Chapter 88: Charge! The Godslaying Begins!

Across the vast wasteland, a long transcontinental highway stretched northward. A pitch-black SUV tore down the dust-choked asphalt at breakneck speed.

Behind them, a mushroom cloud slowly rose between the mountains. It marked what remained of the Holy City after Finn had nuked it flat—hardly worth mentioning.

The dusty highway, broken here and there by shell craters, was covered in tank-tread marks and a chaotic web of tire tracks.

They had been left by the Radiant Path’s Holy Army of Deliverance. The Radiant Path had dispatched a massive force to the Alderon Sea, and its troops had already reached Sandy Bay in the south. A fierce battle between Finn and this army was inevitable.

The grueling journey had not gone smoothly. They had used up all their fuel along the way and were forced to make a detour to Thirteen Stars Refuge City.

Thirteen Stars Refuge City had close ties with the Radiant Path. Its flag featured thirteen yellow stars on a sky-blue field—the national flag of the Greater European Federation before the Cataclysm. The city controlled an oil field with exposed wells and refined the crude into fuel for sale.

Thirteen Stars Refuge City had begun as an army unit of the Greater European Federation. During the nuclear war, it had driven deep behind enemy lines into the Columbian Imperium, intending to destroy the Imperium’s logistics and industrial base.

What they had not expected was for the global nuclear war to end in mutually assured destruction, leaving them stranded. Unable to return home, they had used their remaining forces to build a Refuge City on this continent, where it had endured to the present day.

Thirteen Stars Refuge City was extraordinarily hospitable. The moment it learned that Finn had arrived, it sealed every major route and refused to let him leave, all because it was so eager to have him stay for dinner.

Finn responded by firing a nuclear rocket into the sky like a firework.

Thirteen Stars Refuge City immediately lifted the blockade and respectfully delivered a supply of its highest-quality gasoline.

...

Fifteen days later.

The farther north they traveled, the colder it became. Frozen puddles now dotted the road. Thick, gloomy clouds blanketed the sky, shutting out the sun and leaving the world beneath a seemingly endless overcast.

They were almost at Sandy Bay, on the southern Alderon Sea—the place where Holy Radiance would descend.

Finn checked his phone.

Today was the day Holy Radiance would descend.

Bang!

A gunshot suddenly rang out from the barren hills beside the highway. The SUV’s tempered-glass window shattered, spraying fragments everywhere.

“Sniper!”

Olivia’s extensive combat experience kicked in instantly. She jerked the steering wheel from side to side, sending the SUV swerving across the road before swinging it behind the hills for cover.

“Stay alert! There may be more than one!” Olivia raised her black sniper rifle.

Bang!

Another shot rang out. Sparks burst from Finn’s forehead, and a deformed sniper round clattered to the floor.

Olivia stared at his head as though she were looking at some kind of steel monster.

The sniper went quiet for a moment.

Then another gunshot cracked through the air.

Finn shot out a hand with lightning speed—faster than the eye could follow—and clenched his fist right in front of Olivia’s eyes.

He slowly opened his palm.

A sniper round lay inside.

“Master—you caught it bare-handed!” Olivia drew in a sharp breath, her eyes shining with admiration.

“Keep your head down. Don’t move,” Finn warned before stepping out of the SUV.

“Okay.” Olivia cautiously ducked lower, every muscle tense.

“That sniper knows what he’s doing, and he’s too far away. If you can’t get him, let’s get out of here.”

Bang!

Another gunshot boomed like thunder. A bright yellow spark burst from the SUV’s metal frame.

Olivia grunted and fell silent.

A ricochet!

The ghostlike sniper had deliberately fired at one of the vehicle’s metal struts. The round ricocheted off it and struck Olivia in the blind spot where she had thought herself safe.

Finn frowned and pulled open the door.

A bloody hole gaped in Olivia’s back. Blood poured out, soaking the seat beneath her.

Her eyes stared blankly ahead.

