Chapter 36: Deep Shadow (Part 2)
"What is that?!"
"What's happening?"
"This darkness..."
As the shadow surged forth from the gaps in the void, enveloping all the powerful experts present in an instant, even the legendary experts were shocked to discover that the battlefield where they had been fighting had been completely shrouded in mist, becoming a dark space filled with an intense, oppressive aura. This space was eerily calm, utterly incompatible with the rippling spacetime distortions surrounding it.
Mist? Shadow? Darkness?
How could this be!
Almost every legendary expert with even a slight understanding of the void was stunned for a moment. As everyone knew, the void was the nothingness outside the world, where almost nothing existed except for the chaotic currents of spacetime caused by the world's own overflowing temporal fluctuations. Disasters like spacetime storms were nothing more than violent, chaotic spacetime fluctuations.
Mist... In this terrifying void, where even steel warships would be torn apart in an instant without runic protection, how could such calm mist possibly exist?
But now was not the time to ponder this. The shadow surging from the void's gaps had already enveloped all the experts. Then, as the shadow grew denser and the darkness became more substantial, the entire area around the Chronos World, which had been churned into chaos by the multiple legendary experts, was swallowed into a massive, spherical darkness. It was rapidly taking shape, as if it were about to form a giant egg, a colossal cocoon.
But even without knowing what this was, no one would allow the darkness's plan to proceed smoothly.
Although none of the legendary-level beings had suffered fatal injuries during the previous days of battle—even the Void Behemoth Leviathan, which looked the most battered and had been hit the most, was, in human terms, merely bruised and swollen—fighting ultimately consumed energy. The continuous high-intensity combat over many days had indeed drained their spirits. Coupled with the fact that they were immersed in their battles with each other, the sudden ambush maximized the power of the dark mist, allowing it to instantly trap all the experts.
But once everyone came to their senses, they would never allow this shadow to imprison them!
"What the hell is this thing?"
Within the dark mist, Joshua looked around at the darkness steadily closing in on him. The warrior couldn't help but frown, as if he had seen something filthy.
He crossed his arms over his chest, not making a move, but behind him, the phantom of a four-armed giant god appeared. The hundreds-of-meter-tall phantom of Steel Force silently raised its iron fists, and then, in an instant, unleashed tens of thousands of straight punches with explosive force in all directions. Immediately, the darkness that had been as calm as dead water, enveloping the world and the void, began to shake violently, as if being battered by an unending tsunami of giant waves.
With Joshua's current strength, there were few things in this world that could restrain him. Any material that hadn't reached the level of ultra-dense degenerate matter was as good as non-existent to him. Legendary-level sealing formations, unless they were exceptionally intricate, could also be easily shattered by him... Spacetime itself couldn't bind him to a single world, so what else could?
But strangely, even though the misty sea was violently shaken by Joshua's assault, as if it were about to collapse completely in the next moment, it still wasn't truly shattered. On the contrary, after enduring a round of Joshua's unilateral onslaught, the black mist seemed stimulated and suddenly began to proliferate rapidly. The surrounding void immediately surged with two or three times the previous amount of mist, pressing in on the warrior once again!
Physical attacks ineffective? Or does it have the ability to absorb energy and self-proliferate?
For legendary experts, there was no room for guesswork in battle. With their power and observational abilities, any attack, once used, would be thoroughly understood. In their world, 'unknown attacks' almost didn't exist. No matter how fine or ingenious the technique, even if they couldn't perform it themselves, they could always comprehend it fully.
This was a moment of battle. Joshua's brain operated at unprecedented speed, collecting all surrounding information for analysis. His pupils turned into a silvery metallic luster, scanning the surrounding void. Instantly, the microstructure, energy concentration, proliferation rate, and impact on the surrounding void of the black mist were all fully understood.
Massive aggregation of molecular-level black particles... Seemingly mist, but actually connected as a whole through electromagnetic force.
In an instant, Joshua had a clear understanding of the enemy's existence—it was less like mist and more like a net, a fine net filtering the void and the world, so dense that ordinary humans couldn't imagine it! And what it was fishing for wasn't any specific prey, but the ubiquitous 'energy' in this world!
This was darkness that devoured light, a net that captured energy!
Heat and kinetic energy were also forms of energy, so Joshua's punches had an initial effect. But after the initial destructive force passed, that power would also be captured by it, becoming food for its own growth... Throughout the void, the dense energy from the Great Magic Tide was rapidly dissipating. The Chronos World, also enveloped by it, was growing cold due to the gradual disappearance of energy. In a little while, the entire world might freeze over, becoming a frozen, dead world like the Sixth Abyss!
