Chapter 18-478: The World-Ender (2/2)
The news echoed across the world in seconds, was picked up by news stations, and relayed out fast to those not Marked or in Allegiance.
Tactics were spinning out as squads grouped up, and sniping became a very fearsome push, indeed. Casters set aside their spells, picked up their own Weapons, be they Bows or Staves, and moved forward to join the fighting with the Melees.
They might not be able to one-hit these undead, but they could still contribute and weaken them, at least!
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Well behind the lines, coordinates were received, and input into launchers. Portable silos rose fractionally here and there, Runes glowed with Axiom, Divination magic, and vivus.
Missile One took off, coordinates locked in. Scant seconds and a hundred miles clockwise, Missile Two launched in a roar of fire.
Smoothly, from all directions, the last two dozen nuclear payloads on the planet went into the sky on some of the last Shrike cruise missiles in existence.
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I tracked the missiles by ground and air spotters using Eagle Eyes, subtly pulling our air cover out of their flight paths. Those flyboys were all receiving new orders to dump their loads, and if meant they were flying too low for comfort, well, that was why they were here.
None of them did anything but obey. Hundreds of air-to-ground missiles and thousands of tons of bombs were unleashed in the next three minutes, and our air cover engaged in murderous strafing of targets until they were completely out of ammunition.
Maybe they’d get reloaded and refueled in time to make another run, maybe not. They key was unloading and getting out of range of what was about to happen, as terrain-following cruise missiles moving faster than sound below the Shroud converged on their targets with eerie synchronicity, not something the now-shattered air defenses, and definitely not the ground forces, could deal with.
-One minute to detonations! Avert your damn eyes!- Briggs /ordered into the Overtell, and across the hundreds of miles of fighting, the sudden push became an abrupt retreat to create distance as the second clock ticked down, and those multiple lines of flight converged together.
The atomic bombs were plenty strong, and the Shroudlord’s main forces were drawn up in the advance path before us as we were converging on him. There was no doubt that this was going to be a big hit, but even if it wasn’t, it was definitely going to sell the fact that we were desperate to stop him.
In a long line of atomic blasts whose flames didn’t overlap, but whose shockwaves certainly did, the missiles detonated.
A blast zone a hundred miles long, aiming right at the heart of the Shroudzone, lit up as the sun came down to this Shrouded Earth, and even the Shroud couldn’t tolerate that level of blasting, scattering away from the power of atoms splitting.
I had Devasight, so I could watch them all go off without any fear. I was mostly looking at the moon.
Did I detect a moment of surprise in the molten seas which seemed to be eyes? Who knew? The thing was three hundred miles across, and that maw was fifty miles wide all by itself. The bombs were a nice display, but all such things would have done to the Devouring Moon is rearrange some stones, like trying to beat a human by throwing lit matches at them.
Even as the Shroud reeled back from the blast zones and the startlingly white mushroom clouds rising over them, seething with vivic energy that was eating the radiation damage and all the negative energy in the area, Guiogg continued to descend, unperturbed. It didn’t eat negative energy, so the vivic fire was like cleaning up a messy meal.
But those blasts tore open a line of access towards the center of the Shroudcloud, where the Formation still glowed, and collapsed the Shroud back by dozens of miles instantly as tens of millions of undead were vaporized.
It was a clear WHITE road, too.
-UP! UP! PUSH ALONG THE BLAST LANE!-
Everyone who could Translocated with all speed towards the center. We were all way outside the newly receded Dead Zone now, and the undead were all turning from being shaken off their feet, or maybe blasted off them by the winds, and heading back towards the Shroud, compelled to return to the control of their master.
Those of us who couldn’t Translocate or come along busied themselves butchering these things as fast as they could, which would in turn shrink the Shroud even more and force the rest to run even farther.
I Teleported to the Seal Focus Briggs had tossed onto the ground, along with thirty Traveling Knights who could not do so, and blew into the sky instantly, dragging them behind me. Other Teleporters came zipping in, Disks unfolding or materializing almost as they did, bringing their allies with them.
Disks linked up into Formation with all speed, men and women hunkered down as Legion blew up from out of the ground with their Wings out, ready to lead the way, Shvaughn Pactjumping through a heartbeat later and zipping onto a seat behind me on my Disk shamelessly.
Thousands of people joined the wedge of Disks above the ground in under two minutes. Disks anchored to Disks, Stormbound started bending the wind as Ward Walls went up all around us. I simply reached out, and nine long tails grabbed onto me and my arms more firmly than steel.
They might have interwoven with Shvaughn as Windwise, too, but I didn’t look back to check, promise.
Runes pulsed on Wings, and we started moving forward.