Nobody knows how to be a villain better than me.

Two figures, one tall and one short, moved through the woods, their banter adding a touch of liveliness and fun to the journey.

As they approached the edge of the Nameless Forest, Samael stopped to check his direction. At the same time, the little girl, who had been scolded but held no grudge, came closer, her face stern, her tone unusually serious.

"Teacher, I have a very serious question I want to ask you."

"Say!"

Samael glanced at the little girl behind him and gave a succinct reply.

Artoria glanced at the wand in her hand, then at the magnificent sheathed longsword in Samael's hand, and pouted, looking utterly dejected.

"Why am I carrying a staff while you're carrying a sword? Teacher, tell me honestly, are you holding something back?"

"Want to learn?"

Samael raised the holy sword in his hand and waved it in front of the little girl, the hilt hanging down in front of her eyes.

"Uh-huh!"

Artoria nodded happily and immediately reached out her little hand to grasp it.

"Snapped!"

However, the man smirked, flicked his sword sheath, and slammed the hilt into Artoria's forehead.

"Your magic is a complete mess. You haven't even memorized all the Ogan runes and runes yet. You can bite your tongue while chanting spells. And you still have the nerve to ask for my most treasured magic trick? Learn what I'm teaching you first!"

"But there are so many words, it's so tiring to learn them. It's much more comfortable to just use a sword to cut them down."

Artoria held her slightly red forehead and muttered aggrievedly.

Samael's lips twitched upon hearing this.

Indeed, every mage harbors a desire for melee combat.

Especially since this girl was once harmed by Merlin, that half-baked magician, her obsession with close combat is probably ingrained in her genes.

However, the teacher who used a wand back then taught her to use a sword for close combat; now the teacher who uses a sword teaches her to use a staff for ranged attacks.

He and Merlin seem to be prime examples of those who don't do their jobs properly.

Thinking about it, it's actually quite amusing.

Fate, indeed, is sometimes a strange cycle.

But there was no other way; only by bringing out this chosen staff could they withstand the thing's penetration.

Samael shook his head, glanced at the little girl who was squatting on the ground looking dejected and drawing circles with her wand, and rolled his eyes helplessly.

"Alright, when you officially graduate, I might be in a good mood and give you this sword."

"Really?"

The naturally optimistic and pure-hearted girl immediately raised her head happily, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

"Let's talk about it after you've completed your apprenticeship."

Samael gave an ambiguous answer, and after determining the direction, they started moving forward.

The naive girl, seemingly oblivious to the trickery in the promise, immediately perked up, grabbed her wand, and followed, like a butterfly fluttering in the air.

The fog in the forest was thinning, and the two were getting closer and closer to the edge of the nameless forest.

But along the way came an increasing number of refugees, young and old alike.

Without a doubt, they were all human beings, each with a pale and emaciated face, their eyes long since devoid of light.

From afar, the shadows, barely any flesh on their bodies, swayed and staggered out of the fog, like skeletons mechanically heading towards a destination.

"boom!"

An exhausted refugee collapsed to the ground, his head bleeding from the impact.

However, instead of helping him up, the people nearby swarmed around him and fought over his few remaining belongings.

"Stop it! Stop it now!"

Artoria anxiously scolded him, hurriedly ran forward, helped the dying man up, cast a healing spell, and broke the remaining half of the wheat cake in her hand, mixed it into the water, intending to pour it into the patient's body.

Food! There's food!

In an instant, a green light appeared in the dull eyes of the refugees surrounding them, and they tried to rush forward and snatch the half-eaten wheat cake that had softened in the water.

laugh!

In an instant, a golden-blue light unfurled like a ribbon in front of the blonde girl, carving deep furrows beneath everyone's feet.

The imminent threat of death caused the rioting group to immediately stop in their tracks, breaking out in a cold sweat.

At the same time, the serpentine pupils looking down emanated a chilling aura that seemed to freeze one's very bones.

This soul-deep fear made the surrounding crowd tremble. Under that chilling gaze, they retreated repeatedly. A strong voice in their hearts made them dare not linger for a moment. They immediately bypassed the menacing figure standing behind the blonde girl with a sword and hurriedly slipped into the dense forest.

At this moment, a pale blue halo shone down from Artoria's wand, but it vanished without a trace, eliciting no response whatsoever.

Because the flame of life within this withered body had long since burned out.

Samael stood quietly behind Artoria, watching the child expend her magic power, casting spells time and time again in an attempt to revive the injured person in her arms, until that body grew cold and hard, completely losing its warmth and vitality.

In the end, the girl, filled with sorrow, accepted reality, her face etched with self-blame and pain.

"Teacher, he's dead..."

"Yes, let's bury him together."

Samael gently rubbed the little girl's drooping head, his voice soft, and then blasted a hole in the nearby soil with his sword.

Artoria bit her cherry lips and silently got up to place the nameless victim into the pit, carefully filling the grave with soil.

In her final moments, Artoria placed a bouquet of flowers she had picked from nearby at the grave and offered a heartfelt prayer.

At the grave, the girl, having done all this, buried her head in her teacher's arms and murmured in a muffled voice.

"I can't save him..."

"You've done your best, this isn't your fault."

Samael gently patted the girl's back, his tone soft and gentle. Finding support and an outlet, the girl hugged the man's waist tightly, her face rubbing against his warm chest, enjoying this moment of peace.

After receiving comfort from her teachers and adjusting her own mindset, Artoria finally cheered up and embarked on her journey again.

Along the way, the girl watched as groups of people with their families gathered towards the misty forest. She couldn't help but raise her head and voice the question that had been weighing on her mind.

"Teacher, why are so many people running towards the Nameless Forest? What's happening outside?"

She was born in the surging tides of Tintajer, and since waking up, her mind has been almost blank, as if she has forgotten many things.

