I Shall Steal the Heavens 228 Chapter 227: Nukes

"I hope your plan works," Tong Xue muttered to me nervously as he watched the enemies pile into our sect.

"It will," I assured him. "The prototypes worked, so there's no reason to think the latest versions wouldn't."

"What are you waiting for?" Lian Rou asked me. I grinned.

"For all of them to be within the blast radius so that I can inflict maximum damage. If I detonate the Sunbursts too easily, there would still be too many enemies outside the blast radius. I want to cut down their numbers as much as possible. Might as well maximize our advantage, right?"

"How much more powerful do you think the explosions will be?" Tang Qi Hong asked, recalling the power of the prototypes. "Will it be enough to make a difference against such overwhelming numbers?"

"Several times…and yeah, it will have to be enough." I glanced at the surviving Blood Blades. "We'll have to take care of the survivors the hard way."

"All troops! Move your battle-automata to the front!" Hai Rong ordered. The Blood Blades obeyed, directing their battle puppets to form a ring of iron around us. Castellax battle-automata formed a circle, with Thallax battle puppets filling the gaps, their weapons facing outward and spitting out a steady stream of death.

Even when cornered, Nine-Tailed Fox Sect was defiant to the death.

"This is where we make our last stand!" Zi Shou De shouted, raising his hand. Our morale soared when we saw that he and most of our leaders were still alive. Of the Great Elders, half of them were missing. Third and Fifth Elder were gone, leaving just Luo Zhi Chang, the second Great Elder and Fourth Great Elder behind.

"That's right!" Zi Da Ji cried out as she clashed against Song Si Yuan, their Spirit Weapons producing sparks. "Nine-Tailed Fox Sect stands!"

Long Shen glanced down at Zi Shou De and shook his head bitterly before being blasted away by Tian Yu Di.

"You still choose to fight bitterly to the very end?" he growled. "You guys don't understand the meaning of death, do you?"

"They might just win." Tian Yu Di chuckled as he puched at Long Shen, a colossal blast of qi unleashed from his fist and battering the Venerable Dragon God. While Long Shen struggled to withstand the assault, Tian Yu Di swooped down to finish him off, but Shen Tian Yi swung his spear in an attempt to decapitate the ancient Heaven and Earth Sect elder, forcing him back. "They have already created so many miracles."

"Your biggest mistake was to refuse to surrender!" Shi Jing Yun shouted from outside the ring of battle-automata. "By recklessly fighting back, you have doomed all of yourselves to death! If you would only see reason, you blacksmiths would have lived even though Nine-Tailed Fox Sect is annihilated. But now? Hmph!"

"You will all die for your stupidity!" Su Bai Xue cried out hysterically as she glanced at her stump.

What the fuck?

No, seriously…what the fuck? You guys strolled right in, trespassed into Tushan City, slaughtered the outer sect disciples, outer sect elders and Blood Blades martial artists as well as civilians, wanted to plunder and steal our wealth and resources, and enslave the blacksmiths, and you're telling us now that it was wrong of us to "recklessly" fight back?

Who the fuck wrote this script?

"One for all, all for one!" Zi Shou De growled determinedly, not at all affected by Shi Jing Yun's bullshit and utter lack of logic. "All of us here are members of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect! We stand and live together, or we fall and die together! The blacksmiths will not sacrifice the martial artists just so they can live, and the martial artists will not abandon the martial artists to escape on their own! We are all family, bonded together by ties stronger than blood! As long as you harm even a single member of our sect, whether outer sect, inner sect or Blood Blades, Nine-Tailed Fox Sect will make sure you pay for your crimes in their entirety!"

"YEAH!"

All members of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect roared in agreement, raising their hands. I also joined in, raising Azure Lotus Sword with my relatively uninjured left hand.

"We will rather die than live under captivity, enslaved!" Luo Zhi Chang hollered defiantly.

"You may destroy our physical bodies, but you'll never enslave our souls!" Elder Tie Jiang added resolutely.

"Till death!" Elder Zhao shouted, raising his sword.

"Take as many of the enemies as you can!" a wounded Hai Rong shrieked.

"TILL DEATH!" all of the Blood Blades martial artists bellowed.

