As Xian Lin'er and the others chose to face death in despair and self-detonated their soul cores,
A terrifying energy storm swept out, tearing space apart. Black spatial rifts like monstrous jaws swallowed most of the meteor fire rain accompanying the Star of Destruction's fall.
Yet, facing the kilometer-wide Star of Destruction empowered by Phantylia's divine power, this final elegy, composed of the lives and souls of several Super Douluos and Titled Douluos, only increased its surface cracks and delayed its fall for a few heartbeats…
Tragic, yet still powerless.
Phantylia hovered high in the sky, maintaining an elegant gesture as if conducting the symphony of despair and sacrifice.
She gazed upon the Star of Destruction, born of her will and crushing all resistance, with a look of savage delight in her eyes.
Destruction—unstoppable.
"At this moment…"
Phantylia's icy, merciless voice resounded in the souls of all survivors like the final judgment.
The Star of Destruction, burning with dark red and jet-black flames, tore through the last barrier of the atmosphere, its speed surging to the extreme.
The blazing fire from friction with the air was eerily cold and still that ominous, blood-red color.
"…it ends."
Her hand, composed of both destruction and life force, maintained its elegant, casual pose, pressing lightly downward.
That simple motion was like pressing the button for world's end.
BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Star of Destruction struck precisely at the center of Shrek City—where the Sea God Pavilion once stood as a symbol of the academy's glory and faith.
At the moment of impact, time seemed to freeze for a single frame.
All sound, color, and movement in the world halted, leaving only the point of contact between the Star of Destruction and the earth.
Immediately after—
An indescribable surge of terrifying energy expanded from the point of impact in a perfect, ever-growing sphere, spreading in all directions at a speed beyond imagination.
This was not an explosion—this was annihilation.
Whether the remaining tall buildings, the soul tool fortifications covered in defensive runes, the struggling survivors, burning wreckage…
Even the ancient earth itself, which had borne civilization for millennia, was reduced—layer by layer, at the molecular level—to primordial nothingness in the face of this pure destructive shockwave.
There was no deafening blast, no pillar of fire—only a soul-freezing silence and utter annihilation.
A colossal, bottomless ring-shaped crater instantly replaced Shrek City.
The edge was smooth as though polished by a divine craftsman, a terrifying mark left by unimaginable heat and pressure instantly melting and then cooling the rock and soil.
Only then did the delayed, tsunami-like shockwave follow, obliterating everything on the outskirts of the crater—ruins, debris, even the terrain—flattening all.
The violent tremor, centered on the point of impact, rang out like a doomsday bell for thousands of miles, as if the entire Douluo Continent's tectonic plates howled and trembled in agony.
The Shrek City of ten thousand years' legacy, with all its history, glory, sorrow, struggle, love and hate, was erased from the map in an instant.
All that remained was a shocking, smoke-wreathed, destruction-stained pit, its edge glassified by instant heat—a silent testament to a disaster beyond imagination.
Phantylia withdrew her hand with satisfaction, closed her eyes as if savoring the wonderful feedback of destruction and the despair of shattered faith.
"Finally clean."
She commented lightly, her tone flat as though she had just brushed a speck of dust from her shoulder.
Yet the range of her indiscriminate, destructive blow extended far beyond Shrek City's walls.
For the soul beast armies that had surrounded Shrek City, this was likewise an unforeseen, incomprehensible apocalypse.
The countless soul beasts forming the tide, in the first wave of destruction, were erased in swathes—so easily, they didn't even have time to wail before vaporizing, leaving not the slightest trace.
Thousands upon thousands of souls vanished into nothingness in utter silence.
Then, the scorching heat and deadly, annihilating dust brought a second wave of cleansing.
Beasts on the periphery not hit by the first shockwave were instantly set alight, turning into shrieking fireballs that quickly burned to charred bones.
Others inhaled annihilating dust, their organs corroded and burned through, dying in agony as black blood oozed from their mouths and noses.
Ten-thousand-year soul beasts, with stronger physiques and soul power, held out a bit longer—but only a bit.
They roared in terror, desperately forming soul power shields, but their defenses shattered like soap bubbles, their tough scales torn apart, their bodies flung and ripped by the irresistible force.
Many were mortally wounded before hitting the ground, their bodies broken and battered, dying like ruined ragdolls.
Even the strongest fierce beasts were left powerless by this incomprehensible, godlike calamity.
Bi Ji, the kindhearted Emerald Swan, instinctively expanded her healing domain to protect as many as she could—but this only made her a prime target for destructive energy.
Her life wave was instantly overwhelmed. She vomited blackened blood, her once radiant wings charred and dulled, and she plummeted, her breath fading.
Her eyes brimmed with shock and sorrow—not for herself, but for the countless kin who perished before her eyes.
The Ten Thousand Demon King's underground root network was devastated. Destructive energy raced through the earth, killing and turning to ash hundreds of his plant avatars and even his main root. Half the crimson eyes on his trunk burst, spraying dark green fluid—he howled in agony, his strength plummeting.
Bear Lord tried to claw through the shockwave, but his vaunted defense was shattered. His hide ripped, golden blood oozed, and terror filled his eyes for the first time.
Scarlet King unleashed hellfire, but it was sent back by the destructive wave, burning itself. Its scales fractured, its body scorched, all three heads whimpering in pain.
Zi Ji's darkness attribute was useless against such overwhelming power—she was flung away, her scales falling like rain, cold dragon blood spilling, badly wounded.
After the Star of Destruction's strike, the area outside Shrek City, once teeming with soul beasts, had become a hellish wasteland of death and scorched earth.
The edges of the crater stretched for miles, the ground ruined, covered in cracks and claw marks—the last traces of the dying struggle.