101. Xiling: [Ars Almadel Salomonis]
"What's wrong? Goetia! Your attack... is becoming too slow!" The sword Xiling wielded easily tore through Goetia's light cannon! Xiling's dangerous smile instantly entered Goetia's vision!
Goetia didn't even have time to react before the cold sword was already upon him!
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Several incomparably sharp sword lights flashed past, instantly cleaving Goetia's body into several pieces!
However, in the next second—
Buzz!
The severed pieces instantly coalesced and restored! Goetia stood unharmed once more!
At the same time, a ferocious demon pillar burst forth from the temple floor! Countless eyes locked onto Xiling atop the pillar, and a terrifying magical beam of light, carrying an aura of annihilation, roared towards Xiling and Goetia's location! The torrent of light instantly engulfed the area where the two stood!
At the core of that destructive magical beam, the scene was bizarre and horrifying!
Xiling remained motionless amidst the torrent of light, his sword flashing once more, its blade light like a torrential downpour, relentlessly slashing at Goetia's newly regenerated body!
Goetia attempted to block and counterattack with his fists! However…
Too slow!
At this moment, Xiling found Goetia's attacks to be far too slow. In the time it took Goetia to throw a punch, Xiling had already unleashed five or six sword strikes! Each strike precisely sliced through Goetia's body, leaving horrific wounds! Goetia's regenerative abilities were frantically working, yet they could barely keep up with the speed of destruction!
Goetia's once calm eyes were now filled with bewilderment. What kind of monster was he fighting with?
The temple's blessing and the Demon God Pillar's properties granted him near-eternal immortality! Even after being destroyed countless times, he could instantly regenerate!
However, the sword in his opponent's hand possessed the ability to bypass his immortality, utterly annihilating him!
If that were all, it wouldn't be so bad.
After all, in the battle just now, this monster… had actually sent that sword, which posed a threat to his existence, somewhere!
For a moment, Goetia even felt a flicker of hope—without that sword, his opponent's power should be greatly diminished!
But reality slapped him hard in the face!
Without that sword, Xiling seemed to have broken free of some shackles! He became even more… berserk!
His magical power seemed inexhaustible; instead, it was continuously and frantically increasing during the battle! What horrified him even more was—
He was actually stealing his opponent's magic power!
In an overwhelmingly domineering and unreasonable manner, the Timeless Temple was being forcibly eroded! The control over the Timeless Temple, which belonged to Goetia, was being brutally seized!
And the other party had already taken control of half of the temple!
Half!
What did this mean?
It meant that once the other party completely controlled the temple, Goetia would lose his greatest reliance and the foundation of his immortality! At that point, the other party wouldn't even need that sword to obliterate him!
He had to! He had to kill him before the other party completely seized the temple!
But… was that even possible?
Goetia desperately wanted to say he could, but his wisdom told him he simply couldn't. If he could, he would have done it already.
That white figure was definitely not human!
A monster!
An absolutely incomprehensible monster!
"What are you thinking!" Xiling's voice rang out! In a flash, the demon pillars attempting to surround him exploded into a rain of blood! He appeared above Goetia as if teleported, his right leg raised high, carrying immense force, and slammed down towards Goetia's head!
Goetia raised his hand and unleashed a close-range beam of light upwards!
But it was useless!
Xiling's right leg didn't pause for a moment, cleaving the massive beam of light in two as easily as cutting tofu! With unstoppable force, it slammed heavily onto Goetia's head!
BOOM—!!!
Like a watermelon struck by a massive hammer! Goetia's entire head, along with most of his upper body, exploded like a dazzling crimson firework!
The power of the demon pillars surged again, and his shattered body instantly reformed!
However, he had just reformed, and his vision wasn't even apparent—
Two swords materialized again in Xiling's hands!
Slash!
Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!
A tempestuous storm!
The world Goetia could perceive was instantly filled with countless sword lights, tearing everything apart!
