My youth story cannot be a knight war

Unknowingly, Xu Guoliang had reached his limit and was no longer able to stop the arrival of the "ultimate darkness".

After losing his obstruction, the starry sky was ignited by blazing flames. The energy belonging to a higher dimension eroded the world. The dark mist in the center of the fire ring surged and stretched, surging downwards.

Xu Guoliang was located right below this ring of fire. In no time, the surging darkness would engulf him.

Looking up at the darkness descending above his head, there was no fear or anxiety in his eyes, only calmness and relief.

"Soon, my brothers will come to see you. You won't be alone."

Xu Guoliang slowly closed his eyes and spoke softly.

"Zaimokuza."

——"So, you just accept your fate?"

"!???"

The cold and indifferent words rang in Xu Guoliang's ears, causing him to suddenly open his eyes, his pupils full of astonishment.

And then, an invisible and intangible circular wave passed over his body and hit the boundless darkness that was descending head-on.

The moment this wave swept through the darkness, the darkness that was originally descending with an unstoppable momentum came to a standstill, never moving an inch, solidified vividly in the universe, blending perfectly with the pitch-black hue.

At the same time, a voice that no one could hear rang out in the void that was more hidden than darkness.

『Time vent』

"唳——!!!"

In an endless dark space, a sacred golden giant bird spread its wings and let out a cry that echoed throughout everything. Golden flames erupted from its body, igniting the entire space.

The flame covered everything, but everything engulfed did not burn. Instead, after being attached to the flame, it fell into an infinitely stretched stillness.

The time of the world stopped at this moment.

33. Glow of Hope (4K)

"My story ends."

"Next, it's your story."

……

The world came to a standstill.

Whether it was the collapsing mental space or the boundless darkness that was surging down and about to swallow everything, all of this fell into infinite stagnation at this moment and could no longer make any progress.

This is an indescribable sight and power, like a torrent about to rush into the sea, but the front end of the wave freezes in mid-air, and the entire forward trend falls into a paradox.

And when the heavy pressure that was always on him disappeared, Xu Guoliang was unable to react. Staring at the still world in front of him, his eyes were still a little dazed, as if he had just woken up from a dream.

The pitch-black energy retreated from his body one by one like scabs. The stinging pain from the wounds was like needles piercing his mind, and at the same time, it made Xu Guoliang suddenly wake up.

“Who is it!???”

Without caring about the injuries on his body, Xu Guoliang looked left and right as his head shook violently. Compared to the feeling of having survived the disaster, there was more unspeakable horror in the depths of his pupils.

Who is it? Who is it? Who is it!?

Who on earth was this person? How could he know of his existence? And even have the ability to take over and stop the arrival of the "Ultimate Darkness"?

And this ability - there is no way it can be wrong, this is the power of time!

This was completely different from the way he had previously blocked the "Ultimate Darkness". It wasn't a blockage on a conceptual level, but rather a direct pull into a paradoxical circle on the temporal level, infinitely stretching the moment of its arrival with the power of time.

"Ultimate Darkness" is a power from a higher dimension. It has no chance of winning against even the time-based abilities head-on. However, to be able to achieve this level in a way that is almost like using a bug, the standard of power required to succeed must at least be comparable to that of an existence with ultimate power.

In other words, this is an existence whose strength is at least comparable to Zaimokuza, Daguba, and Gamio who have reached the "Ultimate" realm.

Moreover, with this move alone, the power displayed by the opponent is enough to be compared with himself, and even surpass him in some specific aspects. He had never noticed such a powerful existence before, but the opponent knew of his existence?

The meaning behind this is too profound to contemplate. Thinking about it carefully is enough to make one feel creepy, like a poisonous snake crawling along the cervical spine.

Perhaps the only thing Xu Guoliang can be thankful for is that, based on the current situation, the person who possesses such power is someone who stands on the same side as him, otherwise he would not come forward to provide help when he is about to be unable to continue.

"Who are you? Why are you helping me?"

Countless questions lingered in his heart, and finally condensed into these words that came out of Xu Guoliang's mouth. He stared intently at the boundless darkness above, as if he was staring at the eyes of some people hidden in the darkness.

"It doesn't matter who I am."

The voice continued to ring out of thin air, its tone as cold and indifferent as before, but the straightforward tone, like a typewriter, was too blank, making it impossible to infer the other party's identity based on the details of the tone.

