Soul of Searing Steel

Boundless light reached towards the infinite distance like mercury, carrying a presence so thick that it did not disperse to the Void beyond the world. Any being simply needed to look up to see that sudden burst of fiery light that pierced the stars.

It passed by the Abyss in a split second, the deathly Abyss illuminating like daytime. For a brief moment, an explosion of energy stronger than the Great Mana Tide shot upwards, spraying towards the normal galaxy and covering all the dead worlds.

Meanwhile, every champion who was aware that Joshua had stepped out and turned towards his direction saw the silver luster, with the massive silver world dragging a long belt of radiance and leaving the Vortex of Creation. He was heading beyond the Lost Galaxy, darting towards the Silent Void!

Joshua was already a Demi Saint!

Knowing the outcome with a single glance, they were not at all surprised—Joshua had almost reached that threshold even before entering seclusion in the Vortex of Creation, and after a dozen years, which was not a long time for most beings, that man had made another breakthrough, becoming the most powerful champion just a step away from Wise Ones.

“But…I simply can’t tell which path he has chosen.”

Looking up at the silver light which shot through the dark Void as if a silver scar was drawn over a black curtain, Nostradamus, who remained in Mycroft, turned his head and focused his eyes on Joshua and muttered, “It is not a supermassive singular realm. It is not on par with the Evil God of Death though it is huge, but it still borrows inspiration from it—I can glimpse complex mysteries and intricacies from the structure of the world.”

“I can see that it is not divine power, but it does not fully renounce it.”

Hovering, Zero Three flapped her wings and grimaced, her gaze solemn while divine patterns of the God of the Skies spread between her brows. “It isn’t Emotion Power either, just as he did not cut off that path.”

“He hasn’t picked his final path!”

In the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds, the face on the Legendary champion Yana Milo changed even as she was speaking to the Commanding Will, prepared to teleport to the frontlines in the Piroth Galaxy. The Glorious Era champion seemed to feel the familiar presence of the Sage in that split second, but she soon realized that Joshua and the Sage were different—even complete opposites. He was exuding an oppressive sensation, with his great pervading might so clear to the point that it was suffocating.

Even so, Yana Milo was unaffected. Being a Legend who had personally encountered the Sage when he was a Demi Saint as well, she revealed her own observation.

“Unlike the Sage, his presence is still changing and uncertain, the long path yet to be ascertained… even so, he has already become a Demi Saint?!”

Every champion watching Joshua came to the same shocking conclusion unanimously. They had expected that a champion on the limits of Legend would have to pick a path to become the Wise One, and could only become a Demi Saint after stepping upon it!

The so-called Demi Saint would be the initial state of the Wise Ones, all of them theoretically holding the potential to become a Wise One!

But how did Joshua become a Demi Saint without making a choic?

It was no longer conjecture—there is no doubt that the God of Steel assuredly had the depth to become a Wise One!

“However, that path…”

The silver radiance had already vanished from the Silent Void and completely left the Lost Galaxy, only leaving a luminous trail. At the same time, the Nature Magister lowered her head without keeping up with the light, only whispering in doubt, “What actually is that path?”

***

Joshua had already left, but the light he left was still spreading in the Lost Galaxy. As silver tides swept through and bathed innumerable worlds, they were reinvigorated with another light—the stars flashed, unsettled and seemingly restless.

In the Void, a World Will leapt out from its own world.

It was the Steel Python of Karlis, coiling itself in the Void—even if it could not keep up with Joshua either, it could still sense the warrior as a fellow world. Karlis stared at the eye-catching radiant scar in the Void, accepting the light he was spreading and could not help but shudder in delight. With that, the Steel Python could feel that its Steel Cycle, which barely hardened and escaped shattering, had now been augmented as if a boulder.

Because it had bathed in the light, it had completely been freed from the bygone barrenness, completely recovering from the misery of civilization’s fall to become well and powerful World Will.

Still, the Steel Python’s heart was not in a complete state of delight for some reason. It was perhaps out of instinct or some lurking fear, but there was a vague discomfort in its mind, with Karlis contracting its own scales and pupils.

“This feeling…is just like the King of Searing Souls reviving worlds…”

It muttered with substantial doubt, looking around itself at the countless worlds around itself that were dead, dormant, and awaiting restoration or revival. It could see thousands of worlds born anew and regaining life because they bathed in his light—and this should have been exhilarating, but there was still a vague terror in Karlis’s heart.

