Soul of Searing Steel

From the Stargate above the Dimensional Hub in the Zeta Ram system, a golden beam appeared suddenly from the other Side.

“What…is that?”

Lisa and Syndicate who were guarding the station were the first to notice the anomaly. But before the pair were even able to ask Zero One about it, light around the entire Hub began to distort bizarrely. Unusual sights never before seen in Zeta Ram were observed—light of the world was gathering unnaturally around the massive blue dimensional rift like a long belt of starlight, turning into single strands that entered the Stargate, while at the center of the boundless radiance, a golden illumination was darting towards that direction from a distance.

Meanwhile, the Steel Elemental who had almost his entire body fused to the Dimensional Hub shuddered. He felt a tremendous load like no other as an incorporeal form of unimaginable power rapidly transcended the dimensions, quaking the portal that had yet to stabilize. To keep the Stargate working normally, Zero One had to turn every part of its body into processing units imbued into the core of the Dimensional Hub, maintaining the portal as it exhaustively processed away.

Nevertheless, it was only for a brief moment that Lisa and Syndicate were left puzzled and that Zero One worked at full capacity. Within three seconds, the Stargate was connected, light broke through, and its dazzling golden illumination shone over Zeta Ram, which had been clouded in gloom.

Screams and wails echoed across every corner of the world as hundreds of lurking psionic silhouettes were burnt to ash beneath that light, as dozens of growing behemoth cells and embryos were charred. The enemy that Lisa and Syndicate had been wary of was directly obliviated, and before they had even realized it, the golden beam had pierced through the World Barrier and arrived upon the Void.

“That presence…?”

In the Void, Barnil was fighting both the Takurian psionic legions and the Amos warships that warped towards them from time to time. He even had to free himself and do all he could to suppress the dimensional beacons left by the Takurians—despite his Legendary abilities, multitasking between fighting, sealing, and strengthening other seals, as well as pitting wits against champions of alien civilizations on the other side of the seal, remained difficult. Still, it was when the Rune Master was lamenting internally and contemplating ways to break the stalemate that a very familiar but profound presence appeared behind him.

The beam had already swept past the moment Barnil turned instinctively, just as every alien adversary fighting the runic fortresses and interfering with Barnil’s seal maintenance and augmentation stood frozen where they were. Within seconds, the objects in limbo trembled alongside the dimensional turbulence, then disintegrated into particles of pure energy and specks of light scattered throughout the Void.

When Barnil turned in surprise again towards the area the flash had vanished from, every hostile target within the entire Zeta Ram system was silent.

“…Israel?”

On the fringes of two galaxies, the Combined Fleet was still locked in a standoff against the Knowers, albeit in a better mood. And while the ranks of the Knowers were over a dozen thousand times that of the Combined Fleet based on sheer numbers, the eight world-sized Void Behemoths acting as fortifications kept them far from being disadvantaged in terms of defenses.

Yana Milo was still speaking to the Knowers. The Glorious-era Legend was exchanging information and in turn verifying a lot of shocking information, such as how the stars had changed and how worlds had combined, as well as the secrets of the [Changing Dynasties] and the [Darkening of Worlds] . That information proved astonishing even with Yana Milo’s own knowledge about the Glorious Era, but before she was able to relay them to the other Legends, the flagship’s alarms blared rapidly.

“Warning: high energy signature—target with superior power detected and is warping nearer!”

“Hold on! Do not attack, it’s an allied signal—the Stargate has been successfully opened! That is reinforcement from home!”

“He’s not coming here. Calculations indicate that it’s a planetary system nearby… he’s heading for the commander-in-chief’s fields of engagement!

As he was in charge of leading the Combined Fleet, a Void armada that the Starfall-era Mycroft civilization created by summoning every faction, most regarded Joshua as their commander-in-chief. Indeed, all of them stirred at once before exploding in delight when they realised that the unknown powerful target was heading towards Joshua’s location, the battlefield that spanned across the stars.

The Stargate had been opened, reinforcement had arrived!

They were no longer a single sprout hanging alone and helpless in foreign stars, but an expedition with a sturdy shield!

***

On the other hand, Joshua, the Grand Patriarch, and Imperator Amos sensed the presence of the divine power surging towards them even before the Combined Fleet did.

“Pure divine power.”

“Great strength.”

Both Grand Patriarch and Imperator gave short appraisals while Joshua smiled quietly, knowing who it was and why he had arrived, as well as what will was contained within that cascading, dazzling light.

At present, the battle between the three superior beings had progressed to the edge of several small worlds. The light emanating from the conflict and their bodies was greater than that of the world’s sun or flames, incessantly heating the worlds. In less than thirty seconds, the trio’s brawling had spread energy that raised the temperature of those worlds by five degrees, their very ecosystem mutating as unprecedented heat waves killed every life from beyond.

