The clock continued to wind back as the perspective shifted to The Upside Down... Learning that the real world might be in immense danger, Ricky and the others could hardly stand still. During their time living in the town, they had formed a deep friendship with Steve and the others, and they didn't want their friends to come to harm.
Hopper was even more worried about the town he had risked his life to protect. If that group of Reverse World Creatures escaped into reality, how many innocent townspeople would lose their lives?
"Richard, Eleven, you both possess the talent of gods just like me. Why do you associate with those mediocre fools?" Henry extended his thick fingers, his gaze indifferent. "These abilities are a complete waste on you. Since you don't know how to use them, give them all to me."
As he spoke, Henry extended a hand, turning his palm from Eleven's direction toward Ricky. Immediately, Ricky felt a massive gravitational force pulling at his chest, as if a giant magnet were trying to attract him. His body flew toward Henry, completely out of control.
Bang!
Hopper fired a shot. Accompanied by the Black Particles surrounding Henry, the Mind Flayer's true form converged into a massive black shield, blocking the bullet from Hopper's pistol.
Seeing Ricky about to be snatched away by Henry, Marcy grew anxious. Treating Ricky like her own brother, she would never allow this to happen. She fired two consecutive rounds from her shotgun.
However, just as easily as it had blocked Hopper's pistol bullet before, the shotgun's fire couldn't cause even the slightest damage to the Mind Flayer.
"Ah!" Eleven gave a sharp cry and swung her hand down. An invisible hand of Telekinesis slammed down on Henry's head. In an instant, Black Particles sprayed out, and Henry's floating body sank a meter, though he still didn't hit the ground.
Eleven continued to unleash her mental attacks, striking again with a backhand palm against Henry and the Mind Flayer body enveloping him.
The Black Particles were scattered by Eleven's Telekinesis, falling to the ground like thrown sand.
With continuous strikes, the Black Particles around Henry grew fewer and fewer.
Henry remained unmoved, his eyes cold. With a cold snort, he made a grasping motion with one hand. Eleven felt her entire body tightly bound and out of her control. Then, her feet left the ground, and she was suspended in the air.
"Let her go!" Hopper's neck turned bright red, veins throbbing as he fired repeatedly at Henry.
With a casual wave of Henry's hand, Hopper was sent flying as if struck by an out-of-control high-speed truck.
Richard was quick to react. With a large leap, he grabbed Hopper's collar and caught him, preventing any secondary injuries.
"Ugh..." Hopper had fallen unconscious from the telekinetic impact, and there seemed to be signs of bone fractures on his body.
Richard's brow furrowed. He hadn't expected Henry's Telekinesis to be so much stronger than it was a year ago. What exactly was the black matter making up the Mind Flayer that could allow Henry, who had absorbed a portion of it, to become so powerful in just one short year?
Ricky gritted his teeth and stepped forward, attempting to use his will to invade the opponent's mind and make Henry feel affection toward him.
But to his surprise, Henry gave a disdainful smile and shattered Ricky's ability with just a glance. He then bared his bone-white fangs and sneered, "God loves no one. Your little trick is the most pathetic of all."
As he spoke, Ricky, suffering from a mental backlash, had bright red blood gush from his mouth and nose as he collapsed to his knees.
"*uck you!" Marcy raised her gun and fired. The muzzle flash reflected in her eyes was the fire of anger in her heart. She would never forgive anyone who hurt Ricky. However, guns were useless against the current Henry.
This time, Henry didn't even bother with taunts. With a cold face and a flick of his hand, the Black Particles scattered on the ground began to jump. Under Henry's control, they converged into black quicksand, then transformed into a black sandstorm that surged toward Marcy and the others.
Jamie had no choice but to step forward. She stood in front of everyone, expanding spheres of flame before her like a high-temperature barrier to block the impacting black sandstorm.
Henry looked at Richard and said calmly, "Did you think you were the only one who could calculate everything? No, the one who calculated everything this time was actually me."
As the black sand was repelled, Jamie spat out a large mouthful of black blood and fell to the ground. She struggled to breathe, her eyes rolling back behind her squinted lids.
To block the Mind Flayer's attack, Jamie had clearly exhausted all her strength.
While effortlessly controlling Eleven's movements, Henry spoke leisurely to Richard: "I have actually seen everything happening in the real world for a long time. None of your private lives can escape my perception."
