Soul of Searing Steel

Chapter 707: Future Observation (Part One)

At the same time, in the Celestial Hall of the World Inner, Fattrovi finally unleashed his full power after shaking off the hold of the Giant God of Steel.

Veins of aurora assembled at the heart of the hall like surging rivers. The dark edge of to the world hence flickered in starry pale blue radiance, gradually forming a vast flow. Atop the Celestial Hall, one thousand five hundred Soul Stars that remained dazzled like the most precious of gems, but now began to extinguish.

Just like how lights of the city would be extinguished one after another, endless stars were hence dying out, each simply vanishing from the Vault of Stars as if candles blown by children, never to live again.

In a brief few seconds, more than five hundred Soul Stars died, and the entire Celestial Hall promptly became dull and lightless. And yet, it was beneath such a lightless Vault that the River of Time to the right of the chamber that represented the future stretched endlessly.

The Celestial Hall in the World Inner was the residence of Steel Python. At its center was the Throne of Authority that ruled over all things in the world, and above it was the Vault of Stars that reflected the sight of the Multiverse. On both sides of the Hall were two rivers of light, with one placid and the other mobile, one symbolizing the irreplaceable and unchangeable past, while the other the future of unlimited possibilities and unlimited change.

There was never a World Will that could control those two rivers. Steel Pythons were born profound and held Authority over their worlds at birth, but that was also precisely why they were mere consciousness of their worlds and could only control the world’s Authority.

Fattrovi, however, was different. He was human, and was in fact the most powerful Ultrahuman who had learned countless Ultra-abilities. From a certain perspective, he was the Ultimate, the one who had absorbed Authority spreading from a thousand different worlds and mastered all of them—although Fattrrovi therefore did not grasp pure Steel Strength, he had stepped onto the zenith of the path for employing the Authority of all things!

At present, there were infinite runes swirling between the Celestial Giant’s brows as complex and unruly geometrical forms shifted its appearance, flowing with indescribable colors. If the pontiff of the Seven Gods Church was present, he would realize in shock that it was divinity—fully cultivated and had reached the threshold of ‘Deity’!

[Destiny], [Time], [Judgement], [Creation], [Soul]… Diverse divinity were jumbled together, finally forming the glaring divine name— the ‘God of Destiny and Time’. But now, the divine runes that represented the Authority of god was not hosted upon Fattrovi’s body, for it was rising from the body of the Celestial Giant and turning into a star, embedded into the dark starry sky which dimmed after five hundred Soul Stars extinguished.

At once, as if some module had been activated, countless circuits shone one after another, assembling a colossal network upon the Vault of Stars that absorbed the boundless strength of the god’s divinity. The divinity too began to deliver unimaginable erosive forces as feedback, but that erosion that would destroy a god instantly were all blocked or neutralized by the world’s Authority and the countless Soul Stars, allowing the network to energize smoothly.

It was then that Fattrovi’s unemotional and indifferent voice echoed heavily, as if there were innumerable Fattrovis speaking all at once.

“Commencing connection to River of Existence, beginning ignition of Light of Genesis, starting activation of ‘Observer’ system.”

Dreamlike radiance began to encircle the body of the Celestial Giant. Those were heavy layers of illusory shadows that kept shifting like the indeterminable future: it appeared to denote the endless possibilities and images for the future, but ultimately only one true path can be chosen and embarked upon.

Such was the sight Joshua witnessed when he reentered the World Inner with his original form.

Layers of dimensional barriers were appearing behind the Giant Gods’ body, closing the rift that linked Void and World Inner. The warrior then looked up toward the Vault of Stars and the divinity that hung atop the starry skies, and narrowed his eyes, nodding with an I-get-it-now expression.

“So that’s it,” he said with a stifled, inaudible voice. “The Vortex, World Barrier and the environment sealed completely from the Multivese… So that’s what you want?”

“A world completely closed off, ‘A World in a Shell?’”

Fattrovi lowered his head at Joshua’s words, watching the warrior with a gaze that could either be bewildered or admiring, appearing unable to comprehend why he would deliberately reenter his own domain in the World Inner… the Time Turner thought about many possibilities: how Joshua might completely ignore Simboa’s existence by directly dragging him out of the world to fight, or release him and fight with a handicap, or destroy him together with the world… There were simply so many possibilities, and he could not list all of them.

Nevertheless, Fattrovi simply could not understand why such a being would boldly resolve to enter a deathmatch in his World Inner, in his home turf for races, billions of lives and a world that had nothing to do with him.

Such a pride of one own’s assured victory was repulsive… and enviable.

