Ruler Vol 5 Chapter 50
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Author: Anit666
Editor: Weasalopes
【3rd person’s POV】
“Alright then. If I can’t solve the problem, then I’ll eliminate it.”
“Pfft!” Lucia barely stopped herself from bursting out laughing, but it seemed the others couldn’t stop themselves. Even Aidan went ‘Fuck this shit’ and snickered with them.
Needless to say, that was a bad move.
Tock, tock. Lucia tapped her staff on the ground twice. The ground shone in a golden light, and then formed a circular magical formation encompassing the 6 members of the council.
A gust of wind blew, and a pair of white wings sprouted on Lucia’s back while a halo appeared above her head. She shone with a divine light that spread the warmth of their God’s protection.
Skill: Sanctuary. A skill that can only be used by a party of Demigods. Under the effect of this skill, all the members would have their defences tripled, while any attack on them would have its power reduced by 90%. The fact that Sanctuary had a range of 62.5 leagues was what made it so overpowered.
Solomon fell back to get out of the magical formation on the ground. That bright glow that served as a beacon of hope to humanity seemed lacklustre to him; he was accustomed to Phiria’s presence after all.
“Let me guess, the second skill granted to you is ‘Resonance’, right?” Solomon smirked as he noticed the slight wavering in their eyes. “A testament that you are just run of the mill Demigods.”
Killing them would be easy. He pondered. But for the sake of the Grand Plan, they must live. Still, it would be troublesome if they looked down on me too much.
“Run of the mill?” Doherty’s nose scrunched up. “Ah, I see. You’re so delusional that you can’t even fathom the gap between us.”
“Just who’s the delusional one here…” Solomon sighed.
“Provoking us? Are you taunting us in a last-ditch effort to fight back before we kill you?” He snorted. “Or is it that? Are you trying to buy time waiting for a miracle to happen?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Yeah, I understand. I completely understand.”
“No, you don’t-”
“Guys like you are nothing to us. You may have become the Demon King to fulfil your hobby, but that is going to be the cause for your fall.”
“……”
“What, can’t speak? Did you chicken out already?” Doherty cackled.
What did Lord Hayden used to say again…? Solomon thought for some moments until he finally found his answer. He was going to use Samuel’s catchphrase that was popular among the upper echelons of Hell.
“…You know what? Fuck it.” Satisfied after being able to reproduce Sam’s words perfectly, Solomon snapped his fingers.
Despite being a normal snap, it rang clearly in the battlefield and everyone heard it. Seeing his nonchalant yet overbearing attitude, the Council went on its guard, but…
Nothing happened.
They waited for some moments, but still nothing happened. The sky was still covered with white clouds, the sun was still up in the sky, the ground wasn’t trembling; their surroundings were as normal as they could get.
What was that supposed to be? Lucia frowned. Despite Doherty’s claims, she didn’t dare underestimate Solomon.
Lucia Lumen Constantine had a much deeper understanding of demons as compared to her comrades. And that’s why she knew how abnormal this situation actually was. A new Demon King appearing as soon as the one before him is defeated? Abnormal. That new Demon King knowing their most guarded secrets? Abnormal. The Demon King having the courage to face them alone even while being aware of their true identities? Abnormal, abnormal, abnormal.
However, she had faith in her and her comrades’ abilities. Each of them were veterans who had reached and mastered their own realms. Conor, for example, was an expert of space magic. Aidan had reached the pinnacle in Stealth based skills.
So together, under the effect of both ‘Sanctuary’ and ‘Resonance’ which let them step into the realm of Gods for a limited duration of time, they were virtually invincible. After all, no matter how strong and abnormal Solomon was, he couldn’t possibly be above a God.
“That did nothing.” Doherty snorted. “Have you finally gone insane?”
Solomon simply smiled in return, and Doherty took it as a sign of his delusion. To Doherty, Solomon was just so full of himself that he couldn’t even fathom the gap between their strengths.
“If that’s all you’re capable of, then I’m coming for you now.” Doherty scoffed and started walking towards Solomon while scraping his great sword on the ground.
