At the same time, the gods and the angelic army were locked in a frenzied slaughter across the Sea of Oceanus, the battle raging with extraordinary intensity.
"Its source is light, its might is thunder, its form is a sword. Upon all living things, bestow the blade of judgment. Holy Light Sealing Sword!"
Hundreds of Archangels raised their gem-inlaid ring scepters high and chanted solemnly. Radiance gathered before them, forming a hundred-meter blazing white sword hanging upside down in the air, which slashed toward the two figures ahead.
"Behold my brilliance! Hear the applause of ten thousand thunders! Hold the glory of the ruler in your hearts!
Bloom like a flower...
Let the curtain rise! The Golden Theater!!
"To dance and scatter is to become splendor, to cleave and cut is to become stars! This is supreme beauty..."
At that moment, a magnificent golden theater rose from the chaotic sea. Panpipes and harp-like instruments surrounded it, and at the center of the stage, the Rose Emperor stood with her sword planted before her and cried out in a bright, commanding voice.
In an instant, her high-pitched voice became a powerful shockwave. Whirling rose petals, sharp as countless tiny blades, gathered into a crimson storm and swept forward, slicing the Archangels and the falling blade of light into fragments.
"Professors, go on ahead. Leave this to me!"
Clad in divine ceremonial attire, the Rose Emperor faced the indistinct ranks of angels around her with rare seriousness. Then she took a deep breath, thoughts racing through her mind.
With this many spectators, what should she perform to keep them here?
Umu! She would go with what she did best!
"Light~ of~ Ro~me~, my name is Ne~ro~~♪! Praise the Emperor~♪ blooming like a rose~♪, this is your~♪ Venus~♪!"
"Nero's Happy Song" rang out, accompanied by the panpipes and harp-like instruments vibrating around the golden stage. Along with its off-key notes, it stirred up a biting Ether storm that spread in every direction.
Even Samael, a hundred li away, staggered and nearly plunged into the sea.
Hold on, are you sure that is Venus singing and not Mars roaring?!
The Ancient Serpent looked back, his face dark.
Within a hundred li, humanoid creatures seemed to hear the whispers of ancient gods and the murmurs of evil spirits. One by one, they were struck as if by lightning. Their bodies went rigid, the whites of their eyes swallowed their pupils, their muscles and faces twitched uncontrollably, and with their mouths crooked and eyes rolled back, they plunged headfirst into the sea.
The truly terrifying part was that this thing did not distinguish friend from foe. In the blink of an eye, it cleared out a vast stretch of airspace.
This was not fucking singing. It was murder!
Still, it was rare for that girl to draw out the power of the True Form Machine God to such an extent. On the battlefield, she was practically a nuclear weapon.
"Amazons!"
Speak of the devil. Above the Deep Sea Fleet, thousands of tall, athletic Amazon warriors, urged on by Penthesilea's Roar of the War God, drew their bows and loosed their arrows, shooting down the angels encircling Samael and Athena from every direction.
"Rise from the sea, my citadel. Never shall it fall! Sea God's Protection!"
"Pass through the seven gates, cast off the burdens of life, and return to the tranquility of death!"
Immediately afterward, old acquaintances Poseidon and Hades, leading the ocean pantheon and the underworld pantheon, opened a path for the two at the front while holding back the angelic army nearby.
"Scorpio's Arrow!"
"Forewarned, wisdom's clear sight!"
"O wise and radiant Holy Lord, I pray here. Let my arrow pierce the stars!"
"I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die! A Tale of the Night, A Hero's Ballad!"
At the same time, beyond their established support, the Sage Chiron, the prophet Prometheus, the Meteor Legion led by Arash, and even the arcane mages who had defected to Scheherazade all lent their strength.
When the nest overturned, how could any egg remain whole?
At that moment, the instinct to survive drove them to set aside their prejudices and place their wager on the most reliable side.
Found it!
Under layer after layer of cover, Samael and Athena were about to break through the angelic army's encirclement in a flash and reach the light-bubble embryo floating on the sea.
"Life is something that ends. Life is a pilgrimage that accumulates suffering! None of it has meaning, so drown in despair, ahahahaha!"
However, the white colossus standing upon the sea laughed coldly, like a wildcat pinning a mouse by the tail and letting it struggle. Its arm swept down fiercely toward the two ants trying in vain to resist, crashing down with force enough to blot out the sky.
Not good. The Star Spirit!
Samael and Athena had intended to dodge, but that monster, far too skilled at playing with people's hearts, maliciously covered the Star Spirit embryo floating on the sea beneath its palm.
