Soul of Searing Steel

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The Evil God of Cohesion was the name that Joshua had randomly given the entity just around dozens of minutes ago. It was one given based on the fact that it was absorbing all energy and physical substance around itself at every given moment, as if gathering something. When coupled with the imagined memory which every person inside the Forerunner Fortress Chain was able to save just because it had appeared, it had allowed everyone to learn that it originated from a superior civilization of psionics, and its fall and death was due to the cohesion of all of that civilization’s power.

That was why Joshua would call it the Evil God of Cohesion, a naming that was rather fitting and conforming to most naming conventions, even finely conveying its attributes and power.

However, it now appeared that the title itself may be a little far from the truth.

Because Joshua realized that even as he approached the massive cosmic drill head-on, the Evil God of Cohesion had become even more powerful after attacking!

Condensation! Fusion! Evolution!

The massive black and white spirals like no other were churning every world in the galaxy, turning itself into a great drill that could pierce through everything. In the shortest of time, its power and information disturbance had made itself the axis around which the entire dead galaxy revolved itself—the massive drill was also restlessly gathering physical substance and energy, endlessly fusing everything that was not itself, even evolving, transforming, and strengthening without stopping!

If anyone would have to describe it, its name probably would be less fitting as the Evil God of Cohesion, than as the Evil God of Fusion!

The thought lasted only for the briefest of moments. In the physical Multiverse, the massive cosmic drill had cut through the infinite silence like a thunder in the darkness. It was darting towards Joshua and becoming even more powerful and larger with each rotation, apart from gaining great momentum. Every planetary domain around itself was stirred and drawn towards it, a parabola that deformed light itself and converted everything existent as fuel for itself.

It was certainly powerful.

However, the being that it had been targeting was not weak either!

Four arms visibly reached out from the darkness from ahead of the bright giant drill, pressing down upon the sides of the drill with complete flawless precision—the spiraling force was churning the dimensions, bent on having its whirling surface become some unusual ring, although the four silver arms which had black patterns upon them were also immeasurably firm, a steady, eternally unchanging boulder, a shoal rock that would never be worn away by any impact.

Bang!

The Silver Giant God was forced back by the drill without stopping, dragging a long bright ray upon the Void. However, the four arms, which were also rigidly jammed down upon the cosmic drill, had forced it to stop!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The continuous echoes of joints breaking apart resounded. After all, how profound was the angular momentum in which the Evil God of Cohesion whirled in? An entire galaxy could be stirred! In a split second, the joints of the Silver Giant God’s arm had shattered and restored its own sturdiness over a billion times, the fragments of his broken body floating in the Void and conjuring the illusory images of worlds—and it was also in that billion times of shattering and restoration, along with the hovering illusions, that Joshua flashed a ferocious grin.

“I’ve got you!”

With one angry roar and burst of power, he tightly crushed the outer shell of the cosmic drill, although it had also provided the Evil God an opening to reassemble itself. The cosmic drill also burst off when Joshua mustered his power, digging without error into his body and punching a massive hole into it!

But that was not any sort of bad news at all.

Starting from Gold-tier, the body of Extraordinary individuals no longer had any vital points to speak of, not to mention that Joshua had now progress to the threshold of Demi Saint. As the cosmic drill tunneled into his body, the warrior was actually delighted instead of astonished, and with another angry roar, he firmly anchored his own body, raising his four arms high above and cutting down at the cosmic drill!

Crack!

There was no medium in which sound could transmit in the Void. However, exceedingly violent tremors of energy would still trigger dimensional quaking—and just now, tremendous dimensional quaking that had engulfed the entire galaxy was resounding, reaching every being as if it was right next to their ears!

The cosmic drill was hence severed, its tip jammed within Joshua’s body while the latter portion was hence released from the warrior’s clutches and haggardly escaped afar. Both Giant God and Evil God were seriously injured at that moment, thus having no strength to retaliate!

