"Heavenly Punishment! Heavenly Punishment! Heavenly Punishment!"
When a terrifying power like a blazing sun—no, truly rivaling a blazing sun—fell from the heavens, countless angels couldn't help but cry out and cheer at the top of their lungs.
As if a star were falling, spewing endless torrents of flame, it crashed down with a roar!
It tore through the iron-like cloud layers, burning open a massive hole right through the center, utterly dispersing the mist of dream chaos lingering over the Scar and venting it boiling in all directions.
With incomparable, horrifying might, it crashed toward the rift.
Yet upon the earth, the rift suddenly yawned open like a massive maw. Its surface area instantly expanded dozens of times over, swallowing the Sun of Heavenly Punishment whole.
The blazing sun plunged into darkness.
And then, silently—it vanished.
As if it had never existed in the first place.
Expressionless, the Pope tightened his grip on his scepter, driving its power to erupt. Yet no matter how he directed it, the sun's power struggled to break free of its bonds.
It was as if it had fallen into a prison, unable to stretch its limbs.
No, it was almost as if it were being clenched tight.
At that moment, amid the rolling, dissipating darkness of the iron hell, Ji Jue's figure emerged, glancing down at his splayed fingers.
Between his five fingers hovered a tiny fireball.
Burst after burst, collision after collision, yet it could not escape the grasp of the spiritus hand. Between those invisible fingers, a magnificent, colossal destruction had been reduced to a plaything in his palm.
Incapable of breaking free.
"You're already visiting, why bring gifts?"
Ji Jue looked up, glancing toward the distant phantom of Tiancheng, and grinned. "Quite hospitable of you."
With that, his fingers tightened. Streams of scorching red fire surged out from between them, extending inward and sinking into the Crucible. In a steady, unbroken trickle, they fed heat and driving force into the Crucible, making the surging river of molten steel burn even more turbulently and violently, sending up ten thousand flecks of silver light.
Immediately afterward, specks of radiance rose from the silver crown atop his head, flying up toward the verge-of-collapse black cloud bank above the Scar.
Instantly, amid rolls of thunder, blinding lightning flashed.
A silver gleam faintly emerged from the dark. In the blink of an eye, it plated the entire cloud layer in a metallic sheen, and in moments, a torrential downpour began.
Falling from those silver clouds was a spine-chilling rain of metal.
Countless iron flakes condensed into shape amid the forging of thunder and lightning, turning into a storm that swept across every direction, swallowing everything in its path.
Even if their blades and impact were too tiny to pierce the reinforced armor or inflict direct injury, they acted like living things. The moment they made contact, they quickly melted, slithered across the surface, and burrowed beneath skin and pores, rehardening and reshaping within flesh and blood, proliferating hungrily.
With the slightest carelessness, the rainwater burrowing into wounds would sprout blood-red thorns coiled around bones and viscera. No one knew how many angels wailed and plummeted from the sky.
Yet even more angels charged forward heedless of death.
Amid glorious horn blasts, they breached like a genuine torrent, even veering to fling themselves straight at that silver rain cloud. Then, fanatically shouting dogmas, they detonated with a roar.
They were like walking bombs, and their horrifying numbers were wiping away the rain clouds in the sky at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Under the shine of the holy relics disseminating the Heavenly Radiance, each slain angel regenerated from the radiance in an instant. With each self-detonation, their resonance and connection with the holy power grew stronger, larger, and more hideous—and, likewise, their explosions grew all the more exaggerated!
In just a few seconds, under the pinning fire of explosions, tens of thousands of angels breached the airspace above the Scar, diving straight for the rift on the ground.
Hysterical fanaticism brimmed on every face—no fear, no retreat. Even the last traces of their humanity had vanished under the burning Heavenly Radiance. Even at the final moment of death, they were still loudly chanting hymns!
Resounding, high-pitched hymns rose and fell, echoing between heaven and earth.
Endless light swept out like a mighty waterfall, tearing through the darkness.
Like the final battle between good and evil in myth, the Heavenly Kingdom was to descend upon the earth; all heretics and sinners would burn to ash in the radiance, and all sins would face divine judgment.
"Die, sinners!"
