Chapter 574 Extradimensional Strike (1/2)

A long time ago, when Joshua had just returned from the world of Grandia, he did not return to the Mycroft Continent at once, heading instead to the world of Karlis which had its Flame Seed reignited.

To meet the child of the Mother Goddess—the Majestic Mountain Urbandy.

Joshua had two objectives when his visited the pure-blooded Titan who had helped him much in his path to Legendary, the first being to request that he took care of the refugees from the world of Grandia.

The second was to ask about how his true form as the Steel giant could evolve to the next level.

The Majestic Mountain Titan understood all that had happened in the world of Grandia. Facing the human that had destroyed its home yet saved its life, Urbandy agreed to Joshua's request after a long silence—towards the direction of development the warrior should take to develop even further, the child of the Mother Goddess gave a suggestion that appeared simple, but was in fact extraordinarily difficult.

”Devour. Assimilate. To fuse with the land and let the mountains become your armor, the earth's crust as your armaments.”

In the revitalized world of Karlis, the Titan that was already four hundred meters tall with just half its body spoke with its deep and rich voice, stating the legacy hidden deep within its own bloodline. ”Joshua, you have grasped the Power of Origin that I did not. It is one and also all—the root of all life and even more so, the mother of all things. It's the toughest matter in this world, and as long as your crucible could endure enough, you would be peerless.”

Urbandy spoke with the divine language used amongst the gods in the Glorious Era. All intelligent beings would naturally understand those words once it was uttered, and though Urbandy's appeared unfathomable, it became clear once the warrior summed it up.

To compress, assimilate, to condense the ordinary and loose mold into ultra-dense degenerate matter. That way, a mountain was nothing but a part of the giant's armor, and as long as the Steel Strength that Joshua could tolerate was sufficient, he would one day become a pure dense assemblage, a being that was indestructible and yet could destroy everything.

In ancient times, after Majestic Mountain Titans learned Steel Strength, they would search for a region of land which they would convert into their own body. Nevertheless, with Steel Strength being the energy that stemmed from the Steel of Origin's power, it was incredibly difficult to master it. Therefore, their targets were mostly hills, valleys or small mountains in the beginning—it is until after centuries when their Steel Strength became developed that they would become a mountainous giant like their namesake, an agent of the Mother Goddess who walks amongst men.

Joshua had made that step right on the day he learned the fact by assimilating the husk of a mountain range, 'eating' part of the world under the silent permission of Karlis's Steel Python.

Since then, the Steel that was now loaded the power of mountains became the warrior's armor, his bones, part of his Steel body and the heart of his power.

And now, there was such a bunch of creatures—minions of the Evil God, the incarnation of virus and pestilence, their goal being to devour and assimilate all life and corrupt everything organic. Now, they were intent on using their innate power to assimilate, infect and corrupt Joshua so that he would become one of them.

It was truly hilarious—would a man who feeds upon the world be devoured by some plague?

With Joshua's unbridled laughter, silver radiance became to spread like cancerous cells at the center of the psionic cage, starting from the points where the minions of Pestilence were collectively touching the Steel giant's four arms and body with their appendages and tentacles. Just as Herlas, the High Priest of the Pestilence Cult had failed in his attempt to devour the warrior's lifeforce all those years ago and was instead assimilated into Joshua's life flames, it was the same as comparing a sparkling diamond and loose mud.

While the mud could assuredly enshroud the diamond with its quantity, it could never harm the precious stone, much less erode it.

Now, in the moment the Void swarm released their path for assimilation, Joshua never hesitated to release his own Steel Strength and assimilate the bodies of those creatures. Even if he had no way of assimilating their flesh and blood organic forms, there were trace amounts of elements in their bodies despite being creatures of the Void. It was precisely those elements that the silver radiance was absorbing, and when they had lost them, the massive swarm started to crumble, decay, and be subsequently torn apart. Where the silver radiance reached, pale-green psionic radiance abruptly dulled and turned into immeasurable darkness that appeared capable of swallowing everything.

The process did not last long. The Void swarm would never give up on releasing Joshua so easily—swiftly abandoning the idea of assimilating him, they continued using their psionic ability to suppress the warrior, scheming to keep him 'sealed' with their substantial power within that specially-made pocket of flesh. However, it was too late and not something they could have done even in the peak of their power, much less now, with their inner section left with a dozen kilometers of dead, rotting meat? Joshua could tell that his opponent now had a hole in their psionic suppression after having suffered great loses in their inner formation, and hence shook off their subjugation over his body.

The colossal Steel giant thus leaped up from the center of the Void creature formation. Around him were huge chunks of dark, mountainous, and rotting flesh and blood, even as endless faint silver radiance shot out away from the black formations like starlight and entered Joshua's body.

”Master, eleven o'clock above us. That's the weakest link of the enemy's psionic encirclement!”

The divine armaments were fulfilling their responsibility as well in the spiritual sea. After their true forms melded temporarily with Joshua's combat form, their work switched to helping the warrior and observe anything he could have missed or had not the energy to be concerned about—exactly like how Ying loudly pointed out the enemy's weakness now, while Ying agilely studied the Void creatures around them for any abnormal energy signatures.

”Alright!”

Answering simply, the Nuclear Heart Furnace by Joshua's chest shone again—first in red, and then orange, yellow, gold, and finally an incandescent white. Having received a substantial refilling of Steel Strength, the warrior who was a finer state than ever before mustered his full power. Incredible force built from fusion shot from beneath the Steel giant's feet, bursting, turning the giant into a rapid missile that moved at a thousand kilometers per second, crashing on the spot where the circle of Void creatures was the most fragile. Along the way, all psionic barriers and meat walls were pierced as easily as butter cake, displaying no use at all.