Chapter 29: Neutron Star Battle Body 7500
After being tempered and growing across multiple worlds, just how far had Joshua's strength reached? This was a question that troubled all his friends and onlookers.
Long ago, in the Starry World, Joshua had already forcibly pushed a thousand-kilometer-class giant void mother beast into a giant gas planet. And after his battle with Fatlervi, a battle concerning time and fate, his power no longer had any flaws, any weaknesses. He had sublimated to an even higher level—and if such an existence were to strike across worlds in anger, what would be the consequences?
It would be a power sufficient to move stars.
"The battle begins."
With these simple words uttered, the silver giant beast, already comparable to a mountain, immediately surged with radiance. Countless Steel Forces rapidly expanded within the atmosphere of World One. It started at 1, became 2 after ten seconds, 4 after twenty seconds... If the matter weren't so sparse, the self-multiplication of Steel Force would be entirely geometric. One could see countless rock layers and earth and stone being suspended in the air by distorted gravity, large swaths of metal ore veins rising from the surface against gravity, orbiting around the increasingly substantial silver giant hand.
And the silver giant hand, aimed from afar at the black mist millions of kilometers away, then closed its five fingers, grasping the void with a visible gravitational wave.
Grasping the void was a spellcasting gesture favored by many mages and psions. It implied multiple composite suggestions such as 'target confirmation,' 'power concentration,' and 'guiding energy flow' for magic or rituals. Generally, it represented the final step of the spellcasting process, the concluding step.
But Joshua's grasp of the void was different. His action involved no flow of magic or conceptual guidance, nor was it any spell conclusion. On the contrary, the warrior was just about to begin—he was simply clenching his fist.
Just this slight action, the precursor of an attack, caused the continental surface of World One to crack in a series of radiating fissures amidst a rumbling roar. The original cracks traversing the crust, reaching the mantle's magma layer, were nothing compared to the cracks Joshua created—like a child's play. Countless mountains, rock layers, and dust were stripped from the planet's surface. Unimaginable gravitational interference twisted the light around the giant fist. It even affected the distant black mist, causing this enemy hidden in darkness to deviate from its orbit, involuntarily appearing in everyone's world with astonishment.
At this moment, everyone could see the full appearance of this black mist—it was a black sphere with a radius exceeding fifty kilometers. On its surface surged flashes of electromagnetic sparks. It seemed to be struggling fiercely, trying to break free from the gravitational influence Joshua exerted.
But it was too late. Around the silver giant hand, a large amount of suspended matter was drawn by the gravitational field into the twisted spacetime of the giant hand. Huge rock layers and metal ore veins shattered layer by layer, turning into silver light mist. The silver light mist burned quietly, transforming into pure energy—countless matter was converted into energy through mass-energy conversion, enveloping the silver giant hand in a layer of burning, hazy light mist.
"Crack, crack."
Clenching into a fist, the planet's magnetic field resonated with the silver hand's magnetic field. In the electromagnetic world invisible to ordinary people, countless invisible electromagnetic force star tracks were rapidly being set up. They were fine-tuning coordinates, aiming at the distant darkness.
The next moment, the silver iron fist, now expanded to a diameter of ten kilometers, turned into a streak of light amidst thunder that filled the heavens and earth, striking directly at the manifested black mist.
The black mist surged, seeming to roar. Layers of hexagonal translucent barriers emerged on its surface, but all barriers were shattered within a thousandth of a second, breaking into sparkling energy debris. It was still directly hit by the silver giant hand, its original structure dispersed silently in the vacuum, turning into a hazy mist.
The terrifying propulsive force involuntarily pushed this mist nearly a hundred thousand kilometers into the cosmic vacuum before it began to decelerate.
"You are safe now."
On the surface of World One, accompanied by the man's low voice, silver light flowed like water over Priest, the Alchemist, and the unconscious mage, repairing all their injuries. In just a few seconds, the nearly dying people were shocked to realize they had fully recovered and were protected by a layer of sturdy invisible shield. "But from now on, stay here and don't move. Don't get caught in the aftermath."
That voice said so. "Otherwise, you will die."
Was this the combat power of the Legendary rank?
Priest looked up with a complex expression at the semi-air, where a humanoid form was slowly coalescing amidst countless silver lights... It was a battle body condensed from countless dense materials, bending even light, altering its straight path.
