In slightly more than a second, a beam of light hotter than the suns surface traveled across the void of space. Nearly four hundred thousand kiloters separated the barrel of the gun from its target.
So many elents were taken into account. The rotation of the Earth. Gravitational interactions. The risk of deadly blowback as power far greater than any atomic bomb was concentrated on a single point. It was a test run, and one did not fire an orbital weapon of such devastating potential lightly. When the Lunar Cannon was unleashed upon the country of Bulgaria, it was at its minimum capabilities.
That was enough.
The beam traveled at the speed of light. Like an arrow piercing chainmail, it punched the magnetic shield protecting the Earth and continued its course through the atmosphere.
The one bad thing about a giant laser cannon from space was that it was never built for accuracy. Blackcinders would have preferred to open fire at Basil Bohen personally. Not knowing his location, and with the local dungeons energies interfering, she had her engineers target the city center. Shuns train station, used by the Knights of Saint-George to relay supplies and troops to other cities, was selected as ground zero.
Since the apocalypse began, Shun had beco a hub for refugees across Eastern Europe. Populations coming from Romania, Ukraine, Moldova and so many other places thought they had found a safe haven there under the protection of a powerful Guild.
They were wrong.
The station was a place that seed frozen in ti since the fall of communism. It took years to build this building, and a nanosecond to wipe it off the map.
As the beam hit it, the impact generated a ball of plasma more than a kiloter wide.
The light burned hotter than the sun. Everyone touched by it was gone in an instant. Flesh was incinerated. Bones were vaporized. Concrete turned to dust, and iron to ionized particles blown by annihilation winds. There was no screams, no colors nor sound.
Instead, there was light.
Bugsy could absorb fire, but not a shockwave.
The System had rewritten the rules of physics to follow its own alien logic. So things, however, remained the sa. A blast of this magnitude always invited a pushback. The atmospheres pressure fought back against the sudden increase in temperature from the blast. This resulted in winds stronger than a hurricane spreading outward.
Bulgarian architects were good. Constructors, however, so often prefered to take the easy way. Many paid cheaply for material, chose shortcuts over quality, and ignored safety norms. Shun was no exception. If most of the citys buildings had been built according to high-quality standards, so might have resisted. Instead, the wind blew them out away.
Apartnt blocks snapped like Kit Kat bars. Concrete towers fell over. Burning trees flew away alongside cars and bicycles. Districts were flattened in an instant. Gas stations detonated, as did army ammo depots. A sandstorm of searing dust and embers spread over the region.
The shockwave weakened as it expanded, but for Shun it made no difference. Only its dungeon on its silent hill stood strong before the apocalyptic blast. The rest of the city was turned into a smoking pile of rubble as a firestorm covered it all.
From her base on the moon, Blackcinders observed her grim work on a hundred screens.
Her gearsn on the ground provided her with a constant live streaming of the situation. Thousands of chanical soldiers surrounded the burning firestorm that had once been called Shun.
Other dragon commanders watched the devastation at her side. So were smiling and laughing. Others were in awe of the Lunar Cannons power. Many more, the youngest ones, gasped in shock and horror. Untested dragons were still nave enough to think the lives of lesser races had individual value beyond their usefulness as a ans of production.
Blackcinders was different. She felt neither joy nor remorse at ending thousands of lives; not even a fleeting sense of accomplishnt.
In fact, she felt nothing.
Blackcinders had killed millions on countless worldsand she would do it again.
General, there are survivors, one of her officers pointed out.
Blackcinders glanced at a monitor showing the outskirts of Shun. Human troops deployed far enough from the blast were opening fire at her troops with artillery. She noticed winged apes paladinsand monster riders engaging her Watchers in the burning skies.
Blackcinders apathy swiftly turned into disgust at the sight. They have seen our power, she thought, and they would still rather fight?
There was no cure for foolishness.
Finish them off, Blackcinders ordered her troops. Leave no survivors.
General one of her younger dragon officers dared to speak up, sweat falling off his scales. Blackcinders didnt even know that was possible for her kind. So could be useful as minions or crafters
A glare from Blackcinders silenced him. We have tried to spare them before, she reminded her troops. All it achieved was the loss of gearsn blueprints. I will take no more chances with these terrorists.
Death solved all issues.
No manlings, no problems.
These apes will be more useful to us as a warning to the rest of their species, so I will say it again. Blackcinders turned back to look at the monitors. No survivors.
