Eldritch Horror Theatre

After all, he was a Dream Dominator, not reality itself. He wasn't omnipotent.

Fu Qian wouldn't have minded helping Vivian crush Goto Hi outright, but manifesting two personalities into two distinct faces was already the limit of what he could do.

And that was only because the target was a spiritual body.

If he exerted even a fraction more force, the dream realm would destabilize.

So, in reality, Fu Qian had merely provided Vivian with the opportunity for a deathmatch.

Naturally, she hadn't wasted the chance. Even with nothing left but a shattered remnant soul, she had still—just as her sister claimed—"taken care of that guy outside."

...

The final boundary lay right before his eyes. Theoretically, crossing it meant breaking free from this Miracle in the Ash Sea.

Covered in injuries, Fu Qian cut a far more monstrous figure than when he first entered. He threw one last glance over his shoulder.

Clearly, the little mermaid hadn't been singing just out of joy.

She hadn't guided his way, but she had summoned the two—no, three lucky survivors on that ship.

Worldly affairs are hard to predict. Karma truly worked in mysterious ways!

Without wasting any more time on sentiment, Fu Qian slipped past the boundary.

...

Worldly affairs were hard to predict indeed.

Submerged in the vast seawater, Fu Qian immediately noticed that the shattered sky above was gone.

At the same time, the whale song that seemed to resonate deep within his soul had grown even stronger.

Clearly, whatever opportunity awaited him here was coming into sharper focus.

Of course, that wasn't the only reason Fu Qian found worldly affairs hard to predict.

He drifted quietly in place for less than a minute before abruptly launching himself upward, narrowly dodging a massive black arrow that flashed past beneath him.

Yes, it genuinely was shaped like an arrow.

Aside from a somewhat disproportionate, shark-like head, the rest of its body was a perfectly uniform straight line.

Even if the scale of that line was a bit exaggerated.

This obviously wasn't a fortuitous encounter delivering itself to his doorstep. The Ash Sea truly was a place of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. He had been targeted by this bizarre predator the moment he showed up.

In truth, Fu Qian hadn't spent the past minute waiting for the creature to swim over; he had been giving it a little time to reconsider.

Unfortunately, it seemed the beast had no intention of passing up a meal delivered right to its mouth.

...

"Hello there!"

Dropping back to his original position, Fu Qian offered a casual greeting as he watched the bizarre creature swiftly turn its arrow-shaped body around after its missed strike.

"I know I look like food right now, but I assure you, I'm really not seafood."

Seeing that the creature had no intention of giving up, Fu Qian sighed and glanced down at himself.

After detonating a Divine Emissary, it was naturally impossible to walk away without paying a price.

The most obvious toll was that, after unleashing that ultimate move, at least a third of the bizarre tentacles covering his body had yet to retract.

At a glance, he honestly looked more like a marine creature than the predator in front of him.

Hiss...

Whoosh—

Unfortunately, a bizarre sound echoed in the very next second. The massive single eye locked onto him abruptly widened, revealing a dense cluster of countless deep red eyes surrounding it.

At a glance, they covered nearly its entire head.

Simultaneously, the plates of black bone armor along the creature's back flared open. Branch-like clusters sprouted outward, and long, finger-thin tendrils burrowed out of the exposed flesh beneath.

The creatures of the Ash Sea truly challenged the imagination!

For a moment, Fu Qian couldn't help but feel a deep sense of awe.

At the same time, it was clear his explanation had produced no effect.

Since that was the case...

"To be completely honest, you aren't really my type."

Without waiting for the predator to unleash its new method of attack, Fu Qian spoke as he closed the distance himself.

"I prefer a more streamlined physique. Still, your speed looks decent enough, though I wonder how your endurance holds up."

In the blink of an eye, his figure vanished from the spot. When he reappeared, he was already standing firmly on the predator's back.

"I'm heading that way. Mind giving me a lift?"

Fu Qian pointed in the direction of the whale song.

Unfortunately, the creature's only response was an invisible shockwave that sent ripples of pain tingling across his scalp.

"Loud and clear. That's a no."

Feeling the sheer brutality in that blast, Fu Qian sighed. The multicolored tentacles across his body stretched high before viciously plunging through the tough carapace below from every angle.

Rather than retracting them, he willed the tentacles to grow wildly. They rapidly burrowed and spread throughout the massive beast's flesh.

"That's fine. As long as your body is willing, that's enough."

...

It should be just ahead.

As it turned out, taking a little time to adjust his new ride had been well worth the effort.

The bizarre mode of transportation had carried Fu Qian across a vast expanse of water at an absurd speed before quietly dissolving into nothingness.

The rest of the journey wasn't far. Fu Qian swam the remaining distance himself and quickly locked onto a cruising trail. In fact, whatever left it was slowly approaching.

It was actually another living creature. Could it really be a whale?

Mildly surprised, Fu Qian looked down and tidied himself up a bit.

Not bad. After rushing all this way, he had mostly regained his human appearance.

Wasting no time, he swam forward to meet it head-on.

...

It really was!

A moment later, staring at the massive head emerging from the grayish-white seawater, Fu Qian let out a gasp of admiration.

He was absolutely certain that the mysterious connection he felt was coming directly from this creature.

To his relief, not only did it look far more docile than the last beast, but it was also shaped like a genuine whale, without a single bizarre mutation in sight.

"Hello there?"

Staring directly into its watermelon-sized eyes, Fu Qian offered a polite greeting.

The creature didn't hesitate either. Swimming up to him at a decent clip, it unceremoniously opened its massive jaws.

Fu Qian didn't move, simply letting the rushing seawater sweep him through its dense baleen and deep into its mouth.

An instant later, the giant jaws snapped shut, plunging him into total darkness.

But Fu Qian didn't stop. He continued walking straight forward through the surprisingly flat space.

That's right. Although the creature looked entirely normal on the outside, it lacked any normal biological anatomy on the inside. At a glance, the interior was completely hollow.

In a way, this stark contrast was even more bizarre than any of the mutated monstrosities he had encountered so far.

Of course, it wasn't completely empty.

As he walked, Fu Qian had to slip past rows of straight, fleshy, tendon-like stalks.

They connected to the creature's outer shell in a radiating pattern from every conceivable angle.

Tracing them backward, it was easy to see that they all converged at a single point.

Just like a sun.

In fact, it appeared to be an actual sun.

Fu Qian finally came to a halt, staring at the object before him.

It was a sphere no larger than an orange, formed from interlocking transparent crystals of various shapes, slowly rotating in place.

Although it emitted no light, as it rotated, the fleshy tendons connecting it to the outer hull shifted along with it, almost like solid beams of radiance.

This creation, which looked like a Crystal Sun, was the entity born from a False God—the very thing that had been calling out to him ever since he entered the Ash Sea?

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