Due to ‘Sanctuary’s’ large range, it wouldn’t matter even if he stepped out of the formation on the ground. The distance between him and Solomon were a measly 20 steps, and he was planning to cover that slowly to instil the dread in Solomon. With a towering figure of 7 feet and a large, bulky body, Doherty looked like a boulder that was slowly and steadily making its way towards Solomon.
In response, Solomon just stood there without doing anything. He neither took out his weapon nor took any stance, and his eyes were a sea of calmness.
Pride, the never-ending vice of fools. Doherty smirked as the distance between them was reduced to 5 steps. He could now swing his sword and end Solomon’s life, but the latter didn’t show any reaction.
“Any last words?” He asked as he raised his sword overhead.
“Hmm…” Solomon stroked his chin. “Don’t you think it has become a little dark around here?”
“What are you talking- ?!” His eyes widened as he realised that Solomon’s words were true.
The area around them had darkened, as if dark clouds had appeared. But just a few moments ago there were no such clouds. Confused, he looked up, and what entered his sights was a truly nonsensical sight.
The clouds directly above them swirled restlessly, before being parted by something. Heading towards them was a large boulder; a meteor. Its surface burned with red flames due to the sheer speed with which it was entering the atmosphere, and it was as large as the Royal Castle.
It was clear that it would destroy their entire army upon impact.
“Are we supposed to tremble in fear now?” Doherty scoffed and Conor snickered.
However, it was nothing for the Council.
“Just keep looking up.” Solomon sneered.
Aidan reflexively looked up, and the next moment his eyes trembled and his body shivered.
The clouds in the entire sky danced and twirled about in a frenzy, before being completely blown away by the burning red meteors that were falling towards them.
“Wha- no, just- wha…” Aidan sputtered with a quivering voice when he counted over 20 meteors heading their way.
What the hell? Lucia sighed exasperatedly. 24 meteors, with each the size of the royal castle, were too much even for them.
Since it had come to this, the Council had no choice but to retreat to a safe distance for the time being. The meteors would cause so much destruction that they might as well hire a Cartographer to make a new map for this area.
“Everyone-” However, her voice was interrupted by the sound of thunder.
Everyone looked up again, only to find a powerful electric charge sparking up from each of the meteors. But that wasn’t all; from the gaps between the meteors, Lucia could make out an even bigger meteor.
Blue lightning crackled on the surface of all the meteors. Electric arcs lashed out from the meteors, and soon all the meteors, including the large one, were completely covered in lightning. Because of their great sensitivity to mana, each of the 7 Council members could feel with great clarity the destructive power that was packed in each of those electric currents.
It was neither loud nor clamorous, but neither the humans nor the Demigods could take their eyes off this pure destruction that was descending upon this land.
Solomon’s Original Skill- Shattered Heaven. A name befitting for a skill that looked like Heaven itself had fallen down from the skies.
Lucia shivered; against such an attack, ‘Sanctuary’s’ 90% attack power reduction and defence tripling features wouldn’t matter. By her estimations, the resulting explosion from the meteor fall would cover an area spanning 65-70 leagues, which was beyond the limit of their skill.
“What a monster…” She couldn’t help but mutter.
“Oh?” Solomon seemingly caught her mumble. “But it isn’t over yet.” He smiled.
The moment he said, an ear-splitting screech rang out from the sky. She looked up again, and after understanding the phenomena that was happening there, she couldn’t help but laugh. Her self-deprecating giggle deepened the despair of those around her.
This was utter bullshit. As if just the meteors falling wasn’t enough, they were now speeding up. Their rate of descent had increased explosively; within the count of 30, the meteors would reach them.
“Conor!” Her scream brough Conor out of his daze, and he immediately understood what it is that he must do.
However-
“Oh, not so fast.” Solomon jeered. “The First Lord.”
As time slowed down to a crawl, Solomon appeared in front of Conor. The latter’s eyes widened slowly as he realised that his enemy was already in front of him, but Solomon was much faster than him.
“There is a weak point here.” Solomon muttered after putting his palms over his upper abdomen, and for some reason Conor heard his words clearly.
Conor moved his mouth to reply, but what came out of his mouth weren’t words.
“Ugh?!” He let out a groan along with a massive amount of blood.
His vision swayed, he lost his sense of balance, but somehow still remained standing. At that time, Solomon stopped his ability, and Conor could finally make out his movements the way he was supposed to be.