Priest had once heard rumors that Joshua had destroyed another world. He hadn't believed it before... But now, looking at the current Joshua and the distant black mist frantically writhing...
A war between them destroying a world wouldn't be surprising... This was apocalyptic-level power.
"Buzz, buzz!"
In the distance, the black mist, forcibly dispersed from its battle form by the silver giant hand, knocked back over a hundred thousand kilometers, and barely managing to shatter the silver giant fist, emitted a buzz full of 'anger' in the empty vacuum. One could see that within the black mist cluster, thousands upon thousands of different component structures began to condense. They assembled together, forming runic arrays and mana circuits. And these millions of complex magical runic circuits formed a giant war array within its body, unifying the entire black mist cluster—then, this black mist converged into a river, rushing out from the dark cosmic space. It was like a black tsunami, pressing down overwhelmingly towards World One, as if to devour everything.
As the black mist pressed down, a shadow seemed to fall over the continent of World One. Countless energy-condensed beams shot from every corner of the black mist, focusing on the layer of silver light mist on the surface. They struck the earth, causing large swaths of surface matter to turn into nothingness. Even the residual heat vaporized countless surrounding metals and rocks. There were thousands of such focused beams, and their attack instantly vaporized a certain area of World One's surface, creating a huge deep pit.
But all this was meaningless—the cutting beams, enough to melt the crust and inscribe words on the planet, couldn't even cut through the thin layer of Steel Force mist, let alone harm the humanoid form coalescing at its center.
Over a million clusters of silver light mist were rapidly eroding World One's crust, extracting matter and metal, processing them into pure Steel Force and transporting it back to the center. These scattered mists were processed by the gravitational center, now twisted into a vortex shape, turning into sturdy raw materials for assembly... A few seconds later, with the last batch of Steel Force filling into the body, Joshua's avatar finally finished its cross-world condensation. The powerful, unimaginable gravity once again formed violent gravitational disturbances.
And at that moment, the planet let out a painful wail.
"Boom—boom!!"
Accompanied by tumultuous rumbling, the already cracked continent of World One slowly split apart. A small plate began to gradually lift off, breaking free from gravitational bonds. The planet's fragile crust was pried open by an invisible force, revealing the red-hot magma layer beneath—the planet's flesh and blood.
The already weak gravity could no longer bind the matter around Joshua. As the warrior's avatar coalesced into form, a small continent detached from the surface, completely torn apart. Countless fragments of the planet's surface scattered in the air, like falling petals, drifting snowflakes. They continuously broke, split, and then turned into a surging river of matter, suspended around him like an accretion disk.
Joshua stood in the high altitude of the planet, with the red mantle magma beneath his feet. He looked up at the dark cosmic void, his gaze unwavering.
Piercing lightning storms erupted among the planet's fragments. Terrifying rumbles propagated brokenly in the constantly dissipating atmosphere. One could see that part of World One's stellar surface had been damaged, like a cracked egg, with inner matter debris and magma oozing out like egg white.
This scene was so terrifying. The warrior standing before the shattered planet and lightning storms was like a demon king of apocalypse.
This was why Joshua used an avatar in the Mycroft World. The body density of the Neutron Star Battle Body, combined with his own strong gravitational disturbances, meant that his mere existence and use of power would cause irreversible, terrifying damage to the planet's continental surface structure.
During this time, the black mist wasn't idle either. Over a hundred different weapon platforms condensed within its body. The moment Joshua's body fully coalesced, thousands upon thousands of terrifying attacks had already turned into a rain of fire, crossing the vast distance to strike.
Focused particle beams attacking microscopic structures with matter disintegration rays, sub-light-speed grain impacts, neutron ray streams capable of cleansing all organic life on a planet's surface, and various other completely different but ultimately similar destructive weapons and magic. One could see the radiance of elements and Aether shining in the dark center. Forty-nine layers of Seven Luminaries Grand Magic, mixed with enough thermal energy to burn a planet's surface, surged forward, boiling the vacuum sea.
Their purpose was destruction—destroying everything in sight.
But all these attacks were meaningless. Due to the strong gravitational effect, Joshua's surroundings formed a huge spatial depression. All attacks would be deflected by this spatial depression, involuntarily shifting towards its center, which was Joshua. Not even sub-light-speed grain impacts, nor true light or heat streams, were exceptions.
And their end was merely splashing out pitiful, insignificant sparks on Joshua's body surface.
