Chapter 317: The Fall of the Providence Deity

A blinding radiance exploded far below Zalo, enveloping his entire skull in moments. Lidia soared towards the sky, her entire being shrouded with light brighter than any star in the universe. Even Leno had a hard time following her movements. Her eyes had light beaming out of them, her skin was glimmering, and she was wearing an armor completely made out of her light. Her hair blazed behind her head like a roaring fire as the wind smacked against her face.

“ZALO!!”

Zalo recovered from the small attack Lidia had made and closed his hands around her body, snuffing her light out instantly.

Suddenly, reality itself began to break. The area around them was divided into everchanging blocks of elements. The entire world curved upward as if that was its intended orientation all along, bringing everyone who was on the ground up close to Zalo personally.

Jacob and Maria activated their wings and began flying towards the fight.

Cracks began to form around Zalo’s hands. Lidia was about to break herself free.

“Your hearts will stop beating.”

Another command ran through everyone’s souls. However, Leno was prepared this time. He shot beams of pure light to everyone around him, giving them to strength to withstand the commands of Zalo.

Lidia broke free from his hands and flew above his skull, charging up a powerful attack. Suddenly, Zalo reached into the sky and grabbed a black area where no stars shone. He opened his hands and threw the power forward. A black hole rippled through the air, coming right where Lidia was. All light around its vicinity was swallowed immediately.

The attack was unstoppable. Lidia tried flying away, but her light kept pulling her towards it with every effort. Suddenly, a spear rippled through its center and flew past Lidia’s head. Leno covered everyone in a light barrier. Then, the black hole exploded in the sky, taking out a large chunk of the earth with it.

Leno was holding up his hands while panting heavily.

“I managed to deflect the power outward as best as I could. But the atmosphere wont hold up if another attack like that comes our way.”

“Then we have to finish this before one does.”

Jacob and Maria flew together towards Zalo. Flying towards him felt like flying towards the face of death itself. Jacob pulled Maria’s hand close to his mouth.

“Split!”

He took a small bite out of her hand before shooting to his right. Power exploded through Jacob’s soul. The molecules around Jacob’s body were ruptured as he flew through them. Jacob connected his black sword with Zalo’s skull. A shockwave roared out from the collision, throwing the earth off its axis. The air suddenly became cold around them.

Maria followed up from behind with an attack of her own. She ripped through Zalo’s chest right around the place a heart would be located. Her spear penetrated through the festering skin with ease. Immediately, she was covered from head to toe in black blood, her glowing multi-colored eyes being the only thing visible on her figure.

Zalo slammed his knuckles together.

Suddenly, they were not on earth anymore, but a different plane of existence. Familiar dark pillars surrounded the ground below like grass. Jacob’s eyes widened with horror.

“It’s those dark pillars from Paria. It’s a whole world of them.”

Zalo’s boney teeth moved upward forming a smile. Suddenly, a purple glow oozed out of each of the structure’s tips before a barrage of beams filled the sky. Maria and Jacob dodged each attack gracefully.

“RELEASE THE LIGHT!”

Suddenly, they were shifted back into their real world. The pillars below them disappeared, but a few shots managed to clear out a wave of stars in the sky as they exploded into space.

After this incredible sequence of attack and defense, Jacob noticed there wasn’t a single scratch on Zalo, except for a singular area. The wound Maria had inflicted with her spear was struggling to keep up with the healing speed of Zalo’s other injuries.

Jacob was preparing to form a plan, but Leno decided it was finally time for him to step into the fight. His body turned completely white before he grew to the same size as Zalo, preparing to face off against his ultimate rival.

Suddenly, dragons, snakes, and flying reptiles began forming from the light surrounding his body. He was creating new life like it was nothing. Likewise, Zalo started creating minions of his own to fight his opponents.

Each army shredded into each other the moment they were created. Leviathans clashing against leviathans. Creatures of all unique sizes and calibers fighting while their creators were at each other’s throats. White and black blood alike flooded the earth like a tsunami. Earthquakes ravaged the ground below them, causing Lidia and Squabee the need to carry Slimo and Sarah away to keep them safe.

Storms appeared above their heads only to be swiped away with a single hand of Zalo. Leno threw a fist right into Zalo’s jaw causing the deity to stumble. However, when Leno’s fist connected, it was as if the fabric of reality twisted around his fist, separating it from his body and erasing it from existence. Leno grew it back just as quickly as he lost it before sending rays of light for another attack.

