The Ascent of Wrath: Ruin of Ira

The universe of the Virtual Dimension did not crack under a physical blow, but under the weight of a gaze that no longer belonged to that plane of existence.

(GRRRRR-RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE!!)

The sound did not come from the earth, but from the very fabric of reality being stretched to its breaking point.

(Zzzzzzt! Bzzzzzt! VROOOOOM!!)

Back then, an island rose into the sky, marking the beginning...

(FRRRR-BOOOOOMSHHH!!)

... Of the end for a world.

"...Then, why?"

Atop the island of debris floating like a tumor of asphalt and iron over the city, the atmosphere had become a thick substance, charged with an unimaginable hatred that made the oxygen itself flammable.

"Now that I think about it... After considering it... In fact, the timing is right..."

In that setting, Raina's voice was not a sound, but a vibration that ran through the spines of the six hundred and fifty million souls surrounding the perimeter.

"I no longer need this world."

That day dictated by a melodious voice that resonated before everyone like a frequency that made iron feel soft and the will of men crumble like ash in the wind.

(Fwoooooosh! Sssssshhhhhh!)

Around the Demon Lady, a hurricane of crimson energy began to devour the light.

(KRRRR-WHOOOOOOOOOOO-SHHHHHHH!!!)

Faced with the tide of six hundred and fifty million souls, Raina was not a warrior; she was the eye of a psionic hurricane that had decided the world was no longer necessary.

"... Come."

Her red eyes, fixed and devoid of any trace of doubt, watched the human tide like a surgeon observes necrotic tissue that must be excised.

"ATTACK!! CHARGE AGAINST THE DEMON!! FOR THE SURVIVAL OF HUMANITY, CUT HER THROAT!!"

And in response to such a gaze, the cry of a Coalition commander tore through the air, a desperate proclamation seeking to ignite a courage that had already died.

(BWAAAAAA-HROOOOOMMM-GZZZZT!!!!)

In that way, the horizon immediately caught fire.

(VRRRRUUUUUMMM-SHHHH-KRRAAAAAA-T-T-T-THHHHOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!)

Following that, hundreds of thousands of projectiles, spells, and bodies driven by desperation launched toward her, covering the sky like a shroud of metal and fire.

"...."

But in response, Raina did not speak. She did not move, and she did not even blink.

(Zzzzzzt... Bzzzzzt!)

Simply, reality around her folded.

(GRRRRRRRR-SHHHHHHH-KRRRRRR-AAAARRRRGGHH-BOOOO-BOOOOMM!)

It was not an explosion. It was a psychic collapse of matter.

(S-S-S-SHHHHHIIIIIIII-KRRR-B-B-BOOOOOOOOMMM-FWWWWWAAAAA!!!)

The projectiles that entered her field of influence did not detonate; they stopped dead, suspended by invisible threads of pure mental force, before being compressed to the size of atoms while the air, agitated by her mere presence, began to vibrate at a frequency that disintegrated the molecular bonds of everything it touched.

(Clac... clac... clac!)

And without a single gesture, Raina projected her will forward.

(Hhhhiiiiiiiiiiii-vvvvvv-zzzzzt-KRRR-KRRR-P-P-P-SHHHHH!)

There were no returning projectiles, but a reconfiguration of space.

(Uuuuuuummmmm-GRRR-RR-NNNNGG-KRAAA-TCH-TCH-TCH!)

As a result, the soldiers of the front line did not die from physical impacts; instead, they felt their own brains expand within their skulls, victims of a psychic pressure that turned their thoughts into internal shrapnel.

"...I-it has to be a joke... NOOOOOOOO!!!"

An entire sector of the Coalition, about ten million men, simply... ceased to exist.

(BWAAAAAA-HROOOOOMMM-GZZZZT!!!!)

No bodies remained, no blood, no wreckage.

"GET AWAY!!"

"DON'T COME CLOSER?!"

"KYAAAAAAAAA!!!"

The space they occupied was crushed by an invisible hand of such magnitude that light itself curved toward the center of the massacre, leaving behind an absolute and dark void.

(Fwoooooosh!! Sssssshhhhhh!)

In that way, Raina began to walk.

(V-V-V-HHHMMMMMM—S-S-S-SSHHHIIIIII—KRRR-ZZZZZZ-F-F-FWAAAAAA!)

