Chapter 291: War Meeting (5000)
Blood blurred Thor's eyes. He barely managed to swing Mjolnir, smashing a Six-winged Angel away.
Before Mjolnir could fly back, the angels surrounding him seized the opportunity and swarmed forward. Sharp Cruciform Swords, shimmering with Holy Light, continuously stabbed towards him.
Thor barely protected vital areas like his face and chest, but his back and arms were pierced by the Holy Light-shimmering Cruciform Swords, leaving dozens of wounds, large and small.
"Hmph!"
The pain in his body seemed to ignite Thor's viciousness. Beneath his armor, streaks of lightning emerged. It was the Divinity of Thunder God, sealed within his body by Odin, awakening.
Blinding white lightning surged out along his armor. His eyes even turned a blinding white, spitting out the Light of Lightning.
Thor's fierce display caused the Six-winged Angels in the Angel Army to halt in unison. However, compared to these Virtue and Dominion angels who cherished their life, the Two-winged and Four-winged battle angel puppets didn't know what fear was and still swarmed towards Thor.
Without Mjolnir, he simply swung both arms, using his arm armor to withstand the sword edges of these puppet angels. Amidst the dense enemy, he grabbed a Four-winged Angel by the ankle and used it as a weapon, performing a large windmill swing.
By the time he finished swinging, all that remained in his hand was half of that Four-winged Angel's thigh... "Hmph."
Thor tossed the half-thigh in his hand, and extended his right hand towards the sky. Not far from him, Mjolnir, which had been sealed by thousands of angels using Divine Art, saw the runes on its hammer body flare with Lightning.
Then, this Divine Artifact, forged from a Death Star Core, directly pierced through the more than a hundred Holy Light Barriers jointly set up by thousands of angels. Carrying the sharp sound of breaking air from lightning, it then pierced through the bodies of over a dozen angels before flying back into Thor's hand.
Thor raised Mjolnir in his hand. His body, which had been on the verge of collapse just moments ago, had returned to normal. Furthermore, his body had never felt so energetic and surging with power.
He even felt that he didn't need Mjolnir at all; with just a wave of his hand, he could freely control the Power of Lightning and destroy a large mountain! "Lord!"
An angel standing behind Gabriel, who had glimpsed Thor raising Mjolnir and showing off his strength from afar, immediately knelt on one knee and requested to join the battle, his four pairs of wings behind him shimmering with pure white Holy Light.
In Western Mythology, angels were created by God to maintain world peace and stability,
Angel ranks correspond to the number of wings. The number of wings determines how strong an angel's strength is. Angels and Archangels have one pair, Two-winged Angels; Virtues and Dominions have three pairs, Six-winged Angels.
Higher up, Throne Angels have four pairs, Cherubim have five pairs, and Seraphim have six pairs.
In the Heaven Dimension, ordinary Angels and Archangels are merely bio-weapons, battle puppets. Only angels of Virtue rank and above are considered true life forms.
Gabriel glanced at the Throne Angel and nodded slightly. This Eight-winged Throne Angel immediately transformed into a pure white Holy Light and soared into the sky. Behind him, over a dozen Six-winged Angels, thousands of Four-winged Angels, and tens of thousands of Two-winged Angels followed closely, rushing towards Thor.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!"
Thor swung Mjolnir in his hand, venting the massive amount of Power of Lightning surging within him. The mass of Mjolnir created a massive vortex of qi flow around him. Rumbling thunder and blinding white Lightning flickered within the vortex, like streaks of thunder dragon. These thunder dragons tore towards the angels and archangels nearby. At this moment, the Eight-winged Throne Angel had arrived not far from Thor. As the many Six-winged Dominion angels behind him began chanting prayers, countless Holy Light converged towards him from Heaven's Gate. Behind those Six-winged Dominion angels, the wings on the backs of thousands of Four-winged Archangels and Two-winged Angels began to turn illusory.
Their Heart Cores, the Power of Faith that constituted them, were also sacrificed, converging into Holy Power.
With a smile characteristic of a sacrificer, the Eight-winged Throne Angel slowly raised his right hand.
Countless Holy Power converged in his hand, forming a pure white ball of light the size of a human head, suspended in his palm.
