Chapter 2200: The thing
Woooosh
Asr tore through the gate with monstrous force, his body resembling a blood-soaked comet as he burst out from the suffocating darkness beyond the passage and returned once again to the Realm of Life.
For a fleeting instant, the familiar aura of living energy surrounding the world caused his mind to blank out completely. His body instinctively slowed for half a heartbeat as he inhaled sharply, greedily, almost desperately, as though every cell inside him had been yearning for that single breath ever since entering the other side.
The sensation of breathable life flooding back into his lungs nearly made him forget the terrifying momentum carrying his body forward.
Bam Bam Bam
That tiny moment of distraction was enough for his body to smash directly through several nascent space beasts one after another like fragile debris. Bones shattered, dark blood exploded through space, and fragments of flesh scattered everywhere before his speed finally began to decrease little by little until he violently skidded to a stop across the distant battlefield.
"Hah?" Holak’s brows furrowed deeply as he stared toward Asr, who had crashed down near the Royal Soul Masters.
His appearance was horrifying.
Blood completely covered him from head to toe, mixed with strips of torn flesh and remnants of violently unstable energy still surging chaotically around his body. He looked less like a human and more like some savage creature that had clawed its way out of hell itself.
Yet despite that horrific state, Holak recognized him almost instantly. He had spoken with Asr many times before and could never mistake that aura.
"Heeey," Holak shouted while forcing a grin onto his face despite the tension covering the battlefield, "thanks for the help, but get back to your people now."
"..!!"
Asr ignored Holak’s foolishness entirely.
Without wasting even a fraction of a second, he suddenly turned toward the mountain peak where Robin resided, veins bulging across his neck as he raised his voice with such force that the entire region trembled violently beneath the sound.
"Close the gate, close it immediately!!"
The roar shook the air itself.
Even nearby mountains rumbled faintly beneath the pressure carried within his voice.
"...."
Robin slowly turned toward Asr.
He merely raised one eyebrow while staring at him.
-----------------
On the other side—
"You’re not going anywhere!!" Morgana screamed, her voice overflowing with panic, fear, desperation, and a nearly broken sense of helplessness.
She had already summoned every powerful soul creature under her control.
More than thirty terrifying entities now filled the battlefield around her, each radiating overwhelming pressure capable of crushing ordinary experts into dust. Every single one of them possessed enough power to slaughter a Nexus State without even needing assistance.
And when it came specifically to soul creatures...
Very few individuals in the universe could stand before Morgana and claim they possessed superior quality or greater numbers.
Because Morgana, the former Shepherd of Specters, had spent countless years building this terrifying army piece by piece.
Every time she liberated a specter farm in the past, she would secretly select the strongest one or two specters inside it and absorb them into her collection, nurturing them personally until they became terrifying soul creatures completely loyal to her.
That was the true foundation behind her terrifying soul domain.
That was how she condensed her first star despite the catastrophic circumstances she had lived through.
And not only that...
Each one of those creatures contained something abnormal within them.
Deep inside every beast, every specter, every soul entity under her command, there burned a blazing ember resembling a private crystal embedded into their existence itself.
That was Morgana’s personal specialty.
A method she had researched, invented, and perfected through endless experimentation.
A forbidden enhancement technique capable of strengthening specters and soul creatures far beyond their natural limits, making them vastly more savage and allowing them to unleash power far exceeding what they should normally possess.
If a soul creature could ordinarily kill a low Nexus State... then with the ember’s support it could easily slaughter a mid Nexus State or even something stronger.
And nascent space beasts themselves generally ranged between high World Cataclysm and mid Nexus State depending on age and development.
Usually, they were not overwhelmingly stronger than that.
Which meant...
By every possible measure...
Morgana had unleashed an outright massacre.
Dark blood flooded the void around her.
Shredded flesh drifted endlessly through space.
