[The First Day of Destruction][Inner Sanctum: The Eye of the Water God]
The air within the sanctum grew unnaturally heavy, thick with the suffocating density of pure, wrathful divinity. The Cherubim Gatekeeper, a towering monument of silver and blinding white plumage, reared back and unhinged its leonine jaws.
The world seemed to hold its breath.
[Skill: Roar of Divinity]
Heaven shattered. A beam of concentrated holy energy erupted from the angel's throat, transforming the very air into a tempest of blinding white fury. It wasn't merely light; it was sound, atmospheric pressure, the judgment made manifest. The roar shook the foundations of the earth, instantly disintegrating the ancient stone pillars and blowing away half of the sanctum's vaulted roof in a tempest of holy fire.
For the pure of heart, it was a miraculous balm. The devastating shockwave bathed them in warmth. Valerius's severed limbs regenerated in a flash of silver light, bone knitting to muscle in an instant. Clemence's deep lacerations closed without a scar, and the bone-deep fatigue that had plagued the surviving holy knights vanished, replaced by surging vitality.
But for the unholy, it was sheer annihilation.
The Eternal Death was swallowed whole by the white inferno. The concussive blast threw the skeletal monstrosity backward with the force of a falling meteor, slamming it into the jagged ruins of the destroyed balcony.
Swirling dust and the crackle of holy fire filled the devastated chamber.
"Did... did we get it?" a bleeding priest whispered, desperate hope battling the suffocating terror in his voice. "Even an Undead cannot survive a direct hit from a Cherubim's ultimate skill!"
Deputy High Priestess Shannon held her breath, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs as she watched the smoke begin to clear.
Then, the blood froze in her veins.
From the smoldering crater of rubble, a slender figure rose unhurriedly. It raised a skeletal hand and nonchalantly dusted off its tattered, obsidian robes.
It was unharmed.
There were faint, glowing burns etching its skeletal frame, but even as Shannon watched, the holy fire sizzled out, the blackened bone mending itself. She stared in mounting horror at the enemy
"Impressive," the Eternal Death murmured. "Massive holy elemental damage paired with a secondary sonic component. Quite potent against lower-tier undead. However..."
It stepped gracefully out of the smoke, the twin abyssal flames in its eye sockets flaring with a sinister, purple light.
"...against me, it is merely annoying. And a skill of that magnitude possesses a significant cooldown, does it not?"
The last remnants of color drained from Shannon's face.
It knows.
This was no mindless undead. It understood the underlying mechanics of their world better than they did.
"Gods above... how do we fight this?" Shannon whispered, her voice trembling so violently she could barely form the words. "How can we possibly win?"
Panic rising, she looked back toward the sacred pool at the remaining Miko Princesses. They were pale as ash, their bodies trembling uncontrollably. Crimson tears were weeping from their tightly shut eyes. The sheer metaphysical strain of maintaining a Level 80 angelic summon with only two human conduits was visibly tearing them apart from the inside out.
They had five minutes at most before their bodies gave out.
"I see," the Eternal Death mused, its gaze locking onto the trembling girls with predatory interest. "So the ritual distributes the immense mana cost among the casters. Killing just one was insufficient to sever the connection. I must simply be thorough."
"No...!" Shannon gasped, her lungs burning.
The Undead didn't leap this time. It simply dissolved into a wisp of unnatural, inky black smoke.
[Shadow Step]
It rematerialized instantly at the very edge of the blood-tinged pool, a nightmare made flesh. It reached out a skeletal hand toward the Water Miko Princess.
"Stop! The barrier!" Clemence roared, abandoning his defensive stance and throwing himself forward.
"Protect her!" Shannon screamed.
The Cherubim Gatekeeper moved, its massive silver wings sweeping forward to interpose as a shield, but it was agonizingly slow. The Eternal Death was already inside the angel's guard.
"[Skill: Needle Storm]."
The Eternal Death nonchalantly clenched its fist.
It was a massacre in miniature. Thousands of needle-thin blades of dark magic materialized in a tight sphere around the Water Miko. There was no escape; the very air around her became a localized torture device.
Shing-shing-shing-shing.
The sound was horrific. The young Miko Princess didn't even have the time to draw breath for a scream. Her body was pierced from every conceivable angle simultaneously. Face, torso, limbs, she was instantly transformed into a grotesque, bleeding pincushion.
Fresh blood sprayed outward in a fine crimson mist. The mangled ruin that had been a girl fell backward into the sacred pool with a heavy splash, turning the water completely red.
"Eee-yaaa!!" A nearby priest shrieked.
