Brace For Impact

Gurgle!

In the region between the mantle and the outer core of the planet, the dense stream of corruption began to condense, no longer proceeding towards the core.

Gradually, it turned into a blob as the entirety of the corruption underground flowed into it, turning sentient. Following that, it gazed deeper into the planet, frowning in thought, 'It seems I can't win this war. We'll only result in a stalemate while allowing them to grow stronger in response.'

The Aberrants had been investigating the power system of PADS, understanding that killing Aberrants allowed them to grow the fastest. Therefore, a stalemate was the worst outcome, one that allowed PADS to grow while the Aberrants wouldn't.

After all, they would soon hit the limit, restricted underground while the Diamond Skin Plan converted the corruption into Nacre at a greater rate.

And everything they were doing at present, though effective, wasn't enough to tip the scales of battle in their favour. Hence, plans had to be changed further.

For that, they had been searching for a suitable target all along, finally finding one. The blob of corruption smirked in response as it vanished, arriving at Gasker Island where a Celas was growing, touching its head to mutter, "It seems you wouldn't reach your full potential this time too. But, I need you to distract Rhizen long enough. Can you do that?"

"Yes!" The Celas opened its eyes, stating in confidence, "Including Rhizen, Dwun, and Shika, I can hold the three of them back for two minutes."

"That's more than enough time." The blob of corruption smirked in response, carrying the Celas with it as they entered the stream of clouds above, travelling through it at an alarming pace, heading towards Yonka City.

In the meantime, the Twenty-Armed Keras smirked, withstanding countless attacks as it sensed the signal sent by the blob of corruption, raising its twenty arms high up into the air, "Heaven's Will Scheme, begin!"

In the depths of the ocean, tens of thousands of Titan Aberrants were huddled upon a fault line where two tectonic plates met. Suddenly, their bodies exploded as a dense stream of corruption spilt out, creating a strong current that caused the unstable volcanic undercurrents below the tectonic plates to move in response, making the tectonic plates move a little, causing them to collide with one another.

This resulted in a terrifying seismic quake that spread around for thousands of kilometres. It wasn't just here though as a similar phenomenon happened in three other locations.

Rumble!

The Twenty-Armed Keras stepped back as the area it stood upon until now began to crack; smoke wafted out, gradually gushing out fumes in greater volumes before soon, lava poured out to a height of a metre, forming a puddle as it spread forth, touching the city's barrier, causing sizzling sounds.

"What the…?" The City Lord was alarmed to see lava gushing out right next to their city when suddenly, the buildings began to shake, increasing in magnitude soon after as they began to crack in response, with the taller buildings collapsing first.

Earthquake!

The seismic tremors caused the lava to gush out through any vents that had formed, raising like a fountain into the air as it fell upon the city's barrier, melting through it.

This was the goal of the Twenty-Armed Keras, as it had been funnelling the underground to create a vent for the lava to gush out from. That was why it never retaliated, enduring the attacks passively.

Even though it was injured now, it was all smiles, watching the people in the city being helpless against the torrent of lava spilling out.

"Retreat! Vacate the city! Follow me out!" The City Lord bellowed, transforming into a massive Whale as he picked up as many Horned Humans as he could. Those that could fly did the same, picking up as many people as possible while the rest began to run in a hurry, fleeing in the opposite direction.

At least, thanks to the barrier, the lava had yet to gush on them, same for the fumes it was releasing in torrent.

But, those running on the ground couldn't sustain it for more than a couple of seconds, collapsing as they failed to regain balance, for the very earth was quaking, causing large cracks to open up on the ground.

The ground caved, buildings collapsed, and people died in large numbers.

"Dammit!" The City Lord grunted in anger, hurriedly flying away as lava gushed into his city from within when the entire ground in the region collapsed. The fumes alone killed anyone that had yet to escape from the city.

He hurriedly retracted his Tower of Purification and flew while carrying as many people as possible.

"How far can you run though?" The Twenty-Armed Keras smirked, watching the smoke cloud spread out at a terrifying pace. The vent it had created grew in size, resembling a hill now, continuing to grow as lava spilt out in torrents.

