Chapter 35: Deep Shadow (Part 1)
Looking up at the starry sky, optimists marvel at the brilliance of the stars, while pessimists sigh at the endless darkness.
The truth, regrettably, leans toward the pessimist's view.
The universe is dark, cold, merciless, and full of the unknown. For every world that radiates light in the multiverse, there are a thousand times more shadows hidden within those worlds. Humanity has always been helpless against the dangers lurking in those shadows.
To advance in such a universe, one must raise a torch, illuminate the path ahead, and cautiously step into the unknown depths of darkness.
Former Chronos World, now the five hundred and eighty-seventh layer of the Abyss, the void beyond the world.
The moment that white airship, radiating an aura of destruction, sped in from the distance without anyone stepping forward to stop it, the battle was already destined to begin.
The Insect Demon Lord, Saruka, only remembered that just as the powerful beings present were hesitating, a colossal silver fist materialized out of thin air in the void and, in an instant, came crashing down toward his vehicle—
What madman?!
Saruka, under attack, had no idea why this existence, radiating a destructive aura even more terrifying than a demon's, would suddenly strike at him. After all, there were five Lord-level beings present! By starting a fight like this, wasn't he afraid of becoming everyone's target?!
Unfortunately, the one who struck seemed not to have thought that far. Only the two mages closest to him could faintly hear a low murmur.
"Attacking a demon can't be wrong, right?"
Of course, it wasn't wrong. In fact, it was almost the most correct choice. The moment Joshua arrived and threw his punch, the delicate balance among the many powerful figures was immediately shattered.
In the void, the flames of war ignited. The Black and White Dragon Kings, the Void Behemoth, the Golden Fleet, and the two Legendary Mages all began to clash, engaging in a battle spectacular enough to be recorded in history.
One could see the Black Dragon King, Keano, silently riding a tide of deep gray negative energy toward the Void Behemoth, while the colossal monster named Leviathan stirred up a temporal-spatial storm, pressing back against him. These were creatures measured in kilometers or tens of kilometers in length, yet when Leviathan faced Keano, who was only a fraction of its size, it gained no overwhelming advantage—in fact, surprisingly, the massive Leviathan was being unilaterally beaten by the Black Dragon King. Under the assault of high-concentration negative energy, almost akin to antimatter, all of the Void Behemoth's defenses and attacks were dismantled. No innate spells or extraordinary powers could withstand that simple, straightforward assault.
The name "Underworld Sea Dragon" was indeed well-deserved. Keano's mastery of negative energy had reached an extreme. Its attacks were like the Abyssal River Styx flowing in reverse, reducing everything to nothingness. In terms of destructive power alone, none of the Legendary experts present could surpass it—not even Leviathan, which could manipulate gravity fields and spacetime to roam freely across the multiverse.
But Void Behemoths were not renowned for their destructive power; their strength lay in their nigh-immortal vitality and their size, which defied ordinary life's comprehension. Faced with Keano's fierce, nearly indefensible attacks, Leviathan simply gave up on defense, allowing the dragon to tear gaping holes in its body. Its powerful regeneration would restore all wounds within seconds, and for a body tens of thousands of meters long, wounds a few hundred meters in size were utterly insignificant. The battle thus became a contest between the Black Dragon King's energy reserves and the Void Behemoth's vitality.
On the other side, the Rune Master, the old mage Baniel, found the White Dragon King, Frost Lord Bonal. The two seemed to be old acquaintances and did not immediately attack. After a brief exchange of words, the two Legendary experts simply flew off toward another part of the void, whether to find a battlefield or continue their conversation was unclear. Soon, however, the brilliant light of runes and the gradually freezing temporal-spatial storm could be seen—clearly, their battle had begun, pitting the power of runes, which simulated all things, against the frost that froze spacetime itself.
As for William, abandoned by his old comrade, he did not clash with the Golden Fleet, which was also on alert. The fleet, piloted by a race other civilizations called "Star Gods," was even slowly retreating, distancing itself from the chaotic battlefield. Clearly, they had no intention of fighting anyone present; the ancient dragons of the Chronos World were their only target. William was happy to take it easy and sit back to watch the show.
