Chapter 612: The End of Fake Divinity [Monthly Bonus 1]
|¬I know you’re listening in. I need you to clear out all the demons. I’m nuking this island. ¬|
Evan’s breath hitched. Arthur was serious.
Since Arthur couldn’t locate the target he was after, he decided to destroy the entire island instead.
The man was already half dead, and Arthur could sense from the residual energy left by his destruction beam that the man was still somewhere on the island.
His energy poured out in an overwhelming surge, painting the sky in a crimson-blue hue.
The entire island trembled as demons, gods, humans, elves, and countless others looked up, seeing Arthur hovering above.
His voice rang out again, booming across the battlefield.
|¬Demon army, clear the area. ¬|
The demons obeyed without hesitation.
Dropping whatever battles they were engaged in, they turned tail and ran, fleeing with every ounce of strength they could muster.
The slower ones looked up in horror as Arthur raised his hand, gathering an orb of Time Law energy in his palm.
How could they see an orb gathering in Arthur’s palm when he was so high up in the sky? That was easy because the orb was so fucking ginormous.
It was impossible to miss from anywhere across the island—a glowing blue-silver mass that seemed as if Arthur was creating a second sun.
Just then, an imperceptible wave of cosmic energy swept across the island, forcibly teleporting all remaining demons, dragons, and dark elves away.
Arthur’s aura spiked as he swung his arm downward, his voice booming across the land.
|¬Time Bomb!¬|
The massive orb of Time Law energy descended toward the island of WA-03 like a slow, inevitable force.
As it struck the island, the fabric of time shattered.
Space crackled and distorted, and in a single moment, the island disintegrated as if it had never existed, erased from both the present and the past.
Buildings, fortifications, and even the landmass itself were reduced to nothing but broken debris and the skeletal remains of corpses floating in the surrounding ocean—remnants that would soon dissolve into nothingness.
Arthur glanced at his right arm which still had cracks running through it and sighed. He then turned to Evan, who hovered beside him, his expression a mix of awe and disbelief.
"I’m going to space for a bit to call down some meteors."
Arthur said casually and opened a Cosmic Gate, vanishing through it without another word, leaving Evan alone in the now quiet battlefield.
Left behind, Evan sighed, shaking his head with a small laugh before flying off to the next island to kill more opponents and level up more.
◇ ◇ ◇
The aftermath of Arthur’s Time Bomb still resonated in the air, but the battle was far from over.
A female Divine Human Transcendent hovered just above the water’s surface, her gaze flicking back toward the space where WA-O3 had once occupied.
"...where the hell did the demons find that monster..."
The sky was littered with debris, shattered remnants of ships and airships that had been caught in the massive explosion, while fires raged across the ocean where bits of wreckage continued to burn.
It was chaos, but the Transcendent had managed to keep her charges—Kalon and the man who knew Arthur’s identity—safe. Barely.
She was the one who had commanded the man to use the Cosmic Lens on Arthur and though she didn’t hear what he said as Evan had used magic to mute the sound, she knew he’d uncovered something.
’That Masked Rogue Hero, he wouldn’t have used magic to block the sound otherwise...’
Arthur’s act of trying to kill him later on also confirmed that he knew something Arthur didn’t want him to know.
The destruction of the Island did achieve one thing; the clone of Kalon’s brain was obliterated as it still hadn’t been moved off the island yet.
But it didn’t matter if the man himself was still alive, right?
The two men were unconscious, their bodies battered and broken by the force of Arthur’s attacks, but still alive.
The Transcendent didn’t dare linger. She wrapped them both in a veil of divinity, shielding them from further harm and offering simple healing to keep them stable.
’The Demons think Sir Kalon is dead with that attack.’
With a quick glance to the skies to ensure Arthur was truly gone, she shot forward, skimming just above the water as she headed for the nearest patch of land.
Explosions continued to ripple across the horizon as islands sank beneath the waves or were ripped apart by stray beams of magic and artillery fire.
