Chapter 782: Afterglow

【This is the seventeenth war council.】

【In the past fifty-three hours, four great human cities—Sharpness, Abdoir, Katakhnas, and Brandwitt—have collapsed into ruins one after another. Tens of millions have died in various horrific disasters brought on by an Evil God, and another roughly three million civilians have been directly transformed by Pollution into deformed monsters.】

【Their souls have become food for the Evil God. Their flesh has become nourishment for the spread of mutation. The land has been polluted, the sky has been torn apart, the world has been carved up, and everything has entered the countdown to the end. All factions have already exhausted every effort to stop the disaster from expanding, but ordinary people are far too weak and powerless beneath existences called gods.】

【From the day the First Evil God descended, humanity has already lost more than sixty percent of its population in total. This is a catastrophe without precedent... and the only ones who can end it are us.】

【After sixteen joint special operations against the First Evil God, we are still blocked by the mountain that is the Demon God’s immortality.】

【No matter the degree or method of attack—even if we reduce the First Evil God to ashes—It will completely resurrect from those ashes, and Its power will not weaken in the slightest. This characteristic makes our encirclement meaningless, and our losses severe.】

【However...】

【In the last operation—the sixteenth—we saw a turning point. The Origin-rank Archmage Kalodis, who led that operation, discovered in battle with the First Evil God that Origin-rank magic constructed through special methods and special materials can suppress the First Evil God’s activity to a very great extent.】

【Archmage Kalodis discovered this and used his own life to verify it. Please allow us to mourn and honor him. As a former sinner, he has washed away his sins in his own way. He truly deserves to be called the strongest and most outstanding mage of his era.】

【The seventeenth operation will be built on that foundation. We will change our objective from killing the First Evil God—as we attempted in the first sixteen operations—and instead choose to seal It.】

【Using the techniques Archmage Kalodis left behind as our base, and with the assistance of the People of Original Sin, we have produced that dedicated killing instrument and formulated a detailed plan around it.】

【In summary, this operation will be led by me. Those who will go to war with me are still the finest elite mages humanity has to offer. No matter what they may have done in the past, in this moment they are without question heroes of all humanity.】

【We will stake everything to end this world’s chaos.】

【And if I... if this operation fails, then the next operation... will be led by you, Meladomir.】

【I hope there will never be an eighteenth meeting. The entire world has reached the brink of collapse, and time has become our most precious resource...】

【Oh, and regarding the name of that killing instrument—we will name it after the sacrificed Archmage Kalodis...】

...

“Godslaying Mechanism · Kalodis’s Spear.”

Amid the immense roar, Mela watched in silence as that ancient, magnificent construct rose up from the ground. And in her mind, she couldn’t help but drift back to memories just as ancient.

“I never thought I’d see the day it came back into the light.”

It was a towering spire—or rather, from a tiny human perspective, that monstrous thing nearly a kilometer long was undoubtedly a tower.

Its four-edged, prismatic silhouette was cold and domineering. The savage scars carved into it were proof of a thousand years of age and glory. Even though it looked visibly damaged to the naked eye, the whole still gave off an obsidian-like, ghostly sheen.

From tip to end, there wasn’t a single seam, as if it had been carved from one complete slab of primordial stone. The intricate patterns on its surface were steeped in an ancient aura, but if you looked closely, you would realize they weren’t decoration at all—they were exquisitely fine mana circuits, dizzying in their complexity.

Those dense, intricate lines—so complex every mage of the present era would be stunned into awe—covered the entire colossal body. Some had already been lost in the last great war. Others still hid beneath the mottled stains of time.

A thousand years had passed, and it still flashed with blinding brilliance. It still erupted with ear-splitting roar. It still...

Released the might that had once almost slain a god.

Shenyi’s thousand years of reinforcing this throne-space meant nothing. It drove straight up from deep within the strata, easily smashing through those solid seals—like a bamboo shoot exploding upward under time sped up by millions, like a drill that could pierce the sky—bursting straight through the earth!

Everything happened in a flash.

From the moment Shenyi sensed it approaching to the moment it entered his sight, only two breaths passed.

He still hadn’t recovered from the shock of “two ants driving a mech” coming back to kill ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) him, and the spire—no, Godslaying Mechanism · Kalodis’s Spear—was already right in front of him!

“Old monster, this strike carries a thousand years of cultivation—can you take it?”

Muen and Ariel wore the ferocious grins of final-boss villains as they poured in every last thread of mental force, moving in perfect sync as they drove Kalodis’s Spear straight into Shenyi.

No complicated controls were needed. No lofty “man-and-machine as one,” mind-following-will mastery. In the end, this wasn’t a mech at all.

It was a spear—carefully forged by the saviors of a thousand years ago.

Sure, it was a bit too big, kind of hard to fit in, but a spear...

