Soul of Searing Steel

Many Extraordinary individuals who were accomplished in combat often claimed that diverse and erratic powers would never compare to those few but specialized. It was similar to the thought that a thick wall of spongy cakes would never hold up against a single adamantite longsword.

That notion was certainly not wrong: in the case of a Mind Flayer at High Gold-tier which had consumed the souls of dozens of thousands of people fighting against a clergy who was only Low Gold-tier, the former would certainly not be the one with an advantage—the latter’s purer strengths would inevitably break down the strong but hollow attacks of the former, with basically no exceptions. That was because when it came to the former, it was already difficult for them to not go berserk, much less control their strength, while the latter would only need an undead purification spell to directly trigger an implosion of the former’s power and have it self-destruct.

Either way, that theory was correct. But with that being said…what if the former consumed not just dozen thousands, but a hundred thousand or a million?

Or what if it was dozen millions, or even several hundred million?

Whether the former would self-destruct—even the shockwaves resulting from a power of such magnitude would allow the Mind Flayer to crush any individual who would dare to challenge it, and none who was not Supreme could have any disposition to actually be near it.

It was needless to say what could happen if the Mind Flayer was able to control such diverse and erratic powers.

***

A power was surging.

Boundless luminous silver mist was enveloping the Four-armed Giant God before turning into a radiant trail marked dazzlingly upon the Void. At the same time that he darted towards the depths of the Silent Void, Joshua could not help giving a long and loud yell, causing the dimensions around to tremble and turn into a raging storm.

Harnessing the power Steel Pythons from almost every world across a galaxy and gathering them into a single body, that inestimable, horrific energy had now been crafted into the warrior’s armor. It was the last resort taken under compelling circumstances, allowing Joshua to briefly surpass the level of most Demi Saints as well as his own, reaching a threshold that was like no other.

He was no Wise One, but his strength now was certainly not anything that an ordinary Demi Saint could compare to. The Galactic Form of the King of Searing Soul was very much the will of an entire galaxy given form, and the warrior felt as if he could wipe out millions of worlds with just a single thought, forcing the galaxy to reverse and the heavens to crack.

“This is not the worst yet,” he muttered to himself quietly, looking out towards the distant darkness. Though he now held great power like never before, his mind and body were infinitely calm. “We still have time.”

“We still have a chance.”

No one could fully understand the warrior’s mutterings. Every champion journeying beside him, following him as they rapidly streaked through the Void, could only think that ‘Joshua presently believes that having such power allows him to fight the endless swarm of darkness’, and as such, ‘we still have a chance’. Still, what the warrior was really thinking about would never be understood—even if it was Igor, Joshua’s own longtime friend.

There was no telling how much time had passed.

Just when Joshua was dragging along an infinite trail of light, leading the bravest champions of an entire cosmos and approaching the great, dark enemy in the Silent Void which could drown everything, the warrior had the most normal of thoughts as he watched those countless spawns and Evil Gods of Chaos which extended as far as the eye could see in the split second before the battle started.

The worlds and galaxies are being surrounded by darkness. What path could await the present era?

Would they fall before the oncoming Chaotic horrors, and descend unto the abyss called Eternity?

Or would they be burnt and be reborn in a baptism of fire?

Without a word, Joshua stared at the Chaos horde which split Void and worlds as if they were about to divide the entire Multiverse into two halves. While his mind whirled with such mundane questions and thoughts, the warrior smiled faintly. His hands clenching even harder upon the great sword and the giant axe, while his other two weaponless hands tightened into fists.

The answer to conflict could only be found in conflict.

And now is the time for war!

Like tentacles or feelers, the horde of darkness arriving from the other side of dimensions reached towards them from unknown Chaotic places, ready to strike the cosmos. However, it was only after approaching them that Joshua noticed something: those endless, ferocious and grotesque spawns of Chaos, along with the innumerable squirming and pulsating Evil Gods of Chaos, were actually a long wall of gloom stuffed into the Void.

A Citadel of Chaos!

Not even Demi Saints would dare to rush headlong into such a swarm. It remained that their power was not actually endless, even if it was almost—should other Evil Gods and spawns manage to keep them occupied for the shortest fraction of moments, and in turn allow multiple Demi Saint Evil Gods to encircle them, there would certainly be nothing but death waiting.

Be that as it may, Joshua did not hesitate at all to swing the great sword in his hand as hard as he could in front of himself. Without even a moment’s pause, he followed along the radiant scar the blade left and crashed into the immeasurably thick darkness!

Boom!!!

The silver great sword, which was far larger than a world, moved amidst raging crimson blaze. Every Chaos spawn sliced by it were very much like dry leaves ignited, instantly becoming a blinding flame. Right behind it, Joshua’s true form, which was seemingly a world-ending meteor falling above, would crash into anything left, leaving nothing but dust!

