Soul of Searing Steel - Chapter 581

Chapter 581






Flesh and lymph incinerated under the combined force of blaze and fiery rays, while cysts and tumors were crushed under shifting mass and transformed gravity boundaries. Against the full unbound might of the Nuclear Heart, the greatsword in his hand, as well as Joshua who gulped down the enemy's flesh for energies nonchalantly, the Void Mother's seemingly invincible immune system were defeated on every turn.

The Void Mother's ten-kilometer class behemothic body was segregated in different layers by a chitin outer shell, cuticle steel skin, dense muscles and cartilage membrane, under of which lay all sorts of bizarrely shaped organs and vulnerable flesh. Along with its crystalline energy joints—the psionic crystallization that supplied energy to every part of its gargantuan body, it meant that the Void Mother itself was a kingdom, and itself a king who ruled everything from the depths of its mental hub.

Therefore, the source of the psionic crystallizations—the energy core that provided everything, was hence the skies and lands where its citizens lived.

But like a wrathful torrent that engulfed everything in its way, Joshua's aim was to kill that king, destroy that kingdom, its skies, and lands. And he could do it.

In the twentieth second after Joshua moved at a speed that even the Void Mother's nervous system could not respond to, breaking through its shell and steel skin to directly enter its vulnerable innards as well as flesh construct, he suddenly stopped in his tracks and frowned at everything before his eyes.

For what had abruptly appeared before Joshua was no longer the Void Mother's body that was over thirty kilometers long and assembled out of dark-green flesh and all manners of lymph nodes, but a starkly different unknown region that was devoured entirely by darkness.

Standing within the Void Mother's organ cavity that was squirming, Joshua was surrounded by the definition of decomposition and charring. The greatsword in his hand was emanating a gravity field that could destroy cities due to his fluctuating Steel Strength, while his body was releasing heat that could boil great rivers. Behind his body were horrors that would not have appeared even in nightmares—tumors dripping with sticky goo and viscous fluids were vibrating like the heart and releasing green psionic radiance. Before him, however, was a darkness like space, as if another world located in the shadow had suddenly appeared before his eyes, seducing any arrogant individual and guiding them to their deaths.

Joshua had stopped because he felt an instinct of unease. There was rarely anything that could inspire such sensations in Legendary champions, and this dark space in the Void Mother's body was one of them. Still, it was not fear that gave him pause, but because the remaining Order Power was stirring restlessly in his body like boiling magma that was keen on ejecting out, which obstructs his energy output.


And two seconds after Joshua had paused, infinite tentacles and meatball-like Void aberrations appeared within the corridor of flesh he created by crashing through forcefully with brute strength and searing heat. Their entire bodies grew full with serrated teeth and mandibles, these 'white cells' of the Void Mother's body and immune system rapidly caught up to him—they had been unable to keep up with Joshua's sudden onslaught, but now could reach their target after their target stopped moving. These unusually shaped Void aberrations which lived within the Void Mother's body swiftly opened their petal-like mouths and shot out streaks of dark green energy ejection that surged towards Joshua.

While it looked plain, the energy ejection possessed an inconceivable corrosive ability. One of the smaller Void aberrations, unable to aim straight in a hurry, skewed and sprayed its ejection onto the Void Mother's flesh, eroding that spot into a huge cavity. It had been a flesh wall that Joshua had to use force to break apart despite his million-ton weight, while all substance within—organic or psionic crystalline—all dispersed into matter particles invisible to the naked eye. In fact, it was more appropriate to call it fission than corrosion, and if Nostradamus had been present, he would certainly have cried out in surprised that it had the same wondrous effect with high-tier 'Splitting Spells' despite being another technique entirely.

Even so, all of it were frivolous to Joshua. The dark green energy ejection struck true on the warrior's Steel body but dispersed like a normal stream of water without a scratch on his silver shell; it was as harmless as clear water to highly-dense Steel Strength despite being capable of tearing apart crystals and metals. Joshua did not even spare a thought to evade those attacks, and only diffused his silver greatsword before assembling the black greataxe in response. The greataxe appeared to have moved just a little when streaks of dark spatial cracks appeared, splitting all aberrations and tentacles in two. 

