Weapons of Mass Destruction
Chapter 592: Gwyn siblings

Half of the approaching group splits off and starts heading directly for us. Five of them stay behind to pelt us with ranged attacks while their companions maneuver to flank us from behind.

Just before their vanguards can close in, gray mana blossoms into existence on the roof where the ranged attackers have posted themselves. It seems that the twins used the [Disintegration] orb stored in the box, they follow up with attacks of their own. Min-Jae joins them too, effectively cutting off their sniping.

Led by Derick and Klara, the melee attackers finally get in close. While Group 4 continues exchanging messages, Blackie, now in a spider golem body made of glass, concrete, and metal, jumps off the roof and crashes into an unfortunate woman. As they fall, his eight legs tear her apart.

Pieces of him explode, and a few legs break, but the golem spider rolls upon falling onto the ground, crashing into another building, which it breaks, collecting more material to repair itself with. Then the huge monstrosity pierces its legs through the glass and into the skyscraper to start climbing up the side at an impressive speed.

Maya surrounds herself with mana, and a huge suit of armor grows around her. Its color darkens as she uses her [Boost], and a shield grows on one of the huge arms she uses to block attacks. Even a few arrows made of primordial lightning shot by Noelle.

Lily, with [Disintegration Mantle] floating around her, jumps off the roof to another one, and her huge bone axe smashes against one of the men attacking, who tries to block it with his shield. Gray mana swirls around the blade of the axe, and it pierces through easily, and then through the man as well.

A barrage of attacks strikes out at her, but her mantle swirls around her body defensively, disintegrating them all. Lily disappears with a movement reminiscent of Wraith Dance, and Klara dodges an attack from her. There are tears opening up on Lily's body from the impact of her own movement, but they’re already beginning to visibly heal. And she isn't even using her skill; that’s just her natural regeneration.

Lily disappears again and swings her axe, while Klara ducks under and, in an impressive display of agility, runs Lily through with her short spear as that red, fluid, smoke-like substance blazes around the tip. Lily, however, simply increases her speed and ignores the wound while continues to attack.

Vines pierce through the roof, trying to slow her down, but she just tears them apart with the strength of her body. Flames surround her, burning her, but her body restores itself almost instantly.

I notice Derick cursing as he changes direction and heads over to help Klara, but as he’s jumping from one roof to another, Noodle explodes from underneath, now as thick as a car and impressively long. Noodle bites at Derick, who twists mid air and avoids the bite, only to continue running across the scaly body. Green, purple, and blue flames, fragments of eternal fire, surround Noodle, and Derick's shins start to glow, as they become enveloped in that disruptive magic, only for the flames to ignore it entirely and burn the man regardless.

More Beyonders join in to assault Noodle, and even Derick's wife Noelle begins to form a huge arrow out of primordial lightning to shoot at him. But at the last moment, she finds herself forced to move, and an explosion of flames the same color as Noodle's proceeds to melt a huge part of the building around the place she’d been standing, causing it to begin tilting and falling.

Izzy stands there with flames blazing around her. She holds a bow made of the same flames, with a cloud of arrows floating around her. She grabs them from the air and begins firing them at the woman.

A constant barrage of attacks hits our building, but Sophie and Maya manage to redirect or destroy the most dangerous ones before they can land. Sophie even finds time to get into the mind of another Beyonder whose projectile made of light pierces the roof where Lily, Derick, and Klara are fighting. Sophie redirects the attack into their melee without any hesitation, and after the explosion, Derick and Klara step out, singed and facing the direction from which the greatest force of the attack came.

Lily steps out with her body wounded and burned, but she still regenerates incredibly quickly. Her hair shortens, and she disappears again, smashing her axe into the ground where her opponents once stood, and the entirety of the building's windows explode from the resulting shockwave.

Noodle coils around it, the flames surrounding him melting the falling glass into liquid. At times, he consumes the mana-based attacks that hit him while continuing to fight off those who come at him.

