Chapter 639

Chapter 639.

The invading “Sun” slowly came down. It could not compare to the real Sun, yet it was still as big as a hill and radiated terrifying power.

It hovered just above the ground, almost fully “landed” on the surface. Flames burst from its edge and licked the earth. Under its light the sand and stone melted into flowing magma. The air twisted in the heat. Over the spreading rivers of lava, waves of hot air rolled. Big and small rocks, disturbed by unseen power, floated around this Sunspawn and became blazing satellites that circled it.

This huge fallen Sun Wheel used its countless cold eyes inside to stare at the mortal in front of it, a being that could almost be called a speck of dust. It repeated that short, simple order—

“Kneel.”

Its pressure was completely different from that of any ordinary supernatural being or Heretic. It was power that spread from the Elder Gods. This deformed fireball was the true spawn of the Black Sun. Its words alone were equal to ten thousand spells and secret rites.

Vanna felt as if her body was about to burn. Scorching fire seemed to flow through her. Even the breath she exhaled became part of the flames.

But she only lowered her head and glanced quietly at the small, dazzling sphere in her hand.

A moment later she tucked it carefully close against her body. Then, still silent, she turned and walked to the huge Gatekeeper’s cane that was buried deep in the dune. She reached out her left hand and slowly pulled it up with steady force, then lifted it onto her shoulder.

For a mortal, the giants’ Gatekeeper’s cane was far too huge. Even for Vanna, when she carried the Cane it did not look like she held a weapon. It looked more like she was carrying a great tree.

But she did not care. This heavy “weapon” was just right for her.

She turned around. In her right hand she gripped the greatsword of solid ice. Her left hand held the Cane resting on her shoulder. She calmly stared at the “Sun” that had fallen on the ground.

“You refused,” the Sunspawn hissed and trembled, letting out a string of harsh sounds. Its will stabbed straight into Vanna’s mind. “But you must hand over that star.”

The wind in the desert grew stronger and stronger. Gust after endless gust tore through the last gap between the two worlds, as if it meant to lift the whole desert into the air. In the distance, sand rose into the storm and turned into a towering yellow wall that slowly moved toward this place.

In the howling wind, Vanna raised her head and glanced at the other world, now hanging still above the sky. She asked calmly: “Are you the one interfering with this… ‘collision’?”

“You are trying to call on power from afar, but no one can help you,” the fallen Sun hissed again, its noise full of tremors. “I have cut off the link between the two worlds. Now you are trapped in this desert. No one can hear your voice. Not the bearer of the Flame Usurper. Not the Leviathan Queen. Resistance is useless… Hand it over, and I can let you go.”

Vanna did not answer this spawn of the Elder Gods. She only narrowed her eyes a little as the wind grew more violent.

It was true she could not reach the outside. She could not reach the captain, nor the Storm Goddess. Gentle waves still sounded at her ears, and the fire of spirit form still burned in her body where its mark remained. But she could no longer hear their “source.”

The force of the worlds’ collision had become a shield of mental guidance that blocked everything, turning this desert into a sealed prison. And the one driving all of this was clearly this… blasphemy before her.

The wind began to gather. The far?off yellow wall of sand, lifted by the storm, rolled forward bit by bit under the push of the wind. It was an astonishing storm. In its growing power, countless grains of sand surged and roared inside that wall like a gigantic wave.

Vanna drew a light breath. Ash?like matter drifted into the air with her breath.

She gazed at the Sunspawn on the distant ground. Storm and fire danced in her eyes.

She lowered the huge Gatekeeper’s cane from her shoulder. Then she started forward, her eyes calm, walking toward that profaned Sun. The Cane and the greatsword dragged across the ground and carved two long furrows, which for a moment looked like a line of symbols carved into the earth.

If a giant had been here, he might really have carved such a line—

After Doomsday, the Traveler charged the invading Sun.

But the giants were gone. The history of this world had already ended. The storm wiped away the long furrows behind Vanna, and the soaring sand closed behind her like a giant curtain.

Her steps grew faster, turning into a full charge.

Would the Sunspawn feel surprise? Perhaps in all its knowledge there had never been an option called “a mortal charges a spawn of the Elder Gods.” But could a creature like it feel anything like a human?

Vanna was very curious about that. Yet she had no way to know the answer. She only knew that proud “Sun” finally reacted.