A spear is meant to stab!

Boom!

Another deafening explosion. The deep-gray curtain Shenyi threw up in an instant was pierced in the blink of an eye, offering almost no resistance. He instinctively tried to dodge, only to realize space itself around him had already been locked down—and he was completely targeted by Kalodis’s Spear.

The Origin-rank magic from a thousand years ago was still operating. Carrying the killing intent and fury once meant for the First Evil God, it crossed a millennium of time and fell again upon this Demon God blood that had slipped through the net.

“Muen Campbell—”

Shenyi let out a howl.

His howl was filled with a shrill, bizarre noise. His own voice was already hard to distinguish. It was difficult to say whether the one roaring now was Shenyi himself... or the Demon God blood inside him.

Shenyi’s shattered body suddenly swelled. That sticky, reeking liquid boiled and churned inside him. Countless venomous eyes opened in the cracks of his flesh. Twisted tendrils bloomed like sea anemones opening in the deep, layering defense upon defense to meet the spear.

Then the two collided.

In that instant, what came from the point of contact was no longer an earth-shaking roar, but a tiny sound—like a bubble popping.

Yet at the very center of that tiny sound was a tidal wave compressed to the extreme, then detonated all at once!

Space visibly caved inward. Countless twisted tendrils turned to ash in blinding streams of light. Shenyi’s deadlock with Kalodis’s Spear lasted only a few seconds before he—and the Demon God blood inside him—was pierced clean through by the spear that bore the name “godslaying”!

The tower-like spearhead punched through Shenyi’s body, then drove him upward with terrifying momentum. During that ascent, the noise and shrieks inside the liquid—enough to make an ordinary soul collapse—kept bursting out, only to be forcibly suppressed by a certain pulse within Kalodis’s Spear.

Mutation reversed. Distortion died out.

And the spear did not slow. It shoved Shenyi through earth, through rock, through space—up, up, and up again!

Until within Gutongs Castle, one more towering spire stood.

Even the sky was pierced. The spatial turbulence that had covered the Abyss for a thousand years tore open into a vast gap. Rushing wind scattered dust and yellow sand, and sunlight from the high heavens finally, for the first time, fell upon this wound in the world.

Sunlight fell on Shenyi as well.

Those black filthy things were lit by the sun, making them look even uglier. The spear’s tip ran through Shenyi’s chest, and his entire body convulsed.

The Demon God blood writhed inside him. It no longer carried that earlier bizarre, frenzied feeling—instead it moved slowly and weakly, like a dying worm.

Under this blow, Shenyi looked more wretched than ever before, barely clinging to life.

But barely clinging to life... was still not dead.

Kalodis’s Spear was named “godslaying,” but it could not truly kill Demon God blood that inherited immortality.

And after a thousand years of damage, even if it had been successfully activated, it still could not completely suppress the Demon God blood’s activity.

“Kh... khkh... just a little... just a little more...”

A disgusting, feral grin tugged at Shenyi’s mouth. His already deformed hands braced against the spear’s surface—now completely dimmed—and he dragged himself off the tip.

His gaze seemed to pass through those impossibly complex structures and fall on Muen inside the cockpit.

“Just a little... and I would’ve fallen to a brat like you... but unfortunately... I am the mighty Grand Duke Shenyi. I am the demonfolk’s ruler of a thousand years... and the one who guides my king’s return... how could I lose here... how could I!”

“...N-No way.”

Muen’s face went white.

“That didn’t kill him? That’s shameless...”

According to the plot, aren’t specialized items like this supposed to have an instant-kill effect? Why was Shenyi still jumping around?

That wasn’t scientific!

“Stop spacing out!”

Ariel snapped back to herself and grabbed Muen, shaking him hard.

“While he’s sick, take his life! Hurry up and keep hitting him!”

“I want to!”

Muen kept shoving the control lever, but no matter how he tried to drive Kalodis’s Spear, the only responses he got were “insufficient energy” and “damage too severe.”

“Damn it... why is it stopping now? If you’re going to edge someone, this isn’t how you do it!”

“What now...?”

Muen and Ariel looked at each other and both saw despair in the other’s eyes.

Two ants in a mech could fight a beast, sure—but now the mech was scrapped, and what awaited them was probably getting slapped to death in the next second.

Outside, Shenyi was already starting to stir. The Demon God blood gradually recovered its activity. Sticky, reeking liquid flowed. He was going to corrode Kalodis’s Spear—and the bugs inside it—together!

“Damn it—then we gamble!”

Ariel gritted her teeth.

“We can’t just sit here and die. If we push for it, maybe we can get this thing moving again!”

Dying in the same place as this guy was disgusting.

She refused.

“That’s true.”

Muen nodded.

“Waiting to die isn’t my style. We try one more time.”