As both the Grand Patriarch and Imperator slightly shifted their attention to the other champion about to arrive, Joshua stretched out all four hands and clenched. In that single instant, great gravity shifted. Void was distorted and light bent, while violent gravitational waves conducting at lightspeed stirred over space itself. The omen prompted caution in the other two, who were watching each other with skills superior to any form of extradimensional observation.

Believing Joshua to have attacked pre-emptively as a form of distraction to ensure smooth arrival of his reinforcement, they simply gave up on guarding and decided to receive that blow head-on, while intending to disfigure the dimension and cast the incoming Lost Galaxy reinforcement to another faraway star system altogether. They began to interfere with the dimension simultaneously, utilising the momentum of absolute power to draw and create several chaotic gravitational roots in attempt to hinder the divine presence that was to come.

They were however wrong about one thing. Joshua had not intended to ambush them or draw their attention by attacking, but was simply dragging them along with himself into a trap—the trap called time, whilst at the same time conjuring those warp-hindering gravitational roots. The gravitational waves spreading from the warrior reached and at that very moment, time seemed to have frozen despite not actually having stopped.

All particles moved normally as elements decayed. The few worlds around them were pulled closer to the fight between the trio at an ordinary arc, although their fate was a predictable destruction, reduced to mass and raw materials, and hence used as weapons and shields against each other.

Everything was perfectly ordinary. The trails of the worlds, the light of stars, along with the three-sided explosion and offensives that surged with apocalyptic tides of energy, were like toys that children threw at each other.

“No… what is this?!”

Nonetheless, even if it had unfolded within a very small boundary and short instance of gravitational wave disturbance, Imperator Amos’s thoughts spun. He could sense interruption in the normal temporal flow that he maintained all along—to his nebula form’s excessive mass that contorted the dimensions and his neutron star adversary, time was rapidly slowing as compared to the ordinary universe!

He was being dragged into the slowed time of supermassive builds!

“Both of you scumbags be damned! Don’t drag me in as well!”

Logically, the Spectral Wraith that was essentially pure energy and did not have much mass would not have been affected. Even so, being too close to the two superior lifeforms that were Joshua and Imperator Amos, whose masses combined was larger than ordinary blackholes, in addition to Joshua’s deliberate pulling, left the already-trapped Imperator reluctant to take the fall alone. Moreover, with the supergravitational roots that stopped any warping and the dimensional shifting that all three of them had a hand in, the ring psionic composite form of the Grand Patriarch was pulled into the dilated time zone as well.

“Come wait with me, hahahaha!”

The warrior was now laughing loudly. Beyond the contorted dimensions, all light around the planetary system was bent, with some of the radiance gathering and swirling in the distorted space to present a phenomenon visible to the naked eye. At one glance, it was as if that zone had been covered with an unusual layer of transparent glass, with each sight within shown to be grotesque and variegated.

Time passed multiple times quicker outside than within. Inside the contorted dimensions, just as the Grand Patriarch and the Imperator were prepared to join forces and break the distorted boundary Joshua had created, the golden beam arrived upon the battlefield.

The God of Might and Justice was not hesitating, spectating, or waiting. Israel took a long look at that warped boundary, where time was moving so slow that it was impossible to keep one’s eye at the light, before raising his right hand where divine strength was converging.

Divine strength meant infinite power. And what did ‘infinite’ mean? It meant without boundaries or limits, just as there was no need to heed to forces known as physical rules. Gods would never have tired as ordinary lifeforms did, only ever remaining in peak form and be brimming with vigor, a genuine machine built to operate eternally. The endless power from the Root flowed within their soul and body, thus providing every deity infinite power.

Still, it was not actually infinite. There was no assurance that relying on a reservoir meant unleashing infinite tides instantaneously, and what restraint the gods had were neither divinity, titles, nor Root corruption but themselves. Held back by the ‘infinite’, divinity and Root would eat away at the human’s psyche that was with restrictions, just as the gods could only unleash only a certain boundary of power. It was the same as attaching a tap to a reservoir, and unless it was a moment prior to death that tore a huge rift apart, the tap could otherwise only pour out so much water.

Therefore, one must never have engaged a god in a battle for too long, for it was foolish and suicidal with their burst of power. If the challenger expended more energy than they could recover without being able to overpowering the deity in question, it meant defeat—the gods had infinite time and energy to keep playing along with anyone. As such, anyone who challenged a god had to instantly burst out at full power, as not to spare any time for the divine being to charge, plan, and prepare… unless they had no intention to win the first place.

And so, if a god had enough time to charge divine power, plan strategies, and prepare skills, how destructive and great would the power that he could unleash have been? Israel, God of Might and Justice, demonstrated then.

“I want to destroy him.”

