Chapter 23: The Great Migration of the Mighty 6600
Originally, Joshua planned to leave directly without further entanglement with the radiant cocoon, but after noticing that it was using the Great Magic Tide to spread a transcendent plague, he immediately changed his mind.
"I cannot stand idly by."
It was not out of a sense of justice or righteousness, but purely due to personal stakes. Joshua deeply understood the terror of the Extreme Virus and realized the catastrophic consequences if it truly swept across the myriad realms riding the radiance of the Great Magic Tide: at least 99.999% of all life would be reduced to bones with their very souls eroded away, while the remaining survivors would mutate into Ultimate Beings even more horrifying than Chaos Monsters.
It was insidious, immensely harmful, and far more terrifying than even an Evil God—much like the Black Mist, which, though not a deity, caused devastation worse than any god.
Even if only for the sake of Mycroft Civilization, and incidentally for the countless innocent civilizations and races across the multiverse, Joshua could not stand by. So, in the moment before his departure, the warrior took a deep breath, gathered all the power of this avatar, and let out a silent roar.
————BOOM!!!!
Centered on Joshua, a tangible ring-shaped shockwave began to expand. Under this sudden burst of power, capable of destroying multiple worlds, even the vast radiance of the Magic Tide was momentarily deflected, transforming from a surging river into countless twisted, vortex-filled channels. Hidden currents surged within, and the Steel Particles and World Wreckage floating in the torrent rose and fell, eventually turning to dust.
In an instant, the shockwave Joshua generated began to impact the ripples created by the radiant cocoon—or rather, the triggers that induced the Extreme Virus. The warrior looked up, his gradually reddening eyes reflecting these 'seeds' of infinite poison. He saw the massive network of threads around the radiant cocoon tremble again, producing numerous ripples that drifted with the current, flowing alongside the Magic Tide toward the myriad realms.
But how could Joshua allow them that opportunity? The warrior raised the Dragon-Hunting Sword Lance, forged from Emotion Force, and ignited the ripples he had created with the blazing flames of Wrath!
Like a bright spark falling into a deep oil field, or a flickering electrical arc contacting black gunpowder, in an instant, all the Magic Tide regions affected by Joshua—including those that had turned into vortexes and hidden currents—were set ablaze by crimson sparks. The wave-seeds produced by the radiant cocoon were engulfed in these flames and reduced to ashes. The explosive inferno of Wrath even climbed upward along the Magic Tide's radiance, using this pure energy as fuel to spread through the surrounding tide.
The Magic Tide trembled; flames raged!
Even the radiant cocoon could not ignore this sea of fire burning within the Magic Tide's torrent. It extended its tentacles, sweeping around its fungal network to extinguish the flames of Wrath. But this was futile, for the sea of fire did not only spread upstream—it also expanded downstream. No matter how powerful the radiant cocoon was, it could only extinguish the emotional flames around itself. The flames spreading downstream would become traps that devoured its wave-seeds. Until Joshua's power was completely exhausted, the plague created by the radiant cocoon could no longer use the Magic Tide as a tool to propagate.
Of course, the cost of this blazing fire might be a temporary gap in the Magic Tide, leaving some worlds without its nourishing power for a time. But surely, compared to poisoned sweet nectar, it was better to return home and drink bland, tasteless tap water.
Upon realizing this, the radiant cocoon did not react much. It merely scanned its surroundings, searching for Joshua's location, wondering where the one who had blocked its capture and disrupted its plans now was.
But Joshua had already vanished, using the flames of emotional fire to conceal his escape.
"..."
After what seemed like a moment of contemplation, the radiant cocoon retracted several tentacles that had been about to extend further. It paused silently for an instant, then withdrew into the white torrent of energy, concealing its traces.
Inside the Starry World.
"Things are a bit troublesome."
Joshua's main body, currently in the Great Starry Void preparing for a long-distance jump, opened his eyes and spoke with a grave expression. "An existence I anticipated has indeed appeared—but its strength is somewhat beyond my expectations."
[Inquiry: What did you discover outside?]
[Confusion: Is it the Evil God behind the Extreme Virus?]
[Consultation: What exactly is the situation?]
The Triple Veil was equally serious. After all, the matter of the Starry World was most urgent for Him, not for Joshua, who was merely a summoned guest here to assist. Unlike the warrior, who bore no necessary responsibility, the Triple Veil, as an artificial consciousness collective safeguarding all life in this world, would fight to its last ounce of strength against any enemy intent on destroying countless civilizations and lives.
