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The Greatest Sin [Progression Fantasy]
Chapter 190 – Worldbreaking

Chapter 190 – Worldbreaking

It is easy to declare war. Anyone can do it. What is difficult is maintaining legitimacy in the face of war. Many Divines view humans in the way one views a sword or a shovel. That sort of mentality beckons no love nor call to action, it can only justified when backed by the overwhelming strength of a Divine elite even among Divines. Divines like that do not even need to declare war, they can remorselessly demand.

I do not possess that strength, nor have I ever claimed to possess that strength, from the very beginning I was always basked by the shadow of Allasaria. For most Divines, a cause is required. A beacon to rally against. War can only be declared when something is on the line, the greater the danger, the more authority I am given.

Only a Divine has the power to drive one to seek out refuge in Divinity’s bosom.

- Excerpt from ‘The Philosophy of War’, written by Goddess Kassandora, of War.

Anassa gazed at the howling winds around them, at the clouds that brimmed with burning flames, at the molten balls of magma falling from the sky, at the cracks in the ground, at the ravines that shook the surface of Arda, at the flaming liquid metal and rock that surged upwards.

Anassa gazed upon Worldbreaking.

Elassa saw Anassa looking up at her. As had been done all those centuries ago, so was being done now. The self-proclaimed gatekeeper of Divinity, the sole false-claimant of Godhood. Deluded into majesty, wielding a bastardized art that Elassa had once tried to master. But she could not, her mind was far too stable, she was far too sane to ever try and handle the delusions of sorcery.

Anassa had come around just as the age of Worldbreaking was coming to a close. She had seen mountains rise, she had seen the rivers of magma, she saw the great storms, but she always assumed that she had missed the zenith of that era, when continents where cracked and oceans obliterated. But now, she stared up at Elassa, she looked at the woman who had once taught her magic, and she grew… this feeling…

It was almost disappointing.

Was that it?

Fire and flames, rain and ruin, storms and slaughter. It all had a crucial weakness, a flaw that was fatal, that Elassa could never comprehend. It was all truthful reality, and truthful reality was only a matter of perspective. A handful of water was a flood of ages for an ant, and yet it was merely a handful of water. Two truths, one reality.

Anassa appeared by Anassa, as if she was mirrored. And another, a fourth. Anassa spread out her arms and her form as her various incarnations followed. They made a barrier of bodies between Central Requisitions, and the meteors above them.

Kassandora rallied her men. She stabbed her blade into Iniri’s cracked wooden platform, she raised the pace of the Orchestra. Fear? Terror? Awe? Who did Elassa think she was? “LEGION!” She shouted. That was a good start. It was the sort of word that pulled upon the glories her men loved and respected and trembled at the thought of being acknowledged as. “THE SKY BURNS! THE GROUND CRACKS!” It would be fruitless to try and pretend something wasn’t happening, when everyone could see it was. “YET YOU ARE HERE! LOOKING UPON WORLDBREAKING!”

She quickly found the route, and the words started to flow louder than the swirling hurricane they stood in the centre in. “WILL YOU TREMBLE IN FEAR? WILL YOU LIE DOWN AND ACCEPT IT? WILL THE MIGHT OF DIVINITY DESTROY YOU? IS YOUR TERROR SO GREAT YOU FEAR FOR YOUR MORTAL LIFE? WHEN YOU MEET YOU ANCESTORS, WHAT WILL YOU TELL THEM? WILL THEY NOD AND UNDERSTAND? WE ARE DEAD ALREADY! WE HAVE LOST AND YET WE STRUGGLE! STRUGGLE AGAINST RUIN! STRUGGLE AGAINST DEATH! STRUGGLE AGAINST WORLDBREAKING! STRUGGLE AGAINST THE LOVE OF MORTALITY THAT BINDS YOU HERE! STRUGGLE UNTIL YOUR HEART STOPS AND TELL YOUR ANCESTORS THAT WHEN THE WORLD SHATTERED, YOU STRUGGLED. YOU STRUGGLED AGAINST IT ALL. YOU STRUGGLED UNTIL YOUR BODIES GAVE UP. YOU WILL STRUGGLE, BECAUSE THAT IS ALL YOU CAN DO!” She found the crescendo, and men started to move.

“DOES YOUR IMMORTAL SOUL LOVE THIS WORLD SO MUCH YOU WILL NOT CAST YOURSELF UPON THE STRUGGLE AGAINST WORLD’S END?”

Fer got up as she looked at those stones. She felt Kavaa’s blood rage, it set fire within her stomach as her fur grew thick, she gave her arms a shake and looked around at the soldiers around her. Men were aiming upwards, trying to find a clear shot at Elassa without misfiring at any of the Anassas that stood there, arms spread out, sorceries brimming from their fingertips. Kavaa’s blood was good, but it was not strong enough, her eyes found Kassandora. That was the blood she needed.

