Chapter 51: The Conspiracy Behind the Destruction
Joshua did not stop because of this sudden voice; he still moved forward without hesitation.
By now, he had already descended five thousand meters into the seabed. The surrounding pressure was enough to crush ordinary steel armor into thin sheets, but an invisible field around Joshua pushed aside the thick, crimson liquid, allowing him to continue 'falling' deeper without any resistance.
The deeper he went, the clearer the voice echoing in the warrior's mind became. It was not any language, but simply a clear, bell-like tinkling sound that spoke to Joshua with an inexplicable familiarity. 'Creator,' 'fragments of the sun,' and 'light' were the words the voice repeated most often. It seemed to want to express something, but due to a language barrier or perhaps incomplete intelligence, it could not fully articulate itself.
Strangely enough, although Joshua was not a particularly cautious person, he would still be wary of the most basic dangerous situations. Logically speaking, this place was the Bloodmoon Abyss, one of the most dangerous regions in the multiverse. He had fought many powerful enemies here and had nearly died here due to betrayal. In such a place, no matter how carefree the warrior was, facing a voice that suddenly appeared in the abyss, he would not approach it so easily, especially since the source of this voice came from the deepest, most mysterious part of the blood moon. For the vast majority of people, this reckless behavior was practically suicide.
Indeed, it was. But Joshua did not care.
The pressure from the scarlet seawater around him grew heavier. Joshua was now at a depth of around ten thousand meters, a depth that most ocean trenches had never reached. Only in this star composed entirely of liquid could one experience such a feeling of free diving. Around him, everything was an endless expanse of light and deep red. There was no life, no sound. He seemed to be the only existence in this world, with only the soft murmurs from the star's core echoing in his mind.
Great power was not only meant for combat and threats; it had many uses in different situations. After advancing to the Legendary Realm, Joshua could become the fastest builder or the best miner. He could carve a mountain or extract an entire mineral vein directly from the ground. His power allowed him to ignore most common sense, letting him freely do what he wanted, and that, naturally, included taking risks.
To walk the farthest path, dive the deepest sea, explore the most dangerous places, and seek out every truth that could be uncovered. Joshua certainly knew that the mysterious voice calling him from within the blood moon was very dangerous, but so what? Even if its identity was a newborn deity, a newly emerged Lord of this layer of the Abyss, it might not necessarily be able to harm him. He could satisfy his curiosity and then retreat safely, without worrying about the safety issues that ordinary adventurers had to consider.
The power to bear the consequences of one's own choices is the smallest unit of freedom.
The boundless scarlet seawater pressed in from all directions. The high temperature and pressure, like that of the Earth's mantle, caused the blood sea to boil. With a rumbling roar, Joshua had now descended tens of thousands of meters into the seabed, a situation impossible in any normal world. Even a chariot forged from Adamantite would probably be twisted beyond recognition here, but his shield showed no sign of deformation. The shield around Joshua was an overflow of his Legendary body's power, its strength roughly equal to the strength of his body's outer shell. The density of the warrior's outer shell was second only to the core of a planet; the mere blood sea could not harm him.
Until a soft light flickered before Joshua's eyes, and an invisible force gently stopped his advance. Halting his steps, Joshua stood in the blood sea, looking down at the star's core, now bright as the sun. He knew that the owner of the voice would appear soon, and he would also learn why the Bloodmoon Abyss had undergone such a tremendous change in such a short time.
And as Joshua stopped, a wondrous transformation began at the center of the entire blood sea.
Whoosh. A heavy sound rang out, accompanied by the surging of the viscous blood sea, as scorching matter began to coalesce. Under the warrior's gaze, the incandescent star core suddenly began to deform violently. Joshua watched in awe as the surrounding crimson deep-sea instantly lost all its color, turning into a pure, absolute white. This white was the purest positive energy in the world, the power of the sun. A portion of this pure energy detached from the planet's core, transforming into a pair of enormous eyes, with only outlines.
“…Creator…”
It murmured softly, its voice like a clear bell, meeting the warrior's gaze. There was no malice in these enormous eyes, only the most instinctive curiosity of a newborn life: “My mission…”
And as their gazes met, Joshua once again sensed the resonance and familiarity from the deepest part of his being. It was precisely because of this instinctive resonance and familiarity that he had come all this way without hesitation to meet this unknown, enormous life form. And now, the warrior had recalled the source of that resonance and familiarity.