Zalo shot rays of corruption back in response. Their clash shook the heavens themselves. The fight was so intense everyone else were forced to stay idle or risk getting caught in the crossfire.

Suddenly, Zalo threw forward another break in reality, aimed at Leno’s body. Leno shot a beam of his own to take the hit before attempting to form a heavenly spear in his hands to thrust past the attack and pierce Zalo.

“You feel weak!”

Leno shook off the command.

“Yours legs will stop working.”

Leno’s legs buckles but he slammed the butt of his spear into the ground to catch himself.

“My attack didn’t miss you.”

Suddenly, his attack curved away from Leno’s light beam and went right for him instead. However, Leno turned himself into light before instantly appearing behind Zalo — the attack following him through the whole process.

Suddenly, the right half of Zalo’s body twisted under his own attack. Leno shoved his spear through Zalo’s neck. However, Zalo grabbed the spear and spread his corruption across the handle before breaking it. With a simple touch, he had managed to completely change the properties of the spear.

Zalo’s forces began to overtake Leno’s on the ground. His numbers began to thin in production whereas Zalo only seemed to produce much stronger creatures.

Suddenly, Maria appeared behind Zalo’s skull and threw her spear at the back of his head. Zalo made himself impervious to the attack, allowing the spear to pass through him with no issue. However, Leno jumped close to Zalo at the same moment, grabbing the tiny spear in his hands before infusing it with power of his own.

Zalo desperately grabbed Leno’s wrist before he could pierce his skull. Suddenly, corruption started spreading from Zalo’s hand into Leno’s arm from where he was holding on to him. Leno winced and cut his own arm off before backing up again and growing it back.

Maria tried attacking Zalo again while he was distracted, but his body was still impossible to hit without any light power. She flew back to Jacob, panting heavily as she flapped her dark wings next to his.

Lidia looked over at Squabee and gave her a nod. Squabee nodded back and flew forward with her.

“Buy Leno some time to take a breath. We can’t afford for him to be taken out of this fight!”

“Got it! Just… be careful!”

As Squabee and Lidia flew towards Zalo, invisible barriers crashed against them as they got closer. Squabee was much more affected by them than Lidia, forcing her to keep a good distance while Lidia got close.

Zalo’s empty eyes followed Lidia’s bright figure as she flew around him.

Thousands of black shards exploded in the air after her. Each one missing by mere millimeters. Lidia could hear the shards ripping through the air past her ears. Their power was so strong, they would force her to redirect her flight pattern from simply being near the area they exploded through.

Zalo became angrier and more aggressive the more Lidia dodged his attacks. Suddenly, he turned his sights on Squabee.

“I know of you… woman.”

Squabee furrowed her eyebrows as Zalo screeched out another attack. A wave of reality-shredding energy shot towards Squabee at light-speed. Not even Leno could react in time to help her. However, the attack simply phased through her being. Squabee was completely unaffected. Zalo ignored the incredulous feat she pulled before manifesting three dark suns around his skull.

He threw two of them right at Squabee without hesitation. Squabee simply stood still and watched the madness unfold. Right before they could connect with her, they grazed against each other and exploded early. Leno sent all his power into creating a pillar of light to redirect the energy once more.

“RELEASE THE LIGHT!!”

Lidia helped her son by shaping the light around her into two large hands and push the third sphere that remained above Zalo’s head into the sky.

The heavens above turned completely black as an explosion was created so it covered every star in their sky. It took three minutes before the energy completely dissipated, and what was left of the sky was nothing. No stars, no moons, not even galaxies resting above them anymore. The universe in their sight had been completely taken out with a single attack.

Everyone on the battlefield wavered. The light inside of Lidia and Leno was dimming rapidly. Lidia’s wings were starting to disappear, causing Sqaubee the need to rush over and catch her before she could fall. Despite everything that had happened, Zalo was still standing unphased. No wounds over any part of his body. His army had now completely wiped-out Lenos and was trying to throw anything it could at them in the sky.

Slimo looked as best as he could with his neck while Jacob carried both him and Sarah. He shouted at Jacob, hoping his ears still worked, unlike his.

“Jacob.”

Jacob turned his direction, worry painted on his face.