Knowing so of her untrained officers might balk at doing the job, Blackcinders had only deployed gearsn and machines around Shun. One could always trust robots to follow orders. The Unitys chanical troops opened fire on the city with a barrage of projectiles. They would extinguish all life with it within hours.
How long until we can fire again? Blackcinders asked her engineers.
Twenty minutes, General, perhaps more, one of them answered. We have an overheating issue in engine five.
Blackcinders snorted. Crafters always underperford. Solve this problem and recharge the Lunar Cannon for a second strike, she ordered. The bombardnts will continue until Basil Bohens death is confird. I will take no risks with soone of his level.
Better safe than sorry.
Basil regained consciousness amidst rubbles.
Burning smoke burned his lungs as he breathed. Hot dust had seeped into his armor to the point of heating up the tal. A storm of ashes swirled around him, obscuring his vision, and a familiar shadow lood over him.
Mister? Rosemarine had regained her full size and now stood atop piles of debris. Her leaf-scales were blackened by dust. She wagged her tail to clear off concrete blocks under which Shellgirl had been buried. Mister!
Is is everyone alright? Basil used his halberd as a crutch to get back up. Monster Cure Monster Cure
His magic expanded outward to heal his allies wounds. As his eyes acclimated to the smoke, he noticed Bugsys towering shape erge from under a pile of stones with Plato atop his head. Vasi erged from the dust, coughing. Im okay, she said as she cleared her throat. Were okay.
Im so Im so glad Basil took a step forward to comfort his girlfriend and almost stumbled. He looked down at his feet.
Bones.
Blackened human bones.
His thought process coming to a screeching halt at the sight, Basil went on autopilot mode. He climbed atop a pile of broken concrete and observed his holands cinders.
The horizon was ablaze.
Everywhere he looked, there were fire and corpses; charred at and charbroiled bones, human candles and piles of dust. Columns of smoke rose so high in the sky that he couldnt see the moon, let alone the stars. A colossal pillar of pyroclastic ashes swirled in the middle of a blazing crater like a volcanic hurricane.
Monsters Bugsy shed tears of magma and choked on them. Monsters so many
This this was Hell.
Mister. Rosemarine crumpled like a submissive cat. Im scared.
Was this what the people of Hiroshima had seen when the Aricans dropped the A-Bomb? Hell on Earth?
Mother Basil imdiately opened his Logs feature and sent her a ssage. His fingers trembled as he typed. Mother please God
Your ssage couldnt be delivered. Aleksandra Bohen has left the Guild.
Left the Guild? Why? The only ti Basil had seen a similar ssage was when
When Kuikui
When Kuikui died.
In the fiery heart of this blazing inferno, Basil Bohen felt cold as ice. His blood froze in his veins. His heart stopped pounding in his chest. His lungs hurt as if stabbed by a cruel dagger. He forgot how to breathe, how to speak, how to think.
For a short mont, Basil Bohen beca a corpse with a pulse. Alive on the outside, yet dead inside.
A fla lit up within him.
[Berserk] ailnt negated by [Lethal Vigil].
It wasnt warm, no. The fire was as cold as the bitterest hatred.
[Berserk] ailnt negated by [Lethal Vigil].
Basil clenched his fists to the point blood dripped between his fingers. Darkness blacker than the smoke above his head clouded his mind.
[Berserk] ailnt negated by [Lethal Vigil].[Berserk] ailnt negated by [Lethal Vigil]![Berserk] ailnt negated by [Lethal Vigil]!
Once, Basil Bohen would have gone on a rampage. But he was done being a Berserker. He was a knight now. His anger no longer dominated him. He now wielded his fury like a sword: with carefulness and purpose.
[Berserk] ailnt negated by [Lethal Vigil].
Basil wanted to cry, but he refused to. He bottled up his tears and sorrow, locking them up in the deepest abyss of his soul.
His Party needed him to keep a clear head.
His people needed him.
For so of his countryn fought for their lives even in this hellscape. Basil knew it as he watched the horizon. Explosions rocked the outskirts of the city. He could hear them all the way from there. A colossal tal fra as tall as Apollyon walked through the smoke in the distance to the tune of artillery fire.
Gearsman TitanElite Level 60 [Artificial]Faction: Unity.
The sa creature that attacked Bucharest now threatened to destroy what little was left of Shun.
Vasi walked up to her boyfriends side, her voice brimming with concern. Basil
Rosemarine, Shellgirl, with . Basil leaped over his beloved dragons back. There was no ti to waste. Vasi, Plato, Bugsy, you go after Kalki. Exfiltrate him.
You want us to split up? Plato protested. This is madness!
