Boom!
Under that single blow, the indestructible white colossus had the star patterns across its body shattered. The Seven Heavens floating above it shook violently as their Lord staggered and fell.
Those responsible for holding back the Angelic Legion stared at the deep blue figure standing upon the Sea of Oceanus. Their pupils contracted sharply. An indescribable resonance in their blood surged like the tides, and in their hearts, they felt an unexplainable closeness toward the newborn Giant God standing between heaven and earth.
But soon after, the deep blue pillar of light erupting from the sea seemed to lose momentum and gradually dimmed.
"There was war in Heaven because of disrespect toward the Lord.
I and the messengers of God fought against the dragon. The dragon and its messengers also fought back.
But the dragon could not prevail, and there was no longer any place for them in Heaven.
That great dragon is the Ancient Serpent, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He is destined to be cast down to the earth, and his messengers shall be cast down with him!"
Just as Samael froze for a brief moment, Michael's lips moved, silently chanting divine words. His handsome face turned cold and sinister, and the dark red cross-sword in his hand cleaved toward the Ancient Serpent.
The instant Samael instinctively received the blow, he felt some inevitable law crash into his body, making his blood churn, blocking his divine power, and sending him plummeting straight from the sky toward the sea.
Shit! That old bastard Marduk logged in! So that's what "he who is like God," Michael, means!
The Ancient Serpent noticed blazing white radiance suddenly blooming in Michael's eyes and immediately sensed that something was wrong, cursing inwardly.
Clearly, the sudden arrival of reinforcements had made the King of Kings wary. His fear and dread of the Ancient Serpent, his destined enemy, drove him to strike first and eliminate this immediate threat before more distortions could appear.
Die, you filthy serpent!
Marduk had forcibly pulled most of his consciousness out of the white colossus and was now using Michael's body to assassinate Samael. His eyes were cold and vicious, and the massive cross-sword in his hand ignited with ten-thousand-zhang flames of light. Like a gigantic cross, it smashed down toward the falling Ancient Serpent.
In that moment of crisis, everyone was entangled by the Angelic Legion surging around them like a tide. None of them could break free to help. They could only watch as the falling figure was gradually swallowed by the blazing cross-shaped pillar of light.
"In my name, call forth victory!"
At the critical instant, a clear, ringing shout shook the heavens. A long spear flashing with golden thunder flew in like a meteor and struck the weak point of the dark red cross-sword, causing the descending cross-shaped pillar of light to abruptly stall.
Immediately afterward, a silver-winged Pegasus carried a female war goddess clad in golden armor and holding the Aegis Shield out from the deep blue pillar of light on the sea. She caught the rebounding Spear of Victory and stood proudly in place.
Whoosh!
At the same time, a streak of gold-blue light skimmed low across the sea. A pair of pale arms adorned with jeweled ornaments scooped up the falling figure. Through masterful driving, she charged past the splashing waves at a dangerous angle almost grazing the cross-shaped pillar of light, drifting perfectly through the turn and avoiding the devastating blow.
"Good, good! The fat sheep is secured! Nice work, Maanna!"
Ishtar looked down at the most valuable thing in her arms, patted her mount, and smiled so broadly her eyes curved.
Why won't this thing die? Why does every perfect plan fall apart the moment it runs into this lowly serpent, spawning one uncontrollable mutation after another?
Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!
The radiant angel in the sky flew into a rage. The cross-shaped greatsword in his hand immediately shifted, sweeping across the sea like a maggot clinging to bone as it slashed toward the soaring Boat of Heaven, Maanna.
Hum!
But as the air trembled, a crimson storm stirred up by a stream of Ether light tore through space and cut off the blazing sword light.
"Well, well. If it isn't Mesopotamia's beaten dog. What's wrong? Finally worked up the courage to come out and bark again?"
At that moment, the King of Heroes, clad in golden skirt armor with crimson divine runes carved across his upper body, hovered in midair. He looked down at the radiant figure with a mocking sneer.
"Get lost!"
