Free Web Novel“Eh... Bruce... sir?”
Space shattered. Black flame vanished.
Only after everything returned to calm did Afrella finally wake from the shock of what had just happened.
As an observer, she had also followed Muen and seen those images ordinary people could scarcely imagine. She had seen the existence beyond the sky, seen the heavens tear open and the earth collapse, and she had heard Gaius and Muen debate the world, humanity, and sin.
She still did not understand. Those things were far too complicated for her.
She was only an observer.
A powerless observer.
So when the scene had just returned to this small safe house, before she could even understand what exactly had happened, she only heard a faint, magnificent bell toll. Then the image flashed.
And Mr. Bruce disappeared.
“Mr. Bruce... where are you...?”
Afrella searched instinctively. After everything she had experienced, she had long since come to regard Muen as her pillar. If Muen was there, then even if this was the imperial palace of the royal father she feared so deeply, she would dare charge in without the slightest hesitation.
But the moment Muen disappeared, she panicked.
“Mr. Bruce, you...”
“Stop looking.”
As though unable to endure the child’s clamor, Gaius lightly moved his hand, letting a few wisps of dust scatter from between his fingers.
“He is already dead.”
“What?”
Afrella froze where she stood. “No, impossible. How could Mr. Bruce... die?”
Death was a word she knew very well.
Because several years ago, when she was still young and tender, she had already experienced the deaths of many people.
Yet now, to her, it also felt impossibly unfamiliar.
Because no matter what, she could not connect that word to the omnipotent Mr. Bruce, who had saved her hundreds, thousands of times.
“Impossible? Heh. There is nothing impossible. Everyone in this world can die. He can. I can as well.”
Gaius laughed contemptuously.
“So what if that one stands behind him? Before such a righteous cause as the world itself, an individual life is just that insignificant. Besides, perhaps that one truly does not care so much. To her, this is merely another failed experiment. In certain respects, she is far more heartless than I am.”
“Mr. Bruce... so easily...”
“It was just that easy.”
Gaius did not think this was anything remarkable.
In the end, he was only a weak little thing.
No matter how he struggled, before an absolute gap in power, he could not possibly stir up any waves.
As for some backup plan, some scheme or trick?
Heh. He had crushed even his soul. What backup plan could he still have? What scheme or trick?
Physical elimination was, after all, the most direct method of handling things in this world.
“Mr. Bruce... is really dead?”
Afrella’s body swayed, and she nearly fell.
No matter how much she refused to believe it, the truth was right before her eyes. She had no choice but to believe it.
She was not that naïve.
And so, in an instant, an intense pain spread from the deepest part of her heart, almost tearing her entire heart to pieces.
Tears surged out, as though draining away all her strength with them.
But after swaying, she forced herself to stand straight. To stand firm.
She could not fall.
Mr. Bruce was dead, but this matter had not ended.
She had to take his place, complete what he had not completed, save this country, and save those pitiful people.
She was Afrella. The princess of this country, Afrella.
“Heh. Another ignorant fool who does not know the height of the heavens or the depth of the earth, trying to resist my great cause?”
Sensing Afrella’s resolve, Gaius sighed and shook his head.
Muen Campbell was one thing. His potential, his identity, his courage—all of them had been worthy of Gaius looking upon him more highly.
But what could this little girl do?
Or rather, what did she think she could do?
Always believing there was some slim chance of survival. Always struggling here pointlessly. Yet she did not know that this was nothing more than a trap by which fate pushed her into an even more terrifying abyss.
Look. Was this not another manifestation of humanity’s arrogance?
This arrogance would inevitably invite disaster.
“Don’t... don’t get cocky.”
Afrella clenched her teeth, forcing herself to stop trembling.
“No matter what, your plan has already failed. Father... my royal father is already dead. You can no longer use him to control the people of this city!”
Through her connection with Muen, she had seen some images, and with Gaius’s display just now, she roughly understood the Salvation Society’s plan.
And in their plan, Saint Peron V was undoubtedly an extremely important link.
Without him, in his identity as “King,” using the grand barrier to “command” the millions of souls manipulated by Ancient Magic, this sacrifice certainly could not have been completed so easily.
Muen was dead.
But Saint Peron V was dead too.
The Salvation Society’s plan... had failed.
“You think... that is possible?”
Gaius smiled without really smiling. Although Afrella was no different from an insect in his eyes, he appeared especially patient, and even explained on his own initiative.
“Do you think that now that I have personally made a move, I would still allow the plan to fail?”
“What do you mean?” Afrella’s small face stiffened.
“Have you forgotten? I made a deal with this king.”
Gaius loosely clenched his hand.
