65 million years ago, a meteorite about ten kilometers in diameter sounded the death knell for the end times. The violent impact formed a giant crater 180 kilometers in diameter in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosive yield was equivalent to 95 trillion tons of TNT, comparable to 5 billion Hiroshima atomic bombs or 1.58 million Tsar hydrogen bombs. The shockwave swept over a thousand kilometers, creating tsunamis thousands of meters high and blasting large amounts of high-temperature debris into the atmosphere, triggering global wildfires and storms.
At the same time, the massive impact force reached deep into the Earth's interior, causing abnormal magma activity. Countless volcanoes erupted, and smoke and toxic substances blocked the sky and spread globally, cutting off sunlight, plunging the climate into a brutal nuclear winter, and driving the then-dominant dinosaurs into the grave of history. To the Earth, it was just a minor impact, but it almost destroyed the entire ecosystem.
Life is so fragile.
The meteorite brought by the Wrath Assembly was not as terrifying, but it was far from ordinary! The intense friction generated tens of thousands of degrees of heat, turning it into a massive fireball, hurtling towards the ground under the pull of Earth's gravity at over twenty kilometers per second. Initially, it was just a dazzling light breaking through the fog at the edge of the sky, but within seconds, everyone who saw it—whether in this city or somewhere far away—felt its terrifying power!
Everyone realized it was not the kind of beautiful meteor they had seen before! It was not something to be called a "scenery"! It was death, despair, decay, and destruction, an unrelenting force from the heavens that demanded submission and forgiveness!
.....
The two-headed giant dog "Invincible" looked up at the sky.
It was not a native of this city; it came from another distant place. More than half a year ago, a meteorite the size of half a head landed right in front of it. It was an exceptionally special stone, irregular in shape, emitting a faint black light, and an irresistible enticing aura that attracted all creatures within a hundred meters in an instant.
It ultimately got the stone.
Although there were constant twists and turns afterward, with the help of that stone, it grew stronger and smarter. No one could take the stone from it anymore. Then one day, it felt as if its brain had "boomed," breaking through a critical point, and its thoughts became incredibly clear!
The world opened up before its eyes, no longer chaotic, and everything it saw, heard, thought, and felt changed! At that moment, it realized—that was a gift from the gods! If not, why would it land right beside it? Why were there no competitors around it that could pose a threat at that time?
There was only one answer—it was chosen.
Why did the gods choose it?
To find the answer, it resolutely left the place where it had lived since birth the day it gained intelligence. During its journey, it gathered many subordinates. Eventually, it arrived in this city. It found the answer here. It met the devil here. That was a human. The moment it saw him, a nameless hatred surged from deep within its heart!
"This is an apocalypse! This is the mission bestowed upon me by the gods!"
It was so excited that it almost attacked on the spot. It barely held back, choosing to retreat temporarily—not to defy the gods' will, but to execute it without error or accident because the devil had a troublesome companion—a long-eared rabbit. She seemed to have noticed it but did nothing, probably as wary of it as it was of her.
Afterward, it started gathering manpower, making plans, and assigning its subordinates to find the devil's residence. Strangely, they could only find the devil when he went out hunting but never discovered where he lived. Even tracking him always led to losing him mysteriously...
But it didn't matter. No matter how strong the devil's counter-tracking ability was or how well he hid, he always had to go out hunting. When the time came, it could find him.
After thorough preparations, the time to execute the gods' will finally arrived. This time, the long-eared rabbit was not there. The force meant to capture them all was now just for the devil, and it should have been easy. However, the actual situation was different.
Its most prized subordinate's stealth ability was detected early and was killed by the devil despite having many chosen ones protecting it. That was tolerable, but then an earthquake broke out, and its subordinates were instantly overwhelmed by fear, fleeing for their lives, abandoning their devotion to the gods in panic.
How pathetic and embarrassing!
"So, you have personally sent down divine punishment?" The two-headed giant dog silently gazed at the sky, the dazzling light far surpassing the sun. Instinct told it that this was aimed at them. Its eyes showed shock, fear, and awe, but ultimately only piety remained. It pressed its head to the ground, crouching low.
