Soul of Searing Steel

Within the Sea God Star, the Void Mother 'stared' at the blazing sun that was rapidly plunging down towards itself with its layers of compound eye.

From the viewpoint of a pure being of Chaos, it was an ultra-dense sphere that had been condensed to its very limit and emanated heat and light without stopping. It ignited the atmosphere, unleashing bolts and spilled indefensible heat and impact force at its surroundings. All hydrogen and helium gases began to burn exhaustively, the crimson light illuminating half of the skies in the Sea God Star.

Compared the planetary body that unleashed boundless warmth and light in the center of the Beam System, this particular fireball was small, fragile, and could be extinguished by some random element at any given time. Still, its essence was unquestionably the same as the many giant luminous planetary bodies that the Void Mother and its mother's body had come across—an existence named 'Star'. Such a fireball had exploded in its body before, destroying six of its energy cores and maiming its mind hub, reducing it into the state it was in at the moment.

And now, another 'Star' was plunging down rapidly upon it, drawing the endless helium and hydrogen gases around it together like a waterfall into itself. As the skies burned whilst crumbling, it was the spitting image of an apocalyptic sky fall told in myths.

'Defense impossible.' The Void Mother reached such a conclusion because its body had been bound by a being formed of faint blue dimensional fissures. The moment it concluded was also the moment it was struck—as crimson trails rapidly streaked past, the fireball that was just over dozens of meters wide struck the four-hundred and fifty-kilometer long behemothic abnormal being. It was a silent moment, but an earth-shattering echo reverberated over the surface of the Sea God Star.

In that instant, the Void Mother could feel an unprecedented impact on its colossal body that had actually caused it to sink. At the same time, the million degrees burn over the fireball incinerated its psionic shield and outer shell, before consecutively burned that particular section of steel skin, flesh and innards into nothingness. The exceedingly horrific heat and impact destroyed the very fundamental construct of those particles, destroying even the artificial nanovirus and leaving it no chance for revival.

'Boom—!'

Like a red-hot knife cutting through butter, the fireball penetrated the Void Mother's body instantly, with every fragment on its trail being engulfed by invisible gravity and assimilated into the fireball. It then arrived in the center of the Void Mother's body, where its two remaining cores and mind hub were pulverizing under its tremendous impact force and gravity—but it was not yet over. The amalgamation of hydrogen and helium in the Void Mother's body, as well as the fragments of its energy core were all drawn into the fireball's nuclear fusion process, supporting the combustion of the fireball. The Void Mother could feel as if there was a blackhole in its own body, consuming and burning its flesh, a long process of immeasurable anguish yet distinct for the colossal being of Chaos.

The Sea God Star itself was set alight with the Void Mother's body simultaneously. Golden-red flames could clearly be seen in the sky, extending from within to without the Void Mother's body. Light began to shoot out like keen blades over the wounds on its black shell that resembled porcelain-cracks, and the Void Mother howled tragically, its cries that could tremble a continent spreading across the stars, but none could hear its voice—the spreading nuclear blaze had burnt out all gases that spread sounds at virtually the same time.

Cells scorched into ash, lymph utterly dried. The Void Mother's body crumpled and broke apart from its very center, breaking apart like a cookie.

If one looked down from space, they would be able to see a gigantic saucer-shaped energy boundary slowly jutting out over the surface of the Sea God Star, with a dark silhouette struggling inside it and eventually turned into ashes. It was shaped by energies bursting out from the Void Mother's shattered energy core, and as the boundary stretched wider, a bigger halo of flames spread to other parts of the Sea God star, until the flames on its edges were insufficient to ignite the hydrogen and helium.

In the center of where the blazing sun had dropped, the Void Mother's core that was now a huge torch was still burning. The artificial sun was still absorbing and surrounding hydrogen and helium into itself to participate in its combustion. Unlike the blazing solar flash before, the gas giant that was the Sea God Star carried inexhaustive fuel that could scorch the Void Mother into cinders. If nothing unexpected happened, it could keep on burning until the flames engulfed the entire gas giant—when that came to be, the Sea God Star might have to be renamed as the Fire God Star or Blazing God Star.

But a dark space abruptly surfaced, eliminating that possibility.

In the second that the Void Mother's mind hub and energy core had been completely vanquished by the blazing sun and flash, Joshua and Nostradamus darted towards the Midgardian Fleet, resisting the Sea God Star's gravity as they escaped the heart of the explosion. But when a sinister and chilling energy ripple swept through the stars, they looked back vigilantly.

Thus, mage and warrior saw the sheet of dark space in the center of the golden flames.

"It's the dark space in the center of the Void Mother's Body!" Joshua recognized the true form of the darkness almost immediately, albeit being very doubtful. The Void Mother's energy core had been detonated by his own attack, so why was that thing still there? But before the warrior could find out, a cold yet substantial energy surged from that dark space, emitting a power that extinguished Joshua's scorching flame seed. Then, as if it had used up all energy it had, the dark space vanished as soon as it appeared amidst the flames of nuclear fusion.

"What is that?!"

The golden-red hue of the Sea God Star's surface shone upon Nostradamus's face. He had already reverted to human form even as he stood on the gravity balance point. "Profound, callous, sinister…" he said with a low voice, his expression solemn. "I sense the desire to devour everything, an extremely ominous will.

"It's the power of the Evil God of Pestilence."