Marduk froze for a moment, intense humiliation surging in his chest. He turned toward Gilgamesh, whose taunt had landed perfectly, and roared in fury. The cross-shaped greatsword in his hand rose instinctively, ready to blast away this first wedge that had ruined his plans time and again before continuing his pursuit of the serpent.
"Heaven has its sea beyond reach, and earth has its prison. My heel is the wrath of the Underworld! Appear, Temple of Heat! You, stop right there! Kur Kigal Irkalla: The Bellows of Kur that Tramples upon Ekur!"
But just as the King of Kings moved, the sea beneath his feet trembled strangely. Pitch-black mountain rock surged out from the waves, closing inward around Marduk like a giant palm.
The Goddess of the Underworld stood upon the sea, driving her spear wheel deep beneath the water as she desperately stirred her divine might, restricting the monster's movement.
Bang!
Seeing the converging mountains crack under the impact, with blazing white light about to burst forth, Ere gritted her teeth and turned to warn the two on the Boat of Heaven behind her.
"Now!"
With the bond between sisters, Ishtar's expression shifted, and she immediately understood.
"Maanna, open the gate! Prepare to jump!"
At once, activated by divine might, the Boat of Heaven Maanna pulsed and trembled. Ripples visible to the naked eye spread through the space ahead, forming a spatial gate for the jump.
Boom!
Just as Ishtar charged into the spatial gate with Samael in her arms, the mountain prison formed by Ere's divine might exploded behind her, and the blazing white figure flew out once more.
However, when the smoke and dust cleared, Marduk's pupils contracted sharply. He suddenly found that the space around him was filled with golden ripples.
At the same time, chains shot out from within them at lightning speed, catching him off guard and binding his body.
As he struggled, the chains wrapped around him like snakes, tightening more and more around his limbs, suspending him like a spider caught in a web.
Anti-Purge Defense. Anti-Divinity special attack.
The traits of this Divine Construct perfectly countered his authority and Divinity.
"Enkidu!"
Marduk stared at the green-haired beauty who had leapt out of the sea and stood before Gilgamesh. Feeling the powerful restraint on his body, he looked unwillingly toward his destined enemy, who had finally vanished into the spatial gate and jumped a hundred li away, then ground his teeth in rage.
"Who gave you permission to address my dearest friend by name, mongrel?"
The King of Heroes looked down on him with a cold gaze. Behind him, the Gates of Babylon opened wide, and thousands of Noble Phantasm prototypes shot out like a torrential meteor shower, shattering the rings of light around the bound figure layer by layer and piercing into the radiant angel's body.
"You all deserve death!"
Failure after failure, obstruction after obstruction, drove Marduk into a fury. He immediately closed his eyes, abandoned Michael's vessel, and sank his consciousness back into the white colossus. Behind him, crown-like bands of light gathered and heated, while countless interwoven stellar rings focused and spun.
Canal of Creation, Reverse Light-Year!
Hundreds of millions of Ether light streams that could melt through the great Ages of Gods gathered and solidified, then suddenly fired.
Seeing that nightmare descend once more, everyone trapped in bitter battle against the angels and unable to break free felt their scalps go numb.
"Aaaaa!"
At that moment, the sea shook violently. Twelve deep blue pillars of light erupted from the abyss beneath the three bronze gates and three dark veils, like twelve enormous spears of light supporting heaven and earth. The deep blue Giant God gathered again and stood among them, singing in a high, resonant voice as twelve overlapping deep blue light screens formed before it.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Under the bombardment of blazing white bands of light as dense as a downpour, the deep blue light screens rippled with dangerous, beautiful waves. The entire planet shook violently, with tectonic plates shifting, rivers cutting off, and volcanoes erupting everywhere.
"What is this...?"
Samael looked at the deep blue Giant God, whose violently shaking form showed layers of light and shadow: mountains and rivers, the sun, moon, and stars, insects, fish, birds, beasts, humans, gods, and Elementals. His heartbeat suddenly quickened, and an inexplicable familiarity welled up inside him.
"Our secret weapon, prepared especially for this war and for the arrival of the Wandering Star!"