“Steel Serpent…”
Joshua stared at the strange life form before him, suppressing the tremor in his heart, and muttered to himself, “No, it’s only similar in aura, but actually completely different.”
But regardless of whether it resembled a Steel Serpent, as beams of pure light were emitted from these eyes, the area around the warrior was gradually filled with whiteness. And within this pure radiance, light and shadow shifted. Countless histories from a distant past emerged with this flood of light, reversing time.
This was the memory of all life in a world.
Tens of thousands of years ago, in an ancient era so distant it had lost all meaning, the world was not as it was now. The sky was clear and blue, and the Bloodmoon Abyss had a pure and beautiful vast sky, along with floating continents drifting among the clouds, stars, and moon. This was a world floating in the wind. Countless sky islands were divided by hurricanes into three major sky zones, revolving around the sun at the world's center. They were separated by powerful hurricanes and thick barrier clouds. And thus, one unique civilization after another thrived on countless sky islands and continents with diverse environments.
The ecology of this floating world was exceptionally peculiar. All cycles were completed by the wind. In a year, the sky islands were wrapped in hurricanes for half the time, making entry and exit impossible. For the other half, the wind barrier weakened considerably, allowing a clear view of the outer sky zones and other islands.
Water flowed from the edges of the continents into the void, only to be brought back above the earth by regular air currents and fall again. Soil that fell from the sky islands would also be returned to their original islands by the hurricanes enveloping the land. Everything seemed like a perfect result of precise calculation. But there was no true perfection in this world. Every few hundred years, the cycle would fail once or twice. For example, lost water might not return to the floating continent within the designated time, leading to decades-long droughts. Or a powerful hurricane might tear the land apart, completely destroying an entire sky island and its civilization.
Therefore, the civilizations living on them learned from the very beginning how to store water and reinforce their islands to withstand the effects of these natural disasters. Also due to these calamities, they began to regard the other sky islands in the distance as a faith and a heaven. They believed that there was a stable environment, a solid land flowing with milk and honey. Driven by a strong survival crisis and the desire to explore their imagined paradise, they independently developed a means of transportation that could move freely in the sky within just one or two thousand years: the airship.
Joshua watched this scene. He watched as hundreds or even thousands of different intelligent races were driven nearly mad by their living environment. The cramped space and frequent natural disasters were unbearable. Under this pressure, they almost simultaneously created airships, symbols of 'future' and 'hope,' and then resolutely set off into the unknown sky.
The Steel Force had recorded everything. The emotions of the countless selected crew members before their departure were frozen in this amber of time: the anticipation of adventure, the tension of the unknown, the sorrow of reality, the despair of knowing they might never return, and the love for their homeland. All emotions, all scenes were perfectly preserved and reflected around Joshua.
Then came the collision between races.
Most of the airships did not find the 'new land' they were looking for. Instead, they discovered the sky islands of other races. In tense and explosive exchanges, the long-horned, tall Minotaurs met the small, short Fairies. The Mole People, accustomed to digging and reinforcing their islands in the earth, met the Harpies, born with wings. These races, who had always struggled to survive in dangerous environments, realized for the first time that besides themselves, there were other intelligent life forms coexisting under the same blue sky. Some races engaged in cautious, peaceful exchanges, while others launched the earliest wars of aggression in this world.
History advanced amidst chaos and war. Besides natural disasters, the civilizations living in this sky world faced another survival opponent: other intelligent life forms. Due to war, countless unique races perished. But also due to war, civilization developed by leaps and bounds. Within a few hundred years, through extremely frequent mutual exchanges, the secrets of magic and runes began to spread among the many sky islands. Meanwhile, blueprints for steel and machinery were brewing within several large civilizations. When the first steel airship broke through the hurricane's blockade and forcibly landed on another sky island during the hurricane season, a new era was declared.
Time flew by rapidly. The joys and sorrows of war dissipated with a single sigh. The result of the centuries-long War for the Sky was a vast coalition force that completely unified the three sky zones. Dozens of races lived under the rule of this powerful alliance, and this world was named [Silaie] by the alliance, which in their language meant 'those who sail the sky.'
