Free Web NovelChapter 360 (1): Meeting Darienne Again
Two pale blades shot out and pierced through the defenses of vitality, penetrating deep into the flesh of the great dragon’s stomach. The fiendish eye in the Pale Knight’s chest radiated white light, and his torso inflated to pump white foam to his arms before injecting it into the dragon’s body.
White foam rapidly corrupted and assimilated the dragon, turning the flesh pale. The corruption spread along the blood vessels, accelerating dramatically after reaching the arteries like a wild horse being set free on the highway.
The vitality that had protected the great dragon did not resist or exterminate the white foam. The immune system treated the foam as part of the body and allowed it to run free. In only a few moments, the three-hundred-meter dragon turned white inside out.
Elemental Mantra represented the life of the Life Alliance, and the Pale Knight represented the life of the Void. Both could be traced back to the Greater Universe, or the Astral Plane. They were two branches that originated from the same source and thus didn’t contradict each other.
In fact, the Pale Knight’s life was closer to the origin, while the life of the Life Alliance was technically an imitation. The two paths drew closer and closer until they became one.
Roooar—
Senna, in great dragon form, froze mid-air as a large volume of white foam poured out of her nose and mouth. In her terrified eyes, her irises transformed into writhing white tentacles and engulfed the black pupils.
The dozens of dragon heads surrounding her stopped breathing, and the energy orbs in their mouths popped like bubbles. The magic circles vanished while the dragon heads disintegrated into raw elemental energy.
Senna’s relentless attacks halted at that moment.
The green dragon’s body melted into white foam, seeping out of the cracks in the Life Armor in large volumes and overflowing like waterfalls, cascading to the ground. In no time, the Life Armor became an empty shell in the shape of a great dragon, while the dragon’s flesh and blood had fallen to the ground entirely.
Twisted white foam stirred and swirled before condensing into a human form, becoming the Pale Knight.
William shuddered. He knew that the Wayne of the surface world was different from his counterpart in the inner world, but he didn’t expect Wayne to be like this. What was even more surprising was that William felt nothing for the inner Wayne while he had fallen for the surface Wayne at first sight. Therefore...
Was this form more aligned with his taste? That can’t be!
William couldn’t believe it. Shaking his head, he assured himself, “Don’t panic. It’s not a big deal. While it’s hideous, it’s beautiful in a powerful way. The Goddess of Darkness must have seen this face and fallen...”
“Yes, that’s right. My taste is as advanced as the goddess’s. It’s a divine taste!”
William tried and failed to convince himself.
The Life Armor shaped to the great dragon’s body collapsed. Wayne had only stolen Senna’s body and not her thoughts. Thus, she now needed an empty shell for her thoughts to inhabit, just like Anastasia.
It was an easy task to the Nature Knight, armed with Elemental Mantra. Senna manipulated the divine artifact with her thoughts and forged a human body with the four elements.
A human body could be emulated, but not a Dragonblood’s. It was beyond her current capabilities.
Senna emerged in the air in a white Life Armor, holding Elemental Mantra in its original form. Her face was pale like paper, completely drained of color.
A mage’s level was rooted in their balance. The new body didn’t match her thoughts, and with her balance disrupted, her power was greatly diminished. While her strong thoughts and mana could create tides and oceans, she could no longer use destructive draconic magic.
Gods paid little attention to the inner world, so divine arts were inaccessible here. Regular faith magic was mediocre in comparison, which was why the world of magic was much weaker overall in the inner world.
“Pope Senna, as you can see, I came from the Void.”
Wayne’s large chest eye murmured into Senna’s ear with rippling voices. She didn’t want to hear him, worried that her thoughts would be corrupted, but the whispers were impossible to avoid and disperse. No matter what she tried, she couldn’t stop hearing them clearly.
Senna felt like she was going mad. She grabbed Elemental Mantra and rushed into the distance.
If she couldn’t beat him, she would run. No hesitation.
After a flash of golden light, a miniature sun reconstituted before Senna. Eyes red, William raised his arms with a vicious grin.
“Piss off!” Senna snarled.
“Nature Knight, it’s time to pay your debt!” William growled murderously, resembling how Auston had looked when facing off with the Death Knight. Following William’s battle cry, a golden sphere emerged, radiating overwhelming light.
A mushroom cloud for you!
Golden shockwaves swept outward in all directions. Senna raised Elemental Mantra to cut through the incoming currents. After a brief moment of stalemate, her body plunged uncontrollably. With a boom, dust shot into the sky from her landing site.
Using Elemental Mantra like a crutch, Senna got to her feet in the large crater. Scorching red lava dripped slowly from her Life Armor. She looked up at the Sun Knight, who had cut off the escape route to the sky, and then at the Pale Knight, who was waiting for her at the edge of the crater. Her face darkened.
She couldn’t win, nor could she run away.
Was spending a month with Wayne her only option?
Senna narrowed her crimson eyes with resentful murderous intent. She would rather meet a spectacular death than submit to the enemies and endure torment and humiliation. She knew very well that William and Anastasia would never let her off the hook with a slap on the wrist after she had slaughtered the Church of Sun, wiped out most of the Church of Darkness, and killed Pope Ivan with her own hands.
Even if she surrendered, death would be her only ending.
If she was going to die either way, and surrender would lead to humiliation, it was better to fight to her death. She might even drag one of her enemies down to hell with her if she was lucky.
With red light surging in her eyes, Senna rushed toward Wayne with Elemental Mantra, launching a localized bombardment with the four elements.