Athena rode her Pegasus and threw herself into Samael's arms, the corners of her lips curving in delight as she slowly revealed the long-laid plans of the Areopagus.
In truth, victory in the War of the Titans had not allowed Athena and the others to relax. Samael's disappearance had become an even deeper ache in their hearts.
These Divine Spirits, each astonishingly wise and calculating, had faintly sensed that the threat from the stars had not been fully eliminated. Because of that, they had been actively preparing for war all this time, ready to face the next unknown impact.
Long before the Persian Empire began its expansion, when the Underworld of Mesopotamia started suffering a drain of souls, the gods of Mesopotamia had already sensed something was wrong. On the advice of several strategists, including Gilgamesh and Athena, they had all relocated to the Areopagus, gathering their strength to avoid disaster.
The course of the Age of Gods that followed unfolded exactly as they had expected. Because of the links between them, wars of faith broke out one after another across the earth, and Greece, because of a certain rumor, became the target of every side.
But it was precisely that half-true rumor that gave the Greek gods a sudden idea.
If no individual Divine Spirit could stand against that white colossus, then the gods would become one and nurture an existence that surpassed the planet itself!
And so, the gods entered the Inner Sea of the Planet together. With the ley lines, they gathered spirit particles from the entire planet, contributed their divine power and Divinity without reservation, and worked together to nurture this secret weapon meant to oppose the white colossus.
"What... is her name?"
Samael suddenly came to his senses, shaken to the core. As though he had remembered something, he asked in a hoarse voice.
"You can call her Gaia, Mother Earth, Spirit of the Planet!"
Athena lifted her lovely face, her bright eyes filled with both pride and nostalgia.
The name came from that ancient grandmother of Greece, who gave her love to all things born into the world without distinction.
Likewise, this Spirit of the Planet bearing the name of the Earth Mother would become the cradle that protected all life.
Samael fell briefly into a daze, countless thoughts swirling through his mind.
"The Earth is alive!"
In the late 1960s, the British atmospheric scientist James Lovelock first proposed the Gaia Hypothesis around this idea. Its core premise was that Earth itself was a living organism, one with the ability to protect and regulate itself.
And in this world where gods and demons ran wild, the planet itself also possessed spirituality capable of self-evolution and self-preservation. It was known as the Counter Force. In other words, Gaia.
This was both the name of the ancient Greek Earth Mother and a future concept born of science and Magecraft, and it truly existed.
Yet ever since Samael's arrival, he had never once seen this so-called embodiment of the planet's Counter Force appear to deal with the many crises that had arisen.
Only now did the Ancient Serpent finally understand.
Gaia's birth required a certain trigger.
Just as apes, upon feeling pain and hunger, became aware of danger, conceived the idea of making tools, learned how to protect themselves, and evolved.
In the same way, only after sensing a threat of annihilation would the planet's own self-awareness be born and awakened.
And what had caused all of this was Velber's descent.
It was precisely the threat of the Harvest Star that had killed countless lives, causing the scattered spirituality of life and the gods' Divinity to flow back into the planet's Greater Source, giving birth to the planet's self-protective consciousness.
However, Samael had prevented the full erosion of the Wandering Star and saved the vast majority of the gods and lives that should have perished. Because of that, Gaia had lacked the nourishment she needed and could not be born on time.
But with Athena and the others entering the Inner Sea of the Planet, gathering the planet's Greater Source, and with the Velber Vanguard descending once again, Gaia had finally awakened.
Everything was coincidence.
And everything would become inevitability!
At that moment, as Velber and Gaia remained locked in stalemate, before anyone could recover, hundreds of thousands of angels rushed out through the gates of the Seven Heavens. They spread throughout the void in orderly ranks and sang hymns of praise.
"O God, Your mercy reaches the heavens.
O God, Your faithfulness reaches the firmament.
From Heaven, You show grace and save me.
You send Your mercy and truth to me.
O God, may You be exalted above the heavens.
O God, may Your glory rise above all the earth.
I will sing. I will praise.