There was no possibility of blocking, no space to dodge!
In an instant, Goetia's newly restored human form was completely shredded by those two swords!
Just as Xiling was about to unleash a burst of light on these bloody remains!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Several thick demon pillars suddenly burst from the ground around Xiling, slamming into him! The powerful impact sent him flying!
But in the next second!
The demon pillars instantly exploded!
"Tsk!"
Xiling adjusted his position in mid-air, his gaze sweeping over the spot where Goetia had just been—the pile of bloody fragments had vanished without a trace!
Through magic perception, Xiling slowly turned his head, his gaze falling upon the ruins that once belonged to Goetia, now reduced to rubble. Goetia's figure stood starkly above it.
Xiling spread his hands, his tone as casual as if discussing the weather.
"Still thinking about your throne? It's all shattered to pieces, and strictly speaking, it's mine now."
After all, Xiling's invasion began at that very throne! He used it as a base to erode the entire temple!
"So get off my throne."
Goetia ignored Xiling's teasing words.
Instead, his expression was one of utter seriousness, doubt, and accusation.
"Why?"
Xiling stopped, tilting his head and smiling as he gazed at the other.
"Don't you think... you've asked this question countless times already?"
Yes... he had asked it countless times! But this monster before him had never given him a clear, serious answer!
Goetia's voice suddenly rose, filled with absolute certainty and incomprehensible rage:
"You are clearly not human! You're not even a creature of this world!"
Goetia was certain that the other couldn't possibly be from this world! Such an existence could never have been born on this planet!
"You, who have absolutely no connection to this planet, to humanity, to any of this! Why? Why do you stand in our way, on the path to our destined transformation of everything?"
"Why did you do this?!"
Goetia's voice echoed throughout the ruined Timeless Temple:
"Tell me! This planet itself is a colossal mistake! And the humans who live on this planet are nothing but filthy waste, piled up from that mistake!"
"Slaughter! Deception! Hatred! Arrogance! Madness!... Their history is filthy, their future is worthless!"
"Tell me!!! Why do you stand in my way, for these specks less than dust, to hinder my great undertaking of burning everything, reshaping everything! Answer me—!!!"
Faced with Goetia's roar and questioning, Xiling's face showed helplessness.
"Sigh..." Xiling sighed.
"You people, always spouting ambitions, ideals, grand achievements... Who understands all those convoluted grand principles?"
"Well, in the end, I'm just an ordinary hero. What do you mean by 'I and my Holy Sword'... oh, the Holy Sword isn't here."
"...But it's alright! You don't need to force yourself to talk to the Holy Sword! Just say what you want to say to this sword, it's the same—it understands!"
Xiling conjured a sword in his hand, pointing it at Goetia above.
"Besides, it won't hurt as much as the Holy Sword if it strikes you, will it?"
Seeing Xiling's unyielding attitude, which completely ignored his profound questioning and Goetia's last shred of reason, his attempt to understand the other crumbled entirely.
"Enough!!!" Goetia's roar exploded like thunder!
"You're not human, yet you've perfectly learned all of humanity's despicable, base, foolish, and arrogant traits!!"
He spread his arms, and the aura of the Demon God Pillar erupted like a tsunami!
"A blasphemous being like you! You should be thrown, along with all the filth of this flawed planet, into the flames that burn everything, for utter purification!"
The conversation ended abruptly! Only a life-or-death struggle remained!
Goetia abandoned the last vestige of its human form!
An indescribable vortex of terrifying magic power erupted from Goetia's center!
At this moment, one of humanity's evils—the Beast of Pity—was revealed!
"I am the Humanity's Incineration Formation—Demon King Goetia!"
"Unknown being! You are far too dangerous! Your very existence is the greatest threat to our great cause, to our new future!"
Goetia raised its hand high, and the black sun blazed with terrifying light—a structural band of light formed from the burning heat of all life on the planet every second of 3000 years of human history.
