Watching White Blade, who had completely entered a state of berserk frenzy, Cerydra's ice-blue eyes remained as calm and rippleless as before.
She cast her gaze toward Hysilens, who stood silently below, her cold voice easily penetrating the violent aura.
"Dux Gladiorum, what you showed just now should be far from your full strength, correct?"
Hysilens nodded slightly. Her gaze swept across the exquisite dome and pillars of the church as she said in a low voice:
"Yes. However, if I were to exert my full power, I fear the architecture of this place would cease to exist."
"No matter." Cerydra lightly tapped the armrest of the throne, her tone leaving no room for doubt. "You need only display your full strength. As for the damage to the building, I have my own ways of dealing with it."
"As you command..."
Seeing this, Hysilens lightly closed her eyes. She steadily rested the rapier composed of the violin body against her shoulder, while the bow sword was gracefully placed atop the violin, making her look like a performer about to play a grand movement.
"Oh? Full strength?" White Blade, who retained a sliver of sanity despite his berserk state, caught their conversation. A flash of ferocious excitement crossed his crimson pupils. "Then let me see what tricks you, this Queen chess piece, are still hiding!"
Boom—!
As he finished speaking, the ground beneath his feet exploded. His crimson figure, like a cannonball leaving the chamber, tore through the air and crossed the distance of dozens of meters in an instant, lunging straight for Hysilens's face wrapped in destructive power!
Before the fist could even arrive, the violent wind was already blowing Hysilens's long hair into the air.
However, facing this imminent strike, Hysilens's expression did not change in the slightest.
The wrist holding the bow sword merely gave an extremely slight tremble—
Buzz!
A low and strange note, seemingly composed directly of flowing water, suddenly erupted from the friction between the bow and the sword!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Almost at the same moment the note rang out, the heavy stone walls of the church were ruthlessly pierced from the outside as if they were fragile cardboard!
Several violent water columns, each with a diameter larger than a millstone, carrying broken bricks and bone-chilling cold, let out deafening roars as they accurately slammed into White Blade's body!
"Ugh—!"
The massive impact far exceeded White Blade's imagination. He felt as if he had been hit head-on by a high-speed heavy truck. His originally frantic momentum was instantly dismantled, and he was sent flying like a broken kite, plowing a deep trench into the ground.
He stabilized his figure in a wretched state, shaking off the stone fragments and water from his head. His crimson eyes were filled with shock and disbelief.
"Damn! Where did all this water come from?!"
Immediately after, he instinctively looked out through the several huge holes in the wall.
"Wha... what?! Why is it suddenly raining so hard?!"
After seeing the scene outside, White Blade's pupils suddenly contracted.
Outside the church, the entire world had already been swallowed by a boundless, violent curtain of rain!
Under the pitch-black night, raindrops the size of beans struck the ground with a deafening roar. The accumulated water was like a rushing river, madly pouring into the interior of the church. The water level rose at a speed visible to the naked eye, submerging his ankles in an instant.
The scale of this sudden, terrifying rainstorm far surpassed his understanding!
However, before he could recover from his shock, even more surging currents roared again, carrying extremely terrifying power as they swept toward him from all directions once more!
"Dammit! Again?!"
Seeing this, White Blade let out a roar. His bulging muscles erupted with terrifying power as his crimson fists slammed violently into the oncoming water columns!
Bang—!
The sound was deafening, and water splashed everywhere!
However, this time, White Blade did not succeed in breaking the water columns. The power contained within the water was several times stronger than before. With only a slight hesitation, they slammed him away again in an even more violent manner!
In this domain of water, the strength White Blade was so proud of now seemed utterly insignificant.
Following that, at the very moment his body lost balance and flew backward—
Hysilens's fingertips moved slightly, and the music of the strings suddenly became rapid and sharp.
The cold rainwater he had inhaled into his body, filling his nose, mouth, lungs, and even blood vessels, suddenly transformed into countless sharp steel needles under the precise control of the music.
"Puchi! Puchi! Puchi! Puchi!"
A tooth-aching, dense sound of tearing suddenly rang out. White Blade's body jerked stiffly, followed by violent convulsions!
Countless tiny water spikes erupted from his body without warning. In an instant, his entire person looked like a human porcupine. Blood mixed with water sprayed frantically, dyeing the surroundings crimson!
"Ugh, aaaaaah—!"
The shrill scream instantly drowned out the sound of the rain.
But even after suffering such a terrifying internal explosive piercing, White Blade's inhuman self-healing ability was still functioning madly.
The pierced wounds wriggled and healed at high speed amidst the blood mist. Newborn granulation tissue and the continuously generating water spikes engaged in a cruel tug-of-war; every time a wound healed, a new water spike would burst through the body again.
Seeing this, a cold glimmer flashed in Hysilens's deep blue eyes. This time, she clearly sensed the stubborn, annoying vitality within White Blade's body.
"Hard to kill."
She whispered. The music of the strings rose again, beginning to sound grand and full of oppressive weight.
Crash—!
Inside and outside the church, the rushing rainwater seemed to hear the command of a monarch. They no longer flowed in a disordered fashion but began to frantically converge toward White Blade, who was struggling in agony in mid-air.