Still, Joshua was not concerned about that at all. Everything was under control, and while he appeared to be disadvantaged, being the defending side, his counterattack would likewise maim the Demi Saint Evil God. Having reached their level, any being that was able to recover even before they attacked once again would instead be revealing their own trump card and the attacks at their disposal for no reason at all.

In a nutshell, when it came to such height and intensity of combat, the being which first made a move and revealed its own trump card would be the one at a disadvantage. Now, Joshua was half-kneeling in the Void and pressing two hands over his abdomen where the tip of the cosmic drill was still stuck. In fact, the power of the Evil God of Cohesion was still controlling it, intent on whirling it once more to completely tear through Joshua’s body. Even so, the warrior’s entire body had ignited with silver flames, converging on his abdomen to burn and melt down the cosmic drill.

Just like a blaze incinerating steel in the high-heat furnace, the once-sturdy cosmic drill hence slowly melted, and was slowly consumed by the Giant God.

Soon, both wound and the tip of the massive drill were gone as if having been swallowed into Joshua’s stomach. Meanwhile, on the other side of the galaxy, the silhouette of the Evil God of Cohesion throbbed once—there was no doubt that it was a grievous injury that it could not recover quickly from.

A part of its body and every single piece of information contained within was burnt and devoured by Joshua, fundamentally eroding part of its essence!

Be that as it may, just after Evil God of Cohesion had been maimed, the other Evil Gods which it had gone roared and began to charge towards Joshua—created with a cohesive measure by the Demi Saint Evil God, which had fused every energy in the world, they were all under Cohesion’s control and could act as a part of its own body if need be. And now, all of them were responding to the true form’s call, commencing baragges of fearless self-destructing attacks upon Joshua.

Hence, the host of radiant wheels, dark nebula, or even aberrative physical monsters or collectives were streaking through the Void like falling stars, crashing towards the Giant God who was recovering while crouching—but halfway through, those Evil Gods triggered a meltdown, reducing themselves to the purest Chaos energy surge and drowning Joshua with it.

It was a strategy revolving entirely upon harassment, but also one that did not even offer Joshua the chance to capture one or two of those lesser Evil Gods to recover. Even if it did not actually possess intelligence, The Evil God of Cohesion had definitely noticed that its enemy had the ability to recover his own strength by slaying Evil Gods.

The battle was now in a stalemate. Even if the wounds of the Evil God of Cohesion were more serious than Joshua’s, it had indeed delayed the rate of Joshua’s recovery. In comparison, it was actually Joshua on the back foot.

“Fortunately, I am not alone either.”

Raising both left hands to hold up a distorted dimensional barrier and blocking wave after wave of the Evil God’s blows, Joshua turned to look towards the direction of the Piroth galaxy. He could see dozens of glimmering streaks of light warping towards him—after Joshua had wiped out a considerable number of Evil Gods, the pressure on the Forerunner Fortress Chain had been alleviated considerably. Therefore, after encircling and culling the remaining Evil Gods and spawns of Chaos, the most powerful amongst the champions began to make their way towards Joshua and the Evil God of Cohesion.

All of them had actually understood that losing the fortress chain was actually insignificant, or they were indeed already prepared to lose it as it was only used to buy time. On the other hand, should Joshua lose, they would never be able to conjure a second Demi Saint, and the cosmos would have probably seen the end to its time.

Soon, without having to wait too long, the first and swiftest ray of light had already reached Joshua’s side. The warrior looked up, ready to convey earnest gratitude, but was involuntarily surprised when he realized who it was.

“Goliath? Is it actually you?”

The first being to reach Joshua’s side in haste and protected him was actually a fellow being from the Lost Galaxy—Goliath, King of Demons and Sovereign of Sixth Abyss. He was a Legendary demon in the truest sense of the word, and a present turn of events that no one could have imagined.

“Many thanks. You’ve really arrived so quickly!”