Explosions erupted from every direction as her soul creatures tore through the advancing beasts with merciless brutality. Deaths accumulated with every passing second, while chunks of ruined monsters floated everywhere like shattered planets after a cosmic war.
Yet at the same time...
Her reserves of soul units were depleting at an absolutely horrifying speed.
Morgana’s eyes remained filled with unwavering determination as she watched one nascent space beast after another get ripped apart before her.
But beneath that determination, her heart was beating faster and faster.
Because she knew.
She knew very well that her spiritual reserves could no longer sustain this battle much longer.
Bang
"..!!"
Morgana abruptly turned toward a specific direction.
There, one of her soul creatures suddenly exploded apart beneath overwhelming pressure.
And this time...
It did not regenerate again.
That region had suffered terrifying pressure from the invading space beasts. A handful of them successfully forced their way through the defense line and began charging directly toward the passage.
However, the soul creatures stationed beside the fallen one immediately shifted positions and closed the opening, desperately buying a few more moments of time.
But—
Bang
Another soul creature exploded.
Bang
Then another.
Morgana’s face rapidly turned pale.
Only now did she realize it.
Her reserve of soul units had completely dried up.
She had exhausted everything without even noticing when it happened.
Bang
Morgana quietly drew her sword.
Then she slowly closed her eyes.
Her breathing became calmer.
Her heartbeat began slowing intentionally little by little, because she knew that within moments she would no longer possess enough strength to even force her exhausted body to continue moving.
Even so...
She could not allow those creatures to pass.
No matter what.
Even if she had to stand there alone and fight them personally using the sword gifted to her by Emily.
And strangely enough...
As death approached closer and closer...
Her thoughts became peaceful.
The last few years of her life truly had not been so terrible.
Even now, while replaying the memories of her life inside her mind, she found herself remembering almost nothing except those recent years.
New friends.
A place where she belonged.
Status.
Purpose.
And someone.
Someone gentle.
Handsome.
Considerate.
Someone whose authority carried weight everywhere.
A true man.
A man who had completely changed her life...
Bang
Ignoring the distant sounds of her soul creatures exploding one after another, Morgana revealed a small dreamy smile.
<Let me fight>
"Hmm?" Morgana’s brows immediately tightened together. "You ruined my beautiful dream."
<You were probably dreaming about that yellow monkey again. Who else could it possibly be?>
"Don’t speak about the Lord that way!" Morgana replied instantly, sounding completely detached from reality as she argued with the voice echoing inside her mind. "Secondly... I don’t want anyone seeing you, especially him..."
She hesitated slightly before muttering in embarrassment,
"He might think I’m insane... or strange."
<And how exactly would he see me?>
The voice inside her mind sounded full of mockery.
<That disgusting bastard is probably buried inside his books somewhere like the little worm he is. What would he even be doing here?>
Then the voice grew colder.
<I still don’t understand why I even needed your permission anymore. You no longer possess the strength required to restrain me. All your remaining stars have withered away during this battle, and you’re no longer capable of suppressing me!>
"I warned you!!" Morgana screamed furiously, her voice trembling with genuine panic and rage at the same time. "You cannot escape from me! If we survive this, I swear I’ll punish you severely, and you know very well that I’m capable of doing it!"
Bang
Morgana’s final and strongest soul creature suddenly exploded apart beneath the overwhelming assault of the surrounding space beasts.
The pressure around the passage instantly intensified.
<Hmph. Let us survive first, then I’ll gladly accept whatever punishment you wish to give me.>
The voice inside her mind sounded almost amused.
Then, the instant those words ended, something strange began happening.
A terrifying white radiance abruptly erupted from Morgana’s eyes and mouth.
It was not ordinary light.
The glow was formed entirely from densely compressed soul units, so concentrated that the surrounding space itself began trembling faintly beneath their pressure.
At first, the radiance merely resembled streams of spiritual energy escaping her body uncontrollably...
But then it intensified.
And intensified further.
