80: Nuclear war descends, all beings are equal
On the battlefield, the allied air and space legion had already arrived directly above the "Meat Grinder."
Victory seemed within reach.
Dragon Aotian's lips curved into a faint, almost imperceptible sneer—the sneer of a victor.
He was ready.
As soon as Heaven's Choice played his final anti-air card, whether it was summoning a Thunder Dragon or some powerful anti-air spell...
His true trump card—the SSS-grade Golden Sacred Dragon legion—would instantly cut into the battlefield from another angle, striking with the force of thunder to go straight for the kill!
He had even begun to plan how to divide Heaven's Choice's inheritance after destroying him, how to integrate these disorganized forces, and become the sole king of this war zone.
In the channel, the ordinary lords had already started celebrating prematurely.
"Hahaha! He's out of cards! His anti-air towers can't even reach us!"
"Balloon troops! Bomb! Bomb him hard! Take out his Hell Towers first!"
"Angel sister, heal me! My hero is going in!"
Everyone was immersed in the ecstasy of an imminent comeback, as if they had already seen Heaven's Choice's black fortress crumble beneath their feet.
However, at this very moment.
An indescribable tremor, originating from the deepest part of their souls, suddenly seized everyone's heart.
It wasn't fear.
Nor was it a premonition of danger.
But rather a feeling of being... "watched."
As if, from an infinitely high dimension, a pair of emotionless eyes cast down an indifferent gaze.
That gaze locked the entire battlefield, along with everyone on it, into a tiny, insignificant coordinate.
"What's going on?"
Zhinang was the first to notice something was wrong; he abruptly looked up at the blood-red sky.
The sky was very quiet.
Terribly quiet.
The frozen Sky Eagle Cannon still stood silently, like an eternal ice sculpture.
Thunder War God merely stood on the city wall, coldly watching the sky; the battle-axe in his hand wasn't even raised.
Everything seemed so normal.
But it was this extreme normality that revealed a chilling strangeness.
Had Heaven's Choice... given up resisting?
Impossible!
Just as that thought flashed by.
A mechanical, emotionless system prompt, as if from a higher-dimensional will, suddenly exploded in everyone's minds!
"Warning: High-energy Mythic Spell detected! A 'Space-Based Annihilation Strike' is about to be executed at coordinates (255, 478)!"
"Warning: Strike is imminent, all units within the area, evacuate immediately!"
"Countdown: 5..."
Space-Based Annihilation Strike?
What is that?!
Everyone was stunned; they instinctively looked towards the so-called coordinates.
That coordinate point was the exact center where their massive air and space legion was located!
"Quick! Scatter!"
Zhinang's pupils suddenly contracted to pinpricks; he roared hysterically with all his might!
However, it was too late.
"4..."
Above the sky, the blood-red firmament seemed to be torn open by an invisible hand, revealing a pitch-blackgap.
"3..."
A missile, trailing a long plume of fire, shimmering with a cold metallic luster, and full of violent aesthetics, slowly emerged from that pitch-blackgap.
On its warhead was a black and yellow radiation symbol that everyone instantly understood the meaning of, even if they didn't recognize it.
"2..."
At this moment, the entire world seemed to have been muted.
The roar of dragons.
The hymns of angels.
The battle cries of heroes.
The rumble of explosions...
All sounds vanished instantly.
In everyone's vision, only that slowly descending "Divine Punishment," representing ultimate destruction, remained.
Time seemed to stretch infinitely.
"1..."
Dragon Aotian's eyes were as wide as copper bells.
His face, flushed with excitement, instantly turned ashen white.
He stared fixedly at the missile, his mouth agape unconsciously, unable to make any sound.
He had thought Heaven's Choice might have powerful anti-air spells.
He had thought he might summon stronger units.
But he never dreamed.
Heaven's Choice... he...
He could actually drop a nuclear bomb from the sky?!!
"0..."
When the last second of the countdown reached zero.
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
The entire world was plunged into an extreme, pure, all-consuming... white light.
Within the white light, all things melted away.
Those arrogant dragons, before they could even let out a wail, were instantly broken down into their most basic particles.
Those holy and beautiful angels, their wings, their bodies, evaporated instantly like ice and snow under the sun.
Those witches, continuously summoning bats, along with their endless sea of bats, all turned into nothingness.
Those arrogant hero units, their proud skills and equipment, seemed so ridiculous in the face of this absolute, utterly unreasonable "true damage."
Their health bars were instantly wiped clean.
No process, only results.
Mythic Spell: Nuclear Fallout!
Before the rising "sun," all beings are equal!
When that blinding white light finally slowly dissipated.
On the battlefield, there appeared an enormous, absolutely vacuumed area, as if a god had violently erased a section with an eraser.
The sky became cleaner than ever before.
The ground was left with a massive, scorched crater, as if struck by a meteorite.
And on that scorched earth, a visible, green, ominous-looking radioactive dust, like a thin mist, lingered for a long time.
"Warning: This area has been contaminated by highly lethal nuclear radiation. All units entering this area will continuously take massive true damage for 30 seconds."
That air and space legion that once blotted out the sky.
The heroes of those forty-plus lords.
Their last hope.
All their trump cards.
Just like that... gone.
Wiped clean from this world by a single area-of-effect attack.
In the Demon-Slaying Expeditionary Force channel, there was dead silence.
All surviving lords were like soulless stone statues, staring blankly at the horrifyingly clean battlefield on their screens.
"Heh..."
"Heh heh..."
"Heh heh heh heh..."
After an unknown amount of time, Zhinang's avatar lit up, and he let out a series of meaningless, dry laughs, as if his mind had completely collapsed.
Zhinang: "We... we were like a bunch of clowns... We were still discussing tactics here... still analyzing his weaknesses... And in the end... in the end, he just waved his hand and flipped the chessboard over..."
His self-important, exquisitely clever tactics became a huge joke in front of the rising mushroom cloud.