Even with a large force of fresh reinforcements joining the battle, they could only barely offset the Angelic Legion's numerical advantage.
The real problem was that the angels possessed unrivaled regenerative ability. Even if their limbs were shattered, they could turn into light dust, gather toward the Gates of Heaven above, bathe in the milky-white Fountain of the Saints inside the First Sanctuary of the Divine Realm, and after a brief recovery, receive flesh once more, regain their bodies, and return to the battlefield to fight the Greek army all over again.
On top of that, while they were also creations of Planetary Fragments, the angels had more functions and a relatively complete System, making them stronger than Valkyries in individual combat.
They could also collect data, absorb spirit particles, and continue evolving during battle.
Because of that, even while being attacked from multiple sides, the Angelic Legion quickly recovered after a brief initial scramble and began steadily pulling the situation back in their favor.
During the short tug-of-war, casualties among the Greek army gradually worsened, and their resistance became increasingly strained.
As time dragged on, the white colossus, its shell broken and its regeneration interrupted, began to have the stellar core within it tremble and pulse. Its towering divine body started condensing once more.
Hum!
At the same time, Kukulkan, who had stalled for a moment, erupted with golden-red flames from his apertures. The fire clung to his body like viscous liquid, visibly warping the space around him.
"Get out of the way!"
Uriel, known as the Angel of Wrath, broke out of the encirclement with a furious roar. Arcs of light flickered in his hand, forming dazzling, tree-like branches that struck toward the space ahead.
"Not a chance!"
Just as the thunder spread, hundreds of spears engraved with divine runes tore through the air and collided with it. The instant they shattered, they actually diverted the lightning down toward the sea.
Uriel looked down in fury, his violet-blue eyes locking onto a deep-sea warship below, and onto the Guardians of the Hot Gates wearing crested helmets and carrying spears and shields.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Sparta!"
The Spartan rearguard protecting King Leonidas drew fresh javelins, struck their shields, shouted at the top of their lungs, and proudly threw out their chests.
Their ancestor was the great hero Heracles. Their dual-kingship tradition came from the divine twins Castor and Pollux. Pure blood of the great god Zeus flowed through their veins.
And in the skies above, they were the true masters of thunder!
Sensing the contempt and defiance in the eyes of those ants, Uriel flew into a rage. He raised the cross-sword in his hand high, calling down the lightning within the clouds.
"Its source is light, its might is thunder. Sin has overflowed. Let eternal divine punishment descend!"
"In the name of the great god Zeus, our souls and our resolve gather here!"
Leonidas lightly scraped his spear against his shield, his gaze resolute. Standing back-to-back with the Spartan rearguard, he raised his shield high and built a fortress of flesh and blood upon the sea.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Thousands of spears of thunder fell like a downpour of meteors. The light-shadows of over a hundred projected shields shattered one after another, and the rearguard behind them, who had gathered their will there, dissolved into spirit particles like scattered sand as those light-shadows collapsed.
"Rho Aias!"
"A microcosm enveloping the heavens!"
Seeing the metal of the deep-sea warship carrying the Spartan rearguard twist and break apart as it neared sinking, three divine horses pulled a chariot racing across the sea. Along with solemn roars, Great Ajax and Achilles raised a blue shield and a red shield before them, blocking the spears of thunder that continued to fall.
For a time, the two overlapping shields let out a piercing tremor beneath that vast divine might. The light patterns on their surfaces shattered layer by layer, while the deflected arcs of thunder shot into the sea, blasting up waves tens of meters high. The racing chariot was like a blade of grass amid the surging waves, ready to be swallowed at any moment.
"Unbreakable, unbending, unyielding. My spear can pierce all things! Shatter it, Indestructible Spear!"
Just as the two were being pinned down by the arcs of thunder, a javelin was hurled forward with all his strength. Though it was instantly disintegrated by the lightning, it still caused the thunderous assault to falter for a fraction of a moment.
A chance!
Achilles threw his shield upward without hesitation, letting the Divine Construct be destroyed by the thunder. At the same time, he whistled, stirred his divine power, and drove the chariot to leap from the sea like a comet, charging into the air.
