Chapter 145: Planet Befall! The Gods Don't Do Overtime

Beneath the mask of Infernal Fire, the Greed Aggregate let out a shrill, low growl that was no longer a roar. It was a mournful wail of terror, clawing its way up from the very depths of its soul.

It felt it.

That was absolute suppression, an authority originating from the level of the Laws themselves. A supreme Order, one known as “contract,” was pronouncing a death sentence upon this aberrant, chaotic thing.

Its crimson demonic eyes stared, transfixed, at the star slowly descending from the vault of the sky. Instinctive, primal fear finally overwhelmed all its anger and greed.

It had to run!

Its massive, pillar-like legs exerted terrifying force, and its hulking body blurred into a dark red afterimage as it fled recklessly toward the darkness deeper within the cavern.

“Thinking of running only now?” Celeste watched its frantic retreat, her golden eyes showing no ripples of emotion. “Too late.”

She raised her right hand, her five fingers slowly closing, forming a hollow grip in the empty air.

“This is order.”

Boom—!!!

An invisible, terrifying pressure descended from the heavens.

The Greed Aggregate’s massive body suddenly sank as if crushed by a mountain, its speed plummeting. The hard, rocky ground cracked inch by inch beneath its feet, caving in with a deafening roar. Across its dark red chitinous skin, a grayish-white hue of petrification began to spread.

It was petrified.

For the monster, that single moment of solidification was an eternity. For the descending `Planet Befall`, it was all the time it needed.

The giant star, now locked onto its prisoner, tore through the air and accelerated its fall.

Before the sharp, whistling shriek of its descent even arrived, a suffocating sensory storm had already swept across the entire cavern. The air became scorching and dry, roasting the skin until every breath carried a stinging, searing heat. A low-frequency hum, originating from deep within their very bone marrow, caused everyone’s internal organs to connect, making them dizzy and unable to stand steady.

Their souls felt seized by an invisible giant’s hand, frozen within the amber of “Divine Might.”

They couldn’t even produce the emotion of fear; there was only a pure, crushing blankness before the inevitable.

Everyone held their breath—or rather, they had forgotten how to breathe at all. They could only tilt their heads back, their vision, hearing, and touch—all their senses—completely stripped away and then refilled by that single, dark gold star carrying the power to end the world.

Just then, as if remembering something, Celeste casually pressed her other, free hand downward.

“Indestructible!”

An impossibly massive, translucent Jade Shield unfolded from thin air. An inverted, warm golden bowl instantly took shape, enveloping Celeste’s party of four and the entire Elven Legion arrayed behind them. The deep Geo element patterns on the shield’s surface flowed slowly, forming an indestructible… giant tortoise shell.

“Sis! Forget the meteorite! What the heck is this turtle shell?!” Selene shrieked, staring at the shield above her head. She felt like her very ability to complain had completely broken down, utterly unable to keep up with her sister’s train of thought.

“Safety first,” Celeste shot her a look, her expression practically screaming, Isn’t this common sense? “To prevent splash damage.”

In Elaniel’s wide, burgundy eyes, that brilliant dark gold was reflected. The word ‘shock’ was no longer sufficient to describe her current state of mind.

She finally understood. Everything Celeste had shown before—whether it was the bomb that triggered the avalanche or the “staff” that sprayed Holy Light—was merely her playing around.

This was the true posture of a deity.

Taking heaven and earth as the chessboard, and the stars as the pieces.

With a single thought, the world is turned upside down.

With a single thought, all things are annihilated.

“ROAR AHHHHHH—!!!”

The petrified and imprisoned Greed Aggregate let out one final, desperate roar. The face belonging to Girousse on its chest twisted its features to their absolute limit. Bloody tears burst from the corners of its eyes, as if it wanted to claw its way out of the demon’s chest while still alive.

It squeezed out every last drop of power in its body.

Countless dark red infernal flames erupted from its surface, converging into a beam of destruction thick enough to melt mountains. The beam surged upward, a defiant strike against the falling star.

This was its desperate counterattack, a final bet with everything it had.

However, before the star that represented “contract” and “Order,” this beam of destruction was laughably fragile.

There was no world-shaking explosion.

The moment the star and the beam made contact, the torrent of infernal fire couldn’t even stir a single ripple. It was directly crushed, swallowed, and erased by pure mass and the power of Laws.

Immediately after, the massive dark gold star, in an irresistible display of power, crushed downward with a speed that seemed slow but was in fact terrifyingly swift.

It swallowed the hulking, hideous demon.

And it swallowed all of its resentment, fear, and despair.

