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Divine retribution was what would happen when a god decided to directly punish an offender in the mortal realm.

There were two ways a god could go about this. Firstly, he could descend to the mortal plane via an altar. He would usually be summoned to an altar in order to punish an offending follower of his religion. Secondly, a god could mete out his punishment via a messenger. He would simply need to channel his divine power into the body of a willing representative, allowing him or her to carry out their god's vengeance against any of their enemies in the mortal realm.

It was evident that the airship from Ferde had found itself on the receiving end of the second form of divine retribution.

Throughout Ferde's history, there had been more than 15 instances of divine retribution, eight of which had been carried out by a god's messenger.

Each time a god's vengeance was delivered, the result had always been the same: the complete disintegration of an entire people.

There had never been records of mortals surviving a confrontation with a god.

The Magicians, Red Dragon Warriors and Sunlight Warriors on board the Flying City airship knew all too well about their chances against a god's power. The appearance of the 33-foot-tall winged messenger before them had literally put the fear of God in everyone.

"Save us, God of Light!" One of the Magicians had fallen to his knees and began praying in despair.

"No, I don't want to die!"

"Oh god, what should I do? Is there any way out of this!"

The airship was now in chaos. Through the uproar, the airship captain Merlin shouted, "My lord, what should we do now?"

Link did not immediately reply him. He waited for a few seconds before giving his command. "Ready the cannons and fire!"

As soon as he gave the order, there was a low hum. Then, a streak of white light shot out towards the god's messenger on the ground.

Just when the light was about to hit it, the messenger suddenly let out a roar and thrust the crimson lightning spear in its hand forward.

As the spear began picking up speed, the red electricity around its tip gradually thickened until it formed a net-like electrical barrier which shielded the messenger's entire body.

In the next second, the cannon fire struck the electrical barrier.

Crackle! Boom!

Spatial ripples spread out from the point of impact. The sky thundered, and the earth rumbled as the Level-16 magical cannon attack collided against the messenger's shield.

At that moment, Link gave his second command. "Abandon ship, everyone out of the airship now!"

"My lord?!"

Merlin was stunned by what he had just heard. The Flying City airship contained all the magical innovations made by Ferde and the Yabba race. It was one of the most advanced airship in history. To Merlin, the airship held an even more important place in his heart than his own family. He only had it for less than a month and had barely gotten to know every corner of it. Even in the face of death, Merlin could not bring himself to abandon the ship.

"Out, now!" said Link, accentuating his every word.

Saying this, he activated the Dimensional Jump spell. A white light engulfed the whole cabin. An instant later, only Link remained inside the cabin. Everyone else had been teleported out of it by him.

The other passengers outside the cabin were all scared witless by the god's messenger as well. Upon hearing Link's order, none of them hesitated for a moment before fleeing the airship.

Confident in their own physical prowess, the Sunlight Warriors on deck had jumped straight out of the airship. The Magicians exited the airship by casting the Levitating spell on themselves, while the Yabba crew members released their parachutes as soon as they jumped out of the airship.

Three seconds after everyone disembarked the airship, the shockwave from the cannon fire's impact against the shield hit the vessel. In the wake of the shockwave, everyone who had jumped out of the airship was simply blown about in the air and was able to come out relatively unscathed.

The same could not be said about the Flying City airship.

The vessel hung huge and heavy in the air. The shockwave hit it like a giant hammer traveling at the speed of sound.

Bang!

With a screeching sound, cracks spread out across the walls of the cabin. The entire airship trembled violently in the air as it was pushed back upon impact.

The airship's structure had already been weakened by the storm earlier. It now seemed to be on the verge of splitting in two after having received the brunt of the shockwave.

It was as if an invisible hand had struck the airship, crippling it instantly.

At that moment, there was a flash of white light on the ground a few thousand feet below the airship. The light faded away to reveal Celine, Felina, Merlin and the others who had previously been inside the airship's cabin.

They were able to catch a glimpse of what had happened to the airship in the air just in time.

Celine looked around and suddenly shouted, "Where's the lord? Where's Link? Why isn't he here?"

Felina looked around as well. Suddenly, she remembered the last thing she saw before they were all teleported out of the cabin. The white light had enveloped everyone in it, all except Link.

She shouted in reply, "The lord did not teleport himself out of the airship. He's still inside!"

Hearing what she said, Celine suddenly sensed from the airship an aura which she knew belonged only to Link. Startled, she raised her head and stared at the airship which had spun out of control in the air. She shouted, "What's he still doing in the airship?!"

