Soul of Searing Steel

The Zeta Ram system, the edge of the Galaxy of Beginnings.

The continent that had been utterly altered on the Zeta Ram World.

The world that was now all gray resembled a flat, white piece of paper from afar. Even the ocean was covered in scattered but orderly grey specks. Veins of pale-blue runic patterns akin to a circuit board permeating each speck flashed between brightness and dimness, absorbing all energies across the world, from atmosphere to planet core.

A black metallic building as massive as a city sat on the border between sea and continent. Saucer-shaped with two parallel lofty twin towers at the center, thunder flickered in between the towers, as mana that could cause a world to quake gathered and assumed the form of a pale-blue vortex four thousand meter wide. A ten-thousand-meter dimensional rift hence hung atop the twin towers, fluctuating.

Whoosh —rain descended. Exceedingly unusual mana condensed water vapors to darken the skies and icy rain poured. Damp air soaked all things, creating a cycle that returned the gathered mana into the ground.

Beneath that dark, sinister sky and rain from condensed magical energy, an old, white-haired man stood at the core of the Dimensional Hub, calibrating the frequency of the entire station with magical energy.

Twenty-seven screens flowed with endless information before the old man’s eyes, the complex runes on every corner of each screen acting like a divine tome. One glance would have directly poured concentrated knowledge and power into the heart of mortals, rendering them unconscious if they were fortunately, insane if they were not.

The elderly man was in full concentration, disregarding all focus on the physical world, abandoning the shell that remained in reality.

In that very moment, a silhouette hidden in nothingness emerged upon the physical realm. With an abrupt burst of psionic energy, a figure that existed between reality and fantasy wielded a myriad divine power—a blade of divine energy that could decimate and assimilate everything—and stabbed the back of the old man’s head with the might of thunder!

Everything happened within microseconds. The ambusher’s incorporeal form was not obstructed and cut through everything like a ray. It had not merely intended to break the old man’s brain, but to destroy the Dimensional Hub along with its core!

The old man remained totally unaware, showing no reaction and allowed it to attack away.

But as the attacker delighted in the belief that his objective was achieved, the blade of divine energy crumbled and was reduced to golden particles spread across the skies at the instant it was about to touch the elderly man’s skin. Wrong-footed, the attacker simply fell full-body onto the old man before being likewise repelled and disintegrating into psionic particles.

Rechecking positions and removing thousands of excess or erroneous teleportation paths, Barnil finally had the time to look around, frowning at the golden psionic particles and cursing quietly, “Rascals never learn their lessons.”

More than twenty-days ago, ambushers from advanced alien civilizations had crossed the perimeter of the galaxy’s fringes to assassinate Barnil and destroy the Dimensional Hub. There had not been a lack in powerful beings whose abilities reached Legendary status and whose presence were stronger than the old mages.

Even so, the Dimensional Hub was a clone of the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds in an alien galaxy. Would the other civilizations have easily comprehended its grand applications? Barnil stopped every champion’s ambush through it, keeping them on the other side of the dimensions, but the net remained too large—the whales could be stopped but not the shrimps, and Barnil did not have the time to defend against those unthreatening presences.

And so, the twenty or so days have been filled with attempted assassinations at every single instance. It was a pity, though, that psionic Falsehood Assassins and Void Fiends that had evolved with the ability to walk on subspace were mistaken about one thing.

He was Barnil, a man who rose as a Legend through Strength Mastery—could normal beings imagine the greatness of a runic body? The reflexive strength in counterattacking was not something a being beneath Supreme pinnacle could survive, and even they would not have been able to pull away in time before being vaporized on the scene.

“The call from the other side of the Lost Galaxy can be faintly felt… the Dimensional Hub’s calibration is almost succeeding. I will soon be on the front line to pacify the situation.”

At the moment, Barnil could hear a call that seemed to come from a faraway place but remained impassive, even nodding slightly while stroking his own beard. “My work is almost finished here. A little more system calibration, and the reception from home.”

Though complex and difficult, the tasks were not actually a problem to him. The old mage believed he would handle everything in two or three days—completing the dimensional hub, opening a trans-galactic stargate on Zeta Ram, and significantly alleviating the direness of the situation.

