# Chapter 32: Illuminating the Path Ahead 6000
Actually, strictly speaking, both time and space are tools and illusions born from humanity's need to perceive and describe this world. They are coordinate systems designed according to the logical thinking patterns of the human brain, not absolute existences.
Time expands with velocity, and space bends with mass. Even if poetry endlessly praises the eternity of time and space, it is merely a romantic fantasy.
Space cracks, though described as fissures produced by the shattering of space, are in essence curved folds caused by the gravity of high-mass objects. They are rolled up by terrifying gravitational forces, distorting even the light within them. This manifests in human eyes—which can only observe electromagnetic waves—as irregular darkness devoid of light, devouring everything, like a crack leading to nothingness.
The mysterious and indestructible world barriers are the same existence, except they involve not only light but also countless elements, aether, and Steel Force, which is why they are so unbreakable.
And in a bright star river near the Void Great Maelstrom, spacetime wailed under the influence of high-mass objects moving at extreme speeds. Countless black space cracks spread along the silver light, striking straight into the infinite darkness.
Joshua converted the matter of seven worlds into energy. He employed the Mass-Spirit Conversion Rune personally taught to him by Faina, wastefully, extravagantly, without any restraint, turning countless materials from other worlds into his own fuel. Then, with unreasonable brutality, he threw a single punch—a strike that gathered enough energy to shatter a planet's surface. It could tear apart the crust and mantle like paper, then crush the core like an egg. It could directly destroy a planet, causing the celestial body to break apart and burn. It was a truly star-destroying, world-annihilating punch.
This strike condensed all of Joshua's effort and preparation. He had created the Restorative Pillar and condensed his neutron star body precisely so that one day he could have the energy to throw such a punch, and after throwing it, not self-destruct. In this strike, he employed all his techniques, all his computational power. He left no openings, no weaknesses.
But did this perfect strike mean anything to the Black Mist Mother Entity?
No.
The dark tide surged in a roar. It extended countless tentacles from within its body, stretching like shadows toward the annihilating silver light. First, tens of millions shattered, then tens of millions burned. Countless darkness dissipated under the illumination of light. Thousands upon thousands of shadow tentacles were reduced to nothing upon contact, but the Black Mist Mother Entity still had hundreds of millions more tentacles pouring forth continuously.
In the end, even a star-shattering punch was blocked by the endless interception of black mist. The silver radiance dimmed, dissipating into an unstable stream of air, leaving only the deepest darkness and countless burning sparks floating in the void.
The Black Mist's defensive method—let's call it a black body, since it probably wouldn't name itself anyway—this mist that seemed eternally shrouded in shadow could absorb all material energy. No force could create a reaction on the surface of the black body. Thus, explosions, impacts, heating, and decomposition were all meaningless. Its surface temperature was near absolute zero, where all matter nearly stopped moving, even time and space would pause. Because of this, it was also incredibly sturdy, and no external impact could cause the molecules here to begin moving.
As long as the Black Mist's energy reservoir was not filled or exhausted, this barrier could never be destroyed.
This was the power of the Black Mist. This was the supreme masterpiece carefully designed by the Sanctuary Alliance civilization. Just as the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground was to the Radiant Civilization, the Black Mist was the realization of their ultimate philosophy—the ultimate guardian protecting all the weak.
As long as one was a member of the civilization, from the moment of birth, one could hold a portion of the Black Mist, allowing it to coexist symbiotically, thereby unleashing a portion of legendary-level power. As long as the Black Mist existed, no member of the civilization could encounter any disaster. Even if accidentally wandering into the void, the Black Mist could ensure their survival... This was the most beautiful wish and future vision, recorded on the walls of the Nork Research Institute in World Three, unfaded after a thousand years.
Slowly withdrawing his fist, Joshua silently watched his full-powered strike return without success. Silver starlight flickered in his eyes.
After so many exchanges, Joshua could already see that this Black Mist's defense was to absorb all external energy, all external light and heat. That was why it was 'black' mist. Additionally, relying on its vast computational power as a mother entity, the Black Mist Mother Entity could simulate attacks its enemies had previously used, allowing for better targeted defense.
Undoubtedly, just as the Black Mist had once chased the Thunder Ancient Dragon and gained the ability to control electromagnetic force, this defensive ability of the Black Mist was likely learned from observing the black hole in World One... Although these tiny cluster mechanical lifeforms could hardly understand such high-density existences as black holes, they could completely control energy to recreate the event horizon of a black hole capable of devouring light.