The neutron degenerate armor, stacked layer upon layer in a peculiar arrangement, could almost be said to be the most solid matter in the observable universe—black holes do not exist in the observable universe; they exist but are isolated by event horizons. Any attack would basically be unable to shake the current warrior. Even if a white dwarf star were to crash into him as a projectile, it would not be his body that was destroyed.
Seeming somewhat impatient, facing the countless incoming attacks, Joshua raised his hand and waved it before him. The surging energy tsunami of the black mist was directly extinguished. All attacks already launched were dispersed by his hand, like a human dispersing a puff of smoke. The next moment, he raised his hand, aiming from afar at the black mist, still preparing and planning in the distance, seemingly intending to continue a larger-scale attack using an excess of energy.
This hand, only the size of an ordinary person's, made a 'pulling closer' motion.
Thus, after dispersion, the orbit of the black mist cluster, now with a radius exceeding one hundred and twenty kilometers, involuntarily shifted towards Joshua.
"Buzz—buzz—"
The black mist naturally sensed this trend. It immediately sprayed out large amounts of plasma and light streams, generating extremely strong propulsive force to resist this inexplicable shift. But no matter how it pushed through electromagnetic force or light particles, it couldn't completely break free from the suddenly hundreds of times larger gravitational pull. It could only barely maintain itself, fixing itself in place. But the next moment, something that made the entire black mist feel 'astonished' happened—because it wouldn't go to Joshua, Joshua came to it. The warrior, whose surroundings were now completely enveloped by distorted space, was rapidly approaching it at the fifth cosmic velocity. In just two short seconds, the distance between them had narrowed to an extremely dangerous point.
The originally perfectly round black mist, now due to the gravitational distortion effect created by Joshua, had turned into an irregular egg-shaped ellipse. One pointed end was nearly touching the warrior, while the other end, still barely maintaining its form, was frantically fleeing, as if trying to distance itself from this terrifying enemy.
Composed entirely of discrete micro-mechanical individuals, the black mist found it extremely difficult to imagine the existence of super-condensed matter from its inherent structure. To it, Joshua was completely an indescribable, incomprehensible, utterly irresistible monster. All its attacks were ineffective, defense meaningless, and even escape impossible!
At this moment, Joshua had already enveloped most of the black mist within his 'palm.' He controlled the gravity around him, forming a cage centered on himself. Within the cage, nothing but light could leave. Countless black mist rolled inside the cage, seemingly searching for possible weak points, but nothing Joshua created had any weak points.
In the battle with Fatlervi, there was no room for 'weaknesses.' Since returning from the Siberia World, Joshua had no weaknesses left.
"Even I find it hard to kill you, and killing you gains nothing."
Shrouded under distorted light, Joshua's face couldn't be seen clearly, but a grand electromagnetic communication echoed across all channels of the black mist: "But recently, I thought of a good way to make good use of your residual value."
"I once ignited a star. I don't mind doing it a second time."
Saying this, he closed his palms. The black mist within the cage, amidst a meaningless electromagnetic noise, was merged and compressed by the continuously contracting gravity until the ultimate limit—and the next moment, accompanied by a sudden burst of heat, nuclear fusion flames spontaneously generated from the very center of the black mist. An artificially created star, only a few kilometers in diameter, appeared before Joshua, illuminating World One.
In ancient times, there was a punishment where a person was soaked in oil, then hung up and set on fire. This punishment was called 'lighting the sky lantern.' Now, what Joshua did to the black mist was roughly the same thing, but his method could be called 'lighting a sun.'
Inside the tiny sun, a large number of black mist clusters still survived. They swam in the outer layers of the sun, trying to break through this cage made entirely of ultra-high light and heat. But the gravitational point Joshua created was something they couldn't escape, only allowing them to be gradually scorched, lose activity, and then completely turn into ordinary metal sand, calcined into ash within the sun.
Confirming that this part of the black mist couldn't escape, Joshua looked up at the other end of the small black mist cluster not imprisoned by him.
But he was surprised to find that that small cluster of black mist had lost its trace—Joshua wasn't surprised that they could hide their tracks. In fact, he had already discovered why he couldn't find that cluster of black mist. Because their fluctuations were masked by the fluctuations of another celestial body, like how no one can find a specific water molecule in a tidal wave.
What surprised Joshua was that celestial body.