"My God!" The City Lord was shocked to see the ground below cracking as fumes gushed out from many locations, alarming him.

This was the Heaven's Will Scheme in action. Everything in nature was connected. And by triggering the cause, one could enact the desired effect onto the target area.

Multiple cities were affected by the earthquake and some regions were flooded. All the corruption that had seeped into the ocean and crust took the chance to gush out and affect everything.

Of course, not everything went in their favour.

On a large lake situated within a mountain range, the quakes caused this old mountain range to gradually form cracks internally as the lava deep underground gradually moved upwards.

But suddenly, just as the lave was about to gush out into the lake, it came across hundreds of Nacre Balls buried there, the heat melting the latter. And suddenly, the essence of the Nacre Balls flowed through the lava, instantly converting all the corruption into a dense stream of Nacre.

Whether it was due to the heat or the nature of the volatile substance in the lava, the Nacre rapidly spread through it, causing even the fumes it let into the lake to be dense with Nacre.

Immediately after, the very land itself became full of Nacre, emanating it through the geothermal energy being given out.

In places where the Diamond Skin Plan had been carried out, the corruption turned into Nacre instead and further reinforced the dominance of Nacre in the region.

The blob of corruption observed the various changes to the world, sighing as it announced, "Neither side can win at this rate. Instead, it's better to abandon this world to avoid strengthening PADS further."

Soon after, the blob of corruption accompanied the Celas, reaching Yonka City to see that despite the terrifying lightning bolts slamming into the city, the barrier stood tall as a mysterious energy seemed to have condensed within.

Apocalyptic Arts—Dust Wave (IX)!

By targeting only the corruption, Rhizen filled the air of Yonka City with as much Dust Wave as he could. Therefore, even when the barrier was breached, all the corruption was destroyed in a matter of metres into the city.

And immediately after, the barrier healed itself. This resulted in the city standing tall without any problems.

The blob of corruption then approached the Cloud Keras that had been targeting Yonka City, "Focus all your power onto Yonka City. After that, reduce the attacks here and target other cities. Ensure they cannot send in any reinforcements."

"Yes!" The Cloud Keras nodded in response as it began to condense a dense stream of corruption, increasing the discharges within the thundercloud as it awaited.

Roar!

"What's that?" Yulna muttered in shock as messages resounded in her whistle nonstop, causing her to shout in alarm, "Tsunami!"

"Tsunami? Here?" Even Rhizen was surprised, "We are 270 kilometres inland. How is this possible?"

But, they had been prepared for that eventuality anyway, so he wasn't too alarmed. But right after, the Geological Society Director said, pale-faced, "A-Aberrants! Millions of them are within the water body approaching us."

"Strengthen the defences!" Rhizen shouted, "Brace for impact!"

He immediately flew towards the edge of the city, riling up all his Nacre.

Apocalyptic Arts—Static Force (V)!

He erected a transparent wall that spanned hundreds of metres in length, created in an effort to negate the momentum of the Tsunami as much as possible so that the impact force onto Yonka City would be within defendable estimates.

He observed the air in the region turn still, as if time had stopped while all the kinetic energy was absorbed into the transparent wall. But as he focused on the wall of water approaching them, he saw Aberrants filled within the water, packed like sardines.

He then noticed the Geological Society Director tumbling to the ground, his legs giving out under him due to fear. Upon noticing that he was staring at the thundercloud overhead, Rhizen gazed at the same, asking, "What happened now?"

"All the c-corruption in the mantle has vanished. And now…" He despaired, "All of it has condensed into an entity above us."

Roar!

The Tsunami unleashed a deafening roar, ploughing through any obstacles along its path, reaching a height of twelve metres. The sheer volume of water moving through it was alarming, causing everyone to doubt if their flimsy defences could even withstand the impact.

Ten kilometres…nine…eight…seven…three…two…one…!

Rhizen watched as the wall of water approached closer and closer to the city as a pungent stench of rotting fish spread around first. As everyone braced for impact, Rhizen clenched his hand into a fist.

Three hundred metres…two hundred…eighty…forty…twenty…

Ten!