Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

Its gaze returned to Alice, who had barely regained her form.

"What other skills do you have?" the silver giant asked. "Use them before I kill you, so you won't have any regrets after you die."

“Ishtar…is also the goddess of Venus.” The girl, pale-faced, managed to utter these words.

"What nonsense is this? A prayer?" Megatron's face showed displeasure. He raised his hand, about to unleash the final blow that would destroy cell activity with the Fusion Gun.

But in the next instant, the ground beneath Alice's feet suddenly shattered!

Megatron raised his hand and fired a shot, but before it could hit its target, it was blocked by a sufficiently strong protective wall—it saw two floating dolls forming the wall. In that brief moment of delay, Alice fell through the gap in the ground and plummeted into the atmosphere.

"Trying to escape?" Megatron glanced at her disdainfully. He casually fired a few more shots, shattering the shield, and the scorching beams pierced through the girl's body.

...not a fatal wound.

It shook its head and turned to leave. It had no interest in wasting ammunition on cowards fleeing the battlefield, and besides, there were many more enemies waiting to be hunted on the Retribution. Even so, its extraordinary hearing still caught snippets of conversation from the atmosphere below as it departed.

"The morning star, falling from the heavens..."

Author's Note:

..........................................

Another order failed = = (expressionless)

Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Fall of the Kingdom of Heaven

"Has it finally come to this?" Patchouli floated quietly atop the Great Library, gazing up at the dark night sky dyed with dazzling colors by the aurora borealis, watching a brilliant star fall from the sky.

She gently pressed her hand to her chest.

"My heart, please be patient a little longer. Now... we must wait." The great library beneath her began to operate at full power, its bright magical light spreading out and forming a huge halo covering tens of kilometers of land.

[Final testing...]

The magical network constructed by the towers that cover the entire world has been activated. Tiny magical lines accumulate, transforming into a dazzling band of light that stretches across the night sky. From the first tower, it connects to the second, and then from the second, it connects to even more.

Like a thin veil covering the earth, energy waveforms previously invisible to ordinary people converged into energy waves radiating visible light. From one city to another, from one country to another, streams of mingled light flowed through the atmosphere. Unlike Alice's previous coercion, which relied more on technological creations, the nations of the earth now witnessed the true brilliance of magic.

Magic flows...

Sparkling streams flow through the streets and through the mountains. They seep into the earth, penetrate ancient ruins and battlefields, cross the sky, and permeate the temples and tombs of ancient kings and gods.

The whole world was awestruck by this spectacle, with tiny points of light rising from the ground. Some curious people tried to touch them, but their bodies passed right through the light, as if solid objects were passing through shadow. There was no obstruction, no damage.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime glory, a once-in-a-lifetime miracle. When dawn breaks, the magical soil of this world will vanish completely. Magical technology may continue to develop, but its effectiveness and potential will never again be comparable to traditional mechanical and electrical methods.

Patchouli gently closed her eyes.

"The stakes are already placed; this time it's either a complete victory or a complete defeat. Now, we're just waiting for that final opportunity."

"Alice, you must survive..."

"Just like before. As long as you live, there is no opponent in this world who can defeat me."

................................................

"I'll make it through, Patchouli," Alice murmured to herself as she plummeted from over two thousand kilometers in the air. Her voice was carried far away the instant she uttered it, and as the air thickened, the magical shield surrounding her rapidly deteriorated due to friction with the atmosphere, as if it were about to collapse at any moment.

She reached out and grabbed at the dark starship in the sky—the distance of tens of kilometers flashed by, and even in her superhuman vision, the super weapon capable of destroying the human world was just a tiny, insignificant dot.

“I once ruled over the order of all nations, so I am the lord of all nations on earth, that is, Satan, and the king of hell.”

“I am Ishtar, and also Inanna. I am Venus, and also the star of dawn.”

A complex magic circle appeared behind her. As she chanted, a huge amount of dispersed magic power near the lower end of the dissipation layer formed a massive vortex that converged towards her. In an instant, it transformed into a huge magic circle covering nearly ten kilometers behind her!

