Chapter 44: Breaking the Deadlock 5500
"It is actually so—the 'Will of All Things'—so vast, so ancient, it is simply the prototype of all 'World Wills' in the multiverse."
Even the voice of the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate could no longer maintain its original calm. Countless cocoon threads danced wildly as a surprised voice rang out: "No, it is not the prototype. It should be an imitation of a 'Naturally Born God' created by natural divine power, and thus the first 'Artificial World Will' ever created! By expanding the world, allowing it to grow post-naturally as the world itself grew, its power eventually surpassed the limits of mind and consciousness, forcing it into a state of constant slumber under normal conditions."
"Or rather, it was designed that way from the start—to prevent an overly powerful World Will from interfering with the world's own operation. What a beautiful design, what exquisite craftsmanship. Who created this world, and who created this World Will? My curiosity grows ever stronger!"
Facing the Steel Giant God that had descended before it, and the World Guardians watching over this place—the Steel Serpent 'Star' and the Triple Veil—the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate showed not a trace of tension. It was merely surprised, like the delight of encountering something unexpected.
"This world indeed hides secrets and clues related to 'ancient historical origins'—I must obtain them."
At this very moment, within the Eternal Void Anchor Point, all cocoon threads were suppressed. The massive black-and-white wheel was trapped within the accretion disk of the Silver Heart Supermassive Black Hole. The Steel Serpent 'Star,' as the World Will's dominion over the world, neutralized the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate's dominating power. The spaces they controlled clashed and collided within the black hole's accretion disk, bending this mightiest material river of the observable universe into arcs resembling butterfly wings.
And serving as the backdrop was the 'Dark Galactic Central Supermassive Black Hole,' with a total mass sixty billion times that of an ordinary star, an event horizon exceeding eighteen billion kilometers in diameter, spinning rapidly at seventy percent the speed of light, gazing upon this world like an eternal eye.
"Beast, retreat. Go seek your origin and never return."
In the vacuum, a majestic mental presence resonated across the surrounding starfields. The voices of the Steel Serpent 'Star' and the Triple Veil echoed together, like layered reverberations. They spoke solemnly: "Otherwise, we will cast a portion of your body, along with the entire Eternal Void Anchor Point, into the Silver Heart Supermassive Black Hole, permanently severing your invasion port into this world. We will then drag the rest of your body here to serve as fertilizer for our world."
"This process will be lengthy, but I will do my utmost to accelerate it, ensuring your passing is peaceful."
Though it sounded like a threat, it was in truth a humiliating decision. The Steel Serpent and the Triple Veil demanded that the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate leave, cease its invasion of the Starry World, and both sides abandon the conflict—this was equivalent to letting the countless lives lost to evil gods over thousands of years die in vain, demanding no recompense whatsoever, merely asking the enemy to abandon its invasion.
But for the sake of the thousands of civilizations in the Starry World, for the trillions upon trillions of lives still surviving, and for the future of even more beings, they were willing to make this humiliating decision.
Because the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate was simply too powerful.
A Near-Saint... worthy of that title. Even a mere fragment of its body displayed overwhelming power. Unless absolutely necessary, there was likely no entity in the observable multiverse that wished to fight it to the death. The Triple Veil and the Steel Serpent 'Star' fought to protect the Starry World and its inhabitants, thus they had to give their all. But if they truly engaged in a deathmatch with the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate, it would likely disrupt the balance of the Starry World, causing unavoidable world-level destruction. Even victory would not be worth the cost, let alone defeat.
As for Joshua, he came here to fulfill his promise and witness the power of a 'Near-Saint.'
Now, before the massive material river outside the black hole's accretion disk, he witnessed all of this—Joshua had deeply understood the power possessed by this level of existence.
—If the Sage of old and the Plenty Evil God possessed such power, then it was no wonder their battle tore a Great Fissure through the entire Lost Star River, their mere advance creating Void Great Maelstroms, and their aftermath destroying the Genesis Maelstrom. Their battle transcended galactic scales, becoming observable universe-level destruction, annihilation, and creation.
