The sky... had shattered!
As though seized by a terrifying premonition rising from the depths of their Souls, the same thought surged through everyone's mind.
The sky must have shattered!
A violent aura swept mercilessly across the land like a storm that would destroy everything in its path, like a savage beast trampling through an innocent field of wheat.
Before that overwhelming power, all life seemed helpless and insignificant.
This was no ordinary natural phenomenon. It was a force of destruction that defied all reason.
They looked up at the sky.
At some point, a figure had appeared there. The aura radiating from him was so powerful that it created the illusion that the sky itself was breaking apart.
"What is that...!?"
No words could describe it. Their mouths felt as though they were filled with countless chili peppers at once, burning so fiercely that it was almost unbearable.
The once bustling city fell silent in an instant.
The Pabilsag and the other Demihumans could only crane their necks like giraffes, their gazes completely drawn to the figure in the sky, following his every movement.
The being who had appeared above them was a Skeleton Undead radiating an almost divine presence.
He loomed over the heavens, instantly becoming the focus of every eye.
Behind him hovered a stellar wheel, a magnificent eight-pointed structure resembling a colossal and intricate magical array.
"I am the founder of the Theocracy, the eternal guardian of humanity, the God of Darkness and Death, Surshana."
Shame? What was that?
Such an emotion had become almost negligible to him.
Six hundred long years had washed away nearly all those trivial feelings. Outside of certain exceptional circumstances, he generally maintained a calm and rational state of mind.
[Whoa! That line was unbelievably cool!]
The God of Wind's excited shouting suddenly rang out inside his mind.
Surshana remained silent and promptly muted him.
Were it not for the need to spread his name, he would never have bothered with such pointless words.
This was not a game. There was no reason to give some elaborate opening speech.
Still, he and that compatriot in the Sorcerer Kingdom were both Undead.
They were not completely identical, but they might as well have been cast from the same mold.
After all, Skeleton Undead in games generally looked alike.
It would be far too embarrassing if someone mistook him for the other simply because of their similar appearances.
Yes, it was better to make his identity clear first.
"He spoke...! He... he spoke..."
The Demihumans below finally snapped out of their daze, stammering as though their tongues had tied themselves into knots.
His voice was not particularly loud, yet every Demihuman throughout the city heard it with perfect clarity, as though he were speaking directly beside their ears.
"The... founder of the... Theocracy...? An ancient... God... one of the Six Great Gods... Hahahaha! Is this some kind of insane performance?"
Fear and shock eventually erupted into a furious roar.
Inside the rugged palace, a Pabilsag tried to display fearless courage and righteous outrage, but his body mercilessly betrayed the terror in his heart.
His barbed tail whipped wildly like that of a frightened animal. His body remained low, and his scorpion legs drew tightly against his sides. Every tiny movement revealed his fear and panic.
The Six Great Gods were the oldest Gods in this world.
Six hundred years ago, they had used absolute power to suppress all opposition and save humanity, which had been driven to the brink of extinction by other superior races.
They were mighty beings before whom even the proud Dragon Race had been forced to retreat.
And now, one of them had suddenly appeared before him.
The Pabilsag King had a vague idea of why Surshana had come, but why?
Why had he not appeared sooner?
Had the Pabilsag King known that one of the Six Great Gods still remained in this world, how could he ever have dared to unite the Demihumans and prepare an attack on the Theocracy?
It was over.
Everything was over.
All that awaited him now was divine judgment. He did not even consider resisting, because doing so would be far too foolish.
After all, challenging a God was itself an act of utter folly.
"...Hmph... Hahahahahaha... So that's how it is. O immortal God, do you truly love humanity that much...?!"
The Pabilsag King threw back his head and laughed bitterly, sounding like a drunken human.
Unfortunately, the God did not even lower his gaze toward him.
The only answer he received was the appearance of an enormous magical array.
Roughly one minute had passed.
Fourteen minutes remained.
To be safe, it would be best to finish this as quickly as possible.
Surshana silently calculated the remaining time. He had heard the Pabilsag King's words, but so what?
Once a Demihuman, always a Demihuman.
Only those who were Players like him possessed the right to reason with him.
The Pabilsag King before him was not worth wasting words on.
He did not deserve to hear them.
Faith Synergy, Area Expansion. [10th Tier: Meteor Fall Modified · Starfall]
The Demihumans suddenly sensed something approaching from directly overhead at a speed they could never evade.
They instinctively raised their heads and saw countless dazzling spheres of light appearing in the sky.
Those were not ordinary lights. They were enormous, blazing rocks, each far larger than any normal boulder.
As the blinding radiance gradually filled their vision, a powerful shockwave arrived first.
Every building in the city began to tremble violently, as though they might collapse at any moment. The Demihumans in the streets panicked and scattered in every direction, desperately searching for somewhere safe to hide.
Yet no matter how frantically they ran, they could not escape the terrible shadow above them.
Meteorites poured from the sky like rain, triggering an earth-shaking explosion.
