Soul of Searing Steel

Presently, Joshua’s clone in the Abyss disintegrated into Steel Strength, while his true form in Fort Pioneer was accompanied by Zero Three, observing the octopedal fungi that had just arrived at the central fortress for a partnership exchange.

Mycroft’s next plans were easy to understand. To investigate the present state of the Multiverse and for precautions against Evil God invasions, they must all head off to study and explore other galaxies. Although the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds could actually take on that task if it had been a few persons alone, just like how Joshua had been called upon by Stellaris from the other side of the Multiverse back then. The Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds had sent him there directly, since as long as the general coordinates was confirmed, it could teleport anything to any point in the known Multiverse.

However, the issue with that was the excessive cost.

Teleporting through the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds required energy, and cost more if the object had greater mass. There would also be considerable disturbance if the individual’s ability was greater, just as it would be easier if it was the local galaxy, or planetary systems in the vicinity. Indeed, the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds could even directly send Joshua’s true form to the Darkest Abyss through the support of divine power.

Another galaxy, however, was a completely different concept—especially with the distance between the Lost Galaxy and the other galaxies. What separates them were countless corpses galaxies, setting them so far apart that the Starherders, a nomadic race of the Void could only cross it after more than a hundred years despite their formidable biological Void technology.

The increase of power cost with that distance would prevent the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds from teleporting to and from both directions on a larger scale. Without a connection, it would at most transport a dozen weak and less massive AI observation circles or elementals to take a look on the other side.

After all, the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds presently was not complete, and counted at most as a base.

Joshua and the other Legendary champions had the idea that the Mycroft civilization must dispatch a Void fleet, cross the long dark road the Starherders had covered back then to return to the Starherder’s home galaxy. There, they would establish a teleportation hub similar to Hub Acrafa, which the power of the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds could use as a base to hence cover other planetary regions and teleport with lower costs.

Now, they had Void warships, blueprints for dimensional hub, sources for various materials. Joshua did not believe those to be a problem, since the question remains on the understaffed warships—in other words, the fleet remained too small.

Joshua himself had an initial idea that was true to Extraordinary civilizations: one of the Legendary champions could carry the core of a dimensional hub, fly alone over the long dark road towards another galaxy and establish the hub. However, leaving aside whether they would reach the destination, none apart from Joshua himself could establish such a complicated dimensional building alone in such a short period, and Joshua himself presently was vulnerable, having to rely on the processing power of the Mana Net to ensure his mind was not affected by his Spirit Deviation Rate.

Once he wanders too far away from the Mana Net, Joshua would not know what he himself would do—even he feared himself when he goes amok.

The unexpected would also happen once time extends. Aside from the matter of one person continuing in their journey through a long dark road, they would become isolated and had no assurance of safety. If one were to suggest having multiple Legends going, then why not bring a fleet as well? After all, with a Legendary champions protection, the warship would not be too slow as it moved through the Void, and should local civilizations attack the construction process of the dimensional hub, a fleet could reinforce any lacking in the battle of champions.

There was little need to mention that Void fleets need to train their recruits as well, as well as people to establish a base on the other galaxy.

Hence, the matter was decided.

It was a pity that only one Avian Legend awakened out of the nine Glorious Era Legends who sealed the Evil God of Wither. The other eight were still in slumber, with Yana Milo herself being still in spirit recovery—her spirit fragments had definitely healed, but she remained very weak due to repercussions of Wither’s influence. They would have no qualms about appoint her as fleet leader otherwise, since an average Legendary fleet commander such as here was completely different from them who know nothing about leading a fleet.

With that line of thought, Joshua had created the Continental War game to encourage a wave of widespread awakening for Extraordinary individuals who fits the bill, apart from crushing the Chaos memories in his body. The closed beta testing clearly yielded delightful results, and it was about time that he prepared for to make it official.

***

As for the confederate army Mycroft had demanded, the Starherders, Sartreans and demons all had different reaction.

The Starherders had reacted the most positively, knowing full well of Mycroft’s ability and that their civilization’s survival was at the Forerunners’ whim.

A while ago, the Mycroft civilization had not asked much of the Starherders since they had been up against the Evil God of Death and various other problems… which left the octopedal fungi even more worried: having no demands of them meant that they were of no value as well. The most frightening aspect of that was to be found wanting even when it came to being exploiting.

There was space for improvement if one was exploited, but if they were not…

Either way, when the Great Khan learned that the Mycroft civilization required a confederate army to return to the Starherders’ home galaxy, the leader of its own civilization did not hesitate to enlist eight Void Behemoths and the small worlds on their backs into the reserves. It was one thirds of the Starherders’ Behemoths, not to mention the strongest and youngest of them—having cross through the long, dark road, they were also the best guides to lead the Starfall Fleet to another galaxy far beyond.

While not stated clearly, the Great Khan’s cooperative reaction made all Legendary champions to believe that they were a trustworthy, and hence disengaged many precautions and seals placed upon them. To improve their joint efforts, they had even exchanged crew who visited their respective warships and learn more about each other.

