# Chapter 9: The Fist of Psionic Leap
"Controlling the speed of light—that is my 'Radiant Domain.'"
In the air above the Sixth Abyss, Israel spoke calmly, then fell silent and continued fighting.
How was one supposed to fight this?
Upon hearing Israel's own admission, Joshua felt as if even his cognitive center had begun to stall. Controlling the speed of light? Did Israel truly understand how shameless his ability was? Did he have no shame? Was this man truly a Legendary, and not some kind of deity? When others were still playing in the mud, controlling energy to influence matter, this man who had taught himself by observing the First Flame had already started building houses and researching universal constants? The style was completely wrong!
—A deity walking among mortals.
For some reason, Joshua suddenly recalled Israel's former title. In both his previous life and this one, he had always thought it was merely a respectful address for the universally acknowledged strongest in the Mycroft Continent. But now it seemed... it was probably just an ordinary description, without even exaggeration. He even thought back to the three Legendary Dragon Kings who had nearly defeated Israel in his previous life, and his estimation of them instantly rose several notches: to have nearly defeated the old Pope, this was no longer something that could be described as 'strong enough'—it was extremely strong!
"No... my thoughts are being affected. The microcurrents are becoming disordered!"
After letting his mind wander for quite some time, Joshua suddenly snapped awake. He realized he had begun to lose focus—something unimaginable for a former warrior. But the fact was that the microelectronic currents and optical fibers transmitting messages within his brain-cognitive center had become chaotic due to the changes in light speed. Thus, Joshua's thinking had begun to grow muddled—this had nothing to do with willpower; it was purely a physical mental attack. Israel had bypassed his dense defenses and directly disrupted Joshua's neural nodes.
Israel's attack was not yet over. Joshua felt his body continuing to expand abnormally—this was because the material particles composing his body could no longer maintain their overly dense structure. Around the warrior's body, on the ground of the Sixth Abyss, within the old Pope's Radiant Domain, the rocks on the ground crumbled into sand, the magma in the trenches began to boil, and a hot wind blew across the cliff face, reducing the entire cliff wall to powder. The entire material world began to collapse due to the changes in light speed, leaving only the multicolored spectrum in the air maintaining a stable radiance.
—This cannot continue. I must find a way.
Even though his thoughts had begun to scatter uncontrollably, Joshua still struggled to rise from the ground, even though the earth had now collapsed into clouds of dust and half his body was buried within them. Streams of information continuously flowed through the warrior's mind, and he managed to summarize quite a few useful things.
First, the old Pope's ability to affect light speed had a range—that range was the area covered by the radiance of the Pure White Scepter, which was the so-called 'Radiant Domain.' It had initially covered about one hundred square kilometers, but had now contracted to only thirty square kilometers. Within this range, matter was clearly disintegrating. If this was the limit of his ability, then Israel should soon be unable to sustain it and would have to end this attack.
Second, there was the limit. Israel's ability to control light speed had its boundaries. If he could instantly reduce light speed to zero, or accelerate it several times over, then not to mention Joshua, there would be nothing in the material universe he couldn't destroy—including the material world itself. In fact, based on the warrior's personal experience, the old Pope's control over light speed was roughly within one-fifth of its normal value, and the peak duration was extremely short.
Finally, controlling light speed required Israel's full concentration. While controlling light speed, he could not launch other attacks. Otherwise, given Joshua's current state where he could barely control his own body, a single high-energy particle stream could leave him half-dead.
But even so, the old Pope Israel's power could be said to have reached an extreme—within the Radiant Domain, he was the master of all things!
Besides these, there were many scattered pieces of information. For example, why had Israel initially wanted to set the battlefield in the Boundless Heaven, where there was nothing at all? This gave the warrior a conjecture, but it wasn't complete. Now, however, he had no time to perfect any ideas. The nuclear fusion within the Fusion Core Heart furnace had begun to experience fundamental disorder and was about to stop. If Joshua didn't try something soon, he might not have another chance.
So, in the next moment, Joshua made the most decisive choice.
"Explode!"
BOOOOOOM!!!!
Instantly, on the ground of the Sixth Abyss, a violent explosion suddenly occurred. But this explosion produced no flames, nor did it release any energy. The only thing that appeared was a silver mushroom cloud rising rapidly.
A mushroom cloud composed entirely of Steel Force dust!
"Ugh!"
In the air, Israel, who had been intently staring at Joshua's location, suddenly clutched his forehead in pain. Even the multicolored spectral aggregate behind him flickered with snowflake-like glitches, as if suffering from poor contact. Beams of pure light shot from his eyes, and even his entire head began to glow, as if operating at maximum capacity.
And because of the rising mushroom cloud of Steel Force dust, Israel's controlled range was suddenly compressed from over thirty square kilometers to within five square kilometers. The phenomenon of material dissociation temporarily ceased. At that moment, a giant skeleton composed entirely of a framework and steel nerves, looking like a skull-like giant, suddenly burst through the smoke and dust, striding out from within the mushroom cloud and leaping rapidly toward the old Pope in the air!
