Chapter 778 The Sun's Sacrifice, Fusion Strike Ready!
Boom!
The roar drowned out the sound of flesh being torn apart. Tiamat's attack struck Gorgon's wings squarely, causing her to spit blood and howl in pain. Her serpent tail slammed furiously against the ground as she stubbornly refused to let tears fall. Instead, she gritted her teeth and lunged forward, her snake-like hair coiling around Tiamat's head. With monstrous strength, she forcibly wrenched the Mother Goddess's head back!
"Well done, Anna!"
The divine flames scorched Quetzalcoatl's face crimson, even the cracks splitting her skin visible in stark detail. Under her sustained assault, the outer walls of the bounded field grew increasingly thin—so much so that the lone black-robed youth fighting the Lahmu outside could almost be glimpsed.
"I'm definitely going to have Siduri make butter cake for me when we get back..."
Despite her monstrous form, when 'Gorgon' spoke, her voice carried such a pitiful tone that it made one want to ruffle her head affectionately.
"You're nothing like that Beast Goddess at all. You're much cuter."
"Stop teasing me, Quetzal..." Anna squirmed uncomfortably. "What's so good about being this huge?"
In Greece, where loli-con tendencies ran rampant, a girl with such a monstrous physique would surely be ridiculed.
But to better protect Quetzalcoatl and help her break the bounded field, Anna had decided to use the power Gorgon had entrusted to her—transforming into a massive serpent deity to stand before Tiamat in her draconic form!
"Laaaa—" Each cry from Tiamat signaled an attack. Anna clenched her teeth, her gaze locked onto the Mother Goddess's every move. But when the primordial goddess raised her head, Quetzalcoatl let out a startled gasp behind her.
"What's wrong?!" Anna whipped around, fearing Quetzalcoatl had been struck by some unseen attack. Yet the Sun Goddess's expression was worse than that—she pointed at the bounded field's outer walls. "It—it's repairing itself!"
Just as Quetzalcoatl had said, though the flames of divinity still burned against the bounded field's walls, the moment Tiamat lifted her head and cried out, a surge of black mud rose, rapidly mending the damage—even swallowing the flames whole!
"Do we need more power...? Quetzal, what about your Noble Phantasm? Can you still use it?"
"I can't, Anna! My Noble Phantasm requires the Sun Stone, but the Sun Stone—"
"Is in Mother's hands, right? Can you sense its location?"
"See that stone on Tiamat's head? That's the Sun Stone... Wait, Anna, what are you doing?!"
By the time Quetzalcoatl realized it, Anna—now in the form of the Beast Goddess—had already taken a decisive step forward. Her serpentine hair unleashed beams of death, carving a path through the corrupted sea of black mud straight toward the Mother Goddess Tiamat!
"There's no time! Sakatsuki is still fighting alone, holding back the Lahmu trying to return... We have to finish this quickly!"
A wave of black mud crashed down, swallowing Anna's form from Quetzalcoatl's sight. Only her voice remained, resolute and unyielding:
"Even if I must sacrifice myself, it doesn't matter—we must complete this mission. This is the very purpose of my existence!"
"Anna..." Quetzalcoatl was deeply moved. After this moment, she could no longer hear the voice of this petite goddess. Only the splashing black mud, the uncontrolled beams of light shooting into the sky, and the roars of fury came wave after wave, pounding against her uneasy heart.
After what felt like an eternity of waiting, the sounds abruptly dissipated. The crackling of flames and black mud burning and consuming each other spread, enveloping the bounded field.
Just as Quetzalcoatl thought this desperate gamble had failed, that Anna had been killed by Tiamat, the sea of black mud before her was forcefully parted by serpentine hair. The battered and wounded serpent goddess was flung out, collapsing at Quetzalcoatl's feet.
In her arms, a dull and lifeless yet intricately carved calendar stone, inscribed with the annals of time, caught the stunned gaze of the sun goddess.
Anna—she had actually wrested this crucial Noble Phantasm from Tiamat's grasp!
"Now... it's up to you..." The brutal struggle had left Anna mortally wounded, her divine body dissipating into purple motes of light. In the end, only the girl clad in a black robe remained, cradling the winged serpent that had also closed its eyes, slipping into unconsciousness.
Without support, the Sun Stone began to fall. Quetzalcoatl instinctively reached out, reclaiming the Noble Phantasm that had always been hers. The moment the dull stone landed in her palm, it erupted with a radiant brilliance. Simultaneously, faint cracking sounds emerged from Quetzalcoatl's face.
A Spirit Origin that had lost more than half its divinity could hardly bear the weight of such a vast divine artifact.
