Chapter 133: That Yo-Yo All Grown Up
Shirazawa couldn't quite figure out what Güli-güli was doing here at a time like this.
"Take a look around you," Güli-güli said, his tone thoroughly displeased. "I hope you can give me a reasonable explanation for this."
Shirazawa blinked, glancing around at their surroundings.
The soil, thoroughly corroded by the crimson rain, had transformed into a completely barren wasteland. A desolate, lifeless rot was actively spreading across the landscape, painting a picture of pure apocalypse. This was entirely his doing, and it covered quite a large area, even threatening to creep straight into the imperial capital.
"Uh, haha... well, I didn't expect the curse to actually become contagious once it materialized."
Shirazawa felt a bit embarrassed, but his expression quickly turned serious. "Don't worry, I'll clean up this cursed land."
"Sigh." Güli-güli shot Shirazawa an exasperated glare. "You better."
He turned his head to glance at Potimas in the distance. His eyes darkened slightly, but without making a stop, he vanished into thin air.
With a gentle wave of his hand, Shirazawa dispelled the massive, cursed demonic eye hovering in the sky. He then turned his focus back to Ronandt, who was still kneeling flat on the ground, feeling a bit of a headache coming on.
The old man was lucky because Shirazawa had no intention of killing him. Humanity's top-tier combat assets were already spread incredibly thin. If he wiped this guy out, the balance of power between humans and demons would completely collapse. That was the last thing they wanted.
Only by keeping both sides evenly matched–constantly fighting and warring–could they efficiently grind skill levels while harvesting souls. That was the only way to absorb the maximum amount of energy needed to patch up a world on the brink of collapse. If the old man died, humanity would likely be finished.
*Clang!*
While Shirazawa was still pondering how to deal with Ronandt, Julius caught up, drawing the sword at his waist and slashing straight toward him.
"Demon! Don't you dare look down on us!" Julius roared.
Shirazawa: "..."
*Seriously, who did I even offend today?*
"Aaaah!" Julius shouted as he charged forward, but his footsteps gradually slowed to a crawl.
*This scent...* His gaze was completely drawn to Shiro, who hadn't uttered a single word. To be precise, he was drawn to her specific presence. It felt incredibly familiar, as if he had encountered it somewhere before.
A fraction of a second later, a primal terror locked deep within Julius's heart was violently reawakened.
It was that horrible white spider! She was back! Did she honestly think he wouldn't recognize her just because she took a human form? Naive!
He shook with such sudden terror that his footing slipped, and he tripped, falling straight into a heavy kneel.
Beside him, Ronandt looked at his star disciple with a face full of immense pride. *As expected of a student raised by this old man. That sharp eye for talent is truly exceptional. Great minds really do think alike.*
Staring down at the young Hero, who had grown quite a bit taller, Shiro finally recalled his identity. *Oh, if it isn't that little yo-yo from back then... he's grown so much.*
"Uh... what exactly are you guys doing?" Aurel finally dragged her thoroughly exhausted body to the scene. Seeing the old-and-young duo kneeling with absolute reverence, she was completely left in a daze.
Still, she figured it was best to just follow the crowd at a time like this, so she parked herself on the other side of the old man and dropped to her knees as well.
"..." Shirazawa was stuck between laughing and crying. It wasn't even the Lunar New Year, so what was up with this entire group constantly kneeling left and right?
This bizarre sequence similarly left Potimas staring blankly in the distance. The grand, top-tier Imperial Court Mage of the empire was actually reduced to this? And what was up with the Hero? Weren't Heroes supposed to possess an unyielding, unbreakable determination? How could he just drop to his knees without mounting a single shred of resistance?
This bunch was thoroughly unreliable. He had originally intended to use these humans to test the limits of the Spider God's strength, but it turned out these useless trash couldn't even be put to use! Potimas shook his head in secret, realizing his only option left was to stage a quiet retreat.
Just as he prepared to turn around and slip away, he suddenly realized his body was tightly bound by countless transparent threads of spider silk, rendering him completely immobile. Following the trail of the silk, his eyes locked onto Shiro's slender, snow-white palm.
She seemed to notice his gaze, slowly tilting her head to stare right back at him. Potimas instantly felt his entire frame freeze over.
With an elegant flick of her wrist, Shiro snapped the threads taut, instantly slicing Potimas's body into countless microscopic fragments.
*Thud!*
Accompanied by a dull metal thud, a spark flickered as a mechanical head rolled right up to Shirazawa's feet. The skull was covered in deep fractures, and a faint, eerie green light flickered inside the eye sockets like a candle sputtering in the wind. It was indisputably Potimas's cybernetic head.
