Balder raised a hand.
Light erupted from his skin, transforming his palm into pure radiance — no flesh, no bone, only divine brilliance. His fingers formed a blade, and with a single downward motion—
Slash!
A fragment of the psychic crystal split cleanly apart, a shard the size of a man's fist falling into his hand.
From the severed surface, waves of murky, unseen energy began to seep out — invisible to the naked eye, but palpable to the spirit. Shadows coiled and hissed, a corrosive force that made the air itself shiver.
Under Balder's control, the light of divinity flared. The holy power of illumination pressed down upon the crystal, squeezing out every trace of darkness.
Streams of negative energy — resentment, fear, hatred — were expelled from the main crystal, drawn into the smaller fragment until it turned pitch black, absorbing all light.
Balder looked at the ominous shard, and a faint, amused smile touched his lips.
"Perfect."
The energy inside was now completely corrupted — no longer the slow, insidious darkness that gradually infected human hearts, but a condensed, violent force.
Anyone who came into contact with it would not simply "fall."
They would plummet — consumed instantly, transformed rapidly, their power surging in a brutal, uncontrolled awakening.
A perfect catalyst.
A perfect pawn.
He turned the black crystal between his fingers, its surface glinting like a fragment of the night sky.
He could simply leave it here, wait for the three destined figures — those chosen by fate in Chronicle — to find it.
But there was another way.
A more… spectacular way.
One that would make the entire world watch.
Balder's smile deepened.
The next instant—
Light exploded into the heavens.
A pillar of divine radiance burst skyward, bright enough to rival the sun.
Within moments, a second dawn ignited across the night — the same blazing "miracle" that had shocked the world days ago.
Only this time, it wasn't calm and sacred.
It was furious.
Judgmental.
A voice rolled across the night like the roar of a dying star:
"Fallen follower—be purged!"
The heavens trembled. The ground quaked.
Countless threads of divine light converged above, coalescing into a titanic figure of pure brilliance, a godlike colossus wreathed in radiance. Its very presence banished the night, flooding the land in gold.
The Divine Giant of Light raised a fist the size of a house—
And brought it down.
BOOM!!!
The world cracked open. The shockwave leveled trees, split the earth, and sent shockwaves echoing for miles.
And then—
"Tsk, tsk…"
A voice slithered through the destruction — eerie, mocking, tinged with insanity.
"So this is the might of a god's emissary? How… disappointing."
From the depths of the crater, darkness surged upward — a storm of chaotic, abyssal energy, twisting and writhing as it took form.
Within moments, a colossal entity of shadow stood opposite the giant of light.
It had no solid shape — only darkness upon darkness, with twin scarlet eyes burning like embers of hate.
Light and shadow collided without a word.
Each blow tore open the land; each clash sent waves of power rolling through the air.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM—
The battlefield became a wasteland. Craters hundreds of meters wide opened one after another. Forests, homes, entire hills vanished in the storm.
It was as if two divine armies were waging war — god and demon, faith and corruption.
Then—
A furious roar erupted from within the darkness.
"You lunatic! You just descended into this vessel—if you keep using that power, you'll destroy it completely!"
The shadow raged in disbelief.
Balder's voice thundered in reply, majestic and cold:
"Die, fallen one!"
The sky split open.
A pillar of divine light, thick as a mountain, shot downward, connecting heaven and earth.
For a moment, the world fell silent.
One second. Two. Three—
BOOOOOOM!!!!
The explosion swallowed everything.
A blinding white detonation bloomed, followed by a towering mushroom cloud that pierced the stratosphere. The sound was deafening, the light unbearable.
From within that blinding storm came a monstrous, unwilling scream—
"No…! I won't accept this!"
"I haven't summoned my master yet!"
"I—WILL—NOT—FALL!!!"
The dark entity convulsed violently, its form imploding inward before detonating outward again, releasing a surge of annihilating energy that devoured everything in its path.
When at last the chaos subsided, the world fell into silence.
The land was gone.
Where forests and lakes once lay, there was now a barren wasteland — an endless plain of scorched earth and craters.
At its center yawned a massive abyss, so deep that even light seemed afraid to enter.
Just looking into it made the heart tremble.
A faint streak of light shot out from the pit — Balder's remnant glow — disappearing high into the night sky.
One minute. Two minutes…
Then came the roar of engines.
Convoys of armored vehicles rolled in from all directions, followed by a swarm of helicopters that filled the air. Floodlights lit up the night as troops poured in, their weapons raised, their faces pale.
When the generals and officials arrived and saw the devastation, they could only gape.
"F—fuck…"
The curses came one after another.
Finally, an aging general, decorated with stars and medals, landed from a helicopter.
He stared at the flattened landscape, at the massive craters stretching for miles — especially the one at the center, which looked like a nuclear test site.
His lips trembled.
"Tell me that wasn't a nuke."
Silence.
He rubbed his forehead, exhaling through his teeth.
"Gods and demons… fighting in America…"
He looked at the wasteland again and muttered bitterly,
"That's not funny, not one damn bit."