CHAPTER 179: FULL AUTHORITY

[: Daniel’s POV :]

I had watched my mother fight before, during sparring sessions, demonstrations, the controlled pure strength, but nothing compared to what I had just witnessed.

Those feathered, angel-like beings she fought earlier weren’t simple intruders.

They were beings from higher planes, brimming with divinity.

Their presence were heavy enough to suffocate the weak.

Yet Mother...faced them without blinking.

She carved through them like they were nothing more than air.

Her destruction was elegant, terrifying, and awe-inspiring.

It was a bit different than mine.

If mine was something that was terrifying to the end, hers was something beautiful.

The earth cracked where she stepped, the sky trembled when she swung her arm, and one after another, the fallen angels were shredded by her overwhelming might.

It was incredible, so incredible that for a moment, I genuinely forgot to breathe.

I had wanted to intervene earlier, but after seeing that display...how could I?

Underestimating her would have been an insult.

If anything... she truly was my mother.

We were both anomalies, aberrations that shouldn’t exist on a planet of this tier.

Our power was too unnatural, too extreme. And if the world had any idea what we were truly capable of, they might start questioning whether the fates themselves had made a mistake by allowing us to exist.

Then again, perhaps the Emperor and Empress of the other continents were the same.

I’d thunk about that later.

Eventually, I appeared in front of her in a blur.

"Mother, that was... incredible."

She turned, startled. "Son?"

Her expression softened instantly before shifting into concern.

"Shouldn’t you be at the academy...?"

"I was," I answered.

"But things changed. The academy is under attack by gates, thousands of them. From the looks of it..."

I glanced toward the horizon where pillars of light, fire, and collapsing landscapes stretched endlessly.

"The whole world is being invaded."

Mother’s shoulders sagged a little.

"So it’s that bad...? Sigh... you should have been able to enjoy your time there. To live like a normal student. But fate doesn’t seem to allow that for you..."

Her voice was faintly trembling, not out of fear, but out of frustration and sadness.

She didn’t ask how I got here so quickly.

She didn’t need to.

Even if she didn’t know the full extent of my abilities, she knew enough, enough to accept without question that I had destroyed all Zero Organization bases and annihilated trillions of monsters in the Forbidden Continent.

Knowing that, my sudden appearance wasn’t surprising to her.

"You don’t need to blame yourself, Mother," I said gently.

"These things... they happen. And the only thing we can really do is keep moving forward."

"...You’re right, son."

She took a deep breath, gathering her resolve again, though her eyes remained clouded.

"What’s the situation here?" I asked.

"Not good," she answered honestly.

"Maiya and the others are doing everything they can"

"They’re saving citizens while trying to fight at the same time, it’s difficult"

"And the invaders’ numbers are too large compared to our current manpower."

She clenched her fist, her knuckles turning white.

"And right now... we’ve already lost around 500,000 lives."

Her voice cracked slightly.

I stepped closer and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You did great, Mother. Even with those numbers... you did your best. You kept more people alive than anyone else could have."

Her eyes softened.

"Thank you, my dear... for comforting your mother."

She exhaled, steadying herself.

"We should regroup with the others. That would be the wisest course of action."

"That sounds good to me," I replied.

"Let’s go find Maiya first."

With a thought, I activated Void Step.

Space twisted, and a moment later, the world snapped into focus again.

We arrived in one of the major cities of the Human Continent.

And the sight that greeted us was nothing short of hell.

This city... once known as a gem visited by nobles and elites from other continents... was burning.

Foreign flames devoured buildings.

Smoke blanketed the sky.

Cries of pain and terror echoed between the collapsing structures.

Citizens ran in every direction, parents carrying their children, elderly stumbling in fear, people clutching the injured and dragging them away from frontlines.

Soldiers and knights attempted to calm them, pushing them toward shelters while desperately trying to protect them.

Further away, mercenaries, guild members, and various organizations fought in clusters, some at the ground level, others mid-air, clashing against invaders pouring from the sky like a tsunami.

Screams, explosions, roars, and shattering buildings all blended into a single unbearable symphony.

It was chaos so absolute that it felt like blood and fire were dancing together to a song authored by calamity itself.

"There she is, Mother," I said, pointing upward.

High above, Maiya, the Head Maid, the commander of the Sacred Valkyries, was battling fiercely.

