Chapter 1136: Corrupted ’Logic’

Alice groggily blinked her eyes. Her head hurt as a constant ringing sound filled her ears.

She could feel the heat against her face, the smell of burnt cinder.

There was also a slight tingling sensation to her skin but didn’t pay much attention to it.

This awakening was different to the usual awakening she felt every time she exited a nightmare.

This one felt... Different.

Dangerous even.

*BANG!!!

With no chance to observe her surroundings, Alice instinctively created a blood barrier to block a ball of fire hurling towards her.

Yet the moment the two attacks came into contact, the barrier started to distort.

"???" A bewildered expression appeared on Alice’s face as she quickly jumped away to safety.

Sliding across the dirt ground, she snapped her head towards the sky. Countless radiant feathers rained down while a flaming silhouette could be seen destroying tendrils of dark energy.

’Karya? Allura?’ the confusion only got worse as Alice questioned why they were fighting against this lump of energy.

However, her questions had to be saved for later as an array of abilities lunged after her.

With the strange tendrils disrupting her spells, she could only rely on other factors.

"Ruby!" Alice shouted, jumping up slightly as Ruby manifested below her.

With a quick tap of her heel, energy burst outwards, propelling her into the sky while the strange energy followed behind.

They greedily ’sucked’ on the trail left behind as Alice’s face twisted in disgust.

Flicking her finger, several notes of energy formed as she fired them towards her pursuers.

Yet to her surprise, her basic attack did nothing.

In fact, it spurred the tendrils to try harder.

’F*ck! What kind of masochistic energy is this???’ Alice cursed in her mind as she summoned both Helena and Leon. Narrowing her eyes, her iris shifted in colour as she immediately locked onto the ’core’ of the skill.

Aiming her finger, she fired

*TZZZ!!!

Streaks of energy burned against the tendrils. This time they were effective... Only for a short period.

Soon after, even the core shifted to become more resilient and tenacious.

Narrowing her eyes, Alice snapped her gaze upwards and saw attacks coming to meet her.

Both Karya and Allura were occupied with their own battle, so much so that they couldn’t focus on what Alice was doing.

Right now, she could only rely on herself!

Vision!

Her gaze of the world shifted. Paired with the vision granted through resonating with her weapons, it didn’t take long for Alice’s mind to calculate the perfect route.

Following her instincts, she shifted her centre of gravity and slammed her heel.

*BANG!!!

Ruby rushed forward with aggression as Alice twisted her hip, spinning herself one hundred and eighty degrees.

Detonating an orb of energy behind her, she rushed towards the ground while the wind pulled her hair back.

Leon and Helena hovered by her side, the weapon drifting just above her hands.

Right before crashing into the ground, Alice spun her body.

VOID AXIS!!!

Helena and Leon combined their attacks together as a vertical slash split the world in two.

Having drawn several tendrils towards her location, Alice had opted to take them all out at once! If not even this worked then the only thing she could rely on was forcefully teleporting then away.

Thankfully, the attack was enough as the tendrils snapped in half. Like a frayed rope, it broke apart from the core and countless tendrils burst apart in the air.

Exhaling softly, Alice recalled Leon and Helena.

Then, as she turned her eyes towards the source of this energy, her expression froze.

"What the f"*ck????"

###

With Alice dealing with Feris, Allura, Karya and Alyss were quickly travelling to find their prey.

According to Allura, the nameless Outer God had been reinforcing his power and authority. Based on what they could see on Feris’s body, it wouldn’t take long for him to reach full ’maturity’.

While Alyss knew alot, there was plenty she didn’t know and thus she relied on others to understand the gaps she was missing.

In this case, it turned out that the Nameless Outer God hadn’t obtained an authority yet.

For a species like the outer gods, names hold an extremely high importance. It’s what defines you and the laws you govern.

And while it gives you powerful abilities, it also exposed your nature.

Therefore, most Outer Gods with a name that could be taken advantage of usually kept theirs hidden unless they’re confident.

But the nameless one was different. He had power but no authority.

One yet to mature, one kept by Nyer’s side.

With Nyer focusing his efforts on the Nightmare, there’s a chance that they could simply steal away the nameless God without him knowing.

And once that’s done, Alice would be able to read his memories using revenant recollection to find out more on what Nyer is planning.

