Under Lin En’s irrefutable command, no one hesitated for a moment, nor did they scatter blindly in panic.
Their target was clear—the small, solid hill that Lin En had already locked onto with his mental strength during the retreat, several kilometers away.
The instinct to survive squeezed every last drop of strength from their bodies.
Wind howled past their ears, hearts pounding like war drums.
They could even feel the light behind them in the sky growing brighter at an unimaginable speed, as if a new sun was rising from behind the clouds, ready to swallow their shadows whole.
“It’s here!”
Lin En’s voice was steady yet urgent.
They practically rolled and crawled to the back of the hill, pressing themselves tightly against the cold rock wall.
“Down! Heads down!”
Lin En issued the final command, his voice carrying a steel-like discipline that made everyone obey without thinking.
But he himself did not hide.
Amid the astonished gazes of the others, Lin En spun around, standing alone to face the oncoming shockwave.
His expression was grave, arms spread wide, and his overwhelming mental power surged out like a breached flood.
“Honeycomb Bulwark—Fortification Mode!”
Vmm—
With a deep roar, a massive golden bulwark, thicker and stronger than any before, erupted from the ground!
It fit perfectly to the curve of the hill, shielding everyone and the mountain behind a seemingly thin but truly indestructible composite defense line.
The instant the bulwark formed, the world seemed to go silent.
A soundless white light burst from the distant horizon, devouring the world in an instant.
All color vanished before that ultimate white.
Everyone’s pupils burned from the brightness—even with eyes closed, they saw only blinding light.
Silence—deathly silence—lasted only a few seconds.
Then, the earth began to roar.
The hill beneath their feet shook violently, like a lone boat in a storm.
Chunks of rock rained down from above, as if the entire mountain might collapse at any moment.
This was no ordinary earthquake.
It was the earth groaning in agony at the cataclysmic impact far away.
The land heaved, the sky shattered!
And then the delayed sound finally arrived.
It was not a human noise, but a continuous thunderclap that seemed to tear the heavens and shatter souls.
BOOM!!!!!!
With the sound came a sweeping ring-shaped shockwave!
A visible wave of white air, carrying billions of tons of dust and debris, slammed into the hill where they hid and the golden Honeycomb Bulwark at supersonic speed!
The hill shook wildly, but its solid mass absorbed the brunt of the physical force.
The following superheated air and residual energy, hot enough to melt steel, were blocked by the Honeycomb Bulwark.
Golden light flashed madly across the bulwark’s surface, emitting a harsh hum that made their teeth ache, yet it stood firm as stone, not even a hairline crack appearing.
Behind the bulwark, Lin En’s figure did not budge.
The furious wind snapped his cloak, and the immense mental drain left his face pale, but his eyes remained calm, deep and cold as an abyss, fixed steadily on the calamity he had unleashed.
The seemingly endless storm of destruction lasted several minutes before gradually fading.
When the final gust died away, Lin En took a deep breath and waved his hand.
The vast golden bulwark flickered, then scattered into countless points of light and vanished.
A rush of scorching air, heavy with sulfur and the stench of burning, hit them, making everyone cough.
“Is everyone alright?”
Lin En turned, his voice tired but steady.
Only then did the others snap out of their awe at the overwhelming force.
They staggered to their feet.
Aside from ringing ears and pounding hearts, not a single one was hurt.
“I’m… still alive?”
Elaine muttered, touching his face in disbelief.
“Thank goodness…”
Elena looked at her battered but still attached arm, nerves relaxing at last, and managed a pale, post-crisis smile.
Magis’ clouded eyes filled with tears again.
He turned and bowed deeply to Lin En, voice hoarse but sincere.
“Thank you, Master Lynn… You saved us. You saved the last hope of the Moonshadow Clan.”
After a brief rest and relief, everyone felt a complicated, indescribable emotion.
They decided to return to the battlefield to see the results with their own eyes.
When they climbed over the hill that had saved their lives and saw the scene beyond, every single person was struck speechless.
The Flesh Broodmother, the scorched land—everything was gone.
In their place was a colossal crater, thousands of meters across, so vast its far side was nearly invisible, and bottomless.
This was the Land of Divine Punishment.
Temperatures and pressures beyond imagination had vaporized every substance here—rock, earth, even the Flesh Broodmother’s remains—erasing them completely, then re-forging them into eternal Lava Crystals that signified absolute death.
At the pit’s center, the air shimmered with lingering heat.
The ground was so black it seemed to swallow all light, like an entrance to the abyss.
No trace of the Flesh Broodmother’s evil or filth remained in the air.
It had been evaporated utterly, as if it had never existed.
They stood at the crater’s edge, as small as ants, staring up at the scar wrought by human hands—an act that rivaled the work of gods.
Fiona, the strong, confident human warrior, gripped her sword, hand trembling.
She had seen forbidden spells on the battlefield with her father, seen archmages combine their powers to destroy foes—but no force she knew of could so completely and brutally erase everything across such a wide expanse.
As everyone struggled to absorb what they saw, a crazed, ecstatic scream cut through the silence.
“Truth! This is Truth!!”
Everyone turned.
Kingdom Royal Alchemist Elaine was pointing at the glassy crater, his old face flushed with wild joy and obsession.
“Do you see? Do you see!”
He waved his arms, half-mad.
“The collision from the heavens! Ultimate speed and mass, transformed into purest power! This isn’t magic—no, it surpasses magic! It’s a harnessing of the world’s fundamental laws! This is truly the power of Truth!”
As an Alchemist who had spent his life pursuing the laws of existence, Elaine did not see mere destruction in this apocalyptic blow, but the ultimate manifestation of the universal principles that confirmed all his theoretical guesses.
His manic shouts were not laughable.
Instead, they made the doomsday scene seem even more logical—and terrifying.
Elaine’s frenzied cries struck the others like a hammer.
If even an Alchemist obsessed with the truth of the world called this Truth, the implications were all the more chilling.
Magis, the Black Elf Warchief who had lived for centuries, stared with more horror than he had shown facing the Broodmother.
He scoured all his clan’s ancient tomes and his own lifetime of knowledge, yet had never even heard of such terrifying power.
This was truly unlike any magical system he knew.
It was more like… the incomprehensible punishment gods rained down on mortals in myth.
In the end, all eyes gathered on Lin En, standing at the pit’s edge.
He gazed calmly at his handiwork, eyes holding no pride, only a cold, analytical appraisal.
At that moment, Lin En’s presence changed entirely in their minds.
He was no longer just a powerful, mysterious mage.
He embodied a knowledge system utterly alien to their world—something that transcended all common sense.
One thought rose uncontrollably in Fiona and Magis’ minds, bringing a bone-deep chill:
“Is this… really the power a Legendary Mage can possess? Or rather, is this even a power mortals can possess?”
The answer brought even deeper awe—and fear—than facing the Flesh Broodmother.