LIGHTNOVELONLINE Prologue – Puck’s Crusade
March 17, 2022 12:26
Chaos erupted on the streets of busy cities around the world as news reports flared up upon the looming and unprecedented crisis that trampled through the Pacific. It's as if the wrath of the gods descended upon all of humanity, filled with rage for those that stood against it. The Beast of the End had made his move. With a body-count of over 10 million and rising, the beast had grown in power and was leaving nothing but a frozen wasteland in his wake. It was even solely responsible for a climate temperature shift that could be especially felt at the equator. Ranging from at least an 8-10 drop difference. As a result of this, all the nations of the world had converged together to confront this new calamity.
"What does the UN say in all of this?" Inquired a stocky built man in a business suit in a passive tone. Ledger in one hand, briefing documentation in the other.
"They have congregated for an emergency session in Geneva as we speak. For now, we should let Sergei Shoigu and his little group to form a line of defense through the Mariana Trench." Stated his secretary, setting priorities elsewhere to relieve the stress of the arising situation.
"Hmph, those fools... Get me in contact with General Milley ASAP, I need a situation report on our little delivery package that is set for extraction back to Santa Monica from Guam. Whatever this damned beast is, it seems to be drawn to that thing and cannot under any circumstances acquire it. With that, we're pulling everyone off that island." The man scoffed while he handed out his orders, as the his eyes averted to the TV placed in front of his desk. CNN, CBS, NBC, Fox News, they were all covering the same subject and reiterated the orders he gave out 30 minutes ago to have all citizens living along the west coast to evacuate inland. The enemies in the media he has made, now all at the palm of hands. As a former adversary once said, 'never let a good crisis go to waste.'
"Right away, Mr. President..." His secretary complied, swiftly bowing before turning on his heel and leaving the room. The Secret Service officers siphoned him out as proper procedure. Once his secretary left, he sulked back in his chair and left out an audible sigh.
'Why is this always happening to me, first Syria, then Russia-gate, Censorship on Social Media, followed by the damned Coronavirus, the Great Economic collapse, and now the literal End of the World? To think that the Biblical Scriptures would predict all of this? It just doesn't make any sense.' The man let out an audible groan as he shift back up straight. 'Shinzo Abe has a lot to answer for...'
Meanwhile in the Pacific: 14:13
A fleet of Chinese and Russian warships had made voyage, to set up a defensive perimeter along the Northern Mariana Islands. The fleet was comprised of the sole Kuznetov-class aircraft carrier, with SU-33 and Mig-29 fighter jets abroad it. Complimenting it, were 2 Sovremenny-class destroyers, 1 Slava-class Cruiser, and over 2 dozen frigates and nuclear-class submarines. The Chinese deployment had twice the amount of warships and submarines with their counter parts. The Beast was slowly closing in on the fleet.
"Fleet Admiral Valerianovich, the hostile is over 100 kilometers outside our defensive perimeter. The R-36 Satan missile has been deemed ineffective on the target due to it being enshrouded in that Ice Sphere with temperatures below 200 kelvin. The arming mechanism in the missile does not activate when in close proximity of the target and thus is rendered useless. Should we abort this mission?" A concerned Vice-admiral inquired, seeing how nuclear warheads were rendered obsolete due to the sheer temperatures that the beast was generating. The air was literally frozen solid and created a shield to protect the beast from the blast.
"What utter rubbish, we were handed orders from the Kremlin itself to protect the Americans as they extract the VIP out of Guam. We swore our allegiance to the motherland and it's people and this is the response you give me? We're facing a humanitarian crisis that threatens to destroy the world! So far, we have been bombarding and slowing the target with laser weaponry and various other geometries of fire according to intelligence reports. That should buy more than enough time to for us to fall back and regroup. I want as much ordnance on that fucker as we can. It has shown us in the South China Sea that it cannot be defeated with mere firepower but it's more than enough for us to buy the world some time if we can slow it down. That VIP in that frozen vessel might our only trump card to use against it." Admiral Valerianovich reaffirmed, hoping to spark morale out of the whole ordeal.
"Understood Admiral." The Vice-admiral then hovered over the intercom that connected the entire coalition. "All hands, this is Vice-Admiral Artemovich. Due to the unparalleled nature of this new global threat we will commence phase 2 of our operation. The future of humanity and your families lies at your hands men. We will overcome and adapt to this new threat and we will prevail. For the glory of the Motherland, for the Glory of the Tianxia, humanity will win!" With that, a barrage of missiles, railguns, torpedos, fighter jets, cannons, and nuclear warheads all rained down on the Beast of the End.
"Futile..." The Beast of the End uttered as he encapsulated himself a shield of ice. The ordnance of fire the fleet unleashed upon him merely bounced off his shield or was absorbed into oblivion by the spatial gate he created by a mere whisper. The mana in this world was much richer and abundance as if it almost had an endless supply of it. Due to this, this open up a new gateway for creation and magic as the Beast soon discovered. However, his affinity with water magic remained the strongest. The concept of gates was soon destroyed by the mere introduction of being summoned into this world, however his affinities and connection to mana remained the same. It's as if someone took your DNA, ripped it out, and shoved it back in as if rewriting your entire genetic makeup but keeping your most important traits. This allowed him to use all the elements that was previously impossible to conceive and much more. Spiritual summons were now conceivable, along with Alteration, Enchanting, other forms of Evocation magic besides summoning, Abjuration and an endless amount of other magic that his previous world failed to conceive.
The Beast trudged on, summoning a legion of Ice Wraiths and Golems in the wake of his frozen path across the pacific. He motioned his subjects to eradicate the incoming fighter jets closing in on him. With that, a volley of ice shards and ice spears traveling 4x faster than the speed of sound started pelting the wave of fighter jets, effectively shooting down the battalion. Those unfortunate pilots would see their end by merely being exposed to freezing rift of the ice sphere.
"Now to take care of the rest of them..." The Beast huffed as he summoned a rune below the fleet.
"False providence." A shining light consumed the fleet. With that, the fleet was gone. Disappeared into thin air for the average spectator, however what the rune really connected to was a portal to hell. Literal hell as the victims of it would undergo perpetual torment for eternity. Living in a constant nightmare, as sorrow consumes to the point where they're beyond saving.
"This is the price you pay for what you did to my daughter..." The Beast stated solemnly as he remembers the time he spent with her. Yet he can only grieve for a moment as he felt his Daughter's spiritual connection start to shift.
"I'm going to save you Emilia, no matter what."