"…you've gone insane," Song Si Yuan remarked, shaking his head. But his face had gotten pale as he watched us defy the Martial Arts Alliance for what seemed to be the last time.

"No," Zi Da Ji corrected. "You were the ones who were insane for ever conceiving the schemes of attacking us in the first place."

"Stop this madness at once!" Xie Zhi Zhang protested. "Do you really intend to fight to the death? Do you really plan on throwing away your lives?"

Lang Xie regarded him coldly. "You were all about to kill every member of Blood Blades anyway. Since we're going to die either way, we might as well go out fighting."

"What if we guarantee the lives of all the Blood Blades and outer sect? If I can persuade the Martial Arts Alliance to spare your lives, will all of you stand down?"

Xie Zhi Zhang was flustered by the terrible bloodbath this battle had turned into. He couldn't possibly be this naïve, to expect people not to fight back when they were being hunted down and killed, could he?

A hint of a smile touched Lang Xie's lips for what seemed the first time ever since I had met him.

"Too late for that," he replied. "And after all you've done, there's no way we can trust you. Blood Blades! Kill!"

"KILL!"

Hollering at the order of their vice-commander, the few of them directly following him threw themselves at a horrified Xie Zhi Zhang.

While the air above the plaza was still embroiled in conflict, on ground level the violence had somewhat abated. The invading sects had been driven back by the sheer hellstorm of firepower from the battle puppets.

"Yin Xue Sheng, Jiang Yuan, Fu Zhuo Hui, Jiu Liu Yu and Cao Xuan Rui."

Zi Shou De's eyes swept across the intimidating tide and immediately picked out the leaders of the various sects. They were scattered, but otherwise they were all present. The sect leader of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect glanced at me, but shook his head.

Not yet. He wanted them to draw closer first.

I nodded imperceptibly, but didn't give anything else away. We didn't want to reveal our trump card this early.

"Xue Di! You've come!"

Su Bai Xue's eyes glowed with delight and she rushed over to her husband, who was accompanied by Yin Xue Sheng. All the leaders of Snow Valley Sect, with the exception of Feng Ling (who was still sweeping through Tushan City) were present.

She spun around and jabbed a finger at us with her remaining arm. "Make sure you kill every single one of those damned blacksmiths!"

"That's what we are here for," Yin Bai Di replied coldly.

"Good to see that you're still alive." Cao Xuan Rui nodded toward Wu Tuo. "Cloud Sky Mountain is not far behind. You can join them if you want to."

Wu Tuo shook his head. "I want to witness Nine-Tailed Fox Sect's demise up close."

"Old Shi! So you're still alive!"

One of the Six Valley Sect members cried out when Shi Jing Yun hurried over. He nodded, still gingerly rubbing at the stump where his left arm used to be.

"It'll take a lot more than losing an arm to kill me."

Oh…he had no idea what was coming for him.

"Hmph." Jiu Liu Yu regarded him, though she was somewhat relieved. She then turned toward the plaza. "Where is that brat named Fei Wu? I will have Yu Mei castrate you right now and feed your manhood to the dogs!"

Everyone shuddered and stepped away from her for a second, especially the men. The men, particularly, automatically covered their crotch. I winced and shook my head.

"Is there something wrong with that old bitch?" I muttered.

"What did you do to earn such a grudge from her?" Tang Qi Hong demanded. I shrugged, as clueless as her.

"Dunno. Maybe because I killed Lu Li, who's one of her direct disciples?"

It was only later that I found out the truth, but at that time I remained in the dark as to why that bitch Jiu Liu Yu harbored such hatred for me.

"Tong Xue!"

A girl's voice screamed from outside. Following the people from Divinne Shadow Sect, Cang Li stomped toward the line of battle-automata, trying her best to duck the lethal storm of fire they were shooting at her. Many of her Divine Shadow Sect members died as they supported her, but she recklessly pressed on, determined to reach Tong Xue.

"Cang Li?" Tong Xue grimaced. "What is she doing here?"

"Who is she?" Lian Rou asked, confused at the psychopathic girl's suicidal charge. Tong Xue sighed and shook his head.

"No one important."

