Eldritch Horror Theatre

Higher entities always aimed to kill two birds with one stone—a famous saying not to be forgotten.

Upon realizing that His Excellency Rom's ultimate move didn't auto-lock, Fu Qian had even put himself in the other's shoes, helping him ponder exactly how to kill the treacherous thief.

Chase and hack? How could His Excellency Rom ever choose a strategy so devoid of technical skill?

Not to mention, it had already been proven that if one just ran without stopping, catching up to the Tyrant's speed was impossible.

Scientific coordination, compressing the space step by step?

This sounded much more reasonable. After all, the Inverted Lake wasn't that large. Slicing it up in a crisscross pattern like a chessboard really did open up the possibility of shrinking the available space step by step.

But theory couldn't be divorced from reality. His Excellency Rom was running on fumes; where would he find the strength to play chess and set up an encirclement?

Even with a massive home-field advantage, Fu Qian didn't think he could launch many more of those strikes charged with God-Slaying Power.

If this wouldn't work and that wouldn't work, the question remained: how did His Excellency Rom dare to initiate what looked like an entirely hopeless situation?

Could it be that the main target of those continuous slashes was never the King of the Abandoned Prison in the first place?

For the final battle of a higher entity like His Excellency Rom, no matter how bleak it looked, his strategy had to be orchestrated to guarantee absolute victory.

You're good at running, aren't you?

What use is running when I can just blow up the whole arena?

Rom's greatest advantage was his understanding of this place. How could he possibly forfeit that?

Besides, he was on the verge of death himself; any concerns about the apocalypse were completely off the table.

And breaking a wall didn't require stabbing every square centimeter—he just needed to scientifically choose a few structural points.

So, as soon as he realized the attacks weren't auto-locking, Fu Qian had a feeling that this place was about to be painted blood-red.

His Excellency Rom's strikes might have looked like a cunning attempt to corral and intercept him, but in reality, he was doing demolition work.

As for his frantically jumping target, it would be great if a strike connected. If not, not a single ounce of strength was wasted anyway.

And if the goal was truly to dismantle the arena, it was highly probable in Fu Qian's eyes that if one strike didn't do the trick, another would be added to reinforce the damage.

In short, it mainly came down to his understanding of his old friend, along with a little courage for trial and error.

His Excellency Rom's advantage was the home court; his own advantage was his Health Bar.

The other party was certainly stopping at nothing, but how could Fu Qian be foolish enough to give up his own edge?

And now, more than one conclusion could be drawn—

[SAN Value -1]

The moment his fingers brushed against the blood-red crystal, the familiar prompt popped up.

The fact that it dropped—and only dropped by a single point—pointed to at least two conclusions.

First, it wasn't just a visual effect. It was truly born of the same source as the storm on the whale's head, akin to the power of the Transcendent Terminus.

Second, it wasn't the genuine article. That was why its lethality wasn't as exaggerated, retaining only a fraction of its effect.

Furthermore, it proved to some extent that while His Excellency Rom might be very familiar with this place, it still wasn't his own domain. He hadn't reached the point where he could control it as easily as his own limbs.

Crack—

Amid the sound of shattering, Fu Qian leaped out once again.

And true to expectations, this fourth strike landed squarely on the Lookout Platform, carving out a second cross.

Then, exactly as before, more crystalline fractures abruptly webbed outward.

...

Looking at it, it really did resemble a flower.

It was only up close that one could fully appreciate the sheer brilliance hidden beneath that murderous intent.

Every shard and fragment was crystal clear and flawlessly translucent.

The miraculous order binding these crystals together gave it an unrestrained sense of blooming, like fireworks fueled by the burning world itself.

He could only admit that it was feeling more and more like the apocalypse.

His Excellency Rom understood this power perfectly, yet he still maintained such an optimistic spirit. Was it because he was wise, or simply foolish?

Studying the blooming crystals right before his eyes, Fu Qian, who remained completely unscathed, didn't care about his own little achievement. His main concern was His Excellency Rom's mental health.

As for how he was still standing next to the Crystal Flower despite having leaped away from the Lookout Platform again?

It wasn't strange at all. It was simply because Fu Qian had literally engaged in rapid flip-flopping. He was currently standing next to the cross formed by the intersection of the second and third strikes.

Crack—

This time, even without him reaching out a hand to keep people guessing, another crisp snap rang out. The fifth strike hadn't landed anywhere near him.

Glancing over, it was far from the Lookout Platform. Over in the waters of the Inverted Lake, another bloody gash had appeared.

But despite being an ostensibly unrelated strike, an invisible connection seemed to pull at the fabric of space, causing the two crosses to splinter just a little bit further.

Just as expected.

The change couldn't have been more obvious. His earlier theory—that Rom was trying to destroy the arena to leave him with no place to hide—seemed to be spot on.

His Excellency Rom hadn't lost his mind. He wasn't leaving anything to chance, nor was he willing to waste a single ounce of his strength.

For instance, even when his target remained standing in the exact same spot after the fifth strike fell, the sixth strike still didn't aim for him. Instead, it struck across the fifth, forming yet another cross.

Then came another tremor, and the three crosses expanded further.

It was as if damaging these structural points caused the underlying power supporting this world to rapidly lose its integrity, threatening to completely shatter at any moment.

And yet, neither the lake nor the whale reacted to this in the slightest.

It seemed that, on one hand, Rom was indeed no fool. On the other hand, His Excellency the Fool was indeed inactive.

Of course, His Excellency Rom's resolve was unwavering. He still hadn't made a single sound, perfectly conveying his determination for a final, desperate struggle.

Almost time...

Watching this unfold, right before the seventh strike could fall, Fu Qian let out a soft sigh and pulled off his mask.

The next moment, he was greeted by the familiar lights of the Warehouse.

...

As everyone knew, when activating an ultimate move, you didn't fear the enemy firing their own ultimate back at you. What you feared was them popping a Hearthstone.

Especially since His Excellency Rom's table-flipping technique was truly superb, but no matter how you sliced it, there was no turning back once the bow is drawn. It was the kind of ultimate move that couldn't be canceled.

So, the moment he had begun marveling at his opponent's resolve, Fu Qian was already planning his grand mask-removing escape.

Of course, that didn't guarantee it would work. He couldn't forget that his Hearthstone had been locked on more than one occasion.

And even if it wasn't locked, compared to his encounter with Emperor Yasui, there was a fatal flaw this time: he couldn't return to the Real World to abuse the time difference and dodge the ultimate.

But it didn't matter. First of all, his initial goal had just been to test if his escape route was locked, allowing him to gather more observations to better assess the overall situation.

Second, it didn't matter if he knew he couldn't retreat to the Real World; His Excellency Rom didn't necessarily know that.

If even Emperor Yasui could sense his trick of hopping in and out of the world, Rom, as a seasoned veteran, shouldn't miss it either.

All he had to do was hop out and back in once. He didn't even need to trigger a true The World. He was confident it would be more than enough to instill that exact fear in his opponent.

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