Soul of Searing Steel

Chapter 941: Chaos Meme

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The mountainous Chaos condensation had been sealed in a translucent crystal obelisk that was larger than valleys, but profoundly dark presence welled out, causing surrounding forests of crystal obelisks to appear immeasurably dim.

Both Chaos and Order were infectious, self-replicating, and had significant erosive capacity. The Evil God’s malicious Chaos was especially so that even after Joshua destroyed its active nature and broke its convergence core to prevent it from growing into a new Evil God, its sheer erosive capacity still raged across the world of a God of Steel.

The surroundings of the massive crystal obelisks were now a forbidden zone for the Silver Fairies. Being Joshua’s own brethren, they had the highest clearance in the Silver World, acting as its white cells that directed the warrior’s power to restore the corruption caused by Chaos to a certain degree. They could also destroy some weaker malevolent Chaos, and when the conditions were fulfilled, they could all cast Gold-tier Radiance of Order for cleansing tasks.

Still, despite having Joshua’s protection, the Silver Fairies would not dare get near to the Silver World’s final Chaos condensations. Its threat level was so distinct that Joshua even saw a few Silver Fairies lying unconsciously on the ground around the obelisks, like bees fumigated with mosquito coils—probably Silver Fairies who had failed to purge it the last few moments and remained there.

There were distinct ‘X’s on their eyes, while some were swirling vortices... such were elemental lifeforms.

“...”

Without a word, Joshua lifted his hand and threw out the corrupted Silver Fairies—the other Silver Fairies cheered and praised Joshua’s name, and certainly would have dumped their own kind into a cleansing pool for a wash. Meanwhile, Joshua reached the bottom of the obelisks, the Chaos condensations, and the final blemished spot in the Silver World.

It had been years since a billion players worked with Joshua to brush and clear them. Even so, there was a simple reason why the condensation had not been destroyed, unlike what everyone thought—no player could solve the conundrum of the corresponding civilization and clear the level when its Chaos Memories appeared in-game. Therefore, the civilization troubled by the conundrum and hence destroyed had no signs of being cleansed.

Joshua had come to resolve that conundrum. The warrior reached out and touched the base of the obelisk.

At that instant, he sensed an abnormally profound suction force being exerted upon him, intent on dragging him into dreamlike Chaos Memories—if it had been before, Joshua would have allowed himself to be pulled within and resolve the conundrum from the inside, thus breaking and purging the fragment. It was the most standard process of cleansing Chaos Memories that even Continental War adhered to that rule, pulling players into a safe game scenario that resembled the Chaos environment, experiencing and resolving the problem.

Still, it was rather awkward that the mass of Chaos Memory needed to be at least proportional to the person being pulled inside for that to happen... and it was easy to see that who between Joshua and the Chaos condensation, that was merely several thousand meters tall, was more massive.

The very world they existed in was the true form of Joshua van Radcliffe, superhuman champion who transcended stars. The Chaos Memory here was not the former galactic-class Evil God of Death either, but a chunk of stubborn stains it had left. That was why the Chaos Memory was pulled into Joshua’s mind instead, where the warrior studied it closely and dissected its essence.

“...Change and Conservatism. Two Chaos cores that could gather and form Evil Gods.”

By sheer overpowering subjugation, Joshua easily obtained the corresponding civilization memories and found the essential issue embedded inside. And this time, he found Change and Conservatism, two elements that had led to the fall of multiple civilizations, from within the condensed piece. If he did not subjugate them, they could eventually grow outside to become the powerful Chaos essence of two Evil Gods. Of course, while mentioned as ‘two’, the pair of essences were entangled and almost inseparable, making the situation much more complicated than when resolved alone—there was little wonder that the players could not easily solve the problem.

Joshua’s mind probed the Chaos deeply, and soon received near countless flickering fragments of memories, and each were without exception of moments of civilizations falling due to Change and Conservatism.

***

—In a primitive world of heightened energies and multiple worshipped primordial deities, each was born with partial powers of the Flame and commanded great strength, enjoying the offerings of various races. It was a primitive religious world that would eventually become a realm serving divine authority as time passed, its primal civilization maintaining its present state over dozens of millennia or even never changing.

