Chapter 38: First Resolve the Enemy, Then Consider the Problem 7000
But the darkness immediately realized that its situation was not actually as dire as it had predicted.
Because, facing the extremely dangerous breath of the ancient dragon, behind it, the legendary beings who were also locked on as targets unanimously retreated.
As fellow coveters of the ancient dragon's power, whether it was the two Five-Colored Dragon Kings, the Demon Lord, the behemoth roaming the void, or the fleet of the mysterious civilization, none of these entities were allies of the ancient dragon. They were also well aware that their arrival near the Chronos World was not to help the ancient dragon break free. And even though the two Legendary Mages harbored no ill intent, they had no way to convey this thought to the ancient dragon.
Thus, facing that magnetic breath that seemed to pierce the void and tear apart the material world, all beings unwilling to take that blow alongside the dark mist simply and decisively retreated.
This was an opportunity.
The nameless darkness immediately sensed the possibility of evasion. After all, it was a vast expanse of mist. As long as there were no multiple pursuers blocking its rear, it was not difficult to shift its most core and important parts out of the main trajectory of the ancient dragon's breath. And its controller behind the scenes, or perhaps its own nature, caused it to execute its planned action without hesitation. It could be seen that the dark mist surged back with unimaginable speed, like a video rewinding, retracing its original path backward.
If it continued like this, it might indeed be able to withdraw most of its main force before the ancient dragon gathered its strength.
But it miscalculated.
Because there was still one person who did not retreat.
"I came here not to fight you."
Standing in the void, having transformed into a steel giant god, Joshua faced the dark mist attempting to flee and the approaching, dazzling electromagnetic aurora. He extended his right hand with extreme seriousness, then clenched it in the air. In the warrior's palm, light also gathered, as if it were a sword, or perhaps the entire world. Rapidly flickering arcs of electricity flashed across his body surface. First came the intense surge of current, then the magnetic field began to spin rapidly... Finally, it could be seen that crimson lightning condensed in Joshua's palm, transforming into lines resembling scars.
The degenerate matter that formed the basic structure of Joshua's body itself released an immensely powerful magnetic field. The reason the warrior could normally walk among ordinary people with a weight of tens of thousands of tons or more was precisely because he had the ability to control his magnetic field through Steel Force. This ability had even been summarized by him and passed on to a certain Flame Demon and the girl he admired, becoming a new inheritance of power.
Thus, as the originator of that power, Joshua fully activated this technique for the first time. In that instant, the two Legendary Mages, who were about to use space-time sorcery to drag the warrior—who stubbornly refused to leave the trajectory of the ancient dragon's breath—away, were shocked to discover that an unstoppable, immense force emanated from Joshua, blowing away the magical power that touched him like feathers. At this moment, he stood rooted to the spot like a star, and no force could move him an inch.
"Just resolving the mistakes I made."
The magnetic field surged, and the brilliant energy light stirred up waves in the void. Joshua raised his right fist, which seemed to be grasping something. Instantly, the stars in the void dimmed, because something even more dazzling appeared in this world. At this moment, time seemed to stand still. The ancient dragon's breath, the warrior's fist, and the darkness trapped between them, unsure how to escape—two incredibly bright, powerful magnetic fields spun simultaneously. The mere overflow of their power made the distant void behemoth sense danger.
Because this was the power to destroy all things.
When the ancient dragon exerted its full strength, extracting the electron degenerate pressure from matter, the overflowing electrons would release extremely powerful electromagnetic radiation and high-energy particle beams. This manifested as the translucent light bubbles and fluctuations in the ancient dragon's mouth. The black mist touched by this light spontaneously combusted and dissipated in an instant, turning into the most basic fundamental particles.
To withstand such an attack, a body similar to white dwarf matter alone was insufficient, because it too relied on electron degenerate pressure to sustain itself. One would need to go a step further, like a neutron star, completely relying on neutron degenerate pressure to sustain existence... Joshua was far from achieving this, but he had another way to counter the ancient dragon's magnetic breath.
