Chapter 676 Great Change (1/2)

After many battles, Joshua's Steel Strength assimilation rate was about to reach a hundred percent.

Aura is the power of combat, an extension of lifeforce, while the peak of lifeforce itself was 'Steel'. For Joshua who had derived Aura up to Steel Strength, his way of ascension was to go through toiling battles that destroyed and reshaped his body on every turn, with every victory rebuilding and sublimation of his body and spirit greatly elevate his Steel Strength assimilation rate. At hundred percent, Joshua would ascend to Legendary-intermediate, developing into an invincible Steel body, rising as an ultimate form that surpassed every natural species.

Though it was merely Legendary-intermediate, it was merely a divide between thresholds. As a being excelling in the way of combat, Joshua's sheer combat prowess would not lose out against many before him, even if he had yet to completely perfect himself. For example, the Demon Generals Helm and Saluka were archdemons that had risen to Legend for centuries, and most certainly had completed their respective Legendary forms. But against the warrior who was a pure machine of slaughter, the two Demon Generals were caught off-balance and were routed on every turn.

It was not to say that they were weak, but merely that Joshua's wide-reaching view in seeking a path at the very beginning opened an insurmountable gap between them.

At present, Joshua had his eyes closed in meditation, with specks of silver radiances circling around him like stars. Watching as the warrior entered a familiar state, Ying laughed shortly and quietly left the study, closing the door as he left.

Nine silver stars of various sizes floated around the warrior, revolving around Joshua over thin air—or the Nuclear Heart around his chest as if planetary trails. Silver Steel Strength slowly gathered, gradually giving the illusory stars a solid form as golden radiance emanated from the core of his chest, shining upon the little stars like a real sun. The planet closest to his chest that was locked upon by gravity tides hence no longer orbited, while the second was burnt entirely red. Only the third planet, receiving an optimum amount of light, reflected crystalline golden light.

Joshua's creation was getting more proficient on every turn, now capable of shaping a small planetary body. At this moment, he was strengthening his control of Steel Strength, which would not only adjust energy output and calibration but also make it precise down to a microscopic scale, even manipulating it in the absence of gravity. After all, Joshua's opponents would become ever stronger at the class of Legendary, meaning that his physical attacks or energy strikes would become lacking, just as mass ripples and dimension-tearing slashes would not be so useful. Joshua believed that he needed a trump card apart from conventional blows, and gravity should not be a bad choice.

Silver star whirled, drawing an obscure silver light that fused with the golden nuclear radiances into pure, blinding illumination. As Joshua gradually entered a deeper meditation, a circle that transcended the doors of the study and the thick walls of the manor itself unfurled from the warrior. While the light was already indiscernible when it spread to the nearby streets, invisible ripples spread in light speed, shrouding Moldavia in its entirety within breaths.

Every maidservant in the liege's residence was used to the light that abruptly shone. As long as the liege was in, that sort of light would shine a few times each day. After all, they were prepared mentally for such unique situations. The residents around the manor were used to it as well, and would even brag about their opportunity to witness the radiance from the liege himself.

No one would realize what the light meant except those beings who were not 'human'.

***

In the Moldavia reception center—a huge building at the center of town where many rich and important outstation guests would come on their business or pleasure trips, while the others were mostly Extraordinary individuals from across the world.

At the moment, 'Dust', the Earth-element Fairy Princess directly descended of the Earth-element Fairy Queen awakened from her frightening and destructive nightmare in one of the suites on the seventh floor. The other fairies, along with the Sixth Prince who had been resting or playing cards turned in surprise towards their usually lazy friend.

”Dust, are you alright?”

Sixth Prince Adrian was seated before a desk and going through various contracts and agreements—documents related to the worldwide distribution rights and factory production agreement for Fairy Cards. Those papers unquestionably held the value of cities and eclipsing gold, but with their friend's well-being in the balance, they were worth nothing. Hurriedly, Adrian put down every document he was holding and rushed beside the dainty Earth-element fairy, asking after her urgently. ”You've been having a lot of nightmares recently… What is going on?”

The other three fairies too hovered beside Dust, each holding her hands and her small head, worry clear in their voices.

”That's right, that won't do.”

”We can't explain ourselves to the queen if we return like this.”

”Did you eat something bad?”

”It's… It's nothing.”

Dust, jolted awake, forgot even her usual 'Tuturu' expression as she looked fearfully towards the direction of the liege's residence. As an Earth-element Fairy that was only next to the divine descendants of the Mother Goddess in the aspect of earth, she naturally noticed the 'formless ripple' that engulfed Moldavia in its entirety, spreading even beyond the city.

She naturally knew the true form of the light—it was materialized particle flow, a suppressed gravity ripple. The incomparably brute force was pulsating in the liege's residence as more than thirty million tons of mass churned within a small room no more than thirty square meters… The light shone beautifully and profoundly, but an utterly frightening destructive force was hidden beneath its wondrous appearance.

In a way, if the power that controls the ripple just slightly lose control, the turbulent energy flow would instantly flatten most of Moldavia, with land across ten miles shrunk into a small, dense sphere. The entire North would hence be ravaged by the violent gravity into a barren land unsuitable for human living.

How dare he… How dare he unleash such—such—such threshold of power in the heart of the city!

Dust had almost uttered those thoughts in an instant, only to soon breathe a deep sigh. Why would he not? Could Legendary champions perhaps be unable to control their power? Indeed, what right would they have to be called Legend if they could not do that?

If the Nature's Magister lost control, tempestuous Forces of Nature would turn the surroundings of the Lake of Eternity into an extreme aberrative realm, a place where even Supreme-champions could not resist the change and propagation of every cell within their bodies.

If Pope Igor lost control, half of the Far South and Distant Oceans may be brushed by broiling light, becoming boiling seas of magma, with one of fourth of Southern settlements burnt white.

If Barbarossa lost control, hundreds of kilometers around the Skypiercing White Tower would become a turbulent zone where elements went amok. The Seven Elements would turn into a windstorm that destroys everything, turning all that it touches into dust.

It was the same for the Fairy Queens. Each Queen of the Fairyland were certain elements given form, but the realm itself would vanish instantly through a single hint of error in their work, dispersing as energy fragments into the Void along with the millions of fairies. However, it had been six hundred years, and Fairyland remained as stable as it had been in the start, steadily orbiting beyond the world. It was the same for other Legendary champions—they may lose or die at the hands of their enemy, but they would never lose to themselves.

However, such was life alongside a Legendary champion. Being ascendants, their existence alone would bring boundless terror and threat to mortals, and resting beside them was akin to sleeping beside an angry tiger. Even if she knew that the tiger would not tear her apart, her living instincts instills great unease in her.

Mustering a smile, the Earth-element Fairy soothed her worried companions, knowing that herself was being paranoid and hence did not intend to tell them the truth. Adrian nodded noncommittally, but when he walked to the windows of the guest house and pulled apart the thick curtains, the golden light of noon abruptly shone into the room.