The Oceanus.
Boom!
The cross-shaped lance exploded in a towering blaze, its light twisting into a pitch-black, colossal serpent that looked ready to devour the world itself. It smashed straight through the star-river vortex in Sefar's abdomen, then coiled around the monster's limbs and torso, constricting until—amid a thunderous detonation—it ripped Sefar apart.
The sixth time…
Samael, deathly pale, stared at Sefar's dismembered golden-blue body of light. He closed his eyes and murmured under his breath as his body wavered and began to fall, while a dense swarm of mutated creatures surged in from all directions.
"Aaaa!"
Seeing this, Tiamat, the Goddess of Beginning, who was commanding the Eleven Offspring of Tiamat and the Black Tide against the army of Giants, let out a piercing chant. A pillar of seawater rose and shifted, like an open palm, gently catching her divine child and bleeding away the force of his fall.
Get… out of my way!
Standing on a reef, Ereshkigal spun her gun wheel and slammed it down toward that stretch of sea. Thousands upon thousands of red-black spears of light stabbed out in overlapping volleys, skewering mutated creatures one after another.
A spear forest stretching for a hundred miles took shape, like a beautiful yet sinister thicket of crimson-black thorns. It was enough to make anyone hesitate, forcing the swarming monsters back.
But it only held for a few breaths. The Goddess of the Underworld suddenly broke into a violent cough. Her gun wheel struck the reef with a dull crash, her face going white as her presence grew unsteady. Maintaining a domain of authority on that scale was beyond her for long.
Fortunately, a golden-blue streak of light dropped from the sky. With superb handling, it pulled off an almost impossible inertial drift, carving a tight turn across the sea's surface. In one smooth motion, it scooped up the ancient serpent wrapped in water and hauled him aboard the Boat of Heaven, Maanna.
"How long was I out? What's the situation on the sea?"
The instant he was touched, Samael jolted awake. He seized Ishtar's arm and demanded answers, urgency flooding his voice.
"Relax. We're still holding," the Goddess of Heaven said, helping him into Maanna's cabin to rest. "Use this window to recover. We can keep them back."
But when she turned her eyes to the ancient serpent again, her brows knit tightly.
Looking across the battlefield, Olympus still had only three pillars with fighting strength left: Zeus, Hera, and Artemis.
Apollo, the God of Light, Hermes, the God of Swiftness, and Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld, had already fallen. Ares, Hestia, and Hades were in slightly better shape. Their bodies were ruined, but their divinity remained intact, and they were slowly re-forming their vessels.
As for the War God Mountain faction, Medusa, Athena, and Themis had survived, but they were badly injured. Their bodies were still repairing themselves, sustained by immortality and the authority of order.
Echidna, the Serpent Mother, the Underworld Moon Goddess Hecate, the Afterknower Epimetheus, and the sage Chiron had fallen. Their shattered, drifting divinities had been gathered and bound by the Mother Goddess Tiamat through the authority of Mother of Genesis.
On the Mesopotamian side, Ishtar, Ereshkigal, and Gilgamesh were unharmed.
Enkidu's clay shell had collapsed, returning him to the original form of the Chains of Heaven. He fell into dormancy and was recalled to the Babylonian Treasury by the King of Heroes, where he was being nourished with the Water of Life and the Food of Life.
Of the Eleven Offspring of Tiamat's main-god-grade prototypes, only the highly venomous serpent Bašmu remained, still guarding the Head Priestess Siduri, the sacred prostitute Shamhat, and the Queen of Assyria Semiramis.
And the mobile fortress [Hanging Gardens of Babylon] was now crashing down onto the wasteland, belching smoke and fire. All eleven fan-shaped main cannons had disintegrated. The hull was riddled with holes, and the remaining Gallû Spirit along with the Undying Army of Uruk were fighting through the grinder of Giant God Soldiers and mutated creatures, pushing against the tide toward Athens.
