# Chapter 1: The Sleeping Cocoon 7300
Starfall Year 837, October 1st, outside the Mycroft World, Sacred Mountain Warship, Glory Fortress, 'Saint's Eye' Observation Center Main Control Area.
As usual, over a dozen elite clergy members were working with the utmost seriousness in the 360-degree fully transparent light-curtain observation pod.
As a giant void warship whose main body was the entire Far Sea Holy Mountain, the Sacred Mountain Fortress's observation center controlled over two thousand five hundred various observation arrays and lenses, most of which operated on automatic circuits. Only a few hundred relatively important high-level lenses capable of remote void observation required professional personnel to work in three shifts, operating manually day and night without pause.
In the main control room, streams of information feedback and reports were sent and received. The clergy worked in an orderly fashion, and there was no abnormality whatsoever in the void surrounding the entire Mycroft World.
Until that moment.
"Large-scale space-time distortion detected in Sector 171!"
A sharp red warning suddenly sounded from one of the light-curtain observation pods in the main control room. The clergy member controlling the observation point stared in terror at the rapidly expanding shadow on the virtual light screen before him. Without hesitation, he issued a large-scale crisis warning signal representing a 'Void Catastrophe', then forwarded the shadow before him to the central observation station.
Instantly, all observation personnel saw it. In a void not far from the Mycroft World, a massive space-time vortex was rapidly taking shape. It caused the turbulent flow of space-time to collapse, forming a funnel. A terrifying gravitational force pulled at everything around it, drawing countless foreign materials drifting in the void toward it.
Within just a few dozen seconds, the gravitational intensity at its core reached ninety billion times the standard gravity value, and this inconceivable number was still increasing at a maddening rate. Every clergy member present suspected their eyes were playing tricks on them, that they had read a few extra zeros, but no matter how many times they counted, the number that had already broken through a hundred billion did not change at all.
"The void structure is being distorted... can't see clearly."
The leader of the main control room, an Ultimate-rank High Priest, frowned deeply. He had originally been the High Priest of the 'God of Wisdom and Choice' in the Eastern Plains, but for the establishment of the Sacred Mountain Fortress, he had abandoned his comfortable and peaceful life in the Eastern Plains to serve in the void. Now, he was manipulating dozens of void observation points to examine the distant gravitational vortex, but he still couldn't clearly see the actual scene there.
The gravitational force was too terrifying—it could even severely distort light. Naturally, the arrays that observed through magic power and various radiation fluctuations were no exception. Faced with this, the High Priest could only helplessly give orders: "Perhaps it's some ancient Void Behemoth. Send a message to notify the other observation stations and Eda Gray Island. We need further instructions."
"Does the fortress's course need to be changed?"
"That's not our job."
The void was not a peaceful and safe place. In the seven hundred-plus years since the Mycroft people had come into contact with the void, they had observed countless space-time turbulence storms of varying sizes. They might be natural void phenomena, or they might be aftershocks from the activities of certain Void Behemoths. In the not-so-long history of the Saint's Eye Observation Center, the Church of the Seven Gods had even observed two distant worlds colliding with each other during an extremely violent void storm and merging into one.
Compared to that storm—so vast it caused the entire space-time domain to surge like a tsunami—this sudden space-time vortex was nothing remarkable. But unlike the storms that occurred in the distance, this space-time vortex was far too close to the Mycroft World. For the safety of the world, the Sacred Mountain Fortress, whose original duty was to patrol the surrounding space-time, needed to make a choice immediately.
Should they continue safe but blurry observations from a distance, or take the risk and investigate the truth of the space-time vortex up close?
The choice was made quickly. Accompanied by a flash of holy and magnificent light, a white-haired old man appeared in the center of the observation room. He frowned slightly as he looked at the vortex, which had stopped expanding but was still stirring up the surrounding void restlessly, then nodded.
"Well done. Continue maintaining observations."
He said: "Let's get a closer look."
With the arrival of the true leader, the entire massive Sacred Mountain Fortress began to turn and fly toward the space-time vortex. The many clergy members present no longer felt uneasy, because Pope Israel had personally descended.
Soon, the Sacred Mountain Fortress, advancing at full speed, arrived at the edge of the space-time domain, just outside the gravitational range of the vortex.
