Chapter 1240: Adamant Thunder Annihilation Campaign (31)
Cold winds swept through the bloodied, fallen corpses.
The hot scent of blood mingled with the wind, transforming into the lukewarm stench of death.
WHOOSH!!!!
Pale, almost pure white halos encircled it, and its entire body shimmered with dark blue lightning.
A dignified figure, moving gracefully, extending both hands benignly towards the corpses it had slain.
“A god…”
A grotesque, hideous, yet somehow broken divinity, empty yet sacred.
Everyone who saw that sight had the same thought.
‘What… should we do…?’
Deimus’s hands trembled as he fell into a daze.
‘What… to do…’
If sacrificing Deimus’s life could resolve this situation, he wouldn’t have hesitated in the first place.
But their opponent was a monster that crushed even an 8th-level Legion Commander like a toy.
The Flame Pillar of the Blaiver Tower crushed beneath its feet. The 9th Seat of the Ability Awakening Warband, whose face had melted away behind its back.
The cult priests who worshipped it until their heads exploded, and the modified soldiers whose power could no longer be measured, now broken.
Superhumans with combat abilities comparable to, or even superior to, Deimus were being trampled and crushed like insects.
The Ultimate Prowess that Adamant Thunder had never once displayed throughout the entire Annihilation Campaign.
A destruction that wielded prowess beyond human comprehension, infused with its lightning.
No matter how many times he replayed it in his mind, he couldn’t understand how it was possible.
Nor could he guess why Adamant Thunder had only revealed such authority at the very last moment.
In that moment, as Deimus’s Mind Imprint twisted in endless confusion, gnawing at his own sanity.
Snap.
Adamant Thunder began to move again.
[…]
WHOOSH!!!
Enveloped in a pale halo, flashing like lightning, it turned towards those it had killed.
Merely by slowly turning around, the corpses strewn nearby evaporated and vanished.
Their bodies left no trace, instantly turning into a handful of ashes on the spot.
Pale radiance overflowed amidst the ashen wind, and as Adamant Thunder slowly raised its hand towards him—
CRACK.
Adamant Thunder pierced its own neck with the raised hand.
“…Huh?”
CRACK. CRACK.
It raised its fingers, slowly raking its own neck.
It dug its fingers into its collarbone, slowly tearing away pieces of its shoulder.
Each time, dark blue lightning scattered and fell from Adamant Thunder’s body.
Everyone watched in a daze, holding their breath.
“…What is it doing?”
“What in the world…”
GRIND. GRINDGRIND.
Standing vacantly among the corpses, it grasped its arm, slowly tearing its flesh apart.
With one hand, it pierced its neck, slowly plucking out the contents piece by piece.
With chillingly grotesque tearing sounds, dark blue lightning dripped like blood each time.
A bizarre sight, as if it were artificially tearing itself apart, forcibly inflicting damage upon itself.
A moment later, Deimus grasped the meaning of the act and his voice trembled.
“It’s… self-harming…?”
CRACKLE. CRACKLECRACKLECRACKLE-
Wielding martial arts, committing massacres.
Sitting in the midst of the corpses it had created, it endlessly repeated acts of self-harm.
With mechanical movements, as if repeating a routine performed thousands, tens of thousands of times. As if it had been destroying itself in this way since long ago.
“What in the…”
Deimus didn’t know that this was a lingering trace of ‘The First’ who had existed in the immeasurably distant past.
The remnant of madness, broken for an immeasurable length of time, solidified into an obsession beyond habit.
The moment Deimus, sensing a completely shattered humanity in those indifferent movements, was gripped by fear for the first time…
A golden halo erupted from Adamant Thunder’s back, exploding and beginning to rotate fiercely.
ROOOOOAR!!!!
“…!!!!!”
The pale halo and the golden halo intersected and violently collided behind Adamant Thunder’s back.
The pale light that destroyed itself and the golden light that restored itself collided and spun.
As they spun in opposite directions, clashing as if melting into each other, forming the shape of infinity…
The magic that had exploded from within Adamant Thunder, as if boiling over, began to fill and overflow the Domain.
CRASH!!!!
Shockwaves erupting from the halo collision pushed back spacetime, and the Domain crumbled.
