With powerful reinforcements from the pantheons of Maya, Areopagus, Olympus, Scandinavian mythology, and Mesopotamia joining the battle, the angelic army's defenses were breached layer by layer, leaving the main body of the white colossus exposed before the gods.
"By the Runes, it shall never miss. Gungnir!"
Mounted atop his eight-legged steed, Odin solemnly kissed the Eternal Spear in his hand. Then, pulsing with divine might, he hurled the Divine Construct like a shooting star. It pierced through the angels blocking its path and drove straight into the white colossus's chest. Scattered Runes erupted with a thunderous roar, blasting a horrifying hole through the monster's body.
Gungnir, also known as the Spear of the Main God or the Great God's Proclamation, was forged from a branch of the World Tree. It was Odin's signature weapon and possessed the causality of "once thrown, it must hit."
In other words, "throwing" was the cause, and "hitting" was the effect. The process could not be reversed.
Once Gungnir locked onto a target and an oath was sworn upon its tip, it would inevitably pursue the enemy until its mission was fulfilled.
The only way to break it was to meet it with raw force, forcibly catching the thrown spear and grinding away all of its power.
The crimson magic spear in Scáthach's hand, made from the bones of a sea beast, and the Gáe Bolg wielded by the future great hero of Ireland, Chulainn, possessed similar sure-hit properties. In theory, both were derivatives of [Great God's Proclamation].
"Sun-Crowned, Sword of Flames!"
"Enuma Elish, Star of Creation!"
"O Mortals, Bind the Demon Gods!"
"Spear of Victory!"
"Judgment of the Starry Sky!"
"Forced Seal, Temple of Ten Thousand Demon Gods!"
"The Great Slaughter Realm, Rending the Eternal World!"
"Aaaaa!"
As Odin hurled his spear, the gods unleashed their strongest attacks one after another, striking at the white colossus standing upon the Sea of Nothingness.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
In an instant, the brilliant arcs of light spread across the sky converged into a frenzied torrent of Ether, sweeping toward Marduk from every direction. Violent explosions rang out one after another, deafening to the ear, while the center blazed as brightly as stellar fusion.
How was it?
The gods stared from afar, so tense they unconsciously held their breath.
As the surging seawater lost its momentum and crashed back down, what appeared before them was the colossal god's battered, hole-riddled body. The gold-blue stellar core belonging to Velber flickered within the surrounding bands of light.
Hum!
At the same time, Gaia, the Spirit of the Earth standing upon the sea, brought her crossed hands down. The earth and sea trembled, and violent Ether gathered in dense, cirrus-like waves, surging madly together.
Holy Lance, cast off!
Then, from the Sea of Oceanus, from one corner of the barrier shielding the world, a spiraling spear of light rose from the ground.
Rumble...
The moment a crack appeared in that corner of the world, the Sea of Nothingness, which had been held back at the Egyptian front, began to boil and surge, raising a tide vast enough to swallow the heavens and earth.
"Blasphemy! Blasphemy! Blasphemy!"
More than that, the frenzied tide of Ether gathering between heaven and earth made the angelic army sense that something was wrong. They roared in fury and, without fear of death, rallied around the waiting white colossus.
"Hold them back!"
The gods also realized this was a heaven-sent opportunity. They gathered in force, meeting the maddened angelic legions head-on and enduring the pressure to tear open a path leading straight to the white colossus for Gaia, the Star Spirit behind them.
For a time, the battle turned gruesome.
Headless angels, broken-winged nymphs, armless giants, crumbling heroes, and fallen Divine Spirits plummeted from the multicolored sky. A dense, unending rain of golden-red blood fell, and the entire battlefield was strewn with corpses and death.
"Beyond the sky, far across the earth, it is the storm's anchor that rends the heavens and binds them to the ground. It is the wedge of light standing at the end of the world."
At that moment, a solemn, deep chant reverberated from within the Star Spirit's chest.
At the same time, specks of light drifted out from plants, animals, humans, gods, mountains, rivers, oceans, and the sky, forming streams of radiance that surged madly into the dazzling spiral spear of light.
Shining forth. The Spear of the End!