Angels ablaze with holy light broke through the storm and plunged toward the scar across the earth in magnificent majesty. And answering them was a battery of colossal cannons rising from within the rift—
"Fire at will. No need to aim," Ji Jue waved his hand casually. "At this scale, you can hit something blindfolded."
Before his words had even settled, the forest of giant cannons in the dark spat flame, resembling massive trees of light growing out of the earth.
In an instant, they set off a sky full of bloody fireworks across the vault of heaven.
Tiancheng refused to be outdone. Above the hollow heavens, traces of sacred seals emerged in the blink of an eye, and ten thousand streams of light shot forth from within them.
Under the searing lights continuously bursting forth, everything else was cast into drab shadow.
Only scorching red streaks like wire stretched between heaven and earth, tangling, colliding, annihilating one another or grazing past to crash into the distance.
Ji Jue waved his hand again. The holy light falling into Limbo struck empty space and dissipated.
Yet this time, the power within it wasn't brought under his control. Once dispersed, it flowed into other angels, strengthening them once more. Even when an angel died, the power would cross the vast distance on its own to return to the Heavenly Radiance.
It was almost as if it possessed a consciousness of its own.
Consciousness?
The moment understanding dawned, Ji Jue couldn't help but laugh out loud.
To keep him from seizing the divine power, had they really schemed to such an extent? Granted, faith and divine power were unthinking and unknowing, naturally showing no bias—but what if they were endowed with a consciousness?
After pouring in a massive amount of pious consciousness generated by fanaticism and prayer, the activated divine power converged into the Heavenly Radiance, spreading outward with the holy relics as its hubs.
The countless angels were merely its vessels. In essence, what Ji Jue was fighting was this "divine power" that, having gathered the self-nature stripped from the devotion and prayers of countless believers, had been brought to life like a fanatic!
Even if its consciousness was nearly nonexistent, to Ji Jue—who lacked the slightest speck of piety—it naturally wouldn't cooperate. In fact, it would erode and burn away his control.
But it didn't matter.
If the ox won't drink, you can force its head down.
Forced melons can quench thirst, and they can be made sweet!
If you won't come to me, can't I just go to you?!
When Ji Jue snapped his fingers again, countless ravenous iron demons took to the sky alongside the Dragon of the Underworld.
Amid the clash of holy light and flame, the pitch-black and pure-white torrents finally collided. Endless wreckage fell like rain.
Blood and engine oil turned into a downpour, spilling endlessly.
Unlike in the past, when they broke at first contact, the angels now completely immersed in fanaticism and bolstered had almost each reached the level of former archangels, leaping an entire rank as a whole.
It made Ji Jue intensely envious.
*If Non-Offensive were still around, would I be stuck looking like this?! In a matter of minutes, I'd show you what the effects of the Calling and Metamorphosis blessing sequences are really like!*
Under the empowerment of the Heavenly Radiance, the angels' recovery and resurrection speeds were atrocious—practically equivalent to moving their spawn pool right to Ji Jue's doorstep. They were reborn as fast as they fell, endless to slaughter.
By comparison, the iron demons were far weaker, unable to gain the upper hand. They could only rely on the terrain advantage around the Scar to mount a defense and counterattack.
They were being completely suppressed. The few sporadic countercharges were extinguished with crushing ruin and pushed right back.
Facing an enemy that was fearless of death, brainwashed by fanaticism, refusing to retreat even if ninety-nine percent of their legion fell, and ready to drag their foes down with them—anyone's scalp would tingle with dread.
The problem was, now both sides were like that!
It wasn't just Ji Jue who felt sickened; the two newly appointed Saints leading the siege were utterly disgusted as well.
From the start of the battle until now, their casualties had been countless. Setting aside failing to breach the Gate of Limbo, they hadn't even inflicted any meaningful casualties—not because the angels weren't trying, but because the bastard on the other side wasn't acting human at all!
Every single demon sent out to fight, down to the last one, was a fucking drone!
As long as the combatants lying in the Pure Land could keep going, smashing a demon meant nothing more than swapping into another chassis... And as for those chassis, heh, guess how many were sitting in Limbo's warehouses?