I hear a telepathic message exchanged between Min-Jae and Lily, and she nods. Her body cracks further as she slams into Klara. Even at the cost of having her neck pierced by the gladius, the redheaded woman holds. Lily grabs her, and blood bursts from her mouth as Derick dodges her mantle and hits her in the side, likely turning her insides into liquid.

Lily moves her arm in a way that shouldn't be possible. It twists, elongates, and gains more joints as it grabs Derick and holds him still. Her mantle flickers around, forcing her opponents to strain to avoid it.

Some attacks come out of nowhere, likely from a free Beyonder, and slash through the air, cutting off Lily's head. A third arm grows from her back, grabs the head, shoving it back onto her neck, giving it a moment to quickly reattach.

Then the air starts shaking, and everyone looks up. An entire building is floating there, with chunks of debris raining down. Then the building implodes, compressing into itself, forming a dense ball that starts falling down right at where Lily and the two others are.

Their attempts to free themselves escalate, as do Lily's attempts to kill them. But neither side is able to act quickly enough.

Klara's red liquid smoke surrounds all of them, and Derick shouts in pain as the redheaded woman goes all out in the attempt. But Lily holds on, and the huge ball crashes into them.

It doesn’t stop at the roof. The impact rips through the structure, obliterating the top floors in seconds. Concrete, steel, and glass are torn apart as it drives downward. Floor after floor gives way, collapsing under the pressure. The sound is deafening, a deep, grinding roar that rolls across the city.

The compressed sphere punches through the base of the building and crashes into the street below, carving a straight path through everything in its way. The road cracks and caves in. Cars flip. Pavement peels back. Water and steam burst from broken pipes, filling the air with steam and heat. The shockwave spreads out from the point of impact, shaking the nearby buildings.

A number of the Beyonders on the rooftops in the area look down, only to lift their heads and see Lily standing there with her axe and a gray mantle surrounding her. They curse immediately and begin to reposition, but the twins step out from behind a chimney and strike. They both choose to attack the same man, moving fast, stabbing him repeatedly before cutting off his head. Without pausing, they shift their focus to the next target.

When attacks reach them, they disappear, exchanging places with another set of their illusions, and the illusion of Lily they created disappears. Izzy's flames hit the buildings, and Maya herself jumps through without fear as they momentarily part in her wake.

Maya lands with a crash, her armor snapping into place as dark blue mana armor forms around her body. Her weapon shifts in her hand, cycling from glaive to dagger to greatsword in moments. Flames from Izzy swirl around her, only to be caught up and redirected by her movements.

A barrage of radiant spikes shoots toward her from the left. She raises her arm, and the armor thickens, absorbing the impact with a burst of heat. A chain of metal flies down from above, trying to bind her limbs, but she slices through mid-spin, her weapon stretching into a multi-hued spear.

The spear contains three different colors of mana: dark blue, blue, and wisps of purple circling inside. It cuts easily through another barrier. It extends to three times its length and stabs into a woman nearby.

It then shifts into a shield. A concentrated flame crashes against it, dark blue with a white core, roaring as it tears through the air but failing to pierce the tricolored shield.

Gravity shifts beneath her feet, mana pressing down to hold her in place. She surges forward instead, slamming her shield into the nearest attacker and crushing them into the opposing wall. Another steps in, black mist coiling around their blade. Maya pivots, deflecting the strike and driving her shield, turned sword, through his chest.

A whip of molten steel snaps at her neck. She ducks, parries, and counters in one motion. Her expression stays focused. Calm. The same one I’ve seen in the mirror. And the enemies, trying to surround him, start taking steps back.

Then she dies, her head separating from her body, as Tacita stands over it. That fragile-looking and thin figure with messy brown hair.

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Izzy's flames rage around to attack her, but the air itself seems to flicker around Tacita because of her field, she takes no damage. She moves again, and one of the twins' illusions disappears, and Min-Jae sends a barrage of attacks at the spot where she stood, only for her to reappear next to him.

He pulls himself high into the air with his own [Telekinesis] and then even higher as he attempts to escape her reach, but Tacita's hand turns into a blur, and a dagger lodges itself in his chest. Right after, Tacita ducks under Dennis's attack, only for him to disappear as he exchanges places with one of his illusions.

