Chapter 659: Candlelight and Shadow (Sun and Moon)
Shoo—BOOM!
A brilliant column of white light plummeted from the heavens, smashing dead into the fractured grid of Manhattan, New York. The resulting shockwave rippled outward in clean, white concentric rings.
The structural nature of this shockwave layout completely defied a standard kinetic displacement pattern; omitting the immediate perimeter where concrete rubble was shot into the air, the expanding ripples cede absolutely zero structural damage to the surrounding high-rises once they cleared the hundred-meter benchmark.
There was merely an intense, wave-like thermal air current continuously expanding toward the further parameters of the city.
"Barge out, Reincarnator parasites who dared to plunder the proprietary Sephiroth of our sovereign Dragon lineage~"
A heavy, cavernous voice boomed from the lips of the colossal giant leading the vanguard, his stature comfortably clearing the six-meter mark. As the superheated dust mantle receded, it exposed his ash-brown dragon scales and reptilian countenance.
Within his incandescent, golden vertical pupils, it looked as if streams of cosmic fire were continuously rotating. Merely anchoring his stance with absolute calmness, his frame naturally drifted mid-air, a severely distorted gravitational force field wrapping his boots to keep his biology completely isolated from the dirt.
Crack... Crack!
Shattered fissures rapidly and relentlessly webbed outward from the coordinates where the trio had anchored their mass. In the very next fraction of a second, accompanied by a deafening bang, the reinforced concrete pavement violently detonated, allowing the raw solar glare to plunge straight into the stygian subterranean world below.
The destination was a hollow, collapsed concourse that had historically functioned as a multi-tiered commercial parking garage—now completely stripped of assets.
Only a handful of silhouettes remained anchored within the deep shadows.
[CRITICAL WARNING! The vanguard elements of the Special Unit · The Primordial Dragon Court have officially finalized orbital entry onto the grid.]
The Space panel's diagnostic warning refreshed across their vision, fashionably late.
The Tree Herder's face was exceptionally pale, the dark green runic crucifix embedded across his brow flashing with erratic, pulsing luminescence.
"Damn it all to hell... didn't the system parameters explicitly dictate their arrival would map to the three-day benchmark..."
These monsters had actually executed their direct orbital insertion an entire full day ahead of the Space terminal's automated tracking countdown!
This marked the absolute first time across his long operational career that the Tree Herder had ever witnessed a Space Notification execute a total strategic deviation. Possessing an elite, highly accelerated processing speed, his intellect instantly locked onto the underlying reality: the individual variables anchoring this special collective were entirely, flawlessly beyond the scope of ordinary interlopers.
They were highly, statistically likely a classification of cosmic entity that an ordinary Reincarnator possessed zero baseline capacity to measure.
However, the stygian, runaway cursed energy aggressively bleeding from the shadows behind his back still caused the Tree Herder to furrow his brow, before methodically taking a step forward to cross into the solar glare.
Concurrently, Yun Wujiu—having been thoroughly, completely re-engineered into an absolute [Odinforce Divine Envoy]—stepped out from the opposing flank of the concourse. Amidst the flowing silver strands of his hair, an absolute thread of bright, imperial gold had completed a micro-activation. His hand tightly clamped around the shaft of an ancient ice spear that was continuously flaring with a blinding golden luster, streams of divine authority smoothly pouring from his cells with every stride.
"Identify your names and origins," the Tree Herder demanded.
In the very next fraction of a second, twin silhouettes smoothly forced their way out from the deep gloom behind his back to anchor their parameters.
One asset was exceptionally slender and tall, his loose silver hair flaring rigidly toward the ceiling down to the root, fully clad in a highly fashionable pair of dark shades. His arms hung loosely at his sides, the corners of his mouth hooked into a wide, playful grin that was completely flooded with an intense, unadulterated amusement.
Beside his frame stood an asset whose countenance was incomparably cold and detached, clad in a stygian, pitch-black trench coat. He threw his arms wide, the specialized biological mouths anchoring his obsidian palms aggressively chewing and grinding through raw matter to continuously huff out dense geysers of white, high-concentration Chakra mass.