Give an Embers craftsman a workshop, and they'll bring you an endless stream of pure terror. What was worse, this dog Ji Jue was a beast who had grinded mechanical engineering to the limit. The assembly lines whirred so hard sparks flew non-stop, and since the Spirits of Creation had come online, they hadn't rested for twenty-four hours, frantically expanding production and ramping up speed.
Thus, a grand, momentous showdown turned into a dazzling special-effects spectacle. Both sides fought with everything they had for half the day without seeing a shred of real progress. A duel turned into beam clashing, and beam clashing turned into pure attrition.
Tiancheng had ruled this world for so many years that its bottomless reserves were beyond doubt, and it didn't hesitate for a second to burn resources to overwhelm its foe. Unfortunately, Limbo's recovery rate was too damn fast.
Shatter one wave, and up came another. Before this wave was spent, the next was already gearing up, while the wave after that was already being rolled out of the warehouses. Meanwhile, on the assembly lines, countless mechanical arms were producing brand-new chassis, and even tailoring brand-new weapons and equipment based on combat data...
At the same time, more and more "catches" were continuously ferried in to replenish consumption.
The weapons used by the demons all incorporated Solid Alchemy. So long as they inflicted damage, they could siphon divine power and seal it inside, preventing even the Heavenly Radiance from pulling it back.
Like ants moving an elephant, blazing spears were hurled into the Crucible one after another, burning fiercely to release divine power and serve as firewood.
And even more spears, lances, and ammunition erupted from the assembly lines, piling into mountains, lining up to be loaded and deployed.
At this moment, the communication channels within the Pure Land were in an uproar. In the virtual space serving as a recruitment plaza, countless speech bubbles popped up continuously.
"LF1M, fast fast fast, leave upon joining!"
"First-gen demon veteran leading! Fast run for South Front Century Slayer achievement, logs checkable!"
"New equipment test mission, double contribution points! Fast fast fast!"
"Holy shit, how do you fly this new chassis? Why is the assist system such a piece of shit?"
"Bro rolled a stock system, lmao, everyone point and laugh at him."
Amid the clamor, on the catapult rails, cables hooked up to the iron demons detached one by one. Mental injection complete.
Crimson pupils flared with light.
Soon, the upgraded test equipment was distributed to every operator.
The moment they gripped it, the user manual surfaced in their minds.
Amid the storm of shockwaves and flames, the newly launched demons collided with the angels once more, disregarding machine losses to trade lives for lives.
Spears pierced vital points, silver light gushing forth.
The angels struggled and beat their wings, yet could not pull free from the spear barbs. Dragged down by the falling demons, they plummeted toward the rift.
Immediately after, the squirming silver light engulfed them like living things, turning them into lifelike statues.
Within, the Heavenly Radiance rampaged and collided, trying to break free, yet could not escape Quicksilver's containment.
The moment they crashed to the ground, they were swarmed and run through by demons waiting in ambush. Their divine power was drained dry, and before they could commit suicide, a flurry of hands pinned them down, muzzled them, and strapped them onto restraint rigs.
"Fast, fast, fast! Fresh catch!"
"While it's warm! Living ones give triple contribution points! Send him in quick, don't pull out the freezing gun, don't let him kill himself!"
"Fuck, quit cutting in line back there! I'm still turning in my quest!"
"Who gives a damn? First come, first served!"
With a loud clack, the restraint rig was mounted onto the assembly line, quest rewarded on the spot.
The captured angel struggled with all his might, roaring and cursing incessantly, but no one paid him any mind.
"Divine power's all drained. Processed pretty clean."
The sorting personnel made a quick sweep with an inspection scanner, then waved. "Ninety-nine percent intact. Good, send him to mine."
Mining?
The angel couldn't help a sneer, scorn written across his face.
Even if he died here today, leaped down into Limbo, or suffered a hundred tortures, he would never swing a pickaxe for these heretics and sinners! Come on, you heretics, today you'll see what Tiancheng's backbone looks like!
He couldn't wait to relish their impotent rage!
Wait, why were they stripping him bare? Why were they sticking electrodes to his forehead? Weren't they sending him to mine?
What was that saw for? Wait... wait!
