Soul of Searing Steel

Panda Novel

Black holes could not be controlled directly. As a singularity and with the exceedingly profound mass that formed its event horizon, they were completely isolated from the outside world to the point where even light could not escape from it.

Time moved slower the closer one approached a black hole that the black hole’s gravitational pull was unaffected even when the greatest champions were pushed into its event horizon. Instead, the singularity would remain as it was inside the event horizon, and in that instant the individual resisted the pull of the black hole, thousands or even infinite years would have passed.

The universe could well have died before the individual within the black hole.

Such isolation and temporal distortion as well as the special attribute of singularities that followed no rules made black holes uncontrollable but only indirectly affected. Even with his might, Joshua was no exception.

However, it had not affected his use of that curious and recalcitrant thing as an energy source and a combat technique.

***

At the monochrome paradox spiral of the Permanent Void Anchor Point, a dimensional quaking that could crumble the structure of a star and a total of fourteen black shades of Chaos had descended upon Stellaris through the portal from the Void beyond, along with infinite creatures of flesh.

They were Evil Gods and Ultimate Entities—in the instant that they arrived, the vicinity of the Permanent Void Anchor Points appeared to be covered with a faint shroud as Chaotic presence ate away at the dimensions. The once-stable Stellaris was slowly turning into an alien realm, and though the seventeen Evil Gods (including Limbo and the other three) had not joined forces, unleashing their own powers alone had molded a small chaotic galaxy.

The boundaries between matter and energy, as well as space and time were blurred. There were no longer stable constants or unbreakable rules…in this world, what kept all things existent was no longer the four fundamental forces or Extraordinary ability, with Chaos filled with malice being the only aspect with any decisive function.

That was Chaos and its Evil Gods.

If it had been any ordinary civilization, the overflowing Ultimate Entities which ranged in strength between Supreme-advanced to Legend-novice would have easily consumed their prided worlds and colonies even without including the seventeen Evil Gods—Stellaris may have had a strong alliance, but was still helpless against such classes of power.

Even so, it was not the civilization of Stellaris who had to consider their future. Instead, it was the Evil Gods and monsters which had yet to comprehend what was going on after coming through the portal.

In the silver world, two black holes were rotating in different arcs as their brimming energies were stimulated and extracted. Before they evaporated, near boundless energy had already began converging in the preceding dozen seconds—thus, a gamma storm erupted beside the ceaselessly expanding silver world which exhibited red dwarf attributes, with x-rays and the material flow swirling away from the black hole entangled, forming a profound heliopause halo.

Then, the halo and the silver world began moving.

It was a steady pace neither fast nor slow, even if it appeared sluggish on the scale of the Multiverse as it was less than a hundredth of lightspeed, like an old person panting on his cane with each step he took in the last few years of his life. However, that was the bulk of the silver world alone—its halo, its gravitational boundary, and the dimensions it affected were spreading across every direction at lightspeed, faintly forming an elliptical warped space.

There was also a massive blue star around the silver world that was ablaze, fortunate enough to escape the shockwaves from the conflict and stay safe. Now, however, its luck was at an end—drawn into Joshua’s gravitational reach, it began to disintegrate from its corona down to its photosphere, leaving a long accretion cloud of stellar substance that darted towards the core of the silver world.

It should have been a process that took dozens of minutes, because light could not actually cover a distance that great in a short period of time. However, in the zone where Joshua’s light shrouded, space was torn and compressed, with a small path formed from distorted gravity that resembled the digestive tract of some cosmic lifeform, devouring stellar mass and emptying it in less than a minute. All that was left was a stellar core which could not erupt in time as a supernova, and like a firefly, hovered blankly and helplessly beside the black hole engine that just had a snack.

A profound will appeared in the dimensional streams where the two black holes intersected. He touched the blazing neutron star core that could not collapse in time, altering it and marking it with runes while supernatural forces buffed it—under Joshua’s touch, the star core was augmented and enchanted.

Then, in the next split second, it shot out.

