Demonic Po*nstar System Chapter 789: Savoring

The approach of the monstrous Kaiju was unhurried.

This realization settled into the defenders' chests before any of humanity's prepared weaponry could reach their target coordinate. The Kaiju had appeared over the horizon and should have covered the remaining distance in a fleeting moment. Mere hours prior, on the mountain range, it had launched from a collapsed ridge like a warhead, clearing dozens of miles in a single bound. The shockwave from its departure had folded a section of the mountainside into a sinkhole the size of a city. This creature possessed incredible speed.

Yet, it was not moving with that speed now.

It ambled.

Each footfall landed with the immense weight of a continent shifting its geological structure. Vast expanses of forest were flattened under the sheer pressure of its descending legs without the Kaiju needing to actively strike or kick; the trees simply ceased to resist as the mass descended upon them. The earth itself sank beneath each print, leaving impressions resembling colossal moon craters. The sky above the creature's head seemed to warp further toward ruin with every deliberate stride.

The staging plain relayed each footfall's impact with a noticeable delay. A deep, resonant thud rolled across the open ground, passing through the defenders' chests before it faded and the next impact arrived.

Stomp.

Stomp.

Stomp.

[Time Until Defense: 00:00:45]

Aria's fingers tightened their hold on Kaiden's hand.

Her grip, initially loose, closed around his with a surety and quiet intensity, and she did not let go.

Kaiden observed the Kaiju's pace and understood its intent.

The infernal beast was relishing this moment.

He was fully aware of the Kaiju's capabilities. He had personally witnessed it vault over an entire mountain range in one leap. Now, with a defensive line arrayed before it on Earth's surface and a defiant Master awaiting at the end of its slow approach, the Kaiju had chosen to walk.

It was savoring the anticipation.

Luna, spitting on the ground, spoke from the edge of the clearing, her Stormblade held ready.

"Look at this bastard. Twenty dungeons cleared, and he's taking a leisurely stroll to digest."

"Indeed," Kaiden replied. "What an arrogant giant."

Beyond the inner cordon, the human world reacted to the unfolding spectacle. Reporters, who had positioned themselves along the treeline with telephoto lenses an hour earlier, began packing their equipment and retreating. The more disciplined among them pulled back another kilometer behind the Association's outer perimeter, seeking fresh vantage points for their recordings. Helicopters, previously hovering at a cautious altitude, ascended first a hundred meters, then another, their rotor noise climbing beyond the altitude range now dominated by the Kaiju's immense form.

Every monitor across the globe displayed the live feed. Each feed presented a clear image of the approaching threat. The commentary, which had been a constant stream in a dozen languages, had fallen into a profound silence.

Kaiden selected the feed icon at the edge of his interface.

[Stream: Live.]

He remained silent, allowing the world to witness the approach through his own eyes.

Stomp.

Stomp.

[Time Until Defense: 00:00:30]

The Kaiju breached the outermost treeline first.

Anchor runes deeply embedded at Vespera's forward perimeter flared brilliantly white as its legs swept past the boundary. A hundred sigils burned themselves out upon contact, each one failing to establish a grip. The creature remained utterly oblivious. It passed through Eclipse's middle line without any discernible pause, navigating veteran crossfire lanes meticulously prepared over hours, maintaining its unhurried pace throughout.

It was now entering the Association's cordon.

The Chairman raised his hand.

Vespera's gaze, burning red, followed his gesture upward.

"Now."

The clearing exploded into action.

Thousands of Association signatures unleashed their power within the same half-second. A lance of compressed mana, taller than a man, struck the Kaiju's foreleg, while a concussive arc detonated against its flank, momentarily turning the air into plasma before dissipating. The Chairman's own strike followed. A blade of condensed pressure descended from his raised palm, slicing into the creature's ribs with enough force to crack its hide open along a two-meter seam.

Eclipse initiated their assault following the Chairman's move. Arcane arrows from Tessa Verain's formation stitched a crisscrossing pattern across the Kaiju's right shoulder. Runic concussion charges, primed at ground level, detonated in a sequential ring beneath its legs, each blast triggering the next until the compounding wave reached a resonance the very ground itself registered.

Vespera's forces did not lag behind.

Her shadows surged from the treeline like a tidal wave, having been coiled in readiness behind her outer perimeter for hours. Darkness poured across the plain, climbed the Kaiju's four legs, and began to constrict. For the first time since its appearance on the horizon, the colossal entity's advance halted.