At this moment, with Goetia's will, it erupted with unprecedented light!
The terrifying energy fluctuations caused the entire Timeless Temple to begin to crumble!
"Be Destroyed! Deploy Third Noble Phantasm! [Ars Almadel Salomonis]!"
*Whoosh—!!!*
A massive, cross-shaped beam of annihilation, tearing everything apart, hurtled towards Xiling!
Watching Goetia activate his Noble Phantasm… Xiling smiled.
The next second!
Xiling's figure was instantly engulfed, disintegrated, and vanished without a trace.
Is it done?
However, Goetia felt no joy upon witnessing this, only terror!
The reason was simple—within the incinerating brilliance of that Noble Phantasm…
He felt it!
He felt something piercing through the torrent of destruction, step by step, with unwavering stability, crystal clarity, and undeniable reality— approaching him!
Impossible!
There should be nothing left there except the brilliance of his Noble Phantasm! The power of the Noble Phantasm should have obliterated everything!
There can only be absolute nothingness there!
But the steady footsteps, one after another, were clearly imprinted on his senses! This terrified him more than any attack!
The radiance of the light cannon finally faded.
The core area of the Timeless Temple was shrouded in a chilling void; everything had vanished completely within the cross-shaped flames.
"Finally... gone?" This thought rose uncontrollably in Goetia's chaotic consciousness, carrying a sliver of hope that even he himself despised.
However—
Thump.
An extremely faint footstep sounded again!
He abruptly looked around, but no matter how he searched, he saw nothing.
Goetia's demonic body trembled violently! His gaze swept in all directions!
Nothing! Nothing! Nothing!
No energy reaction, no material fluctuations, nothing observable!
But the footsteps continued.
Thump…thump…thump…
Each sound was like a drumbeat pounding on Goetia's reason. An emotion he thought he wouldn't possess—human fear—began to fester like a poisonous vine.
He felt an absurd suffocation, an oppression stemming from the unknown!
Just as this accumulating fear, threatening to crush him, reached its peak—
The footsteps stopped directly in front of him.
In that void, recently plowed by a Noble Phantasm, a void that should have been utterly lifeless.
A calm voice rang out clearly:
"Do you know…what a hero is?"
Buzz—
Accompanying the words, specks of light appeared! Not magic, not energy, but more like…the glow of a concept itself! Countless tiny points of light appeared out of thin air, converging towards the center!
The light grew brighter, more concentrated.
"You know."
The points of light outlined a blurry human figure.
"The so-called heroes are just a bunch of self-deluded madmen."
"They firmly believe they can save the world," the light solidified, Xiling's figure shifting from ethereal to tangible, as if he had never left the spot. His clothes were perfectly intact, not even a single strand of hair was disheveled, and his face still held that faint smile that now froze Goetia's soul.
"No matter if the road ahead is full of thorns, or leads to the end of hell..."
Xiling slightly raised his hand, as if touching the lingering embers of the Noble Phantasm, the movement as casual as brushing dust from his shoulder.
"...They don't care."
Goetia's vision froze.
The person before him was in perfect condition! His strongest attack had no effect!
"I have only one goal."
"That is to save the world."
"That is my mission, and also...my ideal."
The light completely subsided, revealing Xiling's figure fully.
"And until my ideal, my mission, is fulfilled—"
"Death—will never befall me!"
"This is what makes us heroes—"
Xiling leaned forward slightly, the smile on his face seeming to widen slightly.
"—The enemy you will face!"
The instant Xiling fully appeared in his sight—
Goetia involuntarily took two full steps back!
This wasn't the instinctive avoidance of battle!
This was a retreat!
It stemmed from the most primal and deepest part of life—fear!
That emotion he considered a human flaw now surged forth like a burst dam, overwhelming all his rational defenses!
"Impossible—!!!"
A piercing roar erupted from Goetia's mouth!
