Chris's legs began to tremble uncontrollably, and an unprecedented, icy-cold fear spread crazily along his spine like a poisonous snake. He had never experienced such despairing terror and trembling in his life - even when he faced the Dementors full-scale invasion that made him think the end of the world was coming, he He has never been so scared. Ever since he went bankrupt and exhausted a huge amount of rare resources to force himself to the level of "Third Tier fighting Qi Martial Artist", Chris has always felt extremely confident and joyful, and he is full of Infinity hope and vision for the future.
However, now, when he raised his head and saw with his own eyes the terrifying giant bone hand that suddenly tore apart Void and covered the sky, all his confidence collapsed in an instant. The size of that bone hand was completely beyond the limits of human imagination. It looked even bigger and more suffocating than the entire earth - no, than the entire Solar System!
The moment he saw it, Chris felt that his mind was completely swallowed up by a pure and extreme fear of death. All worldly concepts about joy, health, stability and beauty were crushed to pieces in an instant, replaced by the absolute fear that Bleach was encroaching on like a gangrene in the bones.
Boom--!!!
Accompanied by a terrifying loud noise that seemed to tear the entire universe apart, everything in the world began to vibrate wildly and violently. This violent vibration abruptly woke Chris up from the state of death where he was completely frozen by fear. He waved his arms desperately, trying to stabilize his body in this apocalyptic earthquake.
Fortunately, for him and the tens of billions of creatures in the entire Solar System, a dazzling white light that was pure and flawless and exuded endless power suddenly descended into the vast space at the critical moment and turned into an indestructible Ultimate Barrier, protecting everyone under the shadow of that terrifying bone hand.
Chris vaguely heard the Identity Arcane Terminal on his wrist emitting an extremely harsh and crazy alarm, and the mechanical voice seemed to be constantly broadcasting warnings such as "Grand Arcane Shield has been fully activated".
However, at this moment, Chris had no time to listen carefully to those alarms, because the continuous horrific earthquakes that seemed to completely overturn the earth's crust had distracted all his attention. He looked around in horror, and saw countless complex and mysterious defensive magic arrays, springing up like mushrooms on the surrounding high-rise buildings, cracked streets, and even Blink, emerging crazily on the crumbling sky.
Boom--!
Not far from him, on a majestic building that was originally suspended in mid-air, the magic arrays of Blink suddenly dimmed completely and stopped functioning as if they had exhausted their energy. Immediately afterwards, the entire huge building completely lost its suspended anti-gravity support, and fell straight from the sky like a meteorite! Unfortunately, the place where it fell was the poor guy who was still struggling desperately during the earthquake, trying to keep his balance - Chris.
Bang!
With a dull impact, Chris's whole body erupted with an extremely dazzling, solid white Battle Aura halo. He relied on the strength of his body and tore a way out of the mountains of deadly ruins like a violent Beast.
He looked extremely embarrassed at the moment. His originally neat clothes had been completely stained by dust and mud, and his left shoulder was torn apart by sharp gravel, and dazzling blood was constantly pouring out. Chris Every heavy breath was accompanied by a heart-piercing pain. He clearly felt that he had broken several ribs, making it extremely difficult to breathe.
But even so, after luckily escaping this fatal disaster, there was still a trace of relief on his face. He thought to himself with great fear in his heart: If he hadn't been so ruthless back then, he would have sacrificed all his wealth and life. After completing the special set of devil training for the Third Tier position Qi Martial Artist, facing the devastating pressure just now, he has definitely turned into a miserable corpse that was crushed into pulp.
After being temporarily out of danger, Chris endured the severe pain, released all his perception with great concentration, and listened carefully to the weak and shrill cries for help coming from the ruins. Although he was seriously injured, he ran towards the nearest caller for help without hesitation.
He gritted his teeth and frantically activated the Battle Aura in his body, pouring it into his limbs and bones to forcibly strengthen his physical strength. Then he used his hands like shovels to dig through the heavy rubble, and dug out a pile of rubble from the depths of the ruins. A dying woman. Faced with the woman's incoherent and crying thanks, Chris had no time to pay attention. He just turned around extremely anxiously and immediately prepared to rescue the next trapped survivor.
However, before he could take the next step, the surrounding air suddenly began to twist extremely violently. In an instant, hundreds of elite Arcanists wearing magic robes accompanied by the explosion of space jump, collectively Apparition without warning, descended on the disaster area, and immediately launched Law of Thunder rescue with extremely terrifying efficiency!
