Finally!
Given a precious chance to catch his breath, Samael landed on the back of the ferocious dragon of Colchis and let out a long sigh.
Quetzalcoatl, the Jaguar Warrior, Skadi, Scáthach, Holo, Ana, Tamamo-no-Mae, Heracles, Orion, and the others stopped in midair. Sensing the blazing Ether light radiating from the white colossus ahead, bright as the sun at its zenith, their expressions stiffened, and they drew in sharp breaths.
"What is that...?"
"Cyrus, Ahura Mazda, Marduk, Velber, God... call him whatever you like. That's right. This thing is the same enemy we faced in Mesopotamia and the War of the Titans."
Hearing the strained murmurs around him, Samael drew Ether from the surging tide and spoke in a low voice, his brow furrowed.
At his words, gloom settled over everyone's faces.
Fortunately, Nitocris and Cleopatra's message had gotten through, and those who came were all reinforcements of Divine Spirit caliber. If ordinary people had been dragged into this, they would have been nothing but fodder.
The Ancient Serpent steadied himself, looked around, and nodded inwardly. Then his dark gaze fell on several figures standing clearly apart from the Greek coalition forces.
The Asura King Vritra, Rama, incarnation of Vishnu, Karna, the Little Sun, the elephant-headed Ganesha, and the Son of the Sword, Batras. These helpers who had originally belonged to the army of Persia had all arrived as well.
Their bodies were more or less marked with scorch marks left by explosions and burns.
Clearly, the white colossus's first bombardment had been indiscriminate. It had made no distinction between friend and foe.
Or rather, in the eyes of this God, there were no friends or enemies at all. Everything beneath his feet was nothing more than ants and dust, insignificant.
"What are you doing?!"
As the only surviving native god of Persia, the Asura King Vritra recalled the horrific scene just now, when Tanbei Gorge had been struck by a single spear of light and more than ten thousand people had died or been wounded. His vertical pupils froze, and fury overtook him.
"Ahahahaha! Foolish! Foolish! How amusing. Keeping you alive was the right choice after all."
The white colossus's right eye glinted with cruel mockery as it laughed wildly. Yet when the corner of that eye flicked toward a certain direction, it filled with a loathing, sinister chill.
Samael, who had been glanced at, suddenly understood. The corner of his mouth twitched as he looked at the Asura King standing there in a daze, apparently not quite keeping up.
Vritra, the Serpent Demon, the Evil Dragon...
That bastard Marduk had probably treated this snake woman as a substitute for his arch-enemy, using her for entertainment to ease the frustration in his heart.
At that moment, none of these descended Divine Spirits were fools. They all sensed that something was wrong, and the atmosphere grew even heavier.
"Still don't understand? How could there possibly be a Heaven that saves everyone? We were all played! You were nothing more than bait to hold Greece in place."
As an old enemy who had clashed with him several times, Samael narrowed his snake eyes, went back over the overlooked details, and exposed Marduk's intentions with a cold snort. The traces of it all had begun three days ago.
Three days ago, the King of the Greek city-states returned, and the Areopagus began planning to send troops.
Three days ago, Mithra, the God of Light, infiltrated Athens, the Pandion family betrayed them, and the first signs of the Great Plague of Athens appeared.
Three days ago, Moses received the Ark of the Covenant from King David and crossed the Red Sea.
Three days ago, Ramesses II witnessed his wife's resurrection, made a covenant with God, and reconstructed the Great Altar.
And likewise, as early as three days ago, Marduk had already abandoned the assault on Greece, secretly left Thermopylae, followed Moses to Egypt, and changed the target of Velber's descent.
The Persian army left behind in Tanbei Gorge, together with those heroes, were all sacrificial pawns meant to keep the Greek army occupied.
"How delightful...!"
The white colossus halted its attack and raised a hand over that blazing white right eye. The light-shadow within laughed with delight, thoroughly pleased by his old enemy's belated realization.
