Chapter 12: The Destroyed Homeland
Since Joshua himself could be considered a large, enhanced version of a Steel Serpent, and he often communicated with other Steel Serpents, he cautiously collected some Steel Particles from the surrounding void to conduct a careful identification, just to avoid any illusions that might cause misunderstandings.
The result confirmed that Joshua’s perception was correct.
It was indeed a trace of Steel Serpent aura—extremely faint, faint to the point of being strange, yet exceptionally pure.
Faint and pure—two somewhat conflicting words, yet they felt very fitting at this moment. Joshua couldn’t explain for the moment why the aura drifting in the void was so peculiar, so he simply accelerated with Unit 3, flying toward the Vanguard Fortress.
How could a warrior with such sharp thinking not see the connection? The God of Steel had just mentioned being at the Vanguard Fortress, and now a Steel Serpent aura appeared in the void around it. Anyone with a bit of associative ability would make this guess… and Joshua believed it was far more than just a guess.
That mysterious Metal Dragon God, hidden behind history without any major news, was definitely connected to the Steel Serpents.
Joshua’s speed was fast, and he made no attempt to conceal himself. Amid the sharp alarm from the Vanguard Fortress group’s detection department—‘High-energy reaction rapidly approaching’—he arrived at the fortress’s perimeter within minutes. The defense department, which had been charging up in alert, realized it was a false alarm; the arriving entity was a Legendary expert on their side, so they withdrew the defensive formation.
As if sensing the arrival of the invited guest, the inviter itself immediately reacted. As Joshua decelerated and approached the Vanguard Fortress group, a vast will slowly emerged from one of the fortresses. Its power stirred the void, causing the Steel Particles scattered by the Great Magic Tide to ripple slightly.
But strangely, this obvious anomaly to Joshua did not trigger any alert from the Vanguard Fortress group’s defense personnel. They seemed to completely ignore this immense will, only continuously greeting Joshua through their transmissions.
“Interesting. It seems that even if it’s not a Steel Serpent, that Majesty must possess many characteristics of one.”
Noticing this, Joshua immediately understood many things.
First, the vast will that emerged was undoubtedly the Metal Dragon God, the ‘God of Steel,’ and its existence form was very similar to a Steel Serpent.
Ordinary people without Transcendent power cannot see souls, and Transcendents who haven’t honed their power to a ‘qualitative change’ level also cannot see Steel Serpents. If a warrior hasn’t condensed life energy into Steel Force, a mage hasn’t sublimated elemental mana into ‘Pure Mana,’ a Psionic controller hasn’t unified the three Psionic powers into one, or a Holy Light controller hasn’t comprehended the essence of the ‘Path of Holy Light,’ their life form remains merely ordinary Transcendents, unqualified even to observe a Steel Serpent.
This explained many things—for example, why the Metal Dragon God was so low-key, with no news ever emerging. The answer was simple: because only super-strong experts were qualified to see it, and such experts were rare, with even fewer who liked gossip and loose talk. Thus, the Metal Dragon God remained hidden from most people and dragons.
However, a high level of existence form didn’t necessarily mean great strength. Joshua could see that the Metal Dragon God had no injuries—it seemed neither the civil war among the Five-Colored Dragon Gods nor the Chaos tide of the Death Evil God had harmed it—but it was also clear that its power couldn’t defeat the Five-Colored Dragon Gods; they were likely evenly matched.
“First meeting, Your Majesty the God of Steel.”
Facing the vast will in the void, Joshua extended his hand, making a gesture of communication.
Soon, a magnetic, gentle voice came from the other end of the void.
“Greetings, Slayer of Evil Gods, hero of our world, Count Radcliffe. I am very pleased to meet you.”
The vast will condensed, finally taking the form of a kind dragon-woman. She had a pair of large dragon horns, but her head, body, limbs, and hands were human-shaped. A silver tail coiled gracefully before her, and a head of bronze-dark hair lay over it—a very beautiful dragon-woman, resembling a noble lady with an aged temperament but elegant features.
“I recall that humans always like handshakes… Five fingers, such dexterous tools, truly enviable to dragons.”
The God of Steel’s dragon-woman form smiled as she stepped forward to shake Joshua’s hand. She murmured with some emotion: “It was precisely because I envied the convenience of the human body that I developed the Humanization Magic, wanting to combine a dragon’s natural strength with human dexterity. But after all this time, not many dragons like the human form… They are still too proud.”
The Metal Dragon God didn’t speak Dragon Tongue, Mycroft Common Tongue, or any other language Joshua knew well. In fact, the Dragon God’s voice was merely a series of melodious, song-like dragon roars, but these sounds directly reached the depths of the mind, allowing any life form to clearly understand their meaning.
Clearly, this was also a unique method of Steel Serpents—the language of communication between worlds.
Since the other party was showing this so obviously, Joshua wouldn’t pretend not to notice. He asked directly: “So the Humanization Magic was your invention… There’s a Black Dragon living in my home too. Humanization Magic has indeed brought great convenience. Thank you for your contribution to harmony between humans and dragons.”
“However,” the warrior shifted the topic, “Your Majesty the Dragon God, what business do you have with me this time? And that aura on you is clearly the power of a Steel Serpent… I think before we discuss the main matter, we should understand each other a bit more.”
