Chapter 33: Legendary Power
The Black Mist Mother Entity, the ultimate creation of the Sanctuary Civilization, was a powerful intelligent entity born from the collective wisdom of dozens of their races and civilizations. Its birth was meant to elevate the entire Sanctuary Civilization to an unimaginable level.
According to the plans set by the High Leaders, every citizen of the Sanctuary Civilization would have a unit of Black Mist symbiont implanted at birth. With this nanoscale microscopic magical construct accompanying them, no disease or calamity could threaten even an infant. If there were any congenital defects or genetic disorders, the symbiotic Black Mist would correct them.
The existence of the Black Mist could greatly enhance the cognitive abilities of all symbionts. It was like a chip lodged in the symbiont's soul, a system guiding them to grow stronger. It could autonomously analyze the symbiont's physical condition, decipher anything unfamiliar to them, and produce various optimal results for the symbiont.
According to the Sanctuary Civilization's think tank projections, as long as one had a Black Mist symbiont, even if an infant were thrown into a completely alien living world, that infant would never die. Instead, they would rapidly grow and gain enough power to protect themselves, or even reach higher levels.
It could be said that the combination of Black Mist and intelligent races would create an [Artificial Divine Race], no less impressive than the [Myriad Realms Plan] designed by the Sages and the Gods. The Sanctuary Civilization would use it to ascend into a great multiverse-level civilization, ushering in a magnificent era of grand tides.
However, precisely because of this, the power of the Black Mist was too immense. Even the Sanctuary Civilization could not guarantee it wouldn't lose control and turn against them. So, they set the strictest restrictions in the source rune program of the Black Mist: except for the [Firstborn Black Mist], no other derivative Black Mist would have the ability to replicate itself without limit. Even the Firstborn Black Mist, the Mother Entity, had a quota and could not spread itself infinitely.
In fact, due to technical limitations, the Black Mist Mother Entity could not replicate itself infinitely either. Its core central processing unit could not bear such massive computational demands.
But all this maneuvering and caution was annihilated in that tide of Evil Gods that destroyed everything. On that day, the entire multiverse was plunged into indescribable darkness. Countless civilizations were destroyed, countless worlds shattered. Even the Sanctuary and Mycroft civilizations were no exception, their chance for ascension cut off.
The Mycroft Civilization retained a spark, transforming into the current Era of Falling Stars, while the Sanctuary Civilization left only remnants of Black Mist, all intelligent life perishing in silence.
The arrival of the Evil Gods was far too opportune. The Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, which opened the End Gate, did not know why it instantly connected to the entire Abyss. The gods and sages of old had already perished; no one could know the truth of that time. The powerful beings of today could not know if some entity deliberately guided things from the shadows, extinguishing all possibilities for civilizations to reach greatness.
But regardless, now, the inheritors of these two former allied civilizations regarded each other as enemies, locked in an unending war—one for the plans of their ancient creators, the other to protect this World Star River from the threat of darkness, for a new hope and future for civilization.
The power possessed by the Black Mist was vast beyond what individual life could achieve.
Upon detecting multiple powerful enemies teleporting through spacetime to its hidden lair, it instantly assessed the situation, then lifted its final restrictions, beginning an all-out final battle.
[Unlocking Mana Pool Blockade. Aether Flow Accelerator Activated. Beginning Full-Range Energy Operation Interference. Forcibly Taking Over Spacetime Variations.]
Boundless darkness spread, devouring all light. The Black Mist Mother Entity, already exceptionally massive—comparable to a black star—extended countless dim tentacles from its surface. They rose like a solar corona, engulfing the teleportation points of all the Legendary experts. The originally pitch-black, dim mist began to brighten, glow, and then in an instant transformed into a blinding, blazing white.
Over a thousand years, countless sub-entity Black Mists had continuously transported energy from the Void Great Maelstrom to the Black Mist Mother Entity. Most of it was used to create more Black Mist, but a portion was preserved by the Mother Entity for emergencies. Now, facing an assault of over ten super-lifeforms, this was undoubtedly the so-called crisis moment.
The teleporting Legendary experts, upon arriving at the other side of spacetime, were met with the full-force attack of the Black Mist Mother Entity. In an instant, extreme temperatures exceeding 150 million degrees incinerated everything in the material world. Spacetime, under massive energy manipulation, was constantly displaced, twisted, skewed, and then crafted into countless mazes, imprisoning all the experts in this high-temperature hell, unable to escape.
At this moment, the Black Mist Mother Entity had completely transformed into an amorphous, writhing monster in the void, a twisted giant entity.
The original form of the Black Mist Mother Entity was a perfectly spherical orb with an absolutely smooth surface, enveloping a world. But now, it had fully become an amorphous, writhing monster in the void, a twisted giant entity. It extended thirteen sticky, glowing tentacles, reaching for the thirteen Legendary experts, including Joshua. In the center of the tentacle cluster, a massive face emerged, but this face suddenly caved in, becoming a huge hole. Inside the hole was endless, profound, unfathomable darkness.
And a world was hidden within that darkness.
[Individuals are fragile. Individuals are weak. Only by becoming us, only by uniting, merging into one, can we face the coming end.]
