Chapter 1923: The Fragment Of A Great Being VS Tartarus
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"You were?! So that’s what happened...!" Olivia exclaimed, conjuring barriers and summoning burning spears. She hurled them at the tentacles, making them explode on impact and halting the creature’s descent. "I think I recognize this thing! It’s... one of the Outer Horrors that Foreigner can summon! Is he here?! Is this his doing?!"
"NO, FOOLISH HUMAN."
"...?!"
"Guh!?"
"Gaaah?!"
"Eaarrgh!"
A voice—malevolent, disgusting, and utterly horrible—suddenly echoed through everyone’s hearts and souls. The sound brought such immense pain that they all cried out in agony.
"I AM NOT THAT HEROIC SPIRIT’S SLAVE. I AM MERELY A BENEFACTOR OF HIS."
The thing in the sky...
That monster they had believed to be a mindless being from another world...
It was speaking. And it spoke with terrifying eloquence.
"I AM A FRAGMENT OF A GREAT BEING. AND YOU WILL ALL BE MY FIRST MEAL."
They were utterly paralyzed. Even Yasuke, no longer able to fight, was caught and pierced by dozens of black tentacles.
Their eyes widened in horror as blood streamed from their eyes, mouths, noses, and ears. Slowly, they began to float into the sky.
Anna’s familiars were affected too. No one could fight back against the entity’s voice alone.
It was simply beyond them.
"NOW, LET ME TASTE THE DELIGHTFUL SOULS OF MORTALS—AFTER THOUSANDS OF YEARS SINCE I WAS SEALED IN THE DEPTHS OF THE NIGHTMARE REALM... AND ESPECIALLY YOURS, WHO SEEM SO... INCREDIBLE."
The red eyes of the tentacles all locked onto Frank, the one they found most delectable. They rushed toward him, coiling around his body and trying to pierce his skin. Yet they struggled—he was far too tough.
"FRANK!!!" Harumi cried. She barely broke free from the Soul Binding Spell and launched her strongest attack at the monster above. "BLOOD... NOVA!!!"
BOOOMMM!!!
A giant sphere of blood surged into the sky and exploded, blasting apart a massive eye. The pain was overwhelming. The monster’s tentacles trembled violently in agony.
"NGAAAAHHHH! H-HOW...! HOW DARE YOU?! A MERE... A MERE MORTAL?! I WILL KILL YOU FIRST!"
Harumi could fight no longer. Dozens of tentacles pierced her body, blood pouring from the massive wounds as Frank plummeted from the sky.
Elena watched in helpless silence.
Tears fell from her eyes and struck the ground.
And something... heard her cry.
"Mom... please...! Help us...!"
From the depths of the abyss where she was submerged, as the surging alter ego tried to consume her, one purpose burned brighter than anything else: the need to protect her daughter.
"Nnnnggh...! W-What is...! What is this?! Agh!"
Tartarus groaned in agony and disbelief as the original personality and memories of his vessel stirred, fighting fiercely against his control.
"How dare you— Aaagh!"
He fell to his knees. Golden root-like tattoos spread across half his body, turning one of his red eyes a brilliant gold.
"Save her! Save my daughter, Tartarus!"
"You! How dare you?!"
"If she dies, you die too, idiot! You’re a Heroic Spirit at the end of the day!"
"...!!!"
"I understand your pain, but what you’ve gone through doesn’t mean the people around you deserve to suffer the same."
"E-Enough! This body...! I will never give it up! This is my only chance! My only chance to— AAAAGGHH!"
Kireina, watching the battle of egos from the sky, laughed. Things were becoming far more interesting.
"Will they die? Will they make it out alive or—"
RUMBLE!
Her question was answered almost instantly. Tartarus leaped into the sky with a single powerful kick, shattering the ground beneath him and sending huge cracks racing across the planet’s surface.
Elayne, Gaia, and Tartarus—all sharing the same vessel—combined their power, driven by one burning goal: to protect Elena, their daughter and their master.
"RAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
Tartarus roared, unleashing his darkness at full strength. Endless aberrations of black wood, adorned with red fleshy leaves and face- or eye-shaped fruits, bloomed violently from her body.
"Abyssal Blood Garden!!!"
Darkness surged outward with the garden, piercing through hundreds of tentacles at once. The hard dark wood tore through flesh, ripping it apart.
"NNNGGUHHHH?!"
The entity in the sky groaned in agony as Tartarus rose higher and higher. She swung her fists toward the heavens and then—
Toward it.
"W-Who the hell are you—"
"LET... MY DAUGHTER... GO!!!"
Her fists smashed into the entity’s face with devastating force. The entire face exploded, sending dozens of huge eyeballs bursting outward amid black flesh and purple blood.
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
"GUUAAAAAHHHH!"
The nightmarish aberration screamed in utter agony. Tartarus spun her body and delivered a crushing kick to its face, sending it hurtling toward the city below. Three buildings shattered on impact, forming a massive crater as a giant explosion erupted.
BOOOOMMM!!!
The "Fragment of a Great Being" was utterly devastated. Its giant spherical body bled profusely, and an Abyssal Blood Garden grew rapidly through its wounds. Massive, evil dark trees rose and bloomed with red flowers and fleshy fruits, slowly draining its life force.
"T-This is impossible... How...! How could...! Uugh... Nnngghh..."
As the entity groaned in pain, Elayne quickly caught her daughter and her friends in a nest of branches and hay. Slowly, half of her appearance returned to her original form, while the other half remained like Tartarus.
"M-Mom?"
Elena slowly opened her eyes, feeling a warm light healing her wounds. Harumi lay beside her, barely alive—mostly thanks to her vampire nature, which allowed her to survive even after being impaled by giant tentacles.
"What... What happened to you?"
As Elena reached out with a trembling hand, her mother glared back with cold anger, one red eye gleaming brightly.
"I am not your mother, child. I am the abyss incarnate. I am darkness," she said in her mother’s voice. "You may call me Tartarus."
"H-Huh?" Elena was more confused than she had ever been.
In the sky, Kireina laughed loudly as she watched everything unfold. The Nightmare Demons and their King remained wary—not only of her, but especially of Tartarus’s terrifying aura.
"Hahahaha! No way, no way! It actually worked out in the end?! What is this?! It almost feels like that girl is being protected by Fate or something! Isn’t that amazing? But kind of annoying and booooring! Let’s spice things up— Oh, just in time!"
As she laughed, she noticed a huge army of hundreds of Nightmares spreading across the area. Each one was a monstrous, abstract creature, expanding their own Nightmare Domains and Realms, further distorting space and reality around them.
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