Bernadette naturally knew that someone had broken onto the island, but she made no attempt to stop them. As for how the Church of Storms intended to act, she had no intention of interfering either.
That was because, when that mysterious existence leaped onto the island, the Son of Chaos had been chuckling off to the side, saying that it was a powerful existence sent by the Stars to investigate the situation on the island. He told her not to interfere, lest she ruin the Stars' plans.
As for the identity of that powerful existence, the Son of Chaos did not explain. He merely looked toward the island with a mixture of disgust and schadenfreude.
Was that person also a believer of the Stars? Bernadette's reverence toward the Stars deepened even further.
Churches like the Church of the Evernight Goddess and the Church of Storms generally only had two Sequence 2 angels, yet among the followers of the Stars she had sensed, the number of angels had long since surpassed two. There were at least three or more.
This made her very curious. Did the Beyonder pathway the Stars belonged to truly have that many Sequence 2 positions available for advancement?
"Don't try to speculate about the Stars. You should instead look forward to whether this investigation can uncover your father's current situation."
The Son of Chaos excitedly shook the Magic Wishing Lamp. "This is the first confrontation between the Stars and the Mother Goddess of Depravity. How exciting."
Hearing the Son of Chaos say this, Bernadette also began to harbor some hope, despite the Stars having repeatedly warned her that the time had not yet come.
...
Within the Hall of Stars, Hastur's gaze followed the perspective of Primordial Hunger as it landed on the island concealing Roselle's final mausoleum.
The moment it landed, Primordial Hunger charged toward the mausoleum at astonishing speed.
Its three-meter-tall body, combined with the momentum of its high-speed sprint, made it look like a heavily armored tank crushing everything in its path.
There had originally been quite a few Beyonder creatures living on the island, but under Primordial Hunger's terrifying momentum, they were all frightened into hiding. Some even prostrated themselves on the ground.
Thus, Primordial Hunger made its way unhindered to the outskirts of Roselle's mausoleum.
As the Primordial Hunger approached, Hastur could clearly see the aura belonging to the Mother Goddess of Depravity growing increasingly intense.
When the Primordial Hunger smashed the mausoleum's stone door apart with an unstoppable swing of its staff, a pitch-black pillar of light shot straight into the sky.
It wasn't actually pure black light, but a viscous black liquid resembling thick slurry.
More precisely, it was made up of countless tiny black organisms filled with the aura of depravity.
They began to multiply and reproduce without limit, spreading and swelling until they transformed into tentacles dripping with black slime, gradually covering the entire sky.
From the Hall of Stars, Hastur's field of vision was gradually squeezed away until he could barely see what lay directly in front of Primordial Hunger.
This should be a method deliberately employed by the Mother Goddess of Depravity to block his surveillance.
Unfortunately for Her, the first to set foot on this island was neither the Stars nor Bernadette, but Primordial Hunger.
"Wait! Why are these black tentacles still growing?!"
After observing for a moment, Hastur keenly noticed that something was wrong.
These black tentacles weren't merely trying to block his vision. They had another purpose!
The commotion on the island attracted the attention of Bernadette, the Church of Storms, and the numerous pirate fleets.
From their perspective, the entire island seemed to have come alive. Black tentacles rose from the earth one after another, continuously stretching upward and thickening, like black mountain ranges rising from the ground.
The crimson moon in the sky looked so small and delicate that it seemed as though, in the next moment, the black tentacles would wrap around it and forcibly drag it down from the heavens.
Once the black tentacles completely obscured both the crimson moon and the light of the Stars...
One black tentacle after another slammed downward, like mountain ranges crashing horizontally across the sea, crushing the ships in the surrounding waters.
Or rather, they were launching an indiscriminate attack against every ship in the nearby seas!
Some ships were crushed outright. Others were swallowed by the waves generated when the black tentacles struck the ocean. Some were merely grazed, yet even that was enough to destroy the ships and kill everyone aboard.
That was because the black rain formed from the viscous black liquid was equally deadly.
In mere moments, a vast swath of the densely packed ships in the surrounding waters had been wiped clean.
The Hope, where Hastur and Audrey were located, was also within the attack range of the black tentacles.
When it came to watching the spectacle from across the sea, Hastur had already been very cautious. He had deliberately ordered the Hope to remain at the outermost perimeter to avoid being affected if something unexpected happened on the island.
Yet they still hadn't managed to completely escape the range of the black tentacles. They were simply too long and too thick. When one came crashing vertically downward, it resembled a massive black sword cleaving through the sea!
Faced with such terrifying might, Hastur hurriedly descended into the Vessel of the Stars and appeared on the deck at the bow. His right hand transformed into a shield of sunlight large enough to protect the entire Hope, while his left hand opened a Traveler's Door through which they could escape.
The butcher and maid aboard the ship also realized that something was wrong and hurriedly turned the vessel around, intending to steer the Hope through the Traveler's Door standing above the sea and escape this exceedingly dangerous region.
As for Audrey, Fors, Xio, and the others, they could only watch from afar as the suddenly appearing Vessel of the Stars stood with one hand holding up a shield and the other forming a door.
Before the descending black tentacle even arrived, droplets of black slime fell ahead of it like torrential rain.
Drip. Drip.
Pollution.
