Chapter 20: What is Desired—(8000)
Space-time surged, the void shook, and the lightning released by the Condensing Evil God tore through everything. It bloomed the moment it struck the giant god, and countless streams of bizarre energy wove into a net, shrouding that region in a hazy, radiant mist, beautiful yet filled with deathly stillness.
A trace of residual energy spread, extending backward. A fortress was locked in a fierce struggle with the Evil God's minions, unable to pay attention to the shockwave—and so they were struck together with their enemies. In that instant, for reasons unknown, everyone suddenly awakened a power akin to psychic abilities. All could suddenly connect mentally with other beings, their minds interlinked, and they began to understand one another. Through this vast psychic network, their strength and will converged, for they seemed to have always been one entity.
United in will to resist the Evil God, fighting together against the darkness, burning themselves without reservation, advancing with the will to victory—these beautiful, positive emotions perfectly matched the concept of condensation. In that moment, the people in the fortress were sublimated, fused, and condensed into a blazing soul-light cluster.
A psychic network, complete mental fusion—a state countless psychic civilizations yearned for but could never achieve, was realized in an instant. And in the next instant, accompanied by a mournful roar and wail, this newly formed psychic network, everything within the soul-light cluster, was devoured and condensed by something far more colossal, becoming part of itself. What remained in the real world was an empty void.
Beauty and ugliness are merely narrow concepts of intelligent life. A more immense existence is never bound by them.
"Fortress Bidal has gone completely silent... They sacrificed themselves..."
"What kind of Evil God is that?! Even from this distance, I feel a chilling dread!"
"And this is just the residual effect—what about the center of the battle? Has the Observation Array not been restored yet?"
But the battle would not wait, and those anxiously concerned about the distant fight soon had no need for the Observation Array to see.
Because, from within the hazy light mist, a hand reached out. A colossal iron wrist burned with silver flames. Its mere appearance twisted the sky, collapsing the surrounding space-time into a deep well. The light that could induce everything toward condensation and nothingness was instead burned, absorbed, and "condensed" into part of something else.
But this was just one hand. It could be seen that from other directions in the mist, as waves surged, three other hands burst forth, flying like detached fists. They streaked with trails of light, crashing into the dark void, shredding all Evil God minions in their path, and then seized three Evil Gods in turn.
*Hum!*
A brilliantly bright Φ-shaped rune appeared on the back of the flying fists. Silver flowing flames, like water, enveloped the struggling Evil Gods, burning them until they were consumed, leaving black patterns etched onto the fists.
*Boom!*
Wrapped in the space-time deep well, the four-armed giant god strode out of the light mist. His three blazing flying fists returned, accompanied by a deafening roar, and re-embedded themselves into his arms. This instantly made the silver giant god's flames even more vigorous, making him appear like a blazing fire in the void, a brilliantly bright torch.
—Throughout the entire Bilos Star River, no matter where one was, this torch could be witnessed with one's own eyes.
But if Joshua was fire, then all the Evil Gods were moths drawn to the flame—and compared to that, these moths, in both number and mass, far exceeded any scale imaginable in ordinary worlds.
It could be seen that across the entire void sky, in the Silent Void, all Evil Gods turned direction. They had discovered something more enduring than the civilization of the entire star river, more eternal than any possible "eternity" in the entire Multiverse Star River. The overly bright flame was like a beacon, a guide, causing all chaotic existences to see only him.
Even in the Pioneer Fortress cluster, some experts locked in deadly combat with Evil Gods suddenly noticed that the Evil Gods they were fighting, ignoring all their attacks, simply turned and left. At first, they thought the Evil Gods were retreating, but soon, breaking free from their battle focus and seeing the dazzling light ahead, they understood everything.
Within the Mycroft Civilization defense zone, the God of Love and Decay stared solemnly ahead. The Evil God [Chaos], whose strength reached the Legendary Limit, surpassing the combined power of several true gods, had just withstood a joint strike from the Seven Gods. Wounded, it broke free from the encirclement. Without any hesitation, without any counterattack or revenge, it simply left, speeding toward the location of the light cluster.
"Pursue it!"
"Don't let it interfere with Joshua!"
Without any extra words, after a brief recovery from the divine power shock caused by their joint attack, the Seven Gods quickly transformed into light, chasing after the Chaos Evil God, continuing their struggle with it.
In a more peripheral defense zone than the Chaos Evil God, a powerful Evil God rampaging within the area, locked in battle with a Legendary Limit expert from a foreign civilization, suddenly paused for a moment. The expert took advantage, slashing down and cleaving half of its wing.
