Soul of Searing Steel

Zero-Three appeared at a loss.

“Run?”

‘What is that? A race?’

“It’s not a race. I meant that the ability of the Black Fog’s main body had made most Legendary champions aware of the difference in combat ability between Evil Gods and Legends.”

“For the first time, they truly understood that, at its core, the difference between ‘god’ and ‘Evil God’ was not a perspective of ‘Evil’.”

As Joshua continued flatly, his voice became calmer. “Being Legends, gods were certainly not profound and unstoppable beings in their eyes, while the Evil Gods and the Sage were naturally just divine beings who were a bit more powerful. That was what most of Mycroft’s Legends once thought, but after facing the main body of the Black Fog, they realized that the power of true ancient evils cannot be balanced out by dozens of years of diligence.”

“In other words, they feel fear in the face of the fact that Evil Gods would invade in the future—it might not even be fear, but they were simply doing what they believe to be right…”

“…and run.”

Zero Tree listened silently to Joshua. Somehow, she did not have any contemptuous opinions, but a profound helplessness.

‘Indeed, everyone would feel fear… if they didn’t, nobody would try to stand against the tide, right ?’

Evil Gods are disasters of the Multiverse, a calamity akin to volcanic eruptions, typhoon, and tectonic quaking. A civilization’s best choice against such disaster was naturally to run—no matter how powerful they were, no one would find purpose in swinging their blades at volcanos or charging against a typhoon.

Even if the calamity was defeated, what purpose could there be? Bodies laden with wounds, countless lives perishing and a world that had been restored after much difficulty destroyed—was that really worth it?

Meanwhile, Joshua continued his peaceful monologue. “I know what they think… They are certainly unafraid: they don’t even fear death, so why would they fear Evil Gods? What’s more, everyone’s a Legendary champion. If the enemy can’t be beaten, retreat is absolutely possible.”

“It’s their duty as human and their honor as champions that kept them here, to share the fate of Mycroft’s civilization.”

At that, Joshua sighed heavily once more.

Though they weren’t acquainted for long, the warrior would not hesitate to say that all Mycroft Legends were individuals free from inferior tastes.

They may have misdemeanors or eccentricities, such as smoking, pretending to be ordinary adventurers as a confidence trick, siring a bunch of bastards or buy houses everywhere but not living in any single one of them… still, it was just their lifestyle, for they were willing to put their lives on the line during critical moments to protect this world and civilization they loved.

But now was not the critical moment, was it not?

The Evil Gods would come in in decades: three if they’re early, four or five if they’re late, or perhaps even seven to eight.

Such a long time would have been enough for the Mycroft civilization to prepare appropriate countermeasures instead of being forced into panicky decisive battles against the Evil Gods. Just like how the moment of volcanic eruption could be observed, knowing when the typhoon would hit land and observe when the tremors begin, allowing local inhabitants to be relocated as soon as possible, Mycroft’s civilization could evade the blade swung against them in its entirety, hiding afar and reclaim their home when their development was finally complete.

Was that idea wrong? Of course not! That which Starfall Era lacked was time—if they had a few hundred years more, with all data and Legacy of the Glorious Era, Starfall would become more powerful than their predecessors through generations after generations of striving.

But…

Joshua clenched his fist.

But could they really run? Would there really be time to progress?

If the mastermind behind the scenes he imagined existed, there was no meaning in running for Mycroft’s civilization.

Still, that remained a guess that Joshua himself doubted. Others would not believe him even if he told them.

“They have many ideas, each of which is complete. It seems that they had been solemnly considering the future of our world all this time.”

Joshua looked up, staring at the black dome of the Data Storage Hall.

“For example, the Nature’s Magister.”

“Galanoud had suggested that she would use her real form as a carrier and create a ‘Hibernation Hold’ the size of several mountain chains. Like the Father Nature did back then, she would preserve every single body of our civilization in her own within a deep sleep, while she entered the Void to search for another world suitable for our survival.”

“It’s a crazy idea, but there’s a great chance of success because she’s the Nature’s Magister. She herself is a complete ecosphere, and as long as she could land on a world that fits the conditions, the Mycroft civilization would flourish once more in decades, rebuilding its present glory.”