"I see! So that is the girl you love, huh? I'll make sure to kill her right before your eyes and drag you back to Divine Shadow Sect!"

Cang Li cackled madly as she closed in.

"You…" Tong Xue's eyes flashed with fury. At a flick of his mental thought, he yanked his Thallax battle puppets back. They followed his will and shifted their aim. Triple electric arcs streamed from their lightning guns and fried Cang Li, throwing her off course and knocking her back onto the ground. She slammed into the outer sect district, rolling along the feet of her comrades. Fumes rose from her twitching body, but incredibly she was still alive.

"You…you actually hit me!" she spluttered as she struggled to get to her feet. Tong Xue shrugged nonchalantly, disappointed that she wasn't dead.

"You deserve it."

"All of you will die right here, right now!" Jiu Liu Yu snarled as she stomped toward the plaza, conjuring a shield that deflected their projectiles. "Even the Emperor cannot save you now! We'll destroy your pathetic sect before the Imperial Guard arrives!"

"Yeah, yeah." Zi Shou De rolled his eyes and sighed, getting sick and tired of listening to the enemy commanders' prattle. He swept his eyes across the outer sect districts, noting the immense flood of enemy martial artists flowing unceasingly. He then smirked and turned toward me. "Fei Wu. Any time now would be good."

"Very good, sir." I fished out a remote control from my damaged Snow Aegis. Despite the damage it had taken during my battle against Jiang Jun Hao, the storage function still worked. I then pressed the big red button in the midde.

For a second, nothing happened.
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Then tremendous amounts of qi erupted from beneath the enemies' feet. They weren't able to react in time, even as a thunderous wave of energy rumbled under them, filling the air with static. The temperature shot up from relatively cool to above boiling point in just a millisecond.

Chuckling, Tian Yu Di risked getting hit by his two high-level enemies to glance down at the main sect grounds, having detected the faint spike in qi and already aware of the plan. He actually clapped his hands gleefully.

"Good! Very good!"

"What's that?"

The elites of the thirteen sects who had entered looked around for the next one second or so when they sensed the surge in energy all around them, but couldn't find the source.

That was because they were looking at the wrong place.

A few of them, such as Jiang Yuan, immediately noticed that something was amiss. Jiang Yuan and his few Cloud Sky Mountain Sect just happened to be on the outskirts, far away from everyone else who had barged into the main sect grounds of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, and even he was almost unable to notice it in time.

"What the hell is going on?!" he yelled, already running.

It was too late.

BOOM!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The seven Sunburst bombs that I had mined in the outer sect district and throughout Tushan City all exploded in unison.

Seven explosions erupted from the ground, turning into thermonuclear blasts generated from the awesome power of qi fusion. In milliseconds, the temperature soared from boiling point to four thousand degrees Celsius, capable of matching the temperature on the surface of the sun and enough to melt iron. Sand immediately turned into glass, and countless martial artists were disintegrated instantly from the release of heat energy.

The colossal conflagrations continued to blossom upward, turning into seven mushroom clouds that practically blocked out the sun. buildings were simply erased, and the enemy troops occupying the ground they had so painstakingly captured after spilling so much blood ceased to exist as the flames rolled over them and the refuges they sought shelter in.

"All Blood Blades martial artists! Maximum barrier!" Hai Rong shouted. She had already given the command before the detonation, having seen me press the button. I had also carried out her order after I hit the red button and kept the remote control.

All the Castellax battle-automata stood firmly, forming a ring of iron around us. But this time, their atomantic shielding flared to life, shimmering and merging into a dome-shaped circular barrier that enveloped the entire plaza. Even as the enormous shockwaves battered against the merged shields mercilessly, the invulnerable barrier saved us from taking any wounds. A few of the battle-automata shorted out, their plasma systems overloaded from the abuse their shields took, but that was a small price to pay for keeping all of the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect members alive from the Sunburst bombs' thermonuclear explosions.

In just this single act of mass destruction, the whole of Tushan City had been leveled. The outer sect districts also ceased to exist, obliterated by the sheer heat and power. All who were within the place were disintegrated, disappearing as if they had never been there, almost as if the demons from the underworld had reached out to pluck them from existence and pulled them into hell.

