Silent Crown

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

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.

Then, Ye Qingxuan's body crumbled and fell apart, burning into ashes in the residual flare of the Lance of the Dragon Slayer.

A wisp of grayish white mist rose from the ashes, convulsing in pain. It flew backwards, falling into the moonlight of nothingness, and disappeared.

The bright moon in the sky remained the same, not the slightest bit influenced by Ye Qingxuan's death.

It was a fake.

Lancelot turned abruptly.

At the very moment, the Lance of the Dragon Slayer suddenly stabbed forward.

The moonlight of nothingness shattered silently, revealing Ye Qingxuan who was hiding behind it, and the wisp of gray mist in his hand.

The shattered and badly damaged music theory gathered together and took form. As it turned out, it appeared to be the clothes of original sin.

On the constantly changing appearance of the clothes of original sin, Ye Qingxuan's face faded in and out, smiling mockingly at Lancelot.

Under the armor, Lancelot's pupils shook slightly, and immediately contracted, as he came to a sudden realization in his mind. "From the very beginning… It's a fake?"

Ye Qingxuan nodded.

In this regard, he had nothing much to deny.

From the very beginning, the clothes of original sin had taken on Ye Qingxuan's appearance and engaged in combat with Lancelot in his stead. It was also part of the reason why he did not intend to counterattack, but stuck to evading and dodging attacks.

Regardless of how good the Changing Music Theory was at imitating him, it had lost its spirituality after all. As a tool, it could still somewhat be considered convenient, but when compared to an actual musician, it had its share of weaknesses in terms of sluggishness and stiffness.

When the opponent in question was Lancelot, even a minor slip would probably result in the plot being immediately seen through.

Ye Qingxuan had never hoped to defeat Lancelot just by remotely controlling an alchemy equipment. The only thing he had hoped to achieve was to lure Lancelot to use his trump card, so that he could see clearly… what was the ace in the hole that Lancelot had been hiding.

He succeeded.

Unfortunately, he paid a rather high price.

One can only say that the stars are not in favor of the clothes of original sin. First, I forcibly plundered it and washed away the spiritual personality in the movement. After finally managing to maintain its own grade, it then encountered an artifact destroyer, the Lance of the Dragon Slayer, and is now badly damaged from head to toe.

Had Paganini seen it, he would definitely be crying out of anger on the spot.

In only an instant, all its music theory was on the verge of shattering, and it had no way of recovering within a few years. Even if it recovered, without the use of a lot of precious materials to repair it, it would be difficult for it to regain spirituality.

Under Ye Qingxuan's control, the clothes of original sin that was on the verge of shattering slowly changed shape. Countless broken strands of music theory were pieced back together by the perception threads of Jiu Xiao Huan Pei, and converged into a slender bundle, like the baton used by leaders of orchestras when they were conducting resonances.

Before it is repaired, if I want to use Changing Music Theory, I'm afraid that this is the only possible form.

I might as well use it for as long as it can still be used.

I stole it anyway, it won't be a pity even if it gets broken.

After smoothly waving the 'Baton of Change' in his hand, Ye Qingxuan nodded with satisfaction, and when he looked up at Lancelot, his gaze became one of realization. "What occurred just now was the ability of the armor of Lancelot?

"No wonder it is known as the most powerful Round Table Armor — Ignoring the rest and purely speaking in terms of ability, it is indeed an unparalleled combination when paired with the combat method of knights. "

Coordinating moonlight perception threads and aether sensing, he finally saw the true appearance of Lancelot at the moment clearly.

Under that layer of cold and heavy steel, the scorching hot alchemy circuit was like the vast root system of the banyan. Like blood, it operated wildly within, turning the entire armor into a whole.

The whole Included Lancelot in it.

If not for the protection of the black Firebird, Lancelot would have already burned to ashes under the horrifying heat at the moment — It was exactly because of such a huge price he paid that enabled him to control the armor as a human and reach a level beyond Ye Qingxuan's imagination.

Ye Qingxuan had once suspected that the inscription on the armor was the movement of Faust. Once activated, the whole world would be completely frozen, all molecular movements forcibly paused.

But after observing it twice, he rejected the speculation firmly.

If the Physical World was distorted to such an extent, as a musician, he couldn't possibly be unaware of it. Moreover, as one of the ultimate products of research, since its development, no one had ever dared to use Faust in a battle between musicians of the same level.

The gravitational forces of music theories will repel each other.

If the other party's Symphony of Predestination is strong enough to fight against Faust, the effect of time stopping will also be canceled.

What's more, for existences like the Dark Sovereign which was born from the essence of the abyss, unless Hermes arrives in person, no one can possibly rely on Faust to play any tricks.

So, only the other method is left…

If the outside world cannot be interfered with, just conduct interference on oneself instead.

In the seven questions for musicians, the proposition of the school of modifications is known as the 'eternally unchanging object'. The core element and argument is that movement and stillness are relative.

Therefore, one simply needs to apply the principle of Faust in reverse, to make the changing outside world still relative to oneself.

With the concept as the core, the array was constructed and the armor of Lancelot was created. It is undoubtedly a terrifying power that has achieved the ultimate result of movement.

Using the armor, one's speed can be increased up to thousands of times of the initial speed in an instant. Using the alchemy array, the knight's reflexes and consciousness are made to operate at a rapid speed, freeing the knight from material and time through a method that is close to burning and destroying the pericranium, and attaining a sensation close to the freedom of chasing after the speed of light.

For Lancelot, to make use of the limit of the reaction time of the human eye and complete a thrust in one twenty-fourth of a second is just a walk in the park! As long as he is willing to, he can perform the same thrust for hundreds of times in one two-hundred-and-fortieth of a second!

In the shadow of Avalon, the flowing stream of light that Ye Qingxuan witnessed shattering the Scepter of Hell was in essence the thrust of the sword that had been superimposed for God knew how many times in a flash.

Each blow landed on the fragile critical weakness of the Scepter of Hell. After countless hits, even the Scepter of Hell could only become a sandcastle on the beach, collapsing at the slightest touch.

From that, I can imagine the tragic treatment that the clothes of original sin went through.

Plus, Lancelot is also holding the Lance of the Dragon Slayer.

Surprisingly, it did not fall apart so completely until no residue is left. It can only be said that Paganini must have spent an awful amount of resources back then in order to create the clothes of original sin.

"Oh right, what did you want to tell me just now? Don't regret, feel free to say whatever you want to say." Ye Qingxuan gazed at the armored knight who was emitting a horrifying amount of heat, and slowly raised the black, broken baton in his hand.

His smile also grew more and more mocking.

He said, "In any case, we still have plenty of time."

[1] It refers to the part of the body of the lance from where Lancelot's left hand gripped it to the end of the lance. The part is effectively useless when the lance is held that way.