Until the light itself began looking tangible, almost physical, like liquid white fire pouring endlessly from within her.
Then...
It became solid.
The enormous mass of light hovering above Morgana slowly started changing shape.
Limbs formed.
A torso appeared.
Long flowing hair took shape from the spiritual radiance.
Within moments, a gigantic female figure began materializing in the void above the battlefield.
The luminous entity continued growing larger and larger.
Soon, it became comparable in size to a nascent space beast.
Then larger still.
Its overwhelming spiritual pressure expanded violently in all directions as the construct continued swelling until it nearly reached the size of a young space beast itself.
Only then did the radiance finally stabilize.
The chaotic spiritual light gradually became clearer and more detailed until the figure’s appearance fully revealed itself.
It was Morgana.
Not exactly identical, but unmistakably her.
The same face.
The same features.
The same beauty.
Yet everything about the giant soul version felt different from the original Morgana standing below like a tiny ant beneath her own manifestation.
Its expression was colder.
Crueler.
More arrogant.
Its gaze carried a terrifying sense of superiority and disdain that Morgana herself almost never displayed.
Then the gigantic spiritual construct slowly lowered its head and looked toward the endless swarm of nascent space beasts surrounding the passage.
Thousands upon thousands of monsters filled its vision.
Yet the giant Morgana merely stared at them with overwhelming contempt.
<Hmph. I truly cannot believe that my first genuine appearance before the universe will happen in front of a filthy swarm of insects like you.>
Then she casually waved one hand.
BAAAAAAM
That simple movement transformed into a catastrophic spiritual shockwave.
The front ranks of nascent space beasts exploded instantly.
Entire bodies shattered apart before they could even react. Blood, flesh, shattered bones, and fragments of dark crystal-like organs erupted across space in a horrifying storm as dozens of beasts were erased by a single slap.
The surrounding monsters immediately let out enraged roars.
But before they could even reorganize themselves—
Woooosh
The gigantic soul construct suddenly stretched out one massive arm and grabbed a snake-like nascent space beast directly by the tail.
The beast violently twisted and struggled in panic, but compared to the giant construct it looked like nothing more than a tiny worm.
Then the construct swung it.
Like a whip.
BOOOOM
The snake-beast smashed violently into three nearby nascent space beasts, instantly rupturing their bodies apart from the sheer force of the impact before the construct casually flung the mangled remains away into the distance.
"...."
Far below, Morgana remained fully conscious of everything happening.
The intense white light still continuously poured from her mouth and eyes, illuminating her pale face while enormous streams of spiritual energy flowed endlessly into the construct above.
Yet despite everything, she remained awake.
Aware.
In control.
She could stop this at any moment if she wished.
But...
She hesitated.
Because this was the final remaining method capable of protecting the passage.
Nothing else remained anymore.
Her soul creatures had all been destroyed.
Her reserves were exhausted.
Her body itself was nearly at its limit.
This monstrous spiritual existence above her was the final weapon she possessed.
Yet at the same time...
If the Lord saw her in this shameful state...
Hehe~
Morgana sighed inwardly.
Truthfully, she felt so embarrassed she almost wanted to die on the spot.
Most likely, however, he was still occupied atop the mountain peak and would never come here anyway. Asr had only entered moments ago, so he was probably explaining the situation while everyone there desperately searched for a way to close the passage.
There was absolutely no way the Lord would appear here now.
No way he would witness this humiliating situation.
No way he would see her talking to a terrifying spiritual monster inside her own mind like some insane woman.
Everything would be fine as long as he stayed above.
"Oh, how interesting. Isn’t that the thing which attempted to kill you before, the same one I purified previously?"
A calm voice suddenly came from beside her.
A familiar voice.
A terrifyingly familiar voice.
Morgana’s entire body instantly froze solid.
"Remind me to speak with you more about this phenomenon after this long day finally comes to an end, alright?"
"............."