However, despite the enemy's immense strength, they themselves were not weak.
Joshua looked up at the seemingly empty vacuum—but that was not the case. Through his Steel Vision, he could perceive an incredibly massive entity coiling there. A single segment of its body surpassed an entire star system, each scale containing the power of a star, and its scales were countless, beyond any number.
The World Will of a supermassive world, combined with the Triple Veil—the union of these two, 1+1, yielded a result far greater than 2. At this moment, their power completely overwhelmed the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate. It could be seen that the Paradox Spiral, originally several light-years in size, had rapidly shrunk to no larger than a solar system. This was because the world's barriers had been reinforced, preventing the main body of the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate, pressed against the outer side of the Starry World in the void, from fully transmitting its power. The remaining portion was being forcibly compressed into the Silver Heart Supermassive Black Hole.
To the words of the Triple Veil and the Steel Serpent, the egotistical beast gave no reply. It seemed to have no intention of communicating at all, merely muttering to itself, talking to itself.
"I have a premonition that if I continue toward the source of the Great Magic Tide, toward the First Flame, then my death will surely come, like the other beings that died along the way."
"But I must advance, because I know that if I do not, the future will also be death."
"I sense immense terror. I see a hidden hand behind the radiance. This multiverse *** is coming to an end. You cannot escape, nor can I. So I must fight with all my might, to seek the truth, to seek the final hope."
The Eternal Void Anchor Point, already compressed countless times by the Steel Serpent 'Star' and reduced to a diameter of only about twenty billion kilometers, and still being pushed toward the Silver Heart Supermassive Black Hole, suddenly halted its retreat. It seemed to root itself in place, unmoving.
And at the center of the anchor point, accompanied by a crisp shattering sound, something seemed to break. In that instant, countless cocoon threads, heedless of their own destruction in the distorted spacetime and being sucked into the black hole, frantically squeezed into the Starry World from the void beyond the world—all the cocoon threads danced wildly, then blazed with light. Spacetime began to distort, straight light bending into rippling patterns like water waves, spreading in all directions.
An incredibly vast energy fluctuation emanated from behind the Paradox Spiral, causing the Eternal Void Gate to completely collapse—replaced by an extremely bright point of light, like an eye, radiating cold malice. It could be seen that the wreckage of many worlds drifted from this point into the Starry World.
—The Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate used the worlds it had previously imprisoned evil gods within in the void as tools, employing the most brutal and violent method, sacrificing the destruction of dozens of complete worlds, to forcibly pry open a larger entry point outside the world.
"But you stand in my way."
A cold voice rang out. At the same time, centered on the blazing white point of light radiating cold malice, a massive 'Space Cocoon,' composed entirely of 'Ultimate Dominated Space,' began to expand rapidly, like a balloon spreading through three-dimensional spacetime, growing larger and larger—it pressed directly toward Joshua and the Steel Serpent. The collision of two world-spaces instantly twisted spacetime, shattering the black hole's accretion disk.
It could be seen that at the center of the Dark Galaxy, where eternal radiance should have shone brightest, a dark gap appeared. This gap, having broken free from the Steel Serpent's containment, continued to grow.
"Do not stand in my way."
That was a warning of death.
—Edge of the Silver Heart Supermassive Black Hole's Accretion Disk.
Joshua watched this scene intently, as if seeking the enemy's weakness.
The warrior was already an absolute powerhouse, capable of leaving his mark even in the multiverse. His world's total mass was approximately one hundred and seventy-four times that of a normal star—in other words, close to sixty million times the mass of Earth. His breath could cause stars to collapse. His mere existence could utterly destroy a world system. Even black holes were merely his energy sources and weapons. If one had not reached the level of manipulating the fundamental forces of the universe or possessing singularity-level transcendent power, then any attack, any magic, any transcendent system, was meaningless against him.
This did not even account for the power boost from the multiple black hole engines he could equip.
Powerful? Indeed, it was already strong enough.
