Chapter 13: Infinite Divine Mechanism
From this, Joshua could roughly determine several things.
— Subsequent transcendent powers must necessarily be built upon the foundation of their predecessors, just as arcane power must be based on psionic energy, elements must be based on arcane power, and holy light may need to be based on arcane power or divine power.
— When transcendent powers emerge, they become a fundamental force of the multiverse, with no inherent hierarchy. For example, elements can exist entirely independently of arcane power, giving rise to unique life forms such as fairies and elemental beings.
— Even psionic energy, a power clearly derived from divine power, has no hierarchical relationship with it. The Takur Annihilation Order, for instance, uses a mixture of divine power and psionic energy called divine energy, where both are perfectly balanced without one suppressing the other.
— Sage-level transcendent powers are equal and can fully transform and enrich the foundational structure of the multiverse. Psionic energy gave all living beings souls; arcane power and life energy ushered in the transcendent era; elements and aether created entirely new life systems and worlds.
Holy light should follow a similar trend, though it was created relatively late, so this trend is not yet obvious. However, based on the personal experiences of the Old Pope and Joshua, they can already confirm that all stars—or "sparks"—within the multiverse now possess a degree of "self-purification" power. In other words, if this trend continues, all worlds in the multiverse will naturally develop resistance to chaos.
This will undoubtedly herald a new era.
As for shadow power...
Joshua experimented many times through the Demon Lord Goliath and discovered that the essence of shadow power seems to be the alteration of a thing's nature. Under the influence of shadow power, space transforms into a tangible shadow subspace, independent of normal space. Other substances infected by shadow power become a peculiar form difficult to observe in the real world.
This is why beings awakened to shadow power can slip into shadows, become invisible, and teleport—they are essentially entering a subspace for small-scale hiding and leaping.
It has a fascinating relationship with holy light.
This relationship is evident in Joshua's friend, the newly promoted Legendary Paladin Loranda. His holy light trait involves altering the properties of matter, which resembles shadow power. But in other words, it can also be seen as restoring matter's properties to a certain baseline—a fundamentally different yet strikingly similar essence.
Thus, if holy light restores something to its origin, shadow changes something based on an origin. The changed thing becomes independent of the normal multiverse, and only holy light can restore it.
Regarding shadow power and the as-yet-unseen Shadow Sage, Joshua has a bold guess. Based on the fact that Goliath, the Demon Lord, was the first individual in the entire Lost Star River to awaken shadow power, he can roughly determine that the Shadow Sage likely originated from some star river abyss as an intelligent life form or civilization.
The essence of an abyss is an alienated world. Holy light can restore alienated worlds to order, using the power of flame to gradually reshape their cycles into normal worlds. Shadow power, however, can completely alienate an abyss, turning it into an independent death space outside the multiverse—or, in another sense, a living world.
If shadow power spreads, it is likely that abysses—the graveyards of worlds and birthplaces of new worlds—will become an extradimensional space independent of the multiverse. Most abyssal life and demons will become true shadow beings, like the "new demons" protected by Goliath, which naturally possess normal souls and shadow power talent.
This would not only ensure the independence and stability of abysses but also completely prevent chaos erosion. Events like the Genesis Maelstrom in the Lost Star River mutating into the "Death Evil God" would never happen again. There would be no possibility of chaos power corrupting the roots of a world star river and birthing a star river-level evil god. This undoubtedly maintains the stability of the multiverse's existence.
"In other words, holy light and shadow were likely created specifically to counter chaos... At least, there is such a trend. Unlike other sages who created transcendent powers without knowing about malicious chaos, the holders of these two powers created them while fully aware of the existence of 'malicious chaos.'"
Joshua analyzed the relationships and essences of all transcendent powers in detail. Because if he wants to become a sage—a being capable of directly confronting the hidden hand behind the multiverse—these are the foundations.
The emergence of emotional power and its spreading nature have provided the warrior with a wealth of valuable information. At least, Joshua now understands why the Sage, before becoming a sage, could teach holy light to his disciples and friends. At that time, holy light had not yet fully separated from other transcendent powers; it was a unique method of using transcendent power, a distinct mixed essence.
Based on this information, Joshua can even speculate how much the multiverse would change if emotional power successfully becomes independent from psionic energy and life energy as a new transcendent power. First, all intelligent life—including robots, as executing commands is a form of "persistence" emotion—would have a certain potential for awakening, making them latent transcendent beings. In times of crisis, while not guaranteed, there would be a high probability of transcendent beings emerging to handle the crisis, thereby increasing the likelihood of civilization's survival.
For example, the origin of the Calamity Evil God was a magical civilization destroyed by a meteor from beyond the heavens. Its strong included Legendary-level beings, but their power could not handle that crisis. However, if emotional power existed, the collective plea for salvation from all civilization members could temporarily elevate the most emotionally suitable individual to a higher rank.
