Chapter 16: The Power of Destruction
Tearing space apart with sheer brute force—let alone Joshua, even a Legendary expert would find it beyond their capabilities. Even an Archmage specializing in Space-Time Sorcery would need to perform meticulous calculations back and forth to open a spatial gate, layering countless intricate runes and arrays, and borrowing the power of the world itself to twist a corner of spacetime.
Perhaps only great beings on the level of deities and sages could treat space as a plaything in their palms, kneading it at will with their own power and shaping it into whatever form they desired.
However, although Joshua could not actively open a spatial gate at present, restarting an existing spatial passage was not difficult.
Just like now.
Standing within the Ural Fortress, his entire body flowing with a blazing, burning-like crimson light, Joshua gazed at the faint blue rift that had not yet faded, and raised his right fist.
This fist, fingers clenched tightly, knuckles distinct, muscles and veins pulsing with unmatched power, seemed capable of gripping everything in the world and shattering all futile resistance from enemies.
At the same moment, the people beside him—the heavy-armored swordsman and the mage—suddenly felt as if a dark mist filled with blood and gore had appeared before their eyes.
This mist seemed like a raging inferno burning the world, letting endless boiling black smoke shroud the heavens.
With the crimson battle qi as the source, countless waves of killing intent surged forth, coiling around this fist. The pure desire for slaughter and the lingering battle intent forced the two Gold-rank experts present to take a step back. They stared at Joshua in shock and uncertainty, unable to determine for a moment whether this was the same warrior who had been surrounded by sacred power earlier. Even the bishop, still on his way, couldn't help but look up ahead, feeling as if something terrifying existed where the pillar of light had appeared.
But the warrior paid no attention to others' gazes. He only looked at his fist, and at the spatial passage before it.
The killing intent fluctuation was Joshua's Glory Force. Originally just a simple power, it could grow by absorbing the soul remnants of creatures killed by the warrior. As Joshua fought and slaughtered endlessly during the beast tide and in the Carlis World, gathering countless soul remnants, the killing intent fluctuation had accumulated immense power.
Yet he did not use this power often. Even when fighting Loranda, Joshua only used his own battle qi. Although part of the reason was that his opponent hadn't used their Glory Force either, the more fundamental cause was that this power appeared too evil. No matter who he fought, he always looked more like the villain—but now was not the time to worry about that.
Besides, he wasn't exactly a righteous figure anyway.
"Die, monster."
A voice as cold as steel echoed through the streets of Ural Fortress. Joshua's Glory Force effortlessly tore open the spatial rift. Like a torrent, a black-red battle qi stream flew from the arm on the other side of the spatial gate, and before the two Blood Dragon's incredulous eyes, it struck the center of the sacrificial hall, where the obsidian altar had once stood.
The hard stone floor cracked inch by inch, then turned into dust scattering through the air. The scorching battle qi, carrying a bloody scent, swept through the atmosphere, turning everything it touched into fragments and ash. The walls and stone pillars of the sacrificial chamber collapsed one after another, but before these ruins could fall to the ground and become rubble, the hurricane-like shockwave swept them up and blew them far away.
—How is this possible?!
—Where did this attack come from?!
Before the two Blood Dragons could think further, they watched helplessly as the high-heat air surged with rolling black mist. Where it passed, rock melted, metal turned to liquid. A bone-deep instinctive fear forced the monsters to open their massive jaws, as if wanting to howl—but no matter how they howled, it was meaningless. The threat of death was right before them.
The two dragons struggled to stand, trying to burn their bloodlines and unleash their last bit of power like demons, but unfortunately, it was useless. The earlier massive wave of Order Force, the power belonging to the Sage, had completely purified everything unrelated to order around them, including the power within their bloodlines.
They were no longer powerful Blood Dragons, but ordinary dragonkind with terrifying appearances and severely depleted bloodlines.