So the two of them gripped the control lever again, squeezing hard. Not only mental force—battle aura and mana poured in as well.

Muen even felt a vast surge of soul power join in, trying to restart this ancient machine and give Shenyi a final blow.

Boom!

At that moment, as if sensing something in advance, Shenyi’s expression changed. He abruptly pulled back, widening the distance.

Muen and Ariel both lit up—because Kalodis’s Spear actually started moving again!

Their last desperate gamble had worked!

Only...

“Why does it feel... weird?”

Muen looked at Ariel beside him.

“Does it?”

“You don’t think so? This slow, leisurely movement is totally different from that earlier ‘all-out rush’ feeling. It doesn’t feel like Kalodis’s Spear is moving on its own—it feels like...”

“Correct.”

A cold voice suddenly spoke by Muen’s ear.

“And it’s pretty handy.”

“...”

Muen stiffly turned his head. Through the sensation extending out along Kalodis’s Spear, he saw it—

Right beside them, a terrifying creature even larger than this Godslaying Mechanism stepped out of a torn opening in space. The moment she spread her scaled wings, all sunlight was swallowed in shadow.

...

Muen blinked.

Weird.

Why was there a dragon outside?

And why did that dragon look so familiar?

And most importantly—why was that dragon reaching out with a claw to grip the tower, looking like...

Like she’d just pulled Kalodis’s Spear up with her own hand?

Muen felt the vast soul power from Ariel’s teacher withdraw quickly, but a shrill warning kept ringing in his ears.

“Charging... charging... external energy charging... three percent... five percent... ten percent...”

“Warning... energy storage unit malfunction... energy storage has reached maximum... overload imminent... overload imminent...”

“...”

Muen swallowed hard, then snapped his head toward Ariel.

“Hold on tight!”

“H-Hold on tight?”

Even with Ariel’s nerves, she couldn’t help scanning around in panic.

“This dump doesn’t have anything to hold on to!”

“Forget it—hold on to me!”

At a moment like this, there was no time to worry whether he’d get cut down later. Muen wrapped both arms tightly around Ariel. Ariel hesitated, then hugged him back. The two of them locked themselves into the narrow cockpit in the most stable posture they could manage.

And in the next moment, the entire tower shuddered violently.

Hamreign looked at the “tower” in her hand... no, for her, Kalodis was a spear now—a true spear, one that fit her hand.

“I never thought I’d have the chance to use you. Back then, I didn’t even have the right to.”

Her golden eyes flickered, and for once her tone softened.

“You must’ve hated it—back then, not being able to completely kill Its activity...”

“Humm...”

Kalodis’s Spear trembled slightly. Even though the permission to start it came from the key in Muen’s hands, it still resonated with Hamreign’s words.

“Too bad. You’re a little too broken now.”

“Huh?”

As soon as she said it, Hamreign lowered her head in surprise.

Through the enormous hole Kalodis had just torn open, she saw the girl on the throne raise her hand. With Divine Favor, she manipulated the magitech metals buried beneath the throne-space, drawing them up slowly.

An closed her eyes and steadied her breathing. The moment she’d seen that tower, more fragmented memories had appeared in her mind.

They seemed related to how this godslaying spear had been made, but it was far too complex for her to understand.

Even so, it was enough for some simple repairs.

So the materials Shenyi had prepared—spending huge effort to revive the “Demon King”—were forcibly mobilized by An. With no mana currently infused into them, her Divine Favor could easily control them, melting them, breaking them down, and then filling them into the damaged parts of Kalodis’s Spear.

Very quickly, the entire spear was plated in dazzling radiance, looking like it had fully regained its form from a thousand years ago.

“Good.”

Watching that, the Calamity Dragon showed a satisfied smile.

Her wings beat, kicking up a violent gale, and her massive body rose straight into the sky.

“N-No... no...”

Shenyi’s eyes tracked Hamreign as she flew farther away. It was as if he’d realized something. His whole body began to tremble uncontrollably.

The Demon God blood inside him shook violently too. A terror it hadn’t forgotten in a thousand years spread through that sticky, reeking liquid—yet at this moment, it was trapped by this body and couldn’t flee.

Of course, fleeing would be useless anyway.

Because It had already been locked on.

Locked on by the weapon born to slay gods.

“Watch closely. This is what a real thousand years of cultivation looks like.”

Hamreign crossed the spatial turbulence and reached an even higher sky.

Sunlight dyed her black dragon body crimson, like a mass of burning flame—but the moment she raised the spear, the flames went out, and night fell in an instant.

All sound stilled. The whole world seemed to hold its breath.

Only that declaration rang out.

“And this is... the last afterglow of that era—”

And then Kalodis’s Spear fell, carrying endless radiance that tore through the night.

And in doing so, it finally, completely pierced the Demon God’s leftover filth.