Some of them Arcanist raised their staffs one after another and displayed extremely deep space and Gravity Magic, firmly supporting the crumbling buildings and suspended cars in the sky to prevent more tragedies from happening. While the other group of people, Quickly taking over the ruins on the ground, they used extremely precise magic to dig out the trapped civilians in an orderly manner, released a large-scale group healing technique, and jointly applied an extremely large Leyline Suppression Magic in an attempt to forcibly quell the earthquake that was still raging.
At the same time, densely packed small rescue interstellar ships suddenly appeared in the sky. They projected precise tractor beams, directly teleporting civilians trapped deep in the ruins and sucking them into safe cabins.
What's even more shocking is that the Golem Legion, which was formed like a torrent of steel, appeared out of nowhere. They rushed into the disaster area with extremely uniform and heavy steps, waving their robotic arms tirelessly, and began to use the extremely standard and unified "Repair Spell" to carry out extremely large-scale post-disaster reconstruction and repair work.
A medical doctor Arcanist soon noticed Chris who was covered in blood, and immediately stepped forward to perform healing magic on him. Since his broken ribs could only be regarded as insignificant "minor injuries" in Arcanist's eyes, the entire treatment process only took a few minutes. Chris felt a refreshing magic flow throughout his body, and the injury was completely healed.
After recovering, he immediately asked eagerly if he could be of any help, but the serious-looking Arcanist rejected him decisively and told him: As a civilian, he had done a good enough job just now, and all the mess that will follow, Empire The government will fully take over and deal with it properly. Seeing this, Chris could only retreat and ask them if they knew exactly what was happening. Cataclysm However, all he got was the same confused and heavy shake of the head in denial.
After recovering from his injuries and receiving the evacuation instructions that must be followed, Chris could only walk in the direction of his apartment with an extremely heavy heart. On the way back, he witnessed with his own eyes the tireless Golem Legion who were repairing most of the horrific damage at a speed that could be called miraculous. Even the magnificent buildings that fell from high altitudes and shattered into pieces began to miraculously recover under the power of magic.
If it weren't for the fact that the ground under our feet is still sending heart-stopping aftershocks from time to time, the air is still filled with the disgusting strong smell of blood, the screams of lost relatives are still lingering in our ears, and those who were Arcanist The rows of cold corpses that were so solemnly and properly buried would even give him an extremely ridiculous illusion - as if the Purgatory-like doomsday Cataclysm just now had never happened at all.
When he finally arrived at the apartment building where he was, the heart-rending wails became clearer and more piercing. He closed his eyes in pain, knowing very well that there were definitely many people in this community who had lost their most beloved relatives forever in this sudden natural disaster. Faced with this powerless tragedy, all he could do was to let out an extremely helpless and heavy sigh.
He verified his identity and opened the door to his apartment. The first thing he saw was his robot maid Angela, whose face was full of extremely human anxiety and worry, waiting for him eagerly at the door.
In normal times, if a robot housekeeper made of cold metal and programming showed such deep and complex human emotions, Chris would definitely feel a little creepy. However, after experiencing the despair of just passing by Bleach, at this moment, seeing this worried face, he felt an unprecedented sense of relief and comfort in his heart.
"Master, I am so happy to see that you are safe and sound." Angela immediately came up to him and said.
"Me too, Angela. Has our apartment suffered any serious damage?" Chris asked tiredly while changing out of his blood-stained robe.
"Yes, Master. Due to the violent law fluctuations just now, the 'Undetectable Extension Charm' used to open up space in the apartment has completely failed. We have lost those additional rooms that were expanded through magic forever."
After hearing this, Chris suddenly realized that his originally spacious apartment had now become extremely small and cramped. His extremely luxurious bathroom, the fully equipped Battle Aura practice room, and the quiet study filled with various magic books were all destroyed because of the loss of Space Magic's forcible support.
Just when he was secretly feeling sad about this small space, Angela reminded him very timely, "Master, I strongly recommend that you check your Identity Arcane Terminal immediately." Chris nodded. He also felt that in such a chaotic situation, it was absolutely necessary and wise to obtain official information as soon as possible.
He raised his wrist and found three unread top-secret messages marked in the highest red color quietly lying in the terminal. The first message was an official notification about the emergency activation of "Grand Arcane Shield". Before this, as a low-level civilian, Chris knew nothing about this term.
It wasn't until he clicked on the message that the extremely brief official description revealed the truth to him: This shield was the ultimate and last absolute defense card reserved by the Arcane Empire when facing the world-destroying Cataclysm that could subvert the entire galaxy.
The second message that followed was an extremely serious letter of comfort to all Empire citizens, imploring everyone to maintain absolute calm and restraint in this turbulent and difficult critical moment. Between the lines, the official government assured everyone with utmost certainty that although the situation in front of us seems to be doomsday, everything is still under the Empire's absolute control, and the situation is far from as desperate as it seems from the outside world.
