NOVEL NEXT Chapter 428: Skybreaker Emerges
The sky split with the radiance of inevitability.
Kant and Maren's combined attack, a lattice of probability bound chains and compressed numbers, descended like judgment itself.
Its glow swallowed the battlefield, promising the annihilation of anything caught within its reach.
Atreides, still staggering from his fall, looked up with a flicker of fear etched into his proud face.
The weapon of certainty bore down on him, and for the first time, he understood he could not stop it.
Then, the ground erupted.
Walls of stone, taller than fortresses, surged upwards between him and the descending attack.
Layer upon layer of jagged rock twisted into shields, barriers, and domes. The earth screamed as it was forced into unnatural shapes, each shield collapsing even before it finished forming, shredded by the unstoppable blow.
At the heart of it all stood Gaia.
Her body trembled, sweat streaming down her forehead as she squeezed the last drops of her dwindling power into the earth beneath her feet.
"Not…yet," she whispered, her voice cracking, as she raised her arms one final time.
The attack struck, shattering every defense. Chains of dark inevitability scythed through her walls like paper.
Numbers carved glowing fractures through her domes. The final barrier, the one directly around her body, splintered with a deafening crack.
The explosion that followed swallowed Gaia whole.
When the light faded, all that remained of her was dust, scattered into the wind. Her essence had been spent entirely, her last act not to strike, but to save.
Atreides staggered to his feet, staring at the spot where Gaia had stood. His chest heaved, fire seeping from the cracks in his skin.
For a moment, there was silence, broken only by the hiss of molten rock. Then his laughter returned, but it was no longer wild and mocking.
It was wrathful.
"GAIA!" His voice was a thunderclap. "You bastards killed her!"
He erupted into motion. His light flared brighter than ever, molten fire coating his fists as he surged upward toward Kant and Maren.
Every blow he threw now carried with it, grief, fury, and vengeance.
Kant's chains lashed out to bind him, but Atreides didn't even try to evade them. The links coiled around his arm, slicing into flesh, but he roared and dragged Kant forward, smashing a blazing fist into his chest.
The impact hurled the Elder of Statistics back, his chains unraveling under the force.
Maren intercepted him with her sword, probability bending to ensure her blade would strike true.
Atreides didn't care. He let the blade pierce his side, the edge biting deep, before swinging his other arm down in a hammer blow.
The strike landed squarely on her shoulder, bones cracking as she was driven downward, smashing through the roof of a nearby building.
"You think I need saving?!" Atreides howled, his voice scorching the battlefield. "You think I'm weak because Gaia gave her life for me?!"
Kant reappeared, his chains reforming. "That's exactly what it means," he taunted, his voice giddy despite the blood dripping down his lips. "Even your allies know you can't win alone. You're just a sun burning itself out."
Maren rose from the ruins below, coughing, her sword still gleaming with equations. She called up, "She died because you weren't strong enough, Atreides! And now we'll finish what she started!"
Their words only fanned the flames. Atreides roared, his fury burning hot enough to warp the very air.
His next attack came faster and wilder, heedless of his own body. Each slash of Maren's blade cut deeper into him, each chain of Kant's coiled tighter, but Atreides ignored the wounds, focusing only on landing his own devastating blows.
His fists shattered the earth around them, creating waves of molten fire that melted through entire streets.
His kicks broke apart probability anchored ground, sending Maren stumbling. A chain wrapped around his throat.
He let it stay, even as blood spurted from his mouth, so he could seize Kant by the chest and blast him point-blank with a flare of condensed sunlight.
The battlefield quaked as the three clashed in a storm of destruction. Soldiers fled in every direction, unable to even approach. Entire districts vanished under the force of their duel, blocks of Carthage reduced to ash and rubble.
Maren and Kant found themselves slowly but surely pushed back.
Each time they thought they had Atreides cornered, he chose to take their strikes head-on, enduring wounds that would have killed anyone else, just so he could deliver his own. Their calculated teamwork began to fray under the sheer savagery of his onslaught.
"Impossible," Maren hissed as she staggered back from another burning fist that cracked her ribs despite her probability bends. "He should be slowing down. He is slowing down, but it doesn't matter. He won't stop."
Kant's chains lashed out desperately, forming a wall to keep Atreides at bay. "He's turning his body into a weapon. Pain means nothing to him. If this continues…"
Their voices grew strained, panic finally creeping into their tone as Atreides advanced.
Then, a sudden lull fell. The three combatants stood apart, their surroundings reduced to a wasteland of molten craters and shattered buildings.
And in that silence, the ground roared.
A low, earth-shaking groan rolled through the battlefield, followed by the grinding of colossal stone against stone. Dust and rubble cascaded off the horizon.
All three of them turned their heads at once.
From the valley beyond the ruined district, something impossibly large stirred.
The ground split as a colossal hand of metal, rusted but unyielding, rose from the depths.
Fingers the size of towers clawed into the earth, pulling up a titanic body plated in ancient steel.
The very air seemed to shudder under its emergence, a presence older and heavier than anything else on the battlefield.
The Skybreaker.
Its head rose above the rooftops, eyes glowing with eerie blue fire. Each step it took sent shockwaves through the layers of Carthage, entire streets buckling under its weight.
Kant's chains drooped, his eyes going wide. "No… It can't be."
Maren managed to force out a whisper. "The Skybreaker…"
Atreides's bloodied grin widened, his flames flaring to a renewed peak. He pointed at them with a fist still burning.
"See it?" he roared. "That's the end of Carthage. That's the end of your Elders, your city, your everything. And I'm the sun that will burn with it!"