Soul of Burning Steel

It is often said that a weapon is a warrior's best partner. This is true. After all, for a warrior, a good weapon that can bring out its best strength is no weaker than a good partner who has a good heart.

So according to this point, from ancient times to the present, there have always been a group of people who have devoted themselves to creating weapons and weapon spirits with self-will, directly skipping the stage of "grinding in" and reaching the highest state of mind-to-heart communication.

However, this is not to say that a weapon that really connects with people's minds can be regarded as the "best partner" and can enable the holder to exert the best strength-because when the weapon also has will, it will not be It's not just the warrior who chooses the weapon, but also the master who chooses the weapon.

Only a very small number of people can convince self-aware weapons to be used voluntarily.

——Of course, this does not mean that the very few people have to use weapons.

Starfall 850, January 1, 0:17 am, Moldavia, Northland, basement of the Cemetery Church.

The church that is often cleaned has no dust at all, and the fluorite lamps that are incompatible with today's magic age shine with a light golden light. Walking through the basement full of metallic smells, Hotaru and Rin came to an underground portal. The silver-haired girl and the black-haired boy stretched out their hands without hesitation.

Then, the door was opened.

In an instant, there was the sound of gold and iron horses, the slight tremor of the blade could be heard, and the shield could be heard being struck. The siblings sensed the echoes of dozens of completely different weapons, causing the heavy killing atmosphere to spread.

For the superhumans with relatively low levels, this kind of battle may really shock them, immerse them in a strange mental state, and increase the success rate of the next contract action, but first of all, Hotaru and Rin have different levels. Low, now there is Jiyi, and secondly, they are not human at all, but like the weapons buried in this basement, they are all "magic machines".

So the two of them were not affected in the slightest, and just strode into the basement like this.

"Hey, why are you guys?"

Noticing that the visitor was not a human being, but his own kind, a suspicious mental wave came from a long spear inserted on the ground: "Is it time to maintain it again? Actually, it is not necessary. The cultivation array updated by the Patriarch last time has already been restored." Great, I feel stronger than ever now, I can eat people, RUA!"

"That's true." On the side, it seemed that he was knocking on himself just now, and the shield that made the terrifying knocking sound also sent mental fluctuations: "I even feel that my spirit has improved a lot, my thinking is much clearer, and I am simply quick-witted. "

Immediately afterwards, dozens of magic machines in the entire basement sent out mental fluctuations almost at the same time, and the noisy communication was enough to make a psychic lose control. There was nothing Hotaru and Rin could do about it. They looked at each other and shook helplessly. Shaking his head, he clapped his hands together, and the crisp applause silenced all voices in an instant.

"Okay, all seniors, we are not here this time to take care of you... To be reasonable, if you are so energetic, what can you do to take care of yourself?"

It was Hotaru who said this, and then Rin who answered, he opened his hand and began to release his power, connecting all the magic tricks present: "In short, there is a big announcement today, and from now on, you don't have to Stay in this basement any longer."

Saying so, with the spread of powerful power, as the energy released by Rin overwhelms all the magic machines present, one after another flashes of strong light-then, accompanied by the surging wave of magic power, each of them with different shapes 'Humans' just appeared in the basement.

There are old people who seem to be respectable, there are also young girls like Yingying and Rin, and there are more normal men and women. Dozens of human figures transformed by the gods are beyond the expectations of these gods, revealing their own figures abruptly .

"...Wait, Rin, and Hotaru."

Looking at his human-shaped hands in surprise, the young man transformed from a spear didn't seem to be excited about it. He frowned and said, "What do you mean? I can feel that we and Radcliffe The contract of the husband's family was severed... no, it was intercepted."

"It's strange to say that there have been no new magic machines in recent years—doesn't the Patriarch have any descendants? Or did he give up the magic machines?"

The indifferent woman transformed from the original giant shield clenched her hands, she shook her head, letting her long blue hair shake: "No, the contract on your body is still there, he should not have given up on the magical machine... so to speak , he gave up on us?"