"Please... forgive us."
Somewhere in the city, a bird evolutionist sat blankly in front of a small mound of earth. He was indeed crazy, having foolishly followed the rabbit's advice and left the high-rise roof with his trembling daughter. Did a beautiful and bright future greet him?
No, it was brutal reality.
The laughable illusion lasted only half a day in his mind. Half a day later, his daughter died, torn apart like a discarded rag. Since that day, her eyes, filled with pain, fear, helplessness, and... resentment, as she looked at him in her last moments, became his unshakeable nightmare. Every moment now and in the future, those eyes would always watch him, never letting him find peace. Perhaps, only death...
The massive light above caught his attention, and he mechanically lifted his head to look, a ripple of emotion appearing in his dead eyes. He suddenly burst into mad laughter. If the rabbit were here now, he would point at the light in the sky and shout:
"Getting stronger?! What good is getting stronger?! Tell me, against this, what use is getting stronger?! Getting stronger is meaningless! Everything, all of it, is meaningless!"
...
Time ticked by, and the light piercing through the fog quickly displayed its terrifying power! Attacks from the heavens are inherently fearsome. More and more evolutionists saw it, instinctively feeling it was heading for the city! Unprecedented panic erupted. Some evolutionists knelt and trembled, some fled in panic, some stood frozen in place, some went mad, destroying everything around them, some clung to each other, eyes closed, waiting for fate...
Nothing could stop it!
The massive meteorite, carrying unstoppable heavenly power, tore through the atmosphere at over twenty kilometers per second!
Now, how much time did the city have left?
Five seconds? Ten seconds?
Thud!
A thick steel bar pierced through Raymond's left shoulder, causing his face to suddenly turn pale and making him acutely aware of the terrifying nature of [Unforeseen Calamity]. The physical body of Eight Tribulations was incredibly strong, yet at this moment, a mere steel bar had injured him. The principle behind it was similar to "paper cutting the skin" or "choking on water when unlucky," but much more severe.
Every entity—whether living or non-living—has weaknesses. Perhaps it's at a certain moment, from a certain angle, or under certain conditions that an originally impossible and ungraspable opportunity arises. However, under the influence of [Unforeseen Calamity], nothing is impossible.
This doesn't mean that every attack from [Unforeseen Calamity] has effects similar to a "super critical hit" or "ignoring defenses," but rather, it makes the impossible possible. Some seemingly harmless attacks might cause severe consequences.
That's why, during the previous fight, Raymond chose to dodge all attacks to be on the safe side. To an ordinary person, that would seem impossible.
How to dodge something as bizarre as [Man-Made Calamity]? A small stone lightly moved by the wind, an insect emerging from somewhere, some water trickling down the texture of a rock, or the change in air humidity... There are so many elements around, who could grasp them all? The interactions, entanglements, and collisions between these elements can produce countless unexpected outcomes. How a trivial matter can snowball into a lethal attack is utterly unpredictable!
Adding [Natural Calamity] to this basis would be utterly despairing... But this wasn't the case for Raymond. His ability, [Chaos Parameters], allowed him to instantly grasp all the surrounding information and process it.
In his eyes, nothing was unknown, nothing was unforeseen. It could be said that his ability, in a one-on-one battle, happened to counter [Unforeseen Calamity]. Through control, processing, calculation, and deduction, Raymond could clearly understand how accidents would occur, where attacks would come from, and how to avoid them. With the physical abilities of Eight Tribulations, dodging those accidents was not difficult once everything was known.
If Raymond feared anything, it would undoubtedly be attacks that couldn't be dodged. For instance, the unreasonable strength of Big Sister, or the meteor currently descending!
When the enormous light appeared at the edge of the sky, Raymond found it hard to believe. It was true that [Natural Calamity] could trigger disasters and had a wide range, from summoning thunder to stirring magma. But planetary fragments from outer space?! That was thousands of kilometers away! Because the distance was too far, the information changes triggered by planetary fragments were beyond Raymond's capability range, so he hadn't noticed.