"This thing cannot be shattered by the power of one person alone..."
Joshua thought to himself. This was fact. The Black Mist Mother Entity far surpassed him in both energy reserves and material reserves, even if he was connected to seven worlds. After all, he couldn't truly destroy the fragile ecological balance of those worlds whose fires were about to go out, breaking worlds to fight the Black Mist.
Otherwise, what difference would there be between him and this darkness before him?
But just as the warrior was troubled, the churning, formless thing, the writhing darkness, let out an eerie roar that could not be described in words. The sound instantly spread throughout all surrounding spacetime domains. At the same time, the Black Mist Mother Entity seemed to have grown tired of this situation where it could only counterattack but not defend. Its body began to undergo violent changes.
Darkness gathered. A mass surpassing the quality of worlds surged, causing space to ripple like a tsunami. At the center of this small galaxy, above the dark world, a mass of thick, pure black mist rose. It began to solidify, assemble, and construct a form. One could see a gigantic 'humanoid' appearing in the sea of stars. It had two hands, a lower body similar to a scorpion, and its entire body emitted a metallic luster. The surface of this enormous alien humanoid was covered with smooth, deep blue runes, with clearly visible electric light and spatial bending phenomena flowing on them.
The alien giant slowly emerged from the world, standing in the void. Energy lightning spread outward like a net. It appeared humanoid but was not in any human form. This was the form of the Black Mist's creator, the Sanctuary core civilization, the inhabitants of Alpha Sanctuary!
It clenched its fists, raised its head, and its faceless face looked toward Joshua, who was watching it from afar. Its mental storm shook the entire spacetime domain.
**[You are evil.]**
It said without hesitation, with firm conviction.
Then, it raised its hand. In the center of its palm was a shining white nova. Seeing that familiar light, Joshua's expression changed slightly. He immediately controlled himself and his main body to dodge sideways. The next instant, a subluminal material stream burst forth from the alien giant's hand, just as violently as the warrior had attacked the Black Mist, striking toward Joshua.
Spacetime was 'torn' again. The fierce material jet, like a sword, split this small galaxy in two. Even other stars at unknown distances suffered undeserved calamity. One could see the silver-white beam majestically shattering everything, illuminating a portion of the void.
The Black Mist could actually collect the energy from the attacks it had received and turn it back against its enemies?
Even Joshua himself wouldn't dare to take one of his own full-power attacks. He dodged repeatedly, even using strong gravity to pull a small world in this broken star river forward to meet the light stream, shielding himself for a moment. He could see that these small worlds had only just been born, even more embryonic than the worlds within his own body—because in terms of mass, Joshua was actually several times larger than these worlds.
Although strictly speaking, this counted as destroying the hopes of the next few hundred thousand years, it was at least better than destroying already-formed worlds. There was no time to worry about that now.
'Wait, speaking of which, could this galaxy be the energy that the Black Mist collected from the Void Great Maelstrom earlier?'
While dodging, Joshua caught a familiar scent—the unique information of the Void Great Maelstrom. Realizing this, the warrior looked around. He found that this small galaxy seemed to be entirely artificially constructed. The incredibly dense primordial nebula matter had condensed into small worlds, which was precisely the current state of the Great Maelstrom.
'What is the Black Mist trying to do? What is this galaxy and these small worlds all about?'
Another silver light flashed. This time, what the Black Mist returned was Joshua's earlier star-shattering punch. Since there were still continuous subluminal impact streams surging wildly around, the warrior had no way to dodge this time. He could only clench his four fists and begin to fully mobilize electromagnetic force and gravity to construct a defense.
Electromagnetic force was the fundamental force that condensed all things into form. Gravity was a force that penetrated all dimensions, tiny yet grand. They were both among the four fundamental forces. Mastering them meant mastering a part.
If someone mastered all four fundamental forces and completed the Grand Unified Theory, that person would have touched the truth of the universe.
Layers upon layers of matter were frozen in place by the strong magnetic field Joshua had summoned. Every atom was fixed, like bricks stacked and glued together. Over a hundred layers of these walls, entirely composed of atoms, released incredibly powerful gravity. They warped and folded space, deflecting all incoming attacks, forming an extremely complex shield. Even if hit by a supernova explosion, it could never be completely destroyed.
