Chapter 263: Chapter 258 – Holy Fire

It was early morning, and the sun had just peaked above a blanket of morning mist in the west, sleepily moving higher and higher in the morning sky. In the far north, a few hundred meters from the Wall of the World, the old and thick treeline of pines was destroyed, buried under a cataclysmic event just after dawn. Avalanche after avalanche rolled down in a chain reaction, raising the land's height by almost a hundred meters. Now the mountain ridges were all exposed, naked, showcasing their gray beauty, without anything covering them. Even worse, they started opening up as big, black holes became visible one after another, giving birth to thousands of strange, mechanical golems crawling out and descending onto the snowfields.

The first ones to emerge were small, just as tall as a human child would be, and their designs resembled that of crabs with multiple legs and pincers. What followed them were more humanoid-like machines, but instead of legs, they rolled on tracks, quickly traversing the slopes and the deep snow. The scenery of these metallic, otherworldly termites emerging from underground was not without spectators. The ents were already here when the chain of avalanches started to roll downwards, watching from afar.

"They deliberately choose to come out here," Ren said, dozens of kilometers away, spectating from the air, accompanied by Allfather's spiritual avatar. "None of my sentries on the other two sides noticed any movements. They focused all of their forces here. For now."

"They are aiming for their old capital city," Allfather answered calmly. "I can tell for sure. We are the first and foremost target; everything else comes after us."

"Maybe you should not have been so ruthless back then," Ren smirked a little.

"Definitely." Allfather agreed, "But we were newly awakened, filled with anger, rage and wrath. It blinded us, and I won't make excuses. Back then, we acted more like a human than ever after!" He sighed softly. "The moment some of them survived, this day was bound to come."

"True! You do know that the chance to make peace now is virtually impossible! Their hatred and desire for revenge festered for 2000 years! Now it is you or them!"

"I know. This is why all of them are going to die now."

When he finished, the whole forest trembled, and the treelines started to sway as thousands upon thousands of corpses marched out from the still misty and dark woods, walking forward like a fully trained army, maintaining perfect formations. They were holding old weapons and wearing torn or rusted armors of the old House of Ein, now being thralls to the ents, marching against their descendants' creations.

It only took a few minutes before the first wave of the undead and the mechanical golems met, and a chaotic fight broke out instantly. The crab-like machines acted in small groups, circling the thralls, aiming to immobilize them by their ankles, knocking them down if possible. After that, the ones with the tracks, wielding the same tubes once gifted to the tigers, rained down explosive barrage at their backlines. The number of golems and 'zombies' mostly matched each other; if one got destroyed, they were replenished simultaneously, emerging from the holes in the mountains or the forest's darkness.

"Looks like a stalemate." Ren crossed her arms, watching the battle.

"Not really." Allfather smiled when a sharp cry resonated from above. With their backs to the sun, a massive flock of eagles, hawks, falcons, and other birds of prey appeared, soaring up to the sky before turning downwards, folding their wings, and descending like a meteor. Some even passed the sound barrier while doing so. When they were close to the battlefield, they suddenly took a sharp turn upwards again, and with the flaps of their wings, blades of wind swept up not just the snow and the earth, but golems and undead alike, cutting them into dozens of pieces like a tornado filled with knives.

"Effective… but something is coming!" Ren watched with a serious look, her eyes focusing on the opened-up holes in the mountainside. A few moments later, a blinding, quick ball of fire shot out from inside the gray walls, followed by numerous others as trails of white smoke were left behind their wake. When they reached the birds that had just finished their dangerous descent, turning upwards once again, the balls exploded, tearing apart any demon caught in their way, raining burnt feathers and chunks of flesh onto the battlefield. "This is the golems I told you about!" Ren sighed, taking a quick glimpse at Allfather, who was surveying the happenings without a change in his avatar's expression.

The same type of golems appeared now that Ariana and the collection of demons defeated once before. They flew out from the holes, finding their places along the slopes, going into half-kneeling positions, or just hanging off of the sharp ridges as huge tubes on their backs flicked forward, resting on their shoulders. They took aim at the sky, raining a never-ending barrage at the bird demons, painting the sky with a bloody, nightmarish firework. Their numbers were constantly increasing as similar but differently outfitted golems appeared, taking aim not just at the demons but the horde of human thralls, bombarding them, leaving only devastation behind.

