Chapter 79: The Phoenix and the Big News
"I curse you! You detestable Mycroft people!"
Silver heavenly fire fell from the dim sky, like countless chaotic arcs crossing on a black canvas, striking mountains and plains, bringing bright blazing light.
Above it all, gray-white mist emitted a light like dead bones, collapsing like a falling canopy of heaven, constantly pressing down from the horizon.
In the common sayings of the Lund civilization, there were phrases like "When the sky falls, there will always be peaks to hold it up" and "Only fools worry about the sky falling," used to comfort and warn people not to worry about things too far from daily life, things with minimal possibility. But now, the sky was truly falling—silver heavenly fire mixed with gray clouds like mountains, blocking all sunlight, bringing darkness and shadow to the land, slowly pressing down from above.
And the scope it covered was the entire world.
Actually, this description was a bit off.
Because the entire home planet of the Lund civilization was currently held in the palm of a steel giant hand, and this giant hand was slowly closing. It blocked all sunlight, about to envelop the entire "world"—the silver fire and mist were merely the "pore exchange airflow" leaking from the surface of this giant hand's palm.
The giant hand was closing, about to grab and crush the planet in its grasp. Naturally, the experts of the Lund civilization resisted. On the planet, massive electromagnetic acceleration cannons fired continuously. The Lund civilization's unique electromagnetic ability users—after all, they were silicon-based lifeforms—transformed into lightning-like trajectories, bravely charging toward the collapsing sky.
The Lund people were not elemental lifeforms like earth elementals or steel elementals. They were a naturally born silicon-based civilization, capable of thinking without souls—though, of course, after long immersion in supernatural power, even robots could have souls. A Lund person was born with a volume of about fifteen centimeters in diameter, appearing on the surface as an electromagnetically suspended metal ball. They would grow larger over time, eventually giving birth to a soul, awakening electromagnetic power, with their thinking speed and supernatural power naturally becoming faster and stronger. Now, all Lund people were resisting, roaring in fury, counterattacking like a metal tide surging from the ground toward the sky.
Their power detonated the atmosphere, raising scorching winds on the surface. After all, this was the Lund civilization's home planet. Over 230,000 full-time combat Gold-rank experts resisted the sky simultaneously. Among them, the strongest Lund person had a volume exceeding three thousand meters. If his power could be fully released, it would easily alter the planet's surface, causing planet-destroying devastation. Such a level of Lund person was rare even in the entire Lund Alliance civilization—only eight similar-level existences across thirty-three worlds, each capable of matching an entire Void fleet.
But now, this powerful Lund person was cursing—flying at nearly thirty times the speed of sound, his terrifying electromagnetic force even distorted the planet's magnetic field, causing obvious ionization in half the world's atmosphere. Electromagnetic sparks splashed in the gray clouds, yet had no effect. This powerful Lund person didn't fly too high before he was struck hard, his entire body tilting and falling, dragging endless sparks toward the ground. But a layer of gray mist supported this giant iron ball, preventing its fall from causing any real damage to the planet.
Similarly, over two hundred thousand Gold-rank and Ultimate-rank Lund people were struck down almost simultaneously. What defeated them were only ethereal flashes and mist. Those hit by the silver flame flash felt as if countless junk messages were transmitted through their optical cables, their central processors instantly crashing. Those who touched the mist directly lost control of their bodies, the electromagnetic force they had used their entire lives betraying them, turning their rapid ascent into a rapid descent.
"I curse you, evil destroyers, damned invaders!"
During this descent, the most powerful Lund giant ball cursed with all his heart, his furious soul shaking the atmosphere, transmitting information filled with hatred and regret into the heart of the gray cloud's master.
Even this hatred and regret condensed into tangible "power," following an extremely powerful electromagnetic pulse, breaking through the obstruction of silver fire and gray clouds, sinking into the constantly closing giant hand.
Of course, such a curse meant nothing. The Lund expert who issued the curse was already submerged by the gray mist, falling into "system hibernation," his soul paralyzed, entering a genuine "dream." But even in this dream, he kept roaring, cursing, emitting unique electromagnetic pulses.
The master of this hand was too familiar with this, too accustomed to it: black ripples turned, and in an instant, the furious supernatural electromagnetic pulse sank into a deep "Soul Abyss." In this Soul Abyss, similar curses and malice were everywhere, endless vicious spiritual and soul fragments raising tsunami-like waves. The quantity of this malice might even exceed the total population of the Lund civilization.
The Lund people's curse was utterly insignificant. They had never been noticed.
So, Joshua von Radcliffe felt nothing. The giant god clenching his fist neither smiled, nor frowned, nor grew angry—essentially, he just grabbed casually, holding the Lund civilization's home planet.
