Soul of Searing Steel

Chapter 949: I Want Everything!

Chapter 949: I Want Everything!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“Both the anomaly in the Galaxy of Bloodbath and the trouble on Stellaris are very important. How could I possibly choose one and give up on the other?”

Although having hesitated for some time, Joshua quickly made his choice.

So, I shall choose both!

While the circumstances in the Galaxy of Bloodbath appeared far less dire than that of Stellaris, the problem should not have been considered in such manner. Joshua himself could tell that as compared to the war in Stellaris, which was now at its height, the abnormal state of the Amost Court and Takur Ruin Cult appeared insignificant. However, there was another reason—there had been many other civilizations of the Stellaris Federation that were fighting the Chaos as well, and with the presence of Star the Steel Python, maintaining a stalemate for some time would not have been problem. Meanwhile, it was the matter involving those two xenophobic civilizations that could have escalated and spiralled out of control if left unimpeded, and only heaven knows what mess they could have made. After all, the two civilizations had been engaging in a bloody war that lasted over ten thousand years, destroying and massacring innumerable smaller civilizations. If that vengeance and madness did not dissipate but had instead accumulated in the Multiverse’s Abyss until the growth of an Evil God of Hate or Evil God of Madness, who else could get rid of a superior Evil God Embryo at the Evil God of Death’s level, if not them now?

Even for Mycroft, the only option would have been to run.

Therefore, if both were so important, why choose? He certainly should go to both places!

With the choice made in his head, Joshua continued his journey to return to the Zeta Ram System with the old mage, unsurprised by his own choice. The reason mortals had to make choices was because they could only do one thing at a time while still lacking strength, thus needing to fully focus the heart and mind in the decision made. But Joshua was different—champions were called so because they could make more choices than mortals could.

For example, in the Trolley Problem, mortals could only choose to change tracks so that the trolley crushed the single person on the other track, or to otherwise leave while changing nothing, causing the trolley to roll over the other five on the original track.

On the other hand, there were more choices when it came to champions—one could save all six persons who had been tied to the tracks even while taking their time to puff of cigarette; one could single-handedly stop the train (without harming the train or the passengers onboard); one could capture the culprits and swap them for those tied on the tracks, breaking the predetermined rules. Indeed, at Joshua’s level, he could even at once grant invincibility to those about to be killed and ignore the crash, or fully heal and resurrect them after their deaths.

The choice of each champion could be different as well. For instance, Nostradamus could send the train into a portal in the split second before the crash and have it appear behind the potential victims, while Vahina could cast and turn either train or victim into psionic forms... but whatever the case may have been, they were similar in that they differed from mortals. They could multitask as much as they wanted to, even picking the most unusual of choices.

After all, it would have been weirder in Extraordinary worlds if a champion were to obtain their status after over a decade of adventurers and difficult training only to remain bound by the logic of mortals. Indeed, one could mourn or be depressed when it came to having a mortal apprentice die, but Joshua could still revive them, scold them for half an hour, and throw them into a three-month long camp for hellish training, and have them wail in anguish ‘Sorry-Sir-it-won’t-happen-again’.

That was the price of dying so simply.

Naturally, neither the Galaxy of Bloodbath or Stellaris were options open to mortals. Even Joshua himself would have had to handle things seriously, and he could have failed, should he have divided his strength equally by sending two clones of almost equal strength—which was why he had to choose one where he would allocate more power. Still, Joshua had relative freedom over that, since he could summon himself when necessary, swiftly balancing the power on both sides. As for the side he should have been emphasizing, it was a matter that required discussion with the others.

“The Seven Gods probably have something important to do—they’ve not made an appearance recently, and it’s important for them to ensure the safety of the Dimensional Hub and Stargate.”

Most of the Legendary champions had returned the hall of the Zeta Ram installation. Even the busy ones or those far away were joining them with clones or projection, and it was now the Nature’s Magister clone—a small, delicate potted Lifetree from which one could sense powerful spiritual energy surging around it—who spoke.

“Yes, the Seven Gods certainly had neither the time nor the strength to spare,” Igor’s Holy Light projection added—the elderly Pope who usually remained on Mycroft and only occasionally came to visit the Multiverse had a troubled expression. “Neither Barnil, William, nor myself have the time either. I’m watching our home soil while they are maintaining the main Mana Net server while updating the Spirit Terminal—all important tasks.”

Barbaross and Vahina said nothing, but it was not that they needed to. Both of them had just arrived from the General Assembly and would have had to handle the follow-up collaboration between the diverse races. They did not have the time to spare since both of them held full authority, having to research Void warship weapons as well, apart from their usual daily training.

