Chapter 128: God's Chain Pulls the God Down from the Heavens
But the protagonist of this next act was not Athos, but the 'Light of Ersten'. Only its blade had been imbued with the spell to wield the power of faith, and only it could release the chains that would pull a god down from the heavens.
"'Light of Ersten', construct and unfurl... the chains that will bind a god," Rhodes commanded.
VMM!!!
A light, more brilliant than ever before, erupted from the holy sword at his waist. The blade seemed to melt away, no longer a solid object, but a mass of golden threads, woven from the power of faith, that reached up to meet the descending golden pillar. Like a river flowing to the ocean, the golden pillar, upon making contact with the golden threads of the sword, began to merge with them, to be reshaped.
"Norne, watch closely. I will only use this spell once," he said, taking a moment to address his friend. After this battle, he would entrust the 'Light of Ersten' to him. And when the human nation was established, it would be enshrined in their temple, a holy sword to receive the faith of all humanity. And the spell to wield that faith... he had already written it down in their grimoire. It would be their greatest weapon.
He then whispered a few words in his ear. "I understand," Norne said with a solemn nod, committing his every move to memory, and beginning to decipher the spell even as he watched it unfold.
The golden threads rushed to meet the torrent of faith that was tearing through the void.
"STOP!"
The cage that imprisoned the Goddess of Procreation began to tremble violently. With her foresight, she had seen what he was about to do. It was a plan similar to her own, but with a completely different outcome. An outcome that would mean her utter destruction. And she would not allow it. She began to pour her divine energy into the cage, trying to break free.
Serie and the others started to move, to buy him more time, but he stopped them. "Save your strength. The real battle is about to begin."
They were both in a race against time. She, to descend in her true form and crush these insolent insects. And he, to pull her down from the heavens, in chains. And in the end... he was faster.
With the completion of his spell, the pillar of light was no longer a pillar, but a massive white chain. The God's Chain. A chain forged from faith, a chain that could pull a god down from the heavens.
It ignored the distance of space, the barrier between worlds, and followed the connection between her true body and her projected form, and found her, in the chaos beyond.
And then, it plunged into that chaos.
"NO—!!!"
A roar of rage that shook the very foundations of the world. Every living creature, no matter who or where they were, looked up at the sky. Those with a keener sense could feel it: a presence from beyond was about to descend.
The entire Godfall Land began to tremble violently, as if the very bedrock was about to shatter. The space around them began to warp, and in the sky, where the torrent of faith had torn a hole in the veil of reality, the very fabric of space began to look like a kaleidoscope, a thousand shimmering, crystalline fragments dancing in the air.
The God's Chain had found its target.
It pulled taut, the light of faith flickering wildly, as if under an immense strain. The goddess was fighting back. She would descend upon this world, yes, but not in chains.
"GET—DOWN—HERE!"
He held the end of the chain in his hands, a chain that now seemed to connect him to the heavens, and he pulled with all his might. Serie and the others joined him, the chain magically extending, and they all pulled, a tug-of-war against a god. The chain, which was once the 'Light of Ersten', groaned under the strain. But this time, it held.
CRACKLE—!!!
The sound of a million panes of glass shattering. The barrier of space had been broken.
And in the hole in the sky, a "thing," a thing of indescribable size, radiating an aura of dark and twisted divinity, slowly began to appear. And the chain, a chain forged from a thousand years of elven faith, was pulling it down, dragging it from the world beyond.
The moment it descended, a terrifying pressure fell upon the Godfall Land.
It was a goddess of immense size, hundreds of meters tall. They were but ants before her. Her face, her features, were of a divine and otherworldly beauty, and yet her expression was one of a cold and holy indifference. This was the true form of the Goddess of Life, a being of creation and divine authority. But this holy image was now wreathed in a startling darkness and filth, a chaotic and profane aura that clashed with her divine light, creating a grotesque and blasphemous beauty. This was what the Goddess of Procreation had become, tainted by the darkness.
"God-slayer... ants... you will all die!" she roared, the humiliation of being dragged back to this world in chains having sent her into a blind rage.
But before she could act, the God's Chain appeared once more, wrapping around her massive body and pulling tight.
"Urk—ahhh—!"
She screamed in pain as the chains constricted, her massive body shrinking at a visible rate, until the mountain-sized goddess was only about three meters tall. She was still a towering and intimidating figure, radiating a palpable divine pressure and a terrifying dark aura, but the suffocating feeling was gone. And more importantly, her divine power, a power that could have destroyed the world, was now suppressed by the chains, brought down to a level that, while still terrifying, was no longer completely unbeatable.
Having fulfilled its purpose, the God's Chain faded away, leaving her, a prisoner in holy shackles, to face them.
"Now!"
Seeing that the goddess now had a health bar, he drew Org and shouted, "The final battle... has begun!"
(End of Chapter)
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