Like a spark dropping into a field of black oil, though the former was absolutely insignificant compared to the latter and the latter much more massive and thicker as compared to the former, it was the former that ignited the latter as both made contact. Even as a supreme blaze arose, a tremendous gap had also been opened!

“Don’t stop. Keep charging!”

With Joshua in the lead and acting as the ramming horn, the champions of Order followed right behind him as a blinding trail of flame was burning and forcing every Evil God into retreat, forming a large path anyone could walk—they would kill every single surviving but maimed Evil God to clear the entire sector around them, before they kept up with Joshua and rushed completely into swarms of Chaos.

All at once, pitch-black Chaos filled every other single direction, warped malice filling all that there was in the vicinity.

In the single split second that the champions of Order had collided against one of the dark feelers, the feeler immediately paused for an instant before a cavity so massive it could actually be seen in the cosmos appeared over the swarms of Chaos. Though already of considerable size, the cavity was still deepening inwardly before it finally became a titanic gap that was simply irreparable.

Meanwhile, at the forefront and amidst the endless darkness of the Chaotic swarm, Joshua was simply swinging his weapons.

His great sword was aflame, moving unhindered as the blade unleashed a million flashes, completely sweeping away every spawn and Evil God before it as if clearing away dust. The seemingly infinite spawns could not even survive for an instant before being obliterated by the fiery radiance of the blade, just as ordinary Evil Gods were having a hard time escaping with their lives—they were doing all they could to survive in the face of the torrential flashes from the blade and avoid being diced into tiny pieces.

Even if Joshua would run into any being that was a little tougher, such as certain beings that were actually stronger than Evil Gods, the warrior would merely tighten his grip over his black giant axe and bear down upon it—there was actually no inventiveness with the Axe of Finality, which was basically condensed out of a black hole. It would just leave everything in dissipating pieces that the giant axe itself would swallow to strengthen itself.

Still, even that was far from enough. The number of Evil Gods at the front end of the hordes of darkness were already in the millions, with no lack of Ultimate Legends amongst them or even Evil Gods almost reaching the level of Demi Saint. While they would meet the fate of being hammered into nothingness by a swing of a sword or the axe as they came forward one after another, but as such beings gathered into a swarm and lunged headlong at Joshua like a great wave, even Joshua had to furrow his brow as he was now and become serious.

That being said, being serious was all he had to do.

Raising his idle upper right hand, which was forged from Steel and coiled around by red-black patterns, the Silver Giant God opened his palm and leveled it precisely at the massive torrent of Evil Gods, as if wanting to grasp all life within it—then, the palm abruptly closed and clenched into a fist!

Ooom! A dull reverberation resounded over the stillness of the Void. In the very moment that the massive hand had clenched, dimensions were distorted as a singularity of energies manifested in the Void directly. It appeared dead ahead of the torrent of Evil Gods and instantly compressed the few Evil Gods in front firmly and consumed them, before turning into a rapidly whirling black hole of Chaos, sitting a dimensional storm while never ceasing to absorb new physical matter and energy to become even more massive.

Still, that was not the end. The Silver Giant God’s upper right hand made a waving motion, with the ever-enlarging black hole hence dancing around in the Void like a meteor hammer and seemingly under the control of the Giant God’s gestures, wiping out legions of Evil Gods and Chaos spawns. Soon, Joshua made another motion as if ‘freeing’ something from his hand, and the black hole that had accelerated up to an unbelievable rate abruptly darted to the depths of the Void just like a missile, blasting all of the darkness along the way and leaving a huge, deep hole.

Before Joshua, who was a Demi Saint at the top of his power, even the legions of ordinary Evil Gods and spawns were no more frightening than tiny pests. Despite not using his Galactic Form of King of Searing Seal, he had easily penetrated the citadel of Chaos, and there was certainly no need to speak for his stronger form.

Be that as it may, the swarms of Chaos were beginning to react to the rapid advance of Joshua and the others. The multitudes of Evil Gods hence began to join together to form layers of distorted but sturdy barriers, ready to slow down the warriors and drown them within the tides of Chaos.

Still, having seen the unthinkable swarms of darkness and their charging barriers of gloom, Joshua cried out sonorously, and began to rotate his entire body, clenching both great sword and giant axe—it was not a simple whirling either, for he was using the technique that the Evil God of Cohesion had used to pull the infinite Chaos to himself deliberately just like a vortex, hence gathering and absorbing, even evolving! He was now a spiral vortex resembling a drill that was churning over the dark tentacles, and in the very instant that he burst out, he pierced through the million layers of dark barriers and then created a profoundly long path from the corpses of countless Evil Gods!

And when the warrior had penetrated through the thousands of layers of dark barriers, Joshua and a number of champions of Order only realized then that the dark swarms of endless Evil Gods were actually divided into different layers.