The ceaseless bombardment and melee since the Annihilation Campaign began. The backlash from the failure of the Ascension Ritual.
The shattered labyrinth, in the midst of successive impacts, as if testing the limits of its durability.
At its end, the Domain collapsed, unable to withstand the backflow of power unleashed by Adamant Thunder itself.
CRASHCRASHCRASHCRASH!!!!
The dark blue nebula parted, revealing a sky filled with storm clouds.
The reality outside District 49, which had existed until just before they entered this labyrinth.
“The sky… is opening again.”
“The Domain is collapsing…”
Just as the superhumans, facing the incomprehensible phenomenon, flinched and looked up, Baragan’s hoarse voice echoed from behind.
“Deimus…”
HISSSSS…!!
The sorcerer, his entire body’s skin burned and twisted by fire, one eye melted away.
A gruesome sight, his left wrist and right knee severed, even his fingernails and body hair melted, flowing like bodily fluids.
The devastating consequence of being directly hit by Adamant Thunder’s lightning at the last moment to stop the Ascension Ritual.
But Baragan’s one eye had not yet lost its focus, staring at Adamant Thunder as it tore open the Domain.
“It’s… not over yet…”
“…Lord Baragan.”
“Having come this far… it’s already…”
HISSSSS…!!
He forcibly pulled his body up, flesh and muscle melting.
Even as he was dying, emitting smoke from his entire body, he drew upon his magical power.
THWACK!!
Dripping black blood, he hammered wooden totems into his left wrist and right knee.
Baragan, who had driven the totems into the severed parts like splints in place of his hands and feet, staggered to his feet.
“Let’s go. I’ll… lead the way…”
“…Understood.”
Both Baragan and Deimus had long since reached their limits.
Not much time remained. The outcome of this battlefield was already predetermined.
If it had come to the point where reasoned arguments and rebuttals no longer held meaning, then what had to be done was—
“Currently, Adamant Thunder is using a power entirely different from Lightning Magic. Incomprehensible martial arts… or perhaps a type of Transcendent Rank spell-art.”
Deimus said quietly.
“Judging from the current battle situation… it’s likely not a power it can wield at will. The fact that it revealed that form only now must be due to a restriction.”
“A restriction… you say?”
“The possibility that comes to mind is that it’s a kind of protocol… an alternate personality that appears when Adamant Thunder’s own will is lost.”
“…”
“If so, could it be a contingency plan in case the Ascension Ritual failed…?”
“…A contingency plan.”
Esteban Aisen, who had been lying sprawled and bloody, spoke with his head bowed.
“Then, this is indeed the only chance…”
“…”
No complicated explanations, no elaborate plans or discussions were needed.
The anomaly of Adamant Thunder repeatedly committing massacres and self-harm, damaging itself with irrational judgment.
Now, as the two halos collided behind its back, and this Domain collapsed from the aftermath.
And only at this moment, where Adamant Thunder’s lightning was rapidly consumed throughout that entire process.
If this was the only time they could put up a proper resistance—
WHOOSH!!!
There was no further discussion.
Baragan, with wooden totems hammered below his knees, and Esteban, whose internal organs had been replaced with mercury, leaped simultaneously.
“Adamant Thunder. Over here…!!”
Esteban, with a pale expression, drew upon his superhuman abilities and extended his hand.
The mercury, manipulated by his will, rose and plunged down towards Adamant Thunder, which was deeply engrossed in self-harm.
HSSSS!!
Far from piercing Adamant Thunder’s self-harming body, the mercury blades evaporated and vanished the moment they touched the lightning.
But the moment Adamant Thunder saw Esteban’s mercury, it instantly stopped self-harming and slowly turned its body.
Ophelia Ionix Zaedark’s Spiritual Presence had greatly contributed to the Ascension Ritual’s failure at the last moment.
Adamant Thunder too recognized that this presence was contained within Esteban’s mercury.
Esteban also noticed this and immediately turned, putting as much distance as possible between them.
Esteban, gasping for breath with a pale face, turned his gaze.
“Sorcerer…!!”
“Yes. I… know…!!!”
Now that Adamant Thunder was aware of Esteban’s presence, it would constantly be wary of him.