Could Ben Mao's [Unforeseen Calamity] influence such a distant place?!!
Raymond and Ben Mao had known each other for a long time. Though not related by blood, the Eight Tribulations had spent many long years together like siblings. In his understanding, [Unforeseen Calamity] shouldn't have such a large range.
But the impossible was happening right before his eyes!
At this moment, Raymond realized he didn't know his sister, who always stayed silently by their master's side and rarely interacted with others, well enough.
A burning fireball descended from the sky with the terrifying power to level everything in its path! Though it was still hundreds of kilometers away, with the speed of a meteor, it would actually land in just a dozen seconds. In the little time left, Raymond knew he had to escape as far as possible. Even if he couldn't get out of the impact crater's range, he at least had to avoid being directly hit by the meteor!
Thus, he could no longer dodge all attacks as before. Some attacks, if avoided, would force him to change his direction, and he didn't have time to waste.
At the cost of injuries, Raymond instantly dashed over a hundred meters away. In a situation where his ability was countered and he was going all out, it was indeed hard for Ben Mao to do much against him. Under normal circumstances, Raymond might have gotten away, but... this was no ordinary situation!
A week of continuous earthquakes and volcanic eruptions had made the crust beneath the city very unstable. Combined with the recent terrifying earthquake...
The ground beneath was like a massive powder keg, ready to explode at the slightest trigger!
As Raymond had said earlier, with disasters accumulating and stacking, [Unforeseen Calamity] was nearly limitless!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Enormous lava columns erupted incessantly, trapping Raymond in place! "Are you crazy!!" Raymond roared in anger, "You'll die too if this continues!!! Ben Mao, are you insane! "Stop now and we can still make it out alive!"
"Alright! I'll leave this place, you just stop!" "You will die too!"
Ben Mao remained silent, as if she hadn't heard anything. The continuous lava eruptions naturally couldn't last long, but she only needed those few dozen seconds.
In the roaring of lava, time quickly passed. A few seconds wasn't long. The enormous despair pierced the stratosphere, crashing into the troposphere. The meteor, nearly three hundred meters in diameter, burned at thousands of degrees, casting a shadow of death!
At this moment, only 0.5 seconds remained before annihilation! Only now did Ben Mao shift her gaze from Raymond to another direction. That was where Raymond was.
As Raymond had said, in 0.5 seconds, she would also die. Was she not afraid? No, she was afraid. She bit her lip, her hands trembling uncontrollably—hardly a sign of fearlessness.
She didn't want to die; she wasn't someone seeking death! When death descended from the sky, she felt the same fear! Moreover, the waiting for death was even more terrifying than death itself, as if an invisible hand was gripping her heart, making it hard to breathe. Fear came in waves, but so did another, stronger feeling—regret. She felt immense regret. After six thousand years, she hadn't even managed to truly meet him once!
But she had no regrets.
In a one-on-one fight, she wasn't Raymond's match, especially after being ambushed and severely injured. Apart from mutual destruction, she couldn't find any other way to stop Raymond. Perhaps Raymond ultimately wouldn't take their master's immortality, but how could she stand by and watch their master be captured!
To be taken for experiments and killed repeatedly? No! She would never allow it! She suddenly remembered many years ago when, after being ostracized for taking on his appearance and feeling lost, he hadn't scolded her but smiled and patted her head, saying, "Ben Mao, just become the person you want to be."
That was her treasure.
It might sound unbelievable, but the treasure of the Eight Tribulations' Ben Mao was just a sentence. Her trembling hands stilled. Ben Mao's mood became incredibly calm. She had conquered her fear but hadn't defeated her regret.
0.5 seconds passed in a flash!
The clouds were torn apart, the sky shattered, and the massive meteor, like a spear, instantly pierced through. The wind scattered the thick fog, and the piercing noise of it tearing through the air mingled with a dull roar.
With an earth-shattering explosion, an endless white light engulfed the world!