Every step she took in the air provoked an expansive wave of silence that erased the screams of agony from those yet to come.

(WWUUUUOOOMMM—...—KR-KR-KRRIIIIIIIIII—BZZZZZZZZ-TCH-TCH!)

Her psychic aura—a virus of expansive fury—did not just kill them; it forced them to see their worst fears projected onto the crimson sky before their neural connections caught fire under the weight of her Primal Wrath.

"DON'T PANIC AND HOLD THE LINE! If she advances, nothing will be left!"

In parallel, the buildings hanging from the floating island began to crumble...

(CRACK-OOOM-KRA-KOOOOM!!)

But despite that, they did not fall; instead, they turned into clouds of stone and glass splinters orbiting around her, forming a crown of debris spinning at supersonic speeds, shredding anyone who tried to approach.

(I'll start with that one...)

However, what they still did not understand was that Raina's calm was the omen of the end.

"What is this?! My head... I feel like it's going to—! AAAAAAGHHHH!"

There was no hatred on her face, only a cold and methodical execution.

(GRRRRR-RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE!!)

And immediately, the typhoon of debris orbiting around her—tons of asphalt, twisted steel beams, and skyscraper glass—stopped for a microsecond, as if time itself held its breath.

(KRRRR-WHOOOOOOOOOOO-SHHHHHHH!!!)

And in the following instant, the Demon Lady simply... released her control.

(SHHHHIIIIIIII-UUUU-VRRRRR-¡BOOOOM!-P-P-P-P-P-TRRRRRRRR-KRRRR-ACK!!!!)

As a result, what was released was not a coordinated volley, but ballistic chaos.

(WHIRRRRRRR-KRRRRRR-¡CHAK!-DRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-P-P-P-P-SHHHHHHH-VRAAAAA!!!)

Millions of city fragments were shot in all directions, an apocalyptic shrapnel propelled by a mental force that surpassed any electromagnetic cannon.

"Take cover, the air itself is—!"

Entire buildings hanging from the floating island disintegrated into individual projectiles that streaked through the air at supersonic speeds, igniting in fire from the friction.

(VRRRRRRRRRR-ZZZZZZZZ-¡K-K-K-KRAAAAAAA-T-T-T-T-T-T-SHHHHHHHHH-KRRRR!)

The impact was a genocide of flesh, blood, and horror never before seen.

"There's nowhere to hide! They're grinding us down from every angle!"

The projectiles did not discriminate.

(FRRRR-BOOOOOMSHHH!!)

They tore through fortifications, absolute energy barriers, and entire legions of soldiers, turning them into a red paste that splattered across the asphalt.

(KRA-KOOOOM!!)

The Coalition desperately tried to raise containment walls, but Raina's psychic shrapnel did not just destroy matter; it infected the air with its residual fury.

(SHHWWWW-KRA-KOOOOM!!)

Because of this, hundreds of thousands of people who were not in the direct line of fire died from the simple shockwave of random impacts, which turned the ground into a secondary shrapnel trap.

"Fire! Launch everything you have!" (SSSS-SHIIIIUUUU—WWUUUOOOMMM—KRRR-KRRR!) "I can't see! The sky... the sky is breaking!" (KRAAA-BOOOO-BOOOOMM!)

"Don't stop! Kill the calamity or die—!" (Hhhhiiiiiiiiiiii—GRRR-NNNNGG-FWAAAAA!) "Get back! My thoughts are fire! MY THOUGHTS ARE—!" (KRRRIIIIIIIIII—P-P-P-SHHHHH!)

Soon the scene became hell on earth...

"FOR THE— AAAAGHHH— LOOK AT HER!— MY EYES ARE BURNING!— GRRRR-HAAAA-KRRRR-AAAAAAAGH!"

However, the worst was yet to come.

"HI-HI-HIIII—HAHAHA!—IT BURNS!—YES-YES-YES!—KILL THEM—!— KRR-ZZZ-VRAAAAAAAA!"

Despite the countermeasures against the psychic influence Raina released passively, several members of the group began to give in, turning against one another as they fell into madness.

"NO-IT'S NOT YOU— MOTHER!— WHY ARE YOU—!— AAAAHHHH-G-G-GUUUUAAAA-HIIII-KRA-TCH!"

And before the scene where friends killed each other, relatives cursed their parents, and others surrendered to fanaticism, the one responsible... Raina was...

