Among the dark ruins, a figure on the verge of being broken fell into the corner of the rocks.
The Shadow King's plan was very successful. Using himself as bait, he borrowed the power of the devil to detonate the plague of decay. Even the first one, the Glory One, was torn apart and severely injured under such terrifying power.
If the fourth seat hadn't arrived, the killing array designed by the Shadow King might have really been able to eliminate this enemy and trap him to death in this dark and hopeless place.
Unfortunately variables are everywhere.
"Ha ha……"
Shadow King's breathing became more and more rapid, as if he was suffocating. Every breath was accompanied by severe pain, which made him unbearable.
Even if he had made preparations in advance, facing the extraordinary disaster of this explosion and facing the torrent of decay, all the Shadow King's defenses collapsed.
Along with breathing, the plague of decay invaded his lungs. Even with etherification, his organs were irreversibly failing, his skin ulcerated, and pus continued to seep out. Pain and despair continued to haunt the Shadow King's body.
Consciousness plunged him into a deep sense of powerlessness.
The Shadow King cannot control his body, and every cell is screaming at him, wanting to release the anger and sadness in his heart.
Under the corrosion of the poison, a corner of the helmet was melted through, and another layer of silver-white mask beneath it had already been blended with flesh and blood and embedded in the skull.
In this moment of despair, Shadow King suddenly had an inexplicable emotion that made him cry and laugh at the same time.
In the end, the Shadow King still fell in this dark place. He failed to wash away the shame of the royal family and failed to avenge those evil people. After paying so much, he still couldn't do anything, just like he did when he was a child.
General.
But on the other hand, he felt a little ridiculous. Leviathan's promise was still echoing in his ears. He swore to himself that he would get Xilin's body back, but now it seemed that everything was impossible.
The devil is not omnipotent, which makes the Shadow King have a little more hope for this world. Maybe there will be a latecomer who can win this crazy game that lasts for an unknown amount of time.
As for now, the Shadow King is quietly waiting for death to come, resenting himself in the remaining time.
I still failed.
When he thought of this, he became as sad as a child.
Everything seems to have lost its meaning, and even death is no longer the most important issue. He just wants to escape from this bitter life and get rid of these painful constraints.
As his breathing gradually weakened, the plague of decay first consumed all the ether in the Shadow King's body, losing the support of etherification. His mortal flesh and blood were eroded and destroyed, and his important organs turned into a ball of filthy blood clots, and the organs failed one by one.
.
It was as if time was accelerating on the Shadow King's body, and he was aging rapidly, like a weathered mummy.
The Shadow King has reached the end of his life and cannot take another step forward.
In the lake in front of him, he seemed to see a dark void, where there was no light, no hope, only eternal silence.
Death has not yet arrived, and Shadow King's mood is getting lower and lower, becoming more and more desperate.
Those cursed words lingered in the Shadow King's mind, and he blamed himself like an ascetic, why so many people died because of him, why even their souls were sacrificed, and why he suffered for so long...
Why...
Why...
Why did I still fail?
Have you not done enough?
Under self-criticism and doubt, the only consolation for the Shadow King is that he did not give up resistance until his death. Knowing that there was no chance of winning, he still severely damaged the first position. Under the devil's toy, he formed the King's Shield Guard and continued.
Fight.
The Shadow King felt that he had done everything a mortal could do.
It's time to rest.
The Shadow King didn't know how long he would have to endure it. He just wanted to end this long and painful torture as soon as possible. Despair lingered in his mind and seemed to have become his only companion.
It was as if an invisible whip had been waved, creating bloodstains on the mind. When it was about to break, the radiance of the ether lit up in the darkness of nothingness.
In an instant, scarlet stars flashed, and countless ethers exploded at this moment, forming a huge cross sword light, as if to break through the entire darkness.
In the dazzling light, a soulless figure walked out of the cross sword light and strode to the Shadow King.
The Shadow King had thought about what he would see when he died. It might be the legendary God of Death or the devil, but he never thought it would be such a guy.
He looked like he had gone through a long ordeal. His young face had a sense of vicissitudes that had been molded by the wind, and his eyes were empty and without any focus.
The hilt of the sword was densely covered with thorns, which pierced his palm, and blood gathered together and dripped down.