In an instant, the spiraling pillar of light woven from countless streams was compressed to its limit between Gaia's luminous hands, then shot forward like thunder tearing through space and time.
The next moment, the turbid waves stirred up by the Sea of Void were ripped apart in an instant. The spiral spear of light drove straight through the battlefield along the path carved open by the gods and struck the trembling wandering planet core with flawless precision.
BOOM!
Blazing golden light erupted into an Ether storm that covered the sky. Any creature that came near the turbulence was torn apart as if by lingering execution, its flesh and even its cells being disintegrated one by one.
At the sight, the gods' expressions changed. They could only pull back for the moment and avoid its edge.
Did it succeed?
At that moment, the aura at the center of the explosion had nearly vanished. The crown-like band of light in the sky lost cohesion and began to split apart.
The gods' excitement and elation were plain to see.
But streams of blazing white light extended through the air like vines, forming a radiant tree that seemed to grow upside down. Its intricate roots spread upward into the Seventh Heaven, while its lushest branches aimed directly at the white colossus riddled with wounds.
At the same time, the Gates of Heaven opened once more. One luminous being after another within the Seven Heavens began to chant solemnly.
"Be filled, be filled, be filled, be filled.
The cycle repeats, and five comes next.
The wind descends from heaven, blocked off by walls.
The gates open in all directions, and all are sealed.
Its source is light, its might is flame, and our Lord is Jehovah, King of Kings!
From the Kingdom all things return to the One, and at the three-forked road toward the Crown, ascend above the gods.
Glory, majesty, power, authority, and dominion all belong to Him, from before all ages, to now, and forevermore!"
Specks of light surged out from within the Seven Heavens, gathering toward the top of the inverted tree within the Wheel of Light.
Ten solid rings of light, like crystalline fruits among the branches and leaves, nurtured infinite radiance. Obscure Hebrew divine script could faintly be seen upon them.
"It's the Tree of Kabbalah! He'll regenerate soon!"
Just then, a staggering figure stood up from Tanbei Canyon, which was littered with craters and corpses. His gaze landed on the inverted tree in midair as it began to bear radiant fruit, and he shouted the warning through gritted teeth.
The Tree of Kabbalah?
Samael suddenly understood, instantly recalling the records concerning this thing in Hebrew mythology.
According to Genesis 2:8-9 of the Old Testament, the Tree of Life was located at the center of the Garden of Eden. Kabbalah used this to describe the so-called path to God, usually called "Jehovah" or "the Divine Name" in Kabbalistic texts, or the manner in which God created the world from nothing.
Its Mystery philosophy used the "Tree of Life" growing in Heaven to symbolize the universe as a whole. Because the symbol resembled a tree growing upside down, it was also known as the "Inverted Tree."
The Tree of Life could generally be divided into basic structures such as three pillars, ten sephirot, four worlds, and twenty-two paths.
The most important ten sephirot, in order, were [Crown], [Wisdom], [Understanding], [Mercy], [Strictness], [Beauty], [Victory], [Glory], [Foundation], and [Kingdom].
Among them, humanity generally resided within [Kingdom], while [Crown] connected to the greater cosmos above humanity's head, signifying the source of creation, pure existence, and the wellspring of life force.
This esoteric concept corresponded to the Seven Heavens.
From the looks of it, these angels were clearly using the Thaumaturgical Foundation of the Tree of Life, drawing on the power of the Seven Heavens to channel pure life essence into the body of the white colossus, thereby reviving and strengthening this god from beyond the heavens.
They had to stop them!
Realizing the angels' goal, the gods stirred their divine might and charged forward, intent on destroying the Mystery ritual of the Tree of Kabbalah.
"Blasphemy! Blasphemy! Blasphemy!"
Furious cries came from every direction. The high-ranking angels guarding the Tree of Kabbalah's three pillars, seven branches and seven roots, seven days and seven nights, ten sephirot, and twenty-two paths led their respective legions and swarmed out from the open Gates of Heaven, seeking to purge this world's impurities for the descent of Heaven.
As the upper three ranks of angels, the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Throne Angels now possessed power nearly equal to that of a Main God. Moreover, as the Sea of Void expanded and Heaven continued to descend, they kept growing stronger.