"Now, I have blocked the 'Ultimate Darkness' for you, but I can't hold it off for long. At most, I can only hold it off for about an hour, as defined by physics."

"So this window period is the only opportunity. The problem now is not who I am, but you."

After a second of silence, the voice pressed on.

"Are you planning to give up just like that?"

"if not?"

With his fists clenched, Xu Guoliang, who was half-kneeling, now didn't even have the strength to repair his injuries. He leaned on Glyutidehed and answered the voice's question with a low rhetorical question.

"I no longer have the strength to hold on any longer. The person I was given hope for has also lost... I don't blame him, but I no longer see any hope of winning."

With a self-deprecating smile, Xu Guoliang said with a dim look in his eyes.

"In this situation, tell me what else can I do?"

"You seem desperate."

"...I don't know who you are, but you seem to be the type who likes to talk nonsense. Otherwise, why would I ask this?"

When he raised his head again, Xu Guoliang's voice was a little hoarse, perfectly reflecting his current inner emotions.

"What a coward."

The voice gave a vicious evaluation in a calm tone. After hearing it, Xu Guoliang's eyes twitched violently and he responded unhappily.

"You sound really good, don't you? Then come on!"

"I'm already in bed, so you can talk to me alive now, and you owe me your life, so I will ask for it from you later, you'd better remember this."

"Because I won't ask for your opinion then."

These two plain words choked Xu Guoliang. His face, which looked pale due to excessive blood loss, began to turn red due to anger, and this time half of his face began to twitch.

"Let's skip this meaningless conversation without any useful information. You're still too young and inexperienced, and your understanding of true despair is still limited. This emotion will only stagnate and hinder your progress, and it won't provide any help in changing the world or your destiny."

"Put aside all the despair and decadence in your heart. There is no room for these boring emotions now. Use all your wisdom to think, because hope may sometimes be hidden on the other side of despair. Light and darkness have always existed as one. Where there is despair, there is always a way out."

The voice continued, and the next sentence the other party said made Xu Guoliang's body suddenly stiffen.

"Although I don't really believe it, there are indeed two hopes for changing this fate. Zaimokuza is the second one, but you are the first one. The second hope also comes from you."

"And now you have become the only hope. This hope is hidden in the book that controls your driver. This driving book is a page in the devil's book that records everything. It holds both the disaster of world destruction and the dawn of salvation."

"Perhaps it was to cope with everything that happened that Shenshan gave you this book. He believes you have the potential to change your fate... To think that just picking an ordinary, unrelated person can change the world, that meddling man is as naive as ever."

“…Who are you???”

Hearing this voice calmly telling his biggest secret, Xu Guoliang was so horrified that he couldn't describe it. He clasped the Book of Controlling All Living Beings on the driver tightly with his right hand and asked subconsciously according to his inner doubts.

"I've already said that my identity is meaningless now. You can treat me as a ghost who knows something."

The voice continued.

"This story was started by Zaimokuza, but it was also started by you. You have the responsibility to guide this story to its conclusion."

"Remember, the power to change your destiny is now in your hands."

After saying this, the voice disappeared from his ears, leaving Xu Guoliang alone in this silent world.

"Hello? Hello!"

After shouting twice without receiving any response, Xu Guoliang gritted his teeth, confirming that the man had left.

He lowered his head to look at the driver on his waist, and stroked the book on it that represented his dream with his right hand, his eyes complicated.

Is this book both my dream and the last hope of this world?

Thinking back to what the voice had just said, Xu Guoliang frowned deeply and began to recall the true message of this driving book.

The Book of Myriad Living Beings is a fragment of the Book of Omniscience and Omnipotence. It is a book that was transformed after absorbing one's own emotions and personality traits. Its function is to observe the existence of various possible worlds and replace one's own consciousness with the world line isotope. It can be used to train the user's combat qualities and simulate the results of all actions in various world lines.

These two functions are what Xu Guoliang is most familiar with, because he has already mastered them to the fullest, and the number of world lines he has observed has exceeded five digits. As a result, his combat skills have been improved from that of a liberal arts college student who could not even beat a goose to a level comparable to that of a modern soldier king. If he were in ancient times, he would probably be able to come up with a record like "Yuliang's bravery is unparalleled throughout the ages."

