Chapter 34: Divine Authority
The brief exchange, along with the earlier clash, made all the legends aware of how troublesome this monster was. The Black Mist Progenitor possessed all sorts of transcendent powers; what had just happened was merely a probe. After a short analysis, it shook its body and unleashed a complex and bizarre array of powerful attacks.
Countless streams of light streaked across the void, illuminating the emptiness like a meteor shower.
Annihilation effect bombs, phase-shift impact streams, spatial compression, mana stagnation fields, blackbody absorption, near-absolute zero stasis fields... The Black Mist Progenitor silently manipulated space-time, setting countless traps and puzzle locks in the void. It freely swung its tentacles, activating the corresponding special transcendent modules within its body, using completely targeted abilities against each legend.
What Joshua faced was a gravity well formed by powerful energy twisting space-time, and at the deepest part of the well was a blackbody energy siphon that drained all energy. It wasn't a black hole, but it possessed a strong gravitational effect. The moment it appeared, it formed a binary star structure with Joshua's own body, which also had a strong gravitational effect. Gravity pulled the two of them into a constant rotation, drawing them closer and closer until they were about to collide.
The Black Mist Progenitor squandered its vast energy reserves, enough to suppress countless worlds, determined to completely annihilate all enemies. Its surface trembled like ripples, giving rise to billions of dark geometric structures, creating all sorts of strange weapons in the void. Among them were octahedral high-energy space-wave oscillation cannons and ring-shaped pure energy machines. These flew out from the Progenitor's surface, charging at the group like a beast tide.
The Black Mist Progenitor might have already grasped part of the secret of Steel Force, allowing it to freely convert the form and properties of matter at the cost of a certain amount of energy. Its proficiency in mass-energy conversion was even comparable to that of Sage Faina.
But these attacks yielded little result—or rather, it had severely underestimated the combined power of so many legends.
A single legend could not defeat the Black Mist. Even someone as powerful as Joshua had to temporarily draw matter from seven major worlds just to barely withstand the Progenitor's waves of assault for a short time. This was because the Progenitor itself possessed a legendary-level microscopic life form, along with energy reserves far exceeding that of a single world. Combined with the various technologies it had analyzed and developed over a thousand years, the Progenitor itself was equivalent to a near-evil-god-level ultimate life form.
As it stood now, the Black Mist Progenitor could rampage across the multiverse as long as it didn't face a terror like the Plenty Evil God. Even the most ancient Void Behemoths would be decomposed and devoured by it. The Black Mist also possessed formidable intelligence, using various schemes. Even without acting directly, it could annihilate civilizations one after another, drawing resources from their destruction. In a sense, it was already an evil god.
But even though the Black Mist was so powerful, within the corresponding domains, it could not surpass the legends.
Leaving aside the others, facing the incoming gravity well, Joshua calmly separated particles the size of rice grains from his main body's surface. Then, these particles rapidly expanded, turning into countless threads that were nearly one-dimensional in structure but exceptionally tough. These threads were drawn into the gravity well, tumbling up and down with the gravitational waves, releasing various spectra and materializing invisible wave bands and energy flows into entities. Observing these entities, Joshua analyzed the gravity well's weakness within five-thousandths of a second, then disrupted its structure, easily disintegrating it into pure ionic energy.
There was no need for profound mysteries; a little trick was enough. Joshua watched the blue ionic flames dissipate like mist in the void, then turned to look at the other legends.
Joshua, who had already explored the Black Mist's memories and origins, naturally knew its power well. This was definitely not an opponent he could defeat by shouting a few slogans and steeling his resolve in a one-on-one fight. To overcome it, he would at least have to wait until the Restorative Pillar was fully deployed across many worlds, the Myriad Realms Exploration Plan was on track, and the world within his body was initially stabilized before he could attempt it. That was why, back in the Siberia World, he had already planned to call on all the legendary experts he knew to challenge it together.
However, while thirteen legends could block the opponent's attacks, eliminating it was also impossible.
On one side, Eagle's body shimmered with all sorts of strange light waves, the seven-color spectrum cycling through dozens of times in an instant. All attacks approaching him, whether physical or energy, disintegrated into nothing under the radiance. The area several kilometers around the old Pope was a domain of light completely under his control. Within this domain, the speed of light changed, matter collapsed, and the fundamental structure of the universe shifted. Even if the Black Mist threw a world at him, it wouldn't be Eagle who suffered damage.
"Your Holiness the Pope, why haven't you dealt with this Black Mist yet?"
On the other side, the Sword Saint, seeing Eagle's ease, couldn't help but joke. In contrast, he was already struggling. The Sword Saint was indeed not good at dealing with such monsters that had no physical form, didn't get hurt even when parts were destroyed, and had an exceptionally large body. The light blade of the Holy Sword Mistilteinn was beginning to dim, a sign that its energy could no longer sustain its form.