“It is indeed I. No thanks necessary.”

Without sparing many words, Goliath promptly let loose a sonorous cry. His massive demonic body thus split apart as shadows spreading over the world, fusing into the defensive barrier that Joshua had held up—at that very moment, Joshua felt his own strength beginning to combine with the newborn Shadow power in the Multiverse. Hence, the Chaos surges of self-destructing Evil Gods were mostly moved into the Shadow subspace by the Shadow power that Goliath had brought!

Indeed, the revolution that the Wise One of Shadow had brought about had benefited demons and Abyssal lifeforms such as itself—in addition, the power of the Shadow was also certainly the power system which Joshua had mastered the least. By using Shadow subspace and hurrying to him at once, Goliath had incidentally made up for his weakness.

But now, though the pitch-black barrier that resembled the event horizon of a black hole had repelled the onslaught of countless Evil Gods, Goliath was not actually well off. Even if most of the attacks were directed to the Shadow subspace and what few attacks left had been blocked by Joshua, it remains that the battlefield was one for Demi Saints. Not even Ultimate Legends would be able to hold on for long, much less a High Legend being like Goliath. Despite the fact of his recent progress, there was no way for the demon to directly stand against an assault by innumerable Evil Gods.

Be that as it may, the Demon King did not let out a single cry of pain even if the flesh which he had turned to Shadow was dissolving. His already split body was further obliterated by the Chaos energy, but the Demon King still maintained an ever-determined gaze, showing no sign of fear at all.

Soon enough, Joshua could feel that he had recovered enough to handle the onslaught of the lesser Evil Gods without impeding his own recovery. It was also the instant when Goliath was almost spent, which was why the Giant God raised his hand, gathering dark shadows within his own hand—then, when the injured Demon King had fully reassembled, he violently flung it away, sending the demon out of the battlefield.

The pair shared a single glance before the parting. No words were necessary: both of them simply nodded to each other, before the warrior turned away and continued his fight.

At present, the Evil God of Cohesion had recovered slightly as well. Both of them once again stood off against each other over half the galaxy, their terrible presence causing worlds to tremble. The many champions who were hurrying to the scene would be fine if they were not warping—for those who did, they simply could not do anything to avoid being directly knocked out of the dimensions with serious injuries.

Upon such a sight, all of them knew that they would no longer have to rush to the scene and offer aid then.

Moreover, it was thanks to the great timing of Goliath that Joshua had recovered quicker than the Evil God. Taking a breather, he then shook his body and exhaled.

Even if his body appeared to have immediately recovered from the tunneling by the cosmic drill and even devoured the tip of the drill, all of his insides remained a mess. Furthermore, the tip of the drill had only been melted and not digested.

Now, however, he had mostly recovered, just as the tip of the drill which hosted a part of the Evil God of Cohesion’s actual body was fully absorbed and analyzed, even obtaining precious information about the enemy. The Giant God hence spread all four of his arms, with the supermassive singular realm-tier scale armor around his body vibrating as the thick protection changed its own form, eventually exploding as veins of magnificent silver luster, encircling everything around him.

Within that single moment, half of the dead galaxy was enfolded within the silver luster to the point that it was visible in the Piroth galaxy, like a supernova flash was reaching out from the other side of dimensions.

It was Steel Strength so dense it could not be divided, and yet it was entirely capable of drowning the many planetary systems!

But things were far from over. The silver luster had turned into divine radiance of bloody color, before transforming again into dark Chaos. The halation of three colors kept transforming as the three bodies of Steel Strength, divine power, and Chaos combined as one, condensing and deriving without rest.

All at once, not even the Legendary champions around could differentiate which was the Evil God—in both sheer might and the attributes which instilled fear, both combatants were completely identical.

Still, it was the truth that Joshua had the edge when it came to vigor and power. Furthermore, he had now grasped a critical aspect about the Evil God and a way with which he could kill it!

