Soul of Burning Steel

The abyss is a world composed of countless broken and distorted small planes. In countless legends and myths, it is regarded as the gathering place of all evil and weirdness, and is the source of all despair and pain.

There are many speculations about its origin, but a demon scholar who once traveled to the abyss personally made a bold inference after decades of research——

The abyss is actually the cemetery of the multiverse, and those distorted small planes are actually the fragments left after the destruction of countless worlds.

The gate of the abyss is the channel connecting it with other worlds.

In the Era of Glory, the first abyss invasion, perhaps the largest abyss gate opened in the outer void of the Mycroft world since the birth of the entire multiverse.

It was an unprecedented super-large time-space gate that connected all planes of the entire abyss. Although many passages collapsed automatically the moment they were opened, there were still hundreds of large passages maintained, and a nearly endless army of demons swarmed out of it. The world of Mycroft was destroyed.

In the Starfall Era, the time-space gate opened by the second abyss invasion was not as terrifying as the first time. Dozens of small time-space gates were scattered throughout the continent, which also gave many races headed by humans a chance to fight back.

After several years of hard fighting, most of the small abyss gates were destroyed by the multi-ethnic coalition forces, but there are still three large abyss gates stuck in the Mycroft continent like poisonous nails.

The [Burning Eye] in the Ruins of Ashes and the [Gap of Ice Hell] in the Extremely Cold Wasteland are both the most difficult doomsday-level dungeons in previous games. Joshua has always been stationed with his wargroup In the Naya Fortress in the Ruins of Ashes, fight the demons that emerge from the Burning Eye.

Compared with the two gates of the abyss on the mainland, the [Vortex of the Sea Abyss] in the far south has a slightly less sense of existence, but it is more dangerous than it is, because the abyss plane it connects to There are countless deep-sea behemoths, plus the corrupted local marine life in the Mycroft world. Fighting these monsters in the ocean is more dangerous than fighting demons.

According to the information that Loranda said before, Joshua can be 100% sure that the Abyss of Anos is obviously the predecessor of the vortex of the sea abyss in the later generations. Today it is just a small abyss crack with little reputation, but after many years , it will gradually expand and turn into a maelstrom that can easily allow thousand-meter-level monsters to pass through.

Originally, the Church of the Seven Gods had discovered it long ago, but they could not find the location of the crack. The impact of the Dragon Calamity forced the Church to withdraw the knights stationed there. It seems that this gave it a chance to grow.

"What? No more?"

Joshua was originally waiting for Loranda to continue explaining the situation about the Abyss of Anos, but he found that the other party suddenly lost his voice. The soldier raised his head and looked at the situation with some doubts, and then he noticed that the paladin Looks a little bit downhearted.

"That's about it."

Forced to show a wry smile, Loranda sighed, straightened her hair, and then looked to the south, with some hesitation in his blue eyes, as if he didn't know what to say: "Joshua, you are indeed a good comrade in arms, But this matter has nothing to do with you, just treat it as if I was complaining, thank you for telling me the news."

"...If you think so, it's all right."

He raised his eyebrows. Since the other party didn't want to continue talking, Joshua, who was inexplicably issued a good card, would not force him. He shrugged and said, "Anyway, I also want to thank you for helping me interrogate those cultists."

For the paladin's sudden silence, the warrior didn't feel that strange.

He is an aristocrat from the Northland, and Lolanda is a paladin of the Church of the Seven Gods. If it is not a personal relationship, the other party really has no reason to tell him this information.

You must know that in Mycroft Continent, news about the abyss and evil gods has always been strictly sealed to the outside world. On the eve of the demon invasion in the previous life, there were still many ordinary people who did not know what the word abyss meant. In fact, Joshua I know that in such a big environment, the paladin is willing to tell him so much information about the Abyss of Anos, which is already a sign of great trust in him.

Artanis did not speak, he talked to Ying and Rin, just sat aside and listened quietly, the old bishop is a smart man, otherwise it would not be his turn to be the bishop, he is still digesting the news about Arnold Si Zhiyuan's news, as for Lolanda's abnormal behavior...

——I have been away from home for too long, and I am just homesick.

Slightly shrugged, Artanis' rich life experience made him see through this a long time ago.

Later, Joshua talked with the old bishop about the Black Forest. Since the soldiers have been letting the knights in the Black Forest Fortress explore the Great Ajax Mountains recently, the paladins have been helping in a private capacity some time ago. Now that the church wants to officially join them, they are willing to send some experienced priests and knights to join the exploration team.

