On the King's Altar, Cavendish Wells watched the twenty-four explorers disappear into the center of the altar with a calm expression.

Staring at the frosty gate facing the altar in the sky, he narrowed his eyes slightly, as if thinking about something.

"Can you only send forty-eight people......

After a few minutes, the young king of Odryk seemed to be a little tired, and slowly walked under the altar.

"Go back and rest, Clinton."

King Cavendish said to the aged knight beside the altar.

King Audrick's knight, Connellus C. Clinton [Horn of the Sun], only shook his head silently, and he sat on the floor, his old face always maintaining a calm expression.

With a sigh, Cavendish stopped persuading and walked down the stairs down the towering altar.

As soon as he walked down the last staircase, Cavendish saw Curran, the second prince of Gore, coming from not far away.

"Congratulations, the ceremony went well, Your Majesty." Prince Curran pressed his right fist to his chest and said respectfully, "According to the plan, everyone will return from the teleportation in two days. ”

"Thank you, Prince Curran." Cavendish smiled slightly, "Thanks to the ritual you have carefully prepared. ”

"It's nothing, it's what I'm supposed to do."

"Have all your people survived the Void?" Cavendish asked politely.

"They assembled at the Crystal Palace, and all twenty-four of them were successfully teleported." Curran smiled and replied, "All we can do is wait." ”

"That's good." Cavendish nodded, "It's just a pity that the Frost King's eggshell can't carry the Sage, otherwise the exploration will be more certain." ”

He paused, put his hands behind his back, glanced at the giant hall in the sky again, and said slowly, "I hope everything goes well." ”

Prince Curran said, "Although we can't send the Sage into the Ji Tomb, I believe that the strength of the explorers is enough to deal with all accidents. ”

"I hope so."

Cavendish replied lightly, he was silent for a while, and suddenly smiled at Curran: "Don't worry, Prince Curran...... I will keep my promise, and no matter what happens in the Himeling, I will not pursue it. ”

He stretched out his hand and pointed in the direction of the Crystal Palace, and continued: "The treasure obtained from the Ji Ling is according to the agreement, and when your people return to the Crystal Palace, I will never snatch it. ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your generosity." Curran smiled and nodded.

"But if the Heart of Terrela appears in the hands of the Returnees at the Altar of Kings, don't be delusional." Cavendish calmly looked Curran in the eye.

"Of course, all the contention will stop within the Himeiling, and leave the answer to the warriors of Audrick and Goeller to write." Curran didn't have any opinions.

In the face of this young king, there was not a trace of contempt in Curran's heart, and the more peaceful and trustworthy he seemed to be, the more he had to be careful...... He didn't want to die in Audric for a strange reason, which would only make some people in the Gorek Empire get their wish.

"It's getting late, and it's inconvenient for me to delay Your Majesty's rest any longer, so I will take my leave." Curran saluted again.

Cavendish nodded, watching the Gorle prince leave, he also moved his steps, and walked towards the White Maple Palace with the guards following.

Located northeast of the royal palace, the White Maple Palace has been home to successive Audrick kings for more than a thousand years.

The guards stood outside the White Maple Palace, and under the care of the maids, Cavendish took off his crown, took off his robes, and prepared to bathe.

The king's baths were a small white temple, and ten steps up the way to the palace were the sleeping chambers.

Cavendish walked into the mist-filled bathroom wearing only close-fitting clothes, leaving only one maid to serve in the bath, as was customary.

His bath is round in shape, 30 square meters in size, the floor tiles are inlaid with pleasant round gemstones, the whole pool is paved with white jade, and there are nine equidistant statues of the goddess of white jade, the goddess holds the white clay pot on her shoulder, and the hot but not hot water flows into the pool from the mouth of the jar.

Cavendish stripped off his underwear and stepped into the pool, leaning comfortably against the edge of the pool, where the maid in a light tulle skirt knelt behind him, placing her hand on his shoulder and kneading it gently.

"It's only here that I can feel truly relaxed."

Enjoying the maid's massage, Cavendish closed his eyes slightly and whispered.

"Is it because there's a barrier to all prying eyes, or is it because of me?" The maid smiled softly and said in a gentle voice.