In despair, a piece of stone pillar fragment blown by the shockwave shot like a gray streak of light, crashing with a 'bang' onto the head of one of the dragons.
Instantly, the stone shattered completely, turning into flying dust. The Blood Dragon's hard skull produced a massive deformation with a crisp cracking sound. A huge wound flew out with stinking poisonous blood and a whole piece of flesh. The downward-pressing deformed muscles and bones popped a dragon eye out of its socket. Without any sound, this already extremely weak dragon died on the spot. Its blue-gray brain matter mixed with blood splattered everywhere, coating half the body of its companion beside it.
And such a death was perhaps a blessing, because before the surviving dragon could react to its companion's death, countless cracks appeared around the hundreds-of-meters-wide sacrificial stone chamber. Accompanied by 'crack crack' sounds and the still-raging shockwave, the fissures finally occupied the entire chamber, as well as the undersea tunnels and other cavities beyond it.
What followed was complete collapse.
Boom!!!!
Around a small island in the far south, a huge bubble suddenly appeared. Accompanied by massive ripples and the release of a shockwave that stirred up tsunami-like waves, a giant vortex slowly formed near the coast, as if something below was continuously sucking in seawater.
The fierce tides lashed against this uninhabited island, washing away the sparse vegetation and soil on it. But the vortex soon stopped spinning, indicating that the cavity below was not very large. However, the chain collapse beneath was not over yet. Accompanied by a rumbling sound from the deep sea, the island began to slowly tilt and sink, until finally, only a narrow muddy top of a few dozen square meters remained, which was also rapidly being washed away.
Minutes later, the island disappeared from the sea surface, completely submerged, leaving only a muddy, turbid sea, occasionally surfacing some wreckage.
And in the northern part of the empire, within Ural Fortress, Joshua, unaware of the great results his punch had achieved, gently exhaled. The solid white breath blew away the dust on the street. Sensing that the two remaining life flames on the other side of the spatial passage had completely extinguished, he nodded in satisfaction, then turned to look at the heavy-armored swordsman and mage who were staring at him warily.
At the other end of the street, the bishop had also arrived with several knights from the church.
Kate Medeset and Jean Willmott were very familiar with each other. However, one was the leader of the empire's official military force, and the other was the leader of the underground civilian forces, so their relationship was not very good. But now, these two Gold-rank experts, originally rivals, stood together, their subordinates also forming formations like teammates, warily watching Joshua, who was gradually extinguishing the battle qi flames on his body, and Ying and Lin behind him.
They couldn't help but be this tense—for Kate, the battle qi the warrior had just erupted with had surpassed the definition of ordinary Gold-rank, reaching the rumored realm of [Ultimate Essence]. For Jean, tearing open a spatial gate with bare hands was too terrifying, not to mention the clearly evil black fluctuations carrying wails and a bloody scent.
—Was this the person who had erupted with such sacred Holy Light power earlier?
—Could it be that it was used to purify him? This guy looks quite evil...
Countless thoughts flashed through both their minds, but none yielded any results. There was too little information; they couldn't analyze it. They couldn't even decide whether to be on guard or to step forward and greet him. Although the other party didn't look like a good person, he hadn't caused any substantial damage to the fortress or the crowd. Even his sudden full-power strike had only shattered the stone street beneath his own feet.
And at that moment, the bishop of the Ural Fortress diocese, Gana Drake, finally arrived at the scene. Unlike the fortress guard captain, who was closer and had set out earlier, or the mage, who could reach the scene with a single spell, this Gold-rank priest had come fully armed, step by step, which naturally made him somewhat slow.
Taking one look, he naturally noticed the two familiar figures who had adopted a cooperative stance. Gana's eyes widened immediately. To actually make two rival Gold-rank experts instinctively cooperate and be on guard?! What kind of existence was the one opposite them?
With this curiosity, the priest looked at Joshua.
Then blurted out in surprise:
"Jo... Joshua?!"
(To be continued.)