Chapter 393: Duskhand: The Aftermath
Duskhand Bastille Airspace
Githal
November 14th
530th Divine Year
An airship soared through the skies of the Gledea Continent’s Githal region, passing between nearby mountains and entering into the airspace of one of the largest cities in the area.
Looking down from above, the passengers in this airship were not greeted with the sight of the Illustrious Duskhand Bastille they all knew, but a scene of devastation like no other.
The area spanning close to fifteen thousand square kilometres, which was once known as the ’Inner City’ of Duskhand was now an ashen wasteland, a grim testament to the ravages of an unprecedented calamity.
A few remnants of buildings could be seen on the outskirts, standing like skeletal structures, twisted and charred, reaching desperately towards the desolate sky.
"Good lord..."
Such a mutter escaped the lips of one of the Airship’s passengers as he looked down, not only because of the scene his eyes captured but the sheer concentration of destruction law energy he could sense.
’We’re this high up and we can sense it...I fear to think about how much the residual energy on the ground is...’
It was like the radiation that came after a nuclear explosion, that dealt damage over time to all within its range.
All of the Outer City’s inhabitants who resided close to the Inner City Barrier had been evacuated to prevent any more casualties, since the barrier which should have kept this energy contained, had been punctured in the side when a survivor made their escape.
Without constantly protecting themselves with their magic power, it was impossible for people to remain near that area without harm coming to them.
Gigantic craters riddled the ground, along scorched earth from various blasts that seemed to be the new hallmark of Duskhand.
"Let’s go down."
A voice spoke out, and two hums of affirmation rang out after. The Airship’s doors were opened and the three figures jumped out of the sky, using wind magic to slow their descents to the ground where their feet touched down on a patch of scorched earth.
Their landing quickly attracted the attention of the uniformed soldiers who were inspecting the area, and upon seeing the insignias on the uniforms of these three men, the soldiers all stopped their actions and saluted.
One of the three was an elven male, with the other two being humans; one male, and one female. But despite the racial differences, they all exuded the palpable auras of Transcendent Realm Existences and gave off the sense of ’holiness’ of Divinity Wielders.
Two Divine Humans and a Divine Elf—all of which, were natural Divine Factor holders.
"It’s even worse up close..."
"More so than we were told."
The Transcendents covered themselves with a thin layer of magic power, before instructing one of the soldiers to ’show them the bodies’.
Very quickly, the Soldier brought them to the corpses that had remained untouched ever since the clean-up began—the corpses of the gods who fell.
They could still see the dried golden blood on their clothes and the holes in their chests from which their hearts had been ripped out.
The fists of the Divine Humans were clenched in anger, but they took deep breaths to calm themselves before going over to where the others lay.
"Our reports say there were Seven, why can we only see six corpses?"
"It is believed that the Seventh was used as a sacrifice for a summoning."
The voice who replied to the Transcendents was not that of the Solider who led them there, but someone of a much higher rank.
"Hmm? A Brigadier General? You were the one who sent the SOS messages from the Outer City, were you not? It seems your posting allowed you to avoid Disaster.
Give me a rundown of what happened here."
The Brigadier General nodded and began his explanation, from the time the culprit of this disaster, a ’Silver Haired Demon’ appeared, down to the end.
"We believe the culprit may be an Incarnation.
They repeatedly spoke with a ’True Voice’, which was why we were able to hear some of the things he said despite being outside."
"An Incarnation? We were told that it was a single Level 700 demon, a silver-haired Legendary Realm."
One of the Human Transcendents spoke up after hearing the BG’s words and hearing the little description, the Transcendent Elf posed a question.
"Isn’t that the same one that showed up in the Embermaw reports? The Silver Haired Summoner?"
"There’s a 90% chance it’s the same demon.
When reinforcements were first sent in, a mass summoning was conducted using the corpses of those who perished with the first ’Pseudo Authority Attack’. It was what brought forth the hundreds of Multi-Headed Wolves and Lesser Dragons, as well as the Vampire."
The Transcendent Humans nodded their heads in affirmation when they heard this while the Elf grabbed a fistful of scorched earth and studied it closely,
"How did they all lose to one Demon? There were Level 800s in this place."
"Did you not read the Survivor’s report? The ’Silver Summoner’ possessed a ’Power Reduction’ ability with a 100-level effectiveness.
Level 800s became Level 700s...."
"But even so. This was one Level 700 against multiple. They even have both the element and energy advantage of Light and Divinity.
Yet they still lost this badly."
The Elf frowned as he got up and gestured to the dead gods on the floor. Although low-ranked, they were still gods nonetheless.
"Eight of them went up against one demon an entire existence realm weaker than them. The result was seven casualties, with the eighth having his soul damaged to the point where a Higher Existence had to intervene to save his life.
What’s more, the Soul Damage is so much that his memories are fragmented, so there’s not much valuable information we can get.
All we know is that this Demon is ’very young’, has ’silver hair’ controls the laws of ’time, destruction and summoning’.
And from what I see around us...his destruction powers seem to be the biggest threat here!"
His loud voice boomed across the area, with the lower-ranked soldiers shivering under the increased pressure he exuded from his body due to his emotional fluctuations.
"Calm down, will you? We have very little information, and that’s why the three of us are here; To find out more."
The Female Transcendent spoke as she patted the man’s shoulder while using her own energy to alleviate the pressure the normal soldiers were feeling.
At this point, the BG who had been silent spoke up.
"I have a means through which you may discover more information.
We have footage of what we believe was an ’Avatar Descent’, and how it was thwarted by the ’Silver Summoner’."
As the man spoke, lower-ranked soldiers came over and began setting up a magic projector, which they used to project the captured video of Arthur and Stelan killing the last god whom the ’High Ranked god’ attempted to descend in.
When they watched it, all three Transcendents had a single line of thought run through their heads.
’It seems that this trip wouldn’t be wasted, after all.’
◇ ◇ ◇
While the Transcendents were watching the footage in the ruins of the Inner City, the Outer City was a very big mess, with Soldiers trying to calm the distressed Civilians, while also preventing riots and fights from occurring in the shelters where those who had been evacuated were.
On another end, there were headcounts/role calls taken to confirm the exact number of casualties, and this extended to the newly recruited soldiers as well.
[812, Carl!]
"Present, Sir."
[559, Rachel.]
"...Present, Sir."
[659, Arthur!]
"..."
[659, Arthur!!]
"..."
Despite repeating the recruit’s number and name, the silence remained, causing dark expressions to cloud the faces of a lot of those present.
The side of a certain brown-haired girl, where this particular recruit was supposed to be was empty, and when she was questioned on his whereabouts, she had no answers to give.
[Is there anyone who knows where Recruit 659 is?]
The Platoon commander questioned once more, taking the extra effort due to the known fact that 659 was a Divinity Wielder.
"Sir."
[812? Speak.]
"I last sighted 659 waiting around Major Ger’s car after supper last night."
"I also saw him talking to the Major before supper, along with 559."
When he heard this, the Platoon Commander went silent, a grim conjecture forming in his mind. In this state, he didn’t reprimand the other Recruits who spoke up without being spoken to.
"For the past week, Major Ger has been making an effort to personally advise and train 659. So..."
Although the Recruit didn’t finish talking, the platoon commander had already connected the dots with the information he had.
[Major Ger and everyone else who was within the Inner City last night were all murdered by the ’Silver Summoner’...]
