Soul of Searing Steel

Panda Novel

While Joshua fought and destroyed the Evil Gods, several other events were unfolding across different places in the Multiverse.

***

The Amos Court, the Galaxy of Bloodbath.

Generally speaking, the stars did not exist alone in the Void.

In space, not all luminous bodies were the light of worlds, although their brightness reflected the intensity of energy circulations within. In other words, the denser the Extraordinary powers, the greater the brightness—perplexingly, the quantity of intelligent life was also included in the energy cycles, increasing its brilliance as intelligent life increased.

On the other hand, behind a stable but vulnerable oversized fireball, stars could not exist alone in the Void or in the absence of a world’s protection, for they would rapidly decay into fundamental shrouds of energy, blown far away by dimensional turbulences.

Even so, at a certain place in the Multiverse, there was a wonder formed entirely from stars.

***

The borders of the Amos Court stretched across the galaxy to stand against the Takur Ruin Cult, but its core sector that emanated splendid radiance was curiously positioned not too far from the front line.

Even if over a thousand planetary systems and dimensional turbulences stood in between, one could still see the location of the Court, along with a towering dome that obscured the entire sector.

“When I first came to the Court, I stared blankly where I stood for over a dozen minutes. I did all I could to find its edge, but dejectedly failed.”

In the Void, a translucent streamlined warship was moving rapidly while Elma softly remarked to Creed, who stood at her bridge. “Now I am stronger, but no less marveled—because the further I see, the more I understand its grandness.”

“Creed, can you see it?”

The human captain did not respond to the question. Creed simply gaped as he tried his best to see everything before him. At the moment, the warships had entered the world’s radiant zone, with massive Void harbors and settlements appearing both left and right. Even so, Creed spared no effort in concerning himself with those buildings larger than mountain chains, for what he was seeing eclipsed those minute objects over billions of times.

It was a gigantic dome of unfathomable scale, and one that canopied an entire planetary sector. It permeated the Void, with its top hidden in boundless dimensional turbulence and was built from endless moving stars and nebulae!

Even in the Multiverse, there are probably not many buildings which are able to match such a dome in size. How could such an exaggerated building exist? Its bright light transcends even the Void, the many worlds covered beneath it seemingly assimilated and subjugated by its profundity.

“…I see it…” Former Captain Creed said dreamily as he looked on. “Wait, I don’t…that’s just a pillar, right? I only see that and a bit of the top.”

In fact, for the country bumpkin, the core teleportation obelisk of the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds was the other largest building he had ever seen. Indeed, before the great dome, everything from spaceships, harbor, cities, to the largest residencies were like dust smaller than ants.

Like formless concrete, surging etheric flow connected the stars as a flowing wall of galaxy. The wall itself reached and expanded upward, converging into a dome of concealed planetary sectors—by reflex, Creed raised his hand eagerly as he tried to touch the stars that he could not reach, which prompted Elma to blink. She had not imagine her companion to do that in the face of the starry dome, even showing yearning and wonder…but that was not important.

“Legend has it that it is the shell that the Imperator carried.”

Elma turned and looked up at the Dome with Creed. There were mixed emotions in her voice, ranging from reverence, zeal, dissatisfaction, along with lurking doubt and rage. “The birthplace of the Amos, the load which was carried.”

“Creed, welcome to the Court Dome…and the Amos Court.”

Having recently slain an Ultimate Entity in the Assembly Area, a summon had been relayed to Elma from the home office that she was granted an audience with Imperator Amos. In fact, every Amos who had killed an Ultimate Entity was granted an audience, with the Imperator himself directly splitting threads of his mind to interact directly with those blessed ones, granting them rewards and honor.

However, Creed remembered the mixed expressions on Elma’s face upon learning about the audience, one that he had never previously seen… she was never that worried, even when she was prepared to sacrifice herself in the battle against the Ultimate Entity.

“You can refuse if you really don’t want to go,” Creed advised her, in the hopes that she would not be troubled by such a matter. “We still have the system granted by our commanders, and it won’t do to be discovered.”

“No. I guess I do want to go.”

Creed’s words made Elma strengthen her resolve instead. The entire Void warship shuddered a little, like a human sighing. “There’s no use in running…I knew that the Imperator has had his eyes on us when I was notified.”

Hence, both Elma and Creed journeyed from afar from the borders of the Court to its heartland.

“So, this is the residence of the Imperator?” Creed asked, recovering from his astonishment upon entering the region covered under the dome, since the interior of the world prevented him from seeing the faraway structure. “According to the analysis by the Commander and the others,” he said with a curious tone, “the true form of Imperator Amos is a nebula transcendent of normal worlds, and its size would have to be counted in light-years…if the Dome of Star is his shell, his body would be so massive that we should be seeing it now.”

“…We don’t know.”

Elma’s response was surprising. The clone inside her body then appeared hesitant for a moment, before she shook her head and answered. “The Imperator has a powerful clone over the dome—look, it’s that light.”

Creed promptly looked up, and with Elma’s help, he saw an exceedingly massive radiant form: it was a distorted dimensional swirl with a true face that was hardly visible, with many small worlds orbiting around it. Creed hence quickly nodded to indicate he has seen it.

“That’s the clone of the Imperator within the Court—it is powerful but it’s still a clone, and we wouldn’t know at all where his true form would be. All he did was to leave his shell as the home office of the Court that the clone presides over… we know nothing else.”

Elma then looked up at the distant clone with Creed, and quietly said, “But at least we know that the Imperator exists.”

“And that is enough for most Amoses. The Imperator is their faith, and even if he merely exists but does nothing, the prideful Amos of the Court would still gather as a group and a civilization.”

Creed noticed then that Elma was clenching her fist.