By recharging his energy through Steel Strength, Joshua could swiftly fire up a gravity field of several million tons to crush his opponents. It was the original form of the Steel Sword, and by leading the vast gravity field to assemble, tear space apart and produce an unbridgeable gap within a small space, it adhered to the principle of a spatial slash. After ascending into Legendary, the warrior had lost his lifeforce and combat aura—powers that had accompanied him for a long time, but received far more powerful and useful tools.

After vanquishing his pursuers, Joshua did not keep fighting against the Void Mother's virtually endless ranks of immune system, turning and accelerating at full capacity instead to the dark and unknown region with no hesitation instead.

He certainly knew that the unfamiliar lightless space must be a measure the Void Mother had in place to protect its core region, with perhaps innumerable attacks he might be unable to withstand. Still, after having observed its psionic flow and assembly, Joshua knew that it also hides the Void Mother's mind hub, and what could be all of its energy cores—all of which were his targets.

Nobody could kill such a colossal superior being without destroying its hub or energy core. Apart from pushing it into a star and utilize the power of the 'Initial Flame' to incinerate it into nothingness, Midgardian technology and his abilities would be helpless against it—not a single one out of the four suggestions that Joshua had told the Mother Tree were joke, for all were the truth as things stood.

That was why, even if he knew that it was a trap and trick set by the enemy, Joshua would never hesitate to step within and destroy it in its entirety.

But just as Joshua strode into the dark region, the unexpected happened.

He felt that he had fallen into the boundless Void, with every Void aberration that was chasing after him vanishing from the Void Mother's flesh cavity that brimmed with psionic energies. Beyond that, the warrior even felt that the Psionic Soar status in his body was rapidly vanishing—within one breath, the monumental might gathered from the hundreds and millions of Midgardian psionics from their home planet which could tear the Void apart was barred by a malevolent force from beyond the Void, leaving only the strength that Joshua had.

Within the instant he reacted, his four-hundred-meter-tall Steel body also shrunk to its usual near-hundred-meter-tall height on the Mycroft Continent. In that very moment, Joshua's mass was one-fourteenth of its peak, but while his energy was also shredded it remained one-fourth of its pinnacle levels in Stellaris. The Psionic Soar status was assuredly frightening—energies from billions of Midgardians had entered the Mother Tree and far more formidable than a deity's blessing. It was not as if he could go back and forth a few times and pester the Mother Tree for more, but now that the link to the power was lost, it could no longer transcend space and gather over Joshua's body.

Be that as it may, Joshua had no time to feel the sudden feebleness since he never panicked over the 'unexpected', and would instead only do what he should under the current circumstances. After confirming that he temporarily could not regain the Psionic Soar buff, the warrior quickly used the Order power that the Azurite left in his body which had also boiled for a moment just a while before looking around to explore to the truth within the dark space.

But what he saw were incalculable pairs of eyes, just like the stars.

No, not eyes. After his initial surprise, Joshua quickly reacted. What was hidden within the unilluminated space were not pairs of eyes staring at him but infinite symbols that floated in the midst of the Void and flickered like neon lights in the night. They hid within the darkness and yet were diversely sized and colored, their numbers immeasurable and filling the entire world.

"Separating the psionic supply from the Midgardians and so mysterious… A world of mental imagery? A materialized boundary? Or a demiplane within a body?"

All were possible since nothing was out of place when it came to minions of the Evil God. While there were quite a number of conjectures, Joshua did not spare too much time on discerning the truth behind the dark space, instead using his agile senses to swiftly discover the concealed but surging flow behind the dark space. It was nine streams of huge rivers that flowed in and out from the Void Mother's body—eight were spread across all directions which should reasonably be its energy core, while the remaining one which was also the largest streams to the direct center or what should be the mind hub.

Flexing his limbs, Joshua could sense that he was not so weak after losing Psionic Soar to the point that he would fall on the first blow he suffered, which was why he soared directly towards the energy river that was the closest to him in the very next moment. He was not planning to destroy the Void Mother's mind hub straightaway since he had not seen what thought process it had—if he did wreck that seemingly important thing, a monster that appeared to still have order in its actions would simply become a complete creature of Chaos. That was why it was better to simply lay waste to the closest energy core, and decrease one-eighth of the Void Mother's energy.

