AN: Okay. So many of you guys might have become confused with the last part of last chapter so let me get this straight….
……………….It was because of this chapter.
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Chapter 472: Balaam’s Prophecy
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Terroa Day Today…
It was just a few hours after the events in Terroa that killed numerous players and NPCs, and right now, Brad Goldini was reporting another breaking event that’s currently happening in Dragona.
[If you can remember, it hasn’t been two months ago that Siva had somehow turned into Mefisto and attacked this city! But look at it now. LOOK. AT. IT. NOW!!! It’s unbelievable! Hordes of NPCs are arriving —and all of them, and I mean ALL OF THEM are members of that now notorious group of villains, the Church of the Blood Dragon God!]
Warships that haven’t been seen before are now swarming over the airspace of Dragona.
The Players that’s been in there as part of their quests or missions were killed, sacrificed, or are all driven away by these NPCs… and from those videos and posts of the Players, the NPCs that drove them away from Dragona were very strong!
Brad Goldini was inside the game, flying on his rented Sky Wyvern in the skies not too far away from the Port City.
From the sea, black dots slowly began to gather in numbers and they were all heading towards in this direction while on the lands and on the sea itself, were red-clothed individuals —all members of the Church— flying or running over to come at the fastest time to join their fellow church mates already in the city.
Seen from his angle, the Pagodas that used to be the sight-seeing attractions of the city that gave it its nickname “City of Lights” have already been repaired but instead of their usual red and wood coloured lusters, they all had a dull metallic shine.
Dragona looked more like a fortress now than a tourist attraction.
In some parts outside the walls, fights were still happening. Flashes of spell lights and abilities still coloured the horizons, and the once isolated hills are now the site of a battlefield.
On the far horizon in the sea, warships belonging to allied Players and NPC organizations began to approach. Numbering almost 20, this was by far the largest gathering of warships ever recorded, and perhaps ever seen, here in the game.
Arial dogfights where thousands of Cyclones are dancing in the air to avoid their Vulcan Cannons, and many airborne Players and NPCs blotted the skies of the once peaceful Port City of Dragona.
Many black dots crash landed into the seas and if one was in the vicinity, they’d see that below that trouble waters were swarms of Sea Monsters in a feasting gallery at this rare banquet.
Brad was lost for words. Even his energy at this scoop vanished as he watched the catastrophe.
[Ladies and gentlemen, I, Brad Goldini, have yet to see a more… fear-inducing war scene in my entire life, even in movies, than this event…]
The 20 warships of the allied forces formed their formations; cannon shots fired and even from his location, Brad Goldini could still feel the rattling of the exploding artillery shells on the cylinders of their modern-day culverins of destruction.
Kilometers of distances were nothing when faced with the might of a warship’s cannons.
[Camera, focus in there! There! Oh my good lord and savour! Ladies and gentlemen… those large warships in the distance from the allied countries are from the kingdom coalitions of Jeremiah! This is a coalition of different cultures from the central continent, from the Kingdom of Jeremiah!]
In the central continents, Jeremiah is the largest country but it didn’t mean that it was the only one in there. In fact, there are over twenty countries in Zenturo and almost half of them are in the very northern part of the continent.
The northeastern region of Jeremiah belonged to Duke Latvian and five of the warships from that coalition bared his flag.
(AN: Duke Latvian’s last mention is in Volume 6 Chapter 153 where the Haven Dust Company offended him during the Call of Jeremiah event. Please do not worry. Just a Side Character, not too significant to the story… or is he? Bwehehe!)
An impressive exchange of volleys and laser light transpired in the Southern Draconic Seas.
Both sides were almost equal; equal in number of warships, Cyclone escorts, Personnel, and even equal number of Masters on board their vessels.
The cannon fires bounced off their shields and none of the two visually gained the advantage.
But there is a difference between their positions.
The Allied Forces were rushing towards the city while the defenders were on their behinds with their arses displayed for the poking.
