Soul of Searing Steel

Matter was not equally distributed in the universe.

If a powerful Extraordinary individual were to observe a miniature singular universe from the outside, he would have noticed that the arrangement of luminous stellar bodies and planetary systems resembled an oversized sponge. There would also have been threads that chained the systems together into one huge network, having layers that composed a three-dimensional and vast universe—in sponge form, naturally.

And just like the countless gaps in sponges, massive cavities existed in the space between galaxies. Such cavities were so vast and was virtually empty vacuums where no substances existed, and even the gravity emanating from other systems were so weak that it was almost non-existent.

***

In the heart of this huge cavity—the Galactic Trench of Stellaris—which had to be measured in millions of light years and was devoid of any luminous planetary system, rapidly whirling blackholes without accretion disk were the only celestial forms present. Any observation equipment would have had tremendous difficulty noticing the system without light that was tens of millions of light years away, while psionic surveillance was even less possible as none of those energies could approach the perimeter of that region.

A layer of psionic presence which had almost zero mass and yet emanated silver-blue radiance could be seen beyond the black holes’ event horizon. It absorbed all light and energy that escaped the black holes, which was one of the main ingredients of soul. In other words, a profound soul form was shrouding those black holes. They were a remarkably advanced psionic machinery that could keep the motion within their constitution balanced despite the powerful gravitational force of the black holes.

Meanwhile, countless colossal machinery of all geometrical shapes surrounded the black hole. They were either ring-shaped rivers that encircled the blackholes, triangular mechanical networks that were distributed fixedly around planetary systems or hexagonal beehive shapes that would keep rotating, turning directions and shifting trails without any form of order…without exception, each machine glimmered in silver-blue light, interconnected while shining dully and erratically.

The massive psionic presence transported a portion of substance into the black holes intermittently, and in turn extracted energies from the radiation emanating out of the black hole. It was not a highly efficient method to draw power, but a method to utilize various annihilative energies and gravitational deviance, even if Kerr’s blackhole engine had been one of the most stable in the path of psionics.

After all, unlike other Extraordinary power or civilizations of pure technology, solid Psi was almost weightless. Its attribute of natural convergence made it the most efficient at approaching and manipulating various super gravitational bodies, and thus, when psionics strode towards the stars into the distance, the effectiveness with which they applied black holes was far beyond other systems.

The planetary system of metal constructs hovering by its lonesome inside the Galactic Trench had remained there boundlessly in the great flow of time, having existed over seventy million years in the standard time calculation beyond the world. However, with Stellaris mass, could it have existed for a longer time to certain small worlds? That remained unknown, but it was regardless true that the metal constructs of a planetary system scale were near eternal wonders that would have stayed operational over a hundred million years.

In the long stream of time, they awaited the birth of individuals resembling them in the other galaxies and planets that had been created. If there were civilizations that could discover them despite being concealed by psionic energy and could travel through vacuum stretching dozens of millions of years—or perhaps even longer—to approach them, there was no doubt of that civilization’s ability.

As the superintelligence that watches over these stars, the entity known as the Life Preservation Sequence could peacefully entrust the legacy left by the Creators, who were the makers of everything in this world, to another.

They had been waiting, but no civilization had come even after the invasion of Evil Gods from beyond their own world…endless time passed and countless repetition progressed as civilizations replayed their journeys of destruction and rebirth, but none could reach new heights.

But today, they expected the arrival of a guest from another world.

***

In an isolated planetary system at the edge of the stars, within the fringes of the Galactic Trench, Chaos was everywhere. Even far behind the domain where the Stellar Guard kept watch, Chaos appeared, obstructing trade routes and logistics paths—after all, there were always one or two planetary systems which could not be protected amongst the billions of planetary systems, allowing malice to fester.

At the center of the system was a commonly seen G-star that once grew life. There were subterranean springs near volcanos in a world where most moisture lurked in underground cavities, and its ocean formed a third of its land mass. In the dark water sources and oceans were various curious creatures and actual intelligent life, born from natural magma essence in the hot springs and ascending as gods that the diverse species consecrated.

They should have had a beautiful future, a story that appeared mundane to the universe but was definitely interesting and worth remembering. Now, however, that star was a lair of Chaos—their purpose was erased, and the entire subterranean water source and the surface of the continent became a Chaos logistics factory and a small nursery.

