Chapter 264: Existence Beyond Nuclear Weapons
The Ultimate Deterrent
Looking at Joel Nash suspended in the air, wreathed in lightning and flame, the Swamp Thing observed,
"His abilities are significantly different from the previous Ghast."
Luke sneered, "Not only his abilities, but his personality is also vastly different. If the one in the Swamp Forest was a wolf, this one is a venomous fox—cruel, cunning, and ruthless."
"What is your plan?"
"Find the right opportunity and deliver a lethal strike."
The Swamp Thing nodded slightly. He hadn't seen Adam the Demon and assumed Luke had already deployed him.
After the initial Green Flame attack, Joel Nash's energy output had significantly diminished, and his eyes showed signs of fatigue. In just a six-second encounter, his soul had suffered devastating damage.
A terrifying flame, a terrifying power!
Joel Nash clenched his fists and quickly made a decision: Luke Shaw must die. He was too dangerous to live.
Perhaps sensing the shift in his opponent's mood, Luke said teasingly,
"Your Excellency Ghast, you have no chance fighting two of us. How about this: you surrender and release the President, and we'll pretend nothing happened and let you leave. What do you say?"
Joel Nash replenished his magic reserves while replying coldly, "You are the ones who should surrender."
"That's incorrect," Luke spread his hands. "Your lifeline has always been in my hands. Kletus's Red Jar. You thought you hid it well, but I found it anyway."
"The divine script on the jar is interesting. It not only chronicles your life but also describes the jar's purpose. If I didn't happen to know a friend who understands divine script, I wouldn't have known your true physical body has been sealed inside all this time. No wonder you care about it so much—it contains your life force."
"Your Excellency Ghast, why don't you guess: if I were to toss a small nuclear bomb into that jar and detonate it, what would happen to your body? Would it be destroyed along with the jar? Or would it break free and be reborn?"
Joel Nash's face turned ashen.
"You are courting death!"
Luke gave a weird, mocking laugh, his expression sinister. "I am indeed courting death. What can you do about it?"
He snapped his fingers.
A circular metal sphere descended from the sky. Suspended beneath it was the stone jar with a missing lid—Kletus's Red Jar, the artifact sealing the demon Ghast.
In the next moment, to Joel Nash's horror,
Boom!
A tremendous roar echoed. A small mushroom cloud blossomed in the sky. The terrifying shockwave spread outward, generating a Force 12 hurricane in the forest. Trees toppled, and vegetation was flattened against the ground.
An electromagnetic pulse and a radiation wave traveled outward, mixed with the physical shockwave.
Luke and the Swamp Thing instantly used their abilities to defend against the energy blast.
Joel Nash, however, remained motionless, staring blankly at the sky. His eyes pierced through the firelight to see the mysterious runes flickering at the center of the mushroom cloud. Within those runes, a terrifying creature covered in red scales and possessing four wings briefly materialized. It appeared for only a second before being shredded into dust by the runes.
"No!!!!"
Joel Nash clutched his head, letting out the loudest scream of his existence. Ignoring the surrounding electromagnetic waves, he rushed toward the mushroom cloud like a madman.
Boom!
A second explosion occurred. The mysterious runes transformed into endless waves of light, detonating in the sky like a second sun.
The ground shuddered. The light was blindingly brilliant, turning the night into day. A palpable sphere of light expanded slowly in the sky. Its suffocating energy instantly reduced everything it touched along the way into its base molecular form.
The apocalypse had descended. Even the FBI team, miles away, felt the dreadful presence of absolute annihilation.
The aura of utter destruction was hair-raising.
"Holy cow!"
Luke was stunned, cold sweat dripping down his back. Without a word, he turned and ran. The Swamp Thing reacted faster, plunging into the mud and instantly disappearing.
The things created by the Timeless Ones are too terrifying. A nuclear weapon is a mere squirt gun compared to this.
The light sphere's expansion accelerated, growing from a point to a circle, then into a massive globe covering thousands of meters. Looking down from a satellite, one would have seen a blue void carved out of the clouds by the destructive sphere.
Luke ran at full speed, but the sphere caught up to him. Realizing he couldn't outrun it, he unleashed all his energy, layering shield after shield of defensive barriers around himself.
The light sphere swept across the land. Trees, grass, and rocks—everything vanished, leaving behind only bare, barren earth and suspended molecules of soil.
A void ten miles in diameter appeared in the forest, a desolate, gray land showing no sign of life.
Sam Lane, having just left the forest, watched in horror, his lighter falling from his hand unnoticed. Everyone else shared the same expression, gazing at the beautiful yet brutal spectacle created by the slowly expanding light sphere against the brilliant white sky.
What was humanity worth in the face of such power?
"Is this the power of the demon?" someone murmured, but the question was left unanswered. A heavy dread weighed on everyone's hearts.
"Luke!"
Emily screamed hysterically and tried to rush back into the forest. Maeve quickly grabbed her, pinning her to the ground. Stanislav stepped in and chopped her on the back of the neck, knocking her unconscious.
Costa swallowed hard, murmuring,
"That... that guy should be alright, right?"
Everyone fell silent, the atmosphere unbearably tense. Just then, Sam Lane walked up, his voice hoarse.
"I need you to send a team into the forest to see what happened."
Stanislav and Maeve exchanged a look and nodded.
"We will send personnel."
Sam Lane glanced at the unconscious Emily, frowned, and left without another word.
Survivors and Damage
The sphere of light lasted for a long time before slowly fading. As the light vanished, night returned.
In a small mound of earth, the mud began to writhe. A metal arm poked out, followed by a cracked helmet and heavily damaged chest armor. Luke coughed violently, pushing away the surrounding mud and crawling out of the pit.
He looked around and froze upon seeing the endless black plain.
"If I remember correctly, this was a forest," he murmured to himself.
He quickly snapped out of his shock and checked his body. Head was fine, upper body was fine, and his left leg was slightly sprained—not too serious.
The problem was the Phantom Armor.
The armor was severely damaged, covered in cracks big and small, with gashes on the back and left leg.
"Ava! Ava! Are you there?"
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