Chapter 45: Stalemate
The central supermassive black hole of the Dark Galaxy had a total mass six billion times that of the sun. It possessed an extremely dense, light-blocking accretion disk, from which it continuously drew matter equivalent to thousands of solar masses each year. While adding to its own mass, it also converted that mass and gravitational potential energy into light.
Because of this, the central supermassive black hole was not only not 'black', but was actually incredibly bright—so bright it was almost inconceivable. The radiation pressure generated by this excessive light could physically push nebulae, easily scatter stars, and even support the accretion disk of the galactic core black hole against its own gravity. If one were to calculate the total energy level, the combined light of all the stars in the entire galaxy could not compare to it. Its brightness in distant other galaxies was enough to obscure the light of other stars within its own galaxy. The relativistic jets at the black hole's poles were like a spear, piercing through distances measured in tens of thousands of light-years.
It was precisely because of this black hole's immense mass, its rapid rotation, and its jets that it could stir the movement of matter throughout the entire galaxy. Only a supermassive black hole of this level could contain a powerful existence of the caliber of the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate.
Ordinary stellar-mass black holes were mere toys for an individual of that level, not even qualified to be a trash can.
And Joshua's goal was to detonate this galactic core supermassive black hole, completely destroying any chance for the enemy to invade.
While the Steel Serpent Galaxy, the Triple Veil, and the combined entity were confronting the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate head-on, Joshua had been preparing all along. He observed the patterns of the enemy's movement, sought opportunities, and planned his course of action for the next steps. The Steel Serpent Galaxy and the Triple Veil also acted in tacit coordination, allowing the warrior to find a direct path to the galactic core supermassive black hole.
*Hum—* A sonic boom that shattered the thin nebular matter erupted. Warp navigation unfolded, superluminal motion began, and in an instant, Joshua approached the outer edge of the black hole's accretion disk.
He could see that at the forefront of the silver world, two black holes were rotating in a binary system. Outside the event horizons of these two rapidly spinning black holes, rings of silver Steel Force clouds were condensing into runes, which then all plunged into the ergosphere outside their exotic rings. There, the runes would not be immediately erased, and the massless transcendent runes would not be flung away for a while. A 'stable formation' could thus be inscribed on the inhospitable black hole.
In the next phase of the operation, Joshua would throw the 'Black Hole Engines'—two black holes each with the mass of hundreds of stars—towards the galactic core supermassive black hole, causing them to sink into its ergosphere. The combined stellar mass of these two black holes would instantly draw a tremendous amount of angular momentum from the central black hole. This energy would trigger the runes within the two black holes, activating them.
In this way, one of the black holes would fall and collide with the galactic core supermassive black hole, while the other, having been infused with a massive amount of energy, would be completely flung away. The colliding black hole would, at the moment of impact, create a chain reaction, briefly generating energy only a few orders of magnitude less than the Big Bang. The other black hole, flung away, would carry immense angular momentum, becoming a projectile that would plunge directly into the accretion disk of the galactic core black hole.
The chain reaction generated by the runes inscribed within the first black hole would cause the galactic core black hole to exhibit an unstable superradiance effect. At that moment, the runes within the second black hole, which had been flung away, would also be activated. It would become a space-time distortion initiator, instantly igniting the black hole's accretion disk with Steel Force. With the help of the Steel Serpent Galaxy, it would transform the accretion disk into a super-gigantic 'mirror' completely enveloping the galactic core supermassive black hole—an atypical Penrose sphere. This would reflect the immense energy generated by the collision of the first black hole and the galactic core black hole, thereby destroying the entire ergosphere of the galactic core black hole in a short time.
Combined, this would detonate the entire galactic core supermassive black hole, turning this super-gigantic celestial body, with a mass six billion times that of the sun, into a bomb of considerable rank within the multiverse.
Theoretically, this explosion would destroy the entire Dark Galaxy, annihilating all non-transcendent life within nearly a hundred million light-years. Its effects would undoubtedly influence the entire Starry World for billions of years, causing chaos in space and even time, and might even create a completely empty cosmic bubble, reducing everything within its range to nothingness.
Absolute destruction—not to mention the Eternal Void Anchor Point. Half of the body of the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate that had penetrated the Starry World would be directly devoured and completely eliminated.
But that was a very, very long time from now—so long that this battle would have long since ended. The victorious strong could dominate everything in this world, whether it be disasters or the future.
"I originally thought it wouldn't come to this... Detonating the galactic core supermassive black hole will inevitably have unpredictable effects on the entire world, even if the Starry World is a super-large world."