Having lost its intellect, it might now obsess over killing him, putting others aside.
Esteban wouldn’t be able to last long, but even so, it bought the allies a moment of time.
In a desperate situation where victory was unforeseeable, there was only one thing to do.
Everyone gathered here would pour out their lives, just to chip away at that monster.
WHOOSH!!!!
Below Baragan’s clasped hands, colorless ripples exploded forth.
“COUGH…!”
The deployment of the Domain again, repeatedly, after it had been shattered once inside Adamant Thunder’s labyrinth.
Black blood flowed ceaselessly from Baragan’s nose and mouth, unable to withstand the backlash.
But Baragan gritted his teeth and cast an incantation, even as he felt his lifespan being consumed.
“Domain… Deploy.”
Domain: Deploy
Source Hierarchy Mind Imprint Manifestation
[Woven Soul Secret Serpent Palace]
CRASHCRASHCRASHCRASHCRASHCRASHCRASHCRASH!!!!!!
Hundreds of colossal snakes bit each other’s tails, intertwining to construct a massive snake’s nest.
As the snake’s nest rose amidst the labyrinth’s ruins, transforming the battlefield and instantly enveloping the allies…
The entire snake’s nest became a living totem, haphazardly scattering its embedded sorceries upon the allies.
FZZZZZZZZT!!!!!
Baragan’s Domain, the Woven Soul Secret Serpent Palace, was itself a ‘living’ Domain and a totem.
As long as the Domain was maintained, Baragan could freely wield Esoteric Sorcery without relying on totems.
A power exceeding the limits normally allowed to Baragan, who could only wield all types of sorcery by using totems.
[Damage Repair] [Will-thought Enhancement] [Mental Reinforcement] [Durability Boost] [Necrosis Immunity] [Mana Reversion]
CRASH!!!!!!
Enhancement sorcery that boosted physical and mental abilities. Anesthetic sorcery that numbed pain and erased sensations.
Sacrificial sorcery that burned life force, allowing even dying superhumans to fight for a short time. Human offering sorcery that infused dead souls, binding them to bodies.
A coercive force that compelled even superhumans, crushed or dismembered by colliding with Adamant Thunder, to forcibly participate in combat for a brief period.
Even if it was a miracle that would vanish like foam once Baragan’s Domain disappeared, they could still fight.
Realizing this, superhumans everywhere slowly rose, dragging their shattered bodies.
“Urgh…!”
“Ah, ahhh…!”
Atiya Elixson, covered in blood, raised her forearm, broken in half and crushed, and rotated her mana, trembling.
Robert Loveride, with armor fragments piercing and protruding from his shoulder and waist, vomited his internal organs and drew upon his Will-thought.
Transcendent beings, brought to consciousness by Baragan’s sorcery on the border of life and death, convulsed and activated their Miniature Universe.
They burned their remaining lives, raising their Mind Imprint.
“Miniature Universe… activate.”
“…Cheondun.”
Inner World Miniature Universe: Mana Jet
Mind’s Full Bloom
[Eight Piercings]
Inner World Miniature Universe: Cheondun
Mind’s Amplification
[Twelve Thousand Three Hundred Pulling a Thousand Geun]
CRASH!!!!
The Miniature Universe, manifested by burning their lives, appeared, and Atiya Elixson and Robert Loveride simultaneously leaped forward.
The dying cardinal, having lost his upper right body, clutched a blood-stained prayer book and mumbled.
“That one, is not Him…”
Sanctuary Declaration
[Great Frog God Heat.]
SPLASH!!!
A colossal toad’s tongue erupted from beneath the cardinal’s feet, sweeping across the ground as if licking it.
Wherever the tongue swept, strangely pale flames erupted and blazed.
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!!!
The Flame Majesty Temple of the Blaiver Tower, which had remained outside the labyrinth, rose into the sky and rained down bombardment.
The completely shattered Quetzalcoatl and fragments of Ability Bloom burned like kindling in the falling flames.
“OOOOOHHHH!!!!”
Officers who had activated their Miniature Universe charged amidst the scattered ‘rain of fire’ from the cult and the Magic Tower.
