by Feng Yue
might. But he was not that stupid so as to fight hand-to-hand with Lancelot,
who was renowned as the number one knight of Anglo. He was sure that once
he stepped into the area within ten meters of Lancelot, he would be, in one
strike only, be pierced by the lance of dragon slayer through the neck and his
body would be thrown to the center of the battlefield within two seconds.
With the armor, enhanced by the firebirds and with the lance of dragon slayer
to improve his lethality, Lancelot had become a real war machine.
The Meteorite Metal – the name of the lance, was well-earned. It was a lethal
threat to anything alive. They would fall like meteorites and burn into nothing
while falling if struck by the lance. Not only would the lance of dragon slayer
destroy the body, but also the music theories and spirits by inflicting the lethal
impact on both the blood circulation and the aether circulation at the same
time. It was thanks to this double impact that it could be used to kill a dragon.
If dragons could be killed by the lance, it would definitely kill Ye Qingxuan in
one strike. Ye Qingxuan couldn’t help heaving a sigh.
It was such a disadvantage that he was not good at movement of changes.
Therefore, Ye Qingxuan was dodging the strikes of Lancelot, or in other
words, he was chased by Lancelot without any ability to strike back…Since he
didn’t dare to attack and tried only to stay alive, it was quite easy for him. And,
he even got sometime to talk with Lancelot, as if he wanted to improve his
relationship with Lancelot before killing each other. It was a perfect
conversation, except the fact that Lancelot, being busy trying to kill him, didn’t
say anything to him.
The Lance of Dragon Slayer roared, colorful light radiating from the blade of
the spearhead. The godly weapon which had killed Hecatoncheir, after
dozens of years of quenching in the Ultimate, was perfect in terms of music
theories and could tear anything into pieces.
It was created at very high costs by the royal family to kill Arthur – even
Hermes had put great efforts in it.
The lance was built based on the alchemy of the Classical School which
Hermes, one the three saints, was best at, and its main theme was the theory
of god-human segregation. The holy spirit in the music theories were divided
into two parts, of which one was godly and glorious, while the other was like
humans, unstable, timid, rebellious, unyielding… Included in the same main
theme, the two aspects of holy spirit formed a perfect cycle and the most
extreme clash. In the name of the god, it would punish all the sins, not by
merciful purification, but cruel killing and utter destruction in terms of both
flesh and aether.
When the lance of dragon slayer was created, it was named after the
legendary saint. But more often, people would call it Meteorite Metal.
All the godly weapons, except the Spear of Destiny that had been destroyed
which was created to target the Originator, have some inherited music
movement in them. They were of symbolic meanings in the history of the
human world, and were epoch-making weapons themselves. They were the
witnesses of the history and the world.
For example, the Gate of Heaven, as the Red King toured the countries with
this sword, the whole human world succumbed to the rule of this sword.
Also, the Stone Sword, which had created the most glorious period of Anglo
by converging the power of the whole Anglo and the catastrophe, was also
the key to the path to godly ascension.
The Stela of Destiny, representing the miracles of god, meant so much in the
human world, despite the fact that it was only a piece of ordinary stone.
The lance of dragon slayer, made of the remnant pieces of the Spear of
Destiny, ranked among them due to its lethality. It was extremely dangerous,
especially now that it was in the hands of the best knight of Anglo, who was
one of the best even in the whole western world. With the Lance of Dragon
Slayer in his hands, Lancelot might be able to kill Arthur if he wanted to.
Fighting against an enemy like this, Ye Qingxuan felt the terror of death. Just
by one strike, the lance could tear up the Holy movement and defeat all the
attacks of Ye Qingxuan.
Enhanced by the firebirds, Lancelot became the god of destruction. Once the
best knight renowned all over the world, he was still a terrible enemy to fight
against when he was back onto the battlefield.
Ye Qingxuan was sweating heavily. There were several times that he was
almost as close as 15 meters away from Lancelot, and he immediately felt the
power of Lancelot and his intention to kill. From then on, Ye Qingxuan didn’t
dare to stand in front of Lancelot.
He did all this because he was worried about Lancelot’s trump card. He didn’t
know what he is capable of even Lancelot had been so famous for so long a
time.
Staring at Lancelot’s weapon, Ye Qingxuan couldn’t help recalling the
transient flash of light in the Shadow of Avalon. That was an attack that even
the Dark Sovereign could not defend.
While he was thinking, he became a little bit slow. When he realized this, he
was filled with terror that his hair stood on end.
Just at that moment, Lancelot stepped one step forward and thrust the lance
to Ye Qingxuan. The brick under Lancelot’s foot was broken due to the huge
pressure it undertook, and the lance of dragon slayer pierced through the air
with a roaring sound. The rain falling near the lance vaporized and a flash of
golden light came at lightening speed to Ye Qingxuan.
A perfect strike!
