Chapter 219: Fully Realized

"You puny, fragile humans really think you can win a war of attrition against us?"

With a heavy tinge of genuine annoyance in his booming voice, Long Ra sneered at the three First Warriors of the Bastion’s factions.

"We were already here, ruling this entire realm, when you pathetic apes were still crawling blindly in the mud of caves!"

He floated arrogantly in the burning sky, staring down at the absolute peak of human military might with nothing but sheer, unadulterated contempt.

"Are you okay to continue?"

Bartholomew, who stood firmly at the absolute front of the human vanguard, asked quietly.

His dark, calculating eyes briefly shifted backward, checking on Ulric’s physical condition.

The three of them had fought Long Ra countless times before today on various bloody, highly contested battlefields. 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

They were intimately, painfully well-versed in the terrifying properties of his innate Celestial Light.

They thoroughly understood exactly just how destructive and corrosive it could be to those unfortunate enough to be struck directly by it.

It wasn’t just physical heat or raw kinetic force; it was a high-level conceptual erasure that literally ate away at a warrior’s soul and lifespan.

Ulric had just tanked a massive, sweeping attack heavily infused with that very same Celestial Light head-on to protect his allies.

He was now trapped in the exact same grim, suffocating situation Ethen had been struggling with earlier in the war.

If the veteran warrior couldn’t somehow get enough breathing room to forcefully suppress its burning effects, the divine damage would eventually completely overwhelm his healing factor.

"I’ll manage."

Ulric gritted his teeth, tightly gripping his weapon as a faint, golden smoke continued to rise from his scorched, melting armor.

Unlike Ethen, however, Ulric had absolutely no choice but to forcefully swallow the agonizing pain and continue fighting on the front lines.

He couldn’t just use spatial magic to warp away and safely hide to recover his strength.

Without his massive physical presence holding the center line, the other two First Warriors would surely, inevitably fall to the dragon’s overwhelming onslaught.

And once the three of them finally broke, the military consequences would quickly extend far, far beyond their own lives.

Absolutely every single human soldier currently fighting on this global battlefield would be at immediate, undeniable risk of being mercilessly slaughtered.

"Okay."

A fleeting flash of genuine worry briefly appeared deep within Bartholomew’s stoic eyes as he looked at his old friend.

But it completely disappeared in a fraction of a second, instantly replaced by a sharp, highly focused, and deadly gaze.

They absolutely couldn’t afford to falter, hesitate, or show any fear in front of this particular man.

Long Ra was absolutely not an arrogant opponent who could be easily fooled by bluffs or false bravado.

Any physical weakness they openly displayed would immediately be ruthlessly, flawlessly exploited by the ancient beast.

"Hmph! When I’m completely done playing with you three, I’ll personally slaughter the rest of your invasive army!"

Long Ra sneered loudly, his patience finally, completely running out as he looked at their stubborn resistance.

His physical body suddenly began to violently morph, the sickening sound of cracking bone and shifting flesh echoing like thunder across the sky.

His human form rapidly, grotesquely expanded, his skin violently tearing away to reveal blindingly bright, diamond-hard scales beneath.

In a matter of agonizing seconds, he completely transformed into a gigantic, majestic, and completely terrifying white dragon.

Razor-sharp, glowing talons extended violently from his massive, muscular limbs.

Each individual claw appeared perfectly capable of cutting directly through the fabric of space with minimal, effortless movement.

His enormous, serpentine body was so impossibly large that it literally blotted out a massive part of the skyline above the burning city.

The pure, unadulterated Celestial Light actively radiating from his thick scales brightly illuminated the surrounding dark war clouds like a second sun.

ROAR!

The very air itself violently reverberated and shattered with his deafening, world-shaking roar.

The physical soundwave spread aggressively across the entire battlefield like a localized, apocalyptic hurricane.

It immediately worsened the already catastrophic destruction occurring in Celestial City below by several terrifying degrees.

Towering, ancient stone buildings trembled violently before completely collapsing into massive clouds of thick dust and rubble.

The already structurally unstable defensive formations suffered massive, irreversible damage from the sheer kinetic force of his divine presence alone.

"Get out of the fucking way! Don’t allow yourself to be hit by his light beams!"

A veteran human Demi God shouted at the absolute top of his lungs the exact moment he saw Long Ra completely transform.

The desperate, panicked warning spread rapidly among those who were close enough to hear him over the roaring, magical winds.

But absolutely not everyone on the massive battlefield was fortunate or fast enough to react in time to the sudden escalation in power.

Fully realized Celestial Dragons were literal, walking world-ending calamities the exact moment they transformed into their true bodies.

Their raw physical strength instantly increased by tremendous, impossible margins that defied all logic.

And their innate, conceptual Celestial Light became even more terrifyingly dense, volatile, and impossible to block.

A single, casual sweeping attack from one of them in this massive form could easily, completely overwhelm an Angel of the exact same rank.

And just exactly like a mindless, unfeeling natural calamity, Long Ra absolutely did not care who lived or died below him.

He immediately opened his massive, glowing maw and began releasing concentrated beams of Celestial Light in absolutely every direction.

He swept his head back and forth, actively, mercilessly killing anyone unfortunate enough to be struck by the blinding beams, regardless of their faction.

