Chapter 153: Gift for the mortals

Chapter 154: Gift for the Mortals

Sector Three.

Seana’s Blood Moon Sword clashed against Situ Li’s Silver Moon Circular Blade.

CLANG!

The sector lurred violently. Chunks of stone rained down from the ceiling.

Seana froze, her eyes flicking upward. "What was that?"

Situ Li’s gray Qi churned erratically around his gray robe, his pale face locking into a grim mask. "The Palace..."

BOOM!

"...is dying."

Seana tightened her grip, her heart skipping a beat. Something catastrophic had just happened in Sector Four.

——————————

Elsewhere in the ruins—

Oren stumbled, his telekinetic control snapping as the floor buckled beneath his boots. Justin’s purple lightning flickered and died.

Justin gripped his hilt, staring at the ceiling in horror. "What the hell is happening?!"

Oren’s voice dropped to a tense whisper: "Something very bad."

——————————

The outside perimeter—

General Vaelric, Roan, Estelle, and Lemo were locked in a brutal stalemate against Lady Jade Serpent when the mountain groaned.

The four leaders stopped.

Lady Jade Serpent slowly turned around. Her eyes widened, and then a brilliant, ecstatic smile bloomed across her face.

"Finally," she whispered. "He is awake."

BOOM!

A tidal wave of emerald Qi exploded from her, and without another glance at the Family Heads, she shot upward like a green comet toward the collapsing palace.

——————————

In Sector Four, the Being hovered before the shattered remains of the Core.

The fragile body of Jules was gone, consumed and rewritten by the ancient soul. In its place stood an entity draped in deep, abyssal black-and-crimson robes embroidered with forgotten cosmological patterns.

A sharp, black mark burned upon his forehead like a star.

Behind his head, crimson fragments gathered, locking together into a brilliant, star-shaped crimson halo.

The Palace continued to tear itself apart around them. Lucan, Professor Sy, Nyren, and Adrian stared upward in sheer, unadulterated terror.

The Being slowly raised one hand.

The shattered ruins of the Ancient Palace—massive stone pillars, twisted metal beams, runic formations, and crystallized Qi—stopped falling.

They rose.

WHOOM!

The entire multi-layered structure of the Ancient Palace tore itself completely apart from the mountain.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

Millions of tons of ancient debris suspended themselves in the upper atmosphere, forming a colossal, spinning ring of floating ruin.

The Being rose into the center of the rotating debris, his crimson halo burning against the darkening sky.

Below them, Country B trembled.

Mountains split open. Highways buckled. Other cultivators and ordinary citizens poured out of their homes into the streets, looking up in sheer, paralyzed disbelief.

Floating in the heavens above their cities was a shattered, upside-down piece of the ancient palace.

And at its center stood a god.

Qing Lian arrived through a spatial tear, kneeling beside him. Situ Li flicked out of the shadow of a broken pillar, joining the vanguard alongside the surviving members of the Emerald Venom Corps.

The Being looked down at the mortal world below, a lazy, cruel smile touching his lips.

"Well..." his voice echoed with psychic resonance across the entire continent, vibrating in the minds of every living human.

"It wouldn’t be fair to leave without dropping a farewell gift."

His smile widened into a slash of white teeth. "It would completely ruin my reputation."

Behind his back, a massive, weeping crimson-black formation tore open in the sky.

BOOM!

Thousands upon thousands of glowing crimson eyes blinked open within the void. Every single eye stared downward. At the mountains. At the cities. At Country B.

The ambient spiritual pressure became so dense it compressed the air into solid weight, forcing people to their knees.

Qing Lian glanced back down at Lothe for a fraction of a second. "I’ll kill you some other time, Array Master."

She turned away, shooting into the sky toward Situ Li and the Venom Corps.

Lady Jade Serpent giggled musically, dissolving into a flock of emerald vipers that vanished into the void.

The Being raised his hand, pointing two fingers down toward the earth.

"Good riddance, mortals."

