Soul of Searing Steel

The God of Love and Death left Moldavia.

As the divine power seal vanished, time flowed anew. All mortals bound felt their sight restored at once, and quickly saw their own Liege and the Pope of the Seven Gods in the middle of the street.

In that split second, the pair’s Legendary presence emanated by a fraction. However, the spiritual pressure that could have caused mass fainting was but a pause in breath, a brief darkness in sight for the North.

However, that brief darkness was enough—when everyone opened their eyes again, Joshua and Igor had vanished from the streets as if illusory phantoms.

Still, some with considerable individual ability and keener sight appeared to have caught their Liege’s gloomy and doubtful expression the second before their Liege vanished.

Meanwhile, having determined that Yolanda had returned to the Infinite Horizon or perhaps the Void, both Joshua and Igor were silent for a long time in the skies of Moldavia.

“Sometimes I get irritated by such behavior.”

Joshua frowned as he lowered his gaze at the city of Moldavia, his tone low. “Everyone and every god are acting enigmatic and secretively, never finishing their sentences… Even if they are right and that information is useless, it would always be better than not knowing. Won’t it be much simpler if everyone combined all the information they had?”

It was clearly a venting—the warrior sighed as he calmed.

Yolanda’s reluctance to elaborate on other information was actually normal… If Joshua’s ears and theories were not mistaken, the God of Love and Death must have been very close to the Sage in the Glorious Era, and she might be one of the Apostles who hold a considerable master-apprentice bond. Regardless, what concealed information she knew was between her and the Sage, and whether she revealed it was her own freedom.

Joshua himself was not actually uninterested in the gossip of the Sage’s private life and personal relationships, but it remained that Yolanda’s bombshell was truly astonishing.

The Sage’s resurrection in the Final Battle.

Yolanda’s claim that he was no longer himself.

What the Apostles went through in the interim before becoming gods.

Many mysteries were in a shroud, and probably meaningless even if Yolanda explained everything. The God of Love did not appear to know about the Sage’s resurrection—she may be aware of the case, but the reasons behind were essentially two different problems.

Yolanda was no longer herself after ascending to godhood either, an unsurprising fact despite how astonishing it appeared. Just like how humans turned into liches, spectral knights or dragonblood descendants, all things would see a radical shift in body and spirit when the mundane becomes divine: the ritual of ascension was essentially a metamorphosis into a superior being.

Nevertheless…

“Stop thinking about it, Joshua.”

Beside him, Igor adjusted his sleeves and collar—he appeared calm and even had the excess effort to spare and have Joshua stop his fruitless thought, but the warrior could see that His Holiness had missed a button on his sleeve. “No matter how the truth piques one’s curiosity,” he said calmly regardless, “the most important thing now is information regarding the Bottom of the Abyss.”

“You’re right.”

Joshua could only nod in return.

***

In legends of galaxies beyond, the Lost Galaxy—in other words, the galaxy where Mycroft was found held a mystery that could defeat Evil Gods.

And that mystery was hidden at the bottom of the Abyss.

Many researchers had examined over thousands of times whether what the Great Khan and the others claimed were lies, but they had indeed verified that there was no deception. Whether they were fooled notwithstanding, the Starherders truly believed that the bottom of the Abyss holds a secret that could defeat Evil Gods.

It was in fact not a mistaken notion: Fertility, the Evil God that ranked above all was slain by the Sage at the Bottom of the Abyss. Should any trace of battle remained by the grave of the most powerful Evil God, learning any trace of the absolute techniques would make it an easy task to take down any lesser Evil Gods.

The question was… how did that information spill out?

Was it the Sage himself?

Or perhaps knowledge of the Final Battle had lost any reality dozens of thousands of years ago, and that was all that had been left about it?

There were so many questions that even if Joshua had long resolved himself to take a look at the Bottom if there were any mysteries, his mind still sensed something amiss.

“Even if the Sage left some super skill, why did he not directly leave it with the Mycroft civilization? Additionally, according to Yolanda and the Unified Archives, the Sage had been maimed and hanging on for dear life after his triumph over Fertility, thus rushed into the Genesis Hub—in other words, the lair of Mycroft the Steel Python for recuperation… Could the Sage have the ability to leave behind some ultimate skill when mortally wounded?”