Amidst the sharp, piercing psychic roar caused by the twisting of spacetime, the surface of the Black Mist Mother Entity rolled in layers. Countless complex geometric shapes were coalescing and transforming. They turned into gears, conduits, and semi-transparent steel structures, rotating and operating in an incredibly complex manner. This method was completely different from the machinery familiar to humans, even seemingly defying the logical thinking of intelligent life. But in reality, this was because the Black Mist twisted spacetime; what appeared separate in various locations was actually a single whole within its body.
The Black Mist now looked like a living mechanical giant god, but this giant god was extremely sinister, strange, and twisted. Its thirteen tentacles were constantly contracting, as if trying to simultaneously crush all thirteen Legendary experts. But it could never achieve its goal. One could see the tips of the thirteen tentacles simultaneously lighting up with varying brightness and colors.
When Joshua tore through the spacetime maze created by the Black Mist and emerged from the 150-million-degree incineration, this was what he saw:
The Old Pope walked out easily from the endless radiance. The flames, hotter than the core of a star, merely brushed the dust from his clothes. Behind him, countless seven-colored bubbles rose, expanding, contracting, merging, splitting, leaping, and rolling as if alive. Under the light of these seven-colored bubbles, one of the Black Mist Mother Entity's tentacles shattered layer by layer under an attack from an unknown source, collapsing like a broken glacier.
Nostradamus wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and emerged from a gap in spacetime. He had never been trapped by the spacetime maze created by the Black Mist from the start. Instead, he directly found a gap and walked out from the boiling space bubbles. Although he couldn't harm the Black Mist Mother Entity, it couldn't harm him either.
Next came the Fishman High Priest, Godar. His form was now completely unlike a fishman. His body had transformed into a completely transparent state. No light, no heat could affect him. Godar, who wielded the power of evolution and devolution, had transformed himself into a special life form. The extreme heat couldn't harm him in the slightest; instead, it only provided him with energy.
More and more people emerged. The Sword Saint cleaved through the spacetime maze with a single slash. A small patch of his hair was burned off, but his expression was relaxed. Baniel activated his runes, transforming himself into a plasma life form. He walked out simultaneously with William, who had turned into a pure spiritual entity, ignoring all physical energy variations. Then came Stanley and the Nature Mentor. The Psychic Emperor activated his phase-shift shield; the pure high temperature and spacetime changes couldn't affect him, located in psychic space.
The Nature Mentor was a bit more disheveled (langbei). She condensed countless layers of nano-insulation and forcibly broke out of the maze using her energy reserves. The unknown Legendary giant beast that had been with her also used a straightforward method to block the attack: it created a simple isolation space, cooling the over-100-million-degree temperature to around a million degrees. This level of temperature was not too hot for it.
The remaining ones—the Golden Dragon King, Barbarossa, and Fedorov—broke through one after another. They all looked relaxed, without a scratch, just a bit slow. Magic gave them the confidence to handle any situation, to the point where they weren't even in a hurry to leave this extreme environment, which was very valuable for information gathering. The Golden Dragon King had even absorbed quite a bit of energy, now looking somewhat plump and fat, the entire dragon having grown bulkier.
Every Legendary expert had corresponding methods to deal with extreme situations. The Black Mist's attack could be considered a fatal blow to ordinary civilizations. Even thousands of Void Warships before it would likely be swept away by a single tentacle. But against individually evolved super-lifeforms, it seemed somewhat at a loss.
As for how Joshua broke out of the high-temperature spacetime prison, it was actually simple: the normal surface temperature of his Neutron Star Outer Armor exceeded 10 million degrees. The temperature around the World Engine at Joshua's internal core had long surpassed 300 million degrees. The Black Mist's fatal blow was, to him, no different from blowing air conditioning—not only was it harmless, but it even provided him with energy.
As for why the Black Mist didn't use its 'Black Body' form to reversely absorb the energy of the Legendary experts, Joshua believed that the Black Body had its limits. Previously, his own sub-light-speed charge had managed to stall the Mother Entity. The full force of thirteen Legendary experts might even push back or break through the Black Body state. Knowing this, the Black Mist Mother Entity naturally wouldn't arrogantly waste its Black Mist quota but would reserve it for the most critical moment.
At this point, the thirteen Legendary experts did not scatter. They stood at a distance, supporting each other, confronting the constantly writhing and rotating Black Mist Mother Entity. The residual energy from their collision was spreading at the speed of light towards the edges of this spacetime domain. In the void, which barely remained calm and had almost no visible horizon, it looked like a constantly expanding pattern of light, causing the entire void to shimmer with a layer of white mist.
"This ancient evil... where did you find it?"
The Grand Elder of the Seven Luminaries Council, Fedorov, had already entered a combat state. In his hand flowed brightly shining lightning mana, forming a spiral plasma staff. He stared at the Black Mist, his tone full of disbelief: "I've traveled through the Void and Abyss for decades and never seen a trace of it or its sub-entities. How did you find it?"
"Its energy reserves have exceeded the limit of what I can detect. Rough estimate, it's even several dozen times more than all the mana stored in the Mycroft World. As for how we found it..."
The rune prosthetic eye at Baniel's left eye emitted a message: [Target energy level too high, cannot detect], then overloaded and burned out, emitting a puff of blue smoke. The old mage slightly turned his head to glance at Joshua and said in a low voice: "Some people are just born with special constitutions. Fedor, you can't learn that."