1443 All Of You Can Run, But You Can Never Hide
“Fools.” Ahriman sneered as he looked at the Half-Elf who had a relieved expression on his face. “Do you really think that your reinforcements did you favor? On the contrary, you just hastened your doom.”
William frowned as he looked at the God who had made his life difficult in the past.
pAn,Da n<0,>v,e1 “Heh, aren’t you curious?” Ahriman’s eyes which held great hatred and contempt towards the Half-Elf glowed faintly. “Aren’t you going to ask me what I’m talking about? Well, it doesn’t really matter. You will soon find out what I’m talking about.”
Nergal’s loud bellow reverberated in the battlefield, and the sky above their heads started to crack.
William suddenly felt a great danger coming from the heavens making him look at Ahriman with surprise.
“That’s right,” Ahriman laughed. “The moment your reinforcements arrived is also the moment that the Army of Destruction decided that enough was enough.”
William immediately turned into a white lightning bolt and flew above the battlefield.
The cracks in the sky had extended until it reached the Royal Palace of the Ainsworth Empire, which was at the very rear of the formation of their troops.
“Optimus! Execute Phase 2!” William ordered.
< Understood! >
A second later, a brilliant flash of white light descended upon the mortal armies. One by one, the different armies of every nation of the world disappeared from the battlefield as William used his authority to teleport everyone away from the battlefield using the Rainbow Bridge.
They had held several of these drills in the past, so everyone already knew what to do.
“Malacai, take Avalon to the location I am going to give you!” William said through telepathy. “Thorfinn, we’re pulling back!”
Without another word, William once again transformed into a lightning bolt and flew to a place where the sky wasn’t cracked.
Thorfinn gave Nergal one last glance before flying away, following behind the Half-Elf who was currently regrouping the mortal armies away from the heavens that were about to fall from their heads.
“Retreat!” Malacai ordered and the Last Fortress of Humanity hastily backed away as fast as it could. Since the situation was urgent, he didn’t bother to ask the Half-Elf what he had in mind and simply followed his instructions.
A minute later, the sky completely broke apart and Giants fell from the sky, causing an earthquake as they descended upon the world that they were about to destroy.
Tens of thousands…
Hundreds of thousands…
Millions…
The cracked sky disappeared, and was replaced by a red mist that was the color of red blood.
This red mist spread across the land, as far as the cracked sky reached. However, if one were to look closely, it was slowly starting to spread in every direction. If left unchecked, it would cover the whole world and, when that happened, all life in Hestia would perish and the core of the world would shatter.
“It looks the same as back then,” Wendy narrowed her eyes as she looked at the red sky in the distance.
“Yes,” Chiffon gritted her teeth as she held Sharur tightly in her hands. “But, it will not end the same way as last time.”
“It will not,” Acedia, who had been lazing around earlier now stood up on the deck of the flying ship, and glared at the scene in front of her with hatred. “I won’t let it.”
Erinys’ flying ship, and the Flagship of the Holy Order of Light, were also making their hasty retreat to regroup with William, and the armies of Hestia.
The two ships were currently flying alongside Avalon, making sure that it would arrive safely at the place where they would mount their last stand.
After making sure that the armies that he had teleported away had started to regroup, William returned and landed on Avalon, where he was greeted by Malacai who had come to fight alongside him.
“To think that the little boy who begged me for help back then would become the Head of the Alliance,” Malacai said softly. “You’ve come a long way, Will.”
“I never intended for this to happen,” William replied with a smile. “Sometimes, I feel like Lady Fate is just playing with me on the palm of her hands, throwing all of this mess in my face even if I didn’t ask for it.”
Malacai chuckled because he had also experienced the same thing in the past. Knowing that his mortal body wouldn’t last long, he decided to become a Dracolich to ensure that when the end of the world finally came, He would still be alive, and kicking, to fight for Hestia one last time.
“Sadly, it seems that my arrival had tested their patience,” Malacai commented as he gazed behind him. “I wished we could have decreased their number a little more.”
“Me, too. But, there’s no use fretting about that now, right?”
“Indeed. Regardless of how daunting this situation is, we have no choice but to face it head on.”
The two protectors of the world stared in the distance as the Giants continued to fall from the sky.
They had a feeling that the Army of Destruction would start their march the moment the two Gods of Destruction also made their appearance, which would mean that the real fight was about to begin.
“What are our chances of winning?” Malacai asked as he rubbed his chin.
“Don’t ask,” William replied as he narrowed his eyes. “All I know is that we will win.”
“Regardless of the price, no matter the sacrifice?”
“No one will be sacrificed. We will fight until we can no longer fight. That is all.”
Malacai patted William’s shoulder because the Half-Elf was right. There was no place that they could run, so they had no choice but to fight.
They had no choice but to win.
————
“Are we just going to let them go?” Ahriman asked as he stood beside Nergal, who was glaring hatefully at the retreating Flying Fortress.
“Let them go?” Nergal shifted his attention to Ahriman and sneered at the former God of Chaos and Darkness, who was now only one of the Giants that served in their Army. “Tell me, where could they possibly go? Do you think that they have a place to escape to?”
Ahriman shook his head because he already knew the answer to Nergal’s question.
Nergal snorted before looking back at the Flying Fortress which had now become a small dot in the sky.
“All of you can run, but you can never hide,” Nergal stated. “Sooner or later, we will meet again and when we do, I will make sure all of you die a very slow and painful death!”