Chapter 51: Fighting Against Death and Sorrow
Surrounded by endless chaotic void and deathly silence, Joshua awoke from a dreamlike illusion. He silently raised his head, gazing at the darkness around him. This time, the darkness was not merely darkness—it was a fusion of all bitterness, despair, and struggle.
Within this darkness.
Joshua could hear children who had lost their parents to war, crying in empty houses.
Joshua could hear elderly people who had lost their children to natural disasters, silently choking with tears before tombstones.
He could even see tears flowing from young people who, oppressed by a dark system and with no way out, could only choose death. Above all this, there was a society completely trapped in a dystopian system of despair.
He could see, in the early days of industrial society, a middle-aged man squeezed breathless by factory owners, who still had to bear the burden of supporting a family of five upon returning home, silently sobbing. He wept not for his own battered body, but for how his family would continue after his death.
Conflict is not only war; endings are not only grand destruction. They can hide in the tiniest details, within systems, within the hearts of all who despair, never revealing themselves until necessary.
One individual can never truly understand another. The joys and sorrows of life do not communicate. Though people may all weep, to others it is merely annoying noise, with an abyss separating them.
Joshua gazed upon all of this. He could hear, could see, could even touch and perceive it all.
He could see, beneath natural disasters, grieving loved ones who died before him, or even died saving him.
He could feel, amidst war, confused comrades dying worthless deaths due to foolish high-level conflicts, or even himself about to be sacrificed due to stupid orders or being abandoned by a commander.
In worlds of excessive industrial development and extreme pollution, newborns died shortly after birth. They came into this world without even a glance, gasping for life due to defects and pollution in the womb, sometimes taking their mothers with them. Even worse, some babies were born without brains—they had never truly lived from the start, and it was unknown whether this was good or bad.
Due to climate shifts, merely because the sun was slightly farther or closer, there were great droughts and snow disasters. The children of wealthy village farmers were taken by starving mobs, and when found again, even their bones were broken and sucked for marrow. Among those migrating due to famine, mothers fed their children with blood, men cut off their own flesh to sustain their wives, and the more desperate even exchanged children to eat. They wept, despairing and guilt-ridden, eating those pieces of flesh, struggling to survive but unable to do so.
Increasingly ugly, increasingly despairing.
The shadow of darkness spread endlessly. Within the Extreme Dark Abyss, the silver star was almost completely covered.
Countless worlds and civilizations were destroyed.
But who should be blamed, condemned?
Resent the warring parties, the misuse of weapons, or war itself? Resent the arrival of natural disasters, climate change, or the laws of nature?
Curse the sky in anger, or stomp the earth in fury? Denounce the flaws of social systems, or criticize the base nature of civilization and life?
All seemed too hollow.
Surrounding the silver star, infinite chaos flowed rapidly, as if struggling to break free from something. Time passed. Exerting all its strength, it finally broke through some shackles—it was the roar of an unborn evil god. The sound was like a long howl of weeping, like a beast wounded to the point of death, amidst pain and despair, mixed with anger and sorrow.
Endless memories surged. It roared, questioning the meaning of existence. Infinite tears flowed. It was lost, wondering if life held only sorrow.
Hearing this sound, Joshua seemed to see the turning of ages. Infinite memories, infinite history, unfolded before him an endlessly long, seemingly eternal tunnel. Within the tunnel were the germination and extinction of countless lives and races, the destruction of countless worlds and civilizations.
In ancient times, in some worlds, because small organic molecules and large polymer aggregates did not evolve into the prototypes of single-celled organisms, life naturally could not arise.
In some worlds, due to stable climates, algae life dominated. They survived for billions of years without any change, without any evolution, until a meteor struck, bringing their destruction.
The ancestors of intelligent life had just left their homeland but were hunted by powerful creatures never seen in foreign lands. Intelligent life unable to spread across the world was trapped in place by overly dangerous beasts, losing the possibility of further advancement and infinite futures.