Even after the explosions, the mushroom clouds continued to blossom upward, and plasma fires burned hotly upon blackened remains. Several buildings remained standing, but they were nothing but charred husks, entire sections demolished and incinerated. Rivers of fire blazed along incendiary paths, while molten rock continued to glow red-hot against the grayish, ashy fog that fell back upon the remains of the once-proud city.

"Great explosion! Well done! Very well done indeed!" Tian Yu Di was cheering crazily, still clapping his hands. He roared with laughter, especially after glancing at the sturdy barrier that continued to stand tall over the plaza, preserving the lives of every Nine-Tailed Fox Sect member caught within it. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

I could relate to him. After all, I was the one who created these bombs. And I was the guy in Supreme Commander who always went for nukes. I like using nukes in Starcraft 2, but they lacked the power and punch that the nukes in Supreme Commander possessed, and since I am a mech player, I was always reluctant to build Ghosts just for the nukes. Plus they weren't very reliable, since the opponent could kill the Ghost before the nuke landed and I would have just wasted 100 minerals and 100 gas.

But in this scenario, there was no Ghost to direct the nuke onto the enemy, and I could detonate the ones I had already mined. Since the people in this timeline had never experienced the power of a nuke before, they had no idea what to expect. They never would have thought that Nine-Tailed Fox Sect would possess such a horrifying trump card.

Best of all, this was the excuse they used to justify their invasion of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. Yet ironically – especially because they knew it was a bullshit excuse they invented, and a complete lie – they didn't think we would actually be capable of building an actual weapon of mass destruction and use it against them.

The irony was so delicious. Their lie had turned into a truth in the most unimaginable way possible.

Through the fizzling barriers, I could barely make out the sheer destruction we had wrought. Even as the main perpetuator, I was still horrified by what I had done. It was one thing to nuke digitally created armies in a computer game, and quite another to unleash such a terrifying weapon in reality. No doubt edgelord readers would be scorning me for this, but I did feel guilt and horror at what I had done.

There were seven craters all around the city, each about a hundred meters deep and about a kilometer or two across. Seven craters gouged out of Tushan City, each massive scar a sobering monument to the terror I had just unleashed upon Mankind for the very first time in this timeline.

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds," I whispered. It never hit me what I was doing, inventing the Sunburst for this timeline, until the sheer reality and destruction struck me. It wasn't just me. All the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect members were watching in muted horror and shock.

"W…what…"

"No way…"

"That's not possible…"

"What…what did we just use?"

No doubt, after such a horrific weapon, people would be justified in wanting to control weapons of mass destruction. But honestly, that was just utter hypocrisy. If we didn't unleash the Sunburst on the thirteen invading sects, we would have been the ones massacred. What was the difference between dying from military genocide enacted by the Martial Arts Alliance and dying from Sunburst? Other than the time it took to kill, and the complete razing of the environment, plus the immense firepower and destruction unleashed, they both drove toward the same outcome.

The butchery of countless lives. They couldn't possibly claim that they were right to massacre our sect to prevent the massacres of their sects, could they? Especially since we would never have annihilated them if they didn't push us. Hell, we wouldn't even have bothered inventing the Sunburst bomb out of necessity if they didn't drive us to a corner.

They couldn't accuse us of war crimes when they were just as culpable. Just in a different, less eye-catching form.

The battle-automata all shut down, their shields overloaded and their systems fried. We would need to repair them later, but for now they were entirely spent and deactivated, unable to take any further part in the battle.

If we wanted to fight, we would have to rely on our own human martial arts skills as well as the remaining Thallax battle puppets (unlike the Castellax battle-automata, Thallax battle puppets did not possess atomantic shielding to give them an invulnerable save).

Not that we would need to fight as fiercely as before.

As the barrier powered down, I could get a clearer view of the destruction, particularly with the magnification function of my glasses.

The craters weren't just deep. Along their walls, and at their depths, the normally black rock had turned red-hot and molten, resembling liquid lava more than normal craters. They continued to glow from the incredible heat, most of the ground eaten away by the superheated plasma unleashed by the qi fusion process in my Sunburst bombs.