From behind Adamant Thunder, which had turned to follow Esteban, they unleashed their life-burning Will-thought and slammed it into its body.
CRACK-!!!
CRASHHHHH!!!
Dark blue lightning flickered like dark blue wings, sweeping away the superhumans rushing from behind.
It melted the bodies of the surviving military priests and sniped the Flame Majesty Temple flying in the sky, bringing it down.
CRASH!!!!
The Flame Majesty Temple, having fallen onto the colossal snake’s nest, blazed fiercely, enveloped in the cult’s pale flames.
Towards Adamant Thunder, standing at its center, other superhumans rushed in unison, as if by agreement.
“Adamant Thunder!!!!!!!”
“Let’s go together. This is the end…!!!”
“If we can’t win, at least…!!!”
The victory or defeat of the war, the question of life or death. All depended on somehow chipping away at the monster before them.
The interests of their respective organizations, their individual beliefs and convictions, all were forgotten at this moment.
They would stop this monstrous god here, one that was completely mad, destroying itself and others indiscriminately.
CRACK!!
Adamant Thunder, which had been chasing Esteban, turned its head, its dark blue eyes flashing.
The moment the lightning flashed, it pierced four superhumans’ hearts and severed their necks.
Dark blue wings unfurled, batting away the spellcraft bombardment, and as the pale halo rotated and wrapped around its fist…
It ground down every soldier, priest, and ability user rushing from all sides, turning them into irrecoverable corpses.
CRASH!!!!
“AAAAAAAH!!!!”
“In the name of God…!!!”
“Lord Aisen. I’ll go first…!!”
A 6th-level veteran who had mastered Property Transformation to its limits. A 7th-level achiever who had completed their hierarchy.
Superhumans, treated as elite forces in their respective organizations, were being furiously ground down and dying.
Throwing their inherent martial arts and the secrets of spellcraft, their trump cards brought out by sacrificing their lives, before the dark blue thunder god.
They couldn’t even properly stop a single step of its, getting crushed into pieces of flesh, their entire bodies burned and pulverized.
CRACKLECRACKLECRACKLE!!!
“COUGH…!! UGHHHHH!!!”
Catching a corpse that flew back like a cannonball with one arm, Atiya Elixson limped forward.
Unleashing mana release to its limit, she broke through the pouring lightning and spun backward.
She swung her arm, broken, protruding, and crushed, slamming it into Adamant Thunder’s side.
CRASH!!
A brilliant blue shockwave surged through Adamant Thunder’s body, inversely wrapping around Atiya Elixson’s left arm.
Dark blue lightning, like a beast’s maw, bit into Atiya Elixson’s upper body and accelerated explosively.
It tore her left arm to shreds, blowing it backward.
“GAH…!!!!”
A fatal injury that obliterated her entire left arm, shoulder, collarbone, and neck muscles.
But Atiya Elixson, bleeding profusely and gasping for breath, burst into mad laughter.
“Hah hah, I’m… dying… here…!!!!”
ZZZZZAP!!!
A hole was pierced in Robert Loveride’s lower abdomen, and his internal organs gushed out, tearing through his armor.
The veteran’s form, unable to even scream, knelt on the spot and toppled forward.
But Robert Loveride’s blurred eyes were fixed on the magic exploding around Adamant Thunder.
THUD!!!
“Mana, consumption…”
Adamant Thunder too was using mana to fight them.
The power that kept it existing in reality was being continuously ‘consumed’ to kill them.
“We can do it…!!!!”
Deimus, gasping for breath, poured mana into a gemstone and chanted a bombardment spell.
It was fine if they didn’t win against that irresistible thunder god.
He no longer wished for such meaningful results or gains.
May he, like the others, sacrifice his life to chip away at least a little of that monster’s power.
If they could even slightly reduce the time that Transcendent who failed ascension remained in the world.
[…]
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!!!!
At the climax of the intensifying struggle, Adamant Thunder no longer restrained its power.
Adamant Thunder, spreading dark blue lightning like wings, killed all the soldiers rushing from all directions.
It stepped on Robert Loveride’s back, breaking and exploding his spine and neck.
CRASH!! GRINDGRINDGRIND!!!