But even such a Joshua, facing the battle between a 'Near-Saint' and a 'Supermassive Single-World World Will,' was still so insignificant in this multiverse-level slaughter.
He saw a massive, bizarre, indescribable cocoon-like space expanding like a thought. Even with his size, he could barely make out a single tentacle of this giant cocoon dancing in the starry sky. It continued to grow, even though a portion of its space had already been captured by the Dark Galactic Central Supermassive Black Hole—this was of little consequence. After all, even a supermassive black hole with a mass sixty billion times that of the sun had an event horizon only eighteen billion kilometers in diameter, essentially the size of a single star system.
If it could not be compressed and forced inside, then the amount of alien space devoured by the Silver Heart Supermassive Black Hole was, to the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate, merely a wound of no great significance.
Nothing more.
—Boom, boom—
A tremendous sound echoed from the black hole's accretion disk. Joshua did not turn his head. He sensed an alien space tentacle sweeping toward him. Its size was beyond imagination—even a star would be no more than a glass bead before this tentacle. It seemed the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate intended to crush him as an afterthought before engaging the Steel Serpent 'Star' and the Triple Veil, like stepping on an ant.
Of course, that was far too arrogant. Joshua did not even move. With a mere thought, his black hole engine swept across, twisting and shattering the incoming tentacle, letting gravity's fangs tear through spacetime, erasing all information within.
But the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate was equally unperturbed. To it, this was merely a glance from the corner of its eye, not even an 'attack.'
A brief exchange of gazes—one side biding its time, the other glancing over and forgetting.
—It had been a long time since he was so ignored. But that was fine.
In response to the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate's explosive counterattack, a roar echoed from the vacuum. Stardust manifested in the bright space at the galactic center, then transformed into a giant serpent entwining the galaxy. The World Guardians met the giant cocoon head-on, colliding with the twisted dominated space—this superluminal impact of warped space directly shattered the irregular ring-shaped black hole accretion disk, turning it into a teardrop-shaped diffuse nebula.
If anyone were gazing at this scene from the distant starry sea, they would see a crowned giant serpent tightly coiling around a giant cocoon that was constantly expanding and eroding the surrounding spacetime, compressing and shrinking it, preventing further spread. Dense clusters of stars were flung away by gravitational slingshots, scattering in all directions like refugees.
Spacetime churned. The Steel Serpent's scales, like gleaming blades, embedded themselves firmly into the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate's dominated space, eroding it. But the giant cocoon was not to be outdone. Its tentacles, like vines clinging to a great tree, rooted themselves into the serpent's body, piercing the World Will in an indescribable manner.
Mutual domination, mutual control, mutual erosion.
Like primordial beasts tearing at each other, devouring each other's flesh.
Amid the light, dazzling and multicolored, magnificent beyond compare, runes representing the truths of the world erupted like volcanic ash from the point of their collision. In this head-on clash and mutual assault, various different spacetime domains began to differentiate into layers.
It could be seen that in the Psionic Realm, the giant serpent suppressed the giant cocoon, silver-blue radiance turning into flames that roasted and burned the enemy, reducing it to ash.
But in the Shadow Realm, the giant cocoon turned the tables, shattering the serpent's attack. Countless tentacles, like millstones, ground the enemy into dust, section by section.
This was a multi-realm battle spanning the 'Material Realm,' 'Spiritual Realm,' and 'Shadow Realm.' If not for Joshua, no one could have taken in every detail of this battle simultaneously, nor could anyone have noticed the various nuances of the fight, attempting to deduce weaknesses and opportunities.
It could be confirmed that at this moment, the Steel Serpent and the Triple Veil held the upper hand. The Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate's originally expanding alien space body was being compressed step by step, quickly shrinking from the light-year scale at the start of its eruption to about forty light-days in volume.
However, as time passed, the rate of compression slowed, gradually stopped, and even showed signs of rebounding.
In contrast, the Steel Serpent, which held the advantage, transmitted streams of painful information, as if it were struggling to hold on.
—This was easy to understand.