At this moment, Joshua stood there holding this enormous shield, blocking the incoming star-destroying punch. Amidst the warped roar of cosmic space, even the warrior, with the mass of a planet's satellite, was sent flying far away. The giant shield in his hands showed layer upon layer of cracks, forcing him to dispel it and reabsorb the matter into his body.
But did this multiverse truly only possess four fundamental forces? This was a world with magic, battle qi, and holy light. The four fundamental forces could not explain world magic, the six elemental particles, or aether. The four fundamental forces could not explain why holy light was universal across the multiverse and could produce special effects like purification.
The four fundamental forces couldn't even explain battle qi and life force—those were nearly in the realm of idealism.
While being sent flying, Joshua was calmly thinking. He continuously absorbed and transferred the kinetic energy on his body, finally stopping his backward momentum. At this point, he and the Black Mist Mother Entity were at least several thousand worlds apart. He could see that the alien giant form of the Black Mist Mother Entity was still continuously releasing large amounts of black mist from beneath itself, sending them through spatial channels into World One to fight the other legends.
So Joshua gritted his teeth and flew toward the alien giant again. His task was to tie down the Black Mist's reinforcements, allowing the legends on the other side of spacetime to eliminate all living Black Mist forces as quickly as possible.
If the Sage's actions were to magically modify this multiverse, adding the supernatural power called holy light, then were magic, the six elemental particles, aether matter, battle qi, life force, natural force, psionic energy, and other supernatural powers also products of magical modification?
Who could know how many times this multiverse had been magically modified?
"Haha, who cares about such things?"
Joshua, charging at the alien Black Mist giant again, was once more sent flying by the violent energy tide condensed by the Black Mist Mother Entity. But he didn't care. He approached again and again, attacked, had his energy absorbed, and was counterattacked by his own attacks. The Black Mist Mother Entity, to protect Alpha Sanctuary, could never leave too far. It could only stay in place, harassed by Joshua again and again.
Until suddenly, one time, the energy tide light stream erupted by the Black Mist Mother Entity was blocked head-on by the warrior without any damage.
Joshua's humanoid incarnation had begun to self-destruct, its separating body slowly merging into the planetary main body. At that moment, a dazzling light stream swept through the galaxy, enveloping the planet.
But a layer of black-red light curtain flashed across the surface of Joshua's main body. A steel-like barrier blocked the energy eruption capable of shattering stars, keeping all heat and kinetic energy outside.
"I haven't learned nothing either."
In such a long battle, the warrior had not come away empty-handed.
---
World One.
Old Pope Israel suddenly lost focus for a moment.
"Is that so? World Two and other worlds have also shown such abnormalities."
He remotely received information transmissions from the Mycroft World, fell silent for a moment, then slowly sighed: "It seems Joshua is in a tough battle... We must speed up."
The massive twelve-layered light wheel rotated, releasing holy light more dazzling than the sun, illuminating the entire cosmic space. Upon hearing this, the other legendary experts who were exterminating the Black Mist accelerated their attacks.
The enormous golden dragon fiercely flapped its wings, charging toward the large swaths of black mist before it. As the leader of the Metal Dragons, it had been forced to shrink back and defend itself due to the betrayal of the Five-Colored Dragons, proving it had nothing to do with that betrayal. Only now did it have another chance to leave Dragon Island and prove the Metal Dragons' contribution to the Mycroft World. Now, the golden dragon flapped its already pure-energy wings, stirring up a gale. But all existences brushed by this gale did not move with the wind; instead, they froze in place, becoming cold and brittle, then shattering into fine particles. Even the Black Mist was no exception. Brushed by this seemingly violent cold wind, it naturally dissipated into nothingness.
What the Golden Dragon King mastered was the secret of energy transfer. Its wings were the most powerful energy harvesters in this world. That gale was actually a space from which all energy had been drained. Anything brushed by it, with a temperature higher than minus 260 degrees Celsius, would have even its electromagnetic force plundered, causing it to be unable to maintain its form, disintegrating into basic particles.
And beside the golden dragon, shielding it from all side enemies, was a psionic elder from the Western Mountain. He had once been a king of a kingdom but had hidden in the mountains to pursue the truth of psionic power. Not long ago, Saint Israel's notification had reached his secluded mansion, causing this legendary expert, who had disappeared from the world for a hundred years, to step out of that small mountain range.
