[Flame-Chaser Identity System at your service.]
[Currently unlocked Identities: Cipher (Cifera), Mydei (Mydeimos), Castorice, Tribios, Aglaea, Anaxagoras, Hyacine (Hyacinthia), Hysilens (Helektra), Cerydra]
[Increasing your Fame unlocks the next Identity draw opportunity. Current Fame: 3,110,000/4,000,000]
Cerydra recalled her recent activities. The most likely contributor to this surge in Fame was that Plague Lord fellow. Even so, she was still a ways off from the next Identity draw. She needed to find a way to quickly bridge that gap.
As for how to do it, the methods were actually quite simple: either venture beyond the Barrier and cause some minor trouble for the Mother of Flesh to annoy Her, or delve into the depths of the Abyss and beat up a Demon Lord. Both were perfectly viable options.
After considering her options, Cerydra decided to go with the former. After all, she was planning to investigate the vicinity of the Sun anyway, and it was highly likely she'd encounter something related to the Mother of Flesh there, making a confrontation inevitable.
The team for this mission would undoubtedly consist of the strongest identities: Mydei, Castorice, and Hyacine. If we're going, we're going together—that's the only way to ensure absolute certainty.
Cerydra pulled out her phone, feigned a few taps, and announced, "I've already informed Okhema about this. Someone will begin investigating the Sun immediately. All we need to do now is wait for the results."
In a sense, this wasn't a lie—Cerydra hadn't used her phone to communicate, but rather her Soul.
The perspective shifted, and accompanied by several Century Gates, Mydei, Castorice, Hyacine, and Hysilens gathered in Tribios's office. Tribios glanced up at the sky—naturally, the Sun was invisible from Okhema.
However, after nightfall, streetlights illuminated every corner of Okhema, leaving no place in true darkness. Moreover, Melly had already begun constructing an "Artificial Sun"—a massive, floating light source. Thus, even if Eternal Night were to truly fall, it would have minimal impact on Okhema.
Tribios narrowed her eyes slightly. Opening a Century Gate required precise coordinates, but she didn't know the Sun's exact coordinates. After all, she wasn't in the habit of staring at the Sun out of boredom, nor had she ever investigated its location.
But this wasn't a major problem. With a thought, Tribios conjured a brand-new Century Gate. Castorice, scythe in hand, stepped through first, followed closely by Hyacine, Mydei, and Hysilens.
The other end of the Century Gate lay beyond the World Barrier. Relying on her memory, Tribios chose an approximate direction and distance.
Upon arriving at the other end, Castorice immediately summoned Pollux. The other three quickly climbed onto the dragon's back as well.
The 'four' simultaneously surveyed their surroundings. The environment beyond the World Barrier was pitch-black, rendering everything nearly invisible. However, the 'four' possessed exceptional vision, especially Hyacine. She keenly noticed a distant area where something dark seemed to writhe. Though she could only make out a vague outline, she could discern its shape.
Though everything was black, it felt like someone wearing all black walking through the pitch-black night. Others might not have noticed, but Castorice spotted her immediately.
Castorice patted Pollux's neck beneath her and pointed in the direction Hyacine was looking. "Over there!"
Pollux flapped her wings and soared forward. At the same moment, another gaze locked onto the group's position. The colossal Moon opened its eye. Upon closer inspection, one could see its sclera riddled with blood vessels, and parts of the whites were tinged with an eerie green.
As the Mother of Flesh's eye and a sentinel overseeing the Material World, the sudden appearance of four powerful True gods beyond the World Barrier couldn't escape its notice. Especially since the Moon was intimately familiar with one of them: Hyacine.
After all, Hyacine had previously plowed a circle across the Moon and self-destructed once, causing significant damage to it.
As the saying goes, "When enemies meet, their eyes burn red with fury." The Moon narrowed its eye and began hurtling toward the group, already charging its energy from a great distance.
The crimson beam began to coalesce, erupting forth in a mere three or four seconds, leaving a brilliant, lingering trail across the pitch-black void.
This attack was visible even to ordinary humans on the Material Plane, now shrouded in perpetual night. Anyone who looked up at this moment would see a distinct, vivid red line stretching across the sky.
Seeing this, Mydei immediately stepped forward, neither dodging nor flinching. He conjured a weapon in his hand and summoned crimson defensive crystals around himself. Leaping from Pollux's back, he charged directly toward the oncoming beam.
BOOM!!!
The two collided mid-air. Through Mydei's vision, he could see the crimson crystals shielding him being rapidly consumed, yet he was replenishing them at a nearly equal pace. As one shield shattered, a second materialized in its place.
And so, he relentlessly pushed forward against the crimson beam! From a ground-level perspective, anyone witnessing the entire sequence would have observed the red line in the sky retracting as if playing in reverse—shrinking back along the exact path it had extended.
Heinrich, one of the witnesses, raised an eyebrow in puzzlement. "Wait, what is the Moon even doing?"
Outside the Barrier, on the lunar surface, a figure plummeted from the sky like a meteor, crashing into the ground with a deafening roar.
BOOM!!!
Mydei knelt on one knee, one hand braced against the ground. His body was visibly covered in wounds. As he drew closer to the Moon, the intensity of the luminous beams had surged, eventually overwhelming his defenses. In truth, as the God of Strife, he had never been particularly adept at defense in the first place.
Since his shield had been shattered, Mydei abandoned all attempts at defense, enduring the final wave of attacks with his bare flesh to force his landing. His wounds began healing at an astonishing rate, visible to the naked eye. Truth be told, even if he had died just moments before, he could have instantly resurrected himself.
