Magical Girl's Knight Brother

Chapter 716 A Noble Sacrifice!

Tang Zijun's question was like a pebble thrown into the deep sea, creating an even deeper ripple in Poseidon's azure eyes.

The sea god looked at the human knight who was now able to devour evil gods, and the divine composure on his face was finally broken by a complex and heavy sigh.

"The Realm of the Dead..." Poseidon's voice carried a solemnity akin to facing the eye of a storm. "It is the boundary between life and death, the final resting place of countless souls, and the ultimate pool where the negative emotions of the universe converge. When the shadow of the 'nightmare' begins to spread, the Realm of the Dead... becomes the first to bear the brunt, the battlefield that experiences the most direct impact and distortion."

His gaze seemed to pierce through dimensions, seeing the realm filled with terrifying shadows and maddened undead. "Hades's Underworld is still struggling to hold on, while the gods of death in other regions... are already overwhelmed with their own problems, and even... are barely able to protect themselves. They are doing their utmost to prevent their own divine realms from being instantly overthrown."

Tang Zijun's brows furrowed tightly beneath his shattered mask. The realization that the Netherworld was the first line of defense to collapse weighed heavily on his heart, but he did not give up. A more taboo name rolled in his throat, eventually turning into a low, guttural sound.

"Then... what about the other world? That demon god... is he also too busy to attend to other matters?"

"The Otherworld...that..." Poseidon repeated Tang Zijun's words, his expression becoming extremely complex, carrying a profound insight into hidden secrets. "It seems your understanding of the 'Otherworld' is still limited to it being merely a 'negative' dimension where negative energy converges?"

Tang Zijun's heart skipped a beat: "What do you mean?"

"The outer world, the inner world..." Poseidon spoke slowly, his trident unconsciously tapping the desolate, inverted world beneath his feet. "Their birth was not due to the laws of the universe, but rather... the ruins and seals left behind by the war of the gods."

The voice of the sea god is like unveiling a long-forgotten history.

"The Outer World, that forgotten land, is the remnant scattered after the collapse of the ancient divine realm, the wound from the collision of powerful divine forces tearing reality apart, and even more so... the pain and forbidden memories forcibly stripped away and forgotten from the collective subconscious of humanity."

A strange dimension formed in the turbulent flow of spacetime; it is the graveyard of memories, the scars of history.

"And the Otherworld..." Poseidon's tone suddenly turned somber, carrying a chilling coldness. "Its essence... has never been a mirror image of some negative world; it... is a massive, living seal."

"A seal?" Tang Zijun's pupils suddenly contracted.

"That's right, an ultimate cage constructed by the combined power of the gods, based on a portion of the shattered divine realm, and using the remains of countless fallen gods and demons as materials." Poseidon's voice was resolute. "Trova and I have been tracing the origins of this place for a long time, and we understand the current situation."

Xiu's sharp gaze pierced Tang Zijun, carrying a question that seemed to see right through her.

"Haven't you ever found it strange? Both are creations of negative energy, yet the 'Greedy One' within you, and the 'Shadow Clan' represented by the 'Lost One,' at least retain some kind of logical or formal origin, while the 'Outer Path Demon'..."

What are they?

"Humanoid? Machine? Giant beast? Insect?... Bizarre and outlandish, seemingly a mad mix of all forms in the world."

Poseidon's voice carried a chilling revelation.

"Because they... are not pure negative energy condensations at all, they are... parasites," carriers of madness, pollutants that only know destruction and slaughter.

""

"And the source of all this..." Poseidon's gaze seemed to pierce through endless dimensions, landing on that twisted, bloody...

Deep within the chaotic underworld. "That demon god you spoke of..."

The voice of the sea god struck Tang Zijun's heart like the final hammer of judgment: "He... is not a born demon god at all."

"He is..."

"...An Old One who was defeated by the gods at the end of the War of the Gods, but could not be completely killed because of his corrupted nature. In the end, most of his power was stripped away and he was forcibly sealed in the specially made cage of the Inner World."

boom-!