Of course, He did not know that the man before Him would fight enemies even without any obligation—to Chaos, he was like an uninvited, troublesome guest. After a moment to organize his thoughts, Joshua spoke in a low voice: "A powerful Evil God has appeared outside. Or rather, a super lifeform filled with malice... How should I put it? The Evil God is merely a tool for it to achieve its goals. I even suspect that the Evil God is just a 'navigator' for that lifeform to seek 'eternity.'"
"As for what it specifically is... I can only say it is a beast."
With that, the warrior narrowed his eyes, recalling the stellar-level Void Behemoth he had captured, then the radiant cocoon, and the series of actions following the Extreme Virus's spread across various regions. He continued: "The most powerful beast."
"Perhaps in the entire multiverse, there is no equal."
At this very moment, Joshua's avatar was still racing downstream along the torrent of the Great Magic Tide, heading toward the distant reaches of the Starry World.
Given Joshua's speed, even if the radiant cocoon wanted to chase him, it would require considerable effort. Yet the warrior showed no sign of stopping, continuing to press forward, forward.
The vicinity of the Starry World was undoubtedly sealed off by the radiant cocoon. Approaching or turning back was likely impossible. Joshua could not risk having the Triple Veil open the backdoor left by the Founder to retrieve this avatar, as it might allow the radiant cocoon to invade.
So, even if only to make use of waste, Joshua would control this avatar—destined never to return—and attempt to go downstream, exploring the void around the Starry World.
It could be seen that the area around the Starry World had once been a bright and prosperous star river. But now, after eons of time, under the erosion of the Great Magic Tide, the corruption of Chaos, and the chaotic time axes of time traps, all the former brilliant starlight had dimmed, turning into Steel Particles and World Wreckage floating in the Magic Tide.
Perhaps their former radiance still illuminated countless worlds across the multiverse, but here, at their place of origin, everything had dissipated into nothingness.
For a long time, Joshua could only see a blank white expanse—the radiance of the Magic Tide. The void was empty, with nothing in any direction. It was a complete vacuum except for energy. If not for the Magic Tide having a 'downstream' direction, Joshua would not even know where he was flying.
Time passed.
In this overly long silence, only a streak of silver light traveled alone through the void filled with white torrents.
Joshua had thought his avatar's journey would last a long time, until he reached the nearest Multiverse Star River to the Starry World. He also knew that the Multiverse Star River he once inhabited might not be the closest. But faintly, the warrior glimpsed an unusual shadow within the white underlight of the Magic Tide.
"What is that?"
This pure thought arose in Joshua's mind. He could see that the shadow was not in his direction and was quite faint. Without a level of observation like the Steel Vision, it would likely be invisible. But he saw it, so he decided to approach and see what lay behind the shadow.
Joshua changed direction, moving toward the area of the shadow. Soon, the shadow deepened and became more distinct. Gradually, in a moment when the Magic Tide's radiance suddenly dimmed, the existence behind the shadow revealed its true form.
"Well, well!"
Joshua raised an eyebrow. Though his expression remained unchanged, he couldn't help but exclaim: "This is truly massive."
Before Joshua lay an enormous corpse. At first glance, it was a serpentine magical beast the size of a house compared to a Steel Giant. It had three horns on its head, corresponding to the three transcendent forces: Aether, Life Energy, and Psionic Energy. Its pale cyan scales were layered, forming an ultra-dense armor with a special mesoscopic structure. Each small array formed by a few scales contained tens of millions of linked rune structures. Such toughness would likely remain unharmed even by a supernova explosion.
It was coiled up, seemingly asleep, but completely devoid of life. The giant serpent's scales still flickered with a pale golden light current, undulating with the radiance of the Great Magic Tide.
Even Joshua needed to circle it once to see its full form—but do not forget, even as an avatar, Joshua was a being capable of creating stars and playing with small worlds like toys. This serpentine magical beast, even as a corpse, exuded an incredibly sharp aura, larger than an average small-to-medium world.
As the warrior said, it was a corpse. Although the energy within the body had not completely dissipated, and some bodily functions had not entirely ceased—capable of attacking hostile individuals that approached—this level of attack was nothing more than an itch to Joshua. Circling once, Joshua confirmed that this was not a serpentine Void Behemoth, but a 'Void Serpent' that had evolved from an ordinary life through countless layers of advancement, extremely powerful, having traveled far on the path to the Legendary Limit. It should have had the ability to survive directly in the void and feed on worlds, but for some reason, it had died here.