A boom echoed as nuclear power born from the fusion of atomic particles erupted out from Joshua's back and beneath his feet, drawing out a long belt of light. The belt did not last long, however, and was consumed by the incessantly surging fog-like darkness—Joshua noticed the fact, and kept alert against the darkness that could absorb gases that were dozens of thousand degrees hot.

But before the vigilant warrior could arrive at the energy core which was nearest to him, the Void Mother's mind hub that was in the dead center of the darkness suddenly flared up with a profound and substantial spiritual power that could only be an amalgamation of countless beings. It was even distorting space itself, striking with accuracy on Joshua who could only sense it but could not focus his resistance in time.

Thus, the darkness utterly enveloped him in the next instant.

Light and shadow shifted as if a thousand sunrises and sunsets had passed. When Joshua swiftly regained consciousness from the Void Mother's spiritual blast, he saw a wondrous sight.

A modern, prosperous, peaceful and calm world.

As thick dark clouds cascaded and concealed sunlight that appeared once in years, a shower that dampened the world fell throughout the world of Robel as yellow raindrops seeped into the land. Cultivated fungi were happily growing in the wet humus and spraying out huge fogs of spores, while a fleshed plant that was half the height of a human flexed its branches and leaves beneath the nurture of the rain, growing into wide green paths. The inhabitants of Robel who had taken refuge within their own homes were also coming out and breathed in the air filled with spores with no worries, before treading on the green plant path and crawled towards their respective destinations.

Living under the thick atmosphere, the inhabitants of Robel where rain kept failing were unique beings. They were in essence a parasitic fungus that propagated by invading the mental organs of other creatures, devouring their host's brains bit by bit as infants before replacing it, spreading spores before the husk aged so that their progeny could latch on to other creatures.

It sounded extremely cruel, but to them, it was just as normal as how human hunted beasts for food. There was no variation in the crux between the two since the competition between the living was so callous.

But it was something in the distant past. Since the Robelians used six millennia to conquer the entire world and protected all remaining uninfected beings through their new ecosystem, they no longer forced themselves upon the mental organs of others. In fact, these parasites that possessed awe-inspiring intelligence had cultivated a particular worm species through biotechnology. The species itself was unintelligent and soon become the 'bodies' source of their race.

Having solved the issue of reproduction, the Robelians hence truly strode towards prosperity.

As parasites that had invaded multitudinous beings and having endless genetic information, the accomplishments of the Robelians was considered benchmarks in biotechnology. Two hundred years after unification, they had completely solved the issue of food source through ecosystem mutation—their favorite diet were the spores sprayed out by the 'agricultural mushrooms' that grew across the world, and were so limitless that the Robelians just had to breathe to absorb enough spores to survive. Different genetically altered creatures also became their pathways, their houses, their tools to fly and explore worlds.

A majestic civilization of living beings. Without crime, unemployment, and war, all Robelians lived in stability and enjoyed the welfare provided by their unified government.

Joshua looked on at the sight, knowing that he may have unwittingly resonated with the Void Mother through his identity as King of Searing Soul. He tried to break through the illusion but was always unsuccessful, and with nothing else to do, he could only keep watching as the illusion played out.

The illusion continued.

Having solved the issue of food, the Robelians who had altered their entire ecosystem into a wonderland felt that they were now gods. They could manipulate bloodline inheritances of any lifeform and create an imagined being, even building living airships that could travel in the void through extraordinary living technology. It thrilled their race extremely since they thirsted to possess new genetic information of more living things, and desired to head to other living worlds to attain their gene vault to construct add more bricks for their evolution.

But soon, these sentient parasites realized that what prevented them from leaving their world was not technology but lifeforms—it takes a decade or decades for a Void ship to go on a round trip for exploration of other worlds. The average lifespan of a Robel being, however, was less than thirty, and that was even an outcome after they had gone through multiple physical mutations to delay their death.

Ultimately, they were fungal composite beings. Their ancestors would be born in dawn and die in dusk while they themselves could live over twenty years at most—even so, their race that was never once concerned about their physical death had now changed.

We must control the evolution of our own race.

Lifespan cannot be an obstacle to the development of civilization.

The debate on the aspect of lifespan hence started to spread among the Robelians. These fungal beings that lived like plants rarely came to conflict or assemble to 'suggest' things the government should do, but things had now changed. Most Robelians began to raise the subject of commencing 'physical empowerment mutations' to their administration—they could accept that they were not undergoing voyages to other worlds because of enmity from other powerful races, but could not accept that being restrained by some nonsensical lifespan.

