Boom!
The entire fifty-eighth floor shattered and collapsed in an instant, and Igola's voice from the fifty-seventh floor was completely swallowed by the roar of rebar and falling concrete.
Even as hellfire and heavenly thunder raged on the floor above, Yaxiu's gaze remained tightly riveted on the shifting pile of rubble.
Suddenly, someone tugged at his sleeve. Looking down, he saw his daughter wearing a conflicted expression, her large eyes blurred with tears.
"Don't... don't go," Diya forced out with difficulty. "You can't win..."
"At times like this, all you need to say is, 'Thank you, Brother Yaxiu.'" Yaxiu reached out and wiped the tear tracks from her face, only succeeding in smudging her face even more until she looked like a little stray kitten. "Besides, there's nowhere to run right now. If I don't go, are you going to?"
A smile played at the corner of Yaxiu's mouth. He dropped to one knee and gently patted the back of Diya's head. "Don't worry. I'm number one on the Art Board. Annan hasn't even painted my portrait yet."
A warm, comforting surge of joy swept through Diya's body, sweeping away the gloom in her heart and halting the tears on her face. At the same time, she felt an itch all over; glancing down, she saw that all her wounds were healing at an accelerated pace.
Miracle: Singular Devotion: Joy Sword.
"Besides, I have a secret weapon."
A secret weapon?
Diya blinked in surprise. Just as she was about to ask, she felt a burning warmth radiate against her cheek. Her gaze was completely drawn to the tenderness in Yaxiu's eyes. Her soul felt as though it were melting into his gaze, and she stood there dazed.
They had seen that kind of look before.
In Banjie's eyes.
In Sword Princess's eyes.
Yet none of them had ever imagined that someone would look at them this way.
For a moment, it was not just Diya; White Queen, Black Butler, and even Red Apostle—who had already embraced death—could not help feeling a pang of jealousy toward their youngest sister.
What they did not see was that as Yaxiu turned toward the pile of rubble, the fiery warmth in his eyes transformed into his strength.
Miracle: Singular Devotion: Love Sword.
After applying the enhancement to himself, Yaxiu did not feel any sudden explosion of power. He simply found that his grip on the sword was steadier, his footwork faster, and his mind clearer of stray thoughts. He felt as though he had returned to his final year of high school, his heart left with only one unyielding goal—
Win, and survive with Lisi and Igola!
Miracle: Sword Painting!
Miracle: Rage Sword!
The instant the Secret Guard blasted away the rubble and broke free, Yaxiu struck with all three swords at once, hurtling toward the Black Knight like a streak of dark red meteors!
Clang!
A transparent barrier created by a miracle intercepted the charge of the blades. The dark red meteors halted ten feet away. Completely composed, the Black Knight withdrew the Book of Gospel and cast a placid glance at Yaxiu.
Right at that moment, Diya suddenly realized something.
Could the secret weapon Yaxiu mentioned be...
***
Crouched under a table that formed a safety triangle, having barely survived the building's collapse, Igola opened his vocal resonance chamber with all his might, straining to push his voice through the layers of rubble:
"Yaxiu, don't count on the Fiend Trench Coat! The Secret Guard can expend Gospel points to resist and cure mental suggestions!"
***
Fiend Trench Coat, Distortion Mask.
Yaxiu looked as though he had stepped straight out of the number one masterpiece on the Art Board. His figure was seared entirely into the Secret Guard's pupils.
The dark red pigment of the coat spread outward into an ocean of blood. The crumbling corridor twisted into the entrails of an eldritch beast. The light refracted into a dazzling kaleidoscope of rot, and then everything collapsed, plunging downward.
In a daze, the Secret Guard found itself standing upon a sandy beach.
Before it rose a turbid black tsunami dozens of yards high. A colossal barge woven of fingernails rode the crest of the tempestuous waves. Yaxiu stood at the prow blowing a horn. At its sound, thunder serpents surged across the sky, the earth groaned and shook in mourning, and the black sea burst into a frenzied revelry of song. The entire world was plunged into unstoppable ruin!
*Is this the mental trial of the Fiend Trench Coat?* the Secret Guard thought, remaining completely calm. *My mind faction is at the Gold rank, yet Yaxiu Heath's mind faction is actually higher than mine—enough to drag me into this illusion.*
*Even so, that is as far as it goes.*
A black-and-silver Book of Gospel materialized before the Secret Guard. It raised a hand and tapped the cover lightly.
Chime, chime, chime...
As the melodious Gospel descended, the storm-laden sky cleared until it stretched clear and blue as the sea beneath brilliant sunlight. The fractured, shuddering earth stabilized, bursting into spring blossoms and lush green shade.
The sound of the horn was gradually replaced by the holy resonance of the Gospel. The tsunami was smoothed away, the black sea purified, and even Yaxiu's phantom knelt in repentance, dissolving into atonement beneath the solemn, sacred Gospel.
The Secret Guard was not the least bit surprised. It was an agent of the Yisu Empress, a dependent of the Omniscient Weaver. Sheltered beneath the great Gospel, nothing in this world could stand against it.
All sin would be dismantled by the Gospel; all harm would be neutralized by the Gospel.
Because at this very moment, it embodied the will of the Gospel... Hm?
The Secret Guard realized it had not broken free of the illusion.
Furthermore, even though Yaxiu's phantom had already vanished, the barge he had ridden remained moored upon the sea.
Upon that barge stood another slender silhouette.
As the barge drew closer to the beach, the Secret Guard found it increasingly impossible to maintain its cool, detached composure. Even its armor began to tremble. When the barge ran aground upon the sand, the Secret Guard even forgot its secret-keeping vows and stammered, "Your Majesty the Empress?"
Yet it quickly shook its head and hurriedly stepped back two paces. "No, you are not Her Majesty the Empress. Who on earth are you?"
"Of course I'm not that old witch."
The Black Witch stepped down from the barge, her bare feet sinking into the soft sand. "As for who I am, can't you guess? Aren't you here to find me?"
The Secret Guard clenched the Book of Gospel tightly, as though it could lend greater conviction to its words. "You cannot be Princess Lisdia. The Armored Sanctification is not yet complete; she would never... I see. You are one of the sorcery spirits bewitching the princess!"
"Bewitching the princess? Heh heh..."
The Black Witch chuckled. "Did the old witch tell you that excuse, or are you trying to fool yourself? Whatever, let's not talk about that miserable old crone. But I have shown myself to you openly and honestly, yet you're not even willing to remove your helmet?"
"—My dear aunt."
The Secret Guard subconsciously touched its face.
The Black Knight helmet that had hidden her features ever since she came of age—the mask she had not removed once in over a decade—was now gone. Feeling the direct sunlight on her face and the wind blowing against her skin, she found the sensation utterly foreign.
When you have hidden inside a suit of armor for over ten years, you too would only feel that sunlight was the sun sticking out its tongue to lick you, and wind was demons in the air caressing your skin.
The Black Witch and the Black Knight. They differed in age, status, and generational rank, yet they possessed the exact same face.
"No wonder the old witch made all of you wear helmets."
The Black Witch gazed at the face identical to her own. Her tone carried both mockery and pity. "Looking at a bunch of people who look exactly like yourself really is disgusting."
Chapter 354