He looked at Thor, who was swinging Mjolnir, and said dismissively, "sinner who blasphemes the Lord's glory, accept the final judgment from the Lord!"
With a flick of his finger, the white ball of light whistled towards Thor.
Blinding white light enveloped heaven and earth. The intense Holy Power transformed into terrifying light and heat, reaching temperatures of nearly ten million degrees in an instant. Where Thor had stood, a large pit with a diameter of two kilometers appeared on the ground. The circular large pit was smooth as a mirror, even reflecting shadows.
Sif, who had just been rescued by the armored figures in the sky, instinctively let out a scream at this sight. As for Loki beside her, his complexion instantly froze, looking as awful as if his own brother had died.
In the center of the large pit, something that looked like Charred Remains slowly stirred. Large chunks of charred powder fell off. Below the object suspected to be a head, a Tender Leaf as crystal clear as jade emitted a green light like that of a firefly.
This green light slowly merged into the Charred Remains. Thor, who had been roasted into Charred Remains, had the tissue cells in his body, which had been almost completely destroyed by the Holy Light, regain their vitality. The Salvation of the Life Goddess, a Divine Artifact from Aesir legend, after the last bit of green fluorescence completely injected into the Charred Remains below, directly turned into a transparent piece of glass, which shattered into a pile of dust with a crash and drifted away.
"Heretic!"
The Eight-winged Throne Angel flapped his wings, looking at the Charred Remains in the large pit that was still slowly emitting a Life Aura after taking his final judgment, and frowned in disgust.
A silver longsword with a rose-shaped hilt appeared in his hand. A dazzling Holy Light surged from the sword body, whistling as it slashed towards the Charred Remains at the bottom of the pit.
Boom!
A thick bolt of thunder exploded from the sky. Then, a bulky figure appeared in the center of the large pit, blocking the Eight-winged Throne Angel's Holy Light Slash with a single hand.
A golden faceplate helmet completely covered the face of this sudden arrival. Behind him, a large red cloak fluttered in the wind, looking quite stylish. Of course, if one ignored the large potbelly bulging from beneath his chest armor, he indeed looked like a powerful one.
"Heretic!"
The Eight-winged Throne Angel swung the Cruciform Sword in his hand, and countless Holy Light Swords rained down, stabbing towards the fat man in front of him.
But the fat man in armor was even faster than him. The Eight-winged Angel only felt his vision blur, a streak of Lightning spread, and he felt his eyes flash. The fat man's figure had already appeared before him, and a massive, sharp axe was chopping down directly at his head!
He strained to raise the longsword in his hand to block!
"Screech!"
Thor slowly raised Stormbreaker in his hand and directly rested it on his shoulder. The sharp axe blade of Stormbreaker, this Divine Artifact, was not stained with even a trace of bloodstain.
He lifted his foot and kicked the corpse he had split in two into the Angel Army in front of him. He looked around, and facing the tide-like Angel Army, he hooked his finger at them.
Just as the countless Angel Army surged towards the armored figure holding the axe, a horn sounded from in front of Heaven's Gate. The tide-like assault of the Angelic Legion instantly stopped.
Thor looked in the direction of the horn sound. Below Heaven's Gate, two Eight-winged Angels were forcefully blowing two pure white horns. The mournful sound echoed throughout the entire battlefield.
On the battlefield between Yggdrasil and Heaven's Gate, countless angels retreated like a tide at the sound of the horns, leaving behind the bewildered Nine Realms Soldiers.
Thor's gaze met Gabriel's below Heaven's Gate. A flash of Lightning and a streak of Holy Light intersected, and both of them simultaneously let out a muffled grunt.
"It's not Odin, then who is it? Freyr, God of Fertility? No, didn't he die in Odin's war conquering the Nine Realms?! Possessing the Power of Lightning, besides Odin and Thor, could it be Zeus, the God King of Mount Olympus!?"
Under Gabriel's fearful gaze, Thor walked into the large pit as if no one else was present, hoisted the shedding Charred Remains onto his shoulder, and let out a loud whistle.