"Alright." He said this, not knowing who he was communicating with: "The Lund home planet is secured. I've stored this planet in the first protected zone—these guys really are hard to talk to, completely unreasonable."
Saying this, the four-armed giant god raised his head, looking at the star about four light-minutes away: the sun affectionately called "Cyclops" by the Lund civilization. Joshua sighed and said, "These guys don't even know disaster is coming, even though the sun's changes are so obvious."
This was a relatively massive star, past half its life but still in its most stable period. The yellow-orange light was very dazzling, but the giant god's gaze could penetrate this light, penetrate its luminous outer shell, the hot gas churning inside, analyzing this star's seemingly ordinary structure, seeing its essence.
An egg of a super Void Behemoth—about to hatch.
Yes, this star was the egg of a super Void Behemoth. Or rather, this world was a child body split from a former super Void Behemoth. According to Joshua and others' speculations about the cycle of Void Behemoths, Ancient Dragons, and World Star Rivers, this was not strange. Ultimate Void Behemoths at the end of their lives would transform into or split into many worlds, using their lives as a price to carry out the world cycle of the star river.
But no matter how wondrous the cycle system of the star river was, in the end, Void Behemoths were also life, so having descendants was not strange. Perhaps among the worlds split off, a few contained the behemoth's eggs, buried beneath the "earth," or with their bodies as heaven and earth, or... stars.
Elemental, energy, non-physical Void Behemoths—this was a good research topic. Such thoughts turned in Joshua's mind. Perhaps Emperor Amos drew inspiration from this type of Void Behemoth, forging his nebula body? It had to be said, the Multiverse was indeed very wondrous. Even the former Radiant Civilization hadn't seen all the sights. For example, this super Void Behemoth that could turn its eggs into stars—they had never encountered one before.
Or perhaps they hadn't investigated deeply enough to discover it. After all, a star's lifespan was too long; civilizations before them were like bubbles. Plus, between many star rivers, there were often tens of thousands of times time trap differences. It was entirely possible that civilizations born at the same time had one only a few years old while another had already passed tens of thousands of years. Yet even so, many civilizations might be destroyed without ever seeing any change in their star.
Regardless, this was a memorable event—February 1st, Year 847 of the Falling Stars Era. The Falling Stars Era had finally discovered something new that the Radiant Era hadn't known, recorded in the Unified Grand Database: an elemental-type super Void Behemoth. This was a groundbreaking discovery, enough to be recorded in history.
"It's about time."
After forcibly "protecting" the Lund people's home planet, which knew nothing, Joshua had no intention of leaving. Actually, eight minutes ago, he had sent a stimulating pulse wave to this massive star. Now, what should have happened four minutes ago should arrive here with the light from the distant star.
It could be seen: in the light, the star was "shattering."
The first sign was the star rapidly aging, turning red. The massive star seemed to lose most of its mass in an instant. The outer hot gas, losing gravitational constraint, began to expand rapidly like a red giant—but this expansion only lasted fifteen seconds. After fifteen seconds, the mass returned, and the vast gravity pulled the expanding gas back. This back-and-forth seemed to tear the star apart, causing large amounts of stellar gas to irregularly dissipate into the vacuum, bringing endless intense light, violent electromagnetic impacts, and gravitational waves, along with an extremely angry "cry."
With this cry, the star's outer gas layer began to peel off—like an eggshell being removed. The massive ionization caused by runaway thermonuclear fusion turned large amounts of helium into carbon, forming a black "carbon shell" wrapped around the star's surface. The next instant, a helium flash erupted, shattering this carbon shell. Irregular circular light arcs extended from this "eggshell," crossing and intertwining, finally forming a pair of wings like a "flying bird"!
These wings looked like aurora ribbons or seaweed drifting in the sea. Golden light was half-real, half-illusory, sweeping away all the carbon shell caused by the helium flash, allowing Joshua to see its face.
A bird.
A "Phoenix" completely composed of fire and light, incredibly huge—an "Immortal Bird."
Legend said the Immortal Bird was immortal but had an end to its life. Before its end, it would choose a nest, light a great fire, and then, in a blaze of flames, be reborn through nirvana.
"But no one ever said the fire the Immortal Bird lights is actually a supernova..."
Muttering to himself, Joshua had already figured out the birth process this "Phoenix Void Behemoth" should have undergone—originally, the former super Void Behemoth probably left behind a giant star world. But within this star world's star was a Void Behemoth egg. This egg would absorb the mother beast's remaining stellar energy, like "egg white," growing up, gradually replacing all the star's functions... Then, when it felt "appropriate," it would cause the star to rapidly decay, being born in a grand supernova explosion, reborn through fire.