This Evil God was exceptionally beautiful in appearance, not resembling an Evil God at all if not for its overwhelming chaotic aura. It radiated a pale golden light, looking like a sphere wrapped in countless pure white feathered wings. Now, the expert had cut off half a wing, but instead of rejoicing in his achievement, his expression changed drastically, and he rapidly retreated.
[La~]
The winged Evil God suddenly sang. With the spread of pale golden divine light, its tightly wrapped, closed wings all unfurled, revealing beneath the countless wings the innermost twisted halo—an incredibly ancient, exceptionally long-standing aura emanated, accompanied by a surging divine power that exploded like a tidal wave!
"Pure divine power!? How is that possible!" The expert, deeply versed in the ways of gods, looked extremely grim. He could sense that within this extremely ancient and primitive divine power aura, there was not even a trace of later eras—meaning that this Evil God might have been formed at a time when even psychic power did not exist!
And judging by this, could it be that before, it hadn't truly fought, merely passively enduring his 'harassment' and instinctive counterattacks?
Unlike the Seven Gods, he could barely manage to stall this Evil God, merely holding it back from advancing, waiting for reinforcements to arrive and destroy it. But now, with the Evil God unleashing its full power, he couldn't delay it for even a moment. He could only watch as the Evil God, with its eerie song, whistled away into the distance.
At this moment, the entire sky was like a disk, and countless dark flying stars spun and hurtled toward the center of the disk. At the center, the four-armed giant god was locked in battle with a condensed light wheel. The fierce offense and defense caused the surrounding void to resonate, forming a circle akin to an event horizon.
Many Evil God minions and even Evil Gods themselves couldn't even approach this circle, blocked by the residual effects at the periphery. But the flying winged Evil God was different. It released a radiance capable of overwhelming the light of surrounding starry worlds, streaking through with a trail of rapid light. The space-time circle, so solid for other Evil Gods, was like paper to it, easily crossed.
But a fist suddenly punched out from within the space-time circle, colliding head-on with it, forcibly pinning the rapidly approaching winged Evil God in place, bringing it to a complete halt!
[Xu~]
The eerie song sounded again, but this time, anyone could hear the weakness in it. The strange divine power Evil God's wings fell, countless feathers ignited, turning into silver sparks. Its main body was firmly grasped, transformed into a burning flame shield. Joshua placed the winged Evil God before him, blocking another full-force strike from the Condensing Evil God.
"An Evil God that controls divine power? This ancient aura... Could it be one of the prototype Evil Gods created by the mastermind in the era after the Sage of Demons but before the Psychic Sage?"
Although the winged Evil God had great research value, Joshua had no energy to analyze its origin now—and even if he did, what then? It would only make him more familiar with how the mastermind created Evil Gods, without affecting the situation.
After all, what he faced was a 'Near-Saint Evil God'!
"Besides Plenty and Cataclysm, there are other Near-Saint Evil Gods. I've thought of that before, but even I didn't expect you to appear so soon..."
The silver giant god calmly stared ahead. At the core of the rotating light wheel, condensation and release continued, like birth and death, expounding some truth... In fact, it was indeed the truth of a certain path. Each Evil God was equivalent to the base point of all possibilities of a civilization, the condensation of that civilization's highest achievement. If a psychic being saw the true form of the Condensing Evil God, they might indeed comprehend some powerful cultivation method.
But that would be wrong, a dead end leading to a wrong path—or rather, a path that would inevitably be interfered with, unable to advance.
"[Condensing] Evil God, after the Psychic Sage, another existence that used psychic power as a base point and nearly reached that level."
Raising his hand, rotating it in a circle, the distorted space-time naturally formed a shield, blocking every bizarre lightning bolt fired by the Condensing Evil God. As one who had seen through the essence of Evil Gods, Joshua could discern the origin of every Evil God at a glance: "I speculated before that a single path could produce more than one Sage, and a later one could push that path to a new level—but now it seems that's impossible."
"Because, compared to these 'later comers,' the mastermind is the true one who, after the Sages, pushed this path to its extreme."
As long as the mastermind exists, the original path is completely sealed. No matter how brilliant and talented, anyone trying to advance further on an existing power system to become a Sage would definitely be struck down by the mastermind's hidden hand, eventually degenerating into a Near-Saint Evil God like the Condensing Evil God, becoming its tool.
Only by opening a completely new path, surpassing the original 'possibilities,' could one avoid potential danger.
"If I hadn't emerged from seclusion, it seems that in about half a year, the Condensing Evil God would have reached the fortress front... Earlier than I thought, and much worse."
