Soul of Searing Steel

It was not strong initially, but it could mutate and evolve by consuming various resources and energy.

Alone, it was weak no matter how it changed. Even if there existed individuals that could mutate into powerful ones, it was not a permanent path for their species, which was why they often formed groups.

However, they did not simply rely upon their own strength. They were adept at using the flesh and every piece of their hosts as building blocks for their survival.

After one host was decimated silently, they would continue on to the next—again and again in a perpetual cycle.

***

Igor’s opinion about the Evil God of Pestilence was not surprising. After all, following the threat of the Evil Gods of Wither and Death and subsequently obtaining data from the Unified Archives and the Knowers about the Evil Gods and the battles against them, the Mycroft civilization now no longer held their former mysterious fear towards the Evil Gods.

After all, the greatest fear in the world was that of the unknown.

Having cleared the fog of ignorance, even Evil Gods proved to be powerful Chaotic foes and not invincible totems, not to mention that Pestilence’s previous appearances proved to be more or less the same as Wither.

Indeed, with Wither’s level when it had just awakened, the current Combined Fleet of Mycroft would be able to destroy it directly. Even if it did not have Igor, the Nature’s Magister was convinced that she could have fought against it equally if she was prepared—and if things were as the records said, that nine Glorious era Legends were all it took to handle it in its full-form, it just meant having a few Legends fighting together.

It would not have taken much of an effort.

Therefore, it was reasonable that Igor was not convinced of the Evil God of Pestilence boasting great power when its true ability barely exceeded Wither’s.

“That may not necessarily be the case.”

From another corner, Barnil shook his head in response to Igor’s rather certain answer. He was not refuting the old pontiff’s statement, but merely raising an example. “In fact, it may not be the Chaotic Evil Gods because the ability of extradimensional disturbance is not one exclusive to them—here, have a look.”

With those words, Barnil raised his hand. A Legendary mage specializing in runes, adept at creating elementals, and who had turned his entire own physical form into runic composite, he conjured the six major elements, along with a portion of mana and ether halation in his palm. There was also some lifeforce and soul in the mix, along with oxygen, nitrogen, and other essences. Everything was combined into one supernatural composite, or indeed a pinch of standard ‘air’.

In most living worlds, it would have been the atmosphere that contained Extraordinary forces and ordinary elements—such was the perfectly normal thing that Barnil had made.

“I’ve simulated the density of Extraordinary powers in the many worlds found in the presently known Void. Theoretically speaking, the major Extraordinary forces are most stable—they would not clash and are at a ratio that would not change. Even so, look.”

As he spoke, Barnil’s palm moved slightly, and an almost imperceptible energy ripple swept past, affecting that standard pinch of air.

Then, the astonishing happened.

With the ripple that even Legends could hardly detect affecting the bits of insignificant elements in the air, a curious chain reaction transpired. Firstly, diverse elements converged, condensing and forming the most basic of elemental lifeforms: a self-replicating element composite, it had in turn created larger element molecules, element crystallization, and element crystal clusters…and then, the most basic and simplest of elemental lifeforms that resembled mist.

“Eh~ Ah~”

After its birth, the misty elemental lifeform whooped by reflex, before proceeding to chase its own tail at Barnil’s fingertip. It was then that most of the Legendary champions frowned at that sight as if they had suddenly understood something.

“Chain reaction. As everyone would know, I have fine hands in creating elementals, my research in the elements perhaps more profound than the fairies’ studies about themselves,” he said, drawing jeers from the Fairy Queens. “Nonetheless, in seemingly stable environments that are not actually so, powerful existences actually affect and realistically alter the entire world.”

“Let me see… Joshua is not here, I believe?” he added, looking around carefully and ensuring that Joshua had not left a clone hanging around before continuing with much relief. “Well, I will use the absent commander as an example, as well as the Steel Elemental and the Silver Fairies who are his child and spawn ( ‘And our new brethren’, screamed the Fairy Queens ) respectively. The latter is more archetypal—for one, in the world of Karlis which he had influenced and having flourished inside the world of his body, should his power become irrepressible, every life around him would be altered into a certain special lifeform.”

