Chapter 38: Celestial Domain
The flames of the multiverse repeatedly extinguish and reignite, civilizations cycle through glory and destruction. In the long river of time, nothing is eternal, no possibility is infinite, no power is absolute. Even the World Star River can decay due to accidents, let alone everything created by intelligent life—perhaps the most beautiful yet most fragile thing in this world.
But precisely because of this lack, there is longing. Unlike normal intelligent races that live in stable worlds yet constantly pursue violence sufficient to destroy themselves, demons, who are born with destructive power, most crave the creative force capable of building worlds and rekindling flames.
Around the Sixth Abyss, in the endless void, two vast and mighty forces—one majestic yet dark, one holy yet terrifying—collided once again with a thunderous impact. The power of annihilation, capable of reducing all things to silence, crossed paths with the brilliant radiance that could illuminate countless stars. The aftershocks shook the temporal currents and even affected other distant abysses.
"I see." The massive demon gripping twin scythes swayed violently, silver flames occasionally erupting across its body. Yet it still let out a cold laugh—a voice belonging to a demon, as greedy as locusts and ants, as scorching as the magma in the abyss: "You are the one who holds the power of creation!"
Just as Goliath made this assertion, it suddenly spread its wings. Endless shadows began to expand like a black mirror. Countless demonic shadows of various forms, resembling different races, flew out from the mirror. They burned with seemingly hot flames, but in truth, these shadows drained heat and kinetic energy from everything they touched, plunging them into absolute stillness.
Visible world wreckage hurtling through the void was touched by these shadows, instantly ceasing motion, losing energy, and being dragged into the darkness, disappearing into the black mirror formed by Goliath's wings.
But Joshua made no defensive moves. He merely raised his head slightly, his peripheral vision sweeping over these shadows. The substantialized light, carrying negentropy comparable to a star, pierced through the bodies of hundreds of shadow demons in an instant. The wounds seemed minor, but soon, like paper touched by a burning focal point, flames rapidly spread across the pierced shadow demons, consuming them in an instant.
Even facing Goliath's seemingly bizarre attacks, Joshua showed no panic. He calmly wielded his power, using the slightest force to break each assault. Conversely, every time the warrior clenched his fist and struck, Goliath had to brace itself and go all out.
This was not surprising. The techniques and combat prowess of Joshua's avatar were no different from his original body. The only difference was the matter of "yield." But even this small flaw could be quickly resolved through "self-summoning." Facing such a serious and focused warrior, Demon King Goliath's ability—related to particle motion, capable of depriving opponents of heat and kinetic energy—lost its mystery and strangeness.
Undoubtedly, Goliath's strength was formidable. But without revealing its ultimate trump card and using only basic moves, it could not contend with Joshua, who had perfected his own power to an advanced level. Each evenly matched exchange allowed the warrior to gain more mastery over his opponent's strength, while Goliath could only learn that its enemy had "immense power," "strong defense," "great speed," and "abundant energy"—meaningless information about the enemy's overwhelming base attributes. After all, Joshua only used ordinary attacks from start to finish, while Goliath had to employ one supernatural ability after another.
Seeming to have gained some understanding, the motionless silver giant's body trembled slightly. This minor movement caused visible spacetime distortion in the surrounding void. But upon noticing this, Goliath let out a strange laugh. The Abyss Lord's halo atop its head began to slowly expand, black radiance flickering. At the same time, Goliath raised its twin scythes and traced in the void. A black-red magic circle began to take shape rapidly, with countless unfamiliar runes coalescing.
At that moment, Joshua moved. His body vanished, leaving only a silver torrent charging straight at Goliath like a straight line. The distorted spacetime left a long groove in the temporal currents. The energy gathered behind the warrior formed a multicolored Milky Way ribbon visible even in other worlds.
The kinetic energy of this charge was enough to shatter a planet into pieces. If it struck a sun, it would cause a celestial catastrophe. This terrifying energy was fully concentrated into the warrior's four fists. The violent silver light instantly engulfed Goliath along with its magic circle.
But this attack was futile.
Joshua stood where Goliath had been. He touched a black wound that had suddenly appeared on his chest, cutting through the neutron armor, then smoothed it out. The warrior frowned, scanning his surroundings. The Abyss Lord's massive body had vanished the instant before his heavy punch landed, leaving him hitting nothing. Yet Joshua had no idea how the demon had managed this while counterattacking him.
Although the enemy's long-prepared counterattack could only barely penetrate his defense, Joshua understood that if this strike had landed on an ordinary world, it could have drained most of the continent's light and heat in one blow, reaping countless souls while extinguishing the earth-fire furnace. This was a genuine "Scythe of Death" capable of destroying worlds and civilizations.
But perhaps it wasn't that he hadn't noticed, but that he couldn't understand.
Joshua recalled the strange magic circle and runes Goliath had drawn before disappearing. They were completely unfamiliar, unlike anything he had ever seen. As the warrior remained alert and began to ponder, he suddenly raised his hand, three fingers firmly clamping onto the blade of a black scythe.
The scythe had appeared abruptly from the dark void, slashing sideways at Joshua's head. But Joshua's perception and reaction speed were nearly at the limit of the material world. He instantly detected the ambush and launched a counterattack. As his three fingers increased pressure, cracks spread densely across the scythe's blade. Just as half the scythe was about to be crushed by Joshua, it instantly dissolved into shadow and vanished.
"I see."
With just this small flaw, this tiny bit of information, Joshua immediately understood many things. He scanned the dark void around him and chuckled softly: "No wonder you suddenly changed form so drastically, becoming unlike a demon..."