“But… even the King of Searing Souls has to burn souls and Chaos to heal worlds!”

Even if it could no longer see Joshua, Karlis did not turn its eyes away, focusing at the direction where the left and unable to help raising its voice as if it were roaring, “Then what is he actually burning?!”

None could answer that question because nobody knew anything—Joshua had been ever generous and had never withheld any information he had, which was why no one would especially take notice of his actions.

After all, he would tell the others, would he not? Nobody worried over Joshua because he was so powerful and had helped so many others out of dire straits… if there had been any trouble or difficult choices to make, he would have certainly told them.

Therefore, it was in the warrior’s rare silent moments that most would realize with a start: they actually knew nothing about the path that the man would choose.

Meanwhile, the silver radiance finally covered all of the galaxy.

The Lost Galaxy was reviving.

It was a galaxy which was once destroyed. Countless civilizations had been decimated and endless worlds left in pieces from that calamity, the invasion of the Demi Saint leaving worlds trembling and an almost empty galaxy even dozens of thousands of years later. Even after another Demi Saint and eventual Wise One had dispelled all the darkness, the perished civilizations and the broken worlds were not coming back.

But now, those countless worlds were revived because of another Demi Saint.

In the Silent Void and beyond anyone’s perception, the dazzling silver radiance over the great silver world was splitting. Apart from its previous hue, scarlet and pitch-blackness were glimmering within the world, occupying a good portion of the domain.

Silver Steel Strength. Scarlet divinity.

And the black power of Chaos.

***

The power of Chaos was the power of the future, unending probabilities, infinite parallel worlds, and infinite futures. By setting it aflame, the present could be changed—and that was the name of the conflict between the Present of Order and the Chaos of Future, the reason why the King of Searing Soul could change and revive all current worlds by burning souls along with Chaos.

And now, radiances silver, red, and black were tangled in one, mutually exchanging, eroding, and incinerating over the massive world. In the process of the three-way exchange and that delicate balance, the seed of Infinity appeared to be growing and sprouting quietly, just as near endless light of revival was hence born.

Like the tiny spark of the Initial Flame within the body of the Ultimate Sublimator Collective, the seed of Infinity was the basis from which they would develop into Wise One in future.

Glimpsing through the true nature of Eternity and Chaos, Joshua certainly would not let go of the power he controlled. He had never been concerned if his fighting abilities originated from the Mastermind or any other enemy—as long as it was useful, effective, and without repercussion, he would use it.

In fact, there were even times when he would use it even if he was aware of backlash. It was similar to how humans were perfectly aware that life was difficult and full of tribulations, but they would still live on and make necessary choices.

Now, without relying on the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds or the Stargate, Joshua had used his own power to pass through the Silent Void rapidly, spreading silver splendor like a sun spreading its light, delivering negentropy.

Visibly, within the deathliness and seemingly eternal gloom of the Silent Void, countless broken fragments of worlds actually showed signs of reassembling—there were even some remnant Steel Strength awakened in certain quadrants, becoming shrouds once more, swirling and gathering once again in the darkness as seeds of new worlds.

The ancient debris were thus revived.

But for the other champions who were still observing from the Lost Galaxy, all they saw was a path.

It was a long road, just like the one left by the Sage in the past, embodying light and illuminating the darkness, bringing ripples called birth in the Silent Void.

In their perspective, that road stretched on towards the endless distance in the direction of the cosmos. The world which forged that path was going towards the other side, streaking towards the place called battlefield.

***

The eleventh of June, Starfall year 862. 1746 hours on Mycroft standard time.

The Forerunner Fortress Chain, the frontlines of the Piroth Galaxy in the cosmos.

Months ago, after the Evil God of Isolation appeared in the frontlines, other Evil Gods started appearing one after another. Those World Eaters showed neither cohesion nor planning, simply scattering and appearing out of different locations of the Void, advancing at the fortress chain which was standing guard vigilantly.

On the other end, the gathered Legends, gods, even Legendary champions or guardians of civilizations and races naturally joined hands to slay the Evil Gods that seemed to be nonchalantly passing by.

It was just months, but the Evil Gods which had fallen in the Piroth Galaxy far outnumbered those dying in decades and centuries past. Nonetheless, the dull light caused by the dispersion of dark nebulae still glimmered over the borders of the galaxy like waves, with another rising before one could subside.