The dimensions were distorted and distance covered in an instant. The star core which was turned into a sub-lightspeed missile destroy everything along its wake, leaving a long trail of thin plasma cloud as it continued on its offensive path. Though the Evil Gods had perhaps noticed the assault, the Ultimate Entities that were a mere mutation did not—having intended to head for other corners of space in search of food and targets for destruction, they suddenly found themselves unable to move as if something was holding them down, incapable of even moving backwards.

The missile had arrived, crashing into the heart of the swarm.

Then, the inscribed runes were activated. At the speed of light, gravity which had been forcibly increased by a dozen times caught every Ultimate Entity that had not escaped in time, compressed at a rate of 200,000 kilometers per hour per second—that rate was even increasing and almost reaching lightspeed, and before they could even do a thing, most amongst the billions of Ultimate Entities were cleared away just like bacteria.

The collectives of Evil Gods which were advancing menacingly also promptly paused before scampering away—none of them could withstand such a blow, not to mention that they were, in comparison, even more fearful of the silver world which was coming ever closer to them. They had thus wanted to flee the sector, but another Psi collective which resembled a compressed universe had blocked they way ahead, keeping them restrained in the vicinity of the Void Anchor Point.

At present, there were still endless Ultimate Entities surging away from the Void portal. They were things equivalent to the Sublimator’s tentacles and cells, using the anchor point as a hole through which they would invade the world like water springing from a fountain.

But now, a black sphere darting at them fittingly blocked that opening. That blazing star core which had been extremely bright just a while ago had now become a rapidly whirling dark well: horrific gravitational reaction was drawing everything in its event horizon to itself, crumbling and compressing them. Hence, every Ultimate Entity that had just darted out of the portal would simply throw themselves into the well as if someone was feeding it, with the well having to do nothing.

A black hole cannon—that was perhaps how it would be named.

And unlike the black hole attack Joshua had used previously, this black hole was not purely offensive and could be indirectly controlled.

“Almost—help me, Triple Curtain.”

Having estimated the time, the flying silver world knew that the runic formation he had carved into the star core would have collapsed it into a black hole and triggered a decimation of everything within. He had thrown it out along with the black hole cannon which could activate like the extradimensional information relay module that was the Restoration Beam, and he knew that the black hole which had already formed an accretion cloud of Ultimate Entities was slowly moving towards himself.

In the silver world, the engine of twin black holes whirled as another black hole approached them without stopping. Meanwhile, the second black hole cannon was complete—another unlucky star already had been drained and had its core inscribed upon, before being fired out as well, keeping the Void portal in check while absorbing the mass of Ultimate Entities to grow.

That offensive was repeated six times, with none of the seventeen Evil Gods able to bypass the perimeter jointly made by Joshua and the Triple Curtain over that long period and flee into the infinite universe. On the other hand, six optimally-sized black holes was assimilated into the silver world, placed at four different spots alongside the first black hole engines as they were reassembled into three new ones.

The gravity exerted by each black hole would have torn the silver world apart, but with the Triple Curtain’s support and detailed calculations, Joshua smoothly kept the four black holes stable and gained three more sources of nuclear energy.

At first, the Triple Curtain wanted to ask Joshua as to why he had not attack so powerfully before—it soon understood that it was not a move to be used under normal situations.

Humans could die from overeating, and it was the same for superior beings too. Unlimited consumption and control did not exist, and black holes exceeding a certain mass could not act as Joshua’s engine components. Then, once the number of black hole engines increased, Joshua could neither precisely calibrate gravity nor absorb energies from the black holes if the various outcomes of mutual interference could not be determined, but would instead be consumed by it with a 100% chance as multiple black holes fused into one body.

Usually, a single black hole engine was enough, just as the incessant destruction of stellar bodies required to build a second was something Joshua avoided as much as he could. He knew well that he was a force for ruin greater than any Evil Gods should he have lost just a bit of control, and it was only against infinite enemies that he could augment himself while using black hole cannons to destroy them.

Joshua would not have done it, if not for a greater and more terrible entity that was about to come—after all, why resort to dangerous methods with something that could simply be punched to death?

Of course, it was not as if Joshua did not have a fist at present.