What more, the Fleet Admiral of the Allied Force is definitely experienced as the positioning of his defensive battleships and hitters were placed on advantageous locations and their movements all in synched with a marvelous formation.
Slowly, the advantage became visible and there is an opening slowly showing on the enemies’ rear formation.
[I have reason to suspect that it is Duke Latvians that is personally leading this charge in Dragona right now. That formation is his famous Ramming Horn Formation that earned him the title of Duke from the Council of Elders in Dragona four years ago inside the game! He’s absolutely, positively, definitely going for a kill!]
Like a spear, a large Flagship bore a point while four others were above, below, and left and right.
The rest of the fifteen warships formed like the tentacle-side of a squid, fully expanded, rotating in two rings of alternating formations while firing their cannons relentlessly.
Finally, one warship at the rear exploded to many debris and fragments, falling into the sea where it is welcomed heartily by the huge Sea Monsters.
The 19 warships of The Church were already in their fastest speeds, entering the 30th kilometer distance away from Dragona.
Within the next few minutes, the skirmish went on without mercy.
Cyclones fell from the skies into smoking fiery debris and the Sea Monsters feasted without any miss, the surface of the ocean dancing as if there was a storm though it was clearly a fine weather.
It was a battle where there will be no survivors.
Brad Goldini had long ago lost his voice. There’s just nothing he could report to at this moment for there was no words that could put the sight of an entire battlefield more than portraying it in full.
For what felt like an eternity, the first warships of The Church entered the 20km zone of Dragona.
Countless camera drones were deployed in the entire vicinity and even in the city.
By now, Dragona had been occupied fully by no Player or normal NPC —becoming officially as a territory of the Church of the Blood Dragon God.
Red was everywhere in the city; from buildings to malls, to streets, to plaza. Even the coliseum and the Port itself, the hangar bays, and the City Lord Mansion —every part of Dragona fell under the governance of the Blood Dragon God Church.
Then, at the sky of the city, two figures flew up and hovered; one was a beautiful woman in white and emerald churchwoman robes; and the other being a skinny yet stout-looking young man with sickly pale but handsome features in causal dark green jeans and shirt.
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The woman looked like a calm and mature elder sister that’s easy to bully and take advantage of but because she was astoundingly beautiful and that she looked important, none such impression permeated on Brad’s heart. He could only see her as someone scary —a perfect representation of a female goddess of a Mafia Family.
But the man… he looked nothing like someone who belonged to a Church.
His jeans were faded and his shirt was plain. He didn’t carry any dignified presence in his bearing but he do looked like a harmless street guy who was dragged into the air from his deathbed.
If there was something that made Brad look at him differently, then it might be his smile.
He was smiling like a sadistic zealot. His smile is the exact representation of someone committing a mischief with unimaginable cruelty.
The two didn’t mind the cameras. They do not seem to be even caring about Brad who was the only man outside of the church members just a few hundreds of meters away from the walls of their newly occupied city.
All of the battles outside of Dragona had already finished without Brad ever noticing it.
[Who are they?]
He asked into his audio feed.
The world wanted the answer to that question as well but they could only watch on.
As the two hovered there, one warship after another entered the 20km zone from the Port City and the two stared at the far distance, into their warships’ pursuers who had already taken down three by far.
“Should you or should I?” asked the man.
Brad, and perhaps everyone in the world who’re witnessing this scene right now were surprised.
The voice of the young-looking man didn’t sound like someone who was really young, not to mention even healthy.
It sounded like a man who gargled sand speaking from a tube. It was an eerie voice to the skin, to say the least of the other unpleasant adjectives in any dictionary out there. To describe it, it was the voice of a sick man.
And perhaps it should be expected, when the priestly mature woman spoke, her voice sounded like that of a real goddess.
She even almost made Brad collapse and forget that she was actually an NPC.
“You go. I’m not interested.” She softly said. “I’m still mourning the loss of my pet and so am not in the mood to kill insignificant insects.”