The deafening blast thundered like a bolt from the heavens, shaking everyone to their very core.
The tremendous force of the explosion swept across everything in its path, utterly destroying it all.
The disaster was not limited to this place. Even the Genie Kingdom hundreds of li away suffered the same fate.
The scorching wind from the explosions hurled sand and dust high into the sky, sending it pouring back down like torrential rain.
Only gradually did the smoke and dust begin to disperse.
...
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the desert, at the stronghold of the Eight Greed Kings.
A large number of NPCs had gathered at the entrance, staring solemnly into the distance.
"What in the world is that? Super-Tier Magic? Wild Magic? With that range and destructive power, even a King..."
Thanks to their formidable strength, they could faintly make out countless points of light falling from the sky like shooting stars.
"Our Magic Detection spells have completely stopped functioning. They appear to be disrupted by some unknown force. Had we not severed the connection in time, we might even have suffered severe backlash."
The grave voice echoed among them, making the expressions of the assembled NPCs even more somber.
"...Activate full combat readiness. At the same time, send some people to investigate what is happening over there."
"Prepare long-range teleportation magic for immediate use. Should anything unexpected occur, we will defend this place to the death. Above all else, we must ensure that person's safety."
An elderly man made the proposal.
Even though the stronghold's former glory had faded after the fall of the Kings, and many of its districts had been abandoned, collapsed, and swallowed by the yellow sands, the surviving area of Eryuentiu still covered nearly one hundred square kilometers.
A number of subordinate races continued to live within it.
Because of the detection magic surrounding the stronghold, the NPCs themselves could not leave without risking suspicion from the three in the Sorcerer Kingdom.
Until they knew who had caused this strange phenomenon, they could not be the first to break that unspoken rule.
They therefore had no choice but to send those Demihumans to investigate.
They simply could not afford to gamble with their survival. Every step had to be taken with extreme caution, and they had to prepare for every possible outcome.
"Should we tell the Clear Light Dragon Lord to return?"
"Not yet. Let us wait and see. His continued existence is far more important than ours."
...
"Hm? A few rats."
"That direction leads to the Guild of the Eight Greed Kings. Are those their Guild Base NPCs?"
Surshana turned his head slightly. After a moment of thought, he decided to ignore them.
With the Guild Base behind them, those NPCs would be difficult opponents to deal with. More importantly, he had only fifteen minutes and could not afford to waste time on them.
Besides, with those three compatriots from the Sorcerer Kingdom watching them closely, those NPCs probably would not dare make any reckless moves.
His gaze returned to the city below.
Or, more precisely, to the ruins that had once been a city.
The ground was densely covered in meteorites. As far as the eye could see, not a single trace of life remained.
The once prosperous city had been reduced to a wasteland, leaving behind a scene of utter desolation.
[Finish this and hurry back. That cat slave is driving me insane.]
The God of Light's voice suddenly rang out, urging him to hurry.
Surshana gave a slight nod and looked down.
With a single thought, a piercing wail engulfed the land, while the illusory light behind him began to transform.
Faith Synergy! Area Expansion!
[Cry of the Banshee + The Goal of All Life Is Death]
A magnificent golden clock face appeared in the sky and began counting down toward death.
Every passing second was accompanied by a chilling toll, as though announcing the arrival of the apocalypse.
"Let this bring everything to an end."
Surshana's most powerful and vicious finishing move was complete.
The only difference between this version, infused with the Power of Faith, and the original was that its effective range now extended across more than two Demihuman nations.
(PS: The so-called one year's worth of Power of Faith refers to the combined total accumulated by all six over one year~)
Strictly speaking, it was even more useful than it had been in Yggdrasil. In this world, it could kill even air and matter.
The cost, however, was the loss of protection for allies, turning it into an indiscriminate instant-death effect.
Still, judging by the result, that should count as an enhancement.
[Click, click, click.]
The ticking continued, every sound marking another second of life slipping away.
Time passed without mercy.
At last, the hour hand completed a full revolution.
At that instant, the entire world underwent a catastrophic transformation, as though everything had been reduced to lifeless silence and nothingness in a single moment.
There were no anguished screams and no dazzling flashes of light.
Every form of matter was simply transformed into dust at the same instant by the pure power of death.
This was no ordinary dust. Its particles were finer than the grains of sand in the desert, and its composition was entirely different from normal sand.
It could be described as the [remains of something deader than dead].
More precisely, it was true [ashes of death].
The instant the clock behind Surshana pointed to death, everything was completely annihilated.
Even the air itself died, turning into a hazy poisonous gas. Nothing remained but a vast layer of dead ash, bearing silent witness to the prosperity and vitality that had once existed there.
"Let's go."
The entire process had taken three minutes.
Surshana glanced over the results of his actions and nodded in satisfaction. His Undead instincts filled him with a faint sense of pleasure at the sight before him.
After confirming that nothing had gone wrong, he returned to the Theocracy without looking back.
Next came the grand campaign to spread the news.
The priests surely knew exactly what to do.
***
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