As a matter of fact, the entire dark swarm of Evil Gods resembled the layers of completely different stones sedimented into the lithosphere. Each layer was composed of countless similar Evil Gods, overlapping and hence forming the long tentacles, with ends no light could reach.

The first layer of Evil Gods was composed of ordinary civilizations which had fallen due to various irreversible incidents of natural disasters such as earthquakes, flood, an ice age, an atmosphere poisoned by volcanic gases, the distortion of planetary orbits, their star going supernova, the collision of two galaxies, or even the collision of two different worlds.

The second floor was generally similar too, but the fall of their former civilizations tend to be due to other things such as a change in their natural ecosystem, a defect in lifeforms, issues of social constructs, or the invasion of foreign races…the further the levels progressed, the more developed the Evil Gods’ original civilizations would be, and the more serious the distortion of their probability. In fact, the fall of such civilizations were mostly caused by the probability distortion of their own intelligent life and the civilization itself—in other words, the frontmost Evil Gods were from civilizations that had fallen to unstoppable natural calamity, while those further behind had fallen to self-destruction that should have entirely been avoidable, and could even have been caused by the civilization itself going astray.

Neither had anything to do with competence either: there were actually advanced civilizations amongst the former levels which were devastated due to galactic scale shifts that destroyed millions of worlds.

Still, the further behind one would progress, the more Evil Gods there would be.

“Perhaps the Evil Gods towards the very rear of the dark swarm might have been civilizations with downfalls that the Mastermind had personally seen to…or there is the possibility that they had thrown themselves into Chaos with the intend of allying themselves with their force.”

It was not entirely impossible, since Chaos was a form of power too. There would be no lack of beings who wish to study it and refine themselves—the cultists of Chao being a perfect example.

Nonetheless, Joshua’s hand did not dally a fraction as his mind swirled with such thoughts. He never stopped swinging both his weapons to cut down every attacking Chaos.

And it was in that very moment as Joshua’s gaze suddenly became somber, whereas the bodies of the many champions of Order who were slaying the Evil Gods alongside the Giant God froze.

With a harrowing cry that rang throughout the Void and stirring mournful thoughts, a warped vortex had appeared nearby and was materializing!

The first Demi Saint Evil God had appeared from the swarm of Chaos!

It was a phantom that reminded one of vengeful spirits, an incorporeal spirit form that even High Legends could not see at all if they did not focus their eyes. It had appeared out of nothingness and rapidly lunged towards Joshua.

The Evil God itself must have belonged to a Calamity-class civilization, and Joshua could see through its origins from a single glance: it was an Extraordinary civilization which had been devastated by the Extraordinary resurrections thanks to the powerful energy that the Great Mana Tide had brought to it. They had relied on Extraordinary machinery parts before, but the overflowing Extraordinary energy left all artificial creations useless while every perished soul in the civilization were brought back to life. Stimulated into insanity by the energy of the Mana Tide, 99% of all individuals were slaughtered in a single day, leaving the civilization to die.

It had been a powerful civilization which had fallen to its own similarly-powerful living animated artificial creations and their own ghosts. And now, the Spectral Evil God was approaching Joshua, with every other Evil God or spawn it passed by darting forward like itself, as if being controlled—and in the midst of their charge, all of those Chaotic forces were dissolving into almost see-through shadows that entered into the spirit form of the Demi Saint Evil God.

Spiritual possession, assimilation, erosion, control! Able to see that his enemy was unusually powerful at once, Joshua did not react in fear, but instead laughed loudly and moved out to face the Evil God!

The warrior did not fear enemies coming from his back. Because of his dazzling light and overly-conspicuous fire, every Evil God and spawn amongst the swarm only had their eyes on Joshua—they would not attack the other champions of Order, perhaps because they simply did not see them as a threat. Though it was definitely an insult, this was not the time for honor. One way or another, they could just stay behind Joshua and attack any Chaos and kill any Evil God coming at Joshua from behind, thus alleviating the pressure for him.

And thus, the four-armed Giant God and the invisible vengeful spirit collided. Like plants growing more roots, countless translucent silhouettes latched on to Joshua as if intent on invading and possessing him. To put it in another way, they would animate a part of Joshua’s own body to fight against Joshua himself, a trick that forced a foe to destroy itself and one which the Evil God happened to be adept at.

But on approach and before those spirits could reach him, they were dissipating into thin air from afar, even bursting into flames—even before they could move closer, they were fully ignited by the flames around the Giant God, which traced the energies keeping those spirit bodies to incinerate the Evil God instead! It was nothing other than the fiery waves stirred as Joshua charged forward, but it had directly routed the swarm spawning from the Demi Saint Evil God…and then, with a slash of the warrior’s sword, a crimson trail of flame arose upon the Void, the powerful force from the blade sweeping away and beating down the Spectral Evil God, leaving its true form in pieces!

