Chapter 37: Transcendent War
Joshua remembered back when he was playing the game, watching Brandon use the 'Radiance of Ultimate Holiness' to slay Goliath. At that time, Goliath's body was the entire Tear Valley Fortress. Although it was massive, spanning a few mountains, a mountain range, roughly tens of thousands of meters in size, compared to the version he was seeing now, it could be described as a tiny little thing, something you could pinch with one hand.
However, it wasn't entirely inexplicable... Judging from the bizarre scene just now, the various parts of Goliath's body seemed to be scattered across other worlds, with only one heart located in the Sixth Abyss... If, back then, Brandon and his team were executing a decapitation plan, taking advantage of Goliath's main body not being fully assembled to delve deep into the Abyss and destroy Goliath's heart incarnation, then it wasn't too hard to understand... Forget it.
Why think so much about it?
Joshua was mainly curious about the differences between his two lives, which is why he couldn't help but think deeply. If it were any other unknown enemy, he wouldn't bother pondering such questions. He would directly start analyzing the opponent's strengths and weaknesses, looking for a way to break them.
However, even so, in just those few seconds of staring, he had already seen through the essence of the 'Abyss Lord' and the reason why the Demon King Goliath's form was so bizarre.
A warrior could easily smell the thick scent of World Will on Goliath, even without a nose. Clearly, the so-called Abyss Lord was an existence favored by the will of the Abyss World. The principle was similar to the power displayed when Xiao Guang and he himself cooperated in the Bloodmoon Abyss back then—a World Will personally stepping in to support a single existence unilaterally.
But the difference from Xiao Guang was that Joshua originally thought an Abyss Lord could only command the wind and rain and gain infinite power within their native Abyss. But now, it seemed the opposite was true: the Abyss Will seemed to be directly residing within Goliath. Goliath's body *was* the current 'Sixth Abyss,' while that vast, dead world was merely an irrelevant burden... Conversely, the reason Goliath split his body into so many small pieces and placed them in other worlds was likely to expand the territory of the 'Sixth Abyss Will' and achieve some goal.
To put it in simpler terms, Joshua originally thought the relationship between an Abyss Lord and the Abyss Will was like 'land' and a 'land-bound spirit.' He never expected it to be like a 'person' and a 'spirit on their back.'
"...Are you saying you want me to lead my great army to suppress those Abyss aberrations that have fallen into revolt..."
After a long silence, Goliath finally spoke slowly: "Joshua van Radcliffe, you truly underestimate me."
"Long before you discovered the anomaly, I had already sensed the clues and suppressed all threatening aberrations."
As he spoke, the colossal demonic humanoid opened its forelimbs, which had only three fingers and looked more like some kind of weapon than hands. In its palm, countless shattered soul-lights were burning. Hundreds of thousands, millions of soul fragments pulsed under the Demon King's power, manifesting dozens of demonic forms of various shapes.
"At the very beginning of the mutation, I sensed something was wrong. Several Abysses and worlds I had been spying on inexplicably fell into civil strife. When I thought it was a good opportunity to plunder and prepared to lead my army to raid, Saruka told me that the Jiao River Plains had rebelled..."
"At that time, I sensed something was off. The demons under my command were all bound by contracts using the Abyss Will. For them to rebel, their strength would have to reach the peak of a Greater Demon. After suppressing the rebellion, realizing this might be the influence of some Evil God, I understood that an opportunity had arrived, at least for us."
The eight-eyed, two-horned Demon King revealed a cruel 'smile': "After eliminating them, some chaotic power aggregates do appear, but shattering them isn't difficult... Mycroftian, don't think you're the only ones who can discover this."
"So, can you tell that the disturbance range of this Evil God covers the entire World Star River?"
Joshua let out a scornful laugh. The colossal steel humanoid slowly paced forward through the void: "Well done, Goliath. You did detect the source of the calamity early and nipped it in the bud... But it seems you're not inclined to accept our proposal."
"No, I gladly accept. But before that, there is one thing I must do."
The eight-eyed demon also dragged its nebula-like lower body through the void, floating. It denied in a low voice: "As the King of Demons, I naturally know that facing the current Mycroft Civilization, we are doomed to lose. But precisely because of that, I must do this."