Shannon clamped her hands over her mouth. The holy pool was no longer a vessel of miracles; it was a Pool of Blood.
"Ugh... glug..."
Beside the floating carnage, the last remaining conduit, the Light Miko collapsed to her hands and knees.
She was alone now. The astronomical, crushing mana burden of a Level 80 divine summon crashed down entirely upon her singular, fragile soul. It was like trying to funnel an ocean through a straw.
Blood poured in from her ears, nose, and eyes. But it wasn't just blood. It was thick with the dissolved tissue of her own rupturing internal organs. She opened her mouth to scream, to beg for release, but only a horrific slurry of stomach lining and shattered teeth spilled over her lips.
Her small body convulsed once, a violent, arching spasm that broke her own spine, and then she collapsed face-first into the blood-red water.
Dead from sheer magical burnout.
Pop.
The blinding light of the sanctum vanished in an instant. The Cherubim Gatekeeper flickered into nothingness. The oppressive, comforting blanket of divine aura was ripped away from the sanctum.
A suffocating, heavy silence returned to the ruined sanctum, broken only by the wet, rhythmic sound of blood dripping from the shattered altar.
And then, the screaming began.
"Ah... AHHH! My skin! It burns!" "High Priestess! The toll! Help me! HELP ME!"
The backlash of the Forbidden Art hit the survivors like a tidal wave of rot. The cosmic debt had to be paid, and the currency was life itself.
In the pool and around the altar, the remaining priests began to violently writhe on the stone floor. Their bodies aged decades in mere seconds before Shannon's horrified eyes. Youthful, flush skin withered into dry, gray parchment and tore at the joints. Robust muscles completely atrophied, leaving them as living skeletons. Hair turned white and fell out in bloody clumps.
Then, Shannon felt it.
It started as a creeping itch at the base of her spine. She felt her bones becoming as brittle as dry twigs. Her spine, unable to support her weight, began to curl forward, bowing her back in a grotesque hump.
She tried to raise her hands, to cast a simple healing ward, anything, but her fingers were gnarled claws, the skin clinging loosely to the knuckles like melting wax. She was the Deputy High Priestess. She was supposed to protect them. But all she could do was watch her flock turn to dust.
Desperate, she tried to turn her head to find Clemence, the First Seat.
Crack.
The sickening sound of her own cervical vertebrae snapping echoed loudly within her decaying skull. A spike of paralyzing pain shot down her neck, leaving her head lolling uselessly to the side.
"Clemence..." she rasped.
But her voice was gone. Her vocal cords had snapped. Her tongue had shriveled into a dry, useless lump of flesh in her mouth. Her vision was blurring, the edges of the world turning dark and cold.
Through the fading, tear-filled haze of her failing eyes, she saw him.
The First Seat. Clemence had cleaved his way through the rubble, his holy armor dented and stained. But he wasn't looking at the enemy anymore. He had stopped fighting. He was staring directly at her.
His normally resolute face was completely shattered, his eyes wide with an unspeakable, paralyzing grief. He was watching her, dissolving into a withered husk.
"Deputy High Priestess!" Clemence shouted, his voice raw with despair. He dropped his guard completely, reaching a gauntleted hand out toward her across the ruined distance.
No... don't look at me... Shannon screamed. Look behind you! Please, Clemence, behind you!
She pushed every ounce of her remaining, fading will into her eyes, trying to warn him, but her body was entirely unresponsive.
Directly behind Clemence, the shadows lengthened unnaturally. The Eternal Death materialized from the darkness, a dagger of pure black obsidian raised high in its skeletal grip.
"Oh dear," the Undead whispered."Getting distracted during a boss fight? That is a rookie mistake."
Thunk.
Shannon watched, utterly helpless, as the black blade sank deep into the back of Clemence's neck, severing his spine and exploding out through his throat in a shower of brilliant crimson.
The First Seat didn't even have time to gasp. His outstretched hand fell limp, and he crumpled to the stone floor like a puppet with its strings cut.
The darkness finally rushed in to take her. The physical agony of her body dissolving into ash was immense, an ocean of pain, but it was nothing compared to the suffocating despair that crushed her soul.
They had sacrificed everything. The scrying had failed. The angel had fallen. And as her final breath rattled from her decaying lungs, Shannon knew that the last, desperate hope of the Theocracy had just died in a pool of their own blood.
Author note
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We made 25 Power Stones in the last 24 hours, thank you! Drop your thoughts in the comments. I post Sun / Wed / Friday-- the next chapter is this Wednesday. Next goal: 25 more in 24 hours.
P.S. -- Anyone want to read advanced chapters? Tell me!