The so-called space-time domain was a concept proposed two hundred and seventy years ago by a certain Archmage of the Western Mountain Imperial Court while stargazing. He believed that in order to better observe the many starry worlds in the void, the scope and scale of observation should be standardized. To this end, he took the Mycroft World as the center, using the limit that the observable space-time fluctuations emitted by the Mycroft World itself could reach as the boundary, and established the concept of the 'space-time domain'.
Each space-time domain was an area delineated around a prominent starry world. The space-time vortex was located at the edge of the Mycroft space-time domain. After the Sacred Mountain Fortress arrived here, it slowed down to avoid being drawn into the vortex's gravitational influence. Correspondingly, the massive mountain-shaped warship released numerous prism-like mana observation devices to begin close-range investigation of the vortex's true nature.
They immediately discovered the 'silver giant cocoon' at the center of the space-time vortex.
"It should be an egg, right?" Someone raised a question, but this difference in wording wasn't important. In short, when everyone saw the perfect sphere—about fifty meters high but now seemingly gradually collapsing and shrinking—a sense of awe arose in their hearts. It was a pure beauty of power and order. Simply by existing, it could cause the surrounding space-time to change.
Pope Israel couldn't help but nod. Even with his strength, he couldn't find any weakness or flaw in this silver sphere. However, soon, the old Pope vaguely sensed that the silver light mist lingering around the giant cocoon seemed somewhat familiar to him... This massive gravitational fluctuation did indeed seem to have been seen on an acquaintance before.
"Could it be..."
A possibility arose in his mind, and combined with the fact that this person had indeed gone to the void recently and hadn't been heard from, Israel immediately understood. The look in his eyes as he gazed at the giant cocoon in the space-time vortex was no longer wary, but filled with helplessness.
Always making big news. The old Pope thought so, then shook his head and said to the High Priest beside him, who had determined that this giant cocoon was some Void Behemoth's egg: "We can almost cancel the highest alert. In any case, this thing is not a threat... Prepare to begin recovery operations."
"Yes, Your Holiness. But... how should this thing be recovered?"
The High Priest bowed respectfully, indicating obedience to the order, but he was puzzled about how to carry out the recovery. After all, everyone had seen that the mass of this giant cocoon was extremely terrifying, and the gravitational changes around it could even tear apart the toughest World Wreckage meteorites—which were one of the raw materials for forging Holy Swords.
If anything got too close, the entire Sacred Mountain Fortress would likely be severely damaged, let alone being able to contain it.
"What else can we do?"
To this, Israel sighed. He stretched his limbs, shook his head, and said: "Of course, I'll have to do it myself."
Immediately, one could see a not-so-conspicuous radiance fly out from the magnificent Sacred Mountain Fortress. It flew straight out, ignoring any space-time changes around it, heading 'directly' toward the center of the space-time vortex.
And at the center of the space-time vortex.
The Steel Serpent Carlis also saw the rapidly approaching light humanoid, and the pure white scepter held in the other's hand.
"It's the aura of a Sage."
It said with some excitement: "It should be someone we can communicate with."
The existence form of a Steel Serpent far surpassed that of ordinary lifeforms. They were composed entirely of pure Steel and Fire Force, the highest grade of life. Ordinary lifeforms, no matter how powerful, could not even see a Steel Serpent, let alone communicate with it, unless they possessed Steel Force or had sublimated their souls to the highest realm.
Carlis knew this, but because Joshua had told it that there were people in the Mycroft World who, like him, held the Sage's inheritance and could communicate with Steel Serpents, it had waited here. Otherwise, it would have long since returned to its own world.
As for Joshua's safety... Carlis believed that it was hard to say who really needed to be careful. As long as ordinary intelligent life had a brain, they wouldn't easily attack a silver unknown object that could distort the surrounding void. Instead of worrying about that warrior's safety, it would be better to warn those ignorant surrounding civilizations not to casually approach this dangerous area, lest they lose their lives for nothing.
And when Pope Israel broke through the layers of gravitational blockade and arrived near the silver giant cocoon, he was surprised to find that a great will was wandering around this cocoon, which should be Joshua's incarnation.
It was a World Will!
Not long ago, he had joined forces with many Legendary experts and deities to completely seal the World Will of Mycroft. Naturally, Israel was no stranger to such a great will as a Steel Serpent. But before he could figure out why a World Will was accompanying Joshua, the hazy Steel Serpent, which seemed to have only its will present here, spoke first.
