Chapter 91: Now I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds
She felt her Rank 7 immortal flesh begin to boil and peel from her bones as the heat consumed her whole. Running was impossible.
There was no running from the speed of light.
Before a physical sound could form—before the surrounding atmosphere even had time to shift—an intense flash of thermal X-rays radiated outward at 300,000 km/s. The air surrounding the warhead instantly ionized, forming a glowing, super-heated sphere of incandescent plasma over a mile wide.
For the horde of beasts massed within the Citadel, there was no warning. The sheer intensity of the thermal flash blinded every optic nerve within a twenty-mile radius, instantly burning retinas into ash.
The thermal pulse struck next, carrying 35% of the total 2-megaton energy yield as radiant heat.
At ground zero, temperatures soared past 100,000,000∘C—far hotter than the core of the sun. Matter ceased to exist in solid form. Bedrock, shattered iron gates, and the flesh of low-tier beasts did not melt; they underwent immediate phase-transition into ionized gas.
Three miles out, the thermal wave hit the vanguard monsters massed around the perimeter. Leather, fur, chitin, and steel vanished into smoke in milliseconds. The air turned into a searing wall of pure flame that stripped flesh from bone before the kinetic blast wave even arrived.
High in the sky, Sky Terror was caught in the thermal plume and incinerated instantly, unable to outrun the light.
As the hyper-dense sphere of plasma expanded, it slammed against the surrounding atmosphere, creating an unstoppable wall of compressed air. A Mach 3 shockwave violently tore through the landscape with an overpressure exceeding 20 PSI. High-strength stone walls, mountain faces, and fortified structures were ground into powder in a fraction of a second.
Behind the initial shock front, hurricane-force vacuum winds exceeding 600 miles per hour reversed direction. The epicenter sucked millions of tons of pulverized earth, ash, and radioactive debris back upward, carving a massive, glass-lined crater where the Citadel had once stood.
The incandescent fireball cooled slowly, shifting from blinding blue-white to angry orange, deep crimson, and sickly purple as atmospheric nitrogen reacted with the extreme heat. The thermal plume surged into the stratosphere, carrying the vaporized remnants of the entire regional horde 15 miles into the sky to form a towering mushroom cloud.
An Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) surged across reality, frying magic arrays and electronic channels for dozens of miles.
Where tens of thousands of monsters had stood seconds prior, there was only absolute silence, a vast glass crater, and a column of atomic fire reaching into the blackened heavens.
In the realm of High Command, the gods watched the scrying mirror in stunned silence.
"Well... damn," one of them chuckled nervously. "Who would have seen that coming? The kid is completely insane!"
"Haha! Varisa, you actually lost a bet to a mortal!" another mocked. "That’s hilarious! He’s free, isn’t he? His soul is safe, his death penalty is wiped by the massive kill rewards, and his new skill gains are going to be absurd!"
Varisa’s expression darkened into sheer fury. She turned to her subordinate, Liv.
"Remove all of his capabilities to ever do that again," Varisa ordered coldly. "Remove his shop access for those materials. Strip away all the new skills and stats he gained from this genocide. Wipe his point balance to zero. Lock his ability to drop explosives or energy cores from his pocket dimension."
She paused, narrowing her eyes. "Fix his shattered sanity... and paralyze his legs and hands for three weeks."
"U-Um... Lady Varisa... I don’t think we are authorized to do that—" Liv stammered.
"Liv."
"Y-Yes, Lady Varisa?" Liv squeaked, trembling.
"The hierarchy of this world operates as follows: Rank 1-3 Low Administrators, Rank 1-3 Mid Administrators, Rank 1-3 High Administrators, and Rank 1-3 High Command Gods. What rank am I?"
"A... A Rank 2 God," Liv stuttered out.
"Precisely. There are only four entities above me, and they are the Creator Gods who do not meddle in mortal trials. Now go do as I commanded."
"Y-Yes, ma’am!" Liv scrambled out of the chamber.
The moment Liv vanished, Varisa raised her hand. A wave of localized destruction erupted inside the room, instantly tearing every lower administrator present into raw essence. She casually cleaned up the blood, snapped her fingers to purge the nuclear radiation from the mortal world, and vanished.
.................................................
Yuki opened his eyes, finding himself lying in a soft bed. His entire body throbbed with an unbearable, aching paralysis. He couldn’t move his hands or legs.
"Hello, Yuki," a smooth voice called out.
Varisa sat in an armchair beside his bed, casually sipping tea.
"I have a little gift for you," she said, tossing a glowing purple orb onto his chest. "It’s Sky Terror’s core—your new beast familiar. You don’t get anything else from the battle, so don’t bother asking. Think of it as a thank-you for cleaning up your mess and a mercy for not executing you."
She set her teacup down and stood up. "I also altered the memories of everyone in the kingdom. To them, the blast was a one-time ancient spell from an archmage you met years ago, so no one will bother you about it. Well... except for the Red Primarch. She isn’t affected by my memory magic due to a prior bet with another god. Anyway... I’m sorry for your loss. Next time, stick to non-human women."
Yuki stared at her with hollow eyes. "...I know you don’t care at all. Also... why is my System screen flashing so many warnings?"
"Read them, dipshit," Varisa sneered before fading into thin air.
Left alone in the quiet room, Yuki stared blankly at the ceiling, completely paralyzed.
He had gotten his revenge... but the crater in his heart remained as wide and empty as the one he had left in the earth.
He wanted to bury his face in his hands and cry, but even the slightest movement sent sharp waves of agony shooting through his body—simply the price he had to pay for his sins.