A Tale of Strategies For the Throne

The author has something to say: If you make up for yesterday’s portion, just put it together with today’s portion_(:3∠)_

Garlan was in a daze for a moment. Suddenly, a drop of cold water fell from the tip of his wet hair on the tip of his nose.

With a snap, he woke up with a jolt.

He looked intently and found that the black-robed priest was still walking down the stone steps unhurriedly.

In fact, the other party didn't seem to speak at all.

Everyone around him just looked at the black-robed priest with vigilance, including Heimos who was right next to him, but did not make any reaction.

It was like... they didn't hear what the black-robed priest said at all.

From beginning to end, the only person who heard the other party's words was himself.

Frowning slightly, holding the sword in his hand tightly, Garlan took a step towards the black-robed priest.

He felt that there was no need to waste time, so he simply dealt with the priest directly, and then burned the altar here, and everything was over.

But at this moment, he suddenly smelled a faint aroma.

When the fragrance lingered around him, it seemed to drive away all the bloody smell that had just been stained on his body.

He was in a trance, his body suddenly became unstable, swayed, and he couldn't help but kneel on the ground.

Strange... my body doesn't obey its orders.

The aroma was light at first, but gradually became more intense later on.

Garlan's heart tightened, and he quickly turned around, and was shocked to find that all the knights behind him and Sia had fallen to the ground at some point.

Everyone except him has fallen into a coma.

clatter.

Snap.

A gentle knocking sound came from above, and Garlan turned his head and looked up.

The priest of the Cult of All Things walked down the stone steps step by step. The bottom of the scepter he held in his hand tapped the stone slab again and again, making a gentle knocking sound.

Although the sound was not loud, it was particularly clear in the silent front hall at this moment.

He knelt on one knee and felt the aroma coming to his nostrils.

It felt like the scent was coming in waves as the priest came step by step.

From very light at the beginning to extremely rich at the end, it drove back all the strong smell of blood in the apse, which was only separated by a thin gauze curtain.

The entire front hall was shrouded in this strange fragrance. The fragrance surrounded him, as if it was seeping into his body little by little, making his consciousness gradually become trance-like.

The whole body felt like sinking into soft cotton wool, soft and warm, and the body was extremely comfortable.

My mind gradually becomes empty.

Think nothing, do nothing.

The whole person became relaxed and lazy because of this.

The bright light in his sight dimmed little by little, and a warm breath, as if bathed in the sun, surged up and enveloped his whole body...

The long sword in his hand fell to the ground with a snap.

His forehead hair was scattered in front of his eyes, casting a deep shadow, covering his sight. Garlan, who was kneeling on the ground, could no longer hold on and leaned over to the ground.

The long golden hair spread out on the stone ground, and the young man fell into a deep dream.

…………

……………………

"Sia."

In his daze, he heard a gentle voice calling his name.

The man who called him held him with soft hands.

The courtyard bathed in sunshine was very peaceful. He closed his eyes and nestled in the warm embrace with nostalgia.

"Xia, you have to grow up quickly."

The girl hugging him looked at him with soft eyebrows and said with a chuckle, "You are the prince of Kanal. You must become strong quickly and protect Kanal well."

I will.

Sister Wang.

I will grow up, I will become stronger, I will protect you, protect Kanal.

The child answered in his heart.

But in an instant, the peaceful courtyard shattered like a bubble.

The endless flames of war ignited on the originally prosperous land.

He stood blankly in the snow-white palace, listening to the heavy sound of iron hoofs resounding on the land of Kanal.

He saw countless corpses with broken arms lying in the city where the war was spreading. The flames burned the city and the blood dyed the earth red.

He saw the tall tower. The snow-white tower was extremely bright under the sun.

The howling north wind brought the smell of blood from the distance, lifting the long skirt of the girl standing on the top of the tower, and the long golden hair flying up covered her face.

"Sister Wang, don't leave me."

The little child begged, trying hard to reach out to the figure.

Catch her.

he thinks.

Hold on to her, he wants to go with her to his father and brother, he doesn't want to be left alone.

