Chapter 13: Not Just One
Appearing in the same 'goddess' form, the difference between the 'Joy and Sorrow' that Joshua had once seen and the 'Dragon of Ten Thousand Steels' was immense. If the former was a ruler as majestic as a queen, then the latter was an elder facing her guardian race with kindness and love.
Her tone was gentle and steady, giving the feeling that no matter what happened, nothing would ever surprise her.
But now, the words spoken by this Dragon God genuinely shocked both Joshua and Number 3.
"The wreckage of an entire world star river?!"
Even Joshua widened his eyes when he heard that quantifier, let alone the projection of Number 3 on his shoulder. The artificial intelligence girl was so startled that her entire form glitched, her wings and hair tangled together, looking like a failed projection homework assignment from a third-year Rune major student.
But honestly, when Joshua heard about the wreckage of an entire world star river, the first thought that popped into his head wasn't 'How was an entire world star river destroyed?' but rather 'If restoring order to a single world is that hard, how many souls would it take to restore an entire world star river?'
However, he quickly corrected this misguided train of thought caused by his mental deviation value, properly recognizing the horror behind the Metal Dragon God's words.
"Wait a moment, Your Majesty, Dragon of Ten Thousand Steels."
Frowning, Joshua raised his hand, and a silver mist of light enveloped the area where he and the god were currently located. They were now above the vanguard fortress cluster. Although ordinary detection equipment couldn't observe the higher-dimensional existence of the Metal Dragon God, it was better to be safe and block things off first.
After all, this concerned a matter on the scale of a star river. Without a clear understanding, not a single piece of information could be leaked.
"Now, you can explain the situation in detail."
After handling these matters, Joshua paused for a moment. He first sorted out the relationships between these events, then spoke: "Your Majesty, Dragon of Ten Thousand Steels, are you saying that your Steel Serpent power comes from the inheritance of the previous Metal Dragon God, and through your exchange with the Great Khan of the Star Shepherds, you actually obtained news of your mother world—a world lost for tens of thousands of years, and perhaps even a hundred thousand years to outsiders—but this news is that your homeland has long since turned into world wreckage, and even the entire world star river has been destroyed, correct?"
"Indeed, that is the case."
The Metal Dragon God flicked her tail and spoke calmly: "Actually, in the beginning, the Astral Dragons had no distinction between Five-Colored Dragons and Metal Dragons. There was only the most primitive 'Dragon God of Ten Thousand Steels,' the predecessor from several generations before me. They inherited the 'Fire and Steel Power' of the 'Great Will' of their home world, while the Five-Colored Dragon God developed locally in the Mycroft World, representing the inheritance of transcendent power in Mycroft."
The so-called 'Great Will' mentioned by the Metal Dragon God was, of course, the Steel Serpent. Because of this, the Metal Dragons, who had never been truly invested in this world, paid no attention to worldly affairs, focusing solely on finding their way home or traveling to other primitive worlds more suitable for dragon habitation. Meanwhile, the Five-Colored Dragons, who had adapted to the transcendent power of Mycroft World, devoted themselves wholeheartedly to seizing the position of the core race of Mycroft World from humanity.
The former only regarded Mycroft World as a temporary foothold, guests staying in someone else's home, while the latter truly considered Mycroft World their homeland... Ironically, the former, knowing this was not their world, always acted cautiously and dared not cause trouble, while the latter, seeing themselves as the protagonists, caused a hundred or ten thousand times more destruction to Mycroft World than the former.
As for Fire Power, it was actually easy to explain. Joshua had heard others explain it before—if Steel Power was the first thing born after the First Flame burned away chaos, representing the transcendent power of all tangible matter in the multiverse, then Fire Power came directly from the First Flame, from the Great Source of the multiverse, the power of existence and mind.
In a sense, all divine power of the gods was Fire Power, except for the Steel Serpent and the Earth Deities, the primordial gods. Their power was a combination of Steel and Fire, the two complementing each other, making them exceptionally strong, surpassing other deities.
According to the Metal Dragon God's subsequent explanation, the power of the Dragon God of Ten Thousand Steels originated from the Great Will of their mother world. In the distant past, when they encountered an incredibly powerful enemy invasion and all Astral Dragons were forced to abandon their mother star and flee into the void, the World Will split off many primal powers, lodging them within the bodies of certain powerful leader Astral Dragons.
That primal power of Fire and Steel was the origin of the special life form of the Metal Dragon God, similar to the Steel Serpent.
"Count Radcliffe, you are the Soulflame King, the inheritor of the Sage... The ancient Dragon God inheritance and the power of the Steel Serpent from our home world are urging me to leave this place and return to my homeland—even if it has long been destroyed, I still want to see its final wreckage with my own eyes. I am about to leave, so I wish to entrust to you the ancient data of the Astral Dragon race and the multiverse star charts observed by successive Metal Dragon Gods in their search for the mother world."
Saying this, the Dragon of Ten Thousand Steels sent a very long stream of information to Joshua. With the assistance of Number 3, Joshua quickly received and processed this stream of data. He soon realized that the first half of this information was the original star chart of the multiverse from thousands of years ago!
This was not the original star chart observed by the current Mycroft people, but one far more ancient than the multiverse star charts recorded in the Unified Grand Database—at least hundreds of thousands of years old, from the peak era of the Astral Dragon race!
