Soul of Searing Steel

Chapter 848: Ten Seconds

Chaos howled. Surging waves of matter and white-hot energy flows pierced profound darkness as divine radiance gathered without precedent, tearing all surrounding Chaos into pieces and black smoke.

When the four-armed Giant God of Steel stormed forward in a rush of matter, even white dwarf stars that obstructed his path ahead would be crushed in the collision. If the warrior was presently a star following from the other side of the universe, the Chaos at the depths of the Abyss was an unimaginably dense ozone of rot, and the instant the two began to collide and chafe, and a white flash brighter than a newborn star appeared in the center of the Abyss.

At present, at the seven-layer seal of the Abyss, the six gods that were operating the seal at full capacity opened their eyes, focusing their gaze on the flash that appeared abruptly in the Abyss. The Dragon God that was protecting the Pentashade dragons as they slowly moved to upper Abyss could not but turn, while in the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds, Pope Igor who had been there by chance and Nostradamus who had just returned felt that unusual signature either, with everyone pausing.

As many champions looked on, the edge of darkness which initially flickered faintly suddenly moved towards the true core region.

Joshua was now launching himself forward to the borderless Chaos, a flash that pierced viscous Chaos, a silver star that tore apart heavy dimness. Countless discreet flows at the bottom of the Abyss were hence severed and blown away as the warrior rushed forward.

However, that earth-shattering charge stopped.

When Joshua truly arrived at the core region of the Darkest Abyss, he began to slow despite his sheer power, and had to stop advancing.

Crack—

With a bizarre and stifling sound, another divine barrier placed around Joshua’s body broke as well—the Pentashade Dragon God’s protection having vanished entirely since Joshua darted forward, it was now Yolanda’s protection that was lost.

The violet barrier which could be enforced with the strength of the user’s will through the holy item ‘Photo Frame of True Love’ had been utterly unbreakable when the warrior stormed forward—but like how even love would die one day, Yolanda’s barrier promptly broke apart into specks of violet that wafted everywhere.

At that point, there were only three layers of divine barriers around Joshua: those from the God of Life, the God of Conservation and the God of Might, as well as only two sacred items.

But despite the heavy price, Joshua had arrived at the center of the Abyss.

He had reached the depths of Darkest Abyss.

The murmurs, cries and wailing begging for salvation rang beside his ears. In the center of the former Vortex of Creation were a mix of countless world fragments, Steel Particles and Chaos energies that formed half-solid grains. Incomprehensible Chaos density. The peaking power of Chaos here surpassed anything simulated in the laboratories of the Seven Gods Church, and before it, divine shields were mere glass.

As he strode forward, it was as if the warrior was moving amidst corrosive acid mud—he was restrained severely in every move. If he had to describe that sensation, it was as if he was placed inside or surrounded by neutron stars, with the terrible pressure emanating from every direction ceaselessly pressing over Joshua’s body, seemingly intent on compressing him into something denser as well.

Naturally, the pressure here was not at a level where black holes formed by themselves. Even so, Joshua could only walk like a mortal here despite his power, barely maintaining his combat abilities.

“More horrific than I thought.”

The pure-white divine barrier was reduced from luminous to dimness in just five seconds—the God of Life’s shielding could probably last another five to six seconds before breaking down into sparks like the others. Therefore, even Joshua would not dare to loiter, and in the final second before the barrier broke, he darted past the many obstacles to his objective: the very heart of where all Chaos in the Abyss gathered.

It was a dimensional region of absolute darkness. The light of the Multiverse and the stars did not shine here, just as there was no flash from the Mana Tide and the world. What existed here are only remains of worlds and broken pieces of Chaos and Steel Particles, with negative energies combining with Chaos of despair filling the entire Void like abundant sand.

It was in such supremely dense Chaos that something grows.

It was a horror that killed stars and painted the galaxies in terrible darkness—in this very moment, Joshua could see a bundle of murky and Chaotic mass swirling in the absolute dimness, stirring mists of Steel Particles. It resembled a dull vortex doorway on a single glance, with dozens of dark arms reaching across to the Abyss to drain the purest of Chaos energies. At its center, a circle of sacred runes as glittering, as if holding something back.

This was the darkest realm, the central core of Project Rebirth that was sealed in the Bottom of the Abyss.

This was the remnant of the former Vortex of Creation, the core of the unknown Evil God that had yet to awaken even now!

“What a bastard.”

