Chapter 568.2: Light Devourer (2)
Chapter 568.2: Light Devourer (2)
The red sun that sat by the horizon of the vast plain suddenly trembled. An overwhelmingly powerful aura gushed into the sky from Dragon’s Gorge, as if something was about to break out of the ground.
All living beings on the surface felt deference toward the aura. The immense pressure it exerted forced all to lower their heads, and those who were flying were compelled to lower their altitude.
The Savior looked at the God’s Envoys with a determined glint in His eyes.
A stupendously powerful mana pulsation rippled across the sky. All beings in the world were blessed with the fortune to witness a miracle in the making.
The red setting sun that had stopped by the horizon suddenly emitted a blinding golden light that swiftly spread across the world. As the world lit up under the sun’s renewed splendor, the solar and lunar cycle began to reverse. The sun started to rise back to the top of the sky.
At the same time, the plants that had been devastated by the war suddenly experienced a burst of vitality. Countless seeds breached the surface of the soil and grew without restraint.
As Roel watched this phenomenon, it suddenly dawned on him what the nature of the Savior’s Divine Domain was.
The Genesis.
This was what the world had witnessed at the moment of the Savior’s birth. Only on this land was His Divine Domain able to unleash such prowess.
The rising sun vanquished the darkness, coldness, and starvation from the world that was on the brink of collapse. Hope was rekindled in the hearts of all. Races were able to propagate, and life was breathed into the withering civilization.
Not even the silver moon could compete with the light of salvation.
The Six Calamities howled in agitation before this phenomenon. In the Savior’s Divine Domain, the Mother Goddess found Herself surrounded by a flood of light.
“His target isn’t me?” The Mother Goddess frowned.
She sensed that something was amiss, but Her ability to intervene was limited when both the Silver Moon and the Black Moon had been overshadowed by the sun.
After temporarily vanquishing the two moons from the sky, the Savior turned his attention to Roel. His chances of killing the Mother Goddess had become slim after the disturbance caused by Roel, but His priority had shifted toward obliterating the Kingmaker instead.
What concerned Him wasn’t just the Kingmaker’s rallying power, but Roel’s current state.
Be it his silver hair color or the allegiance of the God’s Envoys, there were far too many signs that indicated that Roel was no longer just an ordinary mortal. He had become a force that was capable of standing toe-to-toe with the Savior and the Mother Goddess.
While trying to exert control on the God’s Envoys, Roel had unwittingly fused the Crown into his soul. This was something that the Savior had to stop at all costs.
“You touched something you should have never laid your hands on,” the Savior uttered with a cold voice as He grew increasingly brilliant, reminiscent of a rising sun. “I’m surprised that you were able to tame them so quickly, but what difference does this make? The tides of change cannot be opposed. You knew that this was a trap; why do you still insist on leaping in?”
“I came here because I ought to be here.”
“What?”
“My mistake has placed a person who deeply cares about me in a quandary. It’s clear to me what I ought to do. A person like you will never understand it no matter how I explain it.”
“…Utter foolishness.” The Savior frowned upon hearing Roel’s answer. He pointed His finger at Roel and announced the latter’s sin. “The world only needs one person to inherit Sia’s position.”
Light engulfed the Savior’s body as the rising sun finally reached the highest point in the sky. Golden radiance irradiated the world before launching an omnipresent attack against its enemy.
Roel immediately sensed himself being isolated from the rest of the world. A deadly solar wind swept up around him, incinerating everything in its vicinity into cinders.
Shocked gasps could be heard from the crowd. Those from the Mother Goddess’ faction worriedly shook their fists, whereas those from the Savior’s faction anxiously retreated from the area. They instinctively understood what the golden radiance represented.
That was the First Light of Genesis, the very first ray of light the Savior brought to the world with His birth. It signified the return of a supreme god, and its significance commanded the respect of all lifeforms. Nothing in this world could resist this power.
Roel raised his blood scepter in response, and the six God’s Envoys launched their attacks. Devastating mana pulsations ensued. Frost and fog surged forth like dragons; lava and wind brought forth deafening explosions. Yet, none of these was useful against the Savior’s light.
