Hovering a hundred meters in the air, as if his feet were stepping on an invisible flat surface, Charlie grumbled at the sea of monsters below moving like a swarm of furious ants. Their numbers were countless, filling every crevice among the city ruins.
"Compared to the number of monsters on Floor 37 of the White Palace Coliseum, this is like comparing a rain puddle to the world's largest lake."
"What's worse, besides being immune to conventional weapons, these monsters also have Anti-Magic. Just this ability alone significantly reduces the effectiveness of my Spirit Art."
The information about the monsters' abilities was a warning from Gaia. So, Charlie didn't doubt it.
This experience taught Charlie how troublesome it was to save a Planar World that had reached its apocalyptic point. All this happened because the Abyssal Devourer succeeded in killing the protagonist and heroine who were supposed to be this world's pillars of hope.
"No matter what, I can't fail my Quests in the future. I can't let another world suffer the same end as this one."
*SWISH!* *SWISH!* *SWISH!*
*SWISH!* *SWISH!* *SWISH!*
*SWISH!* *SWISH!* *SWISH!*
thoughts were interrupted by sharp whistling sounds cutting through the air. From the ground, rock-muscled monsters hurled building chunks the size of houses. The debris shot like cannonballs, piercing the sky.
Building chunks, car remnants, and even concrete poles were thrown by the massive monsters on the ground. The objects streaked like bullets, filling the sky. Given the number of monsters below, the debris saturated the air, leaving no room to maneuver or evade.
"No gaps to maneuver. In that case, I don't need to dodge."
In that fraction of a second, his battle instincts took over. His clenched hands opened, palms facing forward.
*BZZZZTTTT!*
Mobilizing the magical essence in his body, he formed a transparent prismatic barrier enveloping him. The next second, countless building chunks slammed into the barrier.
*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*
*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*
*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*
Countless building chunks struck the prismatic barrier. Each impact produced ripples of light and deafening thunderous sounds. Dust and concrete shards flew, creating a dust cloud covering the area. But amid all the chaos, the energy barrier remained solid. Not a single shard penetrated it.
"Is the enemy trying to drain my stamina with attacks like this?"
Charlie's brows furrowed as he guessed the Abyssal Devourer's motive, commanding the monsters to hurl debris endlessly. Even more brutally, they also threw other monsters as projectiles, their sharp claws trying to pierce the barrier before falling back to the ground due to gravity.
Most monsters were still busy bombarding the hovering Charlie, but a small portion began noticing Aishia's location.
"I'm already Level 6 now; my brain should be strong enough to support the computational power if I use that technique, right?"
Charlie muttered to himself.
Under the relentless ground attacks, the prismatic energy barrier protecting him began showing cracks, but the cracks healed immediately after he infused magical essence. He wasn't afraid of endurance battles. The Infinite Essence skill allowed him unlimited magical power.
"No use overthinking."
"First, clear that annoying dark cloud so I can use the technique."
*BUZZ!*
His body suddenly emitted a bright white aura. It was his leaking magical essence from terrifying energy output. With his mind, he used Spirit Art to summon fierce winds, dispersing the dark clouds shrouding Tokyo's sky within a five-kilometer radius.
The scorching sun revealed itself.
Now, Tokyo once again witnessed a beautiful clear blue sky. Unfortunately, except for Kei, the sole survivor he was protecting from afar, no native residents remained to see the scenery they once took for granted before the apocalypse.
"Next step."
Charlie focused all his attention, staring at the blue sky he had just created while projecting an extremely complex image in his mind into his Spirit Art.
*SHUA!* *SHUA!* *SHUA!*
In the sky, exactly five hundred meters above the ground, convex lenses formed from pure water clumps appeared. Each lens was the size of a large tray, numbering five thousand, floating like a cluster of transparent jellyfish reflecting sunlight.
"Success!"
"Die! You disgusting monsters!"
Shouting, Charlie swung his right hand downward, giving the execution command.
"Megiddo (Fury of the Gods)!"
Simultaneously, the five thousand water convex lenses focused the scorching solar energy, transforming it into blinding white pencil-thin beams packed with immense heat, reaching several thousand degrees Celsius. Then, from each lens, the water droplets forming the attack core fell, raining down on the monster sea below at laser-like speeds.
*SWOOSH!* *SWOOSH!* *SWOOSH!*
*SWOOSH!* *SWOOSH!* *SWOOSH!*
*SWOOSH!* *SWOOSH!* *SWOOSH!*
"ROAAARRRRR!!!"
Ear-piercing roars of pain and rage echoed. Facing this unexpected attack, the monsters that had wreaked havoc on Earth and annihilated humanity were slaughtered with terrifying efficiency.
The ultra-concentrated heat beams easily pierced their heads and bodies, vaporizing organic and metallic matter in an instant. Their numbers plummeted drastically, thousands per second, killed by the 'rain' of deadly water droplets reflecting light.
"As expected, without an artificial intelligence like Rimuru's Raphael, it's a bit hard to use this technique relying solely on my own computational power."
Watching thousands of monsters die every second, Charlie nodded in satisfaction. His Level 6 brain's computational power was indeed sufficient to control five thousand firing points simultaneously.
Megiddo was essentially pure physics magic, a genius breakthrough by the strongest slime in the multiverse, Rimuru Tempest. It manifested physical attacks rather than direct magic-powered ones. That's why this attack was effective against magical defenses like the Anti-Magic possessed by these monsters.
By using Spirit Art to manipulate water droplets and form them into lenses, Charlie mimicked Rimuru's method: utilizing the giant magnifying glass principle to concentrate solar energy into a deadly weapon.
These heat beams were pure physics manipulation, making them impossible to block magically. The only weakness was time, and if the opponent understood how it worked and was fast enough to react, they could disrupt the lens concentration by scattering particles in the air—an intervention nearly impossible for these brute-force-reliant monsters.
The name "Megiddo" itself came from a place in Israel, Tel Megiddo, or Har Megiddo (Mount Megiddo). The site was prophesied in Christian scripture as the location of the final battle between good and evil forces. The term "Armageddon" synonymous with doomsday, also originated from the same location. A fitting name for this mass annihilation.
"With this, I fulfill the boss's order. Minimal environmental damage."
The boss Charlie meant was Gaia.
Since humanity in this world could no longer be saved, it didn't mean the Quest failed completely. As long as Charlie and the others eliminated the Abyssal Devourer, the source of all this calamity, it could be considered half-successful.
Gaia was the collective embodiment of countless Earth Wills across the multiverse. From Earth's perspective, human existence was just a brief episode.
With or without humans, it left no significant impact on geological timescales. In fact, human presence often only caused damage, depleting the planet's resources without regard for long-term consequences to the planet itself.
In short, in Gaia's eyes, humans were nothing more than destructive parasites. Earth would recover, healing its wounds, and return to its original environmental state in hundreds or thousands of years, once the contamination and damage caused by humans finally vanished.