However, just when his hand was about to grab the other party's clothes.

The girl jumped up.

His long golden hair spread out in the bright sky, and he desperately stretched out his hand to catch the empty space.

With a bang, the girl's body hit the ground heavily.

The moment he hit the ground, shattered flesh and blood flew out, splashing all over his face——

The little child stood there blankly, staring blankly at the mass of flesh and blood on the ground that could no longer recognize its original appearance.

…

"She left you."

A low voice suddenly sounded in his dull ears.

"no……"

He subconsciously wanted to refute.

"She left you alone in this world. She ran away, but left you to face the cruel future alone."

"It's not like this!"

He yelled at the top of his lungs.

But his strenuous rebuttal seemed more like he was trying to hide his inner wavering.

"That's not the case...she was trying to protect me...to keep me alive, so that's why-"

"She is freed, and all the pain is borne on you."

"no……"

The little child shook his head, tears welling up in his eyes.

He didn't want to admit it.

But that's the truth.

That voice dug out the darkest place in his heart, the resentment he harbored.

He didn't know when it started, but he couldn't help but think about it vaguely in his heart.

He was abandoned by his relatives and was forced to struggle alone in the world and endure all the suffering.

Why him?

he thinks.

Why did he have to endure those tortures?

"Prince of Karnal."

The low voice continued to sound in front of him.

He stood there, raising his tear-stained face and staring blankly ahead.

On the high altar, a priest wearing a black and blue robe stood on the stone steps, standing calmly.

He looked down at him in a condescending manner.

It's like a god looking down at tiny sentient beings, cruel and ruthless.

"Kanal's demise has long been doomed," he said.

"Has it been...destined...?"

If everything is already doomed.

So what of his struggles so far?

The child stood blankly, his eyes becoming silent little by little.

"That's its fate, and that's your fate."

...The father's head was raised high by the flagpole...

...Brother Wang fell down unwillingly after a silver gun penetrated his chest...

Under the snow-white tower, Sister Wang was shattered to pieces...

...Wandering around...I was eventually betrayed and surrounded by countless Gastards...

Also, the cruel things he suffered...

That scene seemed to be playing out before his eyes again.

That's fate.

He was told so.

Kanal's fate, his fate, everyone's fate was already sealed.

The slow and low voice of the black-robed priest echoed in his ears.

"Destiny never changes."

So, all his struggles were in vain.

His so-called persistence is nothing but joy and a joke in the eyes of the gods.

The child stood vacantly.

The lights around him were extremely bright, but there was no glimmer of light in his eyes. All thoughts were extinguished, leaving only darkness.

...He tried to resist fate, so he suffered such a punishment...

In a daze, he seemed to be back to his past.

On that high white tower, he stood, the wind whistling past him.

His sister Wang was by his side, holding his hand and giving him a gentle smile.

Then, jump.

Sister Wang held his hand and led him to jump down from the tower.

Such is destiny.

No resistance.

He was destined to perish along with his family and his kingdom.

…………

……………………

A bright light illuminated the entire front hall and illuminated Heimos's face.

He stared intently at the robed priest on the high platform, with undisguised murderous intent in his eyes.

Holding the sharp sword in his hand, he took long strides and walked forward.

Taking three steps at a time, he quickly climbed up the stone steps and rushed to the robed priest.

Cut it down with one sword without hesitation.

The blade easily split open the body of the robed priest, cutting him into two pieces.

Blood splashed onto Heimos' face and fell into his eyes.

The scorching heat stung his eyes, causing him to subconsciously close them.

When he opened his eyes again, the originally bright environment suddenly became dim.

Everything in front of me has changed.

His people stood on the ground, and the blood-like moonlight fell all around.

At his feet, countless corpses lay in the open-air altar bathed in blood-red moonlight.

The dagger in his hand was dripping with blood.

He is still very young.

A young child stood in the center of the altar. The carved black and blue stone slab centered on him stretched out infinitely, and hundreds of dead corpses centered on him stretched out infinitely in all directions, with no end in sight.

He stood alone in the mountain of corpses and sea of ​​blood, looking blankly at everything in front of him and at his hands covered with blood.

