Soul of Searing Steel

Panda Novel

“Barnil has been attacked? So, someone had bypassed our perimeter to strike at the rear?”

On the temporary command post of the Combined Fleet in the front line, Vahina, who was in command, looked and frowned alongside Yana Milo, their expressions somber. “There is also a hidden monster prepared to destroy the Dimensional Hub, only to be held off by Joshua’s two students.”

“The foreign civilizations’ technology isn’t weak. If they have fixed coordinates for long-ranged teleportation, it would make sense that they can surpass us. The fact that Barnil is able to send a message indicates that he is alright, and we don’t have to send help if that’s the case.

As the Nature’s Magister was still controlling the Zonal Ether Subjugator, there were only three people inside the conference hall of the entire command post. Vahina was pensive and La Motte was silent as well, leaving Yana Milo who nodded thoughtfully before speaking, “To tell the truth, we are being held here by the Knowers and cannot leave… we can only count on them.” Their heads hurt at the mention of the Knowers.

The Combined Fleet had learnt most of the civilizations’ names by interrogating some of the aliens taken prisoner. Compared to the clearly hostile Takur Cult and Court of Amos, the Knowers were considerably friendly. They were simply stationing themselves on the fringes of the galaxy and building a fortress resembling a world, as if preparing against some unknown force.

Naturally, the Knowers may have been behaving docilely due to Joshua being still in battle against two otherworldly superior beings. It was a violent confrontation with many worlds destroyed, and none would have wanted to provoke such a champion without a reason.

Not fighting in the first place was good. A little exchange to determine what the Knowers wanted would have at least allowed them to prepare the appropriate measures. Nonetheless, they maintained their silence over all channels and barred any spirit or psionic interaction, answering and responding to nothing.

On the other hand, it was impossible to ignore them and withdraw as well. The field of Joshua’s battle was getting closer and they may have had to support him then, and it was not as if the Knowers had not shown any inclination of probing. They simply could not do as they wished, with the Combined Fleet’s stubborn defense. Both sides were locked in stalemate, wasting vast amounts of human resources and materials. It was really hard to bear.

At that very moment, Vahina, who had been supervising the entire fleet’s monitoring channels, gasped suddenly in surprise. Her psionic scans had detected a black, unusually-shaped ship wobbling towards the rear of the Combine Fleet. There were no vessels of such appearance amongst the fleet, and yet it was issuing a weird allied signal.

“What… what is that thing?”

***

It had been half a day later when Priest and the others had been rescued from the black spacecraft of living metals.

The resurfacing of the missing Elite Party was good news that would have probably pleased Joshua, but much more importantly, the half-broken ship still had a primitive communication channel made by the Knowers.

“The Knowers are a unique lifeform that infest souls through mana. They communicate with each other by tugging strings of energy, directly conversing through ‘magic’.”

Alchemist had almost drained his body of its very last bit of strength to steer the ship for a warp towards the Combined Fleet’s headquarters. Soaking in holy water of life, he revealed everything about the Knowers’ special means of communication. “Our runic spells are usually simple for faster and better attacks, using as few runes as possible and removing all excess runes. The Knowers, however, are different—their interactions boil down to using runes for creating a spell with zero effects and carrying nothing apart from the intended message. It would appear to be nonsense to us.”

“How should I put this? Magic is a tool for us, which works if it’s simple and convenient. But for the Knowers, magic is a language and the basis of existence. While useful magic was certainly of utility as well, useless ones—a concept exclusive to our own civilization—is like our civilizations’ epics, containing their mood, sensuality, and information exchanges.”

By studying the information within the ship’s archives, the Elite Party had learnt much about the Knowers. Still, they had been forced to do so as their scout ship had been vaporized by a single blast from the Knowers, and they would never have warped away if the Knowers have not been away, having to take a long detour behind the Knowers’ back to their own territory.

Nonetheless, having learnt that information, Yana Milo had closed her eyes before Vahina could call upon her, tentatively sensing the endless mana flow in the Void which was previously determined to be meaningless noise. She even attempted to use the archives within the Knowers’ vessel found by Priest and the others to send a message to the distant fleet of steel.

“You—why—here?”

“Build—fortress—why?”

Yana Milo’s first messages were simple, being a plain cluster of words without proper grammatical structure. Still, with her Legendary mind, she quickly grasped the special runic syntax. “Knowers, what are your intentions of coming here? Do you desire to fight us all or do you have other plans?”

There was no reply for a long time.

Yana Milo sighed—the Knowers had perhaps changed their language form, or Priest and the others had thought wrong. But one way or the other, before the Glorious-era Avian Legend cut off her senses, she promptly felt a discreet unrest amongst the Knowers’ armada on the other side of the galaxy.

A profound and surging stream of magical power came rushing back.

“You, beings of the Lost Galaxy… are you truly from that place?”

Even Yana Milo could not understand the exceedingly complex language at once. Still, she soon discerned substantial moods of worry, alertness, and bewilderedness from the stream of mana, and recognized that to be indeed the Knowers’ language. She excitedly replied, while showing the message she received and the answer she gave them, “Yes, we are from the Lost Galaxy… but what do you mean by ‘that place’?”