This kind of guessing is not unreasonable-even if there are a few humanoid guesses incarnated by the god machine, I am afraid that the new patriarch thinks it is too troublesome to maintain the god machine and keep them "losers", so he simply suppresses it. Their contract allows them to find their own way out, or in other words, let them fend for themselves.

"Oh, that's not true."

Hearing all those strange guesses, Ying's cute little face was wrinkled, she looked bitter, and said helplessly: "The main reason is that the order that the master left us at the beginning is just like this."

"'When the magic machine production line becomes stable and everyone slowly accepts the new life form of the magic machine, it is time to return the freedom of the magic machines left by the ancestors of the Radcliffe family.' The original words of the master are So, and we are merely fulfilling that order in his absence."

"Yes." Rin on the side nodded, and he stepped forward to help a few dolls who had been useless for a hundred years, had forgotten how to walk, and stood up accidentally lying on the ground, the boy shrugged and said: " A few days ago, the Shenji production line was completely completed, although the output is not very high, but according to the rate of spread, it is only a matter of time before it spreads, and it is even possible for the Mycroft civilization to spread across the multi-dimensional galaxy."

"From now on, Mrs. Micro, it's probably time to usher in the era of magic machines for all people—the master called it the AI ​​assistant for all people, and I think it's quite appropriate."

Hotaru and Rin felt that what they explained was very easy to understand, but they did not expect that for the old antiques stored in the basement all the year round, many things they already considered common sense did not exist in the minds of the old antiques at all. .

"Shenji production line?" The young man with a spear looked confused.

"Have we popularized it?" The shield woman was lost in thought.

"Which came out of the Mycroft civilization?" The man with the long sword scratched his head.

"Multiple Galaxy, are there other civilizations?" The Twin Swordsmen asked in unison: "No, what are you talking about?"

"And the most important thing is not this."

When he came back to his senses, the divine machine with the spear in the best state of mind gradually became angry: "What do you mean by what the head of this generation said? It's also the magical machine left by the ancestors of the Radcliffe family." Liberty'—what's he talking about?"

"Aren't we free?!"

"Yeah." The shield god machine also responded seriously: "Weapons should be sealed if they are not used. Our freedom allows us to voluntarily choose to wait. Even if the person who is suitable for our contract has long passed away, we will also Fulfilling the promise - we are buried in the soil, it is our freedom, and in the process of waiting to die, it is the responsibility of us, the 'losers' who have not been selected, to teach the next generation of magic common sense and knowledge."

"Speaking of which, doesn't this generation of patriarchs have descendants? Why hasn't there been a new magic machine?"

"...That is indeed the master's failure to take care of your thoughts. Let me first say sorry...Indeed, letting you go free is an insult to the Radcliffe family's loyalty to you."

Listening to the successive questioning and rhetorical questions from the divine machine of the past in the basement, Yingying rolled her long hair in distress, rolled her eyes, and seemed to be extracting knowledge from the memory bank that could cope with the current scene: "But seriously, Seniors, the technology is progressing too fast now, if you don’t go out to renovate and evolve, you will really be completely eliminated by the times!"

When Yingying said this, she purposely released her extreme-level aura, which was so powerful that it could press down and roll in the small basement, and even made all the magic machines present silent: "The master also considered this point. , That's why I want you to get in touch with the outside world as soon as possible, lest you are obviously meritorious veterans, but in the end you will be eliminated by the times."

"...What about the current Patriarch?"

After being silent for a while, probably reluctantly agreeing with Yingying's words, the Long Spear God Machine looked distressed: "After all, we are all God Machines of the Radcliffe family. It is better to have the owner himself order this kind of order."

"The current Patriarch..."

Yingying and Rin sighed in unison, and then said in unison: "The current Patriarch is currently practicing in seclusion somewhere, and even we can't see him."

"Compared to these, you should come out quickly and let us go to the production line to renovate - now the Radcliffe family has too many properties, and the owner is not doing anything, and we have tasks... If it is not true We are too busy, and we will not think about bothering you seniors."