He killed so many people.

His hands were stained with the blood of so many people.

After a moment of confusion, a priest in black robes suddenly appeared in front of him.

"You are the one chosen by the God of all things, come and offer your life and soul."

That low voice was extremely captivating.

He held out his hand to him.

"Come...become one with the great God."

He took a step forward.

When the black-robed priest raised a smile on his lips, he stabbed the dagger in his hand into the opponent's body expressionlessly——

Suddenly, the world was spinning, and the scene in front of him collapsed.

In the blink of an eye, he was already in the palace.

Suddenly hearing a clang, he subconsciously raised his head and saw a sharp arrow hitting the fire plate on the pillar heavily.

The copper basin fell from the sky, and he was caught off guard, and burning coals fell on him.

With a bang, the flames ignited violently, and the flames quickly burned through half of his body along with the pitch black liquid covering his body.

The fire was burning and swallowed him whole.

The red flames burned his skin and flesh alive, almost drying out his bone marrow——

He was going crazy with pain, but he could only watch as his body was burned to pieces.

He saw his own appearance in the mirror, inhuman and ghostly.

He sat on the huge and cold throne with this half body that he felt was too ugly to be human, looking down at the people who were kneeling to him tremblingly.

He was alive, but it was as if he were dead.

…

"That's your destiny."

The familiar hoarse voice sounded in his ears again, causing Heimos to wake up suddenly.

He didn't know when he was kneeling on the ground, grasping the hilt of the sword with both hands, and supporting his body with the sword.

He was panting violently, and his forehead was covered with cold sweat.

The severe pain in his body when he was burned alive by the flames, and the heart-wrenching pain of surviving with a broken body seemed to still remain in his body.

But his eyes were still sharp, and no matter how much pain he suffered, he couldn't waver in the slightest.

Heimos raised his eyes and looked coldly towards the direction of the sound.

"You have been chosen by my god from the beginning."

Under his feet, the upper half of the body that he had chopped off was right in front of him.

The black-robed priest whose body had been broken was strangely still alive.

Most of the other person's face was still hidden under the dark hood, and he could only see the other person's lips opening and closing constantly, talking to him.

"Become one with the great God, dedicate body and soul to my God, sacrifice everything, and let the great God of all things come to earth - that is your destiny."

The other party sighed naggingly.

"You can't escape, you have the mark given to you by God..."

The sharp sword stabbed down suddenly and penetrated the head that was still talking.

Heimos stabbed the opponent's head with his sword without expression.

"I don't care how you pretend to be a ghost. If I can't kill you once, I will kill you a second time, a third time, or countless times until I kill you completely."

He stood up and drew his sword.

Then he stepped hard on the head that was still talking and crushed it to pieces.

But the moment he crushed the head with his foot, the scene in front of him suddenly changed again.

The stone palace disappeared before his eyes, and the surrounding area suddenly turned into a battlefield of fighting.

He heard the familiar sound of horse hooves stamping on the ground, galloping across the land.

In the dark night, flames burned through the city, lighting up the night sky.

Countless sharp arrows flew like rain in the firelight.

Houses were set on fire, and people were crying and running in all directions.

The Aaron Landis cavalry in black and red armor and the Gastad cavalry in white armor fought fiercely in the dark night, and the sound of the clash of weapons echoed in the night sky.

They were surrounded by the Gasdad people and blocked in a square in the city. One after another, Aaron Landis's cavalry was killed by the Gasdad cavalry.

Heimos saw Garlan on the battlefield. The young man was guarded by many Aaron Landis cavalry, and he fought hard with everyone.

The young man's armor and golden hair were splattered with blood.

The moment Heimos saw Garlan, he suddenly felt his hand move on its own.

He held a strong bow in front of him.

Bow and arrow.

The direction of the arrow tip pointed directly to where the blond boy was in the night.

A huge sense of panic suddenly surged out of his body, and he tried his best to drop the strong bow in his hand, but his body completely violated his will at this moment.

It was as if an invisible powerful force controlled him, causing him to raise an arrow toward Garlan in the distance.

stop!

