Chapter 175: The Great Sage Helps! Decisive Battle, Takama-ga-hara!
Mount Miwa, the sacred body of the oldest extant major shrine in Japan.
As a crucial pillar of the 'Kuni-yuzuri' myth, it symbolizes the sacred mountain connecting the divine systems of Japan's heaven and earth.
Hmm—it should have been.
Arthur looked up at the mountain range before him, where streams of spell power, invisible to mortals, surged like an ink tide, rising from the forests into the sky, forming a grotesque illusory gate that loomed over the mountain peak.
The mere unconscious release of its pressure caused the surrounding space to ripple and distort.
At this moment, Princess Alice, with her weakest constitution, was already trembling, her face pale, seemingly enduring the excruciating pain of her soul being torn apart.
"My King, Alice... I fear I can no longer accompany you on your journey."
Arthur paused, glancing at everyone.
Not only Alice in her ethereal state, but even Erica and Luo Hao were pale and struggling to hold on.
Even Guinevere, a Witch God Ancestor, couldn't help but show signs of decline in the face of the increasingly heavy divine pressure emanating from the mountain forests.
"Don't worry, this isn't a power that a single god can wield."
He calmly reassured them, then turned to Lancia, the only one beside him brimming with fighting spirit, a slight curve to his lips.
"Lord Lancia, come with me to battle."
"Your wish is my command!"
Before his words finished, two brilliant bolts of lightning had already ripped through the sky, directly striking the grotesque, inky illusory gate!
The process was eerily smooth; the two stepped into it without any hindrance, finding themselves in a desolate land as dark as ink.
Before they could even stand firm, sharp sounds of rushing wind swept in from all directions!
Various divine lights burst forth, and killing intent descended instantly!
Clang!
A clear, ringing sound echoed through the death zone, and Arthur wielded the Salvation God Sword around him, a perfect platinum arc of light instantly obliterating all divine radiance, its power undiminished, sending all the ambushers flying!
"Grass-headed gods!? How dare you transgress!"
Lancia, who had acted a beat too late, was filled with shock and anger; as a subordinate, allowing her monarch to personally clear obstacles was a great humiliation!
The black rocks beneath her feet shattered, and her figure transformed into lightning speed, her unparalleled martial arts dominating all directions, and in an instant, blood splattered, and all the attacking grass-headed gods were beheaded!
Before Lancia could apologize, Arthur's gaze was already drawn to the grass-headed god corpses on the ground, which were turning to ash inch by inch, his expression grave.
"Even the weak grass-headed gods have become puppets... The situation is worse than I expected."
Lancia looked at the ambiguous corpses with a mixture of surprise and uncertainty, unconsciously tightening her grip on her lance.
"My King, these things..."
"Don't overthink it, Lord Lancia."
Strands of azure light overflowed from Arthur's body, causing the entire black rock land to tremble, which in turn incited all the surrounding wandering puppets to riot!
"Since it has come to this, just kill the enemy!"
A platinum sun suddenly rose into the sky, piercing the inky black firmament!
The lightning of salvation transformed into billions of light spears, precisely locking onto every puppet, flashing and rushing, exploding with fierce power!
The trembling of the black rock land abruptly stopped, and the next moment, mountains collapsed and earth cracked!
"Eh? Is that aura a god? No, no, is it a dragon? Heh, how strange!"
Above the shattered and wailing earth, a clear voice, mixed with laughter, pierced through clouds and rocks, rolling in!
Arthur felt the patching heaven stone carving in his storage bag subtly heating up. He looked up, and a streak of golden light, chasing clouds and sun, rapidly approached from the horizon.
"Long time no see, The Great Sage Equal to Heaven."
Sun Wukong somersaulted, abruptly stopping in front of Arthur and Lancia without warning, his fiery golden eyes, tempered in Lord Laozi's furnace, gleamed as he stared intently at Arthur.
"One is a Steel subordinate god, the other..."
