Chapter 386: The End (Part 3)

  The armor around him had no special shape. Like the original Robe of the Lich Lord, it was completely unremarkable, just simple, ancient, its coarse fibers as old as an old woman's weaving, enveloping its master's entire body.

  The man himself was not particularly special either. He seemed no different from how he had always been, still with a face that was ordinary at first glance, yet held a hint of heroism and wildness upon closer inspection. Even his eyes were still clear, but his expression was one of emptiness, an emptiness that saw through everything.

  He was not tall, not majestic, and did not even have a particularly imposing aura, but everyone could feel that he was indeed different from before.

  "This is the end. Everything ends here." he said quietly, with almost no sound, but everyone, no matter who they were or how far away they stood, heard it with perfect clarity.

  A dead silence fell. No one could make a sound. They were not afraid, nor was it because of surprise, although everyone was already surprised to the utmost. They were simply unable to make any sound. This was truly the end. Deep in their hearts, everyone believed it. What came from his mouth was not a command, nor a declaration, but an established fact.

  Only one voice abruptly rang out, piercingly harsh in the silence, but the source of this voice was not human.

  "This aura... this is the true Lich King." Moriel was first surprised, then she laughed, an angry laugh. "To think it was this kid, to think it was this kid..."

  Her face, more angular and full of character than any man's, trembled violently. It was difficult to tell if it was extreme anger or ecstasy. Her fiery red hair danced wildly, as frenzied as her laughter and shouts.

  "What? To use such a method, such a method to make him the Lich King? Was the previous one just his substitute, just a part of him? No wonder I felt it was so weak." An astonishing yellow light burst from Moriel's narrow pupils, and at the same time, her body began to grow explosively. In the blink of an eye, the red-haired woman in the black bodysuit had become a colossal Black Dragon.

  "I actually let a creature like that slip from my grasp? And I actually helped bring about the birth of this Lich King? How ridiculous. Archibald, is this the all-encompassing fate you spoke of? Are you and I but mere parts of this fate? This is nonsense, I am certain of it once more. I will now completely destroy this thing for you to see." Mixed within the Black Dragon's colossal roar was another, complex and strange, vocal range. Her voice and her Dragon Language Magic could be emitted simultaneously without interfering with each other.

  "Wait." Gru roared, also snapping out of his astonishment. Even such a shock could not make him appear the least bit flustered. He grabbed Moriel's leg with one hand. "He has not lost consciousness. He is still himself. I can feel it."

  "Of course he still has his own consciousness, otherwise how could he be considered a true Lich King?" Moriel's mad laughter and her incantations did not stop. "Do you think you can still persuade him to discard that thing, now that he has an consciousness acknowledged by The Black Star itself?"

  A laugh as unpleasant as a screech owl's intermittently interjected. Though the voice was weak and ugly, it seemed to contain all the smugness, joy, excitement, and agitation in the world.

  "So that's how it is, so that's how it is..." Vedenina's skeletal face kept trembling. The withered flesh on her face seemed to twitch into an expression, and her whole body was shaking. Her bones rattled and clattered. She was screaming like a madwoman. "As expected, as expected, I was not wrong. I was not wrong. Master Sandro, Master Ronis, you old bastard Dracon, are you all watching? I succeeded. This is the Lich King. He is indeed the Lich King. He is the only one who could be the Lich King, the one who is meant to rule this world! This is the history I have set in motion! Inham, you fool, can you still condemn me? Can your soul see all this?"

  As she screamed, the Lich staggered towards Ethan. She was so excited she seemed to have forgotten how to use magic. Her frail skeleton swayed with every step, looking as if it could fall apart at any moment. No one paid her any mind. She quickly ran up to Ethan.

  "Great Lich King, you must know who I am now, right? It was I who created you, it was me, it was me!" The Lich excitedly placed her hand on Ethan's shoulder. The gesture looked strange, unfit for one addressing a king who now held dominion over her.

  As the Lich spoke, strange images flashed through Ethan's mind. On a black mountain peak that pierced the heavens, a half-skeletal woman, an altar wreathed in black energy, and a tall, familiar-looking man approaching slowly.

  These were images that had actually emerged from his own soul, but both were accompanied by the fluctuations of The Black Star. This was not a memory from memory, but a memory from the soul.

  If he had seen all this before, Ethan would surely have let out a heavy sigh, but now there was only endless emptiness in his heart. No more ripples, no more waves, would ever stir again.

