Nobody knows how to be a villain better than me.

Just as the ancient snake was sorting out its thoughts, the sirens of police cars and firefighters could be faintly heard from down the mountain.

The three glanced back at the unrecognizable mountains and forests, exchanged a look, and tacitly slipped down the mountain.

However, when they reached the nearby roadside, Samael looked at Irisviel, who was already panting, and Artoria, who was still injured and exhausted, and couldn't help but feel troubled.

The Yamaha Land Cruiser they used to travel on had been completely destroyed in the previous battle, leaving not even a single part behind.

It's still dozens of kilometers to the city from here.

Furthermore, if the delay is too long, the police and firefighters who arrive one after another will block the road and conduct checks, which will cause considerable trouble.

Just as the ancient snake was having a headache, a long black Mercedes-Benz sped up on the mountain road not far away.

"Stab!"

Just before it came to a close, the luxury car, with a beautiful drift, left two charred tire tracks on the ground and came to a steady stop beside the hidden foothills.

Immediately afterwards, a doll dressed in a white nun's habit, with white hair and red eyes, kicked open the car door and raised a giant axe high in its hand.

The sharp blade, gleaming coldly in the sunlight, caused Irisviel's pupils to contract slightly, a trace of sorrow flashing in her eyes.

Liselle... even you...

"boom!"

However, before Irisviel could feel the grief welling up inside her, a foot flew out from the driver's seat and kicked Lyselette, who was standing blankly in front of the car door.

"Idiot, how many times have I told you, keep watch at the back, don't block the way!"

Immediately after a burst of annoyed complaints, Sera, dressed as a housewife with an apron tied around her waist and her ponytail hanging over her shoulder, peeked out and urgently reminded everyone.

"Miss, the police are blocking the road. Get in the car quickly, I'll take you out!"

As they were talking, Lyselette, who had been blasted to the back, opened the back door of the car. Holding a gleaming axe in one hand, she stood behind the taillights like a guardian deity, wary of her surroundings.

"Ok!"

It was a false alarm. Irisviel nodded emphatically, looking very happy, and bent down to get into the car.

But as soon as the silver-haired beauty bowed, she was roughly pulled back by Artoria behind her, the Knight King looking on with a wary expression.

"How did you know our whereabouts? What orders did those old fogies from the Einberlen family give you?"

As the saying goes, "A fall into a pit, a gain in your wit."

The stab Einzbernburg had just given her in the back was still throbbing, so Artoria naturally wouldn't easily trust the two Einzbern family puppets in front of her.

"They told us to take the girl back."

Sera spoke frankly, but then her eyes flashed with determination.

"But we are maids created to serve you, and protecting your safety is the meaning of our existence."

Artoria paused upon hearing this, but then smiled coldly, clearly still harboring resentment towards the Einzbern family's betrayal.

"It sounds so nice, but who knows if it's true..."

"I believe you!"

However, before the Knight King could finish speaking, Irisviel broke free from her servant's arm and climbed into the carriage without hesitation.

"Please go to this place..."

While telling the two drivers in front the address of the Einzbern family doll, Samael climbed into the back seat, lay down on the seat, yawned, squinted his eyes, and his voice gradually became indistinct.

"By the way, drive carefully. I'm going to take a nap. Wake me up when we get there."

As the sound gradually subsided, someone who had just boarded the bus fell fast asleep without any warning.

"you……!"

Seeing her two unreliable teammates betray her without warning, Artoria's face darkened, and she felt a surge of disappointment.

"Wang! Wang Wang!"

However, before the Knight King could get angry, a white Samoyed, unable to contain its loneliness, poked its head out of the car window and excitedly stuck out its tongue to lick its owner's palm.

"Kavas II!"

The sight of her beloved dog wagging its tail close to her made Artoria's eyes sparkle.

People who love dogs probably wouldn't lie, since they can't be all that bad anyway.

Yes, that's definitely right!