Cavendish curled the corners of his mouth slightly and said, "Whenever I lie in the pool, I thank my ancestors from the bottom of my heart...... Without this barrier, how can I escape the eyes that are watching me? ”

He reached out from the water, gently grasped the maid's wrist, and placed her small, soft hand on his bare chest.

"I couldn't have done anything without you."

Feeling His Majesty's slightly accelerated heartbeat, the maid stopped massaging, leaned down, pressed her chest against his head, and hugged him in her arms.

"It's all going to end."

Her hand caressed his chest slowly.

Cavendish snorted comfortably, and he whispered in a soft voice, "I'm sorry I kept you waiting for a long time...... Althea. ”

The maid shook her head, and she let go of her arm, no longer holding Cavendish on his head, but picked up the king's robes and put them on herself one by one.

"It's okay, brother."

Before stepping out of the bathroom, she turned around and smiled at Cavendish in the bath.

"It's all going to end."

In the mist, her face was exactly the same as that of Cavendish Sh, so beautiful that men and women could not distinguish between them, and it was heartbreakingly beautiful.

As consciousness returned, Levi felt a faint sense of despair when the first thought came to his mind.

All this because he knew that he could no longer turn back...... He was already above the stars.

When I opened my eyes, I was greeted by Terella, who was back to her normal size in an ice-blue dress, and a sea of deep blue stars.

He was on a spire.

Tyrela, who had noticed Levi waking up and was looking into the distance, turned her head, glanced at him, and then turned back, staring silently into the void.

Even deep in the Temple of the Void, Levi had no desire to stand up, his mind was full of the charcoal note and the last trace of Aina Cooper's back.

The plan got out of hand...... Why is this happening?

"You planned that we would be here?"

He grabbed his hair and took a deep breath.

Terrella didn't look back, and said lightly, "Didn't you guess too?" ”

She paused, then added, "But I don't know the exact moment." ”

"That's why you're going to follow me all the time these days?" Levi said coldly.

Terrella reached out to the stars, her fingertips slightly open, as if to experience something.

"No palace can be built in the void, not even Saladin." She suddenly said to herself, "So Ji Ling is not in the Void Star Sea, but in a moving space...... Exiled into the Void, this space has a gateway to the real world through the medium of half of the Frost King's body. ”

Levi didn't speak, and he didn't want to speak.

"When this door can't be pushed open, there's only one way to enter this space from the real world: across the Void. As for why the door could not be opened...... That's because the dragon egg, which is one of the keys, is incomplete, and the missing part is me. Terrella raised her arm and spun in a leisurely circle, "This body of mine is the other half of the Frost King's remaining flesh, and as a 'ship' across the void, I am more suitable than any carrier, and I can even choose where to descend. ”

Hearing Terella's words, Levi's eyes flickered.

"Look here, look at the place under your feet." Terella looked Levi's eyes and said calmly, "This is the place I chose to stay, no matter how many people enter the tomb...... We have left them far behind. ”

Levi gritted his teeth and said, "What do these things have to do with me?" ”

Terella was silent for a moment, her eyes showing a hint of contempt, and she said in an unusually cold tone, "Risking it for an Aina Cooper who doesn't know if she can save it, or for the benefit that the Queen of the Shadow Nation has given you—I'm sure it's an easy choice for you." ”

Levi laughed suddenly, and although he smiled, his eyes were very cold.

"Choice? Do you think you gave me a choice? ”

"Maybe you don't have a choice right now, but it's definitely a choice you'll make." Terrella said lightly, "In the outside world, I don't know what you're going to do, but no matter where you are, you're that kind of person. ”

She paused and said slowly, "You've noticed it a long time ago, haven't you?" You are a person who has no heart. ”

Levi's smile faded.

Rational thinking, rational choice, rational calculation, this is all he has, and it is the basis for him to get to where he is today step by step.

Even he didn't know whether Nineveh's words, or Terrela's, had any effect on him; He would not have known that from this moment on, or from earlier, it was doomed, that the gray on his body would be a little closer to the darkness after all.

It's like he's a child of the night, with the blood of the night buried in his body.

Levi silently reached out and pressed his knee and slowly stood up from the ground. He turned, leaned his hands on the railing, and looked at the huge mausoleum in front of him.

In the midst of this ruin, you can feel its grandeur even more deeply: huge corridors and wide streets, huge towers and huge halls...... The lines of these buildings were cold and hard, and their dimensions were a few points larger than the proud city of Slom, like the abode of the giants, and there was no end in sight as far as the eye could see, only the infinite pale white filled the view.