It had been the same for every other Legend. La Motte the Sword Saint had complained a while ago that the spatial weaponry research had greatly delayed his training progress, and was absent from this meeting to train in some dead world. Meanwhile, both the Nature’s Magister and the Murloc High Priest had been productive in their biological research lab, having created some high-yield wheat, a two-legged chicken with six wings, Slime that secrete drinks and tasted delicious, as well as beef-flavored giant worms—no one would have them join anything particularly dangerous, since they would be criminals in the eyes of civilization should anything have happened.

And needless to say, Nostradamus, as the Mycroft civilization’s greatest dimensional mage, had to help Joshua build the Ether Ring World, as well as work with the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds to handle certain dimensional issues and develop dimensional network theories. As for those who appeared idle, including the West Mountain Psi Legend, the Legendary mage of the Council of Seven, and the recently ascended Sword Saint Brandon, they had been assigned to patrol the entire Galaxy of Beginnings, as well as direct territories of Mycroft that surround the various Dimensional Hubs.

Each Legend had their work, district, and research. Even the Roland, newly ascended Legend and Holy Knight, had been running all over within the Multiverse with Persica the Confounder Demon General to collect intelligence regarding the Abysses of the galaxies, while doing their best to convince (i.e. physical brainwash) demonic tribes to work with them. In fact, when Roland himself returned to a Void fortress, what awaited him was not rest but training and research instructions regarding material sciences.

Either way, everyone was occupied with most matters that could not be postponed, delegated, or given up.

Only Joshua himself had the time.

***

Nevertheless, it was not so much of various coincidences that Joshua incidentally had spare tme and power, but rather that Joshua’s very position was to handle problems that appeared out of nowhere, such as those occurring in the Galaxy of Bloodbath and Stellaris. Furthermore, Joshua additionally held several other duties, being the dark icon of Mycroft who threatened other civilizations and the commander in chief of the Expedition Fleet. Usually, apart from maintaining the Redemption System and the Restoration Beam, he also had to carry out various grand projects. The warrior was thus not actually idle as compared to the others, but it was solely because he was stronger and had more options that he could shoulder his work while sparing the effort to handle emergencies.

As for Demon Generals... it would have been fine if it had been other missions, but sending them as reinforcements to Stellaris? Would they not be massacred by the Evil God’s forces in a single-sided fashion? With the same reasoning, their abilities were lacking as compared to the two xenophobic civilizations in the Galaxy of Bloodbath, just as their Abyssal presence was too difficult to hide.

“As expected, there’s only one conclusion.”

After half a beat of discussion, Joshua was unsurprisingly delegated with full authority to handle both matters. A concensus on where he should have directed the bulk of his power and where he should have maintained a wait-and-see approach was swiftly found after everyone’s analysis.

“According to what you’ve said, the many civilizations of Stellaris are at a stalemate with the Evil Gods. Your sending a weaker clone over might not actually achieve anything.” Pope Igor nodded thoughtfully, his white bear quivering for a bit. “Moreover, we could definitely learn from their battle against Evil Gods and their spawns—which is why we believe that Stellaris should be considered priority, and have your true form sent over.”

“If possible, do your best to break the balance between Order and Chaos in Stellaris. That way, we would have reinforcement in the future, and indeed an experienced reinforcement with deft knowledge in fighting against the Chaos!”

Joshua nodded in agreement in return; he had thought the same. Although the anomaly in the Galaxy of Bloodbath could mean something important, scouting was actually different from infiltration—he was not about to dash in to destroy every witness and certainly did not need the guarantee of considerable power. Sending a concealed clone would be just right, and he could even latch onto a machine to observe like he did on Simboa, and summon his true form when needed. After all, the war on Stellaris would not have been ongoing in every waking hour. The intermissions between battles could be opportunities for Joshua to multitask.

The discussion ended and the council disbanded. The Legendary champions hence left, and after bidding farewells with his friends, Joshua went alone to the Void.

He would have to build a few clones later to be sent to various worlds where major construction was conducted, as well as a specialized one for building in the Ether Ring World, helping the Seven Gods to fill it with substance without him. Truth be told, Joshua had a lot to do later on—he had to produce some information processing module spawn to handle both the maintenance of the Redemption System and the Restoration Beams.

But those were nothing. The warrior felt happy.

Not only would he have succeeded in the missions to the Galaxy of Bloodbath and Stellaris, but he would not have slacked on other tasks either. His power meant that he could handle miscellaneous matters while building celestial objects, and then go to fight on Stellaris, scout the Galaxy of Bloodbath, doing seven to eight things at once and flawlessly so.

Extraordinary champions did not have to make a choice .They toiled and labored to train, fight, improve, and slay their enemies not to have regrets, for they would elevate themselves with all their power so that they would not have to repeatedly ‘save’ or ‘replay’ such as in a video game when needed.

Instead, one chance was all they needed to clear the game for a perfect end.

Joshua was born for that—it was the essence of a champion.