Soul of Searing Steel

Soon, intelligent life was molded, one after another.

On the magma island, pure elementals appeared. With burning winds and light, veins of fiery light without fixed form and only faint radiance weaved through the magma: their shapes were different and not of the same species, but their remarkably similar habits made them appear identical. At the same time, massive draconic lizards with heavy shells appeared over the mouth of volcanos alongside serpentine creatures with runic scales.

Unlike the other beasts, the eyes of these creatures glinted with the illumination of intelligence. Now, however, they were in a state of brief blankness—what Joshua remolded were not individuals from bygone civilizations, but heroic spirits, given form once again through the memories of their entire civilization. They had no personal memories or emotion, but a crude collective consciousness although they were much more alike to genuine lifeforms.

In the single instant they had been created, the unlimited memories of creatures over thousands of years appeared in their minds. Raging waves stormed in their minds as an unquenchable thirst appeared by their mouths. They would not know where that bizarre vigor inside them came from, nor the reason for it.

Beams began to shoot out from the silver star and stabbed into the many obelisks, each shade solidifying and growing the heroic spirits of civilizations.

Still, as things were turning out great, Joshua suddenly made a dull grunt at the center of the world.

With a rumble as if the limit was reached, many mental organs attached outwardly reddened and melted from the excessive heat as silver mist puffed out from around it, billowing piles of smoke. More than that, the fixed central server inside the silver star also emitted something akin to a wail, with the star itself flashing in static as if from a bad connection.

“…It seems that my ability is not enough to conjure that many prototypes of intelligent life.”

Joshua could not help but frown as he felt each of his mental organs breaking one after another. He knew that such was his limit.

If it were ordinary sentient creatures, Joshua could have created a nation’s population instantly—it was not extreme for him to create an entire race alone. Moreover, the warrior could create normal flora and fauna that had no intelligence and undemanding in details across long distances over the Void, projecting them to fill multiple different worlds like before.

However, what he was creating from world memories were not mundane intelligent individual, but heroic spirits composed of unlimited memories and knowledge. These individuals might not be able to apply the knowledge and martial skills in their memories, but they possess infinite possibilities and were actual representations of their own worlds, prototypes of intelligence.

In Joshua’s plan for the future, when the abilities of the heroic spirits take shape, Joshua would dump those intelligent beings out of his world so that they would find a world suitable for themselves in the Void. They would act from that point, creating their own Adam and Eve before leading them in their comeback to the galactic stage.

They had that potential, and are aware of each error their civilization made… as the priest Ned Ransome had said back on Earth, if everyone in this world could live again, half of them would be great humans—there were only occasions where failures brought forth realization.

One way or the other, Joshua gave them form as if conjuring little worlds. However, his ability may not be able to succeed with a single stride to provide all his spawns with actual form.

“…This is quite enough. Reviving too much on one go would leave my own world in shambles and broken energy circulations as well…”

Inhaling deeply, Joshua restored his mental organs and central servers, shaking his head before looking below at the land and islands around him.

The progress of creating prototypes of intelligent creatures was hence paused, with warrior deciding to revive more species after his world enlarged. Additionally, Joshua would naturally be responsible for them since he had decided to awaken all of them—however, it was unnecessary to put them on a single pile even when they live in similar environments since he could do better.

Over the nine floating islands and the silver continent on the bottom, the creatures on the first level—the magma island had mostly gained form. There were fewer species on the continent and the other islands, especially the continent that was allocated form certain species of special attributes, where an aerial jellyfish that lived in thunderclouds wafted over it.

That creature was a species that lived in a marine world filled with raging thunderstorms and communicated with electromagnetic signals. The magnetic field and incessant thunder over the entire were their source of vitality and energy, and those fine conditions allowed them to develop an extremely advanced magical civilization.

But as civilization progressed, the jellyfishes attempted to inscribe magical runes upon the planet’s atmosphere to create an eternal environment of augmented electromagnetism. It was such a grand plan of world alteration that it left all their efforts in vain—each of them imagined that their diligence in the construction would make things go smooth, but it instead perpetually altered the global electromagnetic cycles to the point that the ecosystem which once sustained them collapse, and they thus went extinct.

Now, the clumsily charming jellyfish were sparking with bolts in the lightning ocean created especially for them and played with the bolts. They may be the finest designer of electromagnetism in the galaxy that even pure elementals would not compare in terms of mana control, with the runic tentacles they evolved especially.

***

As Joshua surveyed the world inside his body and minutely adjusted the positions of various species in his world, divine radiances of six different colors transcended the multitude of Abyss, following the Great Mana Tide’s power into the former Abyssal Paradise.

“There.”

The violet light was the first to discover the trail of that world and pointed towards the bottom of the Vortex, a turbulent zone of black and white. At that, the other six divine lights made a beeline for the direction she pointed.

