Chapter 53: Premonition
"How interesting, it's actually a living being?"
Upon hearing the light orb respond to his question with a series of 'ding-ling' sounds, it wasn't just Baniel who turned his head in curiosity. William, who had been fine-tuning the coordinates of the teleportation passage, also looked over with interest. He studied the warm, cream-colored light orb in Joshua's arms for a moment before speaking: "So the Bloodmoon Abyss has such specialties? Never heard of it before."
"Joshua, where did you pick this up?"
"From the sky."
Joshua answered succinctly. He never deceived others, and since these two somewhat eccentric mages had asked, he would reply. However, the warrior could now confirm that neither Baniel nor William could detect the source of the anomaly within the Bloodmoon.
Lowering his head, he pressed down slightly on the light orb in his arms, which was bouncing excitedly, trying to break free from his grasp. Joshua once again carefully observed this peculiar spherical lifeform—it had a diameter of forty-three centimeters, was virtually weightless, and emitted a faint, warm yellow glow. The orb had no physical form; its inner layer was a swirling vortex of light, but touching it felt like a repulsive force combined with a temperature of thirty-one degrees, making it tangible enough for an ordinary person to hold.
At first glance, aside from the swirling core inside, the light orb's structure was exceptionally simple, not at all resembling an intelligent lifeform. It was precisely for this reason that the two old mages were so curious.
"Bringing you back to the Mycroft Continent—I wonder if that's a good thing or a bad thing."
Thinking this to himself, Joshua couldn't help but let out a faint sigh as he recalled the scene from not long ago.
At the very center of the Bloodmoon, facing the request of the massive light being to follow him, Joshua had chosen to refuse. His reasons were simple. First, the light being was the core and the only hope for the Bloodmoon to shine again and save this world. If he took it away, it would mean destroying a world's future. In both reason and emotion, Joshua would never allow such a thing to happen. As the Soulflame King who inherited the will of the Sage, how could he do something like that?
Second, he simply couldn't take it with him.
Joshua made a rough estimate of the light being's size. Its diameter was about twelve kilometers, meaning its main body was essentially the Bloodmoon's planetary core. The surface of this core had a temperature of nearly five thousand degrees, and it was still rising, gradually transforming the planet into a miniature star. This process would take about a thousand years, and if a large amount of Fusion Core Star material were invested, it could speed up. But regardless, even if Baniel and William possessed the magical power to destroy mountains and boil seas, they couldn't stuff a star core larger than a mountain into a space-time passage. Even a god couldn't do it.
Faced with Joshua's repeated refusals, the light being did not give up. After a long pause, it did something that surprised the warrior—streams of light surged and intertwined, merging into a massive white cocoon. An ocean-like surge of energy caused the cocoon to rapidly transform. Finally, the enormous shell split open, and a tiny light orb, minuscule compared to before, leaped out from the crack and threw itself into Joshua's arms.
That was the light orb now in his hands—a 'offshoot' that the light being had split from itself.
After this self-division, the main body of the massive light being became much quieter. The act of splitting itself hadn't caused much harm, but it inevitably left it exhausted. Coupled with the fact that it had only recently been born and needed to gather strength, it slowly sank into the star core and fell into dormancy.
This was why Joshua didn't mind Baniel and William exploring. For at least ten years, no one would find any trace of the dormant light being in the Bloodmoon; at most, they would discover that the entire Bloodmoon was gradually turning into a sun.
"Curious as I am, time is tight."
The two old mages were indeed extremely curious about the light orb. With their power as legendary experts, they could tell it was a positive energy elemental being, very similar in life form to ordinary light elementals, but its internal core was many times more complex. Moreover, it was well-hidden; if one didn't pay close attention, even Baniel, who specialized in summoning elements and runes, would find it hard to distinguish from a regular light elemental.
If such a lifeform appeared in the Boundless Heaven or some plane of light elements, Baniel wouldn't be nearly as curious as he was now—but this was the Bloodmoon Abyss! A shattered world known for death, cold silence, and emptiness, where even demons couldn't survive! The appearance of a complex light elemental being here made the old mage feel like his curiosity was burning.
Unfortunately, as he himself said, time was tight. Although they had shaken off the pursuit of the Abyss Lord Goliath and the Five-Color Dragon God's avatar using a pre-prepared cross-world teleportation array, an error had occurred. The Sixth Abyss wasn't far from the Bloodmoon Abyss. If Goliath discovered they hadn't returned to the Mycroft Continent, they would soon face another chase from two god-level powerhouses. This time, they wouldn't be able to slip away so easily.
"The portal is open."
On the other side, the legendary bard William had finished verifying all the space-time data. He nodded in satisfaction and muttered to himself, "I knew no one could beat me in teleportation. That earlier mistake definitely wasn't my fault!"
After a pause, he added, "Not counting that guy Nostradamus."
In fact, that was true. If not for Nostradamus achieving legendary status through space-time sorcery, he and Baniel could be considered the foremost experts in this field.
As a former bard and now an archmage, William's specialty was manipulating others' minds and twisting their souls. He could instantly strip and control an entire army's five senses, turning them against their own allies. But aside from that, this man, whose motto was 'caution and care,' excelled at various short- and long-range teleportation spells. When he and Baniel worked together, they could even perform a [Domain Fixed Teleportation] spanning half a continent in a fraction of a millisecond.
