Chapter 18: Ideals and War, Part 1 (5000)
The majestic radiance was like liquid mercury, carrying a thick, almost tangible weight as it spread towards the infinite distance. In the void beyond the worlds, any lifeform that looked up would inevitably witness that sudden eruption of firelight piercing the star river.
In an instant, the Abyss was crossed. The silent Abyss was illuminated, as bright as day. For a short time, the surging energy explosion, surpassing the Great Magic Tide, was like a reverse current, gushing from below upwards towards the normal World Star River, covering all the already dead worlds.
All the powerful beings who had known that Joshua had emerged from seclusion and had turned their gaze in that direction saw that magnificent silver radiance. They saw the colossal silver world, trailing an immensely long band of light, detach from the Genesis Maelstrom and then fly at tremendous speed out of the Lost Star River, towards the Silent Void leading to the Multiverse Star River!
Joshua had achieved the Near-Saint realm!
With just one glance, they knew. They were not surprised by this result at all—long before entering the Genesis Maelstrom for seclusion, Joshua had already reached a similar state. And after more than a decade, a time not particularly long for most lifeforms, that man had broken through again, becoming this supreme powerhouse only one step away from the Sage realm.
"But... I can't discern what path he has chosen at all..."
Looking up at the silver light streaking across the dark void, like a long silver scratch on a pitch-black curtain, Nostradamus, who remained stationed in the Mycroft World, turned his head. His gaze fixed on Joshua, he murmured to himself: "It's not an ultra-large singular world. This world is vast, but far from the scale of the former Death Evil God's prototype. Yet there are references. I can perceive that the internal structure of this world is extremely complex, ingenious, and very delicate."
"I can also see it's not Divine Power—but he hasn't completely abandoned it either."
Floating nearby, Number 3 flapped her wings. Her brow was furrowed, her gaze serious, with the divine pattern of the Sky God spreading between her brows: "And it's not Emotion Force either. Joshua showed me the fundamental runes of Emotion Force. Similarly, he hasn't cut off that path either."
"He hasn't chosen his final path!"
At the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, the legendary powerhouse and Soul Walker, Yarnamilo, who was communicating with the Dominant Will of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground and preparing to teleport to the front lines of the Biros Star River, suddenly changed expression. In that instant, this former legend of the Era of Radiance seemed to sense the familiar aura of the Sage—but soon, Joshua's aura, completely different, even diametrically opposed to the Sage's, filled with a sense of oppression and aggression, an immense pressure, arrived clearly, causing everyone's breath to catch for a moment.
But even so, it did not prevent Yarnamilo, a legend who had once personally seen the Sage and sensed the aura of another Sage during their Near-Saint period, from delivering her judgment on Joshua.
"Unlike the Sage, his aura is not yet fixed; it's still changing—that long, long path hasn't chosen its direction yet—but even so, he has already become a Near-Saint?!"
All the powerful beings watching Joshua reached the same conclusion, and this conclusion shocked everyone: In their expectations, a powerhouse who had reached the Legendary Limit needed to choose their own Sage path. Only by stepping onto this path could one become a Near-Saint!
The so-called Near-Saint is the prototype of a Sage. All Near-Saints, in theory, have the potential to become a Sage!
But Joshua, without having fully chosen, had already become a Near-Saint?
This was no longer just theory—without a doubt, that God of Steel truly possessed the qualifications to become a Sage!
"But, that path..."
The silver radiance had already disappeared into the Silent Void, completely leaving the Lost Star River, leaving only a long trail of light. The Nature Mentor regretfully lowered her head, no longer chasing the light. She only murmured in confusion: "What exactly is that path?"
Joshua had left, but the light he left behind was still spreading in the Lost Star River. As the silver tide swept through, countless worlds bathed in its light, radiating a different kind of brilliance—the myriad stars and worlds flickered restlessly, as if stirring.
In the void, a World Will leaped out from its own world. It was the Steel Serpent of Carlis. The silver great serpent coiled in the void. Although it too could not ultimately track Joshua's figure, it could sense the other's aura, which was also that of a world. Carlis stared at the dazzling light trail in the dark void. It accepted the light Joshua had scattered. The Steel Serpent couldn't help but tremble—tremble with joy. Carlis could feel that its own soul cycle, which had only just stabilized and barely avoided shattering, had become firm, like a rock.
Because it had bathed in this light, it had completely shed the wounds from the world's past desolation and the severance of civilization, fully recovering to become a complete and powerful World Will.
But for some reason, the Steel Serpent's heart was not entirely filled with joy. Perhaps due to instinct, or perhaps some vague fear, a sense of 'ominous' unease arose in its mind. Carlis contracted its scales in the void, its pupils narrowing.
"This feeling... it's exactly like the Soulflame King reviving a world..."
It murmured to itself, its tone filled with deep confusion. The Steel Serpent looked around at the countless worlds that had once been dead, dormant, waiting for revival and rebirth. It saw that tens of thousands of worlds, simply by bathing in that light, had been revived, bursting with new life—this should have been a heartening good thing, but for some reason, Carlis's heart was vaguely tinged with fear.