These two assets were naturally Satoru Gojo and the Millennium Bug, both having completed their absolute, unyielding Resurrection under the authority of the [All the World's Evil].
"Identify our names?"
High above the breach, the colossal dragon-kin warrior repeated the words, before his features twisted as he let out a sharp, near-hysterical chuckle of pure contempt. The brilliant blue-white [Six Eyes] anchoring Gojo's visual processing cleanly and sharply captured a distorted gravitational wave violently expanding from the giant's frame.
At that exact microsecond, existing as the absolute weakest biological entity currently active on the grid, the Millennium Bug cede zero space to hesitation. He violently snapped his hands outward, launching a colossal, bio-engineered clay bird to soar toward the exterior parameters of the high-rise while simultaneously locking his fingers into a perfect Treasure Vase Hand Seal.
[Domain Expansion: Acoustic Slaughter of the Underworld]!
A stygian, runaway torrent of pure cursed energy violently exploded from all coordinates. The pitch-black barrier of his domain materialized in a split second, flawlessly encapsulating a hundred-meter perimeter of local space, aggressively sealing the three unidentified targets within its core.
"Regarding our identity... shouldn't that pathetic Space terminal of yours... have exhaustively detailed the logs to your squad before you barged into our sector?!"
The Millennium Bug's pupils violently contracted. Forcing his head around to evaluate the coordinates, a colossal, world-cleaving fist had already cleanly breached his field of vision. A terrifying, hyper-concentrated gravitational field had systematically and instantaneously wiped local space entirely clean of ambient oxygen, causing his respiratory pathways to execute an immediate, suffocating halt.
The force field struck his body surface a fraction of a second before the actual knuckle made contact. The very hand seal anchoring his focus was violently bent and contorted out of shape under the pressure, and in the next heartbeat, an unmatched, overriding physical strength began to systematically pulverize his defensive arrays, his skeletal framework emitting a deep, splintering screech.
Hum!
In the very next microsecond, a slender silhouette cleanly and flawlessly materialized directly adjacent to the Millennium Bug's flank. Satoru Gojo's eyes forced themselves wide open, his hands casually buried deep inside his pockets as he weaponized his long-range spatial transmission to buffer the coordinates, executing a front-on collision against an enemy who had demonstrated an impossible, reality-defying speed metric.
BOOM!
The distorted gravitational field violently slammed against the static infinity barrier anchored before Gojo's frame. In the next fraction of a second, the concussive friction forced the neutral application of his technique to manifest as a colossal, blinding sphere of pure white atmospheric distortion mid-air.
The exact operational perimeter of his Limitless was sharply and beautifully delineated right before his eyes.
Rumble!
Evaluating the manifestation, Gojo's mental baseline surged with an intense, rapturous excitement. He thoroughly, intensely lusted to grapple against the apex predators of the cosmos; only by systematically and unconditionally dismantling every single powerhouse across the dimensions could his ego safely lay claim to the absolute title of... The Strongest!
With a fluid motion of his left hand, Gojo ripped the dark shades he had salvaged from the commercial district off his face, lazily tossing the accessory back into his pocket, before aggressively thrusting both palms forward.
Attractive and repulsive forces simultaneously ignited within his palms—yet his clinical mind completely refrained from allocating the output to compile a standard Hollow Purple.
The dragon-kin warrior suddenly registered that while an absolute, crushing wave of pure Repulsion was violently hammering against his right flank, the spatial architecture anchoring his left flank had been instantaneously wiped into an absolute vacuum—systematically denying his supreme physical vessel the capacity to harvest a single micro-gram of leverage from the terrain. Accompanied by a deafening bang, the giant was violently shot through the air under the sheer kinetic recoil of his own momentum.
_Rumble, rumble, rumble!*
Enveloped in that blinding white gravitational vortex, the six-meter-tall giant violently shattered a succession of reinforced concrete support pillars, plowing straight through the foundational bedrock anchoring the subterranean structure. Like a high-velocity mechanical drill core, his mass punched an exceptionally deep, ragged cavity into the sub-surface strata.