Just moments ago, Joshua had used his last shred of control over the Steel Force composing his body to decisively perform a familiar self-destruction—he had completely released the high-density degenerate matter state of the Steel Force, expanding it into the finest micron-level dust structure, exploding outward in a completely random manner! Instantly, over countless trillions of constantly colliding, rising, combining, and moving dust cloud structures appeared within Israel's controlled light-speed domain!
In the Boundless Heaven and the Void, there was no matter, only a relative vacuum in a certain sense. If Israel had to treat all matter within his domain equally, then the Void was indeed the best place for him to display his strength. Places with other matter would distract him, causing a decrease in control!
Seizing what was possibly Israel's only weakness, Joshua decisively abandoned the armor and flesh that comprised most of his strength, intending to interfere with Israel's control over the Radiant Domain, and attacked with his most solid bones, inscribed with divine patterns—as it turned out, his guess was correct. Israel had indeed temporarily lost his ability to control light speed.
"Truly decisive, but..."
In the air, facing Joshua, who was charging in like a giant skeleton, Israel forcibly suppressed the torrent of garbage information spreading through his mind. He momentarily gathered his spirit, extended his right hand holding the scepter, and once again controlled light speed to affect the magnetic field, forcibly pressing the warrior from the air back down to the ground, kicking up a large cloud of dust. The old Pope laughed: "But still not fast enough."
No, you're wrong.
Once again losing control over the magnetic field and being pulled back to the ground by his own heavy mass, Joshua rose again without any trace of disappointment. At this moment, he had no Steel Force armor on his body, not even flesh and blood—only thick steel bones inscribed with divine patterns. And protected within his ribcage, the Fusion Core Heart furnace was on the verge of extinguishing, but it poured almost all its remaining energy into a crystal sphere located beneath it—
The Psionic Leap Engine!
In an instant, with the infusion of energy, the crystal began to glow. A one-dimensional psionic beam shot toward Israel's direction. Although, due to the difference in worlds, the psionic beam could not travel at the speed of thought like in the Starry World, this was exactly what Joshua wanted!
The next moment, the leap began, and the leap ended—this was a speed faster than light. As space-time rippled, the giant steel skeleton appeared before Israel, who had no time to react. Scorching energy burst forth, igniting the already fragile air molecules into high-brightness plasma. At this moment, Joshua threw a punch infused with all his strength, all his mass!
BANG!
But disappointingly, this punch did not hit Israel. Instead, it struck a thin wall of light. Although Israel had no time to react to Joshua's leap, as the strongest among Legendary experts, he had enough time within the warrior's punching motion to deploy his defense.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Each layer of the light wall shattered, producing tremendous tremors and thunderclaps in the air. Within the Radiant Domain, all matter, already weakened by the reduced light speed, trembled in unison, then completely shattered into ash. Mountains crumbled like fragile sand towers under the wave of the shockwave. But this punch ultimately stopped—as the Pure White Scepter was raised, a faint light flickered, and Joshua's iron fist returned fruitlessly after shattering nine layers of light walls.
However, this was not without effect. With a dull impact sound, Israel and the light sphere spectral aggregate behind him were sent flying by Joshua's force into the thick clouds of the Sixth Abyss, disappearing who knew how many kilometers away. All that could be seen was a perfectly circular hole in the clouds covering the entire sky. And because the 'observer' was lost, without the old Pope's gaze, the Radiant Domain that had enveloped Joshua instantly disappeared. After a moment of spatial distortion and restoration, the changed light speed was corrected back to its original state by the world.
"Haah..."
Having sent Israel flying and destroyed the Radiant Domain, Joshua fell from the air to the ground, lying flat on his back. At this moment, the Fusion Core Heart engine in the center of his chest reignited, and his brain resumed normal operation. The series of actions and reactions just now seemed simple, but in reality, they had cost him all his strength. If any step had gone wrong, he would have had no chance to break Israel's light-speed domain and would have been defeated without any ability to fight back.
As for now...
"I truly didn't expect you to have this trick up your sleeve..."
With a warm radiance once again enveloping the earth, Israel, who had been sent flying along with his protective barrier, slowly descended from the hole in the clouds. He landed beside Joshua but did not continue attacking. Instead, he looked at the warrior with considerable emotion and said: "Both using dust to interfere with my vision and control over the domain, and that sudden teleportation ability, exceeded my expectations. You know, ordinary space-time spells are completely ineffective within my domain."
Of course they are. With the physical constants changed, how could teleportation spells still work? It was only because Psionic Leap relied on psionic space, not the material universe, that it could function normally. Joshua silently muttered to himself. He wanted to get up, but because the energy furnace in his chest had only just restarted and was severely lacking in energy, he didn't force himself and continued lying on the ground.