A rumbling sound of thunder echoed, followed by two streaks of Golden Light rushing from the treetop of Yggdrasil. When the Golden Light appeared before everyone, the two streaks of Golden Light were none other than two curved-horned goats. They pulled a Battle Vehicle, traversing the sky, their stomping footsteps sounding like thunder.
"It's Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder! Weren't they fostered by Thor in Asgard?"
Sif was sharp-eyed and recognized these two goats as Thor's mounts at a glance. However, Thor had always found these two goats and their Battle Vehicle tacky and, being used to Mjolnir, rarely brought these two goats into battle.
Loki's gaze never left the obese armored figure. He felt a strange sense of familiarity with this armored figure.
The goats pulling the Battle Vehicle stopped in front of the armored figure. The two goats nudged Thor with their horns and then licked the Charred Remains he was holding. After Thor got into the vehicle, the two goats stepped into the air, seemingly transforming into two flashes of Lightning, traversing the battlefield and returning to Yggdrasil.
Strangely, from beginning to end, the Heaven Dimension side did not pursue. In the following months, the war between the Nine Realms and the Heaven Dimension fell into a stalemate.
Both sides were sending reinforcements. Over several months, dozens of battles, large and small, broke out.
Relying on the massive amount of Angels and Archangels, these battle puppets, the Heaven Dimension at its peak once pushed into the territory covered by Yggdrasil.
However, although the Nine Realms side had fewer numbers, with the top-tier powerhouses Thor and King Ghidorah from a Parallel Universe present, the Angel Army couldn't gain much of an advantage as long as the Seraphim from the Heaven Dimension didn't make a move.
Especially in the later stages, Tang Song also threw Yamata no Orochi, who had been used as a Blood Cow in the Underworld, onto this battlefield.
Outer space has no oxygen, but the environment simulated by the battlefield constructed by Yggdrasil and Heaven's Gate was enough for this Ancient Titan to unleash its strength.
Yamata no Orochi's eight heads spewed lava, flames, venom, and Wind Blades. Wherever its snake body passed, the ground illusioned by Yggdrasil even turned directly into a swamp.
In one instance, after the Angelic Legion, relying on their numerical advantage, broke through the Fire Demons' defense line, it was this undying, unkillable Ancient Titan that single-handedly blocked those angels.
This Ancient Titan not only had a powerful physique and an Undying Body, but it was also a troop transport vehicle. From its body, beneath its scales, flew out dense swarms of Flying Skeleton Demons and White Bone Demonic Gods, causing the unprepared Angelic Legion to suffer a great loss.
However, even so, the Heaven Dimension side still did not deploy angels above the Eight-winged rank. The few main attacks were also led by some Eight-winged Throne Angels.
The Heaven Dimension was unwilling to use its full strength, yet it also didn't retreat. After several months, even a fool could tell that they were waiting for something.
Earth, Italy, Rome, about thirty miles from the original Central Cathedral, located within Italy, stood an unpretentious ancient castle.
Although this ancient castle was in Italy, if someone were to check its owner, they would find that this ancient castle was under The Church's name.
A black extended car drove along the boulevard lined with tall trees and stopped in front of the closed gate.
Through the carved bronze gate, one could see the brightly lit main building.
As soon as the car drove up to the gate, the gate slowly opened inwards,
The driver slowly drove the car into the spacious yard.
In the center of the yard was a fountain, with clear water droplets splashing onto several small angel statues flying around the fountain.
On both sides of the yard were bushes and grass.
The car stopped in front of the main entrance of the main building. The driver got out of the car door and opened the door for Lane.
Lane walked slowly towards the main building of the manor, his ears, dozens of times more sensitive than before, capturing the sounds around him.
Apart from the 'rustling' light sound of the wind blowing through the bushes, there were no other anomalies.
The main building's gate opened, and a tall figure quickly ran out from inside, opening his arms and rushed towards Lane.
"Big Brother Ryan!"
Lane was given a solid bear embrace by Adam. The force made his whole body tense. If his physique hadn't been strong now, he probably would have broken several ribs.
"Father, where's Boss? Didn't he come?"
Adam craned his head to look at the black car. Knowing that Tang Song didn't like him calling him father, he changed his address.
"Boss hasn't Emerged from Seclusion yet!"
