Chapter 1021 An Unlonesome Path (1/2)

The resounding 'sermon' that lasted weeks in Mycroft standard time which engulfed the entire cosmos came to a close with the preacher, Joshua van Radcliffe victorious against all challengers.

After that bout, the name of the Four-armed God of Steel spread throughout worlds that even realms in isolated corners of galaxies lauded his name and held awe in its strength. Almost every civilization indicated that they were willing to follow the path of his Order to stop all wars across the cosmos and prepare fully against the coming legions of Chaos.

Though there were a number of civilizations that considered Joshua as only one man who would not be able to control the endless worlds, civilizations, and races of the cosmos, that they would not be caught by his influence if they were being discreet, they were left dumbstruck by the records of the battle in Stellaris between Joshua himself, who fought alongside the Triple Curtain and Star the Steel Python against the Ultimate Sublimator Collective. Those civilizations, who had been thinking about trying their luck, had seen the silver radiance that was spread across the stars, his profound mind network.

On the other hand, there were also civilizations with inferior abilities that were not brave enough to challenge Joshua during the preaching. After they had watched the warrior expound upon the roots of Extraordinary power while creating real worlds and primeval deities, and then winning against every challenger powerful enough to pick a fight with deities, they simply threw away the effigies of their previous gods, in turn praising the powerful name of the True God.

After all, Joshua's power had long since far surpassed the imagination of many species regarding deities…even if he was neither omnipotent nor omniscient, he appeared so to the more inferior of civilizations.

Furthermore, the endless beings of the cosmos had truly been forced to open their eyes to understand the name of Mycroft. Some of the younger civilizations know nothing about that at all, but the civilizations which were dozens of millennia old abruptly remembered many things that had happened in the past, and hence hastily looked through the early text of their own races to recheck and finally be 100% sure that it was the name of that old glory.

And presently, Joshua was the same as the Sage who had pressured the present age, getting countless champions to remember his name and instinctively wanting to obey his Order…but things were unlike how it had been with the Sage, because Joshua was not a good man.

To those who would disobey, the ancient text wrote that the Sage would patiently educate them.

Joshua, meanwhile, used simple and violent methods to the do the same.

Still, something remained the same for both eras: there were no beings that wanted to be 'educated'.

***

Naturally, apart from Joshua's preaching, the champions had also been highly rewarded.

”It is only today that I've finally learnt how vast and profound the Multiverse is, and how rich and colorful life is.”

”I had once believed that I stood upon the edge and that there was no path ahead of me, but it is only now that I realize that there could still be a path ahead…it is just that when I was moving forward on my own, my journey had simply been too slow.”

”Demi Saint and the Wise Ones…to think that there are such tiers!”

”Those profound beings had created the powers that we use now. In the name of our civilization and ideals, we so swear that we shall praise your name, to pass on your love and legacies until the edge of eternity!”

If Joshua had not worked with the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds to force the cosmos-wide broadcast, many champions and civilizations in isolated areas would probably never have understood that there were so many other champions that existed in the Multiverse, along with the newly discovered tiers and the very roots of the Extraordinary.

As well as the generous example that the God of Steel had made.

Most of the intelligent life were neutral, and there certainly was no unconditional kindness just as there was no unconditional evil. As long as communication in between was smooth and that each other's cultures, norms, taboos, and bottom lines could be understood, any civilization that treated another with kindness would be reciprocated with kindness in return. Likewise, malice would naturally be responded with malice, with rarely any disregarding that principle—and amongst those rare few, there were half which were beings who would treat others in kindness with no reason at all. On the other hand, true eternal unchanging agents of evil which only wanted to propagate vileness would have drowned in mud pits even as younglings.

There would certainly be many who would claim that civilizations shared a relationship that was cold, calculative, and revolved around profit, but that was merely a rule between equals. When the stronger one would deliberately be kind, the so-called coldness and cost-benefit rule would be a mere façade to be torn right off—to put it vulgarly, it was like not being able to lick the other's boots in time, much less having the thought to spare for doubting or being careful…those who would come up with such things would hence embarrassedly ask themselves: am I even worthy?

After the kind superhuman carried the others on a flight through to the other side of oceans after just a dozen hours, would anyone suspect the superhuman of wanting that bag of gold that had less than five hundred coins?

There was nothing so ridiculous in the Multiverse.

