### Chapter 345: The Battle with Nightmare
Zhao Mingyue pushed open the Ghost Gate in her dream, which moved up the timeline for many things. For example, over here, Li Tianan never imagined that his daughter’s condition would suddenly deteriorate. That’s why he decided to ally with Nightmare—because if he didn’t, his daughter’s life would be at risk.
For Nightmare, the opening of the Ghost Gate brought not just a “capable” assistant in Li Tianan, but also saved her a lot of hassle. It allowed her to directly collaborate with the Dark Moon God in the Ghost Gate world to absorb the god’s powers to eliminate Bai Yu.
She thought time was not on her side, hence she considered launching another plan targeting Zhao Mingyue.
“This world is beautiful, isn’t it? Compared to the other worlds we’ve existed in, this one is like a fairy tale. No wonder the sc*m Game refers to it as a campus romance world. For many, campus romance is indeed a fairy tale, filled with sweet plotlines and devoid of the heavy burdens life throws at you.”
“So the sc*m Game is helping us realize our wishes, remember? When we participated in the sc*m Game, it was all about the wishes we could fulfill after clearing it.”
“And this world is the manifestation of the sc*m Game; whether you can seize it or not depends on your own capabilities.”
Nightmare spoke softly, her eyes calm without a hint of madness, as if she were merely stating a long-acknowledged fact while trying to impose her beliefs on Bai Yu.
“So this battle has nothing to do with hatred. It’s just about determining who has the strength to accept the sc*m Game’s gifts!”
With a sharp exclamation, Nightmare conjured an oddly shaped scepter. She promptly raised it high, and all the life forces of the Gatekeepers, including those of the fierce ghosts and the three Evil Gods within Li Tianan, converged towards the dark red orb at the tip of her staff.
Bai Yu narrowed her eyes upon seeing the scepter.
If her memory served her right, this scepter belonged to the Dark Moon God and was once dedicated by the Believers in her former world. It’s called Moonlight.
As she stepped forward, a beam of moonlight suddenly split the sky. After the radiant light fell, it shattered like a mirror, appearing to leave the ground untouched while actually wielding tremendous power.
This was the power directly affiliated with the Dark Moon God!
Bai Yu looked up as the moon in the sky gradually became shrouded in bl**d-red hues, transforming into a bl**d moon under Nightmare’s control.
Behind Nightmare, a gigantic Ghost Gate, nearly five meters high, materialized. Unlike the other Ghost Gates she had seen, this one exuded an ancient aura, with carvings and a design reminiscent of a bygone age.
Great black tentacles and bl**d threads surged from the ground. After merging from four directions, they formed four massive tentacles, each over four meters thick and more than ten meters long, which then smashed down towards Nightmare.
Nightmare raised her staff as red moonlight cascaded down from the sky, leaving deep scars on the giant tentacles. As the moonlight broke apart, it corroded the tentacles, reducing them to nothing in an instant.
However, what Nightmare hadn’t anticipated was that Bai Yu seemed to have predicted her attack method. Two bl**d threads rose up in mid-air, actively sharing the incoming assault while the other two tentacles easily dodged the moonlight’s trajectory, hitting the illusory projection of the Ghost Gate hard and making it even more transparent.
Nightmare frowned. She lifted her staff to imprison the two tentacles with moonlight, but this was clearly within Bai Yu’s expectations; at the very moment her moonlight cage descended, the two tentacles split into three, controlling only one segment while the other two clamored to crash down upon her.
Nightmare’s expression changed. She leaped into the air, pointing her staff at the two tentacles, and as expected, they froze in place. The next moment, they exploded into countless shards of moonlight that vanished into thin air.
In simple terms, the power of the Dark Moon God revolves around two points: absorption and assimilation.
To Bai Yu, these two points were somewhat dangerous, but moonlight attacks were of little concern to her—she had plenty of ways to dodge them.
“You’ve been to the Ghost Gate world before?” Nightmare could only think of this possibility.
Bai Yu seemed well acquainted with the powers of the Dark Moon God, understanding every derived attack and how to counteract them as if she knew the rules of the game.
Bai Yu couldn’t be bothered to explain. She couldn’t exactly say, “The Dark Moon God you’re borrowing from is actually my sister.”
All she could think was that Nightmare’s decision to abandon her own power for a shortcut by worshipping the Dark Moon God was a grave mistake. She lacked familiarity with the Dark Moon God’s abilities; even if the god provided her with powers, she could only harness about eighty percent of their true potential.
That was being generous—if someone else took her place, achieving seventy percent of the Dark Moon God’s powers would be impressive.
Moreover, this was merely borrowed power and couldn’t compare to the essence of the Dark Moon God.
Bai Yu vanished from her spot, and five enormous, sharp dark-red blades of light appeared from different directions, slicing through the moonlight barrier surrounding Nightmare.
In the blink of an eye, Bai Yu reappeared above Nightmare. Without looking back, Nightmare awaited the moonlight to fall.
However, that was just an illusion. Bai Yu withdrew, and three figures appeared simultaneously at Nightmare’s side, brandishing their blades.