“But that is also exactly why… the Imperator has done nothing other than fight the greatest champions of other civilizations that the Amos civilization has eventually become tools and weapons… or even a reason, all used at his disposal against champions of other civilizations.”

The warship darted through the Void, covering an extreme distance in an instance, although they were unable to see the distance they had traveled due to the dimensional distortion the dome caused. The distant and massive luminous form simply came ever closer, and after a moment of silence, Elma spoke calmly as she stared at Imperator Amos’ clone.

“Let me put it this way…we are actually a nest of ants being reared.”

“The Imperator—a human who rears the ants—would not be concerned with how the ants lived or whether we developed, since it means nothing to humans, whether the ants would establish more colonies or strengthen our jaws and toxins. He simply picks out a few of the larger and good-looking ones that he finds alright to be placed in his personal cans as pets.”

“Those so-called generals and the Court Guards are those whom the Imperator keeps beside himself as his collection of living specimens.”

Elma then glanced at Creed and laughed softly, before continuing, “Sounds familiar? That is probably how powerful Extraordinary individuals view mortals or otherworldly natives.”

“The ants would wear themselves out to improve themselves and develop, even if the human does not care. He would be careful with their numbers and the number of colonies, and when he thinks that the numbers are enough, he would not hesitate to lead them into a slaughter against another human’s ants. That is how he lives.”

“And yet, to another human, his ants may not really be ants, but just humans who have yet to mature…hahaha. We are hurt and unsettled, whether it’s us, the enemy champion, or his ants—but he would be very happy.”

“The Imperator is the archetype of Amos archetypes: prideful, warmongering, upholding power, and extremely powerful.”

Elma laughed earnestly, finding it humorous even if Creed could not—the human felt disturbed and a harrowing shock that what she said was the truth.

“Well, Elma. I think what you say is true, but if…”

Unsure what to say, Creed racked his brains and dryly said, “If there’s one amongst you—uh, I mean an Amos who is as strong as the Imperator, and they do not have to be identical, just above Legendary-pinnacle… if there is such a being, surely the Imperator’s perspective would change regardless of his arrogance?”

Then, noticing that Elma had turned and stared at himself, Creed hurriedly threw his hands up. “I’m just saying…”

Though Elma did not respond at once, she made a sad face before simply shaking her head and shifting from that topic. She looked up and gazed beyond the bridge, slowly saying, “My parents were two Thought Individuals. However, they did not choose asexual reproduction by downloading the data of other Amoses from the Central Archives. They chose traditional procreation instead, with myself and my twenty-three other siblings being such creations—but I have survived until now, my mindset shifting after inheriting all their information, the very information which had made me think of rebelling.”

“My parents had researched about the Imperator as well, browsing through ancient texts and records and coming to the bold conclusion that there was no complicated reason as to why the Imperator has prohibited mixed bloodlines through intermarriage between races, and compelled a multiracial empire into becoming the single race Court it is now.”

Elma smiled serenely then. “He simply disliked the unsettling jumble of races, and the Amoses were simply kept because we are his brethren and hence appear more pleasing.

“It’s only that and nothing more complicated.”

***

That was the only reason to be, whether it was their invasion of other races in the Galaxy of Bloodbath, or the the dozen millennia wars with the Takur Ruin Cult: he was having a bad day, he was unhappy, he wanted a new color for the entire galaxy.

A rather cute obsessive-compulsive disorder, a game to kill time.

Anyone would understand that, would they not? Who would play the game of wars without the will to conquer the whole wide world and claim everything mapped for himself? Even young children would have such impulses.

That was why it was a tragedy: there was a pair of eyes whose heart was unfathomable and hung above the Amos’ prided Court Dome. He watched over and decided everything, and yet the survival or demise of the Amos had nothing do with himself.

“Do you get it? We are merely pawns at his palm and acting under his whims. Who would know if our future is of prosperity, or death because the Imperator find our looks displeasing and would rather have a new pet race? A civilization being merely toys of a champion…a miserable future that is beyond control, and the reason I rebel.”

“…I understand.”

Watching Elma as her expression grew firmer, Creed had the chills even as he imagining one out of the Seven Gods or the many other Mycroftian Legends doing something. If the others did not protest, the common folk would not end up any better than the Amos.

After all, what were mortals, other than pets, to champions who could change everything? Indeed, the Amoses could even be considered lucky—they could at least live in such a massive Void empire, a supercivilization that was flourishing.

Their race could conquer half their galaxy and gain fame even in the Multiverse, with every individual thus finding pride and honor.

Life was an endless torment in the small worlds with indigenous civilizations ruled by Extraordinary individuals and primitive gods.

***

Meanwhile, the warship had reached the massive bundle of light that occupied most of the Void’s sight. Creed could see that it was a thick nebula covered in ether and mana, and it was so dense that nothing inside could be clearly seen. One could almost make out over thousands swirl-shaped storms in hues of gold and red, lik pairs of colossal eyes that consumed stars.

The nebula was so dense that it should have formed a star a lot earlier, but its substance kept moving under a gushing stream of ether which appeared like a bony frame, maintaining its present form and preventing it from collapsing as a supermassive black hole.

“How would you be meeting the Imperator?”

Creed suddenly thought of that question when they arrived beside the Imperator, but as a formless presence suddenly unfurled just like a thought, a mysterious darkness engulfed the entire planetary system.

Neither Creed nor Elma could hear the noise, but they faintly sensed something out of the ordinary appearing and spreading.

Ka-boooom—

A great tremor extended as a dimensional storm stirred in the distance.

The two of them turned in shock and looked towards the front of the warship.

The clone of Imperator Amos stood watch upon the center of the Court dome, not shifting an inch even after millennia had passed.

Nevertheless, it moved movement ago.