The man shrugged and laughed, “Suit yourself.”
As he spoke, he took a step forward and as if in a blink traveled 100+ meters in a moment. Within a few seconds, he was already far away from the center of the city. Within an entire minute, he was already outside the city itself.
Brad’s cameras were deployed in every direction and it was so that he could cover every inch and happening in this event.
In fact, of all the media channels, only Brad was, by virtue of luck and circumstances, the only man of any media channels that successfully got out of the city as soon as he teleported inside it.
Dragona, by then, was already 70% occupied and all other media agents were killed, with some also sacrificed by the Acolytes of the church.
TDT’s ratings sky rocketed but Brad is unaware of it because he was locked in the moment, eyes gazing at the video feed of the man wearing the faded jeans and dark green shirt.
He went passed through the retreating warships and after a few minutes more, reached the edge of the 20km zone of Dragona where he stopped.
“I’m sorry fellas, but you all have to stop here or die if you proceed where you are.”
He spoke those little words with the Flagship of Duke Latvian still plenty of kilometers —30+ km in fact— away from the most edged warship of the Church’s fleet.
Alas, because he was insignificant, unknown, and tiny, Duke Latvian did not listen to his warning so gave the command to continue the chase. They were on an advantage. Why would they listen to a single person hovering in the air where they are in a warship with cannons and laser guns that can obliterate him in a volley?
Multiple cannon fires still rung after his warning and it made the young man sigh as he unleashed his Mana and formed a domain that encompassed an area of 5km.
The seas and the skies were bathed in an eerie dark green color. Like the green of grass during the night, it was a green you see in a broccoli, a green that causes skin infections, it was a green that haunts you in your dreams.
A 5km-large dark green domain devoured —no, it melted all the life within it.
Then, the green slowly but visibly turned into an even deeper colour. A domain in the shape of a nine-headed creature, a dragon with nine heads, an avatar of pure desolation, Pontifex Balaam, the Hydralisk of The Church, one of its two pillars of authority, has come for a greeting!
Tsssssshhhh………
Tsssshhh…...
Everything the deep green touched melted into a puddle of something else. The air, the clouds, the sea water, the Sea Monsters……everything it touched died and melted while the deep green coloured Mana Domain that had nine heads also began change its colour into a pale shed of red.
The Sea Monsters died with a mere touch and a large nine-headed body figure formed beyond the edge of the 20km zone of Dragona.
With the sound of water touching burning coal, all the cannon fires and laser turrets’ barrages were neutralized, melted, that not even an explosion of any of the artillery occurred.
Everyone was dumbfounded; struck in awe at the sight of a single man defending against an entire fleet of warships’ all-out attacks.
“Let this day mark the downfall of you plebeians’ pathetic civilization!”
Sssssshhhhiiiiiiiiii….
The man himself didn’t move but one of the nine heads of his Hydralisk Domain moved and made to grab a retreating Cyclone in midair.
Balaam jumped into its hull, and issuing, “Bring me to our visitors.”
The pilot didn’t say another word and just steered his Cyclone into the foray of warships with the Pontifex’s domain being his shield and sword.
With the speed of the Cyclone, going towards the Ramming Horn Formation with abandon like this was suicidal and yet he didn’t fear for he was with the messenger of their God, the Pontifex of the Church, protector and guardian, a pillar, an envoy of salvation, and one of the two strongest people in their Church, with him.
Duke Latvian continued to fire but the domain of the Hydralisk only closed in. From the endlessly shortening distance, one could even see that the Hydralisk Domain actually formed a tangible pair of eyes on each of the nine serpentine heads.
“Go back.” Balaam calmly ordered.
6km away from the fleet’s formation, Balaam gave the command and jumped off the Cyclone where he continued to run in midair, skidding off some unseen grounds, and skating his way towards Duke Latvian’s Flagship.
At the next instant, the Hydralisk Domain moved and clamped its teeth into its Shield Barrier, the sound of something shattering echoed as the sight of the shield collapsing was visible in the naked eye.