  "Come, let us turn these pieces of trash here into our undead followers, then go to Diya Valley to pull up The Black Star, and finally ascend to the peak of Mount Sanderfirth, plunge The Black Star into the final endpoint of the earth's veins there, and then our world will..."

  The Lich's words of extreme excitement were suddenly cut off. She looked down at her chest. The blade of The Black Star had already pierced halfway through. The bones and withered tissue around it were dissolving into a puff of black smoke.

  "No, you were wrong from the very beginning." Ethan said flatly. "And you were very, very wrong."

  "You... you... I... I... I am..." Vedenina trembled, unable to speak. Extreme fear, loss, and disbelief had completely filled her soul, followed immediately by absolute nothingness. She felt her soul disappearing along with her body.

  She already possessed her life-bound magic box. As long as that hidden box was not destroyed, she could be said to be truly immortal. Unfortunately, she was not "dying" now, not being shattered or destroyed, but was directly turning into nothingness.

  When the Lich's limbs and torso had vanished, only her skull remained hanging in the air, but the soul-fire in her eye sockets had finally been extinguished. Soon, that mummified head also disappeared completely. The last trace of her existence was gone. The Lich named Vedenina had returned to nothingness.

  Only nothingness is true eternity, true immortality. This was what she had always pursued.

  No one knew when, but the vast sea of the undead had become completely calm. All the undead monsters had disintegrated. Countless skeletal creatures and zombies were piled in a thick layer of fragments on the ground, which were turning to dust. No more specters or wraiths drifted in the sky. It seemed even the blackness that had shrouded the world had dissipated. Sunlight shone through, but it looked strangely indescribable.

  Ethan's face remained an expression of emptiness. He started walking in the direction of Diya Valley.

  "Wake up, kid." A furious roar suddenly rang out, making almost everyone's eardrums and hearts ache.

  "Have you forgotten who you are? Have you forgotten why you came here?" It was Gru who was roaring. His eyes were already blood-red. The muscles all over his body were tensed, the veins and sinews about to burst through his skin. The light of his Battle Qi flickered dazzlingly with his roar.

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  Ethan's steps did not stop. He continued, step by step, walking towards Diya Valley.

  Moriel's voice slowly rose. "He hasn't forgotten. It is now his own will to do this. That substitute changed him somewhat, but I am certain it is not some petty trick of magic or control."

  "Is that so? Then it seems I will have to beat you awake." Gru stared at Ethan, saying each word deliberately.

  "Using fists to talk is always the most effective method." Moriel seemed to have completely calmed down from her earlier excitement. Moreover, there were no longer strange syllables in her voice. Her Dragon Language Magic was finally complete.

  The Dragon Language Magic, which had taken so long to cast, did not have any earth-shattering, massive reaction. It was just that Moriel's body began to slowly emit a strange blue light. Her scales gradually disappeared, becoming pieces of transparent, crystal-like blue shards. Soon, this Black Dragon's entire body had become like this. She looked like a giant blue crystal sculpture, except that she was still moving. A faint blue glow emanated from deep within her body.

  This was just a change to her body, but in everyone's perception, this blue crystal dragon was now ten times larger than the Black Dragon from before. The Black Dragon's aura was that of an ancient ferocious beast, making living beings feel the immense gap in power and terror on a biological, instinctual level. What this blue crystal dragon made living beings feel was no longer a gap, but the feeling of facing something fundamentally different, a despair felt directly from the soul.

  With a crash, the biggest reaction came surprisingly from the allied army in the rear. The remaining tens of thousands of warriors all fell down in unison. Even the strongest orc warriors began to scramble and crawl backward.

  Only Gru seemed unaffected. Even Lancelot and Roland could not help but fall to one knee, their heads covered in cold sweat. The Dragon's Might that washed over them was more than ten times stronger than before, and it seemed Moriel was not even intentionally releasing it.

  "The Holy Crystal Dragon, a top-tier secret art of the ancient Dragon race." Even Ethan's steps stopped. His hollow, expressionless eyes looked at the giant crystal dragon. Scene after scene flashed before his eyes—memories from The Black Star. On the peak of The Shadowspire Peaks five hundred years ago, it was this giant blue crystal dragon that had charged towards that altar. "This is what you used to defeat Archibald and the others, to break The Black Star."