"Holder of the Sage's authority."
It said: "You should be the powerful one Joshua once mentioned, his friend. As you can see, this silver cocoon is Joshua's incarnation. Some time ago, he and I went together to the depths of the void to complete a commission from another World Will. But on the way back, his strength must have reached some limit, and suddenly this transformation occurred."
Carlis could also guess what Joshua was thinking at the time.
After the battle with Fatlervi, that usurper of authority, the warrior was exhausted but had clearly gained a great deal. At that time, Joshua's aura was somewhat unstable, but he suppressed it himself. For this reason, he chose to leave the Siberia World immediately without any pause. But at the moment of departure, they happened to encounter the shocking transformation of the Void Great Maelstrom. Countless original Steel Force from the beginning of creation surged in, forcibly pouring a huge amount of energy into Joshua, filling the last bit of his capacity.
At that time, Joshua already knew that his transformation was about to come. So he also rushed back to the Mycroft World at full speed without stopping. But unfortunately, he was delayed by the phenomenon of the Great Maelstrom for too long along the way, so that before the warrior could reach a safe place, the transformation arrived irresistibly. Faced with this, he could only mutter 'wrong timing'.
But this wasn't the worst case either. Because if Joshua had truly begun his transformation near the Mycroft World, unleashing a terrifying gravitational field, it might have affected the entire world. The overly powerful gravitational fluctuations might have penetrated the world's barrier, causing various anomalies inside the world.
Carlis didn't care whether the light humanoid before it could understand or comprehend, and simply poured out its conjectures and views in one breath. As for the encounters in the Siberia World, the Steel Serpent was too lazy to speak about them itself, so it roughly narrated them, leaving everything to be discussed after Joshua woke up.
After roughly finishing the explanation, Carlis left cleanly and directly, flying toward its own world, leaving Pope Israel, who hadn't had a chance to speak and was full of questions, standing there dumbfounded, staring at the silver giant cocoon before him.
"...What just happened?"
He could tell that the World Will that had just left seemed to recognize the pure white scepter in his hand, so its attitude was good. It should be a Steel Serpent that had some connection with the Sage in the past. But before he could ask about the situation, the other party just left directly, without any hesitation or reluctance, apparently very confident in Joshua's safety.
And indeed, it should be confident.
Israel turned his gaze back. Looking at the silver giant cocoon before him, he felt it was indeed extremely troublesome. He thought that even the most irritable Void Behemoth would probably have to go around it. But in the final analysis, Israel was a Legendary Peak, the God on Earth of the Mycroft World. This ultra-massive Steel Force core, which would leave most powerful experts helpless, was not unsolvable for him.
Ring-shaped runes surged out from within the light humanoid whose face was hard to see clearly. In just a few seconds, millions of golden 'Isolation Runes' had formed a huge rune sphere outside the silver giant cocoon. Supported by the old Pope's power, this nearly weightless rune sphere was not torn apart by the silver cocoon's gravity. Instead, it layered and resonated, constructing an area close to an 'alternate space'. Immediately, one could see the constantly rotating space-time vortex in the surrounding void begin to slowly contract, finally nearly disappearing. The sunken funnel-like space-time also gradually returned to normal, no longer distorted.
After doing all this, Israel caught his breath. He couldn't help but feel fortunate that Joshua was probably still immersed in his transformation and wasn't actively resisting. Otherwise, he estimated it would have taken several times the effort, and he might have even needed the Sacred Mountain Fortress's assistance to complete this seal.
This series of actions was actually a sealing technique passed down by the Church of the Seven Gods, used to seal the remnants of Evil Gods in various sealed lands. It could construct an absolutely closed alternate space, sealing the endlessly harmful Chaos source within it. Even the large-scale seal that sealed the Mycroft World Will was derived from it.
But because of the need to reignite the flame, the various Evil God remnants and Chaos sources in the sealed lands had not been sealed back then. Since its creation, this sealing technique had only sealed the Mycroft World's own Steel Serpent... Now, it had sealed one more—Joshua.
After doing all this, Israel guided this golden sealing light sphere toward the Sacred Mountain Fortress. But just as he was about to place this light sphere into the fortress's chamber, the old Pope hesitated again.
