Pride was dead.
The Knife had killed Pride.
The Seven Corruptors had existed for the entire era.
Thousands of years.
Never had any of them died.
But now, that had changed.
When a Specter died, their body turned into black mist.
This represented their Zephyx breaking down into Prephyx again.
The amount of Prephyx added to the atmosphere as Pride, a Peak Fallen, died was immense.
Around 3,000 kilometers south of where Pride died, there was one of Aegis' strongholds.
This one was in the middle of the Long Continent and represented Aegis' influence on that continent.
Just a single second after Pride died, something appeared on top of the base.
It was over 50 meters wide and 70 meters long.
It was made of red metal and had treads on two of its edges.
A gigantic cannon came out of the top of its body.
This was one of the most ancient weapons of the Ancient Ones.
They called them tanks.
But this specimen was far, far bigger than even the biggest tanks from back then, and it also seemed much more noticeable due to its shining red color.
The top of the tank had two lights that seemed to emit black lights.
They looked like two eyes.
In an instant, the cannon pointed at the stronghold.
Then, it fired.
BOOOOOOOOOM!
A gigantic explosion!
The entire world seemed to be engulfed in flames as a second sun seemed to appear where the stronghold had just been.
Even the tank was engulfed in the explosion.
The fireball was 20 kilometers wide!
20 kilometers of nothing but fire!
There were not many things that could unleash so much power, but the gigantic red tank was one of them.
War.
The huge tank was War.
War was probably the Adversary with the strongest and most devastating attack.
Its attack was even stronger than Death's attack.
As the fire engulfed the stronghold, something else was happening somewhere else.
A black tsunami of smoke covered the horizon west of Aegis' headquarters and rapidly moved towards it.
WHOOOM!
But then, Aegis' headquarters exploded in sunlight, and the black smoke was split like it was a river hitting a humongous boulder in its middle.
A moment later, the Champion of Light shot out of the headquarters, stopping above it as he looked towards the west.
A crying face filled with suffering appeared in the smoke before more smoke shot forward.
The light was pushed back, but the Champion of Light just glared towards the west.
"I will not let humanity die!" the Champion of Light shouted.
The Sun in the sky seemed to shimmer.
"I will not let humanity die!"
"I will not let humanity die!"
And the Champion of Light's words were heard in every single spot in the world!
Every single human heard the voice and collectively looked up at the Sun.
The Champion wouldn't let them down!
The Champion was their hope!
Imperceivably small rays of light came out of the humans.
The rays all moved towards the sun.
Meanwhile, on top of Aegis' headquarters…
BOOOOOM!
Incomprehensibly bright light!
All of Aegis was covered in a kilometer-wide pillar of pure white light!
The Champion of Light summoned a golden sword and held it up to the sky.
The light gathered on the blade, creating a shining edge.
"Humanity will not die today!" the Champion shouted.
Then, he slashed forward.
WHOOOOOOOM!
A white crescent shot forward, cutting through the black smoke like it was nothing.
In an instant, the white crescent cut through the black face in the black smoke.
The face distorted before turning into black mist, making a sound akin to thousands of screeching souls.
The black smoke in the surroundings weakened before dispersing.
Yet, even more things were happening in other places across the world.
Near the northern edge of the western part of the Grand Continent was a huge ruin of shining metal.
It looked like there used to be a humongous building here.
But now, there were only outlines left.
In the middle of the ruin was a crying girl with red skin.
She covered her eyes with her hands as she cried uncontrollably.
"I'm still hungry," she cried. "Why am I still hungry?"
Just a couple of seconds ago, this ruin had been one of Aegis' strongholds.
And the girl crying in the middle of the ruin was Gluttony, one of the Seven Corruptors.
She had consumed the entire stronghold.
BANG!
The sky shook as two unstoppable forces crashed against each other above the northern stronghold of the War Continent.
A heavily armored and muscular man burning with rage and hatred was pushed back by the exchange.
Meanwhile, an old man with a bandana covering his eyes exploded opposite of Wrath.
Yet, at the same time, a green light appeared on the old man's head, linking it to a younger man at the side.
The young man seemed to age a bit while the blind old man's body regrew.
BANG!
Wrath had to block an attack coming from the side, which was quickly followed by the explosive sound of a sniper rifle being shot.
Wrath wanted to destroy this stronghold, but a team of five Protectors, one of them being a Peak Protector, had been nearby and intercepted him.
Wrath knew that he had failed.
Spending more time on the attack would give the Shields time to hunt him down.
Meanwhile, near a stronghold in the north of the Grand Continent, a bored and annoyed-looking teenage girl looked at a young man hovering above the stronghold. Ŕ
There were black rings under the girl's eyes, making her look like she hadn't slept in forever.
The girl just looked at the hovering man with exasperation before sighing and vanishing.
With the Technician defending this base, Sloth wouldn't get far.
Meanwhile, near the middle of the Grand Continent, impossible powers seemed to clash.
A dying zombie was pulling a hearse filled with rotting corpses through the sky.
Beside the zombie was an unbelievably big swarm of aggressive locusts.
There were probably over a trillion locusts in that swarm!
Opposing them were the Politician, the Left Arm, and the Right Arm.
They had exchanged a couple of blows just now, but none of them had truly committed to the fight.
Pestilence and Famine knew that they could win, but they also knew that they wouldn't be fast enough.
Prolonged fighting was bad for them since humans were amazing at pulling all their soldiers together in a single point.
The Specters were qualitatively and quantitatively superior to humanity, but humans always attacked one Specter with at least three humans, while the other Specters couldn't find anyone to attack.
The Knife could have already left the north of the Long Continent.
The Knife was like War in the sense that she could unleash a devastating attack in an instant.
If the Knife managed to hit one of them, they might not be the favorites to win the fight anymore.
That was why the Knife's location had been secret all this time.
With her position unknown, the Specters couldn't commit to an attack.
For the last couple of seconds, they had been free to attack, but that window was closing now.
There would be no more fighting in this location.
Meanwhile, near the east of the Grand Continent, a fat and crusty man with acne glared at the five people in front of him.
He looked like he was about to throw a temper tantrum.
"You win this time, Chads, but you will see! In the future, we are going to rise again!" he shouted as he pointed at the five people.
Then, the fat man's face turned red, and he seemed to vanish into the ground.
Another group of five Protectors had been protecting this stronghold.
Fortunately, Lust couldn't get through.
In the northeast of the Desolate Continent, Simon and several other Protectors were looking into the huge hole.
The starving child at the bottom looked up.
It didn't dare to exit.
Its time would come in the future.
All of this had happened in the span of ten seconds.
Near the end of the ten seconds, the humongous fireball covering the stronghold on the Southern Continent was vanishing, revealing a humongous Barrier.
War looked down and saw a tall man collapsing in the middle of the stronghold, which was still in one piece.
The Wall.
The Wall had been here, and he had managed to block War's attack.
Sadly, that had cost him all of his Zephyx.
War looked down.
It could fire another shot soon.
However, ten seconds had already passed, and that was a lot of time.
It was possible that the Knife was almost here.
If the Wall and the Knife joined forces, War would be in a lot of trouble.
In the end, War decided that it had caused enough damage for now.
Safety was more important.
The Specters had infinite time.
A new opportunity would come.
The next moment, War vanished.
Ten seconds.
In these ten seconds, thousands of Extractors died.
Sadly, except for Pride, not a single Specter died.