Soon, as if nothing had happened, Mydei slowly stood up from the crater he had created. He first stretched his shoulders, then casually patted himself down. Well, even though he couldn't die, the pain certainly still hurt.
If he had suffered such injuries back when he first transmigrated, he probably would have been grimacing in agony for half a day. After all, he wasn't the real "Mydei," the super-tough man.
But now, with his mental strength growing, his resistance to pain had increased accordingly. The injuries he had just sustained felt manageable, nothing serious.
Mydei scanned his surroundings. Now that he had landed successfully, it was time to counterattack. Of course, his goal wasn't to kill the Moon itself, but to stall for time.
Castorice, Hyacine, and Hysilens were still on their way to find the Sun. If they truly wanted to kill the Moon, they could have simply used a Century Gate to send all four of them here directly. By enduring the Moon's attacks head-on, Mydei was actually shielding the other three.
Mydei surveyed his surroundings. Grotesque monsters swarmed from all directions, their forms twisted and bizarre. Yet he noticed that many appeared sickly and listless, some even stumbling and collapsing mid-stride.
He also detected a faint, foul odor lingering in the air. After a moment's thought, he realized it was likely due to Tribios' earlier reckless disposal of waste. Had the Moon still not fully recovered?
Is the Plague Lord's stomach gas really this potent?
The enemy's weakened state was actually advantageous. As Mydei channeled his divine power, crimson crystals erupted from the ground beneath his feet, spreading outward in all directions.
Meanwhile, the perspective shifted back to Castorice, Hyacine, and Pollux. Pollux continued to advance at full speed. As they drew closer, Hyacine's vision sharpened. What she had initially mistaken for a blurry black shadow was, in truth, a colossal net—or rather, a vast, black Flesh Membrane—completely obscuring the Sun.
The Flesh Membrane was clearly alive, constantly writhing as if trying to completely engulf the Sun.
Seeing this, the three naturally launched an immediate attack. Pollux approached, opening her maw to spew flames, but the Flesh Membrane was colossal!
In comparison, the Flesh Membrane resembled a massive floor-to-ceiling curtain, while Castorice, Hyacine, and Pollux were like a tiny ladybug flitting toward it. Although Pollux's flames did inflict damage, the impact was negligible when viewed against the membrane's immense scale.
Hyacine also unleashed her divine power without reservation. A blinding light gathered before her, growing ever brighter with each passing moment!
In an instant, it was as if a second sun had risen in the sky. The Material World, which had been plunged into complete darkness, suddenly blazed with light once more.
Heinrich glanced at the time and couldn't help but grumble, "Good grief! It was dark at noon, and now that it's actually evening, it's bright again?"
While Hyacine charged her power, the Flesh Membrane reacted by launching a dense swarm of spore-like projectiles toward the trio. Hysilens, who hadn't yet attacked, immediately gathered her divine power, summoning a school of pointed-headed fish that materialized beside her like arrows before shooting forward to intercept the spores.
Perhaps due to Hyacine charging her ultimate move and Pollux continuously spewing flames, Hysilens found it unusually difficult to summon seawater and shape it into fish. Hyacine and Castorice's attacks both carried fire attributes, raising the surrounding temperature and making water manipulation significantly more challenging.
However, Hysilens was currently playing a defensive role, not offensive, so this posed no major issue.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Though set in a fantasy world, the battle resembled an interstellar war from a science fiction setting. Countless swordfish and spores collided in mid-air, erupting into bursts of bloody blossoms. Pollux, meanwhile, remained in constant motion, continuously spewing flames to harass the enemy.
Finally, after a brief moment of gathering power, Hyacine unleashed her full force—the greatest output she, or any of her identities, had ever achieved.
A searing, crimson Blazing Sun erupted in the sky!
Woooooooom!
At that moment, the very concept of light seemed to lose all meaning. Castorice, Hyacine, and Hysilens were forced to shield their eyes with their hands as an intensely pure white light, composed of divine power, pierced the heavens in an instant, cleaving the Flesh Membrane before them into two halves.
"...&#%#@~!"
Simultaneously, the three seemed to faintly hear a wretched scream. The aftershocks of the attack persisted for a full half-hour before the blinding white light gradually dissipated, plunging the Material World back into darkness. Only then could Hyacine, Castorice, and Hysilens finally see what lay beyond the Flesh Membrane.
It was a massive sphere still smoldering with flames, though the flames had dwindled to mere embers. The sight resembled the remnants of a burnt log, glowing with faint red specks.
The Sun's demise was no sudden event. It wasn't as if the Flesh Membrane had simply arrived, blocked the Sun, enveloped it, and rendered it inert. Instead, the Sun had been steadily eroding over countless years. Only when it was on the verge of collapse did the Flesh Membrane appear, becoming the final straw that broke the camel's back.
Castorice's expression turned grave. She patted Pollux's neck and said, "Let's go take a look."
At her command, Pollux flapped her wings and soared straight toward the Sun. Immediately, a putrid stench, like that of a long-rotted corpse burned to ash, filled their nostrils. When they reached the Sun's surface, they found it resembled a forest ravaged by wildfire, charred remains stretching in every direction.
Black, root-like structures of unknown origin pierced the ground. Flames flickered around these dark tendrils, as if trying to burn them away.
Boom!
A thunderous explosion reverberated through the air. Castorice immediately pinpointed the source to their left and commanded Pollux, "Turn this way!"