While not necessarily destroying the meteor or resolving the crisis, it could at least protect part of the civilization, preventing total annihilation.
In other words, the stability of civilizations facing super-crises would improve, along with their resistance to chaos.
This is just an example. Joshua himself does not know what consequences the spread of emotional power across the multiverse would bring.
"If I am to create a transcendent power, I must start from this point: what changes would the transcendent power I desire bring to the multiverse? At the very least, a transcendent power that harms the multiverse's balance or lacks logic is almost impossible to create. This much I can be sure of."
Condensing various transcendent power spectra within his own world and observing them, Joshua calmly murmured, "After all, even what I call 'malicious chaos' is merely the stifling of civilization, turning all that is active into eternal death... This can only be called change, not harm."
Even if it is harmful, it is only so for intelligent civilizations. For the multiverse itself, it may not be.
"Strangely enough."
Thinking of malicious chaos led to thoughts of evil gods, chaos invasions, and battles. Joshua's imagination only leaps so far at such moments. In an instant, he considered the current situation in the Starry World and felt puzzled: "Recently, the chaos minions have been contracting sharply. Many chaos outposts hanging at the edge of the galaxy have been evacuated, leaving only those too far from the frontier... What are they planning?"
And why, at this point, have the evil gods not descended yet?
Joshua came to the Starry World precisely to find relatively weak evil gods—or those he could handle with the help of local forces—to fight, defeat, and analyze. After all, in the Mycroft World, there are examples of arcane power, holy light, shadow, and other transcendent powers to study. But for "malicious chaos," aside from the Decay Evil God and Death Evil God he had already consumed and decomposed, there were no other examples.
He couldn't regurgitate what he had already digested...
"This shouldn't be... Something unexpected must have happened."
Energy was fully charged, and the leap was about to begin. In the last second before the leap, Joshua "frowned" and thought, "It seems I'll have to wait until I reach the core star system where the Triple Veil resides, obtain the complete star map of this world from them, and see the current situation to make a correct inference. After all, I can't stay in this world too long. I must find and capture an evil god within a few years; otherwise, I'll have to go elsewhere to achieve my goal."
After all, the transcendent power he wants to create is one that can truly "target" [malicious chaos]. In other words, he wants to create a transcendent power that serves as the "enemy of chaos," not the secondary "order force" derived from holy light's restorative power.
This is Joshua's true goal. Emotional power is merely his starting point for experimentation, far from his end.
Fighting chaos and "eliminating" it—even completely eradicating "malicious chaos" as a transcendent power—is Joshua's greatest goal now.
If other sages aim to change the multiverse by creating a power that brings a new future, then Joshua's aim is to change the multiverse by creating a power that ends a mistaken past.
Unlike other sages intent on creating transcendent powers, what he truly desires is the complete annihilation and destruction of a transcendent power.
This is Joshua's purpose.
Contemplation, ended.
Leap, begun.
Leap, ended.
Everything happened in the same instant.
A force vast enough to warp a star river was gathered, curving space and shifting coordinates, transferring an individual to another space millions of light-years away. Such a simple-sounding feat required the assistance of the entire Starry World's psionic network—a network spanning countless galaxies, not even missing the seemingly empty great voids between star rivers.
Or rather, these seemingly empty voids are the true core of the network, gathering points undisturbed by any other intelligent life.
In an instant, Joshua leaped from the outer space of a peripheral galaxy to the vicinity of a dark star system composed of several Kerr black holes.
Surrounding the black holes, a massive metal ring formed by various shifting mechanical assemblies emitted a silver-blue light. It began to respond.
[Initiating welcome protocol: I am the Third Veil·Immortal Beacon·Outer Defense Mechanism]
Surrounding the black hole, a regular triangular mechanical network enveloping the star system interconnected to form a massive energy web. It began to respond.
[Initiating welcome protocol: I am the Second Veil·Observer Hall·Core Processing Hub]
Surrounding the black hole, a constantly rotating, chaotically shifting hexagonal grid-like hive body stabilized its coordinates. It began to respond.
[Initiating welcome protocol: I am the First Veil·Possibility Engine·Central Maintenance System]
[Collective: We are the Triple Veil·Infinite Seeker·Life Preservation Program. Our creator tasked us with observing the infinite possibilities of life in the Starry World. We preserve life, record possibilities, observe their futures, and protect their safety.]
[Collective: Powerful individual from another world, Joshua van Radcliffe, the Triple Veil has assembled. We hold the highest authority.]
[Collective: Now, commencing underlying information exchange.]
...
The other end of space-time.
Bloody Star River.
At the same moment the Steel Giant and the Infinite Divine Mechanism began their deepest information exchange.
A great anomaly occurred in the star river infected by emotional power and transcendent plague.