"...Starved to death? That shouldn't be."
Upon detecting the cause of death, Joshua frowned slightly and murmured: "A Legendary-level super lifeform of this caliber being killed by an Evil God is one thing, but dying from 'energy deficiency'? What kind of joke is that?"
Setting aside the inexhaustible energy in the Great Magic Tide's torrent... At the high Legendary rank and above, having fully transcended to a lifeform beyond life, there were countless ways to provide oneself with an almost eternal energy source. Not to mention the pulsar engines, annihilation collision engines, black hole gravitational tide engines that Joshua was familiar with, even ordinary nuclear fusion, if the scale was large enough and stable enough, could burn for billions of years. If transcendent elements were added, there might be even better variations.
"Before the Great Magic Tide began, this place was likely a complete void for a long time—no matter, no energy. During that period, it could indeed lead to a shortage of energy and supplies. But starving to death? That's too unbelievable."
Considering that the Magic Tide was not continuous but occurred at long intervals like a geyser, Joshua understood that such conditions could indeed cause supply shortages. But dying from lack of energy was a truly bizarre way to go.
For example, if it were Joshua, and he truly lacked energy, he could simply transform into a world and go into hibernation. By shutting down most of his thinking organs and putting his combat systems to sleep, he could become a harmless world floating in the void—undetectable by anyone, because it would be a genuine world floating there. This state could last for years beyond Joshua's calculation, long enough for the civilization of heroic spirits living within it to develop a thriving void civilization, let alone wait for a Great Magic Tide.
What Joshua could do, other powerful beings naturally had different methods to achieve. Even before confirming that the giant serpent had no life signs, the warrior was still wary that it might be in a state of suspended animation, ready to activate its alert system upon his approach. But through various verifications, Joshua had to admit that the giant serpent was indeed dead, its massive body merely a mass of half-dead flesh.
"Why are you here, dead here?"
Why did you leave your home world and come to this absolute void? And who killed you, leaving your corpse to rest here for who knows how long?
There were many questions, and Joshua was utterly perplexed. But he never dwelled on problems that couldn't be solved temporarily. After a moment of silence, he sighed and continued downstream along the Magic Tide's torrent.
The silver light continued to race forward, but now, the journey was different from before.
Because the corpses in the void were increasing.
At first, Joshua would stop to observe like he did with the giant serpent, but later, he would merely slow down and glance from a distance at what the shadows hidden behind the Great Magic Tide's torrent were. An uncontrollable surprise arose in Joshua's heart, for these corpses floating in the void were, without exception, all incredibly powerful transcendent beings!
Among them were three-eyed giants with human-like forms, crystalline aggregates made entirely of crystal and steel, and even strange plant-type lifeforms. The plant's body was still alive, its branches extending into the Magic Tide's radiance, absorbing the endless energy from the environment... but it was dead. Joshua tried several times to communicate with it but received no response.
The torrent of energy surged. In the white mist formed by overly dense energy, there were numerous corpses whose size alone rivaled worlds. Of course, there were also smaller individuals, but the energy levels emanating from them were also singularity-level transcendent forces. In this regard, size was meaningless—the large could shrink, and the small could expand.
"...This reminds me of the 'Founder.'"
In the void where Joshua now stood, there were densely packed remains of powerful beings. Each remnant was at least of high Legendary rank, capable of easily destroying a small world. Most of their bodies were still alive, automatically interacting with the Magic Tide's energy, but their spirits, souls, or in other words, the will representing their selves, had completely dissipated.
"Like the Founder, who lost the 'thinking components' of its individual, causing its complete life form to collapse and its body to disintegrate into psionic insects."
Standing in the void, fully armed with four weapons in four hands, Joshua looked up and surveyed his surroundings. His gaze was solemn: "Not mutual slaughter—there are no wounds from battle on anyone's body. Even the few that have lost their physical forms only did so because their life forms required self-will to maintain."
It could be seen that around the warrior, there was a roughly dissipated nebula-like light cluster, the core of some elemental energy lifeform. Due to the loss of its main will, the high-density energy crystals at its core were being continuously eroded by the Great Magic Tide, turning into a stream of the tide and spreading toward the myriad realms of the multiverse.
In life, its strength was undoubtedly immense—at least Joshua considered it not inferior to himself, an ultimate transcendent powerhouse capable of roaming freely within a World Star River. But now, it had turned to ashes, and in the distant future, even its corpse would cease to exist.
