Chapter 23: Chaos Waits for You in Dreams
Humming—what was that?
Hadn't the maid just changed the sheets and blankets? Could she have accidentally left something behind while cleaning?
Joshua didn't think much of it. He simply lifted the blanket—after all, Ying was still asleep and fully dressed, and there was truly nothing worth looking at. So the warrior kept his eyes forward, directly toward the source of the humming sound.
Joshua's eyesight wasn't the best in this world, but it was certainly top-tier. With just his naked eye, he could achieve something akin to energy vision. He focused his gaze and easily discovered the source of the hum.
Before the girl had fallen asleep, her magical power had condensed into a military-style long dress. This type of clothing had two pockets at the waist for storing small trinkets. And now, in the right pocket of Ying's dress, something seemed to be vibrating continuously at a very high frequency.
Joshua simply reached into the pocket and grabbed the object.
"I suddenly feel like I've become a very terrible person."
The warrior shrugged. Thinking about it carefully, whether it was lifting a girl's blanket or reaching into her close-fitting pocket while she slept to pull out a small object—both were indeed very terrible things to do.
He pulled the unknown, constantly vibrating object out of Ying's pocket. But strangely, the high-frequency vibrating thing stopped trembling the moment it touched Joshua's fingers. At the same time, the warrior felt a strange power suddenly emerge, traveling across his palm as if trying to enter his body.
"...What is this?"
Battle Qi ignited in his hand, isolating that strange power. Joshua looked down at his palm.
It was a translucent polyhedral crystal. Black-red light flowed within the thumb-sized crystal, faint glimmers flashing along countless small facets like stars.
"Such a beautiful gem? Where did Ying get this?"
Muttering in confusion, the warrior held the gem up before his eyes and examined it closely. "The quality is also very high—both the facets and the crystal structure are above standard... But where did it come from?"
The Divine Mechanism girl had been following him all day, with almost no time to act alone. When would she have had the chance to buy or obtain a gem of this level? And just now, a strange power had come from this crystal—what was going on?
"Interesting."
His eyes narrowed. A thought arose in Joshua's mind.
—Could Ying's coma be related to this gem?
Although it sounded absurd, it was indeed one possibility. And since it was possible, he wouldn't let it go.
So a low voice sounded.
"System, identify."
Instantly, countless streams of cyan-blue data flashed before his eyes, finally coalescing into a report.
[Item identification in progress... Mineral knowledge check successful, Ancient knowledge check failed, Curio knowledge check failed.]
[Identification Report: Contaminated Steel Crystal - Ancient Curio]
[Mineral: Steel Force is one of the foundations of material existence. Together with other energies in the world, it forms all things seen by sentient beings. Except for certain pure spiritual or energy lifeforms, every living being contains Steel Force within their body. At certain singular moments—such as the beginning of world creation or when a world is on the verge of destruction—Steel Force, this most fundamental power, condenses into solid crystals scattered across the land. It can take any form, but most of the time appears as gems. Steel Crystals are one of the important raw materials for forging Legendary-rank and above equipment. Weapons forged from them possess all kinds of incredible abilities.]
[Ancient: This Steel Crystal has existed for over thirteen hundred years.]
[Curio: This Steel Crystal comes from another world and has been contaminated by some kind of power. Contact with it may have certain side effects.]
[Summary: A rare ore from another world, extremely precious, but carrying some peculiar power. Careful consideration is needed before using it.]
"It's actually a Steel Crystal?"
Frowning, Joshua muttered to himself, turning the black-red crystal in his hand over and over several times. "I've seen these before, but aren't Steel Crystals supposed to be silver-gray gems? Why is this one black-red?"
Could it be due to that unknown power's contamination? Possible.
"Although Ying usually appears humanoid, at her core she's still a Divine Mechanism, a weapon..." Joshua pondered the information revealed in the identification report. "Her contact with this Steel Crystal would have affected her more than a human."
Perhaps the reason Ying had been sleeping until now was precisely because of the strange power from this Steel Crystal. It could also explain some of the information Claire and Nostradamus had mentioned—things like stagnant Steel Force, an inexplicable chaotic aura, and so on.
After thinking for a moment, Joshua turned his head to look at the silver-haired girl on the bed. Ying's sleeping expression was peaceful, her breathing steady—she didn't seem to be in any adverse condition.
If everything was as he thought, then without a doubt, that strange power was the main cause.
"I should try to see what consequences this power brings."
This idea wasn't recklessness on the warrior's part, but a choice made after careful consideration.
"My resistance is stronger than Ying's, and if it doesn't work, I can activate Divine Descent to dispel negative statuses. There won't be any accidents."
Thinking this, he released the Battle Qi shielding the crystal in his hand, allowing the power contained within to make contact with his body.