With those words, the elemental lifeform in Barnil’s hand turned slightly: its elemental constitution became complex, and the creature itself transformed from a simple elemental creature that was akin to a multicellular lifeform, evolving in a single leap into an intermediate elemental comparable to dinosaurs or mammoths, just a step away from advanced elementals and other intelligent creatures such as humans.

“You see, I had merely added an insignificant effect, and yet that effect presented itself in similar fashion to the Ultimate Virus. In fact, I don’t have to create an elemental lifeform at all—simply releasing a trifling iota of my power could grow what I want in this world itself. While there may be major differences here, the principle remains the same.”

That opinion had left the many Legends thinking and conferring, while Barnil, unaffected, continued. “Nature’s Magister, do you not animate the plants around you so that they can briefly be sentient? Likewise, Your Holiness, do you not often unwittingly purify all malice? Nostradamus, have you never noticed that you cast your teleportation spells much faster than the rest of us? We, having arrived upon the boundary of Legend, have actually similar attributes that affect the world. However, it is simply rare for any individual to change the world by solely relying on the use of such attributes.”

Barnil spoke frankly and assuredly. It appears that the mage who often create legions of elementals out of nowhere and used numbers to counter his adversaries was well-versed with the system, and while the reason that the Ultimate Virus appeared out of nowhere seemed mysterious to others, it was at most a measure for ascension from Barnil’s own perspective.

Therefore, he concluded, “The reason why the virus seems to have swarmed out of nowhere may not be an Evil God action, since we’ve not sensed any presence connected to the Chaos, but from an extremely powerful Extraordinary individual. However, such an Extraordinary individual who would so whimsically disseminate the epidemic would be no different from Evil Gods. In addition, staying alert is useless if we want to prevent the virus from spreading—what we have to do instead is to interfere with the ripples that trigger the Virus.”

“Of course, before that, recall every single explorer party. The Multiverse is no longer safe—this may be one of the signs of an Evil God invasion.”

***

Meanwhile, in Stellaris on the other side of all dimensions…

Joshua, who had been exchanging information with the Triple Curtain from the bottommost level about various Extraordinary powers and their applications suddenly cut the exchange short, and looked up with the Triple Curtain towards the dark space amidst Stellaris.

“There is something…I can feel it. There is a presence beyond the world casting an influence upon this realm!”

The silver world rapidly changed form in the darkness of the Void as Joshua activated his combat form while watching the other side of the Void solemnly—not even he could precisely feel the mysterious presence sweeping across the stars, because it appeared to be isolated surges of fundamental particles in space and a part of natural phenomena. If not for his senses picking up that the phenomena were not limited to a single world, he would probably have never noticed it.

However, the sheer thickness of the Stellaris World Barrier was in fact billions of times that of other standard worlds. Even Joshua himself could only sense that the outside realms appeared very serene and devoid of any notable motion.

“Triple Curtain, are you aware of what’s going on outside Stellaris?” Joshua turned to ask the Triple Curtain cautiously—the machine intelligence appeared alert as well. “Could some Evil Gods have infiltrated Stellaris unnoticed?”

The massive psionic machine collective flickered with radiance.

[Answer: We are not aware of anything as such. Without a deliberate connection from the inside to the outside, the Stellaris World Barrier is indestructible. Stellaris has existed from the very beginning as the final fortress forged by the Creators, and not even Evil Gods can sneak inside without our knowledge.]

[Troubled: Psionic energy is the energy that binds all things, and psionic civilizations can naturally call upon special bodies from distant, faraway places. Even so, all of this is the terrible outcome, all because we did not stop the First Psionic Civilization from being summoned to this world…we are helpless in stopping civilization…finding a path to their own ruin…]

Joshua did not say anything more since the Triple Curtain was assured that no Evil God had infiltrated the world. He trusted them, and with that being the case, he must think about the enemy’s origins.