Of course, now it wasn't just continents. From what Joshua had seen, he knew these two had reached the pinnacle of understanding in space-time, capable of crossing the barriers between worlds in an instant. In a sense, wisdom and truth had indeed manifested in that moment.
But soon, the warrior's attention shifted elsewhere. Not far away on the ground, the black dragon girl was sitting up with a pained expression, one hand touching her horn and the other on her waist. She noticed Joshua's arrival and immediately began to complain: "Master, my waist still hurts a bit..."
"You need to train more."
Casually replying, Joshua walked over to Black, holding the light orb. He crouched down and reached out to touch the dragon girl's waist and shoulders. The torn muscles, reacting to the external pressure, made Black cry out in pain again. The warrior shook his head: "With your ancient dragon bloodline, a muscle tear like this should have healed on its own... You probably haven't been injured enough to activate that ability."
Black shuddered instinctively, looking fearfully at her master, who seemed to be gently massaging her to relieve muscle pain. She felt a dark will spreading from Joshua. Sure enough, after a moment of thought, the warrior spoke in a seemingly gentle tone but with cruel words: "When we get back to the territory, I'll have Sukrash design a special training regimen for you—start with twenty laps around Moldavia, until you're completely exhausted."
"Be mentally prepared." As he spoke, Joshua stood up and nodded with a smile: "It won't be easy."
Although Black's injury this time was entirely caused by his own speed, the warrior understood that the root of the incident was that those around him were gradually failing to keep up with his pace of growth. Whether it was Black, Firefly, Lin, Archbishop Atanis, or the couple Brandon and Loranda, it was the same. Among those he knew, only Israel, Nostradamus, and Pope Eagle possessed power surpassing or equal to his own, and such people were only ten in the entire Mycroft Continent on the surface.
This was the most normal thing. He had the system, the Azure Orb, the best combat channels, and the best inheritance. Joshua knew that falling behind him was the norm; no one in this world had better conditions than he did. But even so, he didn't want to face powerful enemies alone one day.
"Grow up quickly." To Black, who seemed stunned by the heavy task, Joshua said softly, "I look forward to the day when you can fight alongside me, not like now, where you have to leave the moment I make a move."
"...I'll train hard, Master!"
Hearing the warrior's sigh-like words, Black trembled all over. In that instant, a flood of complex emotions surged through her heart—shame, reluctance, confusion, and helplessness—but soon, her resolve hardened.
"I'll do my best!"
Joshua was gratified by the dragon girl's decisive response. He knew that Black's age, by human standards, was just a child. To her, fighting and adventuring were merely fun games. There was nothing wrong with that; the power of her ancient dragon bloodline could support such a carefree attitude. But to keep up with his pace, this level of awareness was far from enough.
"Get up. We're ready to return to the Mycroft Continent." He said, "If it still hurts, I can carry you..."
"Ding-ling-ling~"
Before Joshua could finish, the light orb in his arms suddenly emitted a series of wind-chime sounds. Then, a warm beam of light shone onto Black, who looked bewildered.
"This feeling?!"
Suddenly, Black felt a warm aura enveloping her, as comfortable as soaking in hot water. It was indescribably pleasant. But the comfort didn't last long, as a sharp pain followed, penetrating to her bones. For a moment, Black nearly fainted, but soon, she realized that the countless torn muscle fibers inside her body were rapidly repairing themselves.
Under the light's illumination, Black's internal injuries healed so quickly that even Joshua was surprised. In just a few seconds, the dragon girl stood up normally and began to move her arms in amazement—she was completely healed.
"It even has this ability... Right, the main body also restored my energy earlier."
Looking down at the light orb in his arms, which had stopped emitting light, Joshua murmured to himself, "Looks like I can increase Black's training load a bit more."
At the same time, the light orb let out another 'ding-ling-ling' sound. It seemed to want to break free from the warrior's arms but couldn't. After a moment's thought, Joshua simply released his hold on it. Freed, the orb excitedly let out a series of crisp chirps, spun in the air a few times, and slowly descended toward Black's head.
Watching the orb that had healed her, Black naturally had no guard against it. Curious about this drifting, cream-colored entity, she waited to see what it would do. Soon, she felt a warm, soft touch on top of her head.
Joshua suppressed his laughter—from his perspective, the light orb had landed on Black's head and gotten stuck perfectly between her two horns. The scene was hard to describe but undeniably amusing. The light orb seemed satisfied with its current position; it adjusted itself slightly and then settled quietly on Black's head, no longer struggling as it had in the warrior's arms.
"Talk about having a ball on your head."
Not voicing this thought aloud, Joshua shook his head. He gestured for Black to follow him and turned to walk toward the two legendary mages, who had already opened the space-time passage. Behind him, Black hurried to keep up with her master while carefully making sure the light orb on her head didn't fall off.
What followed was unremarkable. Both the legendary mages and Joshua's group were well-versed in space-time teleportation. After Baniel entered the passage first to begin the transfer, Joshua led Black and the light orb into the azure-blue portal.
—This time, there shouldn't be any more accidents, right?
This thought crossed Joshua's mind as he silently sighed. He had a subtle premonition that his return to the Mycroft Continent wouldn't be so simple.
And indeed, it wasn't. Just as Black and the light orb followed Joshua into the space-time portal, ready to teleport back to Mycroft with the warrior, a flash of silver-white, steel-like pure light flickered. In the dragon girl's vision, the warrior's figure suddenly vanished.
An accident had occurred.