Chapter 140: Decision

The destructive means of this world, at their core, operate on the same principles.

Pressure. Temperature.

Pressure can physically tear and disintegrate matter, while temperature can alter its structure.

When these two forces combine in their most extreme forms—

That becomes the strongest spear!

The Emperor of Nayi believed that, no matter the attack, with the blessing of Sequence 9, even if not entirely unscathed, he would surely be able to withstand it.

This was absolute defense.

But he was wrong.

With his extraordinary perception and dynamic vision, he could clearly see the process of pressure and heat destroying him.

It started with his hand.

The moment the light burst forth, all flesh and skin there vanished without a trace, leaving only carbonized bone.

But in the blink of an eye, even those bones turned to dust.

Next was his arm.

The entire arm repeated the vaporization process that had happened to his hand.

Because the speed of thermal radiation surpassed the shockwave, before the shockwave completely obliterated the Nayi Emperor’s body, he could clearly witness himself transforming from flesh to skeleton.

And the Sequence 9 he trusted so much could not hold for even a microsecond.

It wasn’t even enough time for him to open a Teleportation Gate to escape.

His hyper-fast neural reflexes and dynamic vision gave him more than enough time to experience his own destruction.

Yet his body simply couldn’t react in time.

And so, he had ample time to regret…

He regretted it.

On the brink of death, facing such unbelievable destructive power, he finally began to feel regret.

But this light and heat no longer gave him the chance to kneel and beg for mercy.

When that conical shell detonated—

Everything was over.

The Nayi Emperor began to regret many things—if he could, he would never have sent his own daughter on that mission.

He should have drowned her the moment she was born.

And, from the very beginning, when the Raiders were still weak, he should have wiped out every last one of them.

When slaughtering, you must root out every weed, giving them no chance to grow.

Also, he should never have tried to take this bomb head-on.

With his power, he could surely have teleported far, far away.

Unfortunately.

These plans could only exist in his mind.

There would never be another chance to act on them.

At last, the thermal radiation reached his cheek.

He felt a pain that tore at his soul.

His face felt as if it was being peeled off alive by raging fire.

Eyeballs, nasal cartilage, all ripped away together.

After that, the area of evaporation reached his brain.

Consciousness began to blur.

And finally.

Darkness.

……

“Fireworks are best set off in the dark.”

Because then night turns into day, creating a special kind of contrast—a certain romance.

The romance of death.

In an instant, the entire Nayi Empire saw that blinding flash.

The light reflected off the atmosphere, illuminating every house in the Empire.

Those closest were vaporized in a heartbeat. Unlike the Nayi Emperor, they didn’t have powerful neural reflexes.

So they died without pain.

Those a bit farther from the capital were swept up by a shockwave filled with countless particles, and in an instant, they too became particles, becoming part of the shockwave.

They didn’t feel pain either.

At mid-range, people first saw a flash of white light, then pain shot through their eyes and their vision turned to black.

Then, they felt a scorching wind, the air around them reaching several hundred degrees.

Every breath they took seared their lungs.

They began to burn, cooked through from the inside out.

Thankfully, the process wasn’t too long.

Those at the very edge of the Empire, the Nayi Residents living farthest away, saw only the sky brighten.

Afterward, rain mixed with severed limbs and ashes began to fall.

For the next few years, they would live under such rain.

“I originally planned to load three antimatter bombs.”

Miss Nuo said.

No one responded.

Inside Peace, nobody cheered for this victory.

Because this was a total tragedy. For both civilizations, it was the ending they least wanted to face.

The Raiders were already dead. Now, less than one in a thousand survived.

And as for Nayi’s people, they had to bear the pain caused by their monarch’s decisions.

In war, there are no winners.

“I originally planned to load three antimatter bombs,” Miss Nuo repeated,

“Because if three antimatter bombs are sent into orbit tens of thousands of kilometers above the planet, spaced a hundred and twenty degrees apart, and detonated simultaneously—”

“The light radiation from the bombs would completely cover every corner of the planet.”

“It would be like having three suns plastered to your face, and the light would be enough to heat the entire atmosphere above a hundred degrees Celsius, lasting for a very long time.”

“That way, every living thing on the planet would be wiped out in a flash.”

Everyone stared silently at the screen in front of them.

After the “fallen sun” had passed, the entire Linguang Imperial Capital was nothing but a scarlet crater.

The even surface of the pit still glowed with magma, while everything else had been vaporized into dust and sent into the upper atmosphere by the shockwave.

After a few heavy rains, this place would become the largest lake on the Nerrifa Continent.

“But I’m not Divine Grace. I have no right to decide the fate of an entire race. I’m more afraid that, holding the Rod of God, I would play at being God myself.”

Miss Nuo lowered her head.

She gently wiped the corner of her eye.

When she looked up again, she saw a note handed to her by the young girl.

[Don’t feel guilty. They deserved it.]

If killing was needed, then kill.

Even if there were sacrifices.

If there was no other path, this was a necessary price to pay.

“All right, the trouble with the Nayi Empire is over, but our Raid Target hasn’t been completed yet.”

Everyone glanced at the objective in the top left of their vision.

[End Objective: End Nerrifa’s slaughter of Raiders.]

This time, the goal wasn’t to escape, or to survive.

It was to solve the problem at its root.

“Open the second antimatter bomb bay.”

“Target locked on Linguang Imperial Capital.”

“Wait—!”

Looking at the images returned from a scan of the Linguang Imperial Capital, Wu Xiaomi’s hand hovered just above the launch button.

The Limelight Theocracy was in chaos.

Perhaps the scenes from Polopolo were so shocking that the entire Limelight Theocracy was gripped by panic.

After bowing their backs for tens of thousands of years, at this moment, the people actually stood up.

They surrounded the Linguang Emperor.

“Who gave you the guts? You… you… Guards! Where are my guards?!”

The Linguang Emperor shouted in rage.

Shiweizhang was close at hand.

“Why aren’t you stopping them? Where’s your sword? Where’s your sword? As my guard, you don’t even carry your sword—what’s the meaning of this?!”

Facing the monarch’s accusation, the Chief Guard only shook his head.

He pointed to the emperor’s chest and said, “Your Majesty, the sword is there.”

Amidst the chaos, no one knew when a sword had stabbed into the emperor’s heart.

The Linguang Emperor froze.

Only now did he begin to feel pain, and dizziness.

“You… you traitors… regicides…”

His furious eyes filled with blood.

A stubborn vitality kept him standing.

But that vitality was quickly fading.

“Forgive me, Your Majesty, we want to survive.”

The Chief Guard said, then grabbed the emperor’s thick neck from behind and hoisted up his bulky body.

“We’ve killed the real culprit! Please let us go!”

He cried to the sky.

……

On Peace, everyone stared in complicated silence at the scene.

Should they accept such an absurd surrender?

At that moment, a jade-like hand reached from the side.

And pressed the launch button, hard.

It was Bai Xiaozhi.

She showed not the slightest hint of remorse.

“The Raiders once begged for mercy too, but they showed none.”

“The guilty are not just the emperor, but all the nobles of the imperial capital. Their sycophancy bred the emperor’s arrogance, they carried out the slaughter of Raiders, and took pride in their kill counts.”

“They think betraying at the last moment will wash away their sins?”

“In their dreams.”

The second antimatter bomb, launched.