Spear of Doom

For a time, everything around Valerian began to explode.

Humans, protoss, the Moebius Hybrid, and the void phantoms it had created were locked in a chaotic melee. Smoke and dust from the explosions rose into the sky like withered fingers, while the traces and wreckage of war covered the entire temple.

Flames washed over the temple walls again and again. The boiling hiss of energy weapons melting metal sounded like a giant snake wailing amid the fire. The air was heated repeatedly until it became scorching and abrasive, like constantly rubbing sandpaper. Even the once-indestructible walls groaned beneath the erosion of void energy, blackening and blistering like sheets of plastic held over a flame before gradually collapsing beyond all restraint.

Now, whenever Valerian looked up, he could see the sky through the temple's shattered dome. The beam weapons of the protoss Fleets stretched across the heavens, dazzling like approaching stars as they circled the crown of the sky, fell, scorched the atmosphere without pause, and finally struck down on the far side of the planet.

The Dae'uhl Doctrine had become a thing of the past. The protoss committed every weapon they possessed to the battlefield without reservation, using them to unleash the most terrifying slaughter and destruction this planet had ever known.

Many protoss still believed that glassing a planet was the only way to purge void corruption, just as they had done when dealing with the Zerg. If they were certain that everything was beyond saving, then rather than let it become a conduit for Amon's invasion of the real world, its best possible end was complete destruction, like Shakuras.

Rather than sink into a dreadful war of attrition like a quagmire, the protoss preferred to erase the battlefield directly from the map.

Over the past ten years, the