The vantage point high on the grey cliff face was inconveniently cold. But it was perfectly concealed.
Jack, in his spectral form, observed the battle through his powerful steamrune binoculars. From behind the rock outcrop. Reina did the same beside him. Her body radiated layers of mystical fog that made them pretty much imperceptible.
Rune, the fairy, was now in the form of a wisp. She floated silently between the two of them.
They watched how the central valley devolved into utter carnage.
"This is getting more complicated, Dear." Reina murmured. Her voice was a soft register. Beneath the grinding sounds of distant, high-tier combat.
Jack didn't reply immediately. He simply nodded. Keeping his visual focus locked on the new element.
The Otherworld Wasp was proving to be a horrific engine of destruction. Its four arms were a blur of chitinous motion. And the buzzing of its iridescent wings was a sonic weapon in itself.
It was the epitome of alien hostility. Treating the Valley of Despair not as a battleground to be won. But as an obstacle course to be annihilated. It attacked... everyone else.
But, soon, the Wasp realized what was the largest, most disruptive threat... the Phantom Clown. It focused immediately on the clown.
The Clown, a bizarre humanoid figure with perpetually weeping mask, met the assault with an equal measure of malice. Its rusty, jagged sword clashed against the Wasp's metallic carapace. Sending shockwaves that cracked the whole ruined castle below.
The fight between the two creatures was less like a duel and more like a cataclysm.
The Wasp moved with speed that defied its size. Firing bursts of smoking purple energy from its armored thorax.
The Clown countered by spinning the atmosphere around it. Into tight, oppressive funnels of greyish undead power. Deflecting the blasts and forcing the Wasp closer.
The speed and power displayed were leagues beyond the normal Illuminated Transcendent Beings.
The twelve illuminated combatants were the apex predators of this realm a few minutes ago. But now, they were reduced to desperate survivors. They used the chaotic focus of the Wasp and the Clown to their advantage.
They retreated rapidly. Splitting into five group. Each formed makeshift defensive perimeters. Each desperately took and drank potions. Patching up their injuries. And recovering their transcendent energies.
Meanwhile, the duel between the two strange creatures escalated. The Phantom Clown was previously dominating the twelve Illuminated Transcendent Beings. It now faced an opponent of equal, perhaps even superior, ferocity.
The Wasp was a whirlwind of buzzing wings and snapping limbs. Its four arms tore at the air. Each strike was capable of leveling a small building. It moved with a terrifying insectoid precision. Lunging, feinting, and parrying with natural, chitinous weapons.
The Phantom Clown, for its part, was a master of misdirection and brutal efficiency. It dodged and weaved. An impossible blur against the Wasp's bulk. Its rusty sword moved with deadly intent. Leaving trails of dark energy that crackled in the gloom.
When the sword struck, it aimed for the chinks in the Wasp's armor. The joints of its limbs. The vulnerable connection between its thorax and abdomen...
Moreover, both weren't just battling with super enhanced physical abilities. Supernatural power also appeared. Even more devastating.
The Phantom Clown created crying head's phantoms that exploded and demolished anything it touched. The Otherworld Wasp sent sonic attack with its wings and lightning burst from its scream.
The land around the ruined castle became a maelstrom of destructive energy. Twisted trees, already dead, were pulverized into splinters. The grey mist of the valley was violently churned. Momentarily revealing the crumbling walls of the castle before swallowing them again.
Undead creatures were drawn by the raw power. They shambled towards the conflict. Only to be obliterated by stray energy blasts. Or the sheer force of the battling creatures. They were not even blips on the radar of these entities.
And then...
The Phantom Clown let out a terrifying, high-pitched wail as the Wasp managed to damage it. Raking two of its chitinous claws across the Clown's torso. Translucent black, oily ichor sprayed onto the ruins.
The Clown retaliated. Swinging the rusty sword. Manifesting dozens of spectral, crying heads that launched themselves at the Wasp. Detonating against its armor in bursts of freezing cold.
The duel reached a new peak.
The Wasp let out a piercing shriek. Unfolding its iridescent wings to their fullest extent. Creating a sonic blast that shattered the remaining castle battlements. It then charged. A living tank of chitin and fury.
The Phantom Clown met it head-on. Its rusty sword was a dark blur. The clash was deafening. Even from their distance. A shockwave of raw force that made their hiding spot vibrate.
Suddenly, a flicker of movement caught Jack's eye. One of the Fallen Acolytes, a gaunt, white-robed figure, had been creeping along the periphery of the battle. He ignored by the two monstrous combatants.
His eyes were burning with fanatical zeal and desperate ambition. They were fixed on a single point... the Forbidden Chalice.
It lay glinting faintly on the churned earth. Thrown earlier by the fallen Shadow Sovereign.