Airships plummeted from the skies in balls of fire, and the sea was dotted with sinking vessels. But the Transcendent didn’t waver—her goal wasn’t to fight but to escape.
She ducked and wove through the carnage, avoiding combat zones and waiting for just the right moment to push forward.
Eventually, she found an opening. A ship, damaged but still afloat, was retreating from the battle.
It wasn’t far—just a quick burst of speed, and she would be on board.
She waited a bit, biding her time as another explosion rocked the sea, sending a wave crashing toward her. Then she used her magic to part the waters and launched herself onto the retreating vessel.
The crew barely had time to register her presence before she landed softly on the deck, her charges still protected by her divinity.
They gave her a wary glance but didn’t question her sudden appearance. Her military uniform, though torn, still had her rank insignia on it and they saw she was higher ranked than they all were.
"Get out of here, now!"
They didn’t need her to order them to do that. They were already retreating since their vessel had been damaged.
The ship cut through the waves, avoiding the wreckage and the ongoing battles.
The Transcendent remained under the deck, waiting until they were well beyond the Archipelago before finally letting out a breath.
The mainland was within sight now, and with it, safety.
As they approached the harbour, she slipped off the ship, carrying the two men through the bustling Military Port City.
The streets were filled with soldiers, and healers rushing to and from the Archipelago and with her speed as a Transcendent, she was barely noticed.
She jumped atop buildings, moving faster than the sound of her movements could even reach the ears of the people within and headed straight for the Elven Teleportation Waypoint in this Port City.
With a nod to the stationed guards, she stepped onto the platform, and in a flash of light, they were whisked away.
The moment the Transcendent arrived at Gledea High Command, she called for immediate healing.
Generals and medics rushed over, their expressions shifting from concern to relief as they saw the wounded Divine Human carrying the unconscious Kalon.
"Thank the gods you’re alive."
One of the generals said as the medics hurried to treat the two men.
"You brought Sir Kalon out. We owe you our thanks."
The Transcendent merely nodded, watching as the healers worked. One healer came to attend to her as well, having noticed that she was also injured from the battles she had fought before heading to WA-O3.
"What happened out there?"
Another general asked, his voice filled with urgency.
"We received reports, but everything’s a mess. Why did the battle escalate so quickly?"
In response, the woman only shook her head, barely able to muster a few words in her exhaustion.
"The one you call the Silver Summoner... he’s dangerous. The island... the clone...it’s gone."
The generals exchanged uneasy glances upon hearing her words. Still, they were relieved. Even if the clone was gone, it was fine as far as Kalon himself survived.
One of the Elven Divines glanced at the healers on Kalon before speaking.
"We tried to send reinforcements to Waregough, but the moment we made a move, Sylvan Thorneheart of Gozon’s Four-Star Generals attacked the frontlines.
We couldn’t afford to send our soldiers without leaving ourselves vulnerable."
"A diversion?"
The elven general nodded grimly in response to the human woman’s words.
"Yes, but we can’t take any chances. If Sylvan notices we’re undermanned, he might intensify the attack.
We’ve sent a few Transcendents to Waregough, but they’re going to need more help."
At this point, the woman didn’t care anymore. She was wounded and exhausted, physically and mentally.
However, she gave herself a pat on the back.
The man who knew Arthur’s identity was still alive, and he was in safe hands. Though the clone of his brain had been destroyed by the Time Bomb, Kalon was alive.
◇ ◇ ◇
At the same time that the Divine Human woman who escaped with Kalon was talking with the Transcendents of Gledea High Command, Arthur silently watched the Gozonians round up the annihilation of Waregough.
The Aramisian forces were in full retreat, their ranks decimated after suffering catastrophic losses.
More than half of the millions of soldiers they had stationed on the islands were dead, and their once-prized Fake Divine factories lay in ruins.
The Demons hadn’t just triumphed; they had done so by a staggering margin.
Arthur sat on the banks of WA-11 where he had been at the beginning, watching the mainland in the distance when Alvey and McEnda III approached him.