The decree was conveyed, and infinite power accumulated. In one second within the warped boundary and thirty seconds beyond, a small cluster of divine force brighter than the core of a star appeared. In two seconds within the warped boundary and one minute beyond, highly charged particles began to wash over all matter in the boundary as a beam almost reaching lightspeed incinerated all fragments, even denting distant World Barriers. In three seconds within the warped boundary and thirty seconds beyond, the Grand Patriarch and the Imperator began to counter Joshua’s interference—the two nemesis joined hands for the first time to break the seal, intent on forcing the warrior to stop the effects of his dimensional boundary.

But in that very moment, divine light that Israel gathered surrounded his head. The Void trembled with irregularly-flowing brightness appearing at adjacent areas, cascading. Those were small wormholes formed when space itself was pierced by superior power, folding itself and distorting so easy before it that it was no more difficult than for a person to breathe or blow off wafting cotton.

“Huh…”

He made a sound that could have been either a sigh or a gasp in awe.

When ten seconds had passed in the distorted boundary, the Grand Patriarch and Imperator finally forced Joshua on the retreat to defend and give up on distorting the boundaries. Like layers of whirling gears, the drastic change in gravity tore several small worlds inside apart and destroyed them, but neither the Grand Patriarch nor Imperator paid that any heed. They were finally free from the temporal trap and had returned to the regular flow of time.

But before the two beings could think, the light of divine power arrived.

Imperator Amos did not know and did not want to know of the Grand Patriarch’s emotions. Still, he felt as if two whirling black holes were colliding right on his face, while he was himself positioned precisely on their convergence point. Energy that could vaporize the mass of multiple planets turned into a surging tide of divine light that bombarded its nebula barrier.

It was the sturdiest boundary of the worlds formed out of solid ether, a shield that allegedly deflected projectiles, popping them like soap bubbles. Yet, in the face of the blow that contained powers exceeding the deflection capacity, whatever formidable ability was useless. At the same time, the many planetary systems within the Imperator’s body were pierced, along with several worlds behind him.

A light appeared suddenly within a nearby lifeless planet that was on the smaller side of medium. Within three seconds, the continent evaporated while the world was penetrated, just as the satellite behind it was immediately obliviated. Having shot through that planet, the light would have streaked past the planet’s star in eight minutes—and in that moment, an overpowering flow of particles would have blown away the external gas layer of the star, causing it to lose forty percent of its mass.

An hour later, that light would have pierced another world, albeit not passing through anything this time. Despite that, the overflowing energy would have raised the realm’s average temperature by seventeen degrees, the shockwaves surging and almost vaporizing all fluids from the water-rich planet.

The golden light would have continued to permeate several worlds and a thousand things, its brilliance converging without diminishing, to reach several more planetary systems within an estimable timeframe. Infinite power would have gathered within, causing the white light of the Great Mana Tide to stir and resonate in excitement. In the distant future, the golden beam would have lost all destructive capacity, and yet still push the energy surge of the Multiverse along, carrying forward the energy wave that engulfed ten thousand worlds in decades to come.

But that would have been in a very distant future—a time where light extended, spreading faraway endlessly. In that moment, at that very place…

“Damn it—”

The clone of Imperator Amos struggled to reassemble—unlike actual worlds, his body was a galactic fortress of war that surpassed the concept of planets and did not break despite suffering a strike of infinite divine power. Indeed, he was still shrinking its form, having the luxury of restoring chunks of its body that was lost.

He could well have kept going if he was undisturbed and given time, recovering combative ability by absorbing the mass of worlds—it was an understatement to describe them as beings that could be resurrected with a single drop of blood. Whether it was Joshua, the Grand Patriarch or Imperator Amos, as long as there was a single fundamental substance with a psyche constitution intact, they could be reborn from endless substance. Yet, the golden divine light and the silver Giant God darting towards him did not spare him the time to rise from the ashes.

Boom! Bang!

The profound light that illuminated planetary systems shone once again.

As the Giant God’s four palms that could crumple stars pressed down in remarkable tandem with the golden divine light, the continuous strikes of godly power pulverized the last bits of Imperator Amos’s clone amidst a long howl, reducing it to nothing but dust in the Void.

“…”

The Grand Patriarch looked on in his Spectral Wraith form, having just reacted from the blow of boundless focused divine power. Without hesitation, he nullified his battle form and vanished as Joshua and Israel decimated the remains of Imperator Amos’s clone.

The plan to interfere with the Lost Galaxy’s arrival upon the Multiverse had failed, and there was no reason to remain. Although he was unsure of why the foreigners had not attack him but had instead focused their strength to crush Imperator Amos’s clone, what had that to do with him? Either way, it would have been right to run, not to mention that it was merely a test to determine their general ability. There was hence no reason for delay.

Clones of two of the Multiverse’s greatest champions—one hence vanished in the wake of its destruction, while the other was repelled.

In minutes, the stars where a violent battle was waged returned to silence.

Meanwhile, in the dark Void, the four-armed Giant God turned towards the golden deity beside him. Having synced perfectly in battle without so much as a word, the two beings looked at each other before laughing heartily.

“Long time no see!”

“Long time no see!”