Joshua directly voiced his suspicion to Igor beside him, but the pope could only smile helplessly in response.

“I wouldn’t know, Radcliffe. I’m just your run-of-the-mill pontiff who is interested in watering plants—I might even know less about the secrets of the Glorious Era than you do.”

Igor stroke his beard, shaking his head. “The most vital question is whether you want to go.”

“Of course I do.”

Joshua answered briskly without thought. “Why would I not? I would go even for a peek at the remains of Fertility.”

What a joke.

Doubts and suspicion should be categorized as such. How could Joshua not be curious and reluctant to visit the Bottom, also known as the ‘Abyssal Paradise’ or the grave of Sage and Fertility? Even Igor had an ‘expectant’ expression when he heard about that information, and the warrior who never concealed his impulses would definitely not give up on exploring.

“Get ready then.”

Igor said as he turned as if ready to leave. “We have been prepared to exterminate surrounding Abysses and demons before dispatching expeditions to outer galaxies, but now it seems that it would not be much of delay to look for the Bottom… After settling most matters on the continent, Mycroft would start to form expeditionary armies to the Abyss.

“Joshua, don’t be late when the time comes.”

“I’m always on time.”

Joshua grinned in return before joking poorly, “Like justice, I’m never late.”

“Right.” Being one who enjoyed poor jokes as well, the elderly pontiff’s thought was naturally unaffected—he closed his eyes and extended his senses over Moldavia, and could not help but ask puzzledly, “I had been curious from the start… Where did those kids in your home run off to? I’ve only seen Black today but no one else.”

After feeling it thoroughly and seriously, Igor became even more curious. “No, not just the residence… even your pupils are not here. A coincidence?”

Igor had simply extended his senses on a whim. After all, Joshua would always notify Ying, Ling or Zero-Three whenever he was about to head for other worlds.

This time, however, those who truly managed Moldavia were absent, and it appears that Joshua was actually working—which left the pope very surprised.

“All of them are on a mission.”

Joshua’s lips curled in response as he said calmly, “I started my preparations to head for the Bottom early after all.”

***

The Void of the Multiverse.

As light from a Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds teleportation shone, a silver-haired girl appeared alone in the vacuum above an icy lifeless world.

Ying’s ability was presently stuck at Gold-advanced beneath Supreme. She could not find a path to advance since she could not comprehend the masteries of ‘Strength’, ‘Skill’ and ‘Soul’ but being a Divine Armament with spiritual forms, she could freely move and live in vacuum as a Gold-tier.

“There’s really no telling what Master’s mission this time actually is for… Sigh.At least it’s better than having no mission.”

The girl could not help pondering about the mission’s purpose, but Ying soon abandoned such meaningless consideration, having learned the essence of Joshua’s mental process. Controlling spiritual energies and driving her body forward as if a rocket, she started towards a blazing celestial body that was orange-yellow.

At the same time, a black-haired youth also appeared before another lifeless otherworld.

Compared to Ying who was filled with questions, Ling’s thoughts were simple—complete his mission here and then return to his administrative duties. Although it was disrespectful, he genuinely did not believe that his master had the patience to handle those duties himself… In the face of complex construction work, would the warrior not just punch down mountains or simply flatten the earth?

Hold on, that actually seems much simpler…

Stopping the trail of thoughts that were becoming ever erratic, Ling resumed his mission.

And his target was an unbelievably massive sky-blue star.

But that was not all.

Using the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds as transit, many individuals with special missions assigned appeared over numerous lifeless otherworlds.

A luminous orb was wafting happily in the Void, intermittently ejecting a grail of flame or a jet of water. Freed from the restraint in the Liege’s residence and now able to create all manner of things to play, Light was enjoying the presence known as freedom—still, it remembered its mission, and was darting through vacuum at the fourth universal speed as if without mass, even if its own unbelievably profound energies were now emanating bright light as if it was a sun.

