Chapter 153: Stelle: Because I'm Too Afraid of Pain, I Put All My Points into Defense!
Scorching.
And blinding—
Something felt singed, a searing pain lashing at her back. She tried to lift her head, but Frieren-sama held it down firmly, not allowing her to budge an inch.
The earth seemed to tremble, like an earthquake… yet she felt no tremors. Fern heard nothing, only a piercing ringing in her ears that echoed in her mind.
This chaotic sensation persisted for about five minutes… until Frieren-sama's grip gradually loosened, and Fern dazedly lifted her head.
The ringing in her ears slowly faded, and as her hearing somewhat recovered, the next sound she heard was the hysterical… wailing of countless people within the tavern.
The patrons who had just been laughing and brawling were now, almost without exception, sprawled on the floor, clutching their eyes in agony. The tavern was a cacophony of cries and screams, like a living hell.
"Wh-What… what happened?"
Fern stared blankly at the scene before her, utterly bewildered.
"It's hard to explain… For now, gather the nearby priests to treat the common folk; their eyes have been scorched."
Frieren felt a tension she hadn't experienced even when battling the Demon King. Recalling the recent events, she swallowed, a lingering trepidation in her heart.
"If I'm not mistaken, I just witnessed…"
—
〜Dragon Raja World〜
"… The destruction of a star."
Chu Zihang felt the scales on his body unfurling one by one, as if breathing in a rhythmic pulse.
Second-stage Blood Release. His body was already manifesting draconic features, an instinctive reaction—the primal instinct of a creature facing an existential crisis.
A liquid seemed to stream from his eye sockets… Chu Zihang instinctively wiped it away. That slick, familiar sensation was blood.
He couldn't see anything; only utter darkness lay before him.
It was just a second… no, perhaps not even a second. In that instant, he reflexively activated the second stage of Blood Release, but even with draconic reflexes, he couldn't escape unscathed.
A flash of white light, and then nothing but darkness… By the time he reacted, his pupils had already been burned out. Yet, in activating Blood Release, he had pushed his Golden Pupils to their limit, just barely discerning the scene unfolding within the light curtain.
"Your eyes…"
The sudden intense light made Caesar instinctively shut his eyes, which perfectly preserved his own pupils—though he hadn't seen what truly happened within the light curtain, he instinctively felt it was incredibly dangerous.
"It's fine, I'll see a doctor."
Chu Zihang tore off a strip of cloth and tied it over his eyes. Although his injuries would gradually heal under second-stage Blood Release, it would still take some time.
He repeated,
"I saw the destruction of a star."
"Huh? How is that possible?"
Caesar didn't believe him.
"From the beginning of its destruction to its complete disappearance, the entire process of a star takes 'hundreds of millions of years.' How could it happen in a matter of seconds?"
"I don't know what that Lord Ravager did,"
Chu Zihang's voice was as calm as ever,
"But I seemed to see her compress a star in her palm, very small… yet the energy contained within was undoubtedly planetary in scale."
"Something like that…"
Caesar found it more unbelievable than a fairy tale.
Suddenly, his phone buzzed. He opened it and saw a message from the Headmaster.
"Is it a new mission?"
Chu Zihang asked.
"No, it's the Headmaster."
Caesar shook his head. He scrolled through the images and messages from the Headmaster, his expression growing graver with each one.
"You might not be able to see an ophthalmologist for a while. After that intense flash of light, eye clinics worldwide are completely swamped,"
Caesar said with a wry smile.
"Burning out a person's lens in 0.001 seconds… If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, no one would believe it even if it were written in a novel."
—
「 Just as the assembled forces were poised to launch their next offensive, Phantylia suddenly raised her hand, pointing directly at the firmament.
"To crush ants, there is no method more fitting than to bring down a star."
Countless ethereal glows materialized above the Scalegorge Waterscape, coalescing within the atmosphere into a dazzling sphere, crisscrossed by thousands of crimson fissures. Searing magma seemed to surge and churn beneath its surface.
But in the next instant, this star rapidly contracted, ultimately transforming into a molten orb held within Phantylia's palm.
—As if toying with a delicate, miniature plaything, Phantylia's smile deepened.
Almost simultaneously, the expressions of Welt and Jing Yuan shifted. Both understood the immense energy contained within that tiny orb.
"Everyone, BEWARE—!"
Alas, their warnings did not fully carry, for in the next second, the Scalegorge Waterscape suddenly began to shake violently. Stelle witnessed the roots of the Ambrosial Arbor beside Phantylia continuously incinerating, only to regenerate amidst the raging inferno. The temperature in the vicinity surged dramatically, and white clouds seemed to be drawn into the void.
Then, the light erupted.
In that instant, Stelle seemed to see—
First, a blinding blue, then a scorching yellow, and finally, a white that annihilated all. The shockwave of the explosion expanded outwards at a visible speed, with all roots in its path withering completely. The molten orb in Phantylia's hand began to grow, swelling as if over-inflated, and then…
A silent, magnificent burst. 」
「 .....」
〜OVERLORD World〜
Terror.
An indescribable terror.
As Sebas walked the streets, after witnessing Phantylia's feat of crushing a star, only this monotonous and pale thought remained in his mind.
All around him were the frantic wails of the townspeople. Although the Holy Kingdom's medical personnel had immediately begun treating the residents, many would likely suffer permanent blindness after this catastrophe…
Ainz-Sama couldn't possibly achieve this—this thought flickered in Sebas's mind for but a brief moment, swiftly extinguished by himself. Such a thought was undoubtedly a sign of disloyalty, and even if it were true, Sebas would never allow it to take root.
"Could anyone truly survive an explosion of this magnitude?"
Sebas harbored doubts.
Even General Jing Yuan, an Emanator, couldn't possibly survive, could he? This explosion could probably obliterate his current world countless times over. Sebas couldn't even imagine how one could survive at such a close range.
Stelle and the others… surely even their corpses would have vanished into thin air?
Sebas sighed, slowly raising his head.
But in the next second, his pupils suddenly dilated—
As the white mist within the light curtain gradually dispersed, a radiant glow of the Preservation stood firm behind Stelle's flaming spear.
—