It was a completely, utterly lightless darkness, but on the outer edge of that ring of darkness, a seven-colored rainbow enveloped it... This was a spectacle unimaginable to ordinary people, but he could directly analyze the truth behind it through gravitational wave spectroscopy.
"Black... a black hole?!"
It was a small black hole, located at the center of World One, and World One (the planet) was orbiting the black hole at an abnormal speed. One could see several other small gravitational sources around this black hole, which should be its other original planets. These planets, due to some ancient massive gravitational shifts, had approached it and were now having their mass eroded by the black hole. Large amounts of matter were being dragged into the black hole, producing visible light covering all frequency bands. This light was mapped and refracted onto the nearly translucent high-energy accretion disk of this small black hole, creating a clearly visible dark rainbow.
No wonder this world had no sun. It had long collapsed into a black hole. The faint light emitted by its surface accretion disk illuminated this star system but could never provide a suitable environment for life.
Joshua was dumbfounded. The black mist, to avoid him, had run close to a black hole? Although, as long as one didn't approach the black hole's event horizon, it wasn't a big problem, but this was too bold... But honestly, this way, Joshua indeed couldn't easily find it. No one could find a group of black mist, who knows if they had already been swept into the accretion disk, within the gravitational radiation range of a black hole.
He wasn't crazy enough to fight a black hole and snatch things from its mouth.
At least, the major trouble should be mostly resolved. Joshua clapped his hands, thinking so.
When the warrior was still on World Three, exploring the ruins of the Nock Research Institute and guarding against the appearance of the black mist, he suddenly received a warning from the Restorative Pillar. Two souls had been stored into the Soul Abyss Orb—this indicated that two exploration team members had died.
Although being able to use the Soul Abyss Orb meant the situation wasn't too bad, this loss had undoubtedly exceeded the tolerance of the Empire's first exploration. Joshua unhesitatingly switched his perspective to World One, and then, with shock and anger, he discovered that the black mist had not appeared on World Three, which should have been its manufacturing plant and likely the location of the Unified Grand Database, but had instead appeared on World One—Joshua unhesitatingly forcibly expanded the Restorative Pillar, causing it to devour surrounding matter and transform into his battle avatar.
Now, Joshua, striking in anger, was naturally far beyond his former self in the Chronos World. With even greater power, he easily defeated the black mist, which had originally been a troublesome enemy, and lit it into a sun.
"Wait, the Grand Database..."
Suddenly, Joshua, who had returned to the surface of World One and was about to check on Priest and the others, thought of this problem. He looked up at the location of the dark rainbow—since World One was orbiting the black hole at extremely high speed and rotating, one could see the rise and fall of the dark rainbow every few hours. Now, Joshua seriously gazed at the gravitational wave spectrum, at those few small points that seemed insignificant in the black hole's ripples, and fell into deep thought.
What if...
Buzz, buzz.
Just as Joshua suddenly thought of something, suddenly, in the distant dark deep space, countless densely packed, honeycomb-like hexagonal light points lit up out of nowhere.
Each light point radiated visible spatial fluctuations outward. Countless light points gathered together, even forming a spatial distortion far larger than the gravitational ripples Joshua had previously caused—and at the same time, countless chaotic electromagnetic signals, almost like junk information, appeared across the entire band.
Buzz. Buzz, buzz, buzz——————Countless pieces of information piled up, like the performance of a chaotic orchestra. But this was only temporary. With the appearance of the first normal electromagnetic signal, within a single second, everything became uniform and orderly, endless. And at the same time, a clearly distinct and exceptionally clear signal was sent to the slightly frowning Joshua.
[Mycroft people... Mycroft people!]
This electromagnetic signal contained only monotonous repeated words. But soon, whether due to database retrieval or the thinking circuit finally becoming smooth, this existence, whose origin was unknown, began to communicate with Joshua.
[According to the covenant of the ancient creators, the Mycroft people should be our allies. You should assist our final line of defense. Why are you turning around to attack us?]
It was the black mist.
Joshua immediately understood the true identity behind this electromagnetic signal. He couldn't help but be somewhat surprised—because this was the first time the black mist, which had never communicated with any existence before, only silently destroying and harvesting, had taken the initiative to communicate with a certain existence.
As for the other party's question, Joshua didn't even bother to sneer—before the battle, the black mist hadn't been so friendly. If he hadn't completely destroyed a cluster of black mist, would they have been willing to communicate?
Not detecting Joshua's reply, the electromagnetic signal paused for a period of time.