This was too strange.
"Why did they—wait."
Joshua surveyed the numerous corpses around him, murmuring to himself with deep confusion. But soon, the warrior's tone paused: "I understand."
He narrowed his eyes, then turned back to look in the direction from which he had come. Joshua looked toward the radiant cocoon, toward the Starry World, and toward the source of the Great Magic Tide: "Yes, it's simple... What else could attract so many powerful beings to come here?"
Nothing else.
"Only—only the First Flame."
In that instant, Joshua seemed to see the corpses around him revive. He could see illusions formed by obsessions—the original owners of these remains, those immensely powerful transcendent lifeforms, racing like shooting stars through this absolute void before the Great Magic Tide had even begun. Some lost their way, some marched steadfastly forward. They left behind the World Star Rivers that still existed, still provided endless matter and energy, and were the homes of their mother civilizations, walking through this silent darkness.
They failed, dying here for unknown reasons, but they had all embarked on this long road without regret. Even as corpses, they faced forward.
Silently, Joshua turned his head and looked in the direction where the Magic Tide flowed toward the myriad realms. He could vaguely see, at the distant end of the Magic Tide, a Multiverse Star River, another Multiverse Star River, countless Multiverse Star Rivers—the gathering place of all remaining worlds and still-existing civilizations in the entire multiverse—countless lights and shadows were swimming upstream along the path of the Great Magic Tide's radiance.
—There is a peculiar life journey among certain fish.
Different stages of their lives must be spent in different places.
At birth, they are born in the upper reaches of freshwater rivers, struggling to grow there. When mature, they return to the sea, gradually growing stronger there. When it's time to nurture new life, they return to the upper reaches of the river to spawn, beginning a new cycle. Each cycle means an immensely long journey.
This unique way of life is called 'migration.'
At this moment, Joshua felt that this was a migration—a migration unique to the mighty, a way of life exclusive to the powerful.
When life reaches its peak, when civilization is at its zenith, when ultimate powerhouses question their own hearts, asking what mysteries remain unsolved in their lives, what enigmas still shroud their minds—then it is time to act.
No one can stop their advance, and no one can question their actions. So they come from distant places, against the flow of the Great Magic Tide, to this void of nothingness.
"In the multiverse, those who seek the truth are certainly not only us. The Sage is not the first, the Sage of Demons is not the first, and even the Psionic Sage and the Founders cannot be called the first!"
Gazing at these remains, Joshua couldn't help but murmur. He gripped his weapon tightly and spoke in a deep voice: "Evil Gods, the mastermind behind the scenes, the repeated rebirth and destruction of civilizations among the stars, and this ever-decaying multiverse—the sorrowful cycle of reincarnation within the multiverse! Any powerful being who wishes to understand will inevitably come to understand and grow suspicious!"
And so, they begin to seek the truth, migrating toward the First Flame, the source of the Magic Tide, just as migrating fish must complete the cycle of life. The mighty wish to go to the source of this sorrowful cycle of the multiverse, to question the truth and meaning behind the reincarnation!
Those who seek the truth are certainly not only me, and those capable of pursuing the source are not only me.
They failed, their remains lie here—but what does that matter? He is still alive, and he will continue to pursue, to seek the truth at the end.
Joshua looked up, turned around, and gazed toward the distant light source, toward the radiant cocoon, and beyond it, toward the source of the Great Magic Tide, the direction of the First Flame.
"You—existence that is sublimation itself, the virus—are you also chasing the First Flame!"
And far away, at the location of the Starry World.
The massive radiant cocoon writhed, waving its tentacles that imprisoned multiple Evil Gods, occasionally tapping against the barrier of the Starry World.
It could be seen that these taps were weak and powerless, lacking any momentum—merely mechanical work. The giant cocoon was not focusing its attention here at all.
Its entire focus was on the side facing the radiance of the Great Magic Tide.
The giant cocoon 'gazed' into the distance, toward the origin of the radiance.
—Driven by curiosity, by responsibility, by the desire to unravel the cycle, to gain greater power, to rule over all, or to save everyone—the reasons for setting out are countless, with infinite possibilities. But the final result converges into a single path.
In the end, all the mighty, regardless of their stance, good or evil, foolish or wise, gentle or extreme—all the mighty are chasing the source of everything, that warm flame that nurtures all worlds and all things.
And it, too, is the same.
On this long, silent, and lonely journey, tracing back, migrating... thus...
Searching for the radiance of the beginning.