To be honest, if he had not been forced by the situation and had not been in the mood, he might have already experienced what it felt like to have colorful flags fluttering with the help of one of the functions. When it comes to personal desires, Xu Guoliang has always been devout like a believer, and in this regard, he is willing to regard Sato Kazuma as his spiritual mentor.

What's wrong with a man being lustful? I just want to have a harem!

As a result, he never had a harem in the end. Instead, he saw the people he cared about die again and again, which almost made him fall into autism. Then he relied on the third function of erasing memory to ensure that he did not become a crazy person.

The remaining function is to be able to show the observed world line images to others in various forms of carriers, absorb the power of faith generated by others in the process, use these powers of faith to accelerate the collapse speed of the wave function of the observed world line, and also use it to strengthen itself, making the power after transformation even stronger.

It was precisely with this fifth function that Xu Guoliang was able to hold on until now under the "Ultimate Darkness", and then -

"……and many more!"

Thinking of this, Xu Guoliang's eyes suddenly widened uncontrollably, and his pupils slowly contracted.

...If these powers can be used to strengthen oneself, can they be used to strengthen others?

For example, the current Zaimokuza!

He suddenly lowered his head, his eyes fixed on the driving book at his waist, and Xu Guoliang's eyes flickered with surprise and doubt.

Will it succeed? If we rely on the power of faith we have stored now, can we make Zaimokuza even stronger?

However, when he thought about how he had squandered almost all of his stored power of faith in order to block the "Ultimate Darkness", a dark color filled his eyes again.

How much can it be strengthened with just the remaining power of faith?

Finally, Xu Guoliang decided to give it a try.

Because no matter what, this might really be the only way to break through this desperate situation. Although it is still unknown whether this can truly prevent the arrival of the "Ultimate Darkness", at least we must first overcome the difficulty of Daguba, who has become a false god.

Touching the pages of the book of control, Xu Guoliang closed his eyes and activated his ability to find out how much remaining power of faith he had.

The next second, he immediately opened his eyes, and incredible colors appeared in his eyes.

"This, this is-"

The blue light lit up, illuminating Xu Guoliang's eyes, shining brightly like the return of light.

……

"..."

Hikigaya Hachiman was half-kneeling in the messy classroom, his head lowered and his body shaking slightly.

The shaking was due to pain. A pitch-black color appeared out of thin air on his exposed skin, winding and climbing like a venomous snake tattoo, spreading across his body at a speed visible to the naked eye. It also brought with it a violent feeling of flesh being torn apart, like being cut repeatedly by a thousand blades.

There is only one punishment in the world that can describe this kind of pain: "Lingchi".

This is the price of using one's own strength to block the "ultimate darkness". The pain that Xu Guoliang had endured before was now fully reflected on Hikigaya, and even more so.

However, this was a spontaneous physiological reaction of this body under this pain. When it was fed back to his own mind, it could not change Hikigaya's expression at all. He still looked as indifferent as Song Yan.

Because he had experienced too much similar pain, this level of pain could no longer cause Hikigaya to react, and his spiritual realm was even more solid than the foundation of the earth.

When these dark lines were about to engulf his face, the golden flame ignited from his body again. Under the burning of this flame, the speed of the erosion of these dark energies suddenly stopped and slowly faded away, revealing Hikigaya's fair face.

But this can only suppress it at best, and cannot completely eradicate it. Although these energies are now temporarily suppressed by Hikigaya using his own power, when this power weakens, it will backfire on him like a group of poisonous snakes hidden in a swamp, and completely devour his own existence.

At the same time, in the confrontation between the two energies of fire and darkness, Hikigaya's body began to emit a distorted particle stream from the fingertips of his right hand. The shape of his palm gradually began to become blurred in the dissipation of the particle stream, and this phenomenon was still spreading to the entire body at a slow speed.

"...It seems that the consumption is more severe than expected."

Blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. He raised his right hand, which was entangled in the particle flow, and looked around. As Hikigaya muttered to himself, blood flowed from his mouth in streams, staining his white shirt red.

This is a sign of collapse. Even if the mind is fine, this overly fragile body cannot withstand the conflict between these two high-energy levels.

When the limit is reached, Hikigaya Hachiman will completely disappear from the world.

However, it was "Hikigaya Hachiman" who disappeared, not the current Hikigaya Hachiman, because he had completely borne the price for the latter.

"Don't die. It's not your time to die yet."