As the colossal vengeful spirit was blown away, the pieces of its body which Joshua’s blade had ignited scattered across every direction. Hundreds of fragments the size of worlds fired away like burning meteors, sprinkling and crashing towards the legions of Evil Gods behind them and completely ignited them.

One of the larger pieces had even crashed a violent trail into the dark swarm, burning the countless Evil Gods and spawns while drawing a long black ditch painted in scarlet gold, igniting unending fires!

Still, such a strike only maimed the Spectral Evil God. Before it could be killed and blown away, it had already consumed swarms of other Evil Gods and spawns, rapidly recovering, while the second Demi Saint Evil God appeared right behind it!

It was a…something, with broken claws of flesh and blood reaching out from the Void. But before that Evil God could show itself and reveal its true form, a massive silver iron fist had been brought down to bear—Joshua did not have the time to spare to see what Evil God it was, what miserable past it experienced, or what caused its downfall, but was using the most pure, monumental, and unbelievable brute force to press down directly on the Evil God, squeezing it back into the Evil God swarms surging at them! The terrific power even crushed the surrounding Void, leaving only a bloody, muddled mess.

Soon, however, the iron fist relaxed and the unnamed Demi Saint Evil God promptly roared in rage, its flesh talons charging against as if to conjure its colossal and monstrous true form…the presence of its manifestation had already sent the Evil Gods around them flying, with countless weaker Evil Gods or spawns breaking down into pieces and splitting. Then, in the same moment they were destroyed, they too became a part of the flesh.

Nonetheless, a world-splitting giant axe was there to meet it.

Before the Demi Saint Evil God could fully compose itself, the giant axe, embodying the might to cut apart a thousand worlds, had directly chopped it apart, along with every single abomination in the endless Chaotic torrents behind it.

Even from the cosmos, one would see an excessively dazzling arc shining amongst the swarm of darkness. It darted through the curtain of gloom, tearing apart an extended portion of Chaos… though it would certainly thrill, it was simply miniscule in comparison to the unending collective of Chaos tentacles.

Still, for some reason or whether it had been an illusion, the tentacles that encircled the entire cosmos actually shifted away slightly at that single instant.

It was not actually an illusion—as the champions who had been standing guard in the cosmos, looking for a chance to escape through the fiery path Joshua had left while carrying the many shelter realms, they determined through hasty calculations that the infinite dark tentacles had definitely been shifted slightly. They had been diverted to another angle, instead of lunging fully at the cosmos.

But that was not actually good news, because greater calamity would hence come.

One could see that greater glooms amongst the endless tentacles of Chaos besieging the cosmos were detaching from the unending distortion and vaulting away. Those were all beings with presences that left others shuddering, causing uncountable anomalies even as they darted through the Void, and were certainly Demi Saint Evil Gods without any doubt.

Unstoppable, unbelievable, and certainly should not have been looked directly upon—even if they lacked in numbers, those Evil Gods whose sheer might appeared to eclipse the entire swarm began to gather around Joshua and the others. In fact, the multitude of Evil God legions at the tentacle tips were breaking away, turning into black shrouds covering all sight and enshrouding the entire cosmos.

The sight brought to one’s mind black moths extending as far as the eye could see, surrounding a single a bundle of raging flame.

It was a swarm of darkness capable of extinguishing all flame.

Eternity!

Eternity!

The uncountable Evil Gods were calling out in words assembled from infinite languages. The ever-existing Perished Eternities were no different from moths in the flame, calling out, wailing, roaring, and bellowing as they charged toward the single visible light: the other eternity which was still alive and burning, releasing boundless energy and possibilities.

The cold desired the warm, the dark wanted the light, the destroyed yearned for the unscathed, while the perished aimed for the still existent…the Evil Gods were basically an instinct without any consciousness. They were neither kind nor malicious, good nor evil—they simply had no intentions or any desires, just as they did not want to destroy. It was simply that one would be destroyed in if one approached them, and their so-called attack was not actually attacking, but a simple ‘touch’ in their own way.

As the Evil Gods of Chaos that could not see anything apart from Eternity finally saw the brightest eternity and its great radiance, what would they do?

Such was the truth behind ‘Evil God invasion’ and ‘End of Eras’. It was nothing more than the tale of a horde of moths lunging at the fire but also extinguishing it.

***

But Joshua already knew.

Back when he had slain the Evil God of Death and lent his ears to the tragic cries of endless Chaos, he had understood everything…just as how it was all he could do.

That was why the four-armed Giant God swung his great sword, bellowing as he cut down at the Spectral Evil God and Physical Evil God that were coming at him once again. Great power overflowed, splitting apart the oceanic Chaos torrent and opening a wide, extended path—with Joshua hence leading the others and continuing forward as far as they could.