"...."

Watching the horror calmly.

(Fwoooooosh! Sssssshhhhhh!)

Nevertheless, while the carnage spread across the horizon, an elite group of Coalition warriors, miraculous survivors of the bombardment, detected a gap in the storm.

"DIE!!"

Taking advantage of the chaos, they lunged with divine speed, dodging the debris and appearing behind Raina's back.

"I refuse."

Their swords, forged from materials that could cut through causality itself, sought her neck in a coordinated and lethal attack.

(KRRRR-ACK-CK-CK-STCHHHHH!!)

However, unfortunately...

(VROM—KRRRRRR-TCH-TCH-TCH-TCH!)

Without even turning around or interrupting the rhythm of her walk toward Mayuri, their bodies became suspended in the air.

(KRA-KA-KA-KA-KACK—SHHHH!)

In that microsecond, the physics around their bodies failed.

"I am sick of others deciding for me..."

There was no physical barrier, no energy wall, no magical flash.

"I will decide for myself."

She simply gave them a casual glance from the corner of her eye.

"... Farewell."

And without a single gesture of her hand, the psychic pressure on their bodies doubled, turning the air around them into an unbreakable solid that compressed them into spheres of flesh and metal the size of a marble.

(Tum-tum! Tum-tum! Tum-tum!)

Thus the remains of the elite warriors fell into the void like mere pebbles.

"DAMN IT!!"

The situation had escalated to such an extent that miles away, in the heart of the Coalition's rear guard, the government that had contributed the technology and armament deployment to stop the natural disaster that was Raina was breaking into a cold sweat.

"Rear guard, respond... How much longer until it's ready!?"

As a result, they could no longer afford to wait.

(Zzzzzzt! Bzzzzzt! Zzzzzzt!)

In response, in the center of an improvised command plaza, a colossal summoning circle began to devour the surrounding light, transforming it into a gelid and absolute blue.

"It's not ready yet! The dimensional anchoring for the trump card requires more time!"

In that place, hundreds of specialists, with the veins in their temples about to burst, poured their essence into the ritual.

"There is no more time! The vanguard has been erased! Six hundred million souls are not enough to slow her down for even one more minute!"

Without further options, watching as the atmosphere was silently incinerated faster and faster through satellites melting from Raina's psionic pressure, the Coalition’s central command made the final decision.

"... Haaa... Release the atmospheric containment measures... Let the fire purify what the will could not."

There was no debate.

(Clac! Clac! Clac!)

Only the dry sound of a key turning in a control panel that should never have been touched.

"What?!"

And in parallel, the first to react to what was about to happen once again was Raina...

(WHOOOOOOOOOOO-SHHHHHHH!)

On the horizon, beyond the floating island, the sky split open.

"If this doesn't work..."

From the hidden silos at the ends of the world, the white trails of nuclear weapons began to streak across the crimson firmament.

"... We will be doomed."

It wasn't one, or ten.

"Damned."

It was the entire arsenal of a civilization that preferred to reduce its world to ashes rather than allow the Anomaly to take one more step.

(Fwoooooosh! Fwoooooosh! Fwoooooosh!)

The warheads descended like metal angels, accelerating toward the epicenter where Raina walked.

"... H-hey... This is a dream... Right...?"

Meanwhile, the Coalition soldiers still standing on the floating island looked up, watching as their own leaders sent the sun to fall upon their heads.

"THIS IS A NIGHTMARE, RIGHT?!"

Only then did Raina finally stop.

"... I suppose after all, they chose the right option... It’s a pity..."

For the first time, she raised her gaze toward the firmament saturated with thermonuclear projectiles.

"I no longer feel human..."

Her face, bathed in the bluish glow of the distant ritual and the blinding white of the missiles, showed no trace of fear.

"Then what am I now?"

In her mind, the Primal Wrath expanded, not as a scream, but as a psychic equation of divine complexity.

(BWAAAAAA-HROOOOOMMM-GZZZZT!!!!)

Before the collision, amidst all kinds of emotions, there was one that predominated. No; there was one that now dictated her existence.

"The answer is... The one who shall bring you RUIN..."

Proclaiming herself in that place, and at that time—she, someone who had been broken and reformed into an anomaly that should never have existed...

"I am wrath."

She marked her sin in the midst of hell.