Chapter 22: The Legendary Mage Strikes
The leading super-magical beast, at the moment it collided with Joshua, truly understood what pain meant—the gravity shield, capable of withstanding the bombardment of a warship's main cannon, was instantly torn apart. A massive, spiral-shaped, wrinkled wound appeared on its five-kilometer-long body. It was sent spinning as a whole, then torn into pieces by centrifugal force.
This all happened in an instant. In the next instant, countless shredded pieces of flesh wriggled like tumors, attempting to regenerate, but were enveloped by the scorching hot airflow left behind by the golden spiral moving at three percent of the speed of light. The extreme heat, still exceeding hundreds of thousands of degrees after cooling, completely incinerated, evaporated, and then annihilated the bodies of these minions, which had almost ignored the laws of physics.
For everyone in the Third Fleet, they saw a sun rising at the edge of the Far Light Star System, then piercing through the dark mass of magical beasts—in the time it took to blink an eye, or hold a breath, the magical beasts in the central area of the two-million-strong swarm were completely wiped out. A dazzling ribbon of light, formed by countless circular explosive fireballs, flickered in space, completely scattering the enormous swarm.
"This... is this truly a realm a living being can reach?!"
On the hospital bed, Alzera stared dumbfounded at every movement on the light screen. The elderly Omega-level psionicist had originally thought his power was considerable among the many races in the starry sky. He could control rainfall and thunderstorms on a planet, turning arid deserts into lush, grassy forests within a decade. He could also shape psionic energy into streams of light to melt the alloy armor of warships. But this power, let alone confronting those void monsters hundreds or thousands of meters long, could barely kill a scout-level juvenile monster without relying on a fighter craft.
Yet, the scene before them, which had made all the Midgardians momentarily stop breathing, told them—there is no end to the pinnacle of life. There exist beings who can, with their own body, match an entire fleet, an entire civilization. Whether it was the Void Mother Beast or this unknown friendly void lifeform, they were pioneers from another universe, another civilization, the pinnacle of the individual.
Meanwhile, in the center of Joshua's chest, within the Fusion Core Heart furnace, countless material particles from the corpses of the void monsters were burning fiercely. Their filling increased the furnace's high temperature and high pressure even further, even forcibly compressing some less massive material particles to fuse with others of their kind, generating heavier cores. Once this reaction, known as fusion, started, it continued inexorably. A tremendous amount of energy expanded and exploded within the center of the warrior's body.
In response, the ultra-dense degenerate matter formed by the Steel Force immediately transformed the periphery of the Fusion Core Heart furnace into a layered, airtight ring-shaped protective shell. Black, spike-like metal rods were inserted into it, releasing a magnetic field capable of burning out all electronic products. Working together, one controlled the fusion range, while the other used a spiral, high-energy, high-magnetic field to constrain the core reaction and the ultra-high-temperature plasma generated within. In an instant, a Tokamak device took shape within Joshua's body. This artificial organ, mimicking a star, released pure energy that a living being could hardly control, which the warrior then suppressed with his absolute will, transforming it into the power driving his rapid advance and rotation.
Driven by this power, Joshua's incredibly solid body instantly became the most terrifying, sturdiest, and most powerful cannonball in the world. He launched himself using nuclear fusion, like a diamond needle piercing a balloon, effortlessly penetrating the swarm of a million magical beasts. Although the scattered Plague Minions possessed overwhelming numbers, mass, and energy, before Joshua's condensed power, they were merely a group of ants, shattered with a single blow.
In the vacuum of space, Joshua used his own power as a buffer to halt his ultra-high-speed charge and rotation. If he hadn't, he would have flown towards the material vacuum zone outside the Far Light Star System like a meteor, at a speed sufficient to escape the gravitational pull of the supermassive black hole at the galactic center. If, during this process, he were to cease his life reactions and hibernate like a stone, then countless years later, he might indeed be able to leave this galaxy through such purely physical means, truly crossing the starry river in his physical body.
"Huff..."
Slowly exhaling a breath, Joshua turned back to look at the swarm of magical beasts behind him, still exploding and slowly disintegrating. As he exhaled, from the center of the chest of the Steel Giant, whose outer shell had been heated to incandescent white, the Fusion Core Heart furnace also ejected a highly concentrated stream of plasma gas. Like a star's corona, it swept towards the distant space. The corpses of magical beasts that came into contact with this cooling matter and combustion residue expelled from the warrior's body were instantly ignited and became part of the high-temperature ion mist.
"From now on, as long as the number of grunts doesn't exceed that critical line, they are meaningless to me."