  "You two, come up as well. To be able to withstand my Dragon's Might now, you should be able to exert some effect. All the other trash, get lost. Scram as far away as you can. You are of no use here anymore." Moriel did not turn her head. As she spoke, she just happened to chant a few syllables of a Dragon Language Magic spell. Behind her, a green light suddenly erupted from Lancelot and Roland. Their bodies immediately began to swell, their muscles bulging. Even the clothes and armor on their bodies showed signs of being about to burst.

  The two, who had been struggling to resist Moriel's Dragon's Might, immediately stood up. The look they exchanged was full of horror. They were not country bumpkins who had never received support magic before, but the effect of this support spell, its perfection, surpassed all other support magic in the world. The power in their bodies was so harmonious, flowing smoothly. Even their conscious reactions and all physiological functions had multiplied several times over, yet it felt completely natural, as if this was how they were supposed to be all along.

  Roland slowly raised his sword to the sky. The sword energy that shot up was stronger and more concentrated than the strike he had made earlier when he had gathered all the swordsmen of the Paladin Order. Lancelot just raised a hand and pointed at Ethan. The air around him crackled and popped with the sound of minor ruptures. If he so much as moved, a Holy Light Cross Sword dozens of times more powerful than before would be unleashed.

  With power, Battle Qi, physique, and reactions all multiplied, and with them flowing together seamlessly, the combat power they could ultimately unleash was not just doubled, nor was it a matter of adding a certain multiple. It was a matter of multiplying by a certain factor.

  But Ethan did not even glance at them. His gaze was fixed only on Moriel and Gru. Moriel had not cast any support magic on Gru. Perhaps she felt it was unnecessary, or perhaps even she could not cast magic on him in his current state. Gru did not seem to possess the same imposing aura as Roland and Lancelot did now, but Ethan only looked at him.

  In the distance, many in the allied army had already stood up. The Dragon's Might was rapidly weakening, even disappearing. The blue light on Moriel's body grew brighter and brighter. She had gathered all her power. The blue radiance did not seem dazzling, but it had already replaced the previous black aura, filling the heavens and the earth.

  "Perhaps this time, The Black Star has drawn upon the darkness of you humans. It's different from our era. This one feels... strange. The nature of its power is completely different from that of the previous Elven King. It's not just pure power, but it feels very bad to me." The more power she accumulated, the greater the momentum she built up. Moriel now seemed calmer instead, no longer having the initial fanaticism. Her voice was as cold and clear as the crystal on her body. "You two, make your move first and test him out."

  Her voice had not yet faded when someone else made the first move.

  It was not Roland or Lancelot, nor was it Gru. It was two people from the allied army in the rear.

  The Dragon's Might had dissipated, and the allied army was retreating, just as Moriel had said. The remaining leaders in the army knew very well that a battle of this level was truly beyond their ability to participate in. However, two leaders had not left. They had stayed behind, and they were the first to strike.

  The ones who attacked were Graden and Adelaide. Although the two Archmage-level elemental mages had also been brought to their knees by the Holy Crystal Dragon's Dragon's Might, they knew that at such a distance, this was the time for mages to shine. Moreover, they had the confidence that with their pinnacle-level elemental magic, even if they could not defeat this Lich King, they could absolutely create an opportunity for those in front.

  The two had long been ready. As they chanted their incantations, the elements of earth and water madly surged towards Ethan's surroundings.

  Ethan himself did not react. It was just that the sandy ground beneath his feet suddenly condensed into a surface of yellow, translucent ice. At the same time, the sand and soil in the surrounding area suddenly rose from the ground and danced into the sky. In the blink of an eye, it condensed with countless wisps of cold air high above his head into a massive pillar of yellow and white ice. Then, this pillar of ice, with a great howling wind, pressed down on him.

  This pillar of ice was ten meters in diameter and nearly a hundred meters high. It was massive enough on its own, but the sound of its descent was a hundred times greater. It had just condensed above Ethan's head, yet it sounded as if it had gathered momentum and force from a ten-thousand-meter drop. And although it was mixed with sand and soil, the color of the ice's surface showed it was not ordinary, clear, and translucent ice, but the kind of eternal, indestructible ice that could only be found on ten-thousand-meter peaks or in the heart of the polar regions, ice that could not be scratched or damaged by axes or blades.

  Condensed at the same time as the pillar of ice were four walls of the same ice, enclosing Ethan on all four sides. Combined with the surface that had condensed under his feet, he was now a turtle in a jar, able only to watch helplessly as the massive pillar of ice above came to hammer him into a pulp.