As if unstoppable divine retribution, nothing could faze the golden radiance as it fell upon the sinner who dared to challenge the Savior.
Right as the golden radiance was about to strike Roel, a flood of frost aura and a billowing black cloud suddenly rushed upward to shield him from the attack.
“!”
Roel widened his eyes in shock. He hadn’t ordered the God’s Envoys to shield him; they had done it of their own accord. But before he could say anything, an earth-shattering shockwave rippled across the sky.
Not even the Six Calamities could fully withstand the Savior’s light.
The frost aura that encased everything in permafrost melted. The miasma manifested from the conceptualization of death dissipated. By the time the golden brilliance faded, two of the God’s Envoys had already disappeared without a trace.
The magnificent feat of defeating two God’s Envoys in a single move stunned everyone on the battlefield. Dragons howled to the sky, praising the Savior’s almighty prowess. The High Elves and the Blood Clansmen glanced at one another with worried looks.
The tides of the battle had turned. The God’s Envoys had been shown to be powerless against the Savior’s authority.
Amidst the dust cloud at the heart of the intense clash, Roel stared at the dissipated God’s Envoys while enduring the excruciating pain assaulting his heart. He tightly clenched onto the blood scepter in his grasp.
As the cost of awakening the God’s Envoys, Roel’s soul had fused with the Six Calamities. When two of the God’s Envoys dissipated, he lost a third of his soul as well. Such injury far surpassed the severity of any physical harm. An ordinary mortal would have never been able to withstand such damage.
As a matter of fact, Roel’s body was trembling uncontrollably, and his vision had turned blurry. Yet, something resonated strongly in his heart when he looked at the dissipated God’s Envoys. When the dust finally settled, he raised his head and looked at the sky with eyes more resolute than ever.
The Savior was an equal existence to the Mother Goddess, representing Sia’s selfishness and malevolence. He was slightly weaker than the Mother Goddess, but there was no question that He was a superior existence to the God’s Envoys, especially on this sacred land where He first came to be.
He was not an opponent Roel could defeat even with the aid of the Six Calamities.
It was likely that the Savior had the same thought in mind when He decided to suppress the Mother Goddess and first deal with Roel. When He realized that He had failed to bring down the Kingmaker with His first attack, He raised His hand once more.
The Savior emanated tremendous heat and light as His aura intensified till it felt almost tangible.
The Dragons descended from the sky. The Beastmen fell to their knees. Even the proud Giants were forced to lower their heads. All on the battlefield lowered their stature as if to pay respects to their one true ruler.
All except for one.
Even when the Savior’s light dominated the world, Roel didn’t lower his head. He tightly held onto his blood scepter as he commanded the God’s Envoys to direct their attacks at the sky.
A tumultuous storm furiously whirred into a hurricane in an attempt to dethrone the supreme being standing at the highest point in the sky. Following close behind it was an all-devouring white fog and a humongous lava hand that sought to crush its enemy.
Yet, these attacks were extinguished in the face of the second wave of light.
The Second Light of Genesis was the Savior’s grace to the world, embodying the blessing of light and hope. Senescence and destruction were vanquished in the face of this blessed light. Even the all-devouring white fog was impaled by this supreme power.
Light flooded down from the sky like yet another materialization of divine retribution. The one to step forward this time around was the blurred silhouette in the pale yellow wind.
Roel felt a gentle breeze brushing past his cheek as Tempest Caller expanded into a hulking giant that towered beyond the clouds. It stood unwaveringly in front of Roel as the Second Light of Genesis battered down and dissipated its body.
But not even Tempest Caller’s sacrifice was enough to expend the Second Light of Genesis.
Thus, lava rose to inherit the will of the dissipated tempest.
A dark silhouette rose from the ground with the accompaniment of suffocating smog and blazing lava. As it surged into the sky, it glanced at Roel with glowing eyes as if bidding a silent farewell. Then, it turned around and took in the falling light with its expansive mass.
Deafening explosions shook the world as falling ashes dyed the world black.
Another God’s Envoy had fallen.
Those from the Savior’s faction roared in delight. The Angels, who had only just arrived on the battlefield after taking a detour, sang hymns of praise for the sun. Support for the Savior reached an all-time high.
