Soul of Searing Steel

Panda Novel

The emergence of ether had given birth to many small Extraordinary worlds that bound suns of pure energy or crystallized energy, along with supernatural suns that were clearly undersized but able to develop fusion reactions, thus allowing barren compact worlds to gain life. Moreover, skies with ether present would have had stronger World Barriers that allowed Extraordinary energies to enter but not leave—even if conditions for birth of physical life could not be fulfilled, the rising density of Extraordinary energies would have created elemental creatures with souls.

If a Wise One of Ether had indeed existed, he must have definitely cherished all life and been immeasurably kind. He had created Ether to ensure small continental realms such as Mycroft could gather enough sources for Extraordinary powers and to create life. In other words, the Multiverse would have had less than half of its living worlds without him.

On the other hand, if one were to say that elements labelled and determined the rules for various phenomena, or the conjuring of flames, lightning and frost beams, the binding phenomenon of ether allowed flame to gain form as fireballs, for lightning as chain lightning and for frost beams as popsicles.

As compared to ether, which appeared unimportant but was in fact vital and complex, [ lifeforce ] was much easier to understand. Spawning from of withering Steel Strength, it existed in the body of every living matter. Even earth, fire, and wind elementals had more or less certain proportions of lifeforce, which could be described as the strength to convert substance.

The reason behind lifeforce’s wound healing capability was its ability to adjust and alter flesh itself. Its restoration of scabs or even certain limbs, while accelerating cellular mitosis through feeding was itself a form of strength to convert substance. Aura, a pure yet destructive derivative of lifeforce, was an external application of substance conversion, which meant that lifeforce could save as much as it could kill, and was as divine as it was demonic.

Lifeforce had perhaps emerged very early, and though a little later than magic, had been definitely earlier than elements. It was evident from Mycroft’s birth of natural Extraordinary powers—magic, as residue of the forces of Creation, would present supernatural powers, but could be converted to lifeforce through certain measures. The founding of both must have been when people were divided into spellcasters and fighters.

As for the last two, Holy Light and Shadow…

Joshua and the other champions of Mycroft were rather chagrined at the thought. They were the Sage’s brethren, and yet were not that learned about the Holy Light as compared to the other Extraordinary powers—it was perhaps a blindside.

Still, one way or another, the [ Holy Light ] had certain capacity for restoration, with ability to cleanse and comb through essences to restore any phenomenon and object to its critical value. That had been how the power healed wounds, dispelled Chaos corruption and achieved near omnipotent resurrection, nursing, and restoration. And though both could restore limbs, lifeforce’s conversion of substance was equivalent to creating a new one in its place, while the restoration of the Holy Light replaced the missing part on the wounded with the original along with proportional mass and energy. It was precisely because of the superficiality of the Holy Light’s restoration that it could not heal heavier wounds, and thus required aid of other forms of rehabilitation.

There was even less to talk about when it came to [ Shadow ]—only Goliath the Demon King grasped that power to a certain extent across the entire Lost Galaxy, with none from Mycroft civilization wielding it. Research examples did not exist either, and to put it bluntly, Goliath’s Shadow ability mainly revolved around dark elements and only showed shallow essences of Shadow, which prevented more in-depth study.

At present, the Sage, creator of Holy Light was unquestionably a Wise One. It is also with his existence that the Wise Ones of the Arcane whom the Knowers mentioned seemed believable for everyone present.

“With that being said, the Knowers are not quite a trustworthy alien race. They have very much beaten up almost the entire Multiverse to in search of related knowledge, and while they have never made a move against exceedingly weak civilizations, that has probably been based on knowledge that those civilizations would not have what they want.”

In the hall, Joshua pocketed the paper and furrowed his brow solemnly. “It is because we are powerful enough that they know using force would not end well and were hence willing to communicate, otherwise our knowledge and information about the Sage would have been ‘taken care’ of early on.”

“So, Joshua, what you are saying is that we are not ready to interact with the Knowers yet?” Pope Igor, the greatest champion of the Holy Light at present and another owner of a Sage’s Legacy, asked quietly in return. “Well, the Sage had not left any special messages behind… does the fact that he is headed for the center of the Multiverse count?”

“No.” Joshua disagreed briskly. “Of course we should exchange information—it is part of knowledge. What might be trivial to us might not be known to other civilizations even up until their impending destruction, just as the following therefore applies—the Knowers definitely have information we would never obtain from conventional channels.”

“Thirty million years ago, the words left by the Wise One of the Arcane was undoubtedly one of them. Still, it is in my opinion not the most vital one.”

Joshua then paused, having assumed that the champions and gods present would ask questions such as ‘What could be more important?’. They did not, however—everyone watched him seriously. After all, Joshua had rarely thought and analyzed anything so seriously, which was why they certainly had respect for him. In fact, if not for the heavy atmosphere present, Barnil and William, the carefree duo, would probably have applaused.

With the atmosphere being as it was, the warrior hence continued, “It is the Knowers whom survived the Evil Gods’ invasion, and have since then gained details about them.”