Soon, after a hum, a brand-new mining machine operated by the assembly line was sent into the deeper darkness.
And then, the next piece of unyielding wetware awaiting processing arrived at the door.
An unending supply.
Above the vault of heaven, furious urgings rang out.
The Pope frowned, dissatisfied with the current progress.
Consequently, the two Saints directing the front lines didn't dare slack off. They liberated their divine power, burning their own souls to rain down countless beams of radiance.
The two Saints hastily promoted for the holy war possessed authorities entirely geared toward large-scale legion warfare. One's authority doubled the speed of countless angels in an instant, while the other bestowed unbreakable defense, allowing the protection across all angels to circulate and disperse, sharing a single shield among all.
So long as the legion endured, that defense could stack infinitely.
Endless radiance pressed down inch by inch, utterly shattering the remaining silver clouds. Colossal and mighty like an iron curtain, it slowly advanced, cutting through the final resistance with irresistible force and uprooting the defenses on the ground.
Amid fervent hymns, morale soared once more.
The moment they rallied their formation and launched an assault on the Scar, the first fully modified new chassis shot forth from the lightning of the catapult rails, like a silver morning star rising from hell.
On the spiritus projection screen in the Pure Land, lines of text surfaced in the chassis report pop-up:
[Data and parameters collection complete. Self-nature imprinted, spiritus derived—]
[War-type Spirit of Creation (First Seal), construction complete.]
[Authority verified. Pilot Yan Fei, login complete.]
—[White Knight, launch]!
BOOM!
As if the world were restarting.
Every subtle sound in the world roared like thunder in his ears. Radiance of ten thousand colors shone before his eyes like the sun.
Everything became crystal clear, vivid and distinct.
All phenomena rushed at him!
An unprecedented searing sensation coursed through his soul, making Yan Fei unable to hold back a roaring bellow.
Amid the thunder and flashing lightning, a colossal war demon plummeted from the heavens, trampling upon the earth. Six iron wings spread wide, razor-sharp limbs snapping out. In an instant, it tore an opening through the army of ten thousand, blood spraying as it surged forward!
Six wings! A hundred limbs! Eight arms!
Standing over ten meters tall, the metal demon had four eyes on its head scanning in all directions. The boosters on its back spewed cyan flames as it rampaged forward.
No need to think; simply obey instinct, and the other self would make the optimal decision.
No need to hesitate; simply slaughter at will, and the iron demon would seek out enemies on its own!
The new chassis seemed completely fused with his consciousness, stripped of all former sluggishness and lag. He didn't even need to formulate a thought; the moment a subconscious reaction flickered in his mind, the body naturally responded.
Giant axe, spear, chainsword, longsword, twin blades, machine guns, and shield.
Two cannons on the booster pack, a Limbo artillery sequence wired directly into its back, hundreds of fluid auxiliary limbs, and endless ejector daggers mounted across the six iron wings—under the system assistance of the [First Seal], the demon plunged into the fray and instantly carved out a bloody path, charging straight ahead.
Severed limbs flew and blood splattered with every sweep.
Like a crimson meteor driving straight forward.
And right behind him, more and more new demons launched into the counterattack.
After lengthy data collection and refinement of self-nature, the new Spirit of Creation was finally complete. The moment a Spirit of Creation forged for war entered the battlefield, it stirred up turbulent waves of blood and fire.
All lag and sluggishness were gone. In fact, even the pilot was no longer strictly necessary—whenever it determined the pilot could not fully unleash the system's power, the Spirit of Creation would take over parts of the chassis and act autonomously.
Now, master and subordinate were steadily reversing.
With the iteration and breakthrough of the Spirit of Creation, the pilot had, conversely, become an assistant to the system!
Massive banks of counterstrategies were etched into instinct, requiring no thought, boasting reaction speeds far beyond humans, sufficient to sustain dozens or hundreds of times acceleration, even supersonic combat. Meanwhile, coordinating and wielding eight or more weapons simultaneously, snap aimbots and auto-targeting requiring zero reaction time allowed for sheer, unrelenting destruction.
And so, after the chime of the assist system rang out with a *ding*, Tiancheng suddenly discovered—these heretics had started spinbotting!
Chapter 532