Chapter 285

Chapter 285. Celestial Time Realm (1)

The battle between the Constellations was fierce.

Even more Constellations were participating than in the battle in India, and the hostility between the two sides was much stronger.

“Jason, which side has the advantage right now?”

“Both sides have taken heavy losses. But we’re gradually gaining the upper hand.”

Hearing Jason’s answer, I nodded.

Even with the God-Striking Whips on Taigong Wang’s side...

our overall fighting power was greater.

“And Joo Minha, who was our biggest concern... was taken down by Kang Yujin and Ha Mina.”

“I see...”

When I heard that Joo Minha had fallen...

I bit my lip.

“If Joo Minha is down, then we don’t have to worry about [Disruption Barrier] anymore.”

Suppressing my complicated feelings, I looked around.

“Let’s move on to the next stage of the plan.”

We had succeeded in using Constellation Tube to draw out Taigong Wang’s agents.

Now...

it was time to draw out Taigong Wang himself.

“Nameless King, everything is ready, but... are you really sure about this?”

Princess Longji looked at me with concern.

“Yeah, I’m honestly worried too.”

Lee Gyu scratched his beard.

“Brother, no matter how extraordinary you are... isn’t this going to be a little too much?”

“I’ll be fine.”

I answered while checking my current condition.

Right now...

I was connected to countless machines.

They had been built from equipment gathered from the abandoned U.S. military base...

and combined with knowledge from every possible field.

Constellations.

Apostles.

Demons.

Monsters.

Sorcery.

Magic.

All of it had been gathered together to create this device.

“We spent an absurd amount of Origin Power on this too.”

“We might as well try.”

“Well, if you say so, brother...”

After being sent to Hell, I had come to understand a large part of the structure of this universe.

Lucifer had personally explained some of it.

But experiencing it with my own body while escaping Hell had also taught me a great deal.

The Celestial Time Realm...

The world where Taigong Wang supposedly resides.

Remembering the name Lucifer had told me...

I activated the device.

At the same time, an enormous burden crashed into me.

Ghk...!

There was no way around it.

I had to use the Holy Grail’s power.

And that placed tremendous strain on me.

Still...

the device operated normally.

My senses began expanding.

Like radar...

I started feeling every kind of ‘signal’ passing through this area.

Was this what Joo Minha felt whenever he used [Disruption Barrier]...?

I had been paying attention to Joo Minha’s [Disruption Barrier] for a long time.

It was an incredibly versatile ability.

It interfered with signals moving through space...

allowing Joo Minha to selectively nullify magic, communications, and more.

The device I was using now had been created based on the results of analyzing [Disruption Barrier].

Found it.

Among the countless signals crossing the battlefield...

I detected one that was clearly different from the rest.

It wasn’t the same kind of signal being sent toward the Observers of Constellations still in the Spirit Realm.

This frequency...

It connects to a space that isn’t the Fantasy Realm, Spirit Realm, or Hell!

I caught it.

I didn’t know whether it existed to observe this world...

or to send orders to Constellations inside it.

But I had succeeded in finding a signal connected to the Celestial Time Realm.

And then...

Interfere with it...!

Using the Holy Grail’s enormous energy...

I disrupted the signal.

BOOM!

An explosion suddenly erupted around me.

The device couldn’t withstand the overload and blew apart.

I was thrown from it as terrible pain tore through my body.

“B-Brother! Are you okay?!”

“Nameless King!”

Lee Gyu and Princess Longji hurried over and supported me.

“Did it fail?”

“No... it didn’t fail...”

I had successfully interfered with the signal connected to the Celestial Time Realm.

Of course...

doing something like this wouldn’t create any visible change in the Material Realm.

But Taigong Wang, wherever he was in the Celestial Time Realm...

would definitely have felt it.

Someone had appeared...

someone capable of interfering with him in a place no one should have been able to reach.

If Taigong Wang was the kind of person Lucifer and I believed he was...

then there was no way he could ignore this.

Now then...

How will he respond?

