Soul of Searing Steel

If things had played out like the game in his past life with Mycroft and the rest of the galaxy, both scenarios would have been identical before Starfall Year 855.

The difference between the two worlds was probably the innumerable players in his past life, while this Mycroft world had a certain count named Joshua van Radcliffe who used the system to level up meteorically, rising to Legend within a brief few years.

When he compared the two timelines, Joshua was sure that he did not change the world much before even after he killed Nono, the Black Dragon and stopped the Abyssal draconic armies.

It was in the end, when he changed the tides in the Battle of the Holy Mountain, killing the leader of the Pestilence Cult, reigniting Mycroft’s Flame, heading to Stellaris to protect the Midgardians from the Void Mother, as well as restoring life Kronos… those were the acts that changed the galaxy drastically, providing Joshua with many precious data and clues.

Even so, it was not fundamental change—even trivial to the Multiverse.

However, he proceeded to slay Helm the Demon General, seal Mycroft the Steel Python, kill Fattrovi the Time Turner, sealing and obliterating the main body of the Black Fog as well as destroy the Evil God of Wither—those would undoubtedly severely affect the future.

Whether it was Legendary demon, powerful fallen Steel Serpents or a manipulator of time whose individual power claimed control over a world, they could grow to affect dozens of worlds, even the entire galaxy. Aside from that, the main body of the Black Fog was a powerful foe comparable to Evil Gods that needed Mycroft civilization to go out in full force, its very existence affecting the state of the galaxy.

And amongst those he had destroyed, the most mysterious was the Evil God of Wither.

Until now, the souls of the nine Legends who previously sealed it had yet to awaken.

Joshua lowered his head. Although Lothram (the Unnamed Technician) displayed recent prominence in his healing, it would have taken a longer time until the nine Legends were to be revived. But before that, everyone was still not sure about why the Evil God of Wither was restrained by such an unusual seal of enveloping it in a world.

But now, Joshua had a bold guess: there was another vital role in Wither’s existence apart from being used by the Sage as a research sample to convert Order and Chaos, a role which could be the ‘suppressor’ of some terrible thing.

And it was not baseless conjecture.

Joshua began to theorize what toils the world would face if it did not have a transcendent warrior such as him, and if the world of Mycroft had no Player or Foreigner.

Exhausted, the Empire would fight to the last drop of blood in the war against the orcs. Then, after the war, the struggle between old and new nobles would gradually escalate—after Israel had barely ensured the Imperial Family’s safety with his few remaining years, the seven children that survived him would compete for the throne, with the nobles using that reason to wage widespread war.

Meanwhile, the draconic plague, the cultists and the fanatics of the Earth Mother’s temple would invade the world one after another, painting the distant south in ash. The various West Mountain kingdoms would be left fleeing, just as the Eastern Plains would be destabilized by the returning murloc tribes. Each faction would face several opponents at once, just as their opponents would attack each other.

The very name of the game ‘Continental War’ was taken from the fact that there was not a single place where war did not reach over the land. Even when the Abyss invaded, the various factions that had been fighting each other exhaustively set aside their difference to combine forces also led to war, with the demons of Chaos being their foe.

Without any players—without Joshua, most Legendary champions would die halfway through, or sacrifice themselves for the sake of the world. Igor, the most powerful force of the continent who could face the Pentashade Dragon God directly had perished before the Abyssal invasion to prolong the world’s Flame Seed. It moved the hand of the Seven Gods, prompting them to act on several occasions despite their original rule to ‘leave mortals to mortals’.

For example, the advent of the Great Mana Tide, the fusing of the Infinite Horizon into the world, sealing Mycroft the Steel Python, repelling invading aberrations and unsealing the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds… and the Seven Gods, who disappeared when they realized something unusual in the Abyssal War, and were thought to have gone to the Abyssal Paradise to subjugate the unknown Evil God.

That was where the question came: Even if the Seven Gods were not that much powerful than he was (questionable since Joshua believes himself capable of defeating them), Joshua imagined that the galactic level of change would not be greater than them. There was no reason that the Seven were a dozen times stronger than he was, and could jointly subjugate the unknown Evil God for that long without trouble.

In the pre-existence, the Players never aided the Seven Gods at all, meaning that those divine beings had accomplished all that by their own power… whether they succeeded or failed, the unknown Evil God never appeared during the Abyssal War.

Joshua imagined that they must have been aided by something for that to be possible, and it was likely to be an object that sealed the unknown Evil God’s composition. That object had developed anomaly, which in turn prompted things to change for the unknown Evil God—the Seven Gods had probably restored that object, hence keeping the unknown Evil God sealed.