Immediately after kicking Atiya Elixson, whose upper left body was gone, the thunder god looked up and stared at Deimus.
Adamant Thunder’s form, having reached near-light speed, diagonally cut through the snake’s nest and plunged to the ground.
It collided with Ezekiel Ron Maize, who had descended before Deimus, at an incredible speed.
CRAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!!
The two figures collided on the ground, and shockwaves tens of meters wide exploded in both directions.
With that impact, the cloth covering Ezekiel Ron Maize’s face was finally thrown back, revealing his features.
“…!!!”
An astonishingly handsome face. A sense of artificial discord, like a work of art rather than a human, was palpable.
The moment Deimus, who had been lying sprawled at his feet, inadvertently paused upon seeing Ezekiel Ron Maize’s face…
“Pandemonium.”
Ezekiel Ron Maize looked down at Deimus.
“Having received favor from One Who Walks Backward, I will only say this once.”
HSSSS!!!!
Adamant Thunder’s hand, tearing through the shield Ezekiel Ron Maize had erected, interlocked with the royal’s hand and burst into flames.
Power that pierced through Ezekiel Ron Maize’s barrier, which had blocked Song-ha’s slashes and even the Magic Tower’s Lightning Magic.
CRUNCH!!!
“This transcendent being is an unprecedented concept that did not exist even when the Imperial Palace was intact.”
But Ezekiel Ron Maize spoke with a calm expression, even as his hand was being crushed by lightning in real-time.
“Bearing a corruption equal to that of the great failures, it is folly to confront it with mortal laws.”
“…”
“Yet, since it itself yearns for its end, it may not be impossible.”
“What do you mean…”
“A broken divinity. Masochism steeped in emptiness.”
Ezekiel Ron Maize closed his eyes.
“I think I know what ending it desires.”
“…”
Does Adamant Thunder, having lost its body and become a thunder god, desire its own destruction?
Perhaps even its broken actions of repeated massacres and self-harm were evidence of this.
However, such emptiness or nihilism was not what Deimus knew of Adamant Thunder.
Perhaps such emotions or will existed because the thunder god before him was a different being from Adamant Thunder.
A thought flashed through Deimus’s mind, but there was no time to piece it together into an answer.
The moment the thunder god and the royal collided and paused in the deepest core of the snake’s nest.
The brief respite Ezekiel Ron Maize had bought by sacrificing his hand.
As the royal retreated, the remaining Transcendent beings burned their lives and sprinted towards the end.
“OOOOOHHH!!!!”
Baragan, spraying black blood from his five apertures, deployed extreme-level sorcery using his own internal organs as a catalyst.
Tearing off his gushing intestines to draw a spell circle, he sacrificed his body to raise the power.
[Esoteric Law, End-Gate, Fallen, Grand Subjugation, Final Decree]
[Wheel of Samsara: Ultimate Scripture]
The highest-tier sorcerous bombardment existing in Esoteric Sorcery, which took religious texts as its origin.
Among them, the secret art corresponding to the final passages flowed thickly from Baragan’s hands.
CRASHCRASHCRASHCRASH!!!!!
“Ritual Armament… Manifestation.”
[Silver Guard Holy Palace]
Esteban pulled all the mercury that was stemming his injuries and unleashed his superhuman abilities.
Ignoring his gushing internal organs and intestines, he scraped up even the mercury used in Ability Bloom and wrapped it around his entire body.
WOOOOOOSH!!!!
[Blazing Spiral: Self-Inflicted Calamity]
[Command: Enginium Fortress Self-Destruct Sequence Initiated]
The Flame Majesty Temple and the Enginium Fortress exploded, fiercely burning the snake’s nest.
A bombardment that completely incinerated and erased all life remaining on the battlefield.
At its center, dark blue lightning flashed madly, continuously being consumed.
CRASHCRASHCRASHCRASHCRASHCRASHCRASHCRASH!!!!!!
CRACK, CRACK…!!!!!
It erased Baragan’s Wheel of Samsara and swept away even his Domain, making it vanish.
It successively burned, dropped, and crushed the cult’s sanctuary, the Mechanized Legion’s engine, and the Magic Tower’s temple.
It blasted, crushed, and repelled the superhumans wielding spellcraft and Miniature Universe, taking their lives.