"I must make you understand that driving us chaotic, savage, bloodthirsty, and warlike demons also comes at a price."
The silver God of Steel and the Abyss Lord shrouded in shadow stared at each other across the distance of a world. For ordinary people, this was a long journey they might never cross in a lifetime. But for these two powerhouses who had reached their current realm on the path of transcendence, this distance was just right, like two martial artists standing three meters apart, ready to draw blood at any moment.
And amidst this standoff, the Demon King Goliath struck first. It suddenly spread its wings, and two long, pitch-black giant scythes materialized in its hands. The void instantly rippled like a tsunami. Countless tiny world orbits shifted, and even the entire Sixth Abyss began to slowly drift away, distancing itself from the battlefield of the two great beings. A surging aura of the Abyss spread, instantly enveloping the territories of dozens of worlds.
It could be seen that on Goliath's horns, a pitch-black halo, like a divine envoy, was slowly expanding. It was the remnant of a great will: the shed skin of the Steel Serpent, the lingering thought of the World Will. Call it what you will, it was the embodiment of the Sixth Abyss Will. It had long since assimilated and merged with its Abyss Lord. Goliath was its hope. If the Abyss Lord died, the Abyss would perish with him.
"Show me your power!" The Demon King roared deeply. A dim, deep red flame appeared on the twin scythes, like the core fire of a world gradually extinguishing after its decline. Unlike its fierce movements, it was like heat death—a calm, silent, and annihilating artistic conception hidden within the dim firelight, directly slashing towards Joshua's head.
"As you wish!" In response, the warrior laughed loudly, clenching his fists. Burning to a blazing white, his fists contained negative entropy and high heat comparable to a solar eruption. Facing the twin scythes that seemed capable of directly severing his head, he stepped forward without hesitation, striking straight on!
In that instant.
Around the Sixth Abyss, most of the Abyss domain felt an invisible shockwave sweeping across the myriad realms.
In the Fifteenth Abyss, a world where everything had petrified and withered, leaving only thick haze and giant stone trees, the Dragonman, Flame Demon, and their party, who were exploring the demon situation and the River Styx, looked up in surprise at the sky. Because in the gloomy, dim sky, obscured by gray mist and dark clouds, a familiar yet unfamiliar aura came from a deep red 'flower of light' slowly blooming.
"That's really beautiful... Hey, what's wrong, Mr. Syndicate, Chu Hao, you?!"
Lisa, who was relatively carefree, subconsciously remarked that it was beautiful, and then she discovered that the Flame Demon behind her and the massive Steel Elemental Chu Hao had both knelt on one knee, loyally saluting and paying homage to that strange sunlight in the sky.
Unlike Lisa, who was merely a student of that lord, as the linked targets of the warrior's Steel Force, as the warrior's first-generation clan members, Syndicate and Chu Hao immediately recognized the true nature of that flower of light in the sky.
"Pay your respects, Lisa." After the salute, Syndicate slowly stood up. He looked up at the sky and said in a low voice: "It's not about blind worship, but about rational reverence... At least, for the power that is protecting us, this is not excessive."
"Sizzle, sizzle sizzle sizzle, sizzle."
In the Thirty-Third Abyss, a barren world contaminated by radioactive heavy metal particles, covered with ruins of former civilized cities and bare mountains and plains, the four members of the First Squad were fighting against the local 'Toxic Metal Sludge Beasts.'
Just as Karin, wielding her Fusion Core Staff, blasted half the city ruins and the entire Sludge Beast nest away with a Fission Burst Ray, collapsing onto the back of the Dwarf Nick, the siblings Ivan and Amira, who had been suppressing the Sludge Beast formula up front, were the first to notice a second deep red sun appearing beside the sun overhead.
"Oh! It's Teacher's aura!" Among them, the Dwarf, who had the best physique and sharpest senses, immediately widened his eyes and straightened up to look at the sky. With this movement, Karin, who was on the Dwarf's back and completely exhausted from using all her mana, fell to the ground. She gave Nick a 'venomous' glare before passing out, which made the Dwarf turn around, reach out his hand, and cry out in grief: "Karin!!!"