“The form of the Vortex of Creation had already taken shape,” the blue divine light said as it arrived at the turbulent zone. “There is even the old dimensional pressure—while it wouldn’t compare to the previous state or the Chaos condensation before, the pressure meant that everything is on the right track.”

“It’s a matter of time for the Vortex of Creation to be restored.” The steel-grey divine light replied. “And yet time is our greatest issue.”

By observing the Multiverse, the gods had long since discovered a path of darkness in other galaxies beyond this one. It was the sign that multiple Evil Gods were advancing together, a trail of destruction they left after devouring the stars, with their path clearly leading to the Lost Galaxy where Mycroft was.

It was estimated that incalculable ranks of Evil Gods would come one after another in four to five decades, and they would have to prepare sufficiently before that.

“We are revived, and our foes are returning. They would attack even more viciously this time, but at least it would not be as sudden as it was before.”

The pure-white divine light said calmly. “If it’s a direct confrontation and not an ambush, we would have been pulled into such a difficult battle before.”

“But there would be far more enemies this time.” The pale golden divine radiance pointed out. “While they would not have the support of demonic legions from the Abyss and there won’t be unreasonable class of Evil Gods such as Fertility, we won’t have the Sage’s support this time.”

“Which is why we are putting our hopes and wagers upon that person.”

The pale-emerald godly radiance descended in a spiral, shaping into a patterned line that darted at the silver world. “If our mentor achieved the objective he set before he left in four to five decades, the Evil Gods would fall without a fight,” he said quietly but steadily, “but if he didn’t and this one becomes another being of that caliber, it would be just another Final Battle.”

“Indeed,” the other five divine beings laughed silently. “It’s just another Final Battle.”

“And if we die this time, it would probably be eternal.”

***

In the silver world, Joshua sensed the familiar divine forces approaching.

He heard the God of Reformation and Conservation speaking to him.

“Let us hasten away, Joshua.”

With the warrior’s permission, the divine projection of the dwarven god appeared beside the star. As he looked around inside the world, Ezerg then added, “The Vortex of Creation is forming, and the dimensional pressures are increasing—even you would be bounced away… huh. What are those fellows, your new spawns?”

Joshua was aware of the dimensional pressure the other spoke of. With energy having gathered to a certain threshold, the energy in the Vortex of Creation would simply repel any presence of a certain level. A case in point is the newly formed worlds, which would be bounced away from the dimensional pressure to corners of the galaxy.

It was also why even True Gods had time remaining in this place: it was equivalent to a mortal facing a class seventeen typhoon that could blow them away anytime.

“They count I guess.” Joshua did not elaborate, sensing that the six gods were approaching his main body seemingly to help leave the Darkest Abyss. Still, the warrior was not about to leave at once what with his own plans, and therefore linked himself to the others. “Wait, everyone. I’m not in a hurry to leave.”

“The Vortex of Creation had just formed and it was barely a day its domain took shape. Its repulsive force is not that great, and as a world, I benefit greatly from that domain.”

As he spoke, Joshua demonstrated why he would stay at the depths of the Darkest Abyss. Silver Steel Strength billowed, and voluminous Steel Particles that followed the Great Mana Tide and waves of Chaos were swirling around the silver Steel realm, and then absorbed within.

Two immeasurable, contravening forces of black and white formed a distinct swirl in the Darkest Abyss, and Joshua was at the heart of it.

Like how Simboa was the center of the Void Vortex, Joshua’s present world was at the very heart of the Vortex of Creation—naturally, both swirls were different: though fearsome, the Void Vortex was similar to a typhoon that would not hurt the world in the eye of the storm, while the Vortex of Creation was a genuine swirl which center was the most turbulent spot.

That being said, it was also the richest zone for Steel Particles and various material flow.

In the silver metallic world, misty tentacles that arose like a sun’s corona deliberately drew every beneficial substance and Stele Particles for itself, enriching the elements of its realm. Even the raging, hidden flows were nothing for Joshua’s immeasurably sturdy body which was blessed by multiple gods, not to mention that Joshua strength grows as the dimensional pressures heightened.

While the Vortex of Creation grew quicker than Joshua’s strengthening, it would also significantly delay the time before the warrior was repelled, allowing the silver world to benefit a lot more in that environment.

Joshua certainly had his point that even the six gods paused.

They had imagined that the warrior would be exhausted after the battle and hence descended to the Darkest Abyss, but never imagined that it was a deliberate plan… They were even more pleased since they need Joshua to be powerful—if he benefited from that extreme environment, they won’t mind helping me.

Thus, six-colored godly light whirled around the silver world, sprinkling folds of divine power, manifesting into a great formation that captures Steel Particles around Joshua’s body.