Thus, the project [Sublimator] began, becoming the first national urgent priority research, with countless Robelians joining in the program and contributing part of their support in the grand undertaking. In fifty years, the project ended, for they had initial success.

[Sublimator Mark VI], otherwise known as [Autonomous Lifeform Mutation Virus]—a most advanced biotechnology that the Robelians employed to create an artificial Nano-class super virus. Tailored to the life essence of Robelians, it would change all cells within them once they entered their body. After pervading through the primeval cells, it would change them into super-cells that possessed endless mitosis ability and could supply sufficient energy, greatly empowering the Robelians' vigor.

Due to the Sublimator being a virus at its core, it did not have to be injected into the Robelians' body like a vaccine—all it took was to spread it across the atmosphere and the entire civilization and race could be empowered at once. Five hundred volunteer test-subjects showed promising results, with both their life essence and mental processing greatly improved. As a result, after some fiery debates, the Robelian government finally decided to spread the Sublimator virus globally and free of charge so that the entire race would develop collectively.

Joshua looked on as these fungal patristic creatures that were supremely intelligent created the artificial molecular machine assembly—otherwise known as the Sublimator virus—that could only be seen in microscopic vision within their labs. The warrior whose expression never once twitched against any calamity began to change almost indiscernibly, but he soon had not the mood to stay calm.

On the third day after the Robelians spread the Sublimator virus across their world, the species-wide mutations were completed and they thus attained the lifespan of over five thousand years that they could only previously dreamed of—a body that lived almost eternally. Every Robelian exploded in euphoria and rejoiced without restraint to usher the dawn of a brand-new era that they decidedly named 'Sublime'.

Only one thing exceeded their expectations—the Sublimator Mark VI virus that was the cornerstone of mutations should have assimilated with the Robelians' cells after their sublimation task was completed, becoming part of their immune system. But perhaps some of the virus had developed an anomaly after going hundreds and millions of mitosis processes, they never stopped their animation and instead maintained their staunch evolutionary mutation for their host.

On the seventy-third day following the beginning of the Sublime era, the Sublimator virus which never ended their mutations had concluded their fifth autonomous upgrade. Their structure was now completely different from the Mark VI version—their host now possessed ten times the vigor and strength. Thirty days later, the Sublimator Mark XIX could now sense the ionic particles in the atmosphere, while their hosts would involuntarily awaken extraordinary powers which in turn bred widespread populations of extraordinary individuals throughout Robelian society. Another twelve days later, Sublimator Mark XXX concluded their self-evolutionary mutation and now possessed the ability to survive independently in the natural world.

Joshua felt a chill despite not being cold at the sight. He was watching the sequences in fast-forward mode, but was still able to discern every moment distinctly as a Legendary champion. Even so, the warrior could not help mustering strength in his hand in his desire to destroy everything before him—the super-virus that was self-evolving and altering at such unimaginable speeds was so terrifying that any being would feel a genuine disgust and terror from the bottom of their hearts.

The Robelians that were reveling in their species' sublimation and awakening of extraordinary abilities had found out late on that the Sublimator virus was spreading hurriedly in the natural world. Four days later, the super-virus that had completely diverged from its original path began to sprint wildly across the path of lifecycle, mutation, and evolution like a berserk ox, appearing at every corner of the world, appearing in polar icecaps seventy degrees below or underwater volcanos. Every living immune system would crumble at once in their presence, and neither heavy metals nor acid were helpful against the nanoparticle shells they had evolved. The Robelians fell into panic, but the Sublimator virus that had uttered assumed control over their immune and nervous systems had no concern about the opinions of their creators.

Seventy-seven hours later, the ecosystem within the world of Robel fell to chaos. Multifarious plants and gigantic fungi that had developed anomalies and yet were filled with life appeared globally, while the Robelians began to mutate benignly as well. In fifty-two hours, the entire world became a nurturing farm of alien tumors and blisters, with any Robelians who intended to resist being devoured by fleshed plants in unpainful cries one after another, eventually turning into new blisters—or more precisely, nurturing sacs. Even at that stage, the Sublimator virus that had evolved for over three hundred cycles was still loyally carrying out its duty, exhausting all efforts to mutate their creators and sublimating them into a state compatible with their living form.