And that was perhaps the world that sealed the Evil God of Wither.

Joshua could guess that the next version of the game after defeating the Abyss would be to fight against the Starherders, arriving upon their Void Behemoths after devouring the galaxy for a decade. After all, their race only had a single Legend in the Great Khan, while the other leaders were Supreme-tier Kings of Akasha, as well as quasi-Legendary tier Void Behemoths. It would not be too difficult for the Players who average at Legendary-tiers, and the warrior could even imagine how the Boss Fight would be arranged.

Then, after the Starherders were defeated and information was obtained from them, the Players would be able to head for the Abyssal Paradise through either the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds or the Starherders’ Void Behemoths, and help the Seven Gods to seal the unknown Evil God.

Others, including the Flame Seed on Grandia, the Black Fog that wandered the stars and Simboa of the Void Vortex would probably be missions outside of the main story, added in updates or standalone DLCs.

Having labeled everything he had experienced before logically, Joshua sighed.

Without him, the world of Karlis would have been devastated from Famine, while Zero-Three would wander the wastelands alone until the end.

As for Illgner, it would be virtually destroyed in the fight between Father Nature and the Evil God of Calamity. Even if the elves living there survived, would they have a favorable fate under the hostile glare of that world’s Steel Python?

The Blood Moon of the Bloodmoon Abyss would definitely not awaken either, or turn into a new Abyssal Will if it did: A destroyer that hates everything, unlike Light who restores vigor to its own world.

The world of Grandia would still be destroyed—that was the Sage’s plan, and none would survive even if no person headed there to secure the Flame Seed.

On Stellaris, the Midgardians would be destroyed, and its Steel Python would never awaken, with Evil Gods wreaking havoc over its body.

The Ancient Dragon of Kronos would be captured by the Black Fog. With the power of life which it embodies, the main body of the Black Fog could either become more powerful, create or destroy, accelerating evolution in Shelter Alpha.

Meanwhile, Fattrovi would perhaps replace thousands of World Lines until he find that so-called ‘Destined Path’ of his, and finally lift his gaze up to the skies.

However, the existence of the Evil God: Wither was more important than those other matters.

Guarded by nine Glorious Era Legends and sealed with a world, the Evil God of Wither was already displaying unusual aspects before Joshua’s student—Priest of the Elite Party arrived. Having heard his own student’s story, Joshua thought that the Evil God’s power was already breaking the seal, and the entity itself would soon awaken.

Still, ‘soon’ meant years, a decade or decades for an Evil God. In the end, its awakening was due to stimulation from Joshua’s Restoration Beam.

If the Evil God of Wither was part of the object that suppressed the unknown Evil God,Joshua thought, it would awaken ten years later—incidentally, the time when the Seven Gods went missing.

At present, Joshua had sent Zelma, captain of the Voyager back to the Sartrean world, just as Sartre the Steel Python carefully left the Giant God of Steel as he pondered and returned to its own body. Unconcerned by such frivolity, the warrior kept thinking, his head lowered. “The power of Wither could decay Chaos into Steel Strength, a power that it was not immune from and weakens even itself.”

The unknown Evil God was definitely powerful, but if it was not awakened, using the Wither’s power against the Chaos that had yet to form a composite was equal to using the power of 100 against ten million 1s—it sounds complicated but was not actually difficult, since the Evil God of Wither basically had to exist, to keep the unknown Evil God from awakening.

Joshua hence remembered the Evil God of Fertility. That powerful Evil God which nurtured all things to their peak form and thus collapse it appeared to clash with Wither in ability. What would happen if both crossed paths?

… Actually, nothing much.

The gap between them meant that Wither’s power 100 could never reverse Fertility, which power was one million (metaphorically speaking). On the other hand, the Evil God of Fertility would greatly elevate Wither’s power, directly reducing itself it into a heap of pure Steel Strength—in other words, Steel Strength.

How abilities helped or clashed against one another was not too important. At least, it was not too meaningful when there was too great a difference in definitive ability: water could douse flames, but it would not extinguish a star, whereas planetary presences could disintegrate water, turning atoms into fuel.

There was no existence with 100 power value that could defeat existences that hold one million in power value.

On the other hand, it would be simple for it to stand against ten thousand, or even a million existences that was only 1 in power level.

Just like how it was easy for Joshua to subjugate ten billion Sartreans.

With that thought, Joshua could basically be sure of several things.

One.