But even so, he casually swung his sword, using a two-dimensionalized space to cleave through a large wave of incoming gravity-variant bombs.
"My domain can't handle such a massive monster either... But don't worry, our task is just to hold off the Black Mist. The gods will also act in this operation."
As he spoke, Eagle looked up at the distant void and smiled slightly. "They're here."
The moment he finished speaking, nine completely different novas lit up in the vast void! They unfolded a colossal magic array in three-dimensional structures, even extending into strange dimensions like psionic space and subspace, covering the entire space-time domain where the Black Mist was located. Nine nodes, as bright as supernovae, releasing almost infinite radiance, were the center of this giant array.
One could see the magnificent and splendid complex runes, sometimes condensing into gears and text, sometimes into petals and water ripples. Nine different divine powers triggered countless phenomena, creating a giant cage that pierced through multiple dimensions at the edge of this small galaxy!
Joshua's humanoid avatar manifested again from his main body, calming the gravitational frenzy released by the Black Mist Progenitor. He no longer needed to maintain full power. The warrior looked up at the nine shining nodes.
The first to catch his eye was the holy emblem of the God of Love and Decay. This deity, appearing in the form of a female elf, stirred the vacuum with endless divine power. Under the violet radiance, countless energy particles combined and decayed, as if enacting small-scale world creation and destruction.
As it unfolded its domain, the Black Mist Progenitor froze for an instant. All phenomena and magic related to nuclear fusion, nuclear fission, and the combination of elements were sealed.
The second was the Fishman God, the Protector of the Deep, manifesting as a deep blue giant jellyfish with tens of thousands of tentacles. This deity's divine power was like translucent water ripples, causing space to ripple like ocean waves.
As it unfolded its domain, the Black Mist Progenitor let out a roar. Any abilities and magic related to phase shifting, transformation, or shape-shifting became unusable.
The third was the God of Wisdom and Choice, taking the form of a one-eyed old man draped in a black robe. Divine power leaked from the robe, turning into pieces of axially symmetric bifurcated patterns. Everything had to make a choice to move toward the future.
As it unfolded its domain, the Black Mist's massive body began to contract. All possible probabilities started to collapse. The Progenitor, which drew energy from the vacuum infinite sea, had part of its energy source cut off.
The fourth, fifth, and sixth were the God of Order and Destruction, the Metal Dragon God, and the God of Law and Freedom. They joined forces, fixing space so it could no longer be easily distorted. They turned free energy into solid matter, preventing it from being drawn upon by other entities. They sealed the void, blocking all possibilities of warping or leaping. They established new order, solidified the source of energy, and artificially set the boundaries of freedom.
A vast domain unfolded, locking the entire space-time domain into a prison.
Then came the seventh, the God of Might and Justice. Seeing this familiar deity, who took the form of a gray-haired knight, Joshua couldn't help but widen his eyes, because beside the stern-faced god stood another familiar figure—Israel, the Imperial Emperor.
As the God of Might and Justice unfolded its domain, it joined forces with the eighth, the God of Protection and Change—a dwarf with an ancient face clad in armor—to forcibly interfere with the Black Mist Progenitor's energy operation, destroying, or rather changing, its originally stable connection form. The originally massive and unified Black Mist Progenitor was instantly split into several separate individuals. These individuals struggled to reunite, but their actions were repeatedly disrupted by divine power strikes combined with the legends' attacks.
Finally, the ninth, the most mysterious God of Life. A veiled figure, neither male nor female, emerged in a hazy white mist, holding a holy relic resembling a human skull in its hands. An indescribable sacred radiance emanated from it, filling the entire domain.
The light shone on the legends, and they felt their injuries and energy depletion heal as if time itself were flowing backward. In contrast, the Black Mist Progenitor, which had been counterattacked by the legends and had healed itself with its powerful regenerative abilities, suddenly bore numerous terrifying wounds. Some of these wounds were not even caused by the Mycroft civilization's group but were from battles in the past against other powerful beings, even evil gods.
Joshua felt that this couldn't be explained by simple life force. He sensed entropy changing. A vast amount of negative entropy was forcibly stripped from the Black Mist Progenitor by the God of Life and then applied to the legends. In that instant, he finally understood that so-called life force was actually the embodiment of entropy, and the most mysterious God of Life possessed the ability to partially control and transfer entropy!
But even a god could not reverse the flow of entropy, only strip life force from one being and give it to another.
Nine deities exerted their full power. Their holy emblems flickered in the void, and their unimaginable power formed a multi-dimensional magic array that illuminated the void, completely enveloping the Black Mist Progenitor within it.