Chapter 882: A Strike that Split The World In Half

The darkness contained deep within Levaithan’s pupil condensed.

There was no roar or warning.

The enormous eye opened, and the world in front of it disappeared, vaporised into nothingness.

A beam erupted from the pupil.

It was wide and dense, surpassing the fortress walls in size. Beautiful black beams of light with hints of dark purple tore across the ocean, swallowing rain, clouds, waves, and even the sound as it passed over.

The sea beneath the attack vanished instantly, leaving a vast trench cut through the water, exposing the seabed for miles.

Asmodeus felt Ein’s hands tighten around Axiom.

[Move!]

There was no time.

The beam reached them.

Ein twisted her body and released every remaining trace of gravity around them. Space bent, forcing the centre of the attack several degrees north, but even that slight movement came at a cost.

The edge of the beam struck them.

Asmodeus’s six blood wings folded around Ein and Velvet.

Then everything turned black.

Pain swallowed him.

"Ngh...!"

The beam tore through his wings, flesh and armour, burning away the left side of his body before Axiom released a violent pulse. The halberd devoured part of the energy striking them, but it couldn’t consume everything.

"Aggggggh!!!" Ein screamed.

It was the first sound Asmodeus had heard from her that felt completely human.

The white armour covering her body shattered along one side. Plates peeled away from her shoulder, ribs and thigh as silver blood erupted into the darkness. Her gravity field collapsed, and the three of them were thrown across the sky like insects caught in a hurricane.

Velvet spun away first.

Her wings snapped open as she regained control, then she lunged forward and caught Ein before the Arbiter fell into the ocean.

"W-Wait... Asmodeus!" Obviously her aim wasn’t Ein, but her husband.

Yet Asmodeus remained in front of them, enduring and continuing to face the beam with all his worth.

He struck the surface of the sea, skipped across it twice, then crashed through a wall of water and vanished beneath the waves.

The beam continued north, crossing the ocean in seconds until it reached the continent.

There was no explosion, only a line.

A perfectly straight black line burned across the northern mainland, stretching farther than the eye could follow.

Then the land vanished.

Mountain ranges disappeared beneath the light.

Forests, rivers, cities and cliffs were consumed before their shadows could form. The beam cut so deeply that molten stone burst from beneath the continent, while sections of land collapsed inward after the attack passed.

The northern sky turned white.

A shockwave spread across the world.

The ocean rose in a ring around the ruined continent, creating waves that rushed outward in every direction. The distant landmass had been reshaped in seconds, its upper half replaced by a burning ravine that stretched beyond the horizon.

Even Leviathan remained still after firing.

The colossal eye across its chest bled.

Thick black fluid poured from the pupil, while cracks spread through the surrounding flesh. The attack had drained an immense amount of energy from the Behemoth, but its millions of smaller eyes continued watching the coast.

They scanned from side to side for movement, as if waiting for him.

"Haaaa!"

Asmodeus shot from the water, only a single pair of torn wings remaining as he flung away from the beast.

His left arm hung uselessly at his side, most of its flesh burned away beneath the shoulder. Dark skin had been reduced to charred muscle across half his chest, while blood poured from the torn edges of his Abyssal Sovereign form.

Yet Axiom remained in his right hand.

’Damn it...’

There was a painful ache throbbing in every inch of his body.

He held the humming Axiom tightly.

Asmodeus coughed, spraying blood through the air.

’That hurt...’

His golden eyes moved toward the north.

The clouds had been torn apart.

Through the open sky, he could see the distant glow of the continent burning.

For several seconds, he couldn’t understand the scale of what had happened.

Most of the northern land had vanished.

"How many people have died...?"

Though given the order to move, there existed thousands, maybe millions, who refused to leave their homeland.

His fingers tightened around the cold weapon in his hand, its shaft trembling in response.

Velvet flew closer from the distance, while still supporting Ein.

"Asmodeus!"

"Velvet... It’s alright, I’m alive."

Her eyes finally shifted to his body, then widened, quickly brimming with tears.

"A-Are you a fool!? Half of your body is missing... what is alive... what is alright?!"

"It’ll grow back."

"That isn’t the point!"

Ein lifted her head weakly.

Half of her white exoskeletal armour had broken away. Silver blood coated her side, while the porcelain skin beneath had been burned black by Leviathan’s beam. One of her white eyes remained closed, and her short bob clung to her face.

[You cannot continue; this beast isn’t supposed to awaken...]

Asmodeus gave Ein a short glance before he snorted.

"Who cares? I could say the same about you."

[I can still—]

"No."

His voice stopped her.

Asmodeus looked toward Leviathan.

The giant eye began closing.

Flesh gathered around the pupil, sealing the cracks as the Behemoth prepared to recover from the attack.

’If I let it heal, it will fire again.’