Shards of glass-like fragments spewed across the deck of the Flagship, as the Support Mages in-charge of the protection staggered back, with some even falling to their backs, either injured or not breathing.
But to those injured, their despair in their defeat only lasted in an instant as at the next moment, the serpentine heads of the Hydralisk Domain all hissed as the Mana suffocated them, melting their bodies into a pile of liquid puss with the hull of the ship also beginning to melt and vanish.
With the speed of their collision and Balaam still charging towards their fleet, the 5km Hydralisk Domain also devoured the space of the confident warships behind it.
Sounds of something shattering and tearing up was heard as Balaam continued to march onward, ignoring all other warships and trampling over the ones who ignored him and blocked his path.
It was an impeccable collision between a man and a fleet and the five warships of Duke Latvian all crumbled into piles of dust, unable to change their course or defend against him.
Screams of terror became muffled as even the air seemed to have been poisoned into silence in the sea around Balaam’s Hydralisk image.
The other warships all fled in terror before they even began to enter Balaam’s domain, but their horror was just starting, Balaam didn’t let them go as he gave a chase.
Brad was shaking at the sight of this destruction.
For goodness or whatever, the camera drones he deployed to watch over Balaam didn’t melt like those warships’ hulls. Not even a scarp of them were left in the air as both men and metal turned to dust, burned into nothingness, specks of sand that drifted in the air after Balaam’s havoc.
The minutes went by and the chase only ended when Balaam felt bored chasing an enemy that’s already so far away or have already ‘jumped’ thru the space and escaped him.
With the sea around him boiling from the bloody red poison mist his Domain looked like, there was a sense of desolation given by this faded jeans dude that stood there looking at the distance.
In just under ten minutes, Balaam had destroyed 10 Warships and the other ten warships escaped to where their Cyclone Escorts met the same fate as the first ten.
He made a sigh and then turned to the closest camera drone not too far away from him.
With a gesture, he appeared beside it and this made Brad Goldini, and his audience, surprised as well as shocked in their hearts.
He then said, “Citizens of the world… hear me... I am Balaam, Pontifex Supreme of the Blood Dragon God Church. I…. bear a message from our Almighty God to you all…”
At this instant, to all those watching this scene, whether it was in Terroa or in the real world, the silence permeated up to their bones and hearts.
Balaam stepped back to make his entire body visible for the camera. And when he was sure that his entire body could be seen, he pointed a finger to the sky.
“The Almighty Blood Dragon God will descend to our midst and there will be a Day of Judgement.”
Uproars bean to explode on the Terran Alliance Territories —Terrafirma— and for all those who worshipped the original Terran Gods, this was a clear act of provocation… a blasphemy!
But Balaam didn’t know of it and he wouldn’t also care about them. After all, that was his goal. He’s just making trouble.
“The one true God will descend!” he bellowed in an authoritative tone. “Those who believe shall be saved and those who do not shall be judged by the fires of retribution from their sins! There will be no escape to the sinners for the True God shall not spare those who do not believe in him!”
After he spoke, he lowered his hand and then stared straight at the camera drone with a grin so wide, his face looked like a face of a devil.
“And lastly, our Lord had decreed….” His smile became wider while he spread his arms, “…those who ally themselves with Siva will definitely die.”
Right after the last word was spoken, the screen went black and it was over.
A still bewildered Brad Goldini became the focus of the attention when the video was cut. In the horizons, a large canopy of green light erupted as Balaam went back towards the city.
[W-Well… ladies and gentlemen…… this is the latest news in Terroa Day Tod—!!]
Brad didn’t even finish his words as bright green lights erupted close by and all camera drones he had deployed were destroyed while he himself also received an attack from somewhere, directly leading to his complete obliteration.
However, one of the camera drones still caught a glance of the perpetrator of the attack.
It was a beautiful woman in greenish white robe.
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The Church finally bares its fangs!!
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Next Chapter: Contact!!!