"Oh?!" Adam lowered his head, his eyes unable to hide his disappointment.
"After things here are finished, I'll take you back to the manor. One of Boss's Clones went to Norway, I believe he'll be back soon!" Lane patted Adam's shoulder, who was feeling a bit down, and comforted him.
Hearing Lane's words, Adam's complexion immediately brightened with joy. He took Lane's hand and walked inside.
"Big Brother Ryan, West and the others are waiting for you inside. During this time, they've been fighting fiercely over who gets to be Pope. Oh, right, Big Brother Ryan, where's Big Brother Kane? Why didn't he come?"
"He went to Detroit. Some guys have targeted our Money Printing Machine. Your Big Brother Kane went to handle it!"
"Targeted our Money Printing Machine?! Who is it? I'll smash him flat with one punch!"
Hearing that someone dared to touch their things, Adam angrily threw a punch. The thick gate in front of him was directly blasted into shattered pieces by his punch.
'Crackling' sounds echoed as a large area of the furnishings in the main building's hall were smashed and knocked over.
Two sets of middle ages armor standing in the corner of the hall were pierced by two wooden beams and hung awkwardly on the wall.
In the hall, West, who had been preparing to welcome Lane, winced in pain. Although those two sets of middle ages armor weren't Holy Artifacts, they were valuable antiques. Now, they had been directly ruined by Adam.
However, having spent time together these past few days, he knew that Adam was a straightforward person. Moreover, they had something to ask of Tang Song. Facing the destroyed gate and antique armor, he could only smile wryly and instruct the servants in the ancient castle to clean up the mess.
"Mr. Vickers, long time no see! And this gentleman, you must be Lord Inquisitor. Hello, and hello to all the Bishops. I am Lane, representing my Boss. I apologize, he is tied up with some matters and cannot get away. I will be in charge of things here!"
Lane bowed gracefully to the crowd in the hall. Having been Tang Song's butler for a long time, Lane's actions had a certain noble demeanor about them.
"Where is Tang? Why didn't he come personally? This is about the election of the Pope!"
An old man wearing a red robe questioned Lane impolitely.
Lane tilted his head, his face full of doubt: "Who are you?"
The red-robed Bishop was so angry at Lane's words that his whole body was trembling. He stretched out his finger, pointing at Lane, and stuttered "You you you" for a long time without saying anything.
"Lane, this is Bishop Martin. He was originally a strong contender for this term's Pope, who would have thought something like this would happen midway!" West's mouth curved into a smile, which he quickly hid, introducing him to Lane.
Lane nodded in understanding: "So this is Bishop Martin! I see this Bishop doesn't look to be in good health. Perhaps it's better not to participate in the Pope's election, to avoid any further health issues!"
"You! You!" Bishop Martin was so angry he almost jumped up. He looked around and found that everyone around him was looking at him with mocking expressions.
Thump! This Cardinal, once a strong contender for the position of Pope, was so angered that he directly fainted.
No one in the hall paid attention to this guy who couldn't recognize the situation or who was important. Strictly speaking, this Cardinal Martin was not a core figure of their Sacred Shield Brotherhood.
He had been recruited by them. This time, with Michael's Holy Descent, he was also listed for liquidation.
As a result, after being rescued by Adam this time, this old guy kept saying he had worked hard and made great contributions, insisting on becoming Pope no matter what.
They had recruited him before because the Sacred Shield Brotherhood needed a candidate within The Church who had high support rate for the Pope election. Now, the opposition faction within The Church, including the Pope, had died in the recent Terrorist Attack.
Martin?! Who is he? It wasn't until a few young clerics and servants helped the fainted Bishop back to his bedroom that the group, escorted by others, went up to the meeting room on the second floor.
In the meeting room, a few servants served tea. Not long after everyone was seated, at the signal of a few people's eyes, West, who was most familiar with Lane, couldn't help but ask, "Mr. Lane! What did the World Security Council say?"
Lane picked up the black tea cup in front of him, took a sip, looked at everyone's expressions, and said unhurriedly, "To avoid causing faith panic among the followers, the World Security Council has decided to still follow The Church's narrative: the Pope sacrificed himself during the Terrorist Attack on the Central Cathedral recently."
(end of chapter)