The strike was so fast that, Ye Qingxuan couldn’t even see how the lance had
come to him. It was faster than his reflection. Through dissection, the
musicians had found that the maximum frequency of the humans’ eyes
capturing images was 24 times per second. That was to say, if something
happened within one 24 th of a second, the human eyes could not even see it,
not to mention reacting against it. It was obvious that the strike of Lancelot
was so fast that it was beyond the speed that human eyes could perceive.
That was his most powerful strike!
Ye Qingxuan might have died, if he had not spread the moon light perception
thread all over the battlefield. At the final moment, the Clothes of Original Sin
came to his rescue. When the perception threads transmitted the changes
back to Ye Qingxuan, the deciphering mechanism calculated the results of the
strike. At the same time, the reaction plan preset in the Clothes of Original Sin
initiated.
The Channeling Change music theory automatically initiated exoskeleton
analogue mode, and powered by the instantaneous force of the “vacuum sun”
generated by the sub-originator, pulled Ye Qingxuan ten meters backward.
He felt pain on his face as if his face were on fire, and also darkness in front
of his eyes. The capillary vessels broke, and his eye balls swelled full of
blood.
Ye Qingxuan knew without thinking that he was just one inch away from death
just now.
Staring at Lancelot’s armor, Ye Qingxuan figu
red something out. He squinted
at Lancelot and said, “you must have been pretending to be fighting against
the Dark Sovereign last time. But since I saw your armor, I’ve been curious
about what happened in that moment…Could you enlighten me by telling me
the story?”
Lancelot’s armor spurted out hot steam from the joints, which were generated
during the operation of the aether engine.
The first time since the fight began, Lancelot answered Ye Qingxuan back, in
his usual calm and indifferent way, “have you been always like this?”
“What?” Ye Qingxuan didn’t understand what Lancelot’s was saying.
“You kill your enemies by talking?” Lancelot said.
“Sort of.” Ye Qingxuan nodded, without any trace of shame. He might not be
able to kill anyone by talking. But he could irritate and provoke his enemy, get
them so angry that they may die on the spot. Especially when he was
determined to stall, he was almost shameless. He would never get angry with
Lancelot’s words and rush forward to fight hand-to-hand against him.
“I’ll give you a reminder.” Waving the lance of dragon slayer in the rain,
Lancelot got ready to attack again. “My old wounds may not heal yet, but for
me, it means nothing at all. You needn’t to wait until I’m exhausted. You can
just strike at the place where I was wounded.”
“You have figured my plan out? Thank you for reminding me of that.” Looking
at Lancelot, Ye Qingxuan paid him his heart-felt compliment, “you are really a
dignified knight. You are so considerate and nice even to your enemies. Since
you are so frank and honest, could you tell me that how does it feel to kill your
own younger sister?” After a pause, he said, maliciously, “does it feel great?”
Lancelot fell into silence. There was a chilling air spreading all over from him.
The blood rain was shocked and twisted by the coldness in the air. The whole
world seemed to fell into silence. Then, the terrible chill targeted and locked
on Ye Qingxuan.
“I’m sorry, Ye.” Raising the lance of dragon slayer and aiming it at Ye
Qingxuan’s face, Lancelot said, “I have so much to tell you. I want to talk to
you so much. But, what a pity…”
“Is it really so?” His eyes full of mockery and coldness, Ye Qingxuan said,
“me, too.”
At that moment, terrible aether movements burst out from his hands.
The pure white moon emerged from the Symphony of Predestination. In the
moon light, the purifying music theories covered the whole battlefield in a
blink. Wherever the moonlight went, the perception threads would occupy the
space at the same time. Thus, the whole battle field was clearly perceived by
Ye Qingxuan. He saw the battlefield as clearly as he saw the lines on his
palms.
He saw the broken irons, the cold blood, the falling rain, and the raising heat
and breath.
And also, the fighting posture of Lancelot. He was to strike the final blow.
Probing would be meaningless. Evading and dodging would have to come to
an end. All the stakes were already on the table, and the dices had been
tossed.
Ye Qingxuan took a deep breath.
It was time for the show of hands.
605 Still Plenty of Time
He had only seen it once, and only for a fleeting moment.
But the strike that Lancelot had once made with his sword cast a very profound shadow on Ye Qingxuan’s heart.
Defeating the Dark Sovereign is not much of a terrifying feat.
Ye Qingxuan could hardly consider whatever battle in the world frightening any more especially after witnessing the battle between Hyakume and the Holy Cauldron in the sacred city.
But the terrifying thing is, how did Lancelot do it?
While music theory can distort reality with its gravitational pull, this does not mean that it is omnipotent, as it is still unable to affect way too many domains out there, such as fate, time…
In other words, you can’t just stand here, strike a pose, take out a sword to look cool, and let the enemy die automatically. You must walk to the enemy, lift the sword, stab him, and hit a vital body part. Then the blood will flow out, the vital part fatally injured, and the enemy will die.
Such is the correct way.
Such is the common sense of the world.