The Savior gazed at the dissipated God’s Envoys with a mocking smile. His only target had been the Kingmaker, but the God’s Envoys threw their bodies forth one after another to protect him despite knowing it would spell their dissipation. He thought their actions were meaningless, hilarious, and incredibly foolish.
In the first place, the God’s Envoys had become intrinsically tied to Roel’s soul, such that the dissipation of four of them meant that he only had a third of his soul left. An injury of this extent was more than enough to incapacitate him, thus rendering the act of saving him meaningless.
The Savior shook His head.
He was slightly exhausted from having launched two consecutive attacks, but, determined to end this farce, He raised His hand and unleashed the third burst of intense light.
At the same time, Roel finally emerged from the remnants of ashes and wind.
His blood scepter was tattered beyond repair, and his complexion was as pale as a sheet of paper. His soul was so damaged that he was barely clinging to the final bit of his consciousness. He had nearly lost all of his senses. His vision had gone completely dark. His ears were ringing. Even pain was barely registering to him.
Yet, some things continued to linger in his fading consciousness.
The gleaming ice crystals from the shattered glacier. The final silence before the dispersion of death. The lingering echoes of the dissipated tempest. The splendid firework show before the snuffing of the embers.
He witnessed the end of these natural phenomena as they sacrificed themselves to guard his inner peace.
“!”
Roel’s eyes suddenly shot open.
Before him, he saw the all-devouring white fog and the soothing luminescence of an aurora. These were his last two companions, as well as the final fragments of his soul.
It was about time for the curtains to be drawn for this show.
In the sky, the Savior gazed upon the world beneath.
“What arrogance it is for you to think that you could stop the inevitable forces of change. I have told you that you won’t be able to change anything at all. All you have managed to accomplish is to lead those monsters toward meaningless deaths.”
“…Meaningless? Not at all. They have enabled me to live on and survive till the very end. As long as a breath remains in me, the seeds they have sowed with their sacrifices will blossom,” Roel replied as he raised his blood scepter once more.
The Savior’s expression turned cold as he looked at Roel with a frown.
“Try it, then.”
With those words came the final attack. It was the Third Light of Genesis, representing the judgment of the darkness and the execution of the sinners. It was a blade to sever the past and usher in a brighter future.
All beings on the battlefield suddenly froze in place. Fear could still be seen reflected in their eyes, but their time had come to a halt.
The Third Light of Genesis was an authority that transcended temporal laws. Not even the inheritors of Sia’s powers could oppose Him in this silenced world. All beings were helpless lambs at a slaughterhouse before this light.
Roel and the white fog shrouding him were also frozen in place.
Divine light spanning the entirety of the sky descended upon the still white fog, dissipating the expansive body of the all-devouring monster.
Finally, the Savior’s lips curled into a smile.
It’s over.
He was confident that this was His victory.
Yet, an inconceivable sight unfolded before His eyes.
As the white fog dissipated, Roel’s body suddenly began to squirm. The distorted temporal laws tried to hold him down, but they couldn’t suppress his growing aura. Unbelievable power surged forth from him, shattering His frozen time.
“Impossible!” the Savior exclaimed in disbelief.
The unraveling of the distorted temporal laws meant that Roel now possessed the strength to oppose Him. It was inconceivable to Him how such an abrupt change could have occurred.
I have to kill him right now!
The sun flared with an intensity like never before, and the Third Light of Genesis engulfed the world with its blinding white light. Unable to withstand such overwhelming power, Shrouding Fog was finally vaporized into thin air.
Yet, in its final moments, the blurred face of the all-devouring white fog reflected not pain and despair, but peace and hope.
In the hand of the black-haired man whom Shrouding Fog had been protecting was a blood scepter overflowing with power. At the same time, the aurora that had quietly absorbed the bodies of its fallen comrades finally cast away its concealment as it converged around the Kingmaker.
The bells of revolution finally chimed.
Roel directed his eroding palm toward the sky. As his blood splattered everywhere, he muttered the name of his final companion, to whom he had entrusted all hope.
“Light Devourer.”