That was to rely on another powerful magnetic field.
Chronos World, deep within the mountain range, ancient ruins. The unconscious girl, due to a throbbing in her bloodline, unknowingly awakened. She looked up blankly at the scene displayed on the crystal wall. There, a silver dragon spewed a blinding light that short-circuited even the crystal light wall, and a steel giant god threw a heavy fist that shattered mountains and shook the earth. Their attacks caused vast auroras to appear in Chronos's sky. The world's disrupted magnetic field released a brilliant radiance, while the darkness caught between their attacks was shattered, annihilated like flying ash and dust by the two powerful magnetic fields, or pushed into the distance.
It could be seen that two butterfly-shaped magnetic fields, one large and one small, were shining brightly in the void, opposing each other.
"This is..."
On the altar, the girl bound in place by steel chains lay on the ground, looking up at the crystal light wall, whispering to herself: "This light..."
"Is that person, the originator of the technique you practice."
And at that moment, she felt a warm will contact and communicate with her spirit. Lisa heard a familiar voice: "He has come."
"To achieve another victory."
Is that so... The creator of the current drive is that silver giant god... Lisa remained silent. She could feel the power of those two mighty beings in the sky. If the power of the current drive within her had been sublimated into a new, more condensed force with a magnitude of one, then the dragon god and the giant in the sky both exceeded seven hundred thousand, eight hundred thousand... up to nine hundred thousand. This was not linear. An increase of just one in this condensed power could bring about an inconceivable boost in strength, granting the holder extraordinary power far beyond ordinary mortals.
But for some reason, even though both powerhouses were so strong, the girl still felt a sense of unease. She had a premonition that things might not be resolved so simply.
In the void, while everyone else was focused on the ancient dragon and Joshua jointly attacking the darkness, Baniel and William found the restless Black and White Dragon Kings nearby.
"Baniel... and William, have you come to escort that young man?"
Seeing the two Legendary Mages approaching, the Black Dragon Lord, Ke Anuo, exhaled a cloud of gray negative energy mist. He watched them warily but did not actually prepare for battle: "We have no intention of making a move. We were just sighing inwardly that humanity has gained another powerful legendary."
Any fool knew he was lying. Joshua, the one who had hindered their attack on the Seven Sacred Mountains, the world-renowned Dragon Slayer—if they could launch a sneak attack, why would they hold back?
The White Dragon King, Frost Lord Bonaer, who seemed to be an acquaintance of Baniel, had a slightly better attitude: "Baniel... at this point, is there anything left to say? This ancient dragon's power far exceeds our imagination, and with you three legends here... we will leave shortly and no longer covet its power."
At this point, even the White Dragon King, who desperately desired the power of creation to create a suitable habitat for his race, had to admit that the situation had exceeded their predictions. Not only were the competing powerful beings unexpectedly numerous, but the ancient dragon, which should not have been able to exert its full strength, was also abnormally powerful. Coupled with the old rivals from the Mycroft World, he had no choice but to abandon this plan.
The Five-Colored Dragons could not afford more losses, especially the loss of two Dragon Kings. Although another legendary Dragon King, Ruitiya, remained in the Dragon Sleep Abyss, a single legendary could not lead the Five-Colored Dragon race to live safely in the abyss.
They didn't even have the capital to gamble.
Baniel was silent for a long time before softly speaking to the massive white dragon before him: "Bonaer, stay away from Mycroft."
His tone was filled with emotion, as if recalling the past, and also as if looking toward the future: "I still remember when we were young, going to the overseas Dragon Island to seek ancient dragon texts, and you generously agreed... You weren't as crazy back then as during the Dragon Calamity, nor did you seem like the evil dragon king everyone spoke of. But thinking back now, perhaps you had already planned to seek the ancient dragon's power as a fallback."
"But the situation is not what you know it to be, Bonaer. The Mycroft civilization is gradually awakening. We have recovered the heritage of the ancient era and the ruins left by our predecessors."
