Soul of Searing Steel

In an instant, space and time became a purely conceptual number, and the time in which the Giant God transcended that number was ‘zero’. Amidst the violent explosions which was unobservable to anything and countless heavy thuds, the body of the Celestial Giant that was riddled with holes hence flew off and crashed heavily upon the Throne of Authority!

The entire Vault of Stars quaked wantonly as veins of cracks appeared expanded, seemingly indicating that its master was about to fall. However, just as Joshua intended to press on with his advantage after bursting with energy that could warp across the distance of light years, the Hall suddenly ceased trembling while the cracks stopped spreading. Despite being in pieces, Fattrovi rose again from the ground, and the wounds upon him vanished like illusions as well!

“Foreigner, you are truly powerful… so powerful that I could not imagine it. I have actually been killed one thousand one hundred and sixty-nine times by you simultaneously—there is little wonder that you could transcend the Void Vortex into my world.”

The stony, unchanging voice rang. Fattrovi appeared to be in awe, although his tone remained calm as ever.

“Even so, you would never triumph against I who control ‘past’ and ‘future’.”

Fattrovi stood again before the Throne of World Authority, now completely recovered from his endless grievous injuries. Spreading his arms, he displayed his unscathed body at Joshua, while divine stars over the skies emanated indescribable flashes.

—World Line one-zero-three-one-three. Struck by knifehand of mass disintegration. Half of body diminished. Evade.

—World Line five-nine-three-three-one. Skull hit directly by straight jab. Divine Rune shattered. Death on the spot. Evade.

—World Line eight-three-seven-eight. Parrying of ten thousand heavy blows failed. Energy constitution of body broken entirely, leaving only consciousness. Evade.

—World Line four-one-five-one-seven-seven…

Innumerable mirages of the future appeared and vanished, while the presence over Fattrovi’s body became gradually rich and powerful. He stood upon the center of the World Inner and stared at the Giant God of Steel that still had no intention of giving up, its starry gaze showing something that could be admiration or some other expression.

He would unquestionably be completely crushed if he faced his adversary in direct battle, and it would end up the same no matter what battle technique he used or how ruthless his mindset. The Foreigner before him simply did not fear trading wounds with wounds and had zero thoughts of ‘keeping self from harm’ in his goal to maim the enemy—he merely pursues victory and would achieve that by any means.

Be that as it may, even if that Foreigner had gone through a thousand battles and had slain incalculable foes, he would never beat him at this moment!

Inexhaustible thoughts crossed the Celestial Giant’s mind.

The Observer System was the ‘miracle’ that Fattrovi forged by pouring all of his wisdom and power!

***

If a world was isolated from without, with none observing it or noticing it, just as there are no minds observing it from the inside, then the world that sealed itself in its own shell did not exist for other worlds.

In the environment of utter isolation, the Observer ruled both past and future by himself. As long as he provided sufficient energy and data, providing a place for base particles and what information of substance they formed, it would not be difficult for him to destroy the world again and again and resurrecting it just as many times.

And Fattrovi had done so. He had driven away Simboa the Steel Python from its throne a thousand years ago to save the world, and he understood that single truth after grasping the world’s Authority.

Indeed, time did not exist and the past could not be relived—but if he could find data of how the world came to be, and simultaneously altered the Authority of ‘Human’, ‘World Will’ and ‘Sole Observer’, deceiving the world itself, he could shape the world as he saw fit!

It was the greatest authority that could whimsically change the world, even achieving the outcome of ‘rewinding time’!

Therefore, he sealed all Simboan intelligence and reduced all life into ignorance, removing the possibility of anyone struggling for the Authority of Sole Observer. Therefore, he harvested souls, stored energies, and waited for the timing to directly tamper the world. He built the network of Soul Stars to observe the entire world, record the process of change in all things so that he could revert all things to the state he recorded at any moment at his wish!

From a certain perspective, such was temporal regression, reliving history and loading a save-file, as long as everything happened after he began to record all thing. On the other hand, the time he wished to relive—the moments before the records and before he made his save-file—Fattrovi could never change.

That was why he exhausted all efforts so that he would progress to the zenith of Time and Destiny, so that he would become ‘God’—and then abandon Him.

All to link those Rivers.

The River of Existence was the current source of Fattrovi’s power. It was a strength from divinity, linked to the Source of the Multiverse, infinite energies and information. There, data of any possibility existing in the past or the future of the Multiverse were stored, and obtaining it was equal to omniscience and omnipotence, granting one rule over the Multiverse.