Thanks to the alliance's coordination and intervention in the hurricanes, the natural disasters that had plagued many sky islands for thousands of years were gradually resolved. The entire floating world entered a period of rapid development. With technological advancements, the alliance could even merge several small sky islands into one large one, or even artificially collect floating stones from the barrier clouds to build a brand new sky island. They replaced the gods in planning nature, guiding everything in a positive direction.
In the new era, everything flourished. The sky was filled with rivers of airships. Magical light streams replaced sails, allowing these massive creations to navigate the air. These races, who had grown through adventure, turned their gaze towards the sky above. They were no longer satisfied with the existing sky zones and wanted to venture outward to see the scenery beyond the world. They had the strength. Giant magical ships capable of navigating the void were already being designed and built in the central zone of the alliance, expected to be completed in thirty years. Then, the civilization of the Silaie world would surely escape its fate of floating in the sky and set foot on truly solid ground.
But all of this came to an end with the extinguishing of the sun.
The sun of the Silaie world was located at the center of all the sky zones, and it was also the origin of countless hurricanes and barrier clouds. In the past, there were those who wanted to fly towards that place where all light and wind were born, but due to the powerful hot winds blowing outward, no airship could get close, not even the most advanced magical warships. But one day, accompanied by a mournful sound like a sigh, the entire Silaie world dimmed. The sky islands closest to the sun were shocked to discover that the hot wind from the sun was also about to disappear, as weak as the last breath of an old man.
Panic spread like a plague. Within a few short days, thousands upon thousands of giant floating warships flew in from every corner of the world, gathering around the sky islands closest to the sun. Countless knowledgeable master craftsmen and archmages piloted their research ships towards the sun, intending to find out what was happening.
The answer was not complicated. The sun of the Silaie world was indeed about to go out.
Faced with such a simple yet desperate answer, all the people and the supreme leaders of the alliance fell silent. They had spent thousands of years struggling to survive on cramped sky islands, then spent nearly two thousand years exploring outward and warring with each other, finally unifying into a complete alliance civilization where all races could live happily on solid ground. They could have gone further, but now everything came to a halt.
Without the heat and hurricanes brought by the sun, the entire civilization of the Silaie world would not last more than a few months. When even the water cycle could not be guaranteed, the end would come.
And in this unprecedented crisis, research on the sun proceeded rapidly. Within a few days, they learned that the current sun had merely stopped burning intensely; the residual heat could probably last stably for about three thousand years. So, to continue their civilization, the Silaie Civilization Alliance proposed a crazy and bold plan.
[Ring World]
The alliance pushed the sky islands, combining countless islands into three massive 'rings' that would orbit close to the dying sun. At a calculated distance, even the dying sun could provide enough temperature to sustain life. As long as the civilization could be preserved, the Silaie world would still have a chance. The magical warships capable of crossing the void were being built overtime. When they were completed, a new era would dawn.
It was just another great age of expansion. Everyone consoled themselves. Everything was the same as thousands of years ago, except that back then, the Silaie civilization was trying to leave the sky islands, and now, they were trying to leave this world. It seemed that fate indeed decreed that those who sail the sky could not rest quietly on solid ground.
And so, in the gradually darkening sky, stars lit up one by one, moving closer to the dying sun. These were countless sky islands, pushed by magical light streams, heading towards the predetermined orbit of the [Ring World] under the alliance's plan. Everything was orderly, and the prototypes of the three great rings quickly took shape.
“But they did not succeed.”
Joshua watched this scene. Even he felt a sense of admiration for such a resilient civilization. He murmured regretfully, “The sun went out, the sky islands shattered, only the blood moon remained.”
And the truth was exactly as he said.
During the construction of the Ring World, many problems were exposed. Many calculations and plans were wishful thinking. From time to time, the structure of a sky island would collapse, causing millions to fall into the sun. But by then, the Silaie Alliance could not stop everything. It was the only way to save the civilization. And in these tense, oppressive decades, the void ship was finally completed. This warship, which carried all the hopes of the Silaie civilization, opened a space-time passage after the most rigorous inspections and deployments and sailed into the outer void.
When it returned, it was fifty years later.