He desperately wanted to stop all this, but no matter how hard he struggled, his hands opened the bow steadily, and the arrow tip pointed forward.

His hand stretched the bowstring to the limit, almost to the point of breaking.

The sharp arrow tip was aimed at Garlan's back on the battlefield.

stop--!

No one could hear the roar in his heart.

A buzzing sound.

The sharp arrow shot through the air.

It drew a long arc in the night sky, and then violently penetrated Garlan's back.

The boy fell off his horse and fell to the ground.

Her golden hair was submerged in the mud, and blood poured out of her chest, dyeing the earth red.

His pupils suddenly dilated, and Heimos stood there blankly, his hands and feet cold.

The noise of the battlefield seemed to be far away from him at this moment, and the whole world fell into deathly silence.

It was as if the moment the boy closed his eyes, his heart froze.

He killed Garlan.

With his own hands...

"That is fate. You and him are twins of fate."

A hoarse voice whispered in his ears, surrounding him.

"While you live, he will die by your hands."

"impossible……"

"He will die because of you."

"No……"

"You know it's true, you can feel it, it's the truth."

"…shut up………"

"One of you will always die because of the other."

"shut up!"

The voice echoed in his ears, announcing the cruelest prophecy.

"You can never coexist in this world!"

Such is destiny.

…………

……………………

When he regained consciousness, he felt someone pinching his jaw. The force was so strong that he almost thought his jaw was crushed like this.

The cold liquid poured into his throat and flowed into his body, and the poison ignited clusters of flames in his body.

All the internal organs seemed to be burning with flames, which was almost painful.

His hands that were waving wildly grabbed the clothes of the person in front of him.

Opening his eyes, his breath hitched.

He saw those golden-red eyes, familiar yet unfamiliar.

The man who forced the venom into his mouth stared at him, his eyes like the vertical pupils of a poisonous snake, cold and cruel.

...Heimos...

The severe pain made his body tremble with pain. He struggled to open his mouth, but his throat, corroded by the venom, could not make any sound.

His eyes suddenly went dark, and then lit up again in the blink of an eye.

Everything around him changed.

The cold rain hit his face. He opened his eyes and opened his mouth, but he couldn't breathe.

His throat was grabbed tightly.

There was nothing at his feet, hanging in the air, and the pain of suffocation made tears ooze from the corners of his eyes.

Below me is the sky thousands of feet high.

The man stood on the edge of the high attic platform, holding his throat with one hand and lifting him high into the air.

Then, the hand let go.

He fell from the sky.

Instinctively, he reached out his hand, wanting to ask for help from the person in front of him who killed him.

He didn't know why, but he always felt that this person would grab his hand and hug him tightly.

But the man just stood there, looking down at him coldly.

After all, his hands didn't grab anything.

He fell heavily from a high cliff.

The moment he landed, the surroundings were filled with flames. He was in a sea of ​​fire, and the flames were boundless, like a prison imprisoning him.

He lay on the ground, heat waves rolling over him, wave after wave.

The smoke and dust made it almost impossible to breathe.

He lay alone and helpless in the sea of ​​​​fire, and the dust in his throat gradually blurred his consciousness.

In his blurred vision, he saw a familiar figure standing outside the sea of ​​fire.

He saw the man's sinister and violent eyes staring directly at him, like tempered poison, full of resentment and murderous intent.

At this moment, suddenly, a heavy rain poured down.

The sea of ​​fire dissipated in an instant.

He saw a man with blood-red eyes striding towards him, and a cold evil aura almost enveloped the entire world.

He opened his eyes and watched as the man raised the sharp sword in his hand and stabbed him hard in the chest.

A heart-piercing pain swept through the entire body from the chest, and the pain almost drove people crazy——

…

"Are you willing?"

The young man lay quietly on the ground, the pattering rain soaking his golden hair.

Rain mixed with blood flowed down from under him.

The sharp sword piercing his chest pinned his entire body to the ground.

He was about to die and looked blankly at the rainy sky.

"Being killed again and again, forced to go through all this...are you willing?"

