Chapter 76: A Man Born for Battle
"What's going on?!"
As the black dragon's breath dissipated, the tense Hill opened his eyes aboard the white ark. Together with his blue dragon companion, he stared at the crimson flash that had suddenly appeared in midair. This mass of light had emerged abruptly above the sea of blood, releasing an unsettling, ominous aura.
The elven youth couldn't look directly at the light, but Robzek and Black sensed something amiss from it. The black dragon girl, in particular, vaguely detected a familiar scent within this terrifying presence.
Frowning, Fina felt her already fragile spirit sink even lower under the blood-red glow. A fear lurking deep in her heart began to spread slowly, prompting the blue dragon lady to ask, "Mr. Robzek, what exactly is this?"
Withdrawing the holy flame he had used to block the dragon's breath, the Ultimate-rank paladin leaned against the seal-like Hill. Cold sweat dripping from his brow, he looked up at the sky. In the few seconds of this exchange, the crimson light had formed a massive projection in midair, vaguely resembling the single eye of a giant god, or perhaps a simple yet infinitely mysterious rune.
"Divinity."
Robzek said softly. Having long reached the Ultimate realm and serving as the captain of the Seven Gods Church's Holy Hammer Knights, he spoke with an extremely complex tone: "Battle, destruction, slaughter... pure and unadulterated, without any rejection..."
The paladin turned his head to look at the black dragon girl, who had already sensed something.
—Your master is truly extraordinary.
Above the sea of blood, Mandagar's gray dragon pupils dilated. He stared at the crimson light before him, a long-forgotten fear spreading from his spine.
The crystal black dragon didn't know what state the warrior was in now, but merely sensing the dangerous aura emanating from him made him feel his life was threatened.
"Roar!"
With a furious roar from the dragon, sonorous draconic incantations were chanted rapidly. Over eighty dark-golden light points materialized around Mandagar in an instant, draining all free elemental energy within a ten-kilometer radius in a flash, converging into dazzling orbs of light.
Each orb was an incarnation of a spiritual node accumulated by the black dragon, bearing the energy of a full-force strike from Mandagar, an Ultimate-rank magic dragon. Nearly a hundred materialized spiritual nodes meant he could unleash nearly a hundred grand spells simultaneously in an instant—one of the magic dragon's greatest trump cards. He hadn't wanted to use it here, but with the situation critical, Mandagar had no choice but to go all out.
Without a moment's hesitation, the countless light points swirling around the magic dragon froze in an instant. They spewed blinding golden-red beams toward the center of the crimson light, like streams of molten steel. Where they passed, spatial ripples trembled, and the atmosphere visibly distorted.
In the blink of an eye, the sky was filled with golden-red light.
But Joshua showed no reaction.
A layer of crimson flame flowed over his body as he stood motionless in midair. Yet the golden beams, enough to boil lakes and sever rivers, shattered against him like splashing water. The highly concentrated energy dissipated before that layer of flame—deflected, refracted, blocked, and resisted. No matter how the black dragon tried, this seemingly ordinary crimson barrier remained indestructible.
The warrior's eyes, now consumed by scarlet, lifted and locked onto Mandagar. An astonishing pressure spread, making everyone's mental alarms ring loudly. Countless circuit-like lines of light appeared on his body, blood-red lightning crackled around him, and a cyan light flickered at his chest, pulsing with each heartbeat.
And then, in the next instant.
He moved.
—Boom!
The crimson barrier expanded in that instant, covering most of the sky above the blood moon. A terrifying roar drowned out all sound, making heaven and earth freeze for a moment. A streak of light shot forward, tearing through layers of vibrations.
Behind this streak of light, the air ignited, flames surged like waves, and terrifying power fluctuations spread, even creating a violent storm comparable to a Category 14 typhoon spanning dozens of kilometers. It slammed into the unavoidable crystal magic dragon. A hand burning with flame... "I don't want them to see me like this."
To be precise, he didn't want to be seen in this state. The recovered warrior frowned: "So this is the limitation of a single-attribute divinity... Such strong erosive force."
Just now, Joshua, enraged, had activated the trace of divinity hidden in his bones.