Yet Quetzalcoatl paid no heed to her body's warnings. She didn't even utter another word. Before the Mother Goddess's furious gaze could descend upon her, she had already embedded the Sun Stone into her chest—then, with a single punch, struck the wall.
A blazing crimson light, burning at its absolute peak, began to radiate from her!
"What existed here in the past, exists now, and shall exist with us in the future!"
Raising her hand to the heavens, above the fluttering South American garments now billowing without wind, an array of golden disks—magnified countless times—manifested!
One ring, two rings, three rings. The moment the traces of Mayan civilization were fully imprinted upon the dome, endless golden light converged into the goddess's palm, shining like a star!
"Winds, come forth! Thunder, descend—this is the moment Venus shines!"
Her hands closed slowly yet resolutely, grasping the nascent heart of crimson flames! Then, the goddess lifted her arm, now wreathed in flowing fire, and with a flawless, powerful motion, unleashed a punch capable of shattering heaven and earth—
"Sun Stone (Piedra Del Sol)!!!"
The soaring flames finally reached their zenith at this moment. As the goddess delivered her decisive blow, the bounded field let out a mournful cry, fissures spanning thousands of meters fracturing it in an instant. Ring after ring of solar coronas expanded outward. Driven by a goddess of equal standing to Zeus and Odin, even the countless beams of destruction fired by Tiamat were incinerated, vanishing like snowflakes!
But it wasn't enough—not quite yet!
Though the outer shell of the World Egg had thinned enough to clearly see the young man's approving expression, nearly overlapping with the rebellious spiritrons also eroding the bounded field, that paper-thin barrier—sustained by Mother Goddess Tiamat's endless magical energy—displayed astonishing resilience. It stubbornly resisted both internal and external assaults, refusing to shatter.
Yet even the mighty Quetzalcoatl could advance no further!
Her magical energy had been squeezed to its limits, her divinity now corroding her spiritual foundation... Even as the goddess bit through her lips, even as her eyes ignited with radiant flames—she couldn't! Advance! Another single inch!
The Lahmu's massacre at Eridu and their theft of divinity had dealt too crippling a blow!
So crippling that victory now lay just one sliver of power beyond reach!
What to do? What could be done?!
How could Mother Goddess's bounded field possibly be broken?!
At that moment, Quetzalcoatl strained to lift her head and saw two divine swords descend majestically from the heavens, holding back the locust-like horde of monsters.
A black-robed figure materialized as the young man touched the World Egg's barrier, silently conveying something.
After a brief moment of stunned realization, Quetzalcoatl smiled gratefully and nodded without hesitation.
The young man took a deep breath, exhaling his last traces of hesitation.
Then he raised his arm—three vivid Command Spells blazing to life!
With mutual consent, their contract bypassed countless formalities, instantly forged in that very moment!
"Command Spell—Deliver victory to Quetzalcoatl!"
As the words rang out, flames erupted in all directions!
"The weapons of Mesopotamia cannot harm her... or so I once claimed."
The sound of shattering echoed continuously—not just across his face, but his very heart began crumbling uncontrollably. Yet at the moment of igniting her divine core, the Sun Goddess wore a proud smile.
"But this body carries the divinity of distant demonic realms! Mesopotamian deities mean nothing before it!"
The instant her output surpassed all limits, the bounded field's barrier shattered like glass!
The rebellious spiritrons rapidly contracted as Sakatsuki looked up with joyous anticipation—only to find Quetzalcoatl wasn't returning. Instead, she turned decisively toward Mother Goddess Tiamat, whose crimson eyes now blazed with fury!
"Witness the power that exterminated countless lives in the underworld of South America—the force of cataclysmic collision!"
Soaring upward to the distant apex of the world, the Venus-like goddess chanted triumphantly, pouring every ounce of her being into this single strike!
"This body shall become a burning meteor, a comet to smite the earth—BURN, SOUL OF THE WARRIOR!!!"
As if sensing familiar peril, Tiamat shrieked and reared back, layering barrier after barrier with her [Nega Genesis] Authority. Yet when the legendary meteor that ended the Jurassic period came crashing down, even a Beast's power proved as fragile as paper!
Amid flames capable of scouring all existence from the earth's surface, only two voices resounded with equal might—the roar of South America's chief deity, and the agonized cry of Mother Goddess Tiamat!
"[FLAMES THAT EVEN GODS CANNOT ENDURE]!!!"
The final barrier shattered like glass.
Under Tiamat's horrified gaze, the seemingly insignificant goddess fell from the heavens, offering herself as a sacrifice to the world's great spirit with all her divinity, magic, and very soul.
The result—if one had to describe it—was a nuclear explosion!
Seizing the mighty power of solar fusion, the goddess transformed into an ultra-high-yield nuclear warhead that detonated right upon Tiamat!!!