He pointed at the fallen Jamie and said calmly, "This girl's ability is dangerous to me, so I have been wearing her down. Although I am actually capable of overpowering her high-temperature flames, with you and Eleven being the two biggest uncertainties, I cannot afford to be careless."
"But looking at it now, I overestimated you somewhat." Henry was like an arrogant ostrich, tilting his head back and looking down at everyone. "I have always been an existence that you mortals cannot resist. I am the God who is about to devour your world and create my ideal world!"
"Stubborn as a dead duck." Richard shook his head at Henry's twisted rhetoric and sneered, "If an ugly thing like you is a god, then I can only say the beating I gave you a year ago was far too light."
"Shut up!" Henry roared. He suddenly intensified his Telekinesis, seized Eleven, and threw her at Richard.
Richard set Hopper down and caught the high-speed Eleven with both hands. Unable to withstand the high-speed impact himself, he held Eleven tightly as they both flew backward.
After smashing through an unknown number of wooden boards and wall plaster, Richard and Eleven finally stopped over twenty meters away, leaving a clear skid mark on the ground.
"Chade!" Eleven coughed as she scrambled off Richard. she called out anxiously to the Richard lying on the ground. She remembered that during the final stretch of the slide, Richard had used his own body as a cushion to keep her from getting hurt.
"I... I'm okay." Richard climbed up from the ground. His back felt burning hot and chilly at the same time. Scraps of his clothes fell to the ground, and sand and bits of cloth were embedded in his wounds.
Richard gave a shudder, shaking off some of the debris from the wounds on his back. Then he pulled out some food from his backpack that had been crushed and broken by the impact and stuffed it into his mouth.
Soon, with the help of Hyper-digestion, Richard recovered from his injuries. There were only some bumpy parts on the healed skin—debris that hadn't been expelled in time. He would have to cut them out later and let the skin heal again.
Seeing Richard's injuries, Eleven felt heartache, self-reproach, and fury. She let out a roar and turned back, erupting with an astonishing amount of Telekinesis. Even the earth vibrated, and cracks like spiderwebs spread out in all directions from beneath her feet.
The powerful Telekinesis Eleven unleashed made Henry incredibly excited. While exerting his full power to counter her, he said, "This is it! This is the same Psychic Power that defeated me and exiled me to this world! Why such a powerful force exists within a tiny girl like you, I do not know. But once I devour your flesh, this power will be mine!"
Henry's full-strength Telekinesis clashed with Eleven's erupting Psychic Power. Neither could move the other an inch. As the two forces collided, space itself seemed to tremble, and several rifts of various sizes appeared in the surroundings.
"No, their power is too strong. If this continues, the collision of their forces will directly break the barrier between the two worlds. The Hawkins of the normal and reverse worlds will overlap, and The Upside Down will truly launch a full-scale invasion of the real world!" Through those Spatial Rifts, Marcy saw Hawkins Town in the real world and was instantly filled with dread.
Eleven had poured all her spirit into the battle with Henry; she could no longer hear outside sounds. The same was true for Henry. Even if he had heard, he would have only become more excited, because this was exactly what he wanted.
In the next moment, the Mind Flayer's Black Particles around Henry moved. They transformed into thick tentacles emerging from behind Henry and coiled toward Eleven.
"Become my power, Eleven!" Henry said in a low voice. His eyes reflected the image of the tentacles about to wrap around Eleven. The Mind Flayer particles would help him absorb the immense energy hidden within her body.
"In your dreams." Richard's figure flashed in front of Henry, and a hard fist slammed heavily into Henry's face.
Henry felt a long-forgotten, agonizing pain surge into his mind by the ton. A groan of pain was forced through his teeth as he was sent spinning backward like a spiral drill, completely out of control. A large cloud of Mind Flayer particles also exploded and scattered, like a school of fish that had suddenly lost its leader, in total disarray.
Daze filled Henry's brain, while the sharp pain reminded him of the reality of the world.
"Why!?" Henry stared with blood-red eyes, the root-like tubular structures on his skin flowing with a crimson light speckled with black. His voice was filled with an unwilling interrogation, much like a top student who stays up late every night to study only to find they can never match a naturally gifted student who slacks off. That jealousy, resentment, and hint of despair were identical. "Why do you have such power!?"
"My achievements today are inseparable from my hard work and struggle," Richard said solemnly. He was indeed a very hardworking person, though that didn't stop him from using certain 'cheating' methods.
Henry went frantic. "I don't believe it!!"