At present, Joshua was a champion who could indeed inflict that sense of self-embarrassment upon those beings who were plotting behind the scenes, lamenting that they were not worthy.

Hence, apart from the gains that was the verification in regards to Extraordinary power, Joshua's greatest reward was to project his personal might into the minds of other civilizations through challenging and being challenged in his preaching.

Unwittingly, he was now a 'Guild Leader' whose influence reaches across all organizations of Order in the cosmos, even if he had no title, authority, or even form.

He had also become the veto force of the Order collective, a Blade of Damocles which hovered above all who had evil intents and embodied vileness in their heads.

And that was Joshua, as well as the purpose in which Joshua had strategized the organization of champions in Mycroft for.

”As I've thought, even Extraordinary powers are not eternally unchanging, but progress gradually.”

Having sealed the Void vortices that was now a forbidden zone for life as a dungeon that those born later could explore and a recompense of using another's sovereign soil as a battlefield, Joshua stood in the Void of the Amos Court, his mind processing endless information regarding power and cultivation.

After the great consecutive challenge against champions like no other in history, the warrior could very much call himself a master of all trades, an individual who had progressed on every path of power almost to the limit—he who was now endlessly near Demi Saint could actually faintly glimpse the future and development of all Extraordinary powers.

Psi, magic, lifeforce… all of those supernatural forces were an evolving and extending force. They were not ever unchanging like the infinite oceans, but a circulation that shifted and progressed, turning from ocean to skies or universe. In fact, in the battles just a while ago, Joshua could see the wondrous turns in Extraordinary powers, boasting various delicate and curious aspects that were directions he never once considered.

Each civilization could progress upon different trails. Being creators, the Wise Ones had simply established a start by forming the basis of a power, whereas the diverse beings and champions could blossom differently and dazzlingly upon it, including in ways that the first creators would never have had imagined.

To put it in the terms of a video game, it was having a video game company developing an entirely new genre, setting up the rules, the general framework, and a set of officially approved gameplay. Even so, did actual gameplay not depend on the player? They would naturally use preexisting resources to develop factions, combinations, constructs, or even glitches, bugs, and cheats.

For his part, the warrior would fully absorb every newly founded faction and technique the successors had developed, using it as his own strength…Joshua was even convinced that should another Wise One come to be for a particular Extraordinary power, he would bring forth revolution to that ability.

That certainly was merely a theory that might not necessarily come to be, and yet that possibility certainly was there. From the current looks of things, the existence of the Wise Ones had all chosen to create a power that would change the Multiverse, and yet was singular, without comparison and belonging to themselves. However, it was not all impossible that one amongst their successors would venture further upon a preexisting path and improve it. That would not be a conflict, but was an equal grandness that was without any sort of similarity.

[The purpose of a path itself is so that countless people could walk. It would not be a path if it allows only one person forward—indeed, it would be evident of its sturdiness and completeness if more could walk side by side upon it, even proving its very worth]

[The Path of Extraordinary is not an eternally lonesome journey, but a long road in which countless others tread upon as well—upon that long road, countless people would help and support each other, and it is only this that the thick gloom that shrouds the Multiverse could be dispersed, and all chains could be broken.]

”Joshua.”

The familiar voice of the God of Might, one of the Seven Gods, extended from a communications spell. ”It's time to come back, because we still have much to do…by the way, really well done!”

”You have become truly powerful…”

The voices of other champions and deities could faintly be heard as well—all of them had certainly watched Joshua's sermon, with many of them splitting clones to challenge Joshua or champions from other civilizations. All of them were rewarded considerably, just as they were aware of the huge gap between themselves and Joshua.

None of them found it unusual—the sheer number and intensity of battle proved that none of them were stronger than Joshua even if they had lived decades or centuries longer. Days passing lightly without progress were wasteful splashes of idlers, meaningless ripples stirred upon the great streams of time, whereas the struggles of the diligent were akin to falling stars: brief but rapid, even assuredly stirring great tides.

In return, Joshua did not actually reply to the call but simply smiled, showing his own delight and confidence. At the moment, he no longer required words to prove himself, just as no one would doubt his ability to progress and become the next Wise One, although they did not believe that he would become another Sage.

Because Joshua would certainly become a Wise One that was himself, standing upon the shoulder of giants to look even further away.

”Right.”