Joshua is naturally welcome. There are not enough places to live in the Northland, and the population cannot increase. Therefore, since he inherited the lordship, he has been exploring the Black Forest to prepare for the development of new land. However, due to the exploration There is a lack of spellcasters in the team, and the efficiency cannot be improved. Artanis is willing to do it at this time, and the warrior is very happy. Priests are more useful than mages in this respect.

And just when the two began to discuss this issue in depth and reached a preliminary conclusion, there was a sudden rhythmic knock on the door.

Hotaru and Rin stood up almost at the same time, and after they made eye contact, Hotaru sat back down again, and Rin came to the door and opened it after receiving Joshua's signal.

The person who came was a maid. She had a brown ponytail and was wearing the uniform of the Lord's Mansion. Obviously, she was from the Lord's Mansion.

The maid's expression looked a little uncomfortable, holding an envelope without any decoration in her hand, noticing the eyes of her lord and the bishop of the church, she explained in a panic: "Good day, my lord, here is a letter from Winter Castle urgent letter, I think you should know about it earlier, but you can't be found in the lord's mansion..."

Speaking of this, she couldn't help but pause. Although Joshua had restrained her coercion as much as possible, the strong pressure still made this ordinary maid's throat dry: "Miss No. 3 said that you are in the church, so I At once……"

"Okay, it's okay, you did a good job."

It could be seen that the other party's words and deeds were a little nervous, and Joshua's voice slowed down a bit. He nodded slightly and asked the other party to hand over the letter to Rin, and then said softly: "Your name is Leah? You even found the church on purpose. It's really not easy, let's take a break today."

Although she has long been used to Joshua's approachability and never putting on airs, this maid named Leah still seemed a little restrained. Because of the oppressive force of the warrior, she didn't dare to give the letter to the black-haired boy. Continue to stay in this room for a long time, and leave immediately.

After receiving the letter from Rin, Joshua opened it directly instead of avoiding Loranda and Artanis.

"Opening a professional college is indeed a good way to strengthen the extraordinary power in the territory."

The old bishop is still very optimistic about Winterhold College. He recalled the past and couldn't help but feel a little emotional: "The founders of the four territories in the Northland were all warriors, and most of their followers were warriors and knights, so There have always been very few spellcasters in the territory, and it is difficult to cultivate the next generation of extraordinary people. The old earl of the previous generation has always wanted to cultivate his own team of mages, but unfortunately he did not fulfill this wish until his death. On the contrary, you, only It took two years to build successfully."

"But is there any news that needs to be urgent? As far as I know, the college has been running well recently, and the students have not had any accidents."

"In terms of the academy, it's mainly because of Master Nostradamus. I just gave it a piece of land and did almost nothing. As for this letter..."

Joshua shook his head, expressing that he didn't know the reason. He calmly took out the letter, read it and said, "If it wasn't some important news, they probably wouldn't send an urgent letter... What?!"

Just after reading the first line, the soldier's expression changed, he frowned, then stared at the letter paper in shock and said, "Dragon egg?!"

"What dragon egg?!"

On the side, Lolanda, who had been sitting in a daze in his seat since finishing the news of the Abyss of Anos, was aroused. He immediately turned his head, looked at the serious-looking Joshua, and asked curiously. Said: "Do you mean black?"

"Joshua's dragon horse? It is indeed a mare."

Artanis also joined in the inquiry. He stroked his white beard and said with great interest: "But I remember that it seemed to have awakened its bloodline and turned into a half-dragon in the last year, right? Is there a dragon egg here? "

"No way, I haven't seen you for a few days..."

It was the slightly shocked voice of the silver-haired girl. Hotaru couldn't help standing up, and sneaked around behind the soldier, and Rin followed in her sister's footsteps. The two of them lay on Joshua's shoulders together, wanting to see What exactly was written in the letter.

"Huh...it's okay, there is something wrong with the narrative method of this letter..."

There were still young girls pressing down on his shoulders, Joshua squinted his eyes, and after reading the entire letter quickly, he let out a long breath: "It was the last time I brought the letter from the White Dragon's Nest. For the dragon eggs that came back, since the establishment of Winterhold Academy, I put the dragon eggs in the academy as samples for safekeeping. Recently, the teachers of the academy discovered during routine inspections that some of the dragon eggs showed signs of hatching. "

Speaking of which, the soldier's expression softened, and he returned to his previous calm attitude: "They plan to put these dragon eggs next to Hei, who is also a dragon, to see if they can speed up their hatching, so that they can be cultivated." The newborn little white dragon... the writer of the letter definitely failed in common language, according to his words, at first I thought it was Hei who laid eggs suddenly, it was really frightening."