Greed, amplified by desperation and the Purity Cult's fanaticism, overtook caution. He dashed towards the glowing red artifact.
"Interesting." Jack muttered. "Stupid move. But interesting indeed..."
The Fallen Acolyte reached the Chalice. His hand closed around the cool metal of the Forbidden Chalice. The reaction was instantaneous.
The Phantom Clown turned with a horrifying, impossible speed. A massive segment of its chest armor was ripped away by the Wasp's attack. But, it ignored the Wasp. The Clown's white mask seemed to crack further, broadcasting pure, focused sorrow.
The Clown covered the distance in a single, blurring lurch. Extremely fast. Almost instantaneous.
The rusty sword was plunged through the Acolyte's skull and out the back of his neck. Even before the cultist could even register the Chalice's touch. The cultist didn't even have time to scream. His body simply slumped down. Unmoving. Dead. Quickly covered by the dark mist of the valley.
The Forbidden Chalice clattered back onto the ground. Completely unstained by the carnage. Thoroughly cleansed of the momentary contact.
Jack's [Eyes of Judgement] instantly noted the systemic anomaly. The Chalice is protected by an intense purification mechanism. Activated upon any contact with stains.
The Phantom Clown lingered for barely a second. Confirming the Acolyte's total destruction. This tiny window of distraction was all the Otherworld Wasp needed.
The massive humanoid creature shrieked... a sound like metal tearing. And lunged. Its primary set of arms, tipped with razor-sharp hardened chitin, clamped down onto the Clown's shoulders.
The Wasp then delivered a devastating, focused burst of lightning energy from its thorax. Directly into the Clown's already compromised chest armor.
The force was immense. The Phantom Clown was lifted off its feet and slammed into the stone rubble. The cracked mask fractured even worse. Revealing nothing but profound, swirling darkness within. The Clown was clearly injured. Its power reserves seemed to be rapidly draining.
Seeing the momentary victory, the Wasp did not hesitate. It raised one of its deadly arms. Which transformed into a long, needle-like stinger. Aiming for the core of the Clown's exposed darkness.
But the Clown was still a revenant fused from twelve Illuminated Transcendent Beings. Even weakened, its malice was overwhelming.
As the Wasp's stinger descended, the rusty sword of the Clown shot out. It didn't aim for the head or the throat. But it pierced the Wasp's primary thorax joint... The vulnerable spot where the massive, buzzing wings were attached.
The rusty blade sank deep. The Otherworld Wasp shrieked... A sound of pure painful agony. The iridescent wings stuttered. One set drooped uselessly. Torn ligaments showering sparks and black ichor.
The Wasp convulsed violently. Abandoning its attack and stumbling backward. Prioritizing structural integrity over the killing blow.
Both monsters were now critically injured. The ground trembled again. But not from their conflict. Instead., it came from their shared, massive internal pain.
The eleven remaining illuminated humans were scattered around the perimeter. They watched this new development with a mix of apprehension and calculated hope.
The two largest threats had neutralized each other. They could now perhaps recover the Chalice and escape.
But then, the true terror arrived.
It came suddenly. Without sign. Without fanfare. And without warning.
A profound, suffocating stillness descended upon the Valley of Despair. It was the absolute suppression of all noise. Done by superior authority.
The grey mist that perpetually covered the valley floor abruptly became translucent. Then it evaporated entirely. As if scrubbed clean by some unseen, cosmic eraser. The heavy, cold grey fog fluctuated violently.
Jack felt a familiar pressure. Very similar to the Deep Silence from the Songstress Village's case. But also very different. And he knew this pressure.
It was not physical force or mental energy. It was existential presence. It felt like the entire universe suddenly focused on this single point. Demanding reverence and silence.
It was... a Demigod. An absolute demigod-tier energy signature. A Sanctified Transcendent Entity. One step above the Illuminated Transcendent Being.
Jack reacted instantly. He slammed his focus into his primary spectral trait... the [Mysterious Anomaly]. The ability, mixed with his passive [Mythical Existence], should allow him to mask his existence, and Reina's.
It appeared quickly and enveloped him, Reina, and Rune in a cloak of non-detection. Invisibility layered deep over their existence.
Simultaneously, Reina also plunged her entire accumulated focus into her fog illusion. Reinforcing Jack's power. The immediate effect was the total collapse of their sensory footprint. They were not just invisible. They were conceptually absent from the scene.
Rune dimmed her glow to a microscopic speck of red that only Jack could see. Her presence was silent and extremely faint.
Jack felt non-existent sweat bead on his spectral forehead. An impossible physiological reaction driven by sheer dread. All caused by the re-appearance of the entity...
The Saint of Joy.