Chapter 514 Walking the Dragon in the Abyss (2/2)

Concentrated black clouds formed out of thin air in seconds. Thunder rolled as storms raged, with thick lightning raining down and killing anything alive with its torrential currents, laying waste to all exquisite metallic objects and wiping of all remnants of civilization. In this land stuffed with a scorched odor, not even bacteria could stay alive.

Bizarre plagues started began to spread, reaching out with death in the silence. There was no dazzling figures or astonishing process—the end of a city came in a few not-quite-simple coughs. In the next dawn where everyone lay in their beds and never got up, the metallic tower no longer hosted anything alive apart from microorganisms, while not one rhombus-shaped vehicle traversed the interior of the once-busy pipelines.

Tens of millions of those insectoids hence perished in the sudden destructive war, shattering their own civilization and world by their own hands. The hatred of the survivors, however, were thrown in confusion in the absence of anyone to complain to, even as the discomfort of survivors—the destruction of the wastelands made all unable to speak.

They could only struggle to survive and slowly propagate under agony in the world that killed itself.

A thousand years passed.

Two thousand years passed.

As the world continued its descent towards the depths of the Multiverse, the insectoids too mutated into a shape they never thought of before.

And after three thousand years, the bottomless Abyss had one more layer, while a new member species the multifarious demonic races.

All of that happened in the brief thousandth of a second. Such a short timeframe did not allow anyone to do anything.

But to the warrior, he had spectated the razing of a civilization.

Joshua opened his eyes. His gaze was still bright like flames.

The warrior neither hated nor favored such illusions. He looked up at stared at the barren plains of wastelands—it was the typical sight of most Abyssal plains.

Folding his arms across his chest, Joshua scanned the world in silence, the sights seven thousand years ago overlapping with the sights seven thousand years later. He appeared to understand something, only to shake his head.

Joshua van Radcliffe. Legendary warrior, the Agent of Steel Strength, the successor to the Sage.

The King of Searing Soul.

Learning the past and devastation of a world was originally the duty of the King of Searing Soul—the one who shoulders worlds. Whichever world he went to or any corner of the Multiverse he reached, things would never change. Worlds still prospering, as if boasting, would show him the most flourishing of spectacles before him. On the other hand, worlds that were destroyed would only lament, warning every civilization that still existed with the reliving of the moment it was ruined.

It was his special right and his duty.

Then, Joshua abruptly remembered the words of the God of Might.

Don't carry a heart of compassion.

Those recent words from the stalwart God of Justice echoed in his heart.

Do not be compassionate, for it was pride. Facing self-wrought apocalypse and ruination by intelligent life, nobody—not even gods—could brazenly speak of compassion and salvation. Only the living could prudently accept that lesson and admonish themselves.

For the survivors that cried out were already demons.

Even so, the warrior could not help remembering the Sage.

That kind teenager who wanted save all life, who grew and became an adolescent who would use tough measures to acquire peace, the same Sage who watched in stillness as civilizations developed and watched over the world.

In the final scene, the old man stood before endless portals, the world and all life, leading the gods to fight against the endless evil.

Him. Joshua could not help thinking. If it was him, if it was the Sage, if it was that man who also held the King of Searing Soul's power—what would he think?

He did not know, and was therefore curious.

Joshua had never been so intrigued about a person, which was why he wanted to try and experience the thoughts of an existence that had long disappeared into the other end of the Multiverse.

The Sage had gone to the Abyss once, acquiring the prototype of the Azurite.

Hence, the warrior would go to the Abyss once too.

”Come out, Syndicate.”

Handily throwing out the crystal cylinder in hand, Joshua removed its seal and released the balrog. Stuck inside the can in agony, Syndicate transformed into a beam of red light, its black viscous body that resembled mud monsters swiftly burning in raging flames and shifting into a human silhouette of pure inferno.

Reasonably, the balrog should be doing all it can to flee and escape the warrior's grasp. However, not only did it not do that, it even reverently knelt before Joshua, awaiting his next command.

”This is the Lava Inferno, the Sixth-Level Abyss.” Sweeping another glance at the surrounding land, the warrior quickly studied the Abyss he was present at while calmly issuing his command. ”I'm here to look for someone—you're more familiar with the Abyss so lead the way, and look for the domains of other demons.

”Yes, Your Majesty!” Despite already knowing that the other was in fact human and not some Demon General, the balrog still followed abyssal habit and addressed Joshua s such.

At the same time, its plain intelligence was undulating with a hint of scheme, which was why it was willing to be so compliant towards the warrior's words.

Naturally, Joshua could discern that little balrog's thoughts but did not mind it at all. After getting the balrog to scout the routes, Joshua turned to look at Black who had already wandered a few hundred meters away and was looked around in curiosity.

The warrior snapped his fingers.

Upon hearing the sound signaling her master's permission, the black dragon promptly whooped. With a wave of stunning mana surge and a heart-throbbing boom, a giant black dragon that was ten stories or around thirty to forty meters thus plainly appeared over the ash-black wasteland, before exuding a thrilled draconic cry.

”Raaaaawr–”

Even as the dragon howled, Joshua had already stood atop its head, while war armor formed from Steel Strength appeared over his body and instantaneously covered his entire physicality, with two blood-red specks of light flashing visibly beneath his dragon-skull helmet.

”Let's go.” Joshua laughed softly, stroking the black dragon's sturdy and sharp horns beside him.

Nostradamus doesn't understand the Abyss, the warrior thought. His comprehension regarding the planes are nothing but some literature or brief communication with some summoned demon. That's too shallow.

But he was different. He had gone to the Abyss before and multiple times too. He knows what should be done there, and how to look for someone in this unfamiliar world.

And it was being as high-profile as one could be.

His helmet concealed his smile as he stood over the dragon's head.

There was completely no need for prudence. A dead world remains a world, and nothing was different if you are powerful enough. If mortals could walk dogs in the Mycroft Continent, he himself could walk his dragon in the Abyss as a Legendary champion.

”Follow Syndicate. Anything else is up to you,” the warrior said. ”Run however you want to run.”

The black dragon promptly bellowed in excitement at those words, and a burning crimson gale that wrapped around tremendous fire elements quickly appeared before its body. It strode through the land, blowing away large chunks of barren soil into every-present clouds of dust. And thus the dragon traversed over the dust, and started to chase after the conspicuous flaming human silhouette before it rapidly.

Joshua's abyssal tour formally starts!