Existing as a seasoned corporate mercenary who had spent a lifetime navigating high-risk operational grids, paired together with the residual combat memory of his historical Demi-Human bloodline, the Millennium Bug was exceptionally, professionally habituated to a high-intensity combat style that prioritized trading severe anatomical damage and literal lives to secure a tactical win.
At this precise nexus of the exchange, despite his system being entirely stripped of the Demi-Human framework, those primitive martial instincts remained perfectly engaged within his neural center.
The exact microsecond Gojo stepped in to anchor the line, the mercenary completely disregarded the agony tearing through his shattered upper torso, forcefully locking his fingers to execute a fresh Hand Seal. The pitch-black barrier of his domain expanded with immense velocity, aggressively and completely sealing the twin figures who had remained entirely still at the rear of the breach.
[Domain Expansion: Acoustic Slaughter of the Underworld]!
"Sink into a state of absolute, eternal Slumber!"
Deep within the domain's architecture, rows upon rows of ancient bronze chime bells violently vibrated in perfect unison. High-intensity acoustic shockwaves radiated outward in a non-discriminatory, wide-area saturation sweep.
The Tree Herder's cognitive functions violently staggered under the frequency, his frame beginning to roll toward the asphalt, yet the Odinforce Divine Envoy · Yun Wujiu remained rigidly, unshapeably upright. Taking a single, heavy stride forward, the ancient golden ice spear clutched within his hand ignited with a blinding, sky-tearing detonation of divine lightning.
In the next fraction of a second, he threw his entire body weight into a maximum-velocity projectile launch.
Shoo—BOOM!
The ice spear violently exploded upon release. The exact microsecond the blinding aura of the Odinforce executed a full-scale ignition across the coordinates, a devastating, space-tearing wave of imaginary mass plummeted down right on its heels.
[Hollow Technique: Purple]!
Satoru Gojo had already assumed a sharp snapping posture with his fingers, the boundary of his Simple Domain faintly pulsing around his boots. Having completed his absolute Resurrection under the Mud, his combat methodology had completely divorced itself from the unrefined, brute-force reliance on Domain Expansions he had demonstrated as a bound spirit.
At this exact microsecond of his evolution, whether evaluated through his raw cursed energy capacity or his unblemished physical metrics, his system comfortably eclipsed his historical peak parameters.
BOOM!
The intertwined crimson and blue radiance of the Purple acted identically to a literal conceptual eraser, cleanly gouging a path through the spatial architecture of the concourse to slice through all structural matter, plowing straight toward the sector where the Odinforce was currently detonating.
Sizzle!
In the very next fraction of a second, an absolute network of intertwined black and white light violently ignited across the air. Gojo's Six Eyes held a perfect, 360-degree field of vision; his diagnostics sharply and beautifully captured the twin figures. Their countenances perfectly mirrored a pair of pristine, genderless divine youths, and at this exact microsecond, both assets calmly raised a lone hand.
They had actually managed to freeze the trajectory of the Hollow Purple dead mid-air.
An exceptionally dense, high-priority aura was continuously pulsing across their skin. Streams of pure black and white light roiled between their silhouettes, rendering their coordinates an absolute, isolated pocket of reality that completely denied entry to the Hollow Purple.
Thud!
The entire bedrock of Manhattan violently depressed by several inches.
Gojo's eyelids lowered, calmly dissolving the hand signs governing the Purple. His sensors sharply tracked the dark, jagged cavity anchoring the sub-surface floor; the dragon-kin warrior had just driven an obsidian claw to systematically tear away the overlying planetary crust, allowing the raw solar glare to flood his frame once more.
His biology had sustained absolutely zero structural damage from the concussive collision. Quite the contrary: his physical stature had visibly expanded by an entire structural tier.
"Long'er. These assets fail to match the signature of the primary Target. Eliminate them from the logs."