Normally, she wore her formal maid uniform, her presence refined and gentle.

But now?

Now she was a warrior.

She wore gleaming gold armor that radiated golden light, with white-gold inscriptions etched across her breastplate.

A circular shield rested on her left arm, decorated with a winged emblem.

Her sword was shining with holy flames, and on her back... a pair of radiant wings unfurled, beating against the sky.

Blood splattered her armor, some of it hers, most of it from her enemies, but she showed zero signs of exhaustion.

If anything, she seemed to grow stronger with every enemy she cut down.

Her aura surged like a sun refusing to be extinguished.

But she wasn’t alone.

She was facing three enemies, three beings whose power overshadowed even their thousands of minions.

They had cracked scales all over their bodies.

Their wings were jagged, some feathers molten and dripping like black magma.

And they held spears hummed with an dark resonance that warped the very air.

Maiya blocked two strikes simultaneously, sparks scattering like shards of stars, while the third being raised its spear to impale her from above.

She shot backward, wings beating furiously, but the three chased her relentlessly, leaving long ripples of distorted space behind them.

Mother’s fists tightened.

"She’s being pushed too hard," she muttered, her jaw clenching.

"These ones... they’re not ordinary."

I nodded.

Maiya’s blade carved a blazing arc through the sky, her armour beating with desperate force as she parried a lance of radiant destruction.

One enemy, she could have crushed with certainty.

Two, she could have endured.

But three beings, each radiating the power of a calamity-level invader, each reinforced by the swarm of fallen soldiers behind them... the outcome was clear.

If this continued, she would die.

Her stance was faltering.

Her shield was cracked.

Her breaths were sharp, strained.

And yet, she refused to retreat.

I didn’t hesitate.

I stepped beside my mother, and together we surged upward like twin streaks of doom.

"P-Prince!?" Maiya gasped the moment she saw me.

The shock in her voice was raw, almost disbelieving, like seeing a miracle descend from the heavens.

But there was no time.

"Maiya," I said, my voice steady and final, "let me end it here. We have no time."

The three beings noticed me immediately.

Their hollow, twisted voices rang out in unison.

"A mortal approaches the battlefield of ascended ones?"

"Arrogant child!"

"What meaningless defiance!"

They didn’t finish their sentence.

Before Maiya could even open her mouth to question me more, I lifted my hand.

Essence of Nothingness gathered instantly, swirling into form, raw, devouring, absolute.

A sword manifested within my grasp, elegant yet terrifying, as if forged from erased realities.

The moment I swung it...the world split.

A roar of sword essence, massive enough to dwarf the entire battlefield, erupted from the blade.

It didn’t simply cut, it unmade.

Space collapsed in a line so clean it was as if creation itself bowed aside.

The wave swallowed the three enemies whole.

In an instant, the trio, beings strong enough to overwhelm even Maiya, were obliterated.

They were not injured or wounded, they were simply rased.

Maiya froze mid-flight, trembling.

My mother’s eyes widened, her breath caught.

But I wasn’t finished.

Below us, the entire city was infested with gates, dozens, hundreds, each spewing armies that drowned the land in chaos.

I raised two fingers.

[: Void Singularity :]

Hundreds of thousands of miniature black orbs bloomed around me, each swirling with crushing gravity and utter annihilation.

They spun like a galaxy of death.

[: Eyes of Calamity: Target Locked :]

With the combination of skills, the Void Singularities vanished

And then the world erupted in blinding flashes.

One by one, every gate and every invaders across the burning city was erased, no screams, no resistance, just silence and collapsing space.

A tidal wave of destruction rippled across the continent.

Both my mother and Maiya stared at me, speechless.

They had heard of my feats... but seeing them firsthand was a completely different reality.

There was awe, pride and shock.

All of it flickered in their eyes.

But I didn’t let them linger in it.

"Mother. Maiya." I looked at both of them, voice firm.

"Let the Valkyrie Maids and the soldiers below tend to the citizens. We will regroup with the others."

My mother exhaled softly, and smiled.

Maiya, bloodied and exhausted, still found the strength to straighten her back and salute deeply.

"Son," Mother said, her tone resolute,

"I will leave the decision-making to you. From here on, you have full authority to command."

"I will follow whatever orders you give, Prince!" Maiya declared.

I nodded, lifting my sword.

"Good," I said.

"Then we proceed."