Soul of Searing Steel

Roland limped away from the dead world.

There was no helping it since the Holy Light’s capacity to heal the flesh was limited—the Holy Light of typical priests could only heal external injuries while internal injuries had to be handled by necromancers. Moreover, although elite clergies command Holy Light abilities that heals internal injuries as well, there was no assurance that one’s peak form could be restored.

As the most powerful Supreme-tier Holy Knight of Mycroft, Roland’s Holy Light could resurrect the dead, but after having exchanged blows with Joshua over heaven and earth, he needed a crutch to walk.

Still, Roland was pleased—not because he had caught on a clue to the path of Legends, but because he finally had cleared his mind on certain matters.

And that was certain questions existed, but did not require an answer.

Why was the Multiverse like this? That did not matter to any human, and before he should think about it, it was most important that he changed it.

Why was there a mountain in front of the house? Why was there a river outside the doors? Why were there beasts hovering around the house? To keep thinking about ‘why’ would never actually solve the question, and the first thing that needs to be done was clear a path into the mountain, set up a bridge over the river, capture or kill the hovering beasts. Only then should one spare the strength to consider ‘why’ while enjoying the beasts’ flesh.

Humans are a species that adapted the world to their own ends, and it was so from start to finish—the Multiverse was no exception.

***

Meanwhile, Joshua watched as Roland climbed out from the planet’s core to the crust, before nodding slightly after the Holy Knight was whisked away by the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds’ fixed-point teleportation.

The warrior was naturally pleased with his friends’ development in ability. Both Roland and Brandon were fine opponents with great talents, and the warrior could see them ascending as Legends in the next few years.

After all, not everyone was the same as he was to have the fortune of being anointed with Grandia’s power and the King of Searing Souls status when he ascended as Legend. It was not a matter of epiphanies for ordinary Extraordinary individuals ascend as Legend, but a long process similar to learning, with incessant thought, study and mastery.

Though Roland’s path to Legend was slightly complicated, it was essentially an ability to alter the state of things through his special Holy Light—heat resistant would turn not so, conductors would become resistors, sturdy armor turning as fragile as a cookie under that power.

As an example, if there were certain substance that were normal conduits under normal temperatures, but would become a superconductor at two hundred degrees below zero or a resistor at two hundred degrees, Roland’s Holy Light would make the substance enter those special states at his call.

With the information he gained from their brief clash, Joshua can be sure that Roland had yet to really control that power, but it would not be a problem. He could tell from the way the Holy Knight had easily turned Holy Light into physical hammer and shield that Roland had considerable mastery over the shift of attributes and form, and would soon grasp that power.

“That way, Roland would excel in material sciences even if he wouldn’t fight.”

The warp radiance of the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds vanished, and Joshua nodded in slight awe. “A Legendary champion’s power could simply be used in developing technology instead of battle, or to build things that surpasses the era… this may be the true way of technological development for Extraordinary civilization.”

Having spoken to many Legendary champions and obtaining many information from the Unifies Archives and the Metal Dragon God, Joshua was now very familiar with the progress of civilization development before the Glorious Era.

In his perspective, an Extraordinary civilization such as Mycroft would go through three procedures:

One.

Primitive, savage ages that, because of abrupt changes and high-energy environments, see the growth of souls or gradual evolution of cycles and hence obtain the ability to think. Those sentient creatures would group together, and enter the basic procedures such as creating tools, language and so forth—different species would see different change in this age, such as some species that were born with the supernatural ability to breathe fire or control water would gain distinct advantage in aspects of Flame Seed and transcending rivers or lakes.

In that age, Extraordinary abilities were mere tools that resemble an invisible third hand. Apart from the magical creatures around them that were armed with the same supernatural power, survival and skill accumulation were the same as an ordinary civilization. This age begins from the ancient stone age and lasts until tribal settlements, up until the outline of nations would form.

But everything would be different in the second age, the early days of civilization.

During this time, most Extraordinary civilization would place their mind into individual ability, with the most individually powerful amongst them becoming leaders of race and civilization itself. Be it battling beasts, other intelligent life or changing nature, individual ability was the key of that age. The earliest of hierarchy would also be thus born, and those with great ability would naturally be existence of a higher level, while those without would be bottom feeders—a simple and violet division, a policy completely different from the division of power and the policy of hierarchy that normal intelligent beings which relies upon ‘ethics’, ‘norms’, ‘bloodline’, ‘fate’ and so forth.

For an Extraordinary civilization this age would appear very long because the hierarchical rule based on ability would be excessively stable. For kings wielding supernatural powers and an augmented rule, any that did not fit his intents would be changed, improved or whimsically crushed. He would also be the first to learn skill development, improving himself, since his talents must be the greatest as king, and if he be willing, no genius could challenge his position.

Even if they did, he still has resistance far beyond leaders of ordinary civilizations—if that king was powerful enough, no one in the world could influence him as he perpetuated, even if they saw him as a demon king. Unlike ordinary intelligent civilizations which would undergo a great reshuffling and progress due to policy, technology or various other reasons, Extraordinary civilizations would never change greatly in terms of policy and technology even if their dynasties would fall, much less develop… for the new rulers would be powerful Extraordinary individuals too.

Normal humans would never become leaders of Extraordinary civilization.

The feudal, medieval or warring age would last for millennia, even dozen millennia—the long second age for Extraordinary civilization would always last that long, for a society that places all their wisdom upon refining individual ability would easily fall into a radical state where the most powerful would rule steadily over millennia, or where different champions would challenge and engage in mutual slaughter over millennia. The more powerful the individual, the easier technology and society development would stagnate, and most supernatural civilizations would simply destroy themselves at that stage.

A long-term accumulation was required to break that repetitive cycle. For example, text about the supernatural unwittingly being spread for common use after dozens of millennia, empowering even the species’ innate talents after they delved into supernatural powers over a long period, everyone would hence gain certain powers to the point that peasants could cast spells to fertilize and water crops.

That way, Extraordinary civilization would finally become similar to ordinary intelligent civilizations and assume to path to collective progress, because the wisdom that focused entirely on individual ability would finally be freed when supernatural abilities become widespread, thereby being applied to all aspects of life and carrying out revolutions in policy and logic—it was certainly the most dangerous juncture as well, for many civilization could blow themselves up in the process of revolution, or destroy themselves in long accumulated conflict.

Naturally, there was also a rare possibility beyond that—a great champion who emerged, boasting ability far beyond the limits of that age. After bringing the world to its knees, that champion could deliberately allow civilization to progress, for policy to change or propagate Extraordinary abilities, using his own power to force civilization into the Third Age in the shortest time.

Breaking away from the childhood of civilization, the latter age of civilization—in other words, the former Glorious Era, and the present Starfall Era.

Joshua was aware that the Starfall Era was still in the Second Age before, but the legacies of the Glorious Era, the vague guidance of the gods and the isolating partitioning of various settlements by the Central Dark Forest prevented Starfall from having a powerful ruler of all the peoples. Instead, it blossomed over all locations, creating different societies that interact and reference each other so that they could swiftly advance.

But recently, when Joshua had resolved the crisis of Mycroft’s Tinder, Starfall Era slowly strode into the Third Age.

Furthermore, the most important symbols of this age—their greatest champions had chosen to use their power to aid other civilizations in improving their technology. To put it in another fashion, the Legendary champions had, under their own free will, spread teachings of the skills they had learned, nurturing civilization in return for a mutual victory and accelerating growth.

Thought the champions of the ages before were formidable as well, they were merely personally formidable: kings would never mine, palace mages would never conjure rain for peasants—even if they occasionally did, those were special occasions. To ensure that their rule was stable and intentionally seal the exchange of knowledge and strengthen the hierarchies, keeping civilization from developing.

