Chapter 51: Because I Am Still Alive

Chapter 51: Because I Am Still Alive

"I am someone who has no right to command you, wanting you to go to a place far from home, to carry out a mission with a slim chance of survival, aiming to find something that may or may not be there."
"Oh, I'll go."
"Wait, aren't you going to say anything else?"
"I'm ready. Send me over."
"Actually, there's no need to rush..."
"That's a really good idea."

After the warrior spoke these words, Eagle gazed at Joshua with a look of unprecedented complexity.

He suddenly realized that he had never truly understood the man before him.

Joshua van Radcliffe, the Count of Moldavia, had his various legends spread far and wide across the land—from the Far Sea Holy Mountain to the Extreme North Icefield, from the western coast to the Eastern Plains. Most ambitious Transcendent Beings had heard the name of this Ultimate-rank Dragon Slayer. To these people, they only knew the warrior as an exceptionally powerful, unprecedented young strongman. Those who had delved a little deeper merely added the impression of 'extremely warlike, never tasted defeat.'

Compared to these people, the old Pope considered himself one of the most knowledgeable about Joshua on the Mycroft Continent. Ever since he learned that the other was the inheritor of the Azure Orb, countless intelligence reports about the warrior had been delivered to his hands.

Cold, warlike, merciless to enemies, ruthless in action—in the minds of the vast majority, Joshua was a ferocious and terrifying warmonger and Dragon Slayer, even more fearsome than dragons. But in Eagle's eyes, the warrior merely fulfilled his duties as a warrior and a lord, a down-to-earth hater of evil. He wasn't necessarily good, but he was absolutely not evil; otherwise, the Azure Orb would never have resonated with him.

In summary, this was a man with slight flaws in character, yet trustworthy and reliable, a very dependable man.

But now, this impression in Eagle's heart was slightly refreshed.

Faced with a dangerous mission to explore a completely unknown border world, this man, whose name was even used to scare children in some places, didn't hesitate for a moment. He even smiled and agreed to the request. There was no fear in his eyes, only an unquestioning sense of duty.

Joshua seemed to believe that this was inherently his responsibility, so he accepted the request with utter calmness.

But in reality, what an exacting request this was! Eagle fully understood how excessive his invitation was. As the Pope of the Church of the Seven Gods, he was asking a territorial Count of the Northern Empire to go deep into the distant void to explore a Sage's inheritance whose information authenticity couldn't even be confirmed—such a thing wouldn't be surprising even if it were flatly refused. As a local lord, Joshua had ten thousand reasons to decline this extremely dangerous request, which had a high probability of costing his life.

He had no right to demand that a man leave his homeland, travel to the unimaginably distant edge of the universe, to carry out a mission aimed at finding something whose existence was completely unknown, yet dangerous enough to be a near-certain death sentence.

But Joshua didn't refuse.

This warrior, who had just endured a bitter battle, killed the High Priest of the Plague Evil God cult, and together with his allies shattered the Evil God's fragment, even asked in a tone of anticipation that Eagle found hard to describe: "When do you plan to depart?"

He looked eager and impatient.

"...At the very least, we have to wait until half a year from now."

The old Pope, who had originally wanted to say 'the sooner the better,' was silent for a moment, then spoke with a tone carrying a barely perceptible hint of emotion: "The Church needs to further verify the information on that border world. We can't let you fall into danger."

Joshua's attitude and conviction of willingly sacrificing for all living beings made Eagle feel ashamed. He had been so focused on gathering the Sage's inheritance to save this increasingly broken world that many things had been rushed. Now the old Pope came to his senses. Although finding the inheritance was extremely urgent, ensuring the explorer's safety was the most critical. The value of the completely unknown Fourth Inheritance was far less than that of the warrior before him, who was worthy of the name 'Sage's Inheritor.'

But in Joshua's heart, whom Eagle had deemed willing to sacrifice for all beings with noble sentiments, he wasn't thinking that much at all.

"A completely unknown foreign world. Interesting."

The warrior thought to himself: "This is the perfect chance to test my conjectures about advancement."

Joshua seemed about to ask for more detailed information about exploring the foreign world, such as whether there were any powerful primordial beasts, but Eagle intended to end this topic. He turned around and looked at the edge of the Mycroft World's space-time membrane, where several dim but slightly larger stars were flickering.

Not just these few. The old Pope surveyed the surroundings. Centered on the Mycroft World was an immensely vast, dim starfield. Many worlds could no longer emit bright light, only faintly transmitting an aura of deathly silence and destruction.

Joshua followed Eagle's gaze across the star river and naturally noticed this. Through various information he had learned earlier, the warrior said in a deep voice: "This was formed... from the war with the Evil Gods and the Abyss back then?"

"Correct." Eagle slowly nodded, speaking in a low tone: "The civilization of the Era of Radiance was not limited to the Mycroft World. The war against Chaos and disorder was gradually transferred to the continent only after successive defeats."

"But before that, many worlds had already fallen victim to the Demons and the Evil God's Minions, completely destroyed... Unfortunately, this history is only fragmentarily recorded in a few ancient texts. The Lost Three Hundred Years concealed all the secrets."

