Facing the distant black figure twisting and roaring with a sound that seemed to tear heaven and earth apart, caught in the dual constraints of gravity and law...
Phaethon calmly raised his right hand. His five fingers, like lotus petals beginning to unfurl in the gloom, slowly opened forward—
A silent decree, or perhaps a final proclamation.
The next moment—
Indescribable, ultimate radiance erupted!
This was no ordinary light, but destruction accelerated to the limit of physical law!
A colossal blade spanning heaven and earth—the "Judgment of Shamash"—materialized out of thin air!
Moving at the absolute divine speed of Mach 300, like an extension of divine will, it ruthlessly pierced and plowed through the entire battlefield!
No sound could keep pace with its velocity! What people saw first was an ultimate, all-consuming flood of light.
It was like the whip of God's judgment, sweeping across the world in an absolute straight line! Where it passed, all matter vaporized, structures utterly disintegrated!
Only then did the visible, ring-shaped shockwave clouds, violently displaced by the terrifying energy, explode outward in successive circles, like ever-blooming flowers of death!
The seismic waves even made the defenders on the distant city walls feel their organs shifting within them!
And in the sky above, the oppressive cloud layer, thick enough to seem capable of crushing the entire world, was—under this single strike—torn apart as easily, brutally, and completely as fragile black silk, leaving a massive rift several kilometers wide!
Beyond the tear, the long-absent, blindingly brilliant heavenly fire, like a stage spotlight, abruptly poured down!
It not only cleared vast swathes of the Black Tide spawns... But also illuminated the countless bloodied, stunned faces of the warriors below the walls!
Yet this... was merely the beginning of the clearing!
The「Passage」Authority allowed Phaethon's figure to rise gently into suspension. Within the depths of his pupils, complex, ancient sigils manifested.
He whispered softly, his words themselves becoming law, his voice calm yet brimming with world-altering will:
"「Ocean」."
"「Earth」."
As the words were spoken, so the law followed!
On the battlefield's left flank, the solid earth instantly transformed into a roaring, furious sea! But what churned was not water—it was soil and stone!
Hundreds-of-meters-high tidal waves of earth and rock, like awakened behemoths, surged upward with overwhelming, destructive force! Within the waves, massive boulders, mobilized by the Authority's power, could even be seen!
On the battlefield's right flank, all moisture in the air was instantly drawn out—even the raindrops that had moments earlier reversed their course toward the sky!
This moisture frantically condensed and compressed in the air, transforming into another hundreds-of-meters-high, colossal wave churning with destructive energy! Within the crest, raging currents collided violently, producing thunderous roars!
The ultimate might of earth and water, representing this planet's most primal and powerful forces.
Under Phaethon's will, they now became two walls of infinite height and destruction!
In a spectacle both magnificent and utterly violent, the two colossal walls ignored all insignificant obstacles in their path, converging upon the central area—already largely cleared by the heavenly fire and the Judgment of Shamash—where the remaining Black Tide spawns were packed.
They closed in—hard, decisively—upon them!
**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!**
This time, the roar surpassed the limits of hearing, reaching a level that shock the soul! Even sound itself seemed swallowed by the spectacle of annihilation!
Millions upon millions of Black Tide spawns, caught in the pincer of this heaven-and-earth cataclysm, had no chance to utter a final shriek. In an instant, they were ground, shattered, utterly annihilated into nothingness!
The light brought by the descending heavenly fire fell through the shattered clouds, illuminating the scene below.
The churning sea of earth and stone and the surging ocean currents slowly calmed and receded.
All that remained was an impossibly vast, utterly "cleansed" expanse of earth, empty and barren.
Phaethon stood silently at the center of light and dust, his gaze cold as eternal, unmelting ice, looking down upon the abruptly silenced battlefield.
From this moment—
The battlefield belonged to Phaethon!
...
"...Deliverer."
At first, it was just a trembling, disbelieving whisper, as if afraid to disturb the sudden miracle.
Then, like a stone cast into still waters, the whisper instantly stirred a tidal wave!
"Deliverer!!" A second soldier roared with all his might, his face a mixture of rain, tears, and blood.
"Deliverer!!!"
"Long live the Deliverer!!!"
The cheers were no longer mere sound; they transformed into a tangible tsunami, sweeping down from the city walls, scattering the lingering battle haze and scent of blood.
They even momentarily overpowered the distant growls of the remaining Black Tide.
Every soldier who had survived the ordeal looked toward the figure suspended in the sky, using their shouts to vent fear, ecstasy, and near-worshipful gratitude.
Phaethon slowly descended onto the scorched, glassy ground.
The rift in the clouds torn open by his power still poured forth blinding heavenly fire, dyeing his white hair and turning his deep blue eyes the hue of burning stars—a blazing crimson.
He took a deep breath of the air, a mixture of scorched earth and fresh rain, his gaze slowly sweeping over everything before him:
Broken weapons in the mud, the still-warm bodies of fallen comrades, the indelible exhaustion and scars on the soldiers' faces, and the eyes—reignited and blazing brilliantly amidst the despair.
His voice rose. It was not loud, yet strangely clear, piercing through the battlefield. It carried a calm, undeniable force, striking directly upon the soul of every listener:
"I heard your cries. 'Deliverer'... that is an immensely heavy title."
"Upon this shattered land, ravaged by the Black Tide, soaked in blood, I, Phaethon, make this promise to you here—we WILL defeat the Black Tide!"
He paused, letting the weight of his words sink into every heart.
In the distance, the flames of the heavenly fire gradually died down. The crimson in Phaethon's eyes faded, revealing once more that deep, warm azure.
"But!" His voice suddenly rose, filled with power, "Remember this! Let every single one of you remember this firmly!"
"It is not only those called 'Deliverer' who can save the world!"
"Rather, it is every single person who dares to step forward, who burns themselves to protect what lies behind them—they are the ones saving this world!"
"Look beside you! Look at the comrade next to you, whose name you might not even know! Look at the scarred yet never-fallen city behind you!"
He pointed at every grime-covered soldier on and below the walls:
"The turning point of this war did not come because a so-called 'Deliverer' descended from the heavens! It came because of you—!"
"You were the ones who, the moment Castrum Kremnos was about to crumble, used your flesh and blood to plug the breaches!"