Breathing out, the God of Life’s divine barrier fizzled before shattering, while Joshua glared at the vortex doorway that was at least the size of a super red giant, before saying quietly, “It’s like a pile of dust that grew after my basement has not been clean for a long time.”

“How long since it was last cleaned?”

***

Although the central sealing core was supremely profound and alluring to the eyes, Joshua still remembered his goal. He was here not to fight the supernatural celestial form of Chaos, but to destroy the seal left by the Sage in days long past—in other words, the circle of sacred runes that whirled at the vortex doorway.

There was a simple reason why: like how raindrops gathered from gray particles and the essence of snowflakes were dust wafting in the air, the sight before him was a simple physical phenomenon. If the forces of Chaos intend to condense it need a core to gather around, or it the concentrated forces would simply condense into multiple varying forms in different forms—in other words as a dozen different sized but ordinary Evil Gods, and not an unknown Evil God which awakening alone stirs the galaxy.

While the Sage’s seal had initially sealed the base of the Abyss and stilled the Vortex Creation while pacifying Chaos, as time moved on, boundless Chaos accumulated, and with the sealing unit assistor—the power of the Evil God vanishing, the terrible Chaotic force crushed the entire seal, gathering energies over it to form the frame of an Evil God Embryo!

Joshua could tell that the Embryo itself was yet to take shape, but if he included its arms, its physical manifestation would be larger than most of a planetary system. Moreover, though the seal placed upon the Chaos doorway appeared dwarfed, the warrior estimated its diameter was probably two thousand light seconds.

The seal was so colossal that if Joshua did not warp beyond lightspeed but simply moved at sub-lightspeed, it would take Joshua half a day to move one lap around it.

However, he was here to break that seal.

In the beginning, the Sage’s seal had definitively bound the Chaos, but now, its effect of gathering substantial Chaos had vanished and restraining it was lost. Instead, it simply kept pulling in more Chaos energies even if it was unable to control them with their ultra-dense state, molding it into the frame of an Evil God. Where it once controlled it, the seal was now a protective layer for the Evil God as it materialized, and if Joshua did not break it so that the Chaos energies spreads, neither the warrior and the Seven Gods could purge them all.

It was like the mentioned example: if the unknown Evil God’s power was several million of ‘1’, it would not be difficult to clear them all. With the Evil God of Wither’s power that was around 100, along with Joshua and the other deities’ power that were several hundred, their power alone could purge all those ‘1’ without much fuss, even wiping out Chaos that far outnumbered them with a single stroke. Like igniting a pile of dried weed, there was no need for missiles but a single matchstick—by the same principle, it would mean that the Chaos welling to the outer Abysses would not require the hand of Legends or Gods, but several Gold and Supreme tiers to destroy those forces.

However, as those millions of ‘1’s gathered into several million ’10’s, the difficulty of the task would rise exponentially. Even the Legendary champions whose power values numbered at hundreds would have to fight seriously to destroy the Chaos composites if they are of ’10’ values.

However, would they really have the time to attack several million times?

The answer was certainly no.

The remaining examples would be simple. Whether it was a few hundred thousand of ‘100’ and dozen thousands of ‘1000’, they were unbeatable to Mycroft’s champions. Indeed, at 100, their power values make them a difficult ‘opponent’, while at 1000, it would be a ‘threat’ that several Legends have to fight seriously at the same time.

If those numbers moved above 10,000, it was beyond their plan and no point considering that—Joshua believed that how to look good death was only worth considering then, not to mention the possibility of the unknown Evil God actually awakening, with millions of ‘1’ forming ‘only one’.

That had to be avoided at all cost, and the reason Joshua had to break that seal was to shatter the most important Evil God core which held a value of ‘1000’ or even ‘10,000’! Incidentally, before it awakened, the high-value core would be inanimate and had no way of retaliating, and the Seven Gods had even severed the Nether River, suppressing outer Abyss to prevent it from strengthening.

He just had to break the core and then purge it. Even if there would be a difficult battle ahead, it was not a fool’s quest with the threat of death.

Crack.

The divine barrier gifted by Ezerg, the God of Conservation and Reformation shattered resoundingly.

***

Facing the vortex doorway of the Chaos celestial directly, the unimaginable Chaos concentration there could certainly instantly destroy a star with just a glancing touch. Divine barriers were no tougher than eggshells before such power, and Joshua, having paused, was on the move once more.

In fact, the warrior even drew out the last two sacred items given by the God of Life and Ezerg, quietly clenching them as he activated their power.