The former Evil God of Death was itself the combination of innumerable Evil Gods, but the Sage had used the power of the Evil God of Wither to transform and turn it into a supermassive singular realm. This Evil God of Cohesion, however, was a natural in cohesion, allowing it to spare considerable effort—all Evil Gods would die, but the Evil God of Cohesion just needed a little help, and with Joshua himself able to convert Evil Gods to normal strength, he could certainly help it in that effort.

The radiance of three colors flashed violently, while Joshua began to stride forward.

Thus, amidst the exceedingly bright light, the image of the four armed Giant God blurred. Only a single titanic silhouette was visible, leaving a single, burning colossal footprint as he rapidly advanced in light and fire.

There were two spots of brighter light on the head of the silhouette: the light in Joshua’s eyes glowed as scarlet radiance filled the entire Void. The thick presence of decimation and the will to fight was spreading, and at the very next instant, the two lights drew a single straight line through the Void. Joshua hence rushed towards the Evil God of Cohesion, crashing into it and pushing it into the stars, as well as the swarm of spawns and other Evil Gods.

The Evil God of Cohesion was still resisting, twirling as it struggled, intending to repeat what it did last time around: attacking viciously so that both of them would be injured before lengthening the distance between each other. But this time, the warrior who had already experienced the same move naturally would not allow that—as the Evil God of Cohesion charged its power, Joshua had already clawed into its core, even betting his hand on it to firmly divert the firing arc of the core away to another side.

Though one arm had been completely obliviated by the Evil God of Cohesion’s blow with the proximity and absolutely zero defense in the process, Joshua still had three other arms. If necessary, he could also grow six or even up to a thousand of them. On the other hand, the full-power blows of the Evil God of Cohesion could no longer be released again—and therefore, of Joshua’s three remaining arms, two were holding the radiant wheel with a vice grip and preventing it from escaping, while the remaining single left arm clenched into a fist, charging with blazing silver firestorm as it hammered down on the core of the Evil God of Cohesion!

Boom!

The blaze splashed away and sparks darted across every direction. In no time at all, the Evil God and spawns which the Evil God of Cohesion had grown, with the entirety of all Chaotic darkness hence broiled—the oceans of infinite spawns were abruptly ignited into a sea of fires and reduced to ashes. Even the Evil Gods and the rear where the impact was a lot less significant were all sent flying in the blast like splashing tides, churning and cascading in every single direction.

Then, a much more violent inferno covered the entire range of confrontation between Joshua and the Evil God of Cohesion. No one, not even Ultimate Legendary champions, could move past that light in the moment and see what was actually happening inside.

***

“What is that path he has undertaken?”

One of the Seven Gods rushing to the scene—the God of Wisdom and Choice—tightened his brow. The robes of the deity which appeared in the image of an old man was rather damaged, while the scepter in his hand was also entirely black, seemingly caused by a Chaos erosion that was not cleared. Even so, his mind remained ever clear.

“Are there no ways for us to help him?”

No one could answer that question because the moment was not one when they could intervene, or convey their delusional desire to aid Joshua.

At that moment, Igor the former Pope had also reached the frontlines. Most of the champions who would dare to approach the battlefield of Demi Saints were mostly old or under the impression that they had reached their own limits. Compared to staying alive, they were a bunch of the elderly who would not die from old age and were more concerned with the chances of making a breakthrough, or avengers who simply wanted to fight the Chaos, even if it meant damage in the most insignificant of ways.

The Seven Gods were the latter. They had come to exact vengeance and certainly did not fear death after having already entrusted their Legacies. On the other hand, the pope stood in a middle ground between the two—he believed that there he no longer had any regrets in life, and would not hesitate to bet himself if his death was a chip that could add to the chance of victory.

Still, there naturally was nothing better than being able to elevate himself to the next level.