The ground shakes, and a huge suit of mana armor walks out from between the buildings. It is much taller than anything Maya can make, but its owner does not seem to be having the least bit of trouble with it. Each step damages the road, and its motions carve a trail of damage into the buildings it passes by.

Baek then looks in our direction and then toward Tacita. A sword made of metallic, shining blue mana grows in his hands, and the speed of his armor increases as he swings it at the roof that Tacita is currently standing on. Half of the building explodes as the blade cleaves it neatly in two and starts collapsing.

A huge fireball hits Baek, shot from a distance by some random hell difficulty attendee, and a flash of light and heat expands into the area, but when it is gone, the armor remains undamaged, and he moves again.

Kang Jiwon, the 12-year-old girl with a concentration skill, crash-lands on a different building, facing Tacita. As before, there’s no mana leaking into the air around her, but she moves calmly with incredible speed, destroying buildings as she jumps across their roofs, all the while barely avoiding Tacita's attacks, which almost seem to be toying with her.

Down on the ground, Min-Jae's projectile, the one that killed two kings, finally cracks, and Lily climbs out. She’s missing one of her arms, and her entire body is mangled and damaged. The third arm she formed from her back disappears in sacrifice, and she regenerates almost immediately. Lily retrieves her axe from the debris and jumps up onto the roof.

Tacita locates her and kicks Kang Jiwon away before shamelessly jumping onto Baek's huge suit of armor, running across the surface, and charging at Lily, who throws her axe with incredible force. Tacita dodges, and the axe lodges itself into Baek's armor and makes the huge suit stumble and crash into the building beneath it.

Then a single bone dagger forms in Lily’s hand, and she charges Tacita.

It’s complete chaos, with people fighting all over the place while I just sit there and do my thing. But I keep at it without a hint of shame. I can guess what Vic must have told them, even if they’re too embarrassed to tell me directly. It works out well for them, too, since I’m sure Victoria is watching from somewhere.

Group 4 goes all in, every single one of them, only falling when they encounter another monster like Tacita.

At some point, constant explosions shake the arena in the distance, and a familiar orange field of light begins to spread across a small part of the city. It looks like Savant and Jean are clashing, too, judging by the number of buildings crumbling to dust, the falling skyscrapers, and the surge of intense mana radiation.

Tacita disappears and heads in that direction, with Lily and the twins following close behind. Only Izzy, Sophie, and Noodle stay back, handling the people drawn in by the heat I’m generating.

By now, it’s getting hot enough to melt through Sophie’s web. The top of the skyscraper collapses into pools of lava, spilling down into the rooms below. I use kinetic energy to stay afloat, since there’s nothing left to stand on, and the heat around me continues to spread.

With each beat of my partially unsealed Ignition Heart, more of it spreads into the area. It feels like a ticking bomb, a countdown leading toward something yet unknown, and the barrier around the arena has already shrunk by more than half.

A constant combustion heals the burns inside my body, fueled by the heart, only to burn me once again, feeding into itself in a twisted loop. The first seal on the heart is temporarily but completely lifted, and I begin to open the second one.

Just a little.

Even that much puts the whole thing on a completely different level than the first. The difference can't be compared. The amount of thermal energy seeping out of me now is like nothing I’ve experienced before, piling onto the huge amount I’ve already gathered.

The massive, blazing, gold halo above me expands even further. Constructs made of specially modified, heat-resistant Ley Lines barely hold themselves together as I continue to reinforce them and replace the damaged sections. Only [Focus] allows my mind to endure the pain of the flames combusting beneath my skin.

Sophie and the others have already moved away, and even the few powerful attacks that do penetrate their defensive lines melt and vanish before they can reach me, consumed by the sheer heat.

More golden flames continue to flow into the spinning halo above. I fight to keep them there, spinning, burning, to stop them from expanding further as I strain to estimate just how much I’ll need.

I ease the second seal open just a little more, and for a moment, everything goes dark. Control nearly slips through my fingers, but I manage to hold it together, just barely.

