In the crimson sea, every Lahmu that attempted to enter the city of Uruk, or had already invaded the city, was annihilated and evaporated!
The horrifying wails were drowned out by the sound of thunder, leaving only the dragon's judgment as the sole existence between heaven and earth.
When the crimson sea of lightning dissipated, Alaric saw a familiar figure in the district below Uruk.
"Miss Siduri, are you alright?"
Even though Alaric's non-human instincts were surfacing at the moment, he was still capable of precise thought and action. It was just that his direction of thought had shifted slightly.
Siduri, who was staying with the citizens of Uruk, was still shaken. However, upon seeing Alaric descend from the sky and realizing he was saying something, she began to gesture proactively.
[Just now, lightning, sound, very loud, temporarily, can't hear.]
When Alaric understood the meaning of Siduri's gestures, his expression became clear. He naturally moved past the topic and asked, "Miss Siduri, if you're leading them to safety, where are you planning to go?"
At this dangerous moment, Siduri, who was supposed to remain by Gilgamesh's side, appeared in the city district to guide the citizens to safety. Alaric could tell her purpose clearly.
But it was far too dangerous.
The power of the Lahmu was entirely beyond what Siduri or the citizens could resist. If things continued this way, Siduri or the citizens would inevitably meet disaster.
No answer came.
Alaric, who hadn't received a reply, met Siduri's somewhat confused and troubled gaze. Scratching his head, he suddenly realized something.
Even with his non-human instincts rising, and being seen as the reborn dragon, Alaric felt a slight sense of embarrassment.
Just as Alaric was pondering how to communicate with Siduri, he suddenly turned his head and looked into the distance.
A black tide was approaching.
With Alaric's overwhelming display of strength, having annihilated all the Lahmu in Uruk, it naturally attracted the attention of others. Now, they were all charging toward Uruk together!
Their momentum was enormous, no less terrifying than the crimson sea of thunder!
"So, you do have some tricks—"
Unclear about how many Lahmu had landed in the Persian Gulf, Alaric smiled. He was about to soar into the skies again, leave Uruk, and intercept the Lahmu heading toward the Persian Gulf.
But Siduri stopped him.
[We, return to, the Ziggurat, don't worry.]
Even though her ears were temporarily deafened, Siduri still wore a gentle smile. Like a caring elder sister, she looked at Alaric with warmth and reassured him not to worry about her side.
Seeing this, Alaric waved his hand and mimicked Siduri, gesturing in return—
[Doesn't matter, I'll handle it.]
Boom!
The last dragon leaped back into the skies, letting out a roar that was like thunder.
The light at the tip of the holy spear, Rhongomyniad, burst forth, resembling crimson thunderbolts galloping through the clouds of the heavens. It formed a sea of lightning, instantly covering every inch of the sky.
This horrifying miracle was fueled by an overwhelming amount of magical energy. Its power was so immense that even Ishtar, who was rushing to the scene, seemed to see the thunderclouds from afar!
The apocalyptic scene unfolded before Siduri's eyes. Although she could no longer hear the terrifying thunder, she couldn't help but feel her heart race and an inexplicable sense of exhilaration.
This was Alaric's response to the world—a declaration of the fate that was about to come.
In the ZIggurat of Uruk, Gilgamesh sat high on his throne, calmly observing the thunderstorm outside the city. His hand, gripping the clay tablet, exerted slight pressure.
The more critical the moment, the less a king like him could afford to leave his position.
Every decision of fate had to be made accurately and swiftly. No matter who died, nothing could stop this.
But fate changed at this moment.
The knight who had lost his origin and everything else protected the kingdom of the golden king from the distant past.
No longer paying attention to the thunderstorm outside Uruk, Gilgamesh turned back to continue handling war reports from other cities. It wasn't just Uruk—all the cities across Mesopotamia were under attack by the Lahmu.
Even Alaric could not possibly fend off every Lahmu and prevent all potential assaults.
Meanwhile, outside Uruk, the crimson thunderstorm continued annihilating the encroaching black tide. Alaric's figure almost disappeared into the storm.
Hundreds, thousands of Lahmu were advancing rapidly across the land, aiming to bypass Alaric and charge into Uruk!
The sheer number of them far surpassed Alaric's ability to target them precisely. Even with holy judgment striking them one by one, some would inevitably slip through.
But there was always a way to overcome difficulties. If he couldn't kill the Lahmu one by one, then he'd obliterate them all in one fell swoop!
Each holy judgment, after being expanded in scale, could now completely engulf dozens of Lahmu, and there were hundreds of these judgments in total!
This was the origin of the sea of lightning!
The cost of this miracle, however, was an exorbitant output of magical energy and the extreme overexertion of Alaric's own body.
It had nothing to do with physical endurance—it was a test of Alaric's ultimate mental strength.