The Steel Serpent 'Star' found it difficult to control such immense power. After all, in the tens of millions of years since its birth, it had been awake for no more than a few years. If it were a low-intensity battle requiring only instinctive control, it would be fine. But the enemy was a Near-Saint-level Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate, one of the most powerful entities in the multiverse. Such high-intensity confrontation was prone to errors.
Previously, it was entirely the Triple Veil, with its immense computational power, that held the line—but the Triple Veil itself was merely a life-preservation program. It was not created for combat and had a natural disadvantage in combat algorithms.
—Not good.
At the center of the giant cocoon space, Joshua could clearly perceive that the blazing white hole representing the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate's main body was growing larger. Its power was constantly increasing, seemingly without limit, repeatedly approaching and surpassing the 'limits' preset by the Triple Veil's calculations—undoubtedly, this level of battle was not yet its limit. At most, it was extending a hand, arm-wrestling with the enemy across worlds.
—The situation was truly dire.
In that instant, all life in the Starry World felt an indescribable dread, a palpitation like the eve of an earthquake, the oppression before a storm—the feeling of impending destruction. For the world on which all life depended was being destroyed. An existence from the void was gnawing at the world's foundations, and no one could stop it.
—The Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate's original size could never have been this large. Even it grew from humble beginnings. In other words, it had devoured worlds one by one—that was its instinct and ecology.
And the Starry World was the only world it had encountered on its journey to the source of the Great Magic Tide, where the First Flame resided. It might also be the largest world it had ever encountered... Ahead lay the most dangerous journey in the entire multiverse. It needed the most thorough preparation. Thus, it would never let go of this excellent supply station, nor would it let go of this world full of secrets, possibly related to the truth of origin history.
Neither side, regardless of right or wrong, had any reason to back down.
[Warning: Critical spacetime pressure reached. Possibility Engine overclocked to 30%. Core energy utilization efficiency of World Autonomous Defense Mechanism insufficient at 64%—Warning: Enemy energy level continuously rising. Compared to initial level, increased by 2856%.]
[Report: Enemy strength has exceeded the 'favorable condition' limit—Initiating 'Balanced Disadvantage,' backup plan K.]
[Notification: Lord Radcliffe, the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate's strength exceeds our previous predictions. The worst-case scenario has arrived. Even if I restart the power of the Star Sea Serpent, I cannot fully utilize it to suppress the enemy.]
"Heir of the Sage, it is truly regrettable. I cannot fully unleash my power..."
The voices of the Triple Veil and the Steel Serpent sounded together, tinged with regret and unwillingness.
Long before heading to the Dark Galaxy, when Joshua sent his clone into the void, he had already communicated with the Triple Veil and determined many plans.
Among them were plans predicated on the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate being unable to resist the combined Steel Serpent and Triple Veil.
There were also plans for a stalemate.
Of course, plans generally did not assume favorable conditions—such situations did not require Joshua's intervention. The vast majority of plans were set for disadvantageous scenarios... For example, the Steel Serpent and the Triple Veil not only failed to perfectly suppress the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate but were also gradually being counterattacked.
Or even worse.
Now, perhaps they were in one of the worst scenarios among their plans.
But even so, the Triple Veil and Joshua still had contingencies.
"I understand—there's no helping it. When I saw that giant cocoon in the void, I more or less guessed it would come to this."
Exhaling a breath, the silver world spirit remained utterly calm. Joshua, who had been biding his time on the sidelines, gazed ahead. He could see that as the giant cocoon alien space of the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate tangled and clashed with the Steel Serpent, the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate had been imperceptibly tilted by the other's immense force, yielding a path—insignificant to beings of their scale—a narrow passage.
A path leading to the Silver Heart Supermassive Black Hole.
The God of Steel raised his 'fist,' composed of black holes. He controlled his power, attempting to compress this already maximally compressed mass of matter. Joshua let out a sigh.
"Since we've reached this point, there's no turning back. Since you can't shove it into the Silver Heart Supermassive Black Hole..."
"Then I'll have to blow it up myself."