Chapter 9-281: Oh, You’re Not Smiling Anymore... (1/2)

Now, this Arhat was in a metaphysical state of transcendence: unable to harm, unable to be harmed, radiating submission and false holiness and a bunch of other mind-bending crap. Material objects and energy attacks should have simply gone right through it, treated as non-existent and made so by that belief that it was in tune with the universe and it defined reality about it, Om Mani Padme Hum.

Unfortunately, E-plumbum doesn’t care about what you think reality is; it’s about as hard and dense and real as reality gets.

The Greysphere riding the Wrath wrapped around the shot? That was just to make sure it stuck.

The light the Arhat was radiating went out abruptly as the armor-piercing round punched through its skin’s Golden Armor as if it wasn’t there, and plunged deep into its thick belly, incidentally making it a real pain to get the bullet out of there. Normally such a round going through mystical defenses might have just been annoying, and an entity that powerful could have ignored the pain and physical damage and just continued on.

The Greysphere I’d foisted off onto his shot taking effect, not so much. Arcane Archer Levels and Eldritch Theurgy ftw!

Suddenly that pillar of light the Arhat was floating down on couldn’t hold onto it, a new grey light absolutely blocking it. Nor could it fly by itself. The Arhat’s pious, grandiose, serene, composed, and regal descent from Heaven Westward became an abrupt plummet.

Now, a fall from any height wasn’t going to kill it, but there was no way it was going to be suddenly composed as it crashed down from the sky, slammed into the Dome which had not opened in time to let it through, rolled and bounced and began to slide in a very long way down off to the side.

While it would have been cool to watch the damn obese thing bounce and plummet its way down the half-mile-high Dome, that would also have been a waste of time.

I transferred another spell to Master Fred, who lifted Fred’s Grit, currently in Rifle form, and from Sleipner’s saddle out there, standing in mid-air stably amid the hurricane-force winds pummeling the city and the Dome, fired.

Normally it could have evaded a single shot, but One Shots are specifically designed to thwart auto-dodges, and the overweight thing could only try to dodge reflexively in a situation of no-flight and restricted maneuverability, uncontrolled kinetic energy, and no way to get out of the way in time

The bright golden light of holy Wrath followed the bullet into the Greysphere, went out at the ten-foot edge of its radius, and buried itself deep inside the folds of fat on the thing.

And that’s when the Paired Admixtured Topped Shards went off inside it. Oh, and Repeating, too.

The scream as a hundred Shards exploded out of its bulk all at once removed its dignity with its awkward scraping and sliding and a whole lot of pain. White stuff that might have been a blood analogue was spurting in all directions from the dumped spell, and its wide glowing eyes were fixed on us as it felt the ominousness of Heaven’s judgement coming down on it... the real Heaven, not whatever pissant Nirvanic Realm it had come from.

The Repeated volley from within it blew it apart, and the vivic explosion and Anarchic additions I’d foisted into the spell turned the explosive death into a hundred-meter radius of white fires and rainbow pyrotechnics against the raging backdrop of the black storm clouds and ceaseless heavenly lightning.

The explosion itself had a transcendent, sublime satisfaction to it. Ahhhh...

Since I was pretty much always Singing in such situations, it fell to Master Fred to make the accompanying snark for me.

“Thank you for your contribution to the Land. You’ve stolen so much from it, it is a welcome sight to see you bring in things that are actually a positive contribution.”

That fourteen-fold voice was echoing like thunder in the clouds with all 11d6 of Fred’s Wrath powering it up. Master Fred later told me the women were crowing like mad about it, enjoying sounding like the judgement of a goddess coming down.

“Don’t feel left out. You’ll be joining the Arhat shortly.”

The hexagon it had been sliding down was severely damaged, and the stunned Buddhists below were gaping up at the slowly fading phototechnics, their morale rather precarious, and didn’t quite react in time to reinforce it.

Paired Admixtured Spellflares blew it apart, and thousands of the Buddhists gaping up at me from below exploded from the backlash as it did.

Fifty different Thunderbolts, coming in from multiple angles and directions, plunged through the hole in that Dome instantly, crossing through one another as they went for all the most powerful creatures I could sense below. The thunderclaps alone blew the roofs off most of the buildings below, and they flattened the chanting acolytes instantly. The whole geodesic Dome wobbled at the melodious cacophony of the condemnation of the incoming SacredPrimal Thunder.

The odds the Buddhists could make the 41 Save weren’t good, if they even had a +21 to make it possible, which was unlikely. If they could, they could ignore the damage entirely, but their energy resistance wasn’t going to help them at all, either.

Raging Lightning a whole few Ranks above the natural detonated atop the most powerful locuses of control and Qi below, and abruptly removed them from existence. This particular Tribulation was not going to be something any of them got past.

20 x (D8+6), Topped to 14 and so 280 damage per shot, danced mad jigs through and around them, brighter, more furious, and grander than any lightning should be as it reminded them where Heaven truly stood on this.

Probably should have invested in a killer Concentration score and the Sun Saves, I reckoned, but I had no sympathy for them.