Soul of Searing Steel

With Joshua and Akhar's ability, it would not be difficult for them to keep fighting for ten days and nights. There were countless lifeforce constructs similar to high-performance engines within the warrior's border that spontaneously absorb all energies adrift around the warrior, while the knight used the celestial power from the land below his feet—the energy reservoirs were essentially endless.

The power they possessed in their threshold, their incredible regeneration prowess as well as that combat pattern where they attack and parry on different occasions, it would be days or months before the victor was decided.

Now, both sides were equally matched and unable to acquire a significant advantage. Nonetheless, both keep improving in the fight itself, grasping their opponent's technique and rhythm. For that matter, Joshua estimated through his analysis and technique that he could completely grasp Akhar's energy conversion order and combat tempo after thirteen thousand and seven hundred exchanges, and comprehensively push him back after five thousand more.

As long as the undead knight did not have some number that made a broke through of the show or some hidden trump card, the battle was essentially decided.

Still, apart from Akhar not being of such lowly standard, did Grandia have the time for him to keep fighting?

Above the skies of the former Ulan Empire at the Guetard Highlands by the edge of the plains, five colossal black beams were pillaring the world. Vortex-shaped black clouds swirled as purple lightning flashed within, emanating a foreboding and suffocating scent. Joshua did not have to think to know that it was Akhar's move that was causing the very world to shift and welcome the descent of the apocalypse.

He has to get rid of him as soon as possible.

With that thought, the warrior paid the cost that was the right side of his body as bait and was dealt a heavy blow by the enemy. Then, gripping his left fist, he pulled back as if to push a small planet, and violently swung out!

Boom!

A plain and simple cross punch, condensed with every spirit and energy the warrior had without any fancy pattern, thus pummeled everything within hundreds of meters into vacuum. The moment it struck Akhar's chest, the knight's eyes bulged as its sockets shattered. All bones behind his chest were reduced to ashes even as he lost his grip on the celestial lance, himself becoming a rocket that was lifting off at full-speed, flying off in dozen times the speed of sound!

Behind him, the dust that floated over the plains, black clouds, and extraordinary chilling winds was completely dispersed and expelled by the force of the punch. There was even a visible, lengthy pathway that was several miles wide that stretched to the edge of vision appearing out of thin air!

The heavy punch had assembled power enough to pummel mountains into powder, exceeding the force of a million-ton plummeting meteor. If it crashes upon the ground, it would undoubtedly blast more than half the plain into a boiling sea of lava, and yet Akhar had taken the brunt of it with his own chest!

Agony!

Extreme Agony!

The agony that cuts into the heart! The agony that engulfs the lungs and seeps into the bone!

As if his immeasurably sturdy body was slit away from the waist, the knight's thorax, heart, gut and many other internal organs were completely turned into ash—it was unquestionably an even more serious injury than Joshua's! Supreme anguish spread throughout his physicality, but it never affected Akhar's thoughts—the successor of the Celestial Apostle was calmly thinking even when he was sent flying.

It was a truly monumental blow, but it was less than when he drank the exquisite wine that was mixed with poison of the hundred-head serpent! To prevent Joshua from following up with his attack, Akhar forced himself to focus and open his eyes even as he was sent flying rapidly. He looked towards the bearing where the warrior was, and, stretching out his remaining right hand, he clenched the nothingness heavily.

Immediately, circles of starry radiance rippled around the knight's body. Silver splendor glinted in the atmosphere while the crystalline undulation flowed like a stream. Under the cascading, space itself contorted like water flowing invisibly, and Joshua, who bit down on his severe wounds was held back by the twisted space and forced to stop his follow-up.

The manipulator of gravity could distort dimensions within a limited area. Under Akhar's full-power control, the few thousand meters of distance between him and Joshua turned into an erratic space with innumerable traps, as well as thousands of special spots where gravity fluctuated at varying degrees—normal people who entered it mistakenly would be torn into innumerable pieces in seconds.

Joshua would have considered going for a full direct breakthrough if he was at full-form. However, at present, his right hand and most of his chest were still missing, which in turn meant that there was no way he could step past that malevolent barrier.

Meanwhile, Akhar dropped to the ground. After being pummeled deep into the lithosphere by Joshua, it was a chance he could use to activate the protocrystal power within his body and undergo high-speed regeneration.