The water swirled, compressed, and layered.
A giant water cocoon emitting a ghostly blue light formed in the air within a few breaths, imprisoning White Blade firmly inside.
Inside the water cocoon, White Blade was like a trapped beast in amber. He frantically threw punches and kicks, trying to tear apart this "soft" cage made of water, but the water was everywhere, neutralizing the vast majority of his strength. Every struggle felt like sinking into a thick mire, utterly futile.
At the same time, Hysilens's music acted like an invisible baton.
The pouring rain became even more violent. Countless raindrops condensed and shaped themselves in the air, turning into thousands upon thousands of sharp water blades and spikes.
They hovered in the air, their tips pointing together at White Blade inside the giant water cocoon.
Shoo! Shoo! Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!
With every jump in the music, these lethal weapons of rain acted like soldiers receiving orders. They turned into streaks of cold blue light, tearing through the curtain of rain and slamming into the water cocoon one after another!
Puchi! Puchi! Puchi! Puchi! Puchi!
The dense sounds of cutting and piercing echoed dully from inside the water cocoon like never-ending raindrops.
The water cocoon fluctuated violently, its color turning deeper and redder from the blood constantly seeping in.
At this moment, White Blade inside the cocoon was enduring a torture comparable to death by a thousand cuts.
Water blades sliced his flesh, and water spikes pierced his internal organs. The intense pain was like an endless tide, crashing against White Blade's nerves wave after wave.
No sooner had a wound been repaired by his self-healing power than the next wave of attacks arrived to tear him apart again. This time, White Blade's recovery ability, which was comparable to an undying body, did not bring him great strength or fearless courage...
Instead, it brought endless torment!
"Gurgle... I... gurgle... can't... gurgle... die!!!" White Blade's roar was distorted by the water into a blurred whimper, filled with pain and hysterical madness. "Wait... gurgle... until your power is exhausted... gurgle... you're the ones... gurgle... who will die—!!!"
Hysilens remained completely indifferent to his howling.
She kept her eyes tightly closed, her expression intensely focused, as if she had merged into one with the instrument in her hands, the torrential rain, and the water cocoon imprisoning her enemy.
The elegant performance formed a shocking contrast with the bloody scene of torture. The music continued to flow, precisely controlling this never-ending water punishment.
Time passed amidst the intertwining of music and water torture.
By now, the accumulated water in the church had reached Hysilens's knees, bone-chillingly cold.
Finally, the movement of Hysilens's fingers slowed, and the music gradually became low and deep, like the brief tranquility before a storm.
She slowly opened those indifferent ice-blue eyes. Her gaze pierced through the murky water cocoon and locked onto the bloody figure still frantically struggling within.
"Shh—"
Her voice was not loud, yet it seemed to carry a strange magic, clearly penetrating the barrier of the water and the roar of the rainstorm to ring directly within White Blade's chaotic consciousness.
"Stay here and listen."
The moment her voice fell, the surging water inside the water cocoon seemed to receive an order. It rushed into White Blade's mouth, nose, and ear canals, forcibly blocking all channels through which he could make a sound, completely strangling his final roar deep in his throat.
Immediately after, Hysilens's voice rang out again, ethereal and cold, like a judgment from the depths of the abyss.
"In this endless revel of the abyss—"
"Your cries rise."
Woo—!!!!
At the exact moment the last syllable fell!
A distant, vast cry of a whale, sounding as if it had traveled through ancient time and space, carrying terrifying penetration and pressure, suddenly resounded between heaven and earth!
The walls and dome of the entire church, and even space itself, began to tremble slightly following this whale cry.
At this moment, White Blade, imprisoned in the water cocoon, saw clearly through the water and the broken walls—
In the pouring rain outside the church, a massive dark blue shadow, large enough to cover half the sky, burst forth!
It gracefully arched its streamlined back and leapt high from the rushing rainwater.
Its giant mouth opened, deep and dark, like an entrance to the oceanic abyss. Carrying a terrifying aura that could swallow all things and ignoring the distance of space, it slammed down toward White Blade imprisoned in the giant water cocoon inside the church!
"Ah! Impossible!" kaiba.jpg
Inside the water cocoon, White Blade's eyes nearly split from their sockets! Under the ultimate threat of death, hot energy began to burst forth from his body. His crimson skin instantly became scalding, making a sizzling sound.
The intense heat even caused the water cocoon wrapping him to begin boiling and churning violently.
But it was all too late.
That abyss-like giant mouth had already descended.
The boiling water cocoon, along with the crimson and contorted figure within, was swallowed in a single bite by the deep blue giant whale amidst Cerydra's cold gaze and the lingering notes of Hysilens's icy music.
Splash—!!!
The giant whale gracefully vanished into the surging rain outside the church, splashing up a majestic curtain of water that connected heaven and earth. The water poured down like a waterfall, letting out a deafening roar.
Afterward, everything returned to peace.
The violent prisoner vanished along with that dark blue whale shadow into the depths of the endless rain, leaving no trace.
The song ended. Now, only the dilapidated church, the rushing rainwater, and the two blurred figures upon the throne and within the flowing water remained.