Baniel closed his eyes, then opened them again, light swirling in his gaze: "The Mycroft people are about to march toward the myriad realms again. If you, who have suffered heavy losses, still stand in our way, you will be utterly crushed."
The white-haired mage's usual image was leisurely, cheerful, not serious, and even a bit mischievous. He would cheat without any psychological burden while playing a card game with his friends, showing no sign of being a legendary powerhouse. But now, Baniel fully displayed the authority of the Rune Master. He calmly watched the two dragons, whose eyes had become furious, and spoke in a calm, indifferent tone, completely shattering the anger of the legendary Dragon Kings.
"I have traveled through the surrounding void, searching for traces of the ancient dragon and news of your race... Bonaer, Ke Anuo, you should be the last starry Five-Colored Dragons in the multiverse. Rather than worrying about the future, you should first take care of the present."
As soon as these words were spoken, the two legendary Dragon Kings immediately became dejected. They looked at each other, their eyes full of self-mockery and melancholy.
Baniel had no need to lie to them... Besides, did they need humans to tell them this?
The Red Dragon King, the Green Dragon King, the heritage of the two former Five-Colored Dragon Kings—why had they disappeared into the multiverse and the elemental planes? Didn't they know? The Dragon Kings might still be alive, but as long as they couldn't find their kin or a world suitable for them to live in, the Dragon Kings, unwilling to let down their brethren, would never return.
Beside them, William also spoke, sighing: "Just thrive and multiply in your abyss, and never come back... Next time, you will surely die. We will show no mercy and completely sever the ten-thousand-year karma between the Five-Colored Dragons and Mycroft."
This was indeed a well-intentioned reminder. Because of their youthful friendship, the two Legendary Mages, taking advantage of Joshua's absence, had no intention of attacking the Dragon Kings. They only wanted to persuade the Dragon Kings to leave this space-time domain and stop operating near the Mycroft World.
But these words seemed to sting the Dragon Kings' pride. Instantly, Bonaer exhaled a white mist approaching absolute zero, and his eyes turned bloodshot: "Our race has a longer history than the Mycroft civilization. The former Five-Colored Dragons and Dragon Kings were also members of the Mycroft World during its heyday... What you say is indeed true, but when faced with hope, dragons will never retreat!"
"The war for dominance of the continent was only natural. Wasn't the war between you humans and elves against the Lizardmen and Harpies the same?"
"But we did not seek the power of the abyss and chaos as external allies... By doing this, do you want to become the beings that destroyed your world back then?"
"..."
...
The Dragon Kings left. One black and one white ribbon of light disappeared into the void, diving into the domain of the abyss without looking back. Bonaer and Ke Anuo gave up their struggle for the ancient dragon's power.
Nearby, facing the intact ancient dragon and the seemingly heavily damaged darkness, the void behemoth also left. It took a deep look at the many legends present, as if memorizing the faces of all the transcendent beings, then, riding its gravity field, vanished into the distant void.
The Golden Fleet was retreating. They were actually the ones who had gained the most so far. This fleet from an unknown civilization had collected a large number of bloodline samples from magical beasts and Dragonmen in the Chronos Mountains and successfully obtained specific information about the ancient dragon's power. Although overall it wasn't a particularly impressive harvest, it was acceptable—at least better than competing with other legendary powerhouses at the cost of their lives.
Ultimately, they were a fleet. As a force guarding a civilization, having lost a third of their warships, they had to leave and return for repairs, or the cost would outweigh the benefits.
The Insect Demon Lord had long since fled with the Lava Fleet, even earlier than the void behemoth. It wasn't stupid. With reinforcements not yet arrived, only a fool would compete with the remaining three human legends and the ancient dragon... With the Five-Colored Dragon Kings gone and no one to ally with, Saruka couldn't even suppress Joshua alone. If surrounded and beaten, wouldn't he become one of the most humiliating Demon Lords to die?
Now, in the void, Joshua was confronting the silver ancient dragon in mid-air.
The ancient dragon knew that this was the man who had awakened it from its slumber. That was one reason it had decisively classified him as an enemy. But after the previous clash, it also understood that it had no chance of completely eliminating him. Coupled with the presence of the black mist, it didn't waste any more thought on him.