But one day, one of the priests discovered that the divine power of the primitive gods could be stolen. Therefore, over a long period, the priest claimed the divine power of the god he consecrated and became a new god, leaving countless other priests stunned while also gaining ideas different from what they had before. Naturally, the primitive gods were at once shocked and enraged, hence waging war against the new god and the conspiring priests, and the high-energy world was hence destroyed in the civil war between gods.

—In a world without supernatural powers, intelligent species of two genders progressed into the industrial era. The males were physically stronger and occupied leadership positions over the millennia of development, while the females were basically accessories with inferior positions, discriminated by many even despite rising in status in recent times.

The gender gap shrank during industrialization, as the factories did not treat either gender differently. Since resource production between the two were similar, the status of females was promoted as the industry advanced. Be it in living habits or fashion, it was now a far cry from the age of masculinity’s dominance. There were even females who had gained financial independence and were henceforth no longer dependent on males, leading to strong retaliation by stubborn conservative factions, with those upholding masculinity calling for society to retrogress and stop females from showing their face in public by working in factories.

It certainly opposed the progress of society, and the females naturally did not hesitate to stand up against the masculine faction to protect their own rights. Nonetheless, their conflict did not calm down as time moved on but escalated instead, until the single species’ two genders viewed each other as enemies, enslaving each other as breeding tools, even modifying their own unique physical attributes to gain the ability to reproduce independently... both sides ended up destroying each other in a global war.

—There was a world originally without magical energy, but eventually developing supernatural powers due to various reasons. By the time they progressed to the middle ages, individuals who naturally awakened superpowers appeared where supernatural forces were rich, and though it should have been a good thing. Yet, cultural and civilization factors had led to them being viewed as monsters, hunted and killed by enforcers composed of ordinary humans.

The difference between individuals caused envy, fear of the unknown, and continuous hunt of superhumans. On the other hand, those with naturally awakened superpowers had no legacy, which meant they had no way of retaliating and to survive, they could only escape deep within old forests with the protection of parents. But as things escalated, the enforcers began to kill the seedlings of any superhumans even if it meant killing mortals by mistake, just as any person found guilty of harboring superhumans were tortured to death.

That had been the case for a set of parents who was caught sending their son deep into the mountains by enforcers. The child, having witnessed his parents burnt alive, cursed every person, thing, and the world itself—this terrible hatred drove the development of his superpowers, and the curses combined with the souls of countless murdered superhuman souls before he died to become a super plague that destroyed everything alive. Hosted in very ordinary infectious diseases, it began to spread throughout the world as the great black plague that massacred every intelligent life, sending civilization to doom.

***

Joshua quickly browsed through the memories of the fallen civilizations, his brows furrowing deeper the more he looked.

“Quite unsolvable... the struggle and change between new and old is essentially a part of development for civilizations of Order... No one is able to boast about being able to solve it a hundred percent.”

Change and conservatism were actually the individual struggle, progression, or regression within Order itself. With it came the possibility of advancement, as well as retrogression and destruction. The cause of such destruction would be guided by the Evil God of Death to become a profound Chaos essence, and if not for Joshua’s suppression, those Chaos forces would have destroyed an entire civilization once reaching the outside world, then certainly grow into a new Evil God.

Joshua undoubtedly could not resolve that conundrum, since the people of Mycroft themselves rejected physical modification and were very prudent even when it came to cultivating various new combat aura techniques. It was not surprising, because ‘insanity’ and ‘blindness’ lurked behind the change that represent ‘novelty’ and ‘progress’. On the other hand, the conservatism that appear ‘ignorant’ and ‘stubborn’ also held positive elements of ‘prudence’ and ‘responsibility’.