As I recovered...

I fell into thought.

Will he act immediately?

Or later?

And right after that...

“N-Nameless!”

Jason, who had been monitoring the outside situation through a screen, shouted.

“Outside...!”

Nezha was lying on the ground with fatal injuries after taking repeated attacks from Kang Yujin...

when he sensed something ominous.

"...!"

He squeezed out the last of his strength and forced himself upright.

Then he looked at the sky...

and sharply inhaled.

“Don’t tell me...!”

Cracks were spreading through space.

Like a pane of glass breaking...

the sky itself was splitting apart.

“What is that?”

“What’s happening?”

The other Constellations stopped fighting and looked upward.

Then finally...

a hole opened in the sky like shattered glass.

"...!"

Through the opening...

space itself could be seen.

Countless star-like lights floated through a pitch-black void.

And in the middle of them...

stood a gigantic structure.

“Is that... the Investiture Platform?”

“No, it looks slightly different...”

Constellations from the Shanhai Alliance murmured among themselves.

Hearing them...

Nezha understood.

“The Celestial Time Realm...!”

The moment Nezha said it aloud...

the surrounding Constellations stirred.

“The Celestial Time Realm?”

“Isn’t that what the Nameless King mentioned on Constellation Tube?”

“The world where Taigong Wang is supposed to be?”

“Did he finally show himself because his servants are getting beaten?”

Several impatient Constellations activated flying Constellation Armaments and rushed into the sky.

At a glance...

the newly revealed structure didn’t appear particularly far away.

They probably thought they could reach it.

Shhk.

Then...

a faint beam of light descended.

It came from the direction of the structure...

and struck the Constellation flying at the very front.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

A horrific scream continued for a long time.

Externally...

the Constellation didn’t seem injured.

His body was intact.

And yet...

he screamed in unbearable agony for more than a full minute.

Frozen in midair.

Unable to move.

Unable to escape.

“Ah...”

Then...

the instant the screaming stopped...

a strange energy poured out of the Constellation’s body.

FWOOSH!

The energy crossed the void...

and flew toward the distant structure.

Immediately afterward...

the Constellation disappeared.

Completely.

Not even a trace remained.

"..."

"..."

Every Constellation fell silent.

If the attack had simply erased him in one blow...

it might have been less terrifying.

But that agonizing scream lasting more than a minute...

made everyone understand.

The thing that had appeared in the sky...

truly belonged to an existence beyond common sense.

─ Nezha.

Then a voice sounded inside Nezha’s mind.

“S-Supreme Commander!”

Nezha forgot his injuries and immediately prostrated himself.

“Supreme Commander?”

“Tianbao Supreme Commander... that was Taigong Wang’s title when he destroyed Shang!”

Whispers spread around him.

Nezha ignored them.

─ You failed to fulfill your role properly.

“I have no excuse, Supreme Commander...!”

Nezha pressed all three heads deeply against the ground.

─ You need not blame yourself so harshly.

─ It was my fault for not granting you enough power.

The instant those words entered his mind...

new power erupted from Nezha’s body.

“Th-This is...!”

The arms damaged during the battle began regenerating.

Even the arm Kang Yujin had torn away grew back.

And it didn’t stop there.

His six arms became eight.

“Three Heads and Eight Arms...!”

It was the form Nezha had possessed when the ancient war against Shang reached its climax.

New weapons appeared in his hands as well.

The Universe Ring.

The Red Armillary Sash.

The Golden Brick.

The Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Cover.

Two Fire-Tipped Spears.

Two Yin-Yang Swords.

All eight magical treasures Nezha had possessed back then...

appeared at once.

─ Nezha.

─ I release you from the restrictions of the Constellation system.

Nezha sharply inhaled.

Then he immediately understood what those words meant...

and stood.

“I will fulfill my role, Supreme Commander...!”

With that shout...

Nezha moved.

He raised the birdcage-shaped Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Cover toward the stunned Constellations.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Nine enormous fire dragons appeared...

and swallowed the Constellations.

