# Chapter 52: The Dazzling Dawn of Birth, and, the Quiet Night of Death
In the Starry World, within that "typhoon eye" of calm formed by mutually conflicting and annihilating forces amidst the overwhelming, brilliant tide of light that consumed all things, a fragment of the God of Steel's will separated from the center of the battlefield, manifesting within this tranquil spacetime. He had already sensed that "himself" had been isolated as an "avatar" from the main will, cut off from other consciousnesses, while the chaotic space and distorted time temporarily prevented him from reconnecting to his original body.
Joshua calmly surveyed his surroundings. He saw that around this tranquil fragment of spacetime where he stood, a vast energy tsunami was erupting both inside and outside the barrier of the Starry World. The silver-blue Steel Force and psionic energy clashed and annihilated with the black dominating space, producing thunderous roars that shattered spacetime itself... But this spacetime fragment lay precisely at the midpoint between two completely equal opposing energy currents, achieving a perfect balance, and thus remained so calm.
And the will belonging to that particular tributary—that is, himself, this avatar—had been stripped away and brought here as a result.
"In that case... the other side should be the same."
Nodding thoughtfully, Joshua, in his four-armed God of Steel form, turned to look at another corner of the spacetime fragment.
As expected, a strand of will from the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate, a tiny filament of cocoon silk, appeared nearby.
Without any hesitation, silver Steel Force coalesced into a ring before his fist, and Joshua attacked directly—even as an avatar, it didn't prevent him from fighting the enemy. If one could say that people rely on shared understanding to communicate, then the shared understanding among all Joshuas was probably just this.
A layer of extradimensional barrier expanded, and the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate blocked this attack. But unexpectedly, it didn't counterattack; instead, it began to communicate.
"You don't need to continue fighting."
It was unusually calm, even using a tone of persuasion to stop Joshua, who was preparing to strike again: "I have already failed—can't you see? Outside, my original body is being continuously annihilated."
Joshua looked up, and indeed, he saw that within the energy tsunami, the black extradimensional space was constantly shattering. The will of the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate was being neutralized. Under the combined assault from both inside and outside the Starry World—the Steel Serpent, the Triple Veil, Joshua, Joshua's avatars, and the power of the High Patriarch—the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate at the center was being swallowed and torn apart by the bomb formed from the Silver Heart Supermassive Black Hole in the most violent, most inconceivable manner.
It was like an elephant stuffed into a cement mixer with a large-yield bomb crammed into its belly—the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate was collapsing and dying from the inside out, with no room for recovery.
"...Then what exactly do you want to do?"
Knowing this, Joshua looked again at this avatar of the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate. He noticed that its body was also constantly shedding fragments, collapsing just like the original body outside. The warrior narrowed his eyes: "Want to die a little later?"
"Nothing much. I just want to communicate with you—exchange information about the mastermind behind the Evil Gods, and about the distant First Flame and the source of the Magic Tide."
The cocoon silk swayed, its light gradually dimming like a candle flickering in the wind. But even so, the selfish beast did not fall into ugly frenzy before death. It was calm, composed, far more rational than any "civilized individual" appeared to be: "You are located in this super-large world in the latter half of this 'Path of Retrospection,' unimaginably close to the First Flame and the Magic Tide. You must possess information I don't know, and I likewise have information you don't possess."
"I want to exchange this information. That is all."
Joshua was silent. He didn't ask "you're about to die, why bother with this?" because after thinking about it, if he were in the same situation, he might do the same.
What could anger, venting, or frenzy affect? In that final moment, he would surely only want the answer to the greatest question in his heart—even if he couldn't get the answer, taking even one step closer to the truth would be good.
"...What is your ultimate goal?" Exhaling, Joshua looked up, gazing at the dim cocoon silk. He said in a low voice: "You abandoned eternal life, came here, invaded here, risking your life to plunder and fight... What exactly are you fighting for? Without knowing this, I cannot communicate with you."
"I want to shatter all constraints."
The Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate answered clearly: "Everything in this world—all fundamental laws, all supernatural powers of others, all Evil Gods, and even everything behind the Evil Gods... My goal is sublimation, is transcendence."
