Chapter 563 Four for the Price of One (1/2)

With those words, Joshua studied the being that called itself 'Midgardian' and stood before him.

It was a race that resembled humans while bearing the appearance of 'treants'. If Milhabus was a median specimen of its race, they would have an average height of two meters—its head had two sensory organs and one fully developed psionic core, a mouth but no ears, nose nor any other orifice. It was also slightly horrifying at one glance since their essence was essentially grown from plants.

The Midgardian body was also remarkably identical to humans, but after Joshua observed it, he noticed that their internal organs were extremely special. Their mental faculty is located by their vertebra—a long, flexible translucent strip similar to tree pith. There were many minuscule tentacles over it, while other organs and its entire body grew from those tentacles. Apart from that, the tree pith could vibrate air to produce sound by its psionic ability, probably so that they could interact with any kin of their own race that was not developed enough to communicate with psionic abilities.

In a nutshell, the form of Midgardians was perplexingly unnatural. From what Joshua could see, they definitely had other forms that were more appropriate, but forcibly distorted themselves to their current state due to certain reasons.

It was quite evident. With a faint but visible ripple of energy, the fiber layer of skin over Milhabus's body was swiftly regenerating under the prompt of psionic energy even as Joshua helped him up, and was completed healed in seconds. The fiber layer was extraordinarily compact and had a rather transparent gray-white hue—covered behind it, Milhabus, barely passable as a human figure formed from countless roots and leaves, quickly turned into another human figure that was mimicked the humans of Mycroft. It was now a robust, somber middle-aged man, although the single obvious difference was that its hair was layers of thick, green leaves, with roots similar to willow branches discernible underneath.

—This race has imitated the Sage's form until they lost their own.

Joshua could not help sighing inwardly at the sight. He did not feel that the human form was the most perfect form in the Multiverse—due to variation between environments and ecosystems, every race has a shell that fits their civilization the most. The Midgardians that were fundamentally plants in reality do not fit into the human form, but through heightened psionic ability and self-remolding, they had harshly changed their own race into such a state.

However, that was not important.

”I know your people are about to face the assault of a Void Behemoth…” Joshua said a while later after composing his emotions, ”but I still don't understand the specifics. Could you please enlighten me?”

Through his Steel Strength link, he could now converse with no obstacles with the Midgardian leader that called itself Milhabus. It did not mean that Joshua had grasped the Midgard language—in fact, the fleet commander and the scientists who were watching them through surrounding psionic live feed and audio-visual equipment could only hear a cadence that was completely different from anything in their civilization.

”The Grand Consul's psionic link is enshrouded by a foreign power—he understands the speech of that Void Being!”

”Analyze it at once! A benevolent, communicative Void Being that bears such a striking resemblance with the Void Saint… He may be an existence on the side of the true Saint!”

In line with the analysis of the Void Being Incident Supervision Council—the Council for short, dozens of their most learned linguist in the Midgardian civilization began to study Joshua's tone, expression, and accent gingerly yet delightedly. The psionic link from Milhabus made things greatly convenient for them, allowing them to be clear that the Void Being was indicating benevolence.

Since the entire Midgardian race had awakened their psionic ability a thousand years ago, more and more of them resonated and linked together, ultimately forming a profound psionic network that engulfed the entire Midgard planet. Through that network, most psionically developed individuals could exchange information with zero delays, and with Milhabus itself being the strongest psionic in the planet, it could naturally connect with the network. Hence, it had especially opened itself so that the linguists could understand the meaning of the warrior's words.

”Why isn't Milhabus acting yet?!”

On the other hand, Tarquin was not delighted as it watched the feed inside the fleet flagship the Pioneer high above the air, clenching instead on his staff. Layers of wrinkles folded over the face of the rather elderly commander, and he was clearly extremely nervous. ”The energy value of the psionic beam is about to fall! There wouldn't be a chance to control that fellow anymore if it didn't use the psionic power now!”