Black pollution began spreading from there.
When the black tentacle slammed into the shield of sunlight, it produced a sound like muffled thunder exploding.
The violent shockwave caused the bodies of the ordinary sailors aboard the ship to explode on the spot. Audrey, Fors, and the others simultaneously spat out mouthfuls of blood, while blood continuously streamed from their ears and noses.
Susie, whose hearing was the most sensitive, truly experienced what it felt like to have furious thunder explode beside her ears.
Her eyes instantly became vacant and lifeless. Her entire body went limp and collapsed onto the ground, convulsing violently as white foam continuously spilled from her mouth.
"Susie!" Audrey tried to call out to her, but her voice was completely drowned out at that moment.
The only thing worth celebrating was that the shield of sunlight raised by the Vessel of the Stars hadn't shattered, nor had the Hope been smashed apart.
However, after its first strike failed, the attacking black tentacle sprawled across the surface of the shield of sunlight and suddenly split open along both sides, revealing a mouth filled with dark-red mouthparts. It resembled an enormous black fissure trying to swallow the entire Hope!
Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!
This was the corrosive sound produced by the black slime continuously dripping onto the shield of sunlight.
The rain-like black slime continuously polluted and corroded the surface of the shield, causing its sacred radiance to grow increasingly dim.
Not only that, but on this night devoid of both the crimson moon and the light of the Stars, the shield of sunlight raised by the Vessel of the Stars was like the brightest beacon, attracting the attention of the other black tentacles.
In an instant, six black tentacles lashed toward them from different directions.
Hastur could sense their impatience and their urgent greed.
This originated from the will of the Mother Goddess of Depravity. The reason She had included all the surrounding waters within the range of Her attack was precisely to identify anything unusual among them.
She knew that an incarnation of the Stars was also here, so She intended to use this method to find him.
It was the strategy of rather killing a thousand by mistake than letting even a hundred escape.
The only thing Hastur couldn't understand was how the Mother Goddess of Depravity could unleash such terrifying power tonight despite being separated by the Original Barrier.
The disaster and might She had unleashed clearly surpassed Sequence 1 and had nearly reached the level of a King of Angels.
Yet neither Mr. Door nor Roselle, who served as Her mediums, could truly be used by Her for the time being.
Unless another Great Old One had helped Her!
"God said, let there be light!"
Hastur didn't ponder for long. He manipulated the Vessel of the Stars and unleashed the Beyonder abilities belonging to the authority of the Eternal Blazing Sun at full force!
Sequence 2, Lightseeker!
Endless light spread outward with the Vessel of the Stars at its center, continuously expanding into the surrounding darkness.
The dazzling radiance carried the Sun pathway's power to purify corruption, cleansing the polluted sea and dispersing the night sky filled with endlessly falling black slime!
At the same time, it pierced a small opening through the sky obscured by the black tentacles, allowing the crimson moon and the light of the Stars to shine through.
The descending starlight and sunlight reflected off each other, continuously widening that opening.
Rumble!
Brother Storm, late but here at last!
The ring of clouds surrounding the island began converging, eventually forming a massive storm cloud capable of brewing ferocious lightning.
Golden lightning resembling the sun surged madly through the opening created by the Vessel of the Stars!
Every bolt of golden lightning struck the black tentacles with pinpoint accuracy!
For a time, golden lightning seized control of the sea that should have belonged to Him. The black tentacles were scorched and shattered continuously, their fragments crashing from the sky into the ocean and triggering wave after wave of tsunamis.
Unfortunately, the only flaw was that the Lord of Storms' supporting attack consisted of just this single strike. It couldn't completely eliminate all the black tentacles, merely helping Hastur temporarily alleviate the assault.
The corpses of the pirates who had died at sea, their unpurified blood, and the endless resentment they harbored before death once again became nourishment for the Mother Goddess of Depravity's power.
Blood-red tentacles dripping with fresh blood surged from the depths of the sea, continuing to rush madly toward the Hope where the Vessel of the Stars stood.
Their reckless, frenzied advance was enough to make anyone's scalp tingle.
At this moment, the Hope was struggling free from the devouring grasp of the previous tentacle. Half of the ship had already entered the Traveler's Door, while the rear half remained tightly entangled by the blood-red tentacles.
"Heh, unfortunately, you're still a little short."
The Vessel of the Stars took a single step and arrived at the stern. Using fate as His hand, He threw out a Fate Talisman that had been prepared beforehand.
Time Reset Talisman!
The mighty power of time erupted at that instant. With the Time Reset Talisman as its center, everything in the surrounding area was drawn toward zero and restarted!
The blood-red tentacles binding the stern vanished into thin air one after another.
The amount of time they were permitted to exist had been reset to zero!
The butcher and maid controlling the helm sensed the resistance around the ship disappear and immediately pushed the Hope forward with all their strength, carrying Hastur's true body through the Traveler's Door before vanishing into the distance.
The Vessel of the Stars did not follow them.
His gaze turned toward the black world that was once again being sealed away, then glanced at the three Time Reset Talismans remaining in His hand.
At the instant when time had just been reset to zero, the Mother Goddess of Depravity's power had clearly weakened along with it.
This meant that the power the Mother Goddess of Depravity had unleashed tonight was only temporarily borrowed!