CHAPTER 229: THE GAROGS HAS ARRIVED (3)

A single, small airlock on the colossal stone ship hissed open. And from the void, a solitary figure emerged.

It was the Garog leader, the "Honored One." He floated in the silent vacuum of space, his four powerful arms crossed over his broad, stone-like chest.

He was not wearing a helmet or any discernible life support. The crushing cold and the airless void seemed to have no effect on his formidable frame.

He descended at blinding speed. It took him some force to cross into the atmosphere, and when he did everyone could finally see him from below. But it was clear that he could not come any closer as a result of the barrier.

He looked down at the aura of the Planetary Barrier enveloping Thanad below, and the expression on his alien face was one of contempt.

In the command bunker, the operators stared at their screens in disbelief. "Sovereign... it’s just... one of them," an Elven technician stammered.

On the city walls, Karl squinted at the sky. "What is this? Are they sending a diplomat? A very ugly diplomat?"

But Adrian knew. The immense aura radiating from that single being was a power that dwarfed anything he had faced.

This was no diplomat. This wasn’t an attack. This was a planned execution, and the Garog high priest believed he was the only executioner needed.

His fear from moments ago solidified into a grim, cold understanding of the situation. This was the true test.

In the void of space, the Garog leader, uncrossed his arms. He slowly raised one of his four powerful fists. He began to gather energy.

From Adrian’s [Omnisense] perspective, the sight was a cosmic horror. He saw a terrifying amount of mana being drawn, funneling into the high priest.

The very fabric of space around the Garog’s fist seemed to warp and distort, the starlight bending around a point of impossible gravitational and energetic force.

Then, his deep, rumbling voice boomed through the air, reaching the ears of every single person on the planet below.

{Hear me, insects who slew a god. I am Kharn, High Priest of the Garog and the voice of his vengeance. You hide behind your coward’s shell, a pathetic ward of light and trickery. I will shatter it with a single blow. Witness the might of a true believer and know despair.}

No one on the ground, from the mightiest Elf Lord to the most common human soldier, could understand the alien words. It was a foreign language unlike anything they had ever heard. But the raw, murderous intent behind it was universal, a promise of absolute annihilation that chilled them to the bone.

Adrian, however, found it surprising that he understood every single word perfectly.

’It’s the same language,’ he thought, his mind racing as he made the critical connection. ’The same tongue spoken by those necromantic creatures in the Elven forest.’

He recalled the split-second decision he had made during that fight, the impulsive purchase from the System. He had spent a hundred thousand Tech Points on the language pack, a sum he had immediately thought was a panicked waste.

But it was proving to be invaluable now. It still made him wonder, though. ’Does the assassin who created those creatures have a direct connection to the Garog?’

There was no more time to ponder. Kharn made his move.

He punched.

It wasn’t a beam or a projectile. It was a physical strike that seemed to break the very laws of physics. A silent, invisible wave of pure kinetic and psionic force erupted from his fist, a distortion in reality itself that crossed the distance to the planet in an instant.

The wave struck the Planetary Barrier.

~GOOOOONNNNNGGGGGG~

The impact was not an explosion; it was a sound. A single, deafening, planet-wide note of pure, resonant energy that was not heard with the ears, but felt in the very soul of every living being on Thanad.

The shield flashed violently, turning a brilliant white at the point of impact. Massive, continent-sized ripples of emerald light spread out across the entire globe, like a stone dropped into a planetary pond. The shield held.

A small, satisfied smile touched Adrian’s lips. An [Analysis] notification, visible only to him, confirmed his confidence.

[PLANETARY SHIELD INTEGRITY: 99%]

"Weaker than expected," he murmured to himself.

High above, Kharn looked dumbfounded, his four eyes wide with disbelief. He stared at the shimmering, unblemished barrier, wondering why it hadn’t shattered into a million pieces.

His plan was never to be involved in the ground fight; he had only come to help his people shatter the planetary defense they had identified from a distance. For it to hold before his might... it was an embarrassing affront to his power and his position as High Priest.

His disbelief quickly curdled into pure, contemptuous rage. He let out a silent prayer to his fallen god, a vow of absolute destruction.

He then began to gather mana into all four of his hands this time. The space around each of his fists began to glow and distort, a vortex of raw power swirling around each one.

With a deafening roar that this time was purely for show, he flew upwards, then descended like a living meteor, aiming to land with his entire body weight and the full might of his four-fisted attack on the barrier.

Everyone below braced themselves, expecting something far bigger to come from this massive, enraged assault. They covered their ears, their bodies tensing for the impact. The force was immense, the light of the impact so bright it momentarily turned night into day.

When the glare cleared, Adrian’s eyes, still glowing a calm blue, looked at the new integrity reading.

[PLANETARY SHIELD INTEGRITY: 90%]

"Not bad," he muttered with genuine, unbothered confidence, while everyone around him was still panicking from the sheer force of the blow.

Meanwhile, Kharn’s face was filled with even more disbelief and incandescent anger as he struggled to grasp what had happened.

He had just used his strongest physical attack, a move that took off most of his mana reserves. He had expected it to be a massive overkill. An attack of that magnitude could have wiped out most of the Transcendent beings down there, but the barrier was still as stable as ever.

His telepathic voice boomed across the planet again, this time laced with a furious frustration.

{Insolent creatures! You think this trickery can save you? Give up now! I will use everything in my power to tear down this shield, no matter the cost! I will grind your world to dust myself!}

It seemed he was ready to give it his all.

Just after his proclamation, Kharn flew back several hundred meters into the cold void. He raised all four of his arms to the sky and began to summon a truly terrifying amount of mana.

He was ready to deliver another, even more powerful attack. If one couldn’t do the job, maybe ten more would.