The Southern wastes covered five hundred thousand square kilometers. In the center was the Source mountain. North of it was Southern Capital. To the south was the ancient battlefield from the Great War. An enchantment hung over it all, five sturdy layers of energy which – in an ordinary war – would be impregnable.
But gods had many tricks up their sleeves.
Last Judgment. Chaos.
Humans had no way of knowing how the gods made a monster like Chaos, but it was clear how dangerous it was.
What did quantum mean? Simply put, it was its own subatomic reality. There was no small division. It was a microcosm of the whole universe, the fundamental building blocks of physics. Changes in this infinitesimally small reality moved in fits and starts, never moving but jumping from state to state. It was free from the constraints of distance. Fragments of the quantum realm vanished from one location and appeared in another, or existed in both, because a fundamental aspect of the quantum world was the concept of superposition.
Humans, demons, gods – all of them were three dimensional beings living in a four-dimensional world. Chaos, on the other hand, was a four dimensional lifeform. The reality it existed within was not the same that humans perceived. It was able to move at will on the spatial axis from one spot to another without any travel in between.
That was how Chaos could teleport, because that’s simply how Chaos moved.
Not even those with incredible spatial powers like Cloudhawk or the Demon King could free themselves from the three-dimensional realm. Spatial manipulation was the world Chaos came from. A part of its definition, as natural as breathing.
Such was the advantage over a higher-level lifeform over its lesser cousins. Chaos was indeed a higher lifeform, but one created by Sumeru as a weapon. It was an extension of the gods’ will, with nominal intelligence of its own. It required guidance by its makers and thus could not fight back against captivity.
Although the boundary around the southern wastes was a sturdy one, it was not capable of stopping teleportation. Why, then, hadn’t they sent the Chaos Beast in the first place? It would have swept through Southern Capital’s strongest like a plague.
It was because Cloudhawk had the power to stop it. But how?
The reason was simple. First, he possessed powerful spatial abilities which he could use to restrain Chaos. In addition, Cloudhawk was the only one Chaos wouldn’t dare destroy.
For this fight, he was the most crucial piece.
Cloudhawk ordered the army into a state of emergency. Meanwhile he was watching the gods and their movements. Through Oddball he was able to learn that the dark clouds from all over the globe were coalescing around Skycloud.
The first to combine entirely were, of course, the fragments of Chaos within Skycloud itself.
Spied from a bird’s-eye view, the particles of Chaos gathered. They swirled above the realm’s capital city like an ominous storm across an evening horizon; blackness without and a warm glow from within.
A strange sort of gravity was birthed by the cloud. The outer edge of it collapsed toward the center like a whirlpool. All the quantum fragments were being drawn inside.
Cloudhawk could clearly see a quantum singularity forming over the city. The diffuse clouds were contracting, forced into a small area. Highly condensed energy shattered stone and warped air and from within emerged an enormous egg.
Quickly its shell began to crack.
Thick, black tentacles slithered from the fissures. Cloudhawk was witnessing the birth of Chaos.
One day. Two days at the most. By then the process would be complete and Chaos would be the most powerful creature throughout the southern wastes.
“Quickly!”
“Get ready!”
“The enemy will be here soon!”
“No matter what you see you have to fight! Fight as hard as you can!”
Rows of defensive towers stood tall along Greenland’s borders. Spirals of energy swirled around each one, supplied directly from the Source. Their supply was endless, and from these towers a barrage of attacks could be launched on any enemy within range. Atop each was one of Greenland’s awakened.
Since Belial joined the Alliance, since they had a limitless supply of Source, Greenland’s defensive towers had sprung up along the border like mushrooms. Estimates put them at more than two thousand with dozens more being built every day. Seraphs under the direction of Cloudhawk’s team were quick and efficient, while Source shored up production. Construction was sustained twenty-four days a day.
In addition to the two thousand attack and defense towers, another five hundred shield towers and three hundred auxiliary defense structures had been erected. The numbers were not impressive on paper, but in fact they were impressive in function. Enough to stop an army in its tracks.
Of course their foes were not an ordinary army. Against Chaos, nearly three thousand energy towers wasn’t enough to protect the realm. It was focused on important areas like Southern Capital and the Source mountain.
Even if Chaos detonated from a great distance, it was still a threat to Southern Capital. It could raze the southern wastes in one stroke. For all the work humans were doing to strengthen their defenses, their effectiveness was limited.
As for his army itself, Cloudhawk gathered all the best fighters from the five Elysian realms and his most elite and put them on whatever airships he could find. He commanded over a million standard troops and had more vehicles than he could count. With these numbers he could form several armies and have them patrol the wasteland realm endlessly.
“We will die to defend Greenland!”
“Victory or death!”
The shouts rang across the front line. From the fervent look in their eyes it was clear, these soldiers meant what they said. They had all made the decision to fight for survival and there was not an ounce of regret.
Who said men couldn’t fight back against their gods? The worst that could happen was death, and none of these valiant soldiers were afraid to die. Everyone knew in the deepest parts of their heart that this was humanity’s final stand. If they broke, their species was doomed. So they couldn’t break – for their loved ones, their friends, the young and the old, they had to fight as hard as they could.
Every soldier had their own reason to fight and persevere. They had their own reason to live, something to protect. But if they lost all of it would be gone. Losing wasn’t an option.
Dawn strode up to Cloudhawk with heavy steps. “Our defensive zones are all prepared. We’re just waiting for the fish to throw itself into our net.”
Cloudhawk linked up with Oddball once more.
What he saw shocked him. The clouds of particles from all over the world had gathered over Skycloud. Tentacles from within the enormous egg greedily devoured everything around it. Soon. Soon the fight would begin. Twelve hours if this trend continued.
When Chaos was born the gods would begin their attack in earnest.