Elassa waved her staff again, the white crystal on the staves’ tip flared with light once again, and a blue light came from it. Pure concentrated mana, the purest, rawest form of energy that existed on Arda, the very lifeforce of the world itself. With the surface cracked and exposed, it surged onwards. This location would become a node for future leylines.

Anassa spread her arms out. Crimson sorceries intertwined in between her and her, it conjoined into a spiderweb. Her power started to rise, slowly at first and then faster and faster. It grew and grew, she could not place a number on it, nor a comparison, anything of the sort would reduce it, would drag it back down into the realm of reality.

Her crimson dress whipped about in the wind. What was wind before a grand fortress. Too small. What was wind before a mountain? Nay, what was wind before the world? Anassa was of this world, she was on the level of Divines. She was a foundation in what made up Arda. Anassa was of the world, and the world was of Anassa. What was wind before the world? A mere tickle. It existed, but it was a mere breeze when viewed from that perspective. A red blast of light came from her, and her dress became calm in the wake of Elassa’s apocalypse.

She felt the heat of the molten meteors of magma descending from above. What was heat before a stone? Not enough. What was heat before a volcano? Nay. That was mere reality, words wrapped around themselves, words were a beautiful art. They flipped perspectives and concepts upside down as long as the user was skilled enough. What was heat before fire itself? Heat could not burn a fire, and who would not call Anassa as the spark of sorcery? And was a spark not just a fire? Anassa set alight with bright crimson flames of sorcery, the other Anassa’s set alight at the same time. And a rush of hot air pushed the burning clouds away.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Anassa felt the heat of Elassa’s mana and Anassa smiled. All the Anassa’s smiled. What was mana? Elassa herself described it as the life-force of this planet. Could life kill life? Anassa blinked, her smile dropped. She was never wrong, but this had been the wrong path to delude oneself down. Cancer was uncontrolled life, and cancer could kill life…

And Anassa flipped the perspective. If life could kill life, then she was the former. The mana touched her and the burning stopped. This time, she was the endless cancer. The stealer of life’s energy to selfishly fuel itself. It didn’t need to make sense, Anassa simply had to believe it.

And believe it, Anassa did, with her whole heart.

Kassandora looked through the eyes of her troops. The artillery was foolish to use, it wouldn’t even touch Elassa, and there was far too great of a chance for the falling shrapnel to injure Anassa or Fer. Or her own troops. That last one seemed like the most realistic chance of happening frankly. Through the sniper scopes, not at Elassa, at the blindingly bright crystal at the end of her staff.

And Kassandora felt Fer’s hand wrap around her wrist. She sighed, if her sister needed blood, it was only up to her that she’d provide it.

Anassa raised her hands and the storm around her tinted red. She snapped her fingers, and crimson tendrils burst from her fingertips, they smashed against those molten balls, tearing through them and extinguishing the fires within. The tendrils spread out, faint drawings cast onto the fabric of reality, barely even with any colour as Anassa stretched her consciousness to its limits. A hundred pairs of eyes, a thousand different brushes all painting simultaneously, each one wrapping around one of those burning meteors and throwing it away.

A storm of lead shot past her in a volley as Kassandora’s troops re-organized themselves. Elassa merely waved her hand, the diamond at the end of her staff flashed as white as snow, and the bullets stopped in mid-air. They hit nothing, they did not bounce, they merely stopped, and then helplessly dropped downwards. And another volley, to the same effect. A third. A forth.

Anassa rose higher into the air as another Anassa raised her hands and fired a red beam into those blazing clouds. They collapsed upon themselves, as if an artist had taken an eraser and simply removed them from existence. She rose and rose and rose, until she was face to face with Elassa. “It is over. Three against one.” Anassa said slowly.

Elassa merely smiled. She waved her staff, a blast of blue light shot at Anassa. That sort of power would be foolish to try and stop, there was only so much delusion a single mind could take while still proclaiming some semblance of coherence. Anassa took a step to the side and appeared on the other side of Elassa. “Elassa!” Anassa hissed.

Fer licks her lips to catch the last drops of Kassandora’s blood. There it was, a power most Divines could not replicate, a heart-warming meal that raged within her, her muscles reshaped themselves to the tune of war as Kassandora’s Orchestra started its own beat in Fer’s mind. “Thank you.” Fer said.

Kassandora merely swung her arm, her hand torn where Fer’s jaws had ripped it apart. “Anytime sister.” She looked up at the sky, where Elassa and Anassa were face to face. And Kassandora swung Joyeuse with that broken hand, as if the pain and wound was a mere sensation she could choose to ignore. “Now go.”