Although Joshua had seen through the black mist, its actions wouldn't slow down because of this. As the misty sea surged, the light in the void dimmed once again. The starlight that had re-illuminated due to the Great Magic Tide was essentially caused by the excess energy spilling into the void. The black mist was now hunting this energy. Joshua could sense the shocked mental fluctuations from the distant Black Dragon King, Keano, as if even his negative energy was being devoured by this silent darkness.
The many legendary experts present, including demons, dragon kings, void behemoths, and the Golden Fleet, all attacked simultaneously the moment they were swallowed, trying to break through the darkness. But this action had little effect, just like Joshua's earlier punches, instead causing the enemy to proliferate.
Having received so many attacks, the misty sea in the void began to writhe rapidly. It seemed to want to counterattack, to digest the prey inside its body.
Instantly, within the darkness, shadows began to condense. Countless black particles, driven by intense lightning-type magical power fluctuations—essentially the operation of a massive electromagnetic force—began to spin rapidly. In an instant, they condensed into millions of black needles, each about the size of a raindrop, pitch black, seemingly able to devour light. Then, they shot out at high speed towards all the legendary experts inside it!
There was no resistance in the void. The needles reached their maximum speed in an instant, like a rainstorm coming from all directions, aiming to pierce every target. The black mist had encountered many powerful enemies before, but none had ever emerged unscathed from its attack.
But this time, it might be an exception.
Joshua didn't know how the others would respond. For him, this counterattack from the black mist was somewhat disappointing. Facing the endless black spikes coming from above, below, left, right, front, and back at one-twentieth the speed of light, the phantom of the Steel Giant God appeared behind the warrior again—but this time, it was vastly different. The giant god's phantom began to shrink rapidly the moment it appeared, eventually becoming about the same size as Joshua himself. It even merged with the warrior's body, leaving only four arms.
The sound of immense mass being extremely compressed could be heard. The surrounding spacetime ripples began to sink, centered on Joshua. On the warrior's shoulders, two pairs of silver, metallic-looking, powerful arms had finished condensing. Including Joshua's own, six fists slowly clenched, causing the surrounding void to surge like a tsunami.
And the next moment came the strike.
As the black spikes raced in at high speed, Joshua stood on the void, expressionless. His six arms, covering all directions, brought forth roaring spacetime ripples, intercepting all incoming attacks!
Tens of thousands of black needles, like a rainstorm, attacked at millions of meters per second. Joshua's chosen response was to shatter every single raindrop.
With Joshua at the center, time seemed to stand still. One could only see countless clusters of ink-like black mist rapidly dispersing. In the warrior's mind, with his eyes closed and relying purely on energy sensing, the seemingly simultaneous black spikes actually had a sequence. What he did was simple—without any flourish, he pointed out one finger after another, crushing all the spikes in order, turning them back into black mist.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang—In the void, there should have been no sound, but the black mist produced by the exploding spikes could carry waves. Joshua's physical fitness and reaction speed had reached an unbelievable level. This kind of ordinary attack meant nothing to him.
—Is that all?
Sensing that the surrounding condensed black mist seemed to have paused its spike-condensing action, perhaps shocked by his response, Joshua opened his eyes again and scanned the surroundings. And at that moment, as if the warrior's response had a flaw, a single black spike managed to bypass his interception and slammed heavily into his body!
But there was no surprise. This black spike also collapsed into black mist in an instant... Joshua's body was as tough as his arms, both being extremely condensed degenerate matter. Hitting his body was no different from being intercepted by his hand.
But because of this, Joshua nodded in sudden realization: "I see. So this is the kind of attack. I didn't expect it."
After deliberately letting one black spike through to hit his body, Joshua finally experienced the true power of these black spikes firsthand. These seemingly tiny spikes, actually entirely condensed from electromagnetic force, had a density surpassing most materials. The faint electric current swirling around them could even cause molecular-level material disintegration! Combined with the black mist's own energy absorption, ordinary energy shields and materials seemed to have no effect on the spikes.
Most importantly, if one was careless and let these black needles pierce their body, even a legendary expert could have their internal energy circulation severed, causing chain reactions and injury... A simple yet powerful attack. Unfortunately, it had no effect on him.
Joshua shook his head. After achieving 27% assimilation with Steel Force, his entire body's surface was already degenerate matter. Even a single strand of his hair, if taken out, would be a divine weapon capable of piercing anything. Unless it was something like the old Pope's ability to control the speed of light, there was almost nothing in this world that could harm him. Neither material disintegration nor energy absorption meant anything to the warrior.
"Speaking of which, this condensation of electromagnetic force... It feels like the power of that ancient dragon?"