Then a certain dark golden radiance gathered in his palm. That radiance was majestic and noble, as if gazing down upon all living beings from some lofty height. For an instant, Afrella actually felt the urge to kneel and submit.
“This... could this be...”
“The authority of the King. With this, even without the so-called King, we can still manipulate the souls of this city’s people. In fact, because this authority affects the entire country, there will be even more room for us to maneuver in the future. Perhaps, in the end, the entire Kingdom will fall into my palm and become the first great step in this plan to cleanse humanity.”
Gaius spoke with joy and sincerity.
“So strictly speaking, I should thank you. If you, his daughter, had not made him die in such grief and rage... how could I have obtained such a thing? After all, this is one of the few things in the world that cannot be seized by violence.”
“...”
Afrella opened her mouth. Beneath her dazed gaze, she instinctively looked at her royal father’s corpse on the ground, filled with disbelief.
She had not expected that the thing her royal father had handed over at the very end would be such an important existence.
It concerned the existence of the entire country. It was the foundation of a king’s existence.
Yet her own royal father had taken it out and traded it away.
For that so-called status as king of the New World.
For his ridiculous desire for power.
She wondered whether his soul knew that the New World from Gaius’s mouth was empty, without even a single subject.
What king was there, then?
“Enough. Everything has already ended, whether this farce or anything else.”
“Let the final curtain of the New World’s descent open with the soul of you, a princess of the Kingdom.”
Gaius did not want to waste any more time. He raised his hand and aimed it at Afrella.
Afrella instinctively stepped back. Her body touched the wall behind her, and her hand tightly gripped a wooden sword.
The things her royal father had left behind were still there on the wall. Those things could easily kill Donna, but against Gaius... Afrella knew they were useless.
The two were completely different concepts.
All she had left was courage.
But courage, too, had no meaning.
“Farewell,” Gaius said in sorrowful parting.
Afrella did nothing else. She had no time to do anything else. She could only squeeze her eyes tightly shut.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Bruce... I still... can’t do anything.”
...
...
“Hm?”
One second.
Two seconds.
Ten seconds.
Even more time passed.
Yet unexpectedly, death did not arrive.
Instead, Afrella heard a startled sound from Gaius.
She did not understand what had happened. Quietly, she opened her eyes.
The light of the world illuminated everything in her vision. She saw Gaius still standing there, still maintaining the posture of reaching out his hand to erase her completely.
But the outcome of death had not happened.
Because a wisp of swaying black flame was suspended in front of Afrella.
That wisp of black flame was so tiny, only a weak spark.
Yet it was also so clear. In Afrella’s eyes, that profound darkness was brighter than the light of an entire world.
“This is... Mr. Bruce’s fire?”
The person was dead.
Yet the flame remained?
Afrella could not understand. Even Gaius could not understand.
Because he knew that Muen Campbell truly should have died. Even his soul had been crushed by him. A fifth-rank brat could not possibly play some trick of shedding his shell under his very nose.
Then this thing...
“Still playing these petty tricks after death? You think this can stop me?”
Gaius sneered and suddenly stepped forward.
A massive roar tore through everything. Gaius actually abandoned all hesitation and crushed forward with his own powerful realm.
But as that heavy footstep echoed through the safe house, then came to an abrupt stop, Gaius’s expression suddenly stiffened.
After pondering briefly... he retreated again.
Then his icy gaze fell on Afrella.
Just as he had said, this tiny cluster of flame absolutely could not stop him.
But what stopped him was not this black flame.
It was...
“The grand barrier?”
At this moment, Afrella finally understood something as well and lowered her head.
She saw two semicircular control cores floating up under the manipulation of some power. Then they joined together, fitting seamlessly.
Two became one.
The control of the grand barrier was finally unified here.
Black flame could not stop the dignified Holy Lord of Salvation.
But the grand barrier that had existed for several hundred years, and that had been created specifically to protect this city and this country from the very beginning, could.
“Why is it with you?”
Gaius’s brows furrowed tightly. Of course he would not forget such an important thing, so when he confirmed Saint Peron V’s death, he had also confirmed the half of the grand barrier core in his hand.
As long as he had that half, it did not matter even if Muen Campbell... or this young girl had the remaining half, because they absolutely could not outlast him, who possessed the authority of the King.
But if it was whole, that was different.
That grand barrier, which could be used to divide out the entire city and which also occupied an important position in his plan, would stand completely opposed to him and become a stone blocking his path.
“Could it be...”
Gaius suddenly remembered. When he killed Muen Campbell just now, he had indeed moved first, but that bell had still tolled.
The ripple of time had, in the end, still been stirred.
But that did not seem to have been a reversal?
