Chapter 7-208: Death of an Old God (1/2)

There were plenty of people outside the volcano, watching projected Holos of all this with their eyes popping.

It was so surreal. An army of the damned, falling out of the sky like lemmings into an ocean of vivic fire getting higher and brighter as it devoured more and more of them, and they just didn’t stop.

Their master, burning with demonic, unclean flames, raging at the invisible Wall that bound Him, as Holy magic burned at Him with raging intensity. As they watched, the white basalt around His prison began to arrange itself in Seals and Circles, which were filled up with vivus instantly, and His scream grew louder and more panicked as The Light threw Him back from the Wall of Force holding Him in place.

She had put another one of those in place, too, glowing with Holy Power of its own.

The thousands of people watching from outside the Shroudzone could see the Fireshroud was collapsing precipitously, the hate lightning within was dying out quickly, and it was retreating with visible speed, almost back to the Caldera itself... No, on the far side it was past the caldera, as it seemed to be centering on a location close to the eastern rim...

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There were undead Elementals on the ground, also trying to get to their master by the shortest route... a route now blocked with icefire and vivus. It was hard to tell if they were coming to attack or to be Dominated again, now that He’d lost his connection to Fire, but it didn’t matter, in the end.

They all still had to die, and I killed them.

One part of my mind keeping the Gust going, and I kept up the dance of staying Featherweighted, making sure all those Walls of Icefire were Renewed, as was the Wall of Force. In between I pounded down anything that tried to keep moving and get close to their ex-boss.

I had no mercy, only determination. They all had to die, and it couldn’t end before they did.

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It took about ten more minutes, all told. The Formation around the Old God was getting brighter and brighter, and the Pillars and Columns I’d added to it, almost crystallized in the flows of vivus there, were further adding to His torment. He couldn’t even beat on the Wall of Force successfully now, as all The Light coming in seemed to bend and converge on Him the closer He got to the end of His new prison, and He was in far too much pain to get off any magic.

The last of the undead Elementals crawled into the burning blue-white Walls to their doom; the last of the pyre knights had fallen from the skies; the last of the burning dead had crawled out of the lava and shattered themselves into frozen fuel for the vivus.

I looked at the four succubi, all four of them just outside the raging Icefire Walls, staring at the barriers in fear and horror. They were helplessly plastered against the Circles I had erected there, pinning them in place.

On my shoulder, I knew Bey ‘Azzar was watching, and no doubt swallowing hard as He watched me deal with the entire army of his former master.

I finally came down from my air-surfing, the Featherweight expiring as I touched the ground, and an ominous stillness came over everything.

His Dark Clergy-derived Health Qi was quite all gone now, and now it was Him burning, in icy fires stronger and purer than anything He could possible imagine. I didn’t have to renew the spell again. The way His skin was shattering, burning away in vivus, and His profane flames were weakening rapidly assured me He was falling, falling, and His screams were fading too.

His Fire was finally dying.

He probably didn’t even see Master Fred over there, stuffing the Wrath of Heaven into the Circle here, or The Mick, standing there next to the Obelisk He’d taken out of Sleipner’s sidecar, hefted upright, and was leaning against with a grim smile on his face, its big Protection from Evil effect covering the whole area with the extra vivic juice, and expressly covering the Old God inside His cage.

I snapped my fingers, shattered the Wall of Force, and shards of rigid energy tore through the Old God. He stumbled, fell inside the raging cold of the Walls, and looked up with eyes that had shattered and burned away at me.

He wanted to say something, but it was too late for Him, and I really wasn’t all that interested. It was the End of His Eternity.

“I bring your Last Day!” I told Him, thumping the Nail in His coffin on the ground, and He lit off.

He was much bigger and brighter than that little Dark Minister down south, and there was a lot more energy invested in this. The Light that poured up to the sky as He was sacrificed to Heaven and the Land was a new sun appearing across the land, filled with a golden brilliance and warmth that nobody born here had ever truly experienced.

It blew through the Shroud, tore it open, and peeled it back for ten miles in every direction. The Haze retreated, flaming and burning, and the true night sky gaped above us all.

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I blinked my eyes to clear them of the vivic flash, the shouts and calls on the /tell informing me of the sky gaping open above me.

Master Fred had been unaffected by the brightness, of course, and was examining the stars above with interest and a relaxed expression.

“Lord Mick, secure the Crystal Skull and the Weapons,” I told him as he was standing there cursing and rubbing his eyes.

“I got it,” he told me, as I started walking towards some demonesses writhing in pain after getting blasted by The Light. Happily for them, there’d been some burning Walls in the way to provide them some cover.

They weren’t going to miss me coming, either, scrambling back to their feet, long tails twitching, torn between trying to look seductive and cowering in abject fear, and sneaking peeks at the new sky above regardless.