Running with the wind elements, she suddenly accelerated manifold as she cut a cold line through the air with Elemental Mantra, thrusting the blade toward the large eye in the Pale Knight’s chest. The blade penetrated Wayne easily.
He hadn’t resisted. Instead, he looked at Senna’s twisted, demonic face with a complicated expression. His hands transformed into a heavy hammer as he raised them, and then the hammer swung toward Senna.
The impact on her Life Armor sent Senna flying through the air. Golden light descended to intercept her, thrusting Dawn Doctrine at her at a speed that exceeded Senna’s perception.
Golden light hit the ground. Dawn Doctrine had pierced through the Life Armor and plunged into the depths of the large crater with a rumbling impact. William held his spear downward to pin Senna to the ground. The tip of the spear, buried in the Life Armor, emitted powerful golden light and unleashed explosive shockwaves from within Senna’s body like a small sun.
At the same time, golden light shot out from Senna’s nose, mouth, and ears as Elemental Mantra jabbed toward William’s chest for mutual destruction.
A hand grabbed the blade from the side. The Pale Knight had stopped Senna’s last attack.
Boom!
Boom, boom, boom!
Deafening explosions continued. The screen of golden light that connected the sky and the land soared repeatedly as terrible energy poured out without reservation. The crater deepened further and further at a rapid speed, the intense heat melting the ground to form intersecting rivers of lava. They streamed into the crater and filled it halfway.
The Nature Knight, armed with Elemental Mantra, far exceeded the other chosen knights in vitality. William detonated more than a dozen mushroom clouds with all his power and still wasn’t able to erase her thoughts fully.
At that moment, Senna realized that she couldn’t kill William before she died, so she targeted Wayne instead. If not for the stranger who had appeared out of nowhere, she wouldn’t have ended up dying, and her effort wouldn’t have become obsolete.
She should’ve held a spot above this world as the most powerful chosen knight, freed from the world of negativity.
She resented the cruelty of her fate!
She prayed that the story in the surface world was the opposite of that of the inner world, and her other self would kill Wayne in person.
She had nowhere to run to and was unwilling to die at William’s hands, so she detonated her remaining thoughts, lifting her restrictions on Elemental Mantra while letting go of the hilt.
“Moonlight Knight, get a taste of this!”
Senna’s eyes blazed as her thoughts exploded. Before the world plunged into darkness, the last thing she saw was Wayne gripping Elemental Mantra and staggering.
It was worth it to drag someone down with her before she went.
Boom!
Two figures jumped out of the viscous lake of lava. William had just exerted his revenge, exhausting his thoughts beyond his limit in the process. Dawn Doctrine fell from his numb hand, and he fell to his knees, tears running down uncontrollably. Remembering the followers of Sun who had met a tragic death, he growled with the joy of avenging them while he bawled like an oversized child.
The Pale Knight turned back into Wayne. He put Elemental Mantra away with a wave and let out a drawn-out sigh at the lava lake as it cooled and solidified.
He had never liked the inner world, and now he disliked it even more.
Aside from Senna’s death, William was also weighed down by a deep hatred that he showed no resemblance with the carefree Vera he knew. Moreover...
Wayne turned toward Londan. Auston and Megan hadn’t shown up even after such a spectacular battle had taken place. It seemed that Megan had followed Auston to the death after all.
The heavy weight on his chest made it difficult to breathe.
Patting his face, he put on a bright smile and put an arm around William’s neck. “You avenged them. You protected something. Pick yourself up. Everyone wants you to be happy.”
“I don’t want revenge. I just want them back...” William cried with tears and snot running down his bearded face, a bubble coming out of his nostrils. He looked ridiculous.
Wayne didn’t find anything funny about it. He patted William on the shoulder and sat down beside him.
The Ocean of Mist existed in Route 114, beyond which was the seal site of Thoggua, an ancient god’s vassal. William’s parents and Anastasia’s body were both there.
Since an ancient god’s vassal was involved, Wayne didn’t know if what he wanted to find would still be there. To avoid giving William false hope and leading him to greater despair, Wayne had kept it to himself.
He definitely wasn’t going to tell William now. Otherwise, if they didn’t find William’s family there, William would break down further.
Wayne would like to be William’s support and give him the drive to look at the future, but he couldn’t. He was destined to leave the inner world; he couldn’t make any promises.
He cursed at the wretched world in his head. Looking up at the mirror in the sky, he wanted nothing more than to shatter it.
His desire for power peaked.
Half an hour later, Anastasia and Filomina found their way here. As soon as Anastasia learned that Senna had died, her puppet shell cracked.
Without revenge driving her forward, her exhausted thoughts longed for nothing but release.
“Not so fast,” Wayne said slowly. “I’m heading to Route 114, where your corrupted body may be. You can live again.”
Anastasia shook her head. “I’m too tired to keep going. This is a good resting place.”
Wayne opened his mouth, but didn’t know what to say when he couldn’t promise her anything.
“Wayne, is it? If what you said about my surface world self ending up with you is true, I hope you treat her well. She’s lonely...”
She scattered her thoughts. The magitech puppet fell apart, and the components scattered everywhere.
Wayne’s heart spasmed and burned with frustration. When he saw the depressed look on William’s and Filomina’s faces, he cheerfully cracked two hellish jokes.
Whatever happened, they should head to Route 114. William would cheer up as long as Cushing and Carter were there.
The three of them walked along the highway, with a dusty, apocalyptic wasteland serving as their backdrop.
This world had no future.