What was more, Joshua did not merely limit himself to Steel Strength or the King of Searing Soul’s power, because he would use any power at his disposal to defeat his foes. Thus, as formless waves took shape in the Void and the surging force of the Great Mana Tide was stirred as well, all check and balance for energy was left in tatters: dimensional storms of peerless scale appeared out of nowhere in the Void and blew away the uncountable spawns and weaker Evil Gods, even crushing them down into nothingness.

Then, a transparent shield of ether turned into a sturdy wall, taking shape beside the warrior while blocking an Evil God’s charge, with the entity itself breaking into pieces, just like a moth that was crashing into a transparent glass wall with the resolve to die. As if it came at no cost, the unending ranks of elemental spirits were being summoned and grown like fruits out of Joshua’s body, before being animated and imbued with power.

Great divine power and vigorous psionic energy fused and converged in the Void, before finally materializing into the prided Infinity Dynamo of Divine Energy of the Takurians above his King of Searing Soul crown. However, that Infinity Dynamo of Divine Energy created entirely from the strength of one was even stronger than the one containing the collective power of the entire Takurian race. It rapidly rotated as if turning worlds, the combined form of divine energy releasing myriad colored radiance, while its mere existence crushed all things into fine dust wherever its light would reach, breaking apart the dimensional storm that was the Great Mana Tide as well and wiping out trillions of Chaos.

Even Nature Power was being used, with colossal Void plants taking root over the corpses of Evil Gods and swallowing tremendous energy as they cleansed all that was turbid around them. Illusory fleets were appearing out of thin air as well, unleashing salvos of stunning power from their main batteries to intercept the Evil Gods coming from afar.

Be that as it may, even after having destroyed millions, there would be still be endless Chaos coming, pouring forth from across every direction. The battle was far from over, and it was still too soon to relax. Even so, even if it was immeasurably difficult, the other gods could see that Joshua was laughing heartily.

Could he be feeling joy in this battle that could not get any worse?

Could it be that such a thing like war was really his happiness and purpose?

It was certainly the case as much it was not.

Joshua swung his giant axe like a toy, even if the mass of this superweapon alone could be the core of a galaxy. Its brushes could destroy the composition of a weaker Evil God, the winds it could stir cutting gaping wounds into the dark swarm. Each of Joshua’s laugh would mean the fall of a particular powerful Evil God, which in turn would fuse into the giant axe, adding to its devastating power.

Happiness? Purpose? Perhaps.

However, he was alive not because of individual purpose or selfish happiness, but for bonds.

***

A life was bonded to their parents at birth.

A life was bonded to their friends and instructor as they grew up.

A life was bonded to their companions, comrades, and partners through their struggles in life.

A life was bonded to kin, wife, children, and all the many acquaintances as they brought life to new generations and became accomplished.

Could the existence of life itself be in the purpose of obtaining personal happiness and meaning?

No, certainly not. It had nothing to do with purpose or happiness.

It was possible for a life to have never experienced any happiness or exist without purpose, living muddleheadedly and accomplishing no ideals, nor having the ability to do so. They would not even be able to do the things they loved day after day…but should such a miserable, tragic and unhappy life be denied because it was without happiness or purpose? Would existences with connections and support be compelled to determined severance just because they could not succeed?

No, absolutely not.

Regardless of how tormenting or how frustrating it would be, even when he lived in a world without miracles—an age of Great Unity where peace was in all things—Joshua van Radcliffe would also live on diligently, never giving up on life and his existence.

He therefore would not allow anyone else, or even himself to deny it.

At the very beginning, in this world (the Multiverse) that he had no bonds with, Joshua’s purpose of existence was really the simple aspect of battle, because it was his single bliss and meaning. Still, as time passed on and countless bonds were forged, he began to earn kin, friends, companions, and targets, mentors and those whom he liked.

But now, his battles and his life were no longer so simple-minded. The man who was alleged to never change had shifted ever so little from a delicate aspect: his life was no longer his own, but now belonged to all the bonds he has.

Even if he would no longer feel passion for conflict or be expectant of powerful foes, it was all in the name of meeting the hopes and expectations that all beings placed upon him. The warrior would hence still be the warrior, only ever fighting carefreely and with his full power.

Such was the bond between ‘Self’ and ‘all things’.

***

At the moment, the champions of Order had penetrated deep into the ranks of the Chaos swarm, but the passage which they had made was unbelievably long, and could have been the length of several galaxies—and with things having progressed as such, over a dozen Demi Saint Evil Gods had darted towards them from the other side of dimensions to engage Joshua in a melee.

Even if he had assumed the Galactic Form of the King of Searing Soul and had ascended to obtain the greatest power amongst Demi Saints, Joshua still found himself having a hard time against dozens of powerful foes with varied abilities, which were equally powerful and could hold up against himself for some time. Moreover, he was now behind the lines of the swarms of Chaos, with many Ultimate Evil Gods harassing him by attacking at the cost of their own lives, preventing him from fighting at full power or focus in destroying those powerful Demi Saint Evil Gods.

