Chapter 1082: Rune Dwarf

This is Man Nuo's palm!

The entire palm has been severed at the wrist, its width nearly ten meters, slightly smaller than when it was in the sky, indicating that Man Nuo's true form stands just over a hundred meters tall. The giant palm's outer flesh is a blur of blood and meat, the wound charred black, and the three middle fingers are twisted and broken, smashed by the Thunder God's Hammer.

The palm still radiates a chilling aura.

From the cut flows golden divine blood, thick and viscous, evaporating at a visible rate, a palpable divine power spreading outward, suffocating those nearby.

Divine Hand!

Anything linked to a deity becomes extraordinarily uncanny, no longer ordinary, let alone a part of the deity's body.

Divine flesh, divine blood, divine bone, and divine power!

Every component of a deity is the world's most precious alchemical material; this massive severed palm can forge a great number of at least Legend Grade magical items.

However, Lei En hasn't decided what to do with it yet.

Footsteps sounded around them.

Asina and the giants teleported over, instantly spotting the giant palm amid the ruins, feeling its vast divine power, their faces instantly showing shock.

Everyone's gaze at Lei En was filled with awe, with a hint of reverence.

Lei En severed the deity's hand!

If they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, they would never have believed that a mortal could inflict such grievous harm on a deity, not only winning the battle but also causing Man Nuo to flee in panic.

The giants even began to doubt—was Lei En truly a mortal?

Asina knows Lei En best.

But her expression now was odd—not shocked by Lei En's power, but by the name Man Nuo uttered before departing—An He Luo Zi! Having spent years in the Empire, she had naturally heard rumors about Lei En, that His Majesty the Emperor is a reincarnated ancient deity; she hadn't thought much of it, but today's events sparked certain associations.

"Lei..."

Asina was about to speak when a thunderclap sounded from the horizon.

A massive bolt of lightning shot from the distant sky, instantly nearing the summit of the Storm Plane, striking the temple, and revealing a towering figure before everyone.

The giants exclaimed in surprise, "Elder!"

Then they saw that Elder Suo Li Mu was in poor condition; his body bore multiple injuries, a massive wound deep enough to see bone that nearly severed his right arm at the shoulder. Though the bleeding had stopped, it remained gruesome.

Suo Li Mu propped his body with the Sky Spear, looking exhausted, his breathing uneven.

Yet his spirit was strong, his eyes still bright as lightning.

"Elder, how is the situation?"

Lei En asked while observing with his Soul Eye; Suo Li Mu's condition was worse than it seemed, his soul dimmed, the demigod's radiant aura halved, clearly having expended too much divinity.

"It went fairly well," Suo Li Mu said with joy. "Luohaxiya is dead; I killed it myself, finally avenging the giants for a thousand years!"

The surrounding giants were overjoyed, erupting in cheers.

"Elder Wan Sheng!"

"With Luohaxiya's death, no enemy can threaten the giants; we have reclaimed the Storm Plane!"

"Excellent, the Heavenly Father hasn't completely abandoned the giants..."

Lei En watched the jubilant giants and finally understood why Suo Li Mu refused his aid, insisting on killing Luohaxiya himself.

For over two thousand years, the Wind Element Lord has been the giants' chief nemesis.

Killing Luohaxiya carries great symbolic weight, a hallmark of giant resurgence; it cannot be achieved with outsiders, must be done by the giants themselves.

The giants need this victory to sweep away millennia of gloom and revive their faith.

Suo Li Mu also needs this triumph to raise his standing among his people, paving the way for his upcoming deification.

However, Suo Li Mu paid a heavy price for it.

Beyond his severe injuries, the lost divinity is irrecoverable; healing also requires divinity.

Suo Li Mu glanced at the giant palm, his expression shifting slightly, and said, "This is Man Nuo's palm, right? When I fought Luohaxiya I sensed Man Nuo's arrival, but couldn't return in time; fortunately His Majesty was here and repelled Him."

His eyes remained fixed on the severed palm, his heart deeply shaken.

"Defeating a deity with a mortal body..." Suo Li Mu exclaimed. "In Ai Lun E Si's history, there has never been a precedent. Your Majesty, you have created another miracle!"

Lei En shook his head, "He was merely careless for a moment."

Moreover, Man Nuo has few followers; his divine power may be the weakest among the gods, and he only achieved this result by harnessing the Star Destroyer's might.

