Chapter 406 - 343: Pillars of light
"My, my... I didn’t think she was bold enough to drag me here," Bomb chuckled, staring at the land before them. Even though there was nothing actually there, as she looked up at the strangely colored sky, it was obvious what was happening.
All of a sudden, from the sky fell a massive, deformed chaos angel. It stood nearly thirty feet tall, humanoid in shape, with eight claws were there instead of wings wings were protruding from its back. Its mouth gaped unnaturally, constantly shifting, and where its head should have been was nothing but a single, massive eye staring down at them.
"Are you sure you want to do that, child?" Bomb asked, lazily pointing toward Aurianna’s friends behind her.
The chaos creature, which had just summoned a spear into its hand, halted its movement and glared at Bomb in response.
"As I thought. From these creatures, you can use it to see all of us," Bomb continued, her tone calm. "But you’re probably not used to this power yet, so it’s affecting your sensory system. Still, it works well in hiding where your actual body is." She tilted her head slightly. "Don’t worry, I won’t hurt your friends. Just surrender to me like a good girl...."
Bomb paused, then sighed as she rubbed the back of her neck. "But judging from that glare, that’s a no. What a pain."
"Oh well, seems like we can’t have a decent agreement," she muttered, shrugging.
With a snap of her fingers, the chaos angel erupted into flames, its weird mouth screaming loudly as it burned away into ash.
"Hmmmm." Bomb glanced around before turning her attention elsewhere. "Ragna, just how big is this prism world?" she asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked back at Ragna standing behind her. She had teleported there with Penma, leaving Hadina and the rest outside. From within the prism, Ragna could still see Hadina on the other side, yelling like crazy and slamming her fists against the prism’s surface while throwing a full-on fit.
"Well, big enough to handle you crazies’ powers," Ragna replied coldly, crossing her arms.
"Ah, that explains why everyone’s attacks aren’t reaching this part of the planet," Bomb chuckled. From where she stood, she could see occasional pillars of magic in the distance. The other Aurianna’s were all busy fighting chaos angels like the one she saw.
"Time," Bomb said, glancing sideways at Time beside her, "could you warn everyone to activate their shields?"
"Ragna, are we really just gonna stand here and let her boss us around like this?" Penma asked, frowning deeply as she looked at Ragna, clearly unwilling to accept the situation.
"Is there really anything we can do?" Ragna replied quietly. "Realistically, we can only watch if we don’t want to die." Her gaze shifted back to Bomb, her voice tightening. "Aurianna’s world should be happy they chose to keep most of you alive, because now you’re going to see what she can do."
Bomb smiled faintly.
"Now then," she said calmly, lifting her hand, "let’s get rid of your pesky domain."
"Absolute hell," Bomb said coldly and she snapped her finger.
All the light across the entire planet vanished, plunging everything into pitch black darkness. The sky itself went void-like, and everywhere within Aurianna’s domain, the chaos angels were suddenly engulfed in roaring flames. One after another, they erupted into massive chains of explosions, lighting the dark skies turning it to a sea of fire.
For one final blast, a massive pillar of flaming light, like a divine spear, came crashing down from the skies, piercing straight through the planet’s core. Those protected within the shield could only watch as it caused the lands of the planet to rumble and shatter burning everything on it’s surface.
It was beautiful whiles at the same time being terrifying.
Right before their eyes, the planet crumbled into countless fragments. Yet they remained unharmed, Time’s shield was around them. Slowly, the shattered planet began to pull itself back together. The world repaired itself, piece by piece, but the rainbow skies were gone and the fake sun’s light returned.
"Hey, Bomb!" Peter called out, his voice shaky despite his attempt to sound firm. His body was visibly trembling. Who wouldn’t be scared after seeing one person do all of that? But despite that he knew he had to speak up.
"Yes... I suppose your name is Peter," Bomb replied, pausing briefly, as she had almost called him Gothiel instead.
"I beg of you... please don’t do it," Peter said, his voice quivering.
"Oh, come on," Bomb said with a light chuckle as she stared at him. "I’d make sure your life wouldn’t be so bad."
"Do you know why Gothiel wanted to die?" Peter asked, gripping the fabric over his chest tightly.
"The way you act. The way you’re indifferent to life. The way you don’t have a hint of humanity in you, that’s why he hated being at your side." His voice cracked as his frustration spilled out. "But at the same time, he loved you! And you always did things your way, never listening to his advice, treating him like a doll!"
"Ahahahahaha!" Bomb burst into manic laughter. "All the Auriannas don’t have that!" she said sharply. "Do you really think the Aurianna you know is different? She’ll eventually become just like us, devour her planet and become a true goddess!"
Her laughter faded into a cruel smile.
"We may all be different in personality and power," she added, her grin widening, "but the end result is the same."
"No way!" Elena shouted. "Aurianna is nothing like you! If she didn’t care, there’s no way you’d be using us as hostages!"
"Well, that part is true," Bomb admitted casually. "But it’s inevitable for her to experience it." Her gaze shifted back to Peter. "And Peter, aren’t you a time mage? You should’ve already seen their future a long time ago."
"It’s not certain," Peter replied nervously.
"Pfftt," Bomb giggled.
"However, there’s still a chance for a good outcome," Peter continued, straightening slightly. "No matter what you do, you won’t win!"
"Oh?" Bomb asked, raising an eyebrow. "And why is that?"
"Iris," Peter blurted out.
Bomb’s expression darkened into a frown.
"Time?" Bomb called out sharply.
"Yeah... it’s true," Time admitted. "But I always managed to reverse time before she got here."
"And you think she wouldn’t notice?" Penma scoffed.
"You fools really underestimate Lady Iris," Ragna said confidently. "That’s probably why you didn’t anticipate me being here either. You were completely caught off guard. Now it all makes sense."
"Time, is this true?" Bomb asked, unease creeping into her voice.
"My memories get jumbled sometimes, but she’s right," Time said frantically. "She wasn’t here in the previous forty-four times....." Realizing this, Time began to breathe heavily while clutching her head. Her eyes trembling, "Shit, shit, shit! Iris knows now. She’s just waiting for that brat to call her, and it’s over for us! I should reverse time now!"
"No," Bomb cut in calmly. "Wait. We still have a chance. We’ve cornered her." Her eyes narrowed. "All One needs to do is stop her from saying Iris’s name, and we’ll be fine."
"With her chaos realm gone, she’ll definitely come out in the opening to fight us, and then..." But before Bomb could finish she saw as a white pillar of white light pierced the sky and her calm expression instantly shifted to frown. She was experiencing different emotions that moment. Caution, confusion, anger and a hint of fear in which she herself didn’t realize.
Another one of them had just died, but before she could process this she then saw three more pillars of light again and her expression twisted to anger.