They knew the main goal of this attack was to take out Ger’s disciple—Kalon—and now they sought confirmation.
"Did you deal with him?"
Alvey asked and the other High-Ranked nearby turned toward Arthur, expectant, but he simply raised a finger to silence them.
"Hold on."
Without another word, Arthur pulled a small knife from his subspace, slicing his thumb open.
His blood spilt from the wound, pooling in his palm while glowing with a crimson silver light.
The onlookers watched with a mix of curiosity and confusion as Arthur infused the blood with Destruction energy.
Since his mask was now off, the Demons nearby all saw Arthur’s lips twist into an evil grin that gave them chills as he spoke.
|¬Pseudo-Authority of Destruction: Remote Detonation. ¬|
The blood in his palm reacted instantly, sizzling as the Destruction energy flared up.
It popped violently, splattering onto the ground, and staining the floor with the same ominous glow.
Arthur then wiped his hand with a tissue and turned the tissue to dust before looking towards Alvey and speaking.
"Ger’s disciple...has just popped."
◇ ◇ ◇
Far away, in the heart of Gledea High Command, the aftermath of his words unfolded terrifyingly.
Inside the giant tube filled with a viscous, concentrated healing liquid where Kalon was being treated, a faint crimson-silver glow appeared on his chest.
The Divine Humans supervising the treatment noticed it first, and in a second, the glow intensified, spreading across his body like wildfire.
Their eyes widened in horror as alarms blared through the chamber.
"Something’s wrong!"
"Get the Transcendents!"
The healers shouted, raising an alarm for Transcendents who were trying to find out information from the one who escaped with Kalon.
But before anyone could react properly, it was too late.
The mark on Kalon’s chest flared violently, and with a sickening crunch, his body swelled within the healing tube.
The pressure mounted impossibly fast, and then, with a deafening roar, his body exploded from the inside out.
Crimson-silver energy surged outward in a wave of destruction, obliterating everything and everyone within a 50-meter radius.
The healers nearest to him didn’t stand a chance. Those who weren’t killed instantly were left gravely wounded by Arthur’s destruction energy that lashed out like a malignant curse.
The Transcendents, even at a distance, were blown back by the sheer force of the blast, the destruction law energy scorching the air as it rippled through the chamber.
As the smoke cleared, the remaining Transcendents looked on in horror.
Kalon, the last living person with knowledge of the Aramisian Fake Divine experiment, was gone.
His body had been reduced to nothing but bloody shreds, and the brain clone—destroyed earlier when Arthur erased the island—was already lost.
With his death, the Aramisians had no one left with the core knowledge necessary to continue their production of Fake Divines.
A roar of rage echoed through the halls as the Transcendents realized the magnitude of their loss.
"Silver Summoner!!"
One of them shouted, fury dripping from his voice.
But despite their rage, they knew there was little they could do. The production of Fake Divines had been vital to their war effort, filling the gaps where natural Divines could not.
With Kalon gone, they had lost a key advantage in the battle against the Demons of Gozon.
Natural divines were not being born quickly enough to meet the overwhelming demand on the front lines of the war, which was precisely why the creation of Artificial Divines had been initiated.
However, if they couldn’t produce Artificial Divines as powerful and efficient as the ones created by Ger, his master, Zebas and his disciple, Kalon, the Aramisians would find themselves at an even greater disadvantage.
Their forces would now be forced to rely on what few natural and Artificial Divines they had left.
A small consolation came in the form of the man who had uncovered Arthur’s true identity.
Due to his proximity to Kalon, he had been caught in the explosion, but his injuries—though severe—were not immediately fatal.
His soul, however, had been gravely damaged, and he slipped into a deep coma as a result.
One of the Transcendents, noticing the flickering light of his life force, rushed forward and stabilized him, preventing his death.
"Get him out of here! We need the best Light Law users to heal his soul. Quickly!"
The Transcendent ordered and the other soldiers who rushed over after hearing the blast whisked the man away to a secure location, intent on preserving what remained of his life.