"But... even the Soulflame King needs to burn souls, burn Chaos, to revive a world!"
Even though Joshua was no longer visible, Carlis still did not look away. It stared in the direction the warrior had departed, its tone involuntarily rising, like a low growl: "Then, what exactly is he burning?!"
No one could answer this question, because everyone was completely in the dark about it—Joshua had never hidden any information he had mastered from anyone. He was so generous that no one had ever particularly paid attention to any of the warrior's actions.
After all, he would tell them himself, wouldn't he? No one would worry about Joshua, because he was so strong, having helped so many people out of difficult situations... If he had any difficulties, had to make any difficult choices, he would surely tell them too.
So, when the warrior rarely remained silent, most people suddenly realized that they actually knew nothing about the path that man intended to choose.
The silver radiance finally covered the entire star river.
The Lost Star River began to revive.
It was a star river that had once experienced an end, a destroyed star river. Countless civilizations had been annihilated in that calamity, countless worlds had been shattered in that calamity. Under the invasion of the Near-Saint Evil God, the myriad worlds trembled, leaving behind a star river that was nearly empty for thousands or tens of thousands of years. Even though another Near-Saint, the later Sage, had driven away all the darkness, those lost civilizations and shattered worlds could not return.
But now, because of another Near-Saint, countless worlds began to revive.
And in the Silent Void, in a domain unobservable by anyone, one could see that on the surface of the colossal silver world, the brilliant silver radiance began to differentiate. Besides its original color, hues of crimson and pure black began to well up from within the world, occupying most of its area.
Silver Steel Force. Crimson Divinity. And black, Chaotic power.
Chaotic power is the power of the future, the power of infinite possibilities, infinite parallel worlds, and even infinite futures. Burning it with flame can change the present—and this is the struggle between the 'Order of the Present' and the 'Chaos of the Future'—this is also the reason why the Soulflame King could burn souls and Chaos to revive and change existing worlds.
And now, the silver, red, and black lights intertwined. They transformed into each other, eroded each other, and burned each other on the surface of the giant world. In this process of tri-phase transformation, within this delicate balance, a seed resembling 'infinity' quietly began to sprout, and from it derived the nearly endless radiance of revival.
Just like the small spark of the First Flame within the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate, this seed of 'infinity' was the foundation upon which they would later rely to achieve the Sage realm.
Having seen through the true essence of Death's Eternity and the nature of Chaos, Joshua naturally would not let go of this power he had already grasped. He had never minded whether his combat power came from a behind-the-scenes manipulator or from an enemy—as long as it was usable, worked well, and had no repercussions, he would use it.
Sometimes, even knowing there were repercussions, he still had to use it when necessary. Just like how humans know the future is arduous and difficult, and fate is full of twists and turns, but they still have to walk on, still have to make choices.
Without using the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground or the convenience of the Star Gate, Joshua relied on his own power to rapidly traverse the Silent Void. The silver radiance spread, like a sun spreading its light, spreading negative entropy.
One could see that in the dead, seemingly eternal darkness of the Silent Void, countless broken world wrecks even showed signs of reassembling—in some areas, residual Steel Force was awakened, reforming into clouds that began to spin and condense again in the darkness, becoming new world seeds.
The ancient ruins began to revive.
And for the other powerful beings still watching from the Lost Star River, they saw a path.
A path, like the one the Sage had once made, carrying light, illuminating the darkness, bringing ripples called 'life' through the dead void.
And this path was spreading, in their eyes, towards the infinite distance, towards the direction of the Multiverse Star River. The colossal world that was shaping this long path was speeding towards the distant destination called the 'battlefield'.
Year 862 of the Era of Falling Stars, June 11th, Mycroft Standard Time, 17:46. Multiverse Star River, Biros Star River, Pioneer Fortress Cluster, Front Lines.
Since the appearance of the isolated Evil God on the front lines a few months ago, other Evil Gods had appeared one after another. These World Devourers had no assembly, no plan. They simply emerged from the void one by one, scattered and unorganized, heading towards the fortress cluster that stood ready.
And the assembled multitude of legends, deities, and even the protectors of a race or civilization, the Legendary Limit powerhouses, naturally joined forces to slay these Evil Gods, who seemed to pass by as if casually.
In a few months, more Evil Gods had fallen in the Biros Star River than in the past decades or centuries. The dim light produced by the dissipation of the Dark Nebula still shone at the star river's borders, like waves, one after another, never ceasing.
But the Evil God army never cared about these small setbacks. Destroy a hundred, a thousand Evil Gods, and there were ten thousand, a hundred thousand more. As time passed, the number of Evil Gods increased, and the number of Chaos Minions increased. The Evil Gods, which had originally seemed to come one after another to die, still had no coordination, but relying on their numbers, they were no longer as easy to eliminate as before. Each time they appeared, at least six or seven invaded simultaneously. At their peak, more than twenty Evil Gods would attack from different angles and directions, their pressure enough to cause the entire fortress cluster's operations to collapse.