As the six gods readied themselves to help accelerate Joshua’s Steel Particle and material absorption, the God of Reformation and Conservation surveyed the inside of Joshua’s world with a puzzled gaze.

With his sight as a powerful Legend before he became a god, Ezerg could certainly tell that there were similarities between the world inside Joshua’s body with Project Rebirth: though they were fundamentally different since Project Rebirth was supposed to be a supercontinent that holds near limitless energy source, the energy for the silver world come only from Joshua.

“How do you intend to build this world?”

The dwarven god asked, appearing trying to help. “I know a little about create a demiplane core and a supermassive engine… it certainly is nothing compared to you at present, but it might hold connection by analogy.”

For his part, Joshua certainly would not refuse the kindness of a god. It was as Ezerg said: he had definitely mastered world building and decimation engine, but those advanced abilities were costly and he would not use them unless facing foes such as Evil Gods. In fact, the skills Ezerg provided would compensate for the lacking of his usual fighting style.

Also, the skill to shape a demiplane was essentially no simpler than creating a world. In the end, the latter only requires vast stores of Steel Strength to be converted into Steel crystallizations, before… blowing it up. On the other hand, demiplanes was a more detailed technique: it was the creation of an independent space between the bubbles of world and space, less consumption of resource with the depth of being improved into an actual world.

Even if the Fairy Queens did not cultivate their demiplane into a world, it was simply because the Queens themselves lacked some key elements. When the fairies prospered, with two or three Legends appearing amongst them, ‘Fairy World’ would come to be sooner or later.

As for how Joshua wanted to build his own world…

“To tell the truth, I gained much useful experience from the Great Khan of the Starherders, and their Void Behemoths.”

Joshua watched the nine floating islands surrounding the stars that could one day become nine planes. He could not suppress a grin as he imagined the future, before revealing his plans to Ezerg. “World is life, and the creatures living in it is a single form and part of a greater being.”

Now, one of the faces of the silver star abruptly erupted with powerful light. Embodying great energies, it shot directly at the magma island.

In less than one second, the life on the magma island felt the high energy presence. While still at a blank memory state, their physical instincts allowed them to simultaneously apply the Extraordinary abilities cultivation unique to their former civilization: almost all the creatures that could live in magma were able to reach that power and adapt to the sudden heat and radiance.

Soon, as elements whirled and ether fluctuated, the light of mana and lifeforce shone together. Joshua deliberately allowed substantial energies to burst like and be absorbed by the intelligent creatures in the magma island, subsequently split into different types of Extraordinary powers.

“The magma island is the energy conversion zone I had in mind. The life in that level possess strong abilities to alter energies, and would convert my raw form of Steel Strength and pure heat into other supernatural powers to assure its balance in this world.”

Joshua laughed softly as he watched the magma island. “A world that only holds Steel Strength would never nurture powerful beings—I myself had only obtained my present power after transcending many worlds.”

Soon, excess Extraordinary power sprinkled away from the magma island down to the second level—the tropical island. The multitude of supernatural forces was drawn in by the local insects and plants and processed, grown into fruits or stored as rations. The other portion, its searing scent from the magma island purified by the tropical islands would continue forward to the third level, the ocean island.

There, the heat and light from the star, as well as the supernatural energies from the upper islands would sediment into piles of minerals and crystals beneath the oceans and food for behemoths. Some would also flow away downstream along the tides that poured like a waterfall down into the continental, mountain and flatland islands below.

On those landmasses, energy and matter would be processed intricately once absorbed by intelligent life. Like how mana could be categorized into ‘occult spells’, ‘arcane spells’ and ‘magical power’ or how psionic energy could be split into ‘meditation’, ‘fervor’ and ‘origin strength’, supernatural powers processed to such extent was an advantage for the world itself, since vast and rich Extraordinary environments could grow more powerful generations.

Meanwhile, the desert, glacier and subterranean islands that followed were special cases, each hosting their own cycles. Like the silver continent, they produce unique resources and Extraordinary abilities, connecting the circulations between the floating islands and the continent albeit indirectly and without any heroic spirits residing within.

All while the silver star illuminated and watched over everything at the center of the world.

“Worlds are factories, just as it is an exam…”

Joshua said silently, watching his own realm. “And the many thousand species are the workers and the students sitting for the exam.”

“I’m in charge of providing raw materials, while they build—this is the nursery to establish civilizations, and I anticipate such a day where the fruits of these failures ripen so that I could throw them out. Those heroic souls that had passed practical assessments and examinations and made evident that they could rebuild their own society would hence return to the stars, and become our help.”

As he spoke, Joshua lowered his head at the realm of floating islands, his gaze brimming with confidence.

He keenly awaited the coming of such a day.

He was convinced that it would.