Its chance to fight relied on the ritual left by the former Chronos civilization. Through existential perception, it knew that the entire Dragonman race now had only one awakened pure-blood Dragonman, and it was still a juvenile. This meant it only had one chance to fight and could not waste it on an enemy it couldn't eliminate.
Joshua's entire body was still flashing with massive arcs of electricity. The material on his surface was constantly disintegrating, but also continuously healing and regenerating. With the darkness as an intermediary, neither of their attacks had directly struck the other, but the power that stripped away electron degenerate pressure still caused some damage to the warrior.
What should he say at this point? Go greet the ancient dragon, tell it that he had accidentally lost control earlier, and that this time he was here to help it?
Who would believe that?
Joshua was clearly not the type for negotiation. Rather than have him communicate with the ancient dragon, it was better for him to communicate with his fists. After a fight, they could become good friends. And the ancient dragon had no intention of giving this guy who had awakened it a good face. Seeing that the other coveters of its power had left, it turned around, ready to return to the Chronos World and continue its process of repairing the world.
This was its agreement with the Dragonmen. It would never break its promise, even if the price was being bound to this small world for thousands of years.
But just as Joshua was also about to turn around and discuss matters with the two old mages, suddenly, a black sphere could be seen jumping out of the void between the ancient dragon and the warrior—a void that should have been completely reduced to nothingness. It released a hazy black mist, immediately startling both of them into looking back.
By some unknown method, it had survived Joshua's fist and the ancient dragon's breath. This black sphere, the true body of the darkness, the entity that created and controlled the black mist, was now spinning rapidly in the void. All the energy previously plundered by the dark mist had been absorbed by it. The electromagnetic force controlling the black mist was also under its command. And now, although this patch of black mist had dissipated, it stubbornly persisted.
Not only that, but it directly continued its original plan, plummeting toward the Chronos World.
"Groooar?!"
The ancient dragon also seemed shocked by this. In its previous battles with the black mist, this had never happened. Every time, one breath from it could eliminate a large area of black mist and its true bodies. But in just a few hundred years, the entity behind the black mist had progressed to this extent—able to withstand its full-power breath?!
The situation was too sudden. No one could react. The ancient dragon and Joshua, wary of each other, allowed the true body of the black mist to enter the Chronos World.
And so, an indescribable disaster descended.
From the perspective of the creatures living in the Chronos Mountains, it was like a black star falling from the sky.
A massive sphere, over forty meters in diameter, still surrounded by the ancient dragon's powerful arcs of electricity, but undamaged. Its powerful magnetic field, similar to the ancient dragon's, allowed it to survive that terrifying pincer attack. This darkness devoured everything around it along the way. It released concentric ripples, assimilating and transforming the dust in the surrounding air, forming new black mist. As the dark mist reappeared, it continued to descend, like ink dripping into a cup of water, rapidly expanding its presence.
At this moment, the darkness was more active than in the void. In the blink of an eye, it had already plunged into the clouds of the Chronos World. Instantly, large patches of gray-white clouds twisted, turning into shimmering, dark surfaces, reflecting the brilliant colors above the void. The next moment, they fell as black rain, seeping into the earth and desert, infiltrating all things.
It could be seen that the darkness was spreading rapidly in all directions, like fire burning across a prairie, like a plague spreading through a crowd.
An erosion-suppression weapon for use against worlds.
Joshua immediately understood what he had overlooked. Yes, how could it be otherwise? How could a weapon from a super civilization only have the ability to fight in the void? It must have extremely strong endurance (jí qiáng de xù háng), and an almost indestructible nature, to travel through the dangerous multiverse, invading and suppressing other civilizations one by one.
Now it seemed that although the ancient dragon's power restrained it, it was far from completely suppressing it. The two powers were even of the same origin.
