I became a god through archaeology in the Wizarding World.

Chapter 135 The Gods Are Ruthless, A Dance with Broken Wings

"boom-!!!"

The pure white holy sword and the pitch-black "Calamity" collided without any frills in the sky above the holy city of Rumen.

In that instant, time and space seemed to lose their meaning. There was no deafening explosion, because at the singularity where the two swords clashed, even the medium through which sound traveled was completely annihilated.

A bizarre scene appeared in the sky: centered on Rhodes and the six-winged angel, the entire world was sharply divided in two. To the left was the abyssal polar night, capable of swallowing even light; to the right was the sacred polar day, capable of igniting even souls. These two forces, representing the most primal and extreme laws of this world, were frantically clashing and cutting each other with minuscule precision.

Immediately afterwards, the energy that had been compressed to its limit finally exploded.

A ring of translucent ripples, visible to the naked eye, mixed with violent black and white turbulent currents, spread outwards in a circular pattern.

First and foremost is the Holy City Cathedral below, a symbol of the supreme authority of the Papacy. This cathedral, which has stood for thousands of years...

The magnificent building, blessed with countless sacred runes by successive popes, was as fragile as a castle on the beach in the face of this aftershock.

The towering dome instantly vaporized, and the massive white marble pillars collapsed as if snapped by an invisible giant hand.

"Back off! Move aside!"

The surviving Templar Knights and priests cried out in despair, scrambling and stumbling as they fled towards the city's outskirts. But their speed was no match for the energy storm; any life touched by the black and white turbulence, whether burned to ashes by the holy flames or corroded into blood by the abyssal aura, vanished instantly.

Pope Clement VII was shielded beneath two loyal cardinals, layers of divine shields flashing and shattering above their heads. When the storm finally subsided, Clement pushed aside the charred corpses of the cardinals and rose tremblingly to his feet.

He looked around. The once prosperous and sacred city of Lumen had now become a huge meteorite crater. Except for the high platform beneath his feet, which had been barely preserved because it was engraved with the core divine descent array patterns, everything around him had been razed to the ground.

But Clement didn't care about any of that. He suddenly raised his head, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the sky.

"Kill him—great God, send down your divine punishment and crush that heretic to dust!" the Pope prayed frantically in his heart.

However, the battle in the sky made his heart feel as if it had fallen into an ice cave.

High in the sky, Rhodes and the six-winged angel were locked in a frenzied battle at a speed that surpassed the limits of human vision.

"Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!"

The dense clanging of metal was like the war drums of death, each collision tearing a spatial rift hundreds of feet long in the sky.

The six-winged angel's face remained blurred in a holy glow. It showed no emotion, its golden holy sword slashing towards Rhodes's vitals with an absolutely perfect trajectory, conforming to the laws of heaven and earth. Each of its attacks was imbued with high-level divine spells such as "Purification," "Judgment," and "Imprisonment."

Any human Saint-level expert would have their soul ignited instantly if they were even slightly touched by the sword's edge.

But its rival is Rhodes.

"Too slow! Too stiff!"

Rhodes laughed wildly, the "Calamity" in his hand transforming into a raging black torrent. He made no attempt to defend against the potentially deadly divine magical rules, allowing the golden flames to scorch his black robes. The moment those holy flames touched his body, they were instantly devoured by the dark golden magical runes that appeared on his skin, leaving not a trace.

"Bang!"

It was yet another head-on clash with no holding back.

Using the recoil, Rhodes created distance in mid-air. He shook his slightly numb right hand, his dark red eyes flashing with cold mockery.

"I originally thought that the so-called descent of a god would put some pressure on me." Rhodes looked at the six-winged angel opposite him, which was radiating endless brilliance, and a cruel sneer appeared on his lips. "After all this time, it turns out that he is just a soulless puppet."

In the previous exchange, Rhodes had completely seen through the true nature of this six-winged angel.

It was not a higher-dimensional life form with independent consciousness at all; there were no fluctuations of soul within it, only a pre-programmed "killing program." And the power source driving this enormous energy body was the souls of the ten thousand believers sacrificed in the cathedral's crypt!

