Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

Because just as he threw his 10,001st punch, his opponent blocked it for the first time!

"You used the same move twice for the first time."

He heard the king's voice; he knew the shift in offense and defense. For the first time, he had used two types of fist techniques that shared a fifty percent similarity in detail, and it was precisely this fifty percent similarity that gave his opponent the opportunity to switch sides!

One wrong step leads to another. One mistake leads to a series of mistakes.

It is extremely difficult for mortals to defeat the extraordinary, because if the extraordinary is given even the slightest opportunity, the extraordinary can overturn the chessboard that the mortal has painstakingly set up!

In this one and only chance, the Pale King was able to unleash both the Holy Sword and the Holy Lance simultaneously!

A pale light then filled the continent.

....................................

When everything calmed down, the land within a hundred kilometers of the battleground had been reduced to burning wasteland. Nearly three kilometers of the earth's surface was smoothly scooped away as if ice cream had been scooped up with a spoon, and then boiling subterranean fire and lava erupted, bringing the imagined hell to reality.

Covered in wounds, Cheng Xiao hovered above the ruins of the Holy City—no, perhaps it should be called the former ground—with the aid of the rotating magnetic field. He looked at his left hand; only half of his upper limb remained, and pale, lingering light coiled and writhed around the severed end. He looked at his legs; his legs below the knees were gone, and the limbs he had conjured with his breath and will could only provide seventy percent of his full combat strength.

The sky had been assimilated by the pale light, and the free-floating natural forces on this land could only provide him with one-third of the support they had before. Finally, looking towards the near sky three kilometers away, the Dragon-Transformed White King, now fully restored, slightly pointed his sword and spear downwards.

Beneath her feet, twelve headless knights emerged from the mist. They were her hatred, the inferior prototype of the Familia phenomenon. The Knights of the Round Table, once summoned by the Lion King to this land, now reappeared under her rule in these corrupted and cursed forms, their limbs mutilated, yet their power remained largely undiminished.

"My memories tell me that in this world, I once encountered an opponent far superior to me in skill, just like you." The Pale King raised his holy spear, pointing it like a flag at Cheng Xiao's location. "But he lost, because of his physical weakness and inferior weapon. And I, in this world, believe that his victory was dishonorable."

“But I’m different. Whether it’s the normal me, the reversed me, or any of those other messy versions of me, I’m different from them.” — Her twelve headless knights broke through the air and charged toward Cheng Xiao’s location.

The holy sword in her hand gleamed with a pale light.

“Strong is strong, weak is weak.” Her actions were decisive, her tone resolute. “Victory is strength, defeat is weakness.”

The next moment, the pale tide, accompanied by the charge of the Knights of the Round Table, rushed toward Cheng Xiao!

Cheng Xiao simply smiled and swung his right fist, charging towards the sunlight!

Those wielding heavy swords will be killed by having their chests shattered. Those wielding great axes will be cut in half at the waist.

Those who wield spears, their hearts ripped out. Those who wield bows, their sinews and bones shattered!

The pale light surged in two before him, and then the distance between him and the Pale King shrank from three kilometers to two kilometers.

He was missing one kidney, one ear, and had a patch below his heart. Then, the new twelve headless knights and the Pale King, who had once again fully charged his Noble Phantasm, waited peacefully two kilometers away.

So he continued charging forward.

Thus, two kilometers became one kilometer. The price he paid was his entire lower body—the pale glow emanating from the holy sword hindered his self-healing and limb extension. Meanwhile, the third batch of decapitated knights had already reappeared under the White King's banner.

The sky remained a bone-white pale, and the earth, corroded and distorted by the radiance, was no longer available for him to draw upon, and the atmosphere illuminated by the radiance had transformed into a deadly poison. The knights charged once more, and a wild, arrogant smile spread across his lips.

This is a good thing. For a weak fourth-level beginner, maintaining a position of this size without sufficient preparation means she cannot move over large areas. It means that this one-kilometer distance is the final journey, and Cheng Xiao knows that the Pale King will never act with this group of Knights of the Round Table, even if they have all been beheaded.

It is foolish to reveal one's likes and dislikes to one's enemies, and the Pale Queen was unaware of her oversight—no, perhaps she was aware, but she simply didn't care.

Ah, that's right. She doesn't care.

Because when Cheng Xiao finally arrived before her, what fueled him was his burning, mangled flesh and shattered soul. The only parts of his body that could function properly were his right eye and right hand, which were embedded in his upper body.

Cheng Xiao remained incredibly strong; even in these circumstances, he was still capable of fighting. Even with only one hand and one eye remaining, his combat skills were still on par with the White King. However—

"Strong is strong, and weak is weak."