The vigilant Knight King found an impeccable reason, nodded to himself with satisfaction, picked up the dog, and got into the car.

"Sera, I'm so hungry, did you bring anything to eat...?"

The combat doll, dragging a long-handled axe, rubbed its stomach and looked miserable as it got into the car.

Because she rushed out after receiving the message, Sera didn't even have time to prepare lunch.

"Stop arguing and watch your step!"

Faced with her best friend's nagging, the cook scolded her while skillfully tossing a bag of donuts she had hidden under the car seat to Lizzie, silencing the lazy foodie.

It seems this blessing was not in vain...

Samael, who was in the back seat, saw this and smiled with satisfaction. He then closed his eyes and prepared to lie down in a more comfortable position.

As the head fell, a pair of slender arms wrapped around it, gently placing the heavy head on a pair of warm, jade-like laps.

Sleep well, sleep well, I hope this sleep will last a long time...

Accompanied by faint murmurs in his ear, Samael curled up, lowered his eyelids contentedly, and the ruptured tendons and bruises in his body gradually healed and disappeared with the rise and fall of his chest and breath.

Chapter 205 Love Song, It's My Turn to Chase You (4.1k)

Enzwasburg.

A disheveled middle-aged man, wearing flip-flops, a black casual outfit, and with messy, unkempt hair, sauntered to the empty spire of the tower.

"Yeah..."

But he did not stop there. With a wave of his hand, he pushed open a half-closed door at the end of the balcony, bent down and stepped inside, and continued on his way.

The starlight falling from the sky transforms into a transparent, invisible spiral staircase, climbing upwards. The scenery beneath one's feet becomes tiny and minute, and everything around is intricate and fragmented, like a pieced-together mirror.

At the end of the road, the orderly array of stars appears and disappears, and countless shimmering, crystal-like light prisms refract the deep darkness of the universe, forming a vast and mysterious cloud palace that resembles a star track.

Within the twelve enormous, translucent black pillars, a six-sided black cube hovered and rotated, emanating endless wailing and countless acts of malice.

But no matter how much they struggled, they could never break free from that ever-changing cage.

The silver-haired, red-eyed beauty knelt in the center of the star-studded map, her hands clasped together, seemingly in prayer, or perhaps asleep.

That slender figure seemed to be gradually swallowed up by the surrounding depths and darkness of the universe.

In the solemn and somber atmosphere, the disheveled middle-aged man subconsciously stopped, paused for a long time, and then respectfully bowed and coughed, offering a slight reminder.

"Your Highness..."

The silver-haired beauty beneath the star trails casually rose from the ground with a slight movement of her shoulder, turned to look at the empty-handed newcomer, and seemed lost in thought.

"Failed?"

"Ahem, something unexpected happened..."

Darius scratched his head, and then explained the situation with a embarrassed expression.

"Well, if it's him who made the move, then there's nothing surprising about it."

Pandora nodded in murmurs, her face showing no anger; instead, the corners of her lips curled up in a faint smile.

"It seems he's looking for us too."

"Please rest assured, this place is absolutely safe! With the Ainsworth family's millennia-old foundation and the cards we hold in our hands, no one can possibly break in and disrupt your plans."

Darius Ainsworth's gaze was firm and full of confidence.

However, Pandora shook her head slightly at this confidence and parted her lips slightly.

"The long years have taught me a lesson: there is never a perfect defense that can put one at ease; nor is there ever an absolutely safe fortress that can hold out until the very last moment of the plan..."

As she pondered meaningfully, the silver-haired beauty's ruby-colored eyes, gazing at the starry sky, seemed to drift into a distant dream.

"If you don't want to be on the defensive, the best defense is always offense."

"Then, should I take action?"

Darius raised his hand to his chest, bowed slightly, and when he looked up again, his slender body instantly swelled up, his rock-like muscles bulged, his upper face was covered with red and black thorn patterns, and his pupils became three. His originally decadent and slovenly face became more ferocious and murderous, and a wild and fierce aura swept over you.