  No mage would ever use such a clumsy method to attack someone, but these two Archmage-level elemental mages did. Because they had not forgotten that Ethan was still wearing the Robe of the Lich Lord, a treasure that could immune all magical effects. They had no choice but to turn skill into brute force. Both of them had completely released their magical power, especially Adelaide, who had poured out all of her Archmage-level magical source without any technique, in a completely unrefined manner.

  No magical attack was this clumsy, but no magical attack was this difficult to resist or dissolve. Because "skill," while dazzling and hugely effective, can be broken. Just as the most ingenious structure must have a weak point, and the finest silk must have gaps, "brute force" cannot be broken. It can only be met with a head-on collision, a hard clash, a direct resistance. Just as the most ingenious engineer must still use a hammer to break a rock.

  This was the power of clumsiness. Even the magic-immune Robe of the Lich Lord would have absolutely no defensive capability against such an attack. Even if Ethan could forcefully break through one of the ice walls, the opportunity it would leave for Lancelot and the others would be more than enough.

  After unleashing this joint strike, a glimmer of understanding dawned in the two mages' hearts. They vaguely sensed a new realm. Given time, their magical prowess would surely reach a new height.

  Unfortunately, that time was destined to never come, from the moment they cast this spell.

  The pillar of ice was still falling. Its immense speed and pressure had already compressed the air below, causing it to howl like a typhoon in all directions. Graden, the Tower Master, who was using a Gravity Field to pull on the pillar of ice, suddenly saw Ethan look up at him.

  Graden's eyesight was not very good, and he was now nearly a thousand meters away from Ethan. There was also a semi-transparent wall of ice in front of Ethan. But he clearly and distinctly saw Ethan glance at him, more clearly than if he were reading a book with a magnifying glass up close. He could even see his own reflection in Ethan's pupils.

  They were a pair of eyes of endless, deathly emptiness. His own reflection, in this boundless, deathly emptiness, was also hollow, like an illusion, empty. All the sensations, power, emotions, and desires in his body, and even the magical energy he was currently channeling, were nothing but illusions, illusions, nothingness. Disappearing, empty...

  With a clatter, Adelaide, who was beside him, only saw Graden's expression freeze, then go blank, and then his whole body fell apart. The Archmage, who had just been maintaining a top-tier spell, instantly collapsed into a pile of scattered limbs and organs on the ground. But it did not feel the least bit bloody or cruel, as if a very fine puppet had just had the most important thing inside it removed, and it had fallen apart on its own.

  Before Adelaide could scream, that woman's unique intuition sensed something amiss. She turned, leaped into the air, and fled. She did not know how Graden had become like this, but she knew she was next.

  As she turned, the corner of her eye still caught that empty, deathly gaze. Inertia made her continue to turn, and that gaze slid out of her line of sight. She could feel the empty line of sight slide along her jaw, to her neck, then to her chest and abdomen, and finally past her waist. She took a few running steps, then suddenly seemed to remember something. She reached into her robes and pulled out a teleportation scroll, but before she could open it, a large mouthful of blood sprayed out.

  It could not be called just one mouthful, because she kept spraying. Her mouth was like a burst water pipe. Mixed with the blood were large chunks of internal organs, muscle, and even some pale, white bone. She was practically vomiting out her entire chest and abdominal cavity.

  She only managed to pull the scroll halfway open before all her consciousness was overwhelmed by the sharp pain and terror of the emptiness emanating from her own body. She could only slowly kneel and fall to the ground.

  As Adelaide fell, the four walls of ice also shattered with a boom. Without the mages' support, the walls could not even withstand the air pressure pressing down from above.

  In a colossal roar, fragments of ice flew in all directions. The massive spell of ice smashed a huge crater in the frozen, hard ground. The immense sound and tremor were as if the heavens and the earth were shaking. The pillar of ice cracked diagonally. Its mountainous upper half slid down slowly amidst a great friction, and the shattered ice rained down.

  Ethan walked slowly forward. His pace was still unhurried, his posture unchanged. The mountainous pillar of ice just grazed his back as it struck the ground. The falling ice and flying ice shards around him passed like rain, but not a single one struck him. He was like an image of nothingness made real. No matter how the world collapsed around him, he tread his empty steps, walking alone in his own direction.

  And at this moment, two sword energies, so powerful they seemed to be able to break, tear, and shred the entire world, had already reached him.