Chapter 133: Battle Against the Eyeball Monster

While Artanis and the others were awaiting reinforcements, the Ancient One and Odin, trapped within the mirror dimension, were locked in an intense and critical battle with the evil deities.

Although the evil god Shub-Niggurath had only summoned Shuma-Gorath as an assistant, an entity handpicked by the Mother of Darkness was naturally no ordinary foe.

Shuma-Gorath, also known as the Ruler of the Many-Angled Realms, the Lord of Engines, and the Void Wanderer, was an exceptionally terrifying malevolent deity. Stripped of its ineffable qualities, the most striking impressions it left upon observers were a colossal, unblinking eye and a writhing mass of self-entangling, endlessly extending tentacles.

Furthermore, as one of the most active malevolent entities across myriad realms, Shuma-Gorath's most formidable ability was its horrifying mind-control. In countless worlds, wherever it manifested, civilization would eventually collapse entirely, earning it a notorious reputation that echoed across the infinite dimensions.

The expeditionary forces of the Protoss Empire and members of other cross-dimensional organizations had clashed with it to varying degrees. This had enabled the Protoss Empire to discover a critical weakness: Shuma-Gorath's mental domination was utterly ineffective against Protoss sheltered by the Khala.

Upon discovering this vulnerability, the Protoss expeditionary forces intensified their strikes against Shuma-Gorath's domains, causing its sphere of influence to steadily shrink. Though a true god in its own right, Shuma-Gorath possessed relatively low direct combat prowess. Unable to control the Khala-protected Protoss, it was reduced to repeatedly subjugating other races to create obstacles for the Protoss armada.

Nevertheless, as an evil deity specializing in mental mastery, Shuma-Gorath exerted an extreme suppression over spellcasters of other mortal races. According to the records of the Protoss expeditionary fleet, numerous alternate-universe versions of the Ancient One had fallen under Shuma-Gorath's control, and even her successors were no exception.

Thus, the moment the Ancient One laid eyes on Shuma-Gorath, she knew this entity had been summoned by the Mother of Darkness specifically to deal with her. Although the Ancient One stood at the peak of demigodhood and mastered a vast array of light and dark magic, she maintained a profound wariness toward Shuma-Gorath.

As the prime universe's guardian of the Time Stone, the Ancient One was naturally aware of the atrocities committed by Shuma-Gorath, as well as the fact that her alternate-universe counterparts had fallen victim to its control. Yet this did not mean she was powerless against it.

The Protoss Empire had stationed a diplomatic delegation in Midgard for many years. One of the reasons for their presence was to study the arcane arts of Kamar-Taj. Given this exchange, the Ancient One could hardly remain completely ignorant of psychic lore.

When it came to the study and comprehension of psychic arts, no race in the prime universe—or even the entire multiverse—could surpass the Protoss, a species favored by the God of Mind. And Shuma-Gorath, despite being an Outer God and a servant of the dark deity Amon, remained incapable of subduing the Khala-protected Protoss. Even the Dark Templar, who rejected the Khala, could not be easily dominated by it.

Not to mention that the Dark Templar had subsequently engineered a multitude of bizarre devices and esoteric techniques specifically to prevent themselves from falling prey to psychic corruption by evil deities.

The tools and arcane secrets developed by the Dark Templar proved to be of the utmost assistance to the Ancient One. After all, humanity lacked the protection of the Khala, and the Ancient One was a devoted follower of the Vishanti; she could hardly research methods to return to the embrace of the Khala.

Drawing upon numerous esoteric techniques and grimoires of both the Dark Templar and the High Templar, the Ancient One had synthesized three distinct methods for combating the corruption of evil gods.

The first method was to secure the protection of a supreme true god, leveraging divine power to counteract the influence of the malevolent entity. This was simultaneously the simplest and the most difficult method; after all, an ordinary mortal could not easily secure divine patronage. Yet for the Ancient One, this was entirely feasible. Its sole drawback was that should the true god's power prove insufficient against the evil deity, the protective barrier would effectively cease to exist.

The second method was considerably more arduous: merging the consciousnesses of numerous practitioners to collectively resist the dark corruption—essentially creating a crude, artificial Khala. However, this approach carried a severe flaw: when confronted with an overwhelmingly powerful evil deity, there was a high probability that all connected minds would be simultaneously enslaved.

The third method was the most straightforward: sealing one's own inner mind and locking away consciousness using secret arts. Yet doing so would sever one's connection to mystical energies and strip away all superhuman perceptions cultivated over a lifetime of practice. This method did possess a distinct advantage, however: even if controlled by an evil deity, the afflicted individual might occasionally regain brief moments of clarity.

This time, the Ancient One intended to employ the first method against Shuma-Gorath. Not only was the power of the Vishanti sufficient to contend with Shuma-Gorath, but Shub-Niggurath was also lurking nearby, watching like a predator. Should the Ancient One deplete her own strength, she risked being effortlessly slain by the Mother of Darkness.

Odin, shielded by the World Tree, was immune to Shuma-Gorath's mind control within the confines of the Nine Realms, yet he was equally unable to establish a stable psychic conduit with the Ancient One.

Upon being summoned, Shuma-Gorath manifested only briefly before vanishing completely without a trace. Not even Odin's Eye of Wisdom could track its movements.

This highlighted another unique trait of Shuma-Gorath: as an evil deity specializing in the mental domain, it could completely dissolve its physical form into pure spiritual essence, allowing it to slip effortlessly into the mind of any target.

The moment Shuma-Gorath materialized, the Ancient One immediately initiated the first secret technique, sensing the sudden anomaly within her own mental sea the very next instant.

Observing the Ancient One freeze in place, Odin understood that she was engaging in a mental duel with Shuma-Gorath within the theater of her mind. To effectively assist her, Odin resolved to dispatch the wheezing Shub-Niggurath lingering nearby as quickly as possible.

Summoning an outer deity was no simple feat, especially since Shub-Niggurath had already sustained severe injuries prior to this engagement. Having barely managed to stall one opponent, only for a second adversary to launch an immediate assault, Shub-Niggurath could only pin its hopes on its progeny providing sufficient flesh and blood to sustain it and obliterate these interlopers.

As the King of Asgard, Odin had once suppressed the rebellion of the Dark Elves and was well acquainted with the capabilities of the Mother of Darkness. Gungnir radiated a brilliant golden glow, sealing off all avenues of escape for the Mother of Darkness and forcing her into a direct confrontation.

Though the Protoss Empire consistently referred to Amon as the Dark God, the divine portfolio of darkness had been transferred to Shub-Niggurath after the birth of the Outer Pantheon, making Shub-Niggurath the true embodiment of the dark divinity.

It was merely because another of her titles overshadowed this moniker that her name remained unchanged. After all, Amon was the ultimate orchestrator of the Dark Tide, while even the supreme outer deities were ultimately mere subordinates and servants under his command.