And when Chris clicked on the third message, his eyes could not help but widen slightly. It was an extremely official commitment from Haki: Arcane Empire will fully bear and unconditionally compensate all citizens for all material losses suffered in this sudden disaster!
"It seems that there is no need for me to feel heartache over the invalid space expansion magic in the apartment," Chris muttered in a low voice. For the Empire government, it can be called Godspeed And extremely generous response measures, he felt an extremely strong sense of satisfaction and pride in his heart. Then, he immediately walked to the living room, turned on the holographic projection TV, and anxiously waited for any latest in-depth reports about this Cataclysm. However,
He found in despair that most of the news channels were in an extremely strange state of paralysis at the moment - even the official mouthpiece "Arcane News", which was responsible for relaying the Empire government's highest decisions and top-secret developments immediately, was covered in dazzling snowflakes at the moment.
After staring at the screen in agony for more than an hour, the earthquake outside that seemed like Limitless finally subsided to a barely tolerable level.
At the same time, a handful of news channels with extremely deep backgrounds finally recovered their signals with great difficulty. However, what makes Chris feel extremely anxious is that none of these channels dared to report directly on the true situation of the current world-destroying Cataclysm. All media showed extreme caution and silence in the face of this sudden storm.
They chose silence in an extremely tacit understanding, because no one dared to risk losing their heads at this juncture by spreading even a shred of false information that had not been officially confirmed. After all, in the face of the Arcane Empire's extremely iron-blooded laws, the price of spreading rumors and causing trouble was definitely something that media tycoons like them could not afford even if they lost all their money.
For the next twenty-four hours, the entire top management of the Empire seemed to have collectively fallen into a deathly silence. No official report was released to explain this shocking Cataclysm. Chris was like a stiff statue, sitting in agony in front of the holographic TV all night, without even closing its eyelids.
It wasn't until a certain moment the next day, when the TV screen suddenly Blink, and then the face of Akana Mikasa, the chief female news anchor with an alluring appearance and high national popularity, finally appeared in the center of the screen, Chris's extremely tense nerves finally felt a sense of relief.
"Interrupting an extremely painful emergency news," Akana's voice was extremely low and hoarse, even with a hint of sadness that was difficult to conceal. "Just yesterday, a high-ranking Ninth Tier bit True God - Bleach named Guznader, came to the police without any warning. All the top civilizations in the entire Milky Way Galaxy that have reached their peak level have launched an indiscriminate annihilation attack. In this Cataclysm, the once arrogant Interstellar Federation and the Machinist Tribe that dominated with purely technological routes have been completely declared dead and their entire army has been annihilated."
She paused and seemed to be calming down the turmoil in her heart with great difficulty. "Not only that, Elven Kingdom and Star-Skin Tribe also suffered devastating and horrific losses in this natural disaster, almost to the brink of annihilation. And our great Arcane Empire was not spared either... In this attack, we... we lost a total of 2.7 billion innocent compatriots!"
As the anchor's sad broadcast ended, the news screen suddenly switched to an edited top-secret actual combat video. In that extremely blurry video, Chris was shocked to see Empire supreme commander Mrs. Olivia, the extremely bloodthirsty Mrs. Bellatrix, and a The mysterious strong man (Grindelwald) who used magic to hide his true identity, the legendary Flamel couple, and the elder Dumbledore who had to tragically use Transfiguration to take on the appearance of the Grand Consul Ian in order to stabilize the morale of the army!
This group of beings, who represent the peak combat power of the Empire, are engaging in a terrifying and terrifying fight with a pitch-black shadow that is as huge as a mountain and exudes endless death energy! Although due to the extreme disorder of the laws at the core of the battlefield, the image quality of this video is extremely poor, and it is very long. It only lasted a few seconds, but the suffocating sense of despair and the brutality of the battle contained in it still hit the hearts of every civilian who watched the news without reservation and brutally, making them truly realize what a terrifying life-or-death situation Empire was facing.
After the official mouthpiece "Arcane News" disclosed these thunderous news with extreme restraint, the picture on the holographic screen flashed violently again, directly cutting into a highest-level national television speech hosted by Grand Archon Ian in person and addressed to all Empire.
This speech did not start with any passionate slogans. Instead, the supreme ruler took the lead in a three-minute extremely painful collective silence for all the Empire people who died innocently and tragically in this sudden Cataclysm. After the silence, the great consul said with a very poignant voice. Tou Li's voice slowly sounded. He coldly and unabashedly unveiled the most real and bloody horror of this vast multiverse to all the greenhouse flowers that had been living under the wings of the Empire, and profoundly explained the deadly threats that were hidden deep in the starry sky and could come at any time.