Even for someone as skilled at creating explosions as Joshua, this was the first time he had devised such a heinous plan. The warrior sighed, but the future was so unknown; no one knew what would happen.
However, at that moment, the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate, which had seemed to completely ignore Joshua as an 'insignificant bug', was actually deliberately watching the warrior's every move.
The instant the silver world suddenly warped space and charged towards the silver black hole, it was startled and sensed something was wrong. Immediately, it even abandoned part of its confrontation with the Steel Serpent Galaxy, allowing the other party to regain some advantage to its surprise, while directly extending a giant 'palm'-shaped space with a total length of 280 astronomical units. It interrupted the warp space and pressed down towards Joshua!
—It had already seen that the Steel Serpent Galaxy was somewhat exhausted. Letting the opponent temporarily gain an advantage was not an unacceptable outcome. Conversely, that strange life form representing 'accident' was the truly worthy target of vigilance.
No super-lifeform that had grown to this level was truly arrogant.
The silver world noticed this. It accelerated, trying to break out of this absolutely dominated space. But this was not something that could be avoided with just one or two accelerations. Just like the worst-case scenario in the worst plan, Joshua was discovered and blocked by the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate.
"I told you so."
Forced to stop, Joshua, who had already anticipated this situation, looked around at the Ultimate Space that was sealing him in and constantly closing in, preparing to 'dominate' him. He shook his head, then raised the Black Hole Engine. The oscillating space-time isolated the approaching Ultimate Space. "This situation is troublesome."
At this moment, the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate was confronting the Triple Veil and the Starry World's Steel Serpent in the Psionic Realm, the Shadow Realm, and the Material Realm. At the same time, it had diverted a considerable portion of its power to block Joshua, and it was constantly eroding the Starry World, having enough spare capacity to ensure it could handle unexpected situations.
An individual, an independent life form, could actually suppress all the high-end power of an entire world by itself! It was truly a peerless, ultimate super-lifeform. An entity equal to, or even surpassing, civilization, approaching the realm of Sages and Sages.
"I told you, your resistance is meaningless."
The Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate's indifferent, emotionless voice sounded, as if stating a fact. "You are merely wasting your strength to block the inevitable."
Accompanying this voice, the power of egocentric domination intensified once more. It could be seen that under the layered suppression, erosion, and domination of the Ultimate Space, the fluctuations of space-time were smoothed out. Arcane Power, Psionic Energy, Aether, Life Energy, and even Steel Force—all common transcendent powers known in the multiverse—were suppressed, even controlled, by its dominating power.
It could be sensed that the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate had even shifted its center of consciousness towards Joshua. It was seriously intending to first eliminate this unusually strange life form, the warrior, before confronting the Steel Serpent, which couldn't even fully control its own power.
—If the Steel Serpent could fully control its power, then not to mention defeating itself, at least by leveraging its home-field advantage as the World Will of the Starry World, it could achieve a stalemate, blocking it outside the world without victory or defeat.
But the problem was precisely this. Facing an ultimate life form that had fought and devoured its way here, the Steel Serpent Galaxy Triple Veil, whose combat experience was that of a child, could not gain much of an advantage even when the Triple Veil shifted its consciousness.
But just as the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate felt that in the next instant it could completely envelop Joshua with its Ultimate Space and thus control this extraordinary variable, suddenly, four completely abnormal, heterogeneous divine powers it had never seen before burst forth from around Joshua. Like a wall, they firmly blocked the pressure of the Ultimate Space.
"What... is this?"
At this moment, the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate, for the 'first time in its existence', perceived the 'unknown'. It wasn't a complete unknown, but a special mixed power it was familiar with but didn't understand. By virtue of its power and realm, it could sense that these divine powers were mixed with Psionic Energy, Life Energy, and various special mental fluctuations. It was like a strange, explosive concoction.
This extremely mixed, completely unorthodox transcendent power, carrying four completely different and peculiar divine powers, isolated its domination. It was like fireproof asbestos isolating high-temperature flames. And thus, the confrontation between the two sides fell into a strange stalemate. In a short time, Joshua couldn't get out, and the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate couldn't just let go.
And that silver world, which didn't seem very strong—with a mass barely a thousand times that of the sun, including the Black Hole Engine—actually withstood this consumption, even appearing somewhat at ease.
—Even a Near-Saint was not a Sage.
As long as one was not a Sage, it was absolutely impossible to surpass the limit, to surpass infinity. Similarly, this also meant that the force it could apply within a certain unit of time and a certain unit of space could never surpass the transcendent power of a singularity level. That is, it could never be higher than a black hole; otherwise, space-time would naturally collapse.