The surrounding ground started to squirm as innumerable protocrystal mana buried beneath ground was absorbed by Akhar, causing the land to cave in for almost ten meters. In the very next instant, the knight had mostly recovered his chest wounds with pure power and swiftly broke the dirt apart, rose out of the deep crater in rage.

But the sight before his eyes astonished him so much that he forgot about his counterstroke.

A towering titan giant, whose head broke through the clouds and possessed six tremendous arms, was reaching out with his hand that blotted out the heavens and seemed to be made out of steel, pressing down from above Akhar's head!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Dull explosions that seemed to have no end resounded around the giant hand. Several kilometers around them, all dimensional barriers and gravity traps were thus totally crushed by the purest and most monumental of power. Akhar, caught unprepared after having just flown out from the dirt, was promptly pressed back in it—and even milled for a bit.

At present, Joshua was at the center of the giant formed from Combat Aura Steel Armor. His expression solemn as he controlled the lifeforce giant, he took aim at where the knight was pressed down upon and launched repeated brutal blows in that area like a pile-driver.

Furthermore, though the six-armed giant's rate of attack was not fast, it had six arms. Under the incessant pounding, white waves of air engulfed the word, while waves of dirt surged over a dozen kilometers away even as the entire plain trembled brutally as if struck by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake.

 If this was a pile-driver, then this was assuredly the most powerful pile-driver in the world!

At the same time, the warrior's shattered right arm and chest was refilled and repaired by clusters of pure lifeforce that cascaded out of his body. He had also fused the sea of lifeforce within the Azurite into the titan body, and this was the right time to apply its use.

Be it the Mycroft Continent's Kokyu-ho, meditation technique or Grandia's style of absorbing protocrystal power in order to unleash the brain's psionic power, to Joshua, all of them were a cultivation method that shifted and refined his living fundamentals.

To make a comparison, if all things and life were an 'egg' that would hatch an unknown creature before cultivation, then the varied training methods were changing the yolk in the 'egg' bit by bit into the most ideal and powerful form.

Sensing and touching energy; training and utilizing energies; developing a power that belongs exclusively to yourself; arriving at the limit where the 'egg' could reach. Those were the thresholds of Steel, Silver, Gold, and Supreme.

Legendary on the other hand was a complete sublimation and morphing. Just like it should be after innumerable training and culturing, the sentiency within the egg would finally understand what was its most perfect and most forceful form, thus breaking its own shell like a butterfly emerging from its pupa!

Boooooom!!!! 

Having emulated Urbandy's Majestic Mountain Titan power, the six-armed giant was now utterly different than when it had wrestled against Herlas in the past. On the giant's six arms were six flowing energy that was completely different and terrifying.

Searing heat, blunt force, vibration, piercing, crushing, and explosion. Each punch would trample over the ground where Akhar was, and under the impact of different attributes, the ordinary earth was pounded into layers of atomic dust, blown a dozen kilometers away by the warm, roaring cyclones.

Within Joshua's body, vast lifeforce burned and twirled with every pounding fist. The towering giant would lift his own iron fist high above where dark red halos would out of thin air and encircle the steely arms and unleash dazzling radiance. Then, in the next instant, the fist would fall as the halos hummed in an orderly manner. Arcs of electricity would also flash like an electromagnetic accelerator, providing incomparable impact force for the punch!

It was unimpeded by water and fire, as well as invincible against steel! Be it the surrounding lava heat or the lightning and thunder that flashed in the atmosphere, everything was now completely absorbed by the giant and converted for his own purposes, into a catalyst that supports his growth. Though Joshua had almost endless physical strength, he still suddenly felt an emptiness within his body after thousands of punches, and a rare sensation of tiredness arose!

"Aaaaaaargh!"

One moment of hesitation had caused Akhar to take thousands of heavy fists. Finally returning to consciousness at the center of the hole that had turned into a deep lava crater, the knight bellowed in rage. Seizing the brief second that the warrior tried to catch his breath, he clenched his teeth, dragged his ragged body and raised his arms to catch the warrior's blow directly.

In the next instant, an immeasurably tremendous repelling force spread across all directions without discrimination as if a natural calamity!

Whoosh! Boom!