At the moment, there were gods who had assuredly progressed further than himself on the path of the Holy Light, although Igor subconsciously clenched his scepter and growled when he saw something that the God of Wisdom and Choice did not. “I see that the Chaos is burning…it’s the Flame! It is the power of the King of Searing Soul!”

“With that being said, since when did the power of the King of Searing Souls have such a tremendous effect on Evil Gods?!”

The elderly former pontiff was stunned, but his doubts was not without reason.

The so-named King of Searing Souls was nothing other than a being who could set souls and Chaos afire to perfectly restore worlds—to put it in another way, they were simply the protector of worlds and the natural envoys of Steel Strength. Despite that Authority being valuable, it was not actually anything too important—Joshua rarely resorted that power anymore after he had developed his body into the God of Steel, since he could do everything accomplishable with the authority of the King of Searing Steel by merely relying on Steel Strength.

He was a world himself, a Giant God who transcended realms.

But now, that same power was very different from before. As the blaze raged on, even Evil Gods that touched it would roll around in anguish, doing all they could to extinguish it.

Between conversation and consideration, a mysterious presence began to spread away from the heart of the battlefield between Joshua and the Evil God of Cohesion. Most people did not feel a single fraction of that presence at all, while a shudder flashed through the body of every champions of Mycroft once. It was especially true even for the divine bodies of the Seven Gods, all of whom had grown alongside the Sage and witnessed him ascending to the pinnacle of assistance.

It was as if an ancient memory had been summoned!

“The root of the power that converts Chaos to Order is becoming firmer…I can feel that the very essence of the King of Searing Soul is empowered!”

Ezerg, the God of Conservation and Reformation, held himself together and repressed the impulse to rush forward and help Joshua, with the dwarven deity glared and panting heavily. “Back in the day, the Sage only used ordinary ether spells and lifeforce,” he said quietly. “Controlling ether and reverting directions while using lifeforce to restore physical form, those mundane powers complemented each other to tether souls and repair bodies of flesh, henceforth accomplishing resurrection!”

“The original form of the Holy Light was ultimately such a simple thing too. It healed, slayed enemies and certainly was able to cleanse as well…but later, at some unknown point in time, that very normal power was strengthened to the three completely different Holy Lights of Seraph, Healing, and Judgment…the power that fellow was using became even more powerful as he himself did!”

And Joshua was now showing the same tendency too! In the aspect of the King of Searing Soul, there was now the sign of empowerment identical to what the Sage had shown in the past!

Even if there was no telling what is the path that Joshua had taken, it was simply beyond question that he was standing on the path of the Wise Ones!

Thus, within the vehement fiery light, Steel Strength was visibly consuming the Chaos. One could actually also tell from the obscure silhouettes that the three-armed Giant God appeared to be tearing something apart, his movements both violent and overflowing with the inclination of destruction. His fists were hammering away while his fingers were dicing away like claws, with the warrior even gaping his maw to directly bite down on something, chewing something off in the radiant fire and swallowing it whole.

It was such an insanity and resolve that no other person could convey so naturally and clearly.

At the same time, the presence of the Evil God of Cohesion was also gradually weakening. Its power simply could not be unleashed in its entirety inside the fire, seemingly having been suppressed fully!

Never once had there been a single power that so dominantly held back the Chaos…indeed, even Order and the later-derived Extraordinary abilities of Holy Light simply subdued Chaos, rendering it dormant and stopping it from spreading. All in all, it was in a territory where there was mutually smothering.

After all, the Chaos was a power reliant on probability, similar to Order. That was the reason why virtually most Extraordinary abilities had come to be without being known, since most civilizations would have been wiped out if they encountered the Chaos during their early days, much less allow the growth of a Wise One. As such, the measure of the respective alignments was the factor which could allow one to repress the other, and equal corresponding measure meant no power could subdue it.

But now, it seemed to have appeared in this Multiverse.

