Eighteen decoy aircraft and one carrying a hydrogen bomb. So far, nine aircraft carrying atomic bombs had already exploded in succession.
The tenth aircraft!
At this moment, on Earth, the senior leaders of China, the United States, the Soviet Union, and other nations, along with every Planetary level warrior, were watching the live satellite broadcast. Everyone’s heart was in their throat. According to the original plan, the real weapon was expected to be somewhere between the tenth and fourteenth aircraft.
Night.
The Golden Horned Beast gently flapped its scaled wings as it flew swiftly through the sky. A hint of excitement gleamed in its dark golden eyes. The repeated atomic bomb explosions, with their extreme heat and streams of penetrating particles, had left the area where its enormous body had come into contact with the blasts feeling slightly numb and itchy.
It had also discovered something.
This stimulation actually caused its body to grow slightly faster. It was just like training muscles, only with a certain amount of stress would they grow more quickly. The Golden Horned Beast had lived in the ocean for so long that it had never encountered even the slightest threat, so its body had only been developing naturally.
This mild stimulation…
Actually had quite a remarkable effect.
“Roar!” The Golden Horned Beast spotted another triangular fighter approaching ahead and let out a cheerful cry.
It was a deep blue triangular fighter, the very King level intelligent fighter that had accompanied Luo Feng for so long.
Whoosh!
The fighter shot forward like lightning.
Whoosh!
The Golden Horned Beast casually swung its powerful, scale covered tail. The speed of its tail far exceeded the fighter’s flying speed.
Boom…
The moment the tail touched the fighter, the atomic bomb detonated. The thirty kiloton atomic bomb exploded directly against its tail. The violent energy released by nuclear fission erupted instantly, forming a dazzling sun that engulfed the entire Golden Horned Beast. The shockwave spread rapidly in every direction, while the earth rippled like waves.
Above the Pacific Ocean, several hundred metres above the sea, a figure streaked through the sky like a beam of light at astonishing speed.
“Luo Feng, your fighter is gone.”
Babata’s voice sounded in his mind.
Luo Feng stared at the communication watch on his wrist.
“If it’s gone, it’s gone. Watch the eleventh one.”
He fixed his eyes on the display as it switched to the eleventh fighter flying towards the beast, a blood red triangular fighter.
“Leader Hong’s!”
Luo Feng’s heart instantly tightened.
“Luo Feng, a reminder. You have already arrived above the sea surrounding Ancient Civilisation Ruins Number 12,” Babata said.
Whoosh!
Luo Feng accelerated immediately before coming to a stop above the sea.
“We’ll go down in a moment.”
His eyes remained fixed on the screen.
“This eleventh attempt is the real thing.”
“If a one hundred and fifty million ton hydrogen bomb explodes directly on the surface of its body, it really is hard to say what will happen to a Golden Horned Beast that has only just entered the Stellar level. After all, no one has ever done anything like this before.”
Babata was extremely excited.
Unlike him, Luo Feng was filled with tension and anticipation.
It was not only Luo Feng.
At this moment, Hong, Thunder God, the world’s strongest warriors, the leaders of every nation, and their military commanders were all watching nervously.
The eleventh aircraft.
This one carried the real weapon.
If it succeeded…
Humanity would have a genuine chance of surviving this catastrophe.
If it failed…
Humanity would fall into a nightmare.
A nightmare even more terrifying than the Great Nirvana Period.
United States, Supreme Command Headquarters.
The dark skinned President stood together with his cabinet, all staring at the screen before them.
He tightly gripped his daughter’s hand.
“Dad, it will work. It will work,” his daughter said repeatedly.
“It has to succeed. It has to.”
The President barely dared to breathe.
The entire room was suffocatingly silent.
Everyone stared at the blood red fighter racing directly towards the Golden Horned Beast.
…
China, Wilderness Region.
Large numbers of troops were moving rapidly across the ground, while a flying saucer shaped fighter circled overhead.
This was the forward war base of the Southeast Military District that had only just withdrawn.
Inside the fighter.
Commander Li Dawei stared fixedly at the display on his communication watch.
“It has to succeed.”
“It has to.”
Li Dawei repeated those words silently.
His eyes were locked onto the watch as though drawn by a magnet.
Sweat covered his forehead, and his entire body trembled uncontrollably.
…
At this moment, the Soviet Union, India, the European Union, and all twenty three Base Cities were watching the same scene.
Everyone silently prayed.
Faced with such a catastrophe, even the most ruthless and ambitious people desperately hoped this attempt would succeed.
“Thirty seconds until contact with the Devouring Beast.”
Hong and Thunder God stared at the screen while the intelligent system echoed throughout the room.
“Twenty three seconds.”
“Twenty two seconds.”
As the countdown continued, Hong and Thunder God’s gazes were as sharp as blades, as though they could slice the screen apart.
“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six…”
…
Northern Asia.
Its body was pitch black, with only the single golden horn marked by intricate golden patterns thrust proudly towards the heavens.
As the Golden Horned Beast flew, it lazily flicked its tail twice.
It felt wonderful.
The earlier atomic bomb exploding against its tail had left the area numb, while that part of its body rapidly absorbed the metallic energy within it.