I will glorify You.
I will give thanks to You among all peoples.
You are my refuge and my rock.
You are my shelter.
I will rejoice. I will sing.
I will worship You.
I will proclaim You among the nations!"
Dense blazing white radiance emerged like countless sparks from those luminous beings, gathering in the sky into river-like bands of light. Like a thousand streams returning to the sea, they surged into the white colossus.
In an instant, the shattered stellar ring reformed, the injuries on the white colossus's body vanished in the blink of an eye, and the deep blue light screen shattered all at once.
Compared to Velber, which had destroyed countless civilizations, the newborn Gaia was still far too fragile.
"Lord, arise and scatter Your enemies. Let those who hate You flee before You. Let them be driven away like smoke scattered by the wind. Let the wicked perish before the face of God, like wax melting before fire!"
Immediately afterward, the angels' praise rose into a resounding proclamation. Hundreds of Angelic Legions plunged down from the fissure in the sky like locusts covering the heavens, launching their assault on Greece and the sea.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
One burning sword of flame after another slashed down toward Tanbei Gorge and Thermopylae. Wherever the light passed, stone shattered, grass and trees burned, and the land was reduced to scorched earth.
Whether they were the terrified, praying tribes of the Persian Empire, the remaining Greek coalition soldiers holding desperately behind their fortifications, or the auxiliary troops and wounded being evacuated by both sides, all of them dissolved within that blazing light and flame.
Countless scattered spirit particles drifted into the air and were gathered behind the blazing white throne within the fissure. Then the solidified bands of light were cast down again, spreading ripples outward and further expanding the range of the Sea of Void.
Within the area covered by the Great Hollow, colossal disaster eagles, Shira, formed from birds that had swollen and mutated, swept across the sky, stirring up burning winds that scoured the surface of the earth.
The sea boiled, and Leviathan, the Serpent of the Deep, was born from the frenzied slaughter of sea beasts. Roaring, it charged toward the deep-sea fleet, smashing ships of steel and divine wood alike before dragging them into the sea to be torn apart and devoured.
The crustal layers beneath the seabed churned. One war beast after another, Behemoth, opened its massive jaws and chewed fallen islands and mountains into dust, flesh and blood of plants and animals included, filling stomachs that could never be satisfied.
At the same time, thick black columns of smoke rose from the cracks in the earth. Amid the repulsive buzzing of wings, the Abaddon Locust Horde, rekindled from the ashes, rushed out of the deep pits and flew toward every place where living creatures gathered, spreading plague, famine, and death.
Burning plants and shattered beasts were decomposed into the most basic Ether under the blazing white radiance. The vitality of the earth was plundered inch by inch, and even the stars lost their light.
At that moment, after one bitter battle after another, Samael and the others were already spent. Facing an Angelic Legion and an army of Magical Beasts outnumbering them dozens to one, they had no strength to break free from the naval battle and stop the invasion of Greece's surface.
Corinth, Thebes, Athens, Sparta, Thessaly, and even distant Macedon had all been drained of their elites by the front line. Under the assault of the monsters, they fell into desperate battles.
For a time, across all of Greece, as the apocalypse descended, alarm bells rang and smoke rose everywhere.
The world, and all things within it, were being broken down and reconstructed according to the order of Heaven, ushering in a new era.
"Aaaaa!"
At that moment, upon the Sea of Oceanus, from beneath the great vortex of the three bronze gates and three dark veils, a high and resonant holy chant burst forth. A gray light screen that washed away all color spread outward in every direction.
Wherever it passed, the warped and twisted creations collapsed one after another, returning to Ether and scattering with the wind. The world returned to the quiet beauty of heaven and earth newly opened, of all things in their first birth.
Nega-Genesis!
Mother Goddess...
At that moment, the sea surged, and an elegant, magnificent dragon body appeared before his eyes, along with that emerald-green Touch of the Earth. Thoughts surged through Samael's mind like a tide, his heart pounded, and a glimmer of tears welled at the corner of his eye.
After a thousand years, finally, finally, they met again...