[Vol. 8] Chapter 262: Breaking the City, Piercing the Clouds
A sacred fire lit up in the young girl’s once ordinary eyes. Her long hair broke free from its ponytail, flowing down naturally, now turned into a pure, shining golden color like light itself. This was a fragment of divine power, something she could never have endured before, now brought into her body through a clever method, using the rune as a bridge.
Now she was Sasha, yet also no longer just Sasha. As long as this holy fire burned and the rune still glowed, the light of Him would shine upon all through her body, the light of a god.
“Praise the Goddess!”
Without hesitation, Tairnak bowed to the ground, looking up at her with boundless respect. Sasha’s light body slowly rose from the building, and six shining golden wings of light appeared behind her, lifting her into the sky.
A large hole had been blasted open above the hotel, and a pillar of golden light soared upward. With the sun and moon shining together and the stars sparkling, countless [Flesh Eaters] roaming the city were drawn toward it. Many survivors, still hiding or trembling in fear, saw this sight as well. Some skilled fighters inside the hotel sensed the change instantly and rushed to the roof.
At this moment, she had become the absolute center of the city and the sky above it.
Nothing could hide from her senses now. Rising into the air and looking down at the city, she finally understood the true danger Saint Tyr City was facing.
The monsters that had forced them to hide in buildings before, the endless [Flesh Eaters] that no matter how many they killed still kept coming, were only a small part of the threat. Far in the distance, she saw even stronger monsters, endless swarms, and some as tall as small mountains, built from houses and city walls themselves, moving among the ruins.
Such beings were impossible for humans to fight. Without outside help, everyone in the city would surely die.
But now, the situation had completely changed.
With divine power flowing through her, Sasha’s mind was clear as a mirror. In just a moment, she had already decided her next steps.
“Come.”
She raised her hand slightly, and the ancient longbow on the table in her room turned into a streak of light, flying into her hand. She did not need normal arrows. A golden arrow of pure light formed instantly. She slowly drew the bowstring, and the space before the arrowhead seemed to bend and collapse, sparking with lightning and thunder.
The power she was about to use was beyond mortal limits. To be honest, her teacher’s gift, this bow, was good, but it might break under such force. It was not the most logical choice.
And yet, Sasha still chose to fight with it.
“The Six Red Lotus Forms… even my teacher could not use their full power. I never thought that today, I would be the one to let them shine once more. If my grandmaster, whom I’ve never met, could see this through this bow, I believe he would be proud.”
As she finished speaking, flames began to burn along the golden arrow. She drew the bow to its fullest and released without hesitation.
“First Form — Crimson Flame.”
BOOM!!!
The arrow, normally the simplest opening move of the Six Red Lotus Forms, instantly became a blazing red thunderbolt descending from the heavens. Carrying crimson flames, it streaked through the sky like a river of fire, its shockwave tearing through everything in its path.
The arrow shot across the city, traveling tens of kilometers in an instant. Every monster caught in its path was shredded to dust before they even had time to react. It was like a falling star, leaving behind a great diagonal scar in the very air itself.
Its target… was the north gate of Saint Tyr City, the closest gate to them.
“BOOM!!!!!!!”
The crimson flame arrow streaked through the sky. That huge city gate, made of living flesh and completely blocking the entrance, was supposed to be impossible to break. But with just one shot, the gate that had once forced Sasha and Ricardo to fight their way into the city for survival was gone. Together with the corrupted city wall around it, it shattered into dust in an earth-shaking explosion that shook the whole city.
With this single arrow, a straight path opened from Xavier Hotel through almost half the city, leading straight to the north outside the walls. The city wall, dozens of meters high, had been torn open along with the gate, leaving a terrifying hole more than a hundred meters wide!
Even the flesh that could originally spread and eat away at stone could no longer regrow here, leaving behind a true escape route.
“Whoa! That’s way too strong!”
Looking at the deep, clear scar across the city, like a giant god’s hand had scraped the earth, even Sasha herself was startled. She had planned to open all the city gates first and knew this arrow would probably work… but…
It seemed there might be an even simpler way?
She quickly checked her own condition. The glowing rune on the back of her hand, drawn using the special potion from Miss Violet, was still there, unaffected by the shot. Now that she understood roughly how long she could keep this state and how strong her divine power was, Sasha raised her bow again.
This time, she didn’t aim at any gate. She aimed straight at the sky.
“Fifth Style — Catastrophe.”
The bowstring reached full draw. The arrow shot upward like a reverse-falling star, vanishing into the clouds in a blink. Compared to the earlier “Crimson Flame”, it looked far less impressive. But then—
The sky over Saint Tyr City, for a hundred miles around, suddenly went dark.
“BOOM!!! Rumble!!!”
Pitch-black storm clouds formed out of nowhere, hiding the sun, moon, and stars. Yet the divine power around Sasha didn’t weaken at all. Lightning danced wildly inside the clouds, flashing like silver snakes, while the deafening thunder roared like it could shatter the sky.
Countless monsters below, driven only by hunger, looked up in fear. Even such mindless creatures somehow felt a terrible danger coming for them.
Suddenly, a single bolt of golden lightning pierced the clouds and crashed down into the city.
“THOOM!!!!!!!”
The power of this strike was far beyond anything that could be called “archery.” The ground of Saint Tyr shook violently, and the deafening explosion rang through the entire city.
With one strike, the spot filled with flesh monsters became a massive crater over a hundred meters wide. None of the [Flesh Eaters] there even had time to resist before they were completely burned to ash.
In the face of true divine power, these creatures, so fierce in slaughtering mortals, were nothing more than sheep waiting to be killed.
But this was only the beginning of Catastrophe.
“THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!!!!”
The second bolt came. Then the third, the fourth… Golden lightning fell endlessly from the clouds, each strike carrying the crushing power of the heavens. The ground trembled non-stop, huge mushroom clouds rising one after another, like divine punishment raining down, a judgment for those who defied the gods.