Together with the densely packed luminous beings and the newly born angels constantly rushing out of the Gates of Heaven, their numbers reached the millions, plunging the gods into a bitter struggle.
Worse still, the Holy Pool and the Gates of Heaven were practically a Fountain of Resurrection and a mobile teleportation gate, constantly replenishing their forces.
After several rounds of fierce battle, the angelic army's numbers had barely diminished.
Samael noticed this, and his brow immediately tightened as a headache came on.
That bastard Marduk had learned all the wrong lessons. Before the Commencement of War, he had worked hard to recruit followers, stockpile resources, and use fragments of the wandering planet to create a whole army of helpers.
Damn it, the world had changed. So had people's hearts!
Wasn't a righteous group beatdown supposed to be something only the good guys got to do? Since when did the villains learn to gang up on people too?
Seeing the path to a collective beatdown blocked by the host of angels, Samael's face darkened. He wanted nothing more than to skewer these bizarre angels like roast chickens.
Worse still, now that the spear of light had been pulled free, the artificial wall of the world that had cut off the Sea of Nothingness's corrosion began to collapse once more.
The sky, which had only just been mended and stabilized, tore open again.
Luminous creatures of every size and bizarre shape surged into the Peloponnesus, carrying out extermination orders against the living beings on the ground and harvesting their spirit particles.
"Ahura Mazda, protect us. No, no!"
"You are servants of the Lord! My faith can withstand this trial! Stop, stop! Ah..."
"I'll take you bastards down with me!"
In an instant, in the front-line Tanbei Canyon and Thermopylae Pass, those who hid, those who resisted, and those who prayed, whether they came from Persia or had grown up in Greece or Rome, all became prey for these luminous beings.
Screams and wails rang out from every direction. One soldier after another was found and engulfed in blazing white flames, their bodies and souls violently burning away until they were completely broken down into pure spirit particles, becoming fuel that made the holy light burn even brighter.
"Holy! Holy! Holy!"
Several angels clad in golden-red armor, armed with spears, shields, and scythes, caught the scent of the living. Chanting words of praise, they charged into a cave in formation.
"Boom!"
But a violent blast rang out immediately after, and several figures were sent flying backward from inside the cave like cannonballs, smashing into the rock wall ahead.
Their ornate armor shattered, revealing blurred bodies beneath that seemed to flow with light. The wings on either side had already been broken, and golden-red blood dripped steadily onto the ground.
"Holy... Holy... Ho..."
Yet even so, those monsters continued chanting praise to the Lord in broken voices. Their shattered bodies healed at a visible speed, and their outer armor reassembled along with them.
The two Force Angels, who looked like giant infants wearing armor and wielding enormous axes, recovered the fastest. They were already about to tear themselves free from the rock wall, intending to resume the annihilation of all life nearby.
Boom!
In that instant, layers of sonic booms erupted. A purple-and-white figure shot toward the rock wall like lightning, and a pair of pale hands seized the feathered necks of the two monstrous angels.
"Chattering nonstop. You're so damn loud!"
With a cold snort, those pale hands used unbelievable brute force to rip the two Force Angels out of the rock, then slammed them viciously into the ground.
Dust billowed up, and spiderweb cracks spread outward across the nearby ground.
At the center of the impact, the two nearly shattered battle weapons were buried deep in the crater they had made. One of them, left with only half a head, stared straight at the figure in the dust with its single eye, haltingly repeating its heavenly mandate.
"The Creator... shall... descend. The world... shall... be re..."
"Bang!"
But before it could finish, a raised right foot came crashing down, crushing that thing, which was somewhere between metal, light, and flesh, into a pile of mush.
"Hmph, false god!"
The violet-haired Holy Maiden snorted and clapped her hands, then looked around before calling into the cave.
"All right, it's safe outside for now!"
After a rustle of movement, several hundred people cautiously emerged from the cave, where Concealment Chants had been carved into the stone.
There were Persians, Romans, Greeks, and even Egyptians scattered from the Sun Ship among them.
"This place has been exposed. We need to move now!"