Boom!
Amid a terrifying explosion, the sea surface was forcibly pressed down by a hundred meters. The golden patterns wrapped around that calm patch of sea like an eggshell shook violently, flickering between bright and dim as they caved inward at terrifying speed.
Hold! Hold on!
The Book of Fate before Samael and the Aegis Shield in Athena's hands groaned under the overwhelming strain. The divine inscriptions carved upon them peeled away and vanished piece by piece.
Yet under that unparalleled divine might, cracks spread across the light membrane in every direction. Beneath the blazing white giant hand, veins bulged on the foreheads of the two, their bodies nearly bending double. Even after forcing out every bit of divine power they had, they could barely hold on.
Give them hope, then let them taste the despair born from it.
Joy. This was life's supreme joy.
Then next, it would crush their hope inch by inch.
The light and shadow within the white colossus's right eye looked down at the two ants trapped beneath its palm. A savage, unrestrained grin curled across its lips, its expression uncontrollably mad, and even the giant's face took on a sinister smile.
Clearly, Velber's assimilation with this King of Kings was influencing them both.
Crack...
At that moment, the colossal palm that seemed to hold up the sky pressed down inch by inch, like a cat toying with a mouse. The golden light membrane contracted rapidly, covered in clear cracks.
Soon, the barrier protecting the two of them and the Star Spirit embryo beneath them had reached its limit.
The nearby gods were all trapped in enemy encirclements. Facing an angelic army several times their number, they simply could not reach them.
"You ants, this is the end! Hahaha, hahahahahahahahahaha!"
Amid the blazing white figure's wild laughter, the gods too far away to help could only watch as the flickering light membrane was completely crushed, and that sky-supporting giant palm pressed down with cruel resolve.
The world was burning. The sky was tearing apart. The earth was sinking. Cities were collapsing.
Perhaps this was the end of humanity, of the gods, and even of the entire planet...
Despair welled up in the hearts of the combatants.
"Hum!"
At the critical instant, amid the surging sea mist, the Ether vibrated with a sharp thrill, and a solemn bell tolled.
In a flash, a dark edge cut forth in silence, slicing straight through space and severing the mortal world.
Pfft!
A figure wearing a pale skull mask crossed the sea without a sound and flashed past. The white colossus's right hand was instantly shaved away by more than half.
Old Man!
As that sky-supporting palm shattered a corner of the heavens, Samael's pupils shrank sharply, and the relief of surviving disaster flashed through them. The pressure on him receded like a tide. He immediately picked up the blue-and-white luminous embryo, grabbed Athena, who was holding the shield, and tried to withdraw at once.
"Don't even think about it!"
The white colossus roared in fury. The severed fingers and palm actually forced away the death that had been bestowed on them, instantly gathering the scattered spirit particles and reconstructing the original limb. Then the vast fingers and palm pressed down once more with thunderous force.
Caught off guard, the three of them immediately sank into the quagmire of the surging Ether tide, their bodies stiff as wood.
"This king..."
However, the white colossus's dormant left eye suddenly flared with wavering red light. Its body froze, and the descending fingers and palm abruptly stopped.
"Sun-Crowned, Sword of Flame!"
"Spear of Victory!"
In an instant, Samael and Athena made the same choice without a word. They gathered the last of the divine power within them, poured it all into their Divine Constructs, and launched a devastating strike at the falling arm.
"Boom!"
In a flash, the towering arm of light shattered from the base. Thrown off by the sudden loss of control and the force of the impact, the white colossus staggered and toppled backward.
"Sing. Praise. Chant."
At the same time, the blue-and-white light membrane in Samael's arms shattered. A pair of eyes reflecting the planet's azure suddenly opened, and her lips moved.
"Ancient Mystery (Myster), be destroyed.
Let that sweet enigma return entirely to nothing.
Holy Lance, cast off!"
Amid the obscure, profound chant, jade-like translucent fingers reached forward and suddenly curled into a grasp.
The next moment, the Sea of Oceanus boiled violently, and the earth rumbled and shook. The twelve Spears of the End that maintained the World Wall shot forth like spiral pillars of light, crossing as they pierced through the white colossus's limbs, head and neck, stellar ring, abdomen, and chest, pinning it to the sea surface.
"Restraints, deploy!"
In an instant, the twelve Spears of the End pulsed and resonated with one another. A golden-blue pillar of light like a ring-shaped prison shot into the sky, and dense interwoven Chants completely sealed the terrifying white colossus within the light membrane.