Nightmare turned her head; her expression grew tense as she tightly gripped her staff. The shattered barriers reformed, and simultaneously, moonlight spread out in a 360-degree assault, even assimilating the ground into moonlight, breaking apart and vanishing into countless stars.
Along with this, the three illusory clones Bai Yu had dispatched also disappeared.
Nightmare was still puzzled as to where Bai Yu’s true form had gone when she suddenly sensed a shifting in the air and rolled forward without a second thought.
A sharp long blade sliced through the spot where she had been standing, seemingly just one stroke; however, the density of the blade lights hinted at just how brutal that single attack was.
She slammed a hand to the ground, using the force to leap into the air. Steps of moonlight formed beneath her, and upon a gentle push, she leapt a second time, dramatically swinging her staff downward.
In an instant, the area where Bai Yu had been standing turned blindingly white, with a diameter of at least a hundred meters, forming an almost perfect sphere, leaving no room for Bai Yu to dodge.
As the moonlight dissipated, that area now looked like a field of fluorescent glass, perfectly circular, and in the next moment, this section shattered, leaving behind a massive pit that plunged fifty meters deep.
The surface of this pit was smooth to an outrageous degree, and just the sight of that dark abyss indicated the terrifying power behind the attack.
This was the assimilation ability of the Dark Moon God, and Bai Yu acutely perceived its strength.
An attack of such magnitude would have been deemed exceptionally powerful during the sc*m Game phase, making it deadly not only because of its damage output but also due to the lack of wind-up time; it could devastate both single targets and crowds alike. In this world, it was practically divine!
From afar, Shen Shuyun and the others watched in stunned silence, gasping in disbelief.
They couldn’t fathom how, from the same starting point, the discrepancy could be so vast.
If they were to take on that attack, they would likely be reduced to oblivion without even having a chance to resist.
Even more terrifying was the fact that Bai Yu had dodged it!?
That move was practically an instant-cast, massive area-of-effect attack; how in the world had she evaded it?
Let alone them, even Nightmare was taken aback upon seeing Bai Yu charging at her with a blade raised. She lifted her staff again for a repeat strike, but this time it would center around her.
Of course, such an assault would not wound her, but as she processed this shift, she realized the assailant was merely Bai Yu’s clone; the real Bai Yu had already maneuvered behind her.
With a sharp crack, the moonlight armor encasing Nightmare shattered. She didn’t dare turn back. As she summoned moonlight for protection, she desperately leapt upward, evading the lethal strike aimed at her neck that would surely decapitate her.
If she didn’t avoid that strike, she’d be finished; not even the Dark Moon God could save her then.
The sting in her back informed her of Bai Yu’s icy blade.
In that brief moment, a sharp report followed, and at the cost of losing half her foot, Nightmare once again distanced herself from Bai Yu.
Within the fleeting moments of that breath, much occurred. First, Bai Yu appeared and sliced through Nightmare’s protective moonlight armor, and then attempted a fatal blow, but it merely grazed her back, inflicting a wound capable of damaging her insides.
Before she could launch a follow-up strike, her long blade was corroded into moonlight by the assimilation powers of the Dark Moon God, leaving her no choice but to abandon her pre-formed short sword aimed at Nightmare’s spine. Unfortunately, her timing was off; Nightmare’s reformed armor managed to block her blow, making it considerably slower, just as Nightmare jumped to sever her foot.
Moonlight cascaded down as everything turned white.
Bai Yu remained unfazed, her wings enveloping her body, forming a sphere, simultaneously disappearing with the stream of moonlight.
Nightmare balanced herself on a single step of moonlight. Her severed foot quickly had moonlight seal the wound, forming half a foot once more.
This only helped her stabilize her balance, but the pain endured—though for Nightmare, it was nothing significant.
“Ha, I truly detest enemies like you. Killing you is an arduous task, often with losses outweighing rewards, all while I must waste so much time setting up to defeat you.”
Nightmare gave a sinister smile, her mask fragmenting bit by bit. Upon closer inspection, the entirety of her body bore countless small cuts—these injuries were non-fatal, inflicted by Bai Yu’s blade.
Her dark, gray robe became tattered as she summoned moonlight to form a new suit of armor around her.
“Why are you so familiar with the Dark Moon God? Can you tell me?”
In terms of power, she shouldn’t be that far behind Bai Yu, but before long she found herself at a disadvantage, mostly because Bai Yu was just too familiar with the Dark Moon God’s abilities—she always seemed to have counters prepared, making intricate setups like that recent close attack seem almost trivial.
Nightmare clearly knew Bai Yu had moonlight armor to avert fatal damage, so she had directly aimed to shatter that armor while anticipating the need for a faster short sword if her main weapon was going to be assimilated by the moonlight.
In the instant her defense faltered, using sheer intuition she had almost ended the battle right there.
She didn’t possess Li Tianan’s monstrous life force; while the sting of being impaled through her spine would grant her recovery time, Bai Yu certainly wouldn’t grant her that opportunity—just half a second and her head would’ve been at risk of rolling.
Bai Yu wasted no time. Her wings snapped out, releasing a massive wave of cursed power that blended into the moonlight, blanketing the area in dazzling brightness and further obscuring Nightmare’s vision.