At the violet-haired Holy Maiden's stern warning, the survivors began helping one another. The old held onto the young, the able-bodied supported the wounded, and the women watched over the children. Warriors, Maguses, and Heroic Spirits spread out in every direction, scouting and keeping watch as they avoided the angels roaming overhead in search of targets.
The end of the world had arrived. This was a catastrophe shared by humanity and the gods, and nationality or allegiance no longer mattered.
The task the Tower of Babel had failed to accomplish had, absurdly enough, been achieved by disaster.
Martha turned to look at the tower's remains and shook her head with a sigh.
"That doesn't make sense..."
While the violet-haired Holy Maiden coordinated the survivors' relocation, the green-haired Shepherd glanced at Martha, then raised a hand to rub his chin. He circled the angel's remains on the ground, studying them again and again as he muttered under his breath.
"What doesn't make sense?"
"He means that a saintly apostle with faith as firm as yours should have broken down after seeing the truth in front of you. So why did you hit these noble angels so hard?"
As Queen of Sheba used Magecraft to erase traces and conceal everyone's presence, she voiced King David's confusion for him.
"You understand me perfectly! As expected of the wise queen even Solomon praised. That brat really is lucky."
Even as King David praised her, a trace of sourness and jealousy toward a certain someone slipped into his tone.
Then, while helping move the wounded, the highly curious King David could not help asking further.
"By the way, you weren't so shaken that you changed faiths, were you?"
"My faith in the Lord has never wavered. He has always been the embodiment of humanity's hope and love, and He will surely extend His hand to those who suffer!"
Martha answered solemnly without the slightest hesitation, her gaze clear.
"That thing out at sea has nothing to do with what you're talking about, does it?"
King David pointed toward the white colossus that had temporarily stopped functioning, his expression strange.
"That is only a false god using the Lord's name to commit evil. The true Lord has always been here..."
The violet-haired Holy Maiden clutched the cross and the broken Star of David, pressing them to her chest as she murmured with extraordinary conviction.
In that moment, King David and Queen of Sheba seemed to understand everything from those clear eyes.
What Her Highness the Holy Maiden believed in was not a false idol or some fixed and arrogant deity, but the embodiment of humanity's beautiful wishes and will.
God could influence the people under His rule, and people could also shape the God within their hearts.
The Lord who saved the Jewish people still existed, and would forever exist in their hearts.
At that moment, King David and Queen of Sheba, who had also been somewhat lost amid the repeated upheavals, suddenly felt their minds clear. They exchanged a smile and shook their heads helplessly.
They had lived for so long, yet they were not as clear-sighted as Her Highness the Holy Maiden.
"You two, stop spacing out! We picked up a distress signal over there. Come help!"
Not far away, Martha's shout instantly pulled the two out of their thoughts.
"Coming, Holy Maiden."
This response carried genuine respect. The two heroes shook their heads with a soft laugh, gathered their thoughts, and set off at once.
"Aria!"
"Eyes of the Elementals, Wisdom of the Demon Gods!"
"Prepare yourself, Iron Fist Divine Judgment!"
Immediately afterward, chants of Divine Words mixed with the explosive roar of Ether, detonating one after another as dust and smoke surged up ahead.
Looking down from high above the void, one could clearly see that after enduring several rounds of apocalyptic judgment, some people trembled in the ruins, while others rose from the wreckage, gathered teams, and used the terrain and coordination to wage a grinding struggle against the angelic legions.
The smoke of war rising over the Greek land was only a ripple beneath a great wave.
At that moment, the Sea of Oceanus, the main battlefield, was stirring up one towering wave after another.
Ether flowed like a river of light, irreversibly pouring back into the white colossus's body. As the sea mist dispersed, the completely undamaged Velber Star Core trembled and pulsed, while the bands of light wove back together into the shape of a crown.
It could not be pierced!
That thing could not be destroyed, not even by the Spear of the End!
The gods sensed the divine might over the sea rising by the second. Their expressions changed drastically, their hearts sank to the bottom, and an overwhelming pressure swept over them.
The Holy Lance "Rhongomyniad," the spiral spear of light in Gaia's hand, was the "Tower at the End" that anchored the world's surface. It possessed powerful sealing, piercing, and offensive abilities.