The power to subdue Chaos, Evil Gods, in addition to the so-called ‘future’ and ‘probabilities’ was being born.

“What could that power actually be?!”

The God of Love and Death simply could not understand that. By basing her theories on Joshua’s personality and the fragment of words which the Wise One of Shadow had left, she had deduced that the path which Joshua assumed would have been war or destruction, since the same outcome would have come to fruition through both ‘war against everything’ and ‘destroying everything’.

However, being a god, her instincts told her that it was not the case.

Both war and destruction were nothing but a type of possibility as well, and Joshua would surely be aware that defeating Evil Gods by pure war and destruction likewise only subjugated them by ‘measure’.

Regardless of whether the gods would comprehend what power it actually was, there was only one thing to do.

“Whatever power it could be, it is time to go.”

At the present time, the fire and light that shrouded both Joshua and the Evil God of Cohesion and held up by the both of them had died down. It appears that one of them were already wearing down and about to fall—and this time, everyone knew who it would be. Hence, across the entire dead galaxy, those Evil God and Evil God spawns which had yet to fade away did not pause and bounded at Joshua’s direction.

Even if it was just a little, they would interrupt Joshua’s attack and save—or more correctly, prevent the Evil God of Cohesion from being destroyed in the flame.

And everyone on the scene were there to stop them from succeeding.

“We cannot have you lot disturbing him.”

It was a god who stepped forward first. Steel Strength that appeared to share the same origins scattered as the Million Steel Dragon, the God of Metal Dragons revealed her true form in the Void: a slim and lengthy silver dragon of immeasurable size, her slightest of movements stirring the dimensions itself. With a long draconic roar and wreaking storms over the Void, borderless tides cascaded over the Void and intercepted the Evil Gods head-on.

A champion from another civilization was also attacking alongside the Metal Dragon God. He appeared to be a perfectly average black steel sphere—as a matter of fact, he had come from a mechanical civilization, although he was also the most powerful chief unit in his race. In the war of resistance against the Evil God, he had brought along his entire civilization as well as the advanced vault of weapons belonging to other civilizations—at the moment, his smooth spherical surface opened to reveal countless massive cannon barrels, focusing crystals, and an assortment of ultimate armaments with unknown functions, all of which were armed and presenting him as the most frightening porcupine in the Multiverse.

In the next moment, the champion opened fire. The sounds of world decimation emanated, with countless streaks of cannon fire, laser beams, and various psionic or etheric blasts of both tangible and intangible forms unleashed, joining together with the dimensional storm that the Million Steel Dragon had stirred, repelling and breaking the ranks of the frontmost swarms of Evil Gods between breaths.

Nevertheless, the Evil Gods were aplenty. Whether created in the course of Joshua and the Evil God of Cohesion’s battle or hurried to the scene from the Silent Void, the Evil God and their spawns were still so numerous beyond imagination. Even with the first wave of darkness being broken, there were still the second and third waiting, and endless more.

Still, despite the lack of champions serving Order, it was not difficult for them to join forces and stop the aimless charge of the Evil Gods and their spawns which showed no cohesion at all—as Igor the former Pope raised the Bright Scepter in his hand, infinitely searing light shone and engulfed a part of the darkness. Within that domain, bubbles of seven colors wafted and vanished, fused and dissipated.

In that sector, the colors of the spectrum were akin to an unstable compass, rapidly darting through different ends. Anything struck—even Evil Gods were bent slightly, their skin cracking as if heavily injured, whereas the Evil God spawns were completely pulverized in the first second, dissipating as ashes under the principle of conversion.

Despite the horrific power exuding in that domain, the area was too small and though there would be Evil Gods that slipped past the perimeter, there were divine beings who took action in such cases. From a raised hand, a pure-white butterfly flew away from the fingertip of the God of Life, floating and dancing across the Void while spreading infinite fine dust—every spawn and Chaos covered in it would begin to scream in torment, with hosts of worms crawling out of their bodies and consuming their dark flesh.

