Soul of Searing Steel

Panda Novel

Before Joshua met the human form of Merlin, God of Law and Destruction, the warrior had guessed from His divine title that he might be a robust man like those carved out of marble, or an elderly person of great might.

Therefore, it was surprising that the mortal form of the two profound divine titles of ‘Order’ and ‘Destruction’ was a young person who appeared to be half-human, half-elf.

Why would he present himself in such form? Why bind Order and Destruction together? What logic does that deity follow to perpetuate His Order?

Joshua’s unanswered questions remained even as Merlin left.

This was the center of the bottom of the galaxy.

What was the place that all life in the Multiverse feared the most? It was not the Void Vortex, where energies raged and nebulas formed stars—Legends could move around in that place without difficulty. Nor was it lairs of Chaos where Evil Gods rest, for where Evil Gods were horrendous, their spawns able to kill all living civilizations, they were merely stronger foes with enough power, a tiger that lived by the gates.

What made all life, even Legendary champions and deities fears were not things with form. Even if nebulas gained life and became a galactic-sized spirit, they were merely large targets… a foe to be challenged, studied, respected but not fear.

What truly left all life understand fear was nothingness.

Like what Joshua and the gods saw now.

Beneath the Sixth-Hundred and Sixty Sixth Level—the Lower Abysses, all that could be found were still worlds, each of which having mostly collapsed that even the World Barriers were breaking. The calm Nether River that flowed quietly above surged in these worlds, completely absorbing all remaining Flame in Steel in those remains to move them to the Bottom of the Abyss.

As it should be.

But now, apart from the ruins of Haida homeworld—a solar-system realm with six planets and one dead sun, there was no other world visible in the Nether World. Even the flow of the Nether River itself was abnormal, with branching flows turning into massive vortices. In turn, the inexhaustive flow of the Nether River was being drained by the vortices, making the Lower Abyss absolute emptiness that one could enter but never leave.

The laments of the stars spread from leaking Steel Strength. Joshua looked up and watched the vortices swirling at the edge of the Nether River branches.

Why would the Lower Abyss become this? Even if it was the graveyard of worlds, it should not be empty—the husks of worlds were so massive that they would not disappear even in thousands of years.

In other words, there were many questions needing urgent answers, although the truth was that none was surer than him how things turned out this way.

At the edge of the branching flows of the Nether River were black holes.

***

The God of Order and Destruction left the Nether River.

The gigantic holy crest that was an Ouroboros appeared above the dilapidated planet of Haida. At the core of the crest was the faint divine silhouette of a youth who appeared to be thinking and remembering at the dark Void and dead stars. For some reason, the god that abruptly remembered some past memory suddenly smiled.

[Order is discovery. Order is rebirth.

The Initial Flame had set Chaos ablaze, and from the end of destruction, existence and order were created.

The Order destroys Chaos and creates us. To the Chaos, we could never understand it because we gain life from Order.

But, so what? What we want are the worlds we want. Other ideas are mere delusions.]

“No new rules would come without the death of the old.”

Amidst darkness and nothingness, Merlin, the God of Order and Destruction raised his right hand while his human form vanished. Even so he laughed, speaking the sacred words of absolution only spoken when he exerted his full power.

“Let destruction descend! We shall rule the ruins of Order after Chaos is broken!”

The divine power of Order and Destruction exploded.

The divine silhouette of the blue Ouroboros expanded in that instant, drawing the entire planetary region into His embrace.

Blue light that shone like the sun illuminated the dark stars at lightspeed. A pale blue halo was swiftly expanding, with all lingering Chaos force in the system destroyed and converted into a part of the god’s power. In about forty minutes, Merlin’s divine power would fill the star system, expanding to a horrific level.

However, that speed is only achievable with the power of the God of Order. By the third second that Merlin’s power spread, a layer of runes appeared in the seemingly empty Void. Complex and resembling gears, as the runes were animated by Merlin’s power, more runes were simultaneously activated with a miniature dimensional passageway. A distance that even light needed forty minutes to cover was instantly covered with the dimensional magic, with the dead and empty system swiftly covered by the boundless gear symbols, quickly forming a colossal spherical formation that the blue Ouroboros wrapped tightly in His coils.

That was the first core seal anchor point Joshua saw.

However, it was the finding of the anchor point that filled the star system with Merlin’s power. At its center, although the former Haida civilization was still all dark, one could tell from gravity beams and light distortion that there was a dark planetary body in that position. It was encircled in thick a Chaotic accretion disk that bound the blasphemous forces tightly around itself.

It was a black hole, the seal anchor point that binds Chaos, anchors the dimensions and preventing the revival of the corrupt. The entrance of the core seal anchor point was not nearby black hole, although an entrance to an ordinary seal anchor point was directly pathed towards the black hole.

