunder, shaking the atmosphere, and the rain clouds churning in the distance were instantly shaken away by the violent sound waves, revealing a hole with a diameter of hundreds of meters. The giant dragon with a few laps is flapping its wings and flying towards the direction of Gale.

"oh?"

Simply uttering a syllable, the warrior, who was disappointed because he didn't have a strong opponent, focused his eyes. He looked up at the black dragon shadow in the gloomy clouds, and there seemed to be a flash of light in his eyes: "Now it's here."

Joshua couldn't help but feel a little eager to try. With the roar just now, he had just known the opponent's strength, which was superior to gold and had reached the realm of ultimate intent.

The next battle was his first fight with an opponent of the same level after he advanced to Ultimate Intent. The warrior didn't know what his current strength had reached, so he happened to use the hand of this unknown black dragon to test it out.

"Humanity."

And the giant dragon has come to the front of the battleship. It is surrounded by a cloud of black smoke. This black dragon looks down at the soldiers on the deck of the steel battleship with some fear, and there is an incomprehensible expression in its amethyst-like eyes: "Turn back, the front is not a place you can reach, turn around now, then I will not pursue you because of your strength."

This is an incomparably strong black dragon. Its scales are complete and shiny, with a hint of purple light. Its wings have obvious black floating light, and there are many obviously incomparably sharp back thorns on its back.

The ordinary flying dragons around, in its comparison, are like the difference between human infants and adults. Even floating warships are nothing more than relatively large airships to it.

"[Dead Smoke] Granty."

Squinting his eyes and recalling it, Joshua recognized the other party's identity. The corners of his mouth curled up, revealing his white teeth: "It's actually you."

The black dragon in front of him is named [Dead Smoke] Granty.

Although it looks like a young adult dragon, it is actually over 250 years old. Granty once ravaged the Far South Continent a hundred years ago, and even teamed up with another black dragon [Dead Dragon] Mandagal, Destroyed a small country next to the business alliance together, and robbed treasures and precious resources. This behavior angered the entire human kingdom and the Church of the Seven Gods. Thousands of dragon hunting orders were issued to arrest these two ferocious evil dragons. Tens of thousands Ji's hunting group flocked to the far south, searching for their traces.

Under such circumstances, even the five-color dragon's elders remained silent, not daring to say a word at this time.

It was under such circumstances that the [Dead Dragon] Mandagar, who was still swaggeringly active in the far south, was cut to death by a holy sword holder, and the cautious Granty saw his friend's miserable end, He simply returned to his lair and never appeared in front of the crowd again for a hundred years.

But even Joshua didn't expect that it would stop living in seclusion and come here to attack the holy mountain.

You know, Granty's old lair in the previous life appeared in a small swamp on the eastern plain. It was only discovered by a legendary mage four or five years after the Dragon Calamity passed. The task of finding and assisting this legendary mage to kill it is an extreme chain of quests, and tens of thousands of players have devoted a lot of time to it.

A hundred years ago, [Dead Smoke] Granty was already at the pinnacle of gold, even at the extreme level, coupled with the physical talent of the giant dragon, ordinary human beings could not defeat it at all, and now it reappeared in the crowd In his field of vision, his strength has steadily entered the realm of extreme intention.

Obviously, the magicians and captains on the Gale all recognized this ferocious evil dragon recorded in the history books. When they saw each other's figure through the screen connected to the detection circle, they were collectively shocked.

They are not very clear about Joshua's strength. Although the rumors circulating in the imperial capital are true to some extent, most of them are somewhat exaggerated. The giant dragon in front of him is also a very strong one, and he is a veteran strongman who has obviously entered the realm of extreme will for decades.

Even ignoring the natural qualities of humans and giant dragons, it still lacks decades of experience!

'Extreme Intention' is the core that a strong man refines from his body, soul and skills. No matter how talented Joshua is, he has reached this level at the age of less than thirty, but Granty It has also experienced a hundred years of tempering, and it is impossible to be worse than a fighter.

