boyutpedia Chapter 260 The Magnificent Church
Chapter 260 The Magnificent Church
A formation of ten "Kunpeng" heavy transport aircraft left ten parallel white contrails in the stratosphere. Beneath their bellies stretched the endless Siberian snowfields.
Inside the cabin, the air was thin due to the high altitude. Red combat readiness indicator lights replaced conventional lighting, staining everyone's tactical armor a blood-red hue.
Lu Yan stood in front of the control console. The database of Kunlun Underground Palace unfolded on the virtual screen in front of him. He repackaged and encrypted the massive amount of information and synchronized it to the tactical terminals of all squad leaders of the expeditionary force.
"Ling Shuang." Lu Yan's voice came through the internal channel, "You will lead the Third, Fifth, and Seventh Detachments, responsible for establishing an advance base in the designated drop zone. Primary task: construct defensive lines and eliminate all non-human units. Secondary task: protect engineering units and establish ley line jamming towers."
"Received." Ling Shuang's brief reply came from the other end of the channel.
Lu Yan shut down communications with the entire army and switched to the first squad's internal channel. "Our objective is the area with the highest energy readings; we'll directly destroy the enemy's command center."
No one asked a question. Trust had already been forged in countless life-or-death battles.
As the aircraft flew over the Ural Mountains and entered Europa airspace, an eerie atmosphere enveloped everyone.
"Radar is working perfectly." Wen Yue's voice came through the channel, but there was no sign of relief in her tone. "No anti-aircraft fire, no interceptor formations, even civilian signals have disappeared. The whole of Europe is like a graveyard."
She paused, then switched the display mode on the tactical tablet. A high-dimensional energy sensing map replaced the conventional radar scan.
The screen was no longer a lifeless blank. A dozen dazzling red dots lit up simultaneously, stretching from the French coastline to the Black Forest of Germany, and then to the ancient city-states of the Apennine Peninsula. These dots were rapidly increasing their energy levels exponentially.
"They are burning themselves." Lu Yan looked at the points of light, trying to decipher their intentions. "They have abandoned conventional defenses and are using all the secret realms as fuel."
The fall of the Kunlun Palace clearly shattered all illusions for Mars Lee and the false gods behind him. They were going to use all the remaining energy of the continent to prepare a grand funeral for the Chinese expeditionary force.
"They're here." Wen Yue's voice was tense.
The moment she finished speaking, the view outside the transport plane's window was completely swallowed up by the sudden burst of light below.
The entire continent of Europe seemed to be torn apart by an invisible giant hand. The earth crumbled, and more than a dozen enormous spatial rifts opened simultaneously. It wasn't a conventional gunpowder explosion; it was a chain reaction of collapses caused by the forced extraction of the cores from more than a dozen large secret realms at the same time.
A high-dimensional energy storm erupted from those fissures. Blue spatial turbulence, purple arcane radiation, and the nauseating, pale holy light unique to the Western false gods mingled together, transforming into an energy tide that destroyed everything.
The dozens of reconnaissance drones deployed by the advance force, along with their signals, disappeared completely from the radar screen the moment they came into contact with the energy tide.
Immediately afterwards, the storm collided with the "Kunpeng" transport aircraft fleet.
The aircraft shook violently, and alarms blared in every corner. Equipment boxes secured to the bulkhead broke free and tumbled and collided in the aisles.
"Energy shield value 81%...64%...42%..."
The cold, impersonal system notification sounded like a death knell.
The tail hatch of a "Kunpeng" was twisted by the impact of energy, and a hideous crack appeared. A violent surge of energy, mixed with spatial fragments, poured in from the crack.
"Block it!"
Zhao Leiguang and Shen Xinglin stood on either side of the hatch, blocking it.
Zhao Lei slammed the Taotie Twin Shields heavily into the ground, unleashing the full power of the Earth Pulse Set's earth-yellow light. A thick wall of earth rose from the ground before the crack. The surging energy turbulence crashed against the wall, the earth-yellow light flickering erratically.
Shen Xinglin's ever-changing lance extended, transforming into a massive totem light shield. The phantoms of the Azure Dragon and White Tiger roared silently under the onslaught of the energy storm.
Both of their mobile suits simultaneously emitted piercing overload alarms.
