CHAPTER 166: CHAPTER166-THE POWER OF THE PRIMORDIAL CORE WEAPON

Boom—!

Daniel hovered silently in midair, gazing out over the horizon as the earth trembled violently beneath him.

At the same time, panic spread like wildfire through the communication networks of every major race.

"What the hell just happened?! This quake—it’s exactly the same as the last one!"

"Don’t tell me... another entire race got wiped out?"

"Can anyone tell me where this explosion occurred?"

While the various species scrambled for answers, Daniel’s communicator lit up with dozens—no, hundreds—of voice call requests from the Human Emperor.

When he realized Daniel wasn’t going to answer, the emperor resorted to frantic voice messages:

"Daniel, what the hell is going on? Does this have anything to do with you?"

"Daniel, respond when you see this."

"Daniel... are you there?"

Daniel ignored them all.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to answer—it was that there was no point. He would soon use [Time Stream] anyway, reversing the state of events. Anything he said now would become meaningless.

He simply stood quietly in the air, patiently waiting for the aftermath of the explosion to settle.

After all, this wasn’t his first time witnessing the might of a Primordial Core Weapon.

Having experienced it once already, he now had a clearer understanding of just how terrifying this weapon truly was. That’s why this time, he didn’t stay near the explosion. Instead, he had returned to the safety of Winterhold Castle.

Soon after, both Alice and the Elven Queen sent him messages as well.

"Daniel, the Elven race has suffered a devastating blow from a Primordial Core Weapon. We are nearly annihilated..."

One could clearly feel the grief and weight in the Elven Queen’s words as she delivered this report.

Almost simultaneously, a message arrived from Charles.

"So, in the end, you failed. But what I really want to know is... why didn’t you become Her Grace the Luck Goddess’s devotee?"

Daniel also received another signal—this one a desperate prayer from Alice.

"O great Lord Crossbridge... the Elves have been struck down. Please, tell me what I must do next!"

Technically, the area where the City of Artists had once stood did not belong to any specific race. But the sheer blast radius of the Primordial Core Weapon was massive. Naturally, even the Elves were caught in the aftermath.

Daniel had already foreseen this outcome, which was exactly why he anticipated needing to use [Time Stream].

For now, he ignored Alice’s prayer. He would be returning shortly anyway, so responding was pointless.

Once the shockwaves from the explosion fully dissipated, Daniel activated his God Rank Skill—[Flashback].

When he opened his eyes again, he was once more standing in the heart of the ruined Artist City.

Or rather... what remained of it.

The cityscape had vanished. In its place lay a colossal crater, stretching for miles. The devastation was absolute.

Yet strangely, at the center of the pit, the massive cylindrical water tank remained completely intact, as though untouched by the blast.

And within it, the creature known as [New Life] still floated—its health bar reduced by only 30%.

"...Even the Primordial Core Weapon couldn’t one-shot this thing?" Daniel frowned, activating his [Eye of Insight].

[New Life]

[Current Status: Invincible. Remaining Time: 30 seconds.]

[Currently in Divine Guard mode. Cannot move. Cannot attack.]

So even a god created by the Artists was this difficult to kill.

Not even a Primordial Core Weapon could destroy it outright.

"Well then..." Daniel’s expression turned cold. "What if I used multiple weapons at once? Can you still endure it?"

Without hesitation, Daniel pulled ten more Primordial Core Weapons from his backpack.

He carefully set their timers—scheduled to detonate 31 seconds later, just after the creature’s invincibility ended.

Now that things had escalated to this point, Daniel had no intention of holding back. This was the perfect opportunity to fully test the true destructive potential of the Primordial Core Weapon.

But ten weapons weren’t enough.

Daniel retrieved ten more and set them to explode at 1 minute and 1 second.

Then another ten—for 1 minute and 31 seconds.

And finally, ten more—scheduled for a cataclysmic detonation at exactly 5 minutes and 1 second.

This time, he had committed nearly all his stockpile of weapons to the effort.

After setting all the timers, Daniel quietly returned to Winterhold Castle.

There, he strolled into a local tavern, casually ordered a glass of red wine, and floated in midair as he sipped its rich flavor.

And then...

BOOM!

The first explosion ripped through the earth, followed by another, and then another—each one more deafening than the last.

The ground convulsed as though Judgment Day had come. Before the tremors even ceased, the next wave of detonation struck, unleashing another apocalyptic shockwave across the continent.

On the communication networks, messages flooded in like a tsunami:

"The vampire clans have been annihilated!"

"Half of the Orc territory has been turned to dust!"

"Has the Millennium Apocalypse really begun?!"

Across the entire system, nearly every race had come to the same conclusion:

The Apocalypse had arrived.

But they couldn’t have been more wrong.

Not a single one of them realized that this entire chain of destruction had been orchestrated by Daniel alone.

The Primordial Core Weapon’s sheer power had thrust the world into panic. Even in the farthest reaches of the continent, people could feel the tremors beneath their feet. Those who survived were left trembling with fear, haunted by a single question:

"Am I next?"

In the Divine Temple, Ally knelt reverently, praying with all her heart to the gods above.

Even with all her strength, she was powerless.

Stopping a force of this magnitude was like trying to block a tidal wave with a twig.

A profound sense of helplessness took root in her heart.

Meanwhile, deep within the demon territories, even Charles was shaken to his core by the scale of the devastation.

He had sensed that Daniel was up to something.

But no matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn’t figure out why the Primordial Core Weapon had exploded... not once, not twice, but over and over again!

And even more confusing—Daniel still had not become the Luck Goddess’s devotee.

Just what kind of transformation had this man undergone?

...

Panic gripped the world.

But Daniel—the very one who caused it all—remained utterly calm.

Once the world had finally fallen silent again, his figure reappeared in the City of Artists.

At the center of the deep crater, the once-indestructible [New Life] now had only 8% of its HP remaining.

"Well, I’ll be damned," Daniel murmured, narrowing his eyes. "You’re pretty bomb-resistant, huh?"

"No wonder—the body of a god truly is durable."

Based on his calculations, he’d need at least one more full barrage to completely destroy it.

But there was a problem.

[New Life] possessed several powerful invincibility-type traits.

If any one of those were to activate during the next detonation, it would render all the explosions meaningless.

He would have to wait patiently for its invincibility state to expire before unleashing the final blow.

As for [New Life] itself, it continued performing its programmed duties without hesitation or doubt.

Even though there were no longer any living Artists left in the city, it still clung stubbornly to its task.

"Intruder detected. Target classified as enemy."