Shared Life

Kingdom of the Stars, Jialesi National Coliseum. "The victor, 'Sword Princess' Sonia Svey!" Arsenault was practically roaring, his impassioned voice echoing across the coliseum. "A graceful sword dance like an astral phoenix sweeping through the night; a fierce miracle like a raging blaze plunging into the abyss! Competing in the Shooting Star Tribulation for the very first time as a first-year student, Miss Svey has triumphed over countless formidable foes in a soaring march of victory, standing tall until the end in the semifinals to seize her ticket to the finals! She has set a brand-new record for Sword Flower! Even across the entire history of the Intercollegiate League, she is among the rarest of prodigies! She will be the brightest morning star in the Starry Realm; she will be the most dazzling Sword Flower of Jialesi!" "As a member of Sword Flower University, I share in the pride of Miss Svey's accomplishment! Congratulations to Miss Svey on her semifinal victory!" Following Arsenault's proclamation, the entire stadium erupted into a sensation. Wave after wave of applause rolled through the Sword Flower University stands. Adele and the others clapped so hard their hands turned beet red, yet they showed no sign of stopping. The rest of the spectators, including the students from Truth University, were equally generous with their admiration, offering buoyant applause to congratulate the victor. As the luminous panels tilted and refracted, the brilliant glow of the gathered stars focused upon the red-haired girl in the arena. She held an ordinary wooden sword. Her gorgeous, elegant combat outfit was slightly torn, but that did nothing to diminish her splendor. Tilting her chin up to bask in the cheers, she raised her left hand and clenched it tightly, as if grasping the starlight itself! Under the gaze of the entire Starry Realm, Sonia firmly seized this honor that belonged to her and her alone! "Sword Princess! Sword Princess!" "Long live the Paw-Stretching Club!" "Sword Princess, I want to be your dog!" In the shadows untouched by starlight, Chelus refused the support of the healers. Dragging a battered body that had nearly been cleaved in two at the waist, he picked up the two revolver handguns that had slipped from his grip earlier. Compared to his physical injuries, he felt more heartache over the scratches on the revolvers' engravings. Chelus Cher: fourth-year student at Truth University, two-winged gun sorcerer. He had been braving the Abyss since his second year, and he had taken second place in last year's Shooting Star Tribulation. Indeed, last year's Shooting Star Tribulation had been an internal duel for Truth University, with Dimi and him claiming first and second place... Just like Negus, he had mustered every ounce of resolve, hoping to seek revenge against Dimi in his final university year. But the moment Dimi unleashed his Transmutation Annihilation Wave, Chelus knew he would spend his entire life living in Dimi's shadow. Although beating Dimi was impossible, Chelus had never imagined he wouldn't even make it to the finals. As the single strongest offensive school below the Sanctuary level—bar none—gun sorcerers inherently held an absolute advantage in this sort of arena tournament, and Chelus was an elite among them. In the Void Realm, he had come across an extraordinarily precious orc gun sorcerer legacy and obtained the two-winged space sorcery spirit "Sky Pierce"! Although the space school could only be formally cultivated upon reaching Three Wings, space sorcery spirits did not begin only at Three Wings. As mentioned earlier, a sorcery spirit was often composed of knowledge from multiple sorcery schools in varying proportions. For example, a spirit like "Flame Sword" had a ratio of sixty percent fire to forty percent sword. Being both fire sorcery and sword sorcery, it could be summoned by fire sorcerers and sword sorcerers alike. Thus, it was by no means impossible for a two-winged sorcerer to summon a space sorcery spirit. However, the sorcerer had to possess an extraordinarily high spatial talent to summon a space sorcery spirit with a spatial proportion exceeding thirty percent. And among sorcerers, those with the highest spatial talent were without question orc sorcerers. The one Chelus had encountered was even more terrifying—"Sky Pierce" was a space sorcery spirit whose spatial proportion exceeded sixty percent! Had that predecessor managed to ascend to the Distant Sky Realm, he would surely have advanced the space school to silver, gold, and even the Sanctuary level in rapid order, becoming a universally revered space Sanctuary. Unfortunately, he had died prematurely on the Time Continent, left with no choice but to become nourishment for subsequent generations of sorcerers. The effect of Sky Pierce was remarkably straightforward: any projectile fired by the sorcerer would ignore external factors such as wind pressure and humidity, pierce through all space along a straight line, and penetrate any obstacle in its path! The travel distance and projectile size were both directly proportional to the sorcery power consumed. After obtaining this sorcery spirit, virtually no defensive miracle could block Chelus's shots; only a Sanctuary-level spatial defensive miracle could withstand Sky Pierce. The spirit's sole weakness was that it could not utilize auxiliary miracles to guide bullets toward headshots—after all, it could only travel in a straight line—forcing Chelus to aim manually. Honestly