Even with a severed hand and artillery fire, Man Nuo was merely wounded, far from falling, and suffered no broken bones.

If Man Nuo's true form forced a descent, I could only flee.

His retreat may have been to avoid wasting his already scarce divine power, but more likely he sensed other deities coveting him.

When a deity leaves the divine realm, it is perilous; although the Storm Plane is far from the Prime Material Plane and not constantly watched by deities, any disturbance from a descent spreads outward, inevitably drawing other deities' attention to the Storm Plane.

Each minute of delay adds another point of danger.

Man Nuo couldn't enter the Storm Plane at top speed as intended, and discovered his own and the Star Destroyer's interference within the plane, making a quick success impossible, forcing a retreat.

Otherwise, his feeble divine power would merely become a snack for a greater deity.

"Your Majesty, you are being modest!"

Suo Li Mu said, "Even the weakest deity is beyond a mortal's resistance. If it were me facing Man Nuo, death would be the only path." He paused, sighing, "The gap between mortals and deities is too vast; even a demigod fares little better."

Everyone present nodded slightly.

The gulf between humans and deities is like heaven and earth; the stronger one is, the clearer this realization becomes—mortals can only look up to, respect, and fear deities.

Lei En keenly sensed Elder Titan's emotions surge, shifting from yearning to excited agitation, with a hint of apprehension.

Clearly, Suo Li Mu thought of his own path to deification.

He has already reached that threshold!

Lei En turned and entered the ruins, standing before Man Nuo's severed palm, habitually intending to store the palm in the Pixel World; after careful consideration, he placed it into an empty nebula ring.

A trace of divine blood lingered on the ground, evaporating rapidly, and the aura of divine power gradually faded.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Congratulations, Elder!" Lei En laughed, "Congratulations to everyone, the giants have reclaimed the Storm Plane, and from now on revival is hopeful."

"We must thank His Majesty for his full assistance," Suolim was also pleased, but his smile quickly faded, and he said gravely, "We have only recovered the Storm Temple; there are still tens of millions of wind element troops in the plane awaiting our handling."

A Xina replied immediately, "We should press the advantage and drive the enemies out of the Storm Plane, or eliminate them all."

"Elder, I am willing to lead the attack."

Her plan was simple: while Lei En's Star Destroyer and Thundercast Celestial Soldiers were here, strike in one surge to wipe out all enemies, leaving no aftermath.

Several other Titan Giants were also eager, petitioning the Elder, wishing to lead their troops into battle.

However, Suolim did not agree immediately.

He thought for a few seconds before saying, "I have other plans for the wind element troops; the most urgent task now is to occupy the Storm Temple and the Eastern Temple, repair the temple's damage so it can function again. As long as the three temples are in the giants' hands, no number of enemies will frighten us."

The Titan Elder looked at Lei En, "Your Majesty, regarding the Eastern Temple…"

"Leave it to me."

"A Xina, you take a giant legion aboard the Augustus, and we will depart at once."

With Lei En's order, the Augustus in the sky descended, the Thundercast Celestial Soldiers scattered atop the storm withdrew most of their forces, leaving ten thousand men to help guard the Storm Temple. A Xina and two Titan Giants led a thirty‑thousand‑giant force into the Augustus's hangar, then quickly lifted off.

Boom—

The Augustus, Albert Bay, and Getan leapt into the void, leaving two Empire‑class Star Destroyers hovering above the storm's summit.

Soon, a temple also built among the mountains arrived.

The Eastern Temple was about the same size as the Northern Temple; the enemies had clearly learned of the Storm Temple's fall. When the Star Destroyer arrived, it saw the temple had opened a "Thunder Barrier," with tens of thousands of wind element troops hidden inside, each looking at the Star Destroyer in terror.

The main cannons of the three Star Destroyers began charging.

With an absolute power gap, no tactics were needed; just blast the barrier open and charge in.

On the bridge, Lei En stared at the palace clusters atop the mountain, and by comparing positions realized the temple was not exactly due east of the Storm Plane, but slightly to the north.

Referring to the locations of the Northern Temple and the central Storm Temple, he quickly understood. The six temples built by the giants have the outer five arranged in a regular pentagon, which can be connected into a pentagram, with the Storm Temple at the exact center of that star.

