605 Still Plenty of Time (1/2)

He had only seen it once, and only for a fleeting moment.

But the strike that Lancelot had once made with his sword cast a very profound shadow on Ye Qingxuan's heart.

Defeating the Dark Sovereign is not much of a terrifying feat.

Ye Qingxuan could hardly consider whatever battle in the world frightening any more especially after witnessing the battle between Hyakume and the Holy Cauldron in the sacred city.

But the terrifying thing is, how did Lancelot do it?

While music theory can distort reality with its gravitational pull, this does not mean that it is omnipotent, as it is still unable to affect way too many domains out there, such as fate, time...

In other words, you can't just stand here, strike a pose, take out a sword to look cool, and let the enemy die automatically. You must walk to the enemy, lift the sword, stab him, and hit a vital body part. Then the blood will flow out, the vital part fatally injured, and the enemy will die.

Such is the correct way.

Such is the common sense of the world.

But how did Lancelot conduct the terrifying attack that was almost like a reversal of cause and effect?

Unknown means are often the most frightening.

Especially when the enemy is one of the most dangerous persons like Lancelot...

The Lance of the Dragon Slayer was slowly lifted.

Lancelot took a step forward, and his footprint wedged into the stone. As his armor tremored, he clenched the lance with both his hands and lifted it over his shoulders, with the blade pointing downward. His right hand supported the middle part of the lance, but his left hand clutched the part of the lance that was only one fist away from the blade.

The weird posture defied the common sense of ordinary knights, and even went against conventions of weapon usage.

By positioning himself in such a manner, the length that lances were renowned for was reduced, but after sacrificing the advantage in terms of offense, no defense advantage could be gained either. In fact, one might face difficulties in parrying attacks.

But at the moment, Ye Qingxuan's eyes began twitching violently.

If Ye Qingxuan was a knight with rich experience in combat, he could have realized that despite them being on such a wide battlefield that the space was enough for to lance to strike vertically and horizontally, at the moment Lancelot's stance was a technique used by wielders of lances during urban warfare.

After sacrificing the lance's offensive range and its ability to parry attacks, the only thing that was heightened was its flexibility. It would require only a very short time and distance to switch directions, and would not be constrained by the cramped space.

But Ye Qingxuan noticed another thing.

Ignoring the body of the lance that had been 'hidden' [1], the distance from Lancelot's left hand to the blade of the lance just happened to be between the length of a dagger and that of a long sword.

In other words, at the moment, Lancelot had decided to use the Lance of the Dragon Slayer as a long sword. The distance between Ye Qingxuan and him was also much less longer than that between him and the Dark Sovereign back then.

Despite so, Lancelot still chose to sacrifice part of his offensive advantage to block all of Ye Qingxuan's means of avoiding his attack.

A weapon need not be too powerful.

It would do as long as it could be used to kill people.

A person could die from being cut into a thousand pieces, so could he die from an arrow through the heart. After exceeding a certain limit, excessive attack power was nothing more than a meaningless number.

A knight of decent standards would not blindly seek to increase the attack power of a tactic, as the final result was given primary importance among priorities.

To Lancelot, such a stance would allow him to strike Ye Qingxuan critically and ensure the young man's death.

Ye Qingxuan stopped moving.

Dodging was no longer meaningful anyway, so he might as well just stand there.

He opened his eyes wide to see what Lancelot had been hiding.

Then, at the very moment, Ye Qingxuan saw it.

Light.

The world was frozen once more.

Everything paused.

The rain paused, blood floated in the air, everything appeared aged, and all the colors dimmed.

Except the flowing ray of light being cast out of Lancelot's hands.

So freely.

In such a world that had layers of shackles on and was bounded by reality and its rules, the ray of light was like a flying bird. It deftly went past all the shackles and all set-out rules, strolling calmly, and rushed toward Ye Qingxuan with an unparalleled, breathtakingly graceful posture.

It was frighteningly fast.

No sound could be heard in the silent world, as it had exceeded the speed of sound. Time had paused, because the speed of the Lance of the Dragon Slayer at that moment was fast enough to chase after light.

It did not employ Faust to forcibly freeze the activity of all matter, but instead it gave chase. Like flying birds, or souls floating in the sky, it chased after freedom, its speed surpassing that of all else, and advanced into uncharted territory.

In the blow that was so simple to the extent of being shocking, what it contained was actually the beauty expressed by power itself.

Ye Qingxuan only had time to open his eyes wide.

He didn't even had time to let out the exclamation of praise from his throat. The heat was frozen in his throat by the flowing ray of light, and the flowing light of molten gold spraying from the Lance of the Dragon Slayer was already right in front of him.

A tearing sound rang out.

Before the Lance of the Dragon Slayer, all defenses were torn apart. The horrifying brilliance gathered into a tide, engulfing Ye Qingxuan.

Ye Qingxuan's heart was no secret to Lancelot.

To other opponents, the critical weakness was totally non-existent, but for artifacts like the Lance of the Dragon Slayer which could destroy both flesh and aether in one go, they were even more deadly to Ye Qingxuan's completely aetherized heart.

As long as the lance came into contact with the slightest bit of his own core music theory, it would cause a horrifying amount of irreparable damage to his Symphony of Predestination, let alone direct contact with a vital organ like the heart.

A double destruction of flesh and aether descended upon him in a flash.

All over his body, every inch of his skin cracked, resulting in grotesque wounds, as if he had been thrown into a furnace and had completely dried up. A collapsing sound rang out.

Together with it came Ye Qingxuan's sign.

”Fortunately... It's not light.” On his broken and incomplete face, the lips moved as he croaked with a hoarse voice.