Perhaps, in terms of quantity, Joshua had not reached the limit, as he was too young and lacked reserves. But in terms of quality, his absolute energy level was sufficient.
It was precisely for this reason that he could explore the realm of Sages with his 'minuscule' self, from the perspective of the Steel Serpent Galaxy's Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate.
At this moment, in the Psionic Realm, within the massive emotional vortex, the Flame of Emotion was burning fiercely. Between the flames, the Four God Rings floated. As true divine artifacts, they were releasing the divine power they had accumulated, channeling it into their forger.
But this transmission was not infinite. The Four God Rings were, after all, divine artifacts, not true deities. They did not possess the trait of 'infinite energy output' while ensuring they themselves were not greatly harmed. So the more they were used, the slower their operation became.
If there were four true gods of emotion... no, that wasn't necessary. If only four ultimate masters of emotion could reside within them, then, leveraging the advantage that the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate was not yet particularly familiar with transcendent powers related to Emotion Force, Joshua, with the blessing of a large amount of additional divine power, could probably break through the blockade in one fell swoop.
—At the realm of Legendary Limit, the ultimate transcendent being, relying on what 'the opponent knows' to defeat the opponent is impossible. Just as the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate had not reached the Sage realm, when Joshua faced a known technique like 'Ultimate Space', no matter how strong the opponent's ability was, as long as he knew it, he could not be defeated by such a means.
Even if his absolute quantity was far inferior to the opponent's, he could still hold on. The only thing to worry about now was probably whether the means he had left behind would operate smoothly.
—This, too, was a kind of battle.
Joshua thought calmly.
Although he was now imprisoned in the dominating space, surrounded by the radiance of the four Emotion Forces, isolating the power of the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate, and was perhaps only a hair's breadth away from death, he felt not a trace of panic. Because all of this was something he had already thought about and planned for.
—To defeat the enemy, or at least gain the upper hand, one needs the unknown.
Or rather, a certainty that absolutely has no turning point.
The Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate was proficient in all transcendent powers, including Arcane Power, Psionic Energy, and even Life Energy. Over its long existence, this behemoth had surely thoroughly studied all the transcendent power systems in this world. Its power was complete. The Starry World, an ancient world that specialized only in Psionic Energy, could not contend with it in fields other than Psionic Energy. This was the disadvantage of being ancient but not keeping up with the times, even if its creator was the powerful Founder.
At a rough glance, the situation seemed to deteriorate again. The Steel Serpent still could not completely overwhelm the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate, even when the opponent had shifted its focus.
And while Joshua could maintain himself under the attack of a serious Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate, he had also lost the threat and the possibility of ending this battle, being imprisoned in place.
But Joshua remained unmoved. The warrior's expression did not change at all.
Because the 'him' fighting here now was by no means his entire arsenal.
—In the Void, outside the Starry World, the multiverse's Great Magic Tide, the absolute void between the Starry World and the Multiverse Star River.
A giant hand reached out, picking up a strange Psionic Insect with a puzzled expression.
The Psionic Insect's form was somewhat like a cockroach, but its essence was the 'Founder's' original form, a simplified version of the Fusion Insect. Because they possessed the ability for unconditional Psionic Leap transfer, they had long since degenerated their legs, relying entirely on transcendent power for movement.
But the Psionic Insect that Joshua's clone had caught this time was different. It was especially large, so large that a planet-sized, four-armed giant god had to use 'grasp' to handle this 'insect'.
For an ordinary human, that thing was as big as a mountain.
"What in the world is this..."
Joshua puzzledly flipped the Psionic Insect over. It was exceptionally large and was wandering in the void. When it encountered him, instead of immediately fleeing and disappearing without a trace like other Psionic Insects, it actively approached him, as if it wanted to do something.
The clone noticed that this Psionic Insect seemed to want to get close to him... more precisely, to get close to the gathering place of his thinking organs, which was the so-called brain. Even Joshua was too lazy to modify the organ distribution of his clone. It was constantly driving subtle Psionic Energy, seemingly trying to crawl onto Joshua's head.
Frowning, Joshua thought for a moment. He was just a clone, after all. If he really encountered trouble, it wouldn't matter. He might as well take more risks and see if he could encounter something novel to break the deadlock. So he simply took the initiative to lift this unusually large Psionic Insect and place it on his forehead, letting it do as it pleased.
It could be seen.
Behind this incarnation of recklessness, within the surging radiance of the Great Magic Tide, something was reflecting light.
It was a row of densely packed pillars—located within the torrent of the Great Magic Tide, huge, solid, standing firm within the infinite energy.
Silver, shimmering pillars.