Joshua’s eyes were grim as he spoke with a lowered voice, “Their so-called Civilization Extinction is definitely another name for the Evil Gods’ invasion. The galaxy where the Knowers’ homeworld lay might not have been a part of the Multiverse at all, which is evident from the history of those ruins—that battle is so ancient that it could not have happened within the same period as the invasion of the Glorious Era.”

“Remember the Astral Dragons and the Metal Dragon God? Their homeworld was devastated along with its galaxy, and it is now a part of the Silent Void, the remains of endless galaxies and which lies between the Lost Galaxy and the Multiverse. I have reason to believe that there are survivors of destroyed galaxies near us here, at the edge of the Multiverse as well as other similar fringe galaxies. Countless worlds from different times and galaxies gathered, forming the Galaxy of Beginnings that we now know.” The Galaxy of Beginnings was the starting point for the Starfall Era Mycroft as they entered the Multiverse, just as it was the endpoint whereupon the remains of dead galaxies gathered.

What Joshua meant was simple—though the ancient wisemen’s words and legacies were very precious, it had been more important to learn about the Knowers’ experience from when they repelled Evil Gods. They were similar to the Unified Archives in that respect, a vault of information kept about each different Evil God!

Having inherited legacies of multiple ancient civilizations as well as having a collection of 770,000 years’ worth, there was no telling of how much more information about the Evil Gods that the Knowers had as compared to the Starfall Era. Any civilization could only easily repel and kill those entities after learning about their abilities and attributes, and it was probably the same for the Knowers—they would presumably yearn for information regarding Evil Gods from the Glorious Era, which was a superior civilization that managed to triumph over an entire horde of Evil Gods.

Both sides need each other’s experience and information in the name of Order and fighting Chaos. Being a win-win situation, there was naturally no need for worry or refusal.

“Set a date for half a month later. Inform the Knowers and plan for the specific time and place.”

***

After a period of discussion and swiftly confirming their following operations, their efficient interaction that did not involve dawdling around like mortals’ meant that their schedule was set within five minutes and their reply to the Knowers transmitted. The Legends and gods then left, returning to their respective stations.

Soon, only Joshua and the Elite Party was left in the conference hall.

“Stop blanking out.”

Walking to the five-men team who were silent, holding their breathes and afraid to even pant, Joshua watched as Priest and the others made pitiful faces in good humor. “It is nothing too important and it is fine if you listen in, since you lot would be ascending in a few years—no brainwash, memory wipe, and even less silencing—you are my student and Alchemist over there is an important lab rat for my Galactic Warrior project group, so why would I kill you lot?”

However, those words turned the expression of Clergy, Mage and Rider bitter, with the thought ‘so they are really silencing us’ crossing their minds. Unbothered by them, Joshua recalled how he had thought of them to be interesting when they went through his hellish training regime, but they now appeared to be too interesting instead.

Gesturing for the five-men team to leave the hall, Joshua said as he led them away, “Stop grimacing, your team still has a mission. The scout ship has mainly been destroyed due to your carelessness, but you did discover vital information about the Knowers, so you would be let off without a warning this time. You may continue your mission in exploring worlds, but it would no longer be free exploration and would be under my orders instead.”

“Yes, Sir!”

“Yes, Commander!”

Would Priest and the others have refused? All of them naturally agreed loudly, with Priest himself soon following up with a question, “Which world are we prospecting, Sir? If it is an especially dangerous one, could there be more items allocated?”

“It is a simple mission and the world is not that dangerous. There will be more details when the time comes, and there is actually one thing I need you all to do.”

With that, Joshua drew out a silver metallic cylinder out of nowhere and simply tossed it at Priest. The young warrior reacted at once, directing gravitational aura to steadily catch the dense metal beam that was over a dozen ton heavy.

A Restoration Beam…? No, it was much heavier and even more detailed!

Having often used Restoration Beams in his time with the Imperial External Exploration Department, Priest could ascertain the true nature of the metallic cylinder at once. Apart from being heavier, there were also blue gem bits socketed inside.

Meanwhile, Joshua had already vanished, leaving an invisible flow of messages that poured into Priest’s brain.

“Priest, place one of such metal pillars when you reach every corresponding world. It is fine if you are noticed, but be discreet if you can.”

“By the way, your girlfriend and sister are looking for you in the Zeta Ram base—hurry.”

“Wait, Sir. Sol still isn’t my…”

But having heard that, Priest finally remembered what he could not remember—he had forgotten to tell Sol and Britney that he had an emergency and could not receive them at the Stargate!

With it being too late to hurry over now, Priest could only grimace and hurry to the portals as his teammates consoled him, while holding back laughter.

Meanwhile, Joshua had already reached the Void. From the dark turbulence of the dimensions, he watched over Priest, the Elite Party, the Void installation, the Dimensional Hub, the city within and all of Zeta Ram, along with every life from human, demon, to Sartrean. There was an unusual softness in his gaze, but he soon became calm and firm once again.

Did the Wise Ones of the past discover one Extraordinary power after another other to refine themselves or to shower blessings upon the infinite beings, granting them the protection of miracles? It was a difficult question to be answered.

Still, things were much simpler for Joshua. Whoever or whatever they were, should they desire to break the present order, thereby plundering the futures and hopes of others…

He would never allow that, nor would he forgive them.