"At the very least, nothing and no one can prevent me from living in the way I desire."
This was a sincere answer. Joshua thought of the light of the First Flame within the cocoon of the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate. He knew this was indeed the truth. If the other party succeeded in sublimation, giving birth to a new multiverse embryo within its body, then it could indeed transcend everything in this world—all fundamental laws of this multiverse, the supernatural powers of other Sages, and even the Evil Gods and the mastermind behind them could not constrain it.
If one could say that Sages cleave paths and imprint their "Way" across the entire multiverse, emanating new fundamental laws and supernatural powers from themselves, then what the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate pursued was creating its own heaven and earth, being everything in its own heaven and earth—absolute solipsism.
"The Evil Gods seek to destroy me, so I am their enemy, and I will eliminate all Evil Gods."
The Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate didn't find its thinking the least bit strange; this was its logic: "I assimilated and devoured countless Evil Gods, countless civilizations, learning from them many ancient secrets of the multiverse. Among them, some things shocked me greatly."
"One of them is that the essence of this multiverse is actually very young."
"The multiverse is filled with time traps. In every star river and even world star river, the reference frame of time is completely different. Some fast star rivers have only passed tens of thousands of years, while some star rivers have long passed tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of years. And between those multiverse star rivers, in the seemingly vast dark void, are actually filled with ruins of other multiverse star rivers—their time has passed hundreds of billions or trillions of years, even endless time, to the point where white dwarfs have grown cold and supermassive black holes have completely evaporated."
"But the source of the multiverse's movement, the origin of all things—that existence called the First Flame—for its own time reference frame and that of its surroundings, perhaps only one or two hundred million years have passed since the multiverse's birth... This enormous time difference causes 'time' in the multiverse to be completely disordered, even approaching extinction. This is also why I say we are the last batch of existences that can explore the First Flame."
To this, Joshua nodded. What the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate said was almost the same as what he had previously guessed. But unlike himself, the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate had indeed seen several different multiverse star rivers with its own physical form. So after thinking for a moment, he responded: "This multiverse is very young and is being accelerated toward extinction. I agree with this, but what actually puzzles me is the birth of the various 'Sages.'"
"The existence of Sages actually completes the diversity of the multiverse. In a sense, it stabilizes the multiverse, extends its lifespan, and accelerates its maturation and completion—because the Sages' purpose is opposite to that of the mastermind behind the scenes. So let me make a reverse guess about the mastermind's goal."
"What It wants is probably the original, most primitive 'First Flame' that hasn't yet begun creating other worlds in the multiverse—so It wants everything in the multiverse outside the First Flame to be destroyed. This might facilitate It in doing some things, achieving Its goal."
"Sages are essentially the materialization of forces that change the multiverse. This change might affect the mastermind's own transformation." The Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate clearly knew of the Sages' existence. Over its long years, it had long discovered the essential truth of supernatural power, so it similarly thought: "It's like an original machine being written with a large number of improvement programs. This certainly facilitates the machine's operation, but for someone who wants a 'blank machine,' all changes are intolerable."
After thinking for a moment, Joshua shared the information he had obtained from the Knowledge Seizer regarding the Sage of Demons, as well as the related news that behind the Starry World was actually the mother world of the Psionic Sage. At this point, there was nothing that couldn't be said. The Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate also told everything it knew.
The warrior noticed a change in the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate's tone. He frowned slightly and asked: "If you became a Sage, how would you want to change this multiverse?"
"I have never thought about this question."
The cocoon silk stopped dancing. It said calmly: "Power is only mine alone. Why should I share it with others? Ah... wait."
The selfish beast understood Joshua's meaning: "So that's it. Why should I share it with others? But is it only this? I feel it shouldn't be so simple..."
Joshua gazed at the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate at this moment.
Then, in the next instant, the outer layer of this small stable spacetime fragment began to gradually shatter.
Outside, the vast energy tide was annihilating the dark extradimensional space. The original body of the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate was about to be completely destroyed. The time left for this avatar-to-avatar exchange was not much.