“And then there’s William and Stanley, both scholars in the spiritual discipline and a class above Galanoud in madness. They are planning to build a colossal spell formation for the world that transfers all living souls on Mycroft to the Mana Net Server, leaving the Spiritual Terminal as a single embodiment in reality. They believe it’s possible for physical bodies and puppets, and we just have to guide the puppets into the world through soul projection—in terms of safety or resource consumption, it’s many times better than it was now.

“Sounds familiar? That’s right. They’re talking about another World Regulator Circle, the original form of the Evil God of Calamity. Those fellows didn’t know about the existence of the World Regulator Circle and yet suggested a similar, perhaps identical concept. Great minds think alike indeed.”

“Even Nostradamus thought that it’s a good idea. He went further by suggesting that my Soul Pool Spheres and Restoration Beams works perfectly in tandem with both plans—a carrier that can store souls and an autonomous machine that perfectly restore physical bodies. With those, we could stuff all souls in our civilization into a server machine that was the size of a mountain, releasing it in a target world to recreate Mycroft civilization.”

“It’s perfect. We don’t have to abandon anyone and could bring everyone along—even geezers in their eighties would regain new life from it.”

At those words, Joshua closed his eyes and sighed deeply. “There are so many of us thinking up so many solutions, and yet I alone thought about how to strengthen myself, to fight the Evil Gods when everyone else though about how to leave and evade… this doesn’t feel right.”

Zero-Three was no longer in her chair. Hovering in the air, she did not know what she could say, and so simply held on to the warrior’s arm.

“You understand them, just as they understand you… There’s no need to be angered by such matters,” the Artificial Intelligence girl said softly beside the warrior’s ear. “There’s still a lot of time, don’t we have a lot of time to think?”

“I know…”

Joshua clenched his fists again but quickly freed them. “I still remember what Nostradamus just told me.”

With that, he delved into that recent memory.

***

In a laboratory within the depths of Winter Fort Academy, Nostradamus and the other Legends were in their seats over a round table. The old mage, sitting on the opposite end, stared at the warrior with a twinkle in his eyes.

“Joshua,” he began with the most solemn of tones, “if you, or any of us could become a class of being like the Sage, we could well fight to the death for our honor, just like the Glorious Era did before.”

“However, we are the navigators of our own civilization, the highest authority there is. We can decide for Mycroft’s future, whether they hibernate like Galanoud suggested, or would all be transferred into a server as pure spiritual bodies.”

“Joshua, we are Extraordinary individuals. Our chat here could decide the direction for a great civilization, which is why we must be prudent, respectful and cautious above all, leaving no space for error. This is a great power, our greatest honor and also our greatest responsibility. We can’t decide the future of everyone in this world according to personal preferences.”

“That’s right.”

Israel clone sighed in a corner. “We are not the Glorious Era. We don’t have the basis to be confident, to be as prideful as they had been. Moreover, even they had paid the price for their arrogance, which led to our existences now.”

“As successors of that era, we naturally could not let history repeat itself, what with millions of citizens—so what if we could repel the Evil Gods? They wouldn’t be able to even lift a finger against their minions.”

***

As his flashback ended, Joshua neither sighed nor clenched his fist.

“Of course,” he said calmly after another long silence, “Everything they’ve said was right.”

“I myself wanted to escape through methods such as Peaceful Paradise. I’ve created perfect human base form and examined what abilities Void Behemoth flesh could bring all to prevent the scenario where most normal citizens would not even be able to repel the minions of Evil Gods… I’m actually no different than them, and I’ve no clue how to face the collective assault of who-knows-how-many Evil Gods.”

“It’s another matter if I was the Sage—but how did he reach such heights? He was not someone selfish who would conceal how he Ascended, but the fact remains that he left no information. We combed through the archives just to find even the tiniest of clues… the Evil God of Wither counts as one, I’ll look into its fate later.”

“…”

Zero-Three said nothing and held on to Joshua’s arm tightly. The warrior, meanwhile, stared at the rows of data storage devices beneath the transparent crystal floorboards, but said nothing.

“I’m actually not angry, Zero-Three.” He continued after some time. “I just want to think about it…”

“…If we really could flee, could displaced dogs like us ever fight back?”