There must be some principle behind this layout…

While pondering, the Star Destroyer's main cannon was more than half charged; the massive barrel glowed brighter, the electric flash as blinding as the sun.

The enemies inside the Eastern Temple had already descended into chaos, apparently fighting among themselves, splitting into two factions.

Many enemies also fled the temple.

Winged men, Alaka crowfolk, wind elements, gale dwarves and harpy‑like women, as well as various flying creatures, but unlike the forces on the Storm Temple, they were mixed with many unfamiliar foes: thunder birds, lightning flying lions, silver‑scaled feathered serpents, and so on, most wielding lightning power.

The most conspicuous were a group of dwarves.

Their skin was dark, shimmering with a metallic sheen, bodies seemed forged of steel, and the exposed chests and arms were covered with deep‑blue runes, like dense tattoos, coursing with lightning power.

They rode tall silver‑horned goats, wielding war hammers, sprinting across the rugged cliffs as if on flat ground.

Some rode thunder birds and lightning flying lions, protecting their kin as they fled outward.

"Rune dwarves!"

A Xina, seeing Lei En's interest in the dwarves, explained, "They are rune dwarves; it is said their origin is closely linked to the Storm Giants. Like the Storm Giants, they are born with mastery of lightning power and possess exceptionally advanced forging techniques."

"Rune dwarves are a branch of Prime Material Plane dwarves, once followers of Anheloz, but in the early Third Epoch they migrated to the Storm Plane."

"We accepted the rune dwarves and even taught them Titan rune knowledge…"

At this point, A Xina's expression turned sour.

"During the Dark Millennium, rune dwarves pledged to the demigod of the Thunder Element Plane, forging weapons and armor for the enemy."

"Last year, the thunder element demigod was slain by Lohaxia, but it left behind these rune dwarves, likely because of their forging skill."

Lei En nodded.

A dwarf army with great combat power and forging expertise, if they surrendered, no one would be willing to kill them.

The rune dwarves numbered about thirty thousand, fleeing the temple in panic.

In the area surrounding the Eastern Temple there were many dwarf villages; altogether, the rune dwarf population should exceed one hundred thousand.

Lei En turned back and asked, "A Xina, the Storm Giants will not accept the rune dwarves again, will they?"

"Of course not," the female giant shook her head firmly, "The rune dwarves betrayed the Storm Giants. Though they did not directly harm the giants, the weapons and armor they forged for the enemy are soaked with giant blood!"

"It's a pity to kill so many rune dwarves," Lei En thought, then said, "I'll speak with the elder later; if the rune dwarves are willing to surrender, I'll relocate them to the New Continent to contribute to building new cities."

In fact, Lei En guessed that Elder Suolim was unwilling to release them.

Rebuilding the Storm Temple requires a massive workforce; a few thousand giants are clearly insufficient. Hill dwarves could help, but they are better suited as stonemasons, their grasp of Titan runes far inferior to that of rune dwarves, making them several times less efficient.

A Xina hesitated a bit, "Alright."

Boom!

The three Star Destroyers fired together, a massive pillar of light pierced the temple's Thunder Barrier, yet the temple's structure remained unharmed.

The Eastern Temple instantly resembled a boiling pot, the wind element troops scattered wildly in panic.

Among them were a winged Sword Saint and a winged Grand Mage, but these Saint Rank elites lacked the courage to resist, only caring to flee.

The Star Destroyer descended from the sky.

Beams of electric flash and electric bolts shot out, annihilating any enemy daring to approach; after several volleys, the Eastern Temple was cleared.

Lei En did not attend to the fleeing enemies; he deployed Thundercast Celestial Soldiers to occupy the Eastern Temple.

A Xina led the giant legion down.

Lei En sat on the bridge waiting, overseeing the whole situation, when a barely visible golden flash flickered at the corner of his eye and vanished, moving at extreme speed, blending among a flock of thunder birds; unless one's eyesight is exceptionally sharp, ordinary people could hardly catch that shadow.

"What is that?"

Lei En instantly turned his head to pursue; the golden flash darted to the horizon, about to leave his sight.

In an instant, he saw clearly.

It was a massive golden eagle, each feather forged of gold, dazzlingly majestic, its body surrounded by lightning; a beat of its wings triggered an electric flash, propelling it thousands of meters in an instant—indeed faster and farther than "Electric Flash Teleport"!

(End of Chapter)