Unlike the other optimistic Midgardian hierarchs, Tarquin was fully vigilant against any Void lifeform after having experienced firsthand the battle against the Crystal Insect. In its point of view, even if Joshua did not unleash destruction at once, was it not the same with the Crystal Insect? In the few years that it had been summoned, not only did the Insect contribute greatly to Midgardian material science, it even dug several asteroid mines that could not be constructed with their technological capabilities at the time which in turn provided the Midgardians substantial resources.

However in the end, its single sudden strike had wiped clean every blessing it brought while greatly shredding the vigor of Midgard, throwing them into civil strife and a dark era of schism to the point that the Midgardians only returned to the stars after more than a thousand years.

The kindness of a moment was hence without meaning. Who knew if the second Void creature would be scared into switching allegiance at first glance of the Void Behemoth? With the whole civilization standing on the brink, Tarquin believed that using the incredible psionic power to control the being was far better than communicating to avoid anything expected.

And there were a considerable number of leaders in the army who shared its opinions. These Midgardians that had more or less experienced that dark era was very vigilant to all alien life, and in their conviction, Joshua was a powerful, uncontrollable, and incredible threat—the double-edged sword that the Midgardian had ever used. If they did not act heavy-handedly, they might be cut when the sword swings backward.

Meanwhile, Milhabus was smiling awkwardly on the Solemn Platform as its eyes cleared after the series of impacts that came with Joshua's arrival. It did not require spiritual connection to guess the thoughts of those old friends—they must be shouting behind the screen with all their might so that it would host the ritual, control the Void being named [Joshua van Radcliffe] who was standing before it.

But the question of its willingness notwithstanding, it could not do it even if it wanted to!

From the start, its control over the ritual had been stolen by a powerful will behind the curtain of the Void. Though that glorious psionic beam appeared to be under its control, it had in truth utterly became a possession of another. Furthermore, speaking of control, Milhabus could sense through its psionic perception how fearsome a being the lifeform before it was. Around him, there were seemingly endless pure psionic fragments that contained infinite vengeance and despair.

These were the fragments that eroded the psionic beam and unleashed the halo of despair. And yet, those psionic shards that had severely disrupted the formations of the Central Midgardian Fleet was obediently pausing right beside the Void Being without any false moves.

—Controlling a superior being that could subjugate dozens of thousands of resentment fragments nonchalantly? Tarquin, this isn't the simple mind of a Crystal Insect that virtually had no intelligence… This is a living thing that escapes imagination—both yours and mine.

An existence connected to the Void Saint.

At the very thought, Milhabus, the Grand Consul of the Holy Council, prudently and reverently bowed toward Joshua, using its psionic ability to simultaneously vibrate the atmosphere and communicate with the warrior in his mind. ”Your kindness towards the danger my race face is moving… But most of the data related to the Void Behemoth are within the [Hall of the Mother Tree] and tightly guarded by several Omega-tier psionics and inaccessible at the moment. If you wish, I could lead you to it immediately.”

”The faster, the better. Chaotic invasions never wait; they would attack any moment.” Joshua nodded slightly, his forthright attitude clear as ever. He had come to his world to cleanse Chaos and complete the mission assigned by the commanding will of the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds—any Midgardian politics, conspiracies, disquiet, and delight had nothing to do with him.

”Please tell me about your civilization,” he added after a brief pause.

”Alright.”

Milhabus led Joshua down from the Solemn Platform atop the holy mountain. In the journey, Joshua could sense that the uniquely shaped temple platform was imbued with a clear presence of the Sage while hosting unending Midgardian spirits. It was therefore not unusual that the ritual which condensed incredible power had to be performed—otherwise, the psionic energies gathered from millions of people would never be focused enough to tear through the wall between worlds.

And through Milhabus narration, Joshua had a general idea of Midgardian civilization.

Millions of years ago, the Midgardian precursors—a unique tree which propagated by splitting its roots had mutated through phenomenon such as thunderstorms and suddenly acquired psionic ability. Thanks to that new stimuli, the psionic plants gradually attained intelligence and became self-aware, and while the buds and roots splitting away from them lost that psionic ability, they inherited the knowledge of their forebears.