Infinite Terror: Infinite Reversal

Chapter 450 The Battle That Was Derailed
The Branch of Destruction erupted with scorching red flames, and Zheng Zha swung his swords with both hands, slashing fiercely at the black-clad warrior before him. Meanwhile, his other four hands reached back and grabbed four balls of red flame, which pressed together to form a blood-red protective layer, blocking the blade that was about to attack his back.

The dark-skinned warrior had half his body cleaved in two, letting out a scream as he staggered backward. Zheng Zha cursed, and the man vanished back into the darkness of the temple.

Meanwhile, Zhang Jie used both his mind and hands simultaneously, creating a layer of psychic power like a tidal wave to protect his body, while the rest roared and crashed into the Pharaoh in front of him.

A faint smile flashed across the Pharaoh's young yet majestic and weathered face. Zhang Jie rolled his eyes: "Don't give me that crap, I'm not interested in men."

The Pharaoh raised an indescribable scepter. Upon closer inspection, one could see that the upper part of the scepter was curved like a crescent moon, the curvature of which was beyond the comprehension of the real world. Even Zhang Jie was unwilling to look at it any longer. The lower part of the scepter seemed to have no end, as if it had merged directly into the dark temple and then pierced through the darkness to go into an even deeper abyss.

The scepter itself had no color, or rather, it had no physical form, merely a shadow... and the entity that projected it was unknown what it was or where it was. When the scepter was raised, Zheng Zha and Zhang Jie both sensed an indescribable presence above them, but they dared not look.

That might be the true form of the scepter, revealing a hint of its aura in that instant… It might be an even more awe-inspiring divine weapon, a giant serpent coiling in the sky, or an indescribable being. Zheng Zha and Zhang Jie knew nothing of this; they could only sense a trace of the scepter's power leaking out.

Even so, they dared not be careless!

The telekinetic energy surged towards the pharaoh, but vanished as if into thin air before the scepter. Zhang Jie's expression hardened; he could sense where the telekinetic energy had gone. Just as his intuition had told him, the scepter hadn't attacked anything, but rather acted like a conductor, receiving his telekinetic energy and sending it into the darkness connected to the scepter.

Zhang Jie's expression was solemn, but Kuiqi rose up behind Pharaoh, concealing its sharpness, and slashed down at his head!
The Pharaoh's body was cleaved in two by the blow, but as if sensing something, he tilted his head. After the strike, the still-intact head spoke: "This too is a trick... I like it very much." Then, the Pharaoh's body shattered and fell backward, ignoring the telekinetic power Zhang Jie had set up beforehand, and merged back into the darkness.

Before Zhang Jie could say anything, a jet-black katana appeared behind him, thrusting straight at him without any fancy moves. A scorching red greatsword extended, blocking Zhang Jie's back. Zheng Zha sneered, "Your opponent is me!"

The next moment, the Asura Battle Body stood up, furious and ferocious. The Branch of Destruction, which had just blocked the sneak attack, was swung up again, bringing endless blood and fire as it slashed at the reappearing black warrior.

Under the onslaught of the Asura Battle Body, the black-clad warrior was suppressed and unable to escape, quickly losing an arm. Just as Zheng Zha was about to press his advantage, the samurai sword that had been knocked away earlier reappeared, this time plunging directly into the Asura Battle Body's chest.

Zheng Zha seemed oblivious, and a stream of crimson fire surged forth from his mouth. Before the Samadhi True Fire, the black-clad warrior was burned to nothingness without uttering a sound.

"Do you think I don't know?" Zheng Zha's voice rang out, "I was just holding back a big one for you..."

Zhang Jie frowned. He probed the temple with his spiritual power, but still couldn't find anything. Before this, he hadn't thought of anything that could block his spiritual power's detection.

Noble spiritual power can basically only be blocked by two things... one is the shield of the supreme god, and the other is the spiritual power itself. According to Mu Xiang, spiritual power controllers have always been a rare commodity in every world. Countless people have tried to use magic or similar methods to counter spiritual power, but all have failed.

Using a magic circle to shield mental energy? No one has ever done that before, and the Main God Space doesn't have such an exchange. "After getting closer, increasing the concentration of mental energy is still useless." Zhang Jie said to Zheng Zha, "I guess there are two possibilities. One is that there is actually no physical entity in this temple, but rather a path leading to the abyss; the other is Mu Xiang's conjecture. Although the spirits of these things are completely different from ours, perhaps it is this strange and distorted mental power that is blocking my detection."

Zheng Zha's sigh came from within the heavy armor of the Asura Battle Body: "Is that so... How strong must the opponent's mental power be to be able to block your detection?"

Just as Zhang Jie was about to say something, his face suddenly lit up with joy: "Mu Xiang is here!"

Zheng Zha sensed it almost immediately. A very strong presence appeared on the other side of the moon, far away from them, but it was definitely Mu Xiang... However, after Zhang Jie sent out his mental energy in a linear fashion, the image that came back surprised Zheng Zha.

"Mu Xiang... why are you doing a handstand?" Zheng Zha paused for a moment, then asked.

"Upside down my foot! He's trying to keep the moon out of the Dream World!" Zhang Jie was stunned by Zheng Zha's question, then cursed, "I'll contact him now."

The three re-established their mental connection, and then Mu Xiang's voice rang out: "Nodens is repairing the transition layer between the Dreamland and the Moon, and we'll be able to go back normally soon... Of course, we still have things to do now."

Zheng Zha glanced at the temple, which was now churning with darkness again: "Understood, understood. We need to defeat Nyarlathotep first, right?"

“It’s not quite the same. To be honest, I’ve never seen Nyarlathotep’s true form, either here or in the Cthulhu Mythos… even its existence is debatable. Nordens’s statement further corroborates this, so repelling the invasion of the avatars shouldn’t be too difficult,” Mu Xiang said. “Let me analyze the current situation for you…”

Zheng Zha and Zhang Jie listened to Mu Xiang's words, exchanged silent glances, and could only shrug. The two previous avatars, the Shadow Demon and the Black Pharaoh, weren't particularly troublesome, but they weren't easy to kill either. From Mu Xiang's analysis, while the lunar descent was a powerful offensive in this invasion, Nordens's actions were also a major focus.

By using the moon's fall and the descent of his avatar to restrain the three, if they were to falter even slightly, Nordens would be forced to intervene. At that point, Nyarlathotep's avatar could launch an attack from the Abyss's suppression point, striking at their very core. However, the three of them were naturally not weak in combat and could handle these attacks.

From this perspective, the temple's function has actually become merely a hindrance... The wicked Shadow and the Black Pharaoh, relying on the temple, fought and lost, then fought and lost again, thus holding back Zheng Zha and Zhang Jie. Of course, this hindrance was a last resort; if Zheng Zha and Zhang Jie weren't strong enough, they would have been directly crushed, and there would be no need for the hindrance.

"There was no other way... After we defeated Munoqua to the point where it couldn't condense anymore, we had to come and check the situation. Sure enough, there was a problem; those strange birds flew out of the temple." Zheng Zha said helplessly, "So, according to you, if we hadn't come, the two abyssal rifts would have worked together and swallowed up the Dream Realm?"

Mu Xiang smiled to himself: "Perhaps... We really did appear at just the right time."

(End of this chapter)