However, none could obtain it because even gods would gradually be assimilated by a single branching energy from the Source, not to mention that the Source itself was the assemblage of endless branches. It was impossible for any sentient beings to touch the Source of the Initial Flame—it was the one, inviolable iron rule.

But Fattrovi gave up on being a god. With divinity as medium, Soul Stars as energy source and a barrier, he opened that data stream which recorded all things and contained endless toxic, searching for the infinite details of Simboa, the past of Simboa he decided. He would find the path where all that he cherished lived and attain bliss—he would definitely reach that path!

[—Look, damned destiny!

So what if you killed and take away all that I cherished, reducing their souls to nothingness?

I still would reverse time and causality, reviving them from the impossible ‘Nothingness’!

Past and mistakes can be corrected, and I could resurrect the dead!

If time is pitiless, I shall have it reversed.

If destiny is unfathomable, I will force it to obey my commands!]

When a mad genius did all he could for something he desired, the world would be left astonished as Fattrovi strode on the path of his own objective, sprinting wildly toward along that road of faint hope.

But that was too difficult. As virtually infinite data surged, Fattrovi could only observe, and then gave up in disappointment time after time, switching World Lines. Even so, he would only relive hopeless pasts in his dreams, driving him to despair again and again.

Fattrovi was even prepared to not reach that perfect path even if he exhausted his life, and was prepared to make contingencies for the Soul Puppets to replace the Simboans and rebuild civilization.

Even so, a miracle was still a miracle. As long as the Observer System was activated, through the simulation from endless data and the Soul Star Network, Fattrovi would naturally be able to predict the future, to find possibility from the impossible—after the Observer System was energized, he could choose the single observable future which benefitted him the most! No matter how powerful his foe would be, there would hence be openings, and a chance for survival even if he faced an inescapable assault!

Such consumption of energy should have been an astronomical number. However, Fattrovi had isolated the world while the Void Vortex isolated its connection to the Multiverse. It was only in such a pure environment—Simboa, a world inside a shell, that the future of all things could be grasped by the Ruler of Destiny, and the flow of time would only obey the Time Turner’s command!

And his enemy would assuredly make a fatal mistake, do something illogical. Even if he would ignore him, the enemy would self-destruct due to an error occurring in his body’s energy circulation.

Right now, Joshua was in such a situation.

His indestructible body was slowly crumbling, just as his stable Nuclear Heart was developing errors rapidly. The once sturdy degenerate matter began to become sparse, and as if lightspeed had been decreased, so-called molecules were beginning to expand and develop all sorts of problems. Despite Joshua’s focusing to control his body so that it moved normally, mirages began to appear beside the warrior as well.

Those were the possibility of the Giant God of Steel dying and losing, as well as his remains. Degenerate matter disintegrating, Nuclear heart going berserk, his soul running wild or his energy core and soul engine self-imploding together— there more images showing Joshua’s defeat the more time passed, as if everything had happened.

Rumored had it that when a man made a choice, the possibility of the world would hence split as a parallel world would appear, and the infinite parallel worlds would in turn form another aspect of the Multiverse. The Observer could see any one of those possibilities from those worlds, and no matter how unthinkable it would be or how illogical, there would always be one possibility that fits your expectations.

And Fattrovi was a being who had grasped that power.

“When you chose to enter my world, you were destined for defeat.”

The cold voice echoed as the Celestial Giant charged forward again. He would destroy Joshua right then, completely vanquishing the Giant God that descended from beyond the world to destroy his plans!

In that instant, lightning rage across the World Inner. Dark blue radiance held down the silver giant god while brutal soul energies ignited even space itself, forcing soul fires to waft like smoke beneath the Vault. Clenching his right fist, Fattrovi struck out to utterly shatter the warrior’s Nuclear Heart!

He had predicted countless possibilities and estimated all types of possible countermoves from Joshua. However, Fattrovi had just as many backup moves. As long as his adversary could not block one, only defeat and defeat awaited him!

And the Giant God of Steel did as he predicted, forcing himself to endure the many errors and berserk in his body to counter. They hence exchanged blows a thousand times in an instant, bursting energy flow in the area moved at forty-five percent the speed of light, blurring any sort of movement. The world cried thus cried out again and again, for the two frightening beings were attempting to destroy each other at their full-power!

Ordinary beings simply would have no space to react at a battle at such speed. It was only through substantial experience, judging the other’s moves that there could be such tremendous attack and defense!