In twenty-four hours, the Sublimator virus felt sunlight for the first time.

Behemothic towers of fungi clusters, reminiscent of plant stems, grew out of the substantial humus soil that covered the world of Robel, piercing the thick cloud layers that concealed the skies to enter the atmosphere. Against the powerful sunlight, the fungal pillar spread its sac, spreading its inestimable legions of huge spores while simultaneously absorbing energies, utterly altering the entire world of Robel.

Giant tentacles swept down from the atmosphere and dragged out every surviving resistance force from their fortresses. It was not slaughter but assimilation to an elevated state, and yet such a noble objective was never acknowledged by the Robelians. Nevertheless, all their struggles and bioweapons were child's play in the face of their own finest creation, while the Sublimator virus also gradually became aware of the fact—to assimilate with their creators was to sublimate themselves.

And so, the once prosperous Robelian civilization died in days, while the unnamable monster of a super-virus that had comprehensively metamorphosized devoured and assimilated every ecosystem and lifecycle of the entire world including the seemingly infinite plankton in the oceans. Its tentacles probed out over the atmosphere and formed winged-shaped umbrella leaves to absorb the rich energies from the sun. Hence, the superior being that had assimilated a global ecosystem finally finished its first purpose—to bring ultimate sublimation for the Robelians.

It was a demon created in the name of nobleness, an evil nurtured in the name evolution. Under its benevolent nurturing, it learned destruction, and swallowed a whole world into its bowels.

Joshua watched speechlessly at the Robelian world that was now a dark green hell of flesh. It may appear to be a vision of heaven for the Sublimator virus, but to all other beings it was no different from the Abyss. Then, he saw a living airship breaking through the dimensional barrier in decades and arrived within the void, in search of more information on stronger ecosystems so that their Mother could evolve.

Since it was a super-virus engineered for Robel lifeforms, the Sublimator virus may not possess the same frightening infection ability against other worlds, but its stalwart vigor and ability self-evolve and assimilate was not lost—and became precisely the method it searched and assimilated one world after another. Therefore, the name of the [Evil God of Pestilence] began to spread across the Multiverse—a destruction without destruction.

"That's not even an Evil God… a vengeful spirit left after the death of a world? What a joke!"

As the illusion slowly dissipated, Joshua muttered in a deep voice within the darkness, the greataxe remaining in his hand. "It's a demon that had escaped from its cage after devouring a world! As expected, the title of Evil Gods is but a title—there is no common sense with these great devourers."

The illusionary millennium was but an instant in reality. Joshua inhaled deeply after having unexpectedly received part of the Void Mother's genetic memories after it threw a spiritual blast on him. Then, searing flames flowed out of his entire body and formed a giant gas flow as if a corona, spreading across all directions and holding off circles of green halation that came pressing towards him.

The Void Mother had intended to use its overwhelming spiritual power to crumple all resisting will of that minuscule superior being before destroying it with its own most formidable methods. It never once thought that although Joshua, a man who once witnessed various Steel Strength memories hidden in different worlds may have far less spiritual strength in reserve, his spiritual power would shock even the gods. Additionally, the warrior's physical body had automated reflexes in the first place—the memory blast of a millennium would never cause him to slow on any aspect.

Joshua looked around at the green halos that once instantly destroyed entire fleets in the Midgardian colony, realizing with a start that the Evil God of Pestilence was an Artificial Nano-class Super-Virus designed by a biotechnology civilization and possessed aspects similar to machinery assembly, and that the Psionic energies were merely abilities it acquired after assimilating creatures on Stellaris. The Void Mother was not as powerful as the Evil God of Pestilence itself, but as a minion and a sprout, it still carried the power to unleash substantial amounts of Nano spores and split all energies it could not assimilate.

The supreme heats and impact force that Joshua released could indiscriminately all the fission fog that surged towards him, but the Void Mother's attacks never slowed since he was inside its core cavity after all. The fog came as if without end, a spectacle similar to someone having opened the floodgates of a dam, using the waterflow that could drown a town to devour a little flame seed. Even if the flame seed could briefly keep burning through its unimaginable warmth, it would one day extinguish when it could no longer hold on.

