Chapter 172: What was forged by the sun will be torn apart by the moon

A pillar of pale flame pierced the ground from the night sky.

It struck the outstretched branches of Charikar, reflecting the white flames, drawing the god-warriors close, the fire piercing their chests. The white flames seared them, reaching for their arcane cores, consuming the magic that made them who they were.

Shabeka and Shabek evaporated instantly, disappearing in a gray cloud of mist and feathers. Their screams were laughter of release, a statement of foreknowledge and resignation to this moment.

Syphax twisted in the white light like a hooked fish, but even his divine power was meaningless in the face of this cosmic fire. The bull-headed god Gigantus tried to flee, but even his legendary speed could not escape the waterfall of moonfire summoned by Tayanari.

Even as his skin peeled off his bones, Tayanali watched them die with tears in his eyes. They were his brothers and sisters, and even hundreds of years of brutal war could not make him hate them.

He saw Ennakai disintegrate in the light, his sacred body dissolved by the light, leaving only bones. He held out his hand and told Ta'anari with his eyes that he accepted his fate.

He cried because he was forced to do all this.

The light burned his remaining eye, and a dark world surrounded him. The last bit of strength left his body, and he fell powerlessly to the ground of the amphitheater. He heard more screams and fights of humans, who knew nothing about the gods. It was another bloody storm, but it would pass.

Will the human legions continue the war that their race started?
Perhaps. But it will be a mortal war, so there will be an end.

……

The sudden light annihilated the entire big screen and took away the lives of those ascenders.

Seeing this scene, the audience were all shocked!

——"What the hell!! What kind of power is this, it can kill all these Darkspawn in seconds!"

——"It seems that this is Tayanali's real plan!"

——"No, it should be said that this is Mai Yisha's real purpose!"

——"This is really amazing! These people survived hundreds of years of the Darkin War, but now they all died here!"

——"This way, the Darkin War will be over, right?"

——"Who on earth is this Maisha, that she could teach Tayanali such a spell!"

There is no doubt that this is their real intention in getting Charikar.

This sacred weapon is a means of dissolving all the solar power in the body of the Ascendant. After extracting the power that shaped the Ascendant, they will disappear without a trace!

As the caster of this spell, Tayanali, the ascender standing next to Charikar, was of course also affected by this spell.

His power of ascension left him from then on, and he was no longer an ascender, a god-warrior, or a darkin!
This was exactly what Tayanali wished, and he became a mortal.

……

Tayanali floated in the darkness, lost in memories of the good old days.

He tried to remember an earlier time, before he and Ennakai ascended the Golden Stairs together, but there were few memories of that time, for as the power of the celestial world poured into his brain, mortal memories slipped away.

Ta'anari heard footsteps. Heavy boots crunching over broken glass. He smelled mortal flesh, mingled with sweat and decay.

He knew these smells. They were his life-bearers. Ta'anari held out a hand, seeking the touch of another living being, but no one took it.

"Shope?" his voice cracked. "Is that you? Tiushipa? Idre-mi? Please, help me. I feel... I feel like I'm human again, I... I feel like I'm human again."

"You are," the voice sounded on the verge of bursting into laughter.

"Maisa," Tayanali whispered. "Are they all dead?"

"No, Naganeka, Vali Eva, and Sebotaru escaped before the fire reached them. But they are weak now, and I don't think they will be a long-term problem. The problem is the other gods, all the ones who didn't show up, they will be more wary of traps."

"No! You must kill them," Ta'anari gasped. "Even a wounded god-warrior can still conquer this world."

"Believe me," Maisha said, "what we have done here has foreshadowed the end of your race."

"Then we succeeded. We brought peace."

Then she actually laughed. "Peace? Oh, no—the world will never understand peace. It's useless."

Tayanali was completely confused. He tried to struggle to stand up, but someone poked him hard in the chest with the blunt end of a spear handle and pushed him back to the ground.

"No, just lie there and don't move," said Maisha.

“Please, help me up,” he said. “I told you, I’m a human being now.”

"I heard you, but do you think becoming a human can wash away your sins? Think about the lives you have ended. Can becoming a human now make people forgive the blood feud you have created? Tell me, how many atrocities do you need to awaken your dry conscience and finally decide to make a change?"

"I don't understand," Ta'anari said hesitantly. "What are you talking about?"

Maisha chuckled, and she seemed suddenly much younger, yet incredibly old. He heard a crisp crash as Charikar was pulled out of the glass floor.

"I'm saying that you deserved to die, Ta'anari," Maisha said. "Some of you weren't that bad, I guess, but most of you were damaged in the war against the Void, and it's a miracle that you've survived this long. Perhaps you and your kind were a mistake in the beginning, but it's a mistake I can help you correct."

Even without his eyes, Tayanali could still feel the power of Charikar hovering above him, and though his body was withered and exhausted, he responded to the pain of the blade cutting into his chest with a high-pitched scream.

Maisha whispered in his ear, "The power flowing through this weapon can touch every one of your gods, Ta'anari. It knows your kind well now. And I will bring this fire to mortals."

Her hands plunged into his chest, and Tayanali felt his heart being cut out, ripped out from between his cracked ribs...and yet, he was still alive.

At least, for a little while.

“Idre-mi,” she said, handing over the Ta’anari heart, “Take this and the Charikar back to your weaponsmith. We’ll need a different way to deal with the rest…”

Maisha paused.

"Wait, what's that old word?"

She snapped her fingers.

"Ah, yes. Now I remember. Darkin."

(End of this chapter)