The black blade trembled incessantly in Allen’s hand.
‘Kill her, fulfill her, and set her free from these endless Shackles of Reincarnation — ‘
A voice screamed frantically deep within his mind, urging him to swing the blade that would end it all.
But at that moment, Allen seemed to suddenly remember something trivial.
In a nearly nonchalant tone, he asked, “Livia… if I said I once liked you, would you believe me?”
Livia froze.
In those hollow and resolute blue eyes that were prepared to welcome death, it was as if something had instantly thawed.
A moving crimson flush spread visibly from her slender neck, quickly staining her translucent earlobes.
She subconsciously lowered her gaze, avoiding Allen’s seemingly burning eyes.
Her voice was as soft as a whisper in a dream. “I know… but all of this… it’s too late. I’m sorry.”
“Haha…”
“Hahahaha!”
Allen suddenly burst into frantic laughter.
The sound echoed violently in the deathly silent arena, making eardrums tingle.
He laughed until he bent over, laughed until tears flowed out.
He seemed to be mocking those bastards watching the show from High Heaven, or perhaps the Feng Aotian before him who was too deep in her role—or maybe, he was mocking himself for almost letting his true feelings slip.
It was only upon hearing her answer that he completely snapped out of it.
He had almost been fooled by Livia’s near-perfect acting.
“Livia, I told you before, your acting is terrible.” Allen’s laughter stopped abruptly.
The slight warmth and struggle he had feigned were completely replaced by a bone-chilling indifference. “It seems you took my words to heart. You’ve made great progress.”
“This self-deprecating, pitiable appearance was played very well. If it weren’t for that one last line, I might have actually believed it.”
He advanced one step at a time, the tip of the Black Sword carving a piercing sound into the yellow sand, kicking up a trail of tiny sparks.
“Think about it. How could someone who has been tortured by Reincarnation Memories to the point of self-denial and who came here with a death wish for liberation have such a reaction to a deathbed confession? Since when did you have ‘shyness’ added to your character traits?”
Livia looked at him quietly. The blush on her face had not yet completely faded, but her expression had become deep and cold.
Allen was desperately stalling for time to wait for the Star Listener to save the day.
But what about her? What was the purpose of her display of true emotion?
The answer was self-evident.
She, too, was stalling for time.
Allen suddenly looked up at the “heavenly light” tearing through the dark clouds and casting down a holy pillar of radiance. His heart hammered.
She wasn’t waiting for reinforcements. She was waiting for him to step completely into her meticulously prepared trap.
Livia had a high emotional intelligence and was frighteningly smart.
Normally, she disguised herself as a normal human, so much so that no one around her discovered the insane nature hidden beneath the surface.
When she said she was an Outsider, she wasn’t wrong. All her disguises together formed the character known as “Livia von Stern.”
But the Livia Allen faced now had long since cast aside all disguises.
She had become her true self — a pure and rational beast patiently waiting for her prey to take the bait.
She had waited a long time for this moment.
Waiting for an opponent like Allen, waiting for such a carefully selected opportunity, and waiting for the greatest hunt of her life.
Allen was only able to see through her disguise because of the Black Sword in his hand.
Under the Black Sword’s Crest Suppression Mode, the encroachment of The Supreme Heaven upon reality should not have been so rapid.
However, under his suppression, the pressure emanating from Livia’s Star Emblem only grew heavier.
It was only at this moment that he realized the light piercing through the dark clouds above was not damn sunshine at all!
That was Livia’s Stellar Power!
It was continuously drawing power from the surging Supreme Heaven, quietly transforming this arena into her domain.
This was Livia’s home field.
From the first step he took into that light, he had already walked into her trap.
Her blood was the medium to drag Allen completely into the domain of The Supreme Heaven.
In other words, Allen was not in the real Knights’ Arena at all, but on a stage Livia had meticulously built for him.
This idiot. She had performed to such an extent, yet she forgot her own character traits at the very last moment.
“Shouldn’t a response that fits your character be a cold ‘I don’t like you’?” Allen analyzed calmly. “Your answer was only meant to make me strike with more peace of mind and more pain.”
“I guess if I had really rushed up just now to give you liberation, I probably would have been instantly killed by you the next second, right? Your killing intent was hidden well. Or rather, that wasn’t subjective killing intent at all, but pure combat instinct. That’s why even my Future Sight couldn’t capture that one moment of death.”
‘Livia, right now, you are being very despicable.’
Allen suddenly mobilized the holy power within his body, forcibly dispersing the Evil God’s erosion of his mind.
Then, he raised the Black Sword toward the seemingly empty sky shrouded by dark clouds, as if demonstrating against an invisible opponent.
‘Dammit, I almost got played by these bastards!’
The moment Allen’s voice fell, the expression on Livia’s face changed completely.
That shy blush became morbid and eerie. In those deep blue eyes, a thick, scorching, and insane love surged forth, nearly drowning anyone who looked.
“Ah… as expected… I really do like you, Allen de Laval.” Livia’s morbid expression was almost identical to a certain maid he knew.
“You are the only person in this world who can understand me. Marianne… she believes I am a Hero. Since that is the case, I will become her Hero.”
“A so-called Hero will always meet a fated Enemy on a fated day, and then die gloriously in battle… For a long time, I have longed for such a day to come…”
“I waited and waited, and finally, I waited for this day. I waited for you.”
She opened her arms as if to embrace the whole world. Her blood-stained white skirt trembled strangely in the windless domain.