Now, because of the black holes, the silver world was no longer a regular sphere, as the four locations of the black hole engines protruded slightly like a giant with four fists. The forceful punch was encased by powerful gravity boundary, with the faintest of movements tearing the surrounding dimensions apart into a billion-mile-long spatial dent. All Evil Gods that had not evaded in time were broken and maimed—even the Evil God of Avoidance attempting to turn into pure information could not get away, with its information stream and Chaos embodiment all drawn into the black hole and vaporized as frivolous space radiation.

From amongst hundreds of martial art moves, this is the black hole punch!

The Evil Gods, individually feared by diverse civilizations as if they were unstoppable calamity, were now herded like goats, scampering everywhere by the well-prepared Triple Curtain and Joshua… it was not to say that they were weak, since their ability was absolute—even unimaginable and not impossible to destroy worlds… that is, if they were completely prepared at their peak form and having all their spawns with them. Even if they would not have triumphed over Joshua and the Triple Curtain, they would at least hold their ground.

But now, there was nothing much to say, given how distinct the strong and the weak were.

Joshua pursued the Evil Gods, although truth be told, he was rather distracted despite his willpower—it was just moments before that he simply destroyed the Evil God of Famine, the bane of Karlis. The other Evil Gods would be soon destroyed as well, a flock of sheep that threatened civilizations which scurried when he chased them around.

He had grown to such a level unwittingly. Once facing the Evil God of Wither, which had barely freed itself from its seal as if a great foe, he probably would just have to ‘eat’ it now.

I’ll tell Karlis the Steel Python and Zero Three about the good news when I get home…I’ve fulfilled my promise and completely destroyed the Evil God of Famine.

With that, Joshua ceased the trail of thoughts. After pursuing and destroying the Evil Gods, he would have to hurry and destroy the Permanent Void Anchor Point and completely stop the Ultimate Sublimator’s invasion of Stellaris.

Nevertheless, he promptly paused in the very next moment—the warrior’s consciousness inside the silver world was stunned.

***

There was a voice.

Transcending untold length and dimensions, the voice reached directly into the depths of his heart—the heart an ultimate champion.

It was also the voice he had heard in the Void outside Stellaris saying that the light at the edge of the Mana Tide was indeed the Initial Flame.

“This is the last war, and the last chance.”

The voice was void of emotion, and was neither a language nor a cry. Indeed, it was more a stone monument inscribed into the mind than a voice—objective, pure, informative, and containing nothing else.

The voice spoke to the Triple Curtain as well, and the psionic collective relayed it at once to Joshua. They realized that the information from the voice was identical.

By then, the Ultimate Entities had stop pouring out from the Permanent Void Anchor Point.

In their place was a faint, inconspicuous beam, nearly undetectible if not for vision sensitive to atomic motion. Even the Permanent Void Anchor Point, which easily teleported Evil Gods and endless Ultimate Entities, appeared to have had a hard time letting through, as if something exceedingly massive was squeezing itself into the world from beyond but was stuck at the opening.

Or instead of describing it as a beam, it was a white belt of light…

A white thread, like light itself.

Even then, time was still continuing.

“It has been too long. We must be the last individuals who can explore the Initial Flame by tracking the trail of the Great Mana Tide, and the cosmos would be completely severed from the Root after us. The Mana Tide would still exist, but it would no longer be a guide that allows us to cross that limitless forbidden zone of the Void.”

Joshua and the Triple Curtain heard that voice.

The silent supernova creature in the Multiverse that command unlimited psionic divine power had heard it too, just as the ultimate champion pricked their ears in attentiveness.

The gods and the powerful Legends over the cosmos and the Multiverse itself heard it. In every location where Ultimate Entities existed, all creatures whose ability reached a certain threshold also heard it, like radios receiving signals.

Without any signs of holding back, it thus said, “We are the final, the last. There is neither future nor hope from here on out.

Therefore…

I must succeed.

Whatever the price and destruction, I will become the sublime, evolving and growing beyond my limits to the boundary of infinite.

***

It was the purest of desires and machinations originating from intelligent minds and hence manifesting, one that transcended beyond Chaos and Evil Gods, or even evil and malice itself.

The beast which only saw itself had come and thus appeared to all.