Extra's POV: My Obsessive Villainous Fiancee Is The Game's Final Boss

Chapter 193 193: Resonance: Sacrifice

Father Francis stood before the new Chosen, eyeing the sky. The shockwave of whatever explosion that was had rippled through, sending leaves and dust spiraling through the air.

Whatever that had been, it had stopped the birds from attacking. But judging by their behavior, they were still a threat. After all, they were still circling above.

He could feel the resonance spread through the air. The resonance of a Tree of Power. But it was not the Shivering Tree.

His eyes widened. What was that? What is going on? Is that the heretics or the plague?

There was only one word he could use to describe this resonance. Calamity.

The only reason he could even identify the resonance was the fact that he was a member of the Synod and had been building a loop for a decade. He was sensitive to these kinds of vibrations.

He looked up at the sky, before turning his gaze in the direction that the resonance of Calamity was coming from. But throughout all this, one thing bugged him. Why are the infected not attacking us again?

It was eerily quiet around them.

Then, as if on cue, the world detonated.

The blast came not from the city walls, but from the very foundations of the church building.

The resonance of the blast rippled through the earth like divine wrath, Francis' eyes widening a split second before the force hit. The explosion tore through the building, hurling stone, glass, and bodies in all directions.

Francis barely had time to react. The force slammed into him, flinging him through the air like a ragdoll. His loop shook as his focus wavered, and nearly fractured under the pressure. His control slipped, and the loop rattled as the will keeping it in place slipped.

It bloomed, expanding, then—

No.

Francis snarled as he sailed through the air, his hand reaching out and touching the ground.

In the split second his finger touched the ground, he seized his loop, activating it.

He snarled, eyes flaring gold, and grasped the earth below.

"Ground: Soften."

He resonated with the stone and soil of the church grounds, altering its composition in a blink. Some parts of it solidified and others liquified.

What should have been a bone-breaking crash became a half-sink into damp earth. He rolled, gritting his teeth as the debris clattered around him, blood running down the side of his face.

But this was not the place to wait or rest. The church was falling.

He didn't waste a second. Francis stood, knees screaming, and resonated with the ground.

"Ground: Lift."

The rubble shifted and surged upward as he called forth the parts of the soil and stones that had solidified, huge slabs of shattered stones groaning under his influence, lifting upward.

Beneath them, gasping and coughing, was a handful of survivors, mostly acolytes and a few wounded Chosen.

He moved fast, creating shifting plates of ground to carry them out and away. The once beautiful cathedral was now a blackened ruin. All that was left, standing untouched in the middle of the rubble, was the Shivering Tree itself. There was even a space with not a speck of dust around it. The church had collapsed, but it hadn't even gone near the Shivering Tree.

Francis said a short and quick prayer to the Creator under his breath before tearing his gaze away and kneeling beside the rescued, checking for life.

Two of the new Chosen lay broken, bodies twisted in ways no Resonance or healing could repair. They were dead. A third, a boy barely past seventeen, groaned as Francis rolled him onto his back. Alive.

Too many dead. Too few left.

He clenched his fist, eyes flicking to the burning skyline.

The heretics. Ren and Lilith. They caused this. I'm sure of it. If I find them—

But he hesitated. Around him, survivors cried out. Chosen shouted, trying to rally. The wounded were bleeding in the dust.

His duty was to the Church.

His hatred was for the heretics.

He stood, torn.

But the Shivering Tree had spoken. They said to find the heretics. The Creator knew better.

Then the sky screamed.

He turned and saw them. How could he have forgotten?! Thousands of birds, black-feathered and wrong, their eyes glowing red. The cloud swirled above, and then they dived.

There was no time.

Francis slammed both palms to the ground. "Loop: Full release."

The earth obeyed.

A dome of stone and soil rose around him and the survivors, slamming into place just as the first wave of infected birds exploded above. The shock rippled through the dome like a bell. The outer shell cracked, but held.

"Reinforce." He growled, slamming more resonance into the earth. "Hold."

The next wave came harder. Explosions pounded the dome, shaking the entire structure. A section near the top cracked open and a wave of infected birds slipped through before he could seal it.

The inside of the dome turned into chaos.

The Chosen fought, those with flame resonances igniting them to provide light. The elements, fire, earth, water, air and other resonances like sound, streaked through the air as they battled the corrupted birds inside.

Screeches echoed, blood splattered. A Chosen screamed, then went silent. But Francis wasn't watching or listening.

The dome kept trembling as the constant explosions rocked against them. And that was when he felt it. Francis' eyes widened as he felt the resonance against the sides of the dome.

The human infected of the city, thousands of them, had surrounded them, pressing themselves against the dome outside.

Just when he reached through his resonance to perform the 'Purge' sequence, they detonated.

The dome cracked at its base as the concussive blasts surged upward. The walls rippled. Then fractured.

And then, it collapsed.

Francis fell to one knee, blood dripping down one nose, his resonance flickering. But that wasn't the real problem. The real problem was that the dome was gone but everywhere was still dark.

He raised his head up to see that the sky itself had vanished, and death was descending.

The birds surged downward in such numbers that they blotted out the sky. They twisted like a cyclone of rot and death, circling tighter, faster, screeching as one.

This was it. Francis could feel the resonance deep within himself. He was strong for a Chosen. But he was weak for a member of the Synod.

Even if he put up a dome, he couldn't survive an explosion of this magnitude.

So, he reached into the deepest part of his resonant loop. Deeper than he had ever dared before. Past pain. Past reason.

Resonance: Root.

Resonance: Stone.

Resonance: Sacrifice.

He closed his eyes. If I die… let them die with me.

Power surged through him and into the ground, resonating with every infected touching the ground, all over the city.

An earthquake erupted, the buildings of Rainhold collapsing on top of each other. Spikes speared through the ground, bursting through each and every infected in the city, killing them instantly.

He'd done it. Francis chuckled. Maybe he'll be recorded by the church as a martyr.

Maybe.

The birds detonated.

And the world vanished in fire, ash, and earth.