Chapter 1547: The Living Nightmare Dimension
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"DIE."
A single word echoed through the air, as Maria felt a colossal shockwave of darkness surging toward her and everyone on the island.
It wasn't just nightmare power. It was a force beyond that, something that warped reality itself to a degree the Original Nightmare Curse couldn't even match.
"Everyone, get inside my Shadow Realm!"
Maria panicked. She knew something catastrophic would happen if she didn't act.
She had only a few seconds!
Her Shadow Realm expanded as far as possible. Everyone couldn't move, paralyzed by the sight.
She continued expanding it faster and faster, twisting space itself as she encompassed not just everyone but the entire island, pulling them inside before the shockwave could hit her.
"HAAAAAHH!"
She roared, unleashing all her power at once, shaking the entire world!
Void clashed against void. Space warped, shattering into pieces. A giant crack split the planet's surface, and the seas poured down relentlessly!
SPLAAASH!
"W-What the fuck is this?! Who the fuck are you?!"
Maria screamed in agony. Her entire being was beginning to vanish, consumed by the all-powerful void!
"I AM… NIGHTMARE."
"No…! No! You were dead!"
"THE ONE THAT DIED… WEAK. NOT THE TRUE NIGHTMARE."
"What?!"
"I AM… THE DIMENSION, I AM THE NIGHTMARE, I AM EVERYTHING… AND NOTHING."
"Fuck! Don't tell me…!"
At that moment, Maria realized this entity could destroy the planet far more easily than the Original Nightmare Curse.
Worse yet, it lacked that monster's personality. It was almost emotionless, speaking only to declare its intent to end everything.
This was…
"You're the Nightmare Dimension?! Were you…! You were what Ginnungagap truly warned me about?!"
"DIE."
An even stronger shockwave engulfed Maria, her soul and body disintegrating at an alarming rate.
She screamed, channeling all her skills and transformations at once, amassing their power and fusing them into her ultimate form.
"UUAAAHHHH!"
With a roar of agony, despair, determination, and recklessness combined, Maria transformed into an eldritch being of her own.
Her charcoal-black, fleshy skin turned gray. Her body compacted, and her eye became golden, while long gray tentacles waved around her head.
{Void-Born Outer Being Embodiment}: {Second Stage: Herald of Nothingness}!
Using her Ultimate Form, Maria pushed back harder and harder, but the entity simply glared at her with a single, empty red eye.
"DISAPPEAR."
TRUUUM!
"W-Wha…?! AAAGH!"
Maria cried out. The power of the Void itself weighed upon her, the purest yet most corrupt essence of Nightmares, melded with Void itself.
A power wielded by a literal, sentient dimension…
Could she even stand against an entity of such magnitude?!
The overwhelming force was immensely powerful, capable of flattening the ground where the island once stood.
She knew that if this battle continued, even though she barely survived, the entire planet would be obliterated.
"H A A A A H H H H !"
She screamed with all her might, expending every point of Mana she had and activating every imaginable Skill, further boosting her power to its limits. An armor of cosmic bones appeared around her as she summoned millions of undead that fused into her, only to vanish repeatedly.
"I have to push it into space, or everyone will die! This entire planet will disappear!"
Maria gritted her teeth, pushing upward, enveloping the entity, which resembled a star itself.
"DAMN IT!"
She kept pushing harder and harder. The heavens trembled. The entity was moving… yet it didn't react to it, seemingly unable to respond like other sentient beings.
It felt both alive… and not, an unliving mass of dimensional energy with a sliver of consciousness, which gave it "life."
But what exactly was this thing?!
"{Ultimate Skill: Outer Void Goddess}!"
RUMBLE!
The power of her godly Ultimate Skill activated, as her entire being was enveloped by an aura of potent divinity. This was her Unique Skill: [Goddess], granted to her upon reincarnation.
It had awakened some time ago and even evolved into this Ultimate Form, granting Maria a second divine power alongside her existing ones.
As if she possessed a secondary divinity that amplified her strength even further, doubling her power!
Yet even this trump card…
Even now…
Even as she wielded the Divinity of the Outer Void Goddess Ultimate Skill and the Herald of Nothingness…
It paled against the Living Nightmare Dimension, whose very existence warped reality, pressing her even harder.
"DIE."
Another word struck her, and suddenly, half of her very being vanished.
T R U U U M !
"Gaaaahhh?!"
Maria's soul bled black miasma as she felt excruciating, burning agony through her entire being. Yet she endured the pain, persevering and pushing forward.
"{Primordial Skill: All-Eating Black Void Heart: Yog-Sothoth}!"
Maria's chest opened into a monstrous hole. Her heart expanded, beginning to devour and siphon the Nightmare Void energy of the monstrous entity.
TRUUUM!
"…?!"
It showed a slight reaction as it was pushed further and further and further…
Maria's Evolution wasn't complete yet. She had yet to finalize the damned thing inside!
But she had no time to wait, pushing the entity into the skies and beyond the stratosphere.
RUMBLE!
The massive sphere flew away but stopped abruptly in front of the planet, glaring down with its single eye.
"CONSUME… CONSUME… CONSUME…"
"You're not consuming shit!"
Maria's body suddenly expanded to match the entity's size. Her fists pummeled the Living Nightmare Dimension, pushing it upward, further into the stars.
However, as she did, her hands and then her arms vanished, revealing the monstrous power of that thing.
By merely being touched, it could consume her…
And it wasn't just her outer phantom body. No, her true soul was being consumed, her Divine Ember weakening.
"Haaaa… Haaaa… Haaaa…"
Maria glared at the entity, her eyes filled with disbelief, fear…
But also relentless conviction.
She had to fight, for everyone, and buy as much time as possible.
"Please, other me, just hurry up already!"
"DIE."
The Living Nightmare Dimension spoke, its words resonating within Maria and shaking her very being. By wielding everything she had, she barely resisted, just enough to avoid vanishing instantly.
BOOOM!
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