Independent artifacts activated upon the second signal. A Runewoven relic, buried fifty meters behind the Association cordon, flared with golden light and fired a beam that punched a clean hole through the Kaiju's shoulder plate. A pressure lattice activated high in the sky, and the air above the creature's back solidified into a crushing ceiling, forcing it to bear an overhead burden it was not designed to withstand.

Every aura on Earth within reach of the designated coordinate poured its full power into the decisive moment.

Vespera single-handedly braced the colossal mountain.

Her shadow had expertly wrapped four separate cables around the Kaiju’s legs at the knee joints, applying immense downward force simultaneously. The Shadow Monarch stood beyond the outer perimeter, her hands only slightly raised – a gesture conveying ease, yet betraying the visibly strained tendons in her forearms and the dark blood already trickling from one nostril down her upper lip.

The very ground beneath her feet began to fracture in widening radial patterns as the colossal strain coursed through her body and into the earth against which she braced herself.

The mountain strained under her incredible grip.

And Vespera held firm.

During the precious seconds Vespera unilaterally bought them, Earth’s second wave of concentrated power struck the Kaiju, precisely timed for its vulnerability.

A five-mage Association breach team infiltrated the gash opened by the Chairman’s blade along the creature’s ribs, their spells synchronized to detonate in the same instant. The first spell widened the wound by another meter. The second delved into the flesh beneath. The third spell penetrated the opening and detonated deep within the creature’s own mass, causing smoke to erupt from three distinct fissures along the Kaiju’s back where the breach had surfaced anew. The creature’s hide blackened along a four-meter-wide stretch.

For the first time since its ominous arrival on the horizon, the massive entity registered genuine damage.

Eclipse’s vanguard rapidly advanced beneath the breach. Thirty seasoned warriors, employing a short-sword formation, relentlessly attacked the creature's grounded legs in relay pairs. Medics swiftly cleansed burns and blood from each returning fighter, sending them back into the fray before the next rotation had even fully landed. Two squads of Runewoven breach mages sustained and amplified the concussion rings beneath the Kaiju’s feet, each explosion meticulously timed to explode while Vespera’s shadow still prevented the legs from lifting.

Tessa Verain’s archer line unleashed a continuous barrage of arcane fire directed at the upper shoulder seams. A pair of S-tier hammer-mages cracked open the left shoulder along the fissure initiated by the artifact beam. Independent strike teams unleashed devastating volleys that had been cooling in reservoirs for three long hours. Dome-scale bombardments relentlessly rolled across the Kaiju’s back in overlapping succession, each impact timed precisely as the previous one tore free.

The Chairman’s second devastating strike descended from above, impacting all targets. A pressure blade, four times the length of his initial strike, carved down into the breach team’s opening, penetrating twenty meters deep into the creature’s ribcage.

Humanity, at long last, was fulfilling its crucial role.

Kaiden’s combatants joined the cacophony as well, illuminating the stream’s interface with their vibrant and numerous spell effects.

Aria’s crescent blades expertly weaved through the ranged barrage, deepening the cuts along the seams the breach mages had so strategically widened. Luna flickered in and out of the grounded-leg combat zone, her Stormblade strikes sequenced between Eclipse’s rapid assaults; she was there and gone before the veterans passing her caught even the slightest draft of her arrival. Calypso leaped beside the vanguard’s relay pairs, her axe swinging in perfect synchrony with theirs, a fierce grin plastered on her face. Bastet maintained her formidable Dominion field against the Kaiju’s rear quarters, sending molten pillars skyward with a slow, steady cadence, her ears twitching with the sheer effort. Alice’s golden beam meticulously tracked the upper back from above Kaiden's head, functioning as a mobile turret, her aim surgically precise in its fury. Nyx hurled custom-forged daggers at speeds exceeding the sound barrier into the Kaiju’s vulnerable underbelly from her position behind the entire formation.

Scarlet let out a single, triumphant laugh before launching a red-gold lance directly into the breach.

"Take this!"

The fire bored into the opening, followed its path inward, and erupted catastrophically within the creature’s own mass. New fissures split open along the Kaiju’s flank, spewing forth thick smoke.

The Kaiju was now visibly wounded, massive sections of its hide sloughing off and crashing onto the ground. The earth itself trembled with each colossal impact, kicking up immense waves of dust.

The mountain attempted to shift its weight.

It leaned forward against Vespera’s unyielding hold with the sheer mass of an entire mountain range. The shadows screamed in protest as they absorbed the immense load. Vespera’s posture faltered by a mere half-inch. Blood now streamed from her other nostril, and her eyes narrowed with the fierce determination to hold for as many more seconds as she could possibly endure.

She held.

The Kaiju unleashed a deafening howl.

[Time Until Defense: 00:00:20]