Today, he shall break that pride in the name of ‘Time’ and ‘Destiny’!

“Indeed, that’s just it,” Fattrovi said softly after the thought. “The Void Vortex severs the link to other worlds while I augment the World Barriers as well as separate the connection between the Vortex and this world, making an island out of the entire world.”

Even as he spoke, Fattrovi’s calm voice suddenly became agitated. “But it’s exactly because of this shell of self-isolation that I am the King of the Infinite Universe!”

It was then that a cold voice that should be the preset voice of a system rang from the stars of divinity.

“‘World Line Switch’ contingencies locked, Observation System reactivated.”

“Commencing ‘Future Observation’!”

At once, the cascading River of Future began to change forms, as endless illusionary images flashed past visibly. In those seemingly inexhaustible sights were the extinction of Simboans, empowerment of Soul Puppets, rebirth of the world and Fattrovi’s own self-destructive. But as a dreamy light flashed past, all those scenes of the future became blurred and indistinct.

But was Joshua one who would listen to drivel?

“Then I will crush that shell and let you see the real world!”

Even as Fattrovi imposed his monologue, he had already strode forward—infinite specks wafted amidst the dark stars, and by the time ‘Future Observation’ was pronounced, the warrior had charged abruptly like a moving mountain.

Boom, boom boom! Even the grounds World Inner could not withstand Joshua’s steps. Space itself distorted and crumbled beneath terrible gravity into gaping craters, just as the warrior’s body turned into a beam of crimson silver, carrying boundless plasma flame and directly darting toward Fattrovi. The Celestial Giant did not hesitate either and began to move forward, dashing as a pale-blue beam toward Joshua.

A crash that thundered the world thus shook the Celestial Hall, as violent energy thunderstorms turned into infinite chaotic vortices in the air, stirring the World Inner into shambles. Crumbling sounds wafted from the shattered space, as if it was the cry from the world itself.

Without words, Joshua swung his four arms and struck out with thunderous waves of punches and knifehand strikes. As a master of melee combat, never had there been any person who could win against him in that aspect. With his estimation of Fattrovi’s battle style through their exchanges before, Joshua was convinced he would maim him in five seconds and force the Time Turner to distance himself.

But he was left astonished.

Somehow, Fattrovi who never showed any martial technique after eighteen occasions of rewinding time was now behaving like a grandmaster who had gone through millions of battles, blocking every blow he dished out! As the indistinct shade of palms and fists tore space apart, both sides parried and struck, but Joshua did not even scratch his adversary.

“I can see your attacks clearly.” The clock hands in Fattrovi’s eyes whirled as he spoke flatly—the hands that denoted his ability to force time and all things into standstill had paused before but was now circling manically, even shaping into a vortex while Fattrovi nodded thoughtfully after blocking every single blow from Joshua. “I see.”

On the other hand, Joshua was not puzzled by his enemy’s sudden improvement. He retreated slightly and simply clenched all four fists—at once, power that could distort space and tremble the world spread over all directions, and in the very next instant, four straight punches that darted at the twentieth of one lightspeed shot toward Joshua!

It was a lightspeed-class of offensive. Everything happened in a brief moment of nanoseconds, as tremendous mass was struck out with such swift speed. The spreading energies were promptly heating the cramped World Inner as well, everything hence becoming a sea of chaotic plasma as crimson flames extended. Even Fattrovi’s Ultra-power that could stop all things would be directly shattered by the sheer brute force, and logically speaking, nothing in Simboa could block or dodge those four heavy jabs.

But Fattrovi blocked it all—or more precisely, evaded!

In that very moment, Joshua felt a series of mirages appearing before him. He saw Fattrovi predicting every hint of energy movements within his heavy jabs like a fortune teller, the Celestial Giant preparing himself well before the punches and creating four black-hole barriers in front of himself, blocking the straight punches head-on.

He even saw that Fattrovi was quickly moving to evade before his fist extended. The Celestial Giant retreated backward with supernatural agility, dodging the brunt of the near-lightspeed punch. It was naturally easy for him to counter the shockwave from the punch only.

Joshua could even tell that Fattrovi had seen through the opening in his’s straight punch’s energy flow—just as he was about to unleash the full force of his lightspeed punch, the Time Turner employed a technique akin to the divine to intercept his assault, deflecting that energy and nullifying the lightspeed jab!

Then, endless illusions all formed one body. As if the future had finally crumbled, Joshua pulled back by half a step with a dull grunt, because those four hands that struck out in near-lightspeed had simultaneously appeared in the deflection of those illusions. Countless rifts appeared over them, just as energy surged out like blood—it was then that, as if truth had been ascertained, the warrior’s mind finally recalled the memory of Fattrovi’s unimaginably exquisite technique that stopped his punch!