Joshua watched as the limitless fog shrunk on every other turn under the pressure of heat and impact force he was releasing, his expression never changing. He knew that all substance would be torn apart under the nanoparticle fog's assault—his Steel Body may stay, but when it permeated his previous wounds and seeped inside his body through the Furnace before his chest, his death was assured.

"Truly a superior being of extreme ferocity, huh. Devouring its own creator, eating worlds and now wandering the Multiverse to spread its seeds."

At the moment, Joshua who should have been at the most crucial and fatal moment actually had the mood to mumble to himself. Anyone else would have felt that the warrior has given up completely and was thus keeping an optimistic demeanor before death, but those who knew him could tell that the warrior was at his most dangerous state.

Sensing the positions of the energy cores and mind hub, Joshua never once spared a glance of those weapons that could kill him. He knew that to stand against such savage and callous superior lifeforms, there was only one way.

And that was to be even more evil than they were.

'Crack.'

Without hesitation, the Steel giant pressed one hand before his chest, and ultra-dense degenerate matter shell started to fold like layers like a cover, opening and revealing the furnace-like Nuclear Heart and crystalline warp engine beneath. Joshua decisively grabbed the Nuclear Heart that provided energy throughout his body and tore it out, leaving a few tubes that connected it to his body.

In that instant, inestimable heat and dazzling light appeared in the dark space. In the alien boundary that the Void Mother eroded out, incandescent light banished the blackness and uncovered the 'eyes' hidden behind it.

When the world of Robel had been assimilated by the true form of the Evil God of Pestilence all those years ago, the Sublimator virus had spread and propagated throughout the entire world rapidly but could not evolve after losing samples of lifeforms. The alien ecosystem akin to an ocean of flesh left no trace of the previous Robelian civilization, apart from the eyeball symbol.

It was the symbol left behind by the biological research group called [Evolution Manipulators] who created the Sublimator virus in their genes. Even after their masters had been devoured by their own finest creation, the virus had no intention of changing that symbol, adopting it as their own instead and spreading it throughout the Multiverse.

Meanwhile, Joshua grasped his own Nuclear Heart in his hand while powerful light that far eclipsed the sun's own surface or even the center of a nuclear explosion shone on his face. Yet his expression was inscrutable—the warrior merely stared at the green fog that was systematically retreating under the illumination, before finally showing a smile that could have been cruel or unaffected.

"Energy cores can be dumped and reproduced."

"But the chance to kill you is only in the present."

Both hands holding his own heart—the energy furnace that emulated a star—up high, Joshua uninhibitedly triggered the energy within. It was the sear left behind during Creation, the light that nurtured the birth of all things. Thus, blankets of spatial ripples appeared after being shifted under such monumental forces appeared around Joshua's hands, with torrential crimson radiance emanating out from that Nuclear Star replica between his hand, but was somehow a force even more powerful than a fragment of a sun.

Soon, Joshua drew out a blazing heat that could carbonize everything from his own heart. He felt that he was swiftly entering an ashen death, but the warrior took no mind. He did not ignite a small sun in the Void Mother's core region out of a moment of playfulness but to utterly slay it, and kill that colossal superior lifeform.

For that, such an astronomical price was worth it.

'Boooom—'

The sound of an explosion echoed from the Nuclear Heart. The tubes that connected Joshua to the Furnace broke one after another just as the Fusion Core went entirely out of control and let loose radiances and violent energies that could carbonize a small planet, illuminating the Void Mother's core region in its entirety. Nearby, eight cores that were half-creature and half-crystal that were several hundred meters in diameter were beating visibly like hearts, along with gray clusters piled from countless creased flesh. The latter was precisely the energy core and the mind hub of the Void Mother.

Now, they were quivering, fearing the destruction that the warrior wielded in his hand. They tried to fight back, but neither psionic powers nor nanoscale fog were of use. The Void aberrations that were rushing to the spot could not even approach them, and were burned into dust from the distance.

From Supreme to Legendary, Joshua had finally grasped the ultimate technique of holding a sun within his palm.

Therefore.

"Witness the flash of the blazing sun!"

As the warrior cried out feebly but wildly, a star shone within the Void Mother's body. Endless torrents of corona energy burst out towards every direction, shattering even space itself and tearing endless cascading fissures across dimensions, before an irregular energy sphere finally bypassed the not-too-far distance and instantly struck the Void Mother's energy core and triggered frightening chain explosions.

Time stopped there.