Saying so, under the strong urging of Yingying and Rin, many magical machines left the basement where they had stayed for dozens of hundreds of years in doubt and confusion, and came to the outside world in such a ignorant way——and appeared in their What is in front of them is not what is in their memory bank, simple and cold, just like the main city of Moldavia fortress.

What appeared in front of these magical machines was a huge magical city full of high-rise buildings, even in the middle of the night, the lights were as bright as day, full of vitality and hustle and bustle.

Super giant statues hundreds of meters high stand between the cities, and magic vehicles can be seen everywhere, running back and forth along the avenue. The pedestrians on the roadside are not only humans, elves and dwarves, but also many others similar to The murloc minority, and even strange individuals from different worlds and civilizations, can even see an individual from the Lund civilization—that is, a large iron ball floating in the air, and many human children ride on him. Flying around in mid-air, laughing and laughing.

Not to mention the similarity, if Hotaru and Rin hadn't repeatedly emphasized that this is Moldavia, the gods would only feel that they were in a different world.

"Hey, this violates the 'Moldavian Air Flight Law'... Forget it, I will send a warning later."

Unlike Hotaru who nodded satisfied because of the harmonious coexistence of multi-civilization individuals, Rin watched this scene with professional habits rising, and just wanted to issue a ticket, but the timing was wrong, so she could only bear with it: "See? Seniors, The current world is no longer the original world, and the responsibilities of our Shenji are no longer what they used to be."

In fact, he didn't need to say much, all the magic machines present were basically in a state of shock.

"What's going on." The previous generation of magic machines was sent in probably decades ago, and the youngest cheap magic machine besides Yingying and Rin rubbed his eyes, seriously doubting whether he saw hallucinations : "Aren't the Radcliffe family just ordinary Northland nobles, when... did they grow so strong?!"

He even saw airships equipped with large screens floating in the sky, and on the screens of those airships, in addition to advertisements, there was also a headshot of a man with black hair and red eyes - anyone knew that it was Ladd The image of Joshua van Radcliffe, the current head of the Cliff family.

...The great marshal of the coalition government, the legendary powerhouse Joshua Van Radcliffe, one of the founders of the magic net, the founder of the Multi-Galactic Civilization Invitational Tournament... In just such a short time, he has Can hear countless messages about this generation of Patriarch.

"Understood? Now it's not the past, and there is no room for dawdling."

Shock? Just be shocked! Yingying is very satisfied with the shock of the gods, otherwise, it would be a troublesome thing to let these iron stone heads (physical meaning) obediently go to upgrade according to their requirements: "In short, it's not that I want you to leave Ladd The Cliff family—there are still many vacancies in the family’s industry, and we also need some trustworthy people to help take care of it, and if we want, we can continue to serve the family.”

"Even if you don't want to be a handyman, our Shenji now has a special practice method, and we can become stronger on our own. Believe me, this is a new era that is far more magnificent than you imagined. The possibilities in you are far greater Bigger than you think."

——It is true.

Time flies fast, and changes come quickly. Under the rotating pointer movement, the first Multi-Galaxy Civilization Invitational Tournament has come to an end a few months ago. Through this event, the exchanges and relationships between multi-civilizations have become closer and more stable. , and the rapidly spreading exchange light beam system gradually penetrated into every detail of the galaxy as it spread among many civilizations.

Although it is said that the truly top-notch powerhouses who are the foundation of civilizations did not participate in the competition, but that huge invitational tournament, which affected hundreds of millions of civilizations, did make many civilizations realize the strength and background of each other. A battle from low to high, just like repeated explanations of different depths, both participants and viewers can benefit from it, and those who perform outstandingly and the civilization behind them can get amazing opportunities With resources, one step to reach the sky.

For example, the champion of the single-player gold group of the invitational tournament came from a not-so-famous civilization individual. It was a psychic entity civilization born with advanced psychic powers. Consisting of some magical elements, the gold level is just the power they naturally possess when they are adults, and the spiritual power far exceeds that of ordinary races, and the advantage of being immune to a large number of blows without entities, in the gold level, which has not honed all aspects to the limit Realm is actually very advantageous.

