Soul of Searing Steel

But just when the hand of the Giant God reached out and clawed at the spiritual fungal strain that the Great Khan turned into, Joshua promptly felt something out of place.

Whatever the case might be, the Great Khan should not be that weak—his opponent was simply not inadequate.

In the spiritual space filled with wails and bold trumpeting, the massive hand slowly unclenched, revealing the soul of the Great Khan grasped within. But as he observed the Great Khan’s soul that had somehow lost all resistance, Joshua realized the cause at once.

It was the Evil God of Wither’s power.

The Great Khan’s soul had wilted by several folds for some time, its colossal world-sized body shrunk into a strain of fungi filled with black dots. The darkness of Chaos corruption was spread all over it, revealing a frightening scent of rot.

If one were to say that the Great khan had no physical ability and scored 80 points in soul ability, Joshua’s soul development—even after breaking through the essence of Soul Mastery—was a mere 5. The Great Khan’s power in soul and spirit aspects could simply crush Joshua, and none in Mycroft might best it.

And yet, Joshua knew Soul-Substance Transition, and on his home turf. That is why he could convert his own physical prowess almost without cost, shifting it into a spiritual aspect.

Furthermore, Joshua’s physical development was unquestionably beyond 100 points.

Between the two, the Great Khan might have the ability to fight equally against Joshua when it controlled the bodies of genuine Void Behemoths, but it chose to fight the warrior alone and forced itself into a disadvantage. On the other hand, it certainly made the right choice in choosing the absolute advantage of spiritual intrusion, but Joshua, who had developed ‘Immortal Flesh’ was utterly unaffected.

Still, after Joshua had undergone Soul-Substance Transition, he would have done nothing other than subjugate the Great Khan in the soul aspect and banish it—it was unreasonable for things to unfold as it did, for him to clench it so easily in his palm as if a sparrow.

“Well, it’s fortunate I didn’t forget my true purpose… oh, right—I crashed into it and then down to the planet where the Evil God was sealed. It would be weird if there’s no effect at all.”

Placing his conflict with the Great Khan’s race aside, Joshua shifted his full attention to the Chaos corruption.

To put it unpleasantly, it was a crime to allow Void Behemoths devour and thus destroy many living worlds, and placing that evil upon its race had turned out to be a case of resisting arrest after daylight robbery. Evil Gods, however, was an antithesis to human, world and all societal sins—their tiniest fragments must be obliterated at once and banished down to the deepest circle of hell.

Against Evil Gods, the Great Khan could even be considered an ally.

Thus, Joshua mustered his power and drummed the Steel Strength in his body and then promptly injected Steel Strength into the Great Khan’s body. Like concentrated sulfur poured into a cultivation room filled with fungus and moss, it began to dispel Chaos in an extremely horrible manner.

With a shrill wail, the sheets of Chaos spots began to fade in color, vanishing as the turbid malevolence dispersed in a puff of smoke. The Great Khan’s soul that was wilting and unresponsive thus rapidly recovered, although there was a gaping wound where it was corrupted, which could take some time to truly heal.

***

Meanwhile, back in reality, veins of Chaos tentacles appeared once again on the large, broken planet.

Earth and seawater had long since rot into an unusual viscous liquid, a turbid substance between liquid and solid states bubbling as if magma. As strips of gray plants rose from the earth, resembling throbbing arteries but with unknown purpose, Chaos energy began to corrupt the entire planet.

Perfection, peace.

Richness, harmony.

Those were the enemies of life.

As tidal waves of Chaos stirred upon where the former continent had been, countless remnant data shards wafted between heaven and earth. Hub Accrafa thus raised a sturdy, thick Order barrier, and as the turbid tides churned, everyone within appeared to hear an unemotional voice.

‘Life neither requires perfection nor peace, richness nor harmony. All life and all things require competition to develop, for in absolute safety all would be corrupted, weakening and therefore be destroyed.’

Priest appeared to see some illusion of a race that attained greatness from competition and dire situations, only to ruin itself in security and peace. Nonetheless, being not his mentor and having only trained up to manipulating gravity in Steel Strength, he did not have the strength to continue examining the memories after that brief glance into the cover page.

“What’s going on outside?”

Grabbing tightly on a protrusion inside the control room, Alchemists exclaimed in panic. “Hey, weren’t reinforcements here already? Why is there no one here to save us?!”

“It’s bad out there,” Caster said calmly, “the Evil God has really awakened and is venting some bad sleep.”