But trying to stay out of trouble in such a situation was wishful thinking. When the Lava Fleet of the Sixth Abyss's First Legion, enraged by the attack on their flagship, opened fire indiscriminately, sending a main cannon blast of Abyssal Flame at Leviathan, causing the beast to go berserk and churn the void, the battle was no longer between just two or three parties. A surge of deep cyan power erupted from Leviathan, releasing a terrifyingly vast energy that warped the surrounding spacetime into a bowl shape. This sudden change instantly dragged William and the Golden Fleet, who had been watching from the sidelines, into the center of its battle with Keano.
The battlefield was chaotic, impossible to discern clearly. The range of a Legendary expert's power was far beyond ordinary imagination. Amid the constant movement and combat, everyone's opponents changed rapidly. One second, Baniel was competing with the Frost Lord over runes and frost; the next, he had to join forces to block the furious main cannon blasts of the Golden Fleet. Meanwhile, Leviathan, which had just deflected a main cannon aimed at it using spatial distortion, immediately had to raise its gravity shield again as the residual force of Joshua's Mass Sword came flying straight toward its head.
Under these circumstances, everyone gradually grew heated. What had started as an opportunity to probe rivals quickly turned into a desire to "kill that damned bastard." Vast psionic energy gathered as the Star Gods' Golden Fleet began setting up outposts in the surrounding void. Semicircular warships, accompanied by massive triangular motherships, initiated a blanket fire across the battlefield, with countless blue beams raining down through the temporal-spatial storm like a downpour. The Demon's Lava Legion was not to be outdone. As Abyssal formations activated, streams of evil, blasphemous flame gathered at the center of magic circles before blasting simultaneously at every detectable target.
Such a melee would yield no results. When two sides fought, even if their abilities countered each other and their power levels differed, some other entity would always intervene before an advantage could be expanded. Keano's negative energy could completely suppress Leviathan, but against William, who excelled at mental interference and evasion, it was ineffective and even occasionally harmed the dragon itself, making for a frustrating fight.
The Golden Fleet's temporal-spatial stasis field could block nearly all attacks from those present, and their main cannons were terrifyingly powerful, capable of destroying mountains and tearing continents apart. But against Leviathan, which also manipulated spacetime and whose gravity shield could nearly bend light, they were useless. Even if they wounded it, it would regenerate in a dozen seconds.
This chaotic battle lasted for several days. Everyone fought in a mess, always on the verge of victory only to be interrupted by some other interloper. They were furious, growing angrier with each blow, even willing to reveal their trump cards to suppress an opponent and kill them before other disruptors arrived. For these experts, such a battle held no pleasure or meaning—it was utterly chaotic, with the entire starry sky obscured by the energy they released, hiding the light of distant worlds.
Perhaps only one person in the entire multiverse was happy with the current situation and thoroughly enjoying it.
Exchanging a punch with the Insect Demon Lord Saruka, the immense energy even generated lightning in the void, producing deep purple thunder and plasma. Joshua laughed loudly before continuing to clash with this demon, who seemed to control the power of evolution and could mutate into four powerful forms at any moment. The warrior had not transformed into a steel giant but fought in human form. Yet even so, each of Joshua's punches fell like a mountain.
This was not an exaggerated metaphor but a fitting description, for the punch truly carried the weight of a mountain! By condensing Steel Force and adding magnetic field rotational acceleration, Joshua's strike in the frictionless void was as terrifying as a million-ton meteor falling from the sky. A nearby Demon Lava Ship, merely grazed by the shockwave, was instantly crushed into powder.
But Saruka could actually withstand this blow. With a rapid mutation of his body, the originally tall and robust Insect Demon Lord, standing dozens of meters tall, transformed into a compact, ball-like structure. Using his now shorter but incredibly sturdy arms, he barely blocked Joshua's punch. Then, with a sudden shift in form, those stubby arms stretched into long, sharp spear-like appendages, thrusting toward the warrior!
Defense form, attack form, speed form, composite form. By mastering his own body's energy and the life essence of other beings, Saruka could freely mutate his form to suit any situation. The Insect Demon Lord's defense form could block the Black Dragon King's attacks, his attack form could breach the Void Behemoth's shields, and his speed form could put immense pressure on William, who was skilled in spatial magic.
Yet this seemingly omnipotent ability was being overwhelmed by Joshua's monotonous attacks—either physical impacts or searing heat—leaving Saruka only occasionally able to counterattack.
"How refreshing!"