Because this meant that the number of Near-Saint Evil Gods attacking this time might be more than one.
In the gap of his thoughts, the Condensing Evil God had completed a cycle. With a faint hum of space-time, one after another, light-pattern arrays appeared behind the Condensing Evil God. At the same time, Joshua clearly felt its output power increase by a notch. The countless light mists, though blocked by Joshua, still destroyed many fortresses behind him. Other Evil God minions and even Evil Gods—their power was all condensed, becoming part of the Condensing Evil God.
This was its ability—no one knew what the limit of the Condensing Evil God's condensation was; perhaps it had never encountered an existence that could push it to its limit.
—Can't keep fighting here.
The moment the thought turned, Joshua rose and moved away. Not only to better protect others, but also to prevent the Condensing Evil God from having more opportunities to grow stronger. He directly leaped across the Silent Void, making his own light shine brightly, heading toward another dead World Star River. Countless Evil Gods chased after Joshua, leaving behind the Bilos Star River fortress, which, though still numerous, was now devoid of any Evil Gods.
The Condensing Evil God naturally pursued. It had no thoughts, no intelligent reactions. It was like a tool, an automatic weapon, completely destroying targets that met its criteria. Now, it could be seen that as it continuously condensed its surrounding Evil God minions and weaker Evil Gods, the Condensing Evil God was constantly self-unfolding. At the core of its light wheel, far larger than many ordinary worlds, black and white cores were condensing, reversing, absorbing, and releasing.
And with a silent tremor, as if to prevent Joshua from continuing to escape, the black core condensing at the center of the Condensing Evil God suddenly closed—it looked like a giant light eye losing its pupil—and then, a few seconds later, the white core opened. An endless, dazzling rain of light shot out from within, scattering toward Joshua and the surrounding space-time.
Each drop of light rain was a thick lightning pillar, piercing the void, stirring up chaotic space-time storms. These raindrops fell on Joshua, barely causing a ripple, at most slightly slowing his speed. But every raindrop that fell on a world, regardless of size, would explode.
It could be seen that cross-shaped light pierced through worlds, penetrating deep. Countless raindrops fell, planting cross-shaped light frames on countless worlds, like tombstones on countless graves—then, the light contracted. The cross-shaped light frames withdrew from the depths of the worlds, merging into small light rings resembling the Condensing Evil God. The worlds struck trembled and cracked, their world barriers shattering into dust.
Not only that—if that world had civilization and life, the condensed light cluster would even transform into a true Evil God embryo, gestating rapidly.
—Release, for better condensation.
Joshua stopped. He didn't want to harm other lives, but this was the deadest star river he could find. Compared to letting the Condensing Evil God constantly absorb and grow stronger within the Evil God army, fighting in this relatively empty place was more suitable.
*Hum hum*—Countless light clusters formed from destroyed worlds, like raindrops flying backward, converged toward the Condensing Evil God. Those Evil God embryos also completed their transformations one by one, beginning to roam the starry space. After one attack, the Condensing Evil God's energy level rose further.
But having chosen his battlefield, the giant god turned and began his counterattack. Joshua's expression remained unchanged. Those Evil Gods chasing his light, those catalyzed by the Condensing Evil God, were his best raw materials. He casually grabbed a newly born Evil God. Chaotic aura spread in his palm, then, as the patterns on the giant god's body transformed, it burned, turning into various weapons and illusions, shields and armor.
—*Boom!!*
Another world shattered. It was a large world, with a star cluster rotating within it. But because Joshua and the Condensing Evil God's battlefield had reached here, its world barrier melted away as if it didn't exist. The light wheel and the giant god charged into it, freely releasing their power, causing stars to dim and space-time to warp.
It could be seen that most of the time, the light wheel launched a suppressing attack, condensing various powerful beams and phenomena. But the four-armed giant god repeatedly shattered those lightning bolts, light wheels, beams, and other chaotic attack methods.
Even, as the star of a triple-star system was drained, Steel Force forged a spear shaft. A spear 3.5 astronomical units long took shape. Three black holes were condensed into three sharp points at the spear's tip. It spun, creating a space-time depression stretching for who knows how long, shattering the light waves from the Condensing Evil God, and then was thrown.
But the Condensing Evil God was not afraid—black holes were merely a form of material condensation; it could easily create them too. The Steel Force-forged spear was knocked away, its dissipating power absorbed, and the black holes were controlled, incorporated into the Evil God's black core.