"So it is, the equation is true, I am Lucifer. Heavenly kingdom, fall with the morning star! This is—Revelation: The Fall of the Kingdom!"

The next moment, a massive gravity well suddenly formed around Alice. The immense gravitational tides instantly pushed aside the entire atmosphere of the exosphere and even the thermosphere, creating a gigantic hole in the sky visible from anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. Below it lay the vast earth, and above it, endless stars.

The only target of this giant hole is the alien warship located in the sky!

The Nemesis's power plant had been destroyed by the Allied forces, and the Decepticons had suffered heavy losses. Even with Megatron's immense power, until it replenished its strength and completely crossed that boundary, it remained merely a near-supernatural being at its limit. It could withstand the gravity well's pull, but it couldn't stop itself and the entire Nemesis from plummeting to the ground!

The atmosphere ignited.

As Alice and the Nemesis plunged into the exosphere, the entire sky churned violently like a boiling cauldron of purgatory. Dozens of white streaks rose from the ground, only to be destroyed in mid-air by beams of light projected from the Nemesis, transforming into fireballs that exploded in mid-air.

That was a hydrogen bomb, humanity's ultimate weapon against the Retribution. If the first three volleys of ballistic missiles used for the landing had been effective, then this would have been the strongest attack that any nation on Earth could deliver. But now, humanity's last resistance had vanished. From beginning to end, the Decepticon warriors had never allowed these nuclear missiles to come within their range of defense.

The nations of the earth have fallen; they have no means of resistance or survival. They are utterly helpless except to pray for miracles.

Before the Revelation: Kingdom Fall completely crashes and the Nemesis regains its mobility, there are still a few minutes left in this world.

“You have no other choice,” Alice whispered. Apocalypse: Fallen Kingdom had already considered her and the Retribution as one entity; she would fall to the ground first, at which point the magic would dissipate, and the alien starship could easily escape the gravity well’s capture.

Moreover, it is already trying to escape the gravity well's capture.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, those gazing at the night sky could see the Retribution, enveloped by the gravitational field, struggling to break free through its jet engines—they might not see the engine nozzles, but they could see the meteor slowing its descent. Any remaining hope vanished.

So, there's only one thing left to do...

Patchouli opened her arms, allowing her voice to travel through the 'Tower' network to all corners of the world.

"You have no other choice. The only thing you can do now is to pray." Her voice rang out clearly from the skies above all countries, reaching the ears of everyone in a language that humans could understand.

The pedestrians who were fleeing the disaster on the street stopped in their tracks.

The family members, who were embracing each other in the house, looked up.

"Pray, pray that we will ultimately prevail."

In the church, holy icons shed tears like blood, and ancestral tablets in the family temple trembled incessantly. In the cemetery, wisps of smoke rose from the graves of the dead, and a sense of impending doom welled up in everyone's heart, a feeling that made them tremble and involuntarily shed tears.

So they prayed, so they worshipped. They prayed sincerely to gods who had never appeared in this world, to their deceased ancestors, to the heavens, to fate, and to the flag of their homeland.

Humanity in this world has no other way to go.

The only thing we can do is pray for a miracle.

Beneath the heavens, as the 'Morning Star,' representing Alice, approached the middle layer, reaching a point only one hundred kilometers above the ground, Patchouli opened her eyes.

"Chant—"

Author's Note:

..............................

In the original comics, within the world of God and Demon 2, the side quest triggered by the gorilla to kill a perfect, fourth-order critical creature rewards B+5000 points. The bounty I wrote about Megatron in Section 6 also rewards B+5000. Therefore, this is a reasonably challenging optional mission. It's just that the original comics' presentation of this quest was terrible.

Besides, do some people really enjoy showing off other people's sunken ships? Does that really make you so happy?

Section 39. Pan-Human History: One-Third of the Stars

“Revelation 12:3: There was a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and on its seven heads were seven crowns.”

“Revelation 12:4—Its tail dragged a third of the stars in the sky and threw them to the ground.”

