Seraph stared at Jonah, her eyes wide in the chaos . Energy blasts flew past them, and the ground shook as another Chimera slammed into Vanessa's flashing shield. "What do you mean, not quiet?" she yelled over the noise. "What are you going to do?"
Jonah didn't answer with words. He answered with action.
He closed his eyes, shutting out the fight around him. He reached deep into his mental workshop, past the familiar presences of Specter, Maul, and Nyx. He reached for the new, massive power sleeping in the fourth chamber of his workshop. The giant monster. The living siege engine.
"Draven, Vanessa!" Jonah shouted. "Brace yourselves!"
He opened his eyes, and they glowed with a faint, golden light. He brought his hand forward at the empty space in front of them.
"Atlas!" he yelled, his voice echoing with power.
For a second, nothing happened.
A ground shaking BOOM came from nowhere. It wasn't just a sound. It was a shockwave that threw up cloud of ash and rock. The ground beneath them cracked and split as if a giant had stomped on it.
A shape started to appear from nothing. It was a giant shadow that covered the stormy sky. And It grew bigger and bigger.
Draven, who was trying hard to hold his shield against the attack, turned his head and his eyes showed he was pleased in a serious way. "Hah. The big one," he said in a low voice, feeling a new strength. "It's about time, Jonah"
Atlas stood before them, a creature of impossible size. Its pillar-like legs were as thick as ancient trees. Its rough, volcanic shell was a fortress with streams of molten light glowing in its cracks. Its long, serpentine head rose high into the air, its burning eyes looking over the battlefield.
The group of Chimeras, these supposedly terrifying monsters, suddenly looked like ants. The guns on the fortress wall looked like toys. Atlas was a god of destruction, and it made everything else look small.
The Chimeric beasts, who acted without thinking, stopped for a moment. For the first time, they seemed to be afraid.
Jonah felt the immense power of Atlas flowing through his mind. This was a new level of creation. A new level of responsibility.
He gave his new Progeny its first command. The word was simple and clear.
Atlas obeyed. It took a slow step forward.
The entire crater shook.
It took another step. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ NoveI[F]ire.net
The charging Chimeras in its path were not pushed aside. They were simply crushed, flattened into the ground under its immense weight without Atlas even seeming to notice.
The turrets on the wall whined as they re-targeted, locking onto the new, massive threat. They unleashed a furious volley of energy blasts. Dozens of crackling blue bolts flew across the field and slammed into Atlas's chest and shell.
But there was no explosion. There was no loud noise from the hit.
The blue bolts just... vanished. They hit the volcanic rock and were absorbed, sucked into the creature's body. The molten cracks on Atlas's shell glowed a little brighter, the heat coming off it becoming more powerful.
It was eating their attacks. It was turning their own weapons into its fuel.
The team inside Draven's shield could only watch in stunned silence. This was the monster he had created to end the war.
Atlas continued its slow, unstoppable march forward, ignoring the Chimeras, ignoring the useless energy blasts. It was focused on one thing and one thing only: the main gate of the fortress.
When it was about a few yards away, it stopped. The ground shook as its immense weight came to a rest.
The long, serpentine head rose higher, and its horned jaw began to open. A deep buzzing sound started to build, a sound that Jonah felt in his chest. It grew louder and louder, from a low sound to a big roar.
A blinding, white-gold light began to gather inside the creature's open mouth. The energy was so intense that the air around its head began to shift and distort.
Jonah felt the power building through his bond with Atlas. He knew what was coming.
"Cover your eyes!" he shouted.
He focused his will into a single command. "Fireeee."
Atlas unleashed its primary weapon.
A huge beam of powerful energy came out of the creature's mouth. It was a perfect line that destroyed everything in its path.
There was no explosion at first, only an all-consuming light and the powerful sound of tearing reality. The beam of pure power crossed the yards in less than a heartbeat.
The purple energy shield, the one that had seemed so powerful and unbreakable, broke like a pane of glass. It vaporized, dissolving into a shower of purple sparks.
The beam continued without slowing down. It struck the massive, black metal gate. The gate, which was probably feet thick with strong armor, didn't buckle or bend. It and the twenty feet of wall around it simply ceased to exist. They were erased, turned into superheated gas in a fraction of a second.
The sound finally hit them. It was a loud, delayed thunderclap that was so powerful it knocked them off the ground. The shockwave tore through the remaining Chimeras, ripping them apart and scattering their broken bodies across the big hole.
When the light faded and the sound died down, there was only silence.
The surviving Chimeras were gone. The turrets on the wall were silent, their systems fried by the powerful energy of the blast.
And the front of the fortress was broken.
Where the impenetrable main gate had once stood, there was now a massive hole. The edges of the metal were melted and glowed a cherry red, dripping like hot wax. The outer defenses were gone. The First Wall had fallen.
Jonah stared at the destruction he had ordered. He had made an opening. And it had been anything but quiet.