Chapter 1023 The Inherited Key (1/2)

Perished Eternity.

Gaping its maw and flapping its massive wings, the Ancient Dragon of Thunder stirred a sandstorm in the ever-shrinking deserts of the world of Kronos. It could not help but be stunned slightly by the mention of the word.

Evil Gods were enemies of civilizations and life. They were natural disasters given form and actual embodiments of ruin and apocalypse. Since time immemorial, countless civilizations have attempted to study their essences, just like how intelligent life would examine that typhoons were basically windstorms caused by oceans releasing heat and that earthquakes were caused by the movement of tectonic plates…the human intention to understand the essence of Evil Gods was therefore the best countermeasure there was.

However, the attempt had regrettably failed in its final step.

It was not to say that the single step was so difficult that no one could succeed since ancient times, but it was simply that legions of Evil Gods would come out of nowhere, striking before they could succeed and destroying all that they was.

”…Do you believe you could be an exception?” the Ancient Dragon of Thunder thus asked. As the rebuilder of world cycles and reviver of realms, it had assuredly restored several worlds destroyed by Evil Gods and certainly held information about the Evil Gods in its long life and time-worn legacies—which was why it was therefore shocked. ”Is the Perished Eternity the clue to the Evil God essence which you have uncovered? Never has there been any who has reached that, or should I say…they were all destroyed before they could reach it.”

”Strictly speaking, it is not I who would search for it. I have merely combined intelligence from everyone else to ascertain the fact.”

Joshua's trail of thoughts had been still partially connected to the Ancient Dragon of Thunder's. As he left, he mused, ”Destroyed? So, apart from being an eternal wonder and exceedingly developed civilization, studying the essences of Evil Gods is a trigger that leads to their arrival? It certainly matches the information I have.”

”The existence of Evil Gods is definitely much more important than what anyone would imagine at first.”

***

The research information about Evil Gods left by the Ultimate Sublimator Collective was actually rich. As a Demi Saint that had imprisoned Evil Gods within worlds and carried them wherever it went, even using them as compasses or other tools, it was very much the first specialist in the Multiverse. Joshua, who had inherited that information from it, certainly benefited greatly, gaining many new ideas which he compiled with existing information and thereby gaining even more theories.

Joshua believed that Evil Gods were a phenomenon that the Masterminds' power had caused before, just like Psi had birthed the Wise Ones of Psi and the Steel Pythons—with the Evil Gods being a cataclysmic version of Chaotic Steel Python.

But now, it appeared that the information of Evil Gods themselves were within causes for caution. It was not a mere derivation of a phenomenon which encounters could be shared.

”Malevolent Chaos…we'll use that name for the Masterminds' power, its essence which could be dissected from the power of Evil Gods.”

The consciousness of Joshua's main body was still descending towards the Vortex of Creation. The warrior was crossing floors of Abysses as well as the former lockdown perimeter set in place by the Evil Gods while he thought to himself. ”Chaos corrupts and infects other things, and the fact that only other Extraordinary powers can resist it may often be ignored by others, but it actually proves the remarkable connection between Malevolent Chaos and everything else.”

After all, the spiritual corruption that the Malevolent Chaos was similar to being influenced by magic, divine power, and even the Holy Light. Still, apart from divine powers, both magic and Holy Light could only rapidly influence Extraordinary objects partially, along with mages and clergies who were connected to it and not everything there was.

Secondly, the spiritual contamination of the Malevolent Chaos would leave subjects in madness and unable to think—there were so many possibilities such as simple soul disturbances, Chaos itself being armed with anti-intelligent tendencies, or the substantial volumes of information itself reducing people to madness. According to Joshua's experience fighting the Evil God of Death and the Evil God of Wither, the 'substantial volumes of information itself reducing people to madness' aspect was most realistic. Had he not been left with an affected mind by the Evil God of Death's infinite memories and invocation?

One of the main things about Evil Gods was that they were a sea of memories of information converging after countless lives in civilizations perished.

Normal humans would be left in madness with a single glance. The infectious spiritual corruption that the spawns of Evil Gods, up to their movements that appeared to follow some kind of meme, undoubtedly proved that Malevolent Chaos and information was closely connected.

”But the Wise One of Arcane did mention that the essence of Evil Gods and the Masterminds are connected to Eternity.”

Descending and pulling away beneath the Abysses, the God of Steel simply strolled past countless worlds instead of deliberately accelerated, his mind ever scattering. ”'Eternity'… I had once come across the same word in the memories of the Evil God of Fertility, back in the Gardens of the Multiverse created by the First Civilization.”

”Eternity, Infinity, Absolute, Omnipotent, and Omniscient.”

Transcending all physical changes, even the eternity of end.

Transcending all limited existences, even the infinity of imagination.

Transcending all causality and concepts, even the absolutes of probabilities.