This truth, like the Big Bang at the beginning of the universe, exploded in Tang Zijun's mind.

The inner world... is a seal.

Outer Demons... are parasitic monsters formed after the power of the sealed Old Ones leaks out and contaminates real-world organisms (or matter).

That so-called demon god... was actually a prisoner, extremely weak... Great Old One?!

All the clues connected instantly at this moment: why the inner world was so chaotic and disorderly, full of madness; why the heretical demons took on various forms and only knew how to destroy; and why the demon god had not yet awakened, with only the heretical demons scattered everywhere.

Because... Sleeve is a prisoner, her power is sealed and suppressed, bound by a cage, and the heretical demon is the leaked poison blood, the tentacles that try to corrode the cage and pollute reality.

"so..."

Tang Zijun's voice was slightly hoarse.

"When the nightmare descends, the void shatters...this seal..."

"Yes." Poseidon's voice was heavy as lead. The power of "Nightmare" was impacting the very foundation of the universe. This seal, forged by the gods and already weakening due to the passage of time and internal corruption... its collapse... would likely accelerate dramatically.

"That prisoner... He is waiting, waiting for the day when the cage is completely broken."

"By then..." The sea god's eyes were filled with an unprecedented sense of alarm. "A world where countless millennia of resentment have accumulated..."

"A mad, and likely partially adapted to nightmares, corrupted environment of the Great Old Ones... has broken free..."

"That will be...another apocalypse superimposed on the 'Nightmare' catastrophe."

The gloomy sky of the reversed world seemed even more somber, and Tang Zijun stood there with an extremely solemn expression.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment in the gloom of the reversed world. Tang Zijun was digesting the shocking truth that the Demon God was the Old One, but an earlier question, like a deeply buried anchor, suddenly pulled his chaotic thoughts back.

"You just said..." Tang Zijun raised her head, her gaze sharp as a tempered blade, once again piercing Poseidon's azure divine body. "That agreement, it was, and it wasn't..."...Besides being directed against the Great Old Ones, did it have...a deeper meaning?

In Poseidon's deep, ocean-like eyes, a faint glint of light flashed, revealing a complex emotion that seemed to say, "You've finally asked." He slowly nodded.

"Yes, the Great Old Ones... they are like maggots on rotting flesh, a repulsive scourge," a filth that must be removed, but...

""

"They...are far from enough to truly trouble our gods."

Poseidon's gaze pierced through the distorted space of the inverted world, as if directed towards the source of the claw marks that tore apart the galaxy.

"All along, there has only been one thing we've truly been targeting... from beginning to end."

"Is it...a nightmare?" Tang Zijun's heart sank, and she uttered that forbidden name.

"Indeed." Poseidon's voice was resolute, carrying a cold decisiveness. "You personally dealt with" an Old One, sensing the essence of their power—that filthy, twisted, all-consuming chaos... a convergence of the gods' own negative emotions and the negative energy of the universe."

He took a step forward, his divine power as deep as the abyss.

"But have you ever wondered... why was Nightmare's gaze drawn to you? Why did his claws tear through the void, pointing directly at the dream world?"

Before Tang Zijun could answer, Poseidon provided the answer: "Because...they share the same origin."

"Zeus and Athena, through countless deductions and retracings over the long years, suspected that nightmares and the Great Old Ones were essentially different forms of the same being."

"The Great Old Ones are a stagnant, inferior, chaotic aggregate of filth," while "Nightmare"... is a higher, purer, more... ordered... core form of contamination, wielding the power of "ultimate formatting," and is one of the ultimate forms that a negative energy aggregate can achieve.

"So..." Poseidon's voice held a desperate, feverish intensity, "that's why we found the mirror."

"If the mirror, being a manifestation of negative energy, can find a way to completely purify or eradicate this low-level aggregate of pollution—the Great Old Ones..."