Henry drove the Mind Flayer particles to surge toward Richard. Facing such a massive amount of Mind Flayer particles, Richard extended his palm, and a black hole emerged from it. Immediately afterward, hundreds of black vengeful spirits crawled out of his palm one after another. These were the spirits he had subdued in the pet sematary and had never released into the real world; they lived in Richard's mental space, which was comparable to the 1401 Phantom Room, enjoying the eternal despair created for them by the Spirit of the Phantom Room.
The vengeful spirits did not counter the Mind Flayer particles, nor did the particles counter the spirits. Both were 'creatures' belonging to the dark dimension with no morality or natural enemies to speak of; they both hungered to absorb each other's power.
Soon, the spirits and the Mind Flayer particles became entangled. Although not all the particles could be held back by the spirits, the remaining portion no longer posed much pressure for Richard.
Richard used the power of the Phantom Spirit Body to temporarily manifest a giant preservation bag, and with a gentle scoop, he packed the Mind Flayer particles inside.
Seeing this, Henry took the opportunity to charge forward, his massive claws slashing toward Richard's back.
Buzz!
A powerful force surged from the void, and Henry's claws stopped mid-air. It was Eleven, activating her Telekinesis once again to halt Henry's movement.
Eleven let out an angry shout and squeezed her fingers tight. Henry, who had just been injured, was instantly bound in place. His entire body twisted uncontrollably, emitting violent cracking sounds, and then Henry could no longer hold back his wails of agony.
Richard charged forward and grabbed Henry's head, his black eyes, calm as still water, staring at Henry.
It was the first time Henry had looked so closely into those clear eyes, and he suddenly realized that only truly bottomless stagnant water could be so clean. This was because the stagnant water had hidden all its filth deep beneath the surface, using that seemingly transparent surface to deceive everyone about its depth.
Henry was the one who had been deceived; he had jumped into Richard's trap of his own accord without even knowing it.
It was too late now. That stagnant water was poisonous and contained whirlpools; once you fell in, you could never come out.
Richard's right hand pressed down on the top of Henry's head, his fingers sinking into the scalp, while his left hand gripped his collarbone. Under Richard's indifferent gaze, Henry felt his neck separating from his body, and the spine within emitted a scream of detachment.
After several bone-chilling cracks and the sound of flesh tearing, Richard had forcibly ripped off Henry's lifeless head.
Naturally, this wasn't something Richard could have achieved alone—that guy's neck was incredibly tough—it was thanks to the assistance of Eleven's Telekinesis.
[Core story character Henry Creel has died.]
When he heard this news transmitted through the skill panel, Richard paused for a moment and finally revealed a joyful smile.
The ultimate big boss behind the scenes of the Stranger Things world had finally been eliminated under his guidance.
He looked back at Eleven and saw the young girl looking quite wretched with blood flowing from the five orifices of her face, yet her expression of weeping with joy was so lovely.
"Chade..." Eleven's tense spirit relaxed, and the erupting Telekinesis dissipated with it, her petite body falling from the air.
"Just sleep like this, you've done very well." Richard deactivated his [Phantom Spirit Body] state, his spirit returning to his physical body. He sprang up with a carp kick, walked a few steps to where Eleven was falling, and caught her body in advance. Looking at Eleven's peaceful sleeping face, he chuckled softly.
Shhh-shhh-shhh!!!
Suddenly, Richard heard a strange sound from the sky. Looking up, he saw the group of vengeful spirits that were entangled with the Mind Flayer particles and had swallowed part of them trembling and shrieking. The translucent bodies of the spirits began to swell and distort, and the Mind Flayer particles were vibrating frantically like a pile of broken machinery.
Next, several loud bangs rang out as the spirits that had absorbed the Mind Flayer particles exploded one by one. Those Mind Flayer particles seemed to have received some kind of command and became manic.
Hiss hiss hiss—
Before he could understand why these Mind Flayer particles had turned into this state, Richard discovered that the Spatial Rifts created by the earlier battle between Henry and Eleven were starting to heal.
What he didn't know was that even the passage to The Upside Down at the mental hospital had begun to shrink and close on its own.
Sha!
The swarm of Black Particles emitted a vibrating sound simultaneously. Their granular forms seemed to possess facial features capable of perfectly expressing emotion. As if receiving a command, they all stared at Richard at once.
"Chade, run!" Although Marcy didn't know exactly what was happening, she could see that the leaderless particles seemed to have set their sights on Richard.
