As soon as Kanjuro finished speaking, those Dark Armaments wrapped in deep-sea curses and ominous black mist shot toward Vivian in the center of the lake like venomous snakes seeking prey! Wherever they passed, the air made a sizzling sound as if being corroded, and even the moonlight seemed to be swallowed by them.
The Lady of the Lake, Vivian, looked solemn. She formed an ancient and complex hand seal in front of her chest, and a clear, ethereal chanting flowed from her mouth, forming a sharp contrast with Kanjuro's blasphemous incantations.
In an instant, the entire Lake of the Fairies seemed to come alive. A majestic and pure magic surged from the depths of the lake, transforming into a massive barrier made of flowing lake water and holy light, blocking the way in front of her.
"Sizzle—!"
The Dark Armaments slammed heavily into the water barrier. That Black Magic energy, sufficient to corrode steel and foul souls, actually made a violent melting sound upon contact with the pure lake water and holy light, like snow meeting a blazing sun. The black mist churned as it was purified and dispersed!
As an ancient nature spirit and the Fairy of the Lake, Vivian's essence of power indeed had a very strong countering effect against Kanjuro's Black Magic.
"Demon! Your blasphemous power shall surely dissipate in this holy place!" Vivian's voice carried a holy majesty. She controlled the lake water, transforming it into countless water blades shimmering with lunar brilliance, sweeping back toward Kanjuro. Each water blade contained the power of purification and the expulsion of evil.
Kanjuro raised an eyebrow slightly, seemingly a bit surprised that Vivian could effectively block his attack, but the playfulness and composure in his eyes did not diminish in the slightest.
"Impressive purification power, indeed worthy of a god's methods," he commented indifferently. Facing the overwhelming onslaught of purifying water blades, he neither dodged nor avoided them, simply raising his left hand.
"Gospel of Matthew, Manifestation - Thousand Shield Barrier."
Following his low voice, the space in front of his left hand distorted, and a majestic amount of magic was instantly drawn and shaped!
It was not a single shield, but hundreds and thousands of shields of various forms, condensed from pure magic, appearing instantly! Some were thick as city walls, some flowed like vortexes, some burned with phantom flames, and some were covered in cold frost... These shields were layered one upon another, forming an absolute defensive array with no dead angles!
"Bang bang bang bang—!"
The water blades containing purification power struck the Thousand Shield Barrier, erupting in a continuous roar. Water splashed everywhere and magic surged, but they could not break through this defense that seemed thin yet contained infinite variations.
Kanjuro did not even take half a step back.
Vivian's face turned slightly pale. She could feel that Kanjuro's control over magic had reached an inconceivable level; the method of instantly manifesting a thousand different attributes of defense was simply unheard of.
"If your power is limited to this, then it is quite disappointing to me."
Kanjuro shook his head, seemingly finding it a bit boring. He placed one hand on the Fairy of the Lake's forehead, and after extracting her memories, he discovered everything she had done. "It seems that the price you paid to forge that god-slaying sword capable of interfering with fate was far greater than I imagined. Now, your origin is depleted and your physical strength is exhausted; you are no longer that Fairy of the Lake who could resonate with heaven and earth in her prime."
Vivian bit her lip; Kanjuro's words struck her weakest reality.
In order to create that weapon for Morgan that was sufficient to oppose Kanjuro, she had nearly exhausted the divine origin power she had accumulated for a thousand years. At this moment, she was indeed strong on the outside but hollow on the inside.
"If... if I had not expended too much divine power to forge the Holy Sword, how could I allow you to be so arrogant here!" she retorted unwillingly, trying to maintain the dignity of a god.
Hearing this, Kanjuro suddenly smiled. It was a smile that carried pity, mixed with the intent of "in that case, I shall make you thoroughly understand the gap."
"Oh? It seems you still harbor a sense of luck, thinking you could fight me if your condition were perfect?" He gently waved his hand, dispersing the Thousand Shield Barrier in front of him as well as those Dark Armaments. He stood by the lake without any defense, as if he had given up all resistance.
"Very well." Kanjuro sighed, but that sigh carried a hair-raising calmness. "Before you fall into a complete slumber, witness with your own eyes what exactly it is that you are facing."
The next moment, an indescribable, terrifying aura that surpassed all of the Fairy of the Lake's knowledge slowly woke up and spread from Kanjuro. It was not the previous cold and evil Black Magic fluctuation, but a more fundamental, more grand Authority that seemed to hold the basic rules of the universe!
Beside the phantom of the codex of rlyeh behind Kanjuro, another book phantom shrouded in deep, dark radiance slowly unfolded—Gospel of Mark!