That was not all.

As the God of Order entered the anchor point, more anchor points were activated—pale blue flashes quickly spread throughout most of the outer planetary regions of the Lower Abyss. Using the Nether River and the dimensional circle remaining from Project Rebirth, Merlin’s power, assuming the form of many massive Ouroboros illuminated one world husk after another like rings. However, it could be seen that even there was a dark circle at the heart of the planetary regions shone upon with blue divine force, turning into vortices. There, vengeful wills and Chaotic force from Abysses above gathered, absorbed by the endless Nether River and sealed.

“Using black holes as stabilizers…” Joshua reached out and grabbed a flickering blue speck—a little aid that Merlin left before departing. There was a little sandglass inside that speck which interchanges the power of the God of Order and destruction from both sides, maintaining stability and the cycle itself.

He placed the sandglass in his body.

“‘The Planet of Finality’ has a limited suppression capacity on Chaos.”

As Merlin spread His divine domain within the ruins of the Haida system and stationed Himself in an anchor point, Joshua and the other gods continued down the Nether River. Being the god closest to Joshua, the God of Law and Freedom told him quietly, “It would unconditionally bind Chaos that even Evil God could not escape… but it the Chaos energy proved too much, the excess would spread away and corrupt the world.”

“Where the seal unit once forged from the Evil God of Wither’s body would endlessly weaken Chaotic power, Chaos power would now just accumulate, never to be converted.”

The Nether River was now flowing even more quickly. The powers of all worlds that were ruined or about to be were assembled by the Nether River and moved here, and Joshua could hear the laments of stars contained within one Steel Particle after another, as well as the murmurs of countless civilizations.

He could see and hear infinite images, words and recollections. Those were runes time had carved upon the wrecks of worlds, the tome titled civilization. There may be the life of one human or an entire civilization in the Steel Particles of former worlds, just as more incomplete memories churned int the Nether River, stirring and heading towards the bottom of the Abyss—the Abyssal paradise. All past would hence fade from them as they become born anew.

But the path Joshua and the gods advanced upon were already filled with warped vortices.

The black hole that formed the seal anchor point and bound the Chaos mercilessly drained the energy of the Nether River. Though Joshua and the six other gods would not be pulled into it, creatures such as the Ferry Demons would be devoured without resistance. It was why they had been fleeing the Abyss so panickily, for the fall of Project Rebirth meant the collapse of the existing balance—where the Nether River once flowed silently, it would now be absorbed by countless black holes, and weak demons such as them would never escape death however they struggled.

Soon, however, the next parting came.

***

This time, it was the God of Law and Freedom who left.

“I see the second seal anchor point. It is motherworld of the Denize, and truth be told, it is rather unknown. I have general details in my memories, and I think it must have struggled and resisted… it’s just that whether it was some astonishing war, or it’s just my memories… everything has gone, disappearing in the lost age.

Scottson, the God of Law and Freedom had left their ranks. The seemingly fatigued middle-aged man shrugged before His body vanished, with divine power morphing into a pale emerald bird. It wore a crown of thorns, while its body was bound with spiked chains, but even so, it kept soaring over the Void, heading for the world that was virtually empty, leaving just shards of continents that wafted without gravity in the Void.

Soon, as pale emerald holy light unfurled without limit, the second seal anchor point was activated. Inside the ring of blue divine power, an emerald halo slowly shone, just as countless planetary forms strolled through every corner of the Void, absorbing that terrible Chaotic force.

“Law.”

At the core of the bird, the free but tired human figure who appeared to be tormenting himself at all times pressed his hand over his chest, and softly sighed.

“It is the foundation of freedom.”

[Freedom must have restraint. Pure, unbridled and absolute freedom would only affect the freedom of others, and it is only by following rules that Order could bind, and that freedom would gain value.

Birds must know gravity to be content with its flight. Without the reflections of Chaos, Order is nothing but a floor in the air, just as freedom without rules and restraint is the shortcut to self-destruction.]

His mortal form disappeared as the sacred words that stood over His doctrine were spoken.

“Obey the Order, freedom that makes men vomit!”

Divine light spread.

Joshua once again caught a speck left by the God of Law. A pale emerald one, it was an elegant but heavy quill as if it contained a continent of mountains. Even so, the free bird still takes to the skies.

Collecting it, the warrior nodded quietly, and they moved on.

The journey downstream was rapid, and yet there was a startling lack of Chaos. Most Chaotic energies that exist after civilization was destroyed were bound by the black holes—in other words, the core anchor points along the way. Like a stagnating section of a dam, it would select from layers of Chaotic grains and allow only the purest of world fragments and Steel Particles to enter the Vortex of Creation.

