Thunder like coiling dragons covered all of Spirit Mountain, and ancient Buddhist chants, deep as great bells, shook the heavens. A Buddha stood proudly at the very pinnacle of the sky. One glimpse of him seemed enough to reveal one's true nature, and now he brought down his palm.
Ripples swept outward, delivering countless souls and driving away the River Styx's bitter cold, until that palm met Mara's above Spirit Mountain!
The resounding Buddhist chants nearly drowned out everything. Had mighty beings not been protecting this place, the aftershocks alone would have caused countless deaths and injuries.
But the situation had grown rather strange...
The Scripture-Seeker who called himself Sanzang unleashed the Tathagata Palm again and again. Buddhist power surged vast and domineering within him, each strike carrying the force to destroy heaven and earth. Mara, meanwhile, spoke of "the people," "righteousness," and "compassion," his voice full of confusion and doubt.
"..."
Who was the enemy here?
Had Golden Cicada always been this arrogant?
Two Buddhas stood side by side. To the immortals, gods, and demons who had once seen the World-Honored One of the Western Paradise manifest, both of them looked like the Tathagata.
The difference was that each sat upon a lotus joined to the earth, one golden and one black. Yet both lotuses shone with ten thousand rays, pouring forth Buddhist light that scattered the darkness and held countless profound truths of the Great Dao.
"You think the Heavenly Court are good people?!" Helbark gripped the chains binding the Titans. With a violent sweep of his arm, the divine links snapped one after another, and the freed Titans rampaged across the land.
The clash of weapons and cries of slaughter rose across the battlefield once more.
"Did they tell you the original Scripture-Seekers were all dead?" Mara