Between breaths, solid divine power and protection from the God of Life engulfed the warrior’s body—pure-white moths flew out from the boundless divine radiance, diving towards the Chaos like how their mortal counterparts would lunge at flames. Each carrying pure-white divine force of Life, they would destroy a portion of Chaos energy before laying even more eggs as they expired. Younger but less luminous moth would hence hatch, devouring Steel Particles and world fragments around them.

As thousands of moths grew from the Cocoon of Life, using their sheer power to grow into a swarm and clear a path for Joshua, the Tome of Conservation from Ezerg activated as well: pages composed of divine power transmuted into solid divine barriers, each probably lasting ten seconds… but in those ten seconds and the protection of hundreds of layers divine barrier, Joshua would not be hurt even by the unknown Evil God’s true form!

Holding on with Might and Justice’s final blessing and the power of his sacred items, Joshua final arrived before the sealing core: in front of the center of that massive dark doorway and the Sage’s glittering rune.

The colossal runic circle that was over two thousand light seconds in diameter was quickly dimming beneath the ultra-dense Chaos corruption. Joshua could imagine how dazzling they would have been when they were in perfect condition, where they would have illuminated the Darkest Abyss in its entirety like the sun. But now, they were cinders about to die, with only the warmth and luminosity of scattered sparks, and there was no doubt that before it was fully eaten away, it would be the moment when the unknown Evil God utterly forms and awakens.

That was why Joshua must destroy the condensed seal before it awakened, so that ‘10,000’ would be ten thousand ‘1’s.

And to accomplish that, he had no more than ten seconds.

One second.

Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack—a series of shattering sounds, the sound of the Tome of Conservation barriers breaking consecutively when resisting the galactic-tier Evil God.

Joshua took a deep breath. Pressing his four arms over his chest, his reactor core rapidly shone.

Two seconds.

Layers of circular Tome barriers were pulled into droplet forms due to the direct and exceedingly powerful Chaotic pressure. Dozens more shattered.

As his arms clenched, the armor plates before Joshua’s chest opened, revealing the burning star behind. It was now white-hot, blue light appearing over its edges while violet and other spectrums radiated, erratic forces increasing without limit.

Three seconds.

Though motionless, the exceedingly terrible mass of the Chaos core pulled Joshua along with the Tome barriers towards the vortex formed doorway. It was as if a sky eating whale lurking at the depths of the sea gaping its maw to consume a krill.

The core at Joshua’s chest reached supernova critical point. That extraordinary sun’s incandescent light even ignited the dark Chaos around, igniting dark red flames outside the Tome barriers. In no time at all, Joshua’s form was that of a demon king shrouded in hellfire.

Four seconds.

The Tome barriers were all wiped out, leaving the God of Might and Justice’s barrier as the warrior’s final line of defense.

Spreading his arms, Joshua postured as if prepared for an embrace. Veins of abnormal and unfamiliar runes and inscription different from that of Mycroft extended over his body and four hands… around the supernova critical point on his chest, the warrior’s four arms acted as four pillars of a magical formation while a massive spell assumed form, the warrior being its core point.

Six seconds.

The God of Might and Justice’s barrier was crushed. The black divine force split open but also repelled the Chaos that came crashing in, securing one second for the warrior.

That was when the formation gained a complete form. Joshua’s core detached from his body, turning into a large, whirling ‘Φ’ shape formation composed out of countless runes and inscription.

Meanwhile, another miniature star formed in Joshua’s body.

As his chest plate closed itself, the warrior bellowed in rage, bursting out in a silver dense mist that kept the formation behind him staunchly guarded.

Seven seconds.

Having lost all divine barriers, Joshua was fighting the most terrible Chaos in the galaxy with his own body.

Was there any feeling that could describe it?

Actually, no. It was nothing else than breathing, immobilization, the angry howls of millions beside his ears and billions of blades slashing at him. Feeling the Chaos corruption that cuts to the bone and the Chaotic whispers that were magnified over a dozen thousand times, he hence withstood the corruption of Chaos with his own flesh.

Eight seconds.

Even his armor of neutron degenerate matter began to peel off. After leaving the warrior’s body, scraps of the microscopic armor promptly bloated into mountainous matter. Before the Chaos corruption, however, the pieces were blown away utterly like piles of dust, and in a single second, the ultimate, unbreakable armor that countless foes could not even pierce was mostly destroyed, leaving the huge frame of the warrior in shambles.

Nine seconds.

Joshua’s body crumbled into wafting ashes.