Deep purple psionic lightning spread across the battlefield, causing all the Black Mist, which had condensed into various strange forms and released large amounts of magic and artillery attacks, to lose power, falling to the ground as simple metal particles, piling up into vast expanses of metal desert. A peculiar red-blue two-color phase shift halo appeared on the forehead of the psionic king named Stanley, and his figure flickered in and out of visibility, as if shuttling between different worlds.
Psionic energy could break through spacetime, opening a strange dimension called psionic space. The Midgardians had used psionic energy to develop space engines capable of jumping across light-year scales. The psionic users in the Mycroft World, who had no such great need for exploration, had taken a different path. Now, Stanley controlled his psionic energy, opening and closing psionic space countless times in an instant, using space itself as a blade from the most microscopic perspective, cutting apart all connections between the Black Mist. The Black Mist were cluster rune creatures; their individuals were fragile. Once Stanley severed their connections through psionic energy, destroying them was only a matter of moments.
Nostradamus was doing something similar, but his methods were more diverse. The spacetime mage warped space, rolling patches of Black Mist into funnel-shaped spatial traps, then sealing them, isolating them from the outside. Nostradamus did not directly destroy the Black Mist; he only created an insurmountable barrier, placing all threats inside, waiting to be dealt with later. Because of this, the old mage's sealing speed was much faster than the other legends' destruction speed, as he could skip many troublesome steps.
Faced with the diverse powers of the legendary experts, the Black Mist, which was almost all the same template and whose ability limits had long been figured out, naturally collapsed in defeat. They had no understanding of the powers of the Mycroft World's experts, while the other side knew them thoroughly. The crushing advantage in intelligence brought overwhelming superiority. If not for the fact that Black Mist was still occasionally coming through the spacetime channel as living resources, they would have already swept away all darkness under the old Pope's leadership.
After a considerable time, the hundreds of massive Black Mist clusters in World One were finally reluctantly eliminated. In truth, Saint Israel alone could have swept them all away, but that would have been somewhat slow. With the other legends, the speed of eliminating the Black Mist increased more than tenfold.
"Joshua has penetrated deep into the other side of spacetime, blocking the Black Mist reinforcements on that side."
The old Pope, having returned to human form, landed before everyone. He said concisely: "He is drawing matter from the other seven worlds, which indicates he is in an unprecedented fierce battle. Set out immediately."
---
On the other side of spacetime, the Alpha Sanctuary spacetime domain.
Infinite darkness spread through cosmic space. All light was devoured. The Black Mist Mother Entity, thoroughly enraged by the warrior, no longer tried to maintain absolute defense. It furiously expanded its form, swallowing the entire small galaxy around the Sanctuary into its belly.
And at the very center of the deep darkness, a bright silver light flickered, struck, and erupted. It pierced through layer after layer of barriers set by the mother entity, rampaging within its body.
But this was only the last of its remaining strength. Even Joshua could not flee like this forever. Thousands of black body tentacles, absorbing all energy, condensed from various parts of the Black Mist, all rolling toward that silver star, bright as a sun. It was like countless shadows rolling toward the sun, trying to devour the light.
**[You lose.]**
**[Become us.]**
The vast dark will swept across the star domain. The Black Mist Mother Entity said calmly: **[Contribute your power to the final defense line.]**
The multiverse was so dark that one could even say darkness was eternal. Even worlds and stars were but dim points of light in the darkness, giving people vague, fleeting hope.
One person could not ignite light in such darkness. To pierce through it required a group, all the power of a civilization. Only then could one break through the prison of despair and ignite a flame—though insignificant, yet precious.
"Lose? Far from it. Although you are indeed terrifyingly strong, that doesn't mean you're invincible."
Burning his own mass, erupting again and again, shattering the cages the Black Mist tried to imprison him in, Joshua laughed lightly in a low voice: "The principle of 'beat the small, and the old will come'—you understand that, don't you? Though it's a bit shameless to say, among all the legends, I am indeed the youngest."
The Black Mist Mother Entity completely failed to understand this joke, wasting Joshua's rare humor that appeared once in a century.
And while the two continued their process of oppression, imprisonment, eruption, and evasion, at one corner of the darkness, light appeared.
It was light, transmitted from the other side of spacetime. Over a dozen incredibly powerful existences descended simultaneously. Unfathomable energy flickered in the void, releasing brilliant, blazing flames.
They illuminated the darkness.
They illuminated the path ahead.