Our priority for now Basil squeezed his halberd so tightly that he heard his knuckles crack. Our priority is to save as many lives as we can. Kalki must survive or we all perish anyway. Well take care of the gearsn and secure a safe route out of the city for the survivors.
Vasi nodded slowly before climbing on her broom. After a short mont of hesitation, Plato leaped behind her back. Well rejoin you as soon as we have him, Vasi said. Good luck.
Good luck. Basil extended a hand to Shellgirl. Lets go.
Im with you, Shellgirl replied. Basil seized her hand and pulled her to Rosemarines back.
They charged into battle without a word.
Fire.
Everywhere Vasi looked, she could only see fire. Flas spread across the ruins of the city, carried by warm winds and dust storms. Vasi put her scarf over her mouth to help herself breathe through the smoke. Plato looked around at the sea of fire as they ascended towards Shuns dungeon; Bugsy climbed up the hill on foot, his legs digging into stone like clay.
The most terrible thing was the sll.
Vasi couldnt hear any screams coming from the sea of flas, but the stench of calcined at was ever-present. The sll reminded her of Basils cooking, of warm at roasting in an oven. Once she had found it appetizing.
Now?
Now she struggled not to throw up.
They must pay. It was the first ti Plato had sounded so calm, so dead inside. They must pay for this.
They will, Vasi agreed. There were cris too great to be atoned for.
What happened today was one of them.
In her childhood, she had been told about the historic Battle of Crom Cruach, where the armies of Outremonde gathered to prevent their worlds destruction at the hands of a powermad Fomor queen. This tyrant had threatened to destroy the land with Arrows of Light that could scorch the land to cinders, or so her mother told her. Vasi had never connected to this story before. Tales of burning cities and widespread destruction were words to the wind. She could imagine them, assemble them into a picture, but they couldnt disturb her; no more than a breeze could.
Experiencing the destruction, the pointless devastation, the utter loss of life, was sothing else entirely. Now Vasi understood why tales failed to properly represent the horror of ancient battles.
There were no words in the multiverse that could properly describe such tragedy.
Shuns dungeon oversaw the city from atop a hill. The fortress of steel and concrete had weathered the apocalyptic destruction well, though its surface was now blackened by dust and embers. There were no defenders patrolling in the skies around it, nor shielding its ramparts.
That alone was cause for alarm.
Dungeon: Founders of the Bulgarian State MonuntLevel: 45.Faction: Swords of Saint-GeorgeField Type: [OVERRIDDEN].
Overridden? By what?
By whom?
The dungeon only had one entrance: a set of iron gates surrounded by giant, cubical statues of ancient warriors. The shockwaves had defaced half of them and the doors laid wide open. It wasnt what caught Vasis attention.
The feathered corpse burning on the threshold did.
Garud? Vasis eyes widened in shock as she recognized Kalkis mount. Garud!
The magnificent bird lay on his back atop a broken steel door, his wings broken. A smoking hole burned where his chest should have been. His eyes, usually so bright and confident, were now devoid of life.
When Vasi landed her broom next to Garud, Plato leaped off to examine the corpse anyway. The witch didnt say a word. She already knew it was too late.
Garud! Bugsy shouted in horror as he finished climbing the hill. Is he
Yes, Plato confird. The feline sat next to the corpse with a mournful look. Hes he isnt breathing.
Vasi touched the creatures beak and imdiately pulled back her hand after a jolt of electricity coursed through her hand. The corpse was still charged with electricity.
Lightning.
Garud hadnt been killed by fire or wind, but by lightning. And from the way the corpse lay on the ground, he had been thrown through the doors from inside.
I hear thunder within the building, Bugsy warned. And and screams.
There was only one Faction that could possibly know Kalkis location at all tis and enter a dungeon through a backdoor.
No, Vasi whispered. She took a step towards the steel gates. No, no, no.
A System notification flashed before her eyes the mont she crossed the threshold, confirming her worst fears.
Zeus-Ashoks [God-Field: Titanomachy] changed the field to [ThunderOlympus].[Physical], [Lightning], [Fire], [Wind], [Light] and [Mythic] elents are strengthened.[Soul], [Earth], [Water], and [Darkness] elents are weakened.All [Lightning] attacks will be [Charged] and inflict twice more damage.[Xenia]: Non-[tal Olympus] factions cannot make use of the Logs feature or use teleportation effects within the [God-Field].
The Unity wasnt the only of their enemies to make its move tonight.
tal Olympus had co to collect Kalki.
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