Noticing this, the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate accelerated the speed of thought transmission. It pondered: "All Evil Gods are tools of the mastermind. When a civilization that meets the conditions dies, it is solidified into a dead eternity."
"I only know that this eternity can actually be reversed and undone. But why did the mastermind design the Evil Gods this way? I don't understand. If It only wanted to destroy civilizations and utilize the remains, It wouldn't need to go through so much trouble. After all, things like 'civilization's undead souls'—you and I should be able to create them."
Joshua nodded silently. The eternity of the Evil Gods could indeed be reversed and undone. The Decay Evil God was an example. Using its characteristics, Mycroft Civilization had almost permanently suppressed the Death Evil God, reversibly transforming it into a super-large single world.
And civilization's undead souls were even simpler... Not to mention anything else, wasn't his Soul Abyss exactly that? If not, those collective psionic wills of dead civilizations in the Starry World were the same thing.
As long as you killed enough, it would work.
"To fight against the Evil Gods and the existence behind them, we must understand the essence of the Evil Gods, understand the reason for this solidified eternity. We must figure it out. Only then can we destroy His plan—I believe you won't sit idly by and let Him succeed."
The Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate transmitted to Joshua nearly all its years of research data on the Evil Gods, all its research information on eternity. It was calm as if devoid of emotion: "I, the selfish beast, the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate, have failed. But you, the 'civilized' madman, may not necessarily do so."
"...This doesn't seem like something a selfish beast would do."
Silently receiving the information, after a long while, Joshua looked at the other party and murmured softly: "What's most astonishing is that you didn't falsify any of this information, nor did you conceal anything... This is what I find hardest to imagine."
At their level, whether experimental information had errors or omissions was something they could see at a glance. Neither could deceive the other.
"Selfish? You call this selfish? Of course it is."
Regarding the warrior's confusion, the cocoon silk danced with a laugh: "What do you think selfishness is? Harming others without benefiting yourself? Keeping everything for yourself without sharing a bit with others? No matter what, not letting others benefit?"
"No, no, that's not selfishness—that's called 'malice.' Selfishness means everything is for my own will."
"Destroying civilizations can be selfish. Helping civilizations can also be selfish. Harming others without benefiting yourself can be selfish. Sacrificing yourself can also be selfish—just like you, unknown madman. Do you think your appearance in helping other civilizations and worlds fight against me is great? You're just satisfying your own desires. You definitely haven't thought about how worried and sad your friends and family would be if they knew you might die, have you?"
"This is also selfishness. Selfishness is the satisfaction of self-desire. All life is selfish."
Saying this, the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate laughed softly: "And my selfishness is meaning."
"The meaning of my birth into this world, the meaning of my return to death, the present in which I exist, the reason my life exists—fulfilling this meaning is my supreme principle, my selfishness that I will never change or compromise on even half a step. Even if I die, dissipate, annihilate into the void, I must leave something behind. Whether it causes pain for the enemy (you) or helps others (you) succeed—that is my affair."
"I am willing to do this. Not for anyone. This is selfishness—others simply have no right to judge my actions, because I do all this not for the thoughts of others."
"...This is actually inheritance." Joshua said in a deep voice, frowning: "Don't you understand yet?"
"Inheritance is exactly like this—you leave something behind. Whether you are willing or happy, the fact is this: you obtain meaning, and others can stand on your shoulders, on your remains, to gaze into the distance."
The avatar of the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate did not reply.
Its light had dimmed to the limit—it dissipated.
Outside, the energy tsunami surged, scattering the main body of the dark extradimensional space. Even the small cluster of First Flame that had been protected at the very center was dispersed by the vast light current, ultimately leaving the vicinity of the Starry World.
The brilliant white energy current of the Void Great Maelstrom howled as it flew, carrying away most of the explosion's aftermath, also melting and carrying away the completely shattered remains of the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate, spreading them as an energy tide throughout the multiverse—like a tree withering, a beast dying, its remains becoming nourishment for other existences.