Without an audience, there was no performance.
The more brilliant the scheme, the more it longed to be admired and understood. Otherwise, a one-man show would be far too lonely.
That was the common flaw of the proud.
Naturally, Velber would not be troubled by such emotions, but Marduk, fused with it, had given it that trait.
"So you're that afraid of me?"
Yet that mocking whisper instantly froze Marduk's crazed smile. His expression stiffened.
"Arrogant! Absurd! Damned serpent, you are lower than every beast and animal, fit only to crawl on your belly and eat dirt for the rest of your life! What right do you have to make this King fear you?"
In the blink of an eye, Marduk within the Giant God's right eye flew into a rage.
Seeing this, Samael's mouth twitched, and his expression turned strange.
A casual jab had actually hit the mark?!
For someone as proud as the King of Kings, the more he cursed and explained, the more he confirmed that guess.
The free-spirited Quetzalcoatl even laughed aloud, a teasing glimmer moving through his golden eyes as some of the gloom in his heart was washed away.
Three days ago, the army of Persia still held an absolute advantage at Thermopylae, and the Tower of Babel was nearly complete.
If they had chosen to launch an immediate assault, the reinforcements from the Areopagus might not have arrived in time.
But Marduk had been afraid.
Strip away the myth of the King of Kings always seeing one step ahead, and the truth became plain.
Clearly, the all-knowing and all-powerful God had been left with serious trauma by one damned serpent.
He would rather give up a victory within reach than face the full force of the Greek army. To avoid confronting that fated enemy, he abandoned the entire army of Persia and went alone to Egypt to gamble everything.
He had lost his nerve before the battle even began. There was no denying it.
"You promised me you would save Sita..."
The red-haired youth standing atop the Vimana of Heaven slowly raised his head and opened his eyes. His voice had grown deeper, and his hand was already on the hilt of his sword.
"Very well. Then allow me to show you the end of your journey, the end of the world, and the moment my great work of reforging this star is complete!"
Sensing the mocking gazes around him, the light-shadow within the white colossus lost all desire to continue speaking with ants. It spread its arms and let out a cold, savage laugh.
"Life crawls in swarms, growing day after day, reeking of rot and overflowing with sin.
I do not acknowledge their kind. I do not understand their kind.
What I desire is the beauty of utter nothingness.
What I desire is the end that cuts away karma.
What I desire lies beyond that pilgrimage of the star.
This is the temple of God. This is the gate of Heaven. Break the seven seals, sound the seven trumpets. The hour of judgment has come, and with this, all phenomena shall be corrected!"
In an instant, under the chant of divine words, specks of light dust rose from the sea, from the ground, from the sky, from the mountains, and far more from the bones of the dead. They formed hundreds of millions of blazing white bands of light visible to the naked eye, all converging toward that sea of nothingness.
Hum!
In the blink of an eye, the interwoven wheels of light transformed into a magnificent Heavenly Gate and slowly opened. Graceful figures surged out from the hazy, dreamlike white light beyond the gate, filling the sky.
"Holy! Holy! Holy, the Lord is the Almighty who was, and is, and is to come!"
At the same time, light-shadows bearing different numbers of wings arranged themselves in staggered rows and columns around the white colossus, chanting solemnly.
Some were strange beings with two wings covering their feet and two wings for flight, their bodies burning violently. Some were abstract monsters with six wings, their bodies covered inside and out with all kinds of eyes. Others had four wings beating above and below, their main bodies formed from a fused mass of human, bull, eagle, and lion faces...
Far more numerous were the humanoid figures with fluttering wings, numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
At the front stood four figures, each surrounded by the radiant aura of one of the four great elements, earth, fire, wind, and water. Michael, who had escaped disaster earlier, now stood at the right side of the white colossus with a cross-shaped sword in hand, guarding it as he pointed his blade forward.
"The Kingdom of Heaven has descended. The Holy War has begun! Sweep away the remaining enemies for the Lord!"