Later, the "Grand Consul" who looked extremely majestic in front of the camera (although many senior officials knew that he was just a stand-in to stabilize people's hearts), with an extremely firm voice, like a needle in the sea, sternly warned the hundreds of millions of people under his command not to fall into the abyss of despair. He declared extremely domineeringly: Greatness The Arcane Empire is absolutely prepared to use all its resources to meet the provocation of any external terrorist forces! He requires all citizens to immediately abandon their illusions and make the most comprehensive psychological and material preparations for an extremely long and cruel interstellar war of annihilation that is destined to completely involve the entire galaxy!
At the end of his speech, the Grand Consul solemnly made an ultimate promise that could drive the entire Empire crazy: Empire Imperial Family will do whatever it takes to be extremely miserable. At the price of pain, Empire's most core and highest-level "Taboo Resurrection Magic" is directly used to force those innocent dead people back to the world from the clutches of Bleach!
However, he also issued an extremely cruel warning: Since Bleach Guznader uses the most original ultimate Law of Death when launching an attack, even Empire's heaven-defying magic cannot guarantee that all victims will be perfectly Resurrection.
Due to the paralysis caused by Great Cataclysm, many infrastructures in the Empire are still in a state of complete shutdown. Chris can only continue to be trapped in his small apartment with extreme helplessness.
Two days later, he finally received the latest official follow-up notification through the terminal: In this huge Resurrection ceremony that drained countless precious resources from the Empire treasury, only about a quarter of the victims - a total of 675 million people - were miraculously pulled back from the scythe of Bleach. This extremely cold data immediately set off an extremely violent storm of public opinion and controversy among the people.
The family members of the victims who had truly experienced erasure at the legal level and who had completely encountered True Death but could not be Resurrection, fell into extremely hysterical madness. They were filled with grief and anger, crazily cursing the injustice of fate on the Internet, and asking in great pain why their loved ones were abandoned forever in the Abyss of death.
Faced with this extremely complex tragedy full of human struggle, Chris's mood can be described as mixed, and he doesn't even know what to think. On a rational level, he can very well understand the heart-wrenching and painful despair of those who have lost their loved ones; but on an emotional level, On the other hand, he felt a little disdainful of their selfish behavior that was almost moral kidnapping due to extreme grief. However, he did not struggle with this ethical dilemma for too long, because his attention was quickly completely diverted by two extremely important events that followed.
The first thing is that the Empire government once again issued an extremely heavy national compulsory order to the whole country. The official announced that all Identity Arcane Terminal watches worn by citizens must undergo an extremely core underlying system mandatory upgrade in the shortest possible time!
In this epic update, the inside of the terminal will be extremely hard-core Fusion into the most advanced space teleportation enchantment array and cross-Dimensional Leap technology. This extremely heaven-defying function, its only purpose of existence is to ensure that if Empire When once again encountered the devastating Cataclysm like the one a few days ago, he was able to instantly activate the forced teleportation program and extremely forcefully jump all citizens in the dangerous area directly to a large scale and exile them to another safe parallel dimension for refuge!
Of course, this order also gives an extremely strict risk warning: in some extremely terrifying disaster scenes filled with turmoil of high-order laws, due to the extreme disorder of the spatial dimension, this fool-like emergency space transmission is very likely to be severely disrupted or even completely paralyzed. In order to deal with this The worst kind Extremis, Empire The extremely wealthy government announced that it will immediately supervise the construction of a number of extremely special "doomsday-level evacuation bunkers" throughout the territory at any cost, as the last line of life-saving defense after the terminal fails.
From the beginning of their design, the strength of these bunkers has reached an abnormal level that is enough to withstand the complete explosion of an entire planet; what is even more exaggerated is that the officials even crazyly promise that in the future upgrade plan, the defense power of these shelters will be gradually increased to enough to survive the star explosion, the galaxy Annihilation, or even the extremely terrifying cosmic-level ultimate annihilation event in which the entire galaxy is completely destroyed. It can still save the lives of everyone inside!
As for the second thing that interrupted Chris's thoughts, he suddenly received an extremely personal video communication request from Doctor Jin. The other party asked about his recent situation with great concern and planned to conduct a routine review of his mental health, which may have been greatly stimulated.
After experiencing the most difficult soul intervention incident at the beginning, Chris only received a few intermittent psychological counseling sessions, and then voluntarily stopped frequent face-to-face consultations because he was very convinced that his strong willpower had returned to the right track of being extremely healthy and indestructible.
However, out of respect for this great lady and caution about his own soul state, he would still keep in touch with the other party from time to time and conduct some basic reviews. Therefore, although he felt a little flattered to receive personal greetings from the top spiritual arcane master at this extremely sensitive and chaotic juncture, he was not too surprised.