Feeling the unprecedented surging energy within him, Joshua thought silently to himself. Unlike the assimilation rate of the Steel Force, this was pure power gained from structural renewal. His realm was still early Legendary-rank, yet he already possessed strength that even a mid Legendary-rank expert on the Mycroft Continent might not have. According to the warrior's estimate, even if he lost the enhancement of Psionic Ascension, he could still exert thirty percent of his current output on the other side of the multiverse. That power would be enough to annihilate a nation within a day. As long as no one stopped him, even destroying an entire continent would only be a matter of time.
This was the difference brought by vision, knowledge, and observation methods. For Joshua, who could directly see magnetic fields, energy, and material particles, the microscopic world of the universe was as clear and tangible as dust in sunlight. And as a super-lifeform capable of directly interfering with microscopic particles and gravitational fields, he alone was an entire cutting-edge scientific laboratory.
"The void monsters have started to scatter towards other corners of the star system. This will cause immense hidden dangers."
Snapping back from the contemplation of his own power enhancement, Joshua looked at the endless beast horde dispersing into the surrounding starry sky like dissipating clouds. Frowning, he thought: "Even leaving one behind would give these Evil God minions a chance to make a comeback."
Joshua had long experienced the tenacity of Chaos monsters. Back when he killed that Chaos Black Dragon, he had to kill it three times before it finally died. And if it wasn't completely killed, the remaining monster remnants would corrode other organisms, using them as hosts to be reborn. Although these monsters were now tens of meters in size, that didn't mean they couldn't become smaller again. At that point, even Joshua wouldn't have a good method. Perhaps, to eliminate all Chaos seeds, he would have to play the villain and burn a planet's surface for species purification.
So, he immediately accelerated again, charging towards the center of the monster swarm, the area now occupied by high-heat explosive airflow. Apart from the previous [Nuclear Fusion Charge], his current techniques usable in space combat were only [Steel Sword] and [Space Rift]. The first was simply full-speed, mindless charging. Only the latter two were long-range attack techniques with some technical finesse, but even these didn't have an attack range of hundreds or thousands of kilometers.
While flying at high speed, he cleared the monsters along the way. With a swing of the Steel Sword, the powerful gravitational fluctuations instantly tore apart all Evil God minions within its range, crushing them into cosmic debris. The Space Rift swept through, cleaving even kilometer-sized giant individuals in two, causing them to self-destruct and perish. As for the super-individuals around five kilometers long, most had been wiped out during the warrior's first charge. The few remaining were completely evaporated by the relentless, all-out attack of the Third Fleet, which was beating a drowning dog. After all, without their gravity shields, these so-called super-individuals were just slightly larger chunks of meat.
But perhaps because all his attention was focused on fine-tuning the Fusion Core Heart within him, trying to leverage greater energy with minimal force, Joshua failed to notice that the seemingly scattered monster swarm had actually formed a loose, elliptical formation. This was a vast formation spanning tens of thousands of kilometers. Even a Legendary expert couldn't see it at a glance without careful observation. And just as Joshua, while annihilating monsters along the way, reached the center of this elliptical formation, the anomaly occurred.
"Buzzzzzzzzzz——————"
Almost simultaneously, a million monster individuals, as if they were a single entity, at the same minute and second, burst forth all the psionic energy within their bodies, releasing a deep green light that completely obscured the stars in the sky. The psionic energy of these monsters resonated, echoed, and connected with each other, forming a three-dimensional prison so vast it was like a small star. At the center of this prison was Joshua, who reacted instantly. The warrior activated the furnace within him without hesitation, once again using the power of nuclear fusion to propel himself forward, intending to break through this trap set for him.
But how vast was the range of this trap? A cosmic-level psionic trap with a radius exceeding fifteen thousand kilometers would take nearly twenty seconds to escape even at a speed of three thousandths the speed of light. And the Chaos monsters, displaying extraordinary intelligence contrary to their nature, would never give Joshua such an opportunity. The green light flared up again. Joshua, already in fusion propulsion mode, was pressed down by the combined psionic energy of a million monsters. At the same time, the massive elliptical prison began to contract rapidly as the monsters converged again!
"I underestimated them!"
Standing in the cosmic void, bound in place, Joshua clenched his fists with all four arms. Energy, a mixture of red and silver, gathered at his arms and then shot out, piercing the bodies of hundreds of monsters around him, causing a series of explosions. But this was negligible compared to the total number of monsters. Having lost his mobility, the Steel Giant could only rely on pure attacks to deal with the monsters' fearless encirclement. And no matter how high the output of the Fusion Core Heart furnace was, it couldn't surpass the total output of a million monsters. This was also the favorite tactic of swarm-type races: overwhelming all enemies with numbers!