It was just the thousandth of a second! Everything was emptied within thousands of meters, be it lava, mud, dust, pebbles or the giant steel fist that Joshua transformed into. Everything was repelled by an unreasonable power that was as vast as the oceans, while a huge empty circle thus appeared in the center of the barren plain.

When seen from above, a 'vacuum gemstone' made out of stardust would be visible in the middle of the gray-black plains. Compared to it, golden lava, black radiation-shaped fissure, and the iron giant were mere specks.

Then, the air that had been repelled turned into monstrous tidal shockwaves that drowned everything. It reached several times the speed of sound, with the Death Shade troops some distance away blown away like dust before the crazed billow that outclasses thunders resounded a few seconds later.

While the six-armed giant was not sent flying by the wind, as if gripped by a deity, Joshua was held down by an incomparable pressure where he was! The pulling force, almost as if it had come from a black hole, was tugging at the warrior forcefully as if compelling him to go down on all fours. Through it all, the frightening gravity forced the virtually weightless lifeforce giant into the ground, pressing out streaks of thick and vast black fissures!

At the same time, Akhar's body levitated above the sky. Since his surroundings were now immaterial vacuum, whether the tidal shockwave was billowing or the six-armed giant was being pressed down into the ground, there was simply no sound at all like those ancient mimes. Even so, the maimed knight was completely serious, leveling a heavy—or respectful—gaze at Joshua.

The warrior, too, moved the giant's skull and 'stared' at the rare opponent in return.

—Divine-domain, the power of Legendary!

Without a doubt, the terrific repulsing force before and that heavy restraint that came at who-knows how many folds the force of normal gravity, all if it has surpassed the limits of Supreme and Heavenly. Instead, it was a genuine extraordinary power that was Legendary!

"That's right, it's Divine-domain."

As if able to tell what the warrior was thinking, Akhar did not hold anything back and directly communicated with a sound that came from his spirit.

Although his body had been thumped thousands of times by the six-armed giant Joshua turned into, the knight spoke crisply and honestly despite his immeasurably broken body.

"At the same threshold, I could not beat you."

Right now, Akhar's body was quickly disintegrating—but it was not dispersing as bodies usually do in death, instead transforming into a more profound form.

Through Joshua's extraordinary vision, he could almost see that the space up front was becoming warped, while an obscure human silhouette rapidly formed. There was no doubt that the knight's eggshell had broken—no longer suppressing his own ability, Akhar naturally broke away from the egg, becoming an even more formidable, perfect lifeform that was closer to the core of his power!

Thus, a human silhouette that was built entirely out of gravitational waves formed in the center of the vacuum. It—or he, the Divine-domain champion Akhar, raised his hand, while the immeasurably titanic six-armed giant that stood over six-hundred meters tall quickly felt the reverse of gravity and was pulled up int the air by the tremendous pull.

"To tell the truth, warrior, you've already defeated me," Akhar said, still ignorant of Joshua's name.

The moment the former emperor's invisible body had begun forming, it started to self-extinguish. The Origin power of Grandia had was filled with the deathliness of its end.

It was a destructive power that did not dull against the Void and Chaos, causing the abilities around the world to be locked at Heavenly-pinnacle. Any individual who wished to ascend or unleash Divine-domain power therefore had to the pay the price that was their life—even the knight, who was originally an undead spirit aspect, was unable to escape it.

However, the undead knight had not a hint of terror as he faced death just as he recovered his full-power form.

"But warfare is neither fair nor just," he said with an unfathomably tranquil tone that perhaps carried a hint of a smile. "Now, experience the power of Divine-domain!"

Slowly closing his palms together, the world was shrouded in ever-present starlight once more. While Akhar appeared to just put his hands together, Joshua felt a monumental gravity power that was almost truly celestial appear around his body. The boundless power seemed intent on devouring the world. It surged towards Joshua from all directions as if to compress, flatten and squeezing him into an atomic particle invisible to the naked eye!

The sensation was akin to being turned into an origin singularity—the blackhole of the Void. Gravity of the utmost terror and irresistible thus appear within the giant's body, and in no time at all, the seven-hundred-meter-tall lifeforce giant crumbled, crushed into a form that was no taller than three meters!

Countless delicate energy construct exploded amidst the crumbling, but the terrible impact could not escape the body and could only reverberate within the warrior's own body, leading to multiple damages.

