[Noble Phantasm: Crystal Valley
Noble Phantasm Rank: EX
Noble Phantasm Type: Anti-World Noble Phantasm
Maximum Capture: 1000
Maximum Range: 1–99
Noble Phantasm Classification: Reality Marble
Effect Description: Tampering with physical laws, transforming the surrounding environment into a domain suitable for the user's survival.]
The instant the Noble Phantasm [Crystal Valley] was activated, the seawater, which was still churning on the surface, underwent a change at the microscopic level internally.
Lumine and the other girls who had entered the Miliastra Wonderland were generally familiar with this term, but the ability of this so-called [Crystal Valley] used this time was clearly not the inferior version that had worked on them.
At the strong insistence of Lumine and the others, Grandma Ping had no choice but to retreat the location of the Yaotai Technique again and again.
One must know that the sea surface was already rife with surging waves; who could be sure what the Crystal Valley would turn into after its use?
After everyone had moved away from the most dangerous area, they looked toward Orion.
"The sea, it's calm?" Paimon peered around. The originally turbulent sea surface had instantly become quiet.
"No, that's wrong, it's not calm." Adepti have the sharpest perception of nature. Water-Calming said with some uncertainty, "The sea surface feels like a mirror to me, as if it has been fixed in place!"
On the sea surface, Osial, who had already swelled to nearly ten thousand meters, felt as if its body had been hollowed out in that instant. The continuous stream of power within it was stripped away instantly. It fell rapidly, like a migratory bird that had lost its wings, landing on the great earth.
"How is it the ground?!" From atop the distant mountain, Childe merely blinked due to the fierce wind. When he opened his eyes again, the ocean was gone.
No, it wasn't gone; rather, all the seawater from Liyue's original coastline to the entire Guyun Stone Forest region had vanished, replaced by a vast expanse of black earth.
Osial's body, which was entirely integrated with the dark seawater, landed on the black earth. It could feel the soil beneath continuing to absorb its power.
Opposite it, ORT, whose segmented limbs were stepping on the ground, transmitted a wave of relief.
Xianyun clutched her forehead: "It's not scared anymore... that's what it said."
This was not simple material movement or replacement. Everything in the world is merely different arrangements and combinations of molecules, and [Crystal Valley], through manipulating the surrounding physical laws, reconstructed the ocean at a microscopic level, ultimately forming a stretch of land.
The surface seawater formed the black earth, while the seawater and countless marine creatures beneath jointly completed the continental shelf.
Liyue's territorial waters suddenly became territorial land.
And Osial, opposite it, completely lost connection with the sea at this moment.
"ROAR!!!" Osial felt no resentment. As the price for briefly gaining control of the ocean, it had already lost its sanity and most of its lifespan. Now, ORT's actions had stripped it of power. The endless grudge transformed into towering fury, and Osial attempted to absorb all nearby moisture, transforming once again into a hundred-headed beast to launch a fierce attack against the Giant Spider.
The Giant Spider raised two of its forelimbs as if in a display of power. Its eight segmented legs shuffled across the ground, and its two scythe-like arms rapidly swung. The two monsters, possessing world-shattering power, clashed in the most primitive manner!
There was no fire, no lightning, no frost. The Giant Spider surprisingly used no elemental power at this moment, simply wrestling with Osial along the coastline.
Osial opened its snake mouth, water element energy rapidly compressed, and was ejected with the strongest high-pressure spray! However, a cyan fluid shield appeared, and a smooth wind field altered the water cannon's trajectory.
The Giant Spider raised its scythe high and brought it down heavily! The scythe pierced one of Osial's heads, pinning it firmly to the ground. Liyue Harbor shuddered because of this blow.
Subsequently, under the terrified gazes of the crowd, the Giant Spider actually opened the mouthparts on its chest again. Its scythe hooked Osial's snake head, and ignoring its struggles, it literally stuffed the head into its mouth!
The moment the snake head was seized by the spider's chelicerae, the body belonging to that head among the hundred instantly drooped like powerless jelly, bouncing twice due to inertia.
The Giant Spider then continued to stuff the body behind that snake head into its mouth using its two scythe-like forelimbs, until that appendage was completely torn off. The hundred-headed behemoth was left with only ninety-nine heads, and the missing head showed no signs of regeneration.
If it were an ordinary creature, it should have realized the danger by now and prepared to flee. But Osial had lost its consciousness due to the curse. It now had only one thought: to utterly kill the Giant Spider before it.
Ninety-nine snake heads opened their massive mouths, relentlessly tearing at the silver-white monster before them. This was the resistance of a native God of Teyvat against an External Fiend.
The Giant Spider, which descended from the stars, paid no attention to the bites of the smaller snake on its body. It extended its segmented limb, carefully selecting a snake body closest to its scythe, skewering it, and stuffing it into its mouth again. Its two foreclaws fed the food into its mouth like a true spider.
