Chapter 576: One Sided Massacre

Buzz!

Linda stared at Damian as though he had completely lost his mind, but even she was less shaken than the people inside the cathedral.

Damian’s demand had struck them harder than any physical attack could have. For generations they had been taught that the divine would answer their prayers, that angels watched over them and that the Vatican stood beneath the protection of Heaven itself. Yet now they stood beneath a black dome with their connection to those very beings severed, while the man they had been taught to fear stood before them and demanded that they kneel to him.

"Begone demon!" The old Pope finally spoke, his voice trembling slightly despite the conviction behind his words. "If I must die, I will die a saint rather than bow my head to evil!"

The cardinals and priests surrounding him immediately nodded vehemently in agreement, raising their hands in solidarity. The rings upon their fingers began glowing with divine light as they attempted to establish contact with the angels protecting the Vatican, but nothing happened. The glow flickered weakly before fading.

"The angels.... We can’t reach them." A cardinal muttered, his face slowly losing its color.

"I can’t hear their voices." Another gasped in surprise, staring at the ring on his finger as though it had betrayed him.

Panic spread rapidly through the cathedral. Priests began whispering among themselves while several desperately tried their prayers again and again, only to receive nothing in return.

Damian watched them silently for several seconds before his expression became completely indifferent. They had made their choice. He had offered them an opportunity to live, and they had rejected it.

Black flames poured from the Black Lantern and plunged into the crowd with terrifying speed. The darkness swallowed the golden array beneath them, devoured the remaining divine energy and swept through the priests who had gathered around it.

Screams and cries filled the cathedral as people desperately attempted to flee, but the flames moved faster than they could run. Linda’s face immediately paled as she watched the scene unfold before her.

"What are you doing?" Linda screamed, her voice breaking beneath the horror of what she was witnessing.

Damian glanced at Linda with a dull expression. This was the first time he had truly looked at her in decades. Her face was almost exactly as he remembered, though the years had changed her in subtle ways.

Her features had matured, her breasts and butt had become more robust, while the extravagant robes she wore were considerably larger and more elaborate than the clothes he remembered her wearing in the past.

"I’ll talk to you later... For now I have to deal with former partner." Damian said as his expression shifted toward the distance.

A fierce golden storm suddenly surged across the horizon. The darkness surrounding the Vatican was torn apart by an enormous wave of divine energy as Corbin came rushing toward them.

His white hair whipped violently behind him, his enormous body radiating golden light as every ounce of divine energy he could gather converged around him.

"DAMIAN YOU BASTARD.... THEY HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH OUR FIGHT!" Corbin roared viciously as the light above him condensed into a massive golden sword.

The enormous weapon stretched across the sky, its radiance illuminating the entire Vatican. "SPLIT THE SKYS... SHATTER THE HEAVENS!"

"GET BACK HERE YOU FOOL!" Michael screamed while chasing after Corbin.

The archangel understood exactly what Corbin was doing, but Corbin’s anger had overwhelmed his reason. He could no longer stand by while Damian slaughtered the people that mattered him.

Swoosh!

The golden sword flashed violently through the heavens and descended toward Damian with enough force to split the clouds apart.

Yet Damian made no attempt to dodge or defend himself. The gigantic weapon smashed directly into his body, and for a brief moment the entire Vatican was swallowed by golden light. Then the sword shattered into millions of brilliant fragments that scattered through the darkness like falling stars.

Damian remained standing in exactly the same position.

Not a scratch marked his body.

Corbin’s eyes widened in disbelief and his advance halted abruptly. The attack had contained almost everything he could muster, yet it had failed to accomplish anything. Before Corbin could even process what had happened, Damian’s body flashed.

He appeared directly before Corbin and grabbed him by the face.

Standing face to face, the difference between them was almost absurd. Corbin was over ten feet tall and had once seemed like a mountain among men, yet beside Damian’s seventeen foot frame he suddenly looked like a toddler standing before an NBA player. Damian’s massive hand covered nearly the entirety of Corbin’s face, and the cold expression in his eyes made Corbin’s confidence disappear.

"Devour!"

Buzz!