No matter what Joshua thought now, this behemoth was burning with raging fury—due to the stimulation brought by the warrior's arrival, it awakened a few days or months early. This meant it hadn't fully absorbed the star's energy, so it wasn't born in a supernova explosion a few days or months later. It was now incomplete, greatly extending its future growth time in the Void and increasing danger! According to the inherited runes in its core energy structure, it was originally supposed to be a super Void Behemoth descendant born with stellar-level energy.
Now, it was probably only a few grades stronger than an ordinary Void Behemoth, instantly changing its situation from having almost no natural enemies to being dangerous.
"Caw——————!"
The Phoenix cried loudly, its magical and elemental fluctuations shaking the entire star world. It spread its "wings," transforming from a tight stellar sphere into a giant bird-like posture. It opened its observation organs, transmitting its fury with the most angry voice: "Caw——————!!"
But it guessed wrong.
What the Phoenix saw was not the "fleet of little people" it had imagined.
Actually, what it saw was a "big person" several times larger than itself, still growing, glowing with blazing white light.
"Hello, little bird." This big person made strange sounds it couldn't understand: "You've caused me quite a misunderstanding."
"Caw... caw... gah?"
The behemoth's angry voice gradually softened. Facing the terrifying four-armed giant god who had somehow warped in front of it, the sun divine bird closed its mouth, shut its observation organs, and self-avoidantly folded its originally spread wings, trying to revert to its original stellar fireball—but it was too late. The giant god patted the residual stellar material constantly gathering on his leg, then his lower left hand gathered a gravitational field, grabbing this phoenix's neck that wanted to play ostrich, and unhesitatingly dragged it toward the world's exterior: the Phoenix's screams were piercing and helpless. Its inheritance didn't contain knowledge for dealing with such situations. It was still a child; how could it know how to deal with a brutal and fierce God of Steel?
Honestly, what inheritance would have that?
So it was dragged away like that, along with an entire Lund civilization planet, tens of millions of Lund people, and over twenty Void fleets that had belatedly arrived in the Void, originally intending to surround Joshua, this "damned Mycroft person who attacked our home planet." By the Seven Gods, they hadn't even figured out what was happening when they saw a giant four-armed god, incredibly huge, dragging an equally huge flame bird out of their already dimmed home world. Before these Lund people could realize their home world had gone dark and begin to grieve, they were all dealt with, forcibly "protected" by Joshua into the first protected zone.
The entire star region instantly became quiet, leaving only a few worlds carefully rotating in the empty Void.
"Another planet on the verge of destruction protected."
A few days later, on February 4th, Year 847 of the Falling Stars Era, when Joshua handed over the Void Behemoth juvenile, code-named "Phoenix," whose consciousness he had suppressed and imprisoned in a yellow K-type star, to the God of Life, this deity, whose face was hidden behind a veil, repeatedly raised his head, examining Joshua's avatar, which was only the size of an ordinary person. The deity's gaze was direct and strange, even making the warrior feel uncomfortable.
"Protecting life is a good thing... but the relationship with the Lund people probably won't be easy to repair. You forcibly entered their territory, broke through their home world barrier, and forcibly collected all the colonial space stations along the way, even their home planet."
Noticing Joshua's puzzled expression, in front of the star, in the vacuum, the God of Life coughed and said somewhat euphemistically: "They probably have a deep misunderstanding of us now. Especially since they think you destroyed all their Void fleets."
"They'll understand." Joshua naturally wouldn't care about this misunderstanding. The Lund people might have iron heads, but they weren't incapable of thinking. Soon they would realize he had saved all the people on their home planet—who knows how long before this super Void Behemoth would formally be born and burn up all the planets in the galaxy world.
Although patrolling star regions, inspecting the areas around Space-Time Hubs in different star rivers, and observing potential threats was Joshua's work for the past few months, encountering such a powerful Void Behemoth descendant was also a matter of luck. If Joshua hadn't happened to pass by, in a few months, the Lund people would face a genuine stellar-level Void Behemoth.
"Let's not talk about this, Your Holiness the God of Life."
Joshua wouldn't dwell on similar issues. He had saved worlds too many times, habit becoming nature, so he wasn't very concerned about the gratitude of the saved. Now he noticed the deity clearly had more to say; the previous Void Behemoth and Lund people were just a way to start the conversation. He wasn't used to excessive pleasantries, so he directly asked: "Is there something you need from me?"
"Indeed."
The God of Life didn't continue with small talk either. He knew Joshua's personality, so after sighing, he directly said: "According to reliable intelligence, the Amos Royal Court seems to have encountered some trouble—yes, I know this isn't news, but the most surprising part is what comes next."
Saying this, the God of Life's tone suddenly became serious. His veil took on a golden hue under the light of the nearby star's corona. The deity's voice became low: "And just when the Amos Royal Court encountered unknown trouble, the Takur Annihilation Order didn't take advantage of the situation—they did nothing."
"Joshua, this is the big news."