Closing his eyes and sensing the residual iotas of that power, Joshua who had also reverted to human form bore an unconcealable expression of fatigue. "I get it now…" He frowned as he opened his eyes again. "Just like the Evil God minions on the Mycroft Continent, every Void Mother is a coordinate that guides the Evil God of Pestilence's arrival. The more powerful the Void Mother is, the more distinct the coordinates would be. As a result, the power in which the Evil God of Pestilence could use to teleport here past the Void and world barriers would hence be greater."

"Fortunately, the Void Mother has not grown to the point where it could swallow an entire world, which is why the Evil God power it unleashed before its death was not strong enough."

At those words, the old mage breathed a sigh of relief. "That bastard is really dead then?"

"Of course," Joshua answered softly, standing aloft over the satellite orbit of the Sea God Star while lowering his head towards the gas giant's surface. "It is now in ashes."

At present, though the fireball of blazing flash had been extinguished by the Void Mother's power when it delivered its coordinates to the Evil God of Pestilence before death, the shockwaves from Joshua's attack remained on the surface of the Sea God Star and soon turned into a gigantic fiery windstorm. The windstorm soon turned crimson as it combined with the turbulent airflow that existed in the Sea God Star—it resembled a gigantic crimson speck inserted directly in the center of the blue-yellow surface of the gas giant, one which never stopped moving or expanding according to airflow.

If nothing surprising should occur, the fiery windstorm would last over five thousand years—or even eternal majestic sight.

Still, neither Joshua nor Nostradamus had the energy to mind such things. The long battle was over, the enemy is dead, and so they dragged their exhausted bodies to the biggest warship of the Midgardian Fleet. And as they arrived, the battleship named Pioneer swiftly opened their starfighter hangar, which both warrior and mage entered.

Being guided in by the tractor beam into the hangar, Joshua noticed that almost all vital crew—apart from those keeping the warship running—were present. Leading them was the old Midgardian Commander Tarquin, Grand Mind of the Midgardian Fleet whose chest was decorated full of honors, and had strode a few steps forward when both Joshua and Nostradamus entered. Just as warrior thought that the commander would be conveying his infinite thanks for defeating the Void Mother, every Midgardian in the ship knelt on one knee with a 'pang' sound at once, their heads lowered in reverence of both warrior and mage.

"Great descendants of the Saint, the Foreigners from the Void… The harrowing evil is defeated by your majestic power, and these stars now return to peace… We can't convey our gratitude with words, for all praise is pale and feeble."

The old military Midgardian who once intended to control Joshua through psionic power and force him to fight for them had closed his eyes as he spoke with an emotional, earnest yet level voice. "Trillions of Midgardians within two systems live because of you, and yet we have nothing to offer in return."

Then, he opened his eyes and raised his head, leveling his gaze to the warrior's.

"From this day forth, you are our new gods."

Just as Joshua and Nostradamus were consecrated by the many Midgardians as new gods on Stellaris, an anomaly that was about to engulf the Multiverse was occurring in a small world in the distant universe.

Much larger than hemispheric worlds but a lot smaller than Stellaris, seven planets and one star was growing within the system's boundary. At some point in time, the position where the sun was supposed to be in the center of the world had been replaced by a white spherical living object. Its form was similar to a cocoon and was composed of incalculable veins of fungi surrounding it, and yet so huge it was unimaginable—the cocoon had wrapped even the star within, converting its tremendous powers for its own uses. Countless moth-like 'microscopic' creatures were flying in the vacuum of the universe, surrounding it.

The cocoon that had wrapped around the star was throbbing akin to a heartbeat, as if something within was growing. Space itself trembled with ever throb, just as the entire star system shook slightly. It was an extraordinarily rhythmic vibration that never once changed for centuries, but now it stopped—for the Evil God that had engulfed an entire world, even absorbing a sun into its body, had sensed the message sent by a Seed it had spread to the distant Multiverse just before its death.

Perhaps death had come too quickly and its destruction too swift, the message that the Seed sent was simple—in the distant world of Stellaris, it ran into lifeforms far greater than it estimated and was defeated in their direct encounter.

It did not even have the chance to deliver complete information about their fight.

That was nothing unusual, however, and the superior leviathan might not even have to be alarmed. There were unbound amounts of powerful beings in the Multiverse, with inestimable ranks of them capable of killing its Seed. The Sublimator virus itself lived to become such beings, and therefore accumulated information of lifeforms without stopping to evolve—a single digit death did not matter at all.

But this time, the beings that killed its Seed was outstandingly special.

"Beginning analysis… Substance analysis impossible. Evolutionary path simulation… simulation failed."

By sensing the energy impact and physical attacks the Seed experienced, as well as part of the enemy's body fragments to infer retroactively in regards to the opponent's body essence and energy system, the superior leviathan had once inferred the attributes and bodily functions of endless beings. This time, however, the flawless processing system had met a unique substance and energy system that surpassed its calculation capacity. No matter how it estimated, calculated, there was no exposing the secrets behind it. On one particular layer of the cocoon, there were even innumerable bizarre human figures growing and enlarging rapidly and visibly under the nurture of nutrient fluids, but they all crumbled since the System lacked certain important elements and hence failed the simulation.

The Evil God that was undergoing expansion in the Void never minded that it was emulating champions of the Multiverse, especially such special beings that could triumph against its Seeds in direct confrontation. There was hence a thought that blocks out everything else for It, as one which sole objective was sublimation.

"High-value lifeforms.

"Worth capturing."