A few seconds later, accompanied by an electromagnetic signal that suddenly intensified, as if about to fill the entire world, thousands upon thousands, nearly endless black mist appeared out of nowhere in the cosmic vacuum, following the extinguishing of the light points!
Boom! Boom! Boom! The mass that appeared out of nowhere within this star system was even comparable to a brand new planet. The endless black mist even shrouded all the starry skies observable from World One. Everything was enveloped in darkness... But the most terrifying thing was that these black mists, covering the entire starry sky, were being coordinated by a vast will, becoming uniform. They connected with each other, communicated with each other, silently sealing off this entire star domain.
Undoubtedly... Although the black mist hadn't holed up in its former manufacturing plant, this surrounding area was clearly the black mist's lair! Perhaps the Alpha Sanctuary, where their mother body was located, was nearby.
Priest, the Alchemist, and the mage didn't have the ability to hear electromagnetic signals, so for them, the appearance of the black mist was extremely sudden. The three stared in shock at the starry sky above, that tiny sun, and the black mist that enveloped both that sun and World One.
Earlier, just one cluster of black mist had nearly wiped out the team that had triggered Joshua's trump card. And this time, although the black mist that appeared was vast in volume, seemingly endless, its number had reached several hundred!
Hundreds of Legendary-rank otherworldly existences now loomed before World One, silently confronting Joshua, who stood on the earth.
But even so, Priest, who had just lost an arm and was weak to the point of near death, stood up without any hesitation. He braced himself against the defensive shield, silently standing beside Joshua, even though the immense gravity, separated by the shield, was nearly pressing him to the ground again.
Not just him—the Alchemist and the mage also stood up. Although due to physical issues, they couldn't get too close to Joshua, they silently stood at the nearest place they could.
"...Not bad, all good kids."
Noticing this scene, Joshua was somewhat surprised and also somewhat moved. He smiled and added a stronger shield to the surviving merchant. Then, the warrior looked up and sent out his electromagnetic signal.
"Listen, black mist."
Joshua said so: "We are not the 'Mycroft of the Era of Radiance,' but the Mycroft civilization of the Era of Falling Stars. But even the ancestors of the Era of Radiance, the covenant they signed, was with the former Sanctuary Alliance, that great civilization named 'Shelter for the Weak.' We are not our ancestors, and you are not them."
"Black mist, you are different from all the monsters I have encountered. They might be minions of evil gods, or mad beasts, or strong ones who gave everything for their own tragic wishes. But you are different."
Saying this, Joshua paused. He casually waved his hand, pushing the exploration team of three, who had expressions of desperate resolve, behind him, and a meaningful smile appeared on his face: "And, do you think I am fighting alone?"
Buzz—a blue teleportation portal opened beside Joshua.
Buzz, buzz—two more teleportation portals of different colors opened beside Joshua.
Then, the buzzing of spacetime became a continuous stream, like a long, unending high note. In just these few seconds, in one breath, hundreds upon thousands of different teleportation portals appeared beside Joshua, behind Joshua, and in the high sky above his head. One could see, one could hear, behind the profound spacetime channels, a dozen or so powerful auras and their steady footsteps, along with countless steel rumbles, coming together.
Extremely powerful energy fluctuations gathered with a dozen or so faint humanoid figures in the spacetime channels. Among them were mages holding grimoires, sages wearing veils, a silent middle-aged man with nothing on his head, a sword saint carrying a sword on his back, and an elven mentor riding a giant beast shaped like a mountain. One could see a green giant tree seed floating beside her.
An old man holding a pure white staff, surrounded by holy light, was the first to step out of the teleportation portal. He stood beside Joshua, also looking up at the densely packed black mist in the sky, and then let out a heavy sigh.
Joshua laughed, then cut off the electromagnetic signal with the black mist. The warrior, shrouded in a twisted light cluster, slowly rose, flying to mid-air, facing the infinite black mist.
—Black mist, you are pure evil without your own desires. An evil that even your creator, that civilization that gently supported all life races, would never allow to exist. So.
Above the warrior's head, a ring of spatial ripples, like water waves, began to spread. It was a silver spatial distortion point, far larger than the teleportation portals created by the black mist and all other Legendary experts before. Accompanied by violently surging spatial distortions, a silver giant cocoon—or rather, a silver micro-planet—slowly emerged from the other end of spacetime.
I will surely overcome it.