"This guy... if he suddenly breaks the seal, wouldn't the entire Sacred Mountain Fortress be completely destroyed?"
After thinking for a long time, Israel finally thought of a perfect solution.
Thus, one could see a magnificent mountain-like giant ship sailing through the void. It sped rapidly toward the direction of the Mycroft World, stirring up turbulent void currents.
And behind this giant ship trailed a long rune light ribbon. One end of this ribbon was attached to the tail of the Sacred Mountain Fortress, while the other end connected to an inconspicuous golden light sphere... The fortress operated at full power, but its speed was still nearly a third slower than usual. Many fortress members wondered why the return time today was longer than usual, but only a few knew the reason.
Starfall Year 837, October 15th, Mycroft World, Northern Empire, East Bannert Plateau, Void Warship Production Base.
Nostradamus stared with a headache at the silver giant cocoon placed in the semi-transparent isolation chamber before him. Beside him, Israel's holographic projection also looked up at this giant cocoon, which was nearly forty meters in diameter. The two exchanged glances, their faces full of helplessness.
This was a temporary giant warehouse built at the edge of the Northern Empire's Mana Factory. It was located at the westernmost side of the East Bannert Plateau, with no production bases around. But here, the two leaders of the Empire were frowning as they gazed at the center of the warehouse—a silver giant cocoon suspended in mid-air inside a semi-transparent sealing chamber covered with 'Isolation Runes'.
"What do we do? I can't detect any condition inside the cocoon."
Nostradamus held his grimoire in his hand. This Legendary Mage had been scratching his head—he had been scratching for a whole week now. Ever since the Church of the Seven Gods handed over this giant cocoon, which was 'suspected' to be the incarnation of the Legendary expert Joshua, to them, the old mage had been in this warehouse almost all day, thinking about how to communicate with Joshua inside.
Even if communication was impossible, they should at least understand the warrior's current condition.
"According to the Church of the Seven Gods, no known divine spell can understand the situation inside the giant cocoon. Now it seems magic is the same. We can't even penetrate the Steel Force shield on the cocoon's surface."
"It's about the same as what Baniel and William said." Israel's holographic projection nodded. At this moment, His Majesty the Emperor was still on his high-altitude monitoring throne, not coming in person. Mainly because it wouldn't help even if he came. As a Dragon Knight whose specialty didn't match, Israel could only repeat the conclusions others had reached earlier: "A while ago, that Sage from the Eastern Plains and Barbarossa both came. You should have met them, right? What was the conclusion?"
"They couldn't do anything either."
Nostradamus tiredly rubbed his temples. He frowned and said: "Any direct contact is impossible. As long as you penetrate this gravitational blockade field, no matter what substance it is, it will be sucked in and then completely collapse into basic Steel Force mist, absorbed by him... Barbarossa's commonly used staff was lost like that. Baniel almost lost a hand."
"So, we're completely helpless against him?"
Israel shook his head. He turned to look at the silver sphere, which was slowly rotating on its own axis and still continuously shrinking and collapsing, and sighed: "Lord Radcliffe, you've given us another big problem."
After speaking, the Emperor's projection turned back to look at Nostradamus. He seemed quite worried as he said: "And then? Since we can't wake him up, we just leave this egg here?"
"It's a cocoon." The old mage corrected. "That's about all we can do. After all, Joshua is our Empire's Legendary expert. We can't just leave him with the Church of the Seven Gods... To be honest, the expressions on those clergy members' faces looked extremely terrified. I suspect that if they continued staying with this giant cocoon, there would be mass panic."
"Sigh... I can't blame them. The workers in the base have also started to get restless recently."
To this, Israel couldn't muster any contempt. He even felt a bit of sympathy. But soon, this bit of sympathy quickly dissipated. The Emperor looked at this giant egg and said with great worry: "After all, this thing is a bomb that could destroy the entire East Bannert Plateau in an instant... To be honest, I'm a bit scared too. This is our industrial base. If he suddenly loses control... leaving the egg that is Lord Radcliffe's incarnation here is really not a solution."
It's a cocoon. Nostradamus thought to himself. As for Israel's worry, the old mage felt about the same. Although the silver giant cocoon was currently stable, who knew what kind of transformation Joshua would cause when he woke up? If it was another change on the scale of the void space-time vortex, the entire western plateau of the Empire might turn into a basin.
