Chapter 178: Emergence.
Black miasma roared out of Damien’s body, spreading around him and Hannah until it completely encased them both. The oppressive force that had been bearing down on her immediately weakened, allowing Hannah to finally draw a proper breath.
She let out a quiet sigh of relief, but Damien wasn’t the least bit relieved. His expression remained grim as his undead began emerging from the darkness one after another. Within moments, hundreds had appeared, and the number continued to rise until almost a thousand undead stood motionless around them, waiting for his command.
"Go help as many people as you can," Damien ordered as he jumped onto Therizon’s back.
He turned toward Hannah.
"Hannah, we can’t fight this one. Run."
"Wait... what about you?"
Damien didn’t answer immediately. He wasn’t even sure what he was about to do himself, but one thing was certain. He couldn’t stay out of this fight.
As if on cue, the distant sound of the Round Table members clashing with whatever had emerged reached them. The sheer force behind the impacts made Damien’s expression tighten. Whatever they were fighting wasn’t something ordinary.
At the very least, it was above the Awakened rank.
"I’ve got to fight... I’m going to fight. Insane, I know, but unlike most of you, I can’t die, you don’t have to worry about me".
Hannah was left speechless.
Damien didn’t wait for her response. He kicked the Therizon into motion, and the undead followed immediately, their footsteps pounding across the ruined streets. Only a few hundred remained behind, moving toward the survivors instead.
The Ruins of Humanity was a massive city, its broken buildings stretching across the horizon. Yet as the shadow of that imposing being finally came into view, the entire city suddenly felt much smaller.
Ryan shot into the air, his body moving with all the power he could muster before he came crashing down toward the creature. But he never even got close enough to strike.
A massive claw tore through the night sky and swatted him aside. Ryan’s body was sent flying hundreds of feet before disappearing among the ruins.
Damien’s eyes narrowed, he couldn’t tell whether Ryan was still alive.
Nearby, Elias’s Dormant ability roared to life. His corper-like skin began expanding as his body grew larger and larger, eventually reaching the height of a two-story building.
Yet beside that giant shadow, Elias looked almost insignificant.
He could barely reach the creature’s knees, and the most terrifying part was that the creature still hadn’t fully emerged from the ground.
Damien felt a chill run through him as cold lightning suddenly flashed past.
It was Yuri.
She moved so quickly that Damien couldn’t even perceive her presence until she had already passed him, leaving only the fading streak of lightning behind.
Damien tightened his grip on Therizon’s feathers.
The battle ahead had already begun, and judging by what he had seen so far, this wasn’t going to be a fight where strength alone would be enough.
Damien didn’t waste any time. Therizon immediately fused into space, carrying him away from the ground as he appeared above the rising stretch of cold flesh.
The monster’s massive eyes finally snapped open, and its gaze immediately locked onto Damien. The sheer pressure behind that gaze made the surrounding air feel heavier, but Damien barely had time to react before a freezing wind erupted from the creature’s body.
The blast swept across the battlefield with enough force to send Andrea and Yuri flying, while even Elias was unable to withstand it. His enormous body was pushed backward as the freezing wind tore through the ruins, carrying the cold far beyond the boundaries of the Ruins of Humanity.
Everywhere it touched, ice began spreading across the land once more, burying the ruined streets and structures beneath a growing layer of frost as the world itself seemed to freeze beneath the creature’s presence.
[Beware]
The chime of the Emissary shook all their souls at the same time, but unlike before, its voice sounded different. There was something mechanical buried beneath the familiar tone, as though another power was interfering with the transmission and distorting the Emissary’s voice. Even the simple warning carried an unfamiliar weight that made Damien’s expression change.
[You are before the Storm Blizzard God.]
The Emissary continued without pause.
[In the time the divine grew arrogant and damned the mortals of their realm, the short-sighted beings sought to create their own gods. Such a folly, for man makes fate, but not the gods that rewards it.]