On the ground, the black rain continued to fall. Instantly, a black area tens of kilometers in diameter appeared in the Divine Desert. It could be seen that dark water mist mixed with dust and smoke condensed into various unimaginable shapes of weapon spikes, spheres, octahedrons, triangular prisms, hexagonal prisms... It was as if a collection of black geometric solids had gathered. Countless strange constructs resembling mathematical models were generated in the mist. Countless peculiar runes flickered on these geometric solids.
These geometric solids were both beautiful and dangerous. Without any intricate or complex construction, their pure simplicity was also an extreme form of beauty. Their surfaces and interiors were inscribed with countless runes. Powerful energy activation passed through rune array after rune array, producing all sorts of wondrous phenomena.
What kind of power would be produced when magic runes were inscribed and combined at the nanoscale?
Just as Joshua and the silver ancient dragon, rushing over from the void, saw.
Like an incarnation of the essence of darkness, the darkness that reflected no light or energy gathered in the mist. It condensed into countless strange geometric solids, and then into a giant hand. Amidst a roar that swept across the sky, a completely square, 3D-model-projection-like black giant hand reached out, shattering the ancient dragon's probing thunder strike. The dark mist continued to churn, as if trying to condense into a giant Mobius strip, to fight the ancient dragon in its combat form.
The ancient dragon wanted to use its matter-disintegrating breath again, but this was inside the Chronos World, where the Dragonmen lived. If it used too powerful an attack, it would be another apocalypse and destruction. So it hesitated, stopping in place, unsure how to respond.
"It seems I need your help, Master Baniel, Master William."
At that moment, Joshua calmly said to the two approaching Legendary Mages. He knew that thanks to their efforts, the other legendary powerhouses had left the Chronos World, allowing them to focus on dealing with the dark mist. Otherwise, the situation would be many times more dangerous.
But at this moment, Baniel and William paid no attention to Joshua at all. The white-haired mage and the bard were gazing with infatuation at the silver ancient dragon beside them, muttering: "Look at this perfect form. Whether it's the leaping electromagnetic field or the flawless body, it makes my heart race..."
"I feel like I'm falling in love..."
Despite their frivolous words, the two Legendary Mages unhesitatingly joined in suppressing the darkness. William, as a mental controller, had little effect on the dark mist, which seemed to have no mind at all and was pure nothingness. But he turned back and gazed intently at the distant Chronos Mountains. Instantly, visible mental fluctuations spread, causing all Dragonmen and native beasts that had tried to peek outside to shrink back into their shelters. He waved his hand in the void, and layer upon layer of translucent magical barriers condensed around the dark mist, temporarily blocking its spread.
Meanwhile, Baniel took off his glasses. The legendary mage's artificial eye shimmered with the multifaceted brilliance of a diamond. After taking a deep breath, the old mage removed his artificial eye and threw this brilliant polyhedron—the culmination of his life's work, almost his finest runic achievement—into the dark mist.
Instantly, it could be seen that the rapidly spreading dark mist immediately stopped its movement.
"Alright, through my runic core, I'm competing with the central hub of this black mist for control of the mist. You two go in and smash its true body... What the hell? How is its computing power so much higher than mine? Is it even human?!"
Originally, Baniel had a confident, sure-of-victory expression, because there was almost no existence in this world that could match a legendary powerhouse in computing power... But clearly, the core of the black mist was not among them. In just a few seconds, large drops of sweat poured from the legendary mage's head. These were not ordinary physiological secretions, but liquid nitrogen that the old mage had condensed to cool his brain.
And just as the two Legendary Mages made their move, unlike the ancient dragon, which still hadn't thought of any solution, Joshua had already set off. He descended rapidly, accompanied by a blazing gale, causing the air he passed through to burn and boil, the earth to turn into lava, and all things to become charcoal and sea of fire. The warrior's powerful magnetic field, mixed with incomparable heat, incinerated all the dark mist along the way. He charged straight into the temporarily stilled dark mist.
When facing an enemy, Joshua never thought about whether to fight, but only about how to fight.
Before completely defeating the enemy, he would never waste words.
Just as he always followed that motto:
First resolve the enemy, then consider the problem.