However, even as Joshua pondered despite making no heads or tails of it, the warrior had learnt about the freakishness and Chaos which may have been lurking behind everything thanks to the Crisis Handling System he had given Creed and Elma, along with the places he was distributed over: various realms in Stellaris, Mycroft, the Multiverse, and even the Galaxy of Bloodbath itself.

“The Ultimate Virus—if it is the work of the Evil God of Pestilence…is it that powerful?”

The first thing to come into Joshua’s head was the same idea as Igor’s, and it was that the Evil God of Pestilence was not actually so powerful.

But unlike Igor, Joshua was aware that the special superior lifeform known as the Ultimate Sublimator Virus was what created the Void Mother in Stellaris. In other words, it was the entity that the Stellaris had ascertained to be the Evil God of Pestilence—it would not have been surprising if it was the one that had created the Ultimate Virus, and it was indeed logical.

“The epidemic is actually spreading throughout Stellaris as well…a dozen planetary sectors have fallen victim!”

Joshua swiftly took notice, with the strong connection of the Psyweb and the information exchange between the Four Divine Rings connected to most Stellaris psionic.

Given that the Ultimate Virus was supremely infectious and lethal, it only had to appear at a single location to sever connections to entire planets or colonies. More than that, not having the victims’ souls returning to Psyweb was basically evidence in itself that the Ultimate Virus was at work, not to mention that the lack of victims had instead prompted an illusion that things were not as serious as once imagined!

In fact, Joshua was helpless, since his resurrection skill could not restore souls out of thin air, given that the Ultimate Virus set the flesh and soul aflame.

Although strictly speaking, it was not entirely impossible.

With his current abilities, he could have caused time retrogression by rewinding the shift in objects within specific regions to resurrect the individuals who were consumed to the last bit—an inferior version of Fattrovi’s temporal reversion, but nevertheless possible as long as the Triple Curtain provided him with the needed information.

Still, the toll was too high. Though sounding cold-blooded, but in the face of an Evil God and the threat of an unknown epidemic, it was a move where the cost outweighed gains.

The living was much more important.

In his bottom layer information exchange with the Triple Curtain, Joshua had already established the details for Operation Retaliation, including the general stratagem of the battles to come. That way, the Stellar Guard Alliance would have secured an advantage with the Four Divine Rings and the new individuals would have cultivated Emotional power, while Joshua would have brought the data regarding Emotional power and return to the Multiverse, thereby preparing for the Evil Gods’ invasion that would come in a dozen years ,as well as his arrangements to ascend as a Wise One.

But now, the abrupt appearance of the Ultimate Virus not only postponed the retaliating operations, but also required both Joshua and the Triple Curtain to divert excess efforts to stop the plague from spreading, not to mention that the Chaos spawns were acting rather strangely in recent times.

It appeared that they were ready to make some major moves, and their situation which had been fine was now changing.

“Well, can’t think too much about all that.”

Instead of complaining, it was much better to attempt coming up with a solution. Joshua abandoned his fruitless thoughts and steeled himself, serenely sensing every information in space to try to find the roots of the epidemic. The Giant God spread his four arms as if to embrace air—layers upon layers of ripples brimmed away from his body, enfolding and spreading towards the emptiness of space.

There was no excess cosmic energy disturbance emanating within the Galactic Trench where the Triple Curtain was located, nor were there signs of civilizations that affected the senses. And it was in such an environment that when one of the greatest Extraordinary individuals began to listen upon the world, all connections that appeared secretive were dissected and split apart.

