The sudden shift left the legendary powerhouses suspended in midair, stunned. The battle that had only temporarily halted due to the detonation of the "Eternal Blazing Sun" ground to a complete stop once more. Every gaze converged upon the two quasi-gods besieging Pope Benedict II, awaiting the final result.
Yet the two sides harbored wildly different emotions. The legendary mages were caught between elation and dread — the "Will of the Abyss" was infamous for its chaos and total absence of reason. Once the Pope was slain, it would undoubtedly unleash indiscriminate slaughter and destruction, and the region housing the Council headquarters would suffer catastrophic losses. Perhaps only the peak legendary mages — Douglas, Brook, Hathaway — and a handful of Grand Archanists would survive.
After all, when the Pope, a quasi-god, had clashed with Douglas, he had been cautious, weighing his actions, considering whether to endanger their people — making him relatively easy to pin down. The Will of the Abyss, by contrast, had no such concerns whatsoever. Even if the Demon Lords appeared here, it would kill them without hesitation.
"Something so chaotic that even its own true name is lost… utterly unnameable," Douglas murmured with a slight frown.
The "Will of the Abyss" was the codename the ancient dragons had given it, simply to have some way of referring to such an existence.
If he could not be driven back by the Pope, Douglas would likely need the Silver Moon's aid.
But Aetna, the Silver Moon, was famously indifferent to meddling in affairs. She observed the world from on high like a true deity, rarely intervening in anything.
"I'll probably have to step up again…" Douglas would rather face the Pope. At least when the Pope used Divine Descent, he had to weigh the cost of burning through his own life force. The Will of the Abyss, on the other hand, could pull off a "quasi-god self-detonation" at any moment, then spend vast stretches of time recovering from the Abyss — it never bothered weighing cost against gain.
The only thing that reassured Douglas was that Melmoth had been gravely wounded and the Angel King likewise heavily injured. Hathaway was more than capable of holding both of them in check, preventing the Church from exploiting any opening. Once Brook returned, the situation would be settled.
The Cardinals, meanwhile, had nothing left but fear and anxiety. If His Holiness the Pope fell here, he would be the first pope in all of history to die on a battlefield — an incalculable blow to the Church's faith. And if the "Will of the Abyss" and the "Silver Moon God" prevailed, the question of how many of them could make it back alive was very much in doubt.
The "Angel King" Melchentron, seeing how the situation was developing, no longer had any desire to continue sacrificing the Church's legendary powerhouses. After all, if a few more Holy Spirit Priests and Holy Knights fell, and the Church no longer possessed sufficient force to deter its enemies, it would surely suffer the same fate as the old Arcane Empire — when the walls crumbled, everyone piled on. The Dark Council, the Northern Church, the Mage Council — they would all descend like tiger sharks scenting blood, and no matter how Melchentron's plans evolved, they had to be built upon the Church's massive foundation.
"Converge on the teleportation array and return to Lans. I will use 'Divine Shield' to hold them off briefly."
Melchentron's voice resonated in the heart of every Cardinal, easing their anxiety somewhat. They began quietly making their way toward the super-large teleportation array.
No matter what happened to His Holiness the Pope — so long as the Lord's favor was not lost, the Holy See would endure! And the Angel King's attitude was proof enough!
To the northeast of the city, the sky cracked apart as well. The "Night Walker" Winston had separated from Ktonia, the "Heart of Time." The two of them watched as the "Falling Silver Moon" and the "Deep Black Sphere of Chaotic Destruction" hurtled toward the Pope with a force that could neither be stopped nor avoided.
"Lord Ktonia, you see — the outcome is already decided…" Winston would always try to negotiate surrender before resorting to force.
Ktonia seemed to age decades in an instant, gazing into the heights with a desolate silence.
Just as the two quasi-gods' full-power strikes were about to strike the Pope, a sudden change erupted high above. A layer of majestic, boundless, sacred milky-white holy light blazed to life upon the Pope's body, causing the surrounding space and time to freeze solid. The "Silver Moon" and the "Abyss" alike were forced to advance in sluggish slow motion.
A serene, devout smile spread across Pope Benedict II's face — the tranquil joy of one offering body and soul entirely. He raised the platinum scepter and began to chant in a tone that resonated like a sacred hymn:
"You are the One, and You are All."
"You are the instant, and You are eternity."
"You are the Creator, and You are the Sovereign."
With each prayer, his body grew dimmer. Within Lontas City, across every major city in the Holm Kingdom, throughout the cities of the Brianna Kingdom… and in the holy city of Lans itself, every priest and believer was seized once more by overwhelming emotion. All prostrated themselves in blissful peace, following along in prayer:
"You are the One, and You are All."
"You are the instant, and You are eternity."
…
"His Holiness has used Divine Descent again…" On the faces of Melmoth, Anastas, Maria, and the other papal supporters, uncontrollable grief and anguish surfaced. They knew all too well the cost of this spell.
Even at the Pope's quasi-god level of power, Divine Descent's damage might not be enough to kill him outright from a combined strike by the "Silver Moon" and the "Abyss." But to grievously wound and drive back both quasi-gods, he had still chosen "Divine Descent"…
The clearly visible projection of seven layers of the Heavenly Mountain materialized behind Pope Benedict II. Saints and angels from the first through fifth tiers sang ethereal, haunting hymns, playing melodies that drifted and soared. Pinpoints of light drifted from their forms, gathering into transcendent holy radiance that surged toward the sixth and seventh tiers.
At the sixth tier, six Seraphim lay prostrate, hands crossed over their chests, wings shrouding their entire bodies, as though praying for something.
Then the holy light poured into the highest tier, worshipping that infinite, indescribable radiance.
Pope Benedict II regarded the "Silver Moon" and the "Abyss," and spoke with solemn gravity: "This is the most righteous judgment, delivered by the Supreme Lord. The undying and the wicked shall be purified."
The ineffable, sacred light within the Heavenly Mountain's projection erupted. The Silver Moon blazed with luminous, crystalline brilliance. The Abyss unveiled its deepest, heaviest, most chaotic darkness.
All color and sound were stripped away in an instant. Even Douglas and the other peak legendary powerhouses could only sense objects within a meter through their spiritual fields.
Then, a wail of such ghastly, horrifying anguish tore through the void that all lost sensations came rushing back. Hathaway and the others saw that unnameable sphere of flesh had split open with several deep fissures. Countless limbs, eyes, and heads burst outward, blown back through the gaping crimson doorway as if hurled by a shockwave. The eerie crimson gate then rapidly decayed, vanishing without a trace.
At the same moment, a silver moon rose once more — but far dimmer than before, gradually swallowed by the sun's radiance.
The aftershock surged toward Lontas City like a tidal wave. Hathaway's silver-gray pupils contracted slightly. She whispered, "Elemental Aegis."
Gold, silver, white, and black — countless motes of light condensed into a hemispherical dome enveloping the city.
"Magnetic Field Collapse."
At the sound of that refined, faintly aged voice, a layer of deep-black distorted space materialized beyond the Elemental Aegis. The erupting gravitational pull devoured the greater part of the shockwave; what remained was blocked by the Elemental Aegis.