A disastrous scene unfolded, like a rampaging siren from legend. Countless blood-red tentacles, as thick as banyan tree trunks, rampaged through the opera house. Members of the student council who couldn't dodge in time had their bones crushed instantly. Where they passed, reinforced concrete support pillars snapped, steel-wrought elevated platforms collapsed, and the ground beneath the ten-meter-high stage lost its support. With a deafening boom, the floor gave way. The castle made of giant stones shook, stage lights shattered against the ground with sharp pops, and Lancelot's figure fell rapidly.
"Lancelot!" Lin Yaqing shouted, reaching out her hand.
In the midst of the chaos, Lin Yaqing was coated in a layer of deep crimson. Her thigh-high boots were adorned with intricate patterns at the edges. This nimble elf-like figure leaped between falling rocks, darting toward Lancelot with incredible speed as she reached out to him.
Falling into the soft embrace of the crimson flowers, Lancelot opened his eyes. Lin Yaqing was holding him, her arm hooked around his as she caught him. Her red waist-cape danced wildly in the wind, and her heroic profile was resolute.
Magnificent attire now graced the girl's body. A bright red, high-collared long-sleeved coat extended all the way to her right hand. A jewel rapier manifested, which she gripped firmly before unleashing a flurry of slashes. The boulders falling in front of them were shattered into flying debris.
After landing steadily, Lancelot noticed her outfit and regained his senses.
"Yaqing, is this your divine endowment?"
"Now isn't the time for that. We need to resolve the crisis in front of us first."
Lin Yaqing took a step forward. "I'll go stall that out-of-control monster. You take the student council members and get out of here."
With that, Lin Yaqing disappeared beneath a fallen steel beam. Looking up, she was like a red meteor streaking into the sky, leaping straight toward the summit of the castle.
Lancelot allowed a bitter smile to trail across his lips. Who in the academy didn't know the fame of the starry sword saint? Born with a mimicry companion, reaching grade 3 at thirteen, and mastering the peak of the Starry Sword Arts at fourteen without a teacher—she was hailed as a once-in-a-millennium genius. Her name had caused a stir throughout the universe for a time. If she weren't so disinterested in power and authority, she likely would have grown into a top combatant of the association long before her peers graduated.
He was being left further and further behind by this girl. Even without any resources from the association, she had completed her own self-exploration and liberation at twenty, manifesting her divine endowment and standing at a height countless people could never reach in their entire lives.
A grade 4 sword maiden!
People in the academy and his family thought it was such a great honor for him to become a grade 3 paladin at his age. In reality, he couldn't even see the back of a true genius. Not just the starry sword saint—he looked up at the castle's peak where the flashes of blades intersected; Lin Yaqing had already engaged the monster.
He then thought of the blonde girl at the Tree of Eternal Life club half a month ago. She was just as young, yet he hadn't been able to last a single move against her.
Lancelot shook his head. Golden lion-like mane ignited the fire in his eyes. What he needed to do now wasn't to wallow in self-pity. The lives of most student council members were still uncertain; they might be buried and struggling beneath the reinforced concrete at this very moment. He had to protect more people and do everything within his power.
Thinking of this, he slammed his lionheart shield into the ground. A golden formation spread out from him as the center. A phantom lion coalesced and let out a powerful roar toward the sky, as the will to protect descended upon the entire opera house.
Immediately after, he too dashed resolutely into the ruins ahead.
At the peak of the castle, light and shadow intersected. Spark-showering sparks flew as a lance and a rapier clashed violently. The two figures traded blows for a moment before rapidly separating.
Lin Yaqing felt her arm go numb from the shock. She was astonished by the silver-haired girl's strength, and the unease in her heart grew stronger.
As a grade 4 sword maiden, she wasn't gaining any advantage in a contest of pure power. The intense aura of an urban legend around her opponent surged and exploded in waves. It was at least a demon-grade urban legend. Why would such an entity appear on the cruise ship? What were her characteristics?
Or rather, what was the desire driving her actions?
Before she could think further, a blood-red tentacle lunged at her like a biting maw. It clamped onto her shoulder and slammed her through several walls before the restless blood mist finally began to dissipate.
As the dust cleared, Lin Yaqing saw the figure behind the thick blood mist. Angelina was curled up, clutching her head and letting out continuous groans of pain. The white lance had fallen to the ground. Countless blood-red tentacles tore through her skin and body uncontrollably, leveling everything in the vicinity like wild pythons.
"Don't..."
Angelina murmured in agony. Countless blood-red memories threatened to tear her consciousness apart. Dark red alchemical armor slaughtered all life. She witnessed the world withering and dying, yet she could change nothing. She could only watch as the companions she had built bonds with were killed and fell one by one, their voices comforting her to keep moving forward, to keep enduring the malice and sorrow of this world.
Her memories continued to trace back further. She recalled more details: the experience of being hunted on the snowfields, the sorrow of her parents dying to hunters' guns, the humiliation of a woman's constant insults and whipping, and the joy of hearing a promise. Finally, at the end of the road of memories, she saw a golden-haired girl—the source of all her pain.
"Don't... abandon me..."
The golden-haired figure in her memory walked forward, beckoning to her. Under the sunset sky and golden glow, the figure turned her head, her lips moving slightly, before finally being swallowed by a speeding shadow of light.
The crimson blood mist surrounding Angelina began to turn frantic and restless again. Lin Yaqing's eyes narrowed. Although she didn't know what was happening to this girl, she was certain the opponent was about to lose control completely.
With that thought, she flicked her wrist. The rapier carved out an invisible barrier of sword qi around her. The blood-red tentacle biting her shoulder was instantly shredded into countless chunks of flesh.
Dashing past the lunging tentacles, she sliced through the thick blood vessels crashing in front of her and pierced through the dense, web-like blood membranes of a heart. Lin Yaqing, rapier in hand, rapidly approached the source of this disaster.
"I hate you... I hate you..."
The pain-filled groans became clearer and louder as she neared the girl at the center of the blood mist. She saw a pair of bloodshot eyes staring at her like a vengeful spirit.
Suddenly, Angelina seemed to regain a measure of sanity. All the pain and memories vanished. She gripped her right wrist tightly. Beneath her sickly translucent skin, a faint red glow flickered.
Lin Yaqing's pupils shrank. Was there a thumb-sized heart beating at this person's right wrist?
Angelina panted heavily, suppressing the restless blood mist and violent tentacles. She picked up the black glove that was buried tens of centimeters deep in the ground. Even from a distance, one could feel the terrifying weight contained within that glove.
Just by falling to the ground, it had caused the floor to collapse.
As Angelina pulled the glove back on and gripped her Abyssal White Flower, the mist vanished. All the tentacles surging through the opera house retreated into her body. The tip of her lance pointed at Lin Yaqing.
"Get out of the way. Don't stand in front of me."
"Otherwise, I will run you through with this lance."
Rate on N.U.