However, as the physical deformities became more pronounced and the terrifying aura intensified, a sense of incongruous resistance surged from Darius's heart, causing the blazing flames behind him to flicker, sway, twist, and shatter.

Immediately afterwards, the swollen body deflated rapidly, like a punctured balloon, and the thorny patterns on its skin also shrank and disappeared. The originally slovenly and weathered face of the middle-aged man vaguely transformed into a youthful face with short black hair, blue eyes, and black-rimmed glasses.

Ugh, why did it have to happen at this time!

Darius, his body hunched over, struggled to suppress the shrinking and deforming of his body. He clutched his chest with his right hand, his forehead beaded with cold sweat as his heart convulsed and trembled with pain. His contorted face was filled with resentment.

"It seems that after all this time, your problem still hasn't been resolved..."

Pandora watched coldly, shaking her head in regret.

Darius's steel teeth sank down, cutting a bloody gash in his lips. His fists clenched, and his dark eyes were filled with determination and madness.

"Please rest assured, I will master the power you have bestowed upon me before the final battle, and perfectly compose the twilight melody, so that this decaying world may be reborn with the dawn in our hands!"

"Hmm, it sounds like a pretty good script..."

Amidst this impassioned declaration, Pandora yawned listlessly and offered her encouragement in a nonchalant manner.

"Keep going, I hope you can hold on until the final curtain."

However, deep within those smiling eyes lay a cold undertone and a profoundly uninteresting pity.

Because the person in front of me, or rather, the soul residing in this body, is completely corrupted.

Darius Ainsworth, an idealist from a thousand years ago.

Beginning a thousand years ago, this magician, who witnessed countless natural and man-made disasters and believed that humanity was living in suffering, decided to redeem mankind.

The specific method is to find Pandora's Box and open it again.

Legend has it that Pandora, the witch of calamities, opened the magic box given to her by the gods out of curiosity, releasing all the evils of the world—greed, hypocrisy, slander, jealousy, pain, and so on. This was the source of all disasters in the world, but she left the only hope that could resolve these sufferings at the bottom of the box and closed it again.

From that time onward, disasters have plagued humanity day and night, causing it to suffer.

So, theoretically, if we find Pandora's Box and open it again, the last remaining hope will be released to save this world from suffering.

Therefore, from another perspective, Pandora's Box is a wish-granting machine created by the gods in the mythological era, surpassing the Holy Grail. Moreover, it is more powerful and more perfect, and it will surely be able to build an ideal kingdom on this land.

With such ideals and aspirations in mind, Darius Ainsworth finally found the legendary Pandora's Box.

To be precise, it was the owner of the magic box who approached him and was happy to let him try to break the seal of the magic box.

The first Darius devoted his entire life and exhausted all the wisdom in the world, yet he could not unravel Pandora's Box and fulfill his wish.

However, this setback could not make a magician who had devoted his life to the pursuit give up.

In order to one day achieve his goal, Darius used his most proficient displacement magic, treating the body as a mere vessel to allow only the spirit to continue, thus sacrificing his descendants to obtain simulated immortality.

Ultimately, the ancestor of the Ainsworth family, a man who had long since died, reappeared in the world through a substitution magic that defied common sense, repeatedly usurping the bodies of his descendants to prolong his life.

But over the countless years that followed, Darius underwent numerous body replacements, and his personality and desires gradually became distorted.

Unable to extract the "hope" from Pandora's box despite his best efforts, he began to harbor obsessive thoughts.

After destruction comes rebirth!

After despair comes hope!

Since we cannot manually open Pandora's box and release hope, let's reenact the end of the world according to the myths and let Pandora's box open on its own.

That's right, even if it means destroying the world first, I want to save it myself.

This is the script he wrote, and this is the story he is going to tell.

Pandora scoffed at this "lofty ideal".

In order to perform the act of saving the world, one must first begin to destroy it;

In order to seek hope, they did not hesitate to create despair;

How twisted, how insane.