454 We need to have a good cha (1/2)

His heavy eyelids covered his eyes. His hazy mind was still struggling as he tried his best to open his eyes but to no avail. It was as if his body no longer belonged to him. A darkness without any light seemed to have devoured the last of his consciousness.

But he could still sense the temperature that came from the world. It was the best proof that he was still alive.

Heh, alive.

Still alive.

Although taken for granted, the boy was still alive.

After realizing that he was still alive, he did not feel the delight of surviving a calamity because the boy never believed that he would have died just like that. He long believed of the scene of his death—at the instant death came, he would be seated on a sealed throne, smiling as he receives his eternal slumber.

But even though he was still alive, it did not represent the coda of his annihilation. That was because the battle did not appear to have ended. By using all his strength to produce Excalibur, he should have perfectly withstood the girl's Sword Soul strike. Him being still well and alive was the best proof, but the exhaustion he felt from not even being capable to open his eyes made him unable to judge if that strike had obtained the victory that he wanted, or if it even left a mark on the girl's hair.

This battle that had its outcome determined only by death would only end when one side died or abandoned the battle. The girl who was his opponent possessed a firm and ice-cold heart. Compassion and benevolence was insulated from her. If she still possessed strength, she would definitely not show him any mercy. Even if her opponent had fallen unconscious to the point of losing all ability to fight, like a lamb about to be slaughtered, she would still cleave down her butchering blade. That pair of ice-blue eyes which he took notice of seemed to elaborate on this fact.

Therefore, regardless of the outcome, he needed to open his eyes and stand up once again. He needed to lift the sword in his hand!

However, in order to achieve victory, and not only withstand the girl's strike, the boy had compressed every bit of energy in his body. At this very moment in time, his body was completely drained of energy. There was none left. He could not even squeeze the energy needed to open his eyes.

He attempted to use sound to judge the situation he was in but he was horrified to realize that not only did the darkness around him lose its light, it was as if sound had disappeared as well. The din from a thirty-thousand-strong audience, the chatter of his companions, that girl's emotionless voice, or the sounds of the breeze had completely vanished. It was a silent and deathly stillness, as though he was in an empty void.

If not for his exposed skin being able to sense the warmth of the world and the blurry consciousness he had was dwindling like a candle in the wind, he would have believed that he was in the afterworld and that he had died.

Slowly, his consciousness was like a run-away kite as it lifted with the wind and floated towards the azure blue sky. Slowly, the tip of his consciousness touched the soft, white clouds. The sunlight that dyed the clouds with a sheen enveloped his soul. The warm feeling was as though he was immersed in a sauna. The easy and comfortable feeling was like a pleasant lullaby.

Yes...

How tired...

The boy was still struggling. He was still resisting the 'losing of his consciousness', but the body which did not seem to heed his will and the irresistible exhaustion was slowly draining away the little remaining bits of his consciousness.

The barely persisting consciousness felt a deep sense of exhaustion, down to his very soul.

If he fell asleep just like that, it seemed like it would be quite a blissful matter.

The thought he had for an instant seemed to be the first strike to topple the dominoes. Whatever consciousness he had left was finally collapsing.

The boy was about to fall asleep.

”Be careful!”

A loud cry suddenly sounded and stabbed into his sealed ears. The silent world shattered like a glass prison.

Whose...voice did that belong to?

The moment the question appeared in his mind, the stifled consciousness that nearly went 'unconsciousness' suddenly gained a new breath, jolting the boy who was about to fall asleep awake.

At the same time, an intense sense of danger reached his heart, like a needle was pricking his heart.

He sensed Death.

He was about to die!

If he did not do a thing, he would die there and then!

The boy was not afraid of death.

But he did not wish to die just like that.

That was because his story had only just begun.

”How can This King die here!?”

The exhausted soul that was nearly on the verge of numbness suddenly let out a roar.

Shi Xiaobai suddenly opened his eyes!

...

At the instant he opened his eyes, his eyes could not adjust to the sudden brightness. In his blurry vision, he saw a black beam of light that resembled a sword shooting straight towards his right eye!

The tip of the black beam of light was like that of a saber or sword. It shimmered with a cold luster like the fangs of a cobra. It brought with it an air of death.

Even though Shi Xiaobai's physical toughness was extraordinary, his eyes were still a weak and fatal point. If the black beam of light hit his eye, the outcome would be disastrous.

He needed to dodge that black beam of unknown origin, but after carrying out Excalibur with all his willpower, it allowed him to pay a tremendous price to produce strength that could match the Sword Soul's power. It was already fortunate that he was not knocked unconscious, but his strength was completely drained. It was an outcome that resulted in him not being even able to move a finger.

He was unable to move as he could not even squeeze out the strength needed to twist his neck slightly!

This was a helpless and absolute ending he had to face.

”What sort of joke was that!?”

The boy that never succumbed to 'absolutes' roared in his heart. Out of somewhere came a sliver of energy, like it was a drop of water that suddenly appeared on a desolate land that had dried up into a desert.

Shi Xiaobai managed to finally use his willpower at the moment of greatest danger to squeeze out a tiny amount of strength. He twisted his neck slightly and managed to move his head to the side.