Soul of Searing Steel

Perished Eternity.

Gaping its maw and flapping its massive wings, the Ancient Dragon of Thunder stirred a sandstorm in the ever-shrinking deserts of the world of Kronos. It could not help but be stunned slightly by the mention of the word.

Evil Gods were enemies of civilizations and life. They were natural disasters given form and actual embodiments of ruin and apocalypse. Since time immemorial, countless civilizations have attempted to study their essences, just like how intelligent life would examine that typhoons were basically windstorms caused by oceans releasing heat and that earthquakes were caused by the movement of tectonic plates…the human intention to understand the essence of Evil Gods was therefore the best countermeasure there was.

However, the attempt had regrettably failed in its final step.

It was not to say that the single step was so difficult that no one could succeed since ancient times, but it was simply that legions of Evil Gods would come out of nowhere, striking before they could succeed and destroying all that they was.

“…Do you believe you could be an exception?” the Ancient Dragon of Thunder thus asked. As the rebuilder of world cycles and reviver of realms, it had assuredly restored several worlds destroyed by Evil Gods and certainly held information about the Evil Gods in its long life and time-worn legacies—which was why it was therefore shocked. “Is the Perished Eternity the clue to the Evil God essence which you have uncovered? Never has there been any who has reached that, or should I say…they were all destroyed before they could reach it.”

“Strictly speaking, it is not I who would search for it. I have merely combined intelligence from everyone else to ascertain the fact.”

Joshua’s trail of thoughts had been still partially connected to the Ancient Dragon of Thunder’s. As he left, he mused, “Destroyed? So, apart from being an eternal wonder and exceedingly developed civilization, studying the essences of Evil Gods is a trigger that leads to their arrival? It certainly matches the information I have.”

“The existence of Evil Gods is definitely much more important than what anyone would imagine at first.”

***

The research information about Evil Gods left by the Ultimate Sublimator Collective was actually rich. As a Demi Saint that had imprisoned Evil Gods within worlds and carried them wherever it went, even using them as compasses or other tools, it was very much the first specialist in the Multiverse. Joshua, who had inherited that information from it, certainly benefited greatly, gaining many new ideas which he compiled with existing information and thereby gaining even more theories.

Joshua believed that Evil Gods were a phenomenon that the Masterminds’ power had caused before, just like Psi had birthed the Wise Ones of Psi and the Steel Pythons—with the Evil Gods being a cataclysmic version of Chaotic Steel Python.

But now, it appeared that the information of Evil Gods themselves were within causes for caution. It was not a mere derivation of a phenomenon which encounters could be shared.

“Malevolent Chaos…we’ll use that name for the Masterminds’ power, its essence which could be dissected from the power of Evil Gods.”

The consciousness of Joshua’s main body was still descending towards the Vortex of Creation. The warrior was crossing floors of Abysses as well as the former lockdown perimeter set in place by the Evil Gods while he thought to himself. “Chaos corrupts and infects other things, and the fact that only other Extraordinary powers can resist it may often be ignored by others, but it actually proves the remarkable connection between Malevolent Chaos and everything else.”

After all, the spiritual corruption that the Malevolent Chaos was similar to being influenced by magic, divine power, and even the Holy Light. Still, apart from divine powers, both magic and Holy Light could only rapidly influence Extraordinary objects partially, along with mages and clergies who were connected to it and not everything there was.

Secondly, the spiritual contamination of the Malevolent Chaos would leave subjects in madness and unable to think—there were so many possibilities such as simple soul disturbances, Chaos itself being armed with anti-intelligent tendencies, or the substantial volumes of information itself reducing people to madness. According to Joshua’s experience fighting the Evil God of Death and the Evil God of Wither, the ‘substantial volumes of information itself reducing people to madness’ aspect was most realistic. Had he not been left with an affected mind by the Evil God of Death’s infinite memories and invocation?

One of the main things about Evil Gods was that they were a sea of memories of information converging after countless lives in civilizations perished.

Normal humans would be left in madness with a single glance. The infectious spiritual corruption that the spawns of Evil Gods, up to their movements that appeared to follow some kind of meme, undoubtedly proved that Malevolent Chaos and information was closely connected.

“But the Wise One of Arcane did mention that the essence of Evil Gods and the Masterminds are connected to Eternity.”

Descending and pulling away beneath the Abysses, the God of Steel simply strolled past countless worlds instead of deliberately accelerated, his mind ever scattering. “‘Eternity’… I had once come across the same word in the memories of the Evil God of Fertility, back in the Gardens of the Multiverse created by the First Civilization.”

“Eternity, Infinity, Absolute, Omnipotent, and Omniscient.”

Transcending all physical changes, even the eternity of end.

Transcending all limited existences, even the infinity of imagination.

Transcending all causality and concepts, even the absolutes of probabilities.

Leaving aside Omnipotent and Omniscient since those clearly represented the utmost of philosophy and did not need to be discussed, there was no doubt that the three aspects of Eternity, Infinity, and Absolute were certainly possible for the those oldest of civilizations that were so close that they bathed in the splendor of the Initial Flame and were born possessing the source of infinite energu and resources.