After hundreds of milliseconds of clash, the final result was the same. The holy sword in the White King's hand pierced Cheng Xiao's heart, while Cheng Xiao's right fist stopped in front of the White King's chest, doubly blocked by the dragon-transformed scales and the protective sheath.

"You have lost, warrior." The Pale King swung his holy sword, shattering Cheng Xiao's heart.

However, the man in front of her was still smiling. The flames of his burning soul gradually dimmed, but his eyes still shone with smugness and pride.

“My fist technique consists of only three punches.” A burning, scorching heat rose from his throat. “The first punch is ‘Cheng’. The second punch is ‘Xiao’.”

"And the third punch was delivered by 'Cheng Xiao'!"

The White King's pupils suddenly contracted!

She suddenly remembered this location. This place was exactly where she had blocked the third punch at the very moment the battle began!

The next moment, she felt all the magic power in her body, all her muscles, and all her nerves were surging wildly!

A series of images appeared in her mind. She saw a baby boy being born crying in the delivery room, a boy playing and practicing martial arts, a teenager losing his beloved, and a desperate man wandering helplessly in an empty street.

She saw war, swarms of insects, a sea of ​​stars, fallen gods and ascension rituals, wandering celestial bodies and a war-torn sky—

Then, she forgot it all. And in that instant of forgetting, she understood what 'Cheng Xiao' was.

Cheng Xiao's third punch was a punch of life, a punch of destiny. From the moment she thought she had blocked that blow, she had already been hit by Cheng Xiao's punch, and as the battle between her and Cheng Xiao gradually unfolded, that punch grew stronger in her destiny.

In that final moment, Cheng Xiao covered her life with his own, and her karma with his own karma. He covered her body and power with his own will.

Her sheath could withstand everything, but not her own power. And when she killed herself, even extraordinary life would perish.

Ah... so I was defeated from the very beginning.

That's fine... this way too.

The white king closed his eyes, awaiting his impending death.

Then—she felt her power returning.

....................................

When she opened her eyes, she found herself leaning against a tilted boulder. She saw the man, whose limbs had been repaired with breath but who was essentially a dying man, sitting on the edge of the boulder, smoking a cigarette, gazing at the distant sky.

She did not die.

He spared her life.

"...Why?" she asked instinctively.

"First, I don't kill people who can't fight back. Especially stupid women who want to die." Cheng Xiao answered without turning his head, slowly exhaling a puff of gray smoke.

“Secondly, if I kill you, my interference in your life will reach its maximum. I will devour your destiny, your fate, and I will be forcibly promoted to a being beyond the mortal realm.” He casually stubbed out the cigarette and continued to gaze at the pure sky. “I don’t want that.”

He turned his head and glanced at the White King.

"I beat you, didn't I?"

"You have won." The White King lowered his head slightly, acknowledging his victory.

"So, as the victor, I hope you can help those people in Chaldea. There has to be some compensation for cutting off Olga's communications—do you agree?"

"Alright." The White King, now back to her youthful appearance, nodded and accepted the victor's assignment.

So Cheng Xiao turned his head again and looked up at the sky.

He knew the sky was watching him, and that everything here was under the observation of his companions.

"I will no longer be manipulated by anyone, whether with good intentions or malice." He gazed at the sky, slowly uttering his final words: "Nobody."

The sky responded with silence.

Then he laughed, his breath surging and collapsing with each laugh. His form crumbled like a sandcastle in the wind, until finally, nothing remained.

—【Special team battle: One player from the Central Continent team was killed, but no negative score is recorded. Current team battle score: zero.】

Chapter Ninety-Three: The War in Heaven - Last Wish

When the White King, now back to her youthful form, boarded the Chaldean stealth ship with the still unconscious Hinako Akuta, she could sense, even through the layers of protective decks and the spiral structure, the rage emanating from the autonomous control system, directed solely at her.

It was as if trillions of invisible needles simultaneously anchored into the trillions of individual cells within her body. And she had no doubt that if the enraged person wanted to kill her, it would only take a moment.

She felt her cells dissolving, her flesh and bone marrow constantly crumbling and then being reshaped under the protection of the guardian sheath, Avalon. The energy within her, which should not have been inexhaustible at the transcendent stage, was visibly depleted at an alarming rate, only to be rapidly replenished by the Dragon's Core within her. But she felt that soon even her core would reach its limit.

She released Jie, who was unconscious and oblivious to her surroundings. The moment she took her first step forward, the remaining scales and armor on her body began to crumble piece by piece. And the instant she took her second step, she felt her kneecaps disintegrate into a pile of fragments, and an unparalleled pressure pressed against her shoulders, forcing her entire body to slam into the ground!

Ah... the owner here is very angry.