Now all he had to do was catch Solomon, but for some reason, his body wouldn’t move. He tried to move his limbs over and over again, but the result was the same.
“Conor?!” Nora, the one standing beside him, was naturally the first to notice what happened.
Conor heard her squeal laced with disbelief and saw the beautiful, yet malicious smile on Solomon’s face. He tried to move his head slightly and looked down. What he saw there made him wish that he hadn’t looked down.
At the place where his abdomen used to be was a wide, gaping hole which was just an inch away from his sides. Everything inside that hole, excluding his spine, had been blown away into oblivion. What remained were entrails that were dangling from the upper part.
By the time, everyone had finally noticed what had happened behind them, and every single one of them had been shocked beyond belief. They couldn’t believe it; they couldn’t accept it.
Solomon had moved and none of them sensed it. Solomon appeared amidst them yet none of them saw it. Solomon blew a fucking hole through Conor, and yet none of them even heard it.
Like a gentle breeze on a warm sunny day, Solomon had passed them and attacked their rear guard with terrifying silence. He had done everything so cleanly that they still couldn’t believe it.
Aidan, Ivo, Nora, Doherty, Owl, and Lucia, with their eyes widened and mouths hung agape, stood in a daze at the scene in front of them, and that gave Solomon the time he needed. Only Conor was able to accept it swiftly and see the situation for what it was; insanely bad. The moment he saw the hole, he used his superhuman endurance and will to resist falling into despair, and used his mana to strengthen his remaining torso to remain standing upright. He reversed the flow of his blood and oxygen and directed most of it into his brain, heart and lungs; he had to stay alive.
By now, the meteors had approached within a couple of metres of them. The soldiers around them had already begun to run away when the meteors had first appeared, so it was only him who could do something.
He still had time; all he had to do was to invoke a teleportation spell that would get everyone out of here. Once out of range, Lucia could heal him.
“Thinking of running away?” But one look at Solomon’s smile dashed all his hopes of leaving alive.
As the thoughts of ‘Why me?’ swirled in his mind, Solomon brought forth his hand in front of Conor’s eyes. Soon, upon the empty palm, a chillingly sharp orb of extremely dense mana coalesced.
One look at that and Conor understood that he would die today. He wouldn’t be able to return home and let his little sister hug him, neither would he be able to tell her a bedtime story. The damned demons would take the last family member his sister had, just like they had done years ago, and still he could do nothing about it.
He smiled, thinking it funny that his last thoughts were filled with his sister.
And so, he raised his mana and concentrated to his limit. He used his superhuman focus to stop himself from dying because of his wound and cast the spell.
“This ball has enough power to wipe out your country. You’ll know what to do with this.” Solomon tossed the ball into the air. “A shame it had to come to this.”
Solomon snapped his fingers again and a crimson teleportation portal appeared behind him. He jumped back and disappeared into it, and the portal closed.
By then, Conor had caught the dense mana orb, which was now trembling, being on the verge of exploding.
Conor smiled bitterly and invoked his finest magic spell, ‘Seamless Serenity’. His brain became supercharged as his processing power increased by a thousand times, and within the blink of an eye he had mapped the entire area within a cube of side 80 leagues as coordinates.
He memorized the coordinates of all the meteors heading their way and his own, and teleported them 500 leagues into the air. He changed the positions a bit though, as he was now between the layer of 24 smaller meteors and that big one. He felt a weightlessness as he began to fall down with the meteors, and for some reason, it was incredibly comforting.
He was overcome with awe when he looked at the large lightning meteor. His entire field of view was covered by it, and he couldn’t help but respect Solomon for being able to pull off such a… godly feat.
Godly… right. He snickered.
And so, he resolved himself to die and closed his eyes.
As if responding to his determination, the mana orb in his hands whirred fiercely and rose into the air.
I’m sorry, Aven, but big brother won’t be coming back today… Aidan lamented as a white light covered his vision.
‘The Scorched Heaven’; that was what humanity decided to name the day when a second sun appeared in the middle of the sky for some moments.
‘The Scorched Heaven’; that was how the Council mourned their most heroic member.
‘The Scorched Heaven’; and that was how Solomon El Maxwell made his presence known as humanity’s extinction.
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