Eldritch Horror Theatre

How did the old saying go? The Gift of the Pope was a gift; if it felt useless, you were using it wrong.

Never sell your resources short, no matter how hard others try to prove they have no value.

This was the very assassination that had brought down the true Tyrant. Even with a theoretical home-field advantage, Fu Qian never expected an easy fight.

Because from another perspective, it meant that even on his own turf, fighting with everything he had, the Tyrant had still died.

So, as the remastered version, he had to maximize his advantages if he wanted to avoid repeating history.

Such as information.

Though he had no idea what kind of divine entity the backstabbing God actually was, the attackers didn’t seem to understand him as well as they had the original.

How could he not exploit such a massive information gap?

Ever since he first saw the Dark Moon facing its shadow to make three, Fu Qian had been pondering the potential uses of the Dark Moon Ring.

They acted decisively, coordinated perfectly, and each harbored profound skills. Regardless of their motives, they were truly a terrifying assassination squad.But they were higher entities in the truest sense. Fu Qian highly doubted they were intimate enough to follow a single, unified ideology.

The only conceivable motive for a joint operation like this was mutual interest.

While the Dark Moon had yet to attack directly, combined with the information the Red Moon had once given him, it was hard not to suspect its guiding role in this operation.

Under these circumstances, other than tearing through this squad with his bare hands, was there a more efficient solution?

Yes. Make their mutual interest untrustworthy.

For instance, make it look like an assassination of the Tyrant while secretly targeting someone else. The Hunters were actually the prey.

He had already displayed various abnormalities during their previous clash, so why hadn’t the group stopped to ask a single question?

It made perfect sense. Higher entities only ever trusted their own judgment; words were only spoken for others to hear.

And now, they needed to judge carefully for themselves.

In the darkness, the right hand Fu Qian used to pierce the Dragon King’s head plunged into what felt like a meat grinder before he could even follow up.

Countless fangs actually lined the inside of its skull, shredding everything in return even as they were destroyed.

The Dragon King truly was a proper higher entity. Even when cooperating with the Dark Moon to set such a trap, it hadn’t forgotten to use its head and keep a backup plan.

But it didn’t matter. A moment later, Fu Qian’s right hand still thrust forward—Visceral Attack.

Roar—

The Dragon King finally let out its second cry.

......

Left and Right. Against a higher entity capable of inventing something as magnificent as a covenant, how could an expert like him not show respect?

Assume the worst of the enemy. While he wasn’t sure if it had more tricks up its sleeve, taking extra precautions was obviously necessary.

He couldn’t prepare for everything, naturally, but for Fu Qian, the only result he needed to guarantee was successfully landing that Visceral Attack.

So his actions were simple: even trapped, his body heavy and fragile, he didn’t hesitate to launch a synchronized counterattack while simultaneously activating Left and Right.

Previous testing had proven that due to the conceptual scramble, any damage he took would undergo Damage Transfer.

Perhaps it couldn’t evade every type of trap, but it at least gave him a spare arm for his Visceral Attack.

The results proved just how important it was to respect others.

Even as the left arm he left outside was shredded to pieces, Fu Qian deactivated Left and Right and completed the Visceral Attack.

Not only was his entire body shrouded in freezing power, but the Dark Moon even helped turn off the lights—completely unnecessarily.

Amidst this impossibility, the sharp edge atop a certain Golden Staff finally arrived, albeit late.

Tendril Barrage Devastator!

And it perfectly met the thousands of ”mechanical” tentacles erupting from the Body of the Tyrant.

......

The second Lightless Night in the Land of Self-Abandonment ended slightly earlier than the first.

The moment light returned, an astonishing scene was immediately revealed.

The King of the Abandoned Prison, walking through his domain, was actually bathed in icy moonlight.

Half his body was shattered, but the thousands of tentacles tearing out of it had also pierced the Dragon King’s body from every direction, sending strangely glowing blood spurting into the air.

Vitality was no weakness for this higher entity, but amplified by the Power of Calamity, this exchange of wounds was clearly still hard to endure.

Feeling stupid?

The foundation of these special effects was the Power of Law, heavily supported by Misanthropy at its core.

Faced with God, who had stopped moving and was once again playing it safe through wise discretion, Fu Qian was quite satisfied with the result.

It was completely understandable for this entity to conserve its strength.

After all, even though the Lightless Night had ended, his current aesthetic was far too similar to the Dark Moon’s.

As for the ”feeling stupid” remark, he wasn’t aiming it at God, but at the Dark Moon, which was still hiding out of sight.

Why did the Time-Moon Slumber end so quickly?

Simple. This higher power had definitely intervened.

With such unexpected complications arising, it had to act decisively to keep everyone on the same page.

It was just a pity that his most dazzling visual effect was the Commandment Residue under Burning Frost.

With the Law acting as its core support, dealing with it seemed slightly above the Dark Moon’s paygrade.

Not to mention another point: the visually subtle Decree of Return actually had a positive effect against the ”poison” permeating his body.

As a result, the speed of its erosion was probably different from what they had imagined—almost as if he had prepared for it in advance.

Of course, even so, a mass of crimson was still seeping from his wounds, brimming with chaos and malice.

......

He seemed to understand where that special curse, Crimson Frenzy, came from now.

Moreover, he was genuinely curious whether these big shots were secretly communicating with words right now.

Although the stakes were probably high enough by now, the famous Zen Dao grandmaster, Master Yuhun, had once said that language was an incredibly inefficient method of communication, full of fallacy.

Riiiip!

Amidst this delicate atmosphere, Fu Qian had no intention of playing along.

Even as he was shredded by the fangs along the Dragon King’s surface, his tentacles and arms tightly bound those two bizarre wings.

Didn’t know how the Dragon King had died?

No problem. He would just kill it again.

Accompanied by a delightful tearing sound, Fu Qian brutally ripped off one of the wings, sending butterfly scales fluttering through the air.

Could it be that you misunderstood your role from the very beginning? Who gave you the courage to fight the Tyrant head-on?

A heavily armed remastered version, at that.

Boom—

Accompanying the tearing of the second wing, countless eggshell-like cracks exploded across the Dragon King’s already mangled body.

At the exact same time, Fu Qian detonated the Calamity accumulated on its body.

Riiip—

However, as the Dragon King crashed heavily to the ground, a series of wounds suddenly tore open across the body of the Tyrant, who was walking imperiously through his domain.

The source of this damage was even more subtle; it actually mirrored the injuries inflicted upon the Dragon King.

It wasn’t Damage Transfer. It merely reflected a degree of this disaster back onto himself.

Using a predetermined disaster as power... A fascinating method, though he felt like he had seen something similar before.

Amidst this commotion, Fu Qian had already locked onto another target hidden beneath the Dark Moon’s veil.

In fact, it was a somewhat familiar target—the Holy Infant Calamity Star.

There had to be a reason why people could sneak right into his home turf to assassinate him, after all.