However, no matter how similar it was to suns, it was not one—Light’s radiance was as dim as a firefly’s in comparison to the two massive objects that whirled nearby.

It was a planetary system with binary suns, with twelve planets revolving around the two giants on their respective orbits.

Moreover, it was not the people from the Liege’s Residence.

For the first time, the members of the First Party: Ivan, Amelia, Nick, and Karin were operating individually on four different worlds. Those systems have no massive suns, but were instead deathly continental realms with crystalline bodies of energy that hung over the skies. Indeed, they were much simpler and more direct in tackling their mission, compared to the company from the Liege’s Residence who habitually guessed about Joshua’s purpose.

Lisa, Syndicate, and Zero-One also warped into a world with a giant star but was without light. That realm was shrouded in complete silence and darkness, its sun having died out too. The trio, however, were unconcerned—they had incidentally warped to the belt of a super-dense planet.

Meanwhile, the Elite Party was also split into three groups. Priest worked alone, while Caster paired up with Alchemist and Clergy with Rider. The trio appeared respectively in the skies above ‘Ocean World’, ‘Desert World’, and ‘Frozen World’.

“Priest. What mission did his lordship give you guys this time?”

Despite appearing to be alone, a spectral echo emanated from behind Priest. He was not surprised, however, even beginning to speak with the ghost.

“It’s not actually a mission but a simple operation.”

Priest said as he floated in the air, drawing a silver cylinder from the storage compartment behind his enchanted armor. With a shrug at Sol, he hence flung the metal cylinder at the surging ocean’s surface.

“I just had to dump the Restoration Beam at any point in the world, and yet such a mission rewards 3000 exchange points. I actually suspect that my mentor deliberately arranged for a mission so simple it’s cheating just to pore over us.”

“Is that so? That’s nice of him.” Sol could not help giggling as she witnessed the sights of different worlds while talking to Priest. “He’s so gentle.”

“Is that so…”

Priest said nothing more. Compared to the Giant God back then, his mentor was certainly gentle now.

‘The Liege might have added an extra zero, or could there be some danger we did not notice?’

Although Alchemist and Caster said nothing, the same thought crossed their minds.

“Weird, so many points, but we see nothing, not even any supermassive Void Behe—”

In another world, Rider frowned at the vast but empty world. However, his mouth was sealed directly with a Word of Truth spell when he was about to prattle on, right before Clergy grabbed his collar and shook him, his eyes bulging in rage. “Shut your damned piehole, Crow Mouth! If we get dragged into any incident this time, I’m going to get Alchemist and modify you so that you have no verbal organs… Eh?!”

Boom!!!

Just as Priest chatted away with Sol and the others were pondering, the Restoration Beam thrown into the sea activated by itself.

Red-black runes completely different from those found in any other world appeared over both ends of the silver cylinder. The object itself remained unaffected even as the tsunami tides surged around it, stirred by the special windstorms in that world, descending to the bottom of the ocean in a straight line.

As it descended, the silver cylinder reddened and heated up, with substantial seawater evaporating and shrouding it in a bubble of air. Then, when the bubble touched the bottom of the ocean, silver light shone upon the dark depths.

At the same time, in other worlds, as every executor threw their own silver beams at their target locations, dazzling silver light shone animatedly in vacuum and over the land as if stardust.

A silver beam approached an orange planet at fifth universal speed.

A silver beam approached a sky-blue planet by warp, flickering incessantly.

A silver beam approached a twin-star system with gravity assisting, moving at unbelievable speed.

There were also silver beams that had stabbed into the depths of continental worlds, emanating the radiance of Order.

Endless light shone at once, transcending worlds.

***

Beneath the Silver Sky Radiance at the heart of the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds, Zero-Three closed her eyes.

“Nodes projection completed.”

She said quietly. “Joshua, mission accomplished.”

“Good job. Sorry for the trouble.”

A voice echoed in Zero-Three’s mind. “With that, I’m flawlessly prepared.”

‘ No doubt about that .’

Zero-Three could not help but laugh softly, shaking her head.

It was definitely a flawless plan.