"Gospel of Mark, Analysis · Reconstruction · Creation — Shadow Touch."
With his whisper, the residual Black Magic energy in the surrounding space that had been purified and dispersed by Vivian seemed to receive a supreme command, instantly becoming active again and beginning to combine and transform in a way that defied common sense! They were no longer simple weapon forms, but transformed into countless translucent tentacles composed of pure dark energy. These tentacles squirmed as if they had their own life, ignoring the water barrier around Vivian and passing directly through it to entwine around her spiritual body!
What was even more terrifying was that while these tentacles were entwining, they were also constantly analyzing, copying, and even attempting to reverse-engineer Vivian's holy water magic structure!
Vivian discovered with horror that the pure divine power she relied on to combat Black Magic was being learned and adapted to by the opponent at an inconceivable speed!
Before Vivian could break free from the strangeness of the "Shadow Touch," Kanjuro spoke again, his voice sounding as if it came from the end of time:
"gospel of luke, Decree · Time Coffin Seal."
In an instant, with Kanjuro as the center, an invisible ripple spread at high speed, enveloping the entire Lake of the Fairies area! Vivian was horrified to find that all her movements, along with her thoughts, had become incredibly slow. The splashing water, the rippling waves, and even the flow of magic in the air around her were nearly at a standstill!
She was like an insect frozen in amber, finding it extremely difficult even to turn a single thought! Meanwhile, within this nearly absolute static time domain, Kanjuro moved freely!
Kanjuro strolled through the frozen time and space like a master browsing his own garden. He walked up to the time-stopped Vivian and gazed into her eyes, which were filled with shock.
"Gospel of John, Whisper · Mental Image Erosion."
There was no incantation, no light, only an invisible and intangible will that was more terrifying than any power, directly penetrating all of Vivian's defenses and invading the deepest part of her heart!
Countless chaotic whispers, distorted mental images, and thoughts full of temptation and despair began to frantically multiply and take root in her divine consciousness like a virus. The pure heart-lake she had guarded for a thousand years began to be forcibly stained with colors that did not belong to her, and a fear of Kanjuro, and even a sliver of a distorted "sense of identification," was growing uncontrollably!
She even had a hallucination, as if letting go of resistance and sinking into this darkness was the ultimate destination... Finally, Kanjuro's form began to become blurred and overlapped. It was as if countless "Kanjuros" existed simultaneously, yet also as if none of them were real.
He could be a kind mentor, a cruel tyrant, a devoted lover, or an indifferent god... The ability of the Thousand Faces Garment made his essence unpredictable and allowed him to possess others.
Even Vivian's divine perception could not lock onto his true existence.
The powers of the four Gospels intertwined and were displayed, combined with the unfathomable depth of Black Magic and Space-Time Authority, as well as that Thousand Faces Garment that masked everything... Kanjuro did not even launch any fatal attack; merely this all-encompassing, beyond-understanding "demonstration" had already completely destroyed Vivian's cognition and will to resist.
Time resumed its flow, the shadow tentacles dissipated, and the mental whispers receded.
With a "thud," Vivian knelt on the lake surface. Her previously solid spiritual body became incredibly dim and transparent, as if it would dissipate at any moment.
She raised her head and looked at the figure still standing calmly on the shore, as if he had only done a trivial thing. Her eyes were filled with unprecedented fear and... a despairing realization.
She finally understood that what she was facing was not some powerful Magician or demon at all... but a monster who controlled multiple fundamental rules of the universe and whose essence transcended her range of understanding.
"Now, do you understand?" Kanjuro's voice remained flat. "Your failure has nothing to do with your state. This is the true gap between you and me."
He no longer looked at the nearly dissipating Vivian, turned around, and his figure slowly merged into the night.
"Rest well, Fairy of the Lake. Perhaps in eternal sleep, you will be able to figure out what a foolish choice it was to be my enemy."
By the lakeshore, only Vivian was left with her power exhausted and her spiritual body on the verge of collapse, along with her silent, massive despair.
Kanjuro did not even kill her with his own hands, because letting her dissipate on her own in the despair of recognizing the absolute gap was perhaps an "ending" more in line with his aesthetics.
Kanjuro did not leave immediately. He turned around, his gaze falling upon Vivian on the lake surface, whose spiritual body was dim, nearly transparent, and struggling even to maintain its form. The calmness in his eyes was replaced by a deeper, more wicked desire to explore. Defeating a god was certainly interesting, but completely defiling and controlling a god was undoubtedly a more tempting "artwork."
He slowly walked back to the lakeshore, each step causing Vivian's residual consciousness to feel a cold shiver. She tried to mobilize her last bit of divine power to condense the lake water for a final resistance, only to find that the surrounding lake water was as if isolated by some invisible force and no longer responded to her call. The Space-Time Authority and rule-level suppression Kanjuro had previously displayed had completely dismantled her deep connection with this holy land.
-- 0 Requesting Flowers 0 --- "Sacred... pure... incarnation of nature..." Kanjuro softly murmured these words as if savoring something. "What a dazzling, what a... color that makes one want to defile it."
He stopped in front of Vivian, looking down at this once noble and holy Fairy of the Lake. He reached out his hand, using neither any known Gospel nor Black Magic, but directly summoning from his eternal-night-like treasury a uniquely shaped phantom of a long spear wrapped in an ominous dark red aura—the spear of longinus (LanceofLonginus). Although it might not be the real one, it was the manifestation of its concept and cursed power, possessing the terrifying characteristics of "Absolute Piercing" and "Fate Binding."
"You once protected Morgan and granted her a weapon to oppose me," Kanjuro's voice was like a demon's whisper. "Then, as a reward, I shall grant you... eternal 'belonging'."
Before his voice had even faded, the phantom of that dark red spear turned into a blood-colored stream of light that was difficult for the naked eye to catch. It did not strike Vivian's spiritual core to seek destruction, but in an extremely precise and blasphemous manner, it instantly pierced the "source" composed of her pure magic and divinity that symbolized the essence of her existence!
"Ugh—!"
Vivian let out a shrill wail that did not originate from physical pain, but from her existence being polluted and bound at a fundamental level. Her spiritual body trembled and distorted violently, and her holy radiance shattered in all directions like broken glass, replaced by dark red patterns originating from within that shared the same source as Kanjuro's power. Like living chains, they entwined around her limbs and torso, finally becoming deeply imprinted in the depths of her soul... 0
The curse of the spear of longinus took effect—"Absolute Belonging."
As the spear shadows dissipated, Vivian collapsed onto the lake's surface, her once clear and ethereal eyes now filled with confusion and emptiness. She struggled to lift her head and look at Kanjuro. In her gaze, there was no longer any trace of her previous hostility, dignity, or divinity; only an absolute dependence and obedience remained, like that of a newborn chick toward the person before it. The curse had forcibly twisted her will, binding her existence to Kanjuro's, making it impossible for her to leave, impossible to resist, and even... impossible to even conceive the thought of resistance.
Watching her transformation, Kanjuro's face wore a satisfied, almost cruel smile. He extended a finger and beckoned.
"Come here."
Two simple words, yet they acted like an inviolable decree. Vivian struggled, moving like a marionette following the shackles deep within her soul. With difficulty but without control, she crawled to Kanjuro's feet and looked up at him, her gaze humble and pleading for mercy.
Kanjuro leaned down, his finger flippantly tilting up her smooth, cold chin.
"Now, you belong to me, my dear... Fairy of the Lake." His smile widened. "So, as your master, it's only natural to collect a little 'return gift,' isn't it?"
...When everything ended, the moonlight seemed to be shrouded in a layer of gloom. By the lakeside, Vivian curled up at Kanjuro's feet. Her spiritual body, originally composed of flowing water and moonlight, now seemed permanently defiled, becoming solid yet dim, with faint dark-red glimmers of magic power—identical to Kanjuro's—flowing around her. Her eyes remained empty and lost, but deep within that confusion was a numbness, the mark of someone who had been thoroughly branded as a mere accessory. The curse of the spear of longinus ensured her body and soul could never leave Kanjuro, making her his latest and most humiliated slave.
Kanjuro adjusted his robes, his expression lazy and satisfied. He had not only defeated a goddess but had dragged her from her altar into the mire, turning her into his private property. He glanced at the hollow-eyed Vivian at his feet as if admiring a newly collected treasure.
"Remember your new identity," he said indifferently. "From now on, you are no longer the independent Fairy of the Lake, but my, Kanjuro's, property. Your power, your existence—all shall serve me."
Vivian nodded numbly, even proactively pressing her cheek against his boot to show her submission.
Kanjuro looked up toward Camelot, the smile on his face becoming deep and dangerous.
"Morgan... my dear daughter, you have lost a powerful ally, and I... have gained an interesting toy and tool. I wonder if you are ready to receive this 'surprise' your father has sent you?"
He laughed loudly, and with his newly acquired slave, his figure slowly vanished into the thickening night. The Lake of the Fairies had lost its guardian; the lake water became stagnant and murky, as if symbolizing the total end of a sacred history and the arrival of a darker era.
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