With that, Rider mumbled quietly, “We’re still alive now because Hub Accrafa still has power. We’re screwed when it depletes.”

He was voicing the inescapable truth.

That being said, nobody likes inescapable truths.

At present, Priest was holding the handles of the controller seat tightly while Sol held his waist tightly. Otherwise, everyone would have been churned as if egg yolk into a muck of flesh at the rate Hub Accrafa was rolling in the tides of Chaos.

Having obtained clearance, Priest was the one most aware of the current situation, which was why his expression was grim and gloomy.

“My mentor is probably fighting with the Evil God… Regardless of who held an advantage, both sides probably won’t have the effort to spare for us…”

Knowing his mentor’s personality and that the warrior had perhaps rushed here at once for himself and the others, Priest remained conscious that the presence of the Evil God, an enemy of Order meant his own pupil and the exploration party had lowered priority. Though they were not demoted to the point of negligible, Joshua would not give up on any opportunity to subjugate the enemy: Count Radcliffe was a man very clear on categorizing, which was also a reason Priest revered him.

At present, the entire shattered planet was visibly shrouded in turbid gray Chaos rot, the once green and lively world presently resembling an unusually shaped sea urchin of soft tentacles with artificial limbs. Abominations weaved from flesh and plant roots spread throughout the world, reaching towards the empty Void as endless needles.

The malice of the awakened Evil God appeared intent on corrupting and devouring the entire world.

However, amidst a gale of energy that raged violently even in the vacuum of the universe, a terrible rumble reverberated upon the dark side of the planet where the Void Crab and the Giant Steel God crashed! Dozen thousands of Chaos needles were pulverized in the violent shockwave as if trees in a typhoon, just as Joshua’s body which had been at the center of the crash crater directly vanished, leaving only bottomless footprints and tremor fissures that spread ceaselessly from them.

In the very next instant, Priest and the others suddenly felt Hub Acraffa ceased its bumpy rolling, a sensation replaced by rapid ascension instead—the Elite Party did not realize what happened at first, but when Hub Accrafa’s automated control systems issued the voice notification ‘Allied Legend detected’, all of them understood in great delight.

“Mentor!”

Priest clenched both fists as he stared fixedly through the observation window of Hub Accrafa at the silver mist surging outside, knowing that himself and the others had been extracted from the planet where the Evil God was. He even saw a giant hand holding the bulk of Hub Accrafa, carrying them and flying rapidly towards the Void.

However, just when Priest and the others thought that Joshua was carrying them to the Void, the Giant Steel God suddenly relaxed his grip and flung them as if he was shot putting them towards the edge of the world. Then, as he quickly turned to descend back into the planet of Chaos, the Elite Party and Sol understood that they had been overthinking.

In the very next instant, they saw that the dark grey planet of Chaos that was slowly reverting to its perfect sphere form once more, a colossal basin that was one fourth the planet’s surface and ten thousand meters deep promptly appeared!

Boo—oom!!!

The Giant Steel God completely freed every shackle over himself, and launched his weight that was comparable to a small world on the Evil God of Wither. That power was certainly not something that Chaos corruption could handle—tidal waves, earthquakes, cyclones as well as various calamities that never existed upon Mycroft raged at once upon that unnamed otherworld, and at the heart of the raging stream of energy, Joshua stood over the boundless rot of Chaos, just as the pulsars on his shoulders that whirled urgently flashed once again.

Joshua descended upon the planet that had cratered deeply due to the blast of Lightspeed Punch again.

If Joshua’s previous position could only destroy the planet’s crust and part of its mantle down to a seven hundred-thousand-meter depth, he could now shatter the entire outer mantle transition layer and reach the lower mantle that was one million and four hundred fifty thousand meters deep below.

Any typical planet might have broken into pieces from his single punch—but an Evil God existed in this one.

Therefore, not only it did not shatter, the basin swiftly closed and leveled itself behind Joshua, as if intending to consume the warrior into its bowels.

But unexpectedly, Joshua had an ally this time.

At the top of the world, dark green Nature Power reappeared. A giant vine smoothly extended to catch Hub Accrafa which had been thrown by Joshua towards safety albeit with excessive force, ceasing its long process of bumpy acceleration due to the unbridled G-force produced.

Then, having seen that Joshua was in a melee against the Evil God, hence reluctant and unable to approach, the Nature’s Magister came up with a brilliant idea.

Thus, as massive vines the pulled, the nine moons that were already slowly descending upon the planet abruptly plummeted.