"Up to your old tricks again, are we?" Shirazawa looked down at the mechanical skull beneath his boot, his eyes freezing cold.
Meanwhile, Ronandt's trio scrambled back to their feet, every single one of them wearing a look of pure shock.
"A machine?!"
"This is ancient technology!"
Ronandt was well-traveled and highly knowledgeable, instantly recognizing the true nature of the mechanical skull.
"A mechanical creation?" Aurel was even more stunned. Although she held zero interest in these historical nuances, hadn't mechanical creations completely vanished down the river of time ages ago? How could this elf be utilizing ancient technology?
"Master, what exactly is going on here?" Julius realized that the underlying truth of this situation was far from ordinary. However, the true history of the world had long since been tightly suppressed by the Pope and the high authorities; they had no way of understanding the real, cataclysmic meaning behind ancient technology.
"This old man doesn't know either," Ronandt said, tossing his hands up. He had only ever encountered records of such items in ancient texts. It was a terrifying form of technology capable of unleashing destructive power on par with high-tier magic without consuming a single drop of mana. Still, as a pure magical fanatic, he held zero genuine interest in technology.
Potimas's head was just about to spout a few parting threats before severing the connection, but Shirazawa simply brought his boot down, stomping the mechanical skull into absolute pieces.
*Still trying to talk trash? Go choke on it.*
Witnessing this raw, casual brutality, Julius and Aurel couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath of cold air, their eyelids twitching wildly. *Holy crap, this guy is down-right savage!*
As for the elf tribe, if it weren't for the fact that they hadn't found a permanent solution to save their old teacher, Shirazawa would have slaughtered his way straight to their homeland a long time ago. Potimas had spent centuries plotting in the shadows, meaning the sheer volume of energy he had hoarded was bound to be astronomical. Even so, the ancient elf stood zero chance of fighting a coordinated front against the trio and Güli-güli simultaneously. Time was rapidly running out for the old bastard.
"My lord, regarding the matter of taking this old man on as your disciple... could you perhaps reconsider?" Ronandt nudged his way forward with a thoroughly thick skin, only to be met with a look of pure disgust and an immediate rejection.
"No need. You can't learn my magic."
"My lord, please just think about it for a second! This old man is perfectly fine working as your personal servant..."
Ignoring the old man's relentless pestering, Shirazawa directly began to weave a massive, large-scale purification array. The rate at which the barren, cursed land was spreading was entirely too fast. If this world actually possessed undead mechanics and the souls weren't being cleanly reaped by the System, a blight of this scale would have easily triggered a global zombie apocalypse.
"Holy Light–Descend!" Shirazawa commanded softly.
A brilliant pillar of pure, milky-white light erupted from the heavens. Under the illumination of the holy light, the dense curses plaguing the dead zone dissolved into harmless ash, scattering into the wind. The entire corrupted landscape began to tremble violently.
Shirazawa spread his arms wide, looking exactly like a majestic angel unfolding its wings as a sacred, silver radiance bloomed from his frame. The endless, blinding light blanketed the entire territory, dispelling the lingering gloom, wiping away the corruption, and thoroughly purifying the earth.
Following a brief window of absolute silence, the withered vegetation instantly regained its vital spark. The dead flowers bloomed anew, and the decayed trees sprouted fresh, vibrant green buds. The rivers and mountains recovered their majestic vitality as thousands of local lifeforms were reborn amidst the warm glow. The entire region was filled with an aura of pure joy, as if it had survived a cataclysmic end-times event and emerged into a beautiful rebirth.
"A miracle... this is a literal miracle!" Ronandt was once again overcome with wild excitement, dancing around like an absolute lunatic.
"Wow... he's so incredibly handsome~" Aurel's eyes sparkled with pure adoration as she stared at Shirazawa. She looked exactly like a starstruck fangirl looking at her ultimate idol, dying to throw herself into his arms and plant a few kisses on his cheek.
Only Julius kept his eyes locked firmly onto the silent Shiro, his mind drifting back to the events of their previous battlefield encounter.
*Could it be... that I was wrong all along?*
*Are the demons actually the good guys here?*
As the Hero, Julius had to possess the capacity to independently distinguish right from wrong. Blindly trusting rumors and assumptions wouldn't just lead him down a dark path; it made him incredibly easy to be used as a puppet by their true enemies. Just like this time, the pair genuinely seemed like they were just passing through...
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