Every holy judgment was generated and fired by Alaric himself, without the assistance of any magical formula. All the calculations were performed in Alaric's mind, creating an enormous burden.
Even with Alaric's body being as strong as it was, he still hadn't fully adapted to this level of operation.
And the best way to adapt was through battle! After several confrontations with Ishtar and significant growth in the Ebih mountain range, Alaric's potential as a magi—hailed by Merlin as a genius—was finally beginning to manifest!
In just a matter of seconds, the vast land transformed into a grinding machine of thunder—a forbidden zone for life. Every Lahmu that advanced was annihilated, completely evaporated!
The bodies formed from the mud of the gods turned to ash, leaving not even a trace of residue behind!
"That is—"
As yet another Lahmu was vaporized by the Holy Judgment, a strange, questioning voice instantly drowned out the thunderstorm.
"Why? Why? Why? Why?"
"Why kill us? Why?"
The overlapping questions seemed to twist human will, their unsettling tone alone causing Alaric to raise an eyebrow.
The intelligence possessed by Lahmus was also surprisingly high, perhaps nearly on par with that of humans. It might even meet the standard of the New Humanity that Kingu had mentioned.
What shocked Alaric the most, however, was that these Lahmus seemed to have abandoned their assault on Uruk, redirecting all their focus to a single target.
Realizing this, Alaric finally began to advance! Amidst the vast sea of lightning, Alaric drove the Heavenly Vessel straight toward the Persian Gulf, where the goddess Tiamat resided!
As Alaric began to move, the Lahmus—who should have been storming into the city of Uruk—changed their course to follow him instead!
It was as if, at this moment, Alaric had become more important and captivating to them than even the Golden King within Uruk.
But it was futile! The Lahmus alone was incapable of harming Alaric in his current state!
Only a stronger, more formidable being—one capable of withstanding the light of Alaric's Holy Judgment—could stand as his equal. Only the strong had the right to challenge him!
The long journey passed in an instant, and Chaldea observed that all 20,000 Lahmus, which had landed on the ground and were attacking Uruk, had been annihilated.
Alaric successfully reached the Persian Gulf, his gaze immediately drawn to the chaotic waves.
Everything visible was soaked in darkness—a stark contrast to Alaric's brilliance, yet eerily similar.
If Alaric's magical light was a symbol of individuality, a manifestation of his soul's information altering the world, then the chaotic waves spreading from the ocean were a collective force of countless lives.
Countless lives emerged from the sea, forming bodies, gaining intelligence, and overtaking humanity's place. The chaotic waves were transforming the world—
Literally transforming the world. The composition of the atmosphere was changing, and the density of magical energy was shifting.
If this transformation were allowed to continue, it would alter the ecosystem, completely erasing humanity's existence. Newly born entities would walk this new world in humanity's stead.
This was the authority of the Mother of Origins, the Creator Goddess—Tiamat. The supreme power to freely reshape the world.
The Sea of Life was nothing more than that, yet the power it contained was beyond anything Alaric could imagine.
Unlike Quetzalcoatl who had manifested as a partial avatar, the Creator Goddess—Tiamat—who had appeared in Mesopotamia was her true, primal divine form. A supreme goddess who had walked the earth since the dawn of creation!
A deity above all other forms of life!
Even from the Persian Gulf, where Alaric had just arrived, he could already see hundreds of thousands of Lahmus surging toward the land, with countless more in the distance.
The strange, layered roars intertwined into a sea of sound, questioning Alaric:
"What are you? What are you? What are you?"
A being that was decidedly not human, an anomaly that should never have appeared before their New Humanity.
Why had he come here? Why was he fighting their Mother?
Although the Lahmus possessed intelligence, their way of thinking was utterly alien to humans, their intellect a distorted imitation at best.
Unable to comprehend the voices of the Lahmus, Alaric gazed down at them in silence, then slowly raised his Holy Lance.
If each Lahmu had similar battle capabilities, their numbers alone were enough to utterly crush Uruk.
But even so, the Lahmus was merely the first wave of the assault.
The real threat remained in the boundless ocean.
Alaric was acutely aware of this, yet he found himself unable to strike.
The hand raising the Holy Lance seemed frozen, unable to make the next move. Even the vibrant crimson dragon blood coursing through Alaric's body began to behave abnormally.
Or perhaps, the problem lay within Alaric himself.
The source was singular—
The Creator Goddess upon the endless sea, her brilliant, star-like eyes focused solely on one figure.
Unlike the echoing call that resonated when she was trapped within her cradle, the goddess before him now was in her fully divine form. Even with most of her power self-sealed, her strength was still on a godly level!
Was Alaric paralyzed by fear under the goddess's gaze, unable to move?
No, on the contrary—it was an intense excitement that had caused the abnormality!
"What is it that you want, Tiamat?!"