But by the Third Age, the champions who had arrived at the limits of their personal power would finally realize something: it was through the collective advancing of civilization, interaction, the gathering of countless thoughts, to clash and create sparks that they could finally see the world from another perspective, clearing their obstacles in thought. They would finally hence transcend beyond their previous limits, and that was when they would willfully cultivate civilization, even champions of their own caliber.

By that stage, an Extraordinary civilization would have distinct advantage. Take Joshua for example, whose power could create a Void Tower in less than two weeks. For postmodern ordinary civilizations that barely progressed past industrialization… No, even Earth’s own star-faring civilization would need decades of planning and construction to create a super space elevator of the same scale.

Since the champions of Extraordinary civilization had already refined their skill and power far beyond the level of the Third Age back when they were still in the Second Age, ordinary civilizations would need one or two centuries to grasp the edges of technological for leaving their homeworld. On the other hand, champions of the Extraordinary civilization could enter the Void by the Second Age, or even in the First.

In truth, Mycroft’s civilization had just concluded magical industrialization—the equivalent for ordinary civilizations leaving their industrial age. Their total population was more or less the same as industrial civilization, and it was the technological feedback from Legendary champions that allowed the Starfall Era to directly build magical tools such as the Void Battleship in less than ten years.

With the progress of civilization and the popularization of supernatural ability, the number of Legendary champions would certainly increase as well, and with every new Legend bringing widespread technological reformation—a point in case was Roland, who would undoubtedly revolutionize the material science sector of Mycroft. The Holy Knight, with his ability to alter matter or even energy, would directly elevate a civilization and all related material industry by several levels with his mere presence.

It was a state of mutual acceleration and victory. Extraordinary champions were no longer the high and mighty ruling class, just as the peasants were no longer expendable assets or pets in the eyes of Extraordinary champions. The barrier between them vanishes, and in this final age, things may turn out as the Glorious Era and Shelter civilization imagined, ‘all are gods’ or ‘artificial gods’.

But the existing problems linger.

“Population…”

Joshua could not help but sigh once he remembered that critical problem. “Population is needed to sustain it, no matter how fast technology advances… without populations, there would be none to steer powerful warships. Low-cast AI are ineffective, while advanced AI souls such as Zero Three are too rare.”

After all, she was a creation of the Extraordinary civilizations, and some meaning would be lacking to have a pure intelligent program run perfectly.

Presently, the problem that Mycroft’s civilization faces was not technology. With many Legendary champions and the Unified Archives, part of their technology had been restored to Glorious Era standards—but having the technology and not the people to man it makes it useless, no matter how advanced that technology could be.

Two billion people would never sustain one Void Age civilization—after all, the Sartreans had dozen billions, and only a great yet complete civilization of that fashion would sustain a full Void fleet!

“A pity. If not for the low cost-effectiveness for the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds to teleport entire populations, I would head for Stellaris to find the Midgardians.

Joshua remembered both his title as the New Midgardian God and those intelligent plants that used psionic abilities in Stellaris—Midgardians had entered their star-faring age a thousand years ago, and fit the requirements of the Mycroft civilization be it in experience or ability. If he could, Joshua really wanted to hire experienced crews to Mycroft.

But Stellaris was now doing battle against the spawns of the Evil Gods. According to Vahina, Sage of the Oceans and a Legend who had travelled to Stellaris as well, that world was now launching a full counteroffensive against Chaos. The Midgardians themselves also joined in a galactic alliance to purge the spawns of the Evil God of Pestilence, and hence had no spare strength to be dispatched away while they waged a sacred war of Order against Chaos.

On the other side of the Multiverse, the boundless world of Stellaris was a catastrophe zone invaded by Evil Gods. If one was to say that the Mycroft civilization would face a horde of Evil Gods in future decades, it had already been invaded, but only now do they have the strength to retaliate since they boast massive ranks.

Leaving aside species that does not fit the requirements, Joshua and the other Legends all believed that only three otherworld civilizations could be hired by Mycroft: the octopedal fungi known as the Starherders, the Sartreans and the Demons of the Abyss.