As for Athens, three-quarters of the front line had already fallen. Fewer than a thousand could still fight, and the only reason the defenses hadn't collapsed outright was Pandora. She had drawn out resentment and unwillingness from countless dead and dying lives, gathered it into black mud, and summoned shadow Servants to barely hold the line.
But this malice, born from human hearts in the present age, was nothing more than field fireflies to the Alien Vanguards that meant to scorch the surface and harvest every civilization. Flickering so weakly, it would burn out sooner or later.
And in the valley behind War God Mountain were tens of thousands of elderly, women, and children with no ability to fight at all.
One step back from here, and it was absolute ruin.
Looking down over everything, nine-tenths of the gods had fallen, and humanity was all but wiped out.
And the lone force that had been deployed to the Eye of the Tidal Sea still hadn't sent back a single word. It had likely vanished into the ninety-nine point nine nine percent chance of failure.
They had truly reached the end of the road.
Hum!
Just as pessimism rose in Ishtar's heart, starlight poured down from above, and the sea trembled again with that spell-like vibration that felt like a death sentence.
"Not even ten minutes, and it's moving again? That fast?!"
Leaning inside Maanna, Samael sensed that obscure, chilling rhythm and snapped his eyes open. He stared at the sea, where Sefar was reassembling beneath the wash of starlight, and his pupils contracted violently.
"Damn it! The time between its revivals keeps getting shorter! Why can't we destroy this thing no matter what we do?!"
Ishtar was furious, frustration turning into a sinking sense of helplessness. The gods who had just shattered Sefar for the sixth time didn't even have time to breathe. Every one of them was deathly pale, their divine bodies already flickering and unstable.
They were all at their limit.
"Star Emblem, docking!
Simulated Ether Magecraft Circuits, activate!
Soul Medium Core, reboot!
Data loading…
World Egg erosion rate: 98.72%. World Wall assimilation rate: 97.74%…
Alien Key embedded. Estimated 30 seconds until the Tear Star reaches the terminal jump point…
Triangular positioning deployed. Preparing starlight guidance!"
At the same time, Sefar's body knitted itself together again. The rings of starlight around him re-formed as he gripped the God of War Sword in both hands and lifted his head, chanting in a voice of ice. Three star-core vortices, one in his chest and one in each arm, flared together, stretching into bands of prismatic light that speared straight into the sky. Clouds scattered, and the pitch-black firmament linked with the starry heavens.
In that deep, boundless river of stars, a tear-shaped comet trailing a blazing white tail was plunging toward them.
They couldn't let Sefar call that thing down!
Samael's eyes widened with shock and anger. He seized his spear, unfurled his golden wings, and prepared to charge out to disrupt the Alien Vanguard's guidance.
"You haven't recovered yet. Wait. Let us handle it!"
Ishtar reached out and grabbed the ancient serpent's arm, gritting her teeth as she stopped him.
To reduce casualties among Mesopotamia and War God Mountain, he had thrown himself into the front line every time, taking the brunt of the damage and carrying most of the offensive burden.
Without him, losses on both sides would have been at least a third higher.
Pulled by the Goddess of Heaven, Samael turned smoothly, and instead of pulling away, he drew Ishtar into his arms. Lowering his head, he pressed a kiss to her forehead.
Hot breath brushed her ear.
Caught completely off guard, Ishtar froze, her body going rigid as a vivid rose flush spread across her face.
"Listen to me. Zeus and I will hold them here. If Greece falls, you lead them and the Mother Goddess back to the Sea of Chaos immediately. Pull back toward Mesopotamia.
"If even that can't hold, then go to Scandinavia, to the Maya, to India, to China. Anywhere.
"Find another World Egg that can endure, and live."
What followed wasn't tender sweetness, but a final, resolute charge.
Before Ishtar could even process it, Samael slipped back, easily breaking free from her flustered grip. He blinked at her and gave a sly, lopsided smile, then leaned back and spread his wings, launching out of the Boat of Heaven, Maanna.