In the beginning, Fattrovi had victory in his grasp. However, after the battle prolonged to the third second, he sensed that things were not right. Then, after five seconds, he became bewildered, and as the fight lasted to the seventh second, the ever-calm Time Turner could not help exclaiming loudly inside.

“This is impossible!”

How could this be! It was only through Future Observation that he could predict Joshua’s every retaliation and every defensive opening, so how could the Foreigner be doing the same thing as well?! How could he never make a mistake after tens of thousands of exchanges, even allowing no ‘possibility’ for mistakes to exist?!

No, the Foreigner certainly had the possibility of making a mistake. But regardless of how he tried to bait and force and suppress the warrior to the point where he could almost not counter, he would never make a mistake, or risk himself by attacking… He clearly had the initiative and should have directly maimed his adversary with every move, killing the Giant God within the World Inner.

Even so, there was no way he could realize that ‘reality’!

The intense battle between the two spawned endless mirages behind them. Some showed Fattrovi’s own opening being struck true by the warrior fatally, just as there were others showing Joshua, unable to react in time and was directly split apart by the warrior. Millions of such images appeared and vanished, and were vague like fantasies.

Every single blow from both sides would spawn one, or multiple endings of death and defeat. However, mirages remained mirages—they would appear incessantly precisely because both sides had the possibility of avoiding every single one of them: With a vertical swipe of his leg, Joshua tore a huge crevice in space itself, the shrouded skies of Simboa visible from within. At once, there was a possibility appearing Fattrovi that he could not evade in time, and was cut apart by the waist, before his skull was crushed by the warrior.

Still, Fattrovi took one step back to avoid that blow, even countering it. The stars in the Celestial Giant’s body shone, and tens of thousands of heavy element rays rained upon Joshua. Those heavy elements that would form nuclear reactions easily would incessantly disintegrate the warrior’s body on contact, causing the sturdy degenerate matter to self-destruct: immediately, a mirage of the Giant God of Steel exploding appeared behind Joshua, for that was the possibility of him dying from his own body crumbling.

But that did not happen either.

It was then that Joshua, who had said nothing and stayed quiet for a long time finally spoke.

“You are definitely a genius… Using divinity to connect with the Source of the Multiverse, browsing through the world’s past and possibilities and selecting the future and past you desire. It’s a skill Mycroft had yet to develop.”

“But as long as it’s not a hundred percent, that possibility is frivolous.”

Yes, you can see the future and pick the one that benefits you. You can force me to reveal many openings and assault them—but as long as your victory is not a hundred percent, as long as the success rate of your exploitations on my vulnerabilities were not a hundred percent, it would not be inevitable.

And as long as it’s not inevitable, I would have the chance to succeed in defending and countering!

“As long as I could make my ‘present”perfect’, I’m impeccable against all past and future.”

The voice of the Giant God of Steel rumbled in the World Inner. “Only incomplete beings would commit mistakes or errors. To be struck down by such things would merely prove that I’m a weakling.”

If I could not do it with who I am now, I would definitely not do it even in a parallel world. But even if they fail and was wrong, it did not mean that I would fail and be wrong.

[I am the most perfect one of all parallel worlds. If I do not hold conviction over that, how could I call myself Joshua!]

Even if there was one chance out of a billion of victory, it did not mean the enemy would simply win, because those were mere ‘possible futures’ regardless of how one chose, and not absolute. Everything had not happened, everything was the present, and the future would never come for eternity!

The Giant God of Steel and Celestial Giant were briefly separated. One stood beneath the Vault of Stars, the other before the Throne of World Authority. The two glared at each other, judging the great foe before them whom they never encountered before.

One sought to eliminate all hope from profound, endless possibilities.

One searched for a hint of survival amidst the most unimaginable possibilities.

“To entrust your triumph upon your opponent’s mistakes… You’re simply too inferior.”

The stars shook from the deep and heavy voice. Amidst the distinct rumbling of trembling celestial bodies, Joshua did not step back and strode forward, as endless mirages of failures gathered, showing mountains of corpses and oceans of blood, accumulating hills of the Steel God corpses while planetary flames blazed upon him.

But the warrior’s stride remained immeasurably determined, never once hesitating.

So what if he failed? Anyone could fail. And to fight was to defeat that possibility, a ritual to grasp victory in hand!

“You could find every reason that I would fail, but that would never be the reason you would triumph against me—as long as I have the chance of beating you, as long as I would not surrender, you would never defeat me.”

“Destroying my future and breaking every World Line of my win is the only way I could defeat.” The man who never bowed to mere ‘Destiny’ and ‘Chance’ said quietly. “Can you do that? Fattrovi?”