Richard also felt his scalp tingle. After placing Eleven safely beside Hopper, he turned and ran a few steps, but then stopped his flight and silently turned back around.
Boom!
After a massive sound that seemed to come from the soul, the "preservation bag" holding the vast majority of the Mind Flayer particles was burst open. The particles gathered together again and then surged into Richard's body all at once.
Richard found that his physical body could not resist the invasion of those things; he was unable to move, but his mind remained clear and healthy, capable of thinking.
Devoured by the Mind Flayer particles, Richard felt as if he were being gnawed by ten thousand insects. Aside from a humanoid shape, his entire being was completely submerged by the particles.
Marcy was grief-stricken, calling out Richard's name several times without hearing any response.
Before long, Richard's form was no longer clear; only a bloated humanoid silhouette could be seen, swaying unsteadily.
Marcy covered her mouth, shedding painful tears. Through her blurred vision, she seemed to faintly see the bloated figure's arm move slightly.
In the next moment, Marcy, unable to hold on any longer due to physical and mental exhaustion, fainted. At the same time, spatial teleportation rifts appeared beneath Marcy, Jamie, Ricky, Hopper, and Eleven, swallowing each of them and sending them back to the real world.
Richard, wrapped in Mind Flayer particles, was breathing heavily. At this moment, he had gained a certain level of authority over The Upside Down; it was he who had opened the Spatial Rifts to teleport Eleven and the others away... but no one knew how much spirit and sanity Richard had expended just to do this. At this moment, memories buried deep within the Mind Flayer particles, accompanied by incomprehensible whispers, pressed against his brain like a massive galaxy.
[You have decrypted a type of Weirdness—Mist of Darkness.]
[The Weirdness chooses to fuse with you... Judging your ability to be insufficient to resist the fusion.]
[In this world, the heaviest blessings come from demons, and the most vicious curses come from gods... You have been chosen, One Favored by the Evil God.]
[You have successfully decrypted six Weirdnesses and caught a glimpse of the untouchable truth.]
[Your exploration opportunity in the first world ends here. The countdown has finished; switching to the next world.]
The skill panel flashed system messages continuously, allowing Richard, who was immersed in the terrifying truth behind the Mind Flayer particles, to regain a bit of sanity. Everything before his eyes was pitch black, but he could feel the sensation of mountains collapsing and the sky falling.
The Upside Down was collapsing... Having lost the control of the Mind Flayer particles as its hub and the power of the particles as the creator of this spatial dimension, The Upside Down was being destroyed.
In a daze, Richard felt the ground vanish beneath him. He fell through the boundless darkness with a blurred consciousness, falling at a steady speed without accelerating... After an unknown amount of time, Richard woke up.
He was back in his familiar room, sleeping on his soft bed.
[Countdown 04:47]
The moment he saw the system countdown, Richard fell silent for a moment, knowing that everything that had just happened was real. He opened his room door and looked outside. A cartoon was playing in the living room, and Mike, on the sofa, seemed to have succumbed to exhaustion during the long wait and fallen fast asleep.
Richard walked out of the room, went to the fridge, took out a bottle of Coke, and then sat on the sofa.
With only three minutes left, it wasn't enough time for him to do or write anything; everything was extremely rushed.
He didn't want to leave things unfinished, nor did he like doing things halfway.
Regardless, he had long anticipated the matter of leaving.
The surroundings were terrifyingly quiet. The vengeful spirits in the house were all huddled in place, trembling; not a single spirit dared to approach him as they usually did. Even the Coke just now was something he had to get from the fridge himself.
This was quite normal. Surely, whether human or spirit, who wouldn't be afraid of a person with three eyes? Whether it was Richard, favored by the Evil God, or the legendary True Lord Erlang... which three-eyed being was a presence a vengeful spirit would dare to face directly?
Richard could clearly feel the vertical eye on his forehead. How could he not, given the unique perspective of that eye? Strangely, however, he seemed very adapted to it and felt no discomfort.
With 30 seconds remaining, Richard stood up, opened the sofa cushion, took out a box from inside, and placed it on the table. Then, drinking his Coke with one hand in his pocket, he walked back into the room, muttering: "I'm taking a Coke with me through the crossing, that should be fine, right?"
No one answered him, and he knew no one would.
A moment later, a strong wind blew open the doors and windows of Richard's home. The half-closed door to Richard's room was slammed open by the wind, and the crushed empty soda can on the table fell to the floor against the wind, making a crisp clattering sound...