Blood tax

The coldness of the night has emerged, and the light is retreating helplessly and silently under the pressure of darkness.

Commodus' right hand dug into the dirt and gravel, crawled and slid a few centimeters on the slope of the gap in the city wall.

again……

Every time he moved, the severed left hand and left leg tore at his nerves, and the sharp stones got stuck in the broken lower abdomen, grinding the skin and intestines. All his attention was spent on moving the broken, exhausted body.

He groaned, the only thing keeping him awake was this aimless crawling.

The entire pyramid has been destroyed by the battle and is shapeless, and there are even clear cracks. Even the rotten attachments covering the outer stone wall have exhausted their energy and withered and shrank in the wind. The land that had squeezed out the last trace of vitality was barren of grass. A strange black gas made a slight "chichi" sound and floated in the air. It was not a poison or a trap, but a miasma that was caused by corpses rotting and fermenting into ashes.

The battle is over.

Commodus saw Griffith walking up the frozen pyramid steps from a distance. The war knight was also beaten badly. He moved up step by step with his half-broken gun.

"If there is still a team of knights, well, we don't need so many, five or three, they can capture him." Commodus thought intermittently. He himself has no strength, and the crystal of God's Hand is precipitating, floating not far away like a flickering bonfire.

The power of the Lord of Dreams abandoned him...

Commodus felt that his physical strength was extremely exhausted, and he wanted to just throw himself to the ground and fall into sleep. He stretched out his hand, trying in vain to grasp the floating divine power, but was gently held by a pair of white and slender hands.

Diana de Mirantis came to Commodus. Alandel and Amber stood a few steps away, one on the left and the other on the right. The princess gently raised the regicide's head and rested it on her lap:

"Soldiers are being gathered and given appropriate placements according to their titles and positions~"

"This is a good thing," Commodus said slowly, "Diana, bring me my sword, Enduil, the sword of the king..."

The princess obediently picked up the long sword and placed it on the half-remaining left arm of the regicide.

The familiar sword hilt rested on his shoulder, and under the incredible weight, his bones creaked and screamed as if they were about to break. Blood foam and moans burst out of his mouth and body. Commodus almost carried it in one breath.

Diana hurriedly pushed the sword away to let her poor fiancé breathe a sigh of relief.

"Hehehe," Commodus squeezed Diana's hand, "What I want to create is a golden kingdom where everyone is happy!"

"Yes." Diana nodded softly, just like when they were at the ball at Sanssouci Palace, when the prince spoke to the lovely guests and the knights on the guard, the princess accompanied her impeccably.

The loose blond hair fell on his fingertips, and the night breeze blew a bit of the cold air from the frozen pyramid. Commodus felt a little cold, but his spirits improved and he could speak fluently:

"What I'm talking about is not an illusion, but a real scene that will happen.

"This world is still reeling from the whirlpool of chaos and pain. You know that, my Diana.

"Even if the power of extraordinary people declines, the world ruled by mortals will usher in more desperate turbulence. Those civilians have obtained muskets and steamships, my Diana, even if the wizard loses, the cry of the battlefield will become the source of new disputes Wolf smoke. All intelligent creatures will be destroyed by endless greed.

"They only have two paths -

"Break off the shackles outside the stars and challenge those indescribable existences. I don't even know how they can win~

"Or, accept my salvation. Everyone will gain peace and happiness. We will get rid of this skin and achieve spiritual peace...

"Diana, isn't this bad?"

Alandel took two steps closer and handed over a Beyelan military flag. Diana put it on the trembling prince: "This is such a good dream~"

"Ah, that's for sure, it's excellent." Commodus always felt that the princess's hand was cold, but at this moment it was very warm, and the warmth melted him.

"Diana, I...

"Before my eyes, there was darkness..."

[Lucius Aurelius Commodus Antoninus, death]

……

The ice that had frozen the pyramid began to thaw. Griffith's remaining undead gathered Commodus' troops and kept them in order.

Accompanied by Alandel and Amber, Diana walked into the bottom of the broken pyramid and came to the giant snake's lair that had been burned to ashes.

Hanguang burned this place to ashes and glass. All that was left of the once unimaginably large snake was a piece of blackened flesh the size of a blown carriage. A group of vigilant ghouls gathered there, surrounding the prostrate Troll Warlord Ekirum.

"The ancestral spirit, the king's power of the trolls..." The poor troll chewed the pieces of meat that he could not possibly swallow, "Why, abandon us..."

Deanna glanced at him and looked away, saying to Amber: "It must be properly controlled, contained and protected."

"Your will is my action, miss." The investigator nodded confidently.

