novelraw Chapter 209: The Goddess's Wings
Chapter 209: The Goddess's Wings
After being awakened by what seemed like a casual tap from the High Priest's staff in the Karnak Temple, a stream composed of pure golden light particles surged forth from the illuminated stone pillars, obelisks, and hieroglyphic inscriptions.
This spiritual pressure was not a direct physical or energetic assault.
It had no temperature, for it transcended the concepts of hot and cold.
It had no physical form, for it stood above matter itself.
It was a crushing superiority in status from the apex of the pyramid of life down to its base.
Like the authority of a shepherd over his flock.
Like the absolute royal power of a Pharaoh over the life and death of millions of slaves under his rule.
Its true source was the pure gold staff in the High Priest's hand and the grand formation of this temple.
With Lin Jie's current understanding, he could not determine the core material of that Grotesque Armament.
Behind the High Priest, a massive, hazy, hawk-headed humanoid figure was slowly emerging from the top of the staff, constructed from golden spiritual power and wearing the sacred Uraeus crown with the cobra emblem."Outsiders..."
A voice composed of layered echoes from different eras resonated within the minds of Lin Jie and the others.
"Under the joint witness of Horus and Ra, within this holy temple personally founded by Ramesses II..."
The voice from behind the High Priest's pure gold mask overlapped with the voice of the Pharaoh's phantom.
"Let this [Scepter of Unification] weigh your humble souls from foreign lands..."
"...to determine whether you are guardians of order or thieves of chaos!!"
Faced with the golden torrent embodying the majesty and divine authority of dozens of generations of Pharaohs from ancient Egypt, even a battle-hardened veteran like William, whose will was as strong as steel, found his breathing becoming abnormally heavy, the veins on his arm gripping the holy cannon bulging.
Ethan, meanwhile, fell to one knee with a *thud*. The pride and honor of a British noble were effortlessly crushed before this "royal authority," and he could barely support his trembling body.
Yet, within this oppressive field, one person remained standing.
Julian drove his blackthorn wood cane, inch by inch, into the sandstone slab beneath his feet.
"In the name of reason and freedom..."
He forced this declaration out through gritted teeth.
Then, the black cane erupted with a ripple of gray energy.
A precarious, barely two-meter-diameter [Order Attenuation] field, teetering on the edge of collapse, struggled to expand outward from the cane as its center!
This attenuation field was like a tiny leaf boat in a giant wave before the golden torrent, on the verge of being capsized at any moment.
But it stubbornly managed to offset, even if only a fraction, the pressure for the four team members enveloped within its field!
As the primary target of this "royal authority" pressure, Lin Jie was currently bearing a burden hundreds, thousands of times greater than the others.
He felt like a ridiculous ant trying to shake a ten-thousand-ton ship with mere flesh and bone.
Lin Jie's willpower defense was washed away without even offering resistance.
His knees buckled, and his body uncontrollably began to kneel.
He could feel his self-awareness as an independent individual named "Lin Jie" being gradually eroded and overwritten by the vast torrent of "royal authority."
He heard the agonized groans of countless slaves under the Pharaoh's whip millennia ago.
He saw soldiers turning into nameless bones on foreign battlefields for the glory of their Pharaoh.
Before this grand collective will belonging to an entire "dynasty," any individual struggle seemed insignificant and treasonous.
"Kneel!"
"Submit!"
"And become a nameless speck of dust within this great order!"
A voice filled with temptation and majesty roared from the deepest recesses of his mind.
In the split second before Lin Jie's will was about to succumb and kneel before the invincible "royal authority," the dormant mark on the back of his hand suddenly reacted.
An exclusive, searing energy, like an ignited volcano, erupted from that small Vulture Goddess mark.
It cared not how powerful or legitimate the invading enemy was.
It only knew that this mortal, branded with its mark of "private property," was its, Nekhbet's, sole "temple."
Any existence that dared to covet, lay hands on, or even attempt to overwrite its sovereignty over this "temple," be it god, king, or an entire dynasty, must be mercilessly expelled and torn apart.
*Sizzle—*
The searing energy surged from Lin Jie's right hand throughout his entire body.