Rhodes could even see through that divine light that countless agonizing, distorted faces were silently wailing inside the golden energy core on the angel's chest.

"Using the souls of your believers as fuel for divine weapons, is this what you high and mighty gods are like?" Rhodes's voice, carried by his battle aura, resounded across the entire battlefield like rolling thunder, clearly reaching the ears of Clement VII below.

"Hypocritical faith, disgusting creations. You don't even deserve to let me continue playing this game."

Rhodes's fanaticism vanished, replaced by an unprecedented coldness in his eyes. He slowly raised the "Calamity" sword above his head, its tip pointing straight at the heavens.

"The abyss has descended."

"Snap~~~"

The sky has cracked open.

It wasn't that it was slashed by sword energy, but rather that the laws of the entire sky were forcibly altered. The space, which was originally filled with light elements due to the descent of angels, was instantly replaced by a viscous, dark, blood-red ocean filled with despair and destruction.

Centered on Rhodes, this sea of ​​blood instantly expanded to a radius of ten miles, completely enveloping the six-winged angel within it.

"Warning. Extremely high concentration of Abyssal Law detected. Space is sealed."

The mechanical, ethereal voice echoed once more in the six-winged angel's mind. Its six wings of light suddenly unfurled, bursting forth with blinding brilliance, attempting to create an absolute, sacred domain within this abyssal sea of ​​blood.

"Divine Art: Light of Great Judgment!!"

The angel raised his holy sword high, and a pure white beam of light, ten times thicker than before, descended from the sky, attempting to tear apart this sea of ​​blood.

"In my domain, even God must kneel before me!"

Rhodes roared, but instead of swinging his sword, he stretched out his left hand and pressed it into the void towards the devastating light of judgment.

The sea of ​​blood churned, and a colossal hand formed from countless dark red seawater burst forth, grabbing the pure white pillar of light.

"Sizzle sizzle—"

'

The intense friction between light and darkness erupted with a piercing shriek, but it lasted for less than half a second before the judgment light, powerful enough to flatten a mountain range, was crushed by the giant blood-red hand!

It transformed into countless golden specks of light, like a beautiful meteor shower.

"This is impossible! This is impossible, it can't be like this!!!" Clement VII, witnessing this scene, collapsed to his knees amidst the ruins. That was a full-force attack from a six-winged angel! And Rhodes crushed it with his bare hands?!

"Damn it, damn it."

After interrupting the angel's attack, Rhodes' figure vanished from the spot in an instant.

When he reappeared, he was already in front of the six-winged angel, with less than half a meter between them.

A flicker of surprise, a kind of programming error, seemed to flash across the angel's faceless, featureless form. Instinctively, it swung its holy sword, wanting to shatter this extremely dangerous heretic before it.

But Rod is faster.

Clang!

Rhodes's "Calamity" precisely parried the holy sword, firmly blocking the angel's attack trajectory. At the same time, Rhodes's left hand shot out like lightning, grabbing the angel's uppermost right wing of light.

Upon contact, one encounters extremely scorching heat and violent light elements.

"Sizzle sizzle~~~"

The holy flames scorched Rhodes' left hand relentlessly, burning his skin until it tore open and even exposed the white bone. But Rhodes didn't even flinch. The abyssal power within him surged continuously into his left hand, forcefully suppressing the holy burning.

He looked at the six-winged angel so close to him, a ferocious grin spreading across his face, revealing his gleaming white teeth.

"I wonder what it sounds like when an angel's wings are torn?"

The moment he finished speaking, Rhodes' left arm muscles bulged violently, and the dark golden magic runes burst forth with an unprecedentedly strong light.

He let out a beastly growl, strained his waist, and yanked his left hand outwards with a sudden force!

"Sizzle~~~!!!"

A chilling tearing sound echoed through the sky.

Before Clement VII’s horrified eyes, the six-winged angel, representing the will of the gods and invincible, had its ten-meter-long wing of light on its right side torn off from its back by Rhodes!

"Buzz—!!!"