Meanwhile, at the center of the planet where the Chaos had covered the stars, Chaotic particles that were toxic to all living things hovered around the stellar body. They gathered and split in vacuum, exchanging fundamental information unbeknownst to anyone, while hordes of Chaos spawns were born from the breeding sacs around the stars, gathering as instructed into swarms that headed towards other stars.

It was a classic Chaos stronghold entrenched upon the innumerable galaxies—hidden in a fringe system, hordes of Chaos spawns would have been unleashed without end to interfere with the Alliance’s logistics and delayed the speed at which the Stellar Guard’s armada could assemble. If one was to say that 60% of the Alliance’s forces could have gathered on the front line, the remaining 40% were often stopped in their tracks by such strongholds forming less than 1% of the galaxy-wide spawns’ population.

Now, another swarm could be seen preparing to leave the star and heading out to another planet for sabotage efforts. Even so, at escaping the direct interference of gravity, warping the short distance beyond the heliosphere and preparing to break off for another long-range warp at units of light years, the swarm suddenly disregarded the lair’s orders and turned, fleeing in panic. It was obvious that the swarm’s formation was already in shambles. The Chaos spawns that moved as one were now many individuals, running and hiding as if escaping some terrible presence.

But it was too late, for the dimensions trembled.

If one were to broaden their perspective to watch the diverse planetary systems, they would have been able to catch several simultaneous rhythms by the edge of the galaxy’s spiral arms shining with dark gravitational dents. They permeated the entire galaxy, building a trail of black footprints.

It was a supermassive form that distorted light itself while it warped rapidly.

At each of his warp points, the surrounding radiances were briefly consumed into massive gravitational dents. Then, by the next moment, he would have warped again while the dents advanced, just like footprints left as someone strolled along the beach—although that person’s mass was beyond dozens of planetary systems put together, and the beach was an entire galaxy.

Then, like how the footprints of the beach would have been flattened by the tides, the gravitational dent was swiftly smoothed by the surrounding dimensions. Even so, powerful gravity quaked, combined with curious energy ripples that spread from the dent. Those ripples were harmless to normal lifeforms, merely like having one’s face touched by winds, but to various abnormal existences and Chaos bodies, it was inescapable death no matter how well they hid.

Thus, even the hives of Chaos began to tremble inside its lair within the fringe system. It was neither fear nor oppression of its very living disposition, but a physical shuddering and disfigurement—when a sphere emanating incandescent radiance appeared upon the edge of the planetary system and vanished immediately, formless silver presence swept through every spot of space, and each of the Chaos spawns, corrupted planets, and stellar hives touched by the ripples quietly disintegrated into insignificant molecules in the galaxy.

“Skree… Onk!”

The stellar hive struggled and squirmed, its skin brimming with a grotesque sheet of light that shone in a myriad of black luster. Those were substantial molecular energy-consuming spores that formed a biological defensive shield, a mechanism that rendered main batteries of the standard psionic warships useless—perhaps only spatial weaponry such as subspace breaker cannons that applies warping principles could have theoretically dealt some damage upon it.

After all, the stellar hive had a star within its body, and it regenerated far faster than the rate at which a warship’s main battery was recharged between salvos.

Nonetheless, against the silver mist that came surging towards them, the stellar hive that could face the assault of a dozen standard Stellar Guard fleets at once with strength to spare and retaliate could only wail quietly in the emptiness of space before being reduced to nothing. Its body vanished as if rubbed away by an eraser, crumbling—its very remains also lost what life it had as it fell into the star and was incinerated into ash.

It all happened within minutes.

By simply passing through, a stellar-class Chaos spawn was hence killed without any trace of it left. Such was the power of the greatest Extraordinary individuals—Joshua’s power.

In the past, the Evil God of Fertility had also destroyed millions of worlds with the terrible shockwaves it made just by passing by as it travelled through the Multiverse, thereby creating multitudes of lesser Evil Gods such as Air, or even the Void Vortex that resembled the shape of the Vortex of Creation, creating a massive rift visible in the stars.

Now, Joshua had reached that path as well… perhaps he could not hold a candle to Fertility which was born hundreds and millions of years ago, but as an intelligent life with an actual future, he would have had various solutions to surpass the now very eternally dead Evil God.

