Soul of Searing Steel

As if being engulfed by an overwhelming tide, the dimensions was now transformed into a tremendous vortex. The dark dimensional turbulence that held scattered specks of starry radiance raged amidst the Void, pulling every otherworld champion within range to an unknown destination.

The dimensional tide was so frightening that its aftershocks alone shattered some remains of artificial buildings around the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds and Fairyland. Those buildings were immeasurably sturdy—even if they had been floating amidst the turbulence since ancient times, time could not leave traces upon them, nor could dimensional turbulence pulverize them. However, beneath the massive force of the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds that rages across the Multiverse itself, those buildings were turned into dust.

And within the dimensional tide, the center of which the pressure far surpassed any aftershock, the six Legends that were coercively warped away were not helpless despite being caught unawares. Though pressure that could tear apart adamantite objects were certainly forceful, it would not destroy them. In the instant the warping was finished, Leviathan the Void Behemoth which had always inhabited the Void and extremely familiar with dimensional shifts bellowed a world reverberating cry—heavily swaying its ten-thousand-meter-long tail and striking the dimensional tide, violent gravity fields burst at once, causing violent turbulence the orderly warping vortex.

Seizing that opportunity, the other powerful beings moved in synchrony, intending to end the forced warp that was sending them who knows where. If resistance proved successful, they might really free themselves from the power of the Multiverse Sacrificial Ground.

The Mycroft faction, however, never once underestimated their opponents, and expected that in the first place.

“I knew it would be like that!”

In the center of the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds, Nostradamus, who was leading the super-scale world-transcendent teleportation spat out pale blue ‘blood’—soul energy given solid form. Laughing fearsomely once despite being dealt a violent feedback from the spell, the mage used his link with the massive server on the Void warship Apocalypse , gathering the processing power from the entire Information Terminal and stiffly complete the spell amidst the violent turbulence.

The processing power of the Northern Empire’s Information Terminal Network could monitor entire Imperial cities, as well as the movement of humans living in villages and the wild. That scale of processing outclassed even Legendary champions, but it comes at a great cost to control it as well: the moment the spell was finished, Nostradamus’s feet promptly gave in, and the elderly mage went down on his knees beneath the silver sun of the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds.

At the same time, the Commanding Will was also sending a warning to the Legendary champions who awaited their opponents.

“Alert—due to strong resistance against the ritual, unable to ascertain that enemies are divided—Alert, you may face multiple opponents!”

The warning, not sent by voice but by powerful soul signatures, transcended the dimensions and reached the ears of the waiting Legendary champions.

“It’s fine. For me, it’s the same facing anyone.

In the Seventh Abyss, Vahina the Eastern Sage was carefully studying the battlefield in the center of the world, focusing attentively on traces where Joshua once fought Pope Igor until the alert arrived. In return, the sage shook her head and turned toward the dimensional ripples that were gradually become violent, as well as that serpentine form that was faintly discernible.

She let out a short exclamation of surprise. “Weird. There’s presence of ether and psionic energy on that monster’s body.”

***

“Hmph… A big bastard.”

In a small, dying world near Mycroft, a weaponless dwarf wearing golden steel armor stood at the peak of a huge stone mountain. As he narrowed his eyes at Leviathan the behemoth that fell from the skies, the divine dwarven craftsman who had white hair and white beard sneered before stamping his feet—in a split second, with the rumbling thunder, the entire stone mountain started to sway. In a dozen seconds, when Leviathan crashed on the surface and quaked a region of dozens of miles like a tide, a mountain giant formed from an entire summit and subterranean stone layer was already standing aloft, shrugging off the dust over its body.

Standing above the head of the mountain giant, the divine craftsman stamped his feet again, and the giant’s skin thus simply turned into a layer of augmented steel, reflecting the radiance of energy emanating from Leviathan’s bod.

“What a coincidence,” he said softly. “A bastard I’m proficient against.

***

“Joshua said that we don’t have to kill our opponents… We just have to delay them, so that they won’t disturb the Seven Gods.”

In a demiplane thick with Nature’s presence amidst the Void, the Nature’s Magister stood over her domain, studying the unusual behemoth that appeared before her curiously.

The behemoth itself resembled a floating hill and possessed dozens of squid-like tentacles, its back grew full of various fungi and plants. Galanoud could tell that those were merely appearance, and that the true form of that otherworld behemoth was releasing sheer presence of life behind the fungi, plants, and tentacles.

However, she did not make a move.

“Strange, you don’t have ill intent,” she said, furrowing her brow.

“Then why are you here?”

***

In the Fairyland, the four powerful Fairy Queens looked at each other, materializing their bodies despite having become part of the world. Little palm-sized humans of four different colors, one of them puzzledly asked, “Strange… Why isn’t there anyone here?”

“Sent to other Legends, perhaps?”

“That’s not quite right. Apart from the few who are maintaining the seal and stopping the enemies, Barnil, William and the other Legends are patrolling the Void for more possible invaders… Wait, could it be you’re saying that those humans are underestimating us, which is why they are not giving us any opponents?” The most agitated fire element Fairy Queen thus promptly combusted in rage at once. “Damn it! When I….”

Before she could finish, the earth element Fairy Queen who was the most composed but also the weakest cut her short. “Don’t get upset. There must be some mistake with the warping: if we lack one enemy here, that means the others must be fighting one more.

“Right… That’s right!”

The other Fairy Queens blinked and sighed together in return. “But to prevent enemies from escaping, the power of the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds has sealed our worlds that would act as battlegrounds, so we can’t offer support…”

“Who could be that unlucky?”

***

Meanwhile, the Demon Generals Helm and Saluka that were still inside the dimensional turbulence did not know who could be that unlucky, only that they were not teleported directly to a different world like the other invading champions. Circles of dimensional ripples quaked faintly around the bodies of the two Demon Generals, resisting the power of the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds. Though it could not stop the forced warping, it could elongate the interim of the warping, granting the ambushed Demon Generals time to react.

“His Majesty foresaw things again… If not for the Abyssal Will’s barrier, we would have been thrown to the enemy’s home turf.”

Focusing and adjusting the energy flow in its body, Saluka, the Insectoid Demon General did its best to complete its combat form, even as it grumbled to Helm the Beholder Demon General beside it. “I said, it’s not time yet… We must wait until Mycroft weaken and were at their most chaotic when we invade—His Majesty may have once prophesized of their deterioration and fall, hence carving out a plan… But it’s clearly not the case.”

“Fate never stays the same, and foreseeable destinies are not set in stone. Mycroft is powerful, so it’s not unusual that one or two champions who could change fate appeared.”

Beside it, Helm was adjusting its form as well.

“That’s why we’re here, to ascertain the fact…” it replied calmly. “Only us failures would be sent to execute such missions.”