Immediately, the rune circle on the Gale began to fully operate, and the two mana furnaces were fully loaded to extract energy. The middle-aged captain knew Joshua's character, and also understood that it was useless to run away from such a ferocious dragon. In the current situation, a fierce battle is bound to break out between the man and the dragon, but he wants to ensure the safety of the floating battleship and help Joshua defeat the dragon.

Suspended in front of the battleship, Grandy's body was filled with darkness that was so deep that no light could penetrate it. It was extremely concentrated negative energy. Even in the deep river of Styx, it was rare to find such a strong negative energy. energy aggregates.

Every time this darkness surges, the black clouds and mist that gradually spread around it become thicker. The overpowering force even arouses the thunder in the atmosphere. The thunder snake snaked in the sky above the black dragon, releasing terrifying power.

These powers are completely locked on Joshua's body. The giant dragon stares closely at Joshua, who is holding a giant sword and a big axe, with his purple dragon eyes, as if waiting for the other party's answer, but the warrior does not. For any reaction, he just stood there, confronting Granty silently.

The giant dragon in front of him behaved extremely cautiously. After realizing that Joshua was also in the realm of extreme intent, he did not come within a hundred meters of the floating battleship. It moved forward with the battleship, keeping a distance of several hundred meters. Well, even Joshua can't guarantee that he can launch a surprise attack at such a distance that the opponent cannot react.

But when they confronted each other, layers of black smoke suddenly emerged from the surrounding water vapor, covering the entire Gale.

The reason why Granty is called [Dead Smoke] is because this black dragon is so proficient in using negative energy that it can convert this pure negative energy into a long-lasting smoke form, forming its own Domain, when it destroyed that small country in the far south together with Mandagar, it used this negative energy smoke to engulf the capital of that country, killing hundreds of thousands of humans.

With the help of high-altitude dense water vapor, the dead smoke became more concealed, engulfing the soldiers and the entire battleship silently.

Obviously, Granty didn't mean to let everyone go at all. It just used the dead smoke bit by bit to surround everyone by taking advantage of the time when the soldiers confronted each other. , it is really cautious to the extreme.

"Wait!"

However, a sound of iron and steel clanging came out of the smoke, and the black smoke covering the hull was suddenly overwhelmed by a thicker and more violent black-red grudge, and a silver-white giant sword pierced the darkness. Under the effect of fighting spirit, his body trembled slightly, making the clanging sound before.

Accompanied by the extremely violent fluctuations in fighting spirit, the black smoke and water vapor that covered the entire battleship were completely wiped away.

"Is it only a sneak attack?"

Without saying a second word, Joshua just showed a sneer of disdain, and then his figure disappeared in an instant.

A powerful force erupted under his feet, and the steel deck was also stepped out of a depression several meters deep, and the entire battleship was even slightly pressed down. Under this reaction force, the soldier crossed hundreds of meters in an instant The distance came to the front of the black dragon.

With a low shout, he clenched the silver giant sword in his right hand and swept towards Granty's abdomen.

The warrior's size is about the size of a palm for giant dragons, but his strength is not inferior to these behemoths at all.

Although the magical machine transformed by Yingying does not have any special magical effects, it is extremely hard and sharp enough to cut through steel and other weapons easily. It can be regarded as indestructible, and even dragon scales can be cut as easily as tearing paper.

Where the giant sword passed, the ink-like negative energy mist and water vapor were directly broken, and the strong shock wave bombarded Granty like a hammer of wind before the giant sword actually arrived. The turbulent negative energy mist around him was split into two neatly, and his body began to shake violently.

But it was just a cloud and mist. The mist was scattered, and Grandy's huge figure disappeared at some point, and with the exclamation of the observers inside the battleship, the black dragon silently appeared behind the soldiers. side.

[Water Mist Illusion] and [Shadow Assault]!

In front of the expressionless black dragon, there is an energy ball that looks like a gathering of shadows, and pure negative energy thunder is dancing in it. A series of fine lightning flashes rapidly around the energy ball, like a ball made of thunder. array.