"If you don't have something against them, this battle is going to just get worse," Ren said, watching how one explosion killed dozens of zombies, not feeling sorry for the ents' loss at all. "Not to mention…." She smiled a little, "They are not using the fire I told you about. This must be only the forward forces of theirs and not the main army."

For the thralls to take down even one crab-like machine, they had to almost sacrifice four or five of their own, winning by overwhelming them with numbers. This was not sustainable for long, as no matter how many bodies they threw forward, the dwarfs matched them. Not to mention their advantage of sending machines to fight, weapons that only needed to be recollected later and rebuilt if necessary. For the ents, there was no way to replenish their thralls other than enslaving other demons or humans.

"Most of us never took another step forward since the battle, more than 2000 years ago!" Allfather sighed as the treeline was trembling and big, two-legged trees appeared, walking forward. Their roots formed humanoid legs, and their branches were laced together, functioning as hands.

One such maple tree waved its 'hand' in a swiping motion, and from under the snow, a long, thick root burst out, following the same motion, sweeping away dozens of golems and smashing them into pieces like nothing. As more and more trees walked out from the forest, starting to cast their own spells, summoning roots, filling the battlefield with massive obstructions, wiping out machines left and right, and crushing them with ease, it seemed the battle was going to take another turn. What irritated most ents was a simple fact; their seeds could not take root in machines, being entirely invulnerable to their attempt of mind controlling and invading the enemy's body. In the old times, they only had to shake their crowns, release their seeds, and quickly take control of whole armies, turning everyone into puppets. Now all of that was useless; their biggest weapon was nullified immediately. When more and more ents appeared on the battlefield, trampling through the golems, fewer and fewer appeared from the holes to replenish their numbers. In the end, what came out were more tall golems carrying the biggest cannons that had appeared yet.

"Here it comes…." Ren murmured when the first loud explosion shook the battlefield, and rain of green fire descended on the ents. It was already burning by the time it reached the ground, igniting mid-air. The first ent to make contact released an ear-piercing shriek as it immediately combusted into violently dancing flames, burning down to charcoal in seconds, soon followed by others of his brethren. When the second round of bombardment was ready, a column of light reached the sky from the south, coming from Allfather's real body. Above the burning field, a transparent, golden shield appeared; looking from high above, it was in the shape of a chestnut leaf. The second rain of deadly fire landing on it released a sizzling sound. Thick golden and green smoke rose towards the sky as it was burning the energy itself, trying to eat through it.

Seeing the giant spell, the golems, which were aiming at the flock of demonic birds, keeping them at bay, changed their aim, turning their cannons at the shield and starting to blast it with everything they got.

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"And here comes the main army," Ren said as she crossed her arms, feeling the newly appearing suits of armor hosting living people inside of them.

Their figures were as tall as an average human but much bulkier. Their heads sat almost in the middle of their torso, without a neck. Their legs on the bottom were as wide as an elephant's, but they moved as nimble as a cat. The moment they appeared, they were quickly sliding down from the slopes or using backpacks that blasted them forward, making them descend onto the battlefield with ground-shaking force, hammers, swords, and shields in hand. They were cutting through the ents' thorns and attacks with ease. Their armors were silver in color, adorned with the House of Ein's heraldry all over them, engraved onto their bodies with pure gold. Some even wore flags on their backs as they proudly flapped in the wind, while others had huge tanks strapped to them, bringing the fire onto the battlefield with a flamethrower. It was as if they expected something like this as the fully armored soldiers of the dwarfs simply rushed into Allfather's barrier, torching ents, golems, and undead alike. Their loud warcry overwhelmed everything, even their weapons' noise; "Cleanse the Unclean in Holy Fire!"

The ents tried to fight back, and when their roots hit the armored warriors, their attacks simply bounced off them for the first time since the battle started. A few soldiers stumbled or fell over, but they soon got back up while their comrades stomped onto the roots with their heavy legs, breaking them like twigs and torching the trees with green fire, laughing and enjoying their screams.

"Do you want me to step in?" Ren asked, looking at Allfather with one eye.

"..." He thought silently for a moment before nodding.