“GRAAAH!”

“What the hell is that?!”

The Constellations hurriedly prepared to fight back.

But Nezha had already begun his next attack.

WHISH! SHHK!

He threw the Universe Ring and Golden Brick.

The two throwing weapons moved freely through the air according to Nezha’s will...

and struck countless Constellations.

“You bastard...!”

One Constellation raised his sword and attacked from behind.

But Nezha’s three heads gave him a wide enough field of vision to detect it.

WHIRL!

The red Armillary Sash wrapped around the attacker...

completely restraining him.

SHHK-SHHK-SHHK-SHHK!

Two Fire-Tipped Spears.

Two Yin-Yang Swords.

Four bladed weapons struck simultaneously...

and chopped the Constellation’s body into pieces in an instant.

“W-What is that?!”

“He got stronger?!”

“And those weapons...!”

Normally, with only a few exceptions...

Constellations possessed a single Constellation Armament.

Even if they had carried several legendary weapons while alive...

they could only bring one with them.

They could forcibly create replicas with Origin Power...

but reproducing the original powers perfectly was almost impossible.

And yet...

Nezha currently held eight magical treasures created by immortals.

“Attack!”

The ones who charged Nezha were King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Their holy swords were by no means inferior to Nezha’s treasures.

But Nezha calmly blocked all of their attacks with his eight arms.

“Ghk, this bastard...!”

“He became far too strong!”

“If you weren’t still shackled by the limits of A-rank and S-rank Constellations, you might have given me a better fight!”

Nezha roared...

then sent Lancelot and Gawain flying at the same time.

“OOOOH!”

King Arthur shouted and swung Excalibur.

But the Armillary Sash flew in before he could finish...

wrapping around both Excalibur and Arthur’s arm.

“Ghk...!”

“If Merlin were here, this might have gone differently.”

“But the rest of you aren’t enough!”

With Arthur restrained...

Nezha thrust a Fire-Tipped Spear forward.

The burning spearhead pierced straight through Arthur’s abdomen.

“Father...!”

Mordred shouted and charged.

Even as Nezha’s attacks tore wounds all over his body...

Mordred managed to rescue Arthur.

He handed him to another knight...

then lost consciousness.

“Counterattack!”

“Fight alongside Nezha!”

The Constellations of Taigong Wang’s faction, who had been losing moments earlier...

hurriedly launched a counteroffensive.

Apparently some kind of Blessing had descended from the Celestial Time Realm.

Even their improved God-Striking Whips had become stronger.

“Bring them all down!”

“Kill every last one of them...!”

As the bloody battle began again...

Nezha used his three heads to search for Kang Yujin.

The greatest threat here was Kang Yujin.

Unless they defeated him...

victory would be impossible.

Where did he go?

Even with six eyes moving constantly...

Nezha couldn’t find him.

Normally...

Kang Yujin should have been the easiest person on the battlefield to spot.

Yet he was nowhere.

Then suddenly...

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Several unfamiliar sounds rang out in succession.

Nezha turned his head.

Strange objects were launching from the ground toward the sky.

Someone shouted.

“Missiles...!”

"...!"

Weapons left behind at the Alaskan U.S. military base...

were being launched into the sky all at once.

“Pointless...!”

The missiles exploded before they could even reach the crack in the sky.

There was no way the existence beyond it would allow such an attack.

GOOOOOOOO!

But then...

a familiar, thunderous sound shook the ground.

“Huh...?”

And Nezha realized.

The missiles had only been a distraction.

“That is...!”

Breaking through the explosions...

an enormous ‘staff’ shot upward toward the sky.

“The Ruyi Jingu Bang!”

The legendary tool said to have been created to measure the depths of rivers and seas.

The Ruyi Jingu Bang expanded faster than anything else in the world...

rising as though it would pierce the heavens themselves.

And standing atop that Ruyi Jingu Bang...

“You bastards...!”

were the Nameless King...

Kang Yujin...

and the other rebels.

They were ascending toward the Celestial Time Realm.