"Then, through His unique authority that sees the true nature of negative energy, and through the Reversal Channel you are about to establish, connecting the dream world and the reversed world..."

"7

A light burst forth from Poseidon's azure pupils, powerful enough to pierce the darkness.

"He might be able to accomplish...the ultimate feat that none of us gods could do."

"—Go against the current, along the path of the corrupted aggregation of the ancient rulers," to find the source of the nightmare hidden in the gaps between endless nothingness and rules!

"The source of...nightmares?!" Tang Zijun exclaimed in shock.

"It seems..." Poseidon sighed softly, a hint of understanding and helplessness in his voice, as he looked at Tang Zijun's shocked expression. "Although you have mastered the power of the Abyss Sea, you haven't truly grasped... the subversive nature of the rules contained within the Reversal Passage."

Poseidon raised his hand, and with a flick of his fingertip, azure divine light shone in the grayness of the reversed world, outlining an extremely simplified model.

"Mirror reflection, connecting reflections...that's just its most basic and superficial application."

"What truly makes it terrifying... even to the point that the gods take notice and dare not underestimate it is..."

Poseidon's voice carries a sense of sacredness and danger, revealing the mysteries of the universe.

"It can forcibly open a passage through...mental projection!"

"Mind...projection?" Tang Zijun murmured repeatedly, a vague yet unsettling concept taking shape in his mind.

"Yes," Poseidon said emphatically. "The inverted world is a reflection of reality, and this reflection...is inextricably linked to 'nature and cognition,' 'mind,' and 'subconscious imagery.' The power of the mirror is the pinnacle of controlling all of this, and His Mirror Lake is the ultimate manifestation of this power."

"Through the bridge of the 'reversal channel,' combined with the 'mirror' to track and lock onto the path of negative energy..."

Poseidon's fingertips suddenly shone with an intense light, as if they were about to pierce the core of the model.

"She can then forcibly project a powerful psychic consciousness, deeply connected to the source of nightmares (like source pollution)," like a beacon.

"Along that invisible river of pollution, constructed from countless sources of contamination by the ancient rulers, leading to the core of Amu..." embark on an unprecedented, dimensional-transcending "reverse tracing of the source."

Tang Zijun's breath almost stopped; he understood instantly!

Isn't this the very ability that Langya awakened?!

Can a reverse path be opened no matter where you are?

No, no, no, it's not as simple as reversing the channel; it's exactly what Poseidon called mental projection!

However, Langya's power has only just begun to touch upon this rule, and with its current abilities, it is not yet able to truly step into the level of the Mirror God.

Unexpectedly, this god who could reverse the world had less control over power than a mere cadre-level motorcycle...

The Mirror God's plan was not to fight, but to locate and spy, like a scout venturing deep into enemy territory to find an opportunity for victory for the gods in the darkness.

Using a special beacon (which is very likely the Mirror God himself, or some being capable of bearing this connection), and with the power of the Reverse Channel and Mind Projection, one's (consciousness or part of one's being) is forcibly transported in reverse along the traces of the Old Ones' contaminated aggregation, and projected to the very source of the nightmare's core.

This is practically using the most sophisticated instruments to trace the ultimate laboratory that created the virus, following its transmission chain.

"This...this is too risky." Tang Zijun's voice trembled slightly. "Let alone whether we can successfully locate the source...even if we do, that projected beacon...it could very well be instantly...completely formatted by the will of the nightmare," lost in the void, or even...reverse-contaminated and assimilated, becoming a minion of the nightmare!"

"So..." Poseidon's voice lowered, carrying a tragic sense of sacrifice. "This requires the Beacon to possess unparalleled willpower, extreme resistance to negative energy, and... the awareness to bear the risk of annihilation."

"Mirror... He believes himself to be the only and best candidate."

"We...have no choice. This is the only possible path to probe the core of the nightmare, to find its weaknesses...and it's also the agreed...ultimate goal."

"And He ultimately..."

"And he never came back."