There was even a moment as excessive numbers of Evil Gods blew themselves up to divert Joshua’s defenses so lightly, allowing the joint attack of two Demi Saint Evil Gods to strike true on his left chest, punching a huge hole into his body—even if he had at once set fire on surrounding Evil Gods and used them as fuel to heal the wound, Joshua had unquestionably became passive in the skirmish, and hence could only parry the escalating full-power assault of the enemy.

But that was when a familiar deity came forward.

The God of Love and Death had been staying behind Joshua to stop the Evil Gods coming from behind with other champions of Order. It had to be said that they had done very well, and if Joshua was the drill which dug a huge path ahead, they were those pushing it forward and protecting it, allowing the drill to advance without caring for anything behind him.

But now, just guarding his back was not enough. That was why the divine being had arisen, facing her own end with composure.

Standing over Joshua’s shoulder, violet divine power began to dance and condense, finally manifesting as the divine crest of the Withered Heart.

“I have reached my limit.”

Unlike her usual slightly radical emotional state, the elven goddess was absolutely serene, no longer acting like a god of the aspects of love and death but a real elf, silently watching the falling leaves and blossoming flowers of home. On the other hand, behind Yolanda, the Withered Heart was reviving, pulsating and throbbing—its dried flesh and blood becoming fresh, even alive.

But in return, the divine power of the deity was surging wildly at a rate that was not normal at all, like nuclear reactor that was going out of control. Irrepressible and enormous tides were charging in the Root, awaiting the instant when the god would consume herself and her enemies.

Even so, the goddess was not concerned, and merely continued, “It is only with a dead heart that passionate love could carried, and anything that lives would never be able to bear the misery of that which they love. It is the spiral and pinnacle of love and death which I have reached, and in yearning for the things I love and death, I have chosen the latter. But do not believe that I have been pursuing death, o warrior—for my death is for all the beings whom I love as well.”

With those words, the human form of the elven goddess vanished instantly. Meanwhile, the Withered Heart was completely alive…or the Beating Heart, as it should be called now, which was similar to an ordinary heart that thumped powerfully when a person was near something which they yearned for. Pulsating strongly, it emanated lifeforce without end and with unending vigor, and just by beating, its great Nature Power, lifeforce, and divine power had deflected or blocked most attacks from ordinary or Ultimate Evil Gods!

At the same time, the heart neither paused nor hesitated to entering Joshua’s body at once like a mirage, fusing as one with him!

All at once, every being present could hear the cosmic rumbling exuding from the chaotic Void around them.

[Joshua, I can see that you might truly enjoy battle and the slaughter, but you have not been really expectant of it, but merely waited. What you truly desire and yearned aren’t such things, but whatever it is you love and whatever it is you want to do, you must make haste, for these are the final moments.]

[And in the end, I can only offer you a blessing.]

The four-armed Giant God neither sighed in mourning or emotion, but kept roaring and rushing forward, with all the blows and injury that he suffered cleared away. A goddess in the state of Divine Death was granting him power at the cost of her own death, and as he ran into a Demi Saint Evil God resembling a prism that kept detaching and assembling itself, the warrior lifted his burning great sword aloft, dazzling divine flame burning as he swung it down determinedly!

Everything was torn apart in an instant. The Prism Evil God was directly cut in two and a magma flame devoured it from within its body and extended. Boundless flame hence waged upon the Evil God’s form, callous streams of heat piercing it and destroying every inch of its structure—the Demi Saint Evil God was hence turned into a torch with just a single swing, igniting the countless Evil Gods and Chaos spawns around itself and turning everything into ashes!

Still, killing a Demi Saint Evil God did not actually turn things around. The endless fight continued as the Chaos that was without end gushed forward, and all Joshua could do was to protect himself as almost ten Demi Saint Evil Gods surrounded him, having no strength to spare in aiding other champions of Order—they were all now in the depths of the swarm, and apart from the burning trail of flame behind, everywhere else was the squirming darkness.

To advance and for hope, one champion after another would come forward to block a single blow for Joshua or lure away a horde of Ultimate Evil Gods. All of them would hence sacrifice themselves, thousands of years of cultivation, all their hopes and ambitions hence gone.

There were even champions who had lost their way in the prolonged charge. Having left the range of Joshua’s flame, they would be occupied by Evil Gods and unable to leave, hence fated to die silently without leaving a mark or anything behind. Still, every champion and God with Joshua feared nothing, as those who followed Joshua into this death had chosen to become corpses (for all living beings) anyway.