The Shadow King remembers this sword, the Bloodshift Sword, Jamon's sword.
Looking behind him again, the pure sword blade in his memory was covered in pitch-black voodoo, and the surface of the blade was covered with many corrosion pits.
Shadow King remembers his name.
"Gray?"
His voice was hoarse and his throat seemed to be stuck together.
Gray, Mammon's debtor and his messenger, when he was about to die, his appearance undoubtedly explained many things.
His head moved with difficulty, and he whispered, "Let's go quickly, Gray. Go back and tell Mammon that I have nothing of value to give."
"I am not here on the orders of Mammon."
Gray said as he pulled out his old friend's secret sword. Filthy toxins covered the surface of the blade, which turned a strange brown color.
"Oh? Then what do you want from me?" Shadow King tried to laugh, "You'd better hurry up, I don't have much time."
Gray said bluntly, "I want to kill you."
Gray suddenly put away his sword, leaned against the broken stone pillar, and sat down face to face with the Shadow King.
"You may not believe it. Not long ago, I was a new member of the King's Secret Sword. Following my trusted captains, I came to this damn city to conduct my first operation."
"Are you a member of Jamon's team?" Shadow King understood this complicated network of relationships. "I guess Jamon betrayed you and killed your friends...and now you are here to take revenge on me."
This is not difficult to guess. From the first time he met Gray and listened to him tell the origin of the two secret swords, the Shadow King had a hunch in his heart.
Gray nodded lightly. He raised the Silent Sword and tried to wipe off the poison on it. However, the moment his palm came into contact, there was an unbearable burning sensation.
"I killed Jamon with my own hands, but I didn't feel satisfied after killing him."
Gray said, "An inexplicable nothingness grabbed me. I knew that I needed stronger anger to support me going forward... Therefore, since then, I have been eager to kill you and destroy you. This
The source of my tragedy."
The Shadow King said, "Then what are you waiting for?"
"I'm a little confused."
Gray shook his head, hating the Shadow King, but he didn't seem to have much interest in killing the Shadow King. "The hatred is layered on top of each other. I don't understand the so-called justice and evil, let alone what I should do.
I realized that perhaps blind revenge would not satisfy me."
"Then what do you want from me?" Shadow King asked.
"I want to know why you did this," Gray asked, "why you betrayed the King's Secret Sword, why you formed the King's Shield Guard, and why you did these things.
In my eyes, you, the King's Shield Guards, are complete traitors, but in your own eyes, you are absolutely loyal heirs."
The Shadow King fell silent.
"Are you going to take that secret to your grave?" Gray's voice became louder. "Since you hate the King's Secret Sword so much and think you are loyal, why don't you tell me this?"
Gray kept cursing, "Why? Why are we divided? Why are we who should be united fighting each other? Why!"
There are already too many whys today.
"I want to know why all this happened, I want to know the truth of this tragedy!"
The accumulated emotions were vented today, and Gray felt inexplicably relaxed.
Like the Shadow King, Gray also lived in a long period of pain. Jarmon's betrayal destroyed everything he believed in, and Mirasa's death almost broke his heart.
Since that rainy night, Gray has embarked on a wrong path of destiny, and his world has been completely destroyed.
Now, Gray no longer desires peace, he just wants to know why.
Why did he become like this? Why did his life become so absurd?
Gray's voice even sounded a bit pleading.
"What if you can convince me?"
This is a secret that the Shadow King has kept for his whole life. He vowed to wash away this shame to prevent others from knowing it. But at this moment, he seemed really tired, and as if he had been touched by Gray. The Shadow King realized that even at this moment
It doesn't matter if you say it. Anyway, from today onwards, Kogardel's bloodline will be completely cut off, and all of this will become empty words and meaningless.
"It's a long but short story."
The Shadow King seemed to have a desire to survive, and he tried to stay awake.
"A long time ago, there was a soldier. After years of fighting, he was promoted to a non-commissioned officer. Then he had his own soldiers. In the end, he became a general, and even won a kingdom and crowned himself.
From a soldier to a king, he bears so much honor, but under the honor, his desires are also increasing day by day. The king does not want death to take away his life and separate him from his kingdom.
He wants to always wear the crown and rule the eternal kingdom.
With strong desire, one day, a devil came to him, and she promised the king that she would give him the power of eternal life, and the price would be his heirs."
When talking about this, nameless anger burst out of the Shadow King's body, and he swore a curse.
"The king in the story is the first king of the Kogadel Empire, the first king."
The bloody truth made Gray's mind go blank.
"The first king received a gift. This gift allows his soul to be passed on among his bloodline heirs. In other words, he is not only the first king. Under the body of every king, the original
The soul has long been annihilated and sacrificed to the devil. The one who dominates the crown is the soul of the first king.
All successive kings were the first kings, and he was the king of kings."
Gray stared directly at the Shadow King. His breathing became heavier involuntarily, as if he was lacking oxygen, and he was panting in pain.
"So...the current King of Terror."
"Yes, he is also the first king."
There was a touch of sadness in the Shadow King's tone, which was a wound in his heart that could not be healed.
"Not everyone surrenders to his control and is willing to leave the fate of the Kogadel family to the devil."
The Shadow King said softly, "He...he was aware of all this and planned to resist. Finally one day, he realized that the time was ripe. He summoned all the people with royal blood and held an extreme battle.
A luxurious banquet, and then at the end of the carnival, he briefly suppressed the will of the First King, regained control of his body, and burned it all."
Bloody Night.
Gray knew what the Shadow King was talking about. It was also at this moment that he knew the truth about the bloody night and understood the true purpose of that crazy violence.
"What a great sacrifice."
Gray's body trembled uncontrollably, and he committed violence and cut off all bloodlines related to the devil, even if this would cause the empire to collapse.
"The first one knew the secrets of the royal family very early and chose to be loyal to the devil. I chose to be loyal to the real king and cooperated with him to plot all this.
It’s a pity that this bloody night was not complete.”
"Xilin survived."
Gray said softly, at this moment he understood the difference between the king's secret sword and the king's shield guard.
"Maybe it was the mercy of his father's love, or maybe he couldn't hold on anymore. Xilin was not killed by him and became the only bloodline. Since then, the first king has been trying to take back Xilin so that he can continue
Go down."
Shadow King said sadly, "We fought, but unfortunately we still failed."
Raising his head with difficulty, the Shadow King knew that a deal was going on in the Great Rift. The King's Secret Sword was about to get Xilin's corpse. He would use the corpse of the Glory One, the blank corpse, to transfer his soul to it.
to get a new life.
Xilin said it was a corpse, but in a sense he was not dead. At the end of the Secret War, his soul was annihilated, but his body remained perfect. This is something only a few people know... The Shadow King is very
Regretful, it would have been better to chop off Xilin's head with a sword.
Who could have predicted what would happen next? Shadow King tried not to think about these things.
"Does this truth satisfy you?"
Gray's face was full of defeat and despair. From the Shadow King's story, it seemed that the King's Secret Sword to which he had served was the villain, while the King's Shield Guard was the real resister.
His mind gradually became distorted, and Gray understood these things, but whenever he wanted to let go of them, Mirasa's death happened before his eyes.
So what is Milansa's death? A small sacrifice?
What does what you do count?
In an atmosphere of depression and despair, Gray seemed to have figured out something and made some kind of decision.
"No...it hasn't failed yet."
Gray stood up, strode towards the Shadow King, and leaned next to the Shadow King.
"you are still alive."
The whites of Gray's eyes were bloodshot, "Damn it, I know you're still alive! Since you can survive Secret War, then you can also continue to survive in some way!"
The Shadow King hesitated for a moment, then listened to Gray continue.
"I know who you are, I know...this is the information I obtained by trading my soul."
Gray said in a crazy tone, "Of course, I wanted to kill you in the first place."
Gray knows the Shadow King's true name.
The Shadow King's dry eyes revealed an emotion of disbelief.
"To be honest, I still hate you. I can't let go of my hatred so easily. I can't do it, but... But with the grand destiny you face, what I have to bear, my hatred becomes even more...
Not worth mentioning anymore.
Yes, when we get to the root of it, those bastards are the source of the tragedy for all of us!"
Gray paused and grabbed the filthy Sword of Silence, "In Mammon's script, this sword was supposed to end your life."
"I don't want the devil to win, and you probably don't want those bastards to win either, right!"
Gray was full of anger, like an absurd desperado and an irritable child.
"Damn it, what are you talking about! How can I help you, let you live, and kill those bastards!"
Gray's eyes became moist. He didn't want to die in vain like this. He wanted to do something, "I can't do it, but I know you can do it!"
He was just a believer. Facing the vast world, Gray's resistance could not affect those behemoths at all, but he knew that the dying guy in front of him could change everything.
The Shadow King didn't know what to say. Gray was so small, but at this moment he was so tall, like a mountain.
Gray would rather give up his hatred for a greater goal.
"You will die." Shadow King said.
"If my death can be turned into a handful of dirt on the devil's grave, then my death is worth it, isn't it?"
Gray inserted the two secret swords on the ground in front of the Shadow King. He mustered up all his courage and roared, "Tell me, what should I do?"
The Shadow King felt an inexplicable warmth, like a fire burning in Gray's body. He burst out with unimaginable strength, supporting his body that had almost turned into pus. He sat up with difficulty, raised his hand, and put it on his body.
on Gray's shoulders.
"I bear a gift similar to that of the first king, but my gift is not restricted by blood, but by the other party," the Shadow King said solemnly, "Only those who are willing to sacrifice for me will be protected by me.
The impact of gifts.”
"So is the real second seat using this method to die for you?" Gray murmured, and the doubts about the secret war became clear at this moment.
"Um."
Shadow King responded with difficulty, that was a memory he didn't want to look back on.
Leviathan promised him power, but asked him to repay it in the future.
So the secret war broke out. The Second Seat knew his own power, so he chose to let himself live and die with the annihilation of his soul to preserve the perfection of his flesh and blood body.
This gave the first king a chance to survive, but it also gave him the capital to make a comeback.
Just take that body back...
"Is that why you don't want to leave this decaying body behind?" Gray understood the Shadow King's persistence.
The value of this broken body is not only the strength of the Glorious One, but also the body of his friend, teacher, and comrade-in-arms.
"I want you to swear," Gray cursed, "I want you to win! Beat them!"
The Shadow King opened his mouth wide, and foamy blood overflowed from his throat. This was the second time in his life that he swore, and he swore with his soul.
"I swear."
Gray knelt down on one knee, feeling extremely painful but feeling rare joy.
"I am loyal to you, Your Majesty Xilin."
…
Gray first felt an endless pain, as if he had been thrown into a meat grinder. Every muscle and every cell was screaming, and this was the pain that the other party had been suffering.
His vision gradually returned to clarity, and Gray saw a familiar figure with his back facing him.
That was his own figure, but the soul under the body was completely different at this moment.
He swung the blood-shifting sword and made a bloody cross.
The space cracked, and cracks appeared. The edges of the cracks distorted the sense of space, as if countless lines were mixed together, and they were staggered. Almost at the same time, the edges of the cracks began to beat with arcs and blood, and it seemed that every time the space cracked,
Every scratch discharges countless electric currents and blood.
He took one last look at Gray, nodded slightly, turned around and walked into the cross sword light, and the cracked space began to close until it disappeared.
In the dark and silent world, only Gray was left trapped in this dying body. In the extreme pain, Gray felt an inexplicable peace.
Gray knew that he would become one of countless people, the tiny one who would win the war.
One of thousands.
Thinking of this, Gray felt that his life had value, and so did the part of Milansa, and a sense of satisfaction healed all the pain in his heart.
Gray closed his eyes, the rocks above his head collapsed, the first seat screamed, and the skull scythe slashed across, cutting off everything in the world.
In the diffuse dust and smoke, there was a horrible chewing sound.
The figure in the first seat gradually appeared. He wiped the pus and blood from the corner of his mouth. The feeling of devouring the enemy made him feel more satisfied than ever before.
Picking up the scythe, First Seat then hung the head of the "Shadow King" on the blade like a trophy. Just when he was admiring the death of his enemy, he realized that the head, which was almost like a mummy, actually had
With a satisfied smile.
First Xi couldn't understand. He never understood what his younger brother was thinking, just like when he invited him, he couldn't understand why he refused eternal life.
Fortunately, it's all over, he thought to himself.