"Does this mist have something to do with that ancient dragon who mastered the power of lightning?"
The surrounding misty sea was surging violently, as other legendary experts were dealing with the rainstorm of spike attacks. But the darkness around Joshua had temporarily stopped moving, seemingly shocked by the warrior's unbelievable response and physical toughness. Joshua, however, didn't care much about that. Instead, he was more interested in the nature of the black mist's power.
"But it's not surprising. It's reasonable for others to learn an ancient dragon's power and then use it against the dragon itself."
An ancient dragon's power could, in some cases, be seen as a natural phenomenon. Intelligent life learns from natural phenomena, arms itself, and then turns around to fight against natural phenomena. That was perfectly reasonable.
On the other side, as if knowing that the previous attack was useless against Joshua, the dark misty sea paused for a few seconds before beginning to surge violently, completely different from how it was dealing with other legendary experts. The darkness, which had fought countless powerful enemies, had encountered foes similar to Joshua—almost indestructible. So it knew what kind of attack to use.
At the center of the dark mist, deep purple lightning spread through the shadows, causing endless black particles to condense through the flashing thunder. It formed an extremely condensed core, beginning to accumulate energy and mass that made even the void tremble!
But it wasn't the only one that could attack, while everyone else could only passively take hits.
Just as the dark mist began to condense its core, at the other end of the mist, Joshua stepped on the void. His entire body radiated intense heat, causing circuit-board-like red patterns to appear on his body. The warrior took a deep breath, and the energy in the surrounding void, which had been constantly flowing towards the dark core, was instead pulled by a massive suction force into his mouth. Entering his full combat form, Joshua clenched his six fists, his pupils flashing with the silver light of Steel Force.
Joshua could clearly feel that in the center of the darkness, which devoured all energy, some incredible change was occurring. A vacuum was appearing—not the vacuum of cosmic space or the void, where no visible matter existed, but a true, absolute vacuum! The reason why these completely opposite states—energy condensation and vacuum—were appearing simultaneously was because all the energy in that space was being drained by the darkness and compressed into the dark core!
Extreme condensation and absolute vacuum! Such extreme conditions were now appearing before Joshua's eyes. Bound by an astonishing electromagnetic force field, the dark core was transforming itself into a black aggregate with a density exceeding the ultra-dense matter on Joshua's body surface. And the scope of the vacuum was expanding further as the density of the black core increased!
The warrior saw through the black mist's plan in an instant. It intended to use the black spikes to break the balance at the moment the dark core was fully formed, releasing a terrifying mass tide capable of destroying everything. The first explosion would be the rapidly expanding vacuum sucking everything around it in. The second explosion would be the disintegration of the material core, causing a large-scale material and energy collapse! This power was enough to destroy everything, turning everything it swept over into a pure sea of hot ions!
Vacuum Implosion!
Facing the rapidly condensing material energy of the enemy, Joshua, still maintaining his human form, extended his arm. His expression was calm. Silver light gathered in his palm. As Steel Force surged, silver-white steel flowed and took shape in the warrior's palm, finally forming a cold metal spear. Space rippled as the sharp spear tip moved. Joshua weighed it in his hand, still somewhat dissatisfied. So, crimson flames merged into the spear tip, causing the space around the top of the spear to emit a distorted, scorching light due to the spatial depression.
This spear was not a simple weapon. It was a projection of Steel Force, a condensation of degenerate matter weighing hundreds of thousands of tons. The weight of a small mountain was compressed into a man-high spear, carrying the intense heat Joshua had heated it to—millions of degrees. This was the simplest, most direct, and most brutal power of the material world.
"To be honest, I really don't get it. Daring to ambush eight legendary-level beings at the same time and imprison them inside your body... Who exactly are you, this darkness, looking down on? Even a god wouldn't be so arrogant!"
Holding the spear, Joshua narrowed his eyes. He saw through the meaningless visual obstruction of the black misty sea and saw the true form of the rapidly forming dark core. It was condensing quickly, but the warrior was faster. The steel spear in his hand had been heated by nuclear fusion to a golden-red like the sun. Explosive energy dissipated as lightning and plasma, spreading into the surrounding void. An attack capable of destroying everything had already taken shape in the warrior's palm.
So, he raised the spear, aiming it at the center of the shadowy mist.
"Feel the light of the sun, unknown darkness."
With a powerful mass projection distorting space, only a golden arc of light could be seen breaking through the shadow. The steel spear, accelerated by Joshua's power to an unbelievable degree, pierced the darkness, beating the dark mist by an instant, and struck the dark core.
The vacuum world had no sound.
But the next moment.
Violently surging light pierced the darkness, illuminating the Chronos World below it.