Chapter 465: The Last Dawn 5
But Monument One was far from finished. As it flew through the desert air with impossible grace, its four arms began to work in terrifying harmony. The lightning sword crackled as it carved through the fabric of space itself, leaving wounds in reality that bled darkness. The temporal ankh spun, and suddenly every god on the battlefield found themselves moving through time at different speeds—some accelerated to hummingbird quickness, others slowed to the pace of stone.
The khopesh in its lower left hand didn’t cut through air—it cut through the concept of distance itself. When it swung, the blade appeared instantly beside its targets, regardless of how far away they stood. Osiris raised his crook to block what seemed like an attack from Monument One’s distant position, only to find the curved blade already pressed against his throat, having crossed the intervening space through dimensional folding.
"How?" the god of death demanded, his mummified features showing the first crack of uncertainty. "I can see the construct attacking from there, but its blade is here. Which is the illusion?"
Thoth’s infinite wisdom provided the terrible answer: "Neither. It’s attacking from both positions simultaneously. That weapon exists in multiple dimensions, striking from angles that shouldn’t be possible."
But even as the gods struggled against Monument One’s reality-warping assault, they began to press their attack. Isis wove spells of unmaking that should have reduced any mortal construct to component atoms. Her magic lashed out like invisible whips, seeking to unravel the bonds that held the colossus together.
The spells struck Monument One’s surface and simply vanished.
Not reflected, not absorbed—they ceased to exist entirely, as if they had never been cast at all. Around the flying monument, a barrier shimmered into visibility—the same unbreakable defense that protected Monument Three, but infinitely more sophisticated.
"The barrier technology from Monument Three," Luna breathed from her position behind the broken pillar. "But this is different. Stronger."
She was right. Where Monument Three’s barrier had been a simple defensive matrix, Monument One bore the perfected version—every spell, every divine fury, every expression of cosmic power simply failed to exist when it encountered the field surrounding Ozymandias’s ultimate creation.
Horus dove from above, his talons extended and blazing with sky-fire, seeking to rake across the monument’s back where its solar collectors spread like mechanical wings. But as he drew near, those very wings began to glow with accumulated power.