In the Stone Age, intelligent life using only primitive tools was utterly powerless to resist even a single natural disaster-level change. Even a simple tribal war or migration could lead to the extinction of several groups.
In the feudal age, a single large plague could kill the entire world's population. Perhaps by luck there would be survivors, but if their numbers were insufficient, civilization would naturally perish.
Every era, every decision, could destroy a civilization, exterminate a race. The invisible Great Filter filtered out any unlucky civilization or world. But the more developed a civilization, the less important luck from natural environmental changes became. Conversely, the more advanced the technology, the higher the possibility of civilization destroying itself.
Whether in the steam age, industrial age, or electronic age, war had the power to cripple a nation's vitality. The extermination caused by mutual slaughter among civilized individuals surpassed any natural change. Intelligent life wielding steel creations preferred killing their own kind over slaughtering beasts.
And in the solar age, when the secrets of stars could be uncovered, war became even more terrifying. Any nuclear-armed nation could easily start a war capable of destroying the entire ecosystem. The space age needed no mention—the more advanced the technology, the more dangerous the civilization.
This was merely technological civilization. For civilizations possessing supernatural power, the journey was even more arduous. In the feudal age, they already held the power to self-destruct.
Joshua could hear the wails of even more collapsing worlds.
Because of the arrival of the Great Magic Tide, suddenly appearing ghosts and magical beasts invaded civilization, causing societal collapse. The evil sedimented in the depths of civilization and human nature was awakened by supernatural power, then devoured civilization itself. The Siberia World was not an isolated case. Any civilization where supernatural power abruptly appeared would inevitably ignite war, plunging the entire world into extremely dangerous supernatural warfare.
Even if conflicts were barely suppressed, protests, riots, rebellions, strange incidents, and revolutions were common. Having superpowers while relatives and friends did not, having superpowers while relatives and friends also had them, not having superpowers while relatives and friends did, neither having superpowers... Just this single layer of relationships could fragment the original order structure. As long as the social system had even the slightest flaw, it would lead to the collapse of civilization.
Extreme civilizations would bear the most extreme bitter fruits. But in this world, there had never been a perfectly stable, eternally stable civilization. That was a stone, not a deity.
Self-destruction.
Self-destruction.
Self-destruction.
Carried forward by infinite memories, walking deeper into the seemingly endless tunnel, Joshua heard, hidden within countless sorrowful cries, hidden within countless confused doubts, the song of the unnamed evil god. It was a voice chanting destruction, calling for death.
The warrior understood.
'The Evil God of Sorrow' called for the destruction of civilizations. Its existence, its power, did not create conflicts and disputes out of thin air, but induced civilizations to walk toward natural destruction.
Born in the Nirvana Ground of the Abyss, once the Genesis Maelstrom, it was the self-destruction factor of all civilizations, the natural enemy of all worlds and life!
When sorrow continuously accumulated in the abyss, finally fermented by despair into a bitter fruit called death, amidst the weeping cries of sorrow, the evil god named Death was being conceived.
"Dark... so damn dark!"
"Please, stop this. I just want to see the next dawn... Can't you even leave this world that much time?!"
"This plan is likely to cause large-scale geological changes on the surface. The method is too radical. I don't agree... But there's no time? Indeed, my term is also about to end..."
"Do we still have a future?"
At this moment, Joshua felt himself wrapped by countless chaos. But the billions upon billions of memories of the dead, the countless world fragments sunk in the abyss without rebirth or erased marks, were the main body of all this. He could hear countless people whispering in his ear, as if wanting to assimilate him, to make him part of themselves.
He could see, at the core of the Extreme Dark Abyss, the silver star had been completely covered by black. The initial structure of the evil god had begun to condense and grow around the star. Even the power of the Soulflame King that Joshua had long activated was useless. As long as he could not eliminate the resentment of these broken world fragments, could not dissolve the sorrow, he could not break this condensing chaos into countless '1's, and naturally could not begin purification.
But this instinctively condensed chaos did not immediately kill the warrior.
