“I don’t understand what you’re babbling about!”
Within Livia’s indignant voice was a sense of shame and anger born from her mind being completely disturbed — something even she hadn’t yet realized.
“It’s only right that you don’t understand! If you could understand, would you still be a pure Yuri?” Allen retorted righteously.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Golden Saint Flame and brilliant Starlight collided violently within this frozen domain.
Every clash erupted into a storm of energy powerful enough to tear through space.
The Black Sword in Allen’s hand burned with holy fire.
His moves were broad and powerful, each strike cutting precisely and ruthlessly toward the nodes and weak points where starlight flowed around Livia’s body.
Meanwhile, Livia’s Rapier transformed into ten thousand streaks of flowing light. Like a violent storm, she enveloped Allen from all directions.
However, this seemingly life-and-death, incredibly fierce slaughter presented a strange sense of balance and harmony.
Every time Allen’s Saint Flame burned Livia’s body, although it brought intense pain, it felt more like a painful but necessary exorcism ritual.
It forcibly stripped away and purified the filth belonging to the Evil God within her bloodline.
Every time Livia’s starlight sliced through Allen’s body and tore his flesh, it immediately triggered a crazy backlash of that warm, holy power, causing his wounds to wriggle and heal at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Between them, a strange symbiotic relationship of checks and balances seemed to have formed; neither could truly kill the other.
To the current Livia, this evenly matched, no-holds-barred battle actually brought an unprecedented sense of thumping excitement and pleasure.
The stronger Allen became, the more accurately he could break her moves, and the more he could withstand her storm-like attacks to deliver sharp counterattacks, the higher the excitement and joy in her heart rose.
In those azure eyes, mad love and pure battle intent intertwined, making her entire being radiate a dangerous and fatal charm.
She began to enjoy it.
She enjoyed the feeling of being able to completely let go, no longer having to pretend to be an elegant and noble Knight, no longer having to carry the heavy shackles of ‘Justiciar’, and only needing to follow her instincts to battle, to destroy, and to conquer.
‘Ah… what a strange feeling… Is this… happiness?’ a voice deep inside her whispered softly.
She hated the life scripts that had already been written in those past cycles of reincarnation.
She hated that image of a ‘Hero’ who was always correct, always glorious, and always solitary.
She longed for freedom and craved to break free from all restraints, whether they were from her family, fate, or… the ones she had set for herself.
Only now, in this hearty and unreserved battle, did she touch the boundary of ‘freedom’ for the first time and feel the true thumping sensation called ‘happiness’.
However, this unprecedented sense of ‘happiness’ seemed… inseparable from the man before her.
This realization forced her to start facing the complex and chaotic whirlpool of emotions in her heart.
Her feelings for Allen had perhaps long surpassed the simple definition of ‘opponent’ or ‘arch-enemy’.
They were ‘companions’ who had experienced the destruction and restart of 999 cycles together.
They were the only soulmates who shared those despairing memories.
He was the only existence who could see through all her disguises and even force out her most real, most unsightly side.
Although they had very little interaction in past cycles, that heavy destiny of jointly bearing the pain of the world’s destruction had unknowingly bound their souls tightly together long ago.
She had only truly and belatedly remembered everything this Sunday. But he had already been carrying this despair alone, struggling to survive for nearly 1,000 times.
In comparison, she had the power to destroy heaven and earth, yet her heart was so fragile it verged on collapse under repeated blows.
As for Allen, he was clearly an ordinary person without the strength to truss a chicken in the past, yet his heart was strong enough to face death time and again, and even… confront the gods?
A strong impulse suddenly arose in Livia’s heart that surprised even herself — an impulse to depend on him.
Perhaps, only in front of this man, this man who could stand on equal footing with her and understand all her madness and pain, could she completely take off all her masks and go back to being the real, flesh-and-blood self who could cry, laugh, feel anger, and feel jealousy.
It was Allen who had completely liberated the heavy, deep-sea-like morbid emotions deep within her heart that even she had always suppressed and feared.
However, unlike Livia’s outward frenzy and internal turbulence, Allen’s heart was currently in a state of absolute rational, almost divine calm.
While calmly responding to Livia’s offensive, he looked at the Protagonist before him, who was being toyed with by fate, with a hint of pity.
In his eyes, she was never some Feng Aotian destined by heaven.
She was just an ordinary girl forced onto a stage, having to use powerful strength to cover up the immense pain and confusion in her heart.
‘God loves the world… perhaps that is the feeling?’ Such a thought flashed through Allen’s mind.
As the battle continued, Livia gradually noticed something wrong with her body.
The wound on her shoulder, pierced by Allen’s Black Sword, had not only failed to heal under her Stellar Power but instead transmitted bursts of strange, warm, and comfortable sensations.
A pure and peaceful power was slowly injecting into her body through the wound.
The noisy whispers of the Evil God in her mind, which tempted her to fall, were gradually weakening and fading away.
Those distorted battle pleasures and destructive desires that made her intoxicated were also being stripped away bit by bit by an inexplicable sense of peace.