One could see that the light of the Magic Tide had brightened by several levels. The nearly infinite energy had even temporarily strengthened the Magic Tide's intensity at its source—it seemed that for the other world star rivers beneath the Magic Tide, a flood peak of the Magic Tide was about to arrive.
—No matter how selfish a life, its dead remains become the soil for the next generation of life.
In this already shattered, about-to-completely-collapse tranquil spacetime fragment, Joshua's avatar sighed heavily.
"This multiverse is truly dark..."
Whether civilization or individual, whether selfless Sage or selfish beast, the ultimate goal of all minds was to fight against the darkness behind the scenes—but even so, everyone knew nothing about it. No one knew what the future would bring.
If there was anything that was suffering, then perhaps 'birth' itself was true suffering. All life in this multiverse, from the moment of birth, would cry for the pain of coming into this world, because what they faced was civilizations disappearing like tears in rain, and a multiverse as dark as the deep sea at midnight.
Even the tomorrow hoped for by countless people was as dark and deep as an abyss... This abyss of the future, called tomorrow, how much light, how many lives and civilizations must it devour before it becomes a walkable path?
The spacetime fragment was destroyed, and Joshua's avatar dissipated. Following the tide of energy, he merged all this information into his original body.
—In this intersecting dawn of collision, the avatars of both combatants were born in this tranquil spacetime fragment.
—In this dark night of collision's end, the avatars of both combatants perished in this chaotic void tide.
And around the Starry World, within the torrent of the Void Great Maelstrom, the last trace of consciousness of the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate's original body was also gradually dissipating.
"I..."
In its beginning-to-scatter spiritual world, an icon resembling an 'eye' appeared... That was the trademark left and bestowed upon it by the Rober people when they created the 'Sublimation Virus,' their most proud creation.
"I... want to sublimate..."
This was the meaning of its birth into the world—to transcend everything, to sublimate everything. It could see the joyful gaze of that Rober researcher who had merged with it for who knows how many years.
"With me..."
It could see all the lives that had merged with it, sublimating together. Among them were angry ones, resisting ones, despairing ones, and hopeful ones. There were those who were in a sorry state, those who were willing, those who accepted their fate, and those who were joyful.
That was its wish and meaning for existing here.
"I... am me... and also us... but all are me..."
"As long as I merge the multiverse into one... there will no longer be me and us..."
—Like this, there will no longer be... no longer any person or thing that can hinder me, us, from living according to our own will.
—Unfortunately, I failed.
At the last moment of self-will's existence, deep within the will of the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate, what emerged was a 'smile.'
"Death... cannot be said not to be a kind of sublimation... From now on, I, we will never be controlled, never again be anyone's puppet behind the scenes, anyone's tool..."
It smiled, abandoning all struggle, allowing its life and consciousness to drift away from this dark multiverse.
—Even so, it is still a pity.
In the last instant of life, its dissipating 'eye' looked toward the distant distance—toward the source of the First Flame and the Magic Tide.
It looked toward the distant future beyond.
—Life is born with suffering.
—Death returns toward the future.
This is the dazzling dawn of birth
And,
the peaceful night of death.
For the loser, everything is over.
"So, living one, I curse you—may you never know peace."
The final attack was launched, and then.
—The Near-Saint·Solipsistic Beast, perished—
And at the same time, the consciousness of Joshua's original body, nearly burned out, also fell into darkness.
...Warm... peaceful...
He felt like he too was about to sleep.
—If sleep is brief death, then today, he might finally enjoy the peaceful eternal slumber.
...Comfortable... calm...
However, whether curse or blessing, ultimately, the warrior was fated never to quietly fall asleep like this.
And so, under the final impact of the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate, amidst the intense pain and torment, his self-will, because it had to 'resist' the already dead enemy, because of the instinct born from 'battle,' began to condense amidst shattering, began to gather once more, reconnecting and integrating.
In the chaotic spacetime storm, under the surging impact of the Void Great Maelstrom, amidst the enemy's final lingering attack, Joshua began to break free from a long, distant nightmare.
"Wake up."
He seemed to hear such a voice.
So Joshua opened his eyes.
Wake up.