This roar wasn't just a denial of what was before him, but also a denial of the uncontrollable fear within him!
To completely dispel this humiliating weakness, Goetia raised his arm and threw a powerful punch at the suffocating white figure before him!
His fist missed, as the Starry Cloak automatically blocked the attack.
Xiling completely ignored Goetia, smiling as he walked past him.
With each step Xiling took, the ruins of the Timeless Temple returned to their original state, like sand flowing backward in an hourglass.
As Xiling ascended the throne, turned, and plopped down, smiling as he looked down at Goetia, who stood frozen in shock as if he had just discovered something shocking, Xiling spoke with a smile.
"After fighting for so long, you finally unleashed your Noble Phantasm. Can't you see the future?"
These words pierced Goetia's heart like a sharp knife.
His "future vision" had indeed vanished.
No, more accurately—it had been "covered up."
"You shouldn't be afraid, and you shouldn't forget to resist my attack."
"Sorry, our battle is over." Xiling snapped his fingers lightly.
"Now the master of the Timeless Temple—"
"It's time for a change."
*Crack—*
Some invisible shackles shattered.
Goetia looked down sharply, seeing his body disintegrating—one by one, the seventy-two demon pillars detached from his body, not daring to utter a sound, like lambs targeted by their natural enemy.
"What's going on!"
"Oh, this." Xiling tilted his head and chuckled, "You were afraid, so you can't expect them not to feel the same, can't you?"
The Demon King froze.
Xiling, chin in hand, looked at Goetia with amusement.
"You guys always talk about how lowly humans are, but aren't you just like them?"
"...Yeah."
"I only just realized that now."
Goetia silently sensed the Demon Pillar's fear and its desperate desire to live.
He looked up at the throne.
Xiling remained seated quietly, but Goetia's eyes saw something even more terrifying—the entire temple had been soaked in the opponent's magic, every inch of space an extension of "that being."
They lost.
The Seventh Singularity was over.
Their great undertaking... had failed.
Goetia's wisdom told him it was all over, but it... took a step, walking towards the figure on the throne.
Its body gradually dissipated, the original beastly form transforming into a blond man.
They lost, they failed, but... he still had a reason to fight!
This kind of battle, a battle he was destined to lose, this pointless struggle—he would never have considered such a choice before…
"It seems you've figured a lot out."
"…Yes." Goetia's voice was soft, yet carried a sense of relief.
"That's good."
Xiling stood up, the dark sun appearing above his head.
"Many people might not even think of this at the last moment."
"So, are you ready?" Xiling looked at Goetia.
Goetia didn't answer, but Xiling saw the look in his eyes. He quite liked that look—a look that knew victory was impossible yet still fought to the very end.
But it's time to end it!
With the power he had seized!
This flame that had burned through three thousand years of human history!
Not a Noble Phantasm! But a forced confiscation!
Xiling spread his hands, and the dark sun above his head began to shine!
"I've been wanting to shout this for ages!"
"Witness your glorious deeds! Deploy Third Noble Phantasm—[Ars Almadel Salomonis]!"
The light that burned everything reappeared, but its stance had shifted!
Watching the light approach, Goetia raised his fist...
In the instant the light engulfed everything, Goetia threw his final punch.
No magic, no power, just humanity's most primal "resistance."
When the light dissipated, everything before him vanished, including that figure.
Xiling stood alone before the throne, looking at the empty temple:
"He clearly hated humans the most..."
"Yet in the end, he was more human than anyone else."
Just then, a pop-up appeared in the chat group!
[Ding!]
[Quest: [The Glory of Uruk]Completed]
[1. Defeat the Three Goddess Alliance. (Completed)]
[2. Defeat the Goddess of Creation, Tiamat. (Completed)]
[3. Defeat Demon King Goetia (Completed)]
[Settle Quest Now?]
Xiling decisively chose no.
Just kidding, he hasn't even experienced the scenery of this other world yet, why would he leave!
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