In that moment, he seemed to connect with an infinite, vast power lurking in the multiverse. Everything before his eyes became the most basic existence, just like the state of the Soulflame King.
Smaller than dust, more fundamental than elements—it was the force that drove all things to move and interact, the force that bound matter together without separation. In this state, he could easily command them, turning them into his own power.
But what drove this force was pure battle intent and rage, along with the desire for destruction and slaughter. Even with the warrior's resilient will, he had nearly sunk into it, unable to break free.
"You monster, more terrifying than a demon, what are you thinking?"
A weak spiritual pulse reached Joshua's mind. The warrior looked down at the magic dragon fragments floating on the sea of blood.
But Mandagar spoke in a mocking tone: "Want to help your comrades, get rid of the brain-eating worms? With your power that can only destroy?"
Having fought to this point, he knew he had utterly failed. Due to greed for power and caution about the ritual, the magic dragon hadn't brought Grandi and his experimental creatures to the blood moon plane to complete the ceremony. Instead, he had sent them to intercept the exploration team.
If he hadn't done that, though victory wasn't guaranteed, he certainly wouldn't have lost so cleanly and disgracefully.
Ignoring Mandagar's words, Joshua stepped forward and picked up the crystal fragment, only the size of a human palm. He was about to ask how to disrupt the fusion ritual when, at the edge of the blood moon plane, beside countless shattered continents, a massive temporal-spatial fluctuation suddenly appeared.
Glancing at the direction of the fluctuation, Joshua looked down at the crystal fragment in his hand and asked calmly, "What's going on?"
The magic dragon replied bluntly in an aged voice: "The army of the Blood Magic Dragon."
His tone was filled with despair and reluctance, but also a hint of schadenfreude: "Though my ritual wasn't completed, my clan's forces in the abyss have already gathered. They will follow the abyssal rift to the Mycroft World and attack the Far Sea Holy Mountain."
"What now? Though you've defeated me, you've still lost!"
This fragment of a maddened will sneered: "You can't save your comrades, your loved ones, or your world!"
—They will be annihilated before my clan's power!
But Joshua shook his head, cutting off the magic dragon's venomous words: "Mandagar, this abyss is accepting me."
Behind him, a circle of eerie black light patterns emerged, like a demon-summoning array, filled with blasphemous degenerate runes: "It favors me. As long as I'm willing to accept its power, I can become the lord of this plane."
Joshua surveyed the sea of blood, his gaze seeming to pierce through the void, looking at the entire abyss: "This place suits me perfectly—eternal war, endless battle, unceasing rage and blood, infinite destruction and endings. If I accept, I can annihilate the magic dragon army you speak of."
Staring at the complex abyssal array behind the warrior, brimming with infinite power, the magic dragon fell silent. Having dealt with abyss lords and evil gods, he knew the warrior's words were true. This was the crown the abyss plane bestowed on its favored one. If this human nodded, he would instantly become the ruler of this world.
"But I won't do that."
Sensing Mandagar's shocked spiritual pulse, Joshua chuckled and shook his head. He looked at the crystal magic dragon fragment in his hand: "The Mycroft World—the Far Sea Holy Mountain—doesn't need me to save it either."
"The humans of the Mycroft Continent have their own civilization, their own culture. They have their own persistence, their own history."
The warrior's tone was filled with disdain: "The mana technology studied by mages has no less potential than the technology of my past life. The elves of the last era could even build sunships that sailed through the void, using elemental annihilation for propulsion—basically nuclear-powered space battleships."
The magic dragon was confused and bewildered, but gradually grew fearful.
It wasn't a gap in power or technique, but a difference in thought—
Under Mandagar's gaze, as if looking at some indescribable entity, Joshua shook his head: "This world doesn't need a savior. No one is anyone's savior. Everyone has their own life. They might need help, but they absolutely don't need someone to 'save' them from on high."
"I believe in their strength. I'm glad when they live, and I take revenge when they die."
So, the warrior clenched the crystal fragment in his hand and said with a smile: "Magic dragon, before you stands the Chaos Warden, Joshua van Radcliffe of humanity."
"A man born for battle."