However, the legions of Evil Gods never minded such tiny setbacks. After killing a hundred and ten, another eleven thousand would come, their numbers and spawns only ever increasing with the passing of time. Although they still showed no cohesion, the Evil Gods that were just coming to throw their lives away were becoming increasingly difficult to destroy as compared to before, with at least six or seven attacking at the same time during each appearance, and more than twenty of them at most—ambushing from different angles or directions, their sheer presence caused the operations within the fortress chain to actually collapse.

Even Legendary champions could hardly hold on with the continuous and violent battles against the Evil Gods. If not for the presence of multiple gods, the perimeter would not have been held so easily, and one should even say that the unlimited endurance of the gods was really suitable for such intense skirmishes. It was perhaps really why the gods could still exist throughout the Multiverse even if there was no path ahead for them.

Shrill alarms were resounding over fortresses again. Every warrior and champion who was still resting mustered their spirit once again and prepared for battle—this time, there were eighteen unnamed Evil Gods, each boasting the power to lay waste to worlds, even bringing along hordes of spawns that could drown half the fortress chain.

The Evil Gods were each a civilization on its own, a center point that combined one or multiple world worth of probabilities. Though all of them were basically not tools for war, their power could still wipe out most beings and convert them to Chaos.

Eighteen colossal distortion points hence appeared on the edge of the Silent Void. Each were horrific entities of aberrant forms, most of them being actually comparable to Ultimate Legends. It was stirring the dimensional turbulences around itself, covering itself in vicious dimensional storms, and destroying fortresses nearby just by making a pass.

It was not just the dimensions either. The information disturbance caused by the Evil God of Disorder was scrambling the communications throughout the battlefield, with many fleets and champions who were in command and trying to relay or receive orders realizing that their communications had fully collapsed. They simply did not know where they should go nor who they should work with, with some even being misinformed and not knowing what they should do at all.

But there was always those beings who were immune to the Chaos.

“Such little gimmicks.”

A great elemental radiance abruptly popped up in the fortresses, while a dazzling flower blossomed upon the Void—it was the pure elemental being from a quadrant near the cosmos who had challenged Joshua when he was preaching. Even if the Evil God of Disorder was distorting the entire fortress chain, it did not hesitate and firmly crossed the Void to attack.

“Hold it right there!”

Like a surge of rainbow, endless flower petals gathered colors on their edges while elements mutually fused and obliterated, ending up as a shapeless and colorless beam that bombarded the approaching dimensional storm. With a massive dimensional quake, the dimensional storm enfolding Disorder dispersed just as the inference on communications ceased, but shockingly, there was no trace of the Evil God in the dimensional storm!

“It dodged? No, it’s still there!”

Another Ultimate Legend attacked: a champion from a race of ordinary physical beings, he had turned his body in a great crystal prism of arcane crystallization after a long time, making him resemble a mountain in the Void. And now, the mountain quaked while innumerable runic spells charged—the radiance of the Great Mana Tide nearby was absorbed by the ultimate condensation and materialized into massive talons, sweeping through the Void as if catching something.

As the talons slashed past, a disorderly dimensional presence was forced out of the darkness. Lightless stardust swirled, revealing what appeared to be the true form of the Evil God of Disorder—but when the crystal talons were about to reach it, the senseless Evil God countered it directly, both of them thus colliding in the Void and kicking up fearsome tides of energy that engulfed surrounding worlds. Numberless Evil God spawns and even weaker Evil Gods were blasted away or reduced to dust.

Even in the first exchange, uncountable spawns of Chaos were obliterated, the shockwaves spreading and directly clearing out a spherical vacuum sector in the Void.

But that was certainly just the prelude. With the other Evil Gods rushing into the fortress chains consecutively, their unique information disturbance was having an effect on the battlefield as well. The other champions and fleets were also beginning to fight, intercepting the Evil Gods along with their escorting spawns.

The battlefield was an utter quagmire.

There was conflict and death wherever one would go. Countless spawns of Chaos were swarming everywhere like ants, detecting any chain of fortresses which were hidden beneath concealment formations. In the face of the assault by infinite enemies, fortresses were shattering regardless of sturdiness, taken or even self-destructing. In the bright perimeter, the radiance of exploding fortresses extended and died like supernovas without much trace left.

Each of those detonations meant the death of millions as well as dozens of fleets losing support, and could only be inundated by the inexhaustive tides of spawns that in turn added the death toll to countless. Even souls would be left without a trace under the corruption of Chaos.

Moreover, such a death would never actually be capable of leaving an insignificant trace upon the battlefield, or even a voice that could be remembered by anyone.

And such was war.