Joshua was not actually surprised by the state of affairs.
Due to the Return Beacon's error, Priest and the others were lost at the edge of the galaxy, and information from the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds indicated a great chance that they were lost within a Glorious Era relic.
Incidentally, when Joshua was dissecting Void Behemoths a while ago, he had sensed the distinct unfamiliar presence of an Evil God, and those creatures had come from the edge of the galaxy.
They were very weird specimens—juvenile Behemoths would often infiltrate worlds and spread their seeds, spawns, or even spores while feeding, just as adult Void Behemoths would mostly peel off the outer layers of worlds before feeding. On the other hand, although the Void Behemoths Joshua encountered appeared young, they were basically fragments of adult Behemoths. They had lost spawns' the ability to infiltrate worlds, and neither did they have the power to break most World Barriers.