Since they couldn't contact Joshua inside the cocoon, they couldn't keep him here anymore. They needed to find a safe and spacious place to put him there and wait for the warrior to awaken... But where was such a place? There wasn't a single piece of such spacious unowned land on the entire continent. Even the far sea wouldn't work, because if gravitational changes caused a tsunami, the destruction would be even greater.
The void wouldn't work either. If they placed him too far, it would be hard to observe and ensure Joshua's safety. If they placed him too close, it would affect the void observation stations of various major powers. It was really troublesome.
"Wait, there is a place that seems spacious enough!"
Nostradamus, who had been thinking hard, suddenly thought of a perfect location. He perked up and immediately whispered to Israel beside him.
Starfall Year 837, November 3rd, outside the Mycroft World, Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground.
The ancient artificial demiplane, whose Abyss toxins had not yet been completely purified, welcomed a group of strange visitors.
"I heard that Master is here?"
It was a rather peculiar group. At the front, a several-dozen-meter-tall metal construct held the flag of 'Winterfell Academy', followed by a black dragon of about the same height. Their shoulders and backs were covered with young people who should be students of Winterfell Academy. Among them, a silver-haired girl standing on the shoulder of the giant metal construct was cheerfully raising a telescope, curiously looking around, seemingly searching for the location of her rumored master.
Soon, she sensed a familiar aura coming from the center of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground.
The Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground was now roughly open to various medium and small-sized forces on the Mycroft Continent. Although some people objected, saying that such an important place should not open its doors to everyone, their opinions could not influence the will of the many Legendary experts, or even the 'itself' of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground. Most powerful experts agreed that since the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground had been a miracle jointly built by all races of the Mycroft Civilization during the Era of Radiance from the beginning, they could not arbitrarily deny anyone the right to use it.
Everyone should know the advancement and power of the Era of Radiance, and as their successors, they could undoubtedly achieve the same great feats.
Moreover, as a completely independent vast demiplane, if the major forces couldn't work together, just the cleanup alone would take decades. And all the high-level officials knew that in a few decades, the Evil Gods might come, and the entire Mycroft World would be in danger. So why bother arguing over the usage rights of a mere public facility?
This tour of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground organized by Winterfell Academy was an official action directly instructed by the Northern Empire's Imperial Family, with the route planned by the Imperial Royal Mage Academy. They would go to the Imperial Royal base at the center of the demiplane, which had been roughly organized, to rest, and then, guided by a certain high-rank mage, tour the many giant mana buildings built during the Era of Radiance.
While broadening their horizons, this kind of sightseeing tour could also cultivate the spirit of the new generation of Transcendent beings, making their vision no longer limited to a single region or country, but understanding the vastness of the void and the multiverse.
Of course, for certain personnel who were not academy members and were only there to find their master who had been missing for almost half a year, this wasn't very important... After all, they had been here many times before.
Not to mention the many academy students still at the entrance at the edge of the demiplane, still shocked by their earlier traversal through the void. At the center of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, directly below the 'Silver Sky Radiance', the main body of the Dominant Will.
A silver giant cocoon floated above the ground. Countless semi-transparent runes swirled around it. These runes gathered and dispersed without form, occasionally forming structures like star rings, sometimes turning into ethereal nebulae. But no matter what form they took, they completely isolated the cocoon's gravity, causing this ultimate mass body, which had exceeded the standard gravity by one hundred and fifty billion times, to float quietly in mid-air like a harmless metal ball.
The Dominant Will of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground silently watched this giant cocoon, watched this most orthodox inheritor of the Sage in its heart, watched his transformation.
Only here, around the entire Mycroft World, only under its control, would this giant cocoon not cause any hidden danger or destruction. Even if one day Joshua suddenly ended his transformation and once again raised a gravitational vortex even more powerful than before, the Dominant Will believed it could suppress the destruction to a minimum.
Moreover, it believed that Joshua von Radcliffe was capable of controlling his own power.
And inside this giant cocoon.
The warrior, whom everyone thought was sleeping, had never stopped thinking.
He was awake, always completely awake, because Joshua had been resisting, resisting a terrifying force that could shatter him into pieces.
And the source of this force was himself.