Without a doubt, this challenge against Israel had ended in failure. He had exhausted his energy, while Israel clearly still had strength in reserve. Joshua was quite willing to admit his defeat—after all, he had never thought from the beginning that he could actually defeat Israel. He only wanted to know where his power stood. But he truly hadn't expected the old Pope's power to far exceed his expectations, to the point where he hadn't even been able to display much of his strength before being forced into a dead end by the Radiant Domain.
At the same time, Israel dismissed the multicolored spectral sphere behind him, and Joshua also canceled the Steel Giant form. As the steel skeleton on the ground vanished without a trace, Joshua's weary human form slowly sat up from the ground. He looked up at the old Pope and shrugged: "I truly didn't expect... Your Holiness usually keeps such a low profile."
"Because I've never encountered an enemy that required me to use it."
Light flickered in Israel's hand, and the Pure White Scepter instantly disappeared. He stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the Sixth Abyss, which had been destroyed beyond recognition after just a few seconds of combat: "Last time, when I encountered the siege of the Dragon Kings, it would have been a good opportunity. But since Israel and the Nature Mentor were both there, there was no need to use this technique."
After speaking, the old Pope came to Joshua's side and extended his hand. The warrior hesitated for a moment, then used Israel's hand to stand up. The old Pope smiled contentedly: "Against you, ordinary attacks are meaningless. This gave me a reason to use my full strength... And you quickly found the weakness of the Radiant Domain, giving me a direction for further research."
"The gap in raw strength is still too great." In response to Israel's words, Joshua was not discouraged. He simply fell into thought. This time, he had relied on the unexpected Psionic Leap to break the maintenance of the Radiant Domain, but next time, the conditions wouldn't be so favorable. The other party would certainly be on guard against this. But as he was thinking, he noticed the expression on the white-haired old man's face—a mix of exasperation and amusement: "Joshua, do you really want to defeat me right now?"
"I'm working toward that goal."
The warrior did not hide his thoughts. He also scanned the Sixth Abyss, noticing quite a few ice demons trembling in fear. His tone was as usual: "Although combat itself is enjoyable, what meaning is there in fighting without the goal of victory?"
"There's no need to push yourself so hard... Even if the Evil Gods will return in a few decades, it's the same."
Israel did not continue along this topic. He looked up at the sky and clouds that had been churned up by his and Joshua's attacks. The old Pope spoke calmly: "With my talent, it took decades of research, day after day in the center of the Great Temple, using the best resources to assist in studying the most precious existence in this world—the 'First Flame'—to reach this level. Even if you, Joshua, are a genius ten times greater than me, you cannot surpass me when you've only advanced to Legendary for less than two years."
"Don't look too far ahead, Joshua of the Radcliffe Family. Don't always gaze at the stars and look toward the future. Don't always think in terms of the rise and fall of worlds. Pay attention to the ground beneath your feet, and the present before your eyes—the seemingly ordinary things."
Having said this, the old Pope closed his eyes and spoke faintly: "Because you are a Legendary, an immortal existence. But those things are not... You have enough time to grow stronger and then surpass me. I believe that day will come, and sooner than I imagine."
When he said this, Israel seemed somewhat melancholic, but soon, this trace of melancholy disappeared.
Joshua remained silent, not responding to Israel. Feeling that he might have said too much, the old man changed the subject: "The sparring is over... I'm going back to the Holy Mountain. What about you, Joshua?"
"...I'll stay here."
Israel became somewhat curious: "Why?"
Joshua turned to look in another direction, at the Steel Force dust that was still dispersing from his self-destruction, and spoke in a rather calm tone: "Resource recovery."
...
Without waiting for Joshua, who was collecting Steel Force dust, Israel left the Sixth Abyss first and returned to the Far Sea Holy Mountain. Unlike the warrior, who was a hands-off leader, the old Pope was a very dedicated leader of a major faction, with many affairs to handle every day.
Recovering the Steel Force dust was not difficult for Joshua. He only needed to fly once through the area where the dust was located, and all Steel Force aggregates within several kilometers would be brought back under his control. This collection range would increase as his Steel Force grew. Within ten minutes, he had collected almost all the Steel Force dust. Now, he only needed to spend a few days recondensing it into ultra-dense degenerate matter to return to his peak state.
As for the old Pope's words, Joshua had actually thought about them seriously. He felt that what the other party said was correct—he was indeed too impatient. Facing the Evil Gods that would descend in a few decades, his pursuit of power had become almost obsessive... Of course, this wasn't wrong, because this was his way of life. Joshua was quite satisfied with it and didn't plan to change.
"At least Israel was right about one thing."
Having confirmed that he had missed nothing and collected 99.99% of the Steel Force dust, Joshua began to prepare to enter the Void and return to the Mycroft World. He thought to himself: "I should rest a bit and enjoy life."