“Ishtar is the goddess who holds seven powers, and now she is falling from the heavens, in the form of Lucifer, who is also one of the red dragons of Satan, falling to the earth.”

"Now that the red dragon has fallen, where is one-third of the stars?"

Patchouli whispered, and though it was a whisper, her voice carried across the land. She conveyed these thoughts to something in this world, and to something hidden in the void.

She let out a soft breath.

"Throughout human history—whether in the East, the Aegean Sea, Northern Europe, Egypt, or in South and North America, Africa, and the oceans—there is a well-known legend circulating in the world: that after death, people become immortal stars."

Her voice traveled through ancient battlefields, ruins, and the temples and tombs of ancient kings and gods. And subtle rustling sounds arose from those places, like the whispers of countless people.

Countless ancient sites, countless tombs, countless lost legends...

They breathed, throbbed, their rhythms pulsating with Patchouli's voice. Like living beings, like writhing flesh, they trembled gently, breathing slowly. The magical stream that flowed through the sky quietly seeped into the earth, and from the earth, countless sparks were silently ignited.

Patchouli looked up at the sky.

"Did you see that? Did you see the stars falling from the sky? Now that you have awakened, you should know everything that has happened on Earth."

Patchouli tilted her ear slightly, and she heard countless whispers in her ear—like cries, pleas, prayers, arguments, proposals, and rebuttals. These countless voices gradually unified, transforming into a single, simple concept of agreement.

“Is that so…” She raised her hand, and the Source Matrix, which should have been with Optimus Prime, floated quietly beside her. The infinite energy originating from the AllSpark surged forth, transforming into a massive tide that seeped into the lands of various nations along the network of the Tower.

"The Book of Revelation has been written," Patchouli sang aloud, "[The fallen red dragon will return once more, leading a third of the stars in war against the heavens.] And now is the time to reclaim the authority of the heavens!"

"People slumbering in history, heed my call. If you still consider yourselves human and are willing to fight for the continuation of all living beings, then respond to my voice. The opportunity comes only once, the time is but a fleeting moment, and the price is eternal annihilation. If you are still willing to awaken, then manifest yourself on this earth!"

"O stars, reveal yourselves!"

She spread her arms, pushing the halo of light, which had gathered for tens of kilometers, in all directions. And the next moment, she saw the sparks igniting on the edge of the horizon!

From one to a hundred, from a thousand to ten thousand.

Once again, the sounds of clashing swords and galloping horses echoed across the abandoned ancient battlefield. In the tranquil cemetery, the departed souls revealed themselves. Not just in one place, not just in one region, not just in one country. From every corner of the earth, sparks rose, converged, and transformed into powerful forms.

Egypt……

An elder holding a stone tablet appeared at the edge of the Red Sea, with the Pharaoh holding a scepter beside him. Hebrew soldiers stood side by side with the Pharaoh's army, gazing up at the sky.

“I still regret not leaving you in the Red Sea back then, Moses.”

“Then I will once again crush your army before the sea breaks, Ramses. But not this time.” The elder holding the stone tablet called to his army. “By the will of the Lord, this time you and I will fight side by side.”

Italy……

The Roman consul for life looked at the thirty legions assembled before him, stretched his hand toward the sky, and gave orders.

“It’s time to go to war again, Brutus. Take the legion’s banner for me.” He looked towards the other side of the Seven Hills. “Pompey and Antony have come too? Then let them fight side by side.”

France……

The marks of the fire faded from the girl's body, and she raised the battle flag high, commanding the army she had once led.

“Lord, though I have entrusted this body to you, please allow me to step onto the final battlefield…” she prayed softly. “I will protect the peoples of the earth, just as I protected France in the past.”

Nordic countries...

The hero, wielding a long sword, pointed to the sky, while countless brave warriors shouted loudly behind him.

"Beowulf! Beowulf! Beowulf!"

The hero responded loudly.

"Warriors, this time we will fight alongside the evil dragon. It's time to show those good-for-nothing juniors the power of the old man!"