Staring at Saruka's spear-like arm thrusting toward him, Joshua clenched his right fist. No one could see whether his hand moved, but with a terrifying shift in the gravity field, Saruka's entire body was sent flying backward, his twisted form crashing into the middle of the battle between the Golden Fleet and the White Dragon King, taking a dozen psionic beam blasts.
—Perfect!
This melee was incredibly satisfying for the warrior. It was the most enjoyable few days Joshua had experienced in decades. All around him were impossibly powerful opponents, enemies with unimaginable abilities: the Black Dragon's negative energy that could breach degenerate matter defenses, the Void Behemoth's powerful gravity field that disrupted his mass attacks, the White Dragon's frost that froze spacetime and could even halt nuclear fusion reactions, the Golden Fleet's unified, comprehensive, and nearly flawless psionic power, and the demon's rapid, on-the-spot evolution that defied common sense.
These abilities, wherever they appeared, would be considered formidable, enough to give anyone a headache as they figured out how to counter them. The beings present undoubtedly had the combat power to single-handedly destroy a small or medium-sized civilization. It was a minor miracle that all these experts had gathered together.
Fortunately, he was no slouch either.
In the void, Joshua took a deep breath, expelling the high-temperature exhaust from his Fusion Core Heart furnace, forming a red-hot wind millions of degrees hot. He stretched his arms, allowing the phantom of a Steel Giant God to appear behind him for a moment.
The reason he didn't assume the Steel Giant form was that Joshua knew that on this battlefield, the larger the target, the more it would be targeted. Just look at the Void Behemoth, too large to compare with a mountain—at least half of the attacks from the other seven Legendary-level beings were aimed at it. Not using his combat form didn't significantly affect Joshua's power output; it only prevented him from dealing with large creatures, limiting him to fighting enemies of normal size.
For example, this Insect Demon Lord.
By now, the Insect Demon Lord Saruka was nearly driven to vomit blood (tu xue) by the warrior's relentless focus. He had been fighting Joshua on and off for several days. Although time was hard to judge in the void, at their level, their sense of time was as accurate as an atomic clock, down to microseconds. Being targeted to this extent, even as a Legendary Demon Lord, he was nearing his limit.
Joshua's power was not as complex and varied as Baniel's, nor as mysterious and unpredictable as William's, let alone Keano and Bonal's negative energy and frost. As a Legendary, his uniqueness seemed to lie only in his immense strength, his incredibly tough body, his vast energy reserves, and his enormous weight. Yet these simple attributes had pushed the Insect Demon Lord's evolutionary ability to its limit—
It was a power beyond evolution. The demon dragon body from the Abyssal Underworld Realm was among the strongest of millions of species, but against Joshua's straight punch, it suffered broken bones and torn sinews. The shell of a certain world's divine blood demon insect could withstand the heat and pressure of the sun, but against the warrior's furnace power, it could only endure two more punches. Under such pressure, Saruka had achieved a breakthrough on the spot, merging the strengths of the countless beings he had devoured into one, gaining the capital to fight Joshua head-on without collapsing.
This did not mean Saruka was weaker than Joshua—only that their compatibility was poor. Had the Insect Demon Lord fought anyone else present, he would not have been at a disadvantage. It was just that against Joshua's simple yet overwhelming basic physical attributes, his versatile combat forms lost their meaning.
"Damn it, why is this human so perfectly countering me?!"
Having barely escaped the battle between the Void Behemoth and the Golden Fleet, the Insect Demon Lord was furious enough to explode. As a Demon Lord, when had he ever been so humiliated? But against Joshua's straightforward, unyielding power, which left no flaws to exploit, Saruka truly had no good options—unless his reinforcements, the Second Legion and the Eye Demon Lord Haier Mu, arrived soon. With two Demon Lords working together, he was confident he could kill Joshua.
Perhaps due to the intensity of the battle, all the Legendary experts had focused their attention on each other, and no one noticed that the light of the Great Magic Tide in the surrounding void was dimming, the starlight of the worlds was fading, and even the chaotic temporal-spatial storm was becoming hazy, as if shrouded in a layer of mist.
And just as everyone finally sensed this—
With a sudden burst of cold and shadow, black mist spread rapidly through the void. An icy, bone-chilling aura expanded. In an instant, all the Legendary experts present, the extraordinary fleets, the Void Behemoth, and even the entire Chronos World were enveloped by a vast, dark cloud of unknown origin, swallowed into its belly!
Such is darkness, lurking beneath the light.