City of Sin (Yanyu Jiangnan)

Doomsday Imprint

As Flowsand’s face started to show signs of fatigue, Io and Nyra’s eyes went wide. She had already consumed a greater blessing’s worth of grace, but there was no reaction from the ball of light or the book!

Eventually, she gave up and sighed, “I think we’ve found ourselves a bigger problem.”

“What greater problem?” Richard’s eyes narrowed, he had never seen such an expression on Flowsand before.

“I cannot confirm right now, I’ll only know once I get this thing back to Norland.”

Richard frowned, “You have no idea?”

“I do, but… It’s called the Doomsday Imprint, if I’m right.”

This term wasn’t familiar to Richard, but from the name alone he realised that it was nothing good. “And what exactly is that?”

“Just a name, I think these things can come in any form. Their abilities cannot be analysed by the power of time, because they exist outside the reach of the old dragon. I’ll explain more when we have time, it isn’t urgent.”

Richard nodded, but he suddenly felt a strange pressure on the hall, “What now?”

“Whatever you want!” Flowsand suggested, her words full of meaning.

“Of course!” Richard no longer hesitated, starting to issue a series of commands.

Tiramisu was the first to head outside the church, roaring as he climbed up to the roof and began dismantling the stone tiles. Almost a thousand worker drones followed suit, aiding the ogre in his task. In only a few minutes, there was a huge hole in the roof of the church.

It was at this point that the astral chrysalis’ massive body descended from the sky. Most of Richard’s troops were awed and scared by the sight as it lowered its tentacles, wrapping them around the Highland Wargod’s statue before rising into the sky.

The statue suddenly shuddered as it was pulled from the ground, a loud roar echoing throughout the church. Divine light shone from within as blood seemed to seep out of the orifices, and it forced itself back to the ground by breaking the chrysalis’ tendrils.

However, this was the moment everyone was waiting for. Richard threw out a dark crimson fireball made purely of abyssal flames that started to engulf the statue the moment it struck, eating away at the very soul. A spinning hourglass flew out from Flowsand’s hands, getting to the statue’s head before freezing in place. The divine power billowing out from the stone was immediately stopped in place.

A grey mist was soon to follow, turning the frozen blood-coloured light into what looked like ash. Io immediately took the opening to rush forth, resplendent light covering both his hands as he started blasting the statue all over. His attacks were flashy yet brutal, a direct contest of divine power.

“You finally got a chance,” Nyra smirked, but the battle priest ignored her completely as he did his utmost to consume all of his divine grace in the attack. A roar of terror and rage rang within the church once more before everything fell silent; there was still some divine energy within the statue, but it had already lost all spirituality. The conscient within had been completely destroyed at the hands of the four present, an utter defeat to the lesser god.

……

“How?! HOW?!” furious roars echoed within the Highland Wargod’s divine kingdom, mountains shattering and the tidal waves drowning everything nearby. The petitioners in the kingdom struggled to stay afloat in the water, some of them sinking, but even at this time they didn’t forget to pray and sing praises of their god.

Then again, praying was the only way to avoid calamity in a divine kingdom. These souls were normally immortal, but the rage of their master could break them apart in an instant.

The Highland Wargod had already left his divine throne, pacing back and forth in his palace. He regularly picked up the decorations within and smashed them into the ground, causing golden lightning that crashed into the holy spirits nearby and turned them to ashes. These holy spirits— an equal mix of humans, dwarves, and barbarians— were the core of his army in a divine war, but at this point he knew they would only delay the inevitable.

“Why are you this arrogant?! WHY? I just wanted to send you a message, I wanted…” He suddenly stopped howling, all of his rage fading away as he remembered the scene from earlier. Richard was the first to strike his statue after his presence was discovered, and it had been without any hesitation at all. This was not how a mortal would react to a god.

He had only seen a flurry of light when his conscient had been destroyed, but the one who left the greatest impression on him was actually the woman who froze his divinity in place. His own mind had turned sluggish at that moment, unable to control the statue at all. If not for her, he would at least be able to break off the power of his will and return it to his divine kingdom. It seemed to come from the power of spacetime, but he knew that his fellow goddesses of space and time were nowhere near that powerful.

Still, Richard was the one he feared the most. Those flames had caused him immense physical pain, even making him feel like his actual body was burning. This was power far beyond what a sub-legendary being should have possessed!

Even the black and white one had consumed a great amount of his divine power… the Highland Wargod calmed down further, forcing himself to recall everything that had transpired. The first thing Richard had done after entering the church was to look for high-level priests. Outside of the pope, who was killed immediately, the rest were given the choice to change their faith to live. Those who didn’t agree were killed immediately, stopping all communication.

He shuddered at the methodical nature of it all. This was only the second time he had felt such a deadly threat since he lit his godspark, but the last time he had lost his throne.

……

By this point, the astral chrysalis had already wrapped itself around the enormous statue before taking to the sky, flying towards the Land of Turmoil. Richard’s army had already occupied every corner of the surrounding city, cramping the town that was designed for ten thousand people completely.

This city held no additions to the army. The women, children, and elderly had been left behind, while all able-bodied men had been forced to fight the losing war. If they didn’t pick up their weapons, they would have been killed by the worshippers of the Highland Wargod before they could even think of defecting.

Most of the remaining citizens of the city were gathered at a large square in the south. Before floating in the sky to look down on them, Richard whispered to Flowsand, “If it were someone else, what would the outcome be?”

“For them? Two-thirds enslaved, one-thirds dead.”

He nodded, “I’ll only enslave those who won’t give up their faith.”