[Reminder: We will soon be commencing a long-range warp. The distance is 45,620,000 light years. We shall cover the remaining distance with short warp and flight at sub-lightspeed.]

[Shock: Your power appears to have a formidable affect on the physical realm… it is no surprise that you can create Emotional power which is based on Psi and yet affects the physical realm tremendously.]

[Curiosity: Radcliffe, do you intend to use Emotional power as your core in the future?]

“Not quite.”

Joshua turned to the Beacon of Perpetuity, which had transfigured into a formless psionic form, and answered shortly while warping, “Emotional power is merely the first step of my experiment. What I want isn’t such a simple composite.”

[Comprehension: Understood. However, even a composite has it marvels, and could open new paths when applied to the extreme…that was what the Sage once told me.]

“Perhaps, but it doesn’t suit me,” Joshua conveyed a smile before pausing to accumulate energy for the long range warp. In the interim, his thoughts were wandering, thanks to the words of the Beacon of Perpetuity.

There were indeed correlations between Extraordinary powers. Divine power and Steel Strength originated directly from the Initial Flame and the Steel of Origins, and there was a curious genealogy with the other supernatural abilities.

Firstly, it was the soul and Psi which the Creators had developed based on divine power. That power branched intricately, creating many special systems next to it, such as spiritual power and spiritual perception.

Then, according to the Knowers, the civilization represented by the Wise One of Arcane sensed the brimming forces of creation present across the multiverse, thanks to their strong soul and the many spiritual abilities branching from Psi. Those forces of creation turned out to be the radiance of existence that the Initial Flame illuminated the Void with, and with their strong spirit, Arcane’s civilization founded magic and mana, the hidden powers of the radiance of existence that could create any phenomenon.

Then, as mana branched out, many more primitive totemic abilities such as hexes and jinxes appeared, all of which remained variants of mana.

Perhaps in the same era or inspired by the discovery of mana, a power which originated from lifeforce had also been founded. It was a power which could be directly applied upon objects and easily alter their form. There should have been another Wise One who had established its system as well, but neither his name nor civilization was recorded—perhaps being from the same era and directly connected, magic and lifeforce could have been directly converted through intelligent life, maintaining an unexpectedly intimate correlation between each other.

Nature Power, a second-class variant ability that stands between the two, was hence born.

The two supernatural powers ushered the Multiverse into a new age of the Extraordinary.

Right after them, elements and ether appeared consecutively, their founders being civilizations and individuals who had profoundly researched magic or lifeforce. Like the people who had found the presence of quark in neutrons and protons or strong and weak nuclear force, they had established a new essence upon other powers, and using that essence as the base to develop a whole new ability.

It was precisely because of their origins from other Extraordinary powers that elements and ether could combine meticulously with different Extraordinary powers, and with mana originating from, they naturally fused well too.

“Every Extraordinary power is completely different, having a system which fabric could be unraveled from.”

Joshua stared at the dark and empty Galactic Trench before him, as he pondered serenely inside. “Just like how organics were born out of inorganics, intelligent life of flesh having made powerful artificial intelligence, both former and latter are utterly different yet posses a remarkable similarity at their core. It is simply too difficult to describe it.”

If there ever came a day when he could have describe the differences between various Extraordinary powers in layman terms, he would have been a Wise One then.

“Psi was developed so individuals can have distinct individuality, while mana and lifeforce use one’s own power to change the world.”

“Elements and ether were developed from the latter two, standardizing all Extraordinary power and establishing the cornerstones of the Multiverse, changing the very origins of the living worlds and affecting the birth of new worlds in the future.”

“As for Holy Light… it appears to be a power originating from mana or lifeforce, or indeed divine powers and Steel Strength. It changes the world as well, but Holy Light leans towards restoration… or reversing a certain measure. No, it is perhaps more profound: when examined, the essence of the Holy Light’s cleansing and healing is to reverse entropy, the ability to retrogress physical changes.”

Lifeforce, Steel Strength, and magic could naturally achieve that as well. Even so, Holy Light applied it as a basis to directly achieve what other superpowers would have taken time to achieve.

Meanwhile, the new power called Shadow resembled the relationship between mana and lifeforce, or elements and ether—both possessing distinct yet correlated essence, which was why having one meant cultivating the other