"Hahaha! That's truly incredible!"

Even so, Joshua was not even angry after his opponent suddenly used a Legendary ability. That was how war should be—what right do you have to protest when the enemy possesses an ability that surpasses yours? As a warrior, it was an inescapable fact that he should be aware of. Furthermore, the warrior was not fuming,but instead laughing in delight!

He had now experienced the true power of Legendary! A real Legendary ability unleashed at himself! This was not the same like those myriads of circumstances he came across, such as when Pope Igor instantly wiped out berserk dragons by the tens of thousands, Israel's ability in a practice bout or the supporting energy Nature's Magister used solely to save him. There was no doubt, right now, Akhar's was throwing an attack at him with the intent to kill, imbued with the most serious, honest and unconcerned attitude!

That was it! A power that he had long expected and desired to experience!

In the formless gravity cage, the six-armed giant toiled to spread its arms even as its body that glinted with a steel cold gray-white light shrunk slowly. Every move it made was so cumbersome as if it was pushing away a thousand-meter peak. As Joshua struggled against its lock, the giant's extra four arms fused into its ordinary pair or arms in the next instant—the warrior was deliberately calibrating and focusing his energy, and was not being compelled by Akhar!

Besides, who on earth said that Legendary power was invincible?

Divine patterns started to spread over the surface of Joshua's body. As the warrior laughed savagely, the patterns unleashed a dull red radiance.

Who was so certain that his death was assured, his defeat guaranteed? Is he truly unable of breaking the gravity field lock and realistically blow a hole into that divine power?

Spreading his fingers and then clenching his fist, Joshua assumed the most standard and indisputable combat posture despite the exponential gravity force. The lifeforce giant had completely shrunk and returned into Joshua's body in its entirety then. Soon, rebar-like veins and muscle squirmed visibly and with much difficulty under the skin of his arms, contracting and extending, keeping a power that was the most violent and irrepressible!

Then, the warrior brandished both fists towards the sky!

Bang!

An earth-shattering echo exploded while air-current blew rampantly. The warrior's arms were shattered into ever-present bloody sprinkles the moment he swung out, but those exploded too and shrouded his surroundings with a crimson vapor. The horrible wave of red air swept through the land around in several dozen times the speed of sound, and the plain that was still largely intact was instantly blown into dust by that power.

Then, thick and brutal cyclones carried the debris towards all directions!

After the dust settled and all the shockwaves were gone, tremendous sandstorms slowly formed by the edge of the barren plains, billowing towards the distance.

And with those colossal windstorms acting as a background scene, above the sky, the gravity human silhouette that was slowly dissipating and the dying, exhausted warrior stared at each other from afar.

The flesh in the warrior's arms had been utterly torn, leaving just stark-white bone that contained divinity and did not shatter. Nonetheless, it remained that there were many cracks appearing over it, as if it would shatter in the very next moment.

"Extraordinary power could decide the fate of the world," Akhar said softly in the air. "The paths civilizations tread is entirely determined by existences like you and me."

Even as he spoke, more than half of the knight's body had vanished—even then, he seemed satisfied.

"That was why you must be alert, respectful and prudent." He smiled, nodding. "Because one moment of carelessness would lead your fellow beings into the wrong path."

His gaze fixed on Joshua as if to carve the warrior's image into his mind, Akhar could not help but sigh softly.

"Anonymous warrior. You are a successor of the Sage whose ability and innate gifts are irrefutable. Could you really lead life in the Mycroft Continent forward towards the right future?"

Could you really use the sacrifice of our world to ignite its flame again and walk towards the light?

It was a line that the knight who inherited the wish of the Celestial Apostle—his teacher—left unsaid.

On the other hand, Joshua opened his eyes after calming the erratic energy flow in his body.

"Who would know the future?" The warrior replied with a voice as firm as steel without any hesitation.

"But I am brave enough to make a choice."

The human silhouette, built of the light from the stars, kept quiet for a long time before silently scattering into nothingness.

Leaving just a single line.

"Then I'll leave the rest to you, warrior."

In the sky, light of stars assembled and pointed towards the Guetard Highlands at the edge of the plains. There, dark clouds were forming a cortex while five—now four—huge beams pillared the world, causing streaks of purple lightning to break through the horizon.

It was a guiding light, pointing towards the place everything had begun and would end.