And seemingly sensing the change and conservative elements of Mycroft in Joshua’s mind, the rock-hard Chaos Memories sealed in the obelisk began to boil. Malevolent Chaos became a swirl and emanated dark radiance, just as the Silver Fairies, who had been looking on expectantly from a distance to watch how their Ruler would purge the Chaos, felt the world whirling. Each of them were like bees left in a daze after inhaling excessive smoke, crashing down like a downpour. They felt their minds being shaken as various vivid, revolting colors filled their minds. The skies and land around them seemed to quake one after another like a flipped kaleidoscope, while a mysterious force observed the link to invade the simple and pure minds of each Silver Fairy, intent on sowing its seeds.

Soon, the dizzying spiritual invasion ended. When they opened their eyes again, the Silver Fairies saw the mountainous crystal obelisk collapsing, while the massive, sealed boiling Chaos condensation was compressed into the size of a fist by the warrior.

In the jungle of obelisks, the greatest seal crumbled in silence, the translucent crystal that was its casing disintegrating into halation spreading everywhere in the air. Rows of mysterious and complex runes manifested in the air, while innumerable silver patterns extended from Joshua’s clone—profound Steel Strength surged, simultaneously holding down Chaos while conjuring luminous particles resembling snowflakes.

Joshua stood upon the land. He was the size of a human and yet emanated a presence greater than a world, staring at the black Chaos essence that was forcefully compressed into the size of a fist and shook his head.

“Sorry, can’t get rid of your conundrum.” Joshua’s apologetic muttering sounded in the ears of the Silver Fairies. “So, I can only get rid of you.”

Crack.

The Chaos Memories which had bothered billions of players over the years were completely crushed by brute force. There were times when unreasonable power could not provide answer, but assuredly removed the problem itself, just like change. Whether it was the liberals or conservatives, they would have the chance to correct themselves and return from the stray path no matter how blind, insane, stubborn, or ignorant they were. With absolute power, a fine future could be reached even when on the wrong direction.

It counted as an answer as well.

The moment the black Chaos condensation was crushed, boundless Chaos power burst out, its malicious energies churning as if alive, bent on entering Joshua’s body. The warrior, however, did not resist. He closed his eyes, allowing the Chaos energies to invade his clone, experiencing the supernatural force that seemed to go beyond human comprehension.

As with various other Extraordinary power such as mana, elemental, ether, lifeforce, and Holy Light, the unique power belonging exclusively to Evil Gods and Chaos minions known as malevolent Chaos was a supernatural power in itself.

“Incomprehensible. Perhaps my level is not enough, and Legends have not yet broken through that boundary.”

Opening his eyes, Joshua’s expression appeared disappointed, although he quickly became pumped again. “Still, it’s not like I have got nothing.”

Joshua had suddenly gone inside his own world not merely to resolve the hygienic issues—he never minded the Chaos, but had simply come to verify his theory.

Chaos essence, or in other words, Chaos meme—a power to spread and observe that was similar to the Psybugs, which transmitted information through infection.

Joshua now mostly understood how Evil Gods triggered the Chaos chain and selected targets for their invasion by learning about the existing number of intelligent beings... Just as before, the dormant Chaos essences that symbolized Change and Conservatism had been quickly energized when Joshua thought about such elements in the Mycroft civilizations. The warrior was completely sure that the Evil Gods examined memes of resemblance with itself to find a target civilization to invade and destroy.

The Evil God of Calamity attacking the world of Illgner that was filled with natural disasters and the Evil God of Fertility’s assault on prosperous Mycroft were clear examples. Joshua imagined that the Evil Gods would have been hibernating until they sensed memes of fitting standards, and that was when they would awaken and attack.

At the moment of civilization destruction, malevolent Chaos would draw a Chaos essence—in other words, Chaos memes—to seal all information and memories of the civilization into one body. In a sense, it was a natural phenomenon—like how Holy Light naturally cleansed everything, malevolent Chaos naturally birthed Evil Gods as one of the supernatural forces. Like other Extraordinary abilities such as magical energies, it changed the widespread perception of all Multiverse

“As I’ve thought, the Evil Gods are meme creatures to a certain degree.”

Sharp silver light reached out from around Joshua’s form, purging all malevolent Chaos around him and converting it into a small silver sphere resembling a star orbiting him. The warrior’s gaze was deep, with a dark-red hue flickering at its bottom.

“Just like the gods.”

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