Human invaders and Beast-kin defenders alike were instantly, flawlessly vaporized into nothingness if they stood in his path.

The blinding lasers cut cleanly through heavy battleships, sliced through defensive energy shields, and melted the very bedrock of the city.

The already bloody, chaotic battlefield immediately descended even further into an apocalyptic nightmare of friendly fire and indiscriminate slaughter.

Above the thick, dark clouds, far removed from the screaming and dying taking place below.

A solitary man dressed in simple robes watched the indiscriminate destruction unfolding with cold, entirely unfeeling eyes.

He slowly turned his head toward the silent, imposing group of exactly twenty-five beings standing firmly behind him in the void.

"Should I step in and silence the lizard?"

The casual, yet terrifyingly heavy question came as he looked back at the others gathered in the atmosphere.

Gods.

At the absolute apex of Tier 2, these ancient beings had successfully ascended to the terrifying level of true Gods.

Standing proudly among their silent, imposing ranks was the physical avatar of the World Tree, alongside several other unimaginably powerful existences.

Their mere physical presence standing together on the front lines was more than enough to completely, irreversibly change the course of the global war.

Yet, despite the massive casualties racking up below them by the second, they had absolutely not intervened in the slaughter.

"No, not quite yet. I firmly believe the boy is almost exactly at that required number."

The leading God slowly shook his head, refusing the offer to strike.

He looked directly downward through the thick clouds, entirely bypassing the explosive battle taking place in the sky above Celestial City.

His glowing eyes pierced cleanly through the atmosphere, looking directly toward the raging, churning depths of the Great Sea.

Far, far below the chaotic surface of the water, the massive, horrifying silhouette of a gigantic serpent could be seen.

Its enormous, world-spanning body was barely distinguishable through the dark, crushing water, wrapping itself completely around the ocean floor.

And perfectly hidden deep within that divine beast’s domain was the human Envoy.

The Gods could absolutely not afford to act carelessly or emotionally in this highly delicate, global situation.

If the human Gods forcefully, physically intervened and broke the silent treaty holding the world together, the other side would immediately respond in kind.

The Dragon God and the beast-kin deities would descend from their thrones, taking the already bloody conflict to an entirely different, apocalyptic level.

The resulting clash of Tier 2 beings would likely shatter the entire continent and sink it permanently into the boiling ocean.

This specific, brutal battle simply had to be won through the sheer grit, sacrifice, and power of the Angels.

Otherwise, the long-term, global consequences would be far, far worse than absolutely anything they had experienced so far today.

?

Deep, deep beneath the crushing, freezing pressure of the dark sea.

Ethen sat perfectly cross-legged within a pocket of displaced water, his mind completely detached from his physical body.

He was actively, agonizingly tracking the brutal toll of Jormungander’s continuous, global catastrophes spreading across the realm.

[19,999,997 / 20,000,000 dead]

His heart pounded a heavy, rhythmic beat in his chest, syncing perfectly with the destruction happening across the world above him.

[19,999,998 / 20,000,000 dead]

The sheer, suffocating conceptual weight of nearly twenty million extinguished souls pressed down heavily on his very existence.

[19,999,999 / 20,000,000 dead]

It was a literal ocean of blood, an endless mountain of innocent and guilty corpses that he had personally, directly orchestrated just to save a single life.

And then, as another massive, catastrophic earthquake leveled a distant city on the surface...

[20,000,000 / 20,000,000 dead]

Inside the freezing sea, Ethen’s dark eyes suddenly snapped violently open.

A brilliant, blinding pillar of pure white light violently flooded down completely around him, illuminating the dark, lightless ocean depths.

An immense, incomprehensible surge of pure, divine energy violently coursed through his mortal body.

The physical sensation was completely, fundamentally unlike absolutely anything he had ever experienced before in his entire life.

It wasn’t just a simple increase in raw mana capacity or physical muscle density.

It was a complete, structural rewriting of his very DNA, his spiritual core, and his fundamental connection to the universe.

His entire being seemed to violently, hungrily respond to the sudden, explosive change in his foundation.

The overwhelming energy aggressively flowing through his veins grew exponentially stronger and denser with every single passing microsecond.

The dark, freezing seawater immediately surrounding him instantly flash-boiled into thick steam, completely unable to withstand his rapidly rising temperature.

The heavy, crushing pressure of the deep ocean was effortlessly, violently pushed away by the sheer, conceptual expansion of his new aura.

His bones cracked and rapidly reformed, becoming infinitely denser, while his mortal blood took on a faint, divine golden hue.

Then, a final, glowing blue system notification appeared directly before his glowing eyes, floating in the boiling water.

[Congratulations.]

[You have successfully slain your required enemies and permanently branded the world with your mark of malice.]

[Class Evolution Successful.]

[You are now officially an Angel.]

Ethen slowly floated upward through the boiling, churning water, his dark hair glowing with an intense, divine light.

He had finally, brutally achieved his impossible, blood-soaked objective.

Through an ocean of blood and unprecedented, global catastrophe, he had successfully forced his way to the next realm of existence.

He was now a fully realized Angel.

And the entire global battlefield above him was about to feel exactly what that meant.