Even so, there would still be an end to the slaughter, just as the swarm of Evil Gods would ultimately exhaust. Moreover, what everyone had wanted to do was to simply open a path heading out the other side of the legions of Evil Gods—and as he maintained his melee against the Demi Saint Evil Gods, Joshua realized that the end of the trail was nearby and ahead.

But now, only a handful of Legendary champions from foreign civilizations and familiar faces remained beside Joshua.

Before them, there were a dozen Demi Evil Gods of various forms, great power, and unusual abilities blocking the path ahead.

In fact, Demi Saint Evil Gods that could destroy galaxies and stir storms in cosmos were now coming out in droves. That would undoubtedly be a complete case of collapse in balance, as no such thing had ever appeared over the history of the Multiverse—but given that what Joshua would do was something no one had done before, it was only natural that an unprecedented enemy would appear.

As a dozen Demi Saint Evil Gods attacked with no instinct for self-preservation, Joshua had a hard time making a breakthrough, not to mention that the trail of flame he had left behind him was gradually being consumed by the darkness. That trail had been able to repel most Evil Gods, and since the Evil Gods would pursue the warrior by reflex and would not deliberately go to places they abhorred, the trail had actually been very safe for moving the shelters. Moreover, with every eye of every God focused on the warrior himself, its stability had been further ensured.

Now, however, perhaps because the battle had gone on for too long, the trail of flame was disappointing. Surrounded and assaulted by the many Evil Gods, Joshua simply could not even use his strength to maintain it.

That was why the only way was sacrifice—continuous sacrifice.

The first was an otherworld champion, an Ultimate Legend whose form brought to mind a mountain of mana crystals. He did not say much, but simply guffawed as he dashed forward and struck an oncoming Demi Saint Evil God and began to crumble. However, even as the mountain crumbled, the crystals would fall off and released greater power and light. Then, in the split second as the crystal mountain fully shattered and every crystal self-destructed, the energy that the champion had stored for dozen thousands of years fully exploded. Not only had it stopped the nearest Demi Saint Evil God, it was even pushed away into a nearby swarm!

With one less Demi Saint Evil God obstructing him, Joshua finally had the effort to spare and relayed the energy which kept the trail of flame stable…but that was far from enough. He could not defeat the Demi Saint Evil Gods in a short time and clear a path to the other side of the swarm.

Hence, it was the moment for the second sacrifice.

“I know what you are thinking, young man.”

The God of Conservation and Reformation stepped out. The divine dwarf had been using his steel-covered tome as a flail to hammer away at one Evil God after another, and at this very moment, there was nostalgia in his face. That being said, he was not looking at Joshua but at the pitch-darkness of Chaos, along with the gloom that was the Evil Gods. “You are completely different from the Sage, and yet so identical too,” he sighed. “You geniuses, monsters of such unbelievable power…do you really believe that us mediocres and mortals cannot tell what your true intentions are?

“Joshua, do you think that you are the only capable one? Aren’t you needing us to help you go forward at the moment?”

Joshua opened his mouth as if wanting to say something, but Ezerg had already moved up and walked his last step. The humanoid form of the dwarven deity diminished, with the divine crest of a thick tome and an iron hammer hence appearing behind it.

[This time, I shall be going on ahead. I really don’t hope to see you, young man, because every time I do, I would remember that happy, delightful, nostalgic but irrecoverable age of my youth.]

Like a gushing river, unparalleled divine power which drove Divine Death was also guiding the power from the Root, streaking forward. Another Demi Saint Evil God’s attack was hence blocked and its entire form pushed away, temporarily unable to return to the fight. Joshua himself certainly would not allow such a chance to slip by, and rushed into the enemy formation, maiming several Evil Gods and killing one Demi Saint Evil God, before advancing another remarkable distance.

***

In the end, with the sacrifice of one champion after another and Joshua’s consecutive slaying of Demi Saint Evil Gods, every cost and battle now held meaning.

Throughout the fearsome melee, Joshua simply could not tell what ability his opponents possessed or even their appearance, much less their history. But as Joshua struck out with another heavy vertical slash that sent a Demi Saint Evil God resembling a collection of luminous droplets flying towards the endless distance, an exit cutting through the swarm of Evil Gods to the other side of the Silent Void finally appeared in front of the survivors!

“Finally! We did it!”

“There is a path! There is a path ahead!”

Every remained champion was cheering. Even if the situation was still dire and accommodated no negligence, even the calm and composed Igor was actually smiling.

The swarm of Evil Gods was penetrable— by moving the shelter realms of all civilizations here through the trail of flame and crossing out to the Silent Void for another cosmos, the ‘seeds’ of this cosmos could be preserved.

There was certainly nothing they could do to help the other beings that had remained in the present cosmos…there was no way to save them no matter how much the others would rack their brains.

One way or another, they could abandon this era to the Evil Gods. The next era, where many cosmoses would join hands in fighting the Chaos, they would absolutely excel and be more complete than this era!