Obviously, Granty didn't spend the hundred years of silence in vain. He has mastered the water and negative energy talents of the black dragon talent to a certain level, and can even use several powerful spells in a row without any fluctuations to cover up His body shape, and then teleported to Joshua's back in an instant, releasing a fatal blow.

If it wasn't for its size, this black dragon could have become a fearsome assassin.

But in the face of the collection of negative energy that was bigger than himself, Joshua didn't care. As if he knew it long ago, he turned around and slashed out the giant ax that had been stored in his left hand for a long time.

The black-red grudge vibrated rapidly on the jagged ax blade, and let out a scream that overshadowed the thunder. The piercing sound waves even made the magic elements within tens of meters start to vibrate violently, and black-red lines moved in all directions. Spreading, these fluctuations made up of vindictive energy were like solid axe blades, driving a continuous storm and counterattacking towards Granty.

There is a difference in body size and weapons, but there is no sharp blade formed by fighting spirit. The huge size of the dragons tens of meters long endows them with powerful physical strength and magic power accumulation, but it also makes it impossible for the dragons to dodge this overwhelming air blade attack , Joshua could ignore Granty's spells without fear of death, but the black dragon didn't want to get hurt. It could only cancel the spells in front of its chest, and then quickly flew backwards to distance itself.

But how could Joshua allow it to distance itself so easily?

The thunder exploded, and a circle of white gas appeared in the air. Before the sound appeared, the warrior's figure had disappeared, and he came to Granty again.

At this moment, Joshua could clearly see every trace of the opponent's body. This legendary black dragon had countless scars on its body, and these scars were well covered by its black scales. At this moment, Granty's amethyst-like dragon eyes were staring closely at the tiny warrior on its chest, and a strange syllable came out of his mouth.

【Law · Stasis】

The strange wave was released from the black dragon's mouth, and it acted on Joshua's body almost instantly. As an existence of the extreme level, Granty had many ways to avoid the blow of the warrior, but it did not dodge. Instead, he was preparing for a frontal confrontation, and at the same time as he issued the law to freeze, the black dragon grabbed his chest forcefully. The huge dragon claws were enough to easily crush solid rock and steel.

But unfortunately, the moment the strange power of laws touched Joshua's body, the layer of mysterious runes that flowed with light trembled on the warrior's bones, and the divine power flashed, releasing a dazzling light. The light, the power of the law was suppressed by a higher level of power, and completely lost its effect.

The warrior's ax slashed straight towards the black dragon's chest without any hesitation.

Although the magical machine transformed by Rin is strong, it has also been pushed to the limit by the power of the warrior. The original black giant axe blade has lost its original shape, but has turned into a dazzling red light. This light is so The power of the body even drowned Joshua himself, not only that, the surrounding darkness, and even Granty's figure were swallowed up.

Then, there was a loud bang.

The observers in the battleship, and even the clergy who have begun to observe the distant sea holy mountain can only see that in the high sky covered with black clouds, a black-red star suddenly appeared, and this star swelled rapidly. , and then exploded, thousands of flying dragons were turned into fly ash by the aftermath of the explosion of the stars, and the remaining shock waves scattered the clouds within several kilometers, and the turbulent airflow collided with the typhoon, forming several temporary tornadoes , and a deep and frightened howl echoed in the atmosphere.

A huge black shadow turned into a stream of light without hesitation, and flew towards the distance at high speed. It plunged neatly into the thick clouds and disappeared

Everyone was stunned.

And Joshua, who was suspended in mid-air, only had time to slash such an axe, and hadn't caught up with the other follow-up attacks, frowned. The giant axe, the red light still remained on the blade of the black giant axe, exuding a terrifying aura.

For the first time, there was a hint of panic in his voice: "Rin, are you okay?!"

Subtitle: Breaking into the Holy Mountain (Part 2)

7000 words

The state is really not good recently... Either the writing is very long, or it is impossible to write

I'm sure this counts as chapter 2, right?