This kind of long-range attack was useless for both sides. Realizing this, the giant god didn't hesitate. He stepped on flames and charged toward the Condensing Evil God, intending to engage in close combat where attacks wouldn't be so easily deflected or absorbed. But the Condensing Evil God always maintained a relative distance. Whether Joshua advanced or retreated, turned or rose, it always kept a stable relative distance, impossible to catch. And as its energy level gradually rose, its attacks grew stronger.
The star cluster was being churned. The battle between Joshua and the Condensing Evil God, even if not at full power, its residual effects could spread across an entire large world. Only worlds of the level of Starry Worlds or Infinite Singular Worlds could serve as their battlefield.
The world was destroyed, collapsing into a chaotic, flowing halo. They returned to the void. But at this moment, the Condensing Evil God had completed another condensation cycle, becoming even stronger.
Once, when Joshua condensed a Steel Force spear in the void and threw it, trying to pierce the Condensing Evil God, a bizarre lightning bolt, far more dazzling than before, shattered the spear mid-flight.
Its growth rate was unimaginably fast.
—Every Evil God has its unique strength. That is the power and possibility bestowed upon them by the dead civilizations that were their origin.
The Condensing Evil God thought nothing; it couldn't think. Behind this powerful tool, light-pattern arrays spread, even extending across the entire star domain. It continuously released lightning, creating vast swaths of space-time tremors in this dead star river. Countless worlds shattered in these tremors, turning into the smallest wreckage and Steel Particles. Storms suddenly arose, causing these particles and wreckage to spin into massive storms visible even in the void.
In this fluctuation, seemingly enough to collapse an entire star river, a black crack appeared. It stretched endlessly, like a heavenly abyss wound tearing through the star river, shattering everything.
And these overly condensed energies could even distort time, forming attacks akin to singularities. Every time Joshua blocked, it felt as if he slowed for an instant, like an ordinary intelligent life approaching a black hole. Countless blocks made him lose reaction time for subsequent attacks. While he was still in the 'past,' attacks from the 'future' had already condensed and arrived.
But even so, Joshua still had the leisure to think.
"It seems this might be the reason the Void Great Maelstrom formed in the past."
Between Near-Saints, even mere residual effects could flatten thousands of world star domains, shattering countless worlds into Steel Particles—if it were other Evil Gods, after a long time, these Steel Particles might have a chance to recondense into worlds. But this time, the Condensing Evil God appeared, constantly condensing and absorbing. Those shattered world wreckage and Steel Particles were precisely its food.
And his food too.
—No pity; this is war.
"Compared to the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate, you're still a bit weak."
With a full-body tremor, an event horizon-like space-time distortion unfolded, deflecting all of the Condensing Evil God's attacks. The four-armed giant god began to expand. His body rapidly grew larger, more magnificent. In an instant, a layer of 'world barrier,' comparable to a Starry World and even more solid, formed like scale armor, covering his surface.
Compared to a 'Starry World' without self-will, Joshua, who could actively defend, could naturally withstand stronger attacks—the dozen-plus years in the Genesis Maelstrom were not wasted. The Triple Veil had given him all the world data and underlying information of the Starry World, plus the information from the former Rebirth Plan, the Sage's super-singular world. The barrier covering his surface now was at the 'super-singular world' level.
The Condensing Evil God didn't care if the enemy grew stronger or weaker. It continued its relentless attacks. Since the previous attacks were ineffective, it switched to another method. Facing solid armor, it would pierce it—the black core reversed to white. A dazzling light cone took shape in the void. Without any extra movement, the light cone flew, stabbing straight toward Joshua's head. It directly pierced space-time, causing a blazing psychic light to spread.
But at this moment, Joshua grabbed another Evil God. In his hand, the dead eternity was disintegrating. Infinite possibilities were being burned and decomposed. The Evil God, which had never felt pain and never could feel pain, trembled in his palm and turned into nothingness, or rather, was liberated from eternal imprisonment. Like a giant atom forcibly piled together spontaneously fissioning, everything contained in the eternal base point returned to the normal multiverse.
And in this liberation process, the vast energy released was utilized by Joshua, transformed into his own power.
Facing the incoming light cone, he raised his head indifferently. The giant god's eyes also condensed energy, releasing light, turning into two beams that shot out, knocking the incoming light cone away. It exploded in the void, releasing a flash that illuminated the star river.
At this moment, at the Bilos Star River, others were also fighting.
Joshua's appearance and the Condensing Evil God's appearance were but a fleeting, shocking spectacle. After they left, an endless stream of Evil God minions and other later-arriving Evil Gods attacked—compared to worrying about the battle of the supreme beings in the distance, it was better to focus on the life-and-death struggles happening right now.