The Evil God of Wither possibly maintained one of the conditions for the unknown Evil God’s awakening. In the pre-existence, the Seven Gods might have sealed Wither once more, and used bits of it to break the unknown Evil God’s power that was yet to gather, hence removing the threat.

Two.

The Seven Gods should be aware of certain aspects of the unknown Evil God. They might not be sure that it would become one, but they definitely know that there is something abnormal in the Abyssal Paradise.

Queries had to be made there.

Three.

There was no doubt that the nine Legends who sealed the Evil God of Wither knows about the seal. Being key creators of the seal, they could well know the link between Wither’s seal and the unknown Evil God.

They must be awakened as soon as possible.

Naturally, last but most importantly…

“I’ve already ate up the Evil God of Wither… This is bad.”

Joshua sighed profoundly at the thought. “I would have kept parts of it if I knew.”

The conclusions that Joshua made now was curious—the one god that did not flee and was not destroyed, but sealed with much importance definitely was worth sealing… perhaps it was necessary to keep it alive!

Still, Joshua devoured it entirely, fully digesting it.

Be that as it may, Joshua was actually not at all ashamed of that: The Evil God of Wither had been rapidly regenerating and strengthening… if it was restored to full form, Joshua and the other Legends might not have been able to fully hold it. If that happens, heaven knows how many worlds would be left in ruin and how many Legends would die before it could be sealed again.

Perhaps never.

While the Evil God of Wither had previously appeared to have been beaten by several Glorious Era Legends, it was in truth defeated by its own power. Before it, several Legends were reverted to their younger, vulnerable forms effortlessly… Each Legend had also been aided by their own Void Fleets then, and now… they were basically fighting alone.

The Evil God of Wither’s death might even be compulsory, although there was another problem.

“I could have awakened the unknown Evil God.”

Joshua looked up puzzledly at the Void where his true form was while mumbling quietly, “If it was only the Evil God of Wither’s death, that unknown Evil God would probably not have awakened so quickly… its power, which had been weakened Wither had to reassemble before it awakened, and it would not be unusual if the process takes more than a decade.”

The warrior imagined that there must have been some power that jolted that unknown Evil God, and it could be the flash his world form emitted.

The one that illuminated the Multiverse.

He had become too powerful: the presence of Order had spread throughout this galaxy or even others. Upon sensing that power, like a sleepyhead who had been splashed with cold water, the unknown Evil God was at once rejuvenated.

It was exactly because Joshua had become too strong, changed many a fate in worlds that he brought about such consequences. His rather handy slaying of Wither which should not be dead in this era had animated a Boss that should not appear in this era, triggering the present series of incidents.

“Come to think of it… Isn’t it all my fault?”

Joshua was startled at the idea. “If that’s the case, the demons of the Abyss were indirectly extinct because of me?”

The reason that the Evil God of Wither awakened was essentially thanks to his dispatching of the Elite Party on a mission, with the executor being his very own student… he was partially responsible for the extinction that engulfed the Abyss from the inside, up to the self-destruction tendency of Sartre.

Joshua could not help but shake his head and laugh.

It was not actually much… He had been prepared to ascertain the truth by heading to the Abyssal Paradise. Now, he had simply added another undeniable reason.

Furthermore, what could the Evil God of Wither do that he could not? Would he, Joshua, be inferior to an Evil God in terms of measures for weakening Chaos?

There was nothing to worry about. In the very least, one must have a little faith in their own strength before fearing.

At the thought, Joshua turned and prepared to return to his true form where he would prepare for the journey to the Abyssal Paradise—every second mattered, for the unknown Evil God grows every stronger and progressed toward awakening with every passing moment. If he could not weaken it as soon as possible, it might truly rise and become an Evil God that was unimaginably powerful.

However, just when he was turned into his Giant God form to head for the Abyss, faint dimensional ripples that the warrior could not ignore wafted to him from an unknown distant location.

Joshua paused.

“What is it, Master Nostradamus?”

He spoke to the general direction of the flickering dimensional ripples. “I have some urgent business to attend to, I’ll come back to you if it’s not so important.”

Meanwhile, the dimensional ripples split into a gap and flickered in pale-blue magical radiance. At the same time, an elderly mage’s spirit directly linked to Joshua’s mind, speaking at once in delight an anticipation.

“Urgent business? Have I got some urgent business for you!”

Nostradamus’s words were rushed as if having just gone through a particularly stimulating experiment. “Listen, Joshua, hurry back to the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds. To put it in a nutshell: Lothram, your subordinate, had managed to revive a Glorious Era Legend’s soul!”

“She’s now recovering spiritual through William and the Pope’s healing. I just thought that you would like to know that at once!”