After work, start to speedrun the other world-Chapter 165 - 47: Audience with the Witch of Death_2
Faster speed.
Greater strength.
More ruthless slashes.
But something felt...a bit off.
Angelina still maintained a relentless barrage of slashes, seeming to have the upper hand in the eyes of onlookers, yet she sensed...a lack of harmony.
This man had not been dragged into her combat rhythm.
And as if to confirm her suspicion, Xi Mu launched a counterattack, no longer solely defending.
Instead, he chose to attack.
"Clang!" As if anticipating her next move, he interrupted Angelina’s incoming blow and immediately forced her back with his following sword thrust.
What happened?
Angelina was momentarily stunned, but the techniques ingrained in her body instinctively helped her block Ahtal’s oncoming sword.
She was...losing.
After shifting from the aggressor to the defender, she instantly realized it—she was being read by this man.
If she were a book, then this man was the reader who had perused her from cover to cover countless times, fully understanding her essence.
She no longer controlled the tempo of the offense.
How on earth had this man managed to read her so thoroughly in such brief contact, not only predicting her attacks but also executing effective counterattacks?
Was this something a human could accomplish?
Of course not.
But Xi Mu was no stranger to clashing with Angelina; he remembered the trajectory of every one of her sword strokes and had devised methods for counterattacking.
This understanding, honed by countless challenges and embedded in instinct, had long since assimilated the very being of Angelina, allowing him to anticipate every change she made and to counter effectively.
"Is this...what they call a genius?"
Angelina felt a twinge of defeat. The swordsmanship of which she was so proud had been analyzed and absorbed by her opponent after just a brief exchange.
Despite her realization of impending failure, she had no intention of accepting it; even if it were a struggle, she intended to make the most of this battle.
After all, there would be no such opportunities in the future.
"Clang, clang, clang—!"
Sparks flew who-knows-how-many-times as the two moved swiftly across the battlefield, creating trailing phantoms in the retinas of onlookers.
Sword clashed with blade.
A tempest raged.
If there hadn’t been a barrier in place, the duel arena would have long been devastated by their skirmish, the ravaged field littered with scores from their swords.
"The technique is quite interesting," the Bloody Countess chuckled lightly. She always relied on her abilities, never paying much mind to the skill.
After all, training in technique was...just too bothersome and too dull.
But this battle had altered her perception of technique; of course, she still had no intention of learning to wield the sword with her body’s own motion.
After all, one should know oneself; when others employ technique, it’s an art, but if she were to use technique in battle, she’d be a clown.
Suddenly.
The battle came to an abrupt halt.
"Tick-tock~"
Xi Mu set down the Hunting King’s Greatsword as blood trickled down the blade onto the ground. Across from him, Angelina had already lost her vital signs, her body enveloped in scarlet flames, and in full view of everyone...she turned to ash.
The battle thus ended.
"Is it over?" Most of the cultists hadn’t recovered from their shock, struggling to understand why the battle had ended so abruptly. They hadn’t seen Ahtal thrust his sword into Angelina’s vitals, so why had the battle come to such an abrupt end?
To throw the fight...no, that was impossible; such a thought was an insult to both Angelina and Ahtal.
"Oh my...to think he survived," the puppet girl giggled, approaching Ahtal’s side, glancing at the ashen remains of Angelina, then said:
"Can you tell me how you won?"
"You...aren’t blind, are you?" Xi Mu retorted. He had just cut Angelina down with a swift strike, something any moderately skilled person could have seen.
In response, the puppet girl laughed and glanced over at the murmuring audience before withdrawing her gaze.
"Since you have survived, I shall grant you an audience with the Witch of Death,"
"..."
Xi Mu nodded calmly and saw the puppet girl turn around, facing all the cultists present, and shout with arms wide open.
"Kneel, to pay your respects to the Witch of Death."
"Swoosh!"
Without any hesitation, all the followers of death present left their seats at that moment and knelt down on one knee.
Then, the Witch of Death descended.
There were no changes in the color of the sky or the earth; she simply appeared before Ahtal and the puppet girl.
"Victor, you now have two choices," the Witch of Death said, her fingers interlaced in front of her chest, her cool voice devoid of emotion.
"I will allow you to leave the Black Rose Kingdom alive, but the price will be the death of everyone in the Black Rose Kingdom... everyone must die."
"And the second option?" Xi Mu asked according to the script. He had no intention of killing everyone in the Black Rose Kingdom, it meant nothing to him.
It was better to rush to the next map and farm high-level experience packs than waste time on the Black Rose. Besides, he was not capable of killing everyone there.
After all, All Gods had already cast their gaze upon the Black Rose Kingdom, even the Goddess of Life from the high heavens had descended.
There was no longer an opportunity to continue farming experience in the Black Rose Kingdom.
Unless he let the Witch of Death take action and kill everyone in the Black Rose Kingdom in an instant, but then, the experience points from those killed by the Witch of Death would not be his own.
So it was time to wrap up the script for the Black Rose Kingdom.
"Abandon the Goddess of Death and become my follower," the Witch of Death read her lines with an icy voice, "and the reward will be that everyone in the Black Rose Kingdom will survive."
Xi Mu fell silent.
He could not give an immediate answer. He had to give the impression of being caught in a painful decision, or else the choice he made would lack sufficient weight.
The situation needed to ferment a bit.
At that moment,
In the Black Rose Kingdom,
"Isn’t becoming the Witch’s follower tantamount to abandoning one’s faith?" a troubled nun pondered in the streets, longing for Ahtal to betray his faith so she could survive and keep her own belief pure, free from a guilty conscience.
"I... do not want to die," someone whispered softly, very afraid that if Ahtal left on his own, they would all die there.
Everyone had their own schemes, but most of them shared one desire: for Ahtal to forsake his faith for them and embrace the Witch.
"Oh dear, the ugliness is really showing," the puppet girl on the Clock Tower chuckled maliciously, "You don’t all hope for Ahtal to seek shelter in the Witch’s embrace so that you could survive, do you?"
Her eyes were filled with mockery.
"After the fact, all you need to say is, ’I was not afraid of death at all. It was Ahtal who lacked faith and turned to the Witch of Death. And for your own peace of mind, you concoct that Ahtal... had long colluded with the Witch of Death or was enchanted by her."
"Hmm, I can already imagine the shameful state you’ll be in afterward."
At these words,
Ahtal, who was in the dueling ground, seemed to hear the puppet girl’s mockery and suddenly asked,
"Will you kill me immediately after I leave the Black Rose Kingdom?" 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖
"No," the Witch of Death replied calmly. Xi Mu seemed to have made his decision, turned his back to the Witch of Death, and began to walk step by step out of the dueling arena.
He chose to leave the Black Rose Kingdom alone.
It was the natural choice; to abandon one’s faith was inherently a very difficult thing.
Plus, to be stigmatized afterward made it seem like a much better option to leave the Black Rose Kingdom alone.
...
...
The world was upside down.
Xi Mu fell from the sky, flipping his body, landed on the streets of the Black Rose Kingdom, and walked step by step toward the outside of the city under the gaze of followers of the Goddess of Death.
"That’s more like it," the puppet girl’s laughter reverberated in the Black Rose Kingdom, "Humans are the most despicable creatures, willing to concoct lies to justify themselves, slander heroes, and rewrite history."
She whispered as if she were a demon,
"By choosing to leave the Black Rose Kingdom, at least you can retain the favor of a god."