High above, the black-clad and white-clad twins spoke in perfect synchronicity, their vocal cadences an identical, uninflected chime.
In the very next fraction of a second, Gojo registered the atmosphere directly adjacent to his ear violently imploding under a sharp kinetic displacement. The dragon-kin giant had crossed the physical distance out of thin air to materialize at his flank, a brutal fist hammering straight toward his torso as an ash-brown sheen of pure energy exploded from his knuckles.
BOOM!
In the next microsecond, Gojo registered an unmatched, overriding physical strength that completely and flawlessly bypassed the structural infinity constraints of his Limitless, driving its raw kinetic damage straight into his body surface, violently launching his frame through the air like a heavy artillery shell.
The Millennium Bug's heart plummeted deep into his chest, his internal psyche flooded with an intensely bitter, agonizing wave of pure resentment. He held a perfect, lucid comprehension that stripped of his Demi-Human immortality framework, his assets possessed absolutely zero baseline utility when pinned within a high-tier combat grid of this classification—yet he had still allowed his mind to buy into the farcical guarantees Mercenary Tao had cede.
Damn you... damn you all to hell!
In the next fraction of a second, a colossal mantle of white C4 Chakra clay completely encased his spiritual framework. He appeared to be biding his time to wait for a precise structural marker; the exact millisecond a crushing kinetic force field locked onto his coordinates, the Millennium Bug decisively triggered a total, maximum-scale self-detonation.
Rumble—BOOM!
An explosion that was already naturally endowed with a terrifying, apocalyptic tier of destructiveness was further amplified across its scaling metrics due to being compressed within the restricted parameters of the subterranean concourse. Blinding curtains of pure corporate fire violently swept across every single asset active on the grid.
Faced with the oncoming wall of fire, the giant known as [Long'er] merely executed a lazy wave of his left hand, the sheer concussive pressure of his wind-blade instantaneously slicing the ocean of flame cleanly down the center.
But a blazing beam of pure white cosmic luminescence had already torn through the smoke from the opposing blind spot, its displacement velocity completely out-scaling Long'er's analytical expectations.
The strike cleanly and flawlessly slammed straight into his chest plates, forcefully wrenching his massive frame clear of the subterranean concourse, driving his biology skyward into the upper atmosphere.
Catching the trajectory, the black-clad and white-clad twins methodically raised their palms, streams of black and white light roiling across their fingers as they prepared to warp space to capture Captain Marvel. Yet before their formula could complete its compilation, an ancient, dark green Spear of Lightning plummeted toward their coordinates like a bolt from the cosmic void.
Their tactical reaction speed was exceptionally elite; they instantly turned their frames to lock their combined focus onto anchoring the Spear of Lightning. Simultaneously, Yun Wujiu—operating with the flat, mechanical cadence of a processing automaton—compiled another golden ice spear, launching it to execute a high-velocity intercept.
In the very next fraction of a second, the Spear of Lightning and the ice spear violently detonated into one another, a catastrophic shockwave equivalent to a localized strategic nuclear ordinance violently flaring out from the Manhattan grid.
[You have initiated a direct offensive engagement against a Special Unit · The Primordial Dragon Court. Based on your Spiritual Focus, you have successfully extracted the following informational resources:]
[Your active Capability: Spear of Lightning has been systematically and completely achieved total immunity by the Targets: Candlelight (Sun) and Shadow (Moon).]
Suspended roughly three full kilometers away from the impact crater within the stratosphere, Kaito Shirogane evaluated the system text scrolling across his panel, the corners of his mouth splitting into a wide grin. He turned his head to casually wave his left hand, dismissing the tense, sweat-stained faces of Tony Stark and the surviving Avengers huddling near his line.
"Rest your minds, gentlemen. I shall execute these interlopers with immense velocity."
"After all... at this precise nexus of the chronology, I am explicitly operating as the absolute Savior of this city..."
[Current Worldline Collapse Index: 9%. Localized attributes have sustained a Minor Threshold Escalation.]
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