That was the original plan that Allura had wanted to carry out...

"Have you found them?" Allura asked while Karya had her hand on Alyss’s shoulder.

The girl was currently kneeling on the ground with her fingers pressed against the dirt. There was a slight gap between her palm and the earth where a golden chain dug deep.

Alyss didn’t inherently have the ability to track Eldritch energy unless it was in front of her.

However, with Karya’s help, they were able to merge their abilities to track down any strange auras.

It was especially helpful since the Void was full of Edlritch energy and being able to differentiate between them was key.

"Hmm... Not yet. There are a lot of things tangled together. I don’t technically hold the authority for Cayla so I can’t see all what she sees. Even if she tells me, as she is now, it till takes time to confirm." Alyss replied with her eyes closed.

However...

"!!!" Karya snapped her eyes open. Her face twisted with disgust as she held back the urge to curse.

"Try the aura towards our east. It shouldn’t be hard to find. But it’s just a distraction, push past it and see what’s there." Karya suggested.

Following her suggestion, Alyss showed a similar reaction. Her face scrunched up as though she just ate the most disgusting meal she has ever had in her life.

She felt the malice, the grievance, the regret, the sorrow and much much more. All of these negative emotions compressed into thin thread and woven together to form the aura hidden beneath the layers.

One that couldn’t be noticed unless you looked directly at it.

Alyss released a shaky breath.

How much death? How much suffering was involved to make such a thing?

Inhuman.

That was the only way Alyss could describe it.

Turning her golden chains towards the aura, she felt a reaction.

"I found them."

Allura and Karya looked at one another before nodding.

Even though Allura was weakened, fighting to this degree shouldn’t be beyond her as long as she kept herself under control.

More importantly, her flames and her power would be useful against the unnamed outer god if Karya struggles to handle them.

With Alyss taking the lead, they quickly rushed through the Void. Though...

Being carried like a sack of potatoes under the arm was a rather... Novel experience.

Especially when golden chains were stretched out ahead of him.

Thankfully, her shame was short lasting as whoever owned the energy seemed to notice the group’s intention.

And rather than escape, it chose to turn around and rush towards them!

Naturally none of them were afraid. They were even grateful for this as they wanted to avoid a tedious chase if possible.

Yet in the next moment, their expressions quickly shifted.

Space ruptured, countless tendrils lunged forth.

Instinctively, Alyss stomped down with her foot as a wave of golden chains rushed forth to restrain the energy.

However...

The ever reliable lustrous golden chains started to rust and break apart the moment they came into contact with the energy!

Corruption spread across its surface, devouring the energy before greedily expanding.

Alyss was stunned.

A momentary lapse as Allura quickly dragged her back by the collar as flames erupted around her.

She jumped into the air while Karya took over the counter.

She rained attacks towards the target yet none of them worked!

"The f*ck!?" Alyss screamed, wanting to use her chains once more but flinched slightly.

Every chain she tried to summon had a tinge of rust on the opposite end. A parasite that had latched onto this authority and continued to nibble away at its essence.

Alyss tried to segment the chains, to ’refresh it’, yet the rust never disappeared.

Clenching her teeth, she could only rely on her own skills.

And the moment she set her eyes on the target, blood pooled by the corner of her eyes.

A being where one view of the monstrosity was enough to cause her brain to halt in its tracks, to deny its existence.

There, the unknown Outer Good ’stood’, draped in its own shadow. Pulsing limbs and spikes trembled across its body as eyes marked its skin.

A set of withered hands grasped at his arms, his shoulders, his head.

There, a single large unblinking eye ball was lodged in his cranium, bloodshot with insanity and fear.

Around him, the space would distort, crack and heal in abnormal ways. As though the world was trying to record its existence only to fail miserably in the process.

There, the unknown outer god stood facing the trio.

This was no longer simply a nameless outer god waiting to mature.

No, this had gone beyond simple maturity.

Nyer had mutated this being. Transformed him into a walking bomb waiting to explode.

And once it does... all of its corrupted ’logic’ and conceptual madness was ready to spread across the world.

To shatter and recreate the zone into something fundamentally twisted.

The thing that stood before them was an Outer God that this realm simply couldn’t accept.