And just after this civilization that called itself 'Amond' won the single-player gold group championship, countless civilizations extended olive branches to it, willing to contribute resources to assist in its growth—naturally, there are conditions, but there are many in this world. There are few unconditional contributions, and the Almond civilization readily agreed to the request of the Mycroft civilization, and the two sides began to cooperate in all aspects in the spiritual field.

The ultimate champion of the single group is an acquaintance, that is Joshua's disciple, the dragon girl Lisa from the Kronos world. To be honest, after Lisa has advanced to the ultimate level, developed the blood of the ancient dragon, and practiced the inheritance of the strongest in the world, the power she can unleash can overwhelm all opponents who misjudged their abilities due to their size. Surprised——When the dragon girl's blow can be said to be comparable to the legendary "Stone Breaking Dragon Rising Dragon Ba" that blasted a mountain and her opponent, a "God's Land Element" into the sky, basically all the audience present were shocked. Doubting my own eyes.

The champion of the single legendary group came from the "Galaxy Protection Group" that was rumored to be a natural disaster civilization. This weird civilization, which claims to quell wars with wars and deal with destruction with destruction, challenged Joshua in the last lecture, but was defeated, and because Joshua's peace declaration was very to their taste, it gradually became more and more familiar to the outside world. Revealed its mysterious true face - a purely mechanical civilization.

The mechanical creation created as a "peacekeeping group" judged that its parent civilization itself was the biggest peacekeeping object, so it did not hesitate to maintain it, but over a long period of time, it was originally only controlled by the core instructions The mechanical aggregates of the world began to gradually give birth to "free individuals" who could think independently. Although these free individuals still obeyed the core instructions to bring peace to the whole world, they were not unable to think independently. The champion of the single group this time is the most powerful free individual of the Galaxy Maintenance Group. Its body is an iron-gray void continent, carrying seventy-eight kinds of world-destructive annihilation weapons, as well as various A defense plug-in that can deal with various attacks. This is basically a fighting method that equips the entire civilization arsenal on oneself. In a sense, it can also be said to be 'all-out'.

However, the champion of the solo group doesn't mean much. Joshua doesn't play, and many powerful civilization individuals are not prepared to make a move, and if they make a move, it seems a bit bullying... After all, the legendary limit and the legendary high are both Legends, if they really fight, the gap between them may be even bigger than the gap between mortals and legends.

Single-player competitions mostly reflect the individual potential and heritage of a civilization, while multiplayer competitions are more chaotic and tend to be a variety of coordination.

The champion of the team gold group comes from the Mycroft civilization, an elite exploration team. Its members are Priest, Constantine, Clark, Seid and Wayne. Among them, Priest has been able to advance to Extreme Intent, but for this competition, he pushed his own advancement a little later. time. In fact, the point of the team competition is not that it is strong on one side, but that it can deal with all kinds of enemies through division of labor and cooperation. For example, the reason why the Amond civilization was able to win the single-player competition before was because he was lucky. Individuals who encountered natural restraint of psychic powers, or individuals with that ability were eliminated by others.

But the team competition is different, stability is above all else, the advantage may be restrained by the opponent, and the disadvantage may be used by the opponent. You must be comprehensive in order to ensure that you can suppress the opponent with hard power-and the elite team can be said to be perfect in this regard. They successfully defeated all their opponents and won the championship with an overwhelming and stable advantage like a mountain overwhelmed by a performance that was not shocking.

"After all, in the process of exploring different worlds, we have endured many challenges, such as evil gods, relics in distorted time and space, lairs of different civilizations, and primitive worlds full of thunder elements... We often fight with wild extremes, overlord-level monsters Fighting and surviving legendary duels several times has given us a solid combat experience, and it has also tempered our will - man can conquer nature, we firmly believe so."

In an interview with the host of the invitational tournament, the official reporter Yingying, the captain Priest had deep eyes, and his tone seemed to contain countless emotions: "Every time you go to explore a different world, you must ensure that you don't make any mistakes, otherwise If it is, it is very likely that you will suffer a great loss in some way because of the crow's mouth, and it is not surprising to die... You ask what the crow's mouth is? It's nothing, it's just a sharpening stone for us to move forward."