Sss…

Fumes continued to pour out from the molten lava, acrid and hot. The stink of cooked flesh filled the air, making people gag, but thankfully it wasn't as strong as it normally would be, not with the majority of the dead incinerated into ashes.

To my surprise, there were a few survivors. A few people stood scattered about the edges of the craters, having avoided the worst of the blasts. They were shellshocked and hollow, staring blankly at the deep craters and still trying to make sense of what had just occurred. Some of them dropped to their knees and stared hard, as if trying to look for their dead comrades.

It was useless. The majority of the dead, as I said earlier, had been disintegrated, reduced to nothing but ashes. As for those few still fortunate enough to remain relatively intact despite the explosion, they had been blackened and charred beyond recognition, resembling nothing so much but skeletons clawing at the air.

The surviving martial artists had fallen to despair and shock, still unable to comprehend what had just happened.

Jiu Liu Yu was gone. Cao Xuan Rui was gone. Yin Xue Sheng was gone. Even Yin Xue Di was also gone.

Not to mention Shi Jing Yun, Wu Tuo and Su Bai Xue. They had finally been freed from being hostages, escaping to their comrades, only to die literally minutes later when they were caught in the ferocious explosions along with their newly arrived reinforcements. Well, honestly, they deserved it.

Jiang Yuan, Fu Zhuo Hui, Ji Liu and a few dozen or so people scattered around the seven massive craters had been hollowed up, their eyes blank and lifeless. They continued staring emptily into the gigantic craters, desperately and futilely searching for any sign of anyone they knew, the comrades they had fought alongside with just a minute ago.

There was nothing.

"Excellent! As expected of someone who succeeded the Heaven and Earth Sect! You really are worthy to be the sect leader!"

Amidst the terrifying silence, only Tian Yu Di's crazed laughter filled the air.

"You…you are insane!"

A shrill scream filled the air. it wasn't from Cang Li, thank Heavens – she had been completely incinerated by the explosions after Tong Xue's Thallax battle puppets electrocuted her – but judging from her filthy uniform she was a survivor from the Snow Valley Sect. Or at least one of the Seven Valley Sects – with all the dust on her, it was hard to tell.

"Mass murderers! Butchers! You're all insane! How dare you be so ruthless?!"

The girl was growing hysterical now, pointing and blubbering, having gone insane from fear and shock. I shook my head, but it was Zi Shou De who spoke up, despite his pale complexion at the horrifying sight.

"Sure, we might definitely be ruthless, but when you've made it clear that you're going to slaughter our entire sect without mercy, did you not expect us to retaliate?"

The girl fell silent, gaping at the sect leader of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect in shock. Zi Shou De continued, undeterred.

"Oh, so when you want to exterminate an entire sect, it's okay. But if we use our Spirit Equipment to kill you, then we're butchers and ruthless. You mass murder my sect's people, but you call us butchers. I don't understand the logic of you martial artists."

"These fuckers start a war and complain because their people die?" Jing Wei yelled. "Fuck you all! I find it funny that you call us insane and ruthless, but you were going to massacre our entire sect because we cut off a few arms!"

"I know, right?" I shook my head wearily. "It's like these idiots think it's natural for us to accept our deaths, but how dare we defend ourselves! It's like only the Martial Arts Alliance are allowed to slaughter, ****, retaliate and plunder! But the victims have no right to defend themselves from the Martial Arts Alliance's atrocities!"

"They come to kill everyone in Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, and are upset that we fought back." Tong Xue sighed heavily. "So they came to kill everyone, and they've killed everyone they could kill, but now that the tables have been turned, they are complaining about our ruthlessness. What a bunch of retards."

Thanks to the girl's extreme hypocrisy and lack of logic, we were able to pull ourselves back from the brink of horror and assess the situation more calmly. Right before this act of mass destruction, we were on the brink of annihilation.

Sure, this might have been ruthless and horrifying, but only after we detonated my Sunburst bombs were we able to survive! Otherwise, it would have been us who died horrifying deaths under the hands of these ruthless sects intent on massacring us!

As the realization dawned upon us, Blood Blades and the outer sect martial artists were able to snap out of their awestruck stupor and move again. This time, we were going to end this godforsaken war once and for all!

Chapter end