Looking up at the sky, there was no trace of Slom City, only an endless deep blue void floating overhead.

"You chose to descend on this tower, why?" Levi asked suddenly.

Hearing Levi's words, Terella, who had been waiting quietly, pursed her lips and smiled, she looked at his back, and whispered, "You'll understand soon." ”

Levi turned around, looked into Terella's eyes, and said calmly, "It's time to confess, right?" Everything about here, and what you want me to do - please say it all. ”

Terella's eyes narrowed, and her fingers tapped twice on the railing.

"I want you to find my heart, the true heart, for me."

An imperceptible gleam flashed in her eyes, and her long ice-blue hair fluttered slowly in the invisible wind.

"I'll give you a favor when I'm done with this...... After that, we didn't have any relationship. ”

Raymond knew nothing about what was happening over Slom City, except for the faint sound of thunder, and just patiently ambushed in the dense forest.

He was quiet, and so was Aina Cooper, except for the scattered snowflakes in mid-air silently announcing the passage of time.

The temperature on a snowy night was very low, and just when Raymond felt that his body was about to freeze, a series of unhurried footsteps came from the forest.

Raymond put his hand on the lead rope, and he held his breath as he clutched the rope tightly...... It wasn't until he heard the whistle that he slowly let go of his hand.

That's Eugene's code.

The gray-haired gentleman with scars came out of the woods, and he came to the middle of the clearing, and glanced at Aina, and saw that the girl's expression seemed to be relieved, as if she had fallen into some kind of disappointment, or deeper despair.

"It's pitiful, the end of abandonment and death follow suit, it's too miserable - but that's life, little girl." Eugene said lightly.

"Come out, Raymond." He turned his head and shouted, "He's not coming." ”

He's not coming.

That's nice.

Aina closed her eyes slightly, the corners of her mouth slightly upturned, not knowing whether she was laughing or crying.

No matter what Aina Cooper thinks, many things don't change because of her thoughts, like the fourth person who suddenly appeared in the clearing of the woods.

Before Raymond could reply, Eugene felt a suffocating pressure coming from behind him, as if a sharp sword was hanging above his head.

"Who you say won't come?"

With great difficulty, Eugene took a step forward, bent his knees, and made an incoherent tumbling motion.

When he straightened up, he saw a hunchbacked man standing not far away, wearing a red scarf with a skeleton embroidered on it.

"I don't know who that person you are talking about, I'm here anyway."

The hunchbacked man's voice was low and hoarse.

As a bystander who witnessed all this happening and hid behind a large tree, Raymond just saw a man walk out of the air behind Eugene, who took his hands and did not make any moves, and Eugene rolled away like a frightened rabbit, as if he had been stabbed.

"Who are you?"

Eugene rose from the snow and slid a dagger out of the sleeve of his left hand, and drew a short knife from his waist in his right hand. His heart was shocked and angry, he didn't know why the trap buried in the woods hadn't been triggered, only that the suffocating killing intent was still locking on him, making his every move extremely difficult.

"You've done a lot of tricks, and you can see that it's the favorite technique of the Northwest hunters." The hunchbacked man didn't answer his question, but commented to himself, "It's okay to use those traps against the barbarians, hehe, but if you want to get the bounty hunter to get hit, it's a bit of a stretch." ”

"You're from the guild?"

Eugene's palms were overflowing with sweat, and thinking that Raymond was still in the shadows, he decided to strike first - he had a hunch that if he didn't make a move, he might not be able to make a move!

With a thought, Eugene raised his hand and threw out the dagger, and his body rushed towards the hunchbacked man almost at the same time.

Raymond also reached out and grabbed the lead rope -

In the smoke that came out of nowhere, the hunchbacked man vanished, and when he reappeared, he was already behind Eugene, and a distorted knife pierced Eugene's throat, blood splattering everywhere.

Raymond felt only a piercing pain in his right arm, and a black boomerang the size of a wheel stuck into the trunk of a tree in front of him, stained with blood everywhere.

Why did this boomerang fly from behind him?

He lowered his head and saw half of his arm fall to the snow, his palm still clutching forward.