Time passed, in the overly long darkness.
All past memories had faded. In the abyss, even dreams no longer existed.
Counting those nights without dawn, even names were forgotten.
Countless dead world fragments sobbed in grief.
What is death?
The death of the body, for supernatural beings, is merely a change in life form. For beings with strong souls, the death of the body is the beginning of new life.
Civilization is the same.
Even if the 'body' is destroyed, worlds and civilizations whose names are remembered by other civilizations are not truly dead. If their names are recorded and sung until the end of the universe, even if they have long been destroyed, they become eternal in fact.
True death is the annihilation of existence. It is those who perished without a name, faded without memory, ended without anyone remembering, quietly vanishing... everything.
In the Nirvana Ground of the Abyss existed these countless 'dead' civilizations. They had even forgotten their own names. In this infinite chaos, in this Extreme Dark Abyss, in this dark night where no stars could be seen, they repeatedly recounted their own unknown stories.
The Death Evil God, amidst this sorrow where even time was forgotten, condensed from despairing chaos, conceived and born.
Joshua was their only listener, the only one they could speak to. In this multiverse, no one else could remember their names, know their joys, sorrows, anger, and happiness.
They could only call out.
Thus.
Endless sorrow swallowed Joshua.
...
But.
In the darkness, a silver radiance pierced through the condensed chaos.
A bright light shone within the lightless abyss.
The giant steel star began to vibrate once more. Deep red runes could be seen spreading across its silver surface. Chaos was also vaporized. It looked as if the core engine was restarting, like a furnace core continuously heating up.
Inside the world, the world occupied by countless chaotic mists was rapidly receding. Because at the center of the world, a highly condensed star was re-emitting light. The phantom of a four-armed giant god could be seen appearing at the center of the star, as if sweeping the heavens and earth clean.
Joshua Van Radcliffe was indeed swallowed by sorrow.
But the warrior did not fall into sorrow.
"I understand. It's because I thought of death at that moment that you appeared, choosing me as the condensation point... It's my fault!"
I awakened you, who should have been dispersed.
Awakening from the dazed illusion, Joshua opened his eyes again. Flowing in his gaze was no longer silver Steel Force, but a pure, incomparable crimson radiance. A fighting spirit surpassing divinity churned within him, causing him to clench his four fists: "I actually gave up fighting—even if just for a moment, I thought of mutual destruction, chose the easy 'death', gave up the harder possibility of living to seize victory!"
"For a warrior, this is the greatest despair and pain!"
The Extreme Dark Abyss, the chaos temporarily repelled, surged again, still wanting to advance. The shadow of darkness spread once more, seeming to want to re-submerge this shining light.
But the giant steel star began to deform amidst an extremely violent roar and vibration. Accompanied by an extremely intense light like a supernova, the giant god named 'World' was awakening, taking shape. It could be seen that, with the movement of world matter, a huge mass point began to condense behind the giant god. Black chaos was pulled into it, forming a Φ-shaped sphere and accretion disk. Endless intense light burst from the two poles of the mass point, transforming into a spear that pierced through the darkness.
"I have fought against dragons, beast hordes, natural disasters, chaos, and evil gods. I have fallen into certain-death situations, charging head-on against theoretically invincible enemies."
But just as difficulties can be overcome, any existence of 'impossibility' itself is meant to be conquered and surpassed by life. Even sorrow called self-destruction, even the evil god named Death, is no exception!
On the silver outer armor, crimson sparks began to dance. Flickering ashes roamed around the giant god. Between light and dark, they were blown by the blazing wind into the dark distance, specks of light, one after another, never ceasing, like sparks setting the plains ablaze, never extinguished.
"Fighting against the base nature of civilization and life, against sorrow, despair, and the ending called 'death'?"
Looking at the despairing shadow surging again, enough to drown countless worlds, Joshua raised his hand. The spear born from the two poles of the mass point was grasped in his hand, pointed at the approaching darkness and chaos.
The warrior grinned.
"I like it."