Chapter 603: Destruction is Also Salvation
Clang!
Artoria blocked the cleaving sword. With an outburst of magical energy and a swing, a black-red sword gleam violently swept across.
Miserable screams rang out in an instant.
Artoria frowned tightly. She knew very well that this situation was someone hiding in the dark attempting to use this form of attack to affect her mind.
A King who slaughters the subjects and soldiers who follow them would experience immense mental shaking.
But...
Accompanied by a clear and resounding sword cry, there was no longer any confusion in Artoria's almost platinum-colored eyes. The face of that cruel host appeared in her mind.
If it were him, he absolutely wouldn't have any doubts about his own judgment.
No matter how real it was made to look, the true Artoria was undoubtedly herself, and the guy before her was just a fake King pretending to be her.
The ignorant subjects following this fake King, regardless of whether they were real or fake, could all be... slain!
Boom!
Soaring into the sky like a torch, pitch-black and cruel magical energy burned fiercely.
"Ex...Calibur!"
The pitch-black Holy Sword, accompanied by the terrifying magical energy generated by the black mud, abruptly slashed down from the air. In an instant, it blasted and killed that fake King in the blue dress and silver armor, along with the fake Sir Gawain and other Knights of the Round Table behind her.
Amidst the flying flesh and blood, Artoria became even more certain of the falsity of these things. In the next moment, the sword gleam swept across, Excalibur firing continuously.
Another large swath of blood mist splattered.
This naked slaughter made Seraphina pale. Her figure swayed, and holding her forehead, her entire body emitted a faint fluorescence.
She suddenly felt an incomparably disgusting sensation. Those smells of blood seemed to stimulate a certain point in her sense of smell and taste.
Seraphina opened her mouth to vomit.
Her vision began to blur. In a daze, she walked forward dozens of meters and finally saw clearly the true faces of this group of people slain by the Knight Miss.
Ashen Hunters wearing gray robes, Paladins wearing tattered white robes, and those pitiful people who, even after being cured by her, were still accustomed to wrapping their bodies in black robes...
The remaining look in the eyes of this group of people was disbelief, seemingly never expecting that they, who led a team to support, would be directly slain by the knight beside Miss Seraphina.
"You..."
Seraphina's brain stung. She looked up at Artoria, shaking her head, trying hard to control herself.
Artoria calmly shifted her gaze. Holding the sword with both hands, her eyes searched the black fog, while her voice said coldly:
"Calm down a bit, Seraphina."
"This is just an illusion. Something is coveting your power."
This was probably the longest sentence Artoria had spoken since her physical body was reshaped by the black mud. She didn't deny that even as a cruel, dictatorial King, she still appreciated that kind of defender of the faith who was willing to sacrifice themselves.
"I know, I know... Knight Miss, I'm fine..."
Seraphina didn't resent Artoria; she had never resented anyone.
But looking at those faces dying with remaining grievances, she still felt immense pain. She had a special ability: she could not only purify pollution and heal injuries by distributing her blood to others.
At the same time, she could also feel the blood that left her body, and could even proactively invest more of her vitality into a certain drop of blood.
This was the choice she made when Your Excellency Mercenary Tao was devoured by His Holiness Laurence's Furnace of Flesh and Blood.
She enhanced the concentration and vitality of her Crimson Blood inside Your Excellency Mercenary Tao's body.
But at this very moment, looking at those fake faces dying with remaining grievances, Seraphina couldn't perceive any Crimson Blood other than the drop inside Your Excellency Mercenary Tao's body.
How many people had she saved in this world? She herself couldn't tell clearly either.
There were Paladins within the church, hunters in the wild, innocent civilians, and Hybrids injured in battle...
Seraphina didn't care about the identities of these people; she simply offered a helping hand equally to everyone who suffered harm.
If asked why, she felt that the meaning of her existence lay exactly in this.
But now, they were all gone... those people, and the Crimson Blood within them, had all disappeared.
Connecting this to the previous battle between Your Excellency Mercenary Tao and His Holiness Laurence, and that Dragon King descending upon the world.
"Exactly... how many people died..."
Seraphina murmured. The luster on her body surface became increasingly obvious, and her temperature also grew higher and higher.
The faint sound of footsteps rang out. Artoria immediately turned around and saw a familiar blonde man walking out from the black fog, his body hunched over.
He held a greatsword with only half the blade left, and his body surface was covered in scars everywhere.
"Aetoris..."
Seeing that lion-like blonde hair, Seraphina spoke subconsciously. At this time, the other party also slowly raised his head. It was exactly Aetoris, who had gone to the Holy City Latina a step ahead.
This Hybrid Paladin walked out from the black fog, his eyes revealing incomparable exhaustion.
He knelt on one knee, like a knight saluting the person he owed allegiance to.
"Your Excellency Seraphina, I beseech you... to destroy this world..."
His face was twisted from pain.
Artoria's black Holy Sword pointed diagonally at the other party, saying coldly:
"Seraphina, he is fake too."
Seraphina knew very well, because there was no Crimson Blood inside the Aetoris before her either.
"He is indeed fake, but the words he said are true!"
A low, robust voice sounded from the black fog. In the next moment, Laurence, wearing the Pope's robe, walked out from the black fog.
He sized up Artoria holding the Holy Sword, seemingly not expecting the other party's martial prowess to be this strong.
In the aftermath of the battle between the Dragon King and that monster, an ordinary Secondary Generation pure-blooded giant dragon probably wouldn't have been able to survive either.
Yet this female knight not only survived, but could even display terrifying suppressive power, forming an intense sense of oppression on the current him.
Hum!
Golden ripples spread out ring by ring from Laurence's back. He looked at the blonde man piled up from fake flesh and blood. Beneath his lower eyelids and by his mouth, new eyes had opened.
In the next moment, a flesh tumor appeared on his shoulder. Amidst the constantly transforming flesh and blood, Aetoris's face actually truly appeared.
He simultaneously spoke to explain.
"Aetoris was your devout knight. He refused to join my Furnace of Life plan no matter what. Therefore, I showed him all the knowledge of the Old Gods, letting him also realize the truth of the world..."
"In the final moments of his life, he knelt on the ground just like this, praying to you, whose whereabouts were unknown."
Laurence's several pairs of eyes simultaneously looked at Seraphina.
"Praying for you... to be able to choose to destroy this world."
"Seraphina, do you still not understand? The very existence of this world is a tragedy, nothing more than a link in the entertainment of a few higher-dimensional existences."
"Everything you have cured is meaningless. Even your existence itself is merely created by them to allow this entertainment to last a little longer..."
Laurence continuously stepped forward, his voice also growing louder and louder.
Precisely because this world is so pitiful, everything is meaningless.
What he did was nothing more than turning everyone into firewood, to take his bit of unwillingness and question those creators.
Boom!
The earth trembled with a loud bang, as if some behemoth had crashed down from the sky.
In the next moment, a majestic pressure transmitted over, followed closely by a cruel voice.
"Heh, Aetoris, did you stop your heartbeat just because of this kind of boring question..."
"How truly... weak."
(End of Chapter)
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