Nightmare mentally noted the peril as the sharp long blade zoomed in toward her, rapidly appearing larger within her sight, and the blade’s light pricked at her skin with an uncomfortable sting.
Raising her hand, she summoned a shield to block her, but as the blades exploded in a flurry, it seemed like just one stroke—yet, numerically, it was more like dozens.
Nightmare focused sharply; she thrust both hands forward, all ten fingers extended; the moonlight ripples spread concentrically from her fingertips like ripples in water. The moonlight she flung out shot straight toward Bai Yu.
She did not expect this move to strike Bai Yu directly; her real k*ll move was a large hand, formed from the gathered moonlight, manifesting at her center.
That enormous hand grasped outward; no matter which way Bai Yu tried to dodge, there would be no escape.
What she didn’t foresee was that Bai Yu hurled her long blade in response, the metallic song it sung as it whizzed through the air echoing sharply. One cut cleaved through Nightmare’s moonlight as if it were an arrow.
The moonlight split in half, with the second half charging onward. Bai Yu did not flinch or back away; she charged at the moonlight, powered by bl**d thread armor wrapped tightly around her.
Her fearsome demon mask struck terror to all who beheld it.
As her wings spread in the midst of her charge, they expanded several times. Just as the moonlight hand reached to clasp her, her wings opened fully, providing a brief opportunity for Bai Yu to slip through.
Leaving behind her wings, Bai Yu deftly escaped danger, appearing calm despite the dire situation.
She shattered the moonlight arrow with a powerful punch and continued to press forward, directly closing in on Nightmare.
At this moment, the two were less than two meters apart, and Nightmare could even see the symbols on Bai Yu’s terrifying demon mask.
With a fist encased in armor, she smashed through the barrier surrounding Nightmare; the temporary shield that Nightmare had conjured was obliterated, revealing her vulnerability at that moment.
Bai Yu had no time to don her bl**d thread armor again, and without hesitation, sacrificed her left hand to deliver a crushing blow straight to Nightmare’s core.
Bad news for Nightmare, because this was her original form.
The eyes beneath the demon mask gleamed crimson as she twisted her waist to throw a punch, nearly all the power of her upper body concentrated in that one strike.
Boom!
The moonlight hand exploded, scattering Bai Yu’s armor and arm into a myriad of stars while Nightmare seemed momentarily paused, the impact sending her spiraling backward.
She crashed into the ground with a thud, stirring up dust. The telltale splash of bl**d marking the air indicated just how violently she’d been launched.
The shockwave from the strike left Shen Shuyun and others gaping in disbelief, their mouths agape, unable to utter a single word even if they wanted to.
Having weathered many storms before, they knew exactly how outrageous the intensity of this battle was, particularly in this world. Bai Yu’s recent punch had made them mentally picture their own outcomes if they’d engaged: undoubtedly reduced to a pulp, dead and gone.
Let alone with what they had now; after two or three months of development from scratch, imagining the former versions of themselves stepping up seemed laughable against these two monsters.
“Old Shen, your choice was indeed wise.” Someone finally broke the stunned silence.
This remark resonated with many around.
Thank goodness they had summoned an even more monstrous doctor to fight Nightmare; otherwise, they would have undoubtedly been lying flat on the ground long ago.
Forget about engaging in multi-round fights to drive Nightmare to the brink; they would have been wiped out by a single instant cast move.
Unbelievably ridiculous—such an overpowering technique required no charge time whatsoever?
She raised her staff and just instant-cast it—what on earth was her staff made of?
Nobody had mentioned that Nightmare was a sorceress wielding these kinds of skills before.
She had thought she was just a dream specialist, lying down during her battle with Bai Yu and engaging in dream PKs.
Moreover, how was this ludicrous ultimate move executed without injury, even avoiding three simultaneous attacks?
“What the hell? That Nightmare chick is utterly insane. With all that power, does she still need to plot against us?”
“You fool! Clearly, she’s targeting the doctor! She anticipated we’d call upon the doctor, and even if the doctor didn’t take her down, that wouldn’t be a loss for her, but she didn’t foresee just how formidable the doctor was, hanging her in the air while dishing out the beatdown.”
“Truly, a clash of gods.”
Unable to contain themselves further, a few voices finally chimed in.
They felt ready to resign from the ranks of the sc*m Game just from their comparison with these monstrous combatants.
Being fellow members of the sc*m Game, they looked at them, then at themselves.
Were it not for the fact that one rated first and the other rated second on the leaderboard, they’d honestly feel severely inadequate.
“Be quiet,” Shen Shuyun scolded, her brow furrowing.
“What the hell? She’s not dead?” Everyone gasped as they watched Nightmare crawl out of the pit.
However, her circumstances weren’t exactly rosy; half her head was smashed in, thankfully just from chin to face. Had it been the upper half, the battle would’ve concluded.
It was evident that Nightmare had suffered multiple fractures—her body contorted like a rotten noodle, not to mention the internal injuries could not be underestimated.
“Is this… going to the second phase?”
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票票求一波，嘤嘤嘤。