CRASH!!!!!
Amidst the surging lightning and flames, Esteban, whose entire body was clad in mercury armor, stretched out his hand.
Adamant Thunder, turning like lightning, instantly pierced and exploded the body of the superhuman armed with a Ritual Armament.
CLANG!!!!
Esteban’s body staggered, pierced, and the mercury that had enveloped him exploded and evaporated.
But Esteban showed no reaction even after his entire upper body was pierced.
He simply remained frozen, wrapped in the mercury armor he had donned, his hand still outstretched.
Only then, the moment Adamant Thunder realized that Esteban had already died standing…
Baragan, appearing from behind, clutched the pale halo that floated behind Adamant Thunder’s back.
CRUNCH!!
“Got… it…”
Baragan, his eyes completely melted away, streamed bloody tears and smiled eerily.
“Adamant Thunder. I… touched…”
[…]
Adamant Thunder did not turn to look at Baragan, even though he had grasped its halo.
As if knowing his state, it merely ignored him casually and continued its steps.
THUD!!
Baragan, unable to stop Adamant Thunder and dragged along by its steps, helplessly collapsed.
Baragan, fallen behind Adamant Thunder, unable to even break the halo he had finally grasped.
His eyes had already lost focus, and his heart had stopped, his breath completely gone.
“…”
Baragan’s corpse, fallen with eyes unable to close, his breath ceased.
Esteban’s body, dead standing, wrapped in mercury armor.
The moment the two Transcendent beings, who had served as the twin pillars on the front lines of the Annihilation Campaign, died simultaneously before Adamant Thunder’s eyes.
“…Ah.”
Deimus slowly saw Adamant Thunder approaching him and intuited his end.
It wasn’t surprising. It wasn’t even an unacceptable ending.
It was simply that even after pouring out everything, it was still far from enough to grasp the end.
If he were to meet the same end as his comrades who participated in the Annihilation Campaign, he could accept it.
The mere fact that he had lived until now was, perhaps, closer to a stroke of luck for him.
STEP.
It slowly walked towards him.
The moment he closed and opened his eyes, it had already arrived before him from a distant, far-off place.
An overwhelming spectacle of pale and golden halos colliding and shattering.
With that above its head, it slowly extended a hand dyed with dark blue lightning.
The moment Deimus was about to close his eyes, seeing that hand reaching for him…
WHOOSH-
Adamant Thunder casually walked past Deimus.
“…Huh?”
CRACKLE, CRACKLE…!!!!
The massacre that began immediately after the Ascension Ritual failed.
The continuous battles that proceeded, killing the remaining superhumans one by one.
The Existence that was gradually breaking down amidst repeated self-harm, mimicking The First.
The power excessively used, enough to collapse the Domain as the two halos collided.
The resistance of the Transcendent beings, who aimed for its consumption by sacrificing their lives at the end of three decisive battles.
Little by little, very faintly. But the accumulated consumption clearly became evident.
Finally, at this very moment—
[…]
Leaving the corpses piled like mountains all around, Adamant Thunder slowly continued its steps.
In a silence so profound it felt almost sacred, the lightning flickered faintly.
RUMBLERUMBLERUMBLE!!!!
It slowly walked towards the broken throne behind Deimus.
The ruins of the completely collapsed labyrinth. The golden debris, piled up and rising, looked like a broken throne.
Adamant Thunder climbed among the debris, settled into its center, and slowly leaned back.
[…]
WHOOSH!!!!!
A desolate ruin where dry winds blew.
The battlefield strewn with the crushed remains of the Domain, the labyrinth, Baragan’s Domain, and even the war machines.
Sitting on the broken throne, Adamant Thunder, silently gazing at the scene, slowly tilted its head, propped on its arm.
The moment the Transcendent who had massacred tens of thousands completed its long duty and finally entered a state of complete rest.
CRACK!!!
The pale halo above Adamant Thunder’s head cracked like glass and shattered.
Simultaneously, the lightning surging through its body faded as if a lie.
The Incarnation Body ceased all movement and froze on the spot.
“…Why…”
Deimus, with a pale, frozen expression, looked up at the god, who slept with its head tilted benevolently.