Even legendary powerhouses found it difficult to persist in this continuous, high-intensity battle against Evil Gods. If not for the presence of many deities, the front line would probably have been much harder to maintain. It must be said that the infinite endurance of deities was truly suitable for this kind of prolonged, high-intensity combat. This might be precisely why the path of divinity, though destined to be a dead end, was still prevalent throughout the entire multiverse.
A piercing alarm sounded again in one fortress after another. All the warriors and powerhouses who were still resting once again steeled themselves, preparing for battle—this invasion included eighteen unknown Evil Gods, but regardless of which, they all possessed the power to destroy worlds. The arrival of these eighteen Evil Gods would also bring a Chaos Minion army large enough to overwhelm half the fortress cluster.
An Evil God is a civilization, a gathering point of all future possibilities of one or even multiple worlds. Their essence is not a tool for combat, but even so, their power is enough to eliminate most existences, converting them into Chaos as well.
One could see, at the edge of the Silent Void, eighteen huge distortion points beginning to appear. They were terrifying entities of various forms. The most powerful among them was comparable to a Legendary Limit. The Evil God, which was stirring the surrounding space-time turbulence, shrouding itself in a violent space-time storm, could destroy the surrounding fortresses just by passing by.
It wasn't just space-time. The information disturbance generated by the Evil God [Chaos] was confusing the communication transmissions across the entire battlefield. Many fleets and powerhouses who were commanding, preparing to receive and execute orders, were astonished to find that their own communications had completely collapsed. They had no idea where they should go, who to coordinate with. Some even received erroneous information and were at a loss for what to do for a time.
But there were always existences unaffected by Chaos.
"Such petty tricks."
From within the fortress, a magnificent elemental light suddenly shot up. In the void, a brilliant and splendid flower suddenly bloomed—this pure elemental lifeform, which had once challenged Joshua during the Path Exposition, was a Limit-level powerhouse from a pure energy world near the center of the Multiverse Star River. Facing the Chaos Evil God that was disrupting the entire fortress cluster, he did not hesitate. He directly and boldly struck across the void: "Stop right there!"
Like a rainbow turning into a torrent, colors converged at the tips of countless petals. Countless elements fused and annihilated each other, finally forming an invisible and colorless pillar of light that struck the approaching space-time storm. Accompanied by a violent space-time quake, the space-time storm enveloping the Chaos Evil God was dispersed, and the chaotic disturbance affecting communications ceased. But what was puzzling was that there was no trace of the Evil God within the space-time storm!
"Dodged? No, it's still in place!"
Another Legendary Limit powerhouse made a move. He was a powerhouse from an ordinary flesh-and-blood civilization, but over the long ages, he had transformed his body into a huge crystalline prism composed of magic crystals, like a mountain peak in the void—and at this moment, the mountain shook. Countless magic arrays and runes condensed. The radiance of the surrounding Great Magic Tide was absorbed by this ultimate condensation of magic power, then condensed into a crystalline giant claw. This claw contained a strange space-time distortion. It swept across the void, seemingly trying to catch something.
Under the sweep of this magic crystal giant claw, a chaotic space-time fluctuation was forced out from the darkness. Dark stardust permeated the area, which seemed to be the true form of the Chaos Evil God—facing the incoming crystalline giant claw, the oblivious Evil God met it head-on. The two collided in the void, instantly creating a violent energy tide that affected the surrounding worlds. Countless Evil God Minions, and even other weaker Evil Gods, were swept away, turning into dust.
In just the first exchange of blows, countless Evil God Minions were reduced to nothingness. The shockwave spread, directly clearing a spherical vacuum zone in the void.
But this was indeed just the prelude. As other Evil Gods successively charged into the fortress cluster, their unique information disturbances began to affect the battlefield. Other powerhouses and fleets also began their battles, engaging the Evil Gods themselves and the Minions that came with them.
The battlefield was chaotic.
Fighting occurred everywhere. Death appeared everywhere. The endless hordes of Evil God Minions, even if swept through like ants, could discover the fortress cluster hidden within the arrays. Facing an almost infinite enemy, no matter how sturdy a fortress, it would eventually shatter, either breached by the enemy or self-destructed. Within the bright battle lines, the light of a fortress's self-destruction spread like a supernova, and like a supernova, it faded, leaving little trace.
Each eruption of starlight meant the death of millions, tens of millions of people, or the destruction of a world-class fortress. And the destruction of each fortress meant that dozens of fleets relying on that fortress lost their anchor point, doomed to be overwhelmed by the endless tide of Minions. This, in turn, meant the death of countless people, their very souls annihilated without a trace under the erosion of Chaos.
And this kind of death could not even leave the slightest, most insignificant trace on this battlefield, nor any sound that could be remembered by anyone.
This was war.