Egypt, the Temple of Radiant Union.
Cyrus, the Great King of Persia, emerged from the cascade of light. He no longer had his once fair complexion. Every inch of his skin was covered in intertwined gold-blue and red-black patterns, like an ancient star chart.
"The journey of the Old Gods has come to an end. The stars shall be reborn. All life shall become the past. Descend, my great work, my will! Reforge this planet, ascend the stairway, and become a god above gods!"
Cyrus raised his head and gazed at the brilliant comet hanging in the sky like the sun. With a crazed, savage grin, he stepped toward the center of the grand altar where the cascade of light fell, as if ascending a jade throne overlooking the world. The five slender fingers of his right hand lowered onto the altar engraved with dense Chants, his palm connecting with the ancient Stone Tablet embedded within it.
Hum!
The moment they touched, the ancient star chart on the back of the Stone Tablet gradually lit up, and the sacred covenant carved in cuneiform on the front activated in sequence. A blazing white halo of light rapidly swallowed the entire Ramesseum Tentyris.
At the same time, the survivors hiding within the pyramid melted away inch by inch, like ice and snow beneath the scorching sun, the instant they came into contact with the white light invading the interior of the Ramesseum Tentyris.
Men or women, young or old, rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, none of it mattered. Beneath this apocalyptic judgment, all life was broken down into pure spirit particles and drawn into the bands of light.
"Ah! My body, no! No!"
"By the god Ra, help me! Save me..."
"Nephthys, guardian of the dead, look upon this world and show mercy..."
For a time, cries and screams shook the heavens. The human survivors hidden inside the Great Temple shrank back one after another, trying to escape the radiance of the blazing white bands of light.
Some, overcome by panic, even tried to break through the veil of light and flee the Great Temple.
But Egypt no longer existed. The world barrier had been pierced and torn apart, Ether storms raged without end, and the surface of the earth had become a sea of nothingness. The moment those frenzied refugees rushed beyond the Great Temple's boundary, they were torn to shreds by the raging Ether maelstrom, reduced to spirit particles, and gathered into the bands of light.
In just a few breaths, the once-crowded pyramid had fallen into utter silence. Cyrus gazed at the hundreds of dense, luminous rings filling the sky, the corners of his lips curling in satisfaction.
"Waaah..."
But just as those slender fingers were about to draw the Covenant inch by inch from the groove in the altar, a sudden, stifled child's sob came from a narrow gap in one corner of the pyramid. In the darkness, half of an Egyptian woman's exposed body had already been melted by the blazing white pillar of light, yet her arm still clamped tightly over her daughter's mouth and nose, desperately smothering the child's cries.
Cyrus froze. He lowered his head to look at the Sacred Stone Tablet in his hand. His pupils contracted sharply, and a dark shadow spread across his face.
What should have been a flawless work now bore an almost invisible crack in one corner, ruining its overall beauty.
And it was that slightest imperfection that allowed a single palm-sized patch of darkness within the pyramid to be overlooked by the light.
All at once, Cyrus seemed to understand. Rage erupted in his chest, as if he were a giant toyed with by insects, and his gaze turned cold and rigid.
Moses. Ozymandias. Damn them!
Those dear friends, those mortal enemies, those princes of Egypt, those brothers. Those two men had finally reached the far shore and defied the gods.
But even that could not bring back Egypt's setting sun.
Hiss...
As the thumb of that light-shadow pressed down on the nearly invisible crack in the Stone Tablet, the blazing white pillar of light devoured the last trace of darkness.
The mother and daughter huddled in the corner, holding each other tightly, vanished completely into that pale radiance.
The sunset over the Nile, the afterglow of the empire, and Egypt's final faint glimmer all sank beneath the horizon.
The light-shadow upon the grand altar looked over the purified sea of nothingness, at a canvas nearly pure white, and nodded in satisfaction. It raised its hand and pulled the Stone Tablet from the groove. A crazed smile appeared on the face covered in star-chart patterns.
"Hear the voice of Heaven, open the gates of Heaven, and let the world be soaked and reborn from here! I was, I am, and I shall be forevermore! Ah, hahahahahahahaha!"
In an instant, Cyrus, holding the Stone Tablets of the Covenant, spread his arms and looked up at the shattered firmament. Surrounded by countless blazing white bands of light, his body transformed into a stream of Ether light and merged with the comet hanging in the sky like the sun.
"Laaaa!"
At once, that ethereal, holy chant rang out from the descending broom star, while countless points of light around it resonated and pulsed, like a song of ancient stars.
Blazing white ripples of light spread from the Sea of Imaginary Numbers in every direction.
At the same time, in Greece, at Thermopylae.
Standing on the cliff, Altera, the Great Hun King, stared blankly at the distant sky. His gem-like eyes burned, faintly reflecting a lonely river of stars, while the star-shaped emblem on his wheat-colored skin flickered to life.
His human form grew increasingly indistinct.
Hum!
The next instant, a massive stream of golden-blue Ether light cut across the Sea of Chaos and plunged into the comet, which shone like the sun, at lightning speed.
In an instant, countless spirit particles converged, drawn by the bands of light, outlining a majestic silhouette.
Immediately afterward, a white giant ten thousand zhang tall took shape. A golden-blue vortex of stars churned chaotically in its abdomen, and its two eyes gleamed, the left like a burning crimson ruby, the right like a blazing white fountain of saints.
"World barrier pierced. Landing anchor stabilized. Star vessel retrieval complete. Data link loaded. Soul medium core adaptive adjustment complete. Spirit particle reactor activated!"
In the blink of an eye, the starlight stripes across the white colossus lit up one by one. A low, solemn male voice emerged from the stellar core in its abdomen, and gathered bands of light rose above the colossus's head like a ringed crown.
"Fundamental laws analyzed. Divine words loaded. Chanting begins...
Divine Man... correction... Divine Spirit... correction... Ragnarok. The world burns. The sanctuary collapses. The hour of judgment has come. With this, all phenomena shall be corrected. I shall reforge the planet, and all things shall return to The Root! Humanity... correction... Ideology... correction... Incineration of Humanity activated!"
Amid the mechanical male chant, the white ring-shaped bands of light from the crown shot out from the Sea of Imaginary Numbers in every direction like accelerating blazing white spears.
In an instant, the white spears of light fell like a meteor shower from the highest heavens. Wherever they passed, space tore open, forming visible crimson-black rifts. Their speed was so overwhelming that defense was impossible.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
In Greece, the ancient sacred temple on Mount Olympus collapsed with a thunderous crash. The entire mountain broke apart and crumbled, volcanoes erupted, and magma poured freely from cracks in the earth as rolling dust blotted out the sky.
In Rome, flames soared across multiple provinces. City after city, along with their unsuspecting inhabitants, vanished in the blazing white light.
In Persia, the great Persian army gathered outside the royal city to defend the capital was thrown into chaos. The wasteland was covered in bottomless craters, and tens of thousands were erased without leaving even bones behind.
At the same time, violent tremors struck the Maya, China, India, and other regions. Wherever the beams of light passed, the earth shattered, all things melted away, and countless lives were reduced to ash.
Standing upon the Sea of Chaos, Samael felt the pressure crashing toward him, and his hands and feet went ice-cold.
Seventh-tier! This was a Velber vanguard raised directly to the seventh tier!