Soon, the worms grew into cocoons. Though many of them were crushed in the shockwaves emanating from the battle while many others failed to grow and were completely eaten away by the Chaos, some still managed to hatch as butterflies of life that danced through the Void, disseminating powder of their own which would birth more descendants.

“Careful. Don’t let your little cuties go out of control.”

The dwarven deity lifted his thick steel laden tome and unhurriedly stepped forward, although the God of Light nodded with a somber face upon hearing Ezerg’s words—the conjured Butterfly of Life was an Extraordinary lifeform far surpassing typical Void behemoths, or Chaos spawns, for that matter. They could actually be considered a part of the deity’s own body and would hardly go amok, but it could, since the enemy was of the Chaos and especially numerous legions of them, even possibly leading to the insects turning on Order.

Still, such a backlash would almost never happen with other champions keeping guard around them. Then, Ezerg, the God of Conservation and Reformation and said to be the most powerful amongst the Seven Gods, finally made his move.

Raising his tome and imbuing dense, solid divine power upon it, Ezerg appeared to be mumbling some incantation that probably he himself would know—that it was just the simple nagging of an old man.

“What a waste,” he thus said, before shrugging his shoulders and flinging out the tome that appeared extremely heavy away just like a meteor—it darted away so swiftly and contained such substantial divine power that it resembled an aurora upon a single glance. An Evil God composed of a myriad colored halation which had intended to intercept the top vaulted up and collided into it, but was instead sent flying at once, with a gaping hole now added to its radiant form that kept increasing in width, directly leaving it mortally hurt.

In the end, the tome dropped to the midst of the legions of spawns, its pages flipping away as if the tome itself was alive. Upon its plain white pages, millions of images and patterns drawn from divine power materialized. With blinding divine radiance, the pages would flip and waft away like fallen leaves blown away in the wind, but in the instant when each of them would touch other Evil Gods or spawns, the page would instantly expand into small worlds simulated through Steel Strength, enfolding everything around within.

Both shielding oneself and restraining the foe were to protect. In the turn of an instant, every page of the thick sacred tome had vanished, meaning that the thousand-year worth of stores that Ezerg accumulated were exhausted. But on the other side, thousands of virtual worlds had arisen in the heart of the enemy swarm, imprisoning the many Evil Gods within as targets for other champions and gods, whom in turn destroyed them with relative ease.

There were still new Evil Gods and new Evil God spawns in the Silent Void. Because the light that Joshua released kept coming, the legions of the Evil Gods which moved away from the Piroth galaxy greatly lowered the pressure upon the fortresses, freeing many champions who hurried to the new battlegrounds one after another. In no time at all, the dead galaxy was the other warring grounds for countless champions and agents of Chaos wreaking destruction upon each other.

Still, every single person was aware that this place was not the real heart of the battle.

***

At the center of the battle between Joshua and the Evil God of Cohesion where the fire and light were the strongest, the obscure silhouette of the Giant God had stopped moving, ceasing its attack, biting, or clawing apart of the Evil God’s body. Joshua’s fourth arm was even regenerating, the silver light in the Void assembling into an iron fist.

Noticing that, every champion on the side of Order could not help but hold their breaths.

To have the spare effort for recovering, even deliberately stopping attacks…one did not have to elaborate what that meant.

“I have subdued the Evil God of Cohesion!”

The grand, thick voice rang across the galaxy instantly. Every champion, Evil God, and spawn had heard it—while the latter two did not comprehend the words, they sensed an overflowing and unimaginably profound power exuding from the Giant God who stood within the dying light and flame, whose hand seemed to be grasping something.

Lifting his eyes, Joshua scanned the galaxy before him, both eyes burning in blinding silver luster, the bottom of which was layered with crimson divine light. The gaze alone left countless spawns burning and reduced to ashes, while the usual Evil Gods which were less than Ultimate Legend were also fully suppressed by the gaze, and were then diced into pieces as the other champions of Order rushed forward and completely destroying them as well.