Damien barely had time to process the words before the Storm Blizzard God’s massive paw came toward him. The enormous limb moved through the air with terrifying force.
Damien immediately ordered Therizon to fuse into space as he attempted to escape the incoming attack. Therizon obeyed, and space folded around them as Damien disappeared from sight, but the creature’s attack was far too powerful to simply evade.
The sheer pressure surrounding the paw shredded through the space Therizon had hidden within, tearing apart the distortion before Damien could escape. The attack found him almost immediately, and the massive paw swept through his position and struck his body with enough force to send him flying.
Damien’s body was hurled away through the air, disappearing into the darkness as the force of the blow carried him from the battlefield. He had already known that whatever had emerged from beneath the Ruins of Humanity was monstrously powerful, but seeing the creature’s strength firsthand made one thing painfully clear.
This was a God.
"Damien," Andrea said from behind.
He turned toward her at once, and for the first time since the creature had emerged, a small spark of hope appeared in his eyes. Andrea was the strongest person among them, and if anyone had a plan for dealing with something like this, it would be her.
But Damien couldn’t help wondering whether even Andrea could handle what stood before them. If she didn’t have a way to stop it, they were all going to die, and the Storm Blizzard God would destroy whatever remained of the Ruins of Humanity.
"Please tell me you have a secret plot to deal with this guy," Damien said, his gaze shifting briefly toward the massive creature. "If we don’t stop it, it’s going to destroy what’s left of the Ruins of Humanity."
Andrea chuckled darkly instead of answering immediately. She raised one hand, and a long sword emerged into her grasp. Damien’s eyes narrowed.
Another Vestige.
The sword looked almost unnaturally pristine, its appearance carrying a divine quality that stood in stark contrast to the devastation surrounding them.
Damien couldn’t help staring at it for a moment. This wasn’t the first Vestige he’d seen Andrea wield, and considering how casually she seemed to produce them whenever the situation demanded it, a question he had been ignoring for some time surfaced in his mind.
Where the hell was Andrea getting all these Vestiges from?
Damien only had one.
And he was beginning to feel like he had seriously underestimated just how wealthy Andrea was in divine artifacts.
"There’s only one plan," Andrea responded. "We kill it. If we don’t succeed the first time, we try again, personally. The third time’s the charm."
Damien didn’t argue with that logic. There was little point in doing so anyway. His undead were already swarming the Storm Blizzard God, their dark figures moving across the ruined ground like a small tide rushing toward an immovable mountain.
𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎
The Storm Blizzard God’s eyes shifted toward them, then Its massive mouth opened.
A powerful blast of cold wind erupted from its throat, shooting forward like a bolt of condensed energy. The attack tore through the approaching undead before they could even reach the creature, drowning hundreds of them beneath the freezing force. The wave continued forward, and Damien barely had time to react before the temperature around him plummeted.
Ice rapidly formed across the ground and climbed through the air around them, forcing Damien and Andrea to retreat from the blast before they were frozen along with the undead.
Then the familiar chime rang inside Damien’s mind.
[Your Undead Has Fallen] !!!!!!
[Your Undead Has Fallen] !!!!!!
[Your Undead Has Fallen] !!!!!!
The messages continued appearing as more of his undead were wiped out by the freezing attack. Damien watched the destruction with an expression that was difficult to read. He couldn’t decide whether he should be impressed by Andrea’s confidence or simply run away from it.
"I vote we kill it in a single go. You in?"
Andrea merely shrugged before shooting toward the Storm Blizzard God.
At the same time, the others attacked from three different directions. Yuri moved like a bolt of lightning, her body cutting across the battlefield so quickly that she was almost impossible to track. Ryan advanced like a force of nature, the space around him compressing as he moved, while Elias charged forward on foot, each step cracking the already damaged earth beneath him.
The battlefield erupted into motion as all four closed in on the Storm Blizzard God from different angles.
"Where the hell is Vincent?". Damien suddenly yelled out just before they clashed with the god of storm and blizzards.