Fate's Choice: Livestream at the Start Summoning Billions of Ravens

In the void, the jarring synthesized sound became intermittent.

The Black Sea below suddenly began to boil in a way that defied the laws of physics. Countless thick black tentacles emerged from beneath the surface, greedily grabbing at the falling limbs and pieces of flesh, attempting to forcibly pull them back into the air for a second stitching before they were completely "refreshed" upon contact with the surface.

The will of the abyss refuses to acknowledge this physical "death".

"Still want to struggle?"

High in the sky, Joan of Arc's golden eyes, devoid of any human emotion, shifted slightly, and the wings of light particles on her back suddenly unfurled outwards, covering half of the sky above the ruins of New Delhi.

The "purification" power possessed by the Saver class was poured down like molten iron, relentlessly pressing down on the Black Sea below that was trying to retaliate.

The platinum-gold radiance was no longer warm, but carried an almost cruel tyranny.

Wherever the light passed, the black tentacles that had just emerged from the sea had no chance to struggle and were directly evaporated into grayish-white nothingness by the high temperature.

The originally viscous, churning surface of the Black Sea was forcibly pressed into a smooth, mirror-like crystalline layer by this sacred radiance—the residue of the abyssal energy after it had been forcibly "formatted".

The logic of the abyss's restructuring was forcibly severed by this "invisible hand".

In the real world, hundreds of millions of viewers around the world watched as the black giant that suffocated all of human civilization collapsed and dissolved like a lump of boneless mud, until it was buried by light.

Even the most composed news anchor couldn't help but clench their fists in the studio at this moment.

Did you win?

Has the monster that devoured countless gods and turned Mirror New Delhi into hell finally died?

The center of the ruined battlefield.

As the outer shell peeled away, a black sphere, only the size of an average person, slowly rose up.

It floated on the ravaged sea, surrounded by rings of purple defensive matrices that looked like gibberish. These were not matter, but a high-density energy singularity—Arjuna's only remaining spiritual core, and the source of this black mud.

Li Bai was suspended in mid-air, his fingers gripping the sword twitching slightly out of control.

His once majestic golden eyes now showed a dangerous glimmer of light, and the vast, star-like immortal power of Venus within him was being drawn away from his limbs and bones at an alarming rate.

As his energy dwindled, the intense pain from the backlash began to tear at his nerves along his meridians. The light shimmering on his robes was rapidly dimming, even revealing the texture of the original blue shirt underneath.

"Is the time... up?"

Li Bai smiled bitterly to himself. For a mortal to ascend to immortality was to defy the heavens, and this borrowed "True Immortal Experience Card" was ultimately time-limited.

But he still had the strength for one last strike.

All it takes is to deliver this sword.

Li Bai forced down the mouthful of blood that surged to his throat, his gaze piercing through kilometers of smoke and fire, landing on Joan of Arc to his side and above. Without a word, their divine senses exchanged a seamless connection in the void.

"Give me that tortoise shell." Joan of Arc's voice echoed in his mind, cool yet with a reassuring firmness.

"Alright," Li Bai replied crisply. "Leave the rest to me."

The next second, Joan of Arc moved.

The holy banner in her hand suddenly disintegrated, turning into countless points of light, which then coalesced again in her palm. This time, it was no longer a banner, but a platinum spear made entirely of pure photons.

There were no intricate patterns on it, only an absolute sharpness that could pierce through everything and judge evil.

Joan of Arc's waist taut like a fully drawn bow at that moment.

"In the name of the savior—"

"This area is off-limits for defense!"

With a command, the platinum spear flew out of his hand, transforming into an aurora that sliced ​​through the dark sky. It was so fast that space didn't even have time to generate a sonic boom, and it appeared in front of the black sphere as if by teleportation.

when--!

A sharp, ringing sound that could shatter eardrums.

That purple defensive matrix, constructed from the deepest code of the abyss and supposedly immune to physical attacks, was like glass pierced by a steel needle in the face of this spear.

Accompanied by a series of cracking sounds, countless fragments of garbled code flew outwards, revealing the black core inside that was pulsating violently and emanating a nauseating malice.

"Now!"

The disorientation in Li Bai's eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a final, fleeting glow of light before the flames died down.

He didn't use any fancy movements; his entire body transformed into a straight golden line.

"Warning! Defense protocol offline!"

"A high-energy reaction has been detected approaching!"

The black core seemed to sense the impending doom and instantly unleashed thousands of jet-black death rays in all directions.

Each ray contains a deadly curse powerful enough to corrode the spirit core of a hero, attempting to create an all-encompassing interception network.