Speaking of the Lost Three Hundred Years, the old Pope couldn't help but sigh again. This unknown time gap between the Era of Radiance and the Era of Falling Stars had buried too many secrets. Even the Church of the Seven Gods, which preserved the most complete ancient texts, still had many mysteries whose answers remained unknown.

"Joshua."

Looking at this starfield, which appeared even dimmer because of other brilliant star rivers, Eagle suddenly said: "This is your first time in the void."

The old Pope raised his right hand, pointing at the slowly approaching light-fog magic tide in the distance, pointing at those vast and bright rivers of stars, and calmly asked the warrior: "What do you think of this multiverse?"

This question was asked on a whim. Even Eagle himself didn't expect much of an answer from the warrior.

"I do."

But after thinking for a moment, Joshua replied in an extremely serious tone: "Humans are very small."

Eagle abruptly turned his head to look at Joshua, but the warrior paid no attention to the surprise and confusion in the other's eyes. He too looked at this star river and the darkness that embraced it, saying: "Any life is small."

"Compared to the endless darkness of the void, even worlds are incredibly small."

His gaze shifted away from the distant, brilliant sea of stars. Joshua surveyed the dim stars around them, his tone candid and sincere, without a trace of falsehood: "Dozens, hundreds, even thousands of stars going dim—for the entire multiverse, it's just a trivial matter. The rise and fall, the extinction of humanity, is even more insignificant."

"...Is that so. That's what you think."

After silently listening to Joshua's words, Eagle felt a pang of gloom in his heart. Although somewhat disappointed, even he couldn't deny that what the warrior said was correct.

That was indeed the truth.

Compared to the vast Myriad Realms, the Mycroft Continent was nothing more than a speck of dust among countless others. Whether it was destroyed or not, aside from the races living on it, who would care?

But then Joshua turned his head to look at the old Pope. He seemed to see through Eagle's thoughts, so he said calmly: "However, being small doesn't mean giving up."

"A single spark can start a prairie fire."

"A human body can also move mountains and fill seas."

Joshua stood before Eagle. The young warrior stood before the aged Pope. He met the other's gaze and said in a tone of certainty that the other found hard to comprehend: "Humans compared to the entire continent, just as the Mycroft World compared to the entire multiverse, are merely a speck of dust. But even such a speck of dust can use magic and Battle Qi to change the entire world. Mana technology can even give ordinary people such power."

"It is precisely because we know—know our own smallness—that intelligent life refuses to remain as mere dust. That is why we strive, struggle, develop, and continue our civilization."

In his previous life, there had never been news of a fourth Sage's inheritance, so naturally, there was no exploration mission.

The Church of the Seven Gods had been severely damaged in the Dragon Calamity. Due to the schemes and provocations of the cultists, before the Great Magic Tide arrived, the Mycroft Continent had already been plunged into war.

War between humans and humans, war between humans and elves, war between elves and dwarves... The magic tide and the descent of the gods not only failed to calm the various factions but instead escalated the scale of war. With active magical elements, all sorts of novel construct machines and new spells were developed and then thrown into battle.

All races were busy slaughtering each other. No one cared about the future of this continent or this world.

Except for the old man before him.

Joshua looked at the silent Eagle. He was no longer the person who knew almost nothing about this world and was only interested in fighting. The warrior had already learned many deep secrets that no player in his previous life had ever heard of—such as that this world was dead, that this world needed kindling to sustain itself.

The kindling was about to burn out. This was evident from the old Pope's urgent search for the Fourth Inheritance and his quest to learn the secrets of the First Flame. Although Joshua didn't appear to be exceptionally intelligent, in truth, his sharpness of mind far exceeded what most people could imagine.

From Eagle's grave expression and the anxiety occasionally revealed, he could see that this world's time was running out. It had even reached such an urgent state, due to some unforeseen circumstances, that the Pope himself had to act personally, asking him to go find the inheritance.

This sounded very unreasonable.

Even in his previous life, when the situation on the Mycroft Continent was far worse than it is now, the world still held out until the year 855 of the Era of Falling Stars, when the second Abyss invasion caused the First Flame to topple and the world to be consumed by the fierce wind. So why was this happening so early this time?

The answer was simple. The same situation had occurred in his previous life too. But back then, someone had stepped up.

In his previous life, after the Dragon Calamity, Saint Eagle, known as the God Among Men, never acted again until his death. His adopted son and successor, Loranda Glamorgan, eradicated cults across the entire continent and destroyed Chaos lands.

For a world that needed Chaos as kindling to sustain itself, this was like drinking poison to quench thirst. But Loranda still did it. This paladin, whom Joshua considered to be so kind-hearted as to be almost foolishly honest, and utterly incapable of betraying the Church of the Seven Gods, even opened the Abyss Gate, allowing those Demons to invade the world he had sworn to protect.

Because Eagle was already dead.

And the world, sustained by the power of the Abyss, managed to hold on until the year 855 of the Era of Falling Stars.

"Don't worry, Your Holiness the Pope."

Looking at the troubled expression of this old man, who was worthy of the name 'Saint,' Joshua smiled. His voice was full of confidence: "I will go to that unknown world and retrieve the last Sage's inheritance."

So, it hasn't come to the point where we need to give up. Nor has it come to the point where an old man needs to sacrifice himself to support this world.

The warrior said softly: "Because I am still alive."

So everything is not yet at that point.