’A mistake?’
That made me even more angry. I moved.
The first one, a Naga, barely had time to raise his arm before my fist connected with his face. The impact crushed through his skull, sending him flying across the ground, tearing through structures before slamming into the distance.
I didn’t need to follow him.
The second one reacted first, trying to force his domain into existence, but I was already moving before it could take shape. I appeared in front of him in an instant and closed my hand around his throat, cutting off both his breath and his control.
His body lifted effortlessly as I raised him off the ground, and without slowing down, I drove him straight into the surface below. The impact shattered the ground beneath us, cracks spreading in all directions as his body absorbed the force.
"You decided attacking me was a good idea?" I said, my voice low as I lifted him again and slammed him down once more, even harder than before. He was a Feran and durable, but not enough. I could feel his body breaking under my grip. Before he could even attempt to recover, I drove my fist into his chest, the strike collapsing bone and tearing through muscle as blood burst outward. His body went limp almost instantly, and I tossed him aside like he was nothing more than debris.
The third one came at me in desperation, trying to attack before fear could take over. I stepped forward and met him halfway, not giving him even a moment to build momentum. My fist connected with his face, snapping his head to the side, followed immediately by another strike to his torso that crushed through his defenses.
Each hit landed clean and heavy, breaking him apart piece by piece as he tried to fight back. I caught his arm mid-swing, twisted it with a sharp motion, and tore it free from his body. His scream echoed briefly before I silenced it by slamming him into the ground again and again until his body stopped reacting altogether.
The fourth attempted to flee.
He didn’t make it two steps.
I appeared directly in front of him, cutting off his path completely. "No," I said quietly as my hand closed around his head. Then I drove him into the ground with brutal force, the impact forming a deep crater beneath us. I didn’t stop there. I lifted him and smashed him down again, and again, each strike more violent than the last, until there was nothing left of his body that could even resemble a living being.
The last one didn’t move. Because he couldn’t. Fear had rooted him where he stood.
I walked toward him slowly, my steps echoing faintly across the broken ground. He tried to speak, his mouth opening as if to beg, to explain, to say anything that might save him.
I didn’t give him the chance.
My fist drove straight into his abdomen, the force lifting him off the ground entirely as the air left his body in a broken gasp. I held him there for a brief moment, just long enough for him to understand, before slamming him down with everything I had.
The impact echoed across the entire city.
And then there was silence. I stood there in the middle of it, surrounded by an army that could not move, thousands of eyes fixed on me, forced to witness every moment of what had just happened.
I let the silence settle for a moment longer before moving again.
My perception tracked the frozen army below, I waved my hand and pulled out hundred of the strongest ones.
Their bodies lifted off the ground, pulled upward as if the very space around them had turned against them. They struggled, some trying to break free, others trying to understand what was happening, but none of it mattered.
I had already chosen them.
They rose higher, their forms trembling as they were dragged through the air and brought closer to me.
"These ones will do," I said quietly.
"You’re going to be useful," I said.
Their eyes locked onto me, some filled with anger, most with fear.
"There are ships on this planet," I continued. "Docked. You will board them, leave this planet, and follow my instructions."
One of them tried to speak, but I cut him off with a slight movement of my hand.
"I will be watching," I added. "Do not test that."
That was enough. I released their restraint.
They didn’t hesitate. One by one, then all at once, they shot downward, moving toward the docking zones scattered across the capital. Within minutes, the engines of multiple ships began to ignite.
I watched.
Twenty-three ships in total.
Three of them massive, far larger than the rest, clearly command vessels. The others were smaller, but still capable of carrying large numbers.
They lifted off. Breaking past the atmosphere as they moved into open space.
I moved with them. Appearing outside the planet in an instant, positioning myself ahead of their path.
Then my voice spread. It entered every ship at once.
"Stop."
The fleet halted immediately.
"Turn around," I continued. "And record what you are about to see."
I could feel some hesitation from them. Maybe they were planning to run away but ultimately they complied. One by one, the ships rotated, their systems activating as they faced back toward the planet they had just left. I hovered there in silence watching the small planet below.
I raised my hand slowly and once again the silver glow returned as I activated my Saint body.
Taking a step forward I muttered, "Absolute Destruction."
The silver glow condensed into my fist once more, far denser than before, compressed to a point where even space around it began to distort. The pressure built rapidly, the void itself reacting as the energy reached its peak.
Then I released it.
The attack shot forward like a newborn comet, tearing through the void in a straight, unbroken line toward the planet. As it moved, that same unnatural sound followed behind it, a long, stretched scream, as if space itself was being split open to make way for its passage.
It reached the atmosphere in an instant.
The moment it touched the upper layers, the sky ignited.
Clouds vaporized before it could even pass through them, the entire atmospheric shell parting around the strike as it forced its way downward. A burning trail carved itself across the sky, a straight line of white-silver destruction that cut through everything without slowing.
Below, the capital came into view. It descended directly into the heart of the city.
The moment it made contact, the entire capital vanished.
There was no explosion there, no outward burst. The strike simply erased everything in its path, drilling downward with unstoppable force. Structures, defenses, layers of reinforced ground, all of it disappeared as the attack punched through the surface and continued deeper.
Into the planet.
Through layers of stone and metal.
Through compressed crust and shifting mantle.
The deeper it went, the more violent the reaction became. The planet itself began to resist, pressure building around the path of destruction, but it did not matter. The strike did not slow, did not weaken, did not disperse.
It reached the core. And tore through it.
For a fraction of a moment, the planet held.
Then the balance broke.
BOOM!
The attack burst out from the other side of the planet in a violent surge, exiting with the same force it had entered, leaving behind a perfect, burning tunnel that ran straight through the entire world.
That was when the destruction began to spread.
Cracks appeared across the surface, starting from the capital and extending outward in all directions. They grew rapidly, splitting continents apart, tearing oceans open, destabilizing everything that held the planet together.
The core collapsed.
Energy surged outward from within.
And then the planet gave in.
BOOM!
It shattered in a violent chain reaction. Massive sections broke apart, entire landmasses tearing free as the internal pressure exploded outward. Fire, molten fragments, and debris were thrown into space in every direction, the remains of the planet scattering into the void.
I raised my hand calmly.
A barrier formed instantly. A dense shield of Essence expanded outward, surrounding both me and the fleet behind me. The debris slammed into it with immense force, waves of destruction crashing again and again, but none of it passed through.
I remained where I was watching as the last of the planet tore itself apart.
Until there was nothing left.