"Have Horus and Lanthanis been caught?"

"They have disappeared long ago," Miss Mermaid replied. "Griffith sent ghouls to chase them, but they shouldn't be able to catch up."

Amber beat her hands bitterly: "They can't run away. The Eternal Order has lost its sacred relics and has been burned to ashes!"

"Life transformation, soul transfer..." Diana's eyes seemed to be looking at the past that happened here, "Isius is his father, Wesker de Crozier tried to continue through body replication and consciousness transfer. The attempt of life——

"The same body can avoid rejection and physical collapse to the greatest extent, and then transfer the preserved soul through the preset sealed object to achieve eternal life. "Aaron is different.

"In the process of pursuing immortality, they discovered that they could reach a higher realm. The modulated body could break through the limits of spiritual energy, making people become more mysterious and inhuman beings.

"Will the artificial ancient god become a living wish-making device? This is very possible... He has absorbed a large amount of spiritual energy and is close to a complete body. Now, all he has to do is wait and wait for the hands of other gods to fight. , becoming the biggest harvester of lost divinity.

"Aaron or Galadia, whoever survives last will be transformed into the 'Holy Grail' and usher in the 'end'. This is something that is very close at hand.

"But, is that all? Who is behind Rorschach? What is the hermit waiting for?"

Diana said sadly to herself. What was about to happen completely exceeded the limits of her knowledge and abilities.

At this time, a small group of commandos wearing black breastplates, helmets, chain saws, long swords and heavy muskets quietly came to the three ladies.

"The 'Tyrant' is unsealing the 'Liberator', Your Highness," the commando team leader said to Diana. "He is about to obtain the Sealed Artifact 0-05-1 and be promoted to Sequence Five.

"He was incredibly powerful and the Mobile Task Force couldn't stop him."

Diana made no reply.

The mobile task force then opened a lead box they were carrying, and a closed crystal flask was carefully placed inside.

The flask contained thick pus, soaked in several blood orchids as slender as nerve clusters. These surviving stairways of eternity appear to be huddled together in an extremely frightening way.

"We found some remnants that other groups have been unable to access."

Diana was silent for a while and said to Alandel:

"Can you send it back? Contain it with care."

"Of course," Miss Mermaid replied, "How to name it? To contain it, you must first block its breath and give it new recognition."

The princess was silent for a while and then said:

"Sealed Artifact 0-06, Fountain of Youth."

……

Griffith wakes up from his dizziness. I encountered this situation once when I was promoted to War Knight.

He shifted his heavy body and found that his head was resting on Erza's lap. Between the flying red hair, those familiar and kind eyes were looking at him.

"how did you do that?"

"It's a long story. To put it simply, I stabbed you through the ice before you woke up." Griffith thought for a while and didn't know how to say this more elegantly. " I took away your God’s Hand Crystal.”

"Oh, I'm so kind, please keep that thing away from me," Erza raised her eyebrows, "Is there anything else?"

The hanging red hair scratched the tip of his nose, making Griffith feel itchy.

"In the coming war, please be my blade.

"In return, I will be your strongest shield."

"Okay~" Erza rubbed Griffith's hair, "I had given up hope. The moment my consciousness was about to dissipate, I heard your voice. At that time, I still felt that I had no chance. , from the beginning, I was on the wrong track.

"But, there is really nothing better than having you to save me."

There was a subtle smell secretly growing, and both of them were breathing slightly heavier.

She said with a smile, lowered her head and kissed Griffith on the lips. The hot, soft red lips are slightly open, the fragrant tongue is hiding, and the tenderness is so thick that it almost penetrates into the bone marrow.

Griffith couldn't resist, and gradually melted into the warm red lips. He sucked Erza's red lips hard, entangled his tongue tightly, and groped up the straight lines with his hands.

Erza's breathing quickened and she let out an indescribable, seductive moan. She tried hard to push away, but was hugged tightly. The strong and ferocious kiss almost suffocated her, and it took a while for the two of them to separate.

"No, no, no," Erza hit Griffith, "In this war, you have to protect someone no matter what the cost, right? This is her story, and I am a guest star, okay."

These words awakened Griffith and made him feel guilty: "Yes, I shouldn't have done that just now."

"Ah."

Erza nodded solemnly, stroking her long flame-like hair. She looked into the distance, a little disappointed, but soon became relieved, and looked back into Griffith's eyes with a smile:

"I will help you. Trust me, no matter what the battlefield is, you must trust your edge!"

Before Griffith could say thank you, Erza had already hugged him and whispered in her ear:

“This time it’s for her.

"If you have a chance, come and read my story!"

This volume is over, the final volume is here!