“…”

Joshua looked silently at his four hurt fists. In the next second, with the sharp sound of scraping steel, substances squirmed and assembled while energy flowed back into his body, completely healing his hand. The Giant God of Steel hence looked up, staring at the Celestial Giant’s body that resembled the Void but had no visage, before steeping once again upon space and darting forward.

“It’s useless.”

Ka-boom —with a dull rumble, a gigantic human silhouette was blown backward, crashing heavily upon the Celestial Hall. There were large sheets of runes, energy specks, and black shroud: it was Fattrovi’s body. But in the very next second, he stood up again and appeared unscathed, perfectly defending against Joshua’s ten million blows struck in an instant. Only his body was sent flying by the indefensible force, and there was no injury.

Fattrovi appeared to still have things to say, but the warrior did not spare him any chance to babble or rest. Turning into a ray again and diving toward his opponent while dragging an endless trail of blaze behind him, Joshua was in front of the Celestial Giant again in five nanoseconds. His right jab appeared about to pierce Fattrovi’s chest, but was blocked when he raised his elbow, just as the knifehand strikes from both of his left hands were avoided by a hair’s breadth, leaving no actual damage.

“Everything is within expectation.” A flat voice wafted, a mocking as if from hell.

Joshua struck with both arms and feet as if they were blades and axes, space itself rippling from the terrible mass of the body of Steel. Plasma flame and plasma itself spread throughout the World Inner, the sheer force of his attacks causing the entire planet to dim. And yet, Fattrovi parried every single one of those blows that could shatter mountains and continents—he would block punches, evade kicks and step cleverly to slip away from any attempts to hold them, before twisting space, even bending the trajectory from high-energy rays shot out from Joshua’s eyes. Every attack was blocked or evaded, leaving himself unhurt.

Even so, Joshua did not mind. There was even a smile by the corners of his lips while his golden-red magma pupils flickered in delight. He inhaled deeply in front Fattrovi, who was taking every single one of his blows head-on, just as the melee between warrior and Celestial Giant instantly turned white-hot. They parried, assaulted each other with fist against fist and palm against palm, the pair leaving billions of afterimages while incessant and terrible explosion burst terribly amidst crisp shattering sounds at the core position of the hall. The entire Vault of Stars hence quaked violently, and a deep rift appeared at the center of the hall!

Joshua’s arm quivered as one of his right hands shuddered by an arc at a hundred thousand times per second, slashing down violently like a high-frequency knife. Beneath the blade that embodied a force of more than a million tons, even the space in the World Inner collapsed by the layers, endless spatial rifts and Void fissures tangling.

However, Fattrovi did not move away from the blow. His body swirling with stars, he burst with waves of dark blue radiance while his fist emanated equally blinding light—striking out, the Time Turner pitted his fist directly against the high-frequency knifehand. However, that seemingly mundane punch was actually stirring chaotic energy flow at a high-frequency oscillation, with a piece of the warrior’s hand that was made of indestructible degenerate matter crumbling, detonating like a supernova!

“It’s useless. The more techniques you use, the more opening you show. As long as there is the possibility of mistakes, it would assuredly happen!”

It was then that the Celestial Giant attacked deliberately. The mirages of the future flowing from his body was becoming gradually numerous, and amidst the obscurity, he was changing into various forms in Joshua’s eyes: melee-form proficient at close-range combat and having a body filled with energy armaments and armors, Authority-type which body was encircled by countless runes and magical formations, and stealth-mode that were completely undetectable, which presence could only be sensed, its precise position undetectable… There were simply so many illusory images as infinite possibilities of the future appeared all at once, before being whimsically selected.

But Joshua’s expression still did not change, nor did he say a word. He simply lifted his head a little and looked up at the Vault of Stars—beyond the sky, only two stars had dimmed, and all those stars would never completely extinguish with such progress in eight hours. Having that ascertained, the warrior lowered his head—light around the Giant God of Steel hence distorted bizarrely, while dazzling silver light unfurled from his body. Wafting stardust floated around the Giant’s flanks like a nebula, and spatial oscillation visible to the naked eye once again stirred ripples into the hall at the center of the world, as if a stone was thrown into the calm surface of a lake.

Boom! With an echoing rumble, the Nuclear Heart at the center of Joshua’s chest turned incandescent white. But just as Fattrovi solemnly intended to counter the warrior’s next assault, a vein of crimson ray shot out from beneath the Nuclear Heart. Pointed directly at the Celestial Giant, and then—

Psionic Warp Engine activated!