He couldn’t block another beam; if it managed to fire again, what would happen to Grigor, and could it reach Lumeria? He couldn’t take that risk, and so discarded the idea of retreating to recover.

His energy levels were low, and everything hurt.

Asmodeus raised Axiom.

The halberd felt impossibly heavy.

His demonic energy answered first.

Blood-red flames gathered around the shaft, pouring from his ruined body and spreading across the blade. The single remaining wing behind him dissolved, becoming raw power that flowed into the weapon.

His Abyssal Sovereign form began to break apart.

Silvery-white hair darkened at the roots.

The deeper tone of his skin faded.

His muscles contracted as the transformation lost strength.

But Asmodeus continued.

Abyssal energy followed.

The corruption lingering inside his wounds, the residue Axiom had stolen from Leviathan and the darkness hidden inside his blood all gathered along the blade. Black veins spread across the halberd, pulsing with dark purple light.

Axiom groaned.

The sound resembled metal bending beneath the weight of a mountain.

Velvet’s eyes widened.

"Asmodeus, stop! Your body can’t handle that!"

"It doesn’t need to handle it for long."

’This is the only attack that managed to make that arbiter panic... then I will use it with all my remaining power!’

Ein watched as he handled the weapon; her eyes opened wide, and she trembled.

[You are using a power far beyond your vessel! You must stop!]

"That’s why I have Axiom."

The final energy came from Ein.

The divine aura Axiom had already devoured.

White light emerged from the halberd’s core, winding between the demonic flames and abyssal veins. The three energies resisted each other, grinding along the weapon’s edge while sparks tore open tiny cracks in the air.

Axiom screamed.

The noise travelled across the ocean.

Leviathan’s millions of eyes snapped toward him as if the behemoth understood something. Its giant pupil opened, with darkness gathering at the centre once again.

’Shit...’

Velvet released Ein and flew toward Asmodeus.

"I’ll help!"

"No."

"You can’t do this alone!"

"I have to."

She reached for him.

Asmodeus looked at her, and the sheer exhaustion in his face stopped her.

"Velvet, protect the others."

Her lips trembled as they parted, revealing her chattering white teeth.

"A-Asmodeus...!"

"Please."

Velvet’s hands shook.

Then she flew backwards, caught Ein around the waist and dragged the wounded Arbiter away from the centre of the battlefield.

Ein struggled weakly.

[Release me.]

"Shut up."

[He will die.]

"You don’t know that!" She screamed as her voice cracked. Unable to fight back her emotions, she glared back at Asmodeus, who met her gaze with a smile.

Axiom had become a massive beam of light at the end of his halberd; the blood-red demonic power undulated around its outer edges, the abyssal darkness filled the core, while the White divine energy flowed between them, stopping the two forces from devouring each other before the attack could be released.

The space around the blade split.

A thin crack opened across the sky.

It stretched from the ocean to the clouds, revealing nothing behind it. No darkness. No stars. Only the absence of the world.

Asmodeus drew Axiom behind his body.

Every muscle tore.

His knees bent in the air.

Blood poured from his nose, mouth and eyes as the remaining reserves inside him vanished into the weapon.

Leviathan’s giant pupil gathered enough energy to fire.

The Behemoth opened its colossal mouth.

Millions of smaller eyes shone across its body.

Asmodeus smiled through the blood coating his teeth.

’Die!’

He swung.

The dimensional slash left no colour behind.

The world separated.

A straight rupture crossed the ocean, passing through waves, clouds and Leviathan without slowing. The sea split open beneath it, exposing a chasm in the seabed that continued toward the mainland.

Then the attack reached land.

The southern edge of the continent tore apart.

Mountains split.

Coastal plains opened into a ravine hundreds of metres wide. Rivers dropped into the new abyss, while cities far from the battlefield shook as the dimensional cut continued inland for miles.

The damage rivalled Leviathan’s beam.

Another permanent scar had been carved across the world with Leviathan standing at its centre. The Behemoth stopped moving, with its giant eye remaining open and a dark beam flickering inside it as the island-sized body divided.

The cut began at the crown of its armoured back and travelled through the giant eye, mouth, torso and submerged flesh beneath the ocean.

For one silent breath, Leviathan remained whole.

Then both halves separated.

Black blood erupted between them.

The ocean vanished beneath a flood large enough to bury the exposed seabed. Flesh, armour, millions of eyes and crooked limbs collapsed in opposite directions, creating waves that rolled away from the corpse.

The dark beam died inside the severed pupil with the fading roar of Leviathan.

Asmodeus dropped Axiom, his Abyssal Sovereign form completely dissipating as the last traces of his blood wings dissolved. His silvery-white hair returned to normal as his body shrank from its demonic build. Darkness closed around the edges of his vision...

...and he fell.

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