Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1837: Listen Well

All across Earth, every Emperor, every country leader, every President, every King, every head of state, looked up into the skies all at once.

They were all waiting for the other foot to drop, watching the timer that read just under six days like a hawk. They had been scrambling to prepare all along, clearing as many Dungeons as they could, shoring up on treasures and countermeasures against attacks they knew had to be coming.

And yes, many of them had been so very ready for something to go wrong, even though they hoped with every fiber of their being that it wouldn't happen.

When they felt the world itself tremble, they knew that they wouldn't get their wishes.

The wider universe wasn't going to wait for them to rise up. They had no patience to give, no calm to grant.

The skies split all across the world. As though a golden road had been paved from the Heavens themselves, light coalesced into beams that formed into solid earth that curled and twisted from a long distance.

Before anyone saw who they were, they felt the trembles first, and then they heard the footsteps.

They were so light, so full of air and authority. And yet they resonated in the ears of every creature of Earth, from the largest King Beast to the smallest ant, from the most powerful Emperor to the weakest baby.

It was an almost silent welcome, so soft and subtle it shouldn't have been so omnipresent at all. And yet it was... almost like the Earth's foundation was giving way to echo the sentiments of their arrival.

And then the citizens of Earth finally saw them.

First the bronzed armor, and then the winged spears, and then the halos.

Every step became louder, and yet remained unified. So stringent and focused, so calm and orderly. They carried a cadence that defied chaos itself.

Energy flowed in reverse. From expendable, unusable forms, they returned to calm. Coal unfired itself, batteries returned to a state of fullness, magic formations long dead bloomed with life once more.

The feeling was so overwhelming the people of Earth hardly noticed just how few of them there were. Just a dozen to each continent, a squadron so small they could hardly be addressed a legion.

All that could be seen of their faces were jaws lined with bronzed skin and eyes that looked like glowing orbs of burning brass.

It was hard to tell if they were even alive, their Will so solid it seemed to form the world around them itself, their expressions so unreadable they looked like statues of bronzed metal.

And then one more path opened up. This one wasn't of gold and hardly seemed to form at all. But the person who came from the other side of it was even more casual than before.

One could see him with the naked eye, but it was impossible to truly feel him as though he had transcended the world itself.

He walked with a large sword taller than even his body in one hand. Its hilt was longer than his arm, its width wider than his waist. Its spine was completely cut out, leaving nothing but a thin band of blade edge around it that formed the great sword.

Every slight shift of the sword sliced the Runes and space of Earth apart, the Mesh of Reality splitting in two as the man walked forward.

His other arm was slightly askew, holding his bronzed helm against his hip with the crook of his elbow and forearm.

His face peered like the pinnacle of male perfection. His jaw cut and chiseled, his nose tall and proud, his brows thick and stiff with duty and responsibility.

His skin was a rich tan, but his jaw was outlined by metal. It was hard to tell whether it was part of his biology or if it was welded on long after his birth. But what was clear was that it moved just as naturally as any other part of his body.

[Xalor Celeste (???)]

[Level: 50]

High in the skies, his steps came to a slow stop, the wind currents around him shattering as though he had been walking with much more speed than it had seemed before.

Stretches of forest below were entirely flattened, the world whining at its very seams as though it might burst at any moment.

Slowly, his arm shifted. His helm fell into his palm and he raised it up, sliding it onto his head. Then, he raised his blade, cutting into the air before him with a pace that was almost agonizingly slow.

Space unfurled and a scroll rolled out from within it.

The shimmering bright lights outshone even the sun, those foolish enough to look directly at it gaining the very same burning brass eyes of the angels in the sky.

But unlike them, they couldn't withstand it.

Their skulls burst, their brains boiling from the inside out.

When their corpses collapsed to the ground, all that was left was two rolling brass balls that burned through the earth itself, vanishing in a pair of abyssal holes.

By the time the scroll was fully formed, Earth was shaking so much one could see the sway of its continents from space. Tectonic plates screamed against one another, mountains forming and collapsing as tsunamis and earthquakes that wiped out entire populations took shape.

"Listen well, people of Earth, people of the Milky Way, people of the Kaelthar Horizon," Xalor's voice boomed. "Today, this fledgling world will experience an extinction event under the decree of the Valentrix. This moment was brought on by a named Sylas Grimblade.

"This is a reminder to all that the Will of the Angels is not to be crossed, their bottom line not to be touched. Lest this be forgotten, Earth will become a monument to this remembrance."

The scroll shook the Mesh of Reality and the entire Horizon trembled along with it.

The message rang out like a System Announcement as the howl of a sword filled the air.

Xalor raised his blade to the skies and slashed down right toward Casstle Main.