Fifty years later, the Silaie civilization was barely surviving. The authority of the alliance's thousand-year rule had completely collapsed. On the three precarious Ring Worlds, many races had re-established themselves, killing each other for the scarce water and food. Civilization had already collapsed by this point; only 'people' were still alive. Nothing could be more desperate.
But even so, facing the battered magical warship returning from the void, all the races still fighting each other simultaneously stopped swinging their swords and looked at it with longing eyes.
That was the last hope.
To everyone's relief, the people who emerged from the warship said that although they had not found a new world suitable for survival, nor a way to save the sun, they had obtained a method from a great being in the void that would allow everyone to survive. However, this method was a bit peculiar.
But the Silaie people, already despairing of their current life, no longer cared about peculiarity. Compared to their current difficult struggle for survival, they would rather the sun go out directly and be done with it. Living in such a world required more courage than seeking death. So, not long after, a massive magical ritual spread across the floating rings surrounding the sun. It flickered with an eerie, indescribable light. Under the direction of the crew members of the void warship, who had returned from who knows where, all the surviving Silaie people pricked their fingers and let their blood, representing their existence, drip onto the runes of the ritual.
“From now on, my compatriots.”
The aged captain overseeing everything stood at the center of the ritual, revealing a strange smile. He bared his teeth, his mouth splitting into an inhuman curve: “We shall merge into one, and be immortal from now on.”
And then… there was darkness, accompanied by the endless sound of flowing water, as if all the liquid in the world was converging…
The sun went out.
And the blood moon hung at the center of the world.
The illusion ended, but the flood of light did not stop.
At the very center of the blood moon, Joshua raised his head, meeting the gaze of the enormous light eyes before him with a complex expression. He already knew its identity.
Just as the Black Dragon Mandagar had once said… it was an existence born from a world where all life had merged into one. All the water, blood, and life of the entire Silaie world had converged within it, forming this liquid star. And what was born from this star was perhaps the first and most powerful demon of this abyssal world… the Abyss Will.
This existence, composed entirely of pure positive energy, might truly be the Abyss Will of the Bloodmoon Abyss!
The Abyss Will, or rather, an extinguished spark. It was the remnant of the collective will of all intelligent life, the final destination of countless souls. It longed to burn again, to regain vitality. So in other worlds, it would select powerful and aggressive demons, grant them power, and let them invade other worlds to seize the possibility of burning for itself. But in the Bloodmoon Abyss, everything was different. Because of the strange ritual before the destruction, the souls of all things had converged into a single whole. It was no longer a scattered collective will, but a 'unique' existence.
“Is it because of me… The sun was the sole obsession of this world. So when I detonated the Fusion Core Star, your dormant will awakened.”
The warrior murmured to himself. He sensed a warm light surging around him, a gesture of friendship from this massive being. Joshua unfastened his helmet, forged from the Steel Force, revealing his true face, and stared at it solemnly.
It was the blood moon, and also the abyss. It was the child of the world, and the incarnation of all things. Originally without knowledge or consciousness, it had awakened due to an accidental action by a human. Within its body, it possessed fragments of the sun… Perhaps it could truly become the second sun in this already destroyed world.
“This is truly… unexpected.”
Reaching out his hand, trying to touch the incarnation of light, the warrior shook his head amidst its bell-like laughter. He said, “I am not your creator… You were born naturally. You don't need to be close to me. Everything was just an accident.”
But how could a newborn will understand such complex words? So, warm streams of light continued to surge towards the warrior's body, as if wanting to caress every corner of him. Joshua shook his head helplessly, allowing it to do as it pleased. He knew this was merely its most benevolent gesture.
But now was not the time for play.
Thinking this, Joshua frowned and looked up. Above him were tens of thousands of meters of blood sea, the shattered Silaie world, and the vast, boundless void of the multiverse.
“This is a conspiracy.” The warrior thought to himself. Joshua's mind was like a mirror; he could naturally see all the strange and unreasonable actions of the Silaie world in its final days. Whether it was the crew members who returned from the void, seemingly completely different people, or the final ritual that gathered all life, organic matter, and water of this world.
“The blood moon… a pure aggregate containing immense energy. Just by obtaining a fragment of the sun, it has the potential to become a new spark.”
No matter how small, it was still a spark. Having one or not was a completely different concept.
Regarding this, Joshua had two guesses.