“You will not defeat me.” Elassa shouted as she spun around in the air, her staff trailing with a blaze of blue flames. She spun, her blue beam of mana through the crowds. Anassa took another step again. She… she did not want to kill Elassa. It was one thing to slay mortals and lesser Gods. But Elassa was one of a kind. The world would be less without her.

“You are facing Kassandora. You have already been defeated!” Anassa shouted back and spread her arms out. A flurry of sorcery erupted from around. Elassa flicked her staff, her other hand moving in unison, and a shield of impenetrable pure mana absorbed the attack. “WE’VE WON ALREADY!”

“And yet I am here.” Elassa shouted back as fire burst around. The trees of Central Requisitions burst out in flame. Iniri rose into the air, carried by vines, eyes closed, as she the fortress began to beat its own flames down.

“And?” Anassa asked. “Here? There? Everywhere? So am I!” Several of the Anassas below disappeared, and more appeared around Elassa. They launched another attack, thin slices of sorcery, pin pricks aimed for Elassa’s arms and legs.

“Delusional!” Elassa shouted, a blast of magic wiped the sorceries away. “DELUSIONAL ANASSA! You’ve deluded yourself into Godhood! You should have never been made! I MADE YOU! I WILL UNMAKE YOU!” Anassa shook her head as she took a step and once again re-appeared behind Anassa, close this time.

“How I was made does not matter. I did it. Reality is many things, but reality acknowledges I am Divine.” Anassa whispered and took a step back to avoid the blade of ice that fell onto her position.

“Do not toy with me!” Elassa screamed, flames burst from her, snakes of fire with maws of ices that spiralled through the air and chased Anassa down. One Anassa disappeared, another took a step, another yet snapped her fingers and a blade of crimson light cut the magic chasing down, as if it was a real animal.

“The world’s greatest strategist is on my side. It is simply a matter of confidence.” Anassa said as she rose higher. “You cannot even hope to put a dent in that confidence! I have won.” Anassa rose into the air. “Because.” She snapped her fingers. “I know I have won.” And a beam of sorcery descended from the heavens above.

Elassa’s burning blue eyes flicked upwards, she moved her staff, a barrier formed. And magic met sorcery, the two energies tinting each other with their colours, until a purple sun shone above what remained of Central Requisitions.

Anassa took a step, but Fer was faster. She shot from the ground like a bolt of lightning, with a speed unmatchable. Powered on by Kassandora’s blood, she burst through Elassa’s barrier as Anassa ceased her magic. A clawed fist hit Elassa in the chest and the Goddess’ eyes bulged. The flames went out, to be replaced by her natural sapphires. She coughed and bent over heaving for breath.

And Elassa looked down at her hands. Two pale hands. Two empty hands. Anassa caught Fer and swung her back to the ground as Elassa’s magic weakened. She looked around frantically, and she saw the Goddess of Beast rolled into a ball, flying downwards, her tail wrapped around Elassa’s white-wood staff. The diamond on its end that had been a lantern in worldbreaking now was nothing more than a precious and large gemstone.

Fer rolled onto the ground and Elassa reached down. She channelled what she could, with herself as a catalyst. A beam of blue energy shot from her hands, strong enough to fell even Iniri’s great oaks. A barrier of red stopped it as Elassa started to lose height. She dropped and dropped, her hands trying to find magic, her mind trying to calm itself. That was the greatest staff ever made, grown for her, wielded by none but her.

And as her concentration dropped, Worldbreaking began to slow. The hurricane dropped its dusts, the winds slowed down, the flaming clouds burned out. Elassa did not care, she saw Fer drop, roll and get back up. She saw the woman grab her staff with both hands. She saw her lift her knee.

And all Elassa could do was cry out. “NO!”

And Fer snapped the staff over her knee.

And whilst Worldbreaking had only slowed, it now shattered. Elassa lost her focus, she tumbled downwards onto the ground, saved only by a strand of red that chucked her to the same platform Fer stood on. The Goddess of Beasthood weighed both pieces of her staff, her arms popped with veins, she grit her teeth, and both hands close, splitting the staff further into four. She dropped them all and wiped her hands together to get rid of the flecks of white sawdust. And golden eyes settled on Elassa as the Goddess got to her knees. And Beasthood stepped forwards, nails twisting into claws as she found her prey.

The Goddess of Magic shook, cried, blood leaked from her mouth, and she fell over, her head bouncing against the cold oak. The Goddess of Magic only let out a pained moan, her arm outstretched to the white dust around Fer. A wind blew it away and tears formed in Elassa’s eyes. But as of Magic lay there, Of Sorcery stepped between Fer and Elassa. Cold scarlet eyes met hot golden ones, and Anassa spoke. “You will not kill her. I do not allow it.”