“This reckless fighting style of yours only hurts your enemy a little while costing yourself ten times more.”
While constantly retreating to block the offensive, Artoria actually had the mind to offer a warning.
“You don’t know me. Besides, why are you trying to correct your opponent?”
Gwyn maintained his continuous, aggressive rhythm.
He looked as if he were the Berserker—violent, mindless, and without tactics.
In reality, once his health dropped below 20%, the two effects of his talent, Supreme Kingship, had already reached their maximum potential.
Iron Throne, which increases defense as health drops, and King’s Wrath, which triggers a berserk state at low health, drastically boosting Strength, Speed, and Magic attributes.
This was one of the reasons why, despite having lower base attributes than Artoria, he was currently able to suppress her in combat.
Despite taking so much reflected damage, his injuries hadn’t worsened much, also thanks to his significantly increased defense.
However, as Artoria said, this was still a case of hurting the enemy a thousand while losing ten thousand himself.
Even if not a single scar appeared on his body, and his critical health didn’t affect his movements…
—He could do this back when he was a regular Undead, and he was even more capable of it now.
He could even completely ignore others’ attacks; while they were hacking at him frantically, he could kill them with a backhand strike.
If this were a Soulslike game, he would be a boss with permanent hyper-armor, immune to all crowd control and poise break, whose attacks could never be interrupted, and whose every hit was a ‘frame-trap’—essentially, a very ‘toxic’ and ‘bullshit’ encounter.
But this also precisely demonstrated his strength.
Even Artoria seemed a bit overwhelmed facing his attacks.
Her parrying movements often failed to keep up, leading to his slashes hitting the Avalon barrier.
Even though she was faster and stronger…
Gwyn’s combat techniques were superior to hers.
What seemed like chaotic, mindless hacking was actually every move and form being meticulously calculated, ready to transition into a variation or a follow-up combo at any time.
This was quite terrifying.
Because Artoria herself was a king on horseback who had fought countless battles throughout her life.
Later, she had spent over a thousand years honing her skills with the Sacred Spear in Avalon; her martial arts were absolutely at the Divine Realm level.
She never expected that even so, her martial arts and combat techniques would still be inferior to his—one could even say she was being crushed.
Just how many battles had he experienced to forge such god-tier skills?
While Artoria was imagining it, she couldn’t help but feel shocked and pained for him.
But shock was shock, and heartache was heartache.
Her plan to beat Gwyn to his knees and take him back to be her Queen would not change.
After all, that was exactly why she had descended here this time.
The Holy Grail didn’t matter at all; the Queen was what was most important.
Thus, finding an opportunity, she directly abandoned her defense and reached out her hand to restrain him.
?
Gwyn was confused for a moment. New chapters come out on g.com first.
What was she doing?
If she wanted to trade injuries with me, shouldn’t she be aiming for a killing blow?
This posture didn’t look like a killing blow; it looked like she wanted to capture me alive.
Why?
He didn’t understand.
Was she trying to subject him to some ultimate humiliation?
There was no way he would let her succeed!
A spatial fluctuation appeared, leaving a pillar of golden light in his place, which exploded a moment later.
Gwyn appeared out of thin air a dozen meters away, then threw the divine body sword as a projectile at Artoria to briefly halt her offensive.
Artoria wanted to pursue and capture him, but at this moment, she had to temporarily avoid the divine sword’s edge and sidestep away.
Having bought enough time, Gwyn made an unexpected move.
He dispelled his outer armor, then gripped the spiral sword in a reverse hold and plunged it through his own abdomen, emptying his remaining health bar.
It was the weapon art [Seppuku].
The blood-stained tip of the spiral sword emerged from his lower back, and Gwyn’s body subsequently fell toward the deep sea.
Instantly, Artoria was stunned; she instinctively reached out to stop his suicide, but her hand froze in place, too late.
However, before she could grieve, she sensed that the ‘dead’ Gwyn’s life force, instead of fading, was rapidly increasing, his aura surging upward.
Something seemed to appear in the seawater, surging violently.
At first, only a few bubbles surfaced, but soon, the entire sea area began to boil.
It was as hot as if hundreds of underwater volcanoes had erupted simultaneously.
“I suppose this is an early taste of the Age of the Deep Sea.”
That familiar voice rang out again, and Artoria withdrew her hand, quietly waiting for him to appear.
Gwyn forcefully pulled the spiral sword out of his body; a large amount of blood sprayed out, and every drop of blood ignited into a raging flame the moment it left his body.
Even the spiral sword, drenched in his blood, ignited with crimson Blood Flame.
This was the ability, Blood Flame, that Gwyn had obtained by devouring the soul of the Formless Mother, a deity from the Elden Ring World.
When mixed with the scarlet rot obtained from devouring the God of Rot, it formed Scarlet Blood Flame.
Living beings burned by this flame would bleed profusely and become mummified corpses, parasitized by scarlet rot to become walking sources of infection; wherever the Scarlet Blood Flame spread, the rot would follow.
However, Gwyn did not let the scarlet rot mix into the Blood Flame this time.
Otherwise, the rot would spread through the ocean and eventually infect the entire planet, turning it into a world of pure rot, far worse than nuclear contamination.
He wasn’t about to destroy the world just for a fight.
With a forceful flick of the spiral sword, all the sparks on his body instantly reignited.
Faint embers gradually flared up on him, burning silently and steadily.
Those were the residual embers of the first flame.
After burning for so long, a portion of the fire remained permanently within him, becoming a part of his body.
Now, the embers were triggered, resurrecting Gwyn and causing him to enter the Lord of Cinder state.
Even if it was just a few embers, they distorted time and space the moment they ignited.
Countless greyish-white ashes covered the vast ocean, and a wall of charred trees formed around them, enclosing everything along with some burnt, dilapidated ruins.
On the land formed by thick ‘ash’, a multitude of weapons and military banners were planted.
In the center was a bonfire constructed in a circular ring; at the heart of the bonfire was a spiral sword, smoldering with a faint fire.
In the sky, a ringed sun dripped with black matter, looking broken and dark, as if having undergone a solar eclipse.
The First Flame, and it was from the period when the first flame was about to fade.
“A Reality Marble?”
Artoria looked around; the space of reality had long since vanished, completely replaced by this distorted time and space.
She first concluded that Gwyn had activated some Reality Marble ability, but she immediately overturned it.
This was by no means comparable to a Reality Marble.
This was entirely a tangible world.
At some point, Gwyn’s figure appeared in the center of the First Flame.
He gripped the spiral sword that was burning with Blood Flame and the first flame in the bonfire, and forcefully pulled it out.
He didn’t speak, only stared intently at Artoria, who stood near the entrance of the furnace.
Expressionless, he slowly raised the spiral sword above his head.
He was going to release the true power of the spiral sword.
Perhaps it could be called the True Name Release of a Noble Phantasm.
In this world, he could go all out without worrying about harming the innocent.
Artoria clearly realized this and felt a lethal threat from it.
If she didn’t handle this properly, she might die.
Even the scabbard wouldn’t be able to save her.
With a solemn expression, Artoria thrust the Sacred Spear into the ground; instantly, countless threads of light emerged, filling the sky and forming a pattern like the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.
She was going to give it her all and release the full power of the Sacred Spear.
“Sacred Spear, Anchor Release!”
“It is the storm anchor that tears the sky and connects the earth.”
“Bloom at the end, Rhongonmyniad!”
The dark, lightless sky was suddenly torn apart as a massive Sacred Spear emerged from the heavens, spiraling down with rapid piercing force.
The light it brought far surpassed that of the ringed sun, illuminating the entire world with immense brightness.