Guided by some unseen intuition, she drew the chosen staff and was then led by her teacher, Samael, to train in the Nameless Forest.

Therefore, Artoria is not very aware of the situation outside.

But after a period of experience, she at least realized that the Nameless Forest was the territory of fairies, and the influx of so many humans was truly abnormal.

Samael stood on the high slope, turned back and glanced at the pure girl holding the magic wand, his gaze full of meaning.

"You should see for yourself..."

Artoria felt a sudden, inexplicable unease. She then gently bit her cherry lips, using the slight sting to calm her chaotic emotions, and quickly followed.

Now, it is the edge of the nameless forest, and the thin mist that once shrouded the forest has completely dissipated.

The girl stood on high ground, her emerald eyes gazing into the distance, a look of astonishment and disbelief instantly freezing on her pretty face.

Looking out, what comes into view is a dried-up riverbed, a barren land, and endless yellow sand.

In the fields, the soil is cracked in large areas, and there is no trace of greenery left; the once full waters are now just deep pits filled with silt, and the fish that have lost their habitat have rotted into piles of white bones; on both sides of the road, the grass and trees are withered and dead, and in the stinking ditches, the carcasses of dead livestock and even human skeletons can be vaguely seen!

The leaden-gray clouds that shrouded the sky lingered, with thunderstorms flashing and weaving through them like serpents slithering downwards.

In the desolate wilderness where life is nearly extinct, the surging etheric turbulence forms a spiraling column of wind that runs through the heavens and the earth, raging and blowing across the surface, engulfing withered branches and sand. The friction between the airflow and the debris produces a sharp wail, like the wailing of a ghost.

Even more frightening is that the once open plain has inexplicably turned into a pitted, uneven "face".

One after another, cone-shaped craters, several kilometers in diameter and hundreds of meters deep, are scattered in a chaotic manner, turning the surface of the land into a scene of devastation, resembling the aftermath of a meteorite impact.

At this moment, the humanoid black dots, like ants, lined up in a long dragon, swaying and staggering across the wasteland that resembled the surface of the moon. A slight misstep would mean falling into a hundred-meter-deep pit.

In the howling sandstorm, the refugees wrapped themselves up tightly and moved mechanically across the wilderness like walking corpses, their eyes gradually losing their vitality and light.

"Woooo..."

Nearby, emaciated wolfhounds with red eyes whimpered and lingered around the migration caravan.

These beasts were not in a hurry to attack humans. Instead, they kept a certain distance and quietly followed behind, dragging the dying people who had collapsed by the roadside into nearby ditches to fill their hungry stomachs.

The migrants were too weak to drive away the wolfhounds, and the wolfhounds were too weak to hunt humans.

The two sides maintained a peculiar ecological relationship, wandering and stopping in the wilderness.

But in Artoria's eyes, all she saw was desolation and despair.

Such cruel scenes, one after another, came into Artoria's view, bringing a strong shock and awe.

Some of the girls, unable to bear the sight, instinctively turned their heads away, raised their hands to tightly grasp Samael's arm, and asked in trembling voices.

"Teacher, what exactly is going on?"

Samael patted Artoria's hand and sighed softly.

"As you can see, this world is dying..."

Plants wither, water sources dry up, animals have nowhere to live; crops no longer produce food, ether ravages the land and cannot be harvested, and humans cannot survive on this land either.

All they could do was migrate to areas where life still existed, risking fighting with fairies and even monsters to survive temporarily.

This is why so many people flock to the Nameless Forest along the way.

Is this world dying?

The cruel answer left Artoria muttering in disbelief.

"Why is this happening?"

"You must have seen farming before, right?"

Samael paused for a moment, then asked a question in return.

"Um……"

Artoria nodded subconsciously, vaguely remembering that she had farmed in Cornwall.

"No matter how fertile the land is, in order to maintain its optimal activity, it is necessary to try to follow the natural laws of spring planting, autumn harvesting, summer weeding, and winter storage, and also to consider crop rotation and fallow to alleviate the pressure on the land."

Otherwise, soil fertility will be lost, and even the best fields will degrade, potentially leading to reduced yields or even total crop failure.

The examples Samael cited are very relevant to reality, and Artoria, who has vague memories of this, can easily understand them.

"Similarly, everything has its limits. The reason Britain is in its current state is because it has provided far more than it should, leading to the depletion of spiritual energy and the collapse of the world. Now, apart from the Nameless Forest and a few other places, it can probably barely maintain its natural ecology. The rest of the land has probably long lost the ability to nurture life."

Samael then turned his gaze to the gray sky, his tone somber.

"But if this continues, Britain will eventually face total destruction..."

"So, this is the mission I've been given! Teacher, I—no, we will stop all of this, right?"

Artoria pressed her cherry lips together, her gaze burning and unwavering as she looked at Samael with earnest anticipation.

"Yes, no matter what, I will always stand by your side."

Samael smiled slightly, spread his hands, and gently patted the girl's head. The warmth from his palm eased the anxiety and unease in Artoria's heart.

Having received an affirmative answer, Artoria's pretty face lit up with a bright smile, and she immediately asked the question with high spirits.

"So, teacher, what should we do first?"

"First of all..."

Samael stroked his chin, about to answer, when suddenly his brow twitched and he looked up at the distant horizon.

hum!

At the same time, the lead-gray clouds were tinged with a layer of dazzling dark gold, within which the brewing storm and thunder intertwined, forming a spiral pillar of light that pierced through the heavens and the earth. Its powerful sharpness, like a meteor streaking across the sky, rapidly expanded in the two people's field of vision, instantly filling their eyes.

Samael's expression changed drastically, and his pupils contracted sharply.

Oh no, we've been discovered!