On the side, Cavalier Clark, who had been silenced for the entire game, wanted to protest, but was suppressed to no avail, while the others nodded in agreement.

The champion of the group extreme intention group comes from a multi-civilization and race mixed team. Its members are Xiaoguang from the Blood Moon Abyss, Elma from the Royal Court of Amos, Balrog Syndicate from the Furnace Abyss, and Karlis The first number of the world and Alva from the Mycroft civilization.

From the very beginning, few people were optimistic that this team, whose members came from various civilizations and didn’t know how to cooperate at all, could win the championship, but the subsequent performance of the game surprised everyone—the glowing sphere that seemed to be just a pet, It can actually expand into a giant ball of light like a small star in an instant, and the Amos who looks like a transparent human can actually summon a large and amazing void battleship at any time, which looks like a flame of a dragon man. The devil, can actually transform into a giant slime filled with infinite thunder, it looks like an ordinary iron ball, very similar to the first name of the Lund people, it can actually transform into a metal titan humanoid hundreds of meters high, and it looks like just Human Alva... is really just human.

Sometimes, when you thought he would transform to surprise you, he didn't transform, which is also a kind of surprise.

All in all, after surprising the entire event, they won the championship.

This is a very peculiar combination. When the official reporter Lin interviewed, Xiaoguang, the captain, expressed emotion: "Dingling, Dingling, Dingding, Dingling. Ding, Dingling!"

"So that's how it is." Rin, who was a reporter, suddenly realized: "You mean, this is not your complete state. If there is no accident, you and another contestant who did not participate can cooperate better, and she also transforming, right?"

"Jingle, jingle, jingle!"

"Well, that's true. Many of you have participated in the singles competition... You are so humble even though you are the first place. It's really admirable!"

"Ding~" (slightly proud and humble voice)

This extremely peculiar interview process was uploaded on the forum.

【Whether you understand or not, anyway, I understand】

[Dingling, jingling, jingling, jingling! 】

[No, you should also announce the names of the other members of your team—you can win the first place if you are not in a perfect state, so what is a perfect state? 】

[Transformation Special Forces... The name is so weird, who came up with it? 】

And Hei, who overslept and missed the competition because of staying up late to fight in the big arena and challenge the AI, shed tears of regret when hearing this interview.

As for the team legend group, there was no live broadcast, nor was there any follow-up video playback. The specific news was only circulated among the high-level members of various civilizations. It seemed that the battle time was too long. Battle content cannot be released to the public.

However, as reporters, Hotaru and Rin know that this group battle is essentially a tentative exchange of force between various civilizations. Each civilization will not send only one team, and there is no such thing as a champion. . After all, without using all your strength and using death as the premise of fighting, you can't test much at all. Many people just use the platform of the Civilization Invitational Tournament to resolve the contradictions between civilizations.

This is also the only way to adjudicate disputes between civilizations after the Joshua Declaration of Peace—and this kind of battle involving grievances and disputes is not suitable for broadcasting in a joyful competition.

Anyway, all the contestants present couldn't beat the tenth level AI of a certain game.

The memories of the past are over. After bringing the old-fashioned magic machines to the magic machine production line in Moldavia, and upgrading the relevant parts and optimizing the energy cycle for them in turn, Hotaru also said goodbye to her younger brother at this time .

"Then I'm off."

The silver-haired girl spread her hands, and she could see that a set of streamlined armor appeared on her body out of thin air as the silver mist diffused, wrapping it tightly, and a blue orb hung in the center of her chest, shining like flowing water General Huaguang.

"Thank you, sister."

Sitting on the chair in the office, Rin sighed and turned on the light screen, as if preparing to deal with official duties: "Master's task is always so hard, and he didn't tell us the reason...but just do it."

"You've worked hard too, Rin, the God Machine production line and the popularization of the God Machine are all planned by you... In a sense, this is simply creating a new race, and you who are in charge of everything, just It is the leader of this new race."