She became clearer and calmer.
And this sudden clarity and peace actually made her feel an unprecedented fear.
It was like a person who had long relied on anesthetics suddenly having the drugs withdrawn, forced to face the bloody and painful reality.
“No… Don’t…” Her sword stance began to grow messy, and her voice carried a hint of pleading. “I don’t want to turn back into Livia von Stern… Let me… let me continue fighting… I…”
She truly fell into a state of confusion. Once she lost this ‘madness’ used to numb herself, and lost the ‘power’ and ‘goal’ bestowed by the Evil God, how was she supposed to face this cold and despairing world?
She had long grown tired of that mask of a ‘Hero’, and she could no longer wear it.
“Marianne is waiting for you,” Allen said in a deep voice, choosing the right moment to parry her slightly scattered blade.
“But you don’t have to go back to that cold Stern house. Come home with me. The Laval House is enough to protect you and Marianne.”
Livia’s movements suddenly froze. She looked at Allen in surprise, her blue eyes gradually regaining their clarity, filled with disbelief.
“Is this… a confession?”
“You said before that if I won, you would be at my disposal. This is my request.”
“…You haven’t won yet.”
Livia turned her face away slightly, a very faint blush appearing on her cheeks.
Her voice regained some of its usual coldness, but the slightly trembling tone still exposed the waves of emotion in her heart.
The Evil God’s control over her was weakening. Perhaps they had finally discovered Allen’s little tricks and decided not to watch from the sidelines anymore.
An even more terrifying, more viscous malice descended from the high heavens, attempting to drag Allen completely into that chaotic domain!
At the same time, Allen suddenly noticed the shadows beneath his feet spreading in an abnormal way, faintly protecting him and Livia.
Realizing what was happening, Allen immediately roared toward the empty sky, “Old bastard, since you’re here, stop watching the show! Hurry up and come out to help!”
“Sigh… this drama of love and hate is quite good to watch, isn’t it?”
An ethereal and childish sigh sounded in Allen’s ear.
In the next moment, that fake stage constructed of starlight shattered like a mirror struck by a giant hammer!
The noise, colors, and smells of reality instantly flooded back like a tide.
The cheers of the audience rose again like a mountain wave, deafening.
No one in the arena seemed to realize that in that brief, almost negligible moment, the two people in the center had already experienced a life-and-death struggle beyond the dimensions of reality.
The Evil God’s direct influence seemed to be receding, but that abnormal pillar of light piercing through the dark clouds still existed.
The fragile link between reality and the Supreme Heaven had not been completely severed.
“You did well, my dear student.”
The Star Listener’s maddening whispers sounded in Allen’s mind for the last time.
“At least for a good while, it will be hard for them to directly influence your Heroine again. However, don’t be happy too soon. This is just the opening; you are still within the grand script they have written. Now, let me, your teacher, give you a small gift.”
Before the voice finished, the eerie pillar of light connecting heaven and earth suddenly went out, and the sky instantly dimmed.
Immediately following that, from the depths of those thick and viscous dark clouds came a terrifying, soul-tearing roar of madness.
Everyone present, whether commoners or Nobles, felt the most primitive fear originating from biological instinct at this moment.
Those Nobles with the Bloodline of the Sigil felt it even more strongly.
They discovered in horror that their bodies were involuntarily trembling violently due to this invisible, terrifying pressure.
The power of their Sigils was restless within them, nearly out of control.
Something extremely terrifying was about to descend!
“Quick! Evacuate the crowd immediately!”
The Grand Inquisitor of the Judgement Court, Guillaume, was the first person besides Allen to react.
The members of the Judgement Court immediately tore off their civilian coats, revealing the special battle robes with the Judgement Court emblem underneath, and began to efficiently and firmly guide the panicked crowd.
The Capital guards on the scene also seemed to have received instructions in advance, immediately cooperating with the Judgement Court’s actions to maintain order, although their own faces were filled with terror.
In the center of the arena, Allen and Livia stopped their movements at the same time, looking up at the oppressive sky in unison.
“Livia, do you see? This is the power you brought upon us, not hesitating to sacrifice the entire Capital just to kill me.”
Allen’s tone carried a hint of mockery as he unceremoniously shifted the blame.
“Now, you should know better than anyone what the true source of the so-called Noble bloodlines is, right?”
“…I don’t care.” Livia stubbornly turned her head away.
Her appearance made Allen feel she was somewhat stubbornly cute.
“Hmph, let’s set aside our personal grudges for now.” Allen flicked the blood droplets off his Black Sword. “The ‘big guy’ is coming. Let’s deal with it first.”
“…You are my enemy.”
“Oh please, my lady, what time is it? Can you stop throwing a tantrum?” Allen couldn’t help but roll his eyes.
“You idiot, do you really think you’re some lone wolf hero? Face reality. I’m the one destined to save the world. That’s enough from you; you’re a grown adult, stop being so stubborn.”
Livia did not speak back again, only standing there in silence, gripping the sword in her hand tightly.