As Joshua said this, Unit 3 blinked.
Hearing Joshua’s words, the God of Steel smiled slightly. She narrowed her eyes, and geometric runes like shattered mirror fragments spun in her pupils. After a moment’s thought, this beautiful and moving Dragon God began to answer fluently.
“In truth, if it weren’t for the news brought by those outsiders from the outer Star Rivers, I would never have disturbed your recovery and rest. Actually, I should have come to see you myself, but for certain reasons, I need to go verify some important matters soon, so I could only have someone inform you.”
The Metal Dragon God’s tone was very respectful. If Joshua addressed her as ‘you’ because she was a protective Order deity and due to her age, it was clear that she addressed Joshua as ‘you’ out of genuine respect from the heart.
Respect for the person, or for the identity of the Soulflame King? Hard to say.
The God of Steel spoke clearly: “The reason I wanted to meet you this time is because I have some news to convey to this generation’s ‘Soulflame King.’ And why I have an existence form similar to a Steel Serpent is also closely related to this news.”
Hearing this, Joshua exchanged a glance with Unit 3.
Honestly, the Metal Dragon God’s attitude was too good, to the point where Joshua felt a bit uncomfortable. He used honorifics simply because of his childhood upbringing, a habit of respecting elders, but a Dragon God whose age was measured in centuries or millennia, who knew how many generations older than him, was also using honorifics—it was truly strange.
The God of Steel’s narration continued: “As for the source of the news, don’t worry about believing it—it all comes from the previous era, the inheritance of the previous Metal Dragon God.”
“Soulflame King, you know that we deities born in the Era of Falling Stars all came into being through the inheritance of the Era of Radiance. The Fairy Empresses inherited the Fairyland, the Deep Sea God inherited the power of the Water Deities, and I hold the power of the original Primordial Dragon God… And you surely know that we Astral Dragons are all ancient races from another world.”
Hearing this, Joshua nodded. That the Astral Dragons came from another world was indeed a ‘secret’ known to anyone with slightly higher strength. Through the information in the Unified Grand Database, everyone could learn that the Astral Dragon race arrived in this world before the Era of Radiance, even during humanity’s primitive barbaric era.
The Astral Dragons often boasted that their former civilization was incredibly powerful—when humans were still rubbing sticks to make fire, they could already control floating fortresses in the sky and travel through the void. These seemingly boastful words were not lies but facts. In the era when humans were just becoming human, before elves and dwarves had diverged, a high-level civilization capable of void travel, the ‘Astral Dragon race’—more precisely, a group of refugees from the Astral Dragon race—wandered to the Mycroft Continent.
At that time, the Astral Dragons were truly a pitiful group of refugees. Every dragon was covered in wounds, their entire civilization’s inheritance was shattered, and even their individual power was extremely weak due to the rejection of this different world. So they hid in dense forests and overseas, licking their wounds, preparing to explore this new world after recovering their strength. But embarrassingly, due to different time perceptions, by the time the first generation of Astral Dragons finished healing through slumber, the genius experts of humanity’s barbaric era could already shatter mountains and destroy peaks, blasting entire three-thousand-meter mountains apart with a single strike.
Witnessing this, the Astral Dragon race was stunned. They weren’t without experts at that level, but… their population was completely incomparable. Using precious dragon lives to trade one-for-one with natives—only a foolish leader would think that worthwhile.
Thus, time passed. With the development of human civilization and the Astral Dragons’ relatively benevolent help and observation, the Barbaric Era and Ancient Era before the Era of Radiance passed in turn. The Astral Dragons split into two branches and gradually integrated into this world.
“But even though we Metal Dragons have taken the Mycroft World as our second home, the blood of the Astral Dragons tells us that our true homeland is not here, but in a distant other place.”
Saying this, the Metal Dragon God’s tone was calm. She spoke softly: “And this is the news I wanted to tell you—I have found the former homeland of our Metal Dragon race.”
“Isn’t that great news?”
Hearing this, Joshua was moved by the Astral Dragons’ spirit of seeking their homeland for tens of thousands of years, but still found it strange: “I understand your excitement, but… what does this have to do with me?”
Could it be that the Metal Dragon God had found the homeland, but it was already destroyed… so she wanted to invite him to use the authority of the Soulflame King to restore the world’s ecosystem?
Joshua thought this wasn’t impossible—restoring a world’s vitality was indeed a good deed, and he would do it if he could. Of course, the God of Steel would have to provide the fuel for initiation, and she’d better go to the Chronos World to persuade that Thunder Ancient Dragon to join forces, as that would give the highest chance of successful rebirth.
Joshua’s guess was correct, but not complete.
After he voiced his thoughts, the God of Steel firmly shook her head.
“Your guess is indeed correct.” She said with a forced smile, her tone somewhat bitter: “But that’s not what I want to talk about.”
“Count Radcliffe, by cross-referencing information with those invaders from the outer Star Rivers, I have indeed found the location of our Astral Dragon race’s home world—more precisely, the location of the home world’s wreckage.”
“And accompanying it is the wreckage of an entire Star River.”