Chapter 1635: Chapter 1635

Everyone gasped as clowns suddenly surrounded them from all directions.

They smiled, revealing sharp teeth.

Their eyes glowed bright red.

"Are you kidding me?! They're evil clowns!" Alma gasped. "I should've seen that coming, it was pretty obvious."

"Yeah I know but I wanted to enjoy the moment," Maria sighed.

"I'm so sorry, have our children enraged you? We can solve this peacefully; there's no need to fight! We don't want to harm the inhabitants!" Nia said.

"Hungry, hungry, hungryyyy!"

"We gave you food... we gave you entertainment... now... you must... feed us."

"FEED US WITH YOUR FLESH!!!"

The clowns laughed, dozens charging from multiple spots around the endless carnival, attacking Maria and her family from every angle.

"Don't touch me!" Lucifer roared, transforming into a giant white dragon and crushing dozens of clowns with his attacks. "Ugh, why do they stick to your legs?! They're like gum?"

"They're weird! You have to keep them away!" Nyx said from a distance, as Arachne rushed forward, crushing more clowns along the way. "They're all weird and sticky and can revive!"

"They can?!" Jonathan wondered, having cut down several with his blade. He saw them quickly reassemble their pieces. "Wait, how?! I'm sure I used my divine power on this!"

"Hmm, weird, they don't have souls?!" Maria noticed something odd when she crushed some clowns with her sheer aura. "They... what sort of living being are they?! Even plants have souls but not these guys?!"

Maria tried to use them as Undead materials, but they were completely incompatible.

What's more, she realized this world was mostly devoid of Mana, Spirit Energy, and Divine Power.

There was no God in this world.

"How did this weird world connect to the tower when there's literally nothing here but endlessly spawning clowns?! How... Wait."

Maria's eyes widened as she pieced things together.

There was indeed no God in this world, no Clown God would suddenly appear.

There was not even a single divine realm, and this world wasn't a divine realm either.

It was a bizarre "liminal" space where the same carnival repeated everywhere.

Clowns were some sort of entity, an anomaly, or a monster born from this place, from this endless world.

A distortion, perhaps a "glitch" in the universe's fabric.

The tower, for some reason, deemed it a world worth connecting to.

But above all, the reason these clowns seemed indestructible, and immortal was because they were not living beings.

They were part of the Carnival, part of this "World".

This World's "God" and "Ruler" was the World itself, and all the clowns were a supernatural manifestation of it.

During the day, the clowns acted like any other clown, helping, joking, and making people happy.

But at night, something few seemed to know, they changed, becoming hungry and desiring nothing but meat.

Perhaps this happened because the "World", also its own "God", required energy, food, to sustain itself.

And so, the world lured people inside and kept them until night, when it finally fed.

The clowns served as its lure, bait, and enzymes that digested food for it.

Perhaps it was far-fetched, but understanding what she faced was necessary.

Because Maria was about to go all-out.

"Alright Carnivalis, whatever you are, world, god, whatever... I'm going to break you in half."

Maria grabbed everyone with her Aura. Hundreds of clowns melted under her void aura and merged into an aberrant clown soup. A monstrous, decaying chimera of clowns roared, chasing after her.

Dozens of clowns grew wings and flew after her and her family. The children were secured, but the clowns would not stop pursuing.

"We have to run! Those things won't give up!" Lucifer said. "This world... we were never meant to enter! I told you it was damn suspicious!"

"Yeah, I know, I'm sorry, I just wanted to have fun and enjoy the nostalgic feeling," Maria smiled, as thousands of clowns from across Carnivalis rose into the skies, sprouting bat-like wings and flying high. "We'll break through." ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ Novᴇl_Fire(.)net

She transformed into her true form, her existence distorting space and making Carnivalis tremble.

Then, Maria pointed her hands downward, not at the clowns, but at the world itself!

"{Abyssal Dreamwave Dominion}"

A new Skill gained from her latest evolution, Maria shook Carnivalis and spread her Dominion of Nightmares and Abyssal Void everywhere.

Glitches and distortions in the empty space appeared as she spread her powerful ability. The laughter of children and wicked clown music echoed louder.

Something strange was happening in this world. It was not a normal world by any means, it was, for lack of a better term, an error.

Fragments of a forgotten world, or perhaps the embodiment of someone's long-dead memory.

Whatever it was, Maria would test its limits.

She closed her palms. The dominion she spread across the vast surface trembled as black void devoured everything, clowns included.

Carnivalis shook violently, as space distorted and bled, creating a creepy, horrible appearance in the fabric of space itself.

A massive explosion obliterated everything, leaving a hundred-kilometer crater in Carnivalis. Though the tower's entrance and exit remained unscathed, the theme park they were in moments ago was gone.

However, it wasn't a normal crater. There was no hard stone beneath, but constantly spinning, twisting colors, and faces of countless agonizing entities screaming everywhere...

The noise of suffering and dying echoed louder, as the huge hole distorting this world slowly began to recover.

From within, Maria saw rainbow colors and countless clowns killing people...

"Just... what the hell is this place?" Partner asked, staring in disbelief.

"Wait, is this... like, an Outer God egg or something?!" Emeraldine asked. "Wasn't the Original Nightmare Curse similar to this thing? A whole abstract world ruled by strange laws..."

"I don't know for sure, but it's not attacking us anymore," Maria said, looking down. "It's focusing on healing, let's get out of here."

Maria quickly used the exit, though the children glanced at the wounded world with slightly saddened faces...

They noticed a small clown in the distance, waving at them.

He looked very sad, crying black tears.

For some reason, he didn't want to be left alone.