Furthermore, the later star charts matched those recorded in the Unified Grand Database. At the end of the data, there were also materials on some peculiar star domains, some containing primitive worlds extremely suitable for habitation, others rich in vast resources, and some star domains not even located in the world star river where Mycroft World was situated!
Joshua looked up, his expression somewhat complex... The earlier star charts could be considered the legacy of the Astral Dragon race, but the scattered data afterward were clearly observations of the void made by the recent generations of Dragon Gods.
Because he knew about the existence of the time seal, Joshua understood very well the difficulty of observing these star domain data under distorted spacetime—it was like using a kaleidoscope as a telescope to look at the stars. Even if the other party was a god, a natural inheritor of the Steel Serpent close to the world, it was by no means an easy task.
He imagined that the years of silence from the other party must have been spent on the arduous, day-after-day observation of that twisted world star river... And it wasn't just the Metal Dragons; among the Five-Colored Dragons, two Dragon Kings had gone missing in the time-distorted star river while exploring the void.
These data were indeed precious, and Joshua could not ignore them. He thought carefully, then spoke calmly: "Your Majesty, Dragon of Ten Thousand Steels, according to what you said, the Astral Dragons back then encountered a powerful enemy, were forced to abandon their mother world and flee, and had no idea where the enemy came from... But thinking about it now, those powerful enemies should have been Evil Gods."
"I am glad you are willing to tell me this information and these star domain materials... But honestly, this should not be told to me alone. Because if the destruction of your mother world's star river was caused by Evil Gods or other powerful beings, then this is not just a matter concerning the Astral Dragons and Mycroft civilization—your return is not simply a wanderer coming home. It is a major event involving all civilizations, races, and life in the entire world star river."
If it really was some powerful existence—for example, a fully awakened super chaotic aggregate like the completed Death Evil God—that destroyed the world star river, Joshua believed that what Mycroft civilization should do at this point was play dead or run away. After all, the green hills remain, the flowing water is eternal; as long as people survive, there is hope. There was no need to fight a losing battle against an enemy they currently couldn't possibly defeat.
Therefore, Joshua said directly: "I do not agree with your idea of returning immediately. This matter should be told to all Legendary experts. Even if it is exploration, it must be done with extreme caution."
"And most importantly."
Saying this, the warrior slowly turned his head, looking somewhat puzzled at the star domain where the Great Khan of the Star Shepherds was stationed. Joshua lowered his voice: "How did these nomadic herdsmen from an external star river come to know the information about your mother world? Have these fellows deceived you?"
If the coordinates of the Astral Dragons' mother world were really that easy to find, the Metal Dragon race, which had been searching for tens of thousands of years, would have found them long ago. There was no way a group of external star river civilizations herding void behemoths could easily obtain data that the Astral Dragons had struggled to find.
Facing Joshua's question, the Dragon of Ten Thousand Steels slightly shook her head. She seemed to have anticipated that the warrior would question this point, as the news was indeed extremely unbelievable. Even an old friend would probably not easily believe it.
And it was precisely because of this that she sought out Joshua, the 'Soulflame King,' rather than other Legendary experts she was more familiar with and had known longer.
"Count Radcliffe, they cannot see it. Although they are also Legendary experts, they are not Soulflame users, not the Soulflame King, and certainly not a Steel Power cultivator like you, who is similar to the Steel Serpent, even surpassing it."
"They cannot see it."
Saying this, the Dragon of Ten Thousand Steels raised her hand, and a gentle surge of Steel Power leaped from her palm, touching the Steel Power barrier Joshua had set up. Seeing this, although still puzzled, Joshua cooperated and dispelled the Steel Power barrier.
Then, he could see that the pure Steel Power originating from the Metal Dragon God turned into silver mist, drifting toward the darkness of the void. And then, like ink spreading, the silver mist began to paint layers of hazy outlines in the void.
The Dragon of Ten Thousand Steels controlled her power, sketching points of light in the dark void. Soon, she filled the sparse, dim darkness at the end of the world star river in front of the vanguard fortress cluster. Then, the Metal Dragon God turned her head, looking at Joshua, and said softly: "Look, Soulflame King."
As she spoke, the Dragon God's Steel Power suddenly flared up, causing countless silver points of light and outlines to burst into radiance! The Dragon God's Steel Power began to resonate with the distant beyond, and the seemingly pitch-black end of the star river suddenly appeared with countless starlights simulated by the Dragon God's power!
Countless points of light and outlines mingled together, forming a massive phantom like a galaxy. And beyond this phantom, in the distance, was the external star river where the Great Khan of the Star Shepherds originally resided. The phantom and the real star river overlapped and intermingled, slowly rotating like meshing gears, as if they had been one from the very beginning.
"Look, Count Radcliffe."
Pointing at this virtual galaxy phantom, the Dragon of Ten Thousand Steels' tone remained calm, but a hint of heartfelt sorrow could be heard: "Between the world star river where we (Mycroft civilization) reside and the home star river of those Star Shepherds, is there not an immensely long stretch of darkness? Those Star Shepherds came traversing through that rugged darkness to reach our domain."
Pausing here, the Dragon God sighed softly and said quietly: "Now, you should understand, right? That darkness is not, as we previously thought, an empty void. Its essence is countless world star rivers that have been completely destroyed, their lights extinguished!"