Ren just smiled, disappearing, teleporting straight above the field of carnage with two huge tanks floating behind her. After taking a deep breath, the sky above her was already gathering clouds together, turning the sunny morning into a gloomy, dark one, only lit by the green flames below her. Wild, thick lightning bolts, blue and purple mixing together, dominated the scenery right after she made a move. Heavy rain started to fall, and as Ren disintegrated the tanks, mixing their content into the clouds above her, the falling raindrops began to extinguish the fire, surprising the dwarfs. It was not supposed to happen; their Holy Fire should be ever-burning, leaving nothing behind but ashes!

"This will only last for fifteen minutes! I can refill it two times; make it count!" She transmitted her voice to Allfather while the ents rushed in again, accompanied by the sea of demonic birds, engaging in an all-out brawl on the battlefield against the army of the dwarfs.

Ren was about to fly further up when her body flinched, feeling a very unnatural and weird sensation. She managed to flash away in the form of a purple lightning bolt. Looking back where she stood before, the space was now occupied by a strange, giant golem wielding a golden scutum shield and a longsword. Its blade spewed black lightning constantly, giving out the strange feeling she had felt before. Looking closer, she realized it was not wielding the shield; his whole left arm was the shield itself. What was even stranger was that this golem teleported like a demigod and had its own aura, emitting the same feelings as a demigod would.

"Consider me impressed," Ren whistled, watching the floating enemy before her, letting the rain soak her clothes. "Did you kill a demigod for its core?" She looked it up and down but has yet to receive an answer. "No matter. I'll find out everything in time."

As she said it, her body trembled again, teleporting away as a second golem appeared, almost smashing her, wielding a two-handed war hammer and constantly buzzing with black lightning.

"Another one?" She furrowed her brows, and a weird, constantly teleporting battle took place in the air the next moment, but nobody had time to look up and admire it. When finally, the one with the sword scraped past Ren's chest, with the edge of its blade cutting the fabric of her clothes, the black lightning instantly jumped onto her body. Ren immediately sensed its effects, preventing her from teleporting and interfering with her connection to nature. Seeing the war hammer coming from her left, aiming at her head, her eyes shrank to the size of a pin. "Hmf!" She snorted, quickly forcing her own powers to erupt outwards, using her freshly formed core to emit a blast of energy from inside her body, forcefully reconnecting the flow of energy around her, successfully flashing away in the form of a lightning ball, dodging the attack.

"You should not have control over any energy!" echoed the deep, synthetic voice from the golem with the sword as Otto sitting inside, was shocked by what he had just witnessed. Their nullification energy, in the form of black lightning, should be foolproof.

"It was surprising, for sure!" Ren looked at the two, wearing a serious expression. "But I am not an amateur to fall for something like this! Did you really think you invented energy sealing?" She asked, cracking her fingers, spewing sparks between them. "Now I know why you managed to finish off two demigods… but don't think everybody is as easy of a target!"

Before Otto could react, he only saw his Dreadnought's warning signal, moving his shield automatically to the right as another body appeared, hitting it with a slow yet powerful punch, sending the machine down to the ground, kicking up giant blocks of rock and earth into the air. Luca was already teleporting backward while Otto reappeared beside him, his shield deformed, having an imprint of a fist in the middle of it. The newcomer was Kai, who was watching them calmly before stepping next to Ren, holding his hands behind his back, shielding his own body against the rain, unlike Ren.

"This reminds me of a weird realm I was once lost in for a few years." Kai sighed with nostalgia as he watched the two Dreadnoughts, "Machine worlds are troublesome."

"You are going to tell me all about them later!" Ren trembled, filled with excitement. "But please don't distract me now, ehehe~ Can you fight?" she asked, raining her emotions in quickly to focus on their enemy instead of wondering what else was outside in the Cosmos.

"Sure. I am almost 6 million years old, Ren. Taking control over a body and refining it to my liking is not the hard part." He flashed a smile.

"Good! This is going to be fun!" She exclaimed with pure excitement feeling like she was back in the old days when he ascended into Godhood and went around, challenging every other God he suddenly found out about. Back then, every corner had a new discovery behind it for him, filled with new techniques, new spells, and new ideas that were waiting to be discovered.

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