But Li Bai did not slow down at all.

There wasn't even a dodge attempt.

"Noisy."

The Azure Lotus Sword in his hand swung into an invisible afterimage as he charged forward at high speed.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

There were no sophisticated sword techniques, only extremely fast and extremely ruthless slashes.

The incoming black rays were forcibly severed and shattered by the Geng metal energy the moment they made contact with the sword enclosure. The golden figure, like a red-hot scalpel, brutally cleaved through this death-blocking net and crashed headlong into the core absolute domain.

Nearly.

The core was right in front of me, a black stream of data flowing across its surface.

Li Bai gripped the sword hilt with both hands and let out a long howl that shattered the blood clot in his chest.

"Taibai—Return to your place!"

puff.

This long sword, which seemed to have stepped out of the poems of the Tang Dynasty, carrying the last pride of a celestial being banished from heaven, pierced precisely into the very center of the core.

Time seemed to stand still at that moment.

Immediately afterwards, a piercing scream, so shrill it was inhuman, echoed throughout the universe. The sound contained Arjuna's despair, the abyss's resentment, and the liberation of countless devoured gods.

Click.

The golden sword energy erupting from the Azure Lotus Sword body poured wildly into the core through the wound. The black sphere, like a fat man who had eaten too much, bulged out with huge bulges of light on its surface before finally exploding.

There was no mushroom cloud.

There was only a shower of golden light falling from the sky.

The black data streams representing the existence of Beast I melted away little by little under the rain of light, like the first snow meeting the sun. The suffocating oppression that had enveloped the entire New Delhi finally dissipated with the shattering of the core.

ended.

In mid-air, Li Bai remained in his thrusting stance, locked in a stalemate for two seconds.

Then, his star-patterned robe completely disintegrated, turning into specks of light and disappearing. His long hair, which had been flowing with golden luster, also quickly dimmed and returned to its original black color.

The divine pressure of Venus, which viewed all things as mere straw dogs, receded like a tide.

All that remained was a poet in a blue robe, his face as pale as paper, having exhausted all his strength.

Li Bai's fingers loosened their grip on the sword hilt, and the Azure Lotus Sword transformed into a stream of light that burrowed back into his spiritual core.

He felt his eyelids were as heavy as lead, and his body as light as a feather. Gravity had recaptured him, dragging him down to the dead, still sea below.

"So tired..."

Just as he was about to plunge into the murky sea, a pair of strong arms caught him steadily.

Joan of Arc suppressed her overwhelming divine radiance, and carrying the unconscious Li Bai, slowly descended onto a relatively intact platform of bones.

She glanced down at the Eastern Sword Immortal; his face, which always carried a hint of drunkenness and arrogance, now showed only deep weariness.

Joan of Arc gently set Li Bai down and gazed into the distance.

Did you win?

Although Arjuna's spirit origin reaction has completely disappeared, the red warning "Beast I" has also been erased from the system panel.

But... why is that chilling gaze still there?

No.

It's not just about existence.

The gaze became clearer and larger, as if something was breathing close to her ear through a thin layer of paper.

Just then, something unexpected happened.

The Black Sea, which had been calm, suddenly began to spin without warning.

It started as just a small vortex.

In the blink of an eye, the vortex expanded to a diameter of ten kilometers, twenty kilometers... until it almost covered the entire area of ​​the ruins of New Delhi.

That soul-chilling roar came once again from the depths of the earth.

But this voice is no longer the electronically synthesized voice with static that Arjuna had.

Rather, it is a more ancient and grander roar, as if it came from the very beginning of the universe, a pure "hunger" roar.

Joan of Arc abruptly raised her head, her golden pupils contracting sharply.

At the center of that enormous whirlpool, the seawater wasn't flowing downwards, but rather... parting to both sides.

A bottomless, pure black void slowly opened up at the center of the vortex.

That's not a cave in the physical sense.

That was a door.

A door that has been prepared long ago, connecting to another dimension.

Arjuna died.

But the black sea he left behind after his death, the remnants of the gods he devoured, and even the enormous energy he unleashed at the moment of his death, all became "sacrifices" and "fuel" for this gate.

"Warning! Warning!"

"A superscale spatial oscillation has been detected!"

"Phase coordinates coincide!"

"The abyss anchor point is now secure!"

A bright red system pop-up window was frantically scrolling across Joan of Arc's retina.

At the end of this jumbled mess of text, a line of pitch-black text slowly emerged, carrying a chilling sense of despair:

Beast I has been removed.

Congratulations on completing the tutorial!

The Gates of the Abyss—officially opened.