Soul of Searing Steel

Joshua’s body crumbled entirely, breaking apart into wafting dust.

Even so, a sharp spiritual radiance held on steadfastly in the mist of Steel Strength, protecting the now-shining Φ formation unyieldingly.

Death was just the beginning.

The destruction of the flesh was merely the start of the fight. So-called death was merely the conversion between form—even if substance crumbled and Order collapsed, they would shift, becoming energy and Chaos. The Initial Flame would thus burn it, allowing all that had perished to return to the world in new forms.

Understanding that and using it as the crux of one’s own power, one would become a superior being: indestructible, immortal and eternal. As he turned his last physical form into spiritual form, Joshua applied the spiritual combat he learned from the Great Khan to keep fighting the Chaos any way he could!

Ten seconds.

The Φ formation shone to its utmost.

Even Joshua’s spirit form was almost crumbling into ashes.

Now, the entire formation and Joshua’s utterly broken soul fragment had been dragged to the very front of the sealing core. The warrior’s minced soul fragments were clearly being absorbed within, becoming a part of that endless Chaos.

That was when the warrior let out his final roar.

“Now!”

***

“Now!”

Over the seven rings of Abyssal seals, the six deities that had been watching as things unfolded in the Darkest Abyss cried out in one voice. As their true forms mustered their full power, and the holy crests were aflame in blinding blaze, turning the once dark Abyss into a divine domain of myriad colors.

Meanwhile, at the center of the World of Mycroft, within the Infinite Horizon that had merged with the realm itself, seven streaks of endless godly radiances awakened from their dormancy, freed from their thousand-year seal.

Purple-green, ablaze yet dim… the light of the God of Love and Death.

Pitch-black, stable but dark… the light of the God of Might and Justice.

Sky-blue, asymmetrical yet repetitive… the light of the God of Order and Destruction.

Pale-emerald, orderly but scattered… the light of the God of Law and Freedom.

Faintly-golden, complex yet distinct… the light of the God of Wisdom and Choice.

Steel-gray, stubborn yet volatile… The light of the God of Conservation and Reformation.

Pure-white, flickering in boundless vigor, the light of the God of Life.

Power so great it far exceeded the true forms of the Seven Gods began to well out from the Infinite Horizon.

[Divine Power]

The profound might of the Gods originated from the Root. It appeared linked directly to the Initial Flame, and contained the purest and greatest forces of the world. Even so, using it takes a toll, as it was akin to having a person drawing water from a dam by tunneling a small hole over it: Despite the endless resource, they had to take notice if the size of the hole was under their control—too small and too little Divine Power would make ascending as a god meaningless, but drawing too much that it exceeds their own control, the hole would break, turning into a surging flow that blasts away their very existence.

Divinity was hence a zenith in aspects of spirit and ideals. It could even manifest as a certain form of core, maintaining the existence of a deity’s own will. Though divinity would alter their personality and thoughts, they would still assimilate into the boundless Root of the Multiverse if they did not radicalize.

Gods and divine powers are like a tap and the water in the reservoir—before a god perished, they would never be able to unleash abilities beyond their limit. There was also almost no method to store divine power since it would always return to the Root and could only be used on temporary capacity, with only special objects or places able to preserve it over long periods.

Incidentally, the Infinite Horizon was such a place.

It never belonged to any god since the Glorious Era, and no human or deity would care to occupy it for themselves even if they were desperate for property—for there was nothing in the Horizon apart from a sheet of serene, controlled Void.

It was Horizon of Infinity, a setup to store divine power created by the gods, for the gods.

The divine power stored and scattered by the Seven Gods around the Infinite Horizon welled beyond. As peasants of Mycroft looked up to the heavens, a great rainbow bridge formed over the infinite clouds beneath the sun and the twin moons. Beyond light and darkness, the seven-colored divine forced had made a rainbow that transcends world and Void, reaching into the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds!

At the same time, every Legend, Supreme and Gold that were teleporting through the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds to pacify the rising conflicts over the galaxy, suddenly realized that the entire facility had stopped working. Even the Commanding Will had ceased answering their requests, falling into silence.