Of course not willingly.

I had to leave my hometown where I grew up and come to such a strange place.

Alone.

No matter how hard he struggled, he was killed again and again.

Why did he have to endure all this?

"This is fate. It was destined from the beginning. No one can change it."

No.

The gods asked him to come here just to change his destiny.

He comes back after dying again and again just to change everything.

"Do you really think that's the case?"

The voice gave a low chuckle.

"Have you never thought that this is your original destiny that brought you here and experienced death over and over again?"

...original destiny?

wrong.

He changed the fate of many people and saved many lives.

"Nothing has changed. What you call change and salvation is the established trajectory."

The voice surrounding his ears was deeply mocking.

"You can't change the established trajectory - just like the lion king, fate wants him to die there, so you can't save him."

"You can't save someone who is destined to die."

The pupils of the boy who was lying quietly on the ground shrank violently.

[I have saved countless people, but... I cannot save the person I want to save the most. 】

Excessive blood loss made his lips extremely pale. He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but his lips trembled slightly and nothing came out.

He lay on the ground and stared at the sky.

The long black and blue pendulum passed before his eyes, and the black-robed priest appeared in front of him at some point.

He stood beside him, looking down at him.

"Son of the gods?" the black-robed priest said with a chuckle, "No, you are just a pawn in the hands of the gods, a puppet pulled by the thread of fate. Every move you make can only follow the established trajectory."

He is just...a pawn in the hands of the gods?

"It's destiny."

If everything is doomed, then what is the point of him coming to this world and enduring the pain of dying again and again...

The heart-piercing pain hit him in waves, making him miserable, and blood flowed under him.

He seemed to be able to feel life passing out of his body bit by bit.

His body gradually became colder, and his consciousness became blurred little by little, sinking into the bottomless abyss...

…………

A gust of wind suddenly roared past, blowing the open window and making a gentle clang.

The boy who had been sleeping quietly on the desk suddenly woke up.

The lights were on in the room, and the lamps emitted soft and bright light, illuminating the room as if it were daytime.

He was shocked to find that he was lying on the desk, with a half-written test paper spread out in front of him, and a pen still clutched in his hand.

Strange...why is he here?

No.

No, he was already here.

Why does he have the illusion that he shouldn't be here?

Fell asleep?

His head was dizzy and his swelling ached. The young man dropped his pen and raised his hand to rub his temples.

Probably because I have been staying up until midnight every night to cope with exams recently, and I am just too tired.

He thought with a wry smile.

In the middle of studying the questions, I fell asleep directly on the desk.

Yawning and stretching his limbs that were a little stiff from sleep, he got up and went to the living room, opened the refrigerator and took out a bottle of cold soda.

He raised his head and drank a few sips, and the thrilling sensation made his mind clearer.

The boy was holding a water bottle and standing in front of the refrigerator with his head tilted, his eyes showing doubt.

Speaking of which, when he fell asleep just now, he seemed to have had a long dream.

Not only is it long, it's also very strange.

But I can't remember the specific content... I just vaguely remember that his experience in the dream was not very good.

He seemed to have been killed by someone, more than once.

Moreover, in the dream, he seemed to have lost someone very important to him... Even if he couldn't remember who that person was, whenever he thought of it, there was a faint feeling of heartache, which made his chest tight. Feel uncomfortable.

The boy shook his head vigorously, trying to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling.

forget about it.

Why think about uncomfortable things.

Since it's a nightmare, forget about it.

He rubbed his head vigorously again and couldn't help but complain.

Staying up late to study for exams is miserable enough, but how could even having a dream be so miserable?

He drank a bottle of soda to get rid of the sleepiness that was entangled in him. As he walked quickly back to his room, he casually glanced up at the clock hanging on the wall.

But perhaps it was because there was no light on in the living room and the clock was hidden in the darkness. He couldn't see the time at a casual glance.

He didn't pay attention, sat back at his desk, picked up his pen and once again immersed himself in the half-finished exam paper, completely forgetting about the strange dream.

…

Forget it.

It was just a dream, a painful nightmare.