He could hear fundamental particles flashing, the rotation of electrons around neutrons. He could see that at the most fundamental of substances where, supported by all supernatural forces, gravity and ether coexisted and bound the movement of every substance. Magic, separate from electromagnetism, could conjure irregular things out of thin air, producing phenomenon that should not have existed…

Joshua could feel that lifeforce is a power that exist in all living creatures of the universe. It was not an energy exclusive to that which was alive, but the power in which life applied to change other things in accordance to their own will.

All life and all things, even those without a form and seemingly nonexistent, could not hide from Joshua.

He thus heard it—it was a faint signal, resounding like a spectral amidst the ocean of particles churning and lurking in space.

***

Within the vacuum where nothing appeared to exist between the stars of the universe was in fact a churning ocean of energy and particles. However, since it was exceedingly tranquil in comparison to the more profound world, it would appear to have not a single ripple.

Even so, around the stars and planets, energy surges and material shift were actually violent.

Coronae raged, solar winds gusted, magnetic boundaries moved even as seismic shifts brought about volcanic eruptions and heat flows…in every location where resources were rich were billions of possibilities unraveling at any given moment.

In the mix, there was incidentally a portion of which energy and physical form moved as a ‘coincidence’. For example, inorganics would become organic, energy crystal compositions would develop erratic natures, becoming something that self-replicated and bred from their original lifeless state.

It was also primitive cells—the beginning of life.

That was the root of the Ultimate Virus.

Joshua listened upon Stellaris, using Emotional Power and the Restoration Beams to control the Psyweb and in turn listen carefully to the sounds of all physical changes in Stellaris. Indefinite volumes of information were rapidly processed by the warrior’s cognitive units that came at world units, and Joshua could therefore hear the sounds of disharmony amidst the coincidences where normal life was birthed.

A profound presence was releasing its ripples to affect all opportunities at which all life could have been born. Now, the possibilities where primitive cells and lifeforms would have been born had instead all turned into possibilities where the Ultimate Virus would have been born!

In other words, after the that terribly faint ripple swept through Stellaris, all phenomena on planets where light could have been born would have had the viral form present, all of them definitively redirected to create the early form of the Ultimate Virus!

In other words, the Ultimate Virus did not have to be spread at all—because it naturally occured in various realms and phenomena!

The dense element environments where primordial soup billowed as undersea smoke while thunder and lightning rained, the zones where mana converged and crystals and life could be born were also where the Ultimate Virus would have appeared! Moreover, in the biological labs of certain civilizations where in their natural substances would mold and develop bacteria, and at places where the mold mutated severely especially in the midst of highly populated zones, the Ultimate Virus was more likely to be born!

“Any possibilities of interference?”

Joshua opened his eyes with a grave expression, instinctively remembered a powerful foe he had once encountered—the greatest champion of Simboa, Fattrovi the Time Turner!

That particular adversary’s greatest skill was to manipulate all that could happen in Simboa and give form to any future he desired. In that battle back then, Fattrovi could even control causality to achieve molecular evasion, reaching a level where he could evade molecules and escape all of Joshua’s attacks unscathed!

Much less ruling over the chance for the birth of the Virus.

However, although being remarkably similar, they were not the same. If Fattrovi had ruled possibilities, the appearance of the Ultimate Virus was at most ‘guiding’. The epidemic that had swarmed out by itself may have been incomplete, and it would perhaps not have survived as shortly as its complete form. It may also have lacked in lethality, that certain individuals could have survived in the worlds that the plague had struck.

“Certainly, it’s more an initial form, incomplete state of meme…” Joshua fell into deep thought, mumbling.

As the present situation became ever troubling despite finding the origins of the epidemic, a more important question also presented itself: where did the presence that animated the Ultimate Virus came from?

It was something that not even Joshua could be sure of. The warrior could only deduce that it was possibly beyond Stellaris.

“Triple Curtain.”

After some thought, Joshua steeled himself. The Giant God hence glanced towards the psionic machine which encircled the black hole, calmly saying, “Do you have any way to temporarily take me—no, I mean, my clone, beyond Stellaris to have a look?”