"Damn it, this thing is never going to end!" Zhao Leiguang gritted his teeth, as fine cracks had already appeared on the surface of the Earth Wall.
Lu Yan raised his left hand, and a jet-black lotus flower was condensing in his palm. He prepared to use the most extreme method to forcibly devour this energy storm.
Just then, the tactical terminal on his waist, which represented the coordinates of the Kunlun Underground Palace, suddenly lit up with a blinding yellow light.
A powerful resonance of the earth's veins, spanning thousands of miles, disregarded spatial barriers and precisely pinpointed the location of the Chinese Expeditionary Force.
A streak of yellowish-brown light pierced the eastern sky. It tore through the chaotic energy storm without making a sound, hovering in front of the ten "Kunpeng" transport planes.
As the light faded, it revealed an ancient, square seal. The seal was covered with patterns of mountains and rivers, as if the entire landscape of China were condensed within it.
The first immortal artifact personally crafted by the Goddess Houtu – the [Nine Heavens Breath Soil Seal].
The celestial artifact protects its master.
The Breath of Earth Seal slowly rotated in the air, its yellowish-brown light spreading downwards, transforming into a massive earth vein barrier that enveloped the entire fleet. On this barrier, the mountain ranges of China were clearly visible, imposing and inviolable.
A violent storm of arcane energy crashed against the barrier.
There was no violent explosion, no blinding light. The high-dimensional energy, powerful enough to tear steel and distort space, was absorbed and assimilated silently upon contact with the barrier, like silt thrown into the ocean. Not even a ripple was stirred on the barrier's surface.
The immortal artifacts native to China exerted an utterly unreasonable and overwhelming force on these cobbled-together high-dimensional explosions.
The aftershocks of the energy storm gradually dissipated.
Through the ley line barrier, the first team saw the ravaged continent of Europa below. The earth was torn open, revealing bottomless canyons, with residual high-dimensional energy flickering deep within, like flowing swamps of poison.
Countless twisted humanoid creatures are crawling out of those newly formed spatial rifts like a tide.
Their bodies still retained some characteristics of ordinary human civilians, but their flesh had been forcibly invaded by a ghastly white crystal. Some had bony wings sprouted from their backs, while others had their arms mutated into tentacles covered in barbs. They had lost their minds, uttering meaningless roars as they surged toward the expeditionary force's planned drop zone.
Angelic aberrations. The cheapest and most vicious cannon fodder of Western false gods.
"Ling Shuang, proceed as planned." Lu Yan's voice rang out on the entire military channel. "Eliminate all targets and establish a base."
"yes!"
The Nine Heavens Breath Seal opened a breach. Three squads, led by Ling Shuang, boarded transport planes and swooped down towards the designated drop zone. The salvos of heavy machine guns crisscrossed in mid-air, tearing the first wave of mutated creatures to shreds.
The flagship where Lu Yan was located broke away from the formation.
The first squad of six stood before the open stern hatch. The fierce winds high in the sky whipped at the corners of their clothes.
Lu Yan's gaze was fixed on the tactical tablet. In the very center of the map, at the epicenter of all the explosions, there was a patch of land that remained unaffected.
Vatican.
Cathedral of Holy Light.
"Walk."
Lu Yan gave the order.
The first team of six transformed into six streaks of light and leaped down from a height of ten thousand meters.
They ignored the ocean below, composed of mutants, and instead, like the sharpest scalpel, plunged it into the heart of this decaying continent.
During the descent, the entire Vatican City unfolded before everyone's eyes.
This city, which should have been bathed in holy light, was now shrouded in an eerie shadow. Above the Cathedral of Holy Light, there was neither holy radiance nor dark clouds. Visible spirals, composed of blood-red codes, were slowly swirling above the cathedral's dome.
Mars Lee stood atop that most magnificent church.
He was no longer the disheveled survivor in the distress video, nor the hypocritical priest in the communication screen. He had shed his pristine white robes, revealing his bare torso. His robust physique was covered in spiraling patterns of holy light, seemingly echoing the crimson code above.
He seemed to sense the gaze from the sky.
He raised his head, a near-manic, triumphant smile on his face.
Then he raised his right hand.
A sharp dagger made of pure holy light appeared in his hand.
He aimed the blade of the dagger at his left wrist.
Without the slightest hesitation, he cut it off forcefully.