Joshua was also laden with scars then, with plenty of Chaos eroded wounds filling his chest and arms, not recovering even now…though he had the power to subjugate Evil Gods, even analyzing the essence and vulnerability of the Evil God of Cohesion, he was still unable to destroy Cohesion which ‘evolved and empowered the more it condensed and fused’ with a single strike like he imagined. Regardless of how much of a disadvantage it was placed in, the Evil God was always able to charge blows that could actually maim him, even at the cost of inflaming its own essence.

But no matter how difficult the process was or how stimulating it had been, everything was now drawing to a close.

That ever-rotating, charging, and releasing black and white core of the Evil God of Cohesion was now grasped in the Giant God’s hand. Joshua even lifted it high above, presenting it for all to see.

In return, every god and champion could not turn away as they gazed upon the pulsating core. Dark radiance snaked around it, letting loose a frightening presence—some of the weaker beings who saw it with their own eyes felt as if they were struck with the horrific information disturbance of the Demi Saint and briefly lost their ability to fight, even beginning to fear that the Evil God of Cohesion would free itself from the Giant God’s control, cutting down everyone else’s ‘probability’.

However, the stronger beings could tell that the core was held on so tightly by Joshua that it simply had no chance of freeing itself.

There was silence across the stars. Because of their shock and wonder, no one knew what words to use to describe everything that Joshua had accomplished.

The feat of slaying a Demi Saint Evil God after recently becoming one was unprecedented, something not achieved even after considering the Sage and the many forerunners of ancient times. In fact, the Sage himself had ascended as a Demi Saint for centuries before he had fought the Evil God of Fertility, their battle almost crushing the Lost Galaxy in the process and leaving the Abyss in utter ruin.

While the fact that Joshua had drawn in every forerunner’s experience and was aided by everyone certainly should be counted, he definitely was individually powerful.

All in all, the Sage could at most be described as a holy mentor and an instructor, while the Wise One of Psi was clearly just a scientist early on. The Wise One of Arcane did not appear to have started from a combat class either, and while all of them were absolutely outstanding, even groundbreaking, their state of mind would probably be not as pure as Joshua’s.

And that was because it was only him who never had much in way of excess thoughts from beginning to end, nor did he have many other spare identities.

Joshua van Radcliffe had been a warrior. In the past, in the present, in the future…and for all time.

“The Evil God of Cohesion shall fall right here.”

Joshua looked around the Silent Void. The realm still glimmered in contorted light and there were still countless Evil Gods coming to attack him, although there was no longer a single Evil God spawn or Evil God across any directions nearby the cosmos now. Smiling and nodding, he lifted the core of the Evil God of Cohesion high above with his upper right hand—over his arm, a Φ-shaped symbol shone, with black patterns extending. A blindingly dazzling flame of silver hence ignited, directly incinerating the endlessly spiraling core of only black and white hues.

In the next split second, Joshua closed his five fingers, with the sound of something seemingly snapping and resounding across the skies of the galaxy and stars over.

Almost unending fiery light hence illuminated from that center point and unfurled. The dead galaxy was illuminated, the broken Steel Particles from the worlds that were destroyed before reassembling, just as every champion, maimed, injured, or even harmed to the point of nearing death all regaining vigor after bathing upon that light.

The radiance shone ever so brightly, even crossing the edge of the stars and darting to the fringes of the Silent Void, as well as the Piroth Galaxy Fortress Chain. All the warriors who had fought hard and long soaked in the warm and gentle radiance, a bath indescribable with words that instilled the sensation of something beautiful into them.

The Evil God which embodied the devastation of all things was now destroyed, all of its remains now used as fuel for the flame. All things were hence restored, just as worlds were hence revived.

Just like the dawn of a new world.