With special communicators that Joshua had specially invented, everyone began to make contact, with every champion still waiting in the Chaos showing joy upon receiving news of the breakthrough—soon, those champions who had already prepared everything brought along the shelter realms, prepared to depart along the trail of flame and go out beyond the swarm.

But at that single moment, the countless Restoration Beams and Redemption Beams were beginning to shine.

***

An azure flame was starting to spread from all corners of the present cosmos, heading off to other stars.

Just as everyone were left astonished by the sudden sight, a mysterious power had suddenly been unleashed away from the beams, directly restraining every champion ready to escape with the shelter realms, keeping them where they were and immobile! Even the surviving champions of Order who had been fighting beside Joshua had all been struck down by the great power, hence falling back into their present cosmos along the trail of flame!

“Aaargh! What are you doing, Joshua!!”

Unable to free themselves no matter how strong they struggled, the God of Might and Justice who had been pushing the Ether Ring World with the God of Life bellowed in rage. Regardless, silver chains shot out from the Void and held every Mycroft champion tightly on the spot, even as Israel burned with rage to looked up at the other side. “So many people and gods have sacrificed themselves, all just to clear that path and for this very moment! Joshua, don’t let everyone’s blood go to waste!”

Even so, the roars and curses of innumerable champions were only met with a greater force from the warrior.

At the same time, the azure flame began to spread from the luminous beams, igniting the worlds around them and growing one Steel Python after another.

Joshua was harnessing even more power from the cosmos.

Although the energy was far less than the energy gathered in the Lost Galaxy where everything had been prepared, the sheer number after Joshua’s years of spreading Restoration Beams and Redemption System across the cosmos meant that the energy gathered was much greater than that gathered from the Lost Galaxy!

Hence, with such plundering, the light of the entire cosmos briefly dimmed a fraction, with that immeasurably magnificent power transcending dimensions to converge on the body of the man.

“Ah, aaaaaargh!”

Joshua’s scream of anguish, which resounded over the cosmos and echoing through flame and Restoration Beams, made even the wrathful God of Might and Justice pause. It was the first time he had heard such a voice from the warrior, for it was not a scream that the warrior ever allowed to escape himself even in the face of death.

The deity simply could not imagine what sort of torment and oppression could force such a cry out of Joshua.

And at the very next instant, faraway across dimensions in the dark swarm.

A colossal Dominated Space began to expand and burst out from the core of the Giant God of Silver, having used the energy gathered from endless galaxies as fuel!

The path which the Ultimate Sublimator Collective had taken was given life in Joshua’s body. Like a burst of light, the silver Dominated Space launched towards all that was dark, directly touching, dominating, and eroding—the power of Absolute was consuming the Evil Gods without mercy, burning them as fuel for its own use!

Hence, every Evil God caught in Joshua’s Dominated Space were all torched to provide him with unthinkable power. It was even actually turning the tables and dominating the tip of one of the Chaos tentacles like an accelerant, at once setting fire on the vanguards of Chaos legions to burn fiercely like the greatest torch ever in the vastness of the Silent Void!

The wildly burning flame also completely ignored allegiances, incinerating all there was, even Joshua himself—if not for the armor forged from countless Steel Pythons, the warrior would certainly have caught aflame.

In that moment as the flame set fire upon the unending Chaos, the sheer energy and scale of it surpassed several cosmoses. It was just like the moment when the Sage had activated the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds to connect all the stars: every life across the Multiverse faintly felt something unraveling in some faraway place.

And the stronger they were, the greater they would feel it. The infinite champions and gods of other cosmic races all hence left their world and entered the Void, looking towards that distant spot in doubt and fear.

Hence, they would see the igniting star and its endless light.

***

Now, Joshua was using every path he learnt and could use to its limit. After claiming the energy of the cosmos, the warrior had reached the limit of his Giant God form.

At that moment, every person still observing the dark tentacles then realized in shock that they had all turned directions.

Their target was no longer the cosmos.

Even after having gathered there and prepared to destroy it, the calculations and predictions of the Evil Gods had arched away, essentially brushing away from the edges of the cosmos.

Eventually, all of them headed towards Joshua.

For the briefest time, a single individual stood above all life in a cosmos.

We still have time. This is not the worst yet.

We still have a chance.

It was as if the man had said those words just a moment ago.

And now, the final chance had come.

Ceasing the anguish as if everything was torn apart and venting his rage, Joshua looked up silently at the swarms of Chaos that were completely in fire, along with the many Demi Saint Evil Gods appearing one after another from the swarms.

“A fraction of heat releases a fraction of light.”

Clenching his sword, axe, and fists, he smiled leisurely in that place where no one else was present, revealing his terrible sense of humor. “But what if I am as hot as a billion fractions?”

The answer was very simple.

Therefore, I shall be the torch.

The only light.