A powerful suction force erupted from Damian’s palm. Corbin’s entire body convulsed as his divine energy began pouring out of him. He cried out in pain as he felt the power he had spent a decade cultivating being violently stripped away. He tried to resist, but Damian’s grip only tightened.

Without hesitation, Cyrus summoned golden daggers into his hands and repeatedly stabbed toward Damian’s body. The weapons struck Damian’s chest, shoulders and arms, but every dagger shattered upon contact without leaving even the smallest scratch.

"Fool, do you think the body of the dark king can be hurt by something so soft?!" Damian hissed disdainfully.

Even if his general cultivation had not advanced dramatically, Damian had accumulated far too much power during his years in the Underworld. His physical body had been reforged, his inheritances had evolved and his Dark King Physiology had reached a level where ordinary demigod attacks could no longer threaten him.

Corbin was no longer fighting the Damian he remembered.

"LET GO OF HIM YOU DEVIL!" Michael roared as he finally reached them, a flaming sword instantly appearing in his hands.

Pffft!

Michael swung the weapon with all his strength, but his expression suddenly froze. His attack had missed its intended target because his arm was no longer attached to his body. Golden blood sprayed through the air as Michael stared at the bloody wound where his arm had been severed, his mind struggling to comprehend what had happened.

Rin stood several meters away with the archangels arm between his teeth.

Abel’s enormous, long snake like dragon body had wrapped around him without him noticing. The Abyssal dragon slowly brought his head around until his face was directly beside Michael’s, his jaws opening as deep within his throat black flames began gathering. The temperature around them plummeted as the flames condensed into a terrifying mass of Abyssal energy.

"Stop... Please stop!" Linda cried, her voice trembling as she watched Michael struggle against Abel’s coils.

Damian chuckled at her cries and glanced over his shoulder. "On the very day I fought the red dragon and just wanted to take Clara away, was I shown mercy?" His voice carried no anger. That made the question even more frightening.

Linda shook her head rapidly, tears streaming down her face. "I’ll do anything, just stop please?" Her voice cracked as she desperately looked between Damian and the two beings he was about to kill.

This time, Damian, Biron and Rin all laughed at her words as though she had just said the most ridiculous thing they had ever heard. Michael’s screams continued in the background as Abel’s coils tightened around him.

"Girl... Believe me, you will do anything my lord asks if you, regardless of what happens to these two." Biron rolled his eyes.

Linda flinched at those words, but before she could respond, her attention was drawn toward Corbin. His struggles had become noticeably weaker. The enormous body that had once radiated overwhelming divine energy was beginning to shrivel beneath Damian’s grip. His muscles lost their firmness, his skin became pale and loose and the golden radiance surrounding his body continued disappearing into Damian’s palm.

Linda’s eyes widened as Corbin’s massive frame became increasingly thin before his body finally went limp.

Huff!

Damian exhaled lightly and released his grip. Corbin’s lifeless body immediately began falling through the sky, plunging toward the ruined Vatican below.

Damian then turned his attention back toward Linda and she shuddered.

The face staring back at her was no longer the young man she remembered. His eyes were pitch black, and within those eyes were golden symbols she had once seen inside Corbin’s own eyes.

"You... You killed him." Linda muttered.

Damian didn’t respond. He simply let go, allowing Corbin’s corpse to disappear into the distance below. At the same time, Michael’s charred remains were swallowed whole by Abel. The dragon closed his jaws around the archangel’s body and consumed him in a single motion, leaving nothing behind.

Snap!

Realm Zero shattered instantly.

The oppressive darkness surrounding the Vatican disappeared, revealing the true sky above them. Linda instinctively looked toward the heavens, and her expression changed when she saw a massive gate suspended in the distant sky. It stood open, and a few dozen people were already gathered around it. Despite the enormous distance separating them, the gate appeared strangely close, almost as though it were only a stone’s throw away.

Helicopters circled around the area, their cameras pointed directly toward Damian and Linda. The entire world was watching.

"Where are we going?" Linda gasped as she finally realized that Damian had no intention of killing her like the others.

Damian looked toward the massive gate, his expression calm and unreadable. "To a place where I am the sole God."