bookbashuk Page 338
Page 338
"Indeed... I can't do it alone. But what if someone helps from within?"
Araya Sōren's movements suddenly froze.
He recalled that when the barrier was first established, there had indeed been a brief period of loss of control. At that time, he thought it was just a fluctuation of power.
"It seems you guessed it."
Yan Feng chuckled.
"That assistant would be more than happy to see you fail."
Araya Sōren felt a wave of dizziness. Not a physical one, but a shaking on an existential level.
His barrier, the culmination of his life's work, was actually contaminated from the very beginning?
"No... that's not all."
Kotomine suddenly stopped smiling, and his expression became solemn.
"It's time to show you the real gift."
He slowly raised his hand, pressing his index and middle fingers together on his forehead.
A chilling scene unfolded—something seemed to be wriggling beneath his skin, then slowly bulged out, forming the outline of two semi-transparent discs.
"This is...?".
Chapter 416 Unprecedented Fear
Araya Sōren instinctively took a step back.
With a flick of his finger, the two discs were completely removed from his forehead and floated in the air, slowly rotating.
Strange data streams flowed across the surface of the disc, occasionally flashing patterns resembling human faces.
"The White Snake..."
Kotomine called out softly.
"A living sacrifice to celebrate the birth of the Kingdom of Heaven."
As soon as he finished speaking, the space behind him suddenly distorted.
A human-shaped silhouette gradually emerged—the body surface was covered with glowing runes resembling DNA spirals.
Araya Sōren felt an unprecedented fear.
That thing didn't emanate magic, nor any known form of energy, but rather a more primal, conceptual threat.
"substitute..."
Kotomine's voice suddenly became ethereal.
Araya Sōren stood in the center of the ruins, 323, his black monk's robes frozen like a sculpture in the windless air.
He stared at the girl with the knife opposite him, his voice suppressing a twisted excitement.
"Ryougi Shiki, you really came."
Ryougi Shiki's fingers tightened on the hilt of the sword, and the blade of Kuji Kanetada reflected the moonlight.
"Only by killing you can everything end."
Her voice was colder than a blade, and behind her, a twisted darkness vaguely appeared, the manifestation of the resentment of countless dead.
Araya's pupils contracted slightly.
“Those darkness should have been absorbed by his pieces.”
"interesting..."
He raised his withered, wooden fingers.
"Let me see what kind of brilliance you will unleash once you are awakened by the origin—"
The obscure incantation rolled from his throat, each syllable carrying a demonic tremor.
The air distorts into visible ripples, and an ordinary person would have a mental breakdown upon hearing the first syllable.
Ryougi Shiki merely tilted her head slightly, and then—
She moved.
The blade flashed so fast that it didn't even leave an afterimage.
Araya's incantation abruptly stopped, and the double barrier he hastily deployed shattered like glass the moment it touched the blade.
The Vajra's absolute defense and the scorpion's deadly counterattack were a joke in the face of this slash.
"impossible!"
Araya took half a step back, and the shockwave tore a hole in his monk's robe.
He stared into Ryougi Shiki's empty eyes and suddenly understood something.
"Your origin is... nothing?"
Ryougi Shiki did not respond.
She simply raised the knife again, her movements as precise as a pre-programmed killing machine.
Araya felt a shiver run through him—not from fear, but from ecstasy.
The ritual he had painstakingly prepared for hundreds of years finally yielded the most perfect offering.
"I see..."
Araya suddenly burst into laughter, the sound echoing through the ruins.
"You can accept everything, and therefore you can't really kill anything!"
He suddenly ripped open his monk's robe, revealing the relic embedded in his chest.
"Unless I let you see it—"
The relic emitted a blinding blood-red light, from which countless vengeful spirits surged forth and solidified in the air.
That was the concept of death that Araya had collected over hundreds of years, and now it was all poured into Ryougi Shiki's vision.
Ryougi Shiki's body stiffened.
Her irises began to glow an eerie blue, and the world in her vision was collapsing and rebuilding.
Fine "lines" appeared on the surfaces of all objects—a manifestation of the end of all things.
"See those? Those death lines."
Araya's voice became seductive.
"Just cut along the line..."
His words were abruptly cut off as Ryougi Shiki's sword was already pressed against his throat.
"It's crystal clear."
Ryougi Shiki's voice changed, taking on a kind of inhuman ethereal quality.
"Including yours."
Araya's pupils suddenly contracted.
A thin crack suddenly appeared on the relic on his chest—along the line of death that Ryougi Shiki had seen.
This discovery made him tremble.
"You're not Ryougi Shiki... you're Shiki!"
"Shi" tilted her head, a gesture that should have been cute but now sent chills down her spine.
Isn't it me you've gone to such lengths to awaken?
With a slight twist of her wrist, the blade traced an unseen path.
Blood splattered.
Araya's right arm was severed at the shoulder, falling to the ground with a dull thud.
He staggered backward, a sickly smile appearing on his face.
"It's too perfect... all I need is your body..."
"You can't do it."
The word "式" (shì) calmly states the facts, like saying the weather is nice today.
She stepped forward, and the seven layers of barriers hastily set up by Araya were as thin as paper in front of her, being shattered by her blades.
Araya finally panicked.
He bit his finger and drew a blood symbol in the air.
"Homage to the Vajras of All Beings!"
Space began to distort and fold, attempting to seal the "Form" into another dimension.
Chapter 417 The Horrible Truth
Shi simply extended his left hand, his fingertips lightly tracing a non-existent line—
Click.
The entire distorted space was like a pencil mark erased by an eraser, instantly returning to its original state.
Araya coughed up a mouthful of blood and staggered to his knees.
He looked up at the approaching figure and suddenly realized a terrible truth.
My centuries-long obsession is nothing but a child's delusion in the face of this being.
"Why..."
Araya's one arm was supporting her on the ground.
"The realm is clearly right before my eyes..."
"Because you've got one thing wrong."
The "Shiki" stopped in front of Araya, the tip of the blade touching his brow.