“Roar!”
The Devouring Beast spotted the eleventh triangular fighter.
It was blood red.
The beast immediately let out a joyful roar that echoed across heaven and earth.
After all, despite the Golden Horned Beast’s incredibly long lifespan as a species, this particular beast had only been born a few years ago.
It was still nothing more than a child.
The Devouring Beast spread its enormous scaled wings and lunged forward.
This time it planned to let the bomb touch its scaled belly instead.
It wanted its stomach to become numb too.
That feeling was very pleasant.
“It has to succeed.”
“It must succeed.”
“Kill it.”
“God, bless humanity.”
“Please let this work.”
At this moment, every one of Earth’s senior leaders was overwhelmed with tension.
Luo Feng, Hong, and the others were so nervous that they barely dared breathe.
When they saw the Devouring Beast using its belly, instead of its tail or claws, to receive the hydrogen bomb, everyone felt an overwhelming surge of suppressed excitement.
“Two.”
“One.”
The final countdown echoed throughout Hong’s room at the Extreme Dojo Headquarters.
Time itself seemed to freeze.
The Golden Horned Beast’s belly collided with the blood red fighter at incredible speed.
Yet around ten metres before the impact, the atomic bomb inside the fighter detonated.
Its explosion instantly triggered the one hundred and fifty million ton hydrogen bomb.
The most destructive weapon humanity had ever created.
The fighter self destructed.
The hydrogen bomb exploded.
Faced with an explosion incomparably greater than all the previous ones, the Golden Horned Beast instinctively attempted to retreat.
It had sensed danger.
But…
The hydrogen bomb had already detonated directly against its belly.
It was far too late to escape.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!!
It exploded.
At that instant, every screen being watched, including Luo Feng’s, turned completely white.
…
China, Jiangnan Base City.
The city streets sparkled beneath the night lights.
“Look.”
“To the north.”
“It’s so bright.”
Far away on the northern horizon, a sun had appeared.
Its brilliant light left countless people standing frozen in the streets.
“Why is there a sun in the middle of the night?”
“My God.”
Many pedestrians excitedly began calling friends and family.
Others quickly took out their phones to record the scene.
“My phone has no signal.”
“What’s going on? The internet is down.”
Young people rushed out of a nearby internet café.
“Wow, there’s a sun at night.”
“It’s a nuclear bomb. It has to be a nuclear bomb.”
The entire street erupted into chaos.
At that moment, the whole of China, the Soviet Union, and the European Union witnessed that dazzling sun.
The enormous mushroom cloud left everyone speechless.
More than half of Earth’s communications were cut off.
Only senior officials in China, the European Union, the Soviet Union, and a few other regions, using specially protected communication lines, remained connected.
Silence.
Across the world, national leaders, military commanders, and Planetary level warriors stared fixedly at their screens.
The blinding light had faded.
Only the vast clouds of smoke remained.
The gigantic mushroom cloud continued rising until it reached one hundred kilometres above the Earth’s surface, entering the ionosphere.
In an instant, the number of monsters killed across northern Asia reached an unimaginable figure.
Countless monsters were instantly incinerated by the extreme heat.
Even more were killed outright by the overwhelming shockwave.
…
“Did it succeed?”
Hovering above the Pacific Ocean on his Soaring Sky Shuttle, Luo Feng stared nervously at his communication watch.
Earth’s leaders all waited anxiously.
It was as though they were awaiting a final judgement.
A judgement deciding whether humanity would live or die.
Northern Asia.
From the distant clouds of smoke, a golden streak suddenly shot out before coming to a halt.
Its entire body remained covered in black scales.
Golden patterns stretched from its neck and back all the way to its tail, making it appear clad in black and gold armour.
Its head remained proudly raised.
Its golden horn was still as sharp as ever.
Only…
A gigantic wound more than ten metres wide had opened across its abdomen.
Blood poured from the injury.
Thick, powerful muscles could be seen twisting together like tangled tree roots as they rapidly regenerated.
“ROAR!!!”
The Golden Horned Beast threw back its head and roared in fury.
A noble creature like it had actually been injured on this insignificant planet.
China, Kyoto Base City, Supreme Command Headquarters.
As they watched the Devouring Beast roaring in fury on the screen, with the enormous wound across its abdomen, everyone stood frozen.
“This… this…”
An elderly man with white hair widened his eyes.
His face was filled with anxiety, rage, and unwillingness.
“Pfft…”
He spat out a mouthful of blood before collapsing to the floor.
“Chief!”
People rushed forward to support him.
The other leaders either turned deathly pale, trembled uncontrollably, or simply refused to believe what they had witnessed.
“No. This shouldn’t have happened.”
Jia Yi, dressed in a Zhongshan suit, stared fixedly at the screen.
…
Despair.
At that moment, among the world’s senior leaders, a few suffered fatal cerebral haemorrhages.
Others died from heart attacks.
The rest were consumed by fury and unwillingness.
They refused to accept it.
Regardless of skin colour or race, everyone felt the same overwhelming despair and unwillingness.
The Golden Horned Beast was still alive.
Which meant that humanity had just been sentenced to death.