A realization suddenly dawned on her. Is he trying to buy us some time for all of us to escape by distracting the god's messenger? But that would be suicide! Has he lost his mind? If he dies, who will be left to defend Ferde from the Isle of Dawn? What will happen to me if he dies? thought Celine, dread now creeping into her heart. Before she could even react, a red glowing figure launched itself into the air. At the same time, a thunderous voice boomed out.

"Mortal, you dare to defy a god?"

It was the god's messenger!

The sky and earth were painted in a shade of blood red in an instant. The only object that remained untouched was Link's airship.

A white light was pulsating around the airship. Even though the light was barely holding its own against the sanguine light, anyone could see the difference in power between the two sides. It would not be long before the blood-red light swallowed the airship.

"No! No!" shouted Celine desperately. She took out her rifle, rapidly stuffed her silver bullets into it and fired a few times at the blood-red figure.

None of her shots hit her target.

The messenger headed straight towards the airship without even making an attempt to dodge Celine's bullets.

Even her precognitive prowess was of not much use against a god's power.

Felina and the others had taken on their dragon forms and rushed into the sky to Link's aid. Still, no matter how fast they flew, they could not catch up to the blood-red figure.

The god's messenger had outclassed all of them in terms of power and speed.

…

The airship's cabin

Even though the airship had been split in two and the cabin's walls had cracked, the cabin remained an integral part of the airship and was at the moment the only thing keeping the entire vessel from breaking apart completely.

Link still had his feet anchored firmly to the floor. He was holding the Ode of a Full Moon in his right hand and the Soul Dominator's Book of Revelation in his other hand.

As the god's messenger drew closer towards him, Link began flipping through the book with the Magician's Hand spell and channeling all his power into it at the same time.

Link had spent more than 33,000 Realm Essence Power points in order to cast the Eye of Agramma spell and keep it activated all this time. His power had depleted so much that he now had no more than 10,000 points of power to channel into the Book of Revelation.

The Book of Revelation's Divination of the Fates spell may not be able to kill the messenger, but it should be able to buy me some time, thought Link.

Just then, there was a flash of light in the corner of his eye. It was a message notifying him that he had completed his mission, and that he had been rewarded with 40 Jogu pieces. He now had more than 300 Jogu pieces in total.

At the same time, a new mission popped up.

Player has activated the second phase of the mission series: Avoiding Divine Retribution!

Description: Flee from the God of Destruction's messenger and cross over the realm crack's seal.

Mission Reward: Astral Whetstone

Due to the urgency of his current situation, Link only managed to glance through the message before accepting his new mission immediately without giving much thought to the mission's reward.

He then channeled his power into the Book of Revelation, which began to glow.

The light around the book rippled like water in the air. Looking closely, one would be able to see that it was in fact composed of countless transparent magical seals.

Just then, Link felt an indescribable power flowing into his body. No, it was not power that he felt, but rather an authority over the fates of all existence in the realm.

Link's body began to float in the air, not because he had cast a Levitating spell on himself. Rather, it was the world which had prostrated before Link in recognition of his authority.

In other words, it was the entire world which had lifted him up in the air in exaltation.

Mastery of Prophecy Magic could only be granted via the realm's blessing. Link now fully understood what this meant.

He then walked out of the collapsing airship, calmly taking each step in the air as if he was walking on a level surface.

The God of Destruction's messenger was still making a beeline towards him with all the fury of a storm.

With the Eye of Agramma spell, Link was able to predict the most probable development in the near future. Two-point-three seconds from now, the messenger would unleash its attack at him, and there would be nothing he could do to stop it. The only possible outcome of the messenger's attack would be his complete annihilation.

If he hoped to survive the attack, he would have to strike the messenger down first.

And so, Link did just that.

With one hand holding the Book of Revelation and the other pointing the Ode of a Full Moon sword at the messenger, he announced, "In the name of the realm, I sentence you to death!"

His voice was soft at first, but it gradually grew louder until it rocked both heaven and earth like thunder. It continued to echo for what seemed like an age with no sign of losing momentum.

"I sentence you… sentence you… to death!"

Just then, something inexplicable happened.

The shade of blood-red that had filled the sky moments ago suddenly vanished. A moment later, the God of Destruction's messenger let out a blood-curdling scream as she began falling from the sky like an angel whose wings had been clipped.

* **Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio**
* **Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio**