Chapter 402 - Three Hundred and Ninety-Nine:

Chapter 402: Chapter Three Hundred and Ninety-Nine: "Aren’t You My Dog?In the instant when the King of Sea Monsters swung down that claw, her form instantly shifted from transparent to deep red.

Blood exploded from her fingertips, flowing into her body along her arm, the thick redness beginning to circulate about her, making her fiery red eyes even deeper in hue.

"Aiske—!"

Clifford’s nearly hoarse scream resounded amidst the shrieks of the sea monsters.

But where was the blond young man who had been jokingly offering to treat them?

Turned into fragments of flesh and blood, they fell among the pale claws of the King of Sea Monsters.

By now, what was scattered on the ground, drifting in the air, was almost all Aiske.

He was gone.

Under the control of the King of Sea Monsters, those frenziedly attacking sea monsters became more intelligent, and among them even appeared a few with solid bodies indistinguishable from humans, catching the entire team off guard in an instant.

Shadow immediately stepped forward, infused all of his mana, and forcefully initiated Spatial Vibration on the King of Sea Monsters—

An astounding number popped up.

But soon after, a scene that could only be described as despair appeared before all the surviving players.

The health bar of the King of Sea Monsters, after dropping a quarter, miraculously jumped back to full value.

The players suddenly recalled the setting of the King of Sea Monsters.

She could regenerate her health amidst the sea monsters, and as long as the sea monsters were not dead, she would be undying.

"Dingdong!"

A crisp notification sound rang out.

...Red Level Equipment, moreover, Red Level Growth-type Equipment that could be upgraded to Purple Grade.

Hearing such an outrageous reward, everyone’s first reaction was not one of joy but a keen awareness of the difficulty of the task.

Purple Grade Equipment, the pinnacle of the equipment hierarchy; to this day, it remained something players drooled over.

Even Su Ming’an at this moment only possessed two pieces of non-weapon Purple Grade Equipment, one being the Aurora Ring obtained on the chessboard of the First World, and the other, the Heart of the Future obtained from slaying Holy Initiation in the World of Ming Hui.

From the difficulty of acquiring them, one could glimpse the scarcity of Purple Grade Equipment.

...And yet here it was, being used as a reward available to everyone.

Most players present were intelligent, with few novices having made it this far.

Someone instantly crushed the Teleportation Scroll in their hand, choosing to leave this place.

Even if it meant abandoning all their efforts, they knew that rich rewards meant terrifying difficulty; they would rather abandon their previous gains than be buried here together.

Swarms of teleportation lights began to shine within the group; already dozens of surviving players had made the decisive call to leave immediately.

To have survived until now, they had long learned to make choices and to be decisive.

But some confident players chose to stay.

Luna was one of them.

"Number One Player! You focus on constructing the Barrier, we’ll handle holding her off!" she shouted loudly.

Everyone knew that the battle had reached its most critical moment. As long as, just as long as they could hold out until the Barrier was erected, as long as Su Ming’an, who was responsible for constructing the Barrier, did not die, they would surely succeed...

In her loud shout, the King of Sea Monsters swatted down another claw.

This time, her chosen target was the white-haired old man, Clifford.

Clifford also noticed the direction of the claw. The space around him seemed to freeze, preventing him from moving. His face, red with rage, flashed a look of determination, as if he was ready to make a valiant sacrifice here.

"Come on, damned creature! Even though I don’t know what ghostly thing you’ve turned into, the glory of Pulaya—will definitely not end here—!"

He roared furiously, his voice instantly piercing through the Sea Monster’s shrieks.

At that moment, the claw suddenly stopped.

In the blood-red eyes of the King of Sea Monsters, filled with murderous intent and bloodthirst, a flash of clarity suddenly appeared.

"The glory of Pulaya is me—I forged it over generations—it’s me—!" she suddenly screeched, her voice like a sonic attack, making one involuntarily cover their ears.

"My kingdom needs not your intrusion, my homeland needs not your salvation! You who follow that traitor Su Rin, how can you see Pulaya’s future? How can you understand the prosperity of Pulaya now—!"

"To survive or perish, that shall be our fate. I am the sole heir to the Royal Family—!"

"Pulaya was built on the sacrifices of generations, including my forebears—yet, those generations of people you speak of—they—are all me!"

The high-pitched shrieking covered the whole of Pulaya.

The Souhunters still in battle, understanding the meaning in her words, began to twist their faces in distress.

Even Clifford, who had been prepared to meet his death, had his expression become stiff.

He raised his head, looking at the blood-hued Sea Monster, watching her form shift from ethereal to solid, her facial features gradually becoming clear...

He saw the broken palace dress she wore.

"...Princess, Princess Tulip." He recognized her, calling softly, his body trembling, his voice nearly breaking amidst the Sea Monster’s piercing scream: "...You truly made the most foolish of decisions."

"Splash!"

A sound like a babbling brook arose.

Her blue, almost vanishing Sea Monster soul appeared before Su Ming’an, blocking the sonic attack from the King of Sea Monsters for him.

Seeing Su Ming’an, and Su Rin, the Princess Sea Monster King, who was gradually losing her rationality, revealed an almost ferocious expression.

"—Su Rin!"

She called out almost insanely, her voice thunderous, her surging anger clearly audible to anyone unable to see the battlefield.

"—Su Rin!"

Her eyes bulged red, like a starving alpha wolf, her pale fingernails sharp as blades, seemingly desperate to tear him to pieces.

"—Su Rin!"

Blood-colored flames surged around her, accompanied by an overwhelming presence that made it hard to breathe. Waves tumbled wildly, and the noise pollution nearly enough to crush a person.

Su Ming’an frowned slightly.

Why did these people always have to shout his name so loudly when expressing their anger? As if the louder the voice, the more effective it will be.

"I heard you," he said.

"——You despicable thief! For stealing my territory and betraying the deity, I will kill you—I must kill you! Once you are dead, everything will be alright, this land that I love so dearly will still be mine—!" She roared nearly mad with fury.

"Despicable? Su Rin was far greater than you." Su Ming’an replied with a voice so faint, "You, who can’t bear to die, yet choose to strip others of their lives, Tulip Princess, the stench of your soul’s decay can be smelled throughout Pulaya."

He remembered Su Rin, who died in an abandoned alley, next to a heap of garbage.

His death was witnessed only by Miguel, who had inherited his name. He was the guide who had steered the airship above Yun Shang City and the only eternal being who descended from it. He was supposed to marry the girl he loved, to live a life surrounded and adored by the masses, an undying existence akin to a god-like bliss.

But he chose death instead, consciously embracing a form of "eternal life" where "living" was not the paramount goal.

Compared to him, the Princess who cried and apologized before the airship departed now had a soul so foully odorous.

Even if she didn’t have the courage to die, she could have chosen to abdicate.

Yet, knowing her soul’s decay, she still clung to her throne, implementing policies that drove the public to misery, allowing the evil slave taverns to thrive in Pulaya.

The hardships of the Gerald family, the rampant malice in slave trading, the widows of Thirteen Street forced to become corrupt...

People were barely able to survive.

And yet, she still deluded herself to be Pulaya’s rightful guide.

Even worse, she experimented on people’s souls, siphoning others’ to enrich her own. Many players also fell victim to her.

"——I’ll kill you! Kill you — you damned invader! Su Rin —!"

Buffeted by frenzied malice, she was on the brink of losing her rationality, even beginning to blur the distinction between Su Rin and Su Ming’an.

At that moment, her gaze swept across the room and suddenly landed on the Knight of Light, once fiercely loyal to her.

"Sherrod!" She raised her sharp claws high, her expression carrying a hint of the princess’s pride: "——Aren’t you my loyal knight? Didn’t you say you would serve me for your entire life? Since you are my knight, my dog, then kill for me! Kill Su Rin! I command you — kill this Divine Defiler, this despicable man before me!"

Her gaze that now fell on him was filled with an unprecedented longing.

It was a last-ditch command, a final struggle of human nature, the last moment of pride for a princess of the Royal Family.

Her entire being seemed to boil with blood, her face contorted from extreme anger and excitement as she issued her desperate order to the most trusted knight she once had.

She wanted to show that someone still trusted her. That someone would still serve her. That even in her current state, even as she was so fallible, there would still be those who unwaveringly stood by her side, wielding their swords for her!

He was her knight, after all! A knight should serve their master until the end of their life. What is wrong with that?

Besides, Sherrod was just an NPC, a knight character NPC. As long as she commanded, he should give everything for her. His design was not to be defied!

Every cell in her body was screaming, her brain working furiously as her vision turned blurry.

Yet even so, she kept her eyes fixed on the knight who stood on the bridge, who had not drawn his sword and whose body was untainted by blood, looking at the golden armor she had bestowed upon him, the Captain of the Royal City Knight’s Guard.

His golden hair fluttered slightly in the wind and snow, and his emerald eyes, jadelike, always gazed at her with deep affection, as if his whole world was only her.

How handsome he was.

A knight protects the princess, defeating the Evil Dragon Su Rin trying to overthrow the Royal land —

That was the ending the story should have had.

...So why did she see in the eyes of the Knight of Light a disdain and pity that had never been directed at her before?

"Princess," Sherrod said softly.

He covered the wounds in his palms with a black and red cloth, hiding them. Then gently, he drew the Knight’s Sword belted at his waist.

The sound of a drawn sword was crisp and distinctly reached the Princess’s ears amid the screeching of sea monsters.

"I once advised you not to make the same mistake again," he said.

Tulip Princess looked at him, her entire body trembling.

The knight, who once followed her commands as if a marionette on strings, now abruptly raised his sword towards her.

The tip of the sword pointed at her, the cold light piercing her gradually moistening eyes.

She remembered clearly the specifications of that sword.

The blade was about three and a half feet long, an inch wide, straight with a double edge, and had a hilt encircled with the royal family’s crest.

It was the sword she had personally bestowed upon him.

"...But now you’ve killed so many people, ignited this disaster; there’s no turning back. For the peace of this land, I would rather betray what’s ’programmed’ in me as a knight and be loyal to my own thoughts—Princess, I am no longer your knight; I am an independent ’person’," Sherrod said softly, turning his gaze to Su Ming’an.

"Captain," he said, "as long as my soul exists, Nuoliya’s Red Rose can repair my body, right?"

"Yes," Su Ming’an said.

"Then let my body be sacrificed to your sea monster soul for the time being, let me defeat the Prin... defeat Tulip," Sherrod said softly.

As he said this, his sword-holding hand trembled, and a fiery pain fiercely pulsed in his chest as if it wanted to burst out of his throat.

The most outstanding knight, even facing the most evil of enemies, would never have so much as a flinch in his sword hand.

The only thing that could make him waver was the will of a knight.

"May the black pines stay evergreen, may Pulaya endure, may ideals shine as before, may the long sword remain sharp as always."

The noble Princess standing on the royal dais, with her sword in one hand, its tip resting on the kneeling knight’s right shoulder.

"Fight only for justice and fairness, never for wealth, nor for selfish reasons; help all those who need help; treat the weak gently, but punish the evil harshly."

"Born with honor, die with glory, heart as my sword, unyielding and unbending." The kneeling Knight of Light took the sword she handed him with both hands.

In his bright green eyes was a serene sense of finding hope in life:

"—I swear on the honor of this sword, I will protect you until the end. My liege, my master, my home."

The golden-haired girl, after the knighting, slowly walked down the platform, playfully reaching out to touch his golden hair with one hand.

The knight looked up, slightly surprised.

"Don’t be so formal; you are my knight, one I knighted myself," the Princess said.

"Princess, I..."

The knight was somewhat perplexed.

"Then how should I address you?"

"Let me think..." The girl smiled lightly.

The brilliance of the hall illuminated her smile, as dignified and beautiful as a rose:

"Just call me Tulip."