Things were alright on the front line too. Although the Knowers were uncommunicative, unresponsive, and had not attempted any contact with the Combined Fleet, they were not forcing an assault either. They simply kept piling fortresses, which meant both sides were not actually fighting, albeit jointly purging many foreign fleets attempting to enter the Galaxy of Beginnings.

The Nature Magister and the others had studied and discovered that the Knowers had not a single care about the Combined Fleet. They were simply building walls around the galaxy to seal it from both ends—they would not stop Mycroft ships from leaving, but would attack if they tried to return from another galaxy.

There was no appropriate means of communication, as not even psionic powers could discern the mind barrier the Knowers’ fleet had formed together. Both sides could thus only remain mysterious in their standoff.

Aside from that, Barnil was also aware that Joshua’s battle with the otherworldly champions had spanned eleven planetary systems, destroying three worlds spanning from small to medium sizes. Still, due to it being a battle royale, the frontline fleet could observe that Joshua was not at a disadvantage, although the battlefield was approaching the edge of the galaxy.

Whatever the case may have been, Joshua had indeed suppressed the greatest combatants of those foreign stars, ensuring peace at the rear of the perimeter. He appeared to have had a good time fighting as well, and that was enough.

Everything happened within the Legendary champions’ calculations and was leaning towards being great. After all, the worst situation had been the fight between Joshua and those otherworldly champions around the Zeta Ram system, with others barely ensuring the safety of their Void base and the Dimensional hub, not to mention having to face the assault of multiple alien civilizations. They would have had to hold on in such hostile surroundings for months, only counterattacking when the portal opened.

Compared to the terrifying situation, everything at present was within the range of what was acceptable.

Still, truth being told, having everything within predictions was occasionally not good.

Bang—

A dull echo resounded from beyond the world as a psionic reverberation that reaches the heart swept through the entire planetary system as if a gale.

“…Damn it. Should have known that they won’t give u…”

Barney looked up in irritation, having expected that the civilizations teleporting ambushers at them would not have sat and waited as the Combined Fleet finished the Dimensional Hub. Instead, their attacks would have only grown more violent as it neared completion. The elderly mage could now feel more than three Legendary Psymasters conducting a ritual on the other side of the dimensions, combining psionic power with divine power to bombard the no-teleportation zone sealed by the Dimensional Hub.

Barnil was forced to abandon the task at the Dimensional Hub and head for the Void to draw a runic circle, further sealing the zone. The old mage would never have dared to underestimate his opponents—any champion who came would trouble him, leaving the seal irreparable and leading to a vicious cycle of more otherworldly champions breaking through the seal.

Things would be bad then. Only the Void base’s self-destructive mechanism designed by Joshua could salvage the situation and buy them some time.

Boom!

The rumble of the dimensional tremors grew even louder, and Barnil’s face promptly changed—the opponent’s power was a little greater than he had imagined, and the dimensional spell casted by the otherworldly civilization was considerably accomplished! The Dimensional Hub alone was not able to stop them!

Without hesitation, the old mage took to the skies immediately, prepared to leave Zeta Ram and head for the Void. At the same time, a wall on the core of the Dimensional Hub began to transform.

A metal humanoid appeared where Barnil had been, watching the direction from which the old man had left before nodding. He then took over the Legend’s tasks of rapid calibration and inspection.

Barnil was naturally aware of that. The power of Zero One the Steel Elemental was very much a lesser version of Joshua’s. Its processing power was remarkably powerful, just like a living supercomputer, and though not well-versed in runes, it would not have had any difficulties in assuming the tasks Barnil had left alongside an assisting program. Furthermore, Joshua and Barnil had all along been grooming Zero One onboard their journey, even giving it the ability to briefly fuse with the Dimensional Hub as its ‘tower spirit’.

“Nevertheless, there is no assurance of him being capable of handling such a complicated job.”

Barnil remained very worried about his substitute under such urgent circumstances. Despite Joshua’s great confidence in Zero One, even claiming that he was essentially the first spawn created by replicating his body, that was precisely what worried the elderly mage. “Joshua’s copy… huh.”

Stop thinking. It’s a major issue, but thinking about it does nothing.

“Come to think of it, if he is indeed the so-called first spawn, Zero One should be Joshua’s…”

Halfway through his flight, Barnil narrowed his eyes in focused thought but soon shuddered, shook his head and refuted his own thoughts.

And soon, he had not even the time to think about those questions.