speaking, this wasn't much of an issue. Chelus wasn't afraid of anyone reading his movements in advance. He typically hid behind buildings, locked onto his target's position through auditory miracles or similar means, and then fired through walls, giving his enemies no chance to even parry. When the semifinals began, no one thought Chelus would lose, and Chelus didn't think so either. Even the contestants entering from the repechage brackets attacked Chelus right from the start. It wasn't until only Chelus and Sonia remained that he discovered, to his bewilderment, he had no way of dealing with the Sword Princess. She could actually dodge the Sky Pierce bullets! At first, Chelus thought she had seen his firing motion. But even when he hid behind a perimeter wall to shoot, Sonia could still dodge the moment the shot rang out. That was when he knew he had encountered a second monster. Sonia wasn't predicting his moves—she was sensing the bullet's spatial trajectory, allowing her to evade in time! It was an intuitive perception of the space school! Just as an alchemist could determine the composition of a mixed solution by its scent and color, an ascetic sorcerer could assess your physical condition with a single glance at your naked body, or a mind sorcerer could tell from your facial expression whether you were a bottom or a potential bottom... a sorcerer who had cultivated the space school was naturally hypersensitive to spatial ripples! How could a two-winged sorcerer develop an intuition for the space school? Chelus had no idea. But by the time the question crossed his mind, "Blood Moon Shattered Lake" had already crushed his ribs, triggering his "Death Prohibition" miracle. Had she faced other sorcerers on his level, Sonia surely would have lost—sorcerers like Negus with his dual cultivation of blood and water, or Aisha with her prophecy shield warrior build... But reality offered no "what-ifs." As a top-tier gun sorcerer in the current meta, he had crushed countless opponents relying on his school's inherent advantage. Now that he had been hard-countered, did he really have any right to complain? "Still, this means..." Chelus looked toward the red-haired Sword Princess enveloped in starlight and muttered softly, "You'll have to face that colossal shadow looming before Negus and me. Best of luck." When Sonia stepped off the stage and returned to the contestants' lounge, Adele and the others surged forward impatiently, looking as though they wanted to tear her into celebratory pieces. Lois's cries of anguish over the damaged combat outfit were entirely drowned out by the cheering. When Trozan walked over, Sonia said happily, "Professor sister, I didn't embarrass you, did I!?" "If you want me to praise you, just say so. I hate this sort of scheming phrasing." Trozan patted her on the head, though the smile at the corner of her lips was impossible to conceal. "Though I really didn't expect you to beat Chelus. His Sky Pierce shots are simply too lethal against two-winged sorcerers... Sonia, could it be that you..." Thud! As Sonia collapsed, Ingrid reacted instantly from the side to catch her. The cheering crowd froze on the spot. "What's wrong? Was she injured in the fight?" "Healers! Healers, over here quickly!" "Don't shake her! Help her sit down slowly!" "Sonia, can you still see me? How many fingers am I holding up?" Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud. Everyone's shouts sounded so distant. Sonia felt only as if a ball were bouncing within her soul—once, twice, three times—until it completely lost all elastic potential energy, falling into eternal silence. She gasped for air in heavy, ragged breaths, feeling her body grow weightless, as though it could drift away at any moment. It was as if the thread that had once anchored her had snapped entirely just now. It was "Shared Life"! The blessing obtained from the Amnesia Wooden Cabin! *But why didn't it take my life? Why is nothing happening to me?* "Sonia?" Trozan crouched before her, seeing that her face was already drenched in tears. The president of the Paw-Stretching Club reached out to cling tightly to her professor, letting out a wail like a boiling kettle. Trozan gestured for everyone else to leave, closed the lounge door, and gently stroked the student's head. "What happened?" "I... I'm too weak..." "You've already worked so hard. You're already more incredible than anyone else," Trozan said. "No matter the outcome of the finals, in our hearts, you've already won the Shooting Star Tribulation. Truly, you're more remarkable than any of the contestants, because you didn't rely on anyone. I can hardly claim to have helped you much either. You earned respect and honor entirely through your own strength. "There isn't the slightest impurity in your brilliance. You are the sole protagonist of your own life. You have every right to be proud of yourself." For a Sword Saint with negative emotional intelligence like Trozan to produce such consoling words was practically exhausting her entire quota of kind phrases for the next five years. Yet while Sonia had only been sobbing quietly a moment before, hearing those words caused her to break down completely, weeping aloud like a little child. Trozan had no other options either. She could only hold her in her arms and let her weep her heart out, catching muffled, self-reproachful murmurs through her choked sobs: "I still can't do anything... I can't help at all... nothing..." "I really, really... want so badly to..."