——Let’s just say, the bloodline of the ancient dragon is not so easy to reproduce. The soldier shook his head regretfully.

"The dragon egg is about to hatch? Then congratulations."

"It is indeed a good thing."

"Are we going to take care of those little dragons again..."

"It's really possible, sister..."

Ignoring the whispered complaints from the magic machines, Artanis was keenly aware of the meaning behind this incident compared to Lolanda's congratulations: "If those dragon eggs can successfully hatch into dragons, you can consider forming a A dragon cavalry regiment—although it will take almost ten years to see the effect, and it will take a hundred years to truly take shape, but it is definitely not a loss, and it will also benefit the investment of future generations."

"Indeed, I didn't expect it to actually hatch."

Nodding in agreement, Joshua seemed to be in a good mood when he received the good news, and his tone became much lighter: "The young dragons can be hatched from my careless care, which is enough to prove that they are extremely healthy. seedling."

It only takes three years for a giant dragon to rapidly grow from a juvenile form to a juvenile body. If the juvenile dragon is healthy and has sufficient nutrition, then after five to eight years it can go further and become a juvenile body. At this time, the giant dragon His combat effectiveness is already close to that of an adult flying dragon, and he also has certain spellcasting and flying abilities.

However, it will take decades to become an adult giant dragon with real gold-level strength. If human beings want to cultivate a dragon cavalry regiment from scratch, it will take several generations of hard work.

Currently, the most famous dragon knights in the world are the Sea Dragon Knights in the Eastern Plains, and the Sky Knights in the Far South Sky Island. In the Northern Empire, His Majesty the Emperor Israel is the most famous dragon knight in the world. , but there is no established dragon knight team.

In addition, the Church of the Seven Gods also once had a dragon knight regiment, but it was inexplicably disbanded two hundred years ago. It is said that some players discovered the truth in the previous game, but because Joshua didn't pay attention, he didn't remember it. The reason for that involved quite a few intrigues.

Speaking of the Knights of the Sky, Joshua thought of a rather interesting thing - as a super-large dragon knight with nearly five hundred years of inheritance and more than 30 adult dragons, its knights from the beginning to the end In the end, there is only one person, and the operation of the entire knight order and foreign negotiations are all done by the humanoid dragon.

Moreover, that knight doesn't even need to fight, he just needs to take good care of the young dragon. Sky Knights is simply a large dragon family business, but the kindergarten aunt who takes care of the children is just human. Because of this, Therefore, it is also nicknamed Nanny Knights, Zoo Knights and so on.

When the former soldier knew the news, his face was full of expressions of "There is still such an operation", even thinking about it now, he couldn't help but smile knowingly.

"Today, it's almost here."

Standing up, Joshua was going to go back to the lord's mansion first. The news was indeed very important. He already couldn't wait to go to the Academy of Winterhold to see the status of those dragon eggs. He gave the old bishop and the paladin a slight Nodding: "Thank you very much. If I hadn't helped you to look after me when I was away, maybe this city would have been harassed by cultists."

"This is thanks to Miss No. 3, she has done a lot more than us."

Loranda didn't speak, but Artanis smiled and shook his head in denial, and they also stood up. Both sides of this conversation have gained a lot, even the paladins know the news of their friends.

Loranda is still a little absent-minded now. He shakes his head slightly from time to time and looks to the south. Although he doesn't speak, as long as he is not blind, he can notice his abnormality.

Joshua could also see it naturally, so before leaving, he left a word to Loranda.

"If you want to go back, go back."

The soldier said so, he has always spoken so directly: "It's not something difficult to say, there is no need to hesitate so much."

After finishing speaking, he took his leave and left the church room with Ying and Rin. After the paladin was stunned for a while, he smiled wryly and said to the old bishop: "Is my performance so obvious?"

Received the nod of confirmation from Artanis, Lolanda thought for a while in silence, and then whispered to herself: "It was because of my own willfulness that I temporarily left the holy mountain to travel, and now I have figured it out. The holy mountain is also fighting the mad dragon..."

"It is indeed time to say goodbye."

I got back a little feeling... 4000 words today, I really feel great after a good night's sleep...