“…take me to Leno and Lidia.”

Jacob nodded his head again before flying up towards Lidia, Squabee, Leno, and Maria.

Everyone, for the first time since the fight started, was together. They all looked worn out and fatigued from hardly surviving the attacks powerful enough to bend existence. Strangely, Zalo also took time to recuperate. Even it didn’t look like it, it was clear Zalo didn’t have enough energy to take them all out in a single attack after the last one; otherwise, he would have killed them as they all grouped up.

“He’s weak like us. We’re about to win. We just need enough power to take him down.”

Leno shook his head at Squabee.

“He’ll recuperate faster than us. We can’t talk for long. We don’t have enough power by ourselves. As it stands we…”

Leno hesitated.

“… we will lose if we continue to fight.”

Slimo mouthed something to Lidia. It was short, hardly a word at all, yet Lidia seemed to completely understand what he meant. The light came back to her wings just as quickly as it faded. She flew out of Squabee’s arms and handed Sarah over to her instead.

“Hold on to Sarah. Please, keep her safe.”

She walked up to Leno next and whispered something in his ear. His face remained calm, but apprehensive of what he heard.

“Mother… are you sure?”

She nodded her head.

“Are you okay with it?”

Leno smiled softly.

“I’ll be with the two best parents a grown child could ask for. How could I not be okay with it?”

Maria interrupted them as a strange feeling of unrest built in her stomach. She grabbed on to Lidia’s wrist.

“Mom. What are you doing?”

Lidia simply looked into Maria’s flawless, verdant eyes and smiled as she held back tears. She embraced her gently while holding the back of her head to comfort her.

“There’s one last thing we can do. It’s our only, final chance. Please understand that we didn’t want it to come to this.”

“Mom. Stop talking like that.”

Lidia moved Maria’s hair out of her face.

“I love you, Maria. You’re the best daughter a mother could ever ask for. You are the something that I’ve always wanted in my life.”

Slimo smiled warmly as he stared at Jacob who was stone-faced, trying his best not to scream out in anger to stop them… but he couldn’t. Jacob had nothing left — no more tricks, no more transformations. Slimo mouthed the same thing to him as he had mouthed to Lidia.

“B.”

Jacob’s eyes widened.

Lidia pulled herself away from Maria. Before she could grab Lidia again to stop her from leaving, Jacob did something he never thought he would ever do — he held Maria back.

Maria kicked and wailed watching Lidia slowly wave her bye.

“MOM! MOM! YOU CAN’T LEAVE ME LIKE THIS!! YOU ARE THE MOTHER I NEVER HAD!!”

Lidia whispered to Maria one last time.

“Goodbye, my wonderful daughter.”

She nodded to Leno who started the transformation. He placed his hands on both Slimo and Lidia before closing his eyes gently. Slimo winked at Squabee as his being was slowly being absorbed into Leno.

“Sorry, kids. Do us a favor and rebuild this world for us or I’ll haunt you for the rest of your lives.”

With that, all three of them were absorbed into a single, formless being of multi-colored light. Its shades would even turn completely black as it did a cycle of every color, which meant it was doing a cycle of every color that existed as well as every color that didn’t exist. With almost no hesitation, it began its charge towards Zalo.

Maria kicked and flailed as the being floated away. Zalo turned to face the strange creature with a powerful blast of his own. Dark beams charged in every hole inside of his skull and shot down at them, enveloping their whole body. However, instead of being slowed by the attack, they absorbed every bit of it. It was as if all Zalo was doing was fueling the bomb that would ultimately be his end.

Memories of all they had done together flashed Jacob’s mind. Their first encounter with Slimo and how he almost killed Doc, seeing Lidia make Maria an official member of the Rose Clan for the first time, being right beside Leno when he was born only to see him grow into a man in seconds, all the time where Slimo would yell at them and keep them in line, all the embarrassing memories of Lidia’s relationship with him, and all of the times they had been there for Jacob when he had faltered on his path to becoming a better version of himself.

Zalo’s creatures melted at his feet and absorbed themself back into his being as Zalo increased the power of the dark beam more and more.

A picture of their original group having dinner together, smiling, laughing, and yelling at each other was the last thing Jacob had saw. He smiled as tears fell down his face.

“Goodbye, my family.”

Their being impacted directly into Zalo’s chest.

Everything went white.