"Stop yelling, let her sleep on the ground for a bit. Anyway, she's a nuclear explosion mage, not afraid of radiation... Speaking of which, this world really amplifies Karin's power."
Beside them, Amira muttered a complaint, then continued looking up at the sky. Meanwhile, Ivan sheathed the greatsword he had placed on Judgment and sighed softly: "Teacher has come to the Abyss too. Looks like some demons are in for trouble again."
"Strange, why did I say 'again'?"
In the Fifty-Seventh Abyss, a dry world with no water vapor or oxygen, the ground was covered with crisscrossing cracks and trenches. Some giant canyons even reached the still-warm planetary core, spewing out continuous streams of highly toxic gas, forming poisonous acidic clouds.
This world was originally a paradise for Abyss Sludge Beasts. But during the Elite Squad's continuous ten-plus days of 'research' and 'investigation,' the Abyss Sludge Beasts unfortunately 'went extinct' to the point of being an endangered species due to various 'accidents.' The Elite Squad, realizing they might have overdone it, had to stop, somewhat regretfully beginning their formal assessment and research.
However, unlike the scenes in other Abysses, upon seeing the deep red sun overhead, the Elite Squad immediately fell into internal strife.
Or rather, one-sided bullying.
"Knight!!!!"
A blast of Command: Silence hit the Knight, who was cowering in a corner of the temporary research lab, not daring to move. The Cleric, still not satisfied with his anger, fired another golden Command: Mute. At the same time, behind him, the Mage, brewing a 'Silence Spell,' and the Alchemist, holding a potion that could petrify tongues and vocal cords, stared silently at the Knight. Priest also watched the scene with a pained expression, while Su Er's soul form, hugging Priest's head for no apparent reason, her negligible chest pressing against the top of his head, curiously watched the Elite Squad's internal conflict.
"That lord has appeared again!"
The Mage's sinister gaze passed over the Cleric and landed on the terrified, speechless Knight. He said softly: "What do you think will happen next? Will a Lord Sludge Beast suddenly leap out from the planetary core fissure and devour our entire lab? Or will this world suddenly experience a major earthquake, just like in World One?"
"Did you just speak again?"
The Alchemist, on the other hand, had a gentle expression, but the potion bubbling dangerously in his hand was anything but gentle. He kept bringing the potion closer to the frantically shaking Knight and said softly: "Didn't we agree on three rules? You absolutely cannot say any cursed words during the mission, right?"
"Wuwuwu, wuwuwu wu!"
The Knight, hit by Command: Mute, frantically pulled out paper and pen from his pocket and began writing rapidly. Soon, he showed it to his seemingly surface-level teammates.
*No, listen to me. Who said that lord's appearance means we're definitely going to suffer a disaster?*
*I really didn't say anything! We've been exploring quietly for so long now. A Lord Abyss Sludge Beast definitely won't appear. Geological changes are even more impossible. This world has been dead and silent for who knows how many years. Unless...*
Just as the Knight was about to write 'unless a meteor happens to fall right now,' Priest, quick as a flash, used his Gravitational Battle Qi to snatch the paper and pen from the Knight's hand. After doing this, he let out a long sigh of relief: "Damn, that was close... Ah, I cursed. Really too urgent..."
"At times like this, the Seven Gods won't blame you." "It's fine, cursing at a time like this doesn't count. Your wife won't mind." "Yeah, yeah, dealing with the Knight, a little cursing is nothing."
The Cleric, Mage, and Alchemist all breathed a sigh of relief and started praising their captain. Just as Priest was about to modestly decline, suddenly, including the Knight, all five members of the Elite Squad, plus Su Er (a ghost), ran to the window and looked up at the sky.
Unfathomable energy erupted at the very edge of the sky, beyond the world. They could see the aftershocks of the power clash in the distance pushing countless floating world wrecks in the Abyss. A magnificent meteor shower appeared in the high sky of the Fifty-Seventh Abyss. Countless chaotic lines sketched across the gray-blue sky, like a poorly drawn pencil sketch.
At this moment.
Half of the Abyss was trembling because of the power of two 'individuals.'
This was their battle.
No...
This was their war.
---
*Stomach discomfort, persistent low fever*
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