Chapter 703 The One Who Embodies Authority (1/2)

A murkiness shrouded all things within the world of Simboa. Befuddling mists covered heaven and earth, and there was darkness no brightness could pierce… But just that darkness was about to continue forever, a great light shone upon the skies, turning the world as bright as day.

Those were the stars beyond the heavens and the spiral tower at the center of the world. They were unleashing a dark blue radiance as if from the nether world and forming a great net that ensnared all. The great net then acted as if it was a hand and grasped toward a certain spot in the skies, which the Resistance and the Soul Puppets on the ground could clearly see that the net intended to catch the other source of light in that world.

A burning Steel giant.

Joshua said nothing in response to Fattrovi's declaration, since silence was the finest mockery. He did not believe that debating right and wrong with an opponent was worth it, for their fight had nothing to do with those things—He was disgusted by the things Fattrovi had done. The Ruler had shown no guilt after harvesting billions of souls, which is why he would send him to the Eighteenth Floor of Hell.

It was the reason he fought, the value of being strong.

He loved that the most.

Joshua did not move as the obscure dark blue hand swung toward him, spreading his arms instead and allowing it to attack him freely. In the next second, the gigantic hand of energy that covered the puppet clenched, as if to crush a doll with its grip. At the same time, the Steel constructs behind the colossal puppet opened silently.

Whoom—

In the air, something began to hum as if thousands of butterflies were spreading their wings, or a dull horn being blown.

The Snova-21 puppet that had been remodeled by Joshua's Steel Strength had already differed distinctly from its original state. As if armed to the teeth, he had dark-red plating and a fearsome dragon-horn helmet, and now, as the Steel module hidden for a long time behind the puppet was about to be activated and unleashed, two veins of silver-gray rays almost a thousand-meters long shot out from within!

The bulky presence pierced the world. The two rays fluttered restlessly, rampantly stirring the energies around like the wings of angles or gods, although it resembled a butterfly of light. Pure Steel Strength extended and surged within, eroding the dust, crystal bodies, energies and even all living things around. The clenched dark blue hand tried to struggle against the erosion, ending up being turned into bubbles and fragments of light, while countless soul energies withdrew like a tide.

But that was not the end. As the two vast rays throbbed, endless silver dust dropped. Countless Steel particles that were of the smallest scale and belonged exclusively to Joshua dropped down into the world. Like a greedy swarm of piranha, they all darted greedily toward the spreading energy fragments and consumed every single atom. At that moment, even Fattrovi's heart of stone sensed danger—he felt something dangerous spreading right before his eyes that he could never control.

Just like… cancer!

As Fattrovi stared in shock, metallic luster began to extend on the very second silver Steel Strength dropped on the ground, the composition akin to a mineral ore rapidly unfurling between breaths.

Mountains and hills disintegrated one after another into an ever-present silver shroud. All things—organic or inorganic, with or without mass were assimilated by unchained Steel Strength. The sight was essentially a nightmare, as an entire mountain chain had been assimilated by Steel Strength in seconds. Even now, the Steel shroud began to flicker and shine brightly, rising into the air and assembling above Joshua's huge puppet's head to form a colossal metallic meteor.

Ejecting Steel Particles and eroding worlds—Joshua's tyrannically controlled mass inside the world of Simboa, attacking it instead.

Then, the mountainous meteor crashed down as if it was the second blazing sun over the sky. Horrible friction broiled the atmosphere within thousands of meters, brewing unimaginable shockwaves—it crashed toward the spiral tower, as if the break Fattrovi and his throne into shards.

Indeed, it would not only be the spiral throne being pulverized if the meteor truly landed. The tremendous impact and tremors would crater the center of the continent, and the resulting hollow would drive deep into the earth's core, sending lethal shockwaves that would tear the continent apart and destroying all life living over it.

Which is why it would not hit.

”Silence.”

A cold voice echoed, and the world appeared to blur. As air burned and scream around the landing meteor, the entire sight abruptly froze like a photograph. The man standing on top of the Spiral Tower steeped forward once, clenching his scepter and extended his hand: formless ripples spread around him, and thus time stagnated.

A deep but sonorous voice wafted from the thin skies. Fattrovi only uttered a single word, and the meteor stopped falling—then, lifting his Steel Python Scepter and pausing the movement of all objects, the Soul Light from the stars above surged incessantly, shooting down thousands of beams that focused on the tip of the silver scepter.

”Destroy.”

With another word spoken, Authority gathered. In the center of the world, boundless energies were gathered and refined, for the Time Turner was commanding the stars as all things froze, absorbing the strength of billions of souls to utterly vanquish the powerful foe from another world.

