Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] Chapter 141: Book 2: Chapter 55: Eruption

Read chapter 141 of Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] by TTReynolds on NovelPedia.

Book 2: Chapter 55: Eruption Book 2: Chapter 55: Eruption The night had been unnaturally quiet. Alex’s squadmates lay scattered around the campfire, each wrapped in a different flavor of personal exhaustion. Kate fiddled with the puzzle box she had gotten from Lady Caerwyn. Devon tinkered with a glyph crystal, his eyes heavy but hands still somehow steady. Allie leaned against a crate, her head tilted back and eyes focused like her vision could pierce through the heavens. Even Alex was perched on a log at the edge of camp, just to get some space to breathe for a moment. Then it happened, the sky ripped open. A thin line of white formed itself on the horizon. It was too bright to be reflected starlight or campfires, and it was too early to be dawn. Within seconds after appearing the light split into a burning bloom. It stretched up was and a radiant gold swallowing the stars. The blast stretched across the night, blinding and merciless, until the entire world seemed drowned in an eerie golden luminescence. The squad scrambled to shield their eyes with their arms or hadns. Soldiers all across the camp shouted, pointing skyward. Horses screamed, pulling against their tethers. Wyverns screeched in the distance, and began to fight against their perplexed handlers. The air itself felt as if it trembled in response. A vibrating that traveled through teeth and bone as the light reached its peak. Then it Mist clung to the battlefield like an old ghost, suddenly curved inward, collapsing in on itself like some celestial lung exhaling its last breath. The explosion came with a pulse that slammed through the air. It rattled the tents, and threw men to their knees. Aether flared in every soulgate aperture caught in the shock-wave that caused a spiritual pain like someone had reached inside and squeezed on their spirits. Alex caught himself on one knee, vision still swimming. His heart hammered in response, though it wasn’t fear he felt, but strange sense of wrongness. Nearby, Holly was pale. Her eyes wide as the horizon still bled gold. She clutched her sword’s hilt so tightly her knuckles whitened. “That couldn't have just been a spell attack,” she breathed shakily. “That was… gods, that was a magical nuke. Third Tier? No—Fourth. It has to be Fourth.” No one had an answer for her. The light on the horizon dimmed, but the silence that followed was worse than the blast. It was the kind of silence that only came after something irreversible, something so horrific it didn’t have a man-made name or description. The camp went from dead still to chaos in a heartbeat. Some soldiers screamed victory, throwing their fists into the air to shout Terraxum’s ultimate revenge. Others dropped to their knees, praying to whatever god they thought might still be listening. A few just stood frozen, staring at the fading bloom as if it might open again and it wouldn’t forget to swallow them on the second go-round. Officers stormed through the madness, shouting orders no one could hear over the roar of panic. “Form lines! Shields ready! Watch the skies!” The words scattered like leaves in wind, the voices of command without any control behind them. The unnatural fire still burned in the clouds, twisting slowly as if it too, was reluctant to die. Its glow painted the squad’s faces in colors too close to blood. They gathered without speaking, drawn by the same sick dread. Kate was the first to speak up. “That wasn’t us?” The answer was obvious, none of them had power like what they just saw, not even Alex. Even if he coupled [Descending Demon Fist] with his [Vita-Surge Cloak], while his Wyrm-heart was active, Alex couldn’t manage that level of destruction. Eric’s jaw worked as he bit at his nails nervously. “Then who the hell did it?” Devon didn’t look up from the horizon. His glasses reflected the faint embers still raining from the sky. “This wasn’t defense… this was a strike. Precision. Someone wanted this to happen.” No one breathed for a moment. The glow fi