It looked, oddly, almost adorably dopey.
Long silver mane streamed in the wind; silver eyes burned bright; the three-story beast looked like an oversized silver stray.
It sat with its legs tucked under its hips.
Like a puppy waiting for its owner to feed it.
It looked oddly cute.
But that crimson tongue was licking a paw that still dripped fresh blood.
Moments ago, that paw splattered half a female knight into paste.
Her armor, forged from materials prized by the 【World】, didn’t slow that strike for a heartbeat.
This dog was terrifyingly strong.
Anyone who truly thought she ran the “moe” route was the real fool.
crack-crack-crack
As gravel pattered down, she rose onto all fours.
She revealed a body curved with athletic grace; just those lines promised explosive power.
Shaking her smooth, washed-sheen fur, she tilted her head, feeling she had forgotten something.
But the silver that had become this body held a mind clogged with chaos, born of memories painted in infernal despair.
She remembered only what cut deepest.
Her moist nose twitched; her mouth pulled wide; a grin showed a forest of fangs.
“Finally caught you.”
She said it, looking toward the distant forest.
...
The slender knight’s short blade flashed out of the nether gloom.
It slid into the gray-haired girl’s body.
The girl’s eyes, a dead sea of stars, rippled.
Starlight flickered inside them like sparks popping.
She kept her pose, still gazing at that distant sky.
But the 【World】 shuddered.
Some space was forgotten by this 【World】.
In that space, the knight, the girl, the wind, the air, the earth—everything—
Vanished from the 【World】’s ledger in an instant.
The slender knight, a specialist in space magic, noticed nothing at first.
The next instant, a hollowness and a taste of oblivion flooded him.
It yanked him from a near-drunken daze.
Death’s 【Fear】 gave him a sliver of release from the engulfing maw.
Only a sliver.
He managed to say—
“Is this space magic?”
“No—higher spacetime?”
“No, not that.”
“It’s the highest magic—【Destiny】!”
“And it’s the most—”
His thoughts stalled, doubt blossomed.
“Most—what—again? I forgot.”
The next heartbeat, his consciousness melted into the forgotten chaos.
...
“Thank you. But you’re not strong enough.”
The black-iron knight, sprawled in blood and muck, stared at the 【Witch】 in a black dress in disbelief.
She had lifted two fingers and pinched the siege-class forbidden spell he had fought to cast.
Lightning that could erase a city became a small snake between her jade-pale fingers.
She flicked her hand, and that snake shot through his heart.
Its force detonated inside him, not a drop wasted, erasing every bodily function.
From the front, it looked like only a finger-thin hole before his heart.
Inside, all life had already fled.
He had never thought he’d die to his own move.
He lived now on a single obsession.
He wanted to know what this black-haired maiden was.
What kind of 【Despair】 and what kind of 【Misfortune】 had congealed into such power?
Power that even as first among the Four Horsemen, he couldn’t budge.
Perhaps even the 【Pope】 couldn’t.
She walked barefoot, pale feet stepping on “his” meat and blood.
She drifted to his side, looked down, sighed, and said, “Thank you.”
—Thank you for trying to save me.
“But you’re not strong enough,” the 【Witch】 said.
She lifted her head; her ink-black eyes held no reflected light.
“The only thing that can destroy me—”
Destroy you—save you—
Does that really exist?!
The black-iron knight wanted the rest.
But 【Destiny】 ran out.
He never heard the next line.
His eyes dimmed, and he died.
If he had lasted one more heartbeat.
If he had heard Lustrous finish the sentence.
He might have understood what Lustrous was.
“The only one who can destroy me is my father—the 【Hero King】.”
Pure and guileless, a smile like a blossom.
The girl said it with a smile.
...
“As the 【Hero King】,” Ye Weibai’s mouth curved with a mild smile. “You’re too weak.”
“So, I’ll do it.”
The black-haired youth let his smile fade.
He stepped back, solemn.
As he moved, the black of his coat washed away like ink.
Underneath, silver-white gleam broke free.
Morning light seeped through the window, streak by streak.
It fell on him softly, like shards of chainmail.
It set into his arms, calves, waist, boots.
At last the light locked, merging into a fitted, unbreakable pale-gold armor.
The instant the armor finished forming, light flowed and coiled upward.
It threaded through him.
His signature chopped black hair turned gold in a breath.
In that dim room, the glow was breathtaking.
Clack.
Metallic gold boots met wooden floorboards.
That step landed.
He opened his eyes.
His irises had become a stunning dark gold.
He swept his right hand back.
Golden light surged along his shoulder, down his arm, and pooled in his palm.
In a breath, it congealed into a slender golden longsword.
It ran a touch longer than his arm.
Its width was a third of a finger.
As the blade hardened, an unseen gale, tangled with golden light, blew back from his shoulders.
It swept away a drift of dust.
A cape of flowing gold light appeared.
Humm—
Fingers tightened.
The sword carved a golden afterimage through the air.
Its tip pointed down, held at his side.
“The 9,679th 【Hero King】—Ye Weibai.”
Ye Weibai fixed his gaze on the lost, bewildered girl.
“Here to slay the 9,679th 【Demon King】.”