At the center of the crimson-black formation, a single sphere of pure, compressed energy began to form. Small. Harmless in appearance.

It pulsed once.

THUMP.

The tectonic plates of Country B groaned.

It pulsed a second time.

THUMP.

Fissures split the streets of the capital.

The crimson sphere descended—slowly at first, then accelerating into a screaming, unstoppable meteor of annihilation. Black veins crawled across its surface as the atmosphere caught fire.

Millions of people looked up, frozen in absolute, primal terror.

"RUN!"

"WHAT IS THAT?!"

The Being watched from his floating throne, smiling as the meteor fell.

With a flick of his sleeve, he vanished.

Then—

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The crimson ball impacted the mountain ranges of Country B.

A wall of dust and shattered stone erupted across the horizon. The ground shook violently beneath the survivors. Buildings trembled. Vehicles overturned. People screamed and ran in every direction.

"RUN!"

"GET OUT OF HERE!"

"THE MOUNTAINS ARE COLLAPSING!"

"WHERE DO WE GO?!"

Soldiers who had fought mutated beasts of the palace moments ago were now stumbling backward in terror. Some dropped their weapons. Others froze completely.

A young soldier stared at the crimson sky, trembling uncontrollably. "We’re— we’re going to die."

Another soldier grabbed his arm. "Forget the formation, let’s get out of here quickly!"

Panic spread faster than the destruction. And then—

Boom.

From the sky, General Vaelric landed among the soldiers.

His military robes were torn from the earlier clash with Lady Jade Serpent. Ash stained most of his face, but that didn’t diminish the powerful aura he carried.

"I won’t stop anyone from leaving here," he said amidst the chaos that rang out.

His voice didn’t rise to a shout, yet it cut through the screaming like a heavy iron bell.

"Throw down your rifles. Drop your blades into the mud. Run if you think those hills will hide you from what is falling from the heavens."

Vaelric pointed one finger straight toward the burning horizon.

"Look out there! The cities behind us are full of our mothers, our sons, and our daughters. There is no retreat line. There is no second army waiting in the rear. There is only us."

He stepped into the center of the panicked crowd, his eyes locking onto the trembling men.

"Thirty days ago, the old world burned to ash. We survived that fire. We bled in the trenches, we buried our brothers, and we are still breathing! So if you want to die running in a ditch, go. But if you are going to die today, you die standing on your feet! You die as a shield for the people who cannot hold a sword!"

Vaelric scanned the horizon. Tiny crimson balls could be seen descending. One had already fallen, bringing total devastation, and more were coming. They needed to act, and real fast.

"Dad."

A voice cut through the chaos.

Vaelric turned his head sharply. Nyren stood silently by her father’s side; no words needed to be spoken to show how she felt at that moment.

Vaelric looked at his daughter. Thousands of emotions clashed all at once, but one thing dominated above all else: relief.

"Thank goodness you’re okay," he murmured, his tone dropping the hardened edge of the military commander.

"I’m okay, Dad," Nyren assured him.

"Where is your brother?"

"Dad," another voice came through.

Oren walked out from a corner, several cultivators at his back. His white hair was dusted with dirt and ash, but his stance was steady.

Vaelric nodded, seeing he was in good condition.

Then, three pairs of eyes simultaneously turned to the terrified soldiers in front of them.

Vaelric stepped forward, his voice cutting through the panic like an iron blade.

"Listen to me!" Vaelric bellowed, his voice steady and unyielding. "You can run, or you can cower. But the sky is falling on everyone equally. We survived the end of the world thirty days ago, and we will not die in the dirt today! If we fall, we fall as shields for the people behind us!"

The soldiers stopped running. The raw conviction in his voice anchored them.

Vaelric raised his iron gauntlet. His eyes burned with silver light.

"Form up! Shields to the front! Channel your Qi into the grid!"

The soldiers hesitated for a fraction of a second, then snapped into position.

Vaelric slammed his hand against the earth.

[Kinetic Command — Army Synchronization]

WHOOM!​