And in the observation lenses of the Third Fleet, this was what they saw: a sun emitting a mixed silver-gold light was enveloped by an endless, deep green psionic net that seemed to occupy the entire cosmic vista. This net continued to contract, the deep green light gradually overwhelming the sun's radiance. Then, before the eyes of everyone—filled with disbelief, shock, fear, and anger—it completely swallowed the sun.
Meanwhile, when Nostradamus finally managed to jump out of the transit channel, this was the scene he saw.
Millions of endless beast hordes swam in the vast starry sky. They were like part of a single giant entity, cells of a super-lifeform, releasing a psionic energy so immense that even he, a Legendary mage, was shaken. They completely enveloped a blazing sun, absorbing all its light. The old mage didn't understand what was happening at first—he had been constantly disrupted by the aftershocks of the battle between the void monsters and Joshua, unable to transit normally. But soon, through the familiar energy fluctuations and the large swaths of monster remains around him, he figured it out. That sun was the phenomenon created by his junior and friend, Joshua van Radcliffe, fighting at full power!
"What in the world is going on?!"
Noticing this newly arrived super-lifeform, the massive monster swarm, which had been using its powerful psionic energy to suppress and surround Joshua, immediately split off a small half of its individuals and flew rapidly towards Nostradamus. These void monsters, their bodies flickering with dazzling psionic energy fluctuations, were completely different from before. Even the old mage, who had never seen these monsters in the flesh, keenly sensed, with his Legendary-level observation, that a vast will seemed to have crossed the void, directly controlling the bodies of these monsters, burning their lives, releasing incredibly powerful energy, and temporarily enhancing their combat capabilities.
It was probably because of this unforeseen method that even a warrior as sharp as a wild beast was caught off guard and fell into the trap.
"About two hundred thousand... only about one-eighth or one-ninth of the force surrounding Joshua?"
But the old mage wasn't too concerned about the warrior's current predicament. In Nostradamus's train of thought, even if Joshua was at a disadvantage, it was only temporary. Instead of worrying about the safety of that walking disaster, the most unpredictable existence on the Mycroft Continent, he felt more indignant that the void monsters had underestimated him. He let out a cold, amused laugh, looked at the starry monsters charging at him at thousands of times the speed of an orc stone rhino cavalry, and summoned a grimoire from the void. "It's one thing for you mindless monsters, but how dare the Chaos existence behind you underestimate me?"
"Underestimate a Legendary mage born for war?"
He, Nostradamus, was a Legendary expert who had made his name on the battlefield, cultivating numerous war mages, including Verdani! When it came to large-scale destructive capabilities, who in this world dared to underestimate him!
And the moment the grimoire was summoned, violent, visible energy fluctuations appeared in space. The seemingly calm cosmic void began to produce bubble-like circular energy rings, like a pot of water being heated to a boil. Countless positive and negative material particles manifested from the vacuum sea, then annihilated each other upon collision, turning into pure energy. Nostradamus's human form began to rapidly dematerialize and decompose, transforming into a misty, deep blue humanoid figure.
"This is a cosmic vacuum, similar to the void... I can unleash my full power without restraint."
A low mental fluctuation emanated from the deep blue humanoid. This humanoid, composed entirely of countless space-time rifts of varying sizes, appeared at first glance to be simple elementalization. But if observed from a microscopic perspective, one could see that behind each space-time rift was a complete figure of Nostradamus. Each figure was simultaneously performing different actions, guiding different energies, like a supercomputer of extreme precision, simultaneously carrying out tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of different spellcasting steps.
As a grand mage of space-time, Nostradamus had refrained from attempting to advance to Legendary for decades for the sake of his ideals. But the appearance of Joshua and the recovery of Israel gave him the confidence to try. After viewing most of the Divine Calamity Mist content within the Northern Empire and learning a portion of divine knowledge, the old mage was inspired. Finally, he advanced to Legendary in his observatory within the void, becoming the 'Incarnation of Space.'
What would the power of space be like when used in war? In the past, Nostradamus would have said teleportation—leading an entire legion of mages and elite special forces into the enemy's interior for a decapitation strike, then leaving safely. That was warfare on a cold weapon, near-modern level. But after advancing to Legendary, witnessing the vastness of the multiverse, and learning from the Midgardians' great library about the vastness of the starry sky and the scope of interstellar warfare, understanding the potential of his own power, Nostradamus knew what space magic used in battle should be like.
"Within the world lies endless energy. The seemingly calm void contains countless tiny, opposing particles that annihilate each other upon collision. This is the power of the vacuum... I cannot turn this power into my own, but I can guide it to achieve my magic."