But how did Lancelot conduct the terrifying attack that was almost like a reversal of cause and effect?
Unknown means are often the most frightening.
Especially when the enemy is one of the most dangerous persons like Lancelot…
The Lance of the Dragon Slayer was slowly lifted.
Lancelot took a step forward, and his footprint wedged into the stone. As his armor tremored, he clenched the lance with both his hands and lifted it over his shoulders, with the blade pointing downward. His right hand supported the middle part of the lance, but his left hand clutched the part of the lance that was only one fist away from the blade.
The weird posture defied the common sense of ordinary knights, and even went against conventions of weapon usage.
By positioning himself in such a manner, the length that lances were renowned for was reduced, but after sacrificing the advantage in terms of offense, no defense advantage could be gained either. In fact, one might face difficulties in parrying attacks.
But at the moment, Ye Qingxuan’s eyes began twitching violently.
If Ye Qingxuan was a knight with rich experience in combat, he could have realized that despite them being on such a wide battlefield that the space was enough for to lance to strike vertically and horizontally, at the moment Lancelot’s stance was a technique used by wielders of lances during urban warfare.
After sacrificing the lance’s offensive range and its ability to parry attacks, the only thing that was heightened was its flexibility. It would require only a very short time and distance to switch directions, and would not be constrained by the cramped space.
But Ye Qingxuan noticed another thing.
Ignoring the body of the lance that had been ‘hidden’ [1], the distance from Lancelot’s left hand to the blade of the lance just happened to be between the length of a dagger and that of a long sword.
In other words, at the moment, Lancelot had decided to use the Lance of the Dragon Slayer as a long sword. The distance between Ye Qingxuan and him was also much less longer than that between him and the Dark Sovereign back then.
Despite so, Lancelot still chose to sacrifice part of his offensive advantage to block all of Ye Qingxuan’s means of avoiding his attack.
A weapon need not be too powerful.
It would do as long as it could be used to kill people.
A person could die from being cut into a thousand pieces, so could he die from an arrow through the heart. After exceeding a certain limit, excessive attack power was nothing more than a meaningless number.
A knight of decent standards would not blindly seek to increase the attack power of a tactic, as the final result was given primary importance among priorities.
To Lancelot, such a stance would allow him to strike Ye Qingxuan critically and ensure the young man’s death.
Ye Qingxuan stopped moving.
Dodging was no longer meaningful anyway, so he might as well just stand there.
He opened his eyes wide to see what Lancelot had been hiding.
Then, at the very moment, Ye Qingxuan saw it.
Light.
The world was frozen once more.
Everything paused.
The rain paused, blood floated in the air, everything appeared aged, and all the colors dimmed.
Except the flowing ray of light being cast out of Lancelot’s hands.
So freely.
In such a world that had layers of shackles on and was bounded by reality and its rules, the ray of light was like a flying bird. It deftly went past all the shackles and all set-out rules, strolling calmly, and rushed toward Ye Qingxuan with an unparalleled, breathtakingly graceful posture.
It was frighteningly fast.
No sound could be heard in the silent world, as it had exceeded the speed of sound. Time had paused, because the speed of the Lance of the Dragon Slayer at that moment was fast enough to chase after light.
It did not employ Faust to forcibly freeze the activity of all matter, but instead it gave chase. Like flying birds, or souls floating in the sky, it chased after freedom, its speed surpassing that of all else, and advanced into uncharted territory.
In the blow that was so simple to the extent of being shocking, what it contained was actually the beauty expressed by power itself.
Ye Qingxuan only had time to open his eyes wide.
He didn’t even had time to let out the exclamation of praise from his throat. The heat was frozen in his throat by the flowing ray of light, and the flowing light of molten gold spraying from the Lance of the Dragon Slayer was already right in front of him.
A tearing sound rang out.
Before the Lance of the Dragon Slayer, all defenses were torn apart. The horrifying brilliance gathered into a tide, engulfing Ye Qingxuan.
Ye Qingxuan’s heart was no secret to Lancelot.
To other opponents, the critical weakness was totally non-existent, but for artifacts like the Lance of the Dragon Slayer which could destroy both flesh and aether in one go, they were even more deadly to Ye Qingxuan’s completely aetherized heart.
As long as the lance came into contact with the slightest bit of his own core music theory, it would cause a horrifying amount of irreparable damage to his Symphony of Predestination, let alone direct contact with a vital organ like the heart.
A double destruction of flesh and aether descended upon him in a flash.
All over his body, every inch of his skin cracked, resulting in grotesque wounds, as if he had been thrown into a furnace and had completely dried up. A collapsing sound rang out.
Together with it came Ye Qingxuan’s sign.
“Fortunately… It’s not light.” On his broken and incomplete face, the lips moved as he croaked with a hoarse voice.
Then, Ye Qingxuan’s body crumbled and fell apart, burning into ashes in the residual flare of the Lance of the Dragon Slayer.