Because Cheng Xiao died before her eyes, and because she didn't obediently die at his hands—she knew her fate, knew the likely end that awaited her. Yes, that's right, she knew from the very beginning that her future was predetermined. From the moment she awoke from the remnants of the Holy Lance's spirit, from the moment she read the trader's authority in her memories, from the moment she watched the stealth ship appear above the Sixth Singularity, and the great war in the outer heavens began, she already knew her destiny.

I am the sustenance, the whetstone. Whether I choose to remain in the Seventh Singularity or return to the land of the Sixth Singularity, my fate is already sealed.

She took her third step forward, and this time she could clearly feel her shinbone cracking. Just as she had destroyed Cheng Xiao's feet with the power of the Holy Lance not long ago, her own extraordinary body was also approaching a limit that should never exist in the constant cycle of destruction and reconstruction.

Then, she took her fourth step forward.

Three dark red footprints were left behind her, presumably the blood of her death. Within this ship's interior, she received no replenishment, just as Cheng Xiao had when they fought. This meant that with each passing moment, she was drawing ever closer to her final, expiring lifespan.

"I'll probably die," she thought. "But death shouldn't be such a big deal."

My life had no meaning to begin with. The reason I fled the Seventh Singularity and betrayed the promise the Holy Lance made for me was simply to return to my land and die as a king. However, I never expected that what awaited me was not a god to punish a foolish king, but a king-slaying wanderer—Cheng Xiao, or at least that's his name.

She took her fifth step forward, and this time every pore on her body burst open, oozing bright red, then rapidly turning dark red, dead blood.

Cheng Xiao, someone stronger than me. Someone very much like me—or perhaps I should say I'm very much like him? Ah, whatever, it's all right now. After all, he's dead, and I'm still alive—and I'll probably be dead soon.

No, perhaps I won't die here. If the other party truly intended to kill, I would have died before even taking the first step. Since I'm still here, it means I still have a chance to fulfill my promise.

Is it misplaced anger? Or a test? Or... both?

As she took her sixth step, all the bones in the girl's body shattered. The moment she took her seventh step, she heard the sound of the dragon's furnace core within her cracking—her physical body had neither the chance nor the need to repair itself. But her soul could still function, and when she took her eighth step as a soul, her spirit body was already covered in cracks, from which flames overflowed.

She recalled her past, a past not worth remembering at all—the betrayals, the killings, the wounds and blood that splattered everywhere—and noticed a phantom wristwatch flickering and changing on her spirit's wrist. But within two seconds, she found herself with no willpower left to pay attention to the outside world.

She knew she was a Reincarnator. Although she only had a superficial understanding of the term "Reincarnator," she knew that after that desperate betrayal, she had been transported to a different land called the God of Gods and given this identity. While she didn't know the significance of this identity, she vaguely guessed that it must be some kind of great opportunity.

Opportunity can destroy everything, or it can save everything.

She knew that if she could seize this opportunity, she might be able to return to her country, destroy her nightmares, wipe out the traitors, and rebuild a new Britain.

She knew she could do it, she knew she would soon be able to. So when the first world for newcomers to familiarize themselves with and adapt to ended, and she returned to the God's Space, receiving the reward points from the forced bloodline cleansing, she didn't hesitate to ask for her enhancements back. However, when she returned to her original land, she found that she had arrived at a point in time several years after she left.

—The man who called himself, or rather, replaced Merlin, is gone. Just as no one knows where he came from, his departure is silent. And when he left the girl's world, her knights were also freed. And with their minds freed, they naturally recalled the sins they had committed.

—That misty city was actually Camelot from back then. And those decapitated knights, it was actually themselves who severed their heads. When the girl named Artoria returned to her homeland, her capital had already transformed into a pale city severely corrupted by magic. And within her castle, before her throne, all she saw were the twelve long-decayed, decapitated corpses kneeling before the empty throne.

The enemies she sought to kill no longer exist. Her manipulated and betrayed knights had all committed suicide before her throne. Her kingdom had fallen; even without the Camarilla and the civil war of the Knights of the Round Table, this last remnant of the Age of Gods was destroyed by raging beasts and chaotic magical tides, and all she had left was everything she could grasp.

What could her hands grasp? — Nothing.

All she could grasp were her sword, its scabbard, and her gun. Nothing else.

No kingdom, no people, no knights, no enemies, no friends—nothing at all.

She had nothing, and nothing to hold onto. She couldn't even find anyone to take revenge on, and all she could do was curse herself.

How foolish! How muddleheaded! How weak! How incompetent!

She arrived with anger and left with emptiness. And that's why, when she returned to the Main God Space, when her two ill-intentioned teammates stealthily approached her from behind, she pretended not to notice anything. When the vampire's fangs pierced her neck and the psychic displayed that ridiculous illusion, she pretended not to sense anything.

Because her heart was dead, and a person whose heart is dead has no intention of killing.