The relationship between the two had progressed at a lightning speed. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they knew each other inside and out.
After all, the intensity of their battle in the non-real domain had reached the point where they had ‘seen each other clearly’.
As an upright gentleman, Allen naturally didn’t keep any unhealthy images in his mind (probably).
As for Livia… that was hard to say.
Although she had returned to her cool demeanor, those eyes that kept avoiding his gaze added a lingering touch of girlish charm to her.
When the terrified screams of countless people reached their peak, that terrifying existence finally completely tore through the gloomy clouds.
Its massive, grotesque, and filthy body smashed heavily into the center of the arena, accompanied by a suffocating stench and mad whispers.
Just a single glimpse of that distorted form caused the reason of many people to feel as if it had been struck by a heavy hammer.
They became dizzy and nauseous on the spot, and some even fainted directly.
“Holy crap! Star Listener, you old bastard! You call this thing a gift?!”
Looking at that massive, indescribable lump of flesh, Allen couldn’t help but curse.
It was a huge creature haphazardly patched together from a distorted toad’s body, murky dragon wings, and countless wriggling insect organs.
Its surface, which constantly dripped with yellow-green pus, emitted a nauseating stench.
On its extremely distorted head grew four sharp horns. From its bloody, gaping maw extended a long tongue covered in cold, shimmering barbs.
The most terrifying parts were its two passive skills — [Madness Aura] and [Splashing Bile and Pus].
The former was enough to destroy the mind of any ordinary person in a short time, while the latter meant that any attack on its flesh could trigger a spray of terrifying corrosive liquid.
A Madwhisper Beast!
Allen recognized the damn thing instantly.
It was the famous mount (or maybe pet?) of the Star Listener in the original work — a terrifying, blasphemous creature capable of destroying a small kingdom on its own!
Livia looked at Allen, then at the monster she was also incredibly familiar with.
Her gaze became exceptionally complex. She suddenly spoke softly, her tone carrying a strange meaning:
“You really are gentle. You want me to die gloriously in battle as a hero while protecting everyone. What a… cunning approach. To interrupt this duel and keep yourself alive, you didn’t hesitate to bring such a monster and sacrifice the lives of so many innocent people?”
“Hey, hey, hey! You can eat whatever you want, but don’t talk nonsense! I have absolutely nothing to do with this damn thing!” Unexpectedly, the blame had been shifted back again.
Allen refuted her testily, “And who was the bastard that first planned to give up on herself and maybe even drag the entire Capital down to the grave? Livia, do you, a Knight Princess, not even want the most basic knightly code anymore?”
“I… no longer need to be a Knight.”
After saying this, Livia actually gave up her confrontation with Allen without hesitation.
Her Stellar Power erupted again without reservation, transforming into a resolute streak of white light as she determinedly threw herself toward the massive monster radiating endless madness and stench.
Amid the terrified screams of the audience as they fled in all directions, Allen watched Livia’s back as she charged toward the monster without looking back. A complex sense of being touched arose in his heart.
Livia… was indeed still Livia.
Even if she doubted herself, even if she said she didn’t care or even gave up on herself, in the face of a true disaster, her core instinct to protect others would still override everything.
Truly… I lose to a Feng Aotian like you.
Lord Hero, I didn’t expect that I, the villain, would one day fight side-by-side with you.
This script really is full of bad taste.
Allen smiled helplessly. It seemed this really did look like a third-rate, clichéd script written by the Evil God.
He wouldn’t die in this duel because the ‘good show’ the Evil God truly wanted to see was only just beginning.
He quickly looked toward the spectator stands. Guillaume was calmly directing the Judgement Court members to evacuate the crowd.
Allen immediately gave him a clear hand signal, indicating that he should absolutely not let the War Party of the Judgement Court come up and die for nothing.
Although they all used the Delirium Potion and could temporarily resist the [Madness Aura] of the Madwhisper Beast, the monster’s physical defense was extremely abnormal, enough to withstand a direct hit from modern heavy artillery.
Of the people present, everyone except him and Livia was basically just delivering themselves as snacks.
‘Understood. I’ll leave it to you.’
Guillaume indicated he received the message with his eyes, implicitly suggesting that the ‘ultimate weapon’ he mentioned before was being urgently deployed and would soon be in position.
Allen turned his gaze toward Marianne in the crowd. When she saw the duel interrupted, she first breathed a sigh of relief, then immediately felt anxious because of the terrifying monster that had appeared.
‘There are too many people here; don’t expose your Engraved Mark’s ability under any circumstances,’ Allen used his gaze to convey the message. ‘Stay in the crowd and deal with those guys who want to take advantage of the chaos.’
“Mm!” Marianne nodded heavily, her figure flashing as she quietly merged into the chaotic crowd.
After confirming that the Madwhisper Beast’s attention had been completely attracted by the bravely charging Livia, Allen took a deep breath and gripped the Black Sword in his hand.
“No choice… overtime it is.”
He muttered to himself, then moved his body, following closely behind Livia as he also charged toward the massive monster that was letting out deafening, mad roars.
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.