@contrex,
I thought the word 'as' in the sentence was used as a kind of preposition. And as far as I know, a noun is supposed to come after preposition. So, I assumed 'destruction' is grammatical than an adjective 'destructive' after 'as'.
I am not a native speaker and my knowledge is based on what I learned in English grammar class. So, I'd appreciate it if anybody can enlighten me about this in case I am mistaken. Thanks.