Time seemed to stretch infinitely at that moment.

Under everyone’s shocked gaze, the giant dark gold star, like a seal dropped by a celestial god, stamped itself accurately and heavily upon the Greed Aggregate’s location.

There was no explosion. No mushroom cloud.

Only a dull thud, so heavy it made the soul tremble.

The entire snow mountain shook violently.

The massive Jade Shield shone brightly, steadily blocking all the shockwaves and flying debris that battered its surface. The people inside the shield only felt the ground shake for a moment before all was calm again, leaving them completely safe and sound.

The light dissipated.

In its place was only a massive, smooth, circular crater whose edges showed a glassy, vitrified texture. The crater was bottomless, emitting a heart-palpitating residual aura of the Geo element.

As for that overbearing Greed Aggregate, it had long been completely erased from the world by that absolute power representing “contract,” without even a trace of ash left behind.

Dead silence.

A silence so deep you could hear a pin drop.

All the elves stared blankly at the crater, then at the figure still maintaining a posture with arms crossed, her clothes fluttering in a nonexistent wind. Their minds were a complete blank.

It’s… over just like that?

That terrifying demon, whose mere roar could shatter their shields and bring them endless despair… was just smashed out of existence by a meteorite?

“Sis…” Selene’s mouth was agape as she stared at the crater, unable to close it for a long, long time. She had only one thought in her mind.

In the future, I must never, ever provoke my sister! Absolutely never! Otherwise, one day while I’m asleep, a big rock might just fall from the ceiling!

Su Wan subconsciously looked down at her own hands. The frost spells that once lingered at her fingertips now seemed incredibly tiny and insignificant in her memory. She looked at the crater again, and on her usually cold face, a near-fanatical flush appeared.

So… at the very end of magic’s path, there exists this kind of unreasonable, overwhelming power?

Xia Lian silently put away her twin blades. She felt that the stealth and assassination skills she took such pride in were nothing but a joke at this moment. In the face of absolute power, all techniques lost their meaning.

Cracks appeared once again on Eldara’s icy face, which had so rarely softened because of Celeste. She looked at Celeste’s back, and her hand holding the greatsword unconsciously loosened. It wasn’t the vigilance one felt toward a powerful opponent, but an instinctive… submission. The kind a mortal feels when looking up at a deity.

In the silence left by the divine might, the entire cavern suddenly let out a tooth-aching groan.

The golden contract patterns that had covered the rock walls had completed their mission of witnessing the “execution” and were now dimming at a visible rate. Debris and dust began to rain down from the cavern ceiling.

The entire cavern began to shake violently.

“Not good! It’s going to collapse!” Eldara’s expression changed instantly. She rushed to Elaniel’s side, shielding the physically weak Queen behind her.

“Ahhh! Sis, didn’t you say it was rock solid?! It’s really going to collapse!” Selene let out a terrified scream, subconsciously raising her shield to protect her sister.

The elven army instantly fell into chaos as panic spread like a plague.

“Quiet.”

Celeste’s calm voice rang out again, carrying a strange magic that steadied people’s hearts.

She didn’t even turn around. She just lightly lifted her foot and gave a casual stomp on the ground.

The flickering golden patterns suddenly flared with light, their dimming arrested, their structure instantly stabilized. The violent shaking subsided as miraculously as it had begun.

Golden light flowed down from the rock walls, converging on the path the crowd needed to take to retreat. It constructed a wide, stable path of golden light leading straight to the cave entrance. Under this final miracle, the entire cavern was transformed into a temporary, solemn hall. Although debris continued to fall, the catastrophe that could have buried everyone alive had been handled with utter nonchalance.

After Celeste finished all this, her face turned slightly pale.

[‘Shit, so much for ‘solid as a rock’! Turns out the kickback from Planet Befall is so strong it almost broke the contract! Maintaining this ‘condemned building reinforcement’ spell is a serious mana drain!’]

She stretched, letting out a comfortable groan, and then clapped her hands together. The deity-like aura instantly vanished, and she returned to her usual lazy, salted-fish temperament.

“Alright, alright, today’s ‘Rex Lapis’ free trial card session ends here. Thank you all for your support.”

She paused, her gaze sweeping over the dumbfounded faces in the crowd.

“Dear audience, you can now leave in an orderly fashion along that VIP passage. In five minutes, the ‘condemned building reinforcement’ contract will automatically expire.”

She then added one last thing.

“After all, the Lord of Geo doesn’t like working overtime.”

[Elysian’s Note:

Having a good time with the story?

Every single bit helps immensely:

Thanks a ton for making this journey possible!]