"Hiss—what kind of monster are you, kid? Neither human, nor god, nor dragon?"
Arthur raised his hand, stopping Lancia who was about to speak, and said concisely.
"Child of the Stars, come to eliminate the evil of this world. Great Sage, would you be willing to lend a hand?"
"Child of the Stars? Child of the Stars?"
Sun Wukong muttered twice in a low voice, turned his head, and scratched the monkey fur on his cheek, rather uncomfortably.
Immediately, boundless golden divine light erupted from him, shaking all directions!
"Sounds familiar, we'll talk later, let's go kill those three hairy gods first!"
With that, the self-willed Sun Wukong had already turned his somersault cloud, transforming into a golden rainbow that shot straight into the sky, giving no one a chance to speak.
Arthur and Lancia exchanged glances, also transforming into lightning, accelerating to catch up with The Great Sage Equal to Heaven, whose mere momentum was enough to cause spatial tremors.
"Are the 'three hairy gods' the Great Sage spoke of the Three Noble Children of Japan?"
Sun Wukong squinted at Lancia, who was far behind, then turned his head to Arthur, who was riding alongside him, and nodded slightly.
"Precisely those three bird gods, whose names are blown up to the sky. If not for the evil spirits backing them, my old Sun would have long ago beaten them into meat paste with a single staff!"
Upon hearing this, Arthur's eyes darkened slightly, and he quickly analyzed the information.
Although Sun Wukong disparaged the Three Noble Children as worthless, they were, after all, the main gods of Japan mythology, by no means weak, and furthermore, they had the added corruption of the unknown entity.
It seemed that The Great Sage Equal to Heaven had suffered quite a bit at their hands recently.
"Hey! You brat, what are you thinking about my old Sun in your heart!"
Sun Wukong felt an inexplicable surge of irritation, and his fiery golden eyes sharply turned to Arthur, divine light bursting forth!
Arthur's expression remained unchanged. He raised a hand and pointed forward, changing the subject.
"Great Sage, what are you talking about? Have we arrived?"
They saw a layered mountain range suspended above the turbulent black sea, with a towering divine tree piercing upwards from the bottom of the mountain range, reaching the Ama-no-Iwato at the very top.
Sun Wukong stopped abruptly again. He twirled his staff, his tone several times more serious than before.
"Those three hairy gods have been holed up in the top palace recently, doing some kind of ritual that I can't figure out."
"If my old Sun didn't occasionally come to disrupt them, they would have probably succeeded long ago."
Arthur nodded knowingly: "It's a ritual to summon an unknown entity from beyond the domain, requiring three main gods to operate. This time, it's likely the main body descending."
"Who cares if it's the main body or a clone! Kid, don't disgrace your title of 'Child of the Stars'! Here I go!"
Sun Wukong laughed wildly, a terrifying golden radiance, capable of burning the sky and boiling the sea, erupted from him, and like a golden meteor, he shot straight towards Ama-no-Iwato!
At this moment, Lancia arrived late, and Arthur commanded in a deep voice.
"Lord Lancia, the three gods are no small matter; act according to your ability later."
Lancia exclaimed: "But, My King..."
"Obey!"
The moment the words fell, Arthur handed the Salvation God Sword to his left hand and made a grasping motion with his right.
Brilliant starlight flickered, accompanied by a clear clang, and the Golden Holy Sword, just awakened from its metamorphosis, fiercely manifested, its blade pulsating with a glow eager for battle!
"'Child of the Stars,' you say... That's right."
Terrifying azure light surged from Arthur's body, its divine power so immense that it tore through the surrounding space!
He took a step, and his figure had already ascended to the high heavens, arriving later but reaching first, instantly surpassing the golden meteor in front, reigning over the sky above Ama-no-Iwato!
The next instant, a mandala formation, encompassing heaven and earth, rapidly expanded!
With the wrath of the stars as its core, the armaments of all heavenly myths rained down like a downpour, all crashing down!
Ama-no-Iwato, shattered!