The stream of mana shifted. “That is a realm where boundless darkness gather, a darkness that destroyed our homes and every civilization across the Multiverse in the past… has your kind not been destroyed? To think that you would survive…”

“O civilization from the Lost Galaxy. Are you fleeing from them? Fleeing the World Eaters of the dark…”

“Perhaps, as we have imagined… they are returning?”

At that statement, everyone looked at each other. Those who were present—even Rider, the seemingly most ignorant of them—had ninety-nine percent of the vast knowledge Extraordinary individuals possessed thanks to hellish training. They were all certainly able to tell what the Knowers meant.

“In the past, like the parasites known as the Caretakers of Flesh, the Knowers were indeed an allied species. However, the Fleshers’ home planet was destroyed by Evil Gods and were reduced to feral worms that survived on a primitive planet. It sounds like the Knowers’ home planet had been destroyed too, which was why they simply gave up on settling down, their civilization becoming a massive fleet that roams the Void.”

La Motte the Sword Saint nodded and muttered to himself, “It sounds like their civilization were attacked by Evil Gods seven hundred thousand years ago—after time dilation, who knows how many years that is for us. Still, they were not wiped out, left instead to wander the Void until now.”

“They may have even witnessed the sight of Evil Gods swarming in the Final Battle, which is why they believe the Lost Galaxy to be presently occupied by Evil Gods, and us a wandering fleet who have fled here.”

Vahina also realized the reason the Knowers had not unleashed savage assault and had started building a fortress between the two galaxies instead. They had assumed the Combined Fleet to be displaced by the Evil Gods like they had been, and that those entities would be tailing them. To oppose the approaching Evil Gods and seal the darkness by the fringes of the stars had been what necessiated the fortifications.

From a certain point of view, the Knowers indeed displayed responsibility. They were a race willing to fight the Evil Gods, unlike the Great Khan’s description of them. In fact, though that was not necessarily the case—with the Combined Fleet having sufficient force and Joshua’s fighting on equal footing against the champions of two advanced Void civilizations, it was only normal for them to be on their best behavior. With worlds destroyed and collapsing in that bout, the Mycroft civilization had proved they were no pushovers. Respect for ability was a truism in the Multiverse.

“Most importantly… the Knowers are also survivors of the Civilization Extinction era!” Yana Milo’s eyes were twinkling as her petite form paced around the desk. “They hold more information than we can imagine,” she added determinedly, “and we must attempt to communicate with them further!”

***

At present, as Barnil fought the never-ending ranks of Takurian psionics and the Amos’ living warship, while Lisa and Syndicate combined with Zero One to cut down one saboteur after another, and just as the Combined Fleet tried to communicate with the Knowers…

In the Lost Galaxy over the other side of the stars, powerful luminosities were surrounding the demiplane known as the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds, encircling what was perhaps the greatest wonder of the Multiverse. An elderly pontiff and six gods were staring at a great stargate slowly opening beneath the control of the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds’ Commanding Will. Though they had not the need to breathe for a long time, they still made a face as if holding their breaths in focus. It was a grand expectant sight filled with expectation, and none of them would close their eyes.

“Almost—I have connected to the stargate on the other side… it’s just that it’s not distinct and requires more time to clear the static… but I could soon open the passage and project my energy to another galaxy.”

The voice of the Commanding Will quaked through the Void, allowing the Legend and Gods around him to hear clearly. “When that time comes, I could send one of you to map out the path, and with that as a template, I will completely stabilize the stargate and fully connect both ends.”

That was where the problem lay. Who would do the honor of being the first to step through the stargate of boundless Void and head for the other side of the stars?

The Six Gods glanced at each other somberly while the Pope narrowed his eyes, stroking his beard. The four Fairy Queens were busy huddling together to play Fairy Cards and did not seemed to hear the Commanding Will, just as Nostradamus made a face as if he was obligated. He certainly was the best candidate—the others, including the Mind Lord, Divine Dwarven Craftsman, Element Maven, Murloc High Priest, and the other Legends all shrugged, knowing well that this was not their chance.

However, as the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds was about to pick the first person from the Six Gods, with the Pope and Nostradamus to be teleported to the other side, an abnormal sound abruptly interrupted.

Cr—crack.

“What’s that sound?”

Having finished the work entrusted to them, Ling and the others from the Liege’s Residence who had gathered to watch the stargate’s opening ceremony at the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds instinctively looked beneath the demiplane where the Nature’s Magister had built an underground lab.

In that very instant, many top-secret elements had been placed in that lab. They were extremely dangerous and precious, and includes the bodies of eight Glorious-ear Legends who were yet to be revived, the artificial Void aberrations Joshua had preserved… nonetheless, all those dulled in importance compared to something that had been stored more recently.

It was a cocoon.

Sitting on Black’s back after reverting to her dragon form, Zero Three could not help freeing her hold on Light. There was shock and solemnness in her expression, for she sensed a remarkably familiar power and presence—the presence of divine power.

Beneath the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds, in a secret chamber protected by six divine powers and Holy Light, a golden cocoon of energy that appeared to be burning was shuddering, the winding patterns of power over it flowing. Veins of scarring could be seen spreading over the cocoon, and light extended within those seams.