At this moment, everyone understood why the Giant Spider hadn't used a killing blow immediately upon arrival. It seemed its purpose, from beginning to end, was consumption, not defeat.
Suddenly, the sea surface bubbled as if boiling. The next moment, countless bizarre-looking marine creatures surged out of the water. There were fish with lanterns on their heads as large as towers, jellyfish covered in countless tentacles with centers resembling human faces, and sea snakes shimmering with colorful hues. These were Osial's Dependant scattered throughout the land.
Since the fall of their God, they had lurked in the deep sea, and over time, even their appearance adapted to the deep-sea environment.
Marine creatures of all shapes and sizes appeared in the sea; they intended to save their God.
Utilizing the characteristic of Teyvat creatures for free evolution, they consumed their lifespans to rapidly evolve into amphibians. Countless schools of fish grew limbs, crawled onto the shore, and bravely charged toward the spider engulfed in raging flames.
The Giant Spider did not look at them; instead, countless tentacles extended from its carapace. Each one precisely pierced a marine creature. It lifted them up, cooked them in the plasma flames covering its body, and then tossed them into its mouth.
In the distance, more Sea Beasts gathered. They mobilized, attempting to release a high-pressure water cannon similar to Osial's.
The silver disc behind the Giant Spider suddenly moved. It rotated and shifted position, its five-hundred-meter face pointing toward the ocean.
A slit opened in the center of the disc. Multicolored light flickered within, and a sharp sound of energy gathering emerged.
Following this, a cross-shaped beam of light shone brightly. Ultra-high-temperature flames condensed into a plasma cannon. A torrent of heat reaching tens of millions of degrees erupted. The temperature of an atomic bomb's core was continuously outputted in the form of an energy cannon. The cluster of Sea Beasts was instantly annihilated upon contact.
The beam slammed into the ocean, and the gigantic splash that erupted was even taller than the mountains near the Jade Chamber!
Water droplets rose into the air and then fell, bringing a warm rain down upon the fresh black earth. The droplets struck the rocks, reflecting the scene of the massive spider consuming the sea snake.
But the spider ignored the Sea Beasts. Its goal was singular: the consumption of the God, just as it had absorbed the power of the Wolf King, the Anemo Dragon, and Azhdaha.
The Sea Beasts surprisingly gathered again at this moment; they, too, possessed wisdom.
They knew clearly that the Giant Spider's firepower attack could not be fired continuously, evidenced by its scorched red foreclaws when it fought the God previously!
The Sea Beasts had successfully baited one attack, and their morale was greatly boosted. They gathered to concentrate a second attack!
However, what they didn't know was that the entity unable to fire continuously was ORT's Spider Avatar, not ORT's Flying Saucer Body.
Within the rotating silver disc, magnificent light flashed once more!
Countless Sea Beasts were terrified. Their attack was already charging, and they could not escape!
Just then, even more Sea Beasts rushed out. They used their physical bodies to form a wall between the two sides.
But that firelight was three times hotter than the core temperature of the sun; how could mere Dependant possibly block it?
But if one batch died, they had the next batch! If the next batch died, they had the batch after that!
At this moment, the ocean came back to life!
Countless Sea Beasts advanced wave after wave, those turning to dust in the light were as innumerable as the sands of the Ganges, but they succeeded.
Using their bodies and negligible strength, they resisted the attack of tens of millions of degrees, holding out until the cannon blast dissipated!
The Sea Beasts charging in the rear had also finished their accumulation! This single cannon strike concentrated all their power—it was the celebratory fireworks dedicated to the return of their God!
Yet, facing them, the cross-shaped beam of light shone for a third time.
How much time had passed? No one knew.
Most people in Liyue Harbor had fallen unconscious, but faintly, some dreamt of a man dressed in brown, radiating golden light yet whose face was unclear, passing before them. Thus, the suffering of their souls turned into peaceful slumber, and even their illnesses were taken away with him.
Above the sea, the dark clouds in the sky were shaken open into a strange shape—a massive circular void hundreds of kilometers in diameter, revealing the Milky Way most commonly seen by the people of Teyvat, a spectacle like billions of shattered diamonds spilled across deep blue velvet.
On the ground, against the backdrop of the sea steaming with white vapor, Osial's last head slammed onto the earth. It was powerless to resist.
It was its countless Dependant who exchanged their lives to prolong its existence until this very moment.
Soil flew up during the battle, exposing the rock strata beneath the ground. And where Osial's head landed, there was half a light blue sea snake buried in the dirt.
Ah... who is this?
Osial thought.
Its head, blackened by the curse, gradually regained clarity, becoming the translucent blue of the ocean.
It gazed at the blue, beautiful sea snake. It didn't know who she was. Or perhaps it knew but couldn't recall. But if their meeting hadn't been at this time, perhaps it would have shown her affection.
The massive scythe swung down from the sky, piercing both their heads simultaneously.
On the black earth, no creatures moved anymore. There was only a silver, inorganic Giant Spider, feeding continuously.
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