"Xanthos! Balius! Pedasus! Go! Charge with your lives on the line! My life is like a shooting star! The immortal chariot of Storms and Waves!"
Achilles, great hero who brought Troy to ruin, my mighty nemesis. You should never be stopped by a mere curtain of lightning!
From one side of the Argo's deck, Hektor's gaze froze as he quietly watched that figure charging wildly through the thunder.
Clang!
A bronze spear pierced through the lightning and slammed into the hastily raised cross-sword. With its momentum undiminished, the chariot rammed the angel in midair and drove him straight down into the sea.
"This body is a burning stone, a comet made to slay Divine Spirits..."
Quetzalcoatl opened her golden serpent eyes. As her lips parted in chant, she kicked off from the back of the Quetzalcoatlus and shot into the sky.
"Wind, become the hammer of judgment. Shatter the spine and smash open the skull!"
Seeing Uriel blocked, Raphael, one of the four supreme Archangels before the Lord, hurriedly withdrew. He gathered wind pressure into a series of blue wind hammers and swung them toward the airborne Kukulkan.
The Feathered Serpent God's momentum stalled, and her rising body began to fall.
"Up you go!"
At that moment, a figure like a flash of lightning charged in, raising both clawed hands and placing them precisely beneath Kukulkan's feet. Then, with a powerful thrust of both arms, she added new force to the Feathered Serpent God whose old momentum had run out.
Immediately afterward, the Jaguar Warrior in her plush suit bounced through the air. The claw-shaped spear in her hands spun like a wheel, clanging again and again as it blocked the wind hammers.
"Jaguars are the fastest animals, meow! No sneaky little scheme is getting past me! Jaguar Eye! Jaguar Fist! Jaguar Kick! Get down, meow!"
The Jaguar Warrior's storm-like assault left the caught-off-guard Raphael in a sorry state. The smug grin on her face was so thoroughly mocking that the Angel of Wind had no attention to spare for anything else.
"I am light! I am flame! Burn, fighting spirit!"
Kukulkan broke through the atmosphere and rose to the highest point. Like a burning sun, she plunged toward the chaotic sea at lightning speed.
"Laaaa!"
But as if sensing the danger, the Star of the Magic Broom embedded within the white giant's body released a shrill tremor. A blazing white stellar ring stretched across the upper dome like a barrier.
Boom!
The roar was like a large-scale nuclear explosion, instantly making the entire Sea of Chaos boil violently. Every undersea volcano erupted at once, and intense tremors spread across the major Ages of Gods. The white colossus was driven deep into the seabed.
Even so, the band of light covering the top like a shield only cracked slightly, forcibly withstanding the blow.
Not enough! Nowhere near enough!
The exhausted Feathered Serpent God ground her silver teeth together, but still could not advance another inch. Under the clash of divine might, golden-red blood spilled from the corners of her eyes. The capillaries throughout her body burst, spraying clouds of blood mist like a star on the verge of going out.
"Amaterasu Omikami, burn all directions. Curse Layer: Vast Sunlight!"
At that moment, Tamamo-no-Mae rose into the air. Nine tails of light turned from illusion to reality, and the eight-sided sacred mirror fired scorching sunlight down onto the Feathered Serpent God.
"My father Surya, bear witness. O Sun Wheel, submit to death!"
Not only that, Karna, who also possessed the power of a Sun God, raised his Spear Wheel without hesitation and poured all his divine might into Kukulkan's body.
Samael, Ana, Skadi, Scáthach, Holo, and the rest of her teammates also poured their divine power into the body of this South American deity one after another.
For a time, blazing golden flames ignited across Kukulkan once more. She raised her right leg high, then brought it crashing down like a meteor striking Earth, moving too fast for the eye to follow.
"God beyond the heavens, behold the Divinity of the Demon Realm that also came from beyond the world. I am the great impact that extinguished countless lives in South America. This body can burn Divine Spirits to ash. Ultimate Impact Flying Kick!"
Amid that hysterical roar, the comet of light and flame shattered the blazing white band of light and fell toward the sea with unstoppable force.
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