Layer upon layer of heat waves crossed the Sun’s surface, forming a honeycomb?like coat of blazing light. Flames brewed and rose in the air. deadly sunlight burned her body and tried to kill her before she could reach it.

But the sandstorm rolling in from the far end of the desert was closing around her, forming a shield that could, for a time, block that sunlight.

Vanna ran forward with all her strength. As she ran she slowly raised the greatsword and the long staff in her hands. She breathed in the burning heat. With every breath, ash drifted into the air.

She felt as if she was cutting through waves.

A voice seemed to speak in her heart. She no longer knew whether it was her own voice, or the Storm Goddess’, or the captain’s. She only knew that this voice told her—

The sea of sand was also a sea.

She would raise a storm on this sea.

Because she was the Saint of the Storm.

In the roaring wind, the yellow wall of sand closed. Vanna’s figure vanished into the vast sandstorm, as if swallowed in an instant, or as if it had merged with the storm itself.

Between the two colliding lands, only a single desert storm remained, almost joining the two worlds. It rose a thousand meters high and roared forward with enough sound to shake the earth.

Inside the great storm, a pointed wedge rose high. After a one?second pause, it came crashing down like a falling sky toward the invading Sunspawn.

Today, she would try to put out a Sun.

An impact that seemed enough to tear the earth apart burst out in an instant.

The huge storm that spanned the desert shrank into a single wedge and struck the Sun head on. At the instant before impact, the Sun threw up a glorious corona. The corona exploded under the blow, and a wave of destructive matter burst out.

It was as if the whole desert caught fire in that blast. In a single instant, the terrible wave of flame flattened every nearby dune and boulder. The jagged rocks melted and ran like water, filling the furrows and pits in the ground.

In the great explosion of the “corona,” the storm was also torn apart and scattered. The roaring wind suddenly turned into chaotic air currents and rushed out in all directions between heaven and earth. The yellow sand that had formed walls and wedges was ripped into pieces in the heat. Part of it fell back to the ground. Part of it seemed to lose its weight and was flung into the gap between the two worlds, where it gathered around the upside?down Atlantis like clouds.

No one knew how long it took before the wild wind finally blew the sand away from the center of the impact.

A beam of light appeared first in the thinning dust.

The Sunspawn still existed. Its light had dimmed. The hastily raised “False Sun” corona had blocked the force of the storm during the impact, but it had also torn away part of its body. Now its tentacles, curled up inside the shell of fire, twisted and shook in pain. Something gold and red, like flowing flame and like blood, seeped from its burning shell and floated on the molten lake around it, burning as it flowed.

Countless inhuman eyes rolled between those spasming tentacles, searching for the enemy’s figure after the sand had cleared.

That figure stood at the edge of a fan?shaped impact crater not far away.

Vanna stood there quietly. The air around her twisted with heat. The last faint wind faded from the tip of her sword.

She lifted her head and glanced at the distant Sunspawn.

In the next second, her body blew apart in the wind. She turned into countless drifting ashes that floated down over the earth in the sunlight.

A small sphere of dazzling light dropped out of the air and landed on the still?hot ashes.

“…In the end, still a mortal, but worthy of respect.”

The Sunspawn let out a muffled tremor and slowly floated higher. It called on unseen power and reached out to take the “Ancient Star” that had fallen into the pile of ash.

The star did not move at all.

“…Hm?”

For the first time, this spawn of the Elder Gods felt a trace of confusion.

The next second, a sudden gust of wind swept across the sand and lifted the ashes scattered on the ground.

A ghostly green light slowly appeared in the ash, then in almost the blink of an eye burned into a fierce blaze. Some nameless, chaotic shadow swept over the ashes and, as if rebuilding a soul, shaped a faint, human?like form. Then all the ashes, pulled by that eerie green flame, floated into the air and quickly gathered, reshaping themselves and regaining color and weight. In only a few seconds, they formed Vanna’s body once more.

Even her broken armor was restored as the ghostly green flame passed over it, as if time itself had flowed backward.

Vanna bent down, casually picked up her sword and the Gatekeeper’s cane, then raised her head and looked at the false Sun that still burned fiercely.

She saw its twitching tentacles and the gold?red stuff spilling from its shell of fire.

A smile slowly appeared at the corner of her mouth.

“So you can bleed too.”

She started walking toward it.

Once more, wild wind swept across the world. Sand rose again in the storm.

“Then the next question—can you feel fear?”