—And then, Joshua's vision sank into chaos.
...
Fog, and darkness.
When Joshua broke free from the guidance of that strange power with his iron will, what he saw upon opening his eyes was exactly this.
Barren hills covered with gray-black rocks, massive stone mountains faintly visible in the fog, a dried-up and withered land filled with shadowy crystal forests and jagged rocks. In the dim, cloud-covered sky, only a faint glimmer of sunlight remained.
Breathing in a mouthful of decayed air, the warrior felt it—all around him was filled with stagnant Steel Force, familiar yet strangely uncomfortable.
An eerie atmosphere spread in silence. Joshua looked around seriously but found nothing. The fog, thick with black particles, couldn't completely block his vision, but it obscured all information coming from afar. Darkness seemed to move on its own, slowly gathering toward the warrior.
Where was this?
Boom!
Just as this thought flashed through Joshua's mind, a sudden clap of thunder sounded.
—This was a dead land with no survivors, a wasteland where all things were extinguished. This was an apocalyptic world where light had faded, flames had died, and all had sunk into the bottomless abyss of chaos.
A strange voice seemed to answer his question faintly, but the warrior didn't notice it.
With the thunder, light bloomed in the gray sky. Dim lightning released a bit of illumination, and countless translucent particles like rain fell from the sky, dispersing the fog.
Reaching out, Joshua caught a translucent particle. He found that this object, seeming to be both ice and crystal, carried an intense coldness but wouldn't melt. He threw the particle to the ground and looked up toward the distance.
With the gray-black fog driven away by the crystal rain, the warrior's field of vision opened up considerably. At the end of his line of sight, on a hill at least a dozen kilometers away, stood an ancient and massive temple ruin.
The temple's great doors were wide open, and nearly half of its walls had collapsed. An immeasurably long span of time had covered this sanctuary with dust and crystals.
A shadow flickered.
"It looks like someone is moving?"
Because it was so far away, even Joshua couldn't be sure if what he'd just seen was an illusion. He frowned and looked around. "I don't know why I've come to this place, but let's go take a look first."
Determining the path he should take, the warrior began to move.
The thunder ceased, and the crystal rain gradually weakened. Gray-black fog once again emerged from the depths of the earth, shrouding the surroundings.
Time passed.
Woo—woo—
A steam whistle that could pierce the heavens sounded in the far distance, then reached Joshua's ears as he moved through the darkness, relying on the path he remembered from earlier. This made the warrior pause in surprise, but then the sound of something massive moving—like machinery running, gears meshing—drowned out the whistle.
"Boom!"
Another flash of thunder and lightning illuminated the gray fog, allowing Joshua to see clearly into the temple, now very close.
This time the warrior could confirm it. There was indeed a figure wandering confusedly among the ruins of the temple.
Seeming to sense some movement outside, the figure walked out from inside the temple. Behind the ancient, open doors of the temple, what seemed to be silver hair flickered.
Seeing this, Joshua was stunned for a moment, then exclaimed in surprise: "Ying?"
Then, the warrior's will returned to clarity.
As if waking from a dream, Joshua's eyes showed a trace of confusion at first, but quickly regained clarity. He immediately used Battle Qi to wrap around the Steel Crystal in his hand, isolating its power from further contamination.
"...Was that an illusion?"
Confirming that his body was still sitting by Ying's bedside, without even having moved an inch—ruling out the possibility of physical travel—Joshua's expression turned solemn as he pondered the experience that had felt like a dream.
It wasn't an illusion.
The warrior looked at his left palm. The decayed, uncomfortable smell of the air and the cold temperature of the crystal rain were deeply etched in his memory. This was definitely not something an illusion could achieve. He whispered to himself: "Was that shadow just now... Ying?"
Had she also fallen into that dream?
Silently standing up, Joshua lowered his head and took a deep look at Ying's beautiful sleeping face.
Was this the truth behind Ying's prolonged unconsciousness?
"It seems things are more complicated than I imagined... I can only try the method Nostradamus mentioned and see if it works."
—The next day.
In the church of the western cemetery.
Wearing a black military dress uniform, Joshua stood in the study of this cemetery church. He stepped on the black granite floor, glanced at the Glowstone fragments shimmering with golden light on the ceiling, and then walked toward the special floorboard with the crack.
Without any hesitation, he pressed his hand down on it.
Magic patterns flashed. A low, mechanical voice sounded.
"Energy detection... frequency band matching. Target: Joshua van Radcliffe, family head, highest authority. Door opening."
"From fire, born of steel. Wisdom never dies, order endures forever."
With the ancient chant, the black rock slowly opened, revealing a narrow passage leading underground.
And Joshua walked into it without any hesitation.
(To be continued.)