Chapter 187: The Golden Cataclysm
Chapter 187: The Golden Cataclysm
High Pontiff Benedict knelt on the polished marble floor of the grand cathedral.
He pressed his trembling hands together in desperate prayer. The massive Level 100 Absolute Divine Shield hummed with immense golden energy outside the cathedral walls.
It enveloped the entire Holy Capital in a perfect impenetrable dome. The Pope knew the goblin armada was lurking in the ocean. He knew his Vanguard Inquisitor was dead. But he felt entirely safe behind the absolute threshold of mortal magic.
Then the cataclysmic sound shattered the atmosphere.
The invisible planetary ceiling violently cracked. The deafening noise ripped through the Holy Capital. The magnificent stained glass windows of the grand cathedral exploded inward.
Thousands of sharp colorful shards rained down upon the kneeling priests.
Benedict looked up at the fractured sky in pure unadulterated horror.
The ten year cosmic timer was gone. The planetary barrier keeping the divine realm locked away had been physically shattered from below.
"The demon broke the world," Benedict whispered. His fanatical mind completely snapped under the sheer terror of the revelation. He scrambled to his feet.
"Bring the vessels! Bring them immediately!"
Heavily armored Paladins rushed into the throne room. They dragged three bruised battered figures across the broken glass. They were the remaining Otherworlder Heroes summoned from Earth.
They wore tattered rags. Their spirits were entirely broken. They had been kept alive in the deepest dungeons specifically for this desperate contingency.
Benedict did not hesitate. He did not offer a prayer of salvation for the humans.
He drew a jagged ceremonial glowing dagger from his heavy white robes.
"The heavens are open," the Pope screamed wildly.
"The Holy Father requires fuel!"
He plunged the glowing dagger directly into the chest of the first weeping Hero. He tore the alien soul forcefully from the boy’s body. He repeated the brutal execution on the second and the third.
The raw dimensional energy of their foreign souls erupted into a blinding pillar of light that shot directly up through the shattered ceiling of the cathedral.
It pierced the dark storm clouds. It breached the cosmos.
The ritual worked entirely too well.
The dark sky violently tore open. A colossal blinding golden pillar of pure divine energy plummeted from the heavens. It was a manifestation of absolute cosmic judgment.
Benedict dropped his bloody dagger. He threw his arms wide open. He smiled in absolute fanatical triumph as the golden light descended toward his cathedral. He believed he was welcoming a savior.
He was welcoming an exterminator.
The colossal golden pillar did not land gently. It slammed directly into the center of the grand cathedral with apocalyptic kinetic force.
The Pope and his elite Paladins were instantly vaporized. The immense holy pressure completely eradicated the marble architecture.
The golden pillar expanded violently outward. It swallowed the grand libraries and the massive stone courtyards.
It consumed the innocent citizens praying in the streets. The Gods did not care about their human worshippers. They viewed mortals as completely expendable fuel.
In a single fraction of a second the entire Holy Capital was completely wiped from the face of the planet.
The golden pillar slowly faded. A massive perfectly smooth crater of glowing glass remained where the city had once stood.
Standing in the exact center of the smoking glass crater was a towering Angelic Calamity. It possessed eight massive wings woven from pure condensed starlight.
It carried a colossal flaming greatsword. It turned its faceless glowing visage toward the West. It was actively hunting the anomaly that broke the world limit.
Deep underground in Strata 10 I felt the violent shift in the planetary crust.
The cosmic pressure of the descended God rippled instantly through the glowing leylines beneath my heavy brass boots.
My Level 205 Godly Authority processed the chaotic data perfectly. I knew exactly what had just landed on the eastern continent.
I did not have time to ride a slow starmetal elevator to the surface.
I closed my glowing red eyes. I tapped directly into my absolute administrator privileges. I grasped the spatial coordinates of my capital city located thousands of miles above my head. I simply willed my physical mass to relocate.
The pristine white starmetal room instantly vanished.
The air turned freezing cold and heavily salted. I stood perfectly still on the dark iron deck of my flagship. The massive dreadnought was docked securely in the Velkrath harbor.
Rolf stood ten feet away. The Alpha General was staring intensely at the eastern horizon. When I materialized out of thin air the massive werewolf jumped backward in pure shock. His heavy double bladed battleaxe clattered loudly against the iron deck.
"Alpha!" Rolf gasped. He stared at my new cosmic dark green skin and the terrifying sun burning inside my chest. He immediately dropped to one knee and bowed his head.
"You claimed the core."
"The limit is gone Rolf," I replied. My deep baritone voice vibrated with unnatural heavy cosmic resonance.
The entire capital city behind us was completely silent. Millions of beastmen and humans stood in the cold streets. They were completely paralyzed by terror.
They were all staring east. A towering beam of residual golden light was piercing the dark night sky thousands of miles away.
The sheer conceptual weight of the Angelic Calamity was suffocating the entire globe.
DING!
[System Alert: Angelic Calamity Manifestation Detected.]
[Target Level: 210.]
[Warning: Target possesses absolute celestial destruction laws. Standard physical armor is ineffective.]
The heavy iron door of the captain’s quarters pushed open.
Ramona walked slowly onto the dark deck. The ancient Half Dragon Queen looked at the distant golden light with deep primal hatred.
She wore a sheer crimson silk robe over her flawless olive skin. I could feel the faint powerful heartbeat of my unborn heir echoing perfectly alongside her own.
"That is a pure celestial vessel Grik," Ramona warned softly. She stepped close to me and rested her warm soft hand against my indestructible chest plate.
"Your Void Steel can pierce human magic. It can shatter a wooden armada. But it will melt instantly against an absolute cosmic entity. You cannot march East yet."
I turned my glowing red visor toward her. I did not argue with the ancient Calamity.
"Speak," I commanded.
Ramona looked up into my glowing red eyes. Her golden reptilian eyes burned with fierce ancient pride.
"Before the ancient architects built the Labyrinth my ancestors ruled the sky," Ramona explained.
"The dragons were the original absolute apex predators of this world. When the gods first tried to invade the dragons forged a weapon capable of killing immortals. They hid it at the very edge of the world."
She turned and pointed her slender finger toward the dark southern ocean.
"Take the Vanguard South," Ramona urged.
"We must sail to the hidden Dragon Continent. I must claim my ancient birthright. Only then will the Forge possess the absolute firepower required to execute that golden angel."
I looked down at her. I processed the tactical data instantly. Marching my new beastman army against a Level 210 God without the proper celestial weaponry was a massive waste of resources.
"Rolf," I rumbled loudly.
The Silver Colossus stood up and slammed his massive fist against his chest plate.
"Wake the beastmen," I ordered.
"Fire the steam engines. We are sailing South."