In theory, its power surpassed that of ordinary Divine Constructs.
Yet even this "Anchor of the Gale," capable of piercing the stars, could not bore through Velber's Star Core, which could cross the void.
That meant their current means were simply incapable of destroying the white colossus upon the sea.
The stalemate before them plunged the gods into a brutal struggle.
The angelic legions knew no fatigue, no fear, and no regard for death as they launched frontal charge after frontal charge.
To avoid a complete collapse of the line, Samael and the others, despite growing visibly exhausted, could only grit their teeth and endure, standing firm at the front like reefs splitting the waves.
"Flame of Destiny!"
"I am the Thunder that Shatters the Stars!"
"Great God's Proclamation!"
"Nega-Genesis!"
"Pierce the Immortality of the Rakshasa!"
"Curse Arts: Black Sky Abyss!"
"Terminus Protection, Restraint Unbound!"
The gods, together with Gaia, the Spirit of the Stars, repelled great waves of angels again and again, then repeatedly launched their strongest attacks at the flickering Star Core.
However, even after repeated bombardment, Velber's Star Core remained indestructible. Instead, the crown of light around it absorbed the scattered Ether and became even more solid.
Hum!
Amid an eerie vibration that made the scalp crawl, the white colossus completed the regeneration of its body. It opened its eyes, descended once more as sovereign, and laughed coldly and wildly.
"Spirit particle convergence, divine might loaded. The world has already rotted. Destruction is rebirth! You insects parasitizing this planet, taste the power of Genesis Light! Ain-Soph Aur (Infinite Light)!"
Instantly, the Tree of Kabbalah hanging upside down above the white colossus began to rotate and gather, its three energy rings gradually merging into one.
Among the ten sephirot of the Tree of Kabbalah, beyond the first Sephirah, [Crown], one encountered three layers of energy rings.
The first layer was "Nothingness (Ain)."
Next came "Infinity (Ain-Soph)."
And the final layer was "Infinite Light (Ain-Soph Aur)."
This represented the origin of the supremely divine and sacred, the beginning where all things lay silent.
And for new life to be born, destruction had to come first.
As the low murmur of Divine Words echoed, a ray of light like the first brilliance piercing primordial chaos shot out from the Crown's ring. Wherever it passed, space was torn open into long, narrow rifts.
Angels, gods, humans, and Heroic Spirits alike melted away in that terrifying radiance. All things were annihilated by it.
Crack!
Amid a tremor like a mirror shattering, the twelve Spears of the End that pinned the surface in place and maintained the world wall collapsed with it.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Immediately afterward, the incoming Infinite Light split midway into billions upon billions of beams, streaking across the sky like a meteor swarm dragging long tails of flame.
As those meteors tore through the air, the dense, boiling Ether bloomed with the same dazzling light across the skies of different Ages of Gods.
Countless lives raised their heads.
They gazed up at the foreign comet racing across the heavens.
From the planet, the sight of the sky seemed frozen like an oil painting.
Life looked upon that breathtaking scene and mistook that moment for the eternity of the universe, sighing in awe at how moving those teardrop-like meteors were.
Yet those tiny, lowly beings did not know that these were the fragments of stars that would soon end their world.
The next moment, one luminous celestial body after another fell toward every corner of the world, triggering terrifying explosions that nearly overturned the entire surface.
The surface was burning.
The world was burning.
Everything that could be called "civilization" was trampled and destroyed.
Beings with intelligence were not even allowed the status of servitude.
Countless motes of stardust, like phosphorescent powder, scattered from that mass of starlight. The contaminated animals suffered horribly, their bodies deforming and swelling into gigantic shapes before collapsing and self-destructing amid endless destruction and release.
On the Sea of Oceanus, the gods who had survived the catastrophe stared blankly ahead.
And the blue-and-white Star Spirit, who had taken the brunt of the attack, had been pierced through in the instant of that clash. A hideous hole melted open in its chest, and its entire body drifted apart and disintegrated like sand made of light.
At the same time, a blue-and-white orb of light containing a slender, curled human figure fell toward the sea like an embryo cast out from its mother's body.