“I may have slightly understood the meaning of Boundless after gaining epiphany after meeting the Wise One of Shadow—it had been a Creature of Infinity, and it was only the individual power of such beings that could enfold the equally infinite Multiverse. Moreover, does establishing a brand-new path not fit ‘Infinity’? Infinite power, spreading eternity, and an infinite future…along with infinite hope.”

Though it was only a theory, Joshua imagined that the threshold of the Wise Ones certainly fit the Ancients’ concept about Infinity.

As for Eternity, Joshua had only heard of related ideas regarding Eternal Wonders apart from the Ultimate Civilizations. He was still a little puzzled, to tell the truth, since he believed that the grandest of buildings and wonders would only crumble in time…even now, Joshua was unsure of what was eternal about it.

However, it could also be understood from another perspective, that the embodiments of Eternal Wonder were certainly connected to the intentions of the Masterminds. One could even say that there were no real wonders of the Multiverse—not even the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds itself, which had been destroyed before it really could be finished. Joshua could try to repair it when he became a Demi Saint, but he was powerless now even with the required data.

“If built, those Wonders would definitely turn an entire civilization upside down…if the Black Fog or the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds were to be truly completed, they would make a civilization the sovereign of the Multiverse, even eternally invincible, but does that count as eternal? No, there must be something I don’t know. Not even the Ultimate Sublimator Collective has sufficient thought in that respect, so I must lack some key element.”

Even so, that was enough.

Malevolent Chaos was a power connected to all things and was highly correlated to ‘information’. Furthermore, Eternal Wonders and Exceedingly Developed Civilizations unsettled the Mastermind and invoked his killing intent, which was why he had actually created the Evil Gods that were also a rather important element in his plan…it was enough to have so much information, enabling Joshua to develop countermeasures.

Moreover, a power such as Malevolent Chaos was completely different from Psi and magic, seemingly from a different system as the Wise Ones.

How should he put it…it was like the difference between the Wise Ones and the Ultimate Sublimator Collective itself.

“The path in which the Ultimate Sublimator Collective would develop as a personal universe could be linked to Absolute. And Absolute Self, and Absolute Autonomous Ruler, was an Absolute existence to the world inside its own body.”

Connected to Malevolent Chaos and Eternity, just as it matched information left by the Wise One of Arcane.

***

At the moment, Joshua had arrived at the borders of the former Darkest Abyss which was restored as the Vortex of Creation. The corpses of endless worlds could be seen falling within like the cadavers of whales falling to the oceanic depths in death. Likewise, countless newborn worlds were surging away from within like the first volcanoes from which life was nurtured, bringing brand new substances and possibilities to the surface.

The God of Steel ceased his advance. He stood upon the divide between life and death, of destruction and creation, staring at the black and white mill of life that resembled a taijitu while he pondered.

The connection between the three—Eternity, Infinity, and Absolute—was very close, even interchangeable…if Infinity could represent Eternity, eternal beings were naturally infinite, just as the opposite holds true.

Absolute would not be possible without Eternity or Infinity either. Would it have been ‘Absolute’ otherwise? Instead, Infinite Power was an Absolute oppression, with Eternity being an Absolute existence as well—an almost three-in-one aspect that differed slightly in between.

Therefore, the Malevolent Chaos must have changed the Multiverse in some way. The Evil Gods must have been counterparts of the first divine beings, psionic world consciousness, pure arcane beings, Ancient Dragons and Void Behemoths of lifeforce, elementals and various old ether beasts. The change of Malevolent Chaos itself lurked in the common sense of all who now lived in the Multiverse and only stood next to divine power, being the first Extraordinary ability created before Psi.

All life born unto the Multiverse must have been exposed to its change, and that change was truly discreet. It was similar to how many were unaware that Extraordinary powers were created by Wise Ones before Joshua’s sermon, believing that it was a Multiverse truth and never imagining that there had been a moment where it never existed.

Imperceptible influence, like a frog being stewed in boiling water…it may be hard to accept, but Joshua never shied away from worst case scenarios. All life that existed now must have been affected by the Malevolent Chaos even beyond birth, fated to never escape its grasp from the very start.

Even so, Joshua was different…at the very least, the world in which he once lived and comprehended had no supernatural powers at all. If anyone could realize that something was not right with the Multiverse despite knowing nothing, it was him.

But it was not to say that he discovered it. Perhaps he had realized it, but was simply unaware? Perhaps what he saw as common sense was indeed a face of Chaos?

“And that is my advantage.”

With the urgency of the situation, the Wise Ones may not have had much time or effort to spare in examining that respect and could only give up halfway. That is why Joshua’s edge over the other Wise Ones was not merely in his status as a Foreigner, but the fact that he had gathered the legacies of countless others, assembling all scattered clues to himself as if the focusing gaze of worlds.

Now, Joshua held the key that was closest to the Truth!