The battle continued. Shouts and war cries still rang out. Fleets shuttled through the minion army. Void Behemoths swept across star domains... Compared to before, the battlefield hadn't changed.
But fear still lingered.
Whoever looked up at the void saw that the once-dark Silent Void had become a twisted sky, like a starry sky. The light of countless Evil Gods flickered. The stars of the heavens twisted space-time, painting a magnificent yet terrifying future picture in the void.
—Those were the approaching chaos, the inevitable destruction.
—Fear—Palpitation—Helplessness—Despair—These emotions were perfectly normal. Giving up, letting go, was also perfectly normal.
But those who could stand here, actively coming from the safe rear to the war front, were not normal existences to begin with.
"Calm down. It's not time for your full power yet!"
Swinging a giant scythe, the God of Love and Decay, like dancing, cut off a part of the twisted halo of the Chaos Evil God, reducing it to nothing, weakening this powerful Evil God slightly. Divine light blazed on them, with phantom images of a withered heart flashing. But on the other side, the God of Life shouted sharply, awakening the God of Love and Decay, who seemed immersed in battle: "Your death must be reserved for a greater meaning. Now, restrain yourself!"
"...Thank you for the reminder."
As if waking from a dream, the God of Love and Decay stopped the scythe in their hand, then watched as their companions jointly annihilated the Chaos Evil God. The elven goddess raised her head, looking at the bright light point that suddenly bloomed in the distance, then turned her head, looking at the dazzling, twisted sky above.
She recalled the battle between the Sage and Plenty in the past. She recalled the past, the same overwhelming abyss, chaos, and Evil Gods.
—Yes, indeed, the enemy was endless.
But so what?
The enemy was already here—were they going to flee?
"I have died once and been resurrected..."
Gripping the scythe tightly, the now-calm deity nodded to her other companions. They still had battles to fight, more defense lines to support. This was not the time to rest.
[—So, I can die again, by my own will.
For the world I love, the world I desire.]
At this moment, in the dead star river.
After trying many methods and still failing to break Joshua's defense, the Condensing Evil God seemed to activate some underlying program. It suddenly retreated a vast distance backward, then the entire glowing light wheel reversed to darkness, turning into a dark calamity hole, beginning an endless condensation.
And Joshua, who had been waiting for this moment, brightened.
Near-Saint Evil God—this was his first true duel with a Near-Saint-level Evil God. The previous battle was merely simple probing. He gradually increased his output, observing the Evil God's gradual self-liberation—until now, it was about to launch a full-force attack to destroy the powerful enemy.
Joshua didn't plan to dodge. The enemy's full-power attack was the best time to understand the enemy. This was a battle experience that might not occur even a few times in the entire multiverse. He had to, in the next strike, test the enemy's limit output, the essence of its ability, and various application details—only then, knowing both himself and the enemy, could he completely eliminate it.
In the shattered star domain, countless space-time storms raged. Steel Particles spun and howled within them. When they slightly subsided, they would form the prototype of another Void Great Maelstrom—but now, the space-time storms began to involuntarily tilt, like hurricanes being pulled away. Behind them, a dark calamity hole was condensing and rotating. Within it, they were ground down, becoming material for a colossal spiral.
Black light and white light shifted as the Condensing Evil God's core reversed and reappeared. The mere residual effect of this attack affected thousands of surrounding star domains, causing the worlds within, whether already broken or fortunately intact, to collapse. All energy maintaining their existence was directly absorbed, and they themselves turned to ash.
The heavens and star domains—everything was collapsing, disintegrating. All because another colossal existence was 'condensing.'
Finally, release.
*Hum!*
A black-and-white spiral transformed into an endlessly rotating star river giant drill. It compressed and condensed the energy and matter of countless worlds, and even the Condensing Evil God itself served as the drill's base as it flew out—in that instant, the aura of annihilating everything surged, blowing away all space-time storms and space-time turbulence. Because in the void, only one 'direction' could exist now—the direction the giant drill was about to go!
"It's almost scarier than smashing the entire Milky Way over here..."
Despite saying this, the giant god advanced without fear. Joshua smiled as he met it. The world barrier on his surface grew thicker but more transparent. It could even be seen that beneath the colossal shell, a galaxy revolving around a supermassive black hole was turning—that was the prototype of a singular super-world. The warrior's four arms raised. The event horizon-like space-time distortion was filled with light like stardust, and the dissipation of each light particle could shake space-time, causing ripples in the void.
The star river giant drill roared as it flew, surrounded by hazy, bizarre lightning. And the four arms met it head-on, as if trying to forcibly stop it.
The two colossal figures collided.
And then came the roar.