Two equally domineering "divine domains" then used Lin Jie's body, on the verge of collapse, as a battlefield, engaging in an extremely brutal war of the gods.
The golden torrent from the Karnak Temple's millennia-old "collective royal authority" transformed into a merciless hammer of judgment, continuously attempting to crush Lin Jie's personal will into dust.
Meanwhile, the white divine light from the guardian goddess of Upper Egypt acted like the sturdiest shield, protecting the flickering ember of Lin Jie's consciousness and constantly trying to expel the invading "royal authority" will from its territory.
Lin Jie felt as if two mythical beasts from the age of legends had each clamped onto his limbs and were frantically tearing him in opposite directions.
His bones creaked under the pressure of the two terrifying divine forces.
His blood vessels, unable to withstand the immense energy impact, ruptured, soaking his tattered shirt in blood.
This dual agony from soul and body was thousands, tens of thousands of times more terrifying than any battle he had experienced before.
"AHHHHH!!!"
Lin Jie could no longer suppress it and let out a scream.
His body was about to be torn to shreds on the spot in this "war of the gods" he couldn't intervene in.
But then, within the chaotic ocean of his consciousness, an aged voice sounded.
"Do not try to resist..."
A bolt of lightning split the darkness of Lin Jie's chaotic consciousness.
He finally understood on the final boundary between life and death.
"Whether it's that external golden 'royal authority' trying to crush me, or this internal white mark trying to reshape me."
"Their core, what they are fighting over, is me."
"It is the sovereignty of the independent individual 'Lin Jie,' the ultimate ownership rights of this body!"
"But neither of them has ever truly respected my will!"
A crazed smile appeared on Lin Jie's twisted face.
He stopped trying to mediate or resist the two forces that did not belong to him.
Instead, he withdrew his consciousness from the battlefield where gods and immortals fought.
He viewed them both as invaders.
"This body is mine!"
"This soul is mine!!"
"This will is also mine!!!"
"Whether it's the lofty 'royal authority'! Or the 'deity' parasitizing within me!"
"None of you have the right to dictate my life and death!!"
Accompanied by Lin Jie's earth-shattering roar erupting from the deepest part of his mind, representing the ultimate declaration of self-sovereignty, his right hand, hanging limply toward the ground, moved by muscle memory!
He tightly gripped the [Serene Heart] in the holster at his waist.
A cool and gentle power flowed from the grip, forcibly injected into the chaotic sea of his consciousness, which had been stirred into a boiling porridge by the "golden royal authority" and "white divine light."
Its effect was akin to a powerful sedative. While it couldn't contend with those two domineering spiritual forces, it miraculously constructed a small, temporary haven for Lin Jie's on-the-verge-of-collapse self-will.
Using the last shreds of his clarity, Lin Jie laboriously raised the muzzle, which felt as heavy as if filled with lead.
Relying on his final instincts, he pulled the trigger, aiming at the stone slab inscribed with ancient hieroglyphs that served as the core hub of the entire "royal authority" formation.
*Bang!*
A crisp gunshot exploded.
But the first to react wasn't the royal authority pressure from the damaged formation's eye.
The White Vulture's Mark on the back of Lin Jie's hand sensed the ultimate rebellious declaration of its chosen "nest" daring to defy its "master."
It was enraged!
White light erupted from that mark, beginning to forcibly and directly reshape this rebel.
*Riiip—*
The sound of tearing leather came from Lin Jie's two blood-soaked arms.
Under the infusion of white light, the skin on his arms split open inch by inch on its own, like a venomous snake shedding its skin!
Then, beneath the torn, bloody flesh, feathers appeared. They were not mere illusions of light;
their texture was something between bone and keratin.
These feathers, mixed with scalding blood and torn muscle fibers, sprouted one by one from his flesh.
Their edges were sharp as blades, and their roots were forcibly "linked" to Lin Jie's own arm bones.
Within mere seconds.
Lin Jie's two mortal arms had been transformed into a pair of terrifying "wings" covered in white bone feathers, exuding a dual, contradictory aura of divinity and bestiality!!