"Goliath, you have mastered the power of 'Shadow'!"
The information currents stirred by the giant spread throughout the void. Even within several nearby abyss worlds, Joshua's voice could be heard. But the void offered no response, only silence.
Shadow...
Once, Joshua had discussed the changes in the world with Nostradamus, Barbarossa, Baniel, William, and several other of Mycroft's most powerful spellcasters. They had discovered that the essence of the Great Magic Tide was likely an energy surge caused by the destruction of countless worlds from the center of the multiverse. It was also they who, through studying data from the Siberia World and many others, had detected a new supernatural force emerging in this multiverse.
That force was named Shadow.
Originally ordinary light and shadow phenomena, during that silent yet massive change, had their essence altered, gaining supernatural elements. Just as in ancient times, when the spirit of intelligent life materialized into psionic energy; when free-floating energy in the air became magic, ether, and the six elements; when life force was given meaning and became battle qi—when light and love could become "Holy Light," no one would be surprised that "Shadow" could also become a power inheritance.
However, research into shadow power was still in its early stages even in the Mycroft World. By observing the instinctively awakened shadow ability users in the Siberia World, the mages of the Sky-Piercing White Tower had summarized some basic shadow runes and operational laws.
But now, Demon King Goliath had demonstrated masterful shadow power and application methods. This was truly shocking and fascinating.
Still, it wasn't entirely unexpected.
Joshua coldly scanned the surrounding void, trying to locate Goliath hidden in the shadows. This entirely new supernatural force, never seen before, was troublesome even for him. It wasn't something he could see through in a short time. The warrior thought: "After all, the Mycroft World has many complete supernatural power inheritances. For a completely unknown force, they naturally adopt a cautious attitude, studying it bit by bit. Few experts would abandon their original path to focus entirely on researching this power."
"But demons are different. They don't have that many choices. And Goliath, becoming a Demon King, naturally has high talent. As a Demon Lord-level existence, it isn't afraid of backlash from failed experiments... In a short time, training shadow power to mastery isn't inexplicable."
Goliath, merged with the shadows, had likely integrated itself into the ubiquitous shadows of the multiverse. This should not have been a particularly covert method, but because Joshua was unfamiliar with shadow power, he couldn't detect where the demon was.
This was the impact of a newly emerged supernatural force on original superhumans. They needed to adapt to this new environment, learn to deal with new enemies, patch the flaws in their cultivation methods and combat techniques, and fill all the gaps. Even in combat, there were so many vulnerabilities. For beings who sought to control everything, this new supernatural force would undoubtedly be a headache.
Goliath said nothing, gave no reply, no acknowledgment. Even after being exposed for mastering shadow power as a new trump card, it showed no reaction. The Demon King silently searched for Joshua's weaknesses in the void, launching surprise attacks from time to time. Although the warrior always made the most perfect defenses, passively taking hits was clearly not Joshua's style.
Just as Goliath emerged from the shadows once more to attack Joshua, it seemed to suffer some kind of counterattack. Before the warrior could even turn to block, the demon's entire body, along with its twin scythes, was sent flying far away, then somewhat awkwardly submerged back into the shadows.
Joshua slowly turned his head. Visible around the steel giant, fireballs were expanding and burning within the silver nebula.
Blue flames, white flames, orange flames, yellow flames, red flames.
Emitting five different colors, dozens of fireballs of varying sizes gathered and grew within the nebula of Steel Force. They burned fiercely, releasing intense light across different spectra. These fireballs merged, split, expanded, and contracted. With these different movements, the light of the fireballs rapidly changed.
In an instant, Joshua was surrounded by these miniature stars emitting infinite light. Over forty-five, and still increasing, small stars orbited the steel giant's main body like satellites. Under the simultaneous illumination of dozens of stars, all optical shadows ceased to exist. Even supernatural shadow power could not invade this pure "Celestial Domain of Stars."
Even without using Holy Light, Joshua could resist shadows. He himself was a torch igniting the unknown distance—how could he fear endless darkness?
"Whoosh—"
The steel giant raised all four hands simultaneously, grabbing four different miniature stars. These miniature stars were vastly different from naturally formed celestial bodies. Some were pure light emitters, crystalline suns. Some were fireballs similar to real stars, with coronas occasionally erupting on their surfaces.
Some miniature stars were actually small fiery galaxies, with arms of different attributes rotating and annihilating, producing hot sparks. Some stars were geometric models constantly aggregating and splitting. Visible within some miniature cores were phoenix-like shadows gestating, three-legged birds taking shape.
Crystalline stars of psionic energy, blazing stars of magic, galactic stars of elements, geometric stars of ether, stars of Holy Light and life energy nearly alive... In this instant, the God of Steel evolved almost all the light that supernatural forces could produce, illuminating a large portion of the abyssal void.
Joshua coldly surveyed his surroundings. All darkness was dissipating. Even the temporal currents gradually calmed due to his presence, forming a vast concave flat zone. Endless light, countless different spectra and supernatural forces, spread outward like a supernova explosion. All shadows and things unrelated to these supernatural forces were dissolving.
The warrior indeed did not understand shadow power. But he understood other supernatural forces. By gathering and expelling all the supernatural forces he knew, what remained would be only what he did not comprehend.
Radiance shone.
Finally, a massive demonic form could no longer hide itself and had to emerge from the last void shadow.
Demon King Goliath somewhat awkwardly retreated beyond the illumination range of Joshua's miniature stars, staring at the warrior from a distance.
"Second round..." Joshua's lips curled slightly as he murmured.
"I lost." But Goliath spoke first. The Abyss Lord declared: "I concede."
Joshua: "[...]?"