Splitting his existence and soul into hundreds of thousands of parts, each stored in a different space-time rift, simultaneously performing hundreds of thousands of Legendary-level calculations, Nostradamus grasped his grimoire. With this magical artifact, inscribed with countless runes and turned into another super computing device, the scene of the void monsters charging at high speed was, to him, as if time had been frozen. And at that moment, the energy boiling phenomenon around him became even more terrifying, even reaching another extreme: it stopped.
Not only did the energy around the old mage stop, but even the void monsters that had charged right up to Nostradamus also stopped. Within a radius of twelve kilometers centered on the Legendary mage, everything stopped. The material particles drifting in the cosmic vacuum, the strangely shaped void monsters emitting psionic light, the nearly boiling vacuum sea—everything was abruptly frozen, firmly fixed in place by a vast force.
"Maximized·Space Imprisonment."
Taking a breath—Nostradamus didn't have Joshua's Fusion Core Heart or Psionic Ascension enhancement, where a single strike could easily affect a dozen kilometers. Unleashing this attack had already consumed most of the energy he had induced from the vacuum sea. But this was enough. The old mage had frozen the movement of most of the monsters that had charged before him. In the next moment, he turned a page in his book: "Mode One: Displacement."
As the page finished turning, the frozen space immediately began to move again. But the monsters, which had been charging at three thousandths the speed of light, stopped in their tracks, losing all their momentum. In the next instant, nearly sixty thousand void monsters that had approached the old mage shattered into countless pieces simultaneously. The damage caused by spatial displacement was sharper than the sharpest knife in the world. By merely slightly leveraging spatial fluctuations, the old mage had caused horrific damage that even hundreds of layers of warship armor couldn't withstand. The flesh-and-blood void monsters were directly cut into countless fragments, then, due to the self-destruction of their energy cores, turned into dust in space.
Next, for the remaining hundred thousand or so void monsters that had lost their formation and charging speed, the old mage only needed to use ordinary light, lightning, and energy pressure spells to deal with them. He almost strolled along, annihilating these magical beasts, then looked at the massive, deep green ball of flesh that had formed, enveloping the former sun at its center. Nostradamus frowned: "To be honest, I can't handle this many monsters. If they all charged at me, I'd have to run... But judging by the look of it, Joshua seems to have broken their charge head-on, only to be ambushed?"
He truly wasn't worried about Joshua's safety, but that was only limited to ordinary void monsters. Nostradamus turned his head, looking into the distant beyond, at the massive, eye-like vortex of psionic energy. A sense of caution grew within him: "But that super Chaos lifeform doesn't seem like it will stay on the other side of time and space forever... Joshua, you need to hurry."
And within the psionic imprisonment cage formed by a million monsters, Joshua was completely pressed down by the endless, writhing sea of monsters at the center of the flesh star. Even though the Steel Giant released temperatures of hundreds of thousands of degrees around him, the constantly evaporating sea of monsters also continuously regenerated. They even compressed the scorching gas formed by the evaporation of their own flesh to insulate the warrior's body surface temperature, while extending countless tentacles and limbs, attempting to invade the warrior's body, just as they assimilated other lifeforms and organic matter, to completely devour, assimilate, and convert this most dangerous enemy into their own power.
But it was clear that these monsters had probably gotten one thing wrong.
That was, Joshua's body could no longer be considered organic—even more so, they had gotten an even more fundamental issue wrong.
"Want to devour and assimilate me?"
Pressed by the almost materialized psionic energy at the center of the star prison, comparing this prison to the [Star-Imprisoning Heavenly Prison] of the old knight from the Grandia World, Joshua revealed a stunned expression. He didn't really have a good way to deal with this tactic of pure power suppression. After all, with a million enemy monsters piling on top of each other, he needed at least a foothold to push them away. Where could he find a leverage point in the void? The warrior had originally planned to outlast them. After all, with the Fusion Core Heart, he truly had an eternal energy source in such a dense material zone, while the enemy had clearly burned their life potential to ambush him. But Joshua never expected these monsters to be so greedy as to try and assimilate him—
"Even Herras couldn't succeed back then, and you bunch of virus monsters think you can?"
With a loud laugh, Joshua didn't resist. He even actively extended his hands, lowering his body surface temperature, allowing his four arms to touch the spreading limbs of the Plague Minions, letting these void monsters proceed with their 'assimilation.'
"Let me tell you, not everything can be assimilated."
"It's the weak that get assimilated."
The deep voice echoed within the narrow prison, which had become a deep green psionic hell. And amidst the flickering light.
Silver was spreading.