She was already dead.

Finn sighed.

The world truly was a dangerous place. Life was fragile and unpredictable. The weak lost their lives far too easily.

He bent down, slipped a Nine Revolutions Resurrection Pill into Olivia’s mouth, and brought her back to life. Then he turned his attention to the elite sniper hiding somewhere in the distance.

Finn knew the general direction the shots had come from, but he had no idea exactly where the sniper was concealed.

Troublesome.

But not for Finn.

He took out a nuclear rocket launcher, aimed it at the distant hills, and fired.

BOOM!

A violent nuclear blast blossomed across the land. The hills were flattened, and a mushroom cloud slowly rose into the sky.

Problem solved.

Even if a thousand snipers had been hiding there, they were all thoroughly dead now.

In the distance, a rift suddenly tore open in the thick clouds. Brilliant white light pierced the darkness like a bolt of lightning, then vanished in an instant.

That was the direction of Sandy Bay on the southern Alderon Sea—the site where Holy Radiance would descend.

It was also where the Radiant Path had massed its army.

Finn took out his high-energy detector. A smooth, regular curve rose and fell across its flickering display as the alarm began to beep.

Just as he had expected.

The World Nucleus was up ahead!

Finn stared in that direction. A thrill he had not felt in a long time stirred within him. Every cell in his body seemed to howl and roar, and the blood in his veins felt as though it were boiling.

Godslaying!

The goal Finn had pursued for so long might finally be within reach.

“Master, don’t!” Olivia cried.

“Why not?”

She looked at Finn almost pleadingly. “What if gods really do exist? Why don’t we just steal the World Nucleus and leave? We don’t have to tangle with Holy Radiance!”

Holy Radiance.

It was a sacred and exalted name—the supreme object of worship in the Radiant Path. Countless followers were willing to sacrifice everything for Holy Radiance, even their own lives.

That faith had even given rise to warriors known as Martyrs, who had no fear of death. Their devotion to their god could not be shaken.

Olivia had witnessed the fanatical faith of the Radiant Path’s followers since childhood. No wonder she was afraid.

Finn shook his head, rejecting her suggestion.

He mounted his mountain bike and rested the Skybearer Sword crosswise in front of him. His dark eyes blazed as though flames burned within them.

“Holy Radiance, you’d better not disappoint me!”

Finn drove down on the pedals. The bicycle shot forward like an arrow, throwing up a trail of dust as he raced toward the site of Holy Radiance’s descent.

After crossing the scorched ground left by the nuclear blast, the shapes in the distance gradually came into focus.

A vast army blocked the way ahead.

Mortars, heavy machine guns, pickup trucks, hive missile launchers, rocket artillery vehicles...

Without warning, every gun opened fire.

Countless flashes bloomed across the battlefield as the artillery spat flame.

Finn plunged into a storm of shells. Explosions thundered without end, blasting columns of dust hundreds of meters into the air. The dense bombardment seemed capable of shredding anything in its path.

Faced with the fully prepared army, Finn answered in kind.

He would scour a path clean with nuclear fire.

Steering one-handed, he launched a nuclear rocket.

Blinding white light flooded the world as a terrifying nuclear fireball consumed everything in its path.

Still not enough.

Another one!

A second nuclear rocket detonated over Sandy Bay on the southern Alderon Sea. Another mushroom cloud rose into the sky, and the Radiant Path’s Holy Army of Deliverance was almost completely wiped out.

Finn pedaled harder.

The mountain bike raced forward like a thunderbolt and soared off a dirt slope. Finn’s silhouette cut across the sky before plunging straight into the Radiant Path’s nuclear-blasted position.

At the same time, the high-energy detector on his handlebars began shrieking wildly. Its alarm grew louder and shriller with every passing second.

The World Nucleus was directly ahead!

Then, without warning, an unbearably bright white light erupted from the black smoke and scorched haze in front of him and shot straight toward Finn!