As the excess outlets were closed and every surplus processing paused, the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds fired on all cylinders as it integrated its power like never before. Though it was merely a base, the greatest creation of the Glorious Era possessed Multiverse-class power, a class above galactic-class! At the moment that the pinnacle creation of a civilization ran on full power, everything from planets, divine power, destruction, and creation was within the reach of a single thought from the Commanding Will.

“Searching coordinates… location of Φ confirmed. Label: Depths of the Abyss, Abyssal Paradise, Darkest Abyss.”

Within the Silver Sky Radiance at the center of the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds, an emotionless voice spoke as the Commanding Will executed every command primly, thus commencing the most profound teleportation since it was built.

“Teleport subject codenames: Infinite Divine Power, Steel Star. Commencing delivery of power, calculation of Multiverse coordinates and delivery path.”

The entire Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds was now filled with the divine power of the Seven Gods. The many people working there or waiting for their turn to be teleported paused in shock where they were—even so, they could hear the emotionless yet steady voice of the Commanding Will ringing.

“Multi-Quadrant Teleportation commencing.”

***

In that very moment, the borders between all dimensions were utterly distorted by an incomparable power.

At the depths of the Darkest Abyss, Joshua’s body and soul were all ash, leaving only a small cluster of insignificant steel mist that staunchly remained around the Φ formation. Nonetheless, there would be nothing left in the thousandth of a second with the endless erosion of Chaos—beneath that absolute power, even the Steel Strength that could have eroded the Chaos in return was being crushed helplessly.

But in that single instant that was shorter than the thousandth of a second, the lowest fraction of time…

The dimensions were twisted.

The silver world that was wrapped in seven-colored divine power—an incomparably massive Star of Steel hence abruptly appeared in the center of the Darkest Abyss!

In that second, Chaos cried in the most profound of anguish.

Oom—oom!!!

Wild waves thus stirred in the black ocean of Chaos. Thus, the inexhaustive substances of Chaos, world fragments and Steel ashes began to pour towards that silver world—in no more than a few seconds, the giant silver star whirled, its black accretion disk thus appearing outside the world that was forming, the seven-shaded Divine Power covering it and shaping into a massive Φ.

The circle was the form of the star and the vertical line its accretion disk. As the whirling Star of Steel stirred the flow of substance, ‘World’—the warrior’s most powerful and perfect combat form appeared before the first opponent he had to fight at full power after he had Ascended!

The fragments of Chaos and worlds, Steel Particles as well as the radiance of the Seven Gods’ divine power wafted like snowflakes and surged like a deep-sea tide beside the silver realm. Around the warrior, all power, from that stored by the Seven Gods over a thousand years and contained in Joshua’s own body, all that could be used had gathered into a single star that flashed in the Darkest Abyss.

Joshua absorbed the Steel mist that his own clone had left. Those were his memories, and he had thought that he would have been considering many things—the blessings of the Seven Gods, the secrets that the God of Conservation and Reformation revealed, the sacrifice of the God of Might and Justice, the self-destruction of the Demon King’s soul shards… he had imagined that he would be emotional, sighing, in awe and ponderous.

But in truth, the warrior thought nothing.

***

“It’s time for battle.” Joshua van Radcliffe told himself.

At the center of the Abyssal Paradise, the dimmed runes left by the sage suddenly shone for an instant. The calm Chaos composite was hence ruffled, and while chunks of Chaotic condensation pulled the silver world towards itself, it was also being pulled by the silver world towards itself and crushed at its accretion disk, thus transmuted into a brighter silver luminous shroud.

Then, the Star no longer remained where it was, and charged towards the core of the seal.

At the silent depths of sealing core, divine light shone as the world tore a trail out of the Void, the bellowing Star blowing past all things. With the support of endless divine power, the infinite Chaos was ignited in the wild Darkness of the Abyss. Flames of deep crimson burned as if boiling blood, just as silver mist billowed along a blazing inferno, engulfing everything like the storm inside the warrior’s heart.

The Silver Star, gathering all power, crashed into the sealing core.

In the instant that even the world lost all meaning, a sound could be heard.

Crack.

Like the many sounds of divine barriers shattering before, the echoes endless fractures arose, instantly spreading over infinite distance.

Thus…

The runes over the sealing core hence broke amidst boundless rumbling!