The Sartreans had reacted positively as well, and should have enlisted themselves—but it was a pity that the unrest in their homeworld caused by the Evil God of Death had left them in the midst of rebuilding. Though they were supportive of Mycroft’s operations and willingly offered three-quarters of their entire fleet, they had no complete facilities and maintenance docks to ensure their fleet operations.

Technicians and rescue teams from Mycroft had headed to the Sartrean world for aid, but it would probably take half a year for the Sartreans to revive their fleet after having fallen into stagnation and almost destroying themselves.

Still, before their fleet was rebuilt, the Sartreans voluntarily offered excellent trained crew who would arrive in around half a month. At least they understood that the Mycroft civilization had excess production capacity, and needed manpower sorely

Mycroft cordially responded to the two partners as well, since it was a matter of mutual gain and not a single-sided exploitation.

As for the demons of the Abyss…

***

“I always feel that finding those bastards is a bad idea.” The warrior muttered, shaking his head forcefully at the thought.

Meanwhile, Zero Three could not help but turn away from monitoring the octopedal fungi to glance at him once, checking if his spirit deviation rate had increased again.

Joshua did not notice those fidgeting; he was very troubled at the moment.

Igor, Pope of the Seven Gods Church had been the one who suggested that they sought out the demons. He knew that those entities that invaded and plundered souls controlled a massive Lava Fleet—though crude and only manageable for demons, it remained a fleet that the confederate army could use.

Naturally, there was an even more practical reason: While Goliath the Gluttonous Demon King had sworn fealty, none could be sure that a demon’s oath holds any value. For Mycroft’s part, they would be dispatching many powerful Extraordinary powers and Void Fleet, along with a good number of Legendary champions. Their civilization would be at their most vulnerable then, and should the demons decide to break their oath and attack Mycroft, they would suffer even if the demons were beaten.

That was why Igor believed that the demons’ Legendary champions—even the Demon King itself had to be conscripted into the confederate army and head to the other galaxy with the Lava Fleet, necessity for one, guarding their rear being another.

Joshua was aware that it was a fine idea that kills two birds with one stone, but demons are demons because they never—or have difficult following plans.

Not to mentioned that, despite being one of the three races named and unlike the other two who were fully supportive, most of the demons were resistant to the Mycroft’s plan. While they were not inclined to fight the superior civilization, they were clearly uninterested in a plan that was at once difficult and unbeneficial for them. Even if Mycroft had kept emphasizing on the ‘mutual victory’ portion, it remains an aspect only Demon Generals cared for, and not their species.

Goliath the Demon King proved ambiguous too. It was neither planning to break its oath nor protesting the plan, but was simply helpless: Demons were ever free and undisciplined and would be briefly obedient to a Demon King’s great power and splendor, but it was impossible for them to keep following orders obediently.

In fact, the Lava Fleet parked in a corner of Fort Pioneer would often be at odds with the local garrison and the Starherders. Each occasion happened on the spot and even the presence of Demon Generals proved useless, and were mostly caused by middling demons in an exchange with other races—exchanges that ended up in provocations.

“That’s the Abyss, not to mention that Demons were essentially gathered pieces of sporadic Soul Fragments… it would be easier to hope that the Fairies become more reliable than having demons follow command.”

Such was Joshua opinion, and he ceased that line of thought.

Having formidable capacity for building and maintenance, the warrior was arranged to preside over Fort Pioneer—constructing a series of large Void docks and a dimensional hub as practice and collecting information. Simple matters completed a few days ago, Joshua was now the presiding Legendary champion who would regulate any conflict between the four races.

It must be said that it was a task that fitted Joshua very much. He only had to sit and emanate his aura, and everyone from the already-nervous Starherders, the Sartreans, some of the demons and even humans were left in palpating fear… they did not even dare to exhale loudly, much less enter conflict.

Still, that was precisely why Fort Pioneer was in such harmony save for the occasional demonic provocations. It left Joshua, extremely bored with nothing to do, apart from getting rid of one or two demons causing a ruckus.

That was why he would accept Brandon and Roland’s challenges to spar until both men reached the threshold of Legend.

And this day should have hence passed in dullness too.

But Joshua suddenly blinked, sensing a reaction in the earmark programming he put in Continental War.

“Someone cleared the Fourth Phase to enter the Fifth? No… that’s the reaction of someone reaching the Fifth and passing the instance dungeon!”

Joshua was at once curious when he noticed the fact—although many players were left stumped in the Fourth Phase for a long time, it was not an unsolvable conundrum as long as their stratagem and gimmicking reached a certain level. They just have to clear it once, and it would be much simpler to clear it next time.

Still, that reaction was not caused by something as frivolous as having the Fourth Phase cleared—the entire beta testing itself had been cleared!

Who? Joshua thought, focusing and following the Mana Net reserve data stream to begin searching the server for the name of the player who cleared the game.

That was when he felt a familiar presence.

“Light?!”

After considerable search to finally find the spirit signature left by the person who passed, Joshua could not help but feel shocked when it turned out to be a frequency he was used to, before realizing something even more shocking.

“No… it’s not Light, it’s Light’s main form!”

“The Luminous Humanoid of the Bloodmoon Abyss!”