A piercing, high-frequency wail emanated from within the angel's body. It wasn't a cry of pain, but rather the sound of an energy explosion caused by the forced severing of the energy circuit.

Large amounts of golden liquid, like blood, gushed from the base of the angel's broken wings, spilling onto the ruins below and corroding the earth into deep pits.

"The first one."

Rhodes casually tossed the still-struggling, glowing wing into the sea of ​​blood below, letting the power of the abyss devour it. He gave the angel no chance to catch his breath, his right leg suddenly rising, delivering a heavy knee strike to the angel's chest.

"Bang!"

The golden energy core on the angel's chest trembled violently, and its massive body was sent flying backward uncontrollably.

But Rhodes was always by my side.

He transformed into a black lightning bolt, instantly catching up with the angel as it flew backward. This time, he used both hands to grab the angel's two left wings tightly.

"Get down here!"

Rhodes suddenly spun around in mid-air, using the powerful centrifugal force and the suppression of the abyss domain to slam the angel's massive body down to the ground like a broken sack.

"BOOM!!!"

A deafening roar shook the earth.

The six-winged angel was slammed directly into the deepest part of the Holy City ruins by Rhodes, creating a massive crater hundreds of meters in diameter. The violent shockwave sent surrounding debris and dust hundreds of meters high into the air.

Before the smoke and dust had even cleared, Rhodes' figure had already fallen like a meteorite, landing precisely on the angel's chest.

"Snap!"

The angel's seemingly indestructible holy armor cracked open with countless fissures under Rhode's kick.

"Warning — Over 70% damage to the machine — Energy core unstable — Preparing to execute the final procedure: Sacred Self-Destruct —"

The mechanical voice emanating from the angel's body had become intermittent, and a destructive red light suddenly shone on its blurry face. A terrifying energy, powerful enough to wipe an area of ​​a hundred miles from the map, was being frantically compressed within its body.

"Trying to self-destruct? Did you even ask me?"

Rhodes snorted coldly, raised his right hand high, his five fingers forming a claw, the tips of which were surrounded by an extremely dense black death aura.

"Abyssal Secret Technique: Soul Deprivation!"

Rhodes' right hand pierced through the shattered armor on the angel's chest without any resistance, and went straight into the golden energy core.

"Ahhhh!!!"

This time, it was no longer a mechanical electronic voice, but the mournful screams of thousands upon thousands of souls mixed together.

Rhodes's hand churned violently within the energy core, then he grabbed outwards with a fierce pull.

A massive sphere of light, radiating a soft golden glow yet filled with resentment and pain, was forcibly ripped from the angel's body by Rhodes. This was the aggregate of the souls of the ten thousand sacrificed believers, and the source of power for this six-winged angel.

Without its power source, the destructive red light within the angel dimmed instantly. Its massive body convulsed violently a few times before finally transforming into countless golden specks of light that dissipated into the air.

Only a pile of tattered feathers of light remained, proving that a "god" had once descended upon this place.

Rhodes stood in the center of the crater, holding the enormous sphere of soul light in his hands. He raised his head, his gaze piercing through the thick smoke and dust, locking onto the completely petrified figure on the distant platform.

Pope Clement VII stared blankly at all of this.

His faith, his god, the ultimate trump card he sacrificed to save the Papacy by sacrificing ten thousand believers—all of this was torn to pieces by that man's bare hands.

"thump."

Clement knelt on the ground, his eyes vacant, muttering to himself, "Impossible—the gods are invincible—this is all an illusion—"

Rhodes slowly rose into the air and arrived above Clement. He looked at the old man, who had once been high and mighty but was now like a stray dog, without a trace of pity in his eyes.

"Clement, your god is dead."

Rhodes opened his mouth, and the Abyss Star Vortex transformed into a black hole within it. He inhaled sharply, and the ball of light in his hand, which had condensed the souls of ten thousand believers, transformed into a golden torrent, which he swallowed whole.

A massive surge of soul energy exploded within Rhodes' body, causing his abyssal aura to surge once more, even faintly touching that legendary realm.

He lowered his head, looked at the trembling Pope, and slowly raised the "Calamity" in his hand.

"Now, it's your turn."

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