Space was quaking. Beneath the mountainous meteor, an undetectable warped space appeared in the company of thunder, instantly becoming to a spatial wrinkle visible to the eye while continuously enlarging. It swept across the land, disintegrating soil and sand into atoms and diminishing every chemical bond. Electromagnetism was weakened for it was the principle of mass being destroyed at its essence, with no physical object being spared.

Fattrovi unleashed that quake to break everything before him, form or formless on the very base of their existence.

Over the skies, metallic meteor crashed into distorted space, and the whole world fell silent—Joshua's blow and Fattrovi's Authority burst in that instant, the two's profound powers instantly pushing away all air across thousands of miles, forming a vacuum. All shroud and dust were blown away by the superstorm, while horrific impact leveled anything protruding above ground, flattening the hills!

The earth shattered and magma streamed. It was the first time such a vast domain of vacuum appeared in the world of Simboa: the formless spatial wrinkle was destroyed by a massive force, just as the gigantic meteor was crumpled into endless pieces, raining down upon the land.

At the same time, Joshua abruptly burst forward over the skies. He charged toward the spiral tower, silver Steel Strength shaping into the silhouette of a small planet around his body.

Even if he was a clone, a puppet of projection, Joshua's understanding and control over Steel Strength now did not lose out against his original form. He could see through the essence of Fattrovi's time stopping ability which was to freeze the movements of objects, which was why he simply released his Steel Strength and eroded the world, turning his environment into another realm that his adversary could not freeze.

Joshua was rampantly claiming the mass of Simboa for his own use, and to attack. The huge falling meteor was a ploy to simply force Fattrovi so that he revealed any moves he had apart from stopping time. As planned, he observed that the Ruler could release an Ultra-power attacked that was developed around the principle electromagnetism that weakened the bonds between atoms. However, such an attack was meaningless to Joshua, since he could perfectly control every particle of his own mass!

However, Fattrovi's expression remained indifferent. Thousands of colors began to cascade around the Steel Python Scepter—those were the condensation of millions of different Authorities given form. Having lived in reality for a thousand years and more than five thousand when stagnated time was taken into consideration, the Ruler never idled over that period. Apart from his own Standstill ability, Fattrovi had long learned how to use Ultra-power units so that he could employ other Ultra-abilities.

Authority moved, and formless ripples spread.

Bang, bang, bang, bang.

Joshua suddenly stopped moving forward mid-flight. A few dull sounds echoed over his body before he abruptly dropped down from above, hitting the land and forming a deep crater on the ground with his tremendous mass. Like dominos, the land around him began to crumble incessantly as well, shaping into a barren land that was dozens of squared kilometers wide: every natural object disintegrated and reshuffled, in that domain of mass that was suddenly a hundred times heavier.

Fattrovi looked down from the top of the tower as magma boil and the scent of sulfur wafted. He was aware that the body of normal lifeforms would have disintegrated over the hundred folds of gravity, but that Foreigner from beyond the Void who could transcend the Barrier of endless energy would not be so weak. Thus, he saw the puppet rise again, unscathed even after being soaked in the magma zone that exceeded the heavy gravity of the earth's core, although its body surface appeared incandescent.

Joshua shook his head to flung away the magma flowing on his head—the heat that was thousands of degrees hot did not even scratch his paint, much less his shield plating. But even the very next instant, endless rays shot down from above for Fattrovi was not holding back, unleashing a dozen different blast to bombard that basin while maintaining the abnormal gravity domain.

Nuclear flame blasted mushroom clouds out of the basin, as lightning that was over seven hundred million kilowatts rained down and tore a thousand cavities over the ground. The heavy-gravity zone shifted rapidly as well: some places had no gravity just as others now had gravitational force thousand times beyond what was normal. With the varying pressure exerted upon the Steel Puppet at the heart of the basin, he was about to be torn part.

Even so, Fattrovi, who styled himself World and Order could not ignore that presence that never once diminished. Violent energy ripples had long detonated through the earth's core and lithosphere, and yet Joshua's presence became increasingly distinct that even nuclear explosion could no longer conceal it.

In the very next instant, with the vast, shuddering burst of might, the magma sea and pulverized lithosphere were parted by silver radiance. All Ultra-abilities were blasted away, forming a circular cavity that was over a thousand meters wide, with the red-black Steel Puppet at its center. The thousands of different Ultra-power attacks were perfectly blocked by Joshua, whether it was substance conversion or wondrous spatial shift.

But now, as the warrior prepared for a second assault, he looked up to find… a sun.

***