If not for that stagnating layer, if the Chaos after worlds and civilizations died before being drawn into the Abyss, the Evil God would have instantly awakened. The spell had worked over the past thousands of years and only broke down recently with the death of Wither. With the sealing unit destroyed along with it, the awakening of the unknown Evil God was greatly delayed.

“Project Rebirth had failed early on.”

Zerming, the God of Wisdom and Choice stroked His own beard. His human form was a very conventional white-haired mage who holds wisdom in age—as he followed Joshua along in the descending journey, he shook his head and said, “In the period where time dilation left the seal and Project Rebirth in tatters, we utterly lost control over the plan. Whether the God of Wither died or whether you devoured them, it would be free in a dozen years since time flows differently for Wither and the Abyssal core… there was already no way to carry out the procedure.”

“Radcliffe, do not believe that the awakening of the unknown Evil God is your responsibility. Aside from the fact that you don’t know about that matter, preemptively triggering the cumulating Chaotic force in the Abyssal Paradise is a fine choice. There are so many paths in the future—who knows if it was better if Chaotic force burst out after converging for a longer time, or gotten rid of once we still had power? If ‘Wisdom’ could not judge that, someone has to.”

“And this time, you would be the one.”

Then, the God of Wisdom and Choice left as well.

He said nothing, and quietly turned into an eye that watches the Void. Around it, many branching veins like that on butterfly wings appeared, appearing to symbolize endless futures and choices.

“I respect the resolve of the Gedilas world. They knew they could flee the Chaos, and yet maintained their determination to move forward like a fool. The pragmatism of the wise and the dogmatism of the fools are both choices worth respecting.”

Pale golden divine radiance spread once again. The Eye of Wisdom watched the Abyssal Void of the Third Ring, activating another core anchor point.

Joshua raised his hand. The God of Wisdom and Choice had left him a compass-like pendant, but it does not point to the north—in fact, it whirled all around, clockwise and anticlockwise. There was no telling where it was pointing.

That may be a vision of the future, the warrior thought. He exhaled, and hung it by his hip and continued forward.

Soon, as they kept venture deep into the Abyss, there was less time to buffer.

It was soon the fourth ring, and this time, it was the God of Love and Death who stepped forward.

This time, it was an unusual planetary system with binary suns, with one having turned into a black hole. The other, a dark red giant had its substance absorbed by black hole incessantly, even pulled into a droplet shape. As the surging stream of substance that could destroy planets, boundless Chaos power was also held on the black hole’s accretion disk, unable to escape.

“The Zahns are elementals that lived on the sun and moved at sub-lightspeed. However, they could not leave the hot environment of the sun since the excessive cold of the Void would swiftly kill their pure energy forms… They had always cherished everything, was kind and curious to every unknown beyond their sun… like the sun itself, their passion almost eternal.

[However, there is death where there is life. The rise of love meant the descent of demise—love is the peak and would regress, and the edge of the regress is the graveyard known as finality.]

Violet divine radiance dispersed to the distance, and the sacred crest of the Withered Heart unfurled over the edge of the Black Hole, hence drawn by the droplet of a sun into itself. Like flower petals, divine light kept spreading, illuminating the fourth ring of the core Chaos seal.

“Only love and death Is the ultimate—”

Just as the divine domain of Yolanda, the God of Love and Death unfurled and began to chant sacred words, Joshua, who had already turned to leave suddenly heard some hidden information the elven-form deity left for him.

Whether it was a cold voice or expectation, it resounded in the warrior’s mind.

“Joshua, let me witness if your love for worlds and to fight could triumph against the death of Chaos!”

On the other side of the Nether River, absolute holy words were spoken. Every person and god left could hear the irrepressible laughter which appeared to have all restraints remove.

“O Death! Burn with love to the silent finality!”

A supernova light rumbled as it exploded out of the core of the red giant. Surging tides of light stirred the planetary system—in that instant, the God of Love and Death triggered the energy of a dying star, illuminating the anchor point of the seal on the fourth ring faster than every other deity before!

She had also left Joshua with an empty photo frame, but if he looked at it carefully, the warrior could see blurred figures: They appeared to be Ying, Ling, Zero Three, Black, Light, Zero-One, his pupils, Igor, Nostradamus, Israel, Brandon, Roland… everyone he had ever known appeared consecutively in the frame.

There were even acquaintances form Joshua’s pre-existence. He could even see the ‘World Number-One’ signboard that hung atop the gates of his martial arts dojo.

But in the end, the photo frame was empty—perhaps even divine power had its limits, it could not portray Joshua’s heart at all.

Withdrawing that divine force into his body, Joshua closed his eyes and paused for seconds. Then, everyone continued forward.

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