“I can cast aside all disguises and face my destiny in my purest form. Allen, you are no ordinary person. You are a puppet of the Evil God, or… you are Evil itself.”
“And I, too, am a puppet of the Evil God. We are both guilty. Therefore, The Lord lets us meet in one Cycle of Reincarnation after another. We are destined to kill each other. Yes, it must be so.”
“After you die, you will wake up once more. But this time, you won’t escape. I will kill you here completely, and then, I will die completely. Our souls have long been targeted by them. This death will be the eternal end.”
In a tone so gentle it made one’s skin crawl, she issued the most terrifying invitation.
“Aren’t you in pain? Dying again and again… haven’t you grown tired of it all? So, let me save you. We will leave this world of suffering together and end this never-ending nightmare. We will find happiness, Marianne will find happiness, and humanity will be saved. How wonderful.”
“The Hero kills the dragon, and the Hero kills herself. This is the best ending for the story.”
Looking at Livia’s state of being immersed in self-moved fantasies of happiness, Allen actually smiled with relief.
As expected, this Livia, who looked like she was possessed, was her true self.
If she were shy like an ordinary beautiful girl or easily conquered, wouldn’t she just be a generic otome game protagonist?
She wouldn’t have any character at all.
“No,” Allen shook his head, refuting her with a nearly pitying smile. “That isn’t the best ending at all.”
Livia’s insane expression froze for a moment.
“The best ending for a story,” Allen continued to himself, his gaze drifting toward the distance as if he were truly describing a scene within reach, “Is on a meadow filled with wildflowers. You and Marianne are lying side by side, holding hands, doing nothing but watching the clouds float by.”
“No Evil God, no bullshit destiny, and only peaceful and stable happiness. Every day is ordinary and warm.”
Allen’s words completely deviated from her preset script, and a clear crack appeared in Livia’s feverish state.
What on earth was this guy babbling about?
Allen, however, was completely immersed in his own beautiful fantasy, continuing to ramble.
“It’s not like I have some special fantasy about Yuri… after all, I’m not some hardcore Yuri enthusiast. But honestly, seeing girls bonding like that is just incredibly sweet. I’m not a Yuri fanatic, but to be fair, that kind of image just makes my heart itch. It’s a kind of… well, primitive aesthetic impulse? Like seeing old friends finally reunite after years in a movie, or the feeling when a new romance quietly begins. If you could share a little kiss and get a good night’s sleep, that would be even more perfect.”
His nonsensical emotional outburst formed a bizarre contrast with the tense atmosphere of life and death surrounding them.
“…Why?” Livia’s brows furrowed tightly.
She felt like her brain was being turned into mush by Allen. “Why are you obsessed with the happiness of Marianne and me? Should you not have nothing but hate for us?!”
“No, no, no, you have a serious misunderstanding of my character role.” Allen’s smile was even more crazed than Livia’s earlier look.
“The most intense hatred often stems from unrealized love. Those who always have ‘I hate you’ on their lips are likely trapped in the ruins of love and can’t get out.”
“So, following that logic, if I were full of hatred for you, it would only prove one thing — “
Allen dragged out his tone, a near-martyr-like brilliance appearing on his face.
“I love you! I love you and Marianne and the image of you two being close!”
“Therefore, I will never allow a world where you don’t find happiness to exist! I won’t die, and you can forget about dying so easily!”
“…”
Livia was truly stunned by Allen’s twisted logic.
A look of unprecedented wavering and confusion appeared on her face, as if the solid foundation of her cognition had been pried open by a crack.
However, this moment of confusion was quickly replaced by a wave of towering rage.
“…Unforgivable.”
Her voice lowered, each word carrying a bone-chilling coldness.
“…?” Allen blinked.
“I will never forgive a bastard like you who… wantonly plays with Marianne’s feelings!”
A cold flame ignited in Livia’s deep blue pupils.
“Huh? Where did I play with them?”
Before Allen could finish his sentence, a cold blade had already silently pressed against his neck!
The speed was extreme; even his Future Sight only captured a blurred afterimage of death!
“Holy crap! Why won’t anyone let me finish speaking!”
Allen broke into a cold sweat. His body’s instinct reacted before his brain.
He retreated clumsily and violently, narrowly parrying the killing blow with his Black Sword.
This time, Livia was clearly serious.
Brilliant starlight erupted from her body, turning into streaks of blazing light visible to the naked eye.
Like living tentacles, they wrapped around her, emitting a terrifying aura capable of destroying heaven and earth.
She went all out. Her goal no longer seemed to be just defeating Allen, but to completely erase him along with this false space constructed by her power.
Allen was instantly grazed by the edge of that violent Stellar Power. Countless deep wounds appeared on his body, and blood immediately gushed out.
The intense pain made him grimace, but he no longer feigned anything.
The “Holy Power” that had been suppressed within his body finally exploded completely.
Golden flames soared into the sky from around him.
Even the Black Sword, which was supposed to isolate all power from The Supreme Heaven, began to burn fiercely with pure, blazing Holy Flame, forcibly pushing back the distorted starlight around him by several meters.
“Why? Why? Why! For what purpose did you appear before me?!”
Livia’s sword was as fast as a meteor. Each strike carried the madness of total destruction.
Her voice echoed sharply in the enclosed space, filled with anger and incomprehension after her rhythm had been completely disrupted.
Allen brandished the burning Black Sword, completely abandoning defense.
Using a style of trading injury for injury, he frantically charged into the storm-like offensive, responding with an equally crazed roar:
“Naturally, it’s to protect the purest Yuri in this world!”