Chapter 133: The Ending Swallowed by Black Mud
The goddess's movements were now a chaotic mess, her chained body trembling with an agonizing pain.
"Now!"
Rhodes seized the fleeting opportunity and gave the final order. His holy sword, Org, burst with an unprecedented, brilliant light as he poured all of his remaining mana into it, and then... a full release. Not a light cannon this time, but a golden blade of judgment. He brought it down on the goddess.
"YOU WILL NOT!"
Her one remaining eye saw his movement, and a mad, venomous rage flared within her. Ignoring the searing pain in her other eye and the burning of the holy energy within her, she raised her arm. A thick, impenetrable shield of black vines instantly formed before her. And at the same time, she drew on the last of her divine power and let out a silent, soul-shattering scream. A scream that bypassed all physical defense and struck at their very souls.
BOOM!!!
A terrifying psychic shockwave ripped through the space.
Rhodes was hit hard and coughed up a mouthful of blood. Blood also began to trickle from his ears and nose, and the golden blade in his hand flickered.
Norne, Eirik, and Somme all cried out in pain, clutching their heads, a feeling of a thousand needles piercing their very souls.
Serie and Olivia grunted. They had both cast defensive spells, but they hadn't expected an attack on a spiritual level. Though the spells had offered some protection, their own minds had nearly shattered from the impact.
Olivia forced herself to look up. She knew that in this final, critical moment, her every action could decide the fate of the battle. She pushed through the psychic shockwave and, with a resolute will, began to burn the very light of her own life. And then, she threw herself between him and the goddess, into the very heart of the soul-shattering scream.
Her wings were now wreathed in a holy white flame, a flame born of her own life force.
The Sky-Winged were a long-lived race, a race created by the goddess to be the equals of the elves. But in this moment, Olivia had cast aside that long life, and the hourglass of her own, once-infinite, lifespan had been turned over. She spread her arms like a martyr and, with her own life and faith, she poured all of her energy into the life-circle within her, a circle that was now connected to Rhodes.
And with that power, a warm light spread out over the battlefield, a light that silently, and completely, erased the soul-shattering sound.
Thud.
She fell to the ground, her face deathly pale, her silver wings now a lifeless gray, drained of all vitality. But she still managed to look up, to look at the goddess she had once worshipped, a goddess whose body had been taken, whose will still fought on.
"Olivia!" he reached for her, but she stopped him with a look.
"AHH!"
The goddess's one remaining eye saw her compassionate gaze, a gaze that seemed to pierce through the darkness and see the imprisoned will of the Goddess of Life within. And that gaze... it was more loathsome to her, more terrifying, than his sword.
And it was Olivia's selfless act that had bought him the final, precious moment he needed to slay a god.
His wavering sword-light now coalesced, a golden blade of judgment that now, with Olivia's power added to it, shot forward with a renewed speed.
BOOM!!!
The golden blade of judgment slammed into the hastily-formed dark shield.
Light and darkness clashed, a maelstrom of creation and annihilation. In the end, the light was stronger. The dark shield groaned and began to crack, the dark energy that made it up sizzling and evaporating, the very vines of which it was composed now riddled with a web of fissures.
"BREAK—!"
His vision blurred, and in that moment, he saw a gentle, divine being, a being who pointed to her own chest, as if to show him the way. And so he, too, burned his own life force, and pushed with all his might.
CRACKLE—!!!
The dark shield shattered.
And the golden blade of judgment, its momentum unbroken, its purpose now a singular, world-ending will, plunged into the goddess's chest, and struck the single, small point of light that was the last remnant of the Goddess of Life.
Sizzle—!!!
This time, it was the sound of a god's own flesh being torn asunder, the death-knell of a dark and twisted divinity.
"Urk—ahhh—!!!"
The goddess let out a final, despairing shriek, a scream that was filled with an unprecedented agony.
Where the sword had pierced her, an incredible, multicolored light erupted, along with a torrent of foul, black energy. The holy power of Org raged within her, destroying her divine foundation, burning away her corrupted essence. And because he had struck the very place where the Goddess of Life's soul was imprisoned, her own power now surged forth as well.
The two divine powers, now at war within her, began to tear her apart from the inside. Her body began to disintegrate, and her black vines writhed in their death throes and then withered into dust. The God's Chain, sensing its enemy's defeat, tightened its grip, leaving her no room to struggle.
"It's over!"
Rhodes gripped Org with both hands and, with all his remaining strength, he pulled up.
RIP—!!!
A massive wound, from her chest to her shoulder.
Golden and black divine blood gushed from it like a fountain.
"No... impossible... how could I... lose..."
Her one remaining eye was filled with a look of disbelieving despair. She looked down at the fatal wound, and felt her own power fading, the foundation of her darkness crumbling. Her body began to turn transparent, and a torrent of golden light and black filth poured from the wound, her very being now unmaking itself.
"Life... sister..." she murmured.
And in that moment, she remembered.
A stern little girl and her gentle, all-loving sister. A newborn goddess, guided by her elder, slowly learning to wield the authority of life. They had been two goddesses, but one authority. Two sisters, sharing a single faith. They had been one and the same.
"Why? Why... did you do it?"
A voice, a thought, filled with a sad confusion, echoed from her dissolving form, but was then swallowed by the darkness.
BOOM!!!
Her body, purged by the conflicting powers, finally, completely, collapsed.
And in its place... was a wave of black mud, a tide of divine miasma that now washed over the entire Godfall Land.
And then... the black mud swallowed everything.
(End of chapter)
~~~
Get early access to 20+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
~~~
Every 150 Power Stones = 1 extra chapter