Chương 210: The Golden Beam of Salvation

The moment was critical, standing on the very edge of the abyss dividing life from absolute death. Dex, despite the terrifying power he had just demonstrated, which had turned the Shadow killers to ash, was still at the beginning of the road of his awakening. The blue phoenix flames were tremendous, but they were consuming his spiritual and physical energy, which was still in a phase of growth and reshaping.

Now he stood face to face with Viper, a full rank S human beast, a fighter whose body had been saturated by thousands of battles, his dark mana hardened in his veins until it had become part of his genetic composition. Dex's recognition of his reality was sharp and unforgiving, he knew that meeting this direct blow face to face was pure suicide.

The massive black scythe plunged from the heights of the sky at a speed exceeding the sound barrier, pulling behind it a tail of toxic green smoke that dissolved even the oxygen molecules in its path. The atmospheric pressure produced by the weapon's descent was sufficient to crack and crumble the roof tiles Dex stood on before the blade even touched them.

In the fraction of a second remaining, Dex attempted to gather every remaining drop of mana in his heart's core, forming an interlocked blue shield of several layers above his head. But in the depths of his cold analytical mind, he recognized the bitter truth: the shield would break, and the bones would be crushed. Below, on the palace balcony, Sylvester's eyes were following the scene with an indescribable sadistic and hysterical pleasure.

He had bitten his lower lip until it bled, and screamed with a madman's joy, the scream of someone seeing his nightmare finally dissolving before his eyes.

"Yes! Cut him apart! Crush him until not a trace remains!" But, before the poisoned scythe blade could reach Dex's blue aura by more than a few centimeters, and before Sylvester's diseased joy could complete, time stopped. It was not a metaphorical stopping, it appeared as though the very laws of physics had suddenly malfunctioned in response to a cosmic command. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Then, BOOOOOOOOM!

A terrifying detonation thundered, silencing every noise in the square, deafening ears, and making hearts cease their beating for a moment. This explosion was not produced by a fire reaction or conventional destructive magic, it was the sound of a terrifying collision of pure, concentrated, absolute energy of a degree the human mind cannot absorb. From the heart of the lower square, specifically from a point that had been empty a fraction of a second before, a golden lightning bolt launched.

It was not lightning from the sky, it was a pillar of pure golden light that cut its way upward at the speed of light, defying gravity and logic, to collide directly with the side of Viper's black scythe as it was in the middle of its lethal descent. The collision was no ordinary impact. It generated a massive spherical shockwave of perfect form, expanding in every direction at an unimaginable speed. The golden wave consumed the toxic green smoke in a flash, then continued expanding.

The wave shook the entire city of Seiron from its deep roots in the earth. The glass of the windows in the ducal palace and every surrounding building shattered simultaneously in a terrifying harmony, cascading down like waterfalls of broken diamonds. The purple flags that had been fluttering were torn into fine threads and scattered into nothingness. As for Viper, the terrifying rank S fighter, who moments ago had been an unconquerable beast, he completely lost control of his massive body.

The force of the blow received by his weapon transferred into his arms, breaking the bones of both wrists in compound fractures, and his enormous body flew backward with the force of a cannon blast. He flew hundreds of meters through the air like a cloth doll thrown by an angry child, to crash with seismic force into Sylvester's massive marble statue erected in the heart of the square, shattering its base, and sinking into the rubble amid a cloud of white and black dust.

Silence descended once more over the great square. But it was not the silence of anticipation or the fear that had reigned before. It was a heavy, viscous silence, filled with awe and sacred reverence. From within the clouds of golden and white dust rising like thick fog in the square's heart, and from the point from which the bolt had launched, something began to move. Tok, tok, tok. Footsteps were heard. Not hurried or agitated footsteps, but heavy, slow, rhythmic, and confident to the point of arrogance.

Every step striking the marble floor produced a sound reverberating in the cavity of every chest. And with every step, the mana pressure in the place grew denser and more savage. The pressure was not offensive magic, it was merely the natural presence of its owner. This colossal presence made the air as heavy as lead, rendering breathing a laborious and painful process for ordinary citizens and even for seasoned knights.

On the balcony, Sylvester fell to the floor for the second time, but this time he was not screaming. His knees were striking each other with involuntary violence, and his eyes were fixed on the dust cloud that had begun to clear slowly under the influence of the golden aura, to reveal the true nightmare from which he had always fled.