Behind the armor came the girl's clear voice, Yingying's tone sounded a little emotional and lonely: "You can always help the master with these important things, but I can't do anything except fight... haha , I can’t say that, I’ve learned a lot over the years, but I’m not as good as you in this aspect.”

"What are you talking about?"

Regarding this, the black-haired boy curled his lips and shook his head: "Only suitable ones, no bad ones. I am busy with these ordinary government affairs that are not of much significance to the master himself. I will handle the logistics for you." , but sister, you can directly complete the instructions given by the master and help the master directly. To be honest, it's just a different division of labor, so there is nothing to be emotional about."

"In the final analysis, we are a part of the master, and what we do is to solve problems for the master—now the master is in the maelstrom of creation, conducting very important experiments and advancements, and what we have to do is to maintain Everything is stable, to ensure that when the master leaves the customs, he can see a world that satisfies him."

"I know all about it."

The power of the armor is starting, and the teleportation circle is unfolding. Due to the distortion of time and space, Yingying's voice is distorted. She said softly: "As a weapon, it doesn't have to be 'fighting'. As long as it can help the master deal with the problem , is the best help for him. I understand, I also know that weapons are just a tool to deal with problems, just like we can change magic machines from weapons to AI assistants, swords can also be used as Medical tools, construction tools, even kitchen utensils."

"It's just that I'm still not reconciled, even if it's just once, I want to be needed by the current master, wave... It doesn't need much, just once."

"Goodbye, brother, let you listen to my whining again."

"Goodbye, sister, but this is not a complaint."

Seeing the blue space-time channel opening and disappearing, Rin sat on the office chair and rubbed his eyebrows wearily. Instead of starting to work immediately, he raised his head and looked at the familiar ceiling above his head.

"At least, you have accompanied the master through the early battles." He whispered to himself: "And I have not followed him a few times."

"But what does it matter? I don't feel sorry for this. I have always been obsessed with the identity of 'weapon'. We are always the master's right-hand man, and the master's plan must be realized through us. During the time when he is away for the time being , is the moment when we should be working hard, fulfilling the Master's deliveries, and relying on our accomplishments."

No one knew the man better than his arms.

That is a selfish and lonely man who always walks alone. He is so selfish that he does not want to share even a little bit of suffering with others. Even if it is a crime, he chooses to suffer alone in a distant time and space.

However, there were only two individuals who were exceptions—although he selfishly deprived them of their right to fight with him, that man transferred part of his 'responsibility' to them.

Responsibilities as a 'family head', responsibilities as a 'lord', responsibilities as a 'nobility', responsibilities as a 'leader'... These responsibilities are all very important responsibilities that he should not ignore, but among these responsibilities In fact, there are more and bigger ones, such as responsibilities on 'civilization', responsibilities on 'order', and responsibilities on the future of the 'multiverse'.

Facing the turbulent darkness, the warrior stands in front, but behind him, there are always other things that need other people to deal with and share his worries.

This is the responsibility of the 'two people'.

He issued tasks and instructions, and entrusted part of his mysterious plan to the two, and even put the possibility of him being able to determine part of his future in the hands of those two individuals

——If it is said that the value of weapons lies in helping the holders solve problems, then there is no doubt that the weapons that can solve the above problems are extremely rare "magic weapons" in this multiverse.

"So, sister, don't take yourself too lightly."

"Whether it's you or me, for the master, it's a 'magic weapon' that is hard to find in this multiverse."

Saying so to himself, the black-haired boy bowed his head and started working.

And at the far end of the void, the silver-haired girl in armor also started her long journey with firm eyes.

They were the weapons of Joshua Van Radcliffe. Even though they were inconspicuous, they could cut off troubles and deal with worries for that man.

"This year is the second year that the master left the world of Mycroft and went to the maelstrom of creation."

This year is the second year that Joshua Van Radcliffe entered the maelstrom of creation.

When it leaves, it is approaching.

The 8500-word update at the beginning of the month, ask for a monthly pass!