Then my preparations are complete.

(Done.) I send.

(Well, good luck then), Sophie says and then follows up with, (I forfeit.)

(Good luck, Nat! I forfeit!) Izzy says as well.

(I will be watching! I forfeit!) Lily shouts in the middle of her fight and disappears after forfeiting.

Then Aaron and Noodle disappear as well.

Tacita reappears on the roof, looking at me with confusion. Savant is still locked in battle with Jean.

The city is being torn apart, piece by piece, as the attendees continue to fight. Entire buildings are sliced in half by wide arcs of mana, the upper sections crashing down on the streets below and flattening everything in their path. Others are vaporized outright, disintegrating into clouds of dust and fire as piercing beams punch through and keep going, carving deep swaths of destruction into the skyline.

Massive impacts shatter rooftops as fighters slam into each other in mid-air, sending shockwaves rippling outward to shatter the windows in buildings several blocks away. One skyscraper detonates from within, its core ruptured by a delayed explosion, sending burning debris raining down on the surrounding structures and igniting them instantly.

Chunks of pavement are ripped from the ground as shockwaves slam into the streets, tossing cars aside like toys. A swirling mass of elemental energy collides with a defensive barrier and obliterates an entire intersection, cratering the area and snapping support beams in the nearby towers.

High above, unstable magic detonates in waves, turning rooftops into craters. Flames race over the sides of buildings and burst from broken windows.

The arena is collapsing under the pressure. Too much force, too many skills, too many people fighting without restraint. In a short amount of time, the level of destruction is unreal. Everyone is still far from reaching the level of a Champion, yet the buildings are coming apart like they're made of paper.

I glance at Tacita, challenging her, and she looks like she’s actually considering it. The field around her rises, and the air begins to vibrate, almost glitching with the unstable pressure she radiates.

But in the end, she doesn’t act on the impulse and disappears again, rushing in the direction of Savant and Jean’s fight.

Something hits my chest and I grab it before it can fall: just a tiny piece of a finger bone, all that’s left after passing through the heat around me.

I smile. Damn it. Fine.

Then I release all the heat I’ve stored, and the spinning halo shatters with a sharp crack. Flames erupt in a golden tornado, tearing through the rooftops around me and surging outward in waves. Buildings in its path evaporate instantly, reduced to glowing dust before it can disperse.

The fire spreads fast, rushing between structures and down streets. Concrete melts, glass vaporizes, and mana barriers crack and fail. The flames slam into the orange light, held back for the merest of instants. Then they melt through, crashing against that orange light only to extinguish it. For a moment, they are blown back by a shockwave rippling out from Jean. And for a moment almost looks like he might endure. But the pressure keeps building, and after a couple of setbacks, they wash even over him. The golden fire rolls over the battlefield, devouring everything.

Entire blocks vanish. Skyscrapers fall, their frames glowing red before disintegrating, and the air becomes impossible to breathe as it grows thick with heat.

The few remaining presences try to resist but are overwhelmed, each one disappearing in violent bursts of force coming from high in the sky to join the flames. What’s left of the city collapses inward, twisted steel and stone breaking apart as the last of the fire passes through.

Amid that destruction, a figure takes shape high above the ruins.

Lissandra descends from the sky into the burning chaos, untouched by the heat, her silver hair drifting weightlessly around her face.

I toss the fingerbone to the ground, and in the blink of an eye, Victoria rises from it. She wears those same formal yet comfortable clothes, carrying the same steady, reliable presence.

My feet hit the burning rooftop, and she moves to stand beside me as we face Lissandra.

The crown over my head turns entirely black, and I pull Fracture from its scabbard, knowing the weapon will break this time. It immediately attacks my flesh, starting to disintegrate and devour it as the unstable forces within it fight to kill me. The effect is even stronger than before, with all the knowledge I’ve gained from the Logic core used to make it more deadly rather than improving stability.

Lissandra glances between me and Victoria, nodding. "I shall allow it."

A loud thud erupts from her, like an implosion, and her pressure diminishes incredibly as she limits herself.

"Come then, Gwyn siblings."