"Ahh

Hearing Raymond's screams coming from behind the tree, Eugene's slowed mind was focused on one thing: Why so fast?

As he died, he felt the cold of his neck and the pain of tearing, and suddenly realized that his death was familiar.

The bounty hunter Sandor, the hunchbacked, short man, flicked his short knife and drained the blood on the white snow, as if satisfying a certain distorted aesthetic.

It all ended so fast that Aina Cooper didn't even realize what was happening, all she knew was that a white-haired gentleman had just appeared, that a hunchbacked man had killed him, and that the man named Raymond was wailing somewhere, as if something terrible had happened.

Aina's pupils contracted slightly, and she could only subconsciously curl up her body when her hands and feet were tied.

"I'm in a bad mood because of something that's happening in the sky...... Can you understand guests who dress up for a prom, only to be ruthlessly rejected? ”

Sandor put the dagger back into its scabbard, not knowing who he was talking to.

"I'm a very cultivated person, and I don't get angry about one thing, but two things are a different story...... You actually killed my man in the back and stabbed him in the neck in the back? This is an insult to bounty hunters. ”

He kicked Eugene in the head, admired the knife in the corpse's neck for a moment, and continued, "And my usual response to insults is to return the insult in its original form. ”

Raymond Brown, who had lost his right arm, gritted his teeth and walked slowly out from behind the tree. He clutched the severed bleeding right arm and looked at Eugene's corpse with fear.

The sound of chanting rang out from his mouth, but the syllables of the elemental text came to an abrupt halt after only half a sentence was uttered.

The dagger that Eugene had thrown earlier had somehow found itself in Sandor and somehow stuck in Raymond's neck.

Raymond pulled out the dagger with his remaining left hand, threw it on the ground, and then clutched his throat and took two steps backwards, falling weakly in front of a large tree, his mouth spilling blood blisters.

His eyes were fixed on Sandor, but he couldn't say a word, so he could only watch as Sandor picked up Eugene's short knife and looked at it as if no one was around.

"Well, you're a magician, and this knife matches the wound on the corpse of one of my men, so you didn't do it." Sandor laughed, "Congratulations, young man, I won't kill you...... Of course, if you can't survive, then it's no wonder to me. ”

The black dart returned to Sandor's hand at some point, and he inserted the dart into the card slot behind him, walked up to Aina Cooper, crouched down and looked at the frightened little girl, and laughed obscenely.

"Hehe, I'm a bounty hunter who values commissions, and although I don't know you, I can guess what the situation is."

Sandor swiped his fingers, and before Aina could see what he had done, she found that her body was suddenly free, and the ropes that bound her were scattered all over the ground.

She scuffed to her feet and looked at Sandor quietly, trying her best not to tremble.

"I'm not going to save you, after all, there's no such thing in the commission." Sandor spread his hands, "But as we all know, Sandor is a good person, if you don't plan to stay here with them, follow me closely, and don't make a mistake." ”

Sandor said no more, and turned to walk out into the woods.

Aina hesitated, but staggered to her feet, mustered up the courage not to look at Eugene's body and Raymond who was leaning on the side, and quickly followed.

Raymond clutched his throat, his fingers digging into his skin, his eyes wide open, looking at Sandor's back with a desperate and angry gaze.

Sandor ......

He's Sandor!

I'm going to kill him...... I'm going to kill Sandor, and then Levi, and Alva, and Cizer...... I'm going to kill everyone! I'm going to survive!

Raymond roared and roared inwardly, like a dying, mad beast, blood dripping from its fangs, but still trying to bite through the throat of its foe.

After passing through the dark forest, Aina suddenly couldn't find the figure of the hunchbacked man, facing the white countryside, she was alone.

Under this cold and crazy snowy night, she tilted her head and reached out to gently catch a snowflake.

Crystal and beautiful snowflakes fell on her palm, instantly melting into a puddle of invisible water, like something meaningless, like nothingness.

The snowflake melted, and a figure in her heart seemed to become synonymous with nothingness.

"It's cold, let